Right. Cognitive dissonance. It doesn't make sense for them to roleplay as heroes who have moral motivations and then just allow something like that to happen without rebelling against it.
Did I miss something? at the end of 18 the Shield of Gravisburg were still in the Underdark. Did they kill the Aboleth in the City of the Glass Pool? How did they get back to the surface? How did they get into a war?
Is there anything, like streams or a diary that fills the HUGE hole between this and the "Greechak!" episode?? I wanna hear all about the Kuo-Toa city!
Rules as written: Yes, vampires are lawful. Gameplay: YES! Vampires are the epitome of lawful evil, maybe even more than devils. Think about how all the gameplay mechanics of vampires revolve around rules and order -- they can't cross running water, they need permission to enter your building, they can only be outside at certain times of the day or get punished. They create vampire spawn that are bound to them and are subservient, unless the spawn is given the masters blood, that sets them free to be a full normal vampire. Staying in cover during the day gives vampires lots of time to plot and scheme and make plans, because what else would they do during the day? The archetypical vampire lord is a powerful, evil, lawful overlord of a castle, with minions and soldiers. Vampires need to cultivate some humanoid settlement near them so they can extract their sanguine tax. If they just chaotically killed everyone, there would be nobody left for them to feed. They have to have some order to how they exploit people, even if its just "leave some alive". I think Vampires, not Devils, should be the go-to example for Lawful Evil in DnD.
What's wrong with devils? The devils in the 9 hells are like the mafia. They're a perfect example of lawful evil. Chaotic evil is only how the demons in the abyss behave which is more like a prison system run by the prisoners. As for vampires, they've been overdone. It's the most boring trope stolen from Dracula then watered down by Hollywood. I say this as a fan of vampires. Until they make a glittery flamboyant devil in a book like they did with the vampires in Twilight I think devils are the better choice.
Yes, Matt, you're right. You do have 2 different audiences. I am definitely one of those people who are only interested in the Running the Game & Campaign Diary videos. I have no interest in watching streaming games. However, I'm excited for your success with the new rig. Even though I don't watch streams, I'm excited my favorite hobby is growing popular now. You are a river to your people.
When I saw Edmund get killed my mouth dropped open, I started freaking the Hell out and was watching your players and going "What the Hell is wrong with you people?! There's a headless 13 year old kid on your keeps floor!"
I think what people are looking forward to is being on board with a campaign right from ground-level. The wall that people have to overcome when watching Critical Roll is all the experiences that the party and DM, and the longer-term viewers, have had. They feel they've missed out on something vital. Being with a campaign right from character-creation is going to give viewers such a sense of ownership- for good, or bad. I know I'm hungry for that.
korg20000bc while I don't disagree, in that I do indeed hunger for that, the "wall" you speak of doesn't come up that often. And when it does the players are very good about addressing it.
Jason Kirkner I suspect the CR cast is almost done with their campaign at this point as the characters are deep into tier 4; I think people who arent willing to watch the first 100 or more episodes will have a good jumping on point in the near future!
You should check out High Rollers from the Yogscast. While not everyone is new to dnd in it (one of the players and the dm have experience) most of the players are new and the campaign starts from the beginning.
Seems to me that Duke Kenway brutally killing young defenseless Edmund like that with the players just standing around doing nothing reveals that they are just trying to replace one evil leader with another who is just as bad, if not worse, and makes the whole struggle kind of pointless. There's no reason the Duke couldn't have just stripped the kid of his titles and/or lands and awarded them to Count Nicodemus and then sent the boy off to be confined to a monastery or something so at least he could live. It was an act without honor or reason.
Are your players insane? I absolutely love all the politicking that goes on in your setting. I would have been outraged at the execution of Lord Edmund. That was brutal and completely unexpected.
I second that, holy frick, i'm catching up with the diaries, and oh MAN, i didn't expect that, and i'm CONFIDENT it's gonna bite party later. Jesus, i hope it does, it would definitely be awesome see them resolve things further
Are there any plans for a Campaign Diary bridging the gap between between the previous and this one? Either way I loved the livestream and this perspective on the session was really great!
I like the campaign diaries because I can listen without looking, can rewind when you say your showing an inset, and can get the whole experience... all while I am painting minis and making terrain. Shorter videos are great too, but I can't pay half-attention to them and still craft, so I have to just watch and not craft.
This is insane. I think Matt spoke of Edmond in one of the running the game videos or maybe I've watched a little of one of these diaries, I don't normally watch them. Killing Edmond sounds like some deep, dark shit. I would have lost my cool if I was in that campaign.
Matt D I don’t think this was this first time we skipped ahead, but there was definitely a huge skip. We never heard about the rest of the adventure in the under dark.
@@peteonretreat2023 I know right? Just discovered this right now and I'm bummed. We don't get to see what happens after Nicodemus kills the troll chieftain? Do they get to the city? Do they find the kidnapped spellcasters?
I am one of the guys who watch all of your stuff. I binged all of the running the game and campaign diaries, I'm going to watch all of the stream VoDs if I can't watch the stream itself. 2X speed is a blessing to me. You are an amazing human being, keep it up.
The Codex Terranosis really sounds kind of like the neutral counterpart to the books of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness. A book that alters the magic of the material plane sounds crazy and amazing. Time to homebrew a new artifact!
Also, I enjoy the campaign diarys a lot more than the actual stream; it gives me the same value in story/ideas in a lot less time, and without the parts I consider boring to watch (specifically, the combat). Interestingly, I believe the opposite to be true for the CR and High Rollers streams: I think that with both of these, I actually get more value per time with the actual stream than I would on a recap-style video.
