5 Players Who Drive Me Crazy - RPG Philosophy
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Here's 5 player traits that, while not terrible, drive me nuts.
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#ttrpg #dnd
00:00 Intro
01:18 Copper Thief
03:09 Word From Our Sponsor
04:30 Handout Bandit
07:02 Numbers Thrower
09:50 Conspiracy Theorist
12:18 Unqualified Expert
15:03 Closing - เกม
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Hey Seth you coming to Chaosium con this year?
Kudos on the ad segue in this video!!
Can't do ChaosiumCon this year.
that’s to bad
@@willywonkascreepysmilewonk3200*too
That Number Thrower sketch should have ended with this:
"Oh, and [reason] means I get a -4. Snap."
"So -4 damage?"
"No, attack."
"So, you missed."
"Yeah."
We've all been that guy
😆
The gods are annoyed with your nonsense. They've drilled eye holes in this stock pot, and you have to play with it on your head until you get it together.
Copper thievery is a time-honored tradition from early DND. Where every GP collected also counted towards XP.
Actually at that time it was called Monty Haul. And at least with more gold, players could actually establish dominions.
@@timd4524 Copper thievery =/= Monty Haul.
Force real encumbrance. Lets seeee....25 rusty daggers at 1 lb each. The average soldier roman and modern carries 65 lbs....plus strength bonus. You need to dump something.
And one of the major reasons I hate that part of OSR games, lol
Easiest way to mitigate this is simply to declare that 'treasure' from the dungeon, IE, gems, gold, etc is what counts towards XP. I play AD&D and OSR games where gold found in the dungeon = XP and nobody ever attempts to argue that random monster loot counts toward XP.
I'm a conspiracy theorist player. I once didn't trust an NPC for a year long campaign, because he's name was too generic. No way someone's named John Smith. He was planning something
1.) Todd
2.) Todd
3.) Todd
4.) Todd
5.) TODD
It's Todd. It's always Todd.
Hah!
Yeh it has to be Todd
I dunno bros have you heard some of the stuff Dweebles says?
@@CrusadiaIX Dweebles keeps his "tendencies" away from the game table so it's not Seth's problem. :P
as someone who runs a lot of Delta Green, I kind of love the conspiracy theorists, I've had players make a crazy board out of a bunch of clues from non connected scenarios.
Yeah, I bought a green felt pin-board and tripod for my DG players, and provided them with all the pins, handouts and red string they could want - if they didn't have at least 3 contradictory theories on the go at once, I figured I was doing it wrong 😆
Why write a scenario when the players do it for you?
Kind of reminds me of Johnny English when he makes up a thief with orange hair and a banana shaped scar then at the end of the movie.....
To the point of the number thrower - I can’t do mental math at all and was playing a 5e ranger with special bow, ammo, and of course spells like hunter’s mark. To keep me and my DM from going crazy (and the other players from killing me, lol) I ended up making a excel spreadsheet that auto rolled and calculated damage for me! Probably the craziest new skill I picked up for ttrpgs.
I've been relearning spreadsheets for a 3.5e campaign I've been prepping. Races, classes, equipment, templates- if it has a numerical stat value, it's going in the sheet!
It's going to save me so much time in prep it's not even funny. I mean, it's been a campaign in its own right to get all the info entered but it's going to be so worth it!
Meanwhile I've been learning Python in order to work with a dice bot
When I DM 2E I have all the large encounters on a spreadsheet with it all factored into a final number.
I just had a 15 person bandit ambush on the party recently I couldn't do a large group of NPCs like that quickly without a spreadsheet.
Brother that sounds absurd for what amounts to basic arithmetic
Oh god, that number thrower had me spilling my soup... For 3 points of damage... +1 scalding damage...
You forgot the psychic damage modifier for the spilled dinner & wasted food. Now, if you ever got the "There are starving children in (insert country x)" spiel, it's +3, if not, it's +1.
