I actually want to know what kind of braindead reasoning the group in the first story had. Like, in what universe did they actually think "We'll invite someone to our game, actively exclude them, then ask them how cool it was!" and somehow thought that was anything even approaching a good idea?

@theNEWMASKSdudexxx

Жыл бұрын

Right? I've read stories about some fucking brain dead people before, but holy fuck was that group stupid.

@kaylawoodbury2308

Жыл бұрын

I have a small bit of insight that may or may not apply to this. The short version is, it's because she's a girl. The long version and my full insight as a 90's girl myself is, well, if you think hobbies like TTRPGs and gaming are a little gatekeepy of women now, things were way worse back then. My dad literally had to buy me a Gameboy and Pokemon Red behind my mom's back because she didn't want me to have "boy toys". My male cousins and brother would let me have a turn on the Game Cube to play Mario 64 only to immediately say I'm playing wrong and "teach" me by making me watch them play. My brother never let me play on the Sega unless we played Sonic and Tails, I had to play Tails and he would complain about me being bad because I couldn't keep up even though the character is programmed to be slower than Sonic. That's just the tip of the iceberg for the little stories I have. Alot of boys in the 90's genuinely just didn't think girls could like or do "boy hobbies" and a lot of parents were torn between the progressive and traditional (ie. Do we let our daughter to do "boy things" or do we force her to do "girl things"?). That's more or less what created the "gamer girl" era in the mid 2000's early 2010's. Minor rant aside, since this story is set in the 90's and these boys genuinely thought she would be happy just watching... It just reminded me of my own experience in the 90's trying to get into "boy hobbies" and how common those stories really are. That they assumed she didn't actually want to play because no way a girl could be interested and probably would be fine just listening to the story like a book on tape and hanging out with her boyfriend. It took her breaking down to actually get it through their heads that she DOES want to play.

@OreoGetDown

Жыл бұрын

I for the life of me can't get it either. It must've damn near felt like they were targeting her just to dunk on and bully. Glad they were eventually able to pull their heads out of their ass but still that's a red flag against the group and her BF for letting that happen.

@johngleeman8347

Жыл бұрын

Very odd reasoning indeed. It would have made much more sense if she was just chilling and drawing OR actively playing. The penalty box thing served no one. XD

@therealmaizing5328

Жыл бұрын

@@kaylawoodbury2308 What you said doesn't make any sense to me. I started playing D&D in the 80s. My first DM was a woman, and about half the players in the group (including myself) were women. I've never experienced any gatekeeping such as you describe.

Last story= Congratulations, you played yourself.

I draw during games I'm actually playing... Its how I do notes. I make little doodles of what's going on in the session. Sometimes I even post it for the rest of the group to see (one group outright asks me at the end of each session to post my "notes")

We have a rule in my group that any time a player is about to do something utterly stupid and/or deadly the GM must ask "Are you sure you want to do that?" three times using those exact words. Most of the time the player will back off though there is the occasional response of "I personally don't want to do it but my character is being an idiot."

I once had a DM flip out at me because she got angry at me for wanting to know my character's level and stats before I made my character's backstory. She said only power gamers want to know that stuff before they make their backstories, only good players write backstories first. This resulted in her treating me like crap for the next four days after session 0, until I decided I'd just had enough and left the game.

@mentalrebllion1270

Жыл бұрын

I rarely make my backstory fleshed out until I get stats. It just doesn’t make sense. What if you write a backstory about how your character spent all this time learning how to shoot a bow and do trick shots and then have your stats be all in strength? What if you write a wizard who is a big bookworm but has no wisdom, and then suddenly wisdom is your major stat? Stats are supposed to represent what in life they focused on. They give you an outline on your character, far as I see. Writing a backstory without that seems a tad odd. My condolences for you having to deal with your old dm. They obviously didn’t think about this side of character creation. I hope you have a much better one to play with these days!

@PaladinGear15

Жыл бұрын

@@mentalrebllion1270 That's exactly why I wanted to know my stats first! xD Besides if I rolled super low stats, that could mean they weren't ready for an adventure, and just got thrust into this life as they were living a standard life as a merchant, or if I had super high stats I could write about how he spent 12 hours a day training. Also if I wrote a story about a guy who's just off the boat, but then the DM says we're starting at level 12, it makes no sense why this dude would be stronger than most heroic adventurers who've fought dragons in the past xD

@Arnsteel634

Жыл бұрын

Back stories???

