How dare you actually show how some of the mechanisms you've designed work. Honestly, somebody somewhere will always complain. Dont take it to heart, it sounds like you have your audience hooked
I disagree to a point, Matt is a good dm and probably a better writer but he barely adheres to dnd 5th ed. and openly flaunts his ignorance and distain of the specifics. He also has now leaned into his own home brew content heavily. Whenever you lean into home brew content you alienate the core players and anybody who doens't like the niche interpretation.
@@acm4bass while i can certainly appreciate your stance for a general d&d stream , i think it's important to keep in mind that this *specific* stream is a 5e supplement publisher's stream and they're a business that's attempting to drive interest for their products. Matt & co. have been incredibly fortunate to have a supportive fanbase that resulted in a lot of success through kickstarter but keeping the lights on is done through sustained profit, meaning it would be financially irresponsible of them to NOT use this stream to showcase Strongholds & Followers whenever possible.
@@acm4bass I really object to your statement that Matt "flaunt[s] his ignorance". He doesn't claim his ignorance is a good thing, but rather that ignorance is inevitable and not an issue, since D&D by design a system you can interpret on the fly, meaning if you forget some specif rule its OK and sometimes more fun to make up a ruling. Notice the use of the word ruling not rule, the rules are never going to be able to cover all situations and contexts, hence why a spontaneous "ruling" is required for certain circumstances where the rules might not be specific enough, or not make sense, or if you just dont have time to read the section in the book.
Oh no, Matt showed us how to use mechanics from a system he designed on a stream geared to show people how to play D&D! Thanks Matt for all the awesome content man!
Calling on a God as been a standard in every game I have run or been apart of since the 80's. I think it is because of the final scene of Conan, just before the battle at the monoliths. "Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then the HELL with you!"
I've literally never felt the need to comment on one of Matt's videos. However it never felt like an add it felt like you using your own homebrew (that happens to be published).
Got mine, too -- as nice as having the PDF has been, there's nothing quite so satisfying as cracking open a physical game book. And this one looks sooooo nice.
Personally, I loved it. I love big cinematic 'boss fights' like that. I tend to break up episodes of The Chain per hour (since my internet can't handle Twitch and I watch the vods on the TH-cams), but this was the one episode I watched in one sitting. Side note; artists who are doing stuff for The Chain, you lovely folks are amazing. Y'all do great work and, while I am just a voice in the internet void, it is appreciated.
Matt, love the videos and love the Twitch streams of The Chain. Take the complaints re ad/scripting etc. with a grain of salt. Many of us loved it and were gripped the whole combat last week.
Are the actual streams any good? I always watch the Diaries but never watch them actually play. I mostly can't stand watching people going "is this a d8 or a d10" "i should get an advantage on this" and so on for 4 hours.
@@Gstrangeman96 I believe that yes, they are good. I don't notice any of the sort of problems you hint at, but there might be questions regarding advantage or how Matt rules on something. I would say go ahead and watch one of the episodes (or all of them!) on TH-cam and see what you think.
As someone who funded Strongholds & Followers and the stream, I was so happy to see you use the mechanics I’ve not been able to use yet. It was the same level of excitement that I got when I first saw D&D played and wanted to do it myself. It was a really cool session because the tides turned so much and we got to see how the mechanics worked. It was awesome
I loved the session. It was great! Seeing all those crazy dudes come down from the gods was a little overwhelming, but it was still juicy. Slim's headchop was supremely epic.
Hi Matt. Ballisantirax Dreams was a great episode. I was just as excited as O.D. You're doing an amazing job - and so are Jerry, your friends, the Mods, and Chat. I'm eager to watch the next ep. Hail !!!!
I think everyone brought their A game last week! I’m afraid that even though I love playing dnd, combat can become awfully dull if you’re listening to it happen. That didn’t happen in episode 21! Everyone had some amazing speech or blimey moment or combination of the two and it made my day to listen through while delivering packages. I cheered multiple times! Thanks for what you all do.
Your battle prep and the way the session played out really inspired me as a DM to challenge my own players. I’ve already changed how I was approaching my game. 👍 As for the “scripting,” never underestimate what levers you can pull if you know your players. It doesn’t have to be the way Matt did it; some players just can’t say no to some things.
A huge takeaway I got from the stream was that you were ok to kill the PCs, hit them when they're down, and not hold back punches. The villains were super scary because they were unpredictable and tough. I loved it! Secondly, the pre-recording was EPIC! To me it was just as cool as when Nails had the god-voice. Moments like that are super awesome! Don't stop doing them when you have the opportunity! Thirdly, I have barely even looked at the pdf of Strongholds and Followers because I prefer the real book. So pumped for it to arrive! P.S. Anna is awesome. I had a shipping error (despite all the emails about confirm your address I failed. Thought I had already done it but didn't). Anna was on it and got me in touch with the shipping company and all will be good. So excited!
