Something about the DMPC cleric saying "grow up" while effectively whining over name calling towards a fake religion either funny or infuriating. It would make me want to double down, declare their class a cultist, and have any campaign with that character lose their deity/beliefs.

That first story with the vampire players is essentially "so anyway, I started blasting".

On the vampire story, in addition to learning from your mistakes, also recognize that it's not a sin to talk with your players and reconn something that YOU messed up on, even ifit's something that the player liked. I had a player corner one of my NPCs and start asking them a lotof questions I wasn't prepared for and ended up telling them wrong information. Realizing my mistake, I later went to them and apologized. They were extremely understanding and agreed to a reconn. It's just as much the DMs game as the players, and if you mess something up and have to rewrite a bunch of stuff to fit with a mistake, then you might not have as much fun. Forgive yourself, talk with your players, and move on ^.^

I do find it hilarious for a group of freshly sired vampires to just immediately go on a killing spree. It's like they were actually playing Vampire Diaries and just turned off their morality switch.

The vampire the masquerade story was setting the players up for failure. One of the laws of the masquerade is that you are not supposed to make a new vamp and then abandon them because they don't know the laws and will probably break the masquerade. The Camarilla (secret vampire police) will kill a sire and their progeny for making a new vamp and not teaching them the rules. I guess the best way to make it work is to make it a game where you are getting hunted tho

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

I'm guessing the point of the Alien Hunger module mentioned in the story is people who randomly became vampires with no knowledge of how it works go through the setting until they learn the truth. Probably didn't expect players to instantly eat someone at the first opportunity.

@MegaHasmat

6 ай бұрын

@@ArcCaravan The module probably assumes experienced players who will role-play unwitting fledglings, instead of actually being oblivious of the tone and expectations of the setting

@BoyarBathory

6 ай бұрын

It's actually a jumpstart chronicle for new players. The idea is they start as Mortals and get accosted by a strange man. Then wake up in a burning house and are vampires suddenly.

Beef story: sounds like the DM just WANTED to be angry, and was more offended that the players were trying to bury the hatchet instead of just dealing

The Cleric in the last story has skin thinner than rice paper my lord. Imagine having that much beef with someone and ending a long friendship over _one comment in a ROLEPLAYING GAME._

My Rogue has beef with the Druid in my Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign. We decided it would be fun to have our characters hate each other because I’m a materialistic thief and she’s essentially a hippie. Outside of the game, we get along fine and our “beef” just consists of making stupid jokes about each other’s character

D&D NPC becoming a real boy sounds like a great creepypasta >.>

My D&D group has a PvP rivalry going on and has since nearly the beginning. The beef is between the anti-social Tiefling artificer who doens't trust most people due to predjudice she experienced while growing up and the Aarakocra Bard with sticky fingers who has a habit of rushing into combat and being generally disruptive. I'm the Tiefling, and the Aarakocra is played by the guy who is essentially my bestie, and we have an absolute blast butting heads while also trying to keep things together enough to work as a party. This whole situation arose organically during gameplay, and it's led to some hilarious, and sometimes dire moments. It's generally a good rule to _not_ attempt to steal from the hoard of even a young red dragon _when the dragon is right there staring at you._ It's a good thing that all of us, especially the DM, are on the same page as to the tone and difficulty level of the game, or this entire campaign would have been a disaster by the second session. 🤣

The vampire sketch reminds me of the situation I had once: GM roleplays voice of something ancient and alien speaking to one of the PCs in ominous tone: "Come to me!" Player character: Right away!

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

I almost expected the skit to have the human call the dark entity, "Daddy."

@Anna-bd7sg

6 ай бұрын

@@ArcCaravan that is how you became a warlock

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

@@Anna-bd7sg Or a sorcerer.

@Akalim

6 ай бұрын

Thats how you /make/ a scorcerer ​@@ArcCaravan

That DM from the last story seems to have a problem telling fantasy from reality, as they allowed in-character RP to color their out-of-character attitude towards the player. Seen that happen before, where RP has led to hurt feelings and a massive shift in group dynamic, thanks to someone not being able to separate game from real life. That sort of thing is best handled by therapy ASAP, in order to prevent any deeper blurring of the lines.

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

Apparently it's called bleed and is common in tabletop horror stories. Crispy has talked about it a lot.

