1. Allow your paper man to have some flaws and limitations. 2. Take time to have your paper man communicate with the other players’ paper men. 3. Listen to the GM and players completely before spouting off. 4. Know the rules that affect your paper man and how they apply. 5. Make your paper man talk to several different NPCs, not just the first guy you see. 6. Plan - whether tactical, strategic or of your paper man’s life. 7. Give your GM the benefit of the doubt re: situations and plots. 8. Don’t make a loner paper man. People should need people. 9. Mins your own business and let other characters shine. 10. Missed it because I got distracted.
@@EasterTurkey Basically, that's a quick and easy way to create somewhat unique NPC on the fly: role once for how much they know about whatever the party wants to know, role another time for how honest they are. Fill in the blanks how you see fit and/or necessary (but the average party won't force u to do that -- but they might pick up that u always role twice when they start a conversation, which is one of the reasons I think idle roling (just role for roling's sake every once in a while) is a good idea).
@@schwarzeseis4031 I almost always know what my NPCs would know and the motivations determining whether they would mislead the party, and to what extent that sabotage would go. Parties rarely try to determine the trustworthiness so even if I don't know I can come up with such things on the fly.
i'm thoroughly enjoying that my players believe that everything my npc's tells them is true. putting schemes into action is the easiest ever. also my doppelganger is having a blast :D
Would you consider the following a mistake: Ignoring all the GM's plot hooks and available quests, and trying to force the story to be only about your character's backstory/ destiny while also ignoring what the other players want to do?
Omg yes! This is what caused one of our players to get kicked out of the campaign! We notified them so often of how annoying we found their behaviour, and our DM even had multiple conversations about that their behaviour needed to change. Nothing changed, so that was the end of their story
Holy shit I had this on in the background and then I heard “you players are waiting for the GM to feed you a story and she’s waiting for you to Roleplay!” And I genuinely thought he was talking about me and my group for a bit because I’m the GM and they’re causing huge problems tbh
11: Always being late for game night. 12: Getting angry out of game as soon as your character fails at something in game. 13: not showing interest for the game, between gamesassions other than sayng "oh im really hyped" when asked "are you even invested in this?" 14: Being overly "helpfull" always saying "do this and do that" to other players. Basicly trying to play their characters aswell. 15: Always making a "special snowflake" character... something extraordinary that no one has ever seen before. 16: insisting on being an evil character when the rest of the party is good/Making a character that doesent fit in with the party or story. 17: Whining.. if you arent having fun then either do something about it or step away from the game.. do NOT spend every session complaining about everything about the game. 18: Respect the Game Masters world and homebrewing.. there is a reason for him/her making them... Overly nagging or questioning them might force him to spoil parts of the plot or just loose intrest in GMing for you. 19: Not trying to have fun... if you come to gamenight with a bad attitude you wont have a good time.. if you come with a possitive attitude intent to have a good time, you will. 20: Not bringing your own dice, pen, notebook, snacks, drinks or what not.. just thinking you can take what you want from the rest of the group... dice are sacred..
YES! I made whole player notebooks for my players, with a pencil and pen for everyone, but I put my foot down at dice and snacks. All of my players showed up to session 0 without dice and I told them we were doing a short combat simulation to get a feel for the rules. Heck.
Honorable mention: Not taking notes. If you are blessed with a photographic memory and can remember every NPC name and Village and artifact name in your campaign, well done. Otherwise, WRITE STUFF DOWN!
A) Nobody has to look at them but you. B) Come up with your own spellings or 'nicknames' for stuff that are easier to spell as long as you can tie that back to the original name so as not to confuse your fellow PCs.
Holly, just because your character has an unreliable memory, that doesn't mean you can't take notes for other players to peruse. It helps you because you don't have to constantly relay information, it helps the rest of the party when they don't have to constantly ask what's going on, and it make the game that much better.
The first one... I agree so much I rolled up this character who was basically your average hero- Lawful good, kind hearted, cares for everyone and tries to save people, with the small flaw of anger issues. all was nice, then I started failing, I couldn't save that person, almost got the party killed a few times, basically, I was far from the noble hero I aspired to be. I ended up changing alignment and rewriting my flaw due to these events affecting my character "winning" might be fun, but character development is a lot more fun in my opinion
Seriously, ervery video of you that I watch just makes me want to play a game with you either as a GM or player, but you seem GREAT for roleplaying with. I'm sure I'll show this to my fellow comrades, and learn the best I can from it too (especially not trying to win)
Ah lack of communication. In a recent game, some people went down a rope ladder to a cave below a mine complex. Of course, there were giant rats waiting for them down there, so combat begins. Since only the people who went down the ladder had specified they entered the room so I made the rest of the party start the combat outside the room. Ranged players decided to start getting next to the hole to shoot the rats from above and help their friends in the room below. However, spending too much time near the hole, which was unstable came with a risk of falling down. so the first ranged player goes next to the hole, manages to not fall down, and then does not warn the rest of the party. One of the most vocal players chastises him for not warning the rest of the party... then on his turn this particular player does the exact same thing... It took a third player nearly falling in before the party was warned of the danger.
I love that you love Discovery AND The Orville, Guy!!! Discovery and Picard have their warts... But I watch them with my Sister, and we really get into it!
First of all, great content... Good job on the presentation... do continue. In my experience (and there's been a LOT since the 1e of AD&D... I still have a bunch of those btw...lolz)... 90% of all RPG issues come down to exactly MIS-COMMUNICATION... As a GM, one must be able to adequately explain the setting, and tell the story thus far... descriptive and clear. He or she must then be able to give enough information for the players to start making decisive action and then STFU... Let the players make those decisive actions... As a Player, one must be able to pay enough attention to get the details... ASK F***ing QUESTIONS! If you miss something because you're having a tough time hearing everything, point that out. If it's because someone else is "talking over" the GM or other players, point it out... BUT make it a point to understand where everything is and what everyone is doing. It makes the whole game run better and that's to say SMOOTHER when everyone at least TRIES to stay on the same page... WHEN you are making a decisive action, COMMIT. State what your character is doing, or what you intend to do... Justify it appropriately through the roleplay (including meta-gaming explanations) and throw the resulting roles as called for by the GM... Here's a Pro-Tip... (especially useful for GM's) but good for about everyone at the table... Coerce all the players to build, draw, paint, or scribble up a reasonable visual aid for their character(s)... Each character should get (as accompaniment to the traditional character sheet) a portrait of some kind. It's not expensive and doesn't have to be great "quality" but at least crudely specific to the character. Then you (as a group or anyone can step up for the task) can build little cardboard stands for these things and set them in front of the players so EVERYONE at the table knows who or what everyone else is... It's frustrating as hell when we (players or GM's) have more than one circle of friends or more than one campaign we're involved in going on... AND we can so easily forget that one certain player is THE ONLY "X"... There's a whole dynamic lost in the game in some circumstances, because even the GM has forgotten that there's a Drow in the party (and surface races HATE them absolutely)... Or that there's an Elf and a Dwarf in the same party, so there's supposed to be some friction... (LoTR much?)... Etc... It's not always the case, but a visual guide for each player can REALLY HELP avoid it. AND NO, there doesn't have to be a Rembrandt in the group to do everyone's sketches. The first drafts are usually going to be terrible representations of the characters because everyone's scratched together characters for this great campaign, and we REALLY REALLY want to move forward and get going... damnit! SO, just a figure with pointed ears and appropriate colored hair and eyes and a motif of dress is good enough to sell an "elf"...whatever... If you're in doubt, it's okay to scrawl "ELF" across the top just to be sure... Names can be added and a group decision can be agreed upon so everyone puts the right terms in the right places, because we're all supposed to know each other in the party... right? :o)
south africa!! i watched like 5 of your videos and didnt even recognise your accent, i was trying to figure out if it was british or australian lmao. the punchline is that im also south african
Both as a player AND GM with ADD, I am unfortunately guilty of losing focus or going on rabbit trails. Fortunately, my entire table is comprised of GM’s who are dear friends and who understand and can roleplay like no one I’ve ever seen! #gratefulgamemaster
I am guilty of the lack of attention. I bounce between rule books on my tablet or on my phone or my mind just wanders. I do feel that it is a 50/50 kind of thing. Either I get distracted looking up a rule to help a player or the GM. Or looking up a way to help get my character out of a pickle. Which is all on me. Then the flip side, I've played with GMs and Players who commit other big sins that cause me to check out. 2 things that GMs do that cause me to lose focus are the Lack of Engagement and Favoritism. Often they go hand in hand. The player sin is when we have a Minmaxing Gotta Win player who feels the NEED to be the biggest gun in the group. When a Invo-Sniper Warlock kills all the villains from miles away, it is easy to get bored. When you have players who get magical items that allow them to summon dragons and have god-tier armor while you are a Shifter-Ranger feeling fortunate enough to get a bag of gold to your name because the GM loves how that other player is modeled after Link from Legend of Zelda.... it is so easy to just think 'I wonder what fun stuff so'n'so is up to on Facebook?'