I've been a DM for 20 years and watching your Running the Game series and now the Campaign Diaries has been a learning and humbling experience. I never thought I would watch 4hrs of combat, I work two jobs and I'm in college again... (had to watch it small bits for a few days)... but at the end I was basically taking notes, long combat against high powered NPCs is something that still intimidates me... and I play with my closest friends that are very forgiving if I fail to make things interesting. You guys play in front of an audience! Thanks for all the effort!
As a Player - I have "pre-written" content ready all the time. Written by me (like Lars' prayer) - with no prompting from the DM. Basically I'm just paying attention and thinking about what situations will probably pop up in the near future (just like we do in real life) - and asking myself, what would be a cool thing for my character to say or do in that situation? I have a google doc of quotes, poems, songs, responses in languages that my character speaks - and most of them go unused because an appropriate situation never came up. BUT - when it does - I have something ready that adds depth to the story and to my character. I love watching the other player's reactions (and the DM!) . And yes - I have been accused of secretly "scripting" things with the DM - nope. I'm just scripting things in my head. The DM is not the only person at the table that can add richness, depth and -- verisimilitude -- to the story.
the running the game portion of this video is such a fuckin bangin piece of advice, and i can’t stop thinking about it. i tried it during a dnd dinner and it worked, and i just wanted you to know that you’re a wizard and a huge inspiration.
The power of keeping your mouth shut cannot be underestimated. I wish the people criticizing your well-crafted desperate battle with amazing moments (loved the pre-recorded voiceover) would learn some of that power. That fight looked amazing. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Now technically, the Black Iron Pact wouldn't know much about Judge's abilities outside of knowing she's an Illrigger. So next encounter, she still has an ace up her sleeve.
Generally (and I've already communicated this), I like the political intrigue much more than combat. However, I really enjoyed last week's episode. Plenty of suspense and I was afraid that characters were going to die. What made this hit home was the fact that precedent had already been established. Keep up the good work.
Last week was the first streaming session I've fully watched back (normally I don't have time to watch 4 hours) because the written summary was so exciting and I saw players who were engaged and a lot of epic moments that the players felt earned. It didn't feel it the slightest like an add or that things were prerecorded. It felt like an epic battle with lots and lots of tension. I thought I will tell you that, so you also here from the other side.
as someone who's binging the chain right now, I think this was one of the best episodes it did feel like "taking it easy" when Leech's concordance happened, but the combat was already turning around at that point
Well, i thoroughly enjoyed the entire episode. In fact, i've watched it twice; once on "player cam" and once on the tactical view. I'm not usually one for divine intervention, but i thought it was handled incredibly well, and the prep work didn't feel contrived, just extremely well planned. I would also like to praise the reaction of those players who got put down and spent quite some time effectively out of the game. There were no sour grapes, and they actually did a great job keeping involved and in good spirits. Well done and thank you to you all.
I know I'm a year late on this, but anyone who thinks this was scripted clearly hasn't been watching very closely. In several campaign diaries you've explained how you get the players to do what you want through a combination of subtle manipulation (asking Lars what would happen if Slim got goaded into fighting Dickface or whatever his name was), and knowing your players really well. When I heard the pre-recorded voice my first thought was "how cool! Matt knew one day King would call on his God and had this recorded, and now he finally gets to use it"! Having a skill like Matt's makes it that much cooler for the players, because they feel like their actions have these huge meanings to them, and it would be really hard to do that with things you come up with on the fly (especially if you want to keep your lore internally consistent). Matt's skill with this is a big part of the reason I watch these campaign diaries in the first place!
People thought that was low quality? That was a riveting session. I was legit worried they'd die. And I thought the concordance stuff was SUPER cool. Especially the voice acted clip.
Hi from Brazil, Great content, great campaign so far, AND!!!! i use design tips you give and encounter bits you use on my game. Keep up the great content, you help us DM's greatly and the experience of watching you prepare and run the games is unique. A tip of my hat to you, sir.
Really loving the campaign, just wishing you folks some rest, hoping you'll be fresh and ready in a few weeks to resume this show! On the issue about people dropping out of the stream mid session: don't forget timezones are a thing. America is large and it spans across, what, 3 timezones? Let's assume that the break is two hours after session's start. On the west coast it might be 9 pm, but on the east coast it's already 11 pm. The stream is mid-week so it just sounds right to me, that people want to get some sleep, and staying up till 1 am to watch d&d isn't quite the smartest idea, especially when you are gonna get up in just a few hours to go to work. Then there are people like me, you know, Europeans. By the time the stream starts on twitch, it's early Thursday morning, here. Which is why I'm so, so glad that I can watch the campaign on TH-cam!
Matt, there are always going to be back seat players and DMs. I enjoyed last week's session and was on the edge of my seat. I have noticed that there are many people who play the game today who lose the spirit of the game by worrying too much about the fine details of game mechanics. I may be mistaken, but to me, it seems that players from newer generations focus too much on rules and less on having fun. This is a fantasy game....key word....game and it should be fun. Great work. Don't let the negativity of others make you doubt yourself.
As I like to say to folks who believe that there is a "right way" to run D&D. "You run D&D how you like, and I will run D&D how I like." Keep those dice rolling Mathew Coleville. Really digging your videos!