Had some character conflict in my CoS game. It was great at first. One player was a Dhampir, another was a vampire hunter. Both had origins in Barovia. Naturally, they didn't trust each other, and it led to a lot of character drama. The problem was, despite constant attempts to quell the animosity, the hunter character refused to accept any character development. He kept taking potshots at the dhampir for innocuous things, and it was starting to feel personal, and was bumming out everyone else. I tried talking to him about it, but looking back, I could definitely have gone about it differently. Eventually, the vampire hunter told me he wasn't having fun, and bowed out. I don't know if he actually wasn't having fun, or if he just picked up on the vibe, but I know he was having some troubles irl, so either way I don't blame him. I still consider him a friend, but we barely talk anymore.

For that last story, I wonder why the DM got so genuinely offended over the cult comment? Like, they took it so personally, it became an out-of-game issue over a single passing comment. I get if the character gets miffed over stuff, but for the DM to also get miffed over in-character banter?! Seems so bewildering to me.

@TemporalWarrior

6 ай бұрын

My guesses are that it was because about the Dmpc’s religion and they took it a bit personal or/and frustration on the apology not happening the way they thought it would/should be on its own

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

Looked like character bleed. Or the DM secretly was secretly touchy about religion and/or cults.

@jaredthehawk3870

6 ай бұрын

Always great to see another TTRPG Horror Story commenter stop in and give their two cents.

@DataDrain02

6 ай бұрын

I dunno, sounds like cult like behavior. =V

My party has engaged in cannibalism on multiple occassions, usually knowingly. The first time was a hag trying to make them take morally reprehensible actions, but it was... way too easy. One of the characters was vegan!

The railroading DM really sounds like he didn't understand how to improvise or adapt, which impacted how they wanted to tell the story they had laid out. On top of this comes the poor combat balance, with seemingly little understanding of how to challenge players without making the game frustrating.

...If I were playing a newly sired vampire with no knowledge of what was going on, and had gone to an eatery to get a bite to eat due to having first thought it was regular hunger, I'd probably have responded to 'you crave blood' "...Maybe black pudding will work? Do they do black pudding here? Any sort of blood sausage?"

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

I'd be asking how I know it's specifically blood I want. And then try satisfying my hunger with my own blood.

For the 3rd story I get the feeling that not only was there character bleed, but the dm did not completely articulate that they will make alot of mistakes and need to be mindful when it comes up. From the way Op described it sorcerer was doing everything to make sure this moment of rp didn't come off as malicious but the DM never seemed to look at the possibility that they could have made a mistake (even well after the session).

I have no idea what the first party was trying to do by just straight up not letting another player actually play the game. They could have tried to resolve it plenty of other ways but noooo. Also (late) welcome back Crispy!

Since you asked. I am a Gm who is swtiching with another GM. We both know everything about our chars but not about the plot the other plans. That way we can have fun in each other plots but our characters can be planed for. We just have to make sure to allways seperate player and character. It worked for 4 years now, so I would say we have a good dynamic.

On the Neverending Beef story: Yeah, what the DM is doing by agreeing that the Sorcerer and DMPC Cleric should sort out their differences but leaving Sorcerer to do all the work and providing no hints as to what the Cleric would need, they're engaging in what I sometimes call "Guess what I'm thinking gameplay." So called because the only solution the player has is to guess what the DM is thinking. I've encountered this a few times and it always sucks.

Yay, glorious Rat Lord just in time to get me through the last half hour of work!

I just DMed my first game this Friday. My PLD player used their divine sense to search for items. At that moment I remembered that they talked to an NPC who had just fenced a big ruby. Idk, I suddenly decided that the ruby was magical and near where they were (which was in a tavern). I thought they would like to see something from the world pop up again. Anyway, the PLD sees the item glowing and asks me if it's desecrated or consecrated... I as the DM didn't know because I pulled this scenario out of my butt. So I just said, "Your senses are clouded. You're not entirely sure." Aka I have no idea what I'm doing! The party successfully stole the ruby from where it was hidden and luckily the session ended nicely before the ruby even had to come back up again. So now I know what to do with it! It's going to be desecrated and tied to the BBEG. The reason it was difficult for the PLD to sense exactly what it was is because it was shrouded in a magic that was attempting to muffle its perverse nature.... Lol not the most creative solution but it helps keep the game solid enough. So yeah it's always ok to make up some BS in order to give yourself more time, and if you can't make up the BS then it's ok to say, "Hey I actually need a little time to iron out the details on this." No need to panic (although it's totally normal to panic haha).

