@Satyr Ghost I hope the dm finds out I love Ashtoshan he reminds me of my necromancer I played in 3.5 though my story wasn't a happy ending but a rather sad one
I mean, it seemed pretty obvious that was a load of crap when the poster said he was gonna play a caster with plans to multiclass into ANOTHER caster class.
@@a.w.r3311 yeah Johnny got the solid gold fiddle, our DM even quoted futurama in why he got it "the fairness in hell act of 2275 requires me to inform you that since you beat me in a fiddle contest, you win my dark powers as well as a solid gold fiddle"
"high level bard" He could have at least said that they have someone who can notice magic instead Being a class doesn't mean you can notice what others of your profession do
right, that was my first thought too, but these guys are dipsh*ts, the bard probably just tells his party to linch anyone who performs past a minute which is the requirement for it, "just in case" even though he has no proof.
The problem is though, the spell straight up states that on a failed save, nobody knows it was even cast. It's a feature from being a Glamor Bard, "If a target succeeds on its saving throw, the target has no hint that you tried to charm it". Meaning that even that NPC Bard, assuming that they too were a Glamor Bard, would still not be able to realize that they were being charmed.
@@IIIGioGioStarIII Yes, but the DMPCs have an Everything-Proof shield with a Detect Everything enchantment on it. The players should have realized that by how awesome they were. It's actually quite balanced.
correction: he hates 5e when it makes it easier for players, but loves 5e when it makes it "easier" for DM (easier as in easier for him to control everything and have things go his way, Ie railroading)
@@vincentsantangelo3920 Even he used Pack Tactics wrong (do not make your party member get the out of the way of Range user, is it gives advantage if you are close to a party member)
@@vincentsantangelo3920 Yup, with thr DMPC passing saving throws, flexing the players killing monsters and fucking the OP (the others players did that too). Im surprise that OP no only give the DM not one or two but three chances to fix his DMs skills, the DM fucking ignoring the OP and keep cheating.
"I'll do better, I promise. Just give me a chance." First session - plagiarizes a well known necromancer who has been read here multiple times. "OH, I'll do better, I promise. Just give me a chance." Second session - blatantly cheats, brings in OP NPCs AGAIN. And then, when you respond, he cheats again, with "It's a ruling from 3.5." But... We're NOT PLAYING 3.5. We're playing 5. OP gave him another chance, because "I have nothing better to do," but at that point, must have known it would not get better. At this point, it's just prepping for the story post. Third session, "It's 3.5!" all over again. OP, I'm sorry you learned how to be a BAD DM, at all, but hey, you got a story out of it, you learned how to call him on it, you learned how to walk away, and you learned how to make the games YOU DM enjoyable for your players, simply by not doing what this jackass does. Just know, he doesn't even try to keep his promises. Also, your team-mates were just horrible. "Murder hobo?" When you were trying to charm them for information?! Not to mention, "Oh, no! I lost in a fair fight! I'LL KILL YOU! YOU are WRONG to win in a fair fight against an over-powered PC who got free stuff from the DM to win! I HATE YOU FOREVER!" and then, "Oh, you went down in our 'fair fight' against a common foe? We're not going to help you. That would be silly." Frankly, I hate them all, except perhaps the ranger. But even the ranger waited until after the battle was over. Why? In 5e, even a PC with only 1 hit point can still deal damage and help WIN the battle.
I think some players (including the ranger) genuinely believed that DnD played like that. Some players prefer the combat. So they eagerly accept that the story is secondary, a pretext for future fights. They learn from this DM that a) the DMPCs will save them if things go wrong b) if you flatter the DMPCs you are rewarded with magic items. These types of players don't mind to be railroaded because "that's how DnD is played" and battling monsters is the core of the game. Bad DM can be destructive for the game because they put people off the game. Sometimes definitely, other times for years.
I would have probably cheated back, say I got Nat 20 every role. If that DM calls BS, I say I’ll role my dice in the open for all to see, as long as he does the same
There's a distinctive line between plagiarizing and any form of tribute. For instance, I have a couple of NPCs in my campaign I named Edward Packard and Nera Vivaldi as a homage to Choose Your Own Adventure. They appear in a Cave where time shifts. That's tribute. Now, if I went ahead and made a whole campaign using a CYOA story without hinting the players, I'd be plagiarizing.
Astoshan is a lame copy of thousands of likewise storys from way before. 90% of people do not realize how _"mainstream"_ a "neutral necromancer" truly is.
@@FreedomAndPeaceOnly Yeah but the difference is in the execution--Astoshan was done well, others are not pulled off with nearly so much panache, or heartfelt emotion.
Can you imagine what the equivalent would be if it was the other way around with these level 28 DMPCs mocking and beating up levels 3s would be. Imagine that for a sec, you've been playing a campaign for like 6 or 7 years to get characters up that high level, as the DM you describe how you guys come across a couple of lightly armed people with zero magical gear and they ask some simple questions, so the players all beat the bloody fuck out of these weak NPCs while mocking them for being weaklings and bragging about being super powerful. Could you imagine a party acting like that? Even in a chaotic evil campaign they'd atleast have a *reason* for being such assholes out of the blue to some non-threatening NPCs you literally just met. Frankly, if the players were all like that the campaign would never have gotten to level 28 or whatever because they would have gotten killed at level 1 for beating down a bunch of CR0 peasants in every town they came across and all got executed as obvious psychopaths if that's normal for them.
Have the pcs, create two characters (just in case) everything you said happens, and at the end of that encounter tell them your going to side line the main story for a little bit, present the secondary characters who got beat up in story and have the party use the motivation of beating up their main characters lol
As a DM, if people aren't willing to role play and or engage with the narrative or setting, then I might as well be running a combat simulator. I'll just go tell my party to play video games and save myself the trouble.
As a combat type player myself, I agree. Theres nothing wrong with roleplaying and its kinda what draws people to the game. Let people engage with the game how they want to, so long as its not toxicly.