Is that _armour-piercing_ scalding damage?
you lot forget to account for how good the soup was and whether it was home-made by OP.
because if it was good, home-made, and the amount lost is significant (refer to table 21.2b) then we need to account for additional psychic damage.
oh also, in case the "there are children starving" modifier wasn't applied: according to recent rule revisions, listening to or having ever listened to Eat It by Weird Al _also_ counts.
oh and have we even considered the colour damage to the clothing?
"I'm scrapping off the gold from the walls" while within a spooky tomb with an endless tide of skeletons riding up and slowly approaching the party...
I was quite exhasperated at that.
And i learned that in the previous session (i wasn't present for) that same player had control of my character as well...
Guess what the two characters did back then?
Or type VI demons...
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The best cybersecurity is common sense and just a bit of tech knowledge. Nothing you can't learn over a weekend with some proper searches.
Guilty as charged on number thrower because I do the math out loud, but it's never been an issue at the table - just remember to drag your last syllable to show you're in the process and the message gets across
"Hang on, I suck at math. What is 7+14?"
Syllable dragging, the verbal equivalent of "..."
This is the correct way, get people to check you as you go, and the GM is awaiting the final numbers..
This is the way...
I think "The Number Thrower" is less of a player problem.
I see it more as a GM choice (More math - Less role-play) that backfires due to a player is not keen on playing mathematician.
It has a vague similarity with "The Copper Thief" as that can be the result of a GM choice (Ha! You left a valuable piece of loot behind!) that backfires.
A way to do that is to keep the characters poor so the players are forced to become nitpicking accountants.
@@larsdahl5528A player can calculate out loud without issue, and it is sometimes better than saying erm, just a minute then trying to calculate slowly...
"The Number Thrower" that is an issue, is the player that replies with a number, pauses so it sounds like they have finished, then adds another number, pauses like they've finished, adds another number ... etc ..
I agree about the copper thief ... but note it could have been the previous GM who punished them for not picking up everything, and it still persists to the next table ...
When I saw “copper thieves” I thought that it was referring to people that make scams and money schemes in game as if they were playing as Ea Nasir.
I love it that this man has become internet famous
@@nyarparablepsis872 I mean I am particularly interested in ancient history but the memes are greatly appreciated.
"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright Copper Kettles leave flakes on my mittens,
Wait, these are stone with a copper veneer,
I've been bamboozled by Ea-Nasir!"
@@TheSmart-CasualGamer that properly made me laugh
Im usually the guy who only takes what he needs but I remember one game where we cleared out a goblin layer and there was a 500. Pound stone throne in it. We took a week to get back to town (4 hour trip) to get it back there where it was the centerpiece of my literal twig hut in the slums.
That sounds awesome and is definitely more of a flourish at the end of the adventure rather than an annoying behaviour. My group in Cyberpunk 2020 did something similar by gathering all the bikes of the rival gang they destroyed over the span of the game, and one of the players was bent on welding them to look like some artsy fartsy fresco. They succeeded and the party lived in a warzone shithole decorated with busted up bikes.
It really tied the room together
That's clearly a trophy
One minute ago, you say? May as well help out the algorithm!
RISE!!!
I must also feed that goblin. Plus, Seth always serves up the primo jazz.
Dont forget a like!
@@TheManyVoicesVA I would never
The first one is genuinely how my dad and his whole group of friends played the game and how they taught it to me. It was a very blue collar D&D experience. I honestly really enjoyed the way it made the game feel oddly mundane. The players aren't legendary heroes they're contracters who have to keep their heads above water for all the expenses of a very dangerous job. Obviously a singular character in this situation can feel bad, but a full party and DM in that design really does feel good to play. You do some cost benefit analysis to your work and there's lots of small stepping stone upgrades to work through as you're working to make the whole system more efficient. Eventually you're hiring a small squad of workers and guards who wait outside the dungeons while you clear it and have them clean it out, potentially even claim it as your own if its actually useful and not too far away from civilization. It's a very different gameplay pattern but I love it.