My favorite involvement yet has to be when our shady warlock was trying to setup his invisible minion in a store so that he and the rogue could rob it. I as a clueless and just paladin shuved the warlock into a corner and protected him with my body and shield. It was a fantastic robbery which the paladin had no idea he just helped happen. He later stayed alongside the priest to help the shop owner clean the mess and earn some points.
For the second point. I'd like to point out you can use that for some interesting role play if you use it properly. Such as the thief who is use to working alone, not adjusting well to suddenly having a team, so he preforms actions not realizing the rest of the party might not be on the same page.
I gm'ed rise of tiamat, and had to run a premade assasination attempt on the players, which the book detailed exactly what enemies and how many, for me to customise depending on the players and level. the attack wasn't meant to kill the characters, but get close. What could go wrong? Only the minmaxer player deciding to go on a 3 day trip to get some dragon slayer arrows and leaving behind the other player. I divided the attack evenly among them. Character left behind almost died and the minmaxer minmaxed his way out of the situation easily....
Hey man i rolled for stats and got three 16's two 17's and one 18, i didn't try to create a character with no weaknesses it just happened, I didn't play with those ridiculous stats but I still have the document saved for if we eventually do a tomb of annihilation
Absolutely agree on this. I have this one player in the group and she is always playing some random game on her phone while playing, or sometimes leaves the table to play with the cat. Everyone is annoyed by her, but she has always been a big part of the group so we can't just tell her. When she does pay attention she tends to hog the spot light and it's incredibly annoying to the other players and me as the DM.
TheGrimPaladin - my personal opinion would be that you HAVE to tell this player to stop doing these things, right now it might be a minor? Annoyance but eventually things might escalate to the point where you either have to drop that player or drop the game... How exactly to do this though is something that you and the other players who know her best need to figure out. Does she by any chance have ADHD? only asking mind you, because the discription sounds exactly like a player in my own group who has severe ADHD and for him these things are not really something that he has much control over
I will say though, if my character gets turned into an undead against my wishes, I will likely be upset unless it is thematic to my character, like if I'm a life cleric or something. Also, by Inari I wish I could get into a party that works like I imagine yours does, Mister Great GM, it would truly be something.
I am a variation of number 9, while not at a character level but at a player level I try to chime in on everything and can get quite dominating as a result
Well... On my online game using roll20... I'm always so distracted that when I come back in focus and ask what I missed, they said I pulled an "alelouya" and it became a running gag used every time someone isn't paying attention now XD
I realize this video is 5 years old, but I have to say, I'm writing all 10 of these into my rule book, lol. My players have all, at one time or another, broken every one of these rules. My daughter is the lone player on a different map from the others, her husband is the player who has to win and got literally angry with me for not allowing him to successfully attack my Dwarf king and sending him to the mines. I have one player who makes plans but doesn't share them, his wife tries to manipulate the narrative by asking what happens before she makes a roll. I think I have trained her to be a better player though. I gave her a journal from a defeated vampire she couldn't read and was forced to take it to The Library that no one ever visits and found out it's kind of my oracle. Most players run to the Bar Maid for rumors. Thanks for the list.
At a recent PFS game a player brought a rogue with some class-race-equipment combination that gave it the ability to surround itself with a functionally perpetual 60' sphere of magical darkness so he had concealment and always got his sneak attack with his nonsense 50% crit swords. It also BLINDED all other members of the party and he refused to stop using it, saying "Using this ability is what this character is built for" If the character is built around an ability that makes it so no one else who came can play the game: THEN DON'T BUILD THAT CHARACTER! And the module was set up to be a stealth/intrigue mission which everyone was excited for, so we all brought our rogues, hypnotists, inquisitors, etc, and he used this ability at the very start of the game, so nobody had a chance to use any ACTUAL stealth or intrigue because every enemy was immediately alerted over the giant black ball charging the property. In the second game, as soon as he activated the ability, all six other players returned to the entrance of the tomb and just did religion/history/linguistics/appraise checks on the glyphs and pottery at the tomb's entrance for the entire combat ( with a lot of fun RP ) and he finally agreed to stop using it.
Good on you that your entire group came together against this. The ability is interesting and lifesaving when used properly, but it does hinder the party far to much for normal combat.
As someone who has made a character or two that was trying to be involved in most (not usually all) things... it sometimes happens cause the other characters NEVER seem to let you do anything. Had a party where I was our resident natural expert... someone died and made a druid character and suddenly he is now doing everything I used to do cause he has a score of ONE HIGHER than I do. And the part doesn't even question it.
I’ve been complimented by almost every dm I’ve played with for my role playing, and I’m pretty sure it’s solely because I allow myself to fail. I love failing in d&d, it’s what makes a character a character rather than a protagonist. Every party member I’ve had plays d&d like blackjack: Dealer Vs The Table, and I think that’s why the other people at the table lose interest so quickly, Superman is not fun
Number six was epic, I always have this problem when I PC myself and now I got a good group of PC's, that is GM, that does make plans and call each other out on stupid moves and tell that healer to stay in the back.
On number 4, while it is a bit different I have had a similar annoying situation when trying to playtest my system. As one of the conditions for playtesting you would assume players would actually read the book. When one of the players showed me his character sheet, he had invested in skills that currently served no purpose for him. At a later point also, I of course got the "How do I do this?" 'What do these numbers mean?' type of questions without them attempting an interpretation of the rules. But the most annoying was when I had an NPC perform a particular action in combat and a player complained "I didn't know that was an option"
I think it would help a lot if you laid out a lot of these things for your players, especially if they’re new to RPGs because a lot of these things, or the need to go into more detail with things like planning or edit strategies, may simply not occur to less experienced players. I like the idea of running a “tutorial” adventure where you as the GM break the fourth wall and directly tell them ideas at different points in the adventure, focusing on things they may not think of, things that would get them more involved in the game then many players and illustrate the benefits of these things.
I made some mistakes like not interacting enough with NPCs, mostly because I don't know why my character would approach others unless he needs something out of them. But he's a social character, so I should do that more, he needs to make business connections :p I love roleplaying and so does my party, and we stay in character most of the time. Though I've noticed something the past few sessions; we don't relay information in character so much anymore. It's kinda sad because it's more fun to have the info in the character's interpretation instead of just "I relay the info to the party". I make the effort of doing it, but sometimes I feel like I get cut off a bit because they all heard the GM say the things I was informing them on. And on a related note, since I usually expect my party to either share or not share the info in character, I tend to not take notes of what happens when my character isn't around. He writes a journal in which he logs everything, but it's difficult when in the end I didn't pay attention at one point and the party member comes up to our group and goes "I share the info with the party". I also don't wanna write stuff my character doesn't experience, because why would he know? Another player in our group tends to persist even when he rolls badly on some things. We had a guide who was using what seemed like some kind of divination techniques to guide us, and he tried rolling insight but rolled poorly, and instead of just accepting that his character doesn't suspect anything he decided that "No, I still suspect him" and decided to use Detect Thought, which backfired (I think the DM was getting a bit fed up because he never knows when to quit). Otherwise, our group is tons of fun and I love it. But I notice lots of stuff like that here and there. We also record our games, so I can always go back and check how I play to fix myself if I need to.
Something I see quite often, is that people forget to have fun. This is a game. A fun game. However people can so easily slip into either “munchkin-ing” or being a rules lawyer. A good thing to do, is periodically ask yourself when you last laughed or smiled during a session. If the answer is little to zero frequency, then your priorities need a shift.
