"Anakin the younglings are 3000 XP each" That's a real moral conundrum

@bazzfromthebackground3696

6 жыл бұрын

Tuchulu Do I get a combo bonus If I can cleave at least three per swing?

@masterzedd4

6 жыл бұрын

Children don't need XP tied to them, killing them is just good for the world.

@andrewjacks2716

5 жыл бұрын

Anakin needed the experience too, he was trying to multiclass Sith and he needed to level up enough to get that resurrection spell.

@novaiscool1

5 жыл бұрын

Had he known that he might have made it to level 20 Jedi instead of multi classing into sith

@slackerlifeman

5 жыл бұрын

@@masterzedd4 found the CE rogue

I remember my DM once put our characters against a vampire. Now, this would be all fine and dandy if not for the fact that, after we had cornered her, she proceeded to stall for time until sundown by sending her thralls in to stop us from chasing her. This, too, would be ALL FINE AND DANDY if said thralls hadn't been KIDS. Our cleric and my wizard both got PTSD from cutting down these children who just stood there, begging us not to kill them. Again, if they had been strangers, this wouldn't have been so bad OOC. BUT, our DM, in all his dickishness, chose to let one of said thralls be the little girl who led us to the vampire stop. We had promised to protect her from the "monster that had been roaming the street" we'd heard so much about. The last thing she said as my wizard plunged his rapier into her heart was "you promised to protect me, you monster..." I swear, it actually hurt me IRL... and by god, i loved every second of the drama...

@floridamancode_e2673

5 жыл бұрын

Brutal

@blablubb4553

5 жыл бұрын

Was killing them the only way to get them out of the way?

@yonatanbeer3475

5 жыл бұрын

@@blablubb4553 because it's fucking fun

@blablubb4553

5 жыл бұрын

It's fun to kill kids who are begging not to be killed... you must be a hoot at social events.

@squidboyo9183

5 жыл бұрын

My party would of been sad until we one of us start the rape spree (My party just gets raped and rapes everything)

A while ago I joined a gritty morally grey adventure with a new group for a few sessions.The GM did something I really liked. He passed three cards to every player. One was a green checkmark, the other was a yellow dash and the third was a red X. He basically said that the yellow dash represents the thinking of "I am okay with this but tread carefully", the red X was a "stop now" and the green checkmark was " go ahead". We were all facing him so we couldn't see each other's cards and so when he asked for a feel around the room we couldn't know if someone was uncomfortable with something. He handled it extremely well and to this day I have no idea if any boundaries were crossed

Jim Davis, the human/DM we need, but not the one any of us deserve.

@DareMurdok

6 жыл бұрын

he's a good egg

@philswiftdestroyerofworlds1988

Жыл бұрын

@@DareMurdok You're a pretty good egg yourself ;)

I would like an episode where you guys sit down and come up with an adventure and Jim goes through his process for that.

One conundrum i gave my players that really messed with them was super simple: A man had been clawed by a Blue Slaad. They didn’t have a way of curing him.

*sith voice* Do it.

@CrazyConnor2

6 жыл бұрын

Brew it

@chasebalcziunas4289

6 жыл бұрын

TheGameGuy Stew it

@jazzjiggleballs9921

6 жыл бұрын

Screw it.

One messed up but interesting example I had to introducing a moral quandary *as a player* was my half-elf Bard Swashbuckler (4e equivelent of playing a Lore bard as a melee character in 5e) who introduced the notion of mind control spells being completely Evil into the campaign. We encountered a person with similar magic to my character, and we were talking techniques, and the idea of taking a power that was basically like Dominate Person, and Willem basically responded as if they'd suggested that he start raping people. It brought up the question of what sort of action is evil. Can a tactic be evil, because of what it involves, regardless of what the outcome is? Is violating a person's mind and forcing them to act against their own will worse than throwing a fireball, or shooting them in the face?

TFW you are depressed and overworked and will most likely fail the exam responsible, but WebDM posts a video and makes the Day okay.

@WebDM

6 жыл бұрын

Hang in there! Hope your exam goes well

@laoxep

6 жыл бұрын

There is always a chance the player that plays you will roll good.

@iv0rysh0es39

6 жыл бұрын

The moral quandary of us academics.

@niallreid7664

5 жыл бұрын

How'd the exam go?