@@DynamiteDominique true man. Even if that's not what I like I still do my darndest to cater to combat types as well with stuff like things that you can use in combat as traps for the boss and stuff like that but it just feels like for some of the more combat oriented players it still has not quite clicked in their head the role-playing aspect of this game. Like if they want to convince an NPC to do something it's going to take more than just a persuasion check. The NPCs always want something and I have always given them the info they need to figure that out.
@@offspringfan100 I luckily dont have to deal with that since I play with friends from High School. We all kinda understand each others playstyles and usually give into other playstyles, Even if it doesnt mesh well with our own. Just so everyone can have their fun at the table. If a friend wants to do a more serious campaign, we'll town down our Looney Tune antics for another day. Its all about that session 0 and being 100 percent honesty with what they want. Except our friend that wants to play an evil character. He sadly faces the consequence of an old High School acquaintance of ours. that turned us off to evil characters in good aligned campaigns.
If the DM is going to go on railroading everyone, and give overly winded exposition for every NPC the PCs become aware of, they should just sit down and write a book about it all and not have anyone, other than their proofreader and editor, be subjected to their story like this, and even those people will probably wanna deck them if they get too long in nearly pointless things that have next to no bearing on the story.
@@davidr5087 Yeah, but I guess there's fewer people sharing the less gripy stories now. A while back I shared a segment about how an orc sorcerer defeated an ogre with cooking to the All Thing DnD website, but I've yet to see that story pop up as a story here. I can't remember how I worded things, so there's a good chance I won't be able to reshare the story again in hopes that the story shows up here as part of a video.
Sigh, this is an unfortunate experience but I'm glad the writer still continued and gained more DnD experience. DMs like this can easily ruin or turn away new players so quickly...
Nothing says fun like a game focused on OP NPCs showing off! Nothing says fun like having your character be an afterthought in the DM's solo game! Yep! Nothing more fun than that!
First time DM here, So my first DM session will be on Friday and this channel has given me perfect examples of how to be a decent DM. I’ve communicated with players that wish to do rp based characters but don’t want to be trash comparatively to power gamers. Yknow just switching around some overlapping proficiencies and stuff like that. I’ve been working on the plot of my home brewed game for a few years now and as players have been submitting character sheets I’ve been integrating parts from their backstories into the quest line (like the espionage oriented rouge is going to get a moment to shine on a spying session between two guild masters) I’ve also made sure that my players expectations and preferences have been at the forefront of campaign prep. I sincerely hope that I can be better than the trash DMs I hear of in these rpg horror stories
I think I would have interrupted upon the first instance of the DM introducing his NPCs for 20 minutes with "How do we know all this? Are they in an encyclopedia or something?" It would feel really draining to have every NPC bully the party.
I would've told the DM when to give it one last chance, and firmly say in a calm manner I lasted this long in putting up with this crap, either undo the mess you caused or you can write a book.
Agreed. I love to take quest ideas from many different places. However i never claim that I wrote them. If someone asks I’m always very clear where the idea originated from. The Warforged disguised as humans? Ah well that’s from NieR Automata. A baby mimic taking the shape of a coffee mug? Why that’s from Prey. And so on.
I was in a group for years that didn't do any roleplay and it got real boring after a while. I definitely think it's much better to rp at least a little bit even in dungeon crawls.
People keep talking about ashtoshan, but I saw no mention of the "mytical npc" after he was brought up once. People need to listen to the story instead of taking the OP's word as gold. Yes the DM was garbage but everyone in the story was a villain because they called him/her cringe
And they called them names often. That was a group of bullies. No one should put up with constant abuse, but I've got to give respect to the OP for having the irl mental health to be able to handle it. I mean, I would backed out the first year, but this guy sounds like he's got his emotional baggage incredibly in check and man I would love to be able to be like that.
My mans, from listening to how the other players were described, they sounded like edgy 13 year olds from the 90's. Being a petulant brat for a 1v1 that was actually won fairly? Calling someone cringe for roleplaying in a roleplaying game? There were probably inaccuracies, but looks to me like the brunt of the bullshittery came from the DM first and foremest, the munchkin players second.
I mean. I will confess that I too as a DM have somewhat ripped off Astoshan. Albeit more of in homage to him and the love story he had going on than a “look at my very original character”. He’s a lore piece and dormant legendary NPC in my homebrew world, but with a different affiliated deity to match the world. He lays at the heart of a secluded magnificent forest that lives every day and dies every night, buried at the foot of a magnificent tree. The only way anyone would see him fight would be if the PCs did something VERY VERY VERY unwise despite a crystal clear emphasized, “are you sure?”
Also naturally if anyone asked if it was a reference to Astoshan I would obviously excitedly confirm it. I would never be salty about my players noticing a reference or homage.
@@JoshtheOverlander Ah. It’s not clear. I think I figured it a little bit after that point, but still- seems like the players and the DM were just really snobbish. I’ll update my comment.
"You are all powerless whelps. The only thing you can do is warn the real warriors." If that's the case, I'd tell the NPC "Get off your own ass and use a Sending spell to warn them rather than risk me not getting there by boat."
People shit on DM's a lot sure he was bad but inexperience gets better with actual growth and open dialog and it seems this lacked that on both sides. This person seemed inexperienced with 5e and devoid of a proper demeanor.
If there's anything I dislike are DMs that make roleplaying difficult or unnappealing. Not to mention limit choices to the point that it becomes a glorified "leave the party, suck up or get fucked".
God, it's guys like this that keep me from ever playing as a player. I DM to avoid these silly dictated narratives. Good story is a group effort. The DM lays the foundation by world building and the players piece the rest together by acting and reacting to the world as their characters would. That is how the story is truly built. It's not a DM book, nor is it a player's self gratifying manifesto. The story is a group creation. And the story is all that matters.
Can we please get some more fun stories? Humanity is toxic enough as it is, some rpg horror stories are fine, but it's almost all horror stories recenty....