Yeah if you're playing a game where finances are important it's really fun, I think it's huge for playing D&D, you're going into the dungeons and risking your life because you can't hold down an honest job. Once you're rich and high level enough you can just have hirelings do it for you, which is huge for a sense of progression.
Since you said "piecing together the plot" it makes me want to write the clues on puzzle shapes that fit together to give a logical answer or meta clue.
My top 5 things that frquently bug me: The Distracted Player "I do this! Wait, what's going on?" (ignores plans, facts, & plot);
The Bossy Player "That idea is good, but what if you did this instead"; (too many interruptive helpful suggestions)
The Derailer "Hey, I know it's your turn, but did you guys see the new movie?"; (wrong time discussions)
The Reluctant Player "My character holds back, they aren't sure if this is best thing to do."; (stalls game or misses turns)
and... The Cross Talker "DM: Please, once again, don't interrupt the other players...again." (a group killing flaw)
In my group the bossy player transformed into The Lone Wolf Player when he didn`t get his will. "Then I am doing my own thing." One time he solved the Shadowrun plot on his own, during the other players discussed what they should do. So the one instance proofed his point. But Teamwork? What is that?
I pretty much never give suggestions because my sister in law is the bossy player who _always_ knocks down my suggestions (and she has a very loud voice). My husband actually has to tell her to give me a chance. I once actually had to come up with a plan out of game for when we were going to attack a large group of goblins who had taken over a dwarven kingdom many years ago. Both the other players and the DM thought it was a good plan, and we went with it. I don't even remember what her plan was, but it wouldn't have worked). I've kind of turned into the distracted player because of this.She _always_ plays a girl boss, and when she was forced to play a male, she didn't speak up much. I'm also bad at math and keep forgetting to add damage bonuses. Back when Hypercard existed on my old mac, I made a stack that used up all the bonuses and negatives from whatever situation existed. It worked great.
edit: I forgot to add is that she uses information from previous campagins to figure out who the main villain is, just because her other character faced the same villains on "another continent" ("The queen of Kenmar is behind all of this", says her second level character after we encounter an assassin linked with the group her other character fought before).
I hope you & hubby find a group with a more positive dynamic. @@martabachynsky8545
@@martabachynsky8545 Lemonade: your sister in law likes to play TTRPGs. 😂
"I make incorrect assumptions all the time, it's one of my super powers" may be the single most relatable line I've ever heard
Years ago, back in College, I was playing a warforged, with some 3rd party golem companion building book.
My DM presents us with an adamantine door. Immediately, I get to Stone Shaping the hinges off of the wall, and dragged that door back home with me. Along with every other metal door from then on.
The campaign lasts another year. He got a fairly sizeable collection of door golems.
Honestly, if a GM presents the group with an adamantite door and DOESN'T expect them to spend time trying to figure out how to bring it home... 😂 that stuff is valuable! That's not Copper Thieving 😂
My GM for that adventure (and going forward) that forging adamantine was a one time process- that once you turn the ore into a thing, it's impossible to reshape.
@@shadowheartart3898 Turned into copper thievery though. lol. There were no doors left by the end.
The Number Thrower hits a little close to home as I was kinda doing that in our Traveller ship combat last night.
I feel it's OK when you are starting out in a system, until you've done it a few times.
You're just starting out, right? Right?
"Characters are temporary, Players are forever*"
* Mortality hack for humans is yet to be achieved.
That's what the Chicago Mob wants you to believe!
Life is like becmi without the i, so... rc, I guess
Depends on how okay you are with prison.
Honestly the most relatable list video, I see a lot of these players in my group, half of them being myself XD
Love your vids!
also.
*copper thief*: i feel called out.
in the N2 module there are magic items hidden inside the stomach of cave beasts.