My party knew a group of guards were being mind-controlled by an aberration, but followed their leader's orders regardless. The cleric said he didn't want to waste a 5th level spell and use Greater Restoration on the leader, so they killed them all. Pretty sure my players are evil.

I had a campaign idea that I've been working on that I'm willing to share. My idea is to have the player be the local sheriffs. Just for those unfamiliar with the duties of a sheriffs in the middle ages they had two main jobs. To protect local villages and to collect taxes. This makes players both a hero and a villian to the commoners which lends itself to the type of decision your talking about.

I really like the idea that abyssal monsters aren't as you said "capital E, evil" and that its just their nature. Gives me this mentality that they can be pointed in the right direction to do good, like let them pour into the Far realms or something :D

@MannequinMG

3 жыл бұрын

Kind of reminds me of Half-Orcs. They have a constant pull in their mind to wreak havoc and fight bloody battles, but some choose to ignore it and do heroic deeds.

9:16 What is necessary is legal. Basis for modern self-defense law, but an ancient concept.

@FailNetworking

5 жыл бұрын

Crazy seeing you in here! Putting moral quandaries into super hostiles now? Haha.

@magnarcreed3801

2 жыл бұрын

Self dense is inherent in living things. Not just humans. Some one tries shit with me they’re gonna die.

Runehammer's video "Moral Imperative" is also a good discussion on this subject Edit: Great vid btw. Been watching from the 5 min vid days, Web DM is getting real good.

8:31 ... Dude, the classic Lawful Good response to that scenario is to pay for what the orphans stole before finding a way for said orphans to earn an honest living somewhere that isn't a coal mine. Lawful Neutral is pointing out that the orphans stole stuff, and letting the law do what it will. Lawful Evil marches in with the orphans in chains, and has the orphans confess to not only the theft the character witnessed, but also enough unsolved crimes to land each of the orphans a lifetime of labor in Lawful Evil's mercury mine. Neutral Good doesn't rat out the orphans and starts giving them money, funding their education, etc. True Neutral doesn't get involved in the scenario unless someone asks him what happened, in which case he'll tell the truth, unless he has a reason to lie. Neutral Evil sees what the orphans stole and steals what he wants from the orphans before reporting the orphans for theft. Chaotic Good teaches the orphans to be better at stealing, while also making them more selective in who they steal from. Chaotic Neutral will make a distraction for the orphans to get away, because he's impressed that a bunch of kids managed to steal that much food. Chaotic Evil will find where the orphans hide their stolen goods, burn all the food they stole, wait for the orphans to show up, and organize an underground orphan fight club where the winner gets dinner and the loser is dinner, because Chaotic Evil is all sorts of messed up.

@horserage

4 жыл бұрын

> Chaotic Good teaches the orphans to be better at stealing, while also making them more selective in who they steal from. Eh, maybe not.

@Cosmic_K13

4 жыл бұрын

why is it that getting the orphans arrested in any way is an evil action?

Nothing like a defenseless unarmed goblin to test a character's morals!

@1234kalmar

6 жыл бұрын

That went funny for us step 1: "Okay, look if you tell us what we want to know, we will let you free unharmed." step 2: "If you don't talk you are useless to us. My friend over there will be happy to chop your legs off." step 3: "if you want to keep your other leg, you will talk." step 4: "What? He talked, and I allowed him to keep his legs. We didn't say anything about not smashing his head!!"

@ImADogRuff

6 жыл бұрын

You say that, but recently running the Sunless Citadel my PCs found the goblin peasants and workers. They proceeded to kill a few to see if there was any exp. Which there wasn't. They seemed quite frustrated. So they murdered all of them.

@anthonynorman7545

6 жыл бұрын

ImADogRuff lol I think the result of that test would be a failing grade 😅 Murder hobo=chaotic evil right?

@ImADogRuff

6 жыл бұрын

Anthony Norman Lets just say I threw out alignment pretty quick.

@anthonynorman7545

6 жыл бұрын

ImADogRuff gotcha, chaotic stupid ;)

Moral Quandary Adventurers:(charge into chamber, kill 3 guards) Bad Guy: how dare you kill innocent people, you monsters! Adventurer: Innocent, they are not innocent. Bad Guy: Are they? (Pulls out book) (points to one guard) That man's wife is going to giving birth to his 5th child. (Points to another) That man WAS 3 weeks away from retirement. He and his wife were going to buy a boat and sail across the sea. (Points to the last guard) Her father got injured in a mining accident and they have been struggling to pay the medical bills.(closes book) Now tell me Adventurers who is the bad guy here?

