Link to the music I used, as well as all the rest of my modular musical journey. soundcloud.com/matt-colville/a-chorus-of-rings?in=matt-colville/sets/the-time-rider
You too huh? I'm stealing ideas for a game my boss wants me to start running.... That brings my DM count to three.... I should be able to start playing in a game once a week starting saturday if everyone shows up
The only qualms I have with stealing Matt's stuff is my fear that the players may have already seen it all. Other than that it's a DM's pure roleplaying gold mine.
@@erikmartin4996 Serials? Like Flash Gordon? I've been saying "when last we left our heroes" for years, and I couldn't for the life of me tell you where that came from. I'm a 'self-made' DM (I was a DM before I was a player and nobody taught me how), I've been doing this since quite a bit before the rise of D&D TH-cam, and I never really watched any of the classic serials. It's gotta be part of the cultural zeitgeist somehow.
“When we past left our (insert group here)...” has been a signal that you are starting a recap of the last episode in a serialized thing for almost 100 years now. It’s super useful because it focuses everyone and people don’t question what you say after that which allows you to (re)focus everyone on what you want.
as opposed to saying "when we last left our heroes" I have changed it slightly to fit our not so good-aligned party I say "when we last left our morally ambiguous friends"
I really appreciate you taking the tine to make these campaign diaries. I don’t have tine for the actual game videos but these are useful, concise (relatively!), and to the point.
David Schmidt if your wondering your not really missing out on any of the story by just watching these, so far Matt has been going into a lot of detail in these videos.
Someone might have pointed it out already, but the Gith are player races now. So if Moderkainens's githyanki are too high level, you can pick one of the NPC stats that are the appropriate level for your needs and add the racial feats from the Gith to it... instant Githyanki of lower level.
I put a comment on the previous campaign video which I also copied to the mcdm subreddit about how the nanoleaf was giving me difficulties to watch being autistic. Glad someone on the MCDM team read that and the nanoleaf's set to a single colour for this video, a really simple solution but it made a huge difference to me. Thanks guys, nice to see you reacting to feedback.
First off having the Timerider playing in the background during the episode was fantastic. It added so much to the atmosphere. Second it looked like Anna thought the Dweguar were casting a verbal spell when they enlarged, so she cast silence to prevent any more from enlarging.
"The problem of Nails will come to a head"... ok, Colville, we get the 'point.' 😎 Seriously though, these campaign diaries hooked me a long time ago, and I am beyond pleased that you're taking the time to share new stories this way. Thank you!
The fact that the commanding officers of this army were also an adventuring party kind of bugged me right up until you said they're the bridge crew of the the Enterprise, and now everything has clicked and it makes perfect sense.
Plot twist: one of the Gith is a bard named Gith Daddy Yankee. He sends his rapping lyrics straight to your cortex via mind bullets. He asks you to check out his soundcloud and then leaves.
I doubt that bringing a mindflayer ship with the symbol of Ajax to a town that is not his ally is a good move. But i like the idea of it still being usable... what if there was a shipyard in the Sea of Stars? Or something like the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?
@@nintendoaddict12 The Ajax symbol is just painted on; it wouldn't be hard to paint over it. And even if it was an issue, there's always tenders to bring crew from a hidden ship to port.
Getting to watch your stream has been a fantastic experience for me. I have described it to some friends of mine as (almost) the every person's dnd game at the table and it is so much fun to watch the players learn their characters and progress in comfortably role playing on camera. Keep having fun on stream and we watching will too!
As someone who wasn't able to catch the last episode of the Chain live, I'm really grateful that these Campaign Diaries are a thing! I feel neatly caught up in what's been going on, and Matt's insights and on the fly decision making is very valuable knowledge to have too!
so the players take the dark dream, they find the mind witness is the navigator and on a sea powered by thought, it's the engine. as such the players can have the ship but they can only travel to places via the atrial sea if they have the astral coordinates, without those, it's just a verry eldritch ship that can sail the sea like any other.
An astral coordinate isn't a set of numbers it's a link to some sentient mind, and thats the destination. How do you hold a astral coordinate? Inside a mind stone or more accurately a gemstone dragons scale gemstone. You then link it to a willing creature and now you can find them though the sea of stars.
In D&D 3.5e there is a cantrip called "Mirror", which creates a floating square one-way mirror. It'd be trivial to imagine a device that's about 4th level or so, which creates a much larger version of that mirror that hangs above the ship so that everyone can see the sea of stars as if they were re-inverted above them.
This campaign is so badass. Your creativity has astounded me in just three episodes so far, Matt. Things like the large scale battles happening 'just offscreen', the sea of stars, a freaking beholder dreadnought naval battle. Now I'm not the most versed in cool DnD things, but even so. Just as a story, just as a spectator watching these videos afterwards, I'm just blown away.