_"I've got seven players and I'm constantly feeling this pressure to keep them entertained.'_ I feel ya, Mr.Colville. When I had this pressure, only results would've comes to my mind, and not the details. Thanks to the circumstances of life, Now I only DM to three people, and it's alot better.
I listen to all 4 hours of your D&D sessions. I have 8 hours at work to just listen on my cell while working on a pc. Using all of this for research in upcoming campaign I’m planning after 20 years absence from gaming.
I watched the stream - 4 hours 20; the campaign diary - 54 minutes; read thief - 5 hours; rewatched campaign diary #6-8 for my campaign - 1 hour 20 and still want more. 11 hours of Colville this week, thank you King Colville
So... Edmund swears fealty, and the guy's response is "Thanks, die". And the players: A) Don't care that a thirteen year old boy under their protection was just murdered in front of them B) Don't care that the guy they're supposedly working for just flat out murdered a person who was swearing to work for him Point A just makes me think they're horrible people. Point B makes me think they're kind of stupid, if this guy will kill somebody who swears fealty to him than nobody is safe. -_-
I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out how much more authentic it feels with everyone around the table and would take it further to say that the eating over the mics wasn't as much of a problem as you might think it was. It wasn't distracting and no one chews with their mouth open so it wasn't annoying, plus it feels like it adds to that D&D feel. My group would always grab snack and drinks, it's just part of it. Don't get me wrong, taking a break makes sense but the food wasn't a problem, imo.
Yeah, I definitely reeled when I was watching the stream, and Edmund was executed. I was surprised that no one did anything, but at the same time, it was a very difficult situation to try and resolve. If the characters would have attacked or detained Kenway of Dalrath, it probably wouldn't have ended well; I mean, his units were right outside the castle. Great dramatic moment, for sure.
Gotta say, I'm super excited for your campaign post-mortem video. Any time I finish running something, I try to identify what I did wrong, but I don't always have an easy time of it. Especially because people I run for tend to be the type who don't ever have anything bad to say no matter how much I tell them to rip me apart. It'll be great to see somebody else do what I try to do and take some pointers from it.
So I just watched the players reactions to Edmund getting beheaded ''if you go to the stream it happens at 45:45 over on that video. Now Lars and Gertz were basically the only ones who didn't have visible reaction. Tom's mouth flew open,Anna gasped,Phill yelled ''WHAT?!'' and EJ had the best reaction saying ''Jesus,dude!''
Found the channel while looking for D&D resources and got captivated. I'm shocked how this turned out for the young Baron. There's a lot of evil around.
@Matthew "Veterans of the Psychic Wars" is one of the best references you could have for a unit! I hope you made sure to blare some BoC whenever those Dalrath Longbowmen take the field ;)
Incredibly early, but heard you talking about the Stronghold rules on DM's block and it's so true what you said about players getting attached. It's awesome and thankyou.
I really liked your foresight on taking ideas from the players. I didn't watch the session, but I enjoyed listening to your ideas on what was going on in the game.
that whole thought at around the 10:35 mark is why my current character is a crown princess who has ran away from her near tyrannical mother, The Siren Queen
I enjoy both your Campaign Diary's and the raw game for different reasons. You could say I enjoy watching the "ballgame" and reading an "sports column" in the paper the next day. Love the idea of the warfare system, downloaded the sample, looking forward to examining it in full. Thanks for posting! Enjoy the philosophy of the channel. :)
Gotta say, I would absolutely love to see the card for the that Phoenix Book. There's something pretty similar in my campaign and same as you i haven't decided what it should do yet, but that sounds so cool!
I actually made it for most of the stream, and I loved it. If you start doing it weekly, I will definitely be there! I enjoy most all of what you post, so thanks for keeping things varied. Helps me learn how to run games better, while also hearing about other things like your campaign(s). Looking forward to where this channel is headed.
I adore these stories, and because I'm experiencing it in narration, the PCs and NPCs have equal weight. The politics are brilliant, and I feel it's a bit of a shame that the players weren't really interested in that stuff. I can't see how any of them could watch the summary, cold-blooded execution of a defenseless- and misled! -thirteen year old kid, politics be damned, and do nothing. Say nothing. Accept it as if it was "just business". And, politics or no politics, I'd consider that an evil act. Evil on the part of the Baron who ordered it, and no less evil on his agent who carried it out. As a player, in that scenario, I'd have had a massive problem with this event. Great stories as always though, Matthew! Thanks so much for sharing them with us!
You could have made Nicodemus a baronet, they are traditionally below barons. Traditionally the order of precedence for noble ranks is Emperor> King> Duke >Marquis >Earl/Count >Viscount >Baron >Baronet >Knight > Lord/Esquire >Gentleman. Also usually a long rest is 8 hours and a short rest is 1 hour however you can modify these values as laid out in DMG 267-268. This list is not all inclusive for instance you have princes, archdukes, and grand dukes between king and duke.
Matt I really enjoy your channel keep up the great work. I think people feel obligated to watch complete episodes of Critical Role because there is no "Campaign Diary". To get the whole story you have to watch. Your channel gives people the option of hearing a great story without the hours of time viewing to get it. Although they can watch if they want to. Keep up the great work it's been very helpful to me.
I never should have doubted you Matt. I was upset because I prefer the diaries over the streams, but you provide both not just one. You godly man you. Now I'm still left wondering if you'll ever put your books up for purchase on the Nook store...
Anthony Nuciforo Jr just go to Matt's page (you can just search 'Matt Colville' on TH-cam) and then look under the 'video' tab. All his videos are there, there's not that many. the streams are some of the few whose thumbnails are not just Matt's face
Man, so excited to watch your new campaign start from square one. Great job on the all of the content so far, the growth of this channel is phenomenal.