@JoelRiter

5 жыл бұрын

Adventurer: you are. You deliberately put 3 innocents who needed financial aid in a situation you knew would end up with them dead just so you could make an arbitrary point. After we are done with you, you will be glad to know your treasures will go to their families.

@horserage

4 жыл бұрын

@@JoelRiter "Wait what, families? We are- okay then." -The always there "it doesn't effect me" TN.

I personally run grimdark games, so session zero with new groups I always let them know there's nothing off limits. I've only had one person out of two or three dozen that have gotten up and left. It's always important as you guys have said to be upfront about it.

@ace_of_laze

6 жыл бұрын

Mossellia Delt the shades of shit.

Just catching up on episodes I'd missed and have to say I reckon this is one of the best and most thought provoking ones I think you guys have done. Thinking of taking the DMs chair for first time with my regular group and whilst I don't plan on diving in and trying create some uber dark or morally challenging campaign for a debut - definitely gave me some ideas and pitfalls to be wary of. Reminded me of why I got so drawn into to playing in first place - the possibility of playing a character sometimes totally at odds with your real-world persona and being challenged to think about how such a character might behave...

"my father was killed by a dragon, so I don't want that happening to my character dude"

I dig the little Q&A at the end. Great videos always guys!

min max player made a dex build cleric, very powerful. she was captured and the enemies wanted to know a secret about her religion that could compromise it. torturer started breaking her fingers, lowering her dex score by a point per finger. Sang like a canary and now her spells don't always work. She was getting out of hand, so I threw this dilemma out to reign her back.

@scomae5445

6 жыл бұрын

It's a little harsh imo. Hope ou have a redemption/greater fall arc in mind where she regain her power

@matthewshimabuku

6 жыл бұрын

The player was getting way out of hand with meta gaming and maxing out the character, harassing npcs/shops for coin, as well as not following the personality, traits, and flaws that she chose. Even complaining the a magic item put in for her was not the exact one she wanted. I had warned the player about this behavior in advance as it sometimes spoiled the fun for some other players. I'll always leave an opportunity for the players to redeem their character's and regain what they've lost.

@scomae5445

6 жыл бұрын

Well, looks like you tried to be reasonnable :). How did the player react in the end?

@chesusjrist9733

5 жыл бұрын

Very evil genius of you.

@magnarcreed3801

2 жыл бұрын

So she was playing the game correctly and you punished her for it? Just do more interesting g things and plot

My players foiled a plan that some devils had, and thanks to Jim and Pruitt the devils decided to put a hit out on the players by attempting to frame them for murder. The players got lucky enough to stop that event, and began following the breadcrumbs back to the orchestrater. Eventually set up a meeting with a "mortal servant" of said devils, who offered them an option to do some work and have his "masters" forget about their history. Just sign this contract. They attempted to understand the contract, but rolled a 2 and a 5. It was in legalese, the gist that they got was they had one week to have some property in the city change ownership to the "devil's servant". They were not allowed to tell anyone who they were working for or what they had done, otherwise Long story short, the paladin decided that he really shouldn't sign the contract. In the post game wrap-up I told them that if they had gone through with the job the consequences would be the paladin losing his powers, and all of them having their souls consigned to the Nine Hells. The paladin player also pointed out that if he had tried to atone for the lapse in judgement it would void the contract because he would have to tell someone what he had done.

@horserage

4 жыл бұрын

So, a fantasy NDA?

@hithere4719

Жыл бұрын

@@horserage NDA is just the modern name for a contract with a devil 😂

I love the stinger on role play especially. Great, specific, suggestions.

It is almost like Jim knew what I was doing when I gave a bunch of 2nd level characters the book of vile darkness

@idavisband

6 жыл бұрын

James Kroeger

@jhinpotion9230

4 жыл бұрын

Ian Davis

@syncetia3881

4 жыл бұрын

Jhin Potion

Great stuff as always. Love watching these every Wednesday!

Curse of Srahd does this very well. As far as I've seen as player in that setting.

One of thee best places to be in D&D, is when you must RP action/choice what the character would do, even if against your real personal morals and intellect.

@magnarcreed3801

2 жыл бұрын

This. Love it. Did theater classes growing up. I loved character like me and also not like me.