The problem in the Vampire Storyteller's game was they seemingly expected their players to use a bunch of metagame knowledge to decide their actions. Newly turned vamps have no idea what happned to them. All they know is the hunger. This is also why most games where players are newly turned and have noone to explain stuff should probably be a good old Shovelhead story! While the Camarilla might get pissy about mindless slaughter of civilians for the Sabbat that's a tuesday.

One gelatinous cube is terrifying, so 20? I'm going to have nightmares about that.

If you're a DM, you prepare for a session, but should be at the ready to be dragged along on another adventure by the party if they choose to commit their time to something else. It's still a social game, we're all here to get some enjoyment out of it.

OP of the vampire story went into a longer lecture than my parents ever did lol

I think for me it would depend on how long the initial campaign with the temporary DM would be before they became a player. Like if its for a one shot just some basic stuff like im a traveler. A bit longer maybe more info but basically bare bones stuff. Like, yeah, I'm from an island community and I'm basically out to see what the world has to offer. That way he has something to work with. But i'd definitely keep the specifics like I have a bounty on my head to myself until the main DM takes over.

Me and my friends love pvp but not in the fighting aspects. We're all in the military so its just alot a banter and remarks until combat starts then We're usually a solid team. I play a high elf palidin and my buddy plays a drow ranger and i always call him a berrt picket when he gets back from stealthing

First story reminds me of the first time I RPGed. I was 12 and had main character syndrome, so I kept trying to center the plot on me. Naturally, the rest of the adult party decided the best way to handle this was to try and beat the shit out of my character. I defended myself, and they accused me of attacking other players. I apologized (for what I didn’t know, it’s not like they ever TOLD me what I was doing wrong), and they just told me I was an “ obnoxious Mary Sue” for....apologizing to them (I kid you not) and told the GM to kick me. The GM took my side, which they had a huge fit over, but I left anyway cause I was tired of them. They wound up being so toxic to each other in my absence that GM closed the game because she was done dealing with them. They blamed me for all of it. Naturally.

This is where the fun begins.

Using the Durge cut scene in that first story had my loling. As someone who loves the Durge story line.. that was perfect

The PVP story. Your comments are good. The important thing is that D&D is supposed to be fun. If your characters dislike each other and everybody is having fun, great! But if it's legitimately stressing people out and people are making MULTIPLE out of character attempts to find a way to resolve it, maybe freaking work with them to do that. And sometimes you might be in a situation in which you don't feel your character can reconcile. In that situation, you need to ask yourself if you're actually enjoying your character at all. Perhaps it would be better to write that character out, and bring in someone who is a better fit for the party. It's really okay to do that.

@mentalrebllion1270

6 ай бұрын

I contemplated replacing a character I had that had occurred to me finally would clash far too much with another more established pc. I opted out of doing that though because the dm announced they wanted to switch the group to a new campaign. So, to let things off, we let the group have their differences and it ended the story with the party doing battle with each other in a tragic situation of differences in moral beliefs which split the party and broke each member’s heart but had resolved to do anyway. It wasn’t the usual end to such a story but I think we all were pleased with it. That player and I have new characters and they get along much better and don’t clash as badly. The player and I still have different priorities in how we play but they mesh better now.

@angiep2229

6 ай бұрын

@@mentalrebllion1270 Yup, you seem to have had consent, which is key. You all were good with telling a tragic story, and that can be awesome. It's just something that can stress some people out, so it's a good idea to do some out of character check-ins on people once in a while, IMO. In the big long Curse of Strahd campaign I finished playing in a couple of months ago, the cleric and my rogue often butted heads over major philosophical differences. Our characters usually had respect for each other, but once in a while we clashed. Our very worst clash, at the beginning of the session, the cleric's player informed me that his character was about to lay a lot of hate on my character, but that at the same time he really thought the world of me as a player. With that preamble and reassurance, our characters sort of cut loose with some really nasty, below-the-belt accusations at each other, and it was a really cool experience. I might've been stressed or held back if we hadn't talked first. Funny enough, right up to the last session, neither of us were sure if our characters would end as allies or if one of us would kill the other. Ultimately we concluded as allies, but if we hadn't, it still would've been really cool. These things can just get really emotional and we have to be careful of our fellow players. :)