Really enjoy the atmosphere. Matthew Colville does a great job introducing elements of areas. Like a freaking giant man walking with a net! What's he do!? Nobody knows...
I'm so excited to see what happens in this campaign! I don't have time to watch the live play videos, but I live for these campaign diaries. Keep them coming, Matt!
I would love an appendix of books you like. Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of my favourite books and Moorcock is one of my favourite authors. I wouldn't have known about them if not for you. Thanks for that, btw.
I was going to point out that this episode's title is a nice nod to The Sailor on the Sea of Fate, the second Elric novel and (from Elric's point of view) the first encounter with other aspects of The Eternal Champion.
Wow, I had no idea that you 'made' the music, I thought it was Brian Eno or Fripp or something, really did add to that Michael Moorcock thing you have going. I really enjoyed it all, You're a legend.
Part of me wonders if Matt would have put The Chain through a sequence like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield or The Search For Spock, if they’d decided to scuttle the Somnium Tenebris instead of commandeering it.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes: "He said the ship was dead, and we trusted him. He was right, but even a dead god can dream. That's what he didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams."
After playing a unusual 5e character (Goblin Mystic) with a bunch of bonus actions, what I found helped speed up my turn was a short action summary sheet. I listed what i could do by action type (Action, Bonus Action, Reaction) with their costs (for me - Power Points or 1/rest, for the Illrigger - consumes a seal) was very useful. I could then tick off things I could no longer do, erasing them when a rest refreshed them. Very important, I listed them with their name, range, damage, and a super short description (3-5 words), to easily be able to scan and choose what to do (during other's turn) and find the full power description if needed (to be ready to go on my turn).
mordekainen's tome of foes has some cool additions to duergar forces (there's even this weird machine that a duergar is tortured in but the machine can be used in combat, illithids would definitely use that). Can also look at other editions.
Didn't AD&D 2nd Ed. Spelljammer feature the Drow Mindspiders which effectively were propelled by a creature's tortured soul by burning it in a magical furnace? EDIT: I was confused, it's the Neogi that built spider ships. Furnaces burned magic items and the soul torturing devices are Lifejammers... Ah, the memories...
22:00 I often augment otherwise mildly bland NPCs with effects that are functionally Battlemaster Maneuvers when they exceed ACs of the PCs by a significant margin, to make them feel more alive, competent, and threatening without making things too terribly broken. It's not the most inspired thing in the world, but it's something I'm familiar with, know how to navigate, and can easily and quickly recall in combat which is already a relatively busy time as a DM.
I enjoy these so much, and they are much more entertaining for me than the actual stream. This is not to say the stream is anything but great, but I enjoy these far more! Please keep doing them :). So much education and tips. Amazing.
So… I’ve actually taken the Bloodborne Chalice Dungeon maps from the collectors guide for Dungeons I use in my game. It takes the technicality of map building and makes it easier for me to put together fun encounters and stories.
The unit battle was less cool than I feel it could've been, even for background. Having to succeed twice to do any damage seems like it could make things a real slog, esp because the armor soaks have zero consequence. Maybe a hit, then a toughness failure could reduce toughness by 1? Or 3 soaked hits equals a casualty? Also, some sort of special attack or ability to differentiate the units could help. Like a Charge ability, or a Defend ability... literally anything but "my unit attacks and does nothing. My ally attacks and does nothing. The enemy attacks and does nothing. X 3"
Doing damage in D&D does nothing, no impact on the character, you're just as potent with 1hp as 100. The only "effect" is death and you still have to chew through dozens of die rolls to produce that effect. In a sense, HP is a measure of "how often do I have to attack you with no result, before I produce a result."
That's true, not necessarily a mechanical impact, but a dramatic impact is more what I meant. Increasing tension. I dont think it should weaken their attacks or anything. I can imagine if the units had even higher toughness the problem would be compounded. I know it's all subjective and you are far more experienced with game design than I, but it just felt like introducing another roll to effect is compounding the worst part of combat - swinging and missing.
@@mcolville It was just an issue of odds - players had to roll 9 or higher, then 10 or higher for the chain, comes out to being something like a 1/3 chance of actually hitting. given 5e's whole bounded accuracy shtick and wanting players to have a slightly higher than 50% chance of both hitting and getting hit at all times, it seems like it'd be worth making the numbers come closer to lining up with that when roughly even forces are present.