Maybe it is just because I have been watching you for long enough, but not once did I think this whole episode was "scripted." Though I definitely knew you nudged the players towards certain actions. Your advice of "Challenge the Players on the action you want them to do" is a thing I have been doing before I realized I was doing it.
I _loved_ seeing all the Strongholds and Followers stuff, by the way! It’s your game and it inspires confidence in your product that you _enjoy_ playing your own rules! That whole episode is a ton of fun! Thanks again!
Last weeks combat was really engaging, especially for combat. I don't usually like combat in streams, I kinda check out during those moments but those two and a half(two and a half!!) rounds last week were gripping.
I watch a lot of DnD streams. Matt, WOW! what a great journey you've had in front of a camera. Well done bro. Love to see someone so concise grow to such a confident streamer. Love your work.
Great Episode. During the break I couldn't help but compare you guys to that old looney toons cartoon the coyote vs the sheep dog. The sheep dog is getting ready to smite the coyote when the lunch bell rings so he puts him down and they have lunch and even share a coffee. Bell rings again and back to pounding!
In this video Matt talks about manipulating the players to get them to do what he wants. In other videos he’s talked about working out things with players ahead of time, or giving them hints outside the game session. I don’t usually think of those things when GMing, but I think those are totally valid things to do. I feel like my notion of how to GM has been expanded here. There are a lot of tools in a GM’s toolbox, and what you do during the session are just the most obvious ones.
33:39 the spell you are referring to strongly resembles Word of Recall, which is a 5th edition spell that works as you describe. That being said, it is a cleric spell.
@@shawngillogly6873 contingency with teleport would have the same end effect, but it is incorrect to say that when you cast contingency, you teleport to a place you have previously cast the spell. However, the wizard is only 9th or 10th level (unable to cast contingency), so the point is academic.
@@cmckee42 could have cast contingency via scroll, which an agent of ajax would likely have access to. and he said it *could* work that way. which is accurate
The last session was so much fun especially since I was so worried about how the chain was going to survive the encounter. The voice over was so awesome. Your players looked like they were having so much fun. Especially Tom with umlaut.
Being a player since the mid 90’s sometimes one encounter takes For-Ev-Ver. Because this was a story driven fight, it didn’t cause battle fatigue. Said another way, it was an encounter that lasted a long time (because it is what happens when people with abilities start using their stuff) vs one encounter after another.
1)How dare a company committed to helping people play better D&D show how its product can help you play D&D better! 2) This was the best combat episode of a RPG I've watched since Vox Machina vs Dr Ripley. I have not been that invested in dice rolls since Percy's final death save failed. I watched it twice. It's on my favorites. And thank you for sharing.
I agree, I didn't find this session lacking in any way, in fact I was super excited to see their reactions and solutions to the combat that Matt threw at them, I loved every second!
I loved last week's episode. Yes it was all combat. But anyone who truly plays the game will have those sessions. It was great to see the Strongholds & Followers in action. I just got my copy of the book and can't wait to introduce it into my campaigns. I really enjoy the game streams and these campaign diaries leave me stoked for the session to see the continued adventures of The Chain. Thank you Matt & friends.
25:10 it probably doesn't feel like Deus ex machina to the players, but sitting there watching (or in my case listening) it definitely felt like it, especially for ballistic anthrax. When the chain got their guy and the pact got there's, it felt like it was a good way to ramp up the stakes without actually affecting the balance, but when the chain got the second dragon it stopped being the players fighting the bad guys and just turned into an action movie without special effects.
1:44 I think a big take away of your channel and handling the chaos machine that are the players is doing something like having your DnD lunch. Make sure your players have some reason/means to talk about plans outside of the game so you can hear their plans. Even if you don't manipulate, I think DMs will be more confident walking into a more well understood situation. It's also a good way to clear up any rules that might come into play!
Yeah if you can manage this it's really helpful, even something like a group chat makes a difference. I don't know about that whole challenging the players idea thing, if only because not all groups are gonna react the same way. For example I'm not sure my group would react the same way (though I might give it a try) I think my group might lose confidence, instead of double down. I guess It's down to knowing your group dynamic. But extra time to talk about what they're doing in the game is an incredible resource for world building and creating bonds between the characters. Another Colville gem.
I really like the change to the master of jackals ability, it seems to me that a move action makes more sense mechanically as compared to a d4. Keep up the good work.
Actually Matt, it's very common for enemies to do more damage with weapons than players would. A Bugbear's morning star does 2d8 damage, a Gladiator's spear does 2d6, a Planetar's greatsword does 4d6, etc. If a player notices this, you can just say that it's similar to how a Barbarian or a Fighter can increase their damage with rage and superiority die.
That was awesome. I just bought Strongholds & Followers and I am looking forward to implementing the contents into my campaign. It won’t be anywhere near the power level of The Chain. But by st. Ajax it will be fun and interesting.
I love the stream it actually keeps me entertained unlike a lot of other dnd streams. At no point did i ever feel like this was a advertisement for strongholds and followers. But honestly i wanted to see how those rule worked and you showed that. People are gonna hate People love to hate Because they cant have or dont have a game like yours.