@PaladinGear15

Жыл бұрын

@@Arnsteel634 A backstory is like your character's history, what they did before the game begun.

@Arnsteel634

Жыл бұрын

@@PaladinGear15 mine is human fighter

That first story remind me of a time I invited some friends over to play the board game Decent Journeys in the dark. If your not familiar at five players max. And one of my friends thought it would be okay to not tell anyone he was bringing his girlfriend. Even though we already had five people. So I open the door to let him in and there she is. I literally can’t responded for a few seconds because of the fall this guy had to not ask permission to bring someone to my home, but also what do we do now. Do we okay something else even though everyone else wanted to play Decent or do we make her or him watch while the rest of us play. She said she’d just watch but to this day I’m not happy we made this poor women sit and watch us play for a few hours. The friend was never invited to play with us again. Just in case anyone is wondering that wasn’t the first thing he pulled which he why he was banned

"Dwarven women don't have beards." I think my dwarven paladin wound like to have words with that player; she spent two hundred years making sure her beard was perfect.

@GhostBear3067

Жыл бұрын

Tolkien's ghost would also like a word. Several actually, in multiple real and fictional languages which are probably on the rude side.

@Shadowblader98

Жыл бұрын

As she should, Dwarven beards are sacred and must be treated properly

@shadenox8164

Жыл бұрын

The man is a coward.

@Mgauge

Жыл бұрын

I like the idea that all dwarves have manes of hair circling their faces. It makes them more unique as a species than the typical "short, stocky humans with crippling alcoholism" approach we usually see in fantasy media.

@Shadowblader98

Жыл бұрын

@@Mgauge they are still short stocky booze lovers but they are also masters of whatever form of craftsmanship they chose to follow, and caring for their beards helps with the selling if said crafts to some degree cause would you buy from a short drunk who looked like a hobo?

I've only pulled from the Deck once for a 3.5, and it was my character's daughter. She already had an INT of something like 17, and she pulled a card that gave her +2 INT. Then the very next card was -2 INT. So for a moment she had 19 INT. I liked to joke that for a moment there, she understood EVERYTHING and immediately lost it, like losing one's train of thought.

I've played with the deck many times and honestly my preference is to have the deck in the early levels because before you get into the meat of the game it's easy for the dm to make really fun quests even out of the worst of the cards.

Last time my group use the deck of many things, it summoned Orcus while we were surrounded by army of killer clowns from space, and army of mummies after our Turtle Druid name Oogway throw a bean in a strip club and the bean turned into a pyramid… should I also mention we were level 6 at the time… and we survived…

"Dwarf women don't have beards" Gimli: that's going in the book of grudges

I once got a Deck of Many Things in my second campaign. I don't remember how we got it, but I remember the nonsense that followed. Somehow, most of the players managed to draw amazingly from the deck. Everyone drew a card that gave them a bodyguard or some other cool bonus. We even drew a card that granted us three wishes. We would might have wasted one of the wishes had I not spoken up and reminded everyone of not only one of my character's big goals but also a huge issue for our world. In this campaign, the contact with the gods was severed and you could have disastrous consequences for seeking their divine intervention (I once accidentally summoned a tarrasque when I prayed to my god to give us more time to revive our fallen dragonborn paladin). Being a cleric and one of the only ones whose powers are directly tied to the gods as well as some backstory stuff that really screwed up my character, it was pretty important to my character that we restore the link between the mortal realm and the realm of the gods. So, we used one of the wishes to restore the link and I was finally able to use my cleric powers to their full potential (we were level 20 at this point and so I had been dancing around the boundaries of what was safe or not with my cleric powers). However, despite this massive boon with the Wish card, there was something that really screwed me over. As I mentioned before, almost everyone got a bodyguard or something else that was cool. Well, not me. When it was my turn to draw from the deck, I was the only one who got something bad. I instead drew a card that gave me a cursed item. It was a mummified hand that would turn whoever attuned to it evil. My character had originally started out a lawful evil fiend warlock in the campaign, but went through a massive character arc where she became a lawful good cleric. The cursed evil hand the deck gave me kinda felt a bit like a slap to the face given all her character development. Worst yet, while she had no plans to attune to it, when she showed it to some guys who specialized in enchantments and magical items, they just snatched it from her without any saves and destroyed it. I kinda felt cheated. The only good thing that happened for me with the Deck of Many Things was that we were finally able to restore the connection to the gods. And I wasn't even the one who drew the card. I just reminded everyone that that was something big we still needed to do but had no idea how to figure out.

