"i have killed countless people. I know I just gave a number but it is countless because I can't count" lol

@BAVy11037

Ай бұрын

A thousand? That's like... more than four?

@isabeanie81

Ай бұрын

@@BAVy11037Is this a Watership Down reference?

@JoeyStalley

Ай бұрын

Most accurate depiction of a veteran on this channel tbh

I am pretty sure the alpha combat guy went to one of those bootcamps and thought that’s what combat is.

@alphons1456o

Ай бұрын

Those alpha bootcamps that are done in a parking lot where the trainers have their certificates printed in the same place psychics get their "licenses"?

@shadiafifi54

Ай бұрын

​@@alphons1456oyeah it felt pretty much like that Internet tough guy/online veteran meme writ large

@scribbled2573

Ай бұрын

The ones where they pay to get yelled at for 3 days while they roll in the mud. Wanted to be a vet and ended up a sub.

@darcodraconius9140

Ай бұрын

The only thing i agree is re-rolling initiative. Makes it more dinamic

@danielbont2331

Ай бұрын

@darcodraconius9140 Probably because he stole that from someone else. I’ve heard that from a lot of people.

"Realistic" combat is weird because like, the hell your players supposed to do when someone experienced with a sling comes by.

@TheAerialAce

Ай бұрын

I like your profile pic :3

@rubberdinghy7708

Ай бұрын

Pebble through skull go brrrrrrr

"It's actually countless men because I can't count" not sure if you meant to cut the bit off like that but it's still hilarious

@CrispysTavern

Ай бұрын

The monologue continued for about 30 seconds more but I thought that was the best bit.

@nerdorama009

Ай бұрын

Strong ProZD editing vibes and I mean that as the highest compliment

I'm related to an ex-Armed Forces and huge nerd. I am 1000000.98% certain he never wants combat in his hobbies that is even remotely like what he experienced irl.

@Allantitan

Ай бұрын

Yeah no I can see that. I mean irl combat has been known to cause things like ptsd plus there’s a chance he lost a few friends in combat

@glenngriffon8032

Ай бұрын

Because people who have experienced a real fight against someone that was genuinely trying to end them don't like to be reminded of the experience. I've had my life put in danger by nature a few times in my life, been caught out in hurricanes and got caught off guard by a flash flood. Even when i realized that my life might end in that situation it didn't really faze me. But when I had my life threatened by a _person_ i was more terrified than I have ever been, ever. Nature is indifferent. It merely is. It does not want to end you but it will simply because it is not intelligent. There is no will or mind. A person is different. This is someone that thinks and feels and has will and motive and they have _decided_ to endager you. Even just thinking about it disturbs me all over again. The only people who really enjoy "combat" are people who do it as a form of play.

@KeitieKalopsia

Ай бұрын

You would think that’d be the case, right? Real life-or-death combat causes trauma that most don’t want to relive. It’s highly probably that the guy giving the speech never actually made it to the field and is essentially cosplaying someone who did.

"D&D combat isn't realistic." GOOD!

I actually had a friend who was a former Ranger, did renactment festivals, and both played and DM'd our group. He _never_ talked about the combat he'd seen. When he did talk about his military service, it was only training incidents and other light-hearted things.