I don't understand, this was my second favorite episode of The Chain just behind King to Dragon's 3. I loved seeing Matt's rules from strongholds and followers used. I never once felt it was scripted. I felt like it makes sense that the Cleric and Warlock would call out to their patrons, my players do that all the time! The first couple times the patrons are usually cordial, but eventually they do get annoyed and it backfires. Great episode... I don't care what those other people say and I really hope the stream doesn't stop. I look forward to it every week.
Matt: 'When am I ever going to use all this first-level slots?!' Also Matt: 'The wizard uses shield.' Just being a git ;P Loved this episode, loved the fight, great 'Running the Campaign Diary'.
Hey matt! Could you do a running the game episode on rewarding players, the different ways to reward them, when, and how to reward them, and with what you can reward them? Keep up the great vids!
I've been watching your D&D stuff for a while now, but it just occurred to me that the lead developer of the game Evolve is named Matt Colville. Evolve was my favourite game of all time, if you were the lead on it then that's awesome.
This was the first episode that turned the difficulty slider up to "Game of Thrones" since the prologue. Also, Lars was an all-star in this episode and really saved the group's bacon.
Something I'd like to add about the trouble of not being able to give enough time to certain enemies when you're customizing them. I've kept a log of most villains I've run over the past couple years, many of which have magic items that grant additional abilities from 3.5 and Pathfinder. I just graft those into enemies when I think they need some flair but I keep them all in this nice little clipboard/folder thing I have. Has been very useful and it's fun seeing players mouths draw when the Death Knight draws two greatswords since he has the Monkey Grip power granted by his dark god.
When Matt said "Villain Sheet" I now want a sheet for villains that is NOT a Player Character sheet. Something similar to the "Starting Area" sheet that MCDM came out with!
Tom's ability seemed to work just like the Mobile feat, so I was pretty surprised the attack of opportunity worked at all. Villain actions are pretty crazy
The monk, not the wizard, was convinced by the sapphire dragon to turn, but Ballisantirax has dreamed and it is no longer so. Not trying to call Matt out, I just can't resist adding to the record.
Whiners are wangrods. Of course you'd want to use some of the cool stuff you've worked on in strongholds and followers: you're proud of your work and are super familiar with how it works. Love the campaign diaries as I couldn't sit thorough a D&D cast.
While i do not enjoy combat as much as the rest of the show (especially the Characters, Drama and Intrigue of Capital) i think this one was dramatic enough to be very interesting. The whole strongholds and followers thing is a bit much i think, it is content you have created so you might as well use it. This kind of content is what makes your game unique. However i look forward to the fallout of this much more than the combat. P.S: Also thanks for doing this every week. Normally i am just watching, but i think it is time to thank you for helping every DM out there.
I love how the lord of jackals killed people who were down all of the way.
The people: This guys made a kickstarter with a book and a stream
Matt: Streams content from the book
The people: :O
yeah, not sure where the surprise came from
How dare you actually show how some of the mechanisms you've designed work. Honestly, somebody somewhere will always complain. Dont take it to heart, it sounds like you have your audience hooked
I agree. Some people are just stupid.
I disagree to a point, Matt is a good dm and probably a better writer but he barely adheres to dnd 5th ed. and openly flaunts his ignorance and distain of the specifics. He also has now leaned into his own home brew content heavily. Whenever you lean into home brew content you alienate the core players and anybody who doens't like the niche interpretation.
To be fair, Matt has never advocated playing strictly by the book.
@@acm4bass while i can certainly appreciate your stance for a general d&d stream , i think it's important to keep in mind that this *specific* stream is a 5e supplement publisher's stream and they're a business that's attempting to drive interest for their products. Matt & co. have been incredibly fortunate to have a supportive fanbase that resulted in a lot of success through kickstarter but keeping the lights on is done through sustained profit, meaning it would be financially irresponsible of them to NOT use this stream to showcase Strongholds & Followers whenever possible.
@@acm4bass I really object to your statement that Matt "flaunt[s] his ignorance". He doesn't claim his ignorance is a good thing, but rather that ignorance is inevitable and not an issue, since D&D by design a system you can interpret on the fly, meaning if you forget some specif rule its OK and sometimes more fun to make up a ruling.
Notice the use of the word ruling not rule, the rules are never going to be able to cover all situations and contexts, hence why a spontaneous "ruling" is required for certain circumstances where the rules might not be specific enough, or not make sense, or if you just dont have time to read the section in the book.
Ballisantirax dreams of that sweet Wednesday notification
Oh no, Matt showed us how to use mechanics from a system he designed on a stream geared to show people how to play D&D!
Thanks Matt for all the awesome content man!
Honestly, what's the point of publishing a supplement if you don't use your own work?
19:23 Are you saying the chance of Phil not rolling a 20 were Slim to none?
Boo!
Fisho D Double Boo!
#puns yay!
Would be sick if they eventually looted a javelin of lightning off of one of these guys. "Hey... isn't this OURS??"