Not engaging, either role playing, or listening seems to be two sides of the same problem coin. And that happens when players aren't engaged in the story. Getting them involved, emotionally invested, in the story is, I think, part of the art of GMing. As for the mistake of not understanding the rules, out of sheer laziness, is a problem that happens quite a lot. The rules can be complicated, and people can say to themselves that they don't have time to learn the rules. But I know from personal experience that even with relatively simple rules systems, the players don't bother to learn the rules. You know what this results in? Theater of the Mind games. That becomes the preference. And TotM games have a subtle advantage for players. It is a tendency for the players to be coddled through conflicts by the GM. Yep. Because if you don't play by rules, then it leaves the GM responsible for any character deaths that might occur. The GM naturally doesn't want to lose their players, and so ... the tendency is to buffer on their behalf. And this leads to a pretty lousy side effect ... players get coddled and so they learn to play sloppy. Doesn't matter if they didn't prepare for the campaign, doesn't matter if they didn't do recon. Doesn't matter if they didn't align in a coherent marching order. They just play by the seat of the pants ... and always, somehow, win. Amazing isn't it? Theater of the Mind is what allows that to happen. It's great. Except the end result is players who have no idea how to prep, how to recon, how to engage in conflict in order to win. They just learn that the GM will buffer for them so they can not be bothered to put any effort into the thing. I think this goes a long way toward explaining many of the other issues that are on the list. The problem is that the GM doesn't enforce the rules, let PCs get themselves killed enough times to realize that they should really learn the rules, engage, and win by virtue of their skill, rather than relying on the GM to keep them alive regardless of whatever sloppy decisions they've made. I've been playing since 1978 and the only GMs who were worth their salt are the ones who enforced order on the players, played by their rules, and let the PCs get themselves killed by dint of the dice. All Theater of the Mind games I've played wound up, after a while, being a boring exercise in Let's Pretend, which usually devolved into games where players could be found playing with their cell phones rather than each other. Nuff said.
Vb Wyrde Think you for this comment. I use miniatures and battlemats for my campaigns. I hate when grognards laugh and say we don't use that crap we use our imagination. Try using Theater of the mind. I hate that attitude.
Oh i have one, don't create huge parts of the worldbuilding without letting the DM have a say in it or at least letting him know about it. I usually have the rule that the first player that plays a race i havent percisely defined yet has some say in its details. I have no problem throwing questions about something back to the player if i have nothing about it. But what i can not stand is a player that in the middle of a session invents huge worldbuilding storyblocks without asking the DM first. There are only two things i am in controll of, the "plot" and the "world" and i realy don't like it when player try to take it away. Maybe i am strange that way and it is just a personal pet peef of mine
As a player, I like writing such backstories, because they open a lot of potential for both world and character (I've created and destroyed kingdoms, cultures, and even new continents) but I 100% agree that such backstories should be run through the DM. asspulling major backstory details can only lead to a character not having the potential spotlight they desired, or in breaking the narrative
trusting the GM - the only time i have had a problem with this is when the gm was causing other issues, one specific player character was central to the plot, and as such, has plot armor- he died 4 times, but kept the same character throughout 5 iterations. meanwhile, any time i kicked the bucket, i had to make a new character, so i stopped trusting that the gm had any ideas aside from what this one player wanted to do.
About players role-playing with each-other : I just joined a 'Campaign' in the middle , replacing someone who left. Now the party is missing a Face character so I thought of filling that role, but I'm not as RL assertive as the character I had written and had to confront the situation where other characters/players talk over me when I'm talking IC (I don't think its an IC thing though), Part of it is obviously my bad and the situation. However I had thought about it more after talking to the rest of the players at the end of the session and looks like next session I'm going to have to engage in some "Social CvsC" to try to bring about some more meaningful and hopefully less rushed IC character interaction . Since role-playing are usually not about players playing what they already are : I wonder if you could offer some advice about playing characters who are smart when one is not the sharpest tool in the shed, or characters who are highly socially adept when one is not that assertively charismatic.
As a rule you should not play a character you cannot represent, it's like a child attempting to be a soldier - you need to understand the character in order to portray it realistically. Yes while a child could pretend to be a soldier, it's not convincing to anyone and it's obvious they don't know anything about military life. If you want to play a charismatic character, you need to have some understanding for people and take some time to work on your own charisma. If you want to play a mastermind tactician, you need to have a mind for tactics, because honestly no one enjoys - especially a GM when you have the dice play your character for you. Just because you have a high persuasion doesn't mean you can just roll a dice and say "I persuade the guard to give me his pants", because if all you have to bring to the table is your character's statistics - the party might as well replace you with a rulebook and a calculator.
Honorable mention: Making a loner character then being SO dedicated to that role that you straight up threaten to kill the other player's PC's in character, constantly run off, and REFUSE to role play unless it's to be mean to the other characters in character because that's just how you wrote this character. I play with some friends and one of them who joined later plays a tiefling rouge who has done all of the above. He also purposefully triggered an anxiety attack in my character, the team druid, which, by the way, he did moments before threatening to kill the druid for saying they don't scare them after they got over said anxiety attack. i dont like them very much.
#2 is very strong with my group, my character showed up later in the campaign as i had to fill a slot for a another player that left the group. As we are going past 40 or so hours worth of gametime i recently came to the conclusion that no one in the group knows a single thing about my character, They never ever bothered to told to him and ask any questions.
Watching this classic again. 10:00 mark I am pausing. I had one player cause a whole campaign to collapse because one player didnt trust me, the GM. Some unexpected player actions. Summary was I balance gameplay with roleplay. One player, who had a ship, playing a pirate style didnt want to go off in the island jungle on what he thought was a bad idea and discussed it in character. The reason others were going tromping in jungle was cause one player pure metagame logic that something must be out there. Pirate waited on ship with NPC crew, rest went away. I random rolled on my tables they encountered the highest CR (a 0.1% chance) encounter at eight CR over their level. Well I roleplayed very clear that do not fight this. Metagamer fought anyways that this must be boss baddie got killed despite rest going...NOPE! From a distance pirate guy saw this. Quite a few km off. Passed a note to me asking if it was okay to set sail. I said okay and he understood wouldnt be part of story for a bit. So eventually party gets back after a month gametime, but half a session in play to find pirate partying it up on a new and grand ships after selling party loot. This is where trust comes in. The world had a large naval aspect. Party had been saving and investing in getting a normal ship, but I was surprizing them with a grand custom ship to act like a mobile base. Take ship of the line made into a catamaran so it could sail the infinite lake (a gigantic river). I had fully planned next bit of adventure to cover and upgrade all the loot and new shinies to kick off the next epic since they had just finished last one and were doing a short filler. Metagamer didnt care. Interrupted everything, raising issues with "stole from party" and cant do this or that and just didnt get anything done that game. Got mad at pirate player. So now the Pirate said wasnt going to play any more and then other didnt want to play if pirate wasnt and thus, dead campaign. All cause didnt trust my decision.
Issue #3, sadly, isn't isolated to the game. Far too many individuals, in every day interactions, spend the majority of their time listening only to respond. Not to comprehend or understand. This is a trait rarely realized, let alone addressed even in typical social situations.
Where exactly in SA are you from? I did not expect that from your accent. I will be traveling to SA in a few months, if there is a storefront or place where this weaving is being done I would love the opportunity to swing by if I am close enough.
6:10 I full heatedly agree to this one as a GM i feel I'm very tolerant to many things and try to make the game fun and let them win. But a wizard not reading his spiels infuriates me to no end, they are the thinkers the joker card, and not caring brings the TPK or permanent horrifying way to die for that wizard while getting a lecture out of me the most.
"the joker card" -- Bannballadin! -- Dein Freund ich bin. Joker-spell from DSA (The Dark Eye) -- Available at level 1, hard to botch, cheap, takes one round to cast, makes the target see the caster as acquaintance (as opposed to, say, a mortal enemy who needs to be killed at all costs). I gonce got through an orc-guarded room (or trolls, not entirely sure anymore) using only this. Best. Spell. Ever. (along with FlimFlam, the torchlight-spell).