Regarding the digression on backstories, I personally think that three punchy paragraphs is the perfect length of backstory to hand to one's DM (and other players if appropriate). Where your character came from (their race and background feature). How your character became who they are (their class). Why they are doing ... whatever it is they are doing (how they joined the party). I much prefer blank spaces that can be fleshed out during play than a detailed novelette that a player or DM might forget at the table or that might restrict opportunities later in the campaign. Characters tend to - in my experience anyway - be formed through decisions made within the emergent story of the game rather than entering the game fully-formed. The example with Phil illustrates this perfectly. He got halfway through a conversation before remembering that Sweet "should" have flat-out denied that he was the guy Diego remembered. I'm assuming Sweet was _supposed_ to throw the fight Diego bet on, hence him running away to join The Chain. Regardless, a less-detailed backstory might have put Phil in the position of being able to decide - due to this moment of in-character roleplay - that Sweet simply didn't care any more about some two-bit crime boss catching up with him. Though I agree that Phil's choice on how to recover from this "mistake" was an interesting one.
It's so interesting to hear your thoughts about what happened each session. When I look at the Illrigger class I don't see a lot of features that allow them to use their bonus action. There's really only the limited use of Baleful Interdict which is very cool as is and Invoke Authority that can only be used once between rests. It might just be a case of a player learning a new class. If anything I'd say that Phil takes longer on his turn than anyone but he's the commander and also learning a new class so it makes sense and doesn't really take anything away from the game. You all are doing fantastic work.
So I've only just started DMing these past few months and my players' characters are all neutral something. If the event doesn't effect them directly, they don't care. It makes getting them interested in the main plot points super difficult. But I also never did any session zeros so I started asking them all questions about their backstories and then took two of them and did session zeroes in which I started tying bits of my plot into their backstory as answers to their mysteries. Then a third player's character found out his main rival was working with the bbeg. Fast forward to now and their backstories are so tangled up into the main plot that they can't pull one without dragging the other with it. Best moment was when the bard wanted to off load their current quest on the local authorities with the question, "yeah but why do we even care about this?" To which the rogue answered "Because these guys burned down my circus and kidnapped my dad!"
as always thank you for these ... it's great! my prediction that "Dwarf" that big cat growled at .. it's actually a Duergar from the ship and that's how they found them...
I was in the same situation Matt has found himself in with the Somnium Tenebris. Back when my players were around 4th level, they were fleeing from a city aboard a galleon they had jumped on when it was attacked by a smaller pirate ship. Imagine my surprise when they killed the crew, incapacitated the captain, and then wrangled the refugees from the galleon into becoming a makeshift crew onboard the pirate ship. That campaign then went off in a completely different direction.... the joys of DMing!
Love these diaries. Seeing the thought process behind the design and show of the game is fantastic. The battles felt very fun. its not my game, but I sure felt like it.
I loved the interaction with Jasper, but I also love the idea of Phil checking if he recognized him, finding out he does, and then saying “You got the wrong guy, pal.”
Man, I need to see that Running the Game on working in character backstories. That's something I have a huge problem with, and I feel like I'm letting down the guys who give me ten pages of character bios and motivations.
With certain exceptions, when I tend to write my back story, I often consider certain elements to be very fluid & tend to leave brands or leave out names or possible branches as suggestions to sturdy the pot that is the DM's imagination
I'm enjoying your game very much. I'm also enjoying the campaign diary. In episode three, I ended up tuning out when the RP with Sweet took a little bit too long. This seems to be at 2:08. Regarding the new ship, it seems like a very cool idea for the characters to have it. I did catch in this campaign diary that you said "This is not the story of The Chain" describing the desire of the players to get the new ship and possibly becoming pirates. I'm not sure what to think of that comment. There are a lot assumptions and conclusions I could jump to, but I'll wait to see what you do. Regarding class design, I recall Mike Mearls discussing his desire to get rid of the bonus action. I think a close review of the Xanathar's classes will give you some additional direction on what to do with the bonus action features. In general you don't want a player to have to decide what is most optimal for their bonus action on a given turn. The result that Mearl's came to in his Happy Fun Hour was to just give characters an action and bonus action rolled into one class feature. Keep up the great work. I look forward to future episodes.
That's why Nails was checking on the battle, he went so far as to say through the process of elimination that there were no mindflayers fighting on the mindflayer ship
I had a big discussion on a forum a few weeks back about using awesome cool stuff at lower levels. Even at first level, there is no need to stick to goblins, rats, and bandits. There is plenty enoug exotic material to use for low level parties.
Sounds like some secret filming of the "off-camera" player discussions is in order. ;) Kidding! Mostly. Also, I'm digging seeing behind the curtain after watching the streams.
If your worried about your players wanting the ship maybe you could see if the sea captain can take the dark dream as payment or swindle it out of the players just because shes a pirate and let the PCs have the roci to use in capitol. PCs still come out with a win but not a dimension jumping physic battle cruiser.