regarding the deck of many things story, my DM did the same thing. we have a powergamer in our group, and because he likes making high power characters, he decided he was going to up the difficulty of encounters, and decided to give us all magic items to bring us to his level. he rolled on a table and gave us 3 legendary items, including a deck of many things, and when i told him this was a stupid idea and he should just give us +1 weapons or something, he defended himself by saying "thats what i got when i rolled for the items". I love the guy as a friend, but he really needs to learn how to make use of his own power as the DM.

"Female dwarves don't have beards" In which rock did this guy grow up under? There was even an outrage about that new dwarf queen not having a beard....

@davidtherwhanger6795

Жыл бұрын

It was from the beginning of time (i.e. the beginning of D&D) that dwarven women had beards. It started in 2nd Edition Dwarven Handbook that made it OPTIONAL for dwarven women to not have beards. For a player to start dictating how the world the DM created or is using actually is is crossing the line. And I was definitely getting the a high reading on the CREEP-O-METER with this player.

@GhostBear3067

Жыл бұрын

Tolkien's ghost would also like a word. Several actually, in multiple real and fictional languages which are probably on the rude side.

@Kfaircloth13457

Жыл бұрын

Her fabulous eyes and quick brain are what made me forgive that travesty. But I would have loved to see how she styled hers!

For the first player, I would allow her to enter the game at the party's level. If I felt she should "earn it" I would take her aside sometime before the game and give her situations where she can learn her class. She would not permanently die in this scenario as it's all a dream and the purpose would be to know that she learns how to utilize her skills. The very point of starting at level 1 (or the leveling system in general) is that you gradually learn more and more abilities and are not overwhelmed. If she's a first time player starting at a higher level I would want her to understand what she is capable of, and that actions have consequences. What I would not do is sideline her character and have her watch a session of Critical Fail.

If you believe in yourself and with a tiny pinch of magic, all your dreams can come true

0:07 aw the lil ear flutters, i never noticed em til now

'Female Dwarves don't have beards' The great book of grudges is looking mighty full. As for the deck of many things one, it sounds like the DM isn't handling it well enough and there is already disparity. While the deck -can- be fun, it is more likely to cause chaos. The fact there are legendary items in play at -that- low of level feels like this is going to go off the rails very quickly.

I had an expeirence with the Deck of Many things and I only drew 2 cards I think and I got money and my alignment was shifted so I lucked out. The BBEG in the campaign used it before us and got the Wish Spell so it was the only one that couldn't be drawn

First story sounds a lot like mine lol

Commenting to support you and the kitties ♥

With the bonus levels from the deck of many things you should make them party wide imo

A Deck of Many Things popped up in my first campaign, and I knew the tales, so I opted not to pull a card. However, our thief (who was also a "That Guy" with Main Character syndrome), asked to make a Charisma Roll in order to persuade my character to pull a card, and the GM (likely adding the deck for nefarious reasons anyway) allowed it, which then forced me to draw. I knew even as an inexperienced player that actions like this were frowned upon or even offensive/toxic to a game, but apparently the GM and Thief had plans to make the latter the actual BBEG at the end of the campaign, after neglecting the other players significantly. Thief literally tripped over legendary weapons and gear in the woods that was randomly half-buried under some brush conveniently after the player read about it in the handbook. :P Yes, it was a terrible time for anyone who wasn't that Thief. lol

We have a DOMT in our current Pathfinder campaign. 99% of the party was wary of the deck and thus, didn't use it. As I recall, one character who drew from it didn't get anything gamebreaking, The one NPC that drew from it got a Keep, and then had his soul sent to another realm. Bob the Goblin was important to us, so we set a second NPC to searching for his soul while the PCs got their equipment upgraded a bit. We got Bob the Goblin's soul back last session, though I think we can all be glad that Bob likes the PCs, because if he didn't, it could have gone really badly.