Story time about 7 (Not trusting the GM): in the campaign I'm playing, Bad Things Happened, 3/4 of the party fell in combat. My character didn't because, admittedly, he fights like a honorless coward (because he knows he can't be healed with ordinary healing magic. Fun times playing a dhampir). When he realized he couldn't do anything against the enemies, he bolted and went to ask for help. The following session, my character chose an NPC, controlled by another party member, to help with the rescue mission. Alas, he got himself infected with lycanthropy in that doomed battle. It was a full moon, the Beast became besties with his vampiric hunger... and he lost control of himself. The poor Cleric, not knowing what befell her companion, tried to use a spell to make him back off, but she didn't know that she was traveling with one of the living dead. "This spell does not affect Undead." He went berserk on her, and she couldn't even try to escape because he's faster than she was. He only regained control of himself after he had drank her dry. Major guilt trip, but he couldn't dwell on it. His friends needed help. So he infiltrated the enemy hideout alone... ...and got himself captured too. The DM: "well damn, now I don't know what to do with the story, is this a Game Over? What do I do now?" At first I was frustrated. That lycantropy curse was a blessing in disguise, because it gave my character what I was complaining about since the beginning: it allowed him to use his bite attack as a second attack, and made it a Finesse weapon, meaning I could finally use Sneak Attack on the bite. His story shouldn't end like that. And neither should the party: my character ran a solo rescue mission because half the party couldn't attend that session and my character unfortunately killed the person who was to help him. After grief and panic comes clarity. I sent the DM a message: "hey, what do you think of making an escape room puzzle, so that the campaign doesn't end and we have a chance to escape?" DM opened the vote for the others. "Guys, what do you want to do? End the campaign, reload from last save, try to rescue the party playing as the NPCs, or an escape room?" The escape room was the most voted. We played, and we triumphed. Trust goes both ways. If the DM didn't trust us to help with ideas when he got stumped, that would be a bad ending for everyone involved. But I'm glad he listened to player feedback and suggestions and that resulted in the campaign moving forward.
I’m guilty of number 7, for sure. Our GM is new and has been trying to fit lots of cool things into the game without enough regard to whether we can solve that riddle or defeat that monster. So when he had the BBEG one-shot my LG cleric of life and bring her back as an undead, I was furious. To me she was broken and I didn’t want to play her anymore. But I decided that as much as she would hate it, it would make her even more determined to beat the BBEG. In the end she had a great moment where she met her god and he granted her the gift of life again because of her loyal service. So I should haven given him the benefit of the doubt.
Something that gets old rather quickly as well, is not learning the shapes of the dice. I understand most people are more familiar with the d6 and the other exotic shapes can be confusing, especially if you have to roll them in a hurry, but after two years, I expect my players to be able to tell the difference between a d10 and a d8...
Because most people are more familiar with a d6 as its used in a ridiculously huge number of board games, whereas the other dice denominations tend to be less common. If you have someone who is either brand new or relatively new to the game, they've either not seen other dice for the former or have had very little experience with them for the latter. Its going to take some time for them to be completely familiar with the dice and realize that, visually, its obvious which is a d12 and a d10, a d8 and a d10, a d5 and a d8, etc. On the other hand, if its someone who's been playing for a long time and still somehow doesn't know the difference, that sounds to me like either 1) apathy 2)cognitive problems or 3) vision problems.
As a history buff, I must instinctively hate your chainmail because it's butted, not riveted. There's no historical evidence of butted ringmails (and they suck as protection. They break for nothing). That said, loved the video! ^^
Oh yes, I've used butted maille as well, since it's way way cheaper. Mostly for LARPing though, as it looks really anachronistic in any kind if historical setting. It's definitely a cheaper (albeit not cheap) alternative.
As somebody who actually makes chainmail, that's clearly soldered mail. If it was butted you'd be able to clearly see gaps in the links with how close the camera is.
I think in cases where we are playing a fantasy game riddled with anachronisms and impossibilities, an inaccurate piece of armor worn just for fun is entirely acceptable. I get where you're coming from though. If the item in question was a cheap sword, I would be more concerned with safety more than anything!
Biggest one I have regularly: Building your character as a set of stat blocks that's supposedly "missing" from the group. This happens ALL the time with players that learned gaming either through MMOs or modular GMs. It's not as glaring with D&D but it is a huge problem I come across as someone that runs WoD and CofD. Player: "Well, I'd prefer to be an Ahroun but there's no Theurge in the pack so I guess I'll do that." No, no, no, NO! If the GM is running a campaign that is dependent on players having very specific roles/classes/whatever that the players don't have, then it is a BAD campaign. I'm sorry. I'm not saying players shouldn't play to the setting that they are being offered, but not every trap is only solved by rogues, not every tome is only read by wizards, and not every combat needs a high damage dealing fighter! If you're coming late into a game where the players are missing a staple role in a party, and your first thought is, "Oh no! I need to fix this!" Stop, just stop.
I got into a one shot last night with 6 player characters. I found it was getting harder to pay attention during the second fight because it was taking so damn long. I totally zoned out and missed when the other characters killed one of the enemies. My bad...
My brother once had this fighter named “Diesel,” it‘s kind of funny looking back at how bad Diesel was as a character. No dialogue, always trying to “win.” The entire party had to restrain Diesel once because he kept shooting his crossbow at a group of Griffins for no reason. I distinctly remember my thief taking damage because Diesel broke their nose during a metagame argument my brother and I had. I actually made friends in school by recounting to them just how bad Diesel was.
+Totally Legit Gaming [TLEG] As somebody who's makes chainmail: t's not butted it's soldered mail. If it was butted you've be able to see the gaps in the mail with how close his camera is.
on the point of number 10: I once played with a guy who literally stopped paying attention mid-action, he rolled to hit a monster and then before the GM could ask him to roll damage he was on his phone
Do you have a video on how to solve the problem of everyone talking on top of eachother, and the whole thing becomes so chaotic you can't get a word in edgewise without shouting, nor hear half of what is said? I've see you point at the problem of not doing anything, but my group tend to discuss purely the game (thankfully), but everyone is so eager they all talk at the same time, and we only stop when the DM dings the (recently aquired) stop-bell cuz HE needs to say something. lol It's impossible to not contribute to the problem as well, because if you don't try to drown out the rest, you never get any say in anything. Is there a better way to handle that? Do you have a video on it?
1. Allow your paper man to have some flaws and limitations.
2. Take time to have your paper man communicate with the other players’ paper men.
3. Listen to the GM and players completely before spouting off.
4. Know the rules that affect your paper man and how they apply.
5. Make your paper man talk to several different NPCs, not just the first guy you see.
6. Plan - whether tactical, strategic or of your paper man’s life.
7. Give your GM the benefit of the doubt re: situations and plots.
8. Don’t make a loner paper man. People should need people.
9. Mins your own business and let other characters shine.
10. Missed it because I got distracted.
bring a Pint of good stout to your GM -- all will be well.
Nice.
Perfect, I screenshot this. I think I'll frame it and hang it in the game room
Honorable mention: believing that everything any NPC tells you is true
What do you mean they're betraying the party? We've been nothing but nice!
@@EasterTurkey Basically, that's a quick and easy way to create somewhat unique NPC on the fly: role once for how much they know about whatever the party wants to know, role another time for how honest they are. Fill in the blanks how you see fit and/or necessary (but the average party won't force u to do that -- but they might pick up that u always role twice when they start a conversation, which is one of the reasons I think idle roling (just role for roling's sake every once in a while) is a good idea).
@@schwarzeseis4031 I almost always know what my NPCs would know and the motivations determining whether they would mislead the party, and to what extent that sabotage would go. Parties rarely try to determine the trustworthiness so even if I don't know I can come up with such things on the fly.
@@EasterTurkey Good for you, then :) I know you need to be a good GM to do so.
Which is why I rely on my tricks^^
i'm thoroughly enjoying that my players believe that everything my npc's tells them is true. putting schemes into action is the easiest ever. also my doppelganger is having a blast :D
Would you consider the following a mistake:
Ignoring all the GM's plot hooks and available quests, and trying to force the story to be only about your character's backstory/ destiny while also ignoring what the other players want to do?
Screw this, I'm opening a haberdashery!
mdiem Certainly, D&D advice channels make videos about how shouldn’t do that, it ruins the fun for other people.
Don't give me flashbacks about one of my players
What is this heresy...
Omg yes! This is what caused one of our players to get kicked out of the campaign! We notified them so often of how annoying we found their behaviour, and our DM even had multiple conversations about that their behaviour needed to change. Nothing changed, so that was the end of their story
I am so glad I play with people who love roleplay. One session, we didn't even start the dungeon because we were so engaged in eachother's characters.
The (poor) DM just dat there watching us.