@twilightgardenspresentatio6384

Ай бұрын

That’s an actual veteran

Awww! Hey, my sister was the one who wrote "Burnt out", and I'm Bunny! I really expected you to use me in a skit like I was naive or something, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear you call me an angel at the end of the video. 🥰 It was really sweet of you and... I'm pretty sure I was JUST starting middle school for that campaign, too, so I was like... 12...? Ish? 13? I don't remember what year exactly lol. But yes, my Dming is going wonderfully! (Minus a few dropouts) My sister (who wrote the Burnt Out story) I'll call Hemlock for her character. Our session started with four people. Lion, who I'll call Uemron, (as his character is named such) as a black dragonborn rogue/monk. Hemlock plays a rock gnome rogue(detective variety) with pink hair and the tallest dimmadome tophat in existence... Armulyn, a half-dragon half-aasimar (Don't worry, I nerfed it) bard/rogue who thinks he's a druid... And Sirlyre, our resident min-max tiefling fighter who recently took a level in paladin! A month or so before we started playing, Armulyn asked if his two friends from online school could play with us. (We met through online school during covid) and I said sure. I don't recall their characters very well, but there was a half-elf ranger and a tiefling.... Something. Unfortunately, neither of them were very present during sessions and I had to have a talk with them since scheduling changed and they didn't seem to be having much fun. Unfortunately they had to leave and neither of them have responded to any messages from me or Armulyn. 😅 Moving forward, we spend a good..... Year? Almost a year by now with just those core 4, and I've come to really love the dynamic between them all. They're all a bit murder-hobo-y, but so far they all have their character flaws and motivations that just kind of... Click. A month or so back, Sirlyre's girlfriend wanted to join, so I had to go through the internal panic of "wait, how do I write her in? Do I have time? Is there room in the party?? Scheduling???" It was a lot for my social anxiety brain to handle at first, but we figured it out. I've had the entire campaign fleshed out via level achievements for the past two years now. XD Uemron has definitely been a bit of a pain at times, but we had a talk about how the players see his actions and he's doing much better. :) Thank you so much for reading my sister's story, I'm sure she greatly appreciated it. :P

Holy cow, you actually read my story! (Burnt Out) I thought it would've been too long for sure, but here we are. To add some missing context, the Unicorn wasn't given at level 1, lol. I think it was more level 5 or 10, since I jumped in in the middle of it. I don't recall the actual drama between Host and his GF. I think I assumed cheating, but your Mafia idea sounds way better. Especially since I never saw him again...🤔 Also, after some digging through memories, the Host story was actually in my SENIOR year of High School. So it was after the VTT story. Not super important, but my bad. One detail I left out about Bunny's character was she chose a custom background (that I think we pulled from WikiDot) called something like "Curse of Beauty". So her character was considered very beautiful, and it could help her get into good favors with NPCs. The bandits she released were "striken by her beauty" into being reformed... at least, thats how I reasoned it in my head. That Bhaal skit 🤣. That's honestly very accurate. Thank you again for reading it, it was a blast to see your reactions.😊

@JunieBug

Ай бұрын

Don't forget that I was obsessed with your DMPC, sis. :P I found his goat obsession to be the cutest thing XD I distinctly remember making a ditty about it during the festival date. Ace Bard over here XD

"Go back to mastering your dungeon" LOL

Alpha Combat Story. Back in the day we did roll Initiative on every combat round in every RPG we played that had it. I believe a lot of people over the years/ decades have dropped this to help speed up things a little.

@wargriz8213

Ай бұрын

Yea, in the current rules rolling every turn for init would slow down so much while complicating any persistent effects: I.e. you go last in a round, stun the target until your next turn and then roll a 20 on initiative and the effect ends immediately.

@gromplin

Ай бұрын

@@wargriz8213Yeah that genuinely sounds garbage… I understand that it complicates strategy, which could be a GOOD thing, but the fact that it negates 80% of the strategy without giving you the chance to bypass it (by using SKILL/planning), it really does go from “interesting and unpredictable” to “frustrating and useless” extremely quickly.

@jordanhunter3375

11 күн бұрын

If the DM has a 2- or 3-phrase battle planned, he could have the players roll Initiative 2/3 times before combat starts and record the secondary and tertiary rolls for when the later phrases start

@davidtherwhanger6795

10 күн бұрын

@@jordanhunter3375 That still has the DM deciding when a particular Phase of the battle starts and stops and having the DM keep track of who gets Initiative at that point. Which all negates the Players actually gaining the advantage of Initiative. Only in a Meeting Engagement, an Encounter where both sides just run into each other, should Initiative even be rolled to see which side recovers from the shock first. Any other Encounter where one side had clear knowledge that the other side was coming, but that other side did not know about the first (say in an ambush); the side with the knowledge should start with the Initiative. No dice roll. From there it should be determined by Actions, not dice rolls. Taking out a key, powerful unit on one side; or just knocking them prone for a round; should swing Initiative to your side or cement it for a couple of rounds at least. Forcing the other side on the defensive, forcing a group of them on the flank to retreat or pull back, should do so as well. And just let the flow of the battle determine Initiative.