Duitt

The more I watch of these the more I relate to Jim and Pruitt, I hold a lot of similar mindsets to them and it's awesome to hear them explain clearly the things I do and why I do them and go "yeah, fuck yeah!" Need to get them on a stream one of these days.

Great topic gives me lots to think about. Also the tip at the end of the video, I Would love that it be in it's own little bit so I could link it to my players.

Great video as always. I'm currently playing in a Ravenloft campaign and the whole thing is one giant moral quandary, nothing super overt has happened yet, but there has been this prevailing hint/theme that the party is playing right into Strahd's hand and are helping something truly evil take place, and it's driving us Crazy.

I had a lawful good character (paladin of course) who had her best friend mind controlled by a god (so the mages couldn’t do anything about it) and I had to choose whether or not to kill him... in character it sucked, out of character I gave the DM the idea, so...

@horserage

4 жыл бұрын

To me, if the LG thinks they can, don't kill them, wait and train till the point where you CAN do the third option and break that gods skull in. Or have tea, never know.

Very great show, I can't stop binge watching. Helped my noobie DM self to get decent.

In my homwbrew scenario, there's this big Rome Republic style country, and the Consul there was actually an Ancient Green Dragon in disguise, but he was through his quest for power acting as a paragon for the people. My players discovered this, had a real discussion about this for an entire game session discussing if the dragon should be slain, they agreed on killing it because they feared a coup against the Republic, but in turn his rival, an Ancient Red Dragon, awoke after they've slain the green one, and they knew this rival was out there licking his wound from his past defeat from when the two of them clashed. They are now dealing with the consequences of it, the Republic is in turmoil now because Glarius was the biggest hero of the people and the most beloved Senator of the Republic, although the other politicians were really wary of him because of this. My players basically became the conspirators of Julius Caesar's assassination and also the dwarves who woke up Smaug. It was marvelous rofl

Jim what you spoke about at 31:00 was too true! I had the exact thing happen to me in a group of close friends. Long story short, I did end up leaving that group because of that incident. It wasn't something that I wanted to do but I could see it causing problems down the road. Keep preaching that D&D truth! You guys are awesome :)

"All for a price, Mr. Sloan." I already love Call of Cthulhu.

Wise words and advice (and life advice) from Dice Dad Davis Glad to know you guys are out there lookin out for the players💕

Liking every WebDM vid I binge now so more people find the channel love you guys

@WebDM

3 жыл бұрын

Bless you child!

@joshaqy

3 жыл бұрын

@@WebDM Cheers and keep the awesome content comin!

My players were smuggling an artefact in their ship, didn't know what that thing does or what person they were smuggling it for wants to do with it. They were caught by couple of small ships which were guarding port and wanted to check their cargo. Commander of those ships was a really nice, dutiful guy, who was just doing his job, had a family, was collegue pirate hunter (they are pirate/bounty hunters as well). He actually finded that artefact and was extremely fair to them - wanted to just take it, show it to mages and had it turned out to be illegal or dangerous thing, make them pay fee and take it away from them. Well, players obviously didn't want to mess up that job they had (after all, their questgiver can be quite powerful and dangerous, and payed them only half in advance), but they also didn't want to kill those good sailors. So they attempted to run away, shooting only at sails, not killing anyone and not sinking those guard boats. Which made whole encounter way harder, but it was really fun to watch them struggle with decisions what to do and how.

One of the most engaging and heart wrenching game choices I made, the GM of my pathfidner game didnt even plan. It was just going to be a small encounter but because of role play became something different

I love to paint a more realistic world without less clear good or bad sides. In the last campaign that I ran, the first task was to help a village out with a tribe of goblins that were fleeing their homeland and stole food from the village in order to survive the winter. My players handled it very mautrely and convinced the goblins to leave the area.

I love the idea of threatening a person's stats and character sheet to get them motivated to care!

@joshuafisher4717

6 жыл бұрын

Madi Miso right? I heard them Say that and thought "oh yes, I will do that."

I love playing games like this seriously. Having a good dm who will push the line alittle is fun. Rock and hard place sort thing. Taking alignment into things will bring out different outcomes but ya even my evil characters still had things they cared about or wouldn't do. So it's all just alot of fun playing these types of games. But also as brought up the beer and pretzels kinda game usually for like a one shot is nice too once in awhile.

Probably my favorite video yet.

Idk how could anyone dislike these videos if they are a D&D lover.