Thank you, Jerry. You're an amazing bloke to do so much for the "Egomaniac". (Your description, Matt!) It was a good game, too. I have the ancient Battlesystem and a few iterations of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Between the two of them, I have a few ideas of how such a siege could be run. But perhaps your rules will completely invalidate them.
Personally I love all the videos that you put up. Campaign diaries, running the game, and now your D&D sessions are all amazing. The stream you just posted is particularly good and I can't wait for more. Even though I have seen dozens of critical role episodes, I have a hard time watching it now. What slowly turned me off to it is that it is so beyond my experiences with D&D (due to their high production, style of play, and setup) that I can't relate to it. Watching your game feels like the game I am currently in with my friends and kept me entertained all the way through. It might sound strange, but there is a disconnect when I see other D&D games with a bunch of stuff someone could never have at their home game. Even though you have some awesome stuff (like that castle) it is still something my friends and I could put together. For some reason, that is just another reason I thoroughly enjoyed your stream.
The video and audio quality WAS very nice. You put the effort into the production and it really shows, as well as the quality of the game that you presented to you players.
Dude, you content is so awesome and insightful and positive. I love that you are so open about your shortcomings and on the fly stuff. I saw your reddit post about the stream and wasn't able to watch live but watched on TH-cam after. I can't wait to see the final conclusion! anyway, good luck with finding a space and thanks again for creating such awesome content!
Loving the warfare basics. As usual your video has hit on something I was already struggling to get to grips with as a concept in my own campaign and has really got the old brain cells firing. Thank you
Thanks for the video! To be honest, when I looked at your basic rules for warfare, I expected something more like a Warhammer style. For example that you do not have to destroy the enemy's infantry first in order to attack ranged units. I was more thinking of "If the attacking units line of sight does not go through a unit, that is not the intended target, it can't attack that unit (ranged weapons are not affected by this rule). However. If the target of the attack is completely covered by terrain (e.g. a wall) the attacking unit can't attack this target." This makes formations far more important as you have to make sure your siege weapons and other ranged units are safe from cavalry and also comes with more questions on what to do with each unit (e.g. should I use my cavalry to flank around his army to attack the siege weapons that caused me a lot of trouble or should I try to counter charge his cavalry?) I know that you are still working on the warfare rules and that the example version is just the basics, but I still wanted to give you my opinion on this. I wish you a wonderful rest of your day! Sincerely -Randomguy Username
Matt, I really enjoy all of your "products" and am totally thrilled that you guys are streaming again. You made us fear for the worst then deliver... you cunning dog, you ;) The steam looked great; I can't wait for the next one!
I get that its "Oh so awesome that he just killed the kid that was ""In his way."" but it actually makes no sense at all. I'd get killing him if he refused to bend the knee, but why ask and then kill him? Either kill him and SAY he said yes, or keep him alive so that he can PUBLICLY make you duke... Yes, now the kid isn't "in the way", but there is no way that there arent people that don't buy the story, and are willing to fight you + Instead of being the Baron of your land to the north (Which you could hand off to a loyal servant) AND the Duke of two Baronies... You're just a Baron with twice the land that needs defended (From within in both cases, and without b/c its more likely the Overlord starts looking into who exactly rules...)
Got after listening to this episode I am crushed by Edmund's death.. I loved him... I just wrote in my dm notes for npcs "Kid called edmund that gets new parents and is happy VERY IMPORTANT"
I tend to listen to the streams afterwards while I'm cooking dinners throughout the week. If I take about an hour to cook a night on average I get through the episodes in a timely fashion.
Keep up the great content. I personally enjoy all of your content and was sad to have seen the campaign diaries stop for so long but glad plans are moving forward. I have seen a lot of streamers compare themselves with Critical role but as you said it is an unfair comparison. The biggest issue with many of the streams that aren't critical role is how casual of an experience it is that is ran. I personally enjoy both flavors of games but if you watch critical role side by side you will notice they never have any downtime in roleplaying or side events which is mainly due to every member being a trained actor. In other words there is no downtime at all, everyone remains in character until the break and the DM and players are always driving the narrative forward even if its just "silly" actions. I think having a unique setup and making some elements be made specifically for your game will differentiate it and I look forward to seeing your ideas and stories unfold. As you said the smaller group should allow you to push the story faster and now that the players are comfortable with each other it will be even better! Good luck can't wait to see more!
I'm glad you're streaming even though that isn't something I'm likely to watch. Maybe I'll try once you start your new campaign. I do like these campaign diaries though. They are bite sized.
Maxwell Magiera Yeah. I didn't finish the whole stream but it was handy to have open in another tab while I watched this. it's good to have it documented, I guess. but I also like the element of having it broadcast to a live audience at the time of recording.
On the concept of resting, it would be cool if there was a power nap option. You gain the benefits of a long rest in only 2 hours, but you may no longer take a short rest until after you take a long rest, and you gain a level of exhaustion every 8 hours after taking the power nap option. You can do it once per day. You wouldn't do this all the time, but it would be a tactical consideration to make them on long days you know are gonna have a lot of tough encounters
I did feel like the stream went really well, and I'm glad it worked out for you at the table as well, obviously both ends are important for this to continue. Either way I'm super excited to see the campaign conclusion.
Great stream, man. About the end of the campaign: I've found this method works well. Run something for a few months, then move on to something else (maybe with someone else running). Sort of like TV show seasons. Done well, if that's the end, it closes on a good note. If you return to it, so much the better. Especially because as time goes on, fatigue and creative blocks can set in. If I'm not excited about what I am running, I bring it to a close, and inevitably return to it refreshed months or years later.