Holy shit I had this on in the background and then I heard “you players are waiting for the GM to feed you a story and she’s waiting for you to Roleplay!” And I genuinely thought he was talking about me and my group for a bit because I’m the GM and they’re causing huge problems tbh
"number 10: not paying attention" *laughs nervously while putting away phone that I was playing a game on*
11: Always being late for game night. 12: Getting angry out of game as soon as your character fails at something in game. 13: not showing interest for the game, between gamesassions other than sayng "oh im really hyped" when asked "are you even invested in this?" 14: Being overly "helpfull" always saying "do this and do that" to other players. Basicly trying to play their characters aswell. 15: Always making a "special snowflake" character... something extraordinary that no one has ever seen before. 16: insisting on being an evil character when the rest of the party is good/Making a character that doesent fit in with the party or story. 17: Whining.. if you arent having fun then either do something about it or step away from the game.. do NOT spend every session complaining about everything about the game. 18: Respect the Game Masters world and homebrewing.. there is a reason for him/her making them... Overly nagging or questioning them might force him to spoil parts of the plot or just loose intrest in GMing for you. 19: Not trying to have fun... if you come to gamenight with a bad attitude you wont have a good time.. if you come with a possitive attitude intent to have a good time, you will. 20: Not bringing your own dice, pen, notebook, snacks, drinks or what not.. just thinking you can take what you want from the rest of the group... dice are sacred..
Soldarc Weimer One of my friends likes to play weird assholes. He tried to steal an ally Jedi's lightsaber
I can only imagine how well THAT went for him...
YES! I made whole player notebooks for my players, with a pencil and pen for everyone, but I put my foot down at dice and snacks. All of my players showed up to session 0 without dice and I told them we were doing a short combat simulation to get a feel for the rules. Heck.
Honorable mention: Not taking notes. If you are blessed with a photographic memory and can remember every NPC name and Village and artifact name in your campaign, well done. Otherwise, WRITE STUFF DOWN!
My spelling is so bad I never take notes of any kind.
A) Nobody has to look at them but you.
B) Come up with your own spellings or 'nicknames' for stuff that are easier to spell as long as you can tie that back to the original name so as not to confuse your fellow PCs.
I learnt to take notes fairly early on after i forgot something fairly important oopsies
Holly, just because your character has an unreliable memory, that doesn't mean you can't take notes for other players to peruse. It helps you because you don't have to constantly relay information, it helps the rest of the party when they don't have to constantly ask what's going on, and it make the game that much better.
I agree. Unfortunately my DM only allowed note taking if it was done In character, and the character I usually play is illiterate..
The first one... I agree so much
I rolled up this character who was basically your average hero- Lawful good, kind hearted, cares for everyone and tries to save people, with the small flaw of anger issues. all was nice, then I started failing, I couldn't save that person, almost got the party killed a few times, basically, I was far from the noble hero I aspired to be.
I ended up changing alignment and rewriting my flaw due to these events affecting my character
"winning" might be fun, but character development is a lot more fun in my opinion
Never trust a smiling DM
He has plans.
This DM is always smiling.
Good luck.
That's me. I smile to throw my players off. They try to metagame and when I smile then nothing happens they go insane.
Taking DM questions at face value. They're planning how to best give you hell. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Seriously, ervery video of you that I watch just makes me want to play a game with you either as a GM or player, but you seem GREAT for roleplaying with. I'm sure I'll show this to my fellow comrades, and learn the best I can from it too (especially not trying to win)
I think most of these apply not just in DnD, but in life in general. Thanks for the life lessons.
A perfect character is a character with depth and interesting things.
8:54 Believing in one another; that's essential...
Ah lack of communication. In a recent game, some people went down a rope ladder to a cave below a mine complex. Of course, there were giant rats waiting for them down there, so combat begins.
Since only the people who went down the ladder had specified they entered the room so I made the rest of the party start the combat outside the room. Ranged players decided to start getting next to the hole to shoot the rats from above and help their friends in the room below. However, spending too much time near the hole, which was unstable came with a risk of falling down. so the first ranged player goes next to the hole, manages to not fall down, and then does not warn the rest of the party. One of the most vocal players chastises him for not warning the rest of the party... then on his turn this particular player does the exact same thing... It took a third player nearly falling in before the party was warned of the danger.
Man, my players started planning this week. It was glorious.
Having a tablet is nice to have all the rulebooks/splatbooks/ect. However, I rather prefer thumbing through pages of real books.
can't highlight search a book though, and lots of papers get in the way if you have a small table unfortunately. But in general I agree
Hehe.... You are wonderful!! Agree with everything!! I hope I'll be an ok pc bard... Wow... I need to hear more. Thank you!!
man I love how passionate you are
I love that you love Discovery AND The Orville, Guy!!! Discovery and Picard have their warts... But I watch them with my Sister, and we really get into it!
Glad to see you like the Orville. I have been very surprised at how much I like it.
First of all, great content... Good job on the presentation... do continue.
In my experience (and there's been a LOT since the 1e of AD&D... I still have a bunch of those btw...lolz)... 90% of all RPG issues come down to exactly MIS-COMMUNICATION...
As a GM, one must be able to adequately explain the setting, and tell the story thus far... descriptive and clear. He or she must then be able to give enough information for the players to start making decisive action and then STFU... Let the players make those decisive actions...
As a Player, one must be able to pay enough attention to get the details... ASK F***ing QUESTIONS! If you miss something because you're having a tough time hearing everything, point that out. If it's because someone else is "talking over" the GM or other players, point it out... BUT make it a point to understand where everything is and what everyone is doing. It makes the whole game run better and that's to say SMOOTHER when everyone at least TRIES to stay on the same page... WHEN you are making a decisive action, COMMIT. State what your character is doing, or what you intend to do... Justify it appropriately through the roleplay (including meta-gaming explanations) and throw the resulting roles as called for by the GM...
Here's a Pro-Tip... (especially useful for GM's) but good for about everyone at the table... Coerce all the players to build, draw, paint, or scribble up a reasonable visual aid for their character(s)... Each character should get (as accompaniment to the traditional character sheet) a portrait of some kind. It's not expensive and doesn't have to be great "quality" but at least crudely specific to the character. Then you (as a group or anyone can step up for the task) can build little cardboard stands for these things and set them in front of the players so EVERYONE at the table knows who or what everyone else is...
It's frustrating as hell when we (players or GM's) have more than one circle of friends or more than one campaign we're involved in going on... AND we can so easily forget that one certain player is THE ONLY "X"... There's a whole dynamic lost in the game in some circumstances, because even the GM has forgotten that there's a Drow in the party (and surface races HATE them absolutely)... Or that there's an Elf and a Dwarf in the same party, so there's supposed to be some friction... (LoTR much?)... Etc... It's not always the case, but a visual guide for each player can REALLY HELP avoid it.
AND NO, there doesn't have to be a Rembrandt in the group to do everyone's sketches. The first drafts are usually going to be terrible representations of the characters because everyone's scratched together characters for this great campaign, and we REALLY REALLY want to move forward and get going... damnit! SO, just a figure with pointed ears and appropriate colored hair and eyes and a motif of dress is good enough to sell an "elf"...whatever... If you're in doubt, it's okay to scrawl "ELF" across the top just to be sure... Names can be added and a group decision can be agreed upon so everyone puts the right terms in the right places, because we're all supposed to know each other in the party... right? :o)
Just wanted to say I love your channel. I love your delivery and enthusiasm and your advice makes sense. Thank you!
These videos are great! This isn’t just advice for RPGs, it’s advice for LIFE.
Absolutely loved it and agree. Thank you with all of my heart.
Sincerely,
Alicia from Sweden.
Sorry, can you repeat that? I wasn't paying attention.... ;)
th-cam.com/video/brDO1mx4SUo/w-d-xo.html
*looks up from phone* sorry, what?
I love your profile pic.
“What was that?” ;)
south africa!! i watched like 5 of your videos and didnt even recognise your accent, i was trying to figure out if it was british or australian lmao. the punchline is that im also south african
Double punchline, I'm South African too...
Wait what was the last one again I got distracted ??
Both as a player AND GM with ADD, I am unfortunately guilty of losing focus or going on rabbit trails. Fortunately, my entire table is comprised of GM’s who are dear friends and who understand and can roleplay like no one I’ve ever seen! #gratefulgamemaster
I swear I never would have expected that voice to come out of that face
hotdiggedydemon I'm a fan of your videos and art. Just wanted to reply as I did not know you watch videos relating to D&D, that's awesome
You mean the voice of majesty from the face of godlike beauty?