"Press X to doubt" My group uses that so often, we shorten it to "X" (and sometimes "Twitter" for obvious stupid reasons)

The smile that appeared on my face hearing my story in the intro is something I'll probably never be able to replicate again. Perfect way to cheer me up after a god-awful day at work.

as someone who has a kid that is 12 and loves DnD- I feel that DM about feeling anxious because their younger brother would wheedle them constantly about when next session is. We've only been able to play a few times, mostly one shots I've run for him, my partner, and a few friends... it's almost every day that he will (somewhat jokingly, but not completely) bring up 'DnD WHEN?' and it's like..... dude, these are all adults with adult lives and it's a one shot, soooo I don't know. I keep telling him he needs to do the legwork and get together some friends of his that he'd like to play with and I'd run it for them since... you know... kids are more likely to have some time to work with.

Funny you mention re-rolling initiative! That’s actually how Shadowrun works. After each combat turn initiative is re-rolled, but to be fair it does make sense in the system itself.

@thanatos5150

Ай бұрын

And characters can have multiple turns in a round! Low Initiative rolls in a round may give you fewer passes! It's important!

@Arufonsa1

Ай бұрын

@@thanatos5150 and subtracting from initiative allows for particular actions. There are some cool interactions with the mechanic.

@thanatos5150

Ай бұрын

@@Arufonsa1 Gods, I love Shadowrun.

@Arufonsa1

Ай бұрын

@@thanatos5150 Same gonna start a game in a couple weeks. Very excited to get back to it.

@Lee-zc1qz

Ай бұрын

Savage Worlds (and associated systems, like Deadlands) also do this.

20:36 Your skit reminds me of when I was younger and played the DM in a campaign... Not just ran it, but had a DM entity in the game, somewhat inspired by the old D&D cartoon. I placed a dagger of DM slaying in a treasure horde and informed the players they could usurp me and become the DM by slaying my DM character in game. Nobody ever did though, good group of people, lol.

- "This is how you can make D&D combat more grim and realistic!" Me: PLAY F.A.T.A.L.

@easiestcc6451

Ай бұрын

Rule 1 of TTRPG Club: We don't talk about FATAL

@CooperAATE

Ай бұрын

No thanks, I choose life

@robbietoe

Ай бұрын

NOPE. DO NOT.

@GoblinWife

Ай бұрын

Bringing that game up should be a ban-able offense. Also, it’s not a realistic system.

@rommdan2716

Ай бұрын

You want grim and realistic combat, WELL THERE IS!!! THAT'S YOUR REALISTIC MEDIEVAL SETTING, AND IT SUCKS, IT F**KING SUCKS, HAPPY NOW?!!!

The sketches! I can't 😂 DM appearing and making him good JFC I'm dead 😂💀

Hey now my character in Witchlight had a unicorn companion from level 1! She got a really great deal on it too. No you can't touch the horn...he's sensitive... what do you mean its a cardboard tube?? (yea we got some extra starting gold and I used it to buy a pony... with a cardboard tube glued to his forehead)

Love how much mileage you're getting out of that BG3 music

@bossked1563

Ай бұрын

Beautiful soundtrack

“I am a trained navy seal, with over 129 confirmed kills. I have slain COUNTLESS men.I know I just gave a number, but it’s actually countless men because I can’t count.” Dude you just made me spit out my drink. Might be my favourite skit you’ve done and I’m only just over 5 minutes in.

To be fair, the concept of rerolling initiative every round is something called speed factor, or "pit fighting initiative" as I've heard it described

@Captaincory1

Ай бұрын

I believe it is an optional rule in the DMG as well

@ElenaAideen

Ай бұрын

Rerolling each round was the gold standard in nearly all TTRPGs until the late 1990s. It's not a new idea at all.