That's the big fun of running campaigns with no long-term script or planned end point. When stuff like this happens, you can just roll with it and enjoy the awesome insanity that follows.
*Planning for the next session* Matt to himself: How do these cannons work? Nah that's future Matt's problem , that guy knows how to describe the devices.
I'm so excited to see how this all resolves, especially with Nails. It'd be pretty dope if they could commandeer the ship but I totally get that this campaign isn't meant to be "Adventures through the Timescape."
I think the ship would be pretty cool for them to have. There's all kinds of ways you can put limitations on that. One of the best imo is the fact that this is alien technology - they don't know what using it will do, and they also don't know what using it will do to *them*. As a living ship, too, who's to say it "wants" to go somewhere they have in mind? Sure, they should be able to get back to the prime, but after that? Who knows.
I don't really understand people complaining about the Prayer of Healing usage undermining the urgency of the scenario. It seemed quite the opposite to me. The fact that the players were so split between "a wait is going to cost us something down the line" and "we will literally die if we try to forge forward in our current condition" made the proverbial fire under their asses all the more apparent to me- and seemingly to the players as well.
Link to the music I used, as well as all the rest of my modular musical journey.
soundcloud.com/matt-colville/a-chorus-of-rings?in=matt-colville/sets/the-time-rider
Would you be able to make a youtube version? I'd love to include this in my d&d game, but I use youtube for all my music.
Working on a Running the Game video for this week so don't freak out. We haven't entirely become the All Chain of Acheron Channel.
never break the chain
If you don't love us now, you will never love us again...
I'm excited by this, though all the Chain stuff is highly engaging.
Can you leave a link to the music?
Matt: take the things you like and stick them in your game
Me: rips off half his campaign
You too huh? I'm stealing ideas for a game my boss wants me to start running.... That brings my DM count to three.... I should be able to start playing in a game once a week starting saturday if everyone shows up
@@the_dipped_ninja5788 "if everyone shows up" love that problem
@@drakonslayer8279 Free beer and food provided by the boss.... I should have enough for a stable party.
Good artists borrow, great artists steal.
My next campaign is Star Wars, Morrowind, Witcher.
The only qualms I have with stealing Matt's stuff is my fear that the players may have already seen it all. Other than that it's a DM's pure roleplaying gold mine.
I'm running a Deadlands weird west campaign right now. I start every session with "When last we left our cowpokes..."
I love how he does that
Nice nod to the old serials
@@erikmartin4996 Serials? Like Flash Gordon? I've been saying "when last we left our heroes" for years, and I couldn't for the life of me tell you where that came from. I'm a 'self-made' DM (I was a DM before I was a player and nobody taught me how), I've been doing this since quite a bit before the rise of D&D TH-cam, and I never really watched any of the classic serials. It's gotta be part of the cultural zeitgeist somehow.
“When we past left our (insert group here)...” has been a signal that you are starting a recap of the last episode in a serialized thing for almost 100 years now. It’s super useful because it focuses everyone and people don’t question what you say after that which allows you to (re)focus everyone on what you want.
I, too, have started using that opening line. It's just so fun!
as opposed to saying "when we last left our heroes" I have changed it slightly to fit our not so good-aligned party I say "when we last left our morally ambiguous friends"
I really appreciate you taking the tine to make these campaign diaries. I don’t have tine for the actual game videos but these are useful, concise (relatively!), and to the point.
David Schmidt if your wondering your not really missing out on any of the story by just watching these, so far Matt has been going into a lot of detail in these videos.
Even when o dont have time, I click on the video anyways to give it the views
The slow, drawn out metamorphosis of Matt’s hair is the greatest part of this video.
I noticed it too, I really wonder what happens to make his hair change so dramatically.
Someone might have pointed it out already, but the Gith are player races now. So if Moderkainens's githyanki are too high level, you can pick one of the NPC stats that are the appropriate level for your needs and add the racial feats from the Gith to it... instant Githyanki of lower level.
I really enjoyed the music in this last session. Great work.
I put a comment on the previous campaign video which I also copied to the mcdm subreddit about how the nanoleaf was giving me difficulties to watch being autistic. Glad someone on the MCDM team read that and the nanoleaf's set to a single colour for this video, a really simple solution but it made a huge difference to me. Thanks guys, nice to see you reacting to feedback.
First off having the Timerider playing in the background during the episode was fantastic. It added so much to the atmosphere.
Second it looked like Anna thought the Dweguar were casting a verbal spell when they enlarged, so she cast silence to prevent any more from enlarging.
Glad to see that the Timerider's lights remain the same in this one. Makes the video quite a bit more watchable.
Roby1 Kenobi looks like he saw the post!