I havent seen you since the .mov days! nice to see your still around
Woah, look whos here
I am guilty of the lack of attention. I bounce between rule books on my tablet or on my phone or my mind just wanders. I do feel that it is a 50/50 kind of thing. Either I get distracted looking up a rule to help a player or the GM. Or looking up a way to help get my character out of a pickle. Which is all on me. Then the flip side, I've played with GMs and Players who commit other big sins that cause me to check out.
2 things that GMs do that cause me to lose focus are the Lack of Engagement and Favoritism. Often they go hand in hand.
The player sin is when we have a Minmaxing Gotta Win player who feels the NEED to be the biggest gun in the group. When a Invo-Sniper Warlock kills all the villains from miles away, it is easy to get bored. When you have players who get magical items that allow them to summon dragons and have god-tier armor while you are a Shifter-Ranger feeling fortunate enough to get a bag of gold to your name because the GM loves how that other player is modeled after Link from Legend of Zelda.... it is so easy to just think
'I wonder what fun stuff so'n'so is up to on Facebook?'
My favorite involvement yet has to be when our shady warlock was trying to setup his invisible minion in a store so that he and the rogue could rob it. I as a clueless and just paladin shuved the warlock into a corner and protected him with my body and shield. It was a fantastic robbery which the paladin had no idea he just helped happen. He later stayed alongside the priest to help the shop owner clean the mess and earn some points.
Your videos are all so insightful. I find them very helpful!! 😁
For the second point. I'd like to point out you can use that for some interesting role play if you use it properly. Such as the thief who is use to working alone, not adjusting well to suddenly having a team, so he preforms actions not realizing the rest of the party might not be on the same page.
Several insightful points.
I gm'ed rise of tiamat, and had to run a premade assasination attempt on the players, which the book detailed exactly what enemies and how many, for me to customise depending on the players and level. the attack wasn't meant to kill the characters, but get close. What could go wrong?
Only the minmaxer player deciding to go on a 3 day trip to get some dragon slayer arrows and leaving behind the other player. I divided the attack evenly among them.
Character left behind almost died and the minmaxer minmaxed his way out of the situation easily....
Hey man i rolled for stats and got three 16's two 17's and one 18, i didn't try to create a character with no weaknesses it just happened, I didn't play with those ridiculous stats but I still have the document saved for if we eventually do a tomb of annihilation
Absolutely agree on this. I have this one player in the group and she is always playing some random game on her phone while playing, or sometimes leaves the table to play with the cat. Everyone is annoyed by her, but she has always been a big part of the group so we can't just tell her. When she does pay attention she tends to hog the spot light and it's incredibly annoying to the other players and me as the DM.
TheGrimPaladin - my personal opinion would be that you HAVE to tell this player to stop doing these things, right now it might be a minor? Annoyance but eventually things might escalate to the point where you either have to drop that player or drop the game...
How exactly to do this though is something that you and the other players who know her best need to figure out.
Does she by any chance have ADHD? only asking mind you, because the discription sounds exactly like a player in my own group who has severe ADHD and for him these things are not really something that he has much control over
I love your videos, they are teaching me how to be a GM, and I was wondering if you could make some tips for NPC love interests in the near future?
I will say though, if my character gets turned into an undead against my wishes, I will likely be upset unless it is thematic to my character, like if I'm a life cleric or something.
Also, by Inari I wish I could get into a party that works like I imagine yours does, Mister Great GM, it would truly be something.
I am a variation of number 9, while not at a character level but at a player level I try to chime in on everything and can get quite dominating as a result
Video starts at 1:26
Well... On my online game using roll20... I'm always so distracted that when I come back in focus and ask what I missed, they said I pulled an "alelouya" and it became a running gag used every time someone isn't paying attention now XD
I had this on a playlist and as soon as the first chord sounded I was ready to listen to phantom of the opera
I realize this video is 5 years old, but I have to say, I'm writing all 10 of these into my rule book, lol. My players have all, at one time or another, broken every one of these rules. My daughter is the lone player on a different map from the others, her husband is the player who has to win and got literally angry with me for not allowing him to successfully attack my Dwarf king and sending him to the mines. I have one player who makes plans but doesn't share them, his wife tries to manipulate the narrative by asking what happens before she makes a roll. I think I have trained her to be a better player though. I gave her a journal from a defeated vampire she couldn't read and was forced to take it to The Library that no one ever visits and found out it's kind of my oracle. Most players run to the Bar Maid for rumors. Thanks for the list.
At a recent PFS game a player brought a rogue with some class-race-equipment combination that gave it the ability to surround itself with a functionally perpetual 60' sphere of magical darkness so he had concealment and always got his sneak attack with his nonsense 50% crit swords. It also BLINDED all other members of the party and he refused to stop using it, saying "Using this ability is what this character is built for"
If the character is built around an ability that makes it so no one else who came can play the game:
THEN DON'T BUILD THAT CHARACTER!
And the module was set up to be a stealth/intrigue mission which everyone was excited for, so we all brought our rogues, hypnotists, inquisitors, etc, and he used this ability at the very start of the game, so nobody had a chance to use any ACTUAL stealth or intrigue because every enemy was immediately alerted over the giant black ball charging the property.
In the second game, as soon as he activated the ability, all six other players returned to the entrance of the tomb and just did religion/history/linguistics/appraise checks on the glyphs and pottery at the tomb's entrance for the entire combat ( with a lot of fun RP ) and he finally agreed to stop using it.
Good on you that your entire group came together against this. The ability is interesting and lifesaving when used properly, but it does hinder the party far to much for normal combat.
As someone who has made a character or two that was trying to be involved in most (not usually all) things... it sometimes happens cause the other characters NEVER seem to let you do anything.
Had a party where I was our resident natural expert... someone died and made a druid character and suddenly he is now doing everything I used to do cause he has a score of ONE HIGHER than I do. And the part doesn't even question it.
I lack a chain mail shirt. That is the first time I have ever uttered those words. Must buy!
I’ve been complimented by almost every dm I’ve played with for my role playing, and I’m pretty sure it’s solely because I allow myself to fail. I love failing in d&d, it’s what makes a character a character rather than a protagonist. Every party member I’ve had plays d&d like blackjack: Dealer Vs The Table, and I think that’s why the other people at the table lose interest so quickly, Superman is not fun
Number six was epic, I always have this problem when I PC myself and now I got a good group of PC's, that is GM, that does make plans and call each other out on stupid moves and tell that healer to stay in the back.
On number 4, while it is a bit different I have had a similar annoying situation when trying to playtest my system.
As one of the conditions for playtesting you would assume players would actually read the book.
When one of the players showed me his character sheet, he had invested in skills that currently served no purpose for him.
At a later point also, I of course got the "How do I do this?" 'What do these numbers mean?' type of questions without them attempting an interpretation of the rules.
But the most annoying was when I had an NPC perform a particular action in combat and a player complained "I didn't know that was an option"
I think it would help a lot if you laid out a lot of these things for your players, especially if they’re new to RPGs because a lot of these things, or the need to go into more detail with things like planning or edit strategies, may simply not occur to less experienced players. I like the idea of running a “tutorial” adventure where you as the GM break the fourth wall and directly tell them ideas at different points in the adventure, focusing on things they may not think of, things that would get them more involved in the game then many players and illustrate the benefits of these things.
I made some mistakes like not interacting enough with NPCs, mostly because I don't know why my character would approach others unless he needs something out of them. But he's a social character, so I should do that more, he needs to make business connections :p
I love roleplaying and so does my party, and we stay in character most of the time. Though I've noticed something the past few sessions; we don't relay information in character so much anymore. It's kinda sad because it's more fun to have the info in the character's interpretation instead of just "I relay the info to the party". I make the effort of doing it, but sometimes I feel like I get cut off a bit because they all heard the GM say the things I was informing them on.
And on a related note, since I usually expect my party to either share or not share the info in character, I tend to not take notes of what happens when my character isn't around. He writes a journal in which he logs everything, but it's difficult when in the end I didn't pay attention at one point and the party member comes up to our group and goes "I share the info with the party". I also don't wanna write stuff my character doesn't experience, because why would he know?
Another player in our group tends to persist even when he rolls badly on some things. We had a guide who was using what seemed like some kind of divination techniques to guide us, and he tried rolling insight but rolled poorly, and instead of just accepting that his character doesn't suspect anything he decided that "No, I still suspect him" and decided to use Detect Thought, which backfired (I think the DM was getting a bit fed up because he never knows when to quit).