I can't get my head around that first story either, It's just beyond belief they really had no clue OP would be bored and miserable as an observer

I was never officially diagnosed, but I always have a hard time just sitting there too. Even if I'm watching something, I'm always messing about with my Yugioh cards or playing minecraft or something of that nature. If I'm not, I fidget a lot. That actually lead to one of my gradeschool teachers being fired when I was 6 or 7. We sat on a big rug during reading time and I typically messed about with the edge of it. Not enough to bump against anyone or anything. Just moving it back and forth a bit to busy my hands. The teacher didn't like that and after a couple times of not listening (remember, I was 6 or 7 at the oldest) she made me sit in a chair behind a a giant piece of cardboard for timeout. But that wasn't enough for her. Since I wouldn't stop messing with something with my hands, she tied my hands behind the back of the chair with a jump rope. Needless to say, my parents were pissed and my mom got her fired as she was on the board.

1st Story: I understand that this was AD&D and this was before a lot of common sense table ethics became widespread, but it really begs the question, why would you tell someone to make a 4th level character if the rest of the part is level 7? Like, I get that AD&D was rough, but imagine telling someone to roll up a character that you know is going to be underpowered, give them nothing to do, refuse to answer their questions, and then chide them for doing something else when they otherwise had nothing to do. At least it has a happy ending. 2nd Story: OP isn't overthinking the situation at all. A level disparity this early in the game can cause issues in regards to the inter-party play and tbh, throwing a deck of many things in your campaign is something that can easily ruin games by their presence alone, so OP had a good reason for being apprehensive. 3rd Story: I despise rules-lawyers with a passion by default, but throwing several pages worth of emails which basically boil down to "this is where your rulings could've been better" would've honestly made me consider kicking him from the group. The fact that he would've survived the trap if he didn't insist on meta-gaming and standing slightly outside of the presumed trap's radius is the icing on the cake, though him trying to force OP into letting him play a ghost that can just possess people with no save...yeah him leaving was to the benefit of the party, especially when the rules lawyer ultimately helped OP to become a better GM and set boundaries moving forward.

@schwarzerritter5724

Жыл бұрын

I have heard from several players you always started at level 1 in second edition.

@chrisbeck4583

Жыл бұрын

@@schwarzerritter5724 No, there was no rule about having to start at level 1 - it was entirely up to the DM. The problem actually wasn't starting OP at level 4, but the other players not including her in the adventure. An underleveled character is entirely viable in AD&D 2e if the party acts at all smart. In this case OP actually picked the perfect class - backrow arcane support. It should be incumbant on the others to protect her until (and even after) she levels up. That's kind of her role in a party, and it wouldn't take too long for her character to catch up to the others. The idea of a level spread between characters was pretty common in all TSR versions of D&D - unlike 3.0+ editions, each class had their own experience point table so some of that was inevitable. As an example, if you get a chance to look at the level spread of the Knights of Myth Drannor (the characters of Ed Greenwood's actual table) it was between 2nd and 8th/9th levels.

@asioca1992

Жыл бұрын

@@chrisbeck4583 The other issue was the fact that not only did they make her stay on the ship, but they also wouldn't explain anything that was going on and actively chided her when she trying drawing to make the session go by quicker. The level disparity is secondary to the fact that the party treated her like an audience member moreso than a player.

@rb98769

Жыл бұрын

Honestly it sounds like a bunch of socially awkward kids who weren't used to introducing new characters in the middle of a campaign.

10:34 my group rotates through 4 of us who DM and we all put the deck somewhere in our campaigns. As players we love the chaos that ensues and as DMs we love the drastic changes in the main plot and characters story as a result. In my nearly 20 years experience we’ve only had one direct TPK and one indirect TPK as a result of playing with the dreaded Deck of Many Things. The trick is either don’t draw or draw multiple cards. In our current campaign we found the deck just last session. I’m playing 2 characters. One who doesn’t understand magic and was tortured by a magic user so is a little distrusting of magic didn’t pull any cards. My other character is a magic user and drew 4 cards only 1 was a negative although it was a -4 to my casting ability which really hurt but it also forced me to draw another card which turned out to be extremely beneficial because it was 1d4 wishes and the DM rolled a 4. I was able to negate my ability damage, partially negate another players negative draw, hopefully resolve my second characters backstory and one wish left for future use. Overall not a bad outcome.

You're not out of order... I'M OUT OF ORDER!