@mentalrebllion1270

6 ай бұрын

@@angiep2229 of course! And I love the story of your game here. Definitely love a “will they won’t they” type of thing going. Lol I once played a campaign where all the characters got along so nicely but all the lack of sharing crucial information and letting misunderstandings be made, had all our characters really upsetting each other. We the players loved it though. Honestly, some good talk and proper warnings help a ton with this type of thing. I still use them in all my games, especially the rp heavy ones that rely a great deal more on the social and moral dynamics of the party. For instance, I set up a mechanic for when one pc goes through my characters papers (they are a researcher but also a poet and write reports back to the their faction too so my character is almost always writing). The way this player design their character means that their character likes to snoop. We talked about it though and I told them I had finished setting this mechanic up if they felt like letting that trait play out. Weird holiday scheduling stuff happened so they haven’t been at sessions because of it, but confirmed that if the opportunity came up, they fully intend to indulge. I even planted some things on the papers that their character will zero in on over other things, like my character’s past romance. Their character is a romantic which is sweet but pushy lol. Should be a fun way for that reveal to happen. Anyway, like I said, above board discussions were had. We designed player conflict to not actually be something that bleeds over to us but we can enjoy like any good drama in whatever format we get it from, in this case, dnd. Honestly it’s one of my favorite parts of dnd, the collaboration, to which communication is key. I’ve learned what I like though and just have fallen in with some amazing tables so I say I lucked out.

Combat Story: I won’t lie, I occasionally give NPCs abilities like those of PCs. Not full character sheets, but some of the equivalent level abilities. I’m running Lost Mine of Phandelver as a Mini-Campaign to give the main DM time to prep campaign 2, and because the group is scary effective with Surprise Rounds (even with a Paladin who somehow has God Luck on stealth and consistently rolls double digits at disadvantage), I went and began to buff 2 “boss” npcs. The Bugbear King, and The Black Spider. The King I gave Blood Hunter Abilities to make him nastier for damage, and “Blood Curse of the Eyeless” to help him deal with their attack bonuses. I am treating it as he picked up some tricks from the Spider, who I upgraded with Grim Hollow content (a few spells, higher power spell slots, and access to Sangromancy, which both gives extra HP and some REALLY nasty spells the party will definitely find unsettling).

i ♥ how the minecraft slime noises were that

Really like the music in the gelatinous cube skit!

REGIS IN THE THUMBNAIL YAAAAAY i love regis so much

I have made character that have levels like the players. The thing is they are normally an allie or a boss that is only 1 at a time. Not 4 at one time and if it is a boss it not that high above the party.

I’m crying at the bg3 references 😂

Just caught up on your videos earlier. I take a shower and find this in my recommended. I feel spoiled.

I love DMing (it’s my preferred way to play dnd) and I recently Leanne that it’s way better (for me) to do small more episodic adventures rather than grand “save the realm” stuff. I’ve been DMing for about 5 years and I wanna see what ill be DMing and improving on in the furture

I have a dhampir character that I’ve been playing who’s a six year old who oddly is the strongest in the group. Six year old grip strength + dhampir strength + putting the highest stat in strength = Strong child who can drag any player out of a bad situation. One of my friends got their drink spiked and fell unconscious. I was the only one nearby so just imagine, a 3ft child pulling along an unconscious full grown adult. They aren’t very intelligent, wise, or charismatic though so it kinda balances out.

twenty gelatinous cubes 🤣

Re: Backstory, I try to work with my DMs as much as they like about my backstory, as working directly with them helps them get an idea of what kind of story beats they want to hit with the character specifically. To put it metaphorically, I come in with a hunk of raw iron (typically the unnamed sheet with the crunchy framework of a character and an idea) and me and the DM take turns beating it into whatever shape we can agree on, but purposely leave it unpolished. That way the DM has the ability to work in background elements that need to be there when they need to be there, and I have the flexibility to suggest the "I Know A Guy" card when we collectively hit a wall without it feeling like its out of nowhere or out of character. The less collaborative character building there is, the less the character's background is going to matter in a significant way, if at all.

