I love the quote from Matt that you mentioned and thought I'd mention he's actually quoting someone. That quote is actually attributed to American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. Highly influential, sometimes controversial figure in her field.

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Hugely important context, I did not know this thank you! Pinned comment here we come.

@catherineelmore2004

6 ай бұрын

@@PlayYourRole Oh, wow! :) You're welcome! And thank you for the pin! :)

Go listen to the fourth wing

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Hey wait a second

@LocalMaple

6 ай бұрын

@@PlayYourRoleAnd thanks to me, it will have: “More than 200 votes.” There. A top comment with “more than 200 votes.” And I haven’t even read fourth wing… Edit: now it naturally has 200 votes. But I’m leaning this up as Lawful Evil malicious compliance, so he can’t wiggle out of it.

@potatolord6726

6 ай бұрын

yeah

@SuperGoose42

6 ай бұрын

Make a video about it too

@projectdrawnup7625

6 ай бұрын

I agree, and second this! Also read iron flame!

12:00 Fun fact: SWAT teams have an average of 10 people and a minimum of 7 people/roles. And they are basic fighters or rogues. If you have access to the Wish spell, or True Polymorph into a dragon, or can paralyze enemies from 60’ away, or summon an army of wolves to fight alongside you… Yeah, having just over half a SWAT team of people makes sense.

@30ART5

6 ай бұрын

Ready or Not on PC gives you a team of five. There is the party leader and typically someone with a shield, rifle, shotgun, and less lethal.

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

My BBEG lives in fear of a bunch of maniacs breaking down his door and performing SWAT maneuvers at any moment

@LocalMaple

6 ай бұрын

@@PlayYourRole I just finished a BG3 2-player stream. We got to the Blighted Village with the goblins, and he said “oh I hate this place, I died here so often…” I said “do you want diplomacy, guns ablaze, or Assassins Creed?” He picked Assassins Creed. So we jumped up a rock, Sneak attacked the first goblin without initiative, waited for movement to get the second and third, started combat with the two at a gate, Sneak a third, Sneak the bugbear, then took out the rest with elevation advantage.

@jlokison

4 ай бұрын

Not just SWAT teams, a shift of firefighters at a single fire house usually isn't much. Even some modern militaries despite their thousands of soldiers, armored fighting vehicles and aircraft have relatively speak small teams for a variety of special forces missions. Some of those are all stealth and murder/assassination, however others are there to make friends and teach people how to either take over their own country or rebuild it. Sometimes those missions even succeed.

watching the downward spiral of Jays mental state is a great example of an overarching story plot without having every adventure be about it.

"I'm not in the right mindspace to do this, but boy are we doing it." Yeah that's relatable

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Me every day tbh

I specifically made my character to overlap and contrast my party since I was a later addition. I ended up sitting in for a session before my official joining and then had the players tell me what they wished to share of their characters and then had the dm fill me in on themes and storybeats already in play. Not to mention their own requests for where they wanted my character to pull the party towards. I then took what I felt like playing and molded that all together. I’m happy to say it’s been over 13 sessions now and my character has gone over great. They have allowed each character to shine and attach and invest in my character in their own way and there is overlap and affection now built that I can build on to have my character invest in theirs. Just recently I got to do a huge lore drop of my character’s backstory that showcased the positive character arc another player’s character has gone through. Just 3-4 sessions ago, its reveal would have had them at my character’s throat. The most recent session when it got revealed? His character took it in stride and even asked sincere follow up questions. My character and his are now seeing each other as good friends which I’m very happy for since they are both frontliners but also polar opposites in a lot of ways. Anyway, just wished to share. It’s a very rp heavy game though so I think this works because all of us players and the dm invest a lot into our own and each other’s characters. I think that is what helps it feel so clear for us instead of muddled. But, like I said, I also specifically made my character with the idea that they would highlight the various party members while also having their own niche. I tend to like making characters whose character arcs kinda happen in the background instead of the foreground. Been so much fun. Even try to attend when I get sick (it’s online so no worries about spreading the cold) if I’m not too bad. Oh and I have 6 people in my party as players. Also I think it helps that I know at least 2 players are professional voice actors (didn’t ask what they have done since it felt rude, it will come up if it comes up).

Gandalf isn't a human. He's one of the Maiar. They're like Archangels.

@claudiamcfie1265

6 ай бұрын

Boromir and Aragon fill the human role too... the point remains valid.

@T_Peazy

6 ай бұрын

@claudiamcfie1265 sure. Just not from gandalf.