Calling on a God as been a standard in every game I have run or been apart of since the 80's. I think it is because of the final scene of Conan, just before the battle at the monoliths. "Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then the HELL with you!"
I literally shouted and cheered when Slim got that Crit, and was 'on the edge of my seat',whenever he rolled. So yeah, it was very engaging!
It was a 4 hour long commercial for Strongholds and Followers, and I approve of this ad.
I've literally never felt the need to comment on one of Matt's videos.
However it never felt like an add it felt like you using your own homebrew (that happens to be published).
Hey Matt, just wanted to say thank for for all you do! Also, just got my PHYSICAL COPY OF STRONGHOLDS AND FOLLOWERS! 😍😍😍😍😍
I am so jealous.
Got mine, too -- as nice as having the PDF has been, there's nothing quite so satisfying as cracking open a physical game book. And this one looks sooooo nice.
@@LeChaunce Nothing so satisfying as that first spine crack opening a new book lol Physical>PDF
22:00. Look at how happy Töm is, though.
Personally, I loved it. I love big cinematic 'boss fights' like that. I tend to break up episodes of The Chain per hour (since my internet can't handle Twitch and I watch the vods on the TH-cams), but this was the one episode I watched in one sitting.
Side note; artists who are doing stuff for The Chain, you lovely folks are amazing. Y'all do great work and, while I am just a voice in the internet void, it is appreciated.
Matt, love the videos and love the Twitch streams of The Chain. Take the complaints re ad/scripting etc. with a grain of salt. Many of us loved it and were gripped the whole combat last week.
Are the actual streams any good? I always watch the Diaries but never watch them actually play. I mostly can't stand watching people going "is this a d8 or a d10" "i should get an advantage on this" and so on for 4 hours.
@@Gstrangeman96 I believe that yes, they are good. I don't notice any of the sort of problems you hint at, but there might be questions regarding advantage or how Matt rules on something. I would say go ahead and watch one of the episodes (or all of them!) on TH-cam and see what you think.
As someone who funded Strongholds & Followers and the stream, I was so happy to see you use the mechanics I’ve not been able to use yet. It was the same level of excitement that I got when I first saw D&D played and wanted to do it myself.
It was a really cool session because the tides turned so much and we got to see how the mechanics worked. It was awesome
I loved the session. It was great! Seeing all those crazy dudes come down from the gods was a little overwhelming, but it was still juicy.
Slim's headchop was supremely epic.
Watched the session AND your Campaign Diary Matt. Enjoyed it all very much. Thanks to you and the Chain for the wonderful entertainment.
Hi Matt. Ballisantirax Dreams was a great episode. I was just as excited as O.D. You're doing an amazing job - and so are Jerry, your friends, the Mods, and Chat. I'm eager to watch the next ep. Hail !!!!
I think everyone brought their A game last week! I’m afraid that even though I love playing dnd, combat can become awfully dull if you’re listening to it happen. That didn’t happen in episode 21! Everyone had some amazing speech or blimey moment or combination of the two and it made my day to listen through while delivering packages. I cheered multiple times! Thanks for what you all do.
The combat was amazing because stakes and drama were so high. One of my favorite sessions ever! Thank you!
Your battle prep and the way the session played out really inspired me as a DM to challenge my own players. I’ve already changed how I was approaching my game. 👍
As for the “scripting,” never underestimate what levers you can pull if you know your players. It doesn’t have to be the way Matt did it; some players just can’t say no to some things.
23:35 Watching Lars fight back smiling like a little child opening presents they had no idea they were getting.
A huge takeaway I got from the stream was that you were ok to kill the PCs, hit them when they're down, and not hold back punches. The villains were super scary because they were unpredictable and tough. I loved it!
Secondly, the pre-recording was EPIC! To me it was just as cool as when Nails had the god-voice. Moments like that are super awesome! Don't stop doing them when you have the opportunity!
Thirdly, I have barely even looked at the pdf of Strongholds and Followers because I prefer the real book. So pumped for it to arrive!
P.S. Anna is awesome. I had a shipping error (despite all the emails about confirm your address I failed. Thought I had already done it but didn't). Anna was on it and got me in touch with the shipping company and all will be good. So excited!
I've been a DM for 20 years and watching your Running the Game series and now the Campaign Diaries has been a learning and humbling experience. I never thought I would watch 4hrs of combat, I work two jobs and I'm in college again... (had to watch it small bits for a few days)... but at the end I was basically taking notes, long combat against high powered NPCs is something that still intimidates me... and I play with my closest friends that are very forgiving if I fail to make things interesting. You guys play in front of an audience! Thanks for all the effort!
I enjoyed the heck out of the episode. People on the internet will complain about anything. Keep being awesome just like you are!
“BELIEVE”
Was such an epic part of watching that combat!
I thought the session was fantastic; I loved seeing all the concordance stuff, and I'm sure I'm not the only one!
