I think we're past the point of 'not saying you should break up with your partner over a game.' They DID talk to them, multiple times in the story. This is past that point. If you can't talk to your PARTNER about your serious concerns making you feel uncomfortable then why are you even in a relationship? You shouldn't be in a relationship with someone who not only regularly does things to make you uncomfortable but hears you tell them about those feelings and not only denies them but keeps doing the thing but even worse. Screw that, show them the door.

@rootfish2671

11 ай бұрын

Totally that's abuse to constantly violate your partners boundaries after being told repeatedly to stop

@muffinmuffin8946

5 ай бұрын

ESPECIALLY over a game, because roleplay games are often where true feelings come out in the forms of masks, a venting of some kind

For the "hardcore" game, I'd definitely recommend leaving it. It's a paid game and the poster doesn't enjoy participating. There's no reason to continue to pay for an experience you don't enjoy.

@AuntLoopy123

Жыл бұрын

Yep. It's one thing if it was a long-standing friend group that decided to play D&D and the DM just took a while to learn how to do things well. Then, you talk it out, and say, "Maybe we could try more X? Or Y? Less Z? Please?" But if you are PAYING a person to bore you to tears, what is the point? And if you TELL the PAID DM, "This isn't working for me. Please change the pace, let us actually speak during a session, do X or Y, please," and the DM decides to just rage quit, then you're better off that he does rage quit, because then you don't have to fire the BAD EMPLOYEE. Do NOT pay DMs to give you bad results. But, by all means, pay them a fair price, if they are giving you a GOOD session/campaign/adventure.

Based on my own personal experience, that story about the person being really nasty to their partner in-game has more red flags than a May Day parade in Beijing: My ex started out being a real dick towards me in multiplayer video games we played together well before she started mentally & emotionally abusing me in real life. Hell, looking back, I'm almost certain that she was using the in-game interaction to gauge just how much abuse I'd be willing to put up with her before abusing me for real. And while we, of course, don't have the full story, the fact that "Jacob" ignored their partners concern about their in-game behavior pretty much exactly matches how my ex-wife ignored me when I brought up my concerns with her doesn't bode well, and I'd encourage the person who shared that story to be vigilant & immediately get out of that relationship if it shows any signs of progressing into real life.

@violet7773

Жыл бұрын

I'm sorry you experienced that, I hope you're doing better now I agree with you, "Jacob" is showing blatant disregard for OP's comfort. It's not "just a game" when OP is uncomfortable out of character. I hope OP's story doesn't go the way yours did ❤

@brianvance1178

11 ай бұрын

Fun fact: May Day is the high holiday of communism and is celebrated on the exact same day as the satanic high holiday of Walpurgisnacht and the ancient pagan holiday of Beltane

In the first story I really think that the DM could had just ignored the absorption part of the Gibbering Mouther, but the saddest part is that he actually rulled it wrong (not his fault, the ability is very poorly written), when the bite attack says that a creature killed by this attack is absorbed it means actually killed, not just dropped unconscious by hitting 0 hp

@realdragon

Жыл бұрын

Nah it's funny when PC dies

@nalcarya

Жыл бұрын

To be fair it is pretty clearly worded, which is why the story just left me confused.

@nvfury13

Жыл бұрын

You mean the story with a failed death save and then the person getting hit so they failed the rest, so is dead?

@nalcarya

Жыл бұрын

@@nvfury13 A 14 is not a failed death save.

@nvfury13

Жыл бұрын

@@nalcarya The story implied it was, and from the campaigns I’ve watched (since I don’t play 5E) it can be.

The Jailroad - the important question to ask here is "what's the endgame?" What is the purpose to throwing the party in jail and strictly limiting communication? What is your party's motivation at the end of this story, apart from 'get free?' If there are 6 people at a table and only one person can speak to an npc in 30-minute blocks, what is your group's incentive to show up to a game where they'll spend most, if not all of their time, hanging out and being silent? Going by the information presented, it seems like this DM became fixated on the idea of roleplaying out a "realistic" prison break where prisoners would have to sneakily wile their way around the limitations of the cells and coordinate an escape rather than simple blasting their way out, and believed his players would be just as eager to play out the scenario. This isn't a terrible idea in an of itself but it has to be executed in a way that keeps the group engaged - maybe with a series of short 1-on-1 meetings over discord between sessions where you can type "a couple days pass" and by the time your next sit-down session happens you can have it understood that the party has been in prison for an extended time plotting escape. As a DM, always be leery if an idea shuts down most of your party for the better part of multiple sessions, and always keep in mind the hard lesson every DM has to learn at some point - players cannot see inside your head. They can miss what seems like obvious cues, or people without your knowledge base can be ignorant to what seems like a clear solution. If multiple players start coming forward to make it clear your idea hasn't gone over well, even if you thought it was really good, be ready to cut bait and improvise.