Interesting observation on streaming RPGs that use minis. Critical Roll does have that little problem of mini placement like Colville said. A few times every fight Mercer and one of the players has the conversation of "move me there, no I meant there". HyperRPG found a way around that. Two of it's shows has the players stand around the map so they can movie their own figures. One show is a Battletech RPG were the whole table is a hex map for combat. They also use very large figures, 3 to 8 inches tall. While their gauntlet show, D&D meats American Gladiators, uses the dwarven forge terrain with the players again standing right next tot hte table. Both shows have the DM stand at the corner, with a top view camera.
Nah it was amazing the way you did it. The ceremony wasn't needed. I didn't know a whole lot about the campaign when I watched it and I still have to rewind several times because I couldn't believe what just happened!
Hope your house-renovation work and projects are going well. I am glad you managed to make some time for content. I am also glad to hear you seem happy with the way the stream went and the quality of the stream! "Everyone is saying the stream looks amazing. I will be the judge of that." -- Matt Colville
Really nice recap both of the game itself as well as a sort of a review of what worked, what can/will be improved etc. Personally I am not quite sure the "rotating" camera view worked, maybe it will be better to have an inset window with the view to the dice box - as a target for the future. Let me explain - I really liked the rotating view for the various angles on the battle field. But the dice box is a bit of a special case, because 1. you'd want to see it when something is rolled and then 2. you don't really get much from seeing it when dice are not being rolled. So maybe if you coud find a way to have it in view in an inset window just when things are rolled - not sure how complicated that would be, probably more of a "stretch goal" to achieve! The basics all worked, I am amazed at what can be seen emerging as the idea you want to achieve. It seems like a great idea what you are working on, and think that when you got over 500 people watching for large parts of the stream without it even being announced much up front is a huge success too. Looking forward to seeing you develop this further Matt!
There's a lot of D&D to watch these days, which is great - but I only have so hours in the day and I can't really listen to games while I work. So I'll probably be one of those who just watch parts of the your streams, but tunes in for the campaign diaries and advice. The quality of the stream was top notch though!
Personally I love the politics in your game, its surprisingly interesting. I was out of my seat and cheering when Edmund made Nic the Count of Rend, such a good moment.
Matt, I am running a game at the moment with a few friends and everyone seems to enjoy it, and this is largely thanks to your videos. As a result I believe that I have enough experience to actually appreciate and understand some of the choices that you explain in this video, but I do have to ask: Why did Nicodemus'(?) axe not hit Lady Syrial? If Orion is an elven blade, and earlier in the campaign EJ could not unlock the potential of Arcturus as he is an Orc, surely an orcish weapon should never give fealty to an elvish blade? Was this something you thought of when deciding how Orion works? I'd be very interested in you explaining your decision making in this part of the game if you have time.
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I care! I care about Lord Edmund! What the hell!??
Yes!
It's just not something good characters would ever just do or allow to happen. Just because it's "politics" would not make it okay. WTH indeed.
Right. Cognitive dissonance. It doesn't make sense for them to roleplay as heroes who have moral motivations and then just allow something like that to happen without rebelling against it.
Can't blame Matt, though. The players were the ones who made the choice.
To be fair, I don't think they liked it, but it wasn't wise to rebel in that situation.
Did I miss something? at the end of 18 the Shield of Gravisburg were still in the Underdark. Did they kill the Aboleth in the City of the Glass Pool? How did they get back to the surface? How did they get into a war?
Is there anything, like streams or a diary that fills the HUGE hole between this and the "Greechak!" episode?? I wanna hear all about the Kuo-Toa city!
Even these years later, I still want to know. Matt Colville campaign is just awesome
Rules as written: Yes, vampires are lawful.
Gameplay: YES! Vampires are the epitome of lawful evil, maybe even more than devils. Think about how all the gameplay mechanics of vampires revolve around rules and order -- they can't cross running water, they need permission to enter your building, they can only be outside at certain times of the day or get punished.
They create vampire spawn that are bound to them and are subservient, unless the spawn is given the masters blood, that sets them free to be a full normal vampire. Staying in cover during the day gives vampires lots of time to plot and scheme and make plans, because what else would they do during the day?
The archetypical vampire lord is a powerful, evil, lawful overlord of a castle, with minions and soldiers.
Vampires need to cultivate some humanoid settlement near them so they can extract their sanguine tax. If they just chaotically killed everyone, there would be nobody left for them to feed. They have to have some order to how they exploit people, even if its just "leave some alive".
I think Vampires, not Devils, should be the go-to example for Lawful Evil in DnD.
I never thought I'd find you here... I guess you have, or had, a D&D group?
What's wrong with devils? The devils in the 9 hells are like the mafia. They're a perfect example of lawful evil. Chaotic evil is only how the demons in the abyss behave which is more like a prison system run by the prisoners.
As for vampires, they've been overdone. It's the most boring trope stolen from Dracula then watered down by Hollywood. I say this as a fan of vampires. Until they make a glittery flamboyant devil in a book like they did with the vampires in Twilight I think devils are the better choice.
Yes, Matt, you're right. You do have 2 different audiences. I am definitely one of those people who are only interested in the Running the Game & Campaign Diary videos. I have no interest in watching streaming games. However, I'm excited for your success with the new rig. Even though I don't watch streams, I'm excited my favorite hobby is growing popular now. You are a river to your people.
Dunno if I'm in the minority, but I enjoy every single bit of content or 'product' you put out, Matthew.