Here's a happy story, I stuck my character's head into a magic chest as a joke, to which her head disappeared leaving her headless body on the ground. I also happened to have a headband of intelligence equipped, he gave me a deal if I roll a Nat 19 or 20 I get to live, minus my headband. Needles to say I rolled a Nat 20 so low and behold I managed to survive.
Doesn't sound like a DM so much a braggart trying to show awesome they are and their characters are from a previous edition. At least the "DM" was right about one thing; 3.5 is the source of absurdly ridiculous OP broken characters while 5th edition just can't compare...
They were running game in OPs apartment AND DECIDED TO BULLY HIM? Forget the overpowered NPCs and the DM, they should have sucked up to OP! What losers.
This happens alot with DMs who wanna be a player but can't so they create a crap ton of DNPCs to basically flex. Same DMs hate when the roles are reversed and have to follow another DMs rules. Been at some bad tables but this takes the cake. If he wanted 3.5 just play pathfinder thats why it exists though its not as popular as dnd but allows for limitless possibilities but I feel that would be worse because he wouldn't allow the players of such power and use it to gloat.
My home brew is a mix of legend of link (zelda) and fire emblem. The classes use set weapons. (Example: witch uses lances and grimoirs/tomes/books) classes evolve into a new one (example: witch > sorceress, uses tome, staff, stone) All weapons from breath of the wild that belong to sets (zora, goron, gerudo, rito, bokolin, moblin, lynel, etc) are in but some stats are changed and fire emblem weapons are implimented to. Stats: i put all damage stats reliant on your weapon, pd: physical attack is for most of the weapons because they contain no magic, md is for magic weapons, and there are hybrid weapons with both. My sources for the classes amd weapons come from f.e. fates, f.e. awakening, l.o.z. breath of the wild. But some tgings i changed for equalization betweem systems they use.
6:06 okay so those NPCs just randomly unanimously decide to beat the shit out of some random guy and accuse him of invasion of privacy? Do they just do that to every performer? and why did the crowd decide to join in on laughing at someone who was *LITERALLY* *BEING* *ASSULTED!?!*
That DM is very bad, having a powerful NPC or two is fine but they generally shouldn't interact with the players unless players go to them or if the NPC is going to give them a quest.
I had a DM that fudged rolls in a discord game a while back, and he was about as bad as this guy was in that regard. So, on what would turn out to be my last day with that group (total sheeple group; perfectly happy to let the DM railroad/cheat us into whatever *he* wanted us to do so long as they thought "everyone's happy"), I told him to _prove_ he'd rolled a certain crit. He took a photo on his phone and sent us a picture of a D20 siting on the 20 and said, "There see? Now shut up and mark your damage." I took the image, flipped it, boosted the contrast a little (took me less than 2 minutes in photoshop), and proceeded to post it every time he told me to roll for anything. Believe it or not, it took him 3 rolls and almost half an hour to notice that it was an edit of the picture he'd sent. He started insulting me and admonishing me while the sheeple either stayed quiet or tried in vain to smooth things over. I said, "Sorry, I thought doing this makes "EVERYONE HAPPY"." and left the server. The DM messaged me directly to insult and scold me some more so I blocked him, and I only got one message from one of the others asking if I'd be back, to which I said "no". If they were "happy" being NPCs in his story, that's fine for them and I hope they had fun. But that's not what proper D&D is.
Its d&d. Plagiarism is the game. Everyone plays printed adventures using pregenerated characters to determine preset storylines. Ashtoshan is a 3.5 pale master from libris mortis. Even his goddess is listed in that book. It's a compliment, like someone playing Raistlin or Elminster or Mordenkainen.
My first attempt at DMing was a homebrew campaign based somewhat on Tiamat and a bit of Mercer's stuff. I definitely railroaded at times and fudged a roll here and there... But people like that make me feel like a boss DM
I love Astoshan..... I play Zombicide and was working a way to make one of the necromancers into him for some added difficulty. Great design on that character.
"I agree to try again because i have nothing better to do" WRONG. If recent events in my own games have showed me, the "better thing to do" is to spend that time looking for another game. I'm part of a fantastic party now with an awesome DM and if i had spent 1 more night with my old party before looking for another, i'd have missed the boat for this one. Best decision i've made in like 2 years.
15:27 as someone who adores Kobolds, and if you don’t know (although this probably doesn’t shock you) that is NOT how Pack Tactics work. Like, AT ALL. Zero similarities. The rouge used “””pack tactics””” to duck to avoid being used as cover out of initiative and done at range. How Pack Tactics ACTUALLY works is a simple but powerful “if you are within 5ft of an ally, you attack with advantage.” You have to be next to an ally and gain advantage, but apparently this rouge uses it at a distance to avoid giving the enemy a AC buff. Literally nothing about it is similar.
Me not reading Astoshan correctly: plagiarism bad Me hearing him read title: Listen here you little spasoid, I know where you live,and I've seen where you sleep. And I swear by everything holy your mother will cry when she sees what I've done to you (Yes that was a Tommy Boy reference)
I wish he had expanded on how the DM plagiarized Astoshan, just saying they plagiarized is a bit minimal, just being a necromancer who gathers a horde of undead doesn't mean you're plagiarizing, you could be a BBEG as well. I'd like to know more details of this plagiarism.
Reading first part of title:oh boy, ANOTHER bad dm story, real original. Reading the second part: HE WHAT? OFF WITH HIS HEAD, TO BE CAUGHT BY THIS CHANNEL? HERE?
Wow what a horror story! I'm surprised that OP didn't quit the game entirely after that experience. I'm glad that he stuck with it though. The world needs more great GM's. Which it sounds like he became after this disaster.
To the best of my knowledge there's no 3.5 ability that lets you go out of initiative in the first round of combat. Sounds like this DM was making things up, because he knew the players had no 3.5 knowledge. Also, pack tactics just gives anyone within 10 feet of the person with it advantage on their attacks.