My thoughts on the boyfriend story. It could be an opposite of the couples favoritism situation. The guy is trying to avoid showing favoritism for his SO and overcompensates in the other direction, singling them out, being difficult, etc. Of course, I'm giving the situation the benefit of the doubt. A serious talk needs to happen.

@APerson-ws4cw

Жыл бұрын

I wouldn't say they were singling them out, but they forgot that they should be giving a new player a bit more leeway

@ArawnNox

Жыл бұрын

@@APerson-ws4cw Are we talking about the same story? Where did they say that they were new? Unless you mean OP needed to give the BF some leeway as the BF was new to DMing. Which, sure, but their behavior was also as a player towards OP.

@KnightsRealm98

Жыл бұрын

​@@APerson-ws4cwI think you're thinking of the Gibbering Mouther story. The comment was referring to the Your Boyfriend is Interesting story.

@ArawnNox

Жыл бұрын

@@KnightsRealm98 No, I was talking about the "Boyfriend is interesting story"

@KnightsRealm98

Жыл бұрын

@@ArawnNox ....I know. I wasn't replying to you, dude.

The Hardcore D&D Game Story. DM "Don't worry. It's not as bad as it looks." Me "NOTHING COULD BE AS BAD AS THIS LOOKS!!!" This is the kind of combat I absolutely hate. I like hard combat. I like tactically sound combat. That bird spy trick should have worked. At least for just a fly over if nothing else. I could see one of the occupants doing something if the Player flew into a building, like try and shew the bird out, or kill the bird if it stuck around in the building. I mean you could even claim that a Barn Cat, it is a farm kinda, if the player flew inside the buildings or perched somewhere in the 'farm' to look around, would attack the player by surprise. But to have an archer just straight attack as the bird approached?! Look. It is a Thieves Guild HIde Out/ Front meant to look like a fortified farm. That means simple defenses like a wall around the place that is maybe 15 feet high tops. And maybe a ditch around that. Maybe one look out tower in the center. But to have that many guards around is fooling no one that just happens by. And I'm not even going to address having the Magic Artillery Regiment they had. A Thieves Guild or Bandit Hideout should be some place that is small, easily defendable by a small number, a few thugs around to act as muscle (but not attract attention), and a hidden escape route like an underground tunnel that runs hundreds of yards underground and comes out on the opposite side of a hill from the hideout so the occupants can make an escape if necessary. Sorry for the rant.

That first story... I'm just... you know the DM is in charge of basically everything that happens in game, right? Like, you could have come up with any number of things (with various levels of cheese) to go easy on the newbie player you're trying to convince to enjoy the game.

@NoPersona

Жыл бұрын

Fr, like could've diverted it or something. Give them an alternative or sum

@APerson-ws4cw

Жыл бұрын

I think he assumed the other players would notice him holding back, but yeah he should've done it anyway. Newbies need a bit of mercy thrown their way

@TheZMage

Жыл бұрын

And if they did notice him holding back I think they’d probably be cool with it considering it’s her first game

@TheAusar

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, that was a bizzare one

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

​@@TheZMageBased on stories I've read, I wouldn't take that chance.

To the OP of the opening story - the Mouther only absorbs people if it fully kills them. If it just knocks them unconscious, they make death saves as normal. You killed your wife's character for no reason.

@patrickedger2448

Жыл бұрын

Was thinking the same thing...he even made a note of her death save success - and appears to know the difference between unconscious and straight up dead. Idk, maybe reading too much into this, but kind of seems like this could have been intentional.

@KnightsRealm98

Жыл бұрын

​@@patrickedger2448I disagree with it seeming intentional. It sounds like a misread to me. "Downed" and "dead" are very often used interchangeably in the community, so it is very possible that he mistakenly conflated the two. I don't see why it'd be in any way malicious (unlike the OTHER boyfriend DM this episode. That guy was...something else).

@proteanvixen

Жыл бұрын

@@KnightsRealm98 Dying (making death saves) and Dead (either failed saves, PWK'd, or enough damage in a single hit) are extremely different things and i've never seen them used interchangeably. Effects that refer to "If this kills a creature" do not apply unless they either A. Cause a 3rd failed death save on a Dying character (intentional targeting) or B. Deal enough damage to reduce a character to negative half their max HP in a single shot.