It's an unpopular module; i just thought the idea of a player rummaging around the bowels of some dead gutted up beast to be some next level copper theif.
Innards theif. Hue hue.
Unqualified expert- when you correct them, the party now thinks it’s a hint …
I think the Copper Thief is likely a hold over from Old D&D, where experience was tied to gold gathered in an adventure. They strip every piece of possible valuable from a dungeon because they may be able to turn it around for one more gold, which means one more XP more for their character.
I'm often guilty of the final one, usually in the rules department.
The main reason I can think of is that one of my best friends is extremely lazy when it comes to rules. In a way, he behaves like a reverse number thrower: he rarely compile his entire character sheet and updates it even less, so he only consider the numbers on the dice and you have to pry those out of him with a crowbar. As a result, my already pretty pronunced rule lawyer habits got worse, since I have to handle my character as well as his.
I know this is a terrible habit, because it dents the GM's authority as referee, but when you see a player ignoring the most simple bonuses over and over again, but also lamenting time and again how their character is sub-par, belittling their own intelligence... well, I felt that I had to do something.
There's definitely a balance, I think it can be really helpful to help players with the mechanics (especially if you can help them get into some simple helpful habits that are fun for them), just gotta recognize when you might be wrong and make that clear to others around you
I actually screamed at the numbers thrower skit. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD
Instead of the numbers throwers, I have the people who just tell me the roll..... I literally ask them all the time, "Is that what you rolled?" and they just go, "Yeah.... 12...."
"As in like that is literally what's on the die?"
"Yeah...."
"....Okay, what's you're attack bonus?"
"+7....."
"So, 19...."
"Yeah, I guess...."
You have to coax everything out of them and they never do *any* of their own math... There is a reason I have my own copy of their character sheets, because I get tired of asking what their bonuses are constantly....
What you're doing is supporting the idea that you have to calculate all their rolls for them, even though you have other things to think of. If you're okay with that, I guess it can work, but it doesn't look like that.
This is the problem of setting boundaries and you're allowing your players to exploit you.
Number 3: Yep yep yep, this is something I deal with constantly. I actually felt my blood pressure going just hearing this lol
Excellent. I was worried when writing it that I wasn't capturing the true feel of having a Numbers Thrower, and viewers would be all, "Eh, that's not so bad."
Other reasons i don't like bending the story to make the conspiratist correct is it encourages this behavior and ruins emersion to other players. And if you have new players, then they might think this chaotic stupid behavior is the norm.
This. 👏
To be fair, most of the online advice about incorporating player theories says only to do it if their idea is cooler than the one you already have, not if it's dumb. Although even with a cool idea, especially in investigation games, it can be a quick way to create plot holes in your own game.
@@khpa3665 I personally have run into DMs who embrace the "Fail upward" style of DMing. It kind of hate it. I want a challenge and want the world to feel like it has a life of its own. If the world always bends around my character I hate it. For me if I can't suspend disbelief, I lose a lot of interest in any form of fiction.
@@tcironbear21 Yeah. I generally don't use this trick myself. I feel the fantasy world needs some sort of objective reality outside the PCs, even if that's only in the GM's head.
The problem with the people who make assumptions is they don't realize they're assumptions; they think it's the facts. And when they are wrong it inevitably breaks into an argument.
I have had someone insist so many times "it doesn't work that way" and cause a rules check mid-fight instead of just listening to the GM.
I've been the copper thief. It fit the character though. It was a goblin fighter/rogue "merchant" who was using all the stolen loot to arm the town militia pretty much everywhere we went.
The DM lost it when I piled dead orc bodies into the loot wagon because "waste not, want not" didn't make sense to him. When I explained that I was trying to make a local goblin tribe friendly, he started to get it.
The copper thief reminds me of having a character that is raging addict, who doesnt buy new equipment but mostly just spends on that sweet sweet moon dust, but still strips the plumbing out of an adventure site
“I used to work in a bank….I’m terrible at math”
I love Seth Skorkowski videos!