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Yeah no, you're so right. I knew it was wrong when I was editing the video and meant to add an addendum but just totally got sidetracked with that stupid spoiler warning instead

6-8 people can work for a game with the WotC recommended amount of encounters per adventure day. Granted thats 2x to 3x more combats per day than most groups play 5e but it's very rewarding to see characters TRULY relying on one another's mechanics when resources get thin. The best part is during short rests and exploration breaks in between because everyone is trying to roleplay how to best use thier limited resources *together*, not just one person taking the spotlight. Sadly it's not a popular way to play but at busy game stores who have limited DM's I have seen these types of larger groups make great games out of even "mid" prewritten adventures. There were even a couple of Curse of Strahd tables I would say rivaled or exceeded Critical Role's energy level even though the players were not actors.

There is no D&D more fearsome than a lucky kobold, or worse, a tribe of lucky kobolds. Though one of the worst character deaths in a campaign I ran was a low level campaign where the Paladin was felled by an animated tree was 'helped' by a overly helpful Sorcerer with a negative wis modifier rolled a natural 1 ending up with a -1 medicine check. Had they waited for the life domain cleric who was next in the initiative, a life may have been spared. (Note it was the Paladin's player that said, "You killed me! You could have killed the tree but no YOU KILLED ME!!" I just respected the choice. And yes, the cleric did heal them, it was a level 2 party, so they no revivify.)

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Damn they were really trying their best tho

We run a table of 7 plus the DM with our group. It can be difficult but with our group we are really respectful of the other players and are totally invested in everyone else's stories as much as our own. I think optimum party size changes based on the respect and investment that the rest of the group can have for the others. It helps that we are a very high RP level group, I kean we have spent 3-4 sessions in a row just RPing together not doing very much else (thats 12-16hrs of RP in a row)

@mentalrebllion1270

6 ай бұрын

Same. Our party is 6 people plus dm (me included). Most of our sessions aren’t even combat. Good three or four will be straight rp. It’s been fun! I love this party. Always need a good strong rp focused campaign in my dnd schedule.

“If you want to make the word a better place take a look at yourself and make a change.” -Batman

One EXCELLENT series that dives into the whole party thing is The Belgariad by David Eddings. Each person that joins the party not only joins it for a specific reason of their own, but they are all there to not only help defeat the Big Bad but they are actually prophicied to be there, nonetheless, they're there by choice. The prophecy is also cool because it gives the characters it mentions special titles such as 'The Guide', 'The Woman Who Watches', 'The Horse Lord' amung others.

I watch far too much live play as well, lol. My favorite part about gaming is the party - the interplay with the characters and their evolving relationships, all to the backdrop of life-or-death stakes. And the thing I've taken most away from a party's inevitable diversity is that we all may be different, but together we can do great things.

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

it truly is the heart lets be real

I just wanted to say that I really appreciate your content. I'm fairly new to actually playing D&D, though I've known about it and been interested in playing for a ridiculously long time (things just never seemed to come together). And watching your takes on a lot of things has really helped me understand the game in a more rounded capacity, so much so that I've been creating my own campaign to run over the last few months. So thanks for showing me different angles to look at things from, and lending me some inspiration to actually DM my own game :)

There's always so much more emotional intelligence than I expect and things to reflect on than I expect whenever I watch your videos. I should be used to it by now but it always catches me by surprise.

I recommend listening to Guardians of the Flame. It is based on TTRPGs and was from the 80s through the 00s.

Oh you and your changing title KZread meta I definitely remember the title being about the found family trope when I apparently added it to two of my watch later playlists.

what was the name of the matt colville video you took clips from? trying to find it so i can watch it and i’m struggling

In early D&D, parties were often large, and many of the early adventures recommended large parties, of up to 9 or 10 characters. I never had that experience. We hardly ever had more than DM plus 3 or 4 players, but we did play 2 or 3 characters each, because in the old school, there was safety in numbers, in addition to allowing for a full spread of classes. But we weren't going for deep character story development either. And we knew how not to metagame. And you're absolutely right about why we play. It's always about tackling those "monsters" that we are powerless against irl, often because they're abstract, like poverty, tyranny, or injustice. And that's also why the enemies were always white-washed as pure evil. It gives us an unambiguous villain whom we can eradicate thoroughly with no moral qualms, and that will solve all our problems. Is it realistic? NO. It's a FANTASY rpg. But you got it. People do change the world, and they do it in small numbers, not in mobs. And Fantasy gives us the hope that the right people will make the right changes for the right reasons. Even if they're personally terrible people. Humans usually are.

I think of it like would you rather a whole army protect you or have the secret service. Shure the army can do a lot due to numbers but that’s a huge cost. Tend to injuried kitting people out all that stuffs. But a secret service is specialized, discrete and not so invasive to your life and the worlds. Also that last thought is a great way and true way to think about it.

Unexpected staring into the void and terrifying introspective delving not expected in the first 60 seconds. stop that lol

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

That's my life at this point whatcha gonna do?

You can listen to actual play in podcast format. Thats like the same as an audiobook.