"The problem of Nails will come to a head"... ok, Colville, we get the 'point.' 😎 Seriously though, these campaign diaries hooked me a long time ago, and I am beyond pleased that you're taking the time to share new stories this way. Thank you!
He's just hammering in the wordplay there, huh? He's a real craftsman with words.
The fact that the commanding officers of this army were also an adventuring party kind of bugged me right up until you said they're the bridge crew of the the Enterprise, and now everything has clicked and it makes perfect sense.
Plot twist: one of the Gith is a bard named Gith Daddy Yankee. He sends his rapping lyrics straight to your cortex via mind bullets. He asks you to check out his soundcloud and then leaves.
Andrew Bierer this comment is under appreciated
Brandon Yusko tough crowd I guess
If the Mindflayer ship were damaged, you could still limp to Capitial. And Maybe repairs take.....months or years.
I doubt that bringing a mindflayer ship with the symbol of Ajax to a town that is not his ally is a good move. But i like the idea of it still being usable... what if there was a shipyard in the Sea of Stars? Or something like the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?
@@nintendoaddict12 The Ajax symbol is just painted on; it wouldn't be hard to paint over it. And even if it was an issue, there's always tenders to bring crew from a hidden ship to port.
I'm still a little disappointed the doors on the mind flayer nautiloid _weren't_ giant sphincters... 👍🏻👌🏻
@@JD2jr. my understanding was that the symbol was on the sails not the hull.
@@metallkopf988 I think twitch has a tentacle to sphincter ratio that cannot be exceeded.
Every time Matt says "Doobly-doo" an angel gets its wings.
The music was great Matt. I loved that ethereal sound. Really pushed home that, "other world" feeling.
Getting to watch your stream has been a fantastic experience for me. I have described it to some friends of mine as (almost) the every person's dnd game at the table and it is so much fun to watch the players learn their characters and progress in comfortably role playing on camera. Keep having fun on stream and we watching will too!
If you ever compose a music album, you should name it Pirates of the Timescape
That's actually pretty good.
There's already an album soundcloud.com/matt-colville/sets/the-time-rider
What this episode somehow reminds me of is "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" album by Primus.
really enjoying the relaxed nature of this campaign,all the players are top notch and you as DM is the icing on the cake.
Matt your hair is glorious in this.
13:35 Tresses tamed.
I recommend Matt to lots of people and the number one and two comments from them are concerning his hair and beard
As always.
@@jwo7777777 Also at 28:16 - 28:17 The most hilarious thing ever.
As someone who wasn't able to catch the last episode of the Chain live, I'm really grateful that these Campaign Diaries are a thing! I feel neatly caught up in what's been going on, and Matt's insights and on the fly decision making is very valuable knowledge to have too!
so the players take the dark dream, they find the mind witness is the navigator and on a sea powered by thought, it's the engine.
as such the players can have the ship but they can only travel to places via the atrial sea if they have the astral coordinates, without those, it's just a verry eldritch ship that can sail the sea like any other.
An astral coordinate isn't a set of numbers it's a link to some sentient mind, and thats the destination. How do you hold a astral coordinate? Inside a mind stone or more accurately a gemstone dragons scale gemstone. You then link it to a willing creature and now you can find them though the sea of stars.
These are extremely good. I tend to zone out a bit sometimes when watching live shows and this is such a great way to catch up!
Great campaign diary, Matt. Your enthusiasm is contagious. Loving the insights you're sharing about your DM tricks and methods during these sessions.
This session drove home that you can know a thing and still be on the edge of your seat waiting for the thing and its not really a "spoiler" so...
In D&D 3.5e there is a cantrip called "Mirror", which creates a floating square one-way mirror. It'd be trivial to imagine a device that's about 4th level or so, which creates a much larger version of that mirror that hangs above the ship so that everyone can see the sea of stars as if they were re-inverted above them.
And this would be totally what Matt could do, since he already pilfers a lot of stuff from earlier editions.
This alone is worth TH-cam Red, I'm really enjoying these. They make my commutes to work so much more enjoyable!
This campaign is so badass. Your creativity has astounded me in just three episodes so far, Matt. Things like the large scale battles happening 'just offscreen', the sea of stars, a freaking beholder dreadnought naval battle. Now I'm not the most versed in cool DnD things, but even so. Just as a story, just as a spectator watching these videos afterwards, I'm just blown away.
Really enjoy the atmosphere. Matthew Colville does a great job introducing elements of areas. Like a freaking giant man walking with a net! What's he do!? Nobody knows...
I'm so excited to see what happens in this campaign! I don't have time to watch the live play videos, but I live for these campaign diaries. Keep them coming, Matt!