As a Player - I have "pre-written" content ready all the time. Written by me (like Lars' prayer) - with no prompting from the DM. Basically I'm just paying attention and thinking about what situations will probably pop up in the near future (just like we do in real life) - and asking myself, what would be a cool thing for my character to say or do in that situation? I have a google doc of quotes, poems, songs, responses in languages that my character speaks - and most of them go unused because an appropriate situation never came up. BUT - when it does - I have something ready that adds depth to the story and to my character. I love watching the other player's reactions (and the DM!) . And yes - I have been accused of secretly "scripting" things with the DM - nope. I'm just scripting things in my head. The DM is not the only person at the table that can add richness, depth and -- verisimilitude -- to the story.
the running the game portion of this video is such a fuckin bangin piece of advice, and i can’t stop thinking about it. i tried it during a dnd dinner and it worked, and i just wanted you to know that you’re a wizard and a huge inspiration.
The book is gosh darn gorgeous in all its glossy glory. Hoping to bump into you now somewhere in the OC so I can grab a signed copy. ;)
I love it! In order: The episode, this diary, and of course, Shmuck's face during the Lady of Brass speech!
The power of keeping your mouth shut cannot be underestimated.
I wish the people criticizing your well-crafted desperate battle with amazing moments (loved the pre-recorded voiceover) would learn some of that power. That fight looked amazing. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Now technically, the Black Iron Pact wouldn't know much about Judge's abilities outside of knowing she's an Illrigger. So next encounter, she still has an ace up her sleeve.
Generally (and I've already communicated this), I like the political intrigue much more than combat. However, I really enjoyed last week's episode. Plenty of suspense and I was afraid that characters were going to die. What made this hit home was the fact that precedent had already been established.
Keep up the good work.
Last week was the first streaming session I've fully watched back (normally I don't have time to watch 4 hours) because the written summary was so exciting and I saw players who were engaged and a lot of epic moments that the players felt earned. It didn't feel it the slightest like an add or that things were prerecorded. It felt like an epic battle with lots and lots of tension. I thought I will tell you that, so you also here from the other side.
as someone who's binging the chain right now, I think this was one of the best episodes
it did feel like "taking it easy" when Leech's concordance happened, but the combat was already turning around at that point
I need to comment more on your and MCDMs videos.
I'm a mix of podcast and TH-cam viewer and last week's game was a BLAST to watch/listen to!
Well, i thoroughly enjoyed the entire episode. In fact, i've watched it twice; once on "player cam" and once on the tactical view.
I'm not usually one for divine intervention, but i thought it was handled incredibly well, and the prep work didn't feel contrived, just extremely well planned.
I would also like to praise the reaction of those players who got put down and spent quite some time effectively out of the game. There were no sour grapes, and they actually did a great job keeping involved and in good spirits.
Well done and thank you to you all.
I know I'm a year late on this, but anyone who thinks this was scripted clearly hasn't been watching very closely. In several campaign diaries you've explained how you get the players to do what you want through a combination of subtle manipulation (asking Lars what would happen if Slim got goaded into fighting Dickface or whatever his name was), and knowing your players really well. When I heard the pre-recorded voice my first thought was "how cool! Matt knew one day King would call on his God and had this recorded, and now he finally gets to use it"!
Having a skill like Matt's makes it that much cooler for the players, because they feel like their actions have these huge meanings to them, and it would be really hard to do that with things you come up with on the fly (especially if you want to keep your lore internally consistent). Matt's skill with this is a big part of the reason I watch these campaign diaries in the first place!
Well, I for one really enjoyed the episode. Sad to hear not everyone felt the same.
When the warlord tells you to "shake it off," is that a Swift action?
I think it's Taylored to the encounter
I OBJECT.
DOUBLE NICE
People thought that was low quality? That was a riveting session. I was legit worried they'd die. And I thought the concordance stuff was SUPER cool. Especially the voice acted clip.
For the record, I really liked last weeks episode. I usually don't really like combat episodes, but this one was dope!
Hi from Brazil,
Great content, great campaign so far, AND!!!! i use design tips you give and encounter bits you use on my game. Keep up the great content, you help us DM's greatly and the experience of watching you prepare and run the games is unique.
A tip of my hat to you, sir.
Really loving the campaign, just wishing you folks some rest, hoping you'll be fresh and ready in a few weeks to resume this show! On the issue about people dropping out of the stream mid session: don't forget timezones are a thing. America is large and it spans across, what, 3 timezones? Let's assume that the break is two hours after session's start. On the west coast it might be 9 pm, but on the east coast it's already 11 pm. The stream is mid-week so it just sounds right to me, that people want to get some sleep, and staying up till 1 am to watch d&d isn't quite the smartest idea, especially when you are gonna get up in just a few hours to go to work. Then there are people like me, you know, Europeans. By the time the stream starts on twitch, it's early Thursday morning, here. Which is why I'm so, so glad that I can watch the campaign on TH-cam!
Matt, there are always going to be back seat players and DMs. I enjoyed last week's session and was on the edge of my seat. I have noticed that there are many people who play the game today who lose the spirit of the game by worrying too much about the fine details of game mechanics. I may be mistaken, but to me, it seems that players from newer generations focus too much on rules and less on having fun. This is a fantasy game....key word....game and it should be fun.