20 gelatinous cubes?! I just got the Flee Mortals pdf, and I've been giving it a browse. There's some good-looking stuff in there. Can't wait to throw my players for a loop.

Interiorize... they wanted 'internalize'.

20 gelatinous Cubes 😂

Man, that last one hits so close to home. I had something like that happen in my first game where my character screwed up towards another character and that character's player (whom I had brought into the game) then steadfastly avoided mine and stonewalled apology attempts, going so far as to demonstrably turn their back on my character when she was in danger. The player behaved similarly to the Cleric's player when the DM had our characters tied up together after being captured by that world's equivalent of kobolds, seemingly waiting for me to read their mind and say the magic words that would fix the conflict between the two characters. As it turned out, the player was a sociopath that had found new narcissistic supply in the DM and they were actively working on making me so miserable that I would quit so they'd have the group to themselves. Sadly, they succeeded in getting me kicked less than a year later.

My party is mostly new people and they are afraid of combat... trying to get them used to bigger/harder fights

From what I understand, Curse of Strahd is infamous as a module, isn’t it? I’ve been in numerous campaigns and the only time I was kicked from a game was with a group I was unfamiliar with doing curse of Strahd. I tried playing with another group and my character died, and I couldn’t reroll ont because the game was too full (like 10 people pretty consistently attending). To this day I still haven’t completed Curse of Strahd.

@darkcrydotmrihavetoomanyst1440

6 ай бұрын

I always wanted to try playing Curse of Strahd but I haven't found any groups to play it yet

As a DM I don’t like giving my players goons to fight, I prefer to make boss fights that are difficult. I’ve told my players that fights are not supposed to be easy but i ultimately want them to win, I make sure they always can prepare a plan beforehand. Combat becomes more of a challenge of tatics than a “you die”, is it perfect? No, not at all. I still haven’t gotten my balance right yet and I want to be a DM that will always learn from feedback too. Luckily players have enjoyed combat so far but I still will experiment and see how I can make things better

For the last story, i dunno having beef with someone for THAT long even in character over ONE comment even in character is a bit immature, especially IF the person who said the comment for the entire rest of the game has been a good ally. I'd let go of that over like. A session and a half, maybe less.

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

Best I can guess is DMPC cleric was looking for more excuses to hate sorcerer, like overreacting to NPC interactions.

**plops down with freshly brewed coffee** ok let's do this 😄

Man your skits are hilarious Crispy, hope at some point you make a compilation of them

I dunno man, most of my DMs give NPC Enemies Player Classes. It just sounds like the party in the second story just isn't used to that. That said, I play exclusively 3.5 and Pathfinder, so I'm not sure what 5th Ed Statblocks are like. In 3.5 Gelatinous Cubes are a CR 3 Encounter and have shit reflex saves and AC, move at half speed, and take up too much space for the basement to have more than a couple of them, for example. It would be a level equivalent encounter for a level 3 party in 3.5. Did 5th Ed crank up the difficulty? If so, that might be where the DM was having issues, since they might have been used to the 3.5 stats. Edit: Just saw that there were 20 cubes in the basement. How was that happening? Gelatinous Cubes take up 10-15 feet of space per cube! What is this? A Basement for Frost Giants? Why is some random basement able to accommodate 200-300 feet of gelatinous cubes?

@Crazor2000

6 ай бұрын

on the first part, the reason why you don't design pc for enemies, is because typically player character statblocks more complicated as monsters only have the things that they need on the statblocks. Sure it can be done, and i have played sessions with this concept in mind, but it is more work for not that much more reward. for example you don't really need things like background features, tool profiencies, long rest abilities, equipment like bedrolls and rations and stuff like that. Keep in mind, he's not adding class abilities to an npc statblock, but designing an entire pc's. Also most abilities are not designed with pvp in mind. as well as abilities that are more difficult/complicated to keep track off or for players to deal with. An example in 5e is rage. in 5e what it does is while active, it gives you a bonus on damage rolls, and resistance against bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage with no way to bypass it. combine that with the fact that it lasts a minute and it only drops if you don't attack or take damage in a round and you basically doubled the the health of the enemy for any player that doesn't do magic. Don't get me wrong, you can do it, and i have played sessions with them and they were fun, but these statblocks are more difficult to deal with as both an dm an a player depending on how you build them. but it's just easier to give a statblock an ability that says they have sneak attack, than building a whole rogue. There are other people who have written more on this, but this is the general gist of it.