Raedwald Eriksson I 2nd this.
Raedwald Eriksson ....agreed.
I agree.
I'm with 100%, Edér
I think not the minority.
Wow, the players reacted very strangely to a child being killed if any of them have a good alignment, at least by the way Matt tells it.
Yeah. Most of my characters would have drawn steel at that point
Matt kinda undersold their reactions. Only Lars and Gertz didn't really react,all other players had visible reactions and two of them yelped.
I imagine that, at least to the players, he was too important of a person to harm, even if they wanted to.
Okay
That execution was so brutal. EJ's reaction cracked me up
Dungeon Dad what time in the stream video should I go to to see it? Even an estimate would help.
When I saw Edmund get killed my mouth dropped open, I started freaking the Hell out and was watching your players and going "What the Hell is wrong with you people?! There's a headless 13 year old kid on your keeps floor!"
I think what people are looking forward to is being on board with a campaign right from ground-level.
The wall that people have to overcome when watching Critical Roll is all the experiences that the party and DM, and the longer-term viewers, have had. They feel they've missed out on something vital.
Being with a campaign right from character-creation is going to give viewers such a sense of ownership- for good, or bad.
I know I'm hungry for that.
korg20000bc Amen to that
korg20000bc while I don't disagree, in that I do indeed hunger for that, the "wall" you speak of doesn't come up that often. And when it does the players are very good about addressing it.
This is dead on and the reason I have never gotten into Critical Role.
Jason Kirkner I suspect the CR cast is almost done with their campaign at this point as the characters are deep into tier 4; I think people who arent willing to watch the first 100 or more episodes will have a good jumping on point in the near future!
You should check out High Rollers from the Yogscast. While not everyone is new to dnd in it (one of the players and the dm have experience) most of the players are new and the campaign starts from the beginning.
"And I should be at the top of it" is Lawful Evil.
I think he'd be ok with that. His mother was a Gol after all.
Seems to me that Duke Kenway brutally killing young defenseless Edmund like that with the players just standing around doing nothing reveals that they are just trying to replace one evil leader with another who is just as bad, if not worse, and makes the whole struggle kind of pointless. There's no reason the Duke couldn't have just stripped the kid of his titles and/or lands and awarded them to Count Nicodemus and then sent the boy off to be confined to a monastery or something so at least he could live. It was an act without honor or reason.
People who saw the stream say they reacted.
I do like the idea that Vampires vs Werewolves is yet another manifestation of the eternal conflict of Law vs Chaos.
Are your players insane? I absolutely love all the politicking that goes on in your setting. I would have been outraged at the execution of Lord Edmund. That was brutal and completely unexpected.
I second that, holy frick, i'm catching up with the diaries, and oh MAN, i didn't expect that, and i'm CONFIDENT it's gonna bite party later. Jesus, i hope it does, it would definitely be awesome see them resolve things further
It's almost as if people have fun in different ways.
All hail to the forgotten bearded god.
Kol'ville
and a magnificent beard it is.
D&D players don't worship Satan, we worship Kol'ville
We sacrifice to Kol'Ville and Mercer
I think Kol'vyl is better
Are there any plans for a Campaign Diary bridging the gap between between the previous and this one? Either way I loved the livestream and this perspective on the session was really great!
I like the campaign diaries because I can listen without looking, can rewind when you say your showing an inset, and can get the whole experience... all while I am painting minis and making terrain. Shorter videos are great too, but I can't pay half-attention to them and still craft, so I have to just watch and not craft.
This is insane. I think Matt spoke of Edmond in one of the running the game videos or maybe I've watched a little of one of these diaries, I don't normally watch them.
Killing Edmond sounds like some deep, dark shit. I would have lost my cool if I was in that campaign.
Really no one felt guilty for the death of Edmund?
Did I miss a campaign diary? seems like there was a big skip from 18 to 19.
Matt D I don’t think this was this first time we skipped ahead, but there was definitely a huge skip. We never heard about the rest of the adventure in the under dark.
@@peteonretreat2023 I know right? Just discovered this right now and I'm bummed. We don't get to see what happens after Nicodemus kills the troll chieftain? Do they get to the city? Do they find the kidnapped spellcasters?
There is a running the game video where he talks about what happens at the end of the Underdark. I don’t remember which one it is.
@@theendicott2838 thanks
How is it that a fight wasn't started when a kid was murdered right in front of them? How do they not do anything about that?
I am one of the guys who watch all of your stuff. I binged all of the running the game and campaign diaries, I'm going to watch all of the stream VoDs if I can't watch the stream itself. 2X speed is a blessing to me. You are an amazing human being, keep it up.
Hah, Anna was right. Your Legions of Hell image are Charr from the Guild Wars 2 time and she does have a plushie of their supreme commander.
If I were a player in Matt's game I'd be all about the politics.
The Codex Terranosis really sounds kind of like the neutral counterpart to the books of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness. A book that alters the magic of the material plane sounds crazy and amazing. Time to homebrew a new artifact!
What happened in the Underdark with the trolls and the City of the Glasspool?
Oh daaaaaamn I'm so going to steal the Codex that lets you make the ultimate sacrifice...
Also, I enjoy the campaign diarys a lot more than the actual stream; it gives me the same value in story/ideas in a lot less time, and without the parts I consider boring to watch (specifically, the combat). Interestingly, I believe the opposite to be true for the CR and High Rollers streams: I think that with both of these, I actually get more value per time with the actual stream than I would on a recap-style video.
_"I've got seven players and I'm constantly feeling this pressure to keep them entertained.'_
I feel ya, Mr.Colville. When I had this pressure, only results would've comes to my mind, and not the details.