Best moral realization in one of my games was in a Thule game. They had a sleazy thief patron and one of my players out of character just went, "Holy crap we're just the lackies for house Harkonan"

39:29 pure pearls of wisdom

Lots of great ideas here, guys! The hag one is golden. (Expect some DM thievery...) 😁👊

I feel like this is the best D&D video ever to have existed.

I took this to heart when I start back into the hobby. In fact, the best session in the last two years was when my character and the others were debating whether they should enter the lair of the "boss" after being warned not to, all due to our job being to rescue the miners who (come to find out) had killed the children of the "boss." I was on their side, seeing it as partly justified for them to keep the miners to feed the surviving children.

This video was my intro to EncounterRP -- I'm hooked, now! (I swear, I have not read the Necronomicon . . . yet.) Pruitt is awesome there (I also grew up with M*A*S*H*), here, and on WebDM Plays. And Jim Davis is stupendous (Stupendous Man?)! 'The Land Between Two Rivers'? Amazing! Y'all are just awesome.

Sorry, Jim, I'm not a quitter.

@danieldosso2455

6 жыл бұрын

You're a spitter then?

This is my favorite DnD video. I want to test my players with morality and have adversarial npcs in a race to an objective with them

In my current game my character has an adopted daughter he is looking after. One of the first things that happened was the BBEG kidnapped her and was going to kill her in a week if I didn’t do his bidding. This made me and my character super involved, but I became so paranoid about missing something the dm said or getting bad rolls that it stopped being fun, i actively tried to delay sessions so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. The solution was like you said, I talked with the dm and told him how I felt and he extended the deadline and made alternate solutions more obvious and that was enough. This episode was so spot on, im looking forward to pushing boundaries in my own campaign.

Hey guys, love the vid. I love doing this to my PCs.

Thanks for another great vid!!

Pffff moral quandaries... Just let the dice decide, Two-face style!

@anthonynorman7545

6 жыл бұрын

Bill Bort I have a chaotic neutral PC that approaches his RP like that so he doesn't have to be the one who made that decision. It's hilarious because a dark thought will pop into his head, he'll sigh, then roll a d4 with his eyes closed. The whole table knows, if it's odd, things are going to get interesting.

@jamesorth8231

6 жыл бұрын

Bill Bort dont you mean... Twenty-face?! That would just look wrong.

@angelusmortis8142

6 жыл бұрын

Kaleidoscope-Face.

@alexanderchippel

4 жыл бұрын

Keep in mind that A Serious House on Serious Earth, Dent went completely cationic because they swapped out his coin for a set of dice, then took those away and gave him a tarrot deck.

If things are going to be dark, tell your players, "this is going to be an adult game with adult situations, if you have certain scenarios that would make you uncomfortable, please make me aware in advance to let you know if you should sit this campaign out." Respect your players sure. Willfully trying to trigger someone's PTSD is an unbelievably dickish move. But I'm equally not for tailoring an entire campaign to the players.

@TheMrVengeance

6 жыл бұрын

_"Willfully trying to trigger someone's PTSD is an unbelievably dickish move."_ You'd be surprised how many DM's don't care. There was a different how-to-DM video that conveyed exactly the same message about boundaries on a channel that apparently attracts... a different audience. Comments were basically full of rage about PC SJW snowflakes ruining their perfect sandbox game where everything is and should be allowed, and if you can't handle it you should leave the table and never come back. :/ Maybe it's because a woman said it. Basically they're the kind of DM Pruitt described, the one that is normally powerless so they massively ego-trip and abuse any ounce of power once they're DMing. Really hurt to read all that to be honest, I always thought people playing D&D were reasonably like-minded nerds, that comment section made me realise there are some real dirtbags playing as well. :(

@drewb1979

6 жыл бұрын

I agree with the OP mostly. Though if you're not tailoring your game to the players, then who's the game for? I always survey beforehand and already know what would be tasteful to include or not. That doesn't stop me from having made people uncomfortable, but you can make difficult situations that are still controlled, appropriate, and intense without crossing too many boundaries. Of course this is all within reason. If a player shows up and expects there to be no killing or some other trite garbage then they'll likely be laughed off the table. Still imho if a DM can't write, within arbitrary boundaries, an engaging and provocative scenario that presents an uncomfortable choice then that DM need to work on their writing.

@AngelCakes1997

5 жыл бұрын

Andrew Brant It’s for everyone. The GM is as much a participant as everyone else, so if they say “this is the game I wanna play, who wants in?” Then it’s pretty obvious what everyone wants.