Intro story: Every party will, at some point, make an absolutely baffling decision. If they’re lucky, it won’t even get anyone killed! Here’s hoping the finale of this campaign goes well! First story: I don’t think D&D is really the game for this guy. In fact, I don’t think most game combat systems are for him. I think he just wants to LARP, or get into wrestling or boxing or some other combat sport. On the topic of rerolling initiative every round, though, it’s been done in a lot of systems, and I don’t think it would work at my table, but I can definitely see it working for different groups. I think it’s really a matter of individual preference, which makes it all the sillier that this guy is preaching about how it should be done universally. Second story: Oof, that sounds like a rough first time. Try not to get too discouraged, OP; you’re new at this, and a lot of what happened was beyond your control. It’s going to get better, I promise. Third story, part one: Yikes; poor Chara! You’d think “hey, let’s not remind this person of the time they were HIT BY A FREAKING CAR” would be an easy thing to listen to. I hope Chara and Tina were able to find a group that didn’t go out of their way to be jerks. Third story, part two: This is less of a horror story and more of a tragedy. That game sounded like loads of fun, and it sucks that it had to end like that. (I wish I could get my little sister to try D&D, but she’s always been way too busy…) Third story, part three: I’m glad things are going better for you now, OP, and I’m especially glad Bunny was able to keep going with D&D. It’s always nice to see a happy ending.

@paysonwright117

Ай бұрын

Second story OP here... I'm trying.

@tsifirakiehl4250

Ай бұрын

@paysonwright117 You can do it! I believe in you!

@Naosu_Shikkan

Ай бұрын

Intro story OP here, too. The finale went about as well as it could've, I think. The BBEG did nearly kill a party member, but thanks to some surprising quick thinking from brand new players, they managed to save him at the last second. Though now that it's all said and done, I might submit another story about the rampant cheating problem that happened in the middle of the campaign. I just need to write it in an interesting fashion.

@tsifirakiehl4250

Ай бұрын

@Naosu_Shikkan Congratulations on the successful campaign ending, and I’m sorry you had to deal with the cheating.

Intro story: "I'm making a game based on a story I'm writing..." Oh no... "...all the players are new..." Oh no! "...*one of* my DMPCs" Oh NO!

@Naosu_Shikkan

Ай бұрын

Pretty poor phrasing on my part, I won't lie. Thankfully, I've been around the block enough to know how D&D should work and that the party still has to play the game. If I could rewrite that story, I'd change the phrase "one of" to just "my" since that character only ever accompanied them to the final battle. I only called him that since he was the "leader" of the group, but was rendered useless by a broken leg for the first half of the campaign. There were other characters who went on quests with them, but I never let anyone steal the show, of course.

@davidspring4003

Ай бұрын

@@Naosu_Shikkan fair enough. But you have to admit, any one of these three things are extremely common in rpg horror stories, and are often bad enough with *one* DMPC. Hence my growing apprehension with each one. With the context of the story proper, it's not nearly as bad as the three elements combined could have been.

@Naosu_Shikkan

Ай бұрын

@@davidspring4003 I'm glad I found this channel long before I decided to try DMing. Things could've ended pretty badly, I'm sure.

Re-rolling initiative for a new phase sounds neat. If I do run a game in the future, I might try that out :D

Okay, as far as the NPC debate goes, just follow H.Bomberguy's advice: if something is cool, you let the player do it. My last session, I had an NPC helping my crew. He found an underground passage others had missed (so the plot could happen), but stayed out of the fight because of trauma (though, had they asked, he would definitely have come help them. No one *did*, and they had a difficult fight, but the reigns were in the players' hands). NPCs don't kill the BBEG. They move the plot. They offer aid in healing, buffs, and distractions.

DMPCs can be good. My party has two we interact with pretty regularly. Garron, Captain of the largest city’s Griffin Guard and Berick, leader of a band from a monster hunting organization. They ASSIST us when they’re around. They obviously help in combat but we as PCs can do kore damage but they have fun flair moves they can do to fill in niches our party doesn’t hit. In role play they help us, guiding us to the “correct” conclusions and pointing our oversights we have in our plan. A shining moment was when we were down and out in a large fight, things looked bleak. Garron arrived with a squad of Griffin Guards and turned the tide enough that we could pull through. We had two PCs hit 0hp, Garron almost died, and half the Griffin Guards died. It was a good example of DMPCs can be good.

I swear you can always tell who isn't paying attention, like in that opening story. They really think they're slick despite all evidence to the contrary. 😅

Absolutely loved your advice to that new Pathfinder DM! 😊I have a feeling they'll create some wonderful adventures for their friends.