*Sorokowsky
DnD, the 'lifestyle' mechanic is for disposing of mundane daily expenses based on what the character can afford. Fortunately having just one tool prof or marketable skill prof equates to a comfortable lifestyle.
A party 'scrap book', a folder for the players handouts and team notes that stay with the DM for next session. Never loose a handout again if there is a standard place for them all to go and still be available for review later.
In the same camp as the Conspiracy Theorist and the Unqualified Expert is the "I don't trust the DM" Whacko.
"Let's go over the mound and attack the bad guys!"
"No way! The DM is expecting us to do that so he can ambush us! Let's go around."
"With that high a roll, I can tell you that door is not trapped."
"Pft! As if I'd fall for that. I take 30 minutes to inspect the door thoroughly."
I think the "make the player right instead of what you planned" advice is directed to when the players come up with a BETTER plot than you did, not when they just go out in left field and start wandering around randomly. I've done the first plenty of times, but I'd never do the second.
I know the "copper thief" as the "boot bum" - he was actually stealing the boots from dead security guys to sell them off for spare change. The group got so annoyed with him micromanaging his loot that I put him in prison for murder and robbery because he was spreading evidence against him all over the city and had his appartment filled with bloody boots and other clothing items.
THIS is how to present a video with a seemingly negative connotation, but in a fun and positive way. Many YT channels should take note! We, as viewers, are beset with negative, adversarial provocation after provocation YT video. We’re constantly asked to choose a side of whatever our hot-buttons are and (personally) I’m sick of it and unsubscribe. People say they hate drama, but they sure do love to click on it! No thanks for me.
Some player types just deflate pretty much every DM/GM. It’s human nature. (Conspiracy Theorist I rather like. IMO they add to the story and fun moments) I pretty much enjoy all types of players but… the 2 player types that just stick in my craw are 1) THE DERAILER: They love to Metagame and take the main plot thread of a campaign (Homebrew or Pre-written module) and just (selfishly) sabotage and completely change it. A DM works hard to understand (say) a 250-page module, like Curse of Strahd, and (no spoilers) love to derail the main congruent themes to appease their schadenfreude. 2) THE OBSERVER MURER-HOBO: These players NEVER add to the story and just focus entirely on the feats, abilities, and progress of their character, and only participate in moments of combat. To each their own, and play how you wish, though understand YOUR table, players and DM/GMs all.
Players who never shut up and monopolize the dm's time. One of my oldest friends does this and it drives me crazy. Makes it hard to play with him. Personally I think he should just always be the dm. Kind of alleviates the problem.
My big pet peeve is what I call the "slow roller." You ask them to make a check and they have to ask what die to use, even though it's been the same one for the last 4 game sessions. Then they struggle to find that die. Then they shake it for like a solid minute. Then they sit there doing mental math for another three minutes, only to get that number wrong and correct it later. It just wastes so much time over the course of a campaign and it irritates me whether I'm the gm or a player. I get new players might not be familiar with all the dice yet, but I can't tell you how many older players can't tell a d10 and a d8 apart despite playing for 10 years.
Regarding copper thieves, my players have a tendency to say something along the lines of "We're taking everything that's not nailed down, and for that stuff, I brought an adamantine crowbar"
"The evil wizard can't hide in his tower if we break down and sell the walls."
Good solution, I like it
I think another issue with the unqualified expert is they can sometimes rally the rest of the table to gang up against the GM.
One time I was running a Call of Cthulhu adventure where the PCs passed through a tiny rural town with only a small general store. They wanted to buy weapons (which I knew would happen) so I said the store only had a couple of double barrel shotguns and boxes of shells for sale, for farmers and whatnot. The expert decided to inform me that the local farmers would never use shotguns for pest control and the store would instead be stocking rifles. Before I knew what, the player had the entire table agreeing and begging to retcon it to rifles. Just wanting to get the game moving I made the silly mistake of giving in and changing the gun type. Silly because it made me look like a pushover and also because shotguns would have been way more handy for the close quarters nightmare they ended up in. Never giving in to the expert again.