@Troglodytarum

5 жыл бұрын

@@drewb1979 Fuck off, go find a new dm. Dm's are people too.

@horserage

4 жыл бұрын

> But I'm equally not for tailoring an entire campaign to the players. Bruh.

Awesome show guys! I came up with one for my my group. They are following a group that are using the Necronomicon to transfer souls into constructs. They have made Stone Cursed, Flesh Golems, Animated armor, ect. I was thinking they could also create an Animated Shield made from transfering a mother's soul that was harvested while threatening her children. The characters have the choice to use the shield or break it to free the soul bound to it.

@paulcoy9060

5 жыл бұрын

That's creepy. Might steal that idea.

Gotta admit, a Miller's Crossing reference and a Community reference is really selling me on the channel.

Very relatable about people and trying to make "power moves" I see it irl quite often unprovoked.

One of my solo players loves romancing a NPC to give her character something risky to have in the game that would give the character emotional investment, especially if it's a companion that regularly engages with them in combat and things can go wrong on occasion. I do keep everything pretty general (the fade to black, skip over details -I call it dancing around risky topics - has been a good way to implement this style of play and still keep it fun without over stepping boundaries.) using it in group games as not everyone likes violence or body horror and leaving things to players imaginations is just as effective and means I don't have to upset anyone at the table.

It's important when you make a moral conundrum that you don't create every outcome. The moto I follow is "It's your job to put your players into situations, not think of solutions." Let your players find a way out of your dastardly traps and the only time your idea of how they'll escape should come in is when the players need a hint. When it comes to moral conundrums, this applies too: If you come up with a good ending, bad ending, and neutral ending, and a series of decisions that will lead to these outcomes, you have to do everything in your power to prevent your players from realizing it, or they will quickly conclude that they are being tested and judged by you, not given a world to explore and affect. This can totally sour and simplify your situation.

Encounter Roleplay is awesome! Have been watching their learn by play series and their podcast: Turncloaks. Definitely worth the listen.

I have a necromancer villain concept where it's a bit of an example of the "Well-Intended Extremist" his goal, and that of his faction, are to collect the souls of the living in soul gems to protect them from a soul-destroying blight that's spreading throughout the land. They plan to keep the souls until they can rid the world of that blight with the plan that if they can cure it they would release the souls back into the world and refocus on becoming soul guides, becoming something akin to the psychopomps in pathfinder.

"Mammalian politics." love it

We had a fun one a few years back. We needed a favor from an ancient, powerful necromancer. There was a sign at the entrance to his abode inviting us to try to make it through his little Home Alone Funhouse, but that we should be good guests and not do anything to cheese him off. Initially, this was just an interesting tactical puzzle: can we get through a ghoul filled death maze without actually harming the ghouls that are trying to eat us? Then we stumbled on some prison cells where some people kidnapped from a nearby village were being kept. Cue argument within the party about whether we should teleport them out immediately (thereby damaging our chances of getting that favor we needed) or leave them imprisoned, get our favor, and then hope we maybe have the opportunity to rescue them later before they become ghoul food.

The consent discussion in this episode is strikingly similair to the code of conduct at play/kink parties. Well done Jim! You'd make a good *Dungeon* master.

@magnarcreed3801

2 жыл бұрын

I asked before session zero, one on one with people. Luckily they’re all good with anything truly horrible happening. We like the dark realism.

I ran a hag campaign last year that ended on the Total Eclipse that would have dealt with a pair of twin village girls who were actually changlings. The PCs left that village after killing the hag responsible, so they never got the chance to deal with the twins. Still, it was one of our favorite campaigns so far, and I could stage a possible return to the village for the twin's 13th birthday. ;)