The only time I ever fudge rolls is when a player wants to do something awesome, and they fail by like 1 or 2. My players know I play rough and go for the throat, but they will never know that half the cool shit they’ve done they actually failed the DC for. That will stay my little secret
As someone who's taken a lot of inspiration from the asto story I went into this scared it would remind me of myself but I was cringing as soon as I heard the first 30 minutes was boasting and all the guy kept doing was shitting on the current edition they were playing. And I'd never go directly against the rules as written when it's as clear as THEY HAVE NO IDEA YOU TRIED TO CHARM THEM BECAUSE IT DOESNT TAKE THOSE KIND OF COMPONENTS!!!! Ugh.
At what point is railroading allowed? Material, assets, maps, and tokens/figurines all need to be gathered to prepare for a session, and EVERYTHING cant possibly be prepped for.
I genuinely wish people would do their own research on dnd and actual play shows, they don't have to become hard-core fans but if they can see different kinds of games and not get manipulated by these kinds of DMs.
Still never played 5th However I’m notorious for accidentally building 3.5 characters that are just broken. It more subconsciously, that’s synergy, that’s synergy… that’s broken
Ive definitely taken some characters gave them slightly different backstories and names then used them to be villains and what not. Like Kelek the Evil Sorcerer but just changed his name and thats about it
Wondering if that DM knows about Astoshan from this channel, and has heard this story as a result. And I'm wondering if the other players have a different version of how events played out, because sometimes you get players who rage quit a campaign and talk smack on reddit, and the rest of the party find out and tell a whole different side.
My last campaign, I had a Babau and Succubus who were basically Joker and Harley Quinn as demons. But at least I owned that fact, and my players loved it. Trying to ripoff a very popular DnD legend while also claiming it to be your own is just sad.
Who has even dared to plagiarize Astoshan?! Such foolishness has to be punished SEVERELY! The favourite necromancer I've ever heard of and the one whom's story inspired me to play a necromancer, cannot be plagiarized by a mere little puny railroader, or generally by anyone
I wish I had more players like OP in my campaigns. I get stuck more with the munchkin-type players. The DM's way of running a game is cringe. I've played and DM'ed AD&D, 3.5, and 5e. I don't cross rules for editions. That's bad gaming/DM'ing and unimaginative. The DM gives a bad name to (all) D&D.
GM: "in my homebrew world, magic is rare"
also GM: "the bandit casts power word pain on the entire party"
yeah, with all the high level NPCs coming in.....
Well... If there is a major plot for that, i could let it slide
The great thing is if the DM plagiarized Astoshan he'll probably end up seeing this.
Plot twist IT’S YOU!
@Christian Bowers dude chill they're probably twelve or ("special")
@Christian Bowers valid I recind my objection.
@Satyr Ghost I hope the dm finds out I love Ashtoshan he reminds me of my necromancer I played in 3.5 though my story wasn't a happy ending but a rather sad one
Plot twist, Holo lives matter was the dm and now he's salty.
> "World's worst DM railroads party"
Eh, sounds basic
> "And plagiarises Astoshan"
YOU WHAT
And it turned out to be a footnote in the end
"You are not allowed!"
Oof, you made this comment before me. Should've checked first.
to quote as its fitting for this infidel
"natures wrath is nothing next to mine"
DM states that magic is rare, then goes about loading up every npc with magic items, artifacts, and magic abilities.
It's rare NOW because that guy's carrying it all
dang...and i thought all magic had been kicked out of Edolas.
I mean, it seemed pretty obvious that was a load of crap when the poster said he was gonna play a caster with plans to multiclass into ANOTHER caster class.
My best bard turned warlock was named Johnny, who faced a devil in a fiddle contest won and the devil did not take it well
Does that mean you didn't get a golden fiddle in return?
@@a.w.r3311 yeah Johnny got the solid gold fiddle, our DM even quoted futurama in why he got it "the fairness in hell act of 2275 requires me to inform you that since you beat me in a fiddle contest, you win my dark powers as well as a solid gold fiddle"
@@troperhghar9898 Beautiful
Awesome song btw. Great idea to make a character based off of it.
@Miah so play one.
"high level bard"
He could have at least said that they have someone who can notice magic instead
Being a class doesn't mean you can notice what others of your profession do
right, that was my first thought too, but these guys are dipsh*ts,
the bard probably just tells his party to linch anyone who performs past a minute which is the requirement for it,
"just in case" even though he has no proof.
The problem is though, the spell straight up states that on a failed save, nobody knows it was even cast. It's a feature from being a Glamor Bard, "If a target succeeds on its saving throw, the target has no hint that you tried to charm it". Meaning that even that NPC Bard, assuming that they too were a Glamor Bard, would still not be able to realize that they were being charmed.
@@IIIGioGioStarIII Yes, but the DMPCs have an Everything-Proof shield with a Detect Everything enchantment on it. The players should have realized that by how awesome they were. It's actually quite balanced.
DM: I hate 5e! Also DM: Uses Pack Tactics, a 5e monster tactic
correction: he hates 5e when it makes it easier for players, but loves 5e when it makes it "easier" for DM (easier as in easier for him to control everything and have things go his way, Ie railroading)
@@vincentsantangelo3920 Even he used Pack Tactics wrong (do not make your party member get the out of the way of Range user, is it gives advantage if you are close to a party member)
@@Zeromegas so another checkmark on DM literally cheating
@@vincentsantangelo3920 Yup, with thr DMPC passing saving throws, flexing the players killing monsters and fucking the OP (the others players did that too). Im surprise that OP no only give the DM not one or two but three chances to fix his DMs skills, the DM fucking ignoring the OP and keep cheating.
That's not even what Pack Tactics does. It gives you advantage on attack rolls if an ally is within 5 feet of your target. That's all.
"I'll do better, I promise. Just give me a chance."
First session - plagiarizes a well known necromancer who has been read here multiple times.
"OH, I'll do better, I promise. Just give me a chance."