Convincing you to give them rifles instead of shotguns means that they've never looked at the stats of shotguns and the crazy amount of things that take minimum impaling damage.
They played themselves.
@@bloodkip9462 Yep, agree. They really shot themselves in the foot. That particular player LOVES to argue equipment in every system and it always drags things to a halt. They're a military nerd so I get it and frankly it was my call and a teachable moment about how I should just literally and figuratively stick to my guns as a GM.
clearly that player didn't grow up with Granny Gertrude and her 20 gauge single barrel varmint killer on the farm.
Love ur work Seth! You're my personal TH-cam hero!
A friend of mine used to try to avoid rolling dice by giving extremely elaborate descriptions of his actions. Instead of saying "I try to sneak up on the guard and knock him out" like a sane person he divided it into 10+ very tiny actions that, individually, should not require a roll: standing still, being in a dark room, lifting one foot, looking at the ground and so on.
"So, I see the guard. Yeah, now I lift one foot veeeeery slowly... There's nothing on the ground in front of me right? [head shake from the GM]... and set it down taking extreme care to not make any noise...
Poor todd getting character assassinated again
Please tell me the chandelier hypothetical was based off a real player's choice
I was the Copper Thief in original BG. I got to that part where all the kobolds had the fire arrows and I lost it. I started collecting all the fire arrows I could and storing them all over the nearest town, along with anything else I didn't want to carry. Turns out those buildings were just loaded with places to store stuff.
I love how the characters look around the table at each other.
Yeah. I long ago decided that when I'm the GM/Handler/what have you, the character folders stay with me. That way the info is only unavailable if I can't make it for the game.
Yup! I played with a guy who tended to "check the math" of his character sheet between sessions and _somehow_ find addition errors that, when corrected, made his character a bit stronger every time. The GM keeping all paper work is a nobrainer.
I'm a copper thief. Not in TTRPGs, but dear god its one of my greatest sins in video game RPGs
Im a hoarder ✋🏼
The little things pile up. I often fear I teach my players to play the game "wrong" and make them into these players.
I have one: the players who will take a mile if you give an inch, like the Dragonborn who will argue that using his weapon breath doesn't count if he's starting a camp fire, or a player who wants to argue for samurai when it's clearly stated the world they are in have no earth influences
I think both of those can be fine, depending on the group. In my group we tend towards allowing any flavor that most definitely won't impact balance, so like we'd probs allow the dragonborn to start a fire as if he had a flint/steel or similar without actually using one, since most of the time that won't actually add any kind of advantage (depending on the system).
The penny pinchers bug me just because it ends up dominating everything they do. The video connection is too real, these are definitely the people who hoard things in Bethesda RPGs. I get it more with weapons, but even then it can be annoying. How are you carrying 20 used, blunt and broken swords? And why do you think people would buy them unless they're gonna melt them down?
When Seth uploads it's always a good day 😊
On the unqualified expert's second example it probably stems more from larger creatures are harder to shove in move games. They just conflate "it will be hard" with "you can't"
I really admire your ability to be multiple people and do it well.
Your advice on eliminating "that" from my writing has CHANGED MY LIFE, and I can't not notice it. Any more writing advice you can give?
Thanks for making videos for us nerds. I've been the 'forever DM' now for a few years, and when I first started out, I used your guides and does and don'ts, and even if I still struggle with being a loot fairy, my players seem to be having fun. My contribution to this is the WTF player, not like WTF bad, just something so absurd and dumb I didn't plan for it, that's my player Gust in a nutshell but I love him
Awesome video! I will send this video to a few players in my group. They know who they are.