Otherwise, our group is tons of fun and I love it. But I notice lots of stuff like that here and there. We also record our games, so I can always go back and check how I play to fix myself if I need to.
#1 mistake made by GURPS players: treating the disadvantage cap as a goal instead of a maximum limitation, often resulting in unplayable characters.
loved the palm pun.
Something I see quite often, is that people forget to have fun. This is a game. A fun game. However people can so easily slip into either “munchkin-ing” or being a rules lawyer.
A good thing to do, is periodically ask yourself when you last laughed or smiled during a session. If the answer is little to zero frequency, then your priorities need a shift.
Top notch man, great video
Being involved in everything... We called it "The boots of being there"
Where did you get you cloak? i love it
Not engaging, either role playing, or listening seems to be two sides of the same problem coin. And that happens when players aren't engaged in the story. Getting them involved, emotionally invested, in the story is, I think, part of the art of GMing.
As for the mistake of not understanding the rules, out of sheer laziness, is a problem that happens quite a lot. The rules can be complicated, and people can say to themselves that they don't have time to learn the rules. But I know from personal experience that even with relatively simple rules systems, the players don't bother to learn the rules. You know what this results in? Theater of the Mind games. That becomes the preference. And TotM games have a subtle advantage for players. It is a tendency for the players to be coddled through conflicts by the GM. Yep. Because if you don't play by rules, then it leaves the GM responsible for any character deaths that might occur. The GM naturally doesn't want to lose their players, and so ... the tendency is to buffer on their behalf. And this leads to a pretty lousy side effect ... players get coddled and so they learn to play sloppy. Doesn't matter if they didn't prepare for the campaign, doesn't matter if they didn't do recon. Doesn't matter if they didn't align in a coherent marching order. They just play by the seat of the pants ... and always, somehow, win. Amazing isn't it? Theater of the Mind is what allows that to happen. It's great. Except the end result is players who have no idea how to prep, how to recon, how to engage in conflict in order to win. They just learn that the GM will buffer for them so they can not be bothered to put any effort into the thing.
I think this goes a long way toward explaining many of the other issues that are on the list.
The problem is that the GM doesn't enforce the rules, let PCs get themselves killed enough times to realize that they should really learn the rules, engage, and win by virtue of their skill, rather than relying on the GM to keep them alive regardless of whatever sloppy decisions they've made.
I've been playing since 1978 and the only GMs who were worth their salt are the ones who enforced order on the players, played by their rules, and let the PCs get themselves killed by dint of the dice. All Theater of the Mind games I've played wound up, after a while, being a boring exercise in Let's Pretend, which usually devolved into games where players could be found playing with their cell phones rather than each other.
Nuff said.
Vb Wyrde Think you for this comment. I use miniatures and battlemats for my campaigns. I hate when grognards laugh and say we don't use that crap we use our imagination. Try using Theater of the mind. I hate that attitude.
A really nice video , some mistakes am i stil doing :D
Oh i have one, don't create huge parts of the worldbuilding without letting the DM have a say in it or at least letting him know about it. I usually have the rule that the first player that plays a race i havent percisely defined yet has some say in its details. I have no problem throwing questions about something back to the player if i have nothing about it. But what i can not stand is a player that in the middle of a session invents huge worldbuilding storyblocks without asking the DM first. There are only two things i am in controll of, the "plot" and the "world" and i realy don't like it when player try to take it away. Maybe i am strange that way and it is just a personal pet peef of mine
As a player, I like writing such backstories, because they open a lot of potential for both world and character (I've created and destroyed kingdoms, cultures, and even new continents)
but I 100% agree that such backstories should be run through the DM. asspulling major backstory details can only lead to a character not having the potential spotlight they desired, or in breaking the narrative
Love this video omg... I seriously relate!
Another great subject.
Your outfit here is so extra and I love it hahaha
trusting the GM - the only time i have had a problem with this is when the gm was causing other issues, one specific player character was central to the plot, and as such, has plot armor- he died 4 times, but kept the same character throughout 5 iterations. meanwhile, any time i kicked the bucket, i had to make a new character, so i stopped trusting that the gm had any ideas aside from what this one player wanted to do.
About players role-playing with each-other : I just joined a 'Campaign' in the middle , replacing someone who left. Now the party is missing a Face character so I thought of filling that role, but I'm not as RL assertive as the character I had written and had to confront the situation where other characters/players talk over me when I'm talking IC (I don't think its an IC thing though), Part of it is obviously my bad and the situation.
However I had thought about it more after talking to the rest of the players at the end of the session and looks like next session I'm going to have to engage in some "Social CvsC" to try to bring about some more meaningful and hopefully less rushed IC character interaction .
Since role-playing are usually not about players playing what they already are : I wonder if you could offer some advice about playing characters who are smart when one is not the sharpest tool in the shed, or characters who are highly socially adept when one is not that assertively charismatic.
As a rule you should not play a character you cannot represent, it's like a child attempting to be a soldier - you need to understand the character in order to portray it realistically. Yes while a child could pretend to be a soldier, it's not convincing to anyone and it's obvious they don't know anything about military life.
If you want to play a charismatic character, you need to have some understanding for people and take some time to work on your own charisma. If you want to play a mastermind tactician, you need to have a mind for tactics, because honestly no one enjoys - especially a GM when you have the dice play your character for you. Just because you have a high persuasion doesn't mean you can just roll a dice and say "I persuade the guard to give me his pants", because if all you have to bring to the table is your character's statistics - the party might as well replace you with a rulebook and a calculator.
Honorable mention: Making a loner character then being SO dedicated to that role that you straight up threaten to kill the other player's PC's in character, constantly run off, and REFUSE to role play unless it's to be mean to the other characters in character because that's just how you wrote this character.
I play with some friends and one of them who joined later plays a tiefling rouge who has done all of the above. He also purposefully triggered an anxiety attack in my character, the team druid, which, by the way, he did moments before threatening to kill the druid for saying they don't scare them after they got over said anxiety attack.
i dont like them very much.
#2 is very strong with my group, my character showed up later in the campaign as i had to fill a slot for a another player that left the group. As we are going past 40 or so hours worth of gametime i recently came to the conclusion that no one in the group knows a single thing about my character, They never ever bothered to told to him and ask any questions.
...did you just say you were from South Africa
i see very little youtubers from my country so this is very pleasing
Where can I get that glorious dice necklace? Did you make it yourself?
Well said.
Watching this classic again. 10:00 mark I am pausing. I had one player cause a whole campaign to collapse because one player didnt trust me, the GM. Some unexpected player actions. Summary was I balance gameplay with roleplay. One player, who had a ship, playing a pirate style didnt want to go off in the island jungle on what he thought was a bad idea and discussed it in character.
The reason others were going tromping in jungle was cause one player pure metagame logic that something must be out there. Pirate waited on ship with NPC crew, rest went away. I random rolled on my tables they encountered the highest CR (a 0.1% chance) encounter at eight CR over their level.
Well I roleplayed very clear that do not fight this. Metagamer fought anyways that this must be boss baddie got killed despite rest going...NOPE! From a distance pirate guy saw this. Quite a few km off. Passed a note to me asking if it was okay to set sail. I said okay and he understood wouldnt be part of story for a bit.
So eventually party gets back after a month gametime, but half a session in play to find pirate partying it up on a new and grand ships after selling party loot.
This is where trust comes in.
The world had a large naval aspect. Party had been saving and investing in getting a normal ship, but I was surprizing them with a grand custom ship to act like a mobile base. Take ship of the line made into a catamaran so it could sail the infinite lake (a gigantic river). I had fully planned next bit of adventure to cover and upgrade all the loot and new shinies to kick off the next epic since they had just finished last one and were doing a short filler.
Metagamer didnt care. Interrupted everything, raising issues with "stole from party" and cant do this or that and just didnt get anything done that game. Got mad at pirate player. So now the Pirate said wasnt going to play any more and then other didnt want to play if pirate wasnt and thus, dead campaign. All cause didnt trust my decision.
Issue #3, sadly, isn't isolated to the game. Far too many individuals, in every day interactions, spend the majority of their time listening only to respond. Not to comprehend or understand. This is a trait rarely realized, let alone addressed even in typical social situations.