...I love the cat staff....I need to find a similar staff.

I feel that the DM of that last game didn’t actually want resolution that didn’t end in someone dying. How hard is it to ask for an apology for a comment? Why do some people expect others to suddenly become Charles MF Xavier and read their minds to know what’s wrong?

Every time you bring up Flee Mortals, I'm reminded that it's the only MCDM product I had no interest in because it came out right after I stopped playing D&D. In PF2e, I make npcs with pc stat blocks all the time, since through Foundry you can just grab things and plug them in

20 gelatinous cubes? How big is the room?

Wen the players are actually Bullgors and Ogres in disguise:

20 gelatinous cubes...

20 Gelatinous Cubes ☝️

aint no way crispy be using the hoodless cape in D2 😭😭

Twenty. Gelatinous. Cubes. ??!!

10:16 how would you rate the rival party statblocks from Call of the Netherdeep?

20 gelatinous cubes

That beef story, bro... I have thing against petty negative behavior, as it's entirely on the offending party. There's no gun to their head or sick kid in the hospital that motivating them. Not even a meaningful reward. We all know this as we all had petty thoughts, at the very least. And we know that we have a choice. You can't force someone to be petty. Choice is very important axiom of my moral outlook and harm from petty choices undermines the value of that axiom. That's why I get so mad at this stories... and I need to stop because it's petty of me.😂

20 gelatinous cubes

20 gelatinous cubes?

I have a hard time seeing party conflict as PvP, like it needs gameplay mechanics to really count for me.

Man I think if I had a dm rocks fall and u all die that often I'd just have stop playing

How do you determine which stories get read? How do I assure that my story will be told?

@RaptorRocka

6 ай бұрын

Uhh… you can’t make crispy read your story. They’ll read it if it’s good.

Honestly, my biggest disappointment with the last story was that, despite the title, there was no reference to the Beef Brigade

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

I thought of that same story.

Can anyone tell me what clip was played at 5:26?

Whats wrong with Cannibalism?

Internalize???

Personally I don't see anything wrong with DMs making player characters to go against the party. If done were right that is. I've seen some instances where DMs created a rival party and it turned out very well.

@ArcCaravan

6 ай бұрын

I've seen similar. Main issue here is making them a much higher level than the party while their just supposed to be basic enemies. Those kinds of encounters are better saved for important plot characters.