Second session - blatantly cheats, brings in OP NPCs AGAIN. And then, when you respond, he cheats again, with "It's a ruling from 3.5." But... We're NOT PLAYING 3.5. We're playing 5.
OP gave him another chance, because "I have nothing better to do," but at that point, must have known it would not get better. At this point, it's just prepping for the story post.
Third session, "It's 3.5!" all over again.
OP, I'm sorry you learned how to be a BAD DM, at all, but hey, you got a story out of it, you learned how to call him on it, you learned how to walk away, and you learned how to make the games YOU DM enjoyable for your players, simply by not doing what this jackass does.
Just know, he doesn't even try to keep his promises.
Also, your team-mates were just horrible. "Murder hobo?" When you were trying to charm them for information?! Not to mention, "Oh, no! I lost in a fair fight! I'LL KILL YOU! YOU are WRONG to win in a fair fight against an over-powered PC who got free stuff from the DM to win! I HATE YOU FOREVER!" and then, "Oh, you went down in our 'fair fight' against a common foe? We're not going to help you. That would be silly."
Frankly, I hate them all, except perhaps the ranger. But even the ranger waited until after the battle was over. Why? In 5e, even a PC with only 1 hit point can still deal damage and help WIN the battle.
I think some players (including the ranger) genuinely believed that DnD played like that. Some players prefer the combat. So they eagerly accept that the story is secondary, a pretext for future fights.
They learn from this DM that
a) the DMPCs will save them if things go wrong
b) if you flatter the DMPCs you are rewarded with magic items.
These types of players don't mind to be railroaded because "that's how DnD is played" and battling monsters is the core of the game.
Bad DM can be destructive for the game because they put people off the game.
Sometimes definitely, other times for years.
I would have probably cheated back, say I got Nat 20 every role. If that DM calls BS, I say I’ll role my dice in the open for all to see, as long as he does the same
I agree, If the DM can cheat, then so can his players.
There's a distinctive line between plagiarizing and any form of tribute.
For instance, I have a couple of NPCs in my campaign I named Edward Packard and Nera Vivaldi as a homage to Choose Your Own Adventure. They appear in a Cave where time shifts. That's tribute.
Now, if I went ahead and made a whole campaign using a CYOA story without hinting the players, I'd be plagiarizing.
Plagiarized astoshan: my fucking eyes went into crusade mode.
Wizards were pretty powerful in pathfinder and 3.5 :>
*DM railroads his party* I sleep
*Plagiarizes Astoshan* R E A L S H I T
You said it buddy!
Astoshan is a lame copy of thousands of likewise storys from way before.
90% of people do not realize how _"mainstream"_ a "neutral necromancer" truly is.
@@FreedomAndPeaceOnly Yeah but the difference is in the execution--Astoshan was done well, others are not pulled off with nearly so much panache, or heartfelt emotion.
@@willparry530 Who is the OP of Astoshan?
@@craigtucker1290 Not a clue. You'll need to ask the channel owner, they're the ones who read it from what I presume is the original post.
I don't think the DM really knew how to do D&D 5th Edition, considering he mocked it and said 3.5 was way better.
Im trying to figure out why he didnt jist run 3.5
@@JD-mh8be my guess would be that he was unable to get a party rolling for 3.5, so he tried to get 5th ed just to run anything.
The magic and crafting was superb in 3.5, but man did it get convoluted.
Can you imagine what the equivalent would be if it was the other way around with these level 28 DMPCs mocking and beating up levels 3s would be.
Imagine that for a sec, you've been playing a campaign for like 6 or 7 years to get characters up that high level, as the DM you describe how you guys come across a couple of lightly armed people with zero magical gear and they ask some simple questions, so the players all beat the bloody fuck out of these weak NPCs while mocking them for being weaklings and bragging about being super powerful. Could you imagine a party acting like that? Even in a chaotic evil campaign they'd atleast have a *reason* for being such assholes out of the blue to some non-threatening NPCs you literally just met. Frankly, if the players were all like that the campaign would never have gotten to level 28 or whatever because they would have gotten killed at level 1 for beating down a bunch of CR0 peasants in every town they came across and all got executed as obvious psychopaths if that's normal for them.
Have the pcs, create two characters (just in case) everything you said happens, and at the end of that encounter tell them your going to side line the main story for a little bit, present the secondary characters who got beat up in story and have the party use the motivation of beating up their main characters lol
High school football team versus 4th graders.
@Seed More Sorry, the DM was The problem. He's a "that guy" DM who doesn't understand the basics of DnD.
I don't understand the people against roleplaying in a roleplaying game...
Don't get me wrong, I'm combat-type player but I still love the RP aspect
As a DM, if people aren't willing to role play and or engage with the narrative or setting, then I might as well be running a combat simulator. I'll just go tell my party to play video games and save myself the trouble.
As a combat type player myself, I agree. Theres nothing wrong with roleplaying and its kinda what draws people to the game. Let people engage with the game how they want to, so long as its not toxicly.
@@DynamiteDominique true man. Even if that's not what I like I still do my darndest to cater to combat types as well with stuff like things that you can use in combat as traps for the boss and stuff like that but it just feels like for some of the more combat oriented players it still has not quite clicked in their head the role-playing aspect of this game. Like if they want to convince an NPC to do something it's going to take more than just a persuasion check. The NPCs always want something and I have always given them the info they need to figure that out.
@@offspringfan100 I luckily dont have to deal with that since I play with friends from High School. We all kinda understand each others playstyles and usually give into other playstyles, Even if it doesnt mesh well with our own. Just so everyone can have their fun at the table.
If a friend wants to do a more serious campaign, we'll town down our Looney Tune antics for another day. Its all about that session 0 and being 100 percent honesty with what they want. Except our friend that wants to play an evil character. He sadly faces the consequence of an old High School acquaintance of ours. that turned us off to evil characters in good aligned campaigns.