Where exactly in SA are you from? I did not expect that from your accent. I will be traveling to SA in a few months, if there is a storefront or place where this weaving is being done I would love the opportunity to swing by if I am close enough.
6:10 I full heatedly agree to this one as a GM i feel I'm very tolerant to many things and try to make the game fun and let them win.
But a wizard not reading his spiels infuriates me to no end, they are the thinkers the joker card, and not caring brings the TPK or permanent horrifying way to die for that wizard while getting a lecture out of me the most.
"the joker card" -- Bannballadin! -- Dein Freund ich bin.
Joker-spell from DSA (The Dark Eye) -- Available at level 1, hard to botch, cheap, takes one round to cast, makes the target see the caster as acquaintance (as opposed to, say, a mortal enemy who needs to be killed at all costs). I gonce got through an orc-guarded room (or trolls, not entirely sure anymore) using only this. Best. Spell. Ever. (along with FlimFlam, the torchlight-spell).
*The Orville is amazing .*
Forgetting disengaging can be an action saw a lot of downs from PCs facing 3 creatures with pack tactics
Story time about 7 (Not trusting the GM): in the campaign I'm playing, Bad Things Happened, 3/4 of the party fell in combat. My character didn't because, admittedly, he fights like a honorless coward (because he knows he can't be healed with ordinary healing magic. Fun times playing a dhampir). When he realized he couldn't do anything against the enemies, he bolted and went to ask for help.
The following session, my character chose an NPC, controlled by another party member, to help with the rescue mission. Alas, he got himself infected with lycanthropy in that doomed battle. It was a full moon, the Beast became besties with his vampiric hunger... and he lost control of himself.
The poor Cleric, not knowing what befell her companion, tried to use a spell to make him back off, but she didn't know that she was traveling with one of the living dead. "This spell does not affect Undead." He went berserk on her, and she couldn't even try to escape because he's faster than she was. He only regained control of himself after he had drank her dry.
Major guilt trip, but he couldn't dwell on it. His friends needed help. So he infiltrated the enemy hideout alone...
...and got himself captured too.
The DM: "well damn, now I don't know what to do with the story, is this a Game Over? What do I do now?"
At first I was frustrated. That lycantropy curse was a blessing in disguise, because it gave my character what I was complaining about since the beginning: it allowed him to use his bite attack as a second attack, and made it a Finesse weapon, meaning I could finally use Sneak Attack on the bite. His story shouldn't end like that. And neither should the party: my character ran a solo rescue mission because half the party couldn't attend that session and my character unfortunately killed the person who was to help him.
After grief and panic comes clarity. I sent the DM a message: "hey, what do you think of making an escape room puzzle, so that the campaign doesn't end and we have a chance to escape?"
DM opened the vote for the others. "Guys, what do you want to do? End the campaign, reload from last save, try to rescue the party playing as the NPCs, or an escape room?"
The escape room was the most voted. We played, and we triumphed.
Trust goes both ways. If the DM didn't trust us to help with ideas when he got stumped, that would be a bad ending for everyone involved. But I'm glad he listened to player feedback and suggestions and that resulted in the campaign moving forward.
Sorry, the question. How to integrate this aspect of a character but still be inflexible when it comes to right and wrong?
lol palm we use to say people were poking on q rock when they were playing on there phones at the table XD
I’m guilty of number 7, for sure. Our GM is new and has been trying to fit lots of cool things into the game without enough regard to whether we can solve that riddle or defeat that monster. So when he had the BBEG one-shot my LG cleric of life and bring her back as an undead, I was furious. To me she was broken and I didn’t want to play her anymore. But I decided that as much as she would hate it, it would make her even more determined to beat the BBEG. In the end she had a great moment where she met her god and he granted her the gift of life again because of her loyal service. So I should haven given him the benefit of the doubt.
Yes, all of this!
Something that gets old rather quickly as well, is not learning the shapes of the dice. I understand most people are more familiar with the d6 and the other exotic shapes can be confusing, especially if you have to roll them in a hurry, but after two years, I expect my players to be able to tell the difference between a d10 and a d8...
Because most people are more familiar with a d6 as its used in a ridiculously huge number of board games, whereas the other dice denominations tend to be less common. If you have someone who is either brand new or relatively new to the game, they've either not seen other dice for the former or have had very little experience with them for the latter. Its going to take some time for them to be completely familiar with the dice and realize that, visually, its obvious which is a d12 and a d10, a d8 and a d10, a d5 and a d8, etc. On the other hand, if its someone who's been playing for a long time and still somehow doesn't know the difference, that sounds to me like either 1) apathy 2)cognitive problems or 3) vision problems.
As a history buff, I must instinctively hate your chainmail because it's butted, not riveted. There's no historical evidence of butted ringmails (and they suck as protection. They break for nothing). That said, loved the video! ^^
Totally Legit Gaming [TLEG] i was about to write the same thing
Oh yes, I've used butted maille as well, since it's way way cheaper. Mostly for LARPing though, as it looks really anachronistic in any kind if historical setting. It's definitely a cheaper (albeit not cheap) alternative.
As somebody who actually makes chainmail, that's clearly soldered mail.
If it was butted you'd be able to clearly see gaps in the links with how close the camera is.
Actually, butted mail actually existed; however, it was much less effected and extremely rare.
I think in cases where we are playing a fantasy game riddled with anachronisms and impossibilities, an inaccurate piece of armor worn just for fun is entirely acceptable.
I get where you're coming from though. If the item in question was a cheap sword, I would be more concerned with safety more than anything!
Biggest one I have regularly:
Building your character as a set of stat blocks that's supposedly "missing" from the group.
This happens ALL the time with players that learned gaming either through MMOs or modular GMs. It's not as glaring with D&D but it is a huge problem I come across as someone that runs WoD and CofD.
Player: "Well, I'd prefer to be an Ahroun but there's no Theurge in the pack so I guess I'll do that."
No, no, no, NO! If the GM is running a campaign that is dependent on players having very specific roles/classes/whatever that the players don't have, then it is a BAD campaign. I'm sorry.
I'm not saying players shouldn't play to the setting that they are being offered, but not every trap is only solved by rogues, not every tome is only read by wizards, and not every combat needs a high damage dealing fighter!
If you're coming late into a game where the players are missing a staple role in a party, and your first thought is, "Oh no! I need to fix this!" Stop, just stop.
Sweet chainmail!
This was a great video
planning is something our groups are good at. The benefits of playing with engineers lol
This guy channels Sir David Attenborough so well it's scary.
I've been guilty of 9, on occasion. I usually catch myself, though!
I got into a one shot last night with 6 player characters. I found it was getting harder to pay attention during the second fight because it was taking so damn long. I totally zoned out and missed when the other characters killed one of the enemies. My bad...
My brother once had this fighter named “Diesel,” it‘s kind of funny looking back at how bad Diesel was as a character. No dialogue, always trying to “win.” The entire party had to restrain Diesel once because he kept shooting his crossbow at a group of Griffins for no reason. I distinctly remember my thief taking damage because Diesel broke their nose during a metagame argument my brother and I had. I actually made friends in school by recounting to them just how bad Diesel was.
Is that legit riveted chainmail or is it more for larping? it looks legit but dunno what steel he used
It's butted, so not legit. A real maille would be riveted.
+Totally Legit Gaming [TLEG]
As somebody who's makes chainmail: t's not butted it's soldered mail. If it was butted you've be able to see the gaps in the mail with how close his camera is.
I can’t read the handbooks, I have adhd and I’m an auditory learner plus I have trouble learning unless it’s hands on
Yes, but is the mail riveted or butted?
*Is it butted Chainmail or riveted Chainmail ?*
on the point of number 10: I once played with a guy who literally stopped paying attention mid-action, he rolled to hit a monster and then before the GM could ask him to roll damage he was on his phone
That's some epic level lack of attention there.
Huh... What is pizza in South Africa like? Oh and great video.
Do you have a video on how to solve the problem of everyone talking on top of eachother, and the whole thing becomes so chaotic you can't get a word in edgewise without shouting, nor hear half of what is said?
I've see you point at the problem of not doing anything, but my group tend to discuss purely the game (thankfully), but everyone is so eager they all talk at the same time, and we only stop when the DM dings the (recently aquired) stop-bell cuz HE needs to say something. lol
It's impossible to not contribute to the problem as well, because if you don't try to drown out the rest, you never get any say in anything. Is there a better way to handle that? Do you have a video on it?