29:06 thick purple walls with pink, almost fluorescent veins - like the background of this video
I would love an appendix of books you like. Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of my favourite books and Moorcock is one of my favourite authors. I wouldn't have known about them if not for you. Thanks for that, btw.
Lucas Dowdy check out Steven Brust for excellent fantasy literature.
Jeff Nelson Karl Edward Wagner. Criminally unread
I was going to point out that this episode's title is a nice nod to The Sailor on the Sea of Fate, the second Elric novel and (from Elric's point of view) the first encounter with other aspects of The Eternal Champion.
Wow, I had no idea that you 'made' the music, I thought it was Brian Eno or Fripp or something, really did add to that Michael Moorcock thing you have going. I really enjoyed it all, You're a legend.
Hey Matt! I’m loving the campaign, but I think I look forward to these Campaign diaries even more. Keep it up, man!
Part of me wonders if Matt would have put The Chain through a sequence like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield or The Search For Spock, if they’d decided to scuttle the Somnium Tenebris instead of commandeering it.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes: "He said the ship was dead, and we trusted him. He was right, but even a dead god can dream. That's what he didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams."
Is this from the ... 1999? 1991? movie "Sphere?" With Sam L. Jackson and uhhh... the other famous guy. This sounds like something from that movie.
@@Providence83 It's from Mass Effect, riffing on H. P. Lovecraft.
I love these diaries! I'm chipping away at the full 4 hr stream, but this is a lot of fun. Thanks, Matt!
Really excited to see more about what happens with Nails!
After playing a unusual 5e character (Goblin Mystic) with a bunch of bonus actions, what I found helped speed up my turn was a short action summary sheet.
I listed what i could do by action type (Action, Bonus Action, Reaction) with their costs (for me - Power Points or 1/rest, for the Illrigger - consumes a seal) was very useful.
I could then tick off things I could no longer do, erasing them when a rest refreshed them.
Very important, I listed them with their name, range, damage, and a super short description (3-5 words), to easily be able to scan and choose what to do (during other's turn) and find the full power description if needed (to be ready to go on my turn).
5th level is such a good point in dnd the players are resilient enough that the DM can really through some interesting encounters at them.
Thank you for taking the time to do these!
mordekainen's tome of foes has some cool additions to duergar forces (there's even this weird machine that a duergar is tortured in but the machine can be used in combat, illithids would definitely use that). Can also look at other editions.
Didn't AD&D 2nd Ed. Spelljammer feature the Drow Mindspiders which effectively were propelled by a creature's tortured soul by burning it in a magical furnace?
EDIT: I was confused, it's the Neogi that built spider ships. Furnaces burned magic items and the soul torturing devices are Lifejammers... Ah, the memories...
22:00
I often augment otherwise mildly bland NPCs with effects that are functionally Battlemaster Maneuvers when they exceed ACs of the PCs by a significant margin, to make them feel more alive, competent, and threatening without making things too terribly broken. It's not the most inspired thing in the world, but it's something I'm familiar with, know how to navigate, and can easily and quickly recall in combat which is already a relatively busy time as a DM.
Matt, honestly watching all these videos just makes me want to have a conversation with you. Keep up the good work dude!
That soundtrack you made truly helped me as an observer feel immersed. Thank you Matt and team for playing DnD for us!
Keep up the good work, as a fellow GM I've been enjoying the stream & Campaign Diaries every week!
I enjoy these so much, and they are much more entertaining for me than the actual stream. This is not to say the stream is anything but great, but I enjoy these far more! Please keep doing them :). So much education and tips. Amazing.
Ah, another short one Matt! Not that I'm complaining
Sea Between worlds gives me some strong Narnia vines and I’m not complaining
I want to watch those vines you're talking about.
So… I’ve actually taken the Bloodborne Chalice Dungeon maps from the collectors guide for Dungeons I use in my game. It takes the technicality of map building and makes it easier for me to put together fun encounters and stories.
Oooh more recaps of both the dungeons and the dragons!
The unit battle was less cool than I feel it could've been, even for background. Having to succeed twice to do any damage seems like it could make things a real slog, esp because the armor soaks have zero consequence. Maybe a hit, then a toughness failure could reduce toughness by 1? Or 3 soaked hits equals a casualty?
Also, some sort of special attack or ability to differentiate the units could help. Like a Charge ability, or a Defend ability... literally anything but "my unit attacks and does nothing. My ally attacks and does nothing. The enemy attacks and does nothing. X 3"
I hope that isn't too negative, it was just in stark contrast to how cool and fun everything else was
Doing damage in D&D does nothing, no impact on the character, you're just as potent with 1hp as 100. The only "effect" is death and you still have to chew through dozens of die rolls to produce that effect. In a sense, HP is a measure of "how often do I have to attack you with no result, before I produce a result."