Thanks to the circumstances of life, Now I only DM to three people, and it's alot better.
The glorious return of the Campaign Diary. This feels like looking to the East on the first light of the fifth day.
I listen to all 4 hours of your D&D sessions. I have 8 hours at work to just listen on my cell while working on a pc. Using all of this for research in upcoming campaign I’m planning after 20 years absence from gaming.
Lady Avelina (i'm not sure on spelling) would not have left that room alive if I were playing Nicodemus.
I watched the stream - 4 hours 20; the campaign diary - 54 minutes; read thief - 5 hours; rewatched campaign diary #6-8 for my campaign - 1 hour 20 and still want more.
11 hours of Colville this week, thank you King Colville
So... Edmund swears fealty, and the guy's response is "Thanks, die".
And the players:
A) Don't care that a thirteen year old boy under their protection was just murdered in front of them
B) Don't care that the guy they're supposedly working for just flat out murdered a person who was swearing to work for him
Point A just makes me think they're horrible people.
Point B makes me think they're kind of stupid, if this guy will kill somebody who swears fealty to him than nobody is safe. -_-
Only Graves and Nekodemous were present
I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out how much more authentic it feels with everyone around the table and would take it further to say that the eating over the mics wasn't as much of a problem as you might think it was. It wasn't distracting and no one chews with their mouth open so it wasn't annoying, plus it feels like it adds to that D&D feel. My group would always grab snack and drinks, it's just part of it. Don't get me wrong, taking a break makes sense but the food wasn't a problem, imo.
Woah 7 months ago since the last campaign diary, hopefully matt can do a few more to keep us updated really love this campaign
Yeah, I definitely reeled when I was watching the stream, and Edmund was executed. I was surprised that no one did anything, but at the same time, it was a very difficult situation to try and resolve. If the characters would have attacked or detained Kenway of Dalrath, it probably wouldn't have ended well; I mean, his units were right outside the castle. Great dramatic moment, for sure.
Gotta say, I'm super excited for your campaign post-mortem video. Any time I finish running something, I try to identify what I did wrong, but I don't always have an easy time of it. Especially because people I run for tend to be the type who don't ever have anything bad to say no matter how much I tell them to rip me apart. It'll be great to see somebody else do what I try to do and take some pointers from it.
The 8 month gap in story was very disappointing.
Wait. When we last left our heroes they were in a cave fighting trolls now what happened. Did we miss a dozen episodes or so?
So I just watched the players reactions to Edmund getting beheaded ''if you go to the stream it happens at 45:45 over on that video. Now Lars and Gertz were basically the only ones who didn't have visible reaction. Tom's mouth flew open,Anna gasped,Phill yelled ''WHAT?!'' and EJ had the best reaction saying ''Jesus,dude!''
The best line of the stream was when Phil said "My son is 13..." I was really hoping Graves would attack Lord Kenway.
Found the channel while looking for D&D resources and got captivated. I'm shocked how this turned out for the young Baron. There's a lot of evil around.
@Matthew
"Veterans of the Psychic Wars" is one of the best references you could have for a unit! I hope you made sure to blare some BoC whenever those Dalrath Longbowmen take the field ;)
Incredibly early, but heard you talking about the Stronghold rules on DM's block and it's so true what you said about players getting attached. It's awesome and thankyou.
Man, the scope and epic-ness of this campaign... is simply beautiful.
I really liked your foresight on taking ideas from the players. I didn't watch the session, but I enjoyed listening to your ideas on what was going on in the game.
that whole thought at around the 10:35 mark is why my current character is a crown princess who has ran away from her near tyrannical mother, The Siren Queen
I enjoy both your Campaign Diary's and the raw game for different reasons. You could say I enjoy watching the "ballgame" and reading an "sports column" in the paper the next day.
Love the idea of the warfare system, downloaded the sample, looking forward to examining it in full.
Thanks for posting! Enjoy the philosophy of the channel. :)
Gotta say, I would absolutely love to see the card for the that Phoenix Book. There's something pretty similar in my campaign and same as you i haven't decided what it should do yet, but that sounds so cool!
I actually made it for most of the stream, and I loved it. If you start doing it weekly, I will definitely be there! I enjoy most all of what you post, so thanks for keeping things varied. Helps me learn how to run games better, while also hearing about other things like your campaign(s). Looking forward to where this channel is headed.
I adore these stories, and because I'm experiencing it in narration, the PCs and NPCs have equal weight. The politics are brilliant, and I feel it's a bit of a shame that the players weren't really interested in that stuff. I can't see how any of them could watch the summary, cold-blooded execution of a defenseless- and misled! -thirteen year old kid, politics be damned, and do nothing. Say nothing. Accept it as if it was "just business". And, politics or no politics, I'd consider that an evil act. Evil on the part of the Baron who ordered it, and no less evil on his agent who carried it out. As a player, in that scenario, I'd have had a massive problem with this event. Great stories as always though, Matthew! Thanks so much for sharing them with us!
You could have made Nicodemus a baronet, they are traditionally below barons. Traditionally the order of precedence for noble ranks is Emperor> King> Duke >Marquis >Earl/Count >Viscount >Baron >Baronet >Knight > Lord/Esquire >Gentleman. Also usually a long rest is 8 hours and a short rest is 1 hour however you can modify these values as laid out in DMG 267-268. This list is not all inclusive for instance you have princes, archdukes, and grand dukes between king and duke.
Loved getting a live session and a Campaign Diary!! Adds so much insight to Matt's DM style!