Great work. Don't let the negativity of others make you doubt yourself.
I have already successfully used some of the court of Arcadia in my campaign and I am so grateful. The book is solid and so is this stream.
As I like to say to folks who believe that there is a "right way" to run D&D. "You run D&D how you like, and I will run D&D how I like." Keep those dice rolling Mathew Coleville. Really digging your videos!
Maybe it is just because I have been watching you for long enough, but not once did I think this whole episode was "scripted." Though I definitely knew you nudged the players towards certain actions. Your advice of "Challenge the Players on the action you want them to do" is a thing I have been doing before I realized I was doing it.
It is always a good day when i see a notification from Matt.
I _loved_ seeing all the Strongholds and Followers stuff, by the way! It’s your game and it inspires confidence in your product that you _enjoy_ playing your own rules! That whole episode is a ton of fun! Thanks again!
Last weeks combat was really engaging, especially for combat. I don't usually like combat in streams, I kinda check out during those moments but those two and a half(two and a half!!) rounds last week were gripping.
Honestly really cool fight. Was exciting to hear from the Lady of Brass and to at least learn the name of Leech’s patron
I watch a lot of DnD streams. Matt, WOW! what a great journey you've had in front of a camera. Well done bro. Love to see someone so concise grow to such a confident streamer. Love your work.
This fight was a good fight!
I've watched on twitch after you mentioned it in the previous campaign diary.
Great Episode. During the break I couldn't help but compare you guys to that old looney toons cartoon the coyote vs the sheep dog. The sheep dog is getting ready to smite the coyote when the lunch bell rings so he puts him down and they have lunch and even share a coffee. Bell rings again and back to pounding!
It is so cool that DND can be this neat with some prep and quick thinking.
I loved that episode. So don't be worried about doing more big combats. We love the chain, whatever they do! ^^
When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all. Classic quote the start of the episode reminded me of.
In this video Matt talks about manipulating the players to get them to do what he wants. In other videos he’s talked about working out things with players ahead of time, or giving them hints outside the game session.
I don’t usually think of those things when GMing, but I think those are totally valid things to do. I feel like my notion of how to GM has been expanded here. There are a lot of tools in a GM’s toolbox, and what you do during the session are just the most obvious ones.
33:39 the spell you are referring to strongly resembles Word of Recall, which is a 5th edition spell that works as you describe. That being said, it is a cleric spell.
True. But Contingency could work the same way. And that's a wizard's spell.
@@shawngillogly6873 contingency with teleport would have the same end effect, but it is incorrect to say that when you cast contingency, you teleport to a place you have previously cast the spell. However, the wizard is only 9th or 10th level (unable to cast contingency), so the point is academic.
@@cmckee42 could have cast contingency via scroll, which an agent of ajax would likely have access to. and he said it *could* work that way. which is accurate
The last session was so much fun especially since I was so worried about how the chain was going to survive the encounter. The voice over was so awesome. Your players looked like they were having so much fun. Especially Tom with umlaut.
Being a player since the mid 90’s sometimes one encounter takes For-Ev-Ver. Because this was a story driven fight, it didn’t cause battle fatigue. Said another way, it was an encounter that lasted a long time (because it is what happens when people with abilities start using their stuff) vs one encounter after another.
1)How dare a company committed to helping people play better D&D show how its product can help you play D&D better!
2) This was the best combat episode of a RPG I've watched since Vox Machina vs Dr Ripley. I have not been that invested in dice rolls since Percy's final death save failed. I watched it twice. It's on my favorites. And thank you for sharing.
Ahh Matt, describing two blue control decks head to head for a bit after 19:24 ... countering counterspells, that brings back memories.
"whatever your favorite show is, there's somebody out there (probably me) that doesn't like it"
That's an excellent line.
I really liked this session. I'm actually a little bummed that people didn't like it!
I agree, I didn't find this session lacking in any way, in fact I was super excited to see their reactions and solutions to the combat that Matt threw at them, I loved every second!
Your vids always show how much you love this game.
Was a great episode, I was sat on the edge of my seat watching it
The villain action sounds awesome. I’m going to start calling legendary actions villain actions or villainous actions
That fight was awesome, but I did chuckle that the villains went down in 3 rounds.
I loved last week's episode. Yes it was all combat. But anyone who truly plays the game will have those sessions. It was great to see the Strongholds & Followers in action. I just got my copy of the book and can't wait to introduce it into my campaigns.
I really enjoy the game streams and these campaign diaries leave me stoked for the session to see the continued adventures of The Chain. Thank you Matt & friends.
25:10 it probably doesn't feel like Deus ex machina to the players, but sitting there watching (or in my case listening) it definitely felt like it, especially for ballistic anthrax. When the chain got their guy and the pact got there's, it felt like it was a good way to ramp up the stakes without actually affecting the balance, but when the chain got the second dragon it stopped being the players fighting the bad guys and just turned into an action movie without special effects.
God has graced us with a diary anew!