If I may: D&D Nerds INCLUDES Tech Nerds, But not every D&D Nerd is a Tech Nerd. Leave some space for us Theater Kids. Thanx.

TBF the "points" made in story 1 are why I kinda like the Shadowrun 5e combat (once you are able to finally hold the rules for it in your head after weeks of obsessive page-turning bc holy hell the layout of those books) Re-rolling initiative and having armor/dodge be separated and not reliant on Dex/Agility make for a fun game (when it's part of the core game design not as a bolt-on). I especially like how a character specced into initiative can effectively replicate The Flash or David from Edgerunners in a fight, taking more turns than any other goon on the field.

So on that whole "Re roll initiative constantly" thing, I actually created a specifc encounter with that as a central mechanic. But the reason it is because the opponent in question is a manifestation of madness and chaos. Thus everything about them is meant to be mad and insane.

When someone brags about something they've done, they haven't. If someone was in the special forces and saw action there is a non zero percent chance that is might be classified.

Back in the late 80's - early 90's combat "realism" was all the rage. There were systems like Phoenix Command where you could literally spend hours calculating seconds of combat, and everyone was dead or dying at the end.

@brittanybecker170

Ай бұрын

"Your party is walking down a road aaaaaand an ied went off, Roll for nothing because you're just all dead."

In terms of the whole "Rerolling Initiative Every Round" it is something that has to be cleared before any game, and it honestly sounds like it'd make most combats into a bigger slog. Like, in Tier 1 or Tier 2 of play, might be manageable, but get to higher levels. Most people are already throwing so many dice around and turns take ages. Adding another dice roll complicates things, and it makes it harder to plan.

Only 18 seconds late! New top speed 😎 Can't wait to see what's you got, you never disappoint 🙏

First time I catch one of these on the day of. Woo being caught up! I should send in the story of Licking The Death Bird sometime. Summary of it is: Do not lick the god of death. It does not go well

“I know I just gave a number but it’s actually countless men … cos I can’t count”

Congrats on the new apartment! I hope you enjoy it.

when I was in high school and running a game with some friends, I THOUGHT you were supposed to reroll imitative every round! NO! This wastes time. I could see that being interesting in some phases, maybe something happens during combat, and players have to reroll.

"What game realistically simulates combat?" Last time I checked, GURPS has multiple sets of rules for more realistic and more stylized combat depending on GM and player preferences and the setting.

I am a combat veteran. That guy honestly sounded like one of those militia chodes that thinks combat is protesting to keep their Artillery pieces and shoot them off whenever.......

When it said "betrayed his girlfriend" I assumed he watched a netflix show without her.

Funny thing is that backin 1st edition AD&D, you rerolled initiative and you also had to say what you were doing before you rolled.

I don’t have initiative rolls. Actions have initiative scores. You act on that turn when you choose that action. Saves time and allows planning. Everyone shares turns, the faster wins ties.

In the olden days Cyberpunk 2020 had more realistic combat that was still fun. I've heard the Witcher RPG uses similar mechanics for a fantasy setting but haven't tried it so I'm not sure on that.

::gritty, thousand yard-stare:: "... combat experience...."

If I remember correctly. Way back in the 1st and 2nd ed, you declared your action for the turn THEN rolled initiative each turn. It made combats a lot more strategy based and gave the Hold Action mechanic a lot more use. You couldn't say "I'll keep attacking because Cleric can heal me on their turn before the monster attacks and kills me".

You know the funny thing, I *KNOW* an Army veteran who has seen war and guess what... He didn't care that D&D wasn't realistic combat, in fact, he was a lot more strategic and we listened to his judgement to best suit the group dynamic in big battles, even the GM was cool with it.

I use an app on my phone to reroll initiative every round. I have predefined list for the party and can easily add/remove monsters or environmental/neutral. Can do rolled or static, advantage/disadvantage, per each individually. Lists what everyone rolled and just go from top to bottom, then hit the next round button at the bottom. Tells me how many rounds passed since start too. Keeps everyone more engaged because anyone could be next, and sometimes you get fun things like a bad guy going back to back or a player doing so (when they are last one round and first the next).