I've played a lot of BioWare and TellTale games plus watched plenty of David Cage games (Detroit is actually good). When I DM, I want those sort of choices to be repeating theme in my game maybe even going as far as to really keep taps on NPC relations using the system provided in the DMG. Granted, it shouldn't just be moral choice after moral choice. It should just be about making a campaign where the characters will have plenty of options to make choices that tells the party something about their character. Discussing cut scenes in D&D. Also, as touched upon in the video, it's good as a player to maybe lean into the corner alignments, but the important thing is to allow your character to have two driving forces behind their actions. I've said my point so I'm just going to indulge myself providing examples of my point and sharing them for the remainder of this comment. I have an LG cleric of Bahamut whose party accidentally killed a lot of innocents and the party thought it best not to reveal this information to the Council of Waterdeep. My cleric despises secrecy since int led to the death of his master, but also doesn't want to force more trauma on the party member who unleashed the fireball in a state of panic. Another case of two driving forces is one I haven't had the chance to play but that I've taken directly from the Star Wars prequels. I'm utterly fascinated by the idea of this order that exists seemingly to do Good in the world yet is not allowed to care for it one bit and thus adopts a very Neutral approach to the world. It's contradicting and I made it the central conflict of a monk whose master demands enough emotional detachment to make one capable of allowing their home village and parents to die by being reclaimed by the wild in this case represented by a herd of barbaric goliaths. My third case is not so much about alignment but more about the impact of people. I've just started playing Tiefling paladin who's the worst you can imagine a person being without a shred of evil. He's sleezy, lazy, apathetic, uncaring about the struggles of the world and would just like to be left to himself so he can eat, drink, sleep, gamble and fuck, preferably at the same time. He's a tiefling. The world doesn't care about him; why should he care about it? Because at least one person does care. His mentor believes the curse that made him born as hellspawn can be broken and reveal his true aasimar bloodline. All it takes is for good to shine through him through good and inspiring deeds. There's this one fucking asshole who believes in my tiefling and while he might not care about the world, he cares about the faith put in him by some old geezer. Meanwhile, he looks at his new party and tries to understand what can drive them to do good on their own accord without any other incentive. He has just unlocked magic meaning it'll soon be time for him to swear his oath. Last case is also my prime character, my drow. Raised on the surface as an ostracized thief, his one wish is reclaim the life his now dead mother denied him by bringing him to the surface to practice her self-damaging religion. He wants back to the underdark and is merely pretending to be a crowdpleaser until he can win favors from people who can keep him safe on the surface and eventually escort him to the underdark. He idealizes what little he knows about culture, including the matriarchy, yet has to deal with the fact that at one point he actually wanted to kill his own matron, but just missed his chance. He wishes desperately for a home and is unknowingly likely to push away his best chance of a home. Once again, give your characters two driving forces that also conflict and surrender yourself to the fun and drama that can spur from it.

Watching all the way to the end twice ! :o

Great discussion. There are certainly a number of players who don't want their expectations subverted, the classic "turn up, roll some dice, kill the monsters" people. You can't force them into dealing with this kind of stuff, in fact trying too hard can actually cause friction with them and/or (more likely) the rest of the table! Certainly I've had to play with people who will happily kill anything that attacks them first, e.g. the druid that sold them healing potions the previous session and was corrupted by something we were ; the wizard who invited us into his home; golems guarding magical boats we probably needed next session - these are three examples from real play, which frustrate players like me who are more interested in more then just "simple" play. Anyway, I'm a DM too, as you note well, I think the DM owes the table a responsibility to understand the types of players they have and what they enjoy in the game, hence tailors the game experience to what the players enjoy and trying to help them all get along and have fun together.

My party was clearing out a dungeon for a thieves guild so they can resurrect their friend. The ranger couldn't bring her wolf down (who is like her brother because she grew up with wolves) because it could only (currently) be accessed by ladder. The dead characters player was playing this tank-y character that I gave to them because they're a bard a rogue and a ranger, the bard basically adopted him as a surrogate son because he was so childlike. Then they got into a fight that they were losing against ghouls and were probably going to die. And then, because of player choices and such the surrogate son got cut off from the rest of the party and the rogue went to save him but got paralyzed. So the ranger had to decide whether or not to keep fighting or grab the (gnome) rogue and run. If she runs her friends son dies but if she stays and dies then her wolf brother, who is stuck in the middle of a city under the care of a thieves guild, is left alone. They ended up leaving the bards son to die. I loved it

I never plan for these things as they usually come up by themselves when you prep the way I do. I prep with a mix between D&D and Fate, I want my players to be a part of the world creation, and I want to be a part of their character creation process, so everyone are on the same page.

Would be quite cool if you could do a review series on some of the 5e products / adventures, or just some of the published advntrues in general. Eg Curse of Strahds is imo the best published 5e adventure, but it would be itneresting to hear what you think is the best and why. Or iconic adventures like Keep on the Borderlands.