1:44 I think a big take away of your channel and handling the chaos machine that are the players is doing something like having your DnD lunch. Make sure your players have some reason/means to talk about plans outside of the game so you can hear their plans. Even if you don't manipulate, I think DMs will be more confident walking into a more well understood situation. It's also a good way to clear up any rules that might come into play!
Zenth Wolf He’s giving us lessons even when he’s not telling us he’s giving us lessons!
Yeah if you can manage this it's really helpful, even something like a group chat makes a difference. I don't know about that whole challenging the players idea thing, if only because not all groups are gonna react the same way. For example I'm not sure my group would react the same way (though I might give it a try) I think my group might lose confidence, instead of double down. I guess It's down to knowing your group dynamic.
But extra time to talk about what they're doing in the game is an incredible resource for world building and creating bonds between the characters. Another Colville gem.
we use a private facebook group for us since most of us don't work together anymore
That combat was wild...
I really like the change to the master of jackals ability, it seems to me that a move action makes more sense mechanically as compared to a d4. Keep up the good work.
15:42 it took 2 and a half years, but there it is. And what a video it is.
Actually Matt, it's very common for enemies to do more damage with weapons than players would. A Bugbear's morning star does 2d8 damage, a Gladiator's spear does 2d6, a Planetar's greatsword does 4d6, etc. If a player notices this, you can just say that it's similar to how a Barbarian or a Fighter can increase their damage with rage and superiority die.
That was awesome. I just bought Strongholds & Followers and I am looking forward to implementing the contents into my campaign. It won’t be anywhere near the power level of The Chain. But by st. Ajax it will be fun and interesting.
I love that addition of the voice acting~
I watched this live, and it was awesome.
I love the stream it actually keeps me entertained unlike a lot of other dnd streams. At no point did i ever feel like this was a advertisement for strongholds and followers. But honestly i wanted to see how those rule worked and you showed that. People are gonna hate
People love to hate
Because they cant have or dont have a game like yours.
I don't understand, this was my second favorite episode of The Chain just behind King to Dragon's 3. I loved seeing Matt's rules from strongholds and followers used. I never once felt it was scripted.
I felt like it makes sense that the Cleric and Warlock would call out to their patrons, my players do that all the time! The first couple times the patrons are usually cordial, but eventually they do get annoyed and it backfires.
Great episode... I don't care what those other people say and I really hope the stream doesn't stop. I look forward to it every week.
Matt: 'When am I ever going to use all this first-level slots?!'
Also Matt: 'The wizard uses shield.'
Just being a git ;P Loved this episode, loved the fight, great 'Running the Campaign Diary'.
Hey matt! Could you do a running the game episode on rewarding players, the different ways to reward them, when, and how to reward them, and with what you can reward them? Keep up the great vids!
I've been watching your D&D stuff for a while now, but it just occurred to me that the lead developer of the game Evolve is named Matt Colville.
Evolve was my favourite game of all time, if you were the lead on it then that's awesome.
This was the first episode that turned the difficulty slider up to "Game of Thrones" since the prologue. Also, Lars was an all-star in this episode and really saved the group's bacon.
Something I'd like to add about the trouble of not being able to give enough time to certain enemies when you're customizing them. I've kept a log of most villains I've run over the past couple years, many of which have magic items that grant additional abilities from 3.5 and Pathfinder. I just graft those into enemies when I think they need some flair but I keep them all in this nice little clipboard/folder thing I have. Has been very useful and it's fun seeing players mouths draw when the Death Knight draws two greatswords since he has the Monkey Grip power granted by his dark god.
I'm shocked that anyone expressed discontent with last week's game!
It was AWESOME!
When Matt said "Villain Sheet" I now want a sheet for villains that is NOT a Player Character sheet. Something similar to the "Starting Area" sheet that MCDM came out with!
Tom's ability seemed to work just like the Mobile feat, so I was pretty surprised the attack of opportunity worked at all. Villain actions are pretty crazy
"How do they come up with some of this endless gibberish?" and "How do I steer them away from it?". I think these questions sum up GMing beautifully!
Matt Colville dreams. He dreams worlds, and worlds within worlds.
It was really good stuff. I need to go back and watch it again because I want to try and take some stuff for my campaign :)
The monk, not the wizard, was convinced by the sapphire dragon to turn, but Ballisantirax has dreamed and it is no longer so.
Not trying to call Matt out, I just can't resist adding to the record.
Also boots got the boot to the head
Whiners are wangrods. Of course you'd want to use some of the cool stuff you've worked on in strongholds and followers: you're proud of your work and are super familiar with how it works. Love the campaign diaries as I couldn't sit thorough a D&D cast.
While i do not enjoy combat as much as the rest of the show (especially the Characters, Drama and Intrigue of Capital) i think this one was dramatic enough to be very interesting. The whole strongholds and followers thing is a bit much i think, it is content you have created so you might as well use it. This kind of content is what makes your game unique. However i look forward to the fallout of this much more than the combat.
P.S: Also thanks for doing this every week. Normally i am just watching, but i think it is time to thank you for helping every DM out there.