16:00 Or mayhaps Ex told Host a sercet that she made him vow to keep, and he not only broke that promise, not only told it to people that had *NO* business knowing it, but told it disrespectfully and nonchalantly

For the last story I definitely agree dmpcs can be done well as someone who uses them in all my games and have been told by my players they like them

I've played a few systems where initiative changed each round for various reasons. Savage Worlds springs to mind.

For a moment I thought you wrote "veteran" wrong on that thumbnail...then I saw the googly eyes and realized it was intentional.

I’m loving the skits in this one!

In the Everyday Heroes RPG (5E based) AC uses your class's primary stat, instead of strictly DEX. If you're an INT class, your AC uses your INT mod, because you're allegedly smart enough to plan ahead. I feel like it works pretty well.

5:57: Because I can't count! hahaha

That last story was interesting. I could see a DM with that setup being tempted to pull a Saving Private Ryan kind of drama turn near the end with the bandits they spared coming back to bite them, but, would that have been inappropriate considering the players?

Initiative was originally meant to be rolled every round. In first edition, both sides would roll once per side. Whichever side won would go first. Once everyone on that side went, it was the other side's turn. Initiative was then rolled again and it would go from there.

I have played in some games years ago that did things like roll new initiative every round. There can be benefits to it, as it changes things up in a way where the order isn't so predictable, it can change up things so it's not such a pattern. But it also is more work and it slows things down. If you want to make the combat less predictable, try it. It can be fun. But ultimately the groups I'm in have decided that it's not worth the extra time and confusion it creates. I have played in 2e and 3e games with someone who required us to declare what we intended to do, when we rolled initiative. If the situation changed by the time your turn came around so that the action you planned is not possible or not beneficial, you do nothing that turn. It's pretty harsh. That said, it was still fun. It makes combat a great deal more challenging. One thing that I would recommend if you try this, is give people who roll best on initiative the option to delay their action until after someone else's. Like, say, if the rogue is going first, but knows the fighter intends to attack the person the rogue was planning to attack, allow the rogue to delay their turn until after the fighter, so that the rogue can possibly flank and get advantage. Personally I'm more into character interaction and development than combat, so I'm happier with the more forgiving rules in 5e combat. But I don't think there's anything wrong with the above ways of making things more challenging if you want to focus more on tactics and run a more dangerous game.

Combat experience!! Totally not LARPing. 😂

Unisystem might be something that the combat dude probably might like.

Honest talk. Until recently, I always misunderstood the "Theyre the same picture" meme to represent someone who, due to some deeply-rooted bias or ignorance or what have you, is unable to tell the difference between two distinct topics, even when told there is one.

I had good results with rerolling initiative every round - in irl games - in virtual tabletops it just made things too messy. With a pause after every Round for initiative and everyone coming together to roll things felt way more engaged for me as DM. For VTTs I started using side based initiative. If the players are smart enough they can assure one of them goes before the monsters get their first turn. After that I alternate. Works well enough and makes things easier for me to balance. Don't be afraide to experiment and change it up. Not everything will work for your type of game but knowing what does is good.

I started in AD&D 2e but also played Shadowrun 1e, vtm and wta 1 and 2e. In all of those we rolled initiative every round. It had its pluses and minuses. I liked not always going in the same order for the whole battle. One low roll and you are waiting and may not participate much. Especially if the people before you do high damage and/or have lucky rolls. Downside is having to roll and track initiative every turn can slow things down. Another major downside is if you roll a nat 1/botch/critical glitch/ critical failure. If that happened you lost your turn entirely. Also in 2e weapons had speed factors to account for large weapons being slower and spells had casting times. Both of these would change your initiative if you swapped weapons or depending on what spells were cast. In vtm/vampire the dark ages and werewolf they made it that while daggers were fast you were at a disadvantage against someone with a spear or great sword. So there was an optional rule where while the person with daggers might have a faster initiative, the person with the large weapon could still attack first to reflect the disadvantage.