I once created a quandrary where hags took a princess and were able to reverse the process but only if the characters handed over one ninth of an artifact that could literally destroy the world. They made the trade (and got a town out of it when the king rewarded them), but at great cost.

Another moral conondrum including a goblin: Players get the drop on a goblin watchpost, kill several of them really quickly, but one of the goblins switches sides mid battle and stabs his one remaining comrade, then drops his weapon and begs not to be killed - he didn't even want to be there and would really like to just go live a solitary life far from danger. The goblin could be a valuable informant on the real villain who employs the goblins as mooks, and has just done something to help the heroes. He simply wants to be left unharmed...

Don’t do it Pruitt

@nickschenewark2586

6 жыл бұрын

Random stuffins Do it - Chancellor Palpatine

"The AT&T of DMs" im dying

I love Will from Encounter and Mike from unMade. Both fantastic people, and they bring good groups together.

I like more of the idea that you can’t please all people and a choice you make one group may like and another group may hate and later on in the campaign those groups might become allies or enemies.

I love using moral quandaries as a DM.

It's appropriate that this came out when it did. I'm currently running a Star Wars campaign and have divised a particularly cruel moral dilemma for my players: They're currently transporting refugees from the village that I burned in the last session we played to a planet where they'll be safe. They're going to be yanked out of hyperspace and ambushed by an Imperial Cruiser. If things go as I plan they'll be captured and interrogated for information about Rebel secrets. If they resist interrogation themselves the commodore is going to try a new tactic. Among the refugees are two kids, Alonso and Yuri. The Commodore will order Alonso to be tortured unless the players comply.

@magnarcreed3801

2 жыл бұрын

Big brain. Okay on emetions. Firm connections between the kids and players first.

Portal did this brilliantly with the companion cube.

Hello i was wondering if you guys could make a video on airships and other modes of transport and how you can make a adventure out of them

Jim is the zen master of GMing

Great video!

I have a soul forge in my game that's connected to Orcus. It can give a miracle, but it's a wish interpreted BY ORCUS. So a bunch of my players make wishes while some abstain and it's just starting to come to the point where the secret evil effects of their wish comes to fruition.

41 muntes of WebDM? By Crom, I am happy!

Can we get a video on hobgoblins, goblinoids and how the war hosts work for you guys?

This video describes The Curse of Strahd campaign I ran, perfectly.

In 1st edition, our experience points came from treasure and murder, I mean, defending yourself from vile monsters. And they usually didn't part with treasure willingly. You didn't usually find an unguarded cache.

Y’all should review KP’s Midgard setting!

things i have done in my current campaign that I hope to see evolve that relates to this. 1 my players have 3 prisoners on there ship...i am curious to see what they do with them. 2 hobgoblins in my world have been build up to the players like super evil monsters...and they are but not really, I made so that they are constantly fighting a stalemate war with my primary nation...so the players and the PC are bought constantly told how horrid they are. now what the actually are is conquers with a cold approach to war, Victory to any cost and morality has no place in a war...this makes them pick very efficient all be it horrifying weapons and magic to attempt to gain an edge, they uses slaves to have expendable cannon fodder, they do "evil" things to win the war...so there are a very small minority of hobgoblins that have left there home and gone rouge becuase of this mentality they don't wish to share. they could have found out about this if they pickt a diffrent path but they didnt so they are now sailing around on a uncharted sea very close to a (to them) new island filld with all maners of cool survival and animal handling checks that will be fun to reward en explore.

I was in a homebrew game with a few friends of mine we were fighting a family of a female Bugbear and three Goblins. We had our Genasi fighter go to the cave to do so with my Illithid's pet owl going with him. Long story short we befriended the Bugbear much to the Lawful Good Fighters grief. The Bugbear lost her husband and we just killed her children. Most of us felt terrible. Save for Joyti our Genasi who was dead set of killing the evil Bugbear.

Which caster class would you guys recommend to build out as an asha'man from the wheel of Time series

I had my players deal with a good quandary. The bad guys wanted the coffins that were on the stage for the funeral, but they also had 10 suicide bombers in the audience in the auditorium and were protecting a dignitary as well. This was in my superheroes game by the way.

I really REALLY need to know where can I get that blue dice set that looks slightly transparent but like frosty? What's the brand? Anyone knows?

Anybody watch Critical Role last night? Timely episode, especially the bit about orphans who steal... Interesting. So, taking bets on which of the team is the Divination Wizard.