I've worked enough toxic job environments to know the truth of what the final dm said... you never feel the full weight of someone asking you miserable until they're gone.

By the Gods the return of People Pudding from Parasite Eve...

10:16 It wasn’t really a campaign, more like a westmarch, but I did have it. So we had just defeated Tiamat and gotten some legendary items like the luckblade out of it. Two players, both half orcs, wanted to repeatedly pull from it despite my numerous warnings of its power. My character was the leader of a mage guild, so she definitely knew how strong it was. Eventually, one draws the void. The other blames me in character for not warning them, at which point I point out that I did. Luckily, since we were given an instant long rest, I was able to recover the other half orc……..at which point they asked me to remove the bad cards. I just did it with a facepalm

I did have a deck of many things in a couple campaigns. One PC and an inexperienced GM caused havoc in a tavern, having someone deal out cards while they went to the 'bathroom,' yeah that was pretty bad.

I usually throw on your narrations as background noise as I play other games, color me shocked when I look over and see the gameplay from Parasite Eve, one of my favorite games ever.

Lol to the no beards for female dwarves. Tolkien enjoyers would be like "What you on? Of course they do." Early D&D was heavily inspired by Tolkien so I recall learning early editions they definitely had beards. I don't recall if this was a story a friend told me about dwarf lore in their world or official lore that I read/heard when wanting to do deeper dive of lore through the editions. Since memory is so reconstructive and my D&D knowledge gets blurred from how much I've heard and read. But either way as I remember it, it was that in dwarf kingdoms, or a specific one, the honor guard was typically comprised of bearded dwarf women, due to them being the toughest and fiercest fighters in the kingdoms.

That second story reminds me of that one video made be xptolevel3.

we never had a deck of many things, we had a deck of encounters. and a list of encounters. If we rolled that we would have an encounter we would then roll to see if it was from the list or deck. Then we would either draw a card or roll a D100 for the list (shows how old I am LOL) to see what the encounter was. Made for a ton of fun times during travel.

I've used the deck occasionally, but I always save it for post-storyline messabouts. All the fun for those who are into it, but none of the drama or plot-screwing.

I think Dwarven women being bearded is a case by case basis. It depends on if your dwarf is inspired by Tolkien or the Eddas or something else.

Everytime I've been in a game with the deck of many things it resulted in a party wipe.

Circle of Death in 3.5e had a 40 foot radius, so the GM probably got that slightly wrong. Also, resurrection apparently didn't work on instant death effects anyway.

The first story was not Spelljammer, Spelljammer is nautical (ship sailing) adventure in space.

“That’s like applying for a job that says entry level, but requires 5 years of experience” -hey DnD Doge, you would be surprised at how many job postings do this 😂 One of the reasons why employers complain “Nobody Wants to Work Anymore!” is exactly because of this kind of bullshit with job postings out there

No sympathy fo4 the second story. The deck of many things is a great prop for games. As long as the dm knows and understands what's in the deck it is easy to handle. I have used it twice in 2 different games and it was so much fun.

Love that you're playing Parasite Eve in the background. Game deserves more attention.

"Female dwarves dont have beards" take away that mans dnd card immediately.

Story 1 sounds like in the end, it was a glory story. It went from a horror story, into a glory story. The group realized that they messed up, and they decided to fix the error they have made, and OP gave them a second chance, and it worked out well. Edit: I think the reason they had her make a new character might have been because the first one probably would have left a bad taste in her mouth. The horror story would have been a constant reminder. At least with the new one, she got to put a lot more of herself into it. Fresh start kinda thing.

"We can arbitrarily raise you to level 4, but you have to earn the level that everyone else is at. You're just lucky to be irrelevant to this degree instead of being even weaker!" Super principled reasoning, there.

BRUH PARASITE EVE It's been 3000 years

@GundamAngelicDevil

Жыл бұрын

Has it been 3000? Damn I lost count.

Rules lawyer is an outright bully, through and through. Good riddance.

First story: You gave me low level character I can't join the adventure because I'm 'too low level'. I can't level because I can't join the adventure. I can't join the adventure because I'm 'too low level'. I can't level because I can't join the adventure. And there's the loop in a nutshell.