the new song is off-putting

Story 1: Starting us off with something other than 5e. very nice. Okay, admittedly doubling up on a theme CAN be cramping your style if the other guy is out-doing you at your gimmick, or taking away moments for you to shine. It dilutes opportunities for both players. So... OP intentionally played a character that would not mesh well with the group and the group would have to break character to not attack on sight? ... Who's the bad guy in this story again? First, superheroes don't operate by the same rules of cops, so entrapment is a moot point. Second it sounds like the team wanted OP on the roof IN A POSITION WHERE HE COULD SEE THEM in case things went south. really, how would you not be able to not have a vantage point here? Either OP or the DM really didn't think there would be other places to snipe. wait. That's it? That's not a horror story. that's just a session where you didn't get to do the thing your character's good for. Story 2: A v20 story, nice. I mean, WoD has some pretty hefty lore and each section of it (vampires, werewolves, wizards, mummies, ghosts, ect) so yes it not a good idea to start with a game where the players can run circles around you with supplements that you've never heard of. Yeah, no. 9 people? No. That's all on you, OP. If this story is about that, then you have no one but you to blame. Ok, good idea to start with an introductory adventure... but I'm fairly sure this was more of an introduction to the setting for OP rather than the players. Yeah, those players would be so dead for causing such a masq. breach. Newly turned vamps are on the bottom of the protected list. Now it sounds like all 9 really didn't know anything about setting. So the players were checked out by the time they learned they couldn't go murder hobo in V20. Sounds like they were expecting D&D style adventure rather than something more subtle. Now this this confession of being very bad at making things up on the fly, I gotta wonder how much of this was the players. OP admits to having a rep of rage quitting campaigns and killing everyone when they go off the rails. I think DMing might not be for OP. Story 3: Interesting concept. So, the DM saves the group from TPK and OP whines about it. I'd demand to know HOW the guard alerts everyone in the base all at once. D&D ain't supposed to be like MGS. If it was "he takes out a whistle and blows on it" and the party is in no way able to respond in less than a round?" Yeah. Your cover should be blown. If the guards are supposed to be competent, then they would carry a whistle around their neck. DM might have been timing the party to check what guard was where, or rolling to see if they heard anything. Dunno, OP doesn't elaborate. Um, OP, NPCs don't normally have monster stat blocks. what are you complaining about here? Good on you for at least going non lethal. It preserves your good guy alignment and honestly I'd do the same thing simply because its harder. TBH: any illusionist should be a collosal pain in the ass to deal with. Because DMs shouldn't tell you you're fighting illusions or shadows. Okay I actually played the video instead of skipping through it paused so I could listen to crispy for a change: Wait, What? You think its a waste of time to roll up sheets for NPCs? All NPCs, sure, but NPCs that are going to be major threats or need to be tailored to events need to be statted and sheeted. Even monsters that need to have extra HD or class levels need to have a sheet to keep track of their buffs. This is just... lazy DMing advice. you disappoint me, Ratte. A shadow sorc should absolutely have that spell in their back pocket, and dispel magic to counter silence. Or a magic item to activate as an escape route. Unless this 18 Int wizard has a death wish he should absolutely have an easy out of fights. Either DM isn't telling them something purposely (WHICH YOU SHOULD DO IF ITS AN ILLUSIONIST) or DM isn't very good, or OP isn't telling us the full story. "Just make them a low level goon that we can easily trounce and win against. Gawd." -OP Ugh, DM let guns in his game? Points off, DM. Boo. "We charged the alerted gunmen and went down several times." Gee, I wonder why. I can't really be sure if OP is a whiner when faced with legit difficulty, or OP is just going a bit too hard. Might be a little of both. Um... a gelatinous Ooze, aside from that first ambush is not that big of a threat. Unless you all ran head long into the basement like Roosevelt down San Juan Hill, you all should not have been caught like that. So the players confront the DM, DM switches to stock monsters and the players are happy with that. That... sounds like the players really don't want a challenge. They want predictable, easy wins. Honestly, it feel like DM was balancing things fairly well for a group that could plan ahead, and take things cautiously. DM is clearly disheartened that he can't make things interesting, can't make the fights his own. DM ramps up the difficulty one more time, Sorc cries like a baby yadda yadda yadda As much as I want to shit on OP for not wanting to get out of the kiddie pool: I get it. Some people just want casual D&D where they ride around trouncing bad guys 3 levels weaker than them. They want story telling. They want to know the enemy's weaknesses because they want predictability. But I do think the DM was legit trying to give the an epic story, a hard earned win, and the PCs were not stepping up. Story 4: ugh, another visit to the mangling of the Ravenloft setting. You'd think Barovia was the the only place to go there... Seriously: it fells like the same 2 modules keep showing up in these horror stories: Strahd, and Phandelver. So Cleric has never DM'd FOR THE GROUP before but knows the game. established. Honestly, if any class should be used for a DMPC helper, it should be the cleric. Build it defensively, keep him in the back, focus on healing. Regular Healbot. I already see where this is going. A new DM should avoid DMPCs, since they haven't learned they have to kill their darlings. wait. Sorc mildly insults the cleric. cleric goes and sulks... and PVP starts? wut? There's a few steps missing here I think. Yeah, wait. Why didn't the DM have the player's backstories? that should be the first thing you do when starting a game. You give the DM your backstory so he can work it into the plot. Sounds like Cleric is taking a mild jab very seriously. Nevermind that hard left turn, we're skipping ahead several sessions! This... hurts my head. Ranger is threatening to kill an NPC who knows the location of strong magic... that the BBEG has already been torturing and likely gotten info out of... and the players think this will somehow lead to the BBEG getting the weapons? HUH? And cleric choses now to attack sorc? There has to be more to this story than what's written. This isn't making any sense.

20 gelatinous cubes