@realdragon

Жыл бұрын

Mistakes were made

@KnightsRealm98

Жыл бұрын

@@proteanvixen You're right; they ARE different things. But the community (i.e., the consumers) are known to mix them up from time to time. Believe me, I've had to explain the difference many, many times.

Tactics for the"hardcore" game, but it works this any game: One of the types of characters I tend to play are smart tacticians. It mostly comes down to two things. Attitude (which won't help here) and being willing to abandon goals and pick new ones on the fly. If your idea of winning an encounter suddenly seems impossible, decide what the next best outcome you can get with what you have to work with. You can often use the descriptions the DM gives you and maybe ask for additional details. Just be willing to win another way or even redefine what winning means to you. And a quick caveat: you may do something very like this as a player and realize the best path to having fun for you (the goal) is to leave this game and find another. Example: At one point I played a tactically minded character in a superheroes game. My character was more low key power-wise than the others. So when our first encounter was with a drug supplier who could make us higher than a kite at a touch and was moshing everyone else in my party, I had to shift gears. I walked in thinking we'd talk to the guy and maybe fight if he wasn't cooperating. As my comrades became so impaired they could no longer fight, that quickly stopped being an option. So I remembered the GM had described a big sack of money on a table. So... I grabbed it. Why was this guy selling drugs? To make that sack of money. I asked the GM if there was a window and he said yes. So I held the bag out the window and got us right out of combat and back to talking. I just had to be willing to abandon an approach that wasn't working and try something new to get there.

As a representative of the Vladimir council we formally excommunicate that guy

This is a paid game? Kinda makes me wander if the friend is planted so that no matter what happens they have the DMs back. Many scammers have an inside man who acts as a part of the crowd to keep energy artificially high

Forgive me but the guild stronghold was disguised as a “farm”. Since when do farms have fortresses walls and archer towers?

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

I assume illusions. They're opponents for a level 10 party.

For story 2: Some people can't take criticism and the railroad is strong. Had a DM that forced us to fight EVERYONE and gave no options for diplomacy or clever situation solving. The one time he did let us talk out the situation, we praised the sh!t outta him and let him know is was our favorite encounter because we got the Boss NPC to open up about his past and why he was doing what he was. The next encounter was immediately a forced fight where it was kill the NPC or never get the Mcguffin, no matter how hard we RP'ed. The group called BS and argued with DM. DM left the table and went for a smoke, then put the game on hiatus. Later, he canceled the entire game... He also napalmed most of his social ties, but that's a different story.

@AuntLoopy123

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like he wanted to be a computer in a CRPG, instead. Like, a reverse murderhobo, who became a murderhobo from playing too much Skyrim.

@leadingstrangeness

Жыл бұрын

@@AuntLoopy123 My highschool friends were a bunch of weebs, so the need for fighting tournaments was strong with the DM and the DM before him. It was weird that the murder hobo DM didn't wanna RP with the group. He and I had a 100+ page Google doc for an alternative universe story involving various characters from the game. That doc got deleted during the fallout of friendship between myself and MHDM.

my first character death was a narrative death. The party had royally fucked up and was all in risk of a TPK. I gave the wizard barbarian an offer, through his cursed axe. The two of them would become one, and kill all of the enemies there. He agreed, so his character 'died' and a new being was created. Yeah the party tried to kill this new being right after that fight ended, the party got rocked for that one

@ethanrose9682

Жыл бұрын

Narrative death was my first death, too. I took the deal in Curse of Strahd where you can become a vampire after dying at the hands of one you hate, or kill someone you love. After my boyfriend (in game) was killed, I made a deal with Strahd to revive him as a thrall... But the thrall version was in constant pain due to how he was killed. So I tried to make another deal with him, to allow him to become a full vampire that can regenerate his injuries, and he provided the classic "soul for a soul" ultimatum... So I killed myself for him. Over the course of the campaign, my character had grown deeply self-resentful, blaming himself for his lover's demise and being unable to protect him, among other things. To quote the Homestuck Epilogues: "When you think so little of yourself as a moral character, any act of self-termination will result in a death that is Just." Bookworm thus duped Strahd, by not only getting his lover back as a full vampire, but rising as one himself the next morning.

Hopeless games only work if you occasionally win even if it’s small personal victories

Hi. I'm a 17th level prison warden who is invulnerable to everything? I could be an adventurer with my power and make far more than 300gp a month, or, I could retire with my vast wealth I acquired getting to 17th level. Buy land, raise a family, hunt on my private reserve. But..no. I prefer my low paying day job of messing with YOU.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

I'm guessing the warden's boss is level 20. Or 30. Maybe even 50.