That's true, not necessarily a mechanical impact, but a dramatic impact is more what I meant. Increasing tension. I dont think it should weaken their attacks or anything. I can imagine if the units had even higher toughness the problem would be compounded. I know it's all subjective and you are far more experienced with game design than I, but it just felt like introducing another roll to effect is compounding the worst part of combat - swinging and missing.
Yeah folks should feel like they're making progress.
@@mcolville It was just an issue of odds - players had to roll 9 or higher, then 10 or higher for the chain, comes out to being something like a 1/3 chance of actually hitting. given 5e's whole bounded accuracy shtick and wanting players to have a slightly higher than 50% chance of both hitting and getting hit at all times, it seems like it'd be worth making the numbers come closer to lining up with that when roughly even forces are present.
I'm really enjoying these diary videos. Please keep it going!
Whoever disliked this video is as effective as a half ork Barbarian with a violin
Yeah, but they sure can smash "Bach's Chaconne"
You don’t know what they rolled for stats.
Bryan Hansen lol a half ork barbarian with dashing looks, incredible musical talent and an 18 charisma
Big fan of the campaign diaries, as I a DM I enjoy these immensely.
laughs - the hair thing has made me giggle. I'm such a fan. Of the hair. It is all smooth and great and one frame, and messy in the next.
Regarding the digression on backstories, I personally think that three punchy paragraphs is the perfect length of backstory to hand to one's DM (and other players if appropriate).
Where your character came from (their race and background feature). How your character became who they are (their class). Why they are doing ... whatever it is they are doing (how they joined the party).
I much prefer blank spaces that can be fleshed out during play than a detailed novelette that a player or DM might forget at the table or that might restrict opportunities later in the campaign. Characters tend to - in my experience anyway - be formed through decisions made within the emergent story of the game rather than entering the game fully-formed.
The example with Phil illustrates this perfectly. He got halfway through a conversation before remembering that Sweet "should" have flat-out denied that he was the guy Diego remembered.
I'm assuming Sweet was _supposed_ to throw the fight Diego bet on, hence him running away to join The Chain.
Regardless, a less-detailed backstory might have put Phil in the position of being able to decide - due to this moment of in-character roleplay - that Sweet simply didn't care any more about some two-bit crime boss catching up with him.
Though I agree that Phil's choice on how to recover from this "mistake" was an interesting one.
Jasper* Diego is the navigator.
@@jamesmacdonald8237
You are correct.
It's so interesting to hear your thoughts about what happened each session. When I look at the Illrigger class I don't see a lot of features that allow them to use their bonus action. There's really only the limited use of Baleful Interdict which is very cool as is and Invoke Authority that can only be used once between rests. It might just be a case of a player learning a new class. If anything I'd say that Phil takes longer on his turn than anyone but he's the commander and also learning a new class so it makes sense and doesn't really take anything away from the game. You all are doing fantastic work.
Whoah, what a great concept. Sounds like a blast. keep doing your thing Matthew Colville 🤟🏽
Was just thinking about Moorcock's books as you described the Sea. Great setting indeed
Was listening to the music and wondered if it was made on your synth! Very good, and perfect for the astral sea!
So I've only just started DMing these past few months and my players' characters are all neutral something. If the event doesn't effect them directly, they don't care. It makes getting them interested in the main plot points super difficult.
But I also never did any session zeros so I started asking them all questions about their backstories and then took two of them and did session zeroes in which I started tying bits of my plot into their backstory as answers to their mysteries. Then a third player's character found out his main rival was working with the bbeg. Fast forward to now and their backstories are so tangled up into the main plot that they can't pull one without dragging the other with it.
Best moment was when the bard wanted to off load their current quest on the local authorities with the question, "yeah but why do we even care about this?" To which the rogue answered "Because these guys burned down my circus and kidnapped my dad!"
as always thank you for these ... it's great!
my prediction that "Dwarf" that big cat growled at .. it's actually a Duergar from the ship and that's how they found them...
I was in the same situation Matt has found himself in with the Somnium Tenebris. Back when my players were around 4th level, they were fleeing from a city aboard a galleon they had jumped on when it was attacked by a smaller pirate ship. Imagine my surprise when they killed the crew, incapacitated the captain, and then wrangled the refugees from the galleon into becoming a makeshift crew onboard the pirate ship. That campaign then went off in a completely different direction.... the joys of DMing!
Holy. Mathew makes his own music for DnD. He is the most DM DM of all time. Holy.
The art for the Dark Dream is just nuts!
Love these diaries. Seeing the thought process behind the design and show of the game is fantastic. The battles felt very fun. its not my game, but I sure felt like it.