In a D&D dwarves always have beards. Look at the old artwork for D&D gods, the most matronly woman god of fertility, family and more has a flowing beard to her ankles lol

Lucky! Lucky! Lucky! Hey Doge - we have older cats, do they have squeezy treats for older cats and how nutritious are they?

Female dwarves 100% have beards lol

I'd argue about the Dwarven Women having beards, but only point: They have beards if the player wants them to have one.

The people in the first story are such dicks. They wanted an audience to tell them how cool they were and not another player.

So, the rules lawyer plays themselves, and then tries to get back in with a broken ability after saying no to being brought back in? Yeah, there is no logic or even basic functional intelligence involved in that.

I've always liked the idea that female dwarves have beards... but not on their faces.

Parasite Eve! I love that game!

oh dwarf woman do have beards. they're just "lower" if you change me drift ;)

Why do I seem to remember Bruenor Battlehammer talking about dwarven women having beards... It might have been Gimli, it has been a while. Regardless, whoever said that dwarven women do not have beards really needs to boor up Baldur's Gate 1, or 2... or Icewind Dale and make a female dwarf. Nothing but beard. If your dwarf doesn't have a beard, they are not a dwarf... or they are evil... I am looking at you evil dwarf monk from one of the Neverwinter Nights that I barely remember!

Giving the Deck to 3rd level players? Dear goodness.

I'm of the opinion that dwarven women don't normally grow facial hair. In the games I host they don't, at least. They do have fabulous hair, though.

"Female Dwarves don't have beards." Tolkien: That's where you're wrong son. For real though glad story 1 actually turned out alright and everyone actually listened eventually.

If they want to have her earn levels and not come in at the same level as others, then just start her one level below the others. Why three levels?

Dwarven women have beards. Just... lower. Anyone know the comic that's from? Keep trying to find it.

Anyone else here from the fetus backbling💀

D&D Hot Take: The Deck of Many Things does not ruin games. The players malicious enough to use it knowing what it can do ruin games. The item is inert without player intervention.

Man really should go back to Parasite Eve.

I'm a spiteful ah and hate talking so after an hour of talking to brick walls I probably would just show up everythime with a lv1 kamikaze character because "it's only fair"

First story sounds awful. Specially since the first sesion was about 4 hours of bs. I would have left and never returned half an hour passed. At least their egotistical minds could understand it at last. P.D. Oh, and my dwarf fighter also has a beard. And she's very proud of it.

Last Story; PC's character is so racist, she refuses to reincarnate

Hello doggie. Hifgh luckey your so cuts.

wait WTF female dwarf's not having beards, from what I've read in most D&D setting they do have beards just not as nice as males. (In a Dragon Lance book it had that the only way you could tell female dwarf apart from males was to look under their beards) plus so what if most don't in that setting maybe she just does (like in real life their have been bearded ladies).

first 🤓

Honestly the deck story turned out fine op just sounds kinda salty and whiny. They could have pulled from the deck and decided not to. The players got lucky who did. And giving players legendary items can be fine. It doesn't sound like anything game breaking happened

@asioca1992

Жыл бұрын

Tell me you don't know what a deck of many things does without actually telling you don't know what a deck of many things does. If you actually knew, you'd understand why OP didn't want to pull from the deck and how lucky that player was to get 2 levels vs. summoning a demon lord, losing all their equipment, or getting locked inside of suspended animation until someone finds you.

@BurroughsProductions

Жыл бұрын

@@asioca1992 except I know what it is. just cause ur a coward doesn't make it a bad game. Op was given a choice whining cause he didn't want to make the choice doesn't make it a bad game

@asioca1992

Жыл бұрын

@@BurroughsProductions Having a player be two levels ahead of the rest of the party, in addition to being given legendary magical items to boot, is going to make it hard for the GM to create encounters that aren't either practical TPK's for the level 3's or a cakewalk due to the presence of the level 5 acting as a crutch character. It has nothing to do with cowardice, it has everything to do with common sense, which is why I doubt you actually know what the deck does in most campaigns that it's introduced to.

@BurroughsProductions

Жыл бұрын

@@asioca1992 whine if u want to. The other players don't mind if op doesn't like it he's free to leave lol I know what the deck does. My friend puts it in every game. Again no one made them pull it. But be big mad cause others play differently I guess lol

I would like to see a dnd game but everyone's characters are blind and there is no map or description of things, not much fighting just dnd characters trying to get through life.