Matt I really enjoy your channel keep up the great work. I think people feel obligated to watch complete episodes of Critical Role because there is no "Campaign Diary". To get the whole story you have to watch. Your channel gives people the option of hearing a great story without the hours of time viewing to get it. Although they can watch if they want to. Keep up the great work it's been very helpful to me.
I never should have doubted you Matt. I was upset because I prefer the diaries over the streams, but you provide both not just one. You godly man you.
Now I'm still left wondering if you'll ever put your books up for purchase on the Nook store...
Joshua Fritz I can't find many of the streams. Where are they?
Anthony Nuciforo Jr just go to Matt's page (you can just search 'Matt Colville' on TH-cam) and then look under the 'video' tab. All his videos are there, there's not that many. the streams are some of the few whose thumbnails are not just Matt's face
Man, so excited to watch your new campaign start from square one. Great job on the all of the content so far, the growth of this channel is phenomenal.
Thank you, Jerry. You're an amazing bloke to do so much for the "Egomaniac". (Your description, Matt!)
It was a good game, too.
I have the ancient Battlesystem and a few iterations of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Between the two of them, I have a few ideas of how such a siege could be run. But perhaps your rules will completely invalidate them.
Personally I love all the videos that you put up. Campaign diaries, running the game, and now your D&D sessions are all amazing. The stream you just posted is particularly good and I can't wait for more. Even though I have seen dozens of critical role episodes, I have a hard time watching it now. What slowly turned me off to it is that it is so beyond my experiences with D&D (due to their high production, style of play, and setup) that I can't relate to it. Watching your game feels like the game I am currently in with my friends and kept me entertained all the way through. It might sound strange, but there is a disconnect when I see other D&D games with a bunch of stuff someone could never have at their home game. Even though you have some awesome stuff (like that castle) it is still something my friends and I could put together. For some reason, that is just another reason I thoroughly enjoyed your stream.
At 38", I was already thinking of Donaldson's Worm of the World's End. So awesome to see more integration Matt!
The video and audio quality WAS very nice. You put the effort into the production and it really shows, as well as the quality of the game that you presented to you players.
Dude, you content is so awesome and insightful and positive. I love that you are so open about your shortcomings and on the fly stuff. I saw your reddit post about the stream and wasn't able to watch live but watched on TH-cam after. I can't wait to see the final conclusion! anyway, good luck with finding a space and thanks again for creating such awesome content!
Starting my first game as DM this Friday, these videos help a lot. Thanks Matt.
Loving the warfare basics. As usual your video has hit on something I was already struggling to get to grips with as a concept in my own campaign and has really got the old brain cells firing. Thank you
Thanks for the video!
To be honest, when I looked at your basic rules for warfare, I expected
something more like a Warhammer style. For example that you do not have to
destroy the enemy's infantry first in order to attack ranged units. I was more
thinking of "If the attacking units line of sight does not go through a
unit, that is not the intended target, it can't attack that unit (ranged
weapons are not affected by this rule). However. If the target of the attack is
completely covered by terrain (e.g. a wall) the attacking unit can't attack
this target." This makes formations far more important as you have to make
sure your siege weapons and other ranged units are safe from cavalry and also
comes with more questions on what to do with each unit (e.g. should I use my
cavalry to flank around his army to attack the siege weapons that caused me a
lot of trouble or should I try to counter charge his cavalry?)
I know that you are still working on the warfare rules and that the example version is just the basics, but I still wanted to give you my opinion on this.
I wish you a wonderful rest of your day!
Sincerely
-Randomguy Username
Reminds me of The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen.
Matt, I really enjoy all of your "products" and am totally thrilled that you guys are streaming again. You made us fear for the worst then deliver... you cunning dog, you ;)
The steam looked great; I can't wait for the next one!
Please still do recaps on the next campaign, they're my favorite
I get that its "Oh so awesome that he just killed the kid that was ""In his way."" but it actually makes no sense at all. I'd get killing him if he refused to bend the knee, but why ask and then kill him? Either kill him and SAY he said yes, or keep him alive so that he can PUBLICLY make you duke... Yes, now the kid isn't "in the way", but there is no way that there arent people that don't buy the story, and are willing to fight you + Instead of being the Baron of your land to the north (Which you could hand off to a loyal servant) AND the Duke of two Baronies... You're just a Baron with twice the land that needs defended (From within in both cases, and without b/c its more likely the Overlord starts looking into who exactly rules...)
According to the Dnd 5e material a Vampire is indeed a Lawful Evil creature. Makes sense, doesn't it. Good points made by Anna
Got after listening to this episode I am crushed by Edmund's death.. I loved him... I just wrote in my dm notes for npcs "Kid called edmund that gets new parents and is happy VERY IMPORTANT"
I tend to listen to the streams afterwards while I'm cooking dinners throughout the week. If I take about an hour to cook a night on average I get through the episodes in a timely fashion.
Keep up the great content.
I personally enjoy all of your content and was sad to have seen the campaign diaries stop for so long but glad plans are moving forward.
I have seen a lot of streamers compare themselves with Critical role but as you said it is an unfair comparison. The biggest issue with many of the streams that aren't critical role is how casual of an experience it is that is ran. I personally enjoy both flavors of games but if you watch critical role side by side you will notice they never have any downtime in roleplaying or side events which is mainly due to every member being a trained actor.
In other words there is no downtime at all, everyone remains in character until the break and the DM and players are always driving the narrative forward even if its just "silly" actions.
I think having a unique setup and making some elements be made specifically for your game will differentiate it and I look forward to seeing your ideas and stories unfold. As you said the smaller group should allow you to push the story faster and now that the players are comfortable with each other it will be even better!