Loving the Dune reference with the Navigator 👍
I loved the interaction with Jasper, but I also love the idea of Phil checking if he recognized him, finding out he does, and then saying “You got the wrong guy, pal.”
I was going to suggest music or sound effects, and boom, you did it in episode 3. Keep it up. It’s great for atmosphere
Enjoyed the sweet vs jasper roleplay. Enjoying your game. Love copper and bigcat - really original idea!
I'm really enjoying these campaign diaries, as someone who can't bring themselves to pay attention to the actual stream.
Man, I need to see that Running the Game on working in character backstories. That's something I have a huge problem with, and I feel like I'm letting down the guys who give me ten pages of character bios and motivations.
Yeah now that we've started this campaign I have examples I can use.
i love the details of the navigation
I have been waiting for this all day
What if they had a negative Charisma modifier? Do they get someone who hates them with all their soul?
Hmmm...
@@mcolville Perhaps they have a level of notoriety or dislike by the majority of The Chain.
Going back through these in anticipation of one day being able to run a Timescape game in The MCDM RPG
With certain exceptions, when I tend to write my back story, I often consider certain elements to be very fluid & tend to leave brands or leave out names or possible branches as suggestions to sturdy the pot that is the DM's imagination
That Giant reminds me of the one from Time Bandits.
Matt, as always, I love your face and the whole Chain i'm enraptured and I look forward to more
I'm enjoying your game very much. I'm also enjoying the campaign diary. In episode three, I ended up tuning out when the RP with Sweet took a little bit too long. This seems to be at 2:08. Regarding the new ship, it seems like a very cool idea for the characters to have it. I did catch in this campaign diary that you said "This is not the story of The Chain" describing the desire of the players to get the new ship and possibly becoming pirates. I'm not sure what to think of that comment. There are a lot assumptions and conclusions I could jump to, but I'll wait to see what you do. Regarding class design, I recall Mike Mearls discussing his desire to get rid of the bonus action. I think a close review of the Xanathar's classes will give you some additional direction on what to do with the bonus action features. In general you don't want a player to have to decide what is most optimal for their bonus action on a given turn. The result that Mearl's came to in his Happy Fun Hour was to just give characters an action and bonus action rolled into one class feature. Keep up the great work. I look forward to future episodes.
I'd love to buy this campaign as a book one day
That's why Nails was checking on the battle, he went so far as to say through the process of elimination that there were no mindflayers fighting on the mindflayer ship
I had a big discussion on a forum a few weeks back about using awesome cool stuff at lower levels. Even at first level, there is no need to stick to goblins, rats, and bandits. There is plenty enoug exotic material to use for low level parties.
Sweet is my favourite character; can't wait to see how Phil makes him blossom as the leader of the Chain.
The greatest trick the spell caster ever played was making the world think he didn’t exist
Sounds like some secret filming of the "off-camera" player discussions is in order. ;)
Kidding! Mostly.
Also, I'm digging seeing behind the curtain after watching the streams.
The Raw So Sea-Ello
Yes. After long weekend of D&D, more D&D content is always good.
The Black Company by Glen Cook was the inspiration for a 12 yr 2nd edition D&D campaign I ran. Highly recommend the books of the north about them.
If your worried about your players wanting the ship maybe you could see if the sea captain can take the dark dream as payment or swindle it out of the players just because shes a pirate and let the PCs have the roci to use in capitol. PCs still come out with a win but not a dimension jumping physic battle cruiser.
That's the big fun of running campaigns with no long-term script or planned end point. When stuff like this happens, you can just roll with it and enjoy the awesome insanity that follows.
I loved that moment with Phil and Angel. It worked so well.
If Big Cat dies, we riot.
*Planning for the next session*
Matt to himself: How do these cannons work? Nah that's future Matt's problem , that guy knows how to describe the devices.
I'm so excited to see how this all resolves, especially with Nails. It'd be pretty dope if they could commandeer the ship but I totally get that this campaign isn't meant to be "Adventures through the Timescape."
Matt, Githyanki are a player race, so you could just use them on NPC stat blocks.
So excited for tomorrow!
I think the ship would be pretty cool for them to have. There's all kinds of ways you can put limitations on that. One of the best imo is the fact that this is alien technology - they don't know what using it will do, and they also don't know what using it will do to *them*.
As a living ship, too, who's to say it "wants" to go somewhere they have in mind? Sure, they should be able to get back to the prime, but after that? Who knows.
I don't really understand people complaining about the Prayer of Healing usage undermining the urgency of the scenario. It seemed quite the opposite to me.
The fact that the players were so split between "a wait is going to cost us something down the line" and "we will literally die if we try to forge forward in our current condition" made the proverbial fire under their asses all the more apparent to me- and seemingly to the players as well.