I’ll admit I used the name but not the character
He was a villain that was trying to dethrone a lawful Good Vampire with a Dracolich
It's a cool name, and nobody owns names
Undead can't be of good alignments due to the negative energy that animates and brings unlife to them.
@@emeraldcoastarcher No.
@@emeraldcoastarcher old DND lore. 5e doesn't have such a stipulation
@@ryanestes7331 Huh, weird. That's dumb.
I see astoshan i come running
Same
@@UndeadSteampunk where are those astoshan emojis and gimme gimme gimme
If the DM is going to go on railroading everyone, and give overly winded exposition for every NPC the PCs become aware of, they should just sit down and write a book about it all and not have anyone, other than their proofreader and editor, be subjected to their story like this, and even those people will probably wanna deck them if they get too long in nearly pointless things that have next to no bearing on the story.
I really miss the none gripy content. some of it was really amazing like the 3 part necromancer story
@@davidr5087 Yeah, but I guess there's fewer people sharing the less gripy stories now. A while back I shared a segment about how an orc sorcerer defeated an ogre with cooking to the All Thing DnD website, but I've yet to see that story pop up as a story here. I can't remember how I worded things, so there's a good chance I won't be able to reshare the story again in hopes that the story shows up here as part of a video.
Sigh, this is an unfortunate experience but I'm glad the writer still continued and gained more DnD experience.
DMs like this can easily ruin or turn away new players so quickly...
Nothing says fun like a game focused on OP NPCs showing off! Nothing says fun like having your character be an afterthought in the DM's solo game! Yep! Nothing more fun than that!
First time DM here,
So my first DM session will be on Friday and this channel has given me perfect examples of how to be a decent DM. I’ve communicated with players that wish to do rp based characters but don’t want to be trash comparatively to power gamers. Yknow just switching around some overlapping proficiencies and stuff like that.
I’ve been working on the plot of my home brewed game for a few years now and as players have been submitting character sheets I’ve been integrating parts from their backstories into the quest line (like the espionage oriented rouge is going to get a moment to shine on a spying session between two guild masters)
I’ve also made sure that my players expectations and preferences have been at the forefront of campaign prep.
I sincerely hope that I can be better than the trash DMs I hear of in these rpg horror stories
I think I would have interrupted upon the first instance of the DM introducing his NPCs for 20 minutes with "How do we know all this? Are they in an encyclopedia or something?" It would feel really draining to have every NPC bully the party.
I would've told the DM when to give it one last chance, and firmly say in a calm manner I lasted this long in putting up with this crap, either undo the mess you caused or you can write a book.
Agreed. I love to take quest ideas from many different places. However i never claim that I wrote them. If someone asks I’m always very clear where the idea originated from. The Warforged disguised as humans? Ah well that’s from NieR Automata. A baby mimic taking the shape of a coffee mug? Why that’s from Prey. And so on.
For somebody’s VERY first character, a Bard multiclass Warlock is such a cool idea. Awesome player with an unfortunate DM.
I was in a group for years that didn't do any roleplay and it got real boring after a while. I definitely think it's much better to rp at least a little bit even in dungeon crawls.
People keep talking about ashtoshan, but I saw no mention of the "mytical npc" after he was brought up once. People need to listen to the story instead of taking the OP's word as gold. Yes the DM was garbage but everyone in the story was a villain because they called him/her cringe
And they called them names often. That was a group of bullies. No one should put up with constant abuse, but I've got to give respect to the OP for having the irl mental health to be able to handle it. I mean, I would backed out the first year, but this guy sounds like he's got his emotional baggage incredibly in check and man I would love to be able to be like that.
My mans, from listening to how the other players were described, they sounded like edgy 13 year olds from the 90's. Being a petulant brat for a 1v1 that was actually won fairly? Calling someone cringe for roleplaying in a roleplaying game? There were probably inaccuracies, but looks to me like the brunt of the bullshittery came from the DM first and foremest, the munchkin players second.
I mean. I will confess that I too as a DM have somewhat ripped off Astoshan. Albeit more of in homage to him and the love story he had going on than a “look at my very original character”. He’s a lore piece and dormant legendary NPC in my homebrew world, but with a different affiliated deity to match the world. He lays at the heart of a secluded magnificent forest that lives every day and dies every night, buried at the foot of a magnificent tree. The only way anyone would see him fight would be if the PCs did something VERY VERY VERY unwise despite a crystal clear emphasized, “are you sure?”
Also naturally if anyone asked if it was a reference to Astoshan I would obviously excitedly confirm it. I would never be salty about my players noticing a reference or homage.
Not gonna lie, I laughed harder than I should have when that OP PC Cleric got yeeted off the ship and eliminated. Serves them right.
I think the OP Cleric was actually a player
@@JoshtheOverlander
Ah. It’s not clear. I think I figured it a little bit after that point, but still- seems like the players and the DM were just really snobbish. I’ll update my comment.
@@Arcticmaster1190 No worries, and yeah, both the DM and the players were little shits, so the Cleric earned that salt-water bath
DM : "Low magic setting."
Also DM with the bootlickers : "Here is your +3 armor dear lv3 PC. I've tuned it up to 11 with special abilities."
When you realize one of those 30+ dislikes probably is this crappy DM hahaha
No one plagiarizes astoshan, or they suffer my wrath. Also first I think.
close, but there are just a couple comments older than yours.
Definitely agree though, plagiarizing Astoshan is monstrous!
@@willparry530 like astoshan said
"natures wrath is nothing next to mine"
and this asshat is about to understand why noone fucks with astoshan
Plaster the dm's name/screen name all over DnD social media sites. He deserves it.
@@lolbots686 indeed
@@onimenno that’s too far, this was a joke.
One lesson I have learned is the dice tell a better story than you. Trust them.
Comment after watching the video - Seems more of a power hungry DM who railroads their players to deal with his DMPC's.
"You are all powerless whelps. The only thing you can do is warn the real warriors." If that's the case, I'd tell the NPC "Get off your own ass and use a Sending spell to warn them rather than risk me not getting there by boat."