Good luck can't wait to see more!
5th edition vampires actually are lawful evil.
I'm glad you're streaming even though that isn't something I'm likely to watch. Maybe I'll try once you start your new campaign. I do like these campaign diaries though. They are bite sized.
Maxwell Magiera Yeah. I didn't finish the whole stream but it was handy to have open in another tab while I watched this. it's good to have it documented, I guess. but I also like the element of having it broadcast to a live audience at the time of recording.
On the concept of resting, it would be cool if there was a power nap option. You gain the benefits of a long rest in only 2 hours, but you may no longer take a short rest until after you take a long rest, and you gain a level of exhaustion every 8 hours after taking the power nap option. You can do it once per day. You wouldn't do this all the time, but it would be a tactical consideration to make them on long days you know are gonna have a lot of tough encounters
WAIT WAIT What about the underdark? Finding the kidnapped wizards? The mind flayer and the old ones? What happened?
I thought the stream was quite good, and i'm glad you're happy/ encouraged by the results. I look forward to many more.
Thank you Matthew. Your Campaign Diary is awsome. Keep on with it.
I did feel like the stream went really well, and I'm glad it worked out for you at the table as well, obviously both ends are important for this to continue. Either way I'm super excited to see the campaign conclusion.
I'm so pleased to hear you're going to start streaming your next campaign. I'm looking forward to it, thanks!
Great stream, man. About the end of the campaign: I've found this method works well. Run something for a few months, then move on to something else (maybe with someone else running). Sort of like TV show seasons. Done well, if that's the end, it closes on a good note. If you return to it, so much the better. Especially because as time goes on, fatigue and creative blocks can set in. If I'm not excited about what I am running, I bring it to a close, and inevitably return to it refreshed months or years later.
I jumped when you played that sound. Legitimately scared the hell out of me lol.
Interesting observation on streaming RPGs that use minis. Critical Roll does have that little problem of mini placement like Colville said. A few times every fight Mercer and one of the players has the conversation of "move me there, no I meant there".
HyperRPG found a way around that. Two of it's shows has the players stand around the map so they can movie their own figures. One show is a Battletech RPG were the whole table is a hex map for combat. They also use very large figures, 3 to 8 inches tall. While their gauntlet show, D&D meats American Gladiators, uses the dwarven forge terrain with the players again standing right next tot hte table. Both shows have the DM stand at the corner, with a top view camera.
So happy to see a campaign diary in my feed! I enjoy the game videos but I found I pulled more ideas from the CDs and enjoyed the content more.
Totally agree about showing players around the table. This is my gripe about other D&D game streams too. All-in-all a great first effort.
Man, I would've killed Avelina right there and then.
Me too, probably. At the very least, me knowing the truth would mean Kenway owed me a favor.
Literally every video you put out has me itching to run a campaign...I'm just sitting here like "This is so cool!"
Nah it was amazing the way you did it. The ceremony wasn't needed. I didn't know a whole lot about the campaign when I watched it and I still have to rewind several times because I couldn't believe what just happened!
Hope your house-renovation work and projects are going well. I am glad you managed to make some time for content. I am also glad to hear you seem happy with the way the stream went and the quality of the stream!
"Everyone is saying the stream looks amazing. I will be the judge of that." -- Matt Colville
So sad about Lord Edmund. The most heartbreaking Campaign Diary of all.
Hats off to you and Jerry. Please keep them coming.
Really nice recap both of the game itself as well as a sort of a review of what worked, what can/will be improved etc.
Personally I am not quite sure the "rotating" camera view worked, maybe it will be better to have an inset window with the view to the dice box - as a target for the future.
Let me explain - I really liked the rotating view for the various angles on the battle field. But the dice box is a bit of a special case, because 1. you'd want to see it when something is rolled and then 2. you don't really get much from seeing it when dice are not being rolled. So maybe if you coud find a way to have it in view in an inset window just when things are rolled - not sure how complicated that would be, probably more of a "stretch goal" to achieve!
The basics all worked, I am amazed at what can be seen emerging as the idea you want to achieve. It seems like a great idea what you are working on, and think that when you got over 500 people watching for large parts of the stream without it even being announced much up front is a huge success too. Looking forward to seeing you develop this further Matt!
There's a lot of D&D to watch these days, which is great - but I only have so hours in the day and I can't really listen to games while I work. So I'll probably be one of those who just watch parts of the your streams, but tunes in for the campaign diaries and advice. The quality of the stream was top notch though!
Glad you had a more positive stream experience this time. I love both Running the Game and Campaign Diary videos.
Really enjoying the content man. Catching up with 5 years of content!
an hour long video ? and its not even my birthday
WHO CARES IF ITS 4 IN THE MORNING
The campaign diaries were quite enjoyable and I look forward to the next edition. Good work, sir.
Thanks so much for posting a primer to the battle rules, was very intrigued by those in the stream.
Personally I love the politics in your game, its surprisingly interesting. I was out of my seat and cheering when Edmund made Nic the Count of Rend, such a good moment.
Matt, I am running a game at the moment with a few friends and everyone seems to enjoy it, and this is largely thanks to your videos. As a result I believe that I have enough experience to actually appreciate and understand some of the choices that you explain in this video, but I do have to ask: Why did Nicodemus'(?) axe not hit Lady Syrial? If Orion is an elven blade, and earlier in the campaign EJ could not unlock the potential of Arcturus as he is an Orc, surely an orcish weapon should never give fealty to an elvish blade? Was this something you thought of when deciding how Orion works? I'd be very interested in you explaining your decision making in this part of the game if you have time.