I admit, until my fighter can afford platemail and a silvered weapon... I am a copper thief...
my table was playing Kingmaker for PF2e and we were grubby little copper thieves taking every weapon and arrow off of every bandit and goblin corpse
Ooooo!!! I pretty recently found your channel, Seth, and after binging everything Call of Cthulhu and the tips/lists… and I have to say I’ve been floored at how informative, helpful and just all around top tier quality your content has been. So excited to be around for the new stuff from here on out!!
“How does your character know that” can be a very useful question
I'm very thankful that I don't have any of these in my group except for the number thrower, who has gotten way better about it after discussion. I just tell him to give me the final number once he has it. Then he can think out loud do his crunching and then when everything is done he now says "all right my total damage is blah".
Haven’t been getting Seth’s videos in my feed much recently, I’ve missed them a lot
It’s been nice seeing so many videos in such a short amount of time
I'm not so much a copper thief but a material thief, if I'm looking for something and you place it in front of me, then it is leaving the dungeon with me.
Once playing a necromancer and mainly used the majority of my undead to haul loot. We ran into a room full of chains, and a brokem bridge. The chains were looted, I summoned a bridge, and there wasn't a single door left in the entire place since they were all metal.
The handout bandit is easy for me. I make two copies one for the table and one for me. If they lose the player copy, I send a photo of my copy to a player group chat.
One of your best episodes! I love when you take on several roles!
Thanks Seth! Your videos are so authentic. Stay awesome!
0:40 - of course recognize dweebles and the crew ;)
Excellent video, Seth.
Thanks for sharing!
It's always great to see your videos, Seth c: I watched so much of your stuff you feel like a close friend now, despite never having met you in person.
I love how you built these characters for the skits. So much fun!
The editing of the character exchanges in these vids is really top notch. Good stuff, Seth!
Oh boy, the "Numbers thrower" would drive me up the wall for sure. Now, some particularly crunchy systems might have a lot of both static and circumstantial modifiers, but the player really should have all the static modifiers (the ones that won't change based on outside circumstances) worked out ahead of time, and then be able to ask if any circumstantial modifiers apply, which should be at least clear enough to ask through narration (like for example whether AP rounds are likely to change the math). Sometimes things get forgotten in the heat of the moment, but players should really strive to make those the exception of "dangit, I forgot to add +2 for X".
As for the "Unqualified Expert"...I may fall into that myself from time to time. Much as I pride myself in knowing the rules of a system, and as much as I try to say "I think" or "I'm pretty sure" when I'm not 100% certain, sometimes I am genuinely confident and believe I'm helping the others around the table and it turns out I'm wrong. Feels bad too.
Well done, Seth! My least favorite player trait is the chronically ill-prepared player, the one who can't be bothered to understand their own character.
I love all Seth Skorkowsky videos!
I love all Seth Sorkowksy videos! Keep up the great work, man. You're easily my favorite all things TTRPG channel, and it ain't even close.
Great content. I watched it! I will watch it again! I will go into the back catalog and rewatch old ones. Great old ones!
High quality evergreen content as always sir. I've always felt that one of the hidden lessons of Dnd is dealing with different personality types on a team.
My DM's setting was a living world so (minor) copper thieving was a way to squeeze gold out between large paydays that may or may not come depending on if we succeeded our jobs.
The majority of these I thank goodness have never had to deal with, except for the last one, a couple players I've had were the unqualified expert, fortunately they don't do it all of the time. When it got a little bit problematic, I got them to stop in their tracks and think twice about what they blurt out with the dreaded response, "Well it does now~", and I saved it for a moment when it would directly effect the offending player. Probably not the method I would personally recommend handling this situation, but when a player is being stubborn and assinine about rules lawyering when they don't actually know the rules that well, I found it got through their stubborn behavior problem better than me just trying to talk to them unfortunately, fortunately similar incident became far fewer in number thanks to this.