People shit on DM's a lot sure he was bad but inexperience gets better with actual growth and open dialog and it seems this lacked that on both sides. This person seemed inexperienced with 5e and devoid of a proper demeanor.
If there's anything I dislike are DMs that make roleplaying difficult or unnappealing. Not to mention limit choices to the point that it becomes a glorified "leave the party, suck up or get fucked".
Reading stories like this makes me appreciate the good DMs that I've had, which spared me from much of this crap.
This DM seems like he watches Terrible Writing Advice and misses the satire
God, it's guys like this that keep me from ever playing as a player. I DM to avoid these silly dictated narratives. Good story is a group effort. The DM lays the foundation by world building and the players piece the rest together by acting and reacting to the world as their characters would. That is how the story is truly built. It's not a DM book, nor is it a player's self gratifying manifesto. The story is a group creation. And the story is all that matters.
I understand how important it is to learn from bad experiences but this dude could have saved himself a lot of trouble by leaving WAY earlier
Can we please get some more fun stories? Humanity is toxic enough as it is, some rpg horror stories are fine, but it's almost all horror stories recenty....
Here's a happy story, I stuck my character's head into a magic chest as a joke, to which her head disappeared leaving her headless body on the ground. I also happened to have a headband of intelligence equipped, he gave me a deal if I roll a Nat 19 or 20 I get to live, minus my headband. Needles to say I rolled a Nat 20 so low and behold I managed to survive.
Agreed.
Humans gonna human, tho
Doesn't sound like a DM so much a braggart trying to show awesome they are and their characters are from a previous edition. At least the "DM" was right about one thing; 3.5 is the source of absurdly ridiculous OP broken characters while 5th edition just can't compare...
They were running game in OPs apartment AND DECIDED TO BULLY HIM? Forget the overpowered NPCs and the DM, they should have sucked up to OP! What losers.
All creative dming is just...wait he tried to plagiarize Astoshan?! Oh hell no!
As a very soft plagiarist DM, I knew exactly what you were going to say
This happens alot with DMs who wanna be a player but can't so they create a crap ton of DNPCs to basically flex. Same DMs hate when the roles are reversed and have to follow another DMs rules. Been at some bad tables but this takes the cake. If he wanted 3.5 just play pathfinder thats why it exists though its not as popular as dnd but allows for limitless possibilities but I feel that would be worse because he wouldn't allow the players of such power and use it to gloat.
"Hey, isn't that kinda like"
This DM: "no, it's my original creation"
Me: "Oh, now that you mentioned it, yeah I see it now."
My home brew is a mix of legend of link (zelda) and fire emblem.
The classes use set weapons. (Example: witch uses lances and grimoirs/tomes/books)
classes evolve into a new one (example: witch > sorceress, uses tome, staff, stone)
All weapons from breath of the wild that belong to sets (zora, goron, gerudo, rito, bokolin, moblin, lynel, etc) are in but some stats are changed and fire emblem weapons are implimented to.
Stats: i put all damage stats reliant on your weapon, pd: physical attack is for most of the weapons because they contain no magic, md is for magic weapons, and there are hybrid weapons with both.
My sources for the classes amd weapons come from f.e. fates, f.e. awakening, l.o.z. breath of the wild. But some tgings i changed for equalization betweem systems they use.
I haven’t clicked on too many of these videos recently but this plagiarism of Astoshan got my attention
Somewhere, thousands of miles away, Astoshan feels a disturbance in the force and Marshall's his forces.
honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the DMs next move
labyrinth-een
6:06 okay so those NPCs just randomly unanimously decide to beat the shit out of some random guy and accuse him of invasion of privacy? Do they just do that to every performer? and why did the crowd decide to join in on laughing at someone who was *LITERALLY* *BEING* *ASSULTED!?!*
Me:
*SEES TITLE*
Me:THE RETURN OF THE KING👑
That DM is very bad, having a powerful NPC or two is fine but they generally shouldn't interact with the players unless players go to them or if the NPC is going to give them a quest.
I had a DM that fudged rolls in a discord game a while back, and he was about as bad as this guy was in that regard. So, on what would turn out to be my last day with that group (total sheeple group; perfectly happy to let the DM railroad/cheat us into whatever *he* wanted us to do so long as they thought "everyone's happy"), I told him to _prove_ he'd rolled a certain crit.
He took a photo on his phone and sent us a picture of a D20 siting on the 20 and said, "There see? Now shut up and mark your damage." I took the image, flipped it, boosted the contrast a little (took me less than 2 minutes in photoshop), and proceeded to post it every time he told me to roll for anything. Believe it or not, it took him 3 rolls and almost half an hour to notice that it was an edit of the picture he'd sent. He started insulting me and admonishing me while the sheeple either stayed quiet or tried in vain to smooth things over.
I said, "Sorry, I thought doing this makes "EVERYONE HAPPY"." and left the server. The DM messaged me directly to insult and scold me some more so I blocked him, and I only got one message from one of the others asking if I'd be back, to which I said "no".
If they were "happy" being NPCs in his story, that's fine for them and I hope they had fun. But that's not what proper D&D is.
Damn dude this whole group sounds insufferable 🤮
No one will ever replace Astoshan! NO ONE!
I have no issue plagarizing dnd content, but I paraphrase alot and work it into my own world while no one is paying attention
Its d&d. Plagiarism is the game. Everyone plays printed adventures using pregenerated characters to determine preset storylines. Ashtoshan is a 3.5 pale master from libris mortis. Even his goddess is listed in that book. It's a compliment, like someone playing Raistlin or Elminster or Mordenkainen.
As I listened to this it became increasingly obvious that every powerful NPC was made with 3.5e rules.
Terrible DM and party.
But honestly it’s the OPs fault for continuously going back.
He did what!? Aight, Imma sharpen my pitchfork.
Tell us the their names. We'll pay them a visit and tell em how it really it is supposed to be played
They did WHAT?!!