@draconicfeline6177

Жыл бұрын

Npcs with player levels are op

@brandonletzko4239

Жыл бұрын

@@draconicfeline6177 A few levels are ok. Plus Pathfinder has npc classes like aristocrat, commoner, expert etc. A 5th level or 7th level guard captain would make sense in a large city. Clearly this DM just wanted to make sure the players could not.get off the railroad.

@unamed1142

Жыл бұрын

I tend to go off the "tiers of play" section in the DMG, so 5th level is an average for trained soldiers and adventurers, and yeah, this guy I'd a legendary level fighter with a legendary weapon. Tf is he doing as a grunt? Just railroading when the players are finally making progress to put them back at square one.

Oh my gosh you covered my story!!! I'm so happy! I love your channel and I screamed so loud of joy when I heard my opening that my boyfriend came sprinting for the other room He did what in the dms car?

@Plight_

Жыл бұрын

Which one?

@hannahhahs268

Жыл бұрын

@@Plight_ last one

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

​@@hannahhahs268I have to ask, did that guy actually have an emergency or was he just spiteful.

@hannahhahs268

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan spiteful or just didn't care, don't know which is worse tbh

@KuLaydMahn

Жыл бұрын

Vladimir sounds like a sociopath. I'm not an expert and don't want to actually diagnose anyone, but his behavior... The betrayal, singling you out, spiting the DM in a fucked up way that hurts himself... Just sayin'

oh man. Who just shits in someone's car? Why did this guy hate them so bad?

@rootfish2671

11 ай бұрын

A literal party pooper

The guy is taking out frustrations on you. Call him out on it,if he blows you off, I'd suggest a break from either the dnds he is in and or the relationship until he sorts his shift out.

@violet7773

Жыл бұрын

They**

In the first story, even RAW was played out wrong. She didn't die. She only would have died if: " When damage reduces you to 0 hit points and there is damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum." But "If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and fails to kill you, you fall unconscious" after that you start to make death saves. Gibbering mouther's bite says "If the target is killed by this damage, it is absorbed into the mouther." She wasn't, so dude was just way too eager to kill a character.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

It seemed more like a misinterpretation of the enemy ability than malice. Reminded me of disintegrate, so it's not without precedence for something to ignore death saves.

@nalcarya

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan Disintegrate is very differently worded though, it explicitly says that its special effect triggers when the damage reduces the target to 0 hit points. Killed is an entirely different thing. That‘s a wiiild interpretation of what‘s written in the ability.

I no longer play in a group that had a Vladimir in it. The difference is, our Vladimir had a "I'm better than all of you because I make more money" attitude. I left the group when I was no longer having fun and the cut off time kept creeping later into the wee hours of the morning.

@zoesommers2927

Жыл бұрын

but did he shit in the DM's car?

@sherylcascadden4988

Жыл бұрын

@@zoesommers2927 nope. And wouldn't allow anyone to go with him when he went out to get "real food" when he didn't like our potluck.

Story 1- I'm sorry but what was the DM was expecting by throwing into a jail were it was impssible to escape and have little time to rp properly? To wait it out?

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

Some guess DM wanted bribery or NPC reaction, but then why give the returning character an item they couldn't use in this arc?

I love Crispy's Tavern. These DMs gotta chill tho frfr. Always wildin.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

Not just DMs, the players have their trash too.

"... Punishing is part of the enjoyability" What an ace thing to say 😅 (I mean this in the most lighthearted way)

YOU DID WHAT IN THE DM'S CAR?!

In the first story, she wasn't dead just at zero hp and passed her first death save, so why did he kill her character?

@jacksonhoiland2664

Жыл бұрын

He thought that was how the ability worked, because of the way it is written. The ability should not have applied to an unconscious character but it was misinterpreted to kill any character that gets knocked unconscious.

That 2nd story...especially if it was at the table and not online...yeah the player did nothing wrong. He opened a dialogue and attempted to find how they could change things up. Nobody wants to drive to someone's house and sit around for hours watching others play, but never getting a turn. If its discord its just as bad, just minus the drive to go to their house. 3rd...there are hard encounters and then there is obscene encounters. I would never pay for Dnd, but if I was in that game I would stop paying and find another table. 4th - honestly she should have a sit down with him and see if there is anything unsaid. I get the feeling that he may have some hostility towards her for some reason. I could be wrong, I am no psychologist but this strange targeting gives me questions. And that last...oh...oh no...accidents happen, but if you feel them coming at least get out of their car...I mean come on that's just down right disrespectful.