The *"handout thief"* is a problem I've never had. But I think it's for two reasons.
I don't provide handouts a whole lot, but when I do they're _notable,_ such as a 20 page journal or table-sized map or framed photos. (Aside from my current game where there's been quite a few, but...)
The other reason is that I'm a bit of a "control freak" when it comes to game items, character sheets, handouts, etc. I am pretty reliably the most organized person at any table. And with my latest game I've taken a lesson from an older Seth video and provided folders for each of my players. The folders have some reference sheets, info on leveling (we're playing 1E "new" World of Darkness), basic faction info, and of course their character sheet. And any handouts they've obtained.
After each session I make sure to collect the folders (and the dice I've provided in a communal rolling tray everyone can reach, and the pencils) and will "redistribute" handouts as makes sense. One player character is essentially the "lorekeeper" ... or _academic_ who does the majority of researching. So it makes sense for him to have the bulk of handouts as he's pretty good about reviewing them and sharing the info. But if he should fail to make it to the game (luckily a non issue with my current group, they're very reliable) I have the handouts and can ensure they're available. And that makes sense to me, because as the *Storyteller* there is no game if I don't show up.
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For the *Number Thrower* I usually only have that happen once with a player. Either I'll side-note what they tell me, then ask if they're done, or if there's other modifiers or such that need to be accounted for. I've never had to do this, but if I had someone like in the example, I might tell them, "I'm going with the first result you give me. If there's something you forgot, too bad. Either tell me a single result, or you don't get it all." But only for such an extreme example.
Also, for like the last decade I've mostly stuck with games that just don't have such things -- or if they do, it's very uncommon. Games with massive hp pools (or whatever the system calls the relative trait) really aren't my thing. Either the system is deadly because of the exceedingly slim HP (Often under 10 total), or it's something like Fate where you still have very little "HP" (Stress) but it regenerates entirely after combat and only something like Consequences stick around (but you get about 3 total). So damage is always small numbers and if somehow it's a big number, I don't have to do any math, the thing you attacked is dead or taken out or disabled, etc.
But I totally recall D&D from 3 to 4 to 5 being bad about this sort of stuff. And various D&D-likes such as Pathfinder.
Always love any upload by Seth.
Love these videos, well these, and everything else you release!
always a great day with a new Seth video
Always love a new seth video!
Great video! It’s fun to see Seth channeling the ghost of Paul Harvey with his seamless commercial- 😂
Great as usual! Numbers issue is sooo true ))
I love your sketch comedy, Seth.
Another great video!
You're not at all annoying and nothing you say is obviously stupid. I really appreciate that. Binge watching has been a pleasure. Thanks for all the videos. Cheers!
I feel like the Copper Thief is a product of playing games where each and every transaction was tracked xor players are routinely punished in the game mechanics for being broke.
Or this is their first TTRPG and all they have played are cRPGs
All of my players are copper thieves. With a penchant for crafting gear out of what they loot. Last campaign they used everything they could sell or scrounge to build an amphibious steam tank (they were shooting for an airship, but that was a later project). out of two heavy wagons. The first one they had bought as a starting piece of equipment and one i think they bought or looted. the amphibious part came when they realized they were going on a pirate adventure.
This is so well done.
I love in game accounting and game where ecomy is a major focus, but I'm also a business major.
"Unqualified experts" are trying to take over GMing the game.
BTW, apropos of nothing; I liked your yarn-festooned "Murder Wall", as some people call those conspiracy boards with the pictures connected by pins and red yarn (and it's ALWAYS red). I respect the detail of yours, after finding out they are hard to find as pre-made public domain images and building one from scratch for just a couple seconds of screen-time can be a daunting task. Kudos, wherever yours came from.
I enjoy all of Seth Skorkowsky videos
I just had vivid memories of gaming late into the night in my 20s and The Numbers Thrower being the sort of thing that let me know I was too tired to still be playing. Gaah.