Look at the squirrel go

If only there was a Corgi who could clear up any insanity going on

@Scaramanga7

6 ай бұрын

A Dire Corgi... (yes, they exist in D&D Canon)

Listen to the forth whatever that was.

Did you also know, that the brain can't tell the difference between an emotion in a real setting or an fake or induced setting - if you feel elated over a victory, or sad by the death of a NPC, that is the same emotion as any other victory and loss, and that is what makes RPG so powerful. (yet note, that of course an emotion induced by a book or movie will do the same, but I think RPG is unique in immersing us so we have those emotions.)

Gandalf isn't a Human though...

I personally love the decent into madness with the spoiler warnings ❤

@alpinistriley

6 ай бұрын

Also… Fish

...because it's dangerous to go alone.

honestly, commit to the bit. make a squirrel or fish a mascot of thr channel. make the squirrel the spoiler, something to look for sometimes. sure its a deranged thing, but I've seen people pack bond with a brick in my days

Υo jake i know its been some time since you posted this but have you listened to the fourth wing?

Also go listen to Name of the Wind

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Hmmm I can check it out! Never heard of it

Thank you🥹

The real adventuring party is the friends we made along the way

Interesting thought I had listening to this: I wonder if the group aspect helps lead to a more positive outcome because of those different perspectives? I’m thinking that individual stories that are compelling tend to be tragic (Oedipus sort of comes to mind). I don’t think this is always the case but an interesting thread, I think!

@Snaitycake

6 ай бұрын

(Also your mind has always been lost Jay, that’s what makes you fun 😂😜 you’re in good company with most of us channel people I bet)

@Snaitycake

6 ай бұрын

Challenge to Jay to tie in an audio book or epic story (bonus points if it’s realllll old) Also listen to the Fourth Wing? 😂

It’s a party, and everyone (Max 4) is invited

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

My ideal party on a weekend

i think MC is best channel for learning to play dnd.

As I watched this, my forgotten banana got a few more bruises. I really needed a spoiler warning…

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Damn you guys are getting creative with this

@LocalMaple

6 ай бұрын

@@PlayYourRole You can use that as a parody spoiler warning for your April Fools video. “Hey guys, this video might end up so long that your food goes bad. So here is a spoiler warning.”

Omg Jay, please just call it BG3. We’ve been calling the originals BG1 and BG2 for over 20 years at this point. 😭

@iosefo3173

6 ай бұрын

Lol I thought I was the only one like, "tf he sayin 'balders' for??" 😂🤣

@zalhararena4831

6 ай бұрын

Ballers gate

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

I have never in my life referred to anything the proper way, and while I would LOVE to try and start now, I feel it's too late for me

@lucassworldofletsplays9270

3 ай бұрын

​@@PlayYourRoleIt's NEVER too late please start doing it

Bold of you to call Gandalf a human

Listen to Worlds Beyond Number

Fireball is a great spell... at level 5. Hypnotic pattern, slow or even fear are better in the long run.

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

While I, as a DM, agree so much... Players like to see things go boom

@arsov9885

6 ай бұрын

@@PlayYourRole That's why I prefer playing support, while I'm a spell caster, to not overshadow others and let the deal the damage. I agree that some monsters have to be killed, and in those cases damage is necessary. The one that deals the damage is contented immediately, but the others may not (imagine Sharpshooter Samurai and Two Weapons Barbarian on the same team).

@mal2ksc

6 ай бұрын

Fireball remains a great spell for taking out (actual or potential) zerg rushes, for those "quantity has a quality all its own" days.

Why? Action economy and mitigation of bad dice. When someone takes a crit out of nowhere and goes down, it's a much bigger problem in a tag-team of two than a normal party of four. When you've got six, you even have the luxury of choosing who should cast the Healing Word. Just like adding more dice makes the result more and more of a bell curve, adding more party members makes the dice much less of a factor because the save-or-suck situations are much less dire. In the real world, this would be called "safety in numbers".

Why not a squirrel, Jay? Do you have something against squirrels?

I love that Alyssa has become a generic name- because it is. So many Alyssas running around. I'm one of them- and my players have demanded dialogues from me between two NPCs. Some of us can act in rare circumstances 😂

go read the gideon the ninth/the locked tomb, tbh

My mother is a fish

@PlayYourRole

6 ай бұрын

Damn thats... wait what

@curtisholsinger6023

6 ай бұрын

​@PlayYourRole Faulkner. Google "my mother is a fish." Spoiler Warning: his mother is not a fish. It's five words, one sentence, and it's the whole chapter. It has lived rent free in my head since college.

For your sanity don’t listen to The Fourth Wing Unless you enjoy laughing at terrible writing.

Listen to your wife

I found the Background music in this Vid very distracting ... I personally don't need background music if I want to follow arguments... Still, just an opinion though... :)