yeah, about the first story, the thing about realism is there are different degrees of it and tone/gamplay is huge factor on how it impacts realism. the degree of suspension of disbelief is sometimes nessasary to enjoy an story Dnd is mostly heroic fantasy (not that you can't have other tones, but the game is more focused on this), so having characters that can do things that aren't realistic is part of playing out that fantasy, you want to be someone like beowulf and how he killed monsters, not one of the regular soldiers of that time that died first 5 min of a big battle. On the otherhand systems, like call of cthulu, you want to something where characters are more vunarable, since the tone is more horror focused, and having more down to earth people that face things beyond their capability is a good way to keep them immersed in the tone. Gamplay also effects realism. sometimes having an overly realistic makes a game not necessarily fun. players immediatly having to say what they doing otherwise their turn is lost is not fun for most players, since you takes part of the strategic element of the game, and adds stress to players, especially newer ones who don't know the rules well. Sure, it speeds up the game, and is realstic, but it also makes players affraid of doing something interresting, since they can't ask questions and risk missing their turn.

I don't let my players reroll their initiative, but I do have a home rule where if you roll a natural 20, you gain a bonus turn at the start of combat. I rule that you were moving so fast that you were a blur and people didn't notice you moving until your actual first turn. My players love this, but my monsters also get this benefit as well.

Ive said it countless times and Ill say it again. Anyone who starts listing their credentials and all the "messed up" stuff theyve seen when it comes to military or fighting experience of any kind, is almost always lying. Especially if its in a completely unrelated discussion. Anyone whos actually seen that kind of stuff is not going to be eager to talk about it in detail just for fun, and I also highly doubt they'll step up to say "you guys are playing DnD wrong." Dudes definitely one of those guys who served as like a mechanic or admin clerk or something (assuming he actually served at all) but wants to act like some kind of hardcore operator.

Generally, there are two kinds of veterans who brag about their combat experience: 1) Those who peaked in the military and can't get over it and 2) those who never saw combat and are ashamed of it. I was support and am happy with the fact. Did I see combat? Yes but very little and what I did see was enough to make me avoid realistic combat in my entertainment. Most of my gaming group is veterans (with a few still active duty thrown in) and not a single one of us will ever try to make our games more combat realistic. The most realistic anyone has attempted to make a game was a guy who was in the Army Corps of Engineers and he was making a bridge in game. He even recruited his own team to make it happen. The GM pulled him back before he started to turn our game into an engineering simulator but it was great to see his passion. Combat though? No. We have too many who have triggers and PTSD. We're good with the lack of combat realism.

So, I've toyed with round based initiative rolls in the past (some games want this), and frankly, the game has to run pretty fast rolling literally every round to work. Rerolling as a phase mechanic is neat (I already do this for layered, back-to-back encounters), so uh... I'll be yoinkin' that. Edit: I see new PF2e gm struggling, I throw tips; If you need to quickly adjust encounters down, you can quickly drop monsters and/or apply the Weak template on tougher ones to strip some of the XP budget down. Aim for enemy party sizes to be comparable to player size (but average enemy level lower) until you get a feel for you and your players. Game shines a lot brighter in those fights anyways, since solos can feel like a bit of a slog for unprepared players. You can even steal a page from Lancer and keep some of the goons you took off as reinforcements that will conveniently show up mid-combat if the encounter ends up feeling "too easy."

Boss phases are different, that's technically different fights in a row presuming there's at least a little roleplay between each phase and/or the added phases are supposed to be surprising. If I had to roll initiative each round for every single combat though? That would absolutely give me decision paralysis. I'd quit that table. Combats are already long enough, and as you get up in levels there's a lot to manage and remember for characters. There needs to be BASE level of predictability to get anything done, let alone come up with creative tactics and roleplay mid fight. Rerolling initiative as a gimmick every other round in a boss fight COULD be a cool idea, but I think doing that constantly would get crazy tiring crazy fast.

it still baffles me how people can drop out at absolutely last second on session day. Stuff happens I get it but such last minute notice really hits low to the GMs morale and is rather impolite.

@matthewmcdonald1812

15 күн бұрын

Yeah ghosting last minute has been my greatest annoyance because i make it a point to try and be ready long before the session and try to get everyone hyped a day before session in one way or another (sending a message saying “24 hours till session guys im excited” or something of that type) and its just really lame when people wait until after the session to say anything or leave without saying anything its like im either too high energy about this hobby or im just getting reallly unlucky with players

Rerolling initiative: That’s what I like about the Narrative Dice System in FFG’s Star Wars RPG and Genesys - initiative results determine PC and NPC slots that can be used by any…well…PC or NPC and shift dynamically from round to round, allowing the groups’ tactics to flow with the results of combat and ideas that someone might have to deal with the enemy.