My first attempt at DMing was a homebrew campaign based somewhat on Tiamat and a bit of Mercer's stuff. I definitely railroaded at times and fudged a roll here and there... But people like that make me feel like a boss DM
I love Astoshan..... I play Zombicide and was working a way to make one of the necromancers into him for some added difficulty. Great design on that character.
"I agree to try again because i have nothing better to do" WRONG. If recent events in my own games have showed me, the "better thing to do" is to spend that time looking for another game. I'm part of a fantastic party now with an awesome DM and if i had spent 1 more night with my old party before looking for another, i'd have missed the boat for this one. Best decision i've made in like 2 years.
15:27 as someone who adores Kobolds, and if you don’t know (although this probably doesn’t shock you) that is NOT how Pack Tactics work. Like, AT ALL. Zero similarities. The rouge used “””pack tactics””” to duck to avoid being used as cover out of initiative and done at range. How Pack Tactics ACTUALLY works is a simple but powerful “if you are within 5ft of an ally, you attack with advantage.” You have to be next to an ally and gain advantage, but apparently this rouge uses it at a distance to avoid giving the enemy a AC buff. Literally nothing about it is similar.
This sort of thing sounds very familiar. I hate DMs that get competitive, instead of trying to make a fun adventure.
Me not reading Astoshan correctly:
plagiarism bad
Me hearing him read title:
Listen here you little spasoid, I know where you live,and I've seen where you sleep. And I swear by everything holy your mother will cry when she sees what I've done to you
(Yes that was a Tommy Boy reference)
I think my DMing is bad, then I see something like this and realise i have just always had an amazing dm, and im probably an average Dm.
I'm using some concepts and names from others. It's my first campaign, so I'm just patching stuff together that I like.
So, the DM has chosen....Death!
Hell hath no fury like astoshan scorned.
I wish he had expanded on how the DM plagiarized Astoshan, just saying they plagiarized is a bit minimal, just being a necromancer who gathers a horde of undead doesn't mean you're plagiarizing, you could be a BBEG as well. I'd like to know more details of this plagiarism.
Reading first part of title:oh boy, ANOTHER bad dm story, real original.
Reading the second part: HE WHAT? OFF WITH HIS HEAD, TO BE CAUGHT BY THIS CHANNEL? HERE?
Wow what a horror story! I'm surprised that OP didn't quit the game entirely after that experience. I'm glad that he stuck with it though. The world needs more great GM's. Which it sounds like he became after this disaster.
I'm curious, what were the players doing that requires an hour just for 1 turn?
Great story. For once a bad DM (plagiarist and cheater and narcissist) doesn't disgust of DnD…
Kudos for the player's bard/warlock
Is that DarkFluff talking? I swear I must be going crazy...
I see astoshan in the title
"I am here"
To the best of my knowledge there's no 3.5 ability that lets you go out of initiative in the first round of combat. Sounds like this DM was making things up, because he knew the players had no 3.5 knowledge. Also, pack tactics just gives anyone within 10 feet of the person with it advantage on their attacks.
The only time I ever fudge rolls is when a player wants to do something awesome, and they fail by like 1 or 2. My players know I play rough and go for the throat, but they will never know that half the cool shit they’ve done they actually failed the DC for. That will stay my little secret
As someone who's taken a lot of inspiration from the asto story I went into this scared it would remind me of myself but I was cringing as soon as I heard the first 30 minutes was boasting and all the guy kept doing was shitting on the current edition they were playing. And I'd never go directly against the rules as written when it's as clear as THEY HAVE NO IDEA YOU TRIED TO CHARM THEM BECAUSE IT DOESNT TAKE THOSE KIND OF COMPONENTS!!!! Ugh.
So, quick question, what in the burning hells is Astoshan? Also, this story reminds me of the Fable of the Airship.
At what point is railroading allowed? Material, assets, maps, and tokens/figurines all need to be gathered to prepare for a session, and EVERYTHING cant possibly be prepped for.
HE DID WHAT!
I genuinely wish people would do their own research on dnd and actual play shows, they don't have to become hard-core fans but if they can see different kinds of games and not get manipulated by these kinds of DMs.
Hate to say, first, but I love your videos!
Still never played 5th
However I’m notorious for accidentally building 3.5 characters that are just broken.
It more subconsciously, that’s synergy, that’s synergy… that’s broken
Ive definitely taken some characters gave them slightly different backstories and names then used them to be villains and what not. Like Kelek the Evil Sorcerer but just changed his name and thats about it
Kelek and Warduke was always cool to me so i definitely wanna throw them in my worlds
WHO DID OUR BOY ASTOSHAN DIRTY
Wondering if that DM knows about Astoshan from this channel, and has heard this story as a result.
And I'm wondering if the other players have a different version of how events played out, because sometimes you get players who rage quit a campaign and talk smack on reddit, and the rest of the party find out and tell a whole different side.
My last campaign, I had a Babau and Succubus who were basically Joker and Harley Quinn as demons. But at least I owned that fact, and my players loved it. Trying to ripoff a very popular DnD legend while also claiming it to be your own is just sad.
Wow. And I thought I would be a bad dm.
**Angry Necromancer noises**
Who has even dared to plagiarize Astoshan?!
Such foolishness has to be punished SEVERELY!
The favourite necromancer I've ever heard of and the one whom's story inspired me to play a necromancer, cannot be plagiarized by a mere little puny railroader, or generally by anyone
I'll call Hitler's dad
In the DM's defense, 3.5 is the best edition of DnD...
I wish I had more players like OP in my campaigns. I get stuck more with the munchkin-type players.
The DM's way of running a game is cringe. I've played and DM'ed AD&D, 3.5, and 5e. I don't cross rules for editions. That's bad gaming/DM'ing and unimaginative. The DM gives a bad name to (all) D&D.
IMO, using ideas and elements from other media like movies and books are just fine, just as long as you don't claim the ideas as your own