Being new dm… I failed a lot. Also a lot of my games failed due to life. I’m hoping I can run another game or play in the future

There do exist TTRPG systems which purport to "realistically" simulate combat. Never having been in real combat, I can't comment on how accurate that is, though in practice it's generally one that treats it as quick, lethal, risky and generally not worth it. That suits some games perfectly fine, though it kind of sucks for games where you want combat to be a primary part of the experience.

When I run combats, I try to do my best to keep up the pace of the action so it feels more cinematic/flows with the mechanics. For re-rolling Initiative, it would entirely depend on if it adds to the experience of the scene or bogs everyone down waiting for extra rolls and reorganizing the initiative list. I use a visual chart/markers to help everyone track when to be prepared for their turn.

9:50 Wow. Pf2e with only half the party the encounters were balanced for? I know he said they had bad dice rolls, but I don't see how they survive in that case xD

Rerolling imitative is a good on paper, but on practice it's just. another. roll. every turn. There are two possibilities: if combat is short (

Combat experience!

25:47 🤣

COMBAT EXPERIENCE!

Im relation to the second story, im beginning ti find I suffer from teething issues when a party im running for gets above the standard four players. Usually when im up to five, some inter player discourse drives a few people out and scuttles the campaign. Latest lancer game has a fifth that got in by accident (my bad,) has caused us to take a month long hiatus to fix time issues as well as over had to talk to them about a few faux pas that have been coreected. Not sure how long they'll hang in there for...

Hey, Crispy’s Tavern. So, I’m running CoS and everything started out great, but lately two of the players haven’t been showing up or telling the group that they weren’t coming, despite me messaging the group multiple times. What do I do?

A Rules Problem Story. If OP is reading these comments, hang in there dude. We have all had games like this. And always remember even world famous, life long, hilariously funny comedians still have nights that they just bomb and couldn't make a hyena laugh. So don't feel bad about one game session.

"What game realistically simulates combat?" Have you tried GURPS?

Combat experience

COMBAT EXPERIENCE 💥💣🔫🤯

Combat Experience

Wait a minute, what is this Owl House comic you are reading? I am familiar with Moring Mark, but I didn't know there were prints.

Lipstick looks good on you, kid.

Thank you Ferris Bueller

early birb gets the stories first, gib me the cringe

COMBAT *E X P E R I E N C E*

22:50 "DMPCs can't be good, fight me!" *looks at the Gnoll the party wanted to add to the party but then handed the reins over to me (the DM)* Well, I mean...

@ArcCaravan

Ай бұрын

Crispy said DMPCs can be good.

@cavik977

Ай бұрын

@@ArcCaravan Oh, my bad, I misheard

@ArcCaravan

Ай бұрын

@@cavik977 No problem. I had to double check to be sure.

Then did Dungeon Master change to game master? It's always been DM

@shadenox8164

Ай бұрын

Outside of D&D other terms get used some people just find it easier to use GM as a generic term.

Regarding Alpha Combat Guy: "DEX based Armor Class doesn't make any sense" IT'S CALLED DODGING BRO Has this so-called hardcore veteran combatant never heard of the Survivability Onion? One of the layers is DON'T GET PENETRATED!

@shadenox8164

Ай бұрын

Like maybe he was trying to say it shouldn't add to armor class because its not technically armor. But that's just streamlining. Guy seemed to have an issue with efficiency.

Where'd you get the good witch Azura book???? Is it official?

Woo p2e on foundryyyyy

I kind of feel bad for lion though

@JunieBug

Ай бұрын

Don't worry, he's a lot better at toning down his excitement now. :)

@lahlybird895

Ай бұрын

@@JunieBug does he get to play? It says that bunny started her own game but he wasn't mentioned and I know if I got into D&D then had a sibling drop out and then had both my siblings to play with other people after putting me off for a long time I'd be upset unless I got to play two

@MalaMaria308

Ай бұрын

He does! He's in her game and having a blast. So no worries there 😊

Erm... it's "veteran" ☝️🤓