I mean I see what the dm was going for with the second story. A slow burn scheme to take over/break out the prison with bribes and all. Some "railroading" was bound to happen although he clearly made it a little too annoying. I'd like to hear a story where this type of plot works

@suedenim

Жыл бұрын

Seems like the sort of thing that would be better done asynchronously, via play-by-post between live sessions

@snorpenbass4196

Жыл бұрын

Honestly, I'd not split up the characters, just make it clear they're not getting out on their own. Then have them roleplay getting allies, have the occasional prisoner vs prisoner fight to break up the roleplay, then eventually have a mass jailbreak. Instead he decided to not let anyone talk to one another, railroad any attempts without giving them a heads up on it being pointless, and then got pissy when nobody liked it.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

A good prison story wrecked by a bad DM. The party could have been together in the same block, the guards didn't need to all be overpowered, and it's really bad for OP to lose his new magic item for a crime he wasn't there for. Makes me wanna figure out a prison arc without an explicit prison.

@suedenim

Жыл бұрын

@@snorpenbass4196 Yeah. I'm reminded of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie as an example of how you could do this sort of thing right.

@AuntLoopy123

Жыл бұрын

Well, for one thing, you don't let one person at a time RP for 30 minutes, and some people at the table don't get a single turn the whole session. SHORT bursts of "what do you want to accomplish in this interaction? Specify. Good. Now, roll to see if you succeeded," and then switch to another person. Five minutes per person, maximum.

I think it's safe to say. The DM in the last story may have learned the hard way that Vladimir may not have been a good guy to join the game.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like Vladimir wasn't a good guy to know at all.

@hannahhahs268

Жыл бұрын

Last stories op here They were friends before that event 🤣

I lost my first character recently. I got hit by a disintegrate ability from a monster and failed the saving throw. Shame really, I liked him.

1:37 I had my first real epic session and disaster session at the same time. Long story short, they accidentally blew up the town they needed to protect

Haven't watched your vids in awhile. You sound so much more confident. It feels like you've really found your voice. You're doing a great job!

First Story: OP was right and shouldn't feel guilty. Not sure why the DM would set up a series of sessions where the players can only interact one at a time with anyone and can't make any progress for in-game months. That doesn't sound fun for the players at all; if they were zoning out and just not interacting whatsoever when it wasn't their turn, you'd think the DM would pick up on that and cut it off, but it doesn't seem like that was the case. Having the wind knocked out of their sails for doing something like that is deserved, since it killed the overall mode and fun of the game. It feels like the kind of scenario where the DM & players individually play via emails or 1-on-1 sessions or something like that, but doing it with everyone sitting around unable to act while one person does some mild RP that won't resolve for a long time sounds awful.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

I almost expect that DM wanted the players to be entranced by the performances and story between one player and the NPCs. Like the game became acting exercises or something.

I've heard of a couple DMs who make bard players actually sing whenever they do a bardic performance, and I despise that. Unless you're making the fighter actually swing a sword whenever they make an attack or make the rogue actually pick a lock whenever they use disable device, you can shove it.

Crispy, crisper. Crispino. Crisperion. If I may pay you a compliment, I found ur channel last summer and have since covered your entire backlog. I wanted to comment on how much more articulate you have become. Such a youngster in the beginning weren’t you, but it’s no surprise you have become quite eloquent as you always had a lot of potential. Just jumped out to me here how far you have come from “really really really bad, and really really sucks” lovely to see! Keep up the good work

That intro story lol. I was running CoS and we had two players leave so found a new guy to join. His first session with the group and his character was full dead by the end of session. I felt so bad, but it wasn't just him. The party happened to just avoid a total TPK. 3/4 of them were left making death saves while the fourth ran away. 1 managed to stabilize but the other two were not so lucky. The party actually ranked this as one of their favorite sessions of the campaign though and it was an epic fight.

"As a DM it's easy to kill your party. It's hard to _almost_ kill your party."

you did WHAT in the DM's car?!

I'm still laughing at the opening story failing to read how that works and not knowing the first-time player (aka DM's wife) not having that fate happen. 🤣

Party stuck in hell with 1 hit point and 4 levels of Exhaustion? The way out is to have an Artificer who crafts two bags of holding, and everyone gather around them, before shoving them into each other. Once on the Astral Plane, you can meditate and guide your way back onto the material realm or since illusion magic is absolutely busted there, just make an illusionary portal to the material realm and it has a 50% chance of being real

@ethanrose9682

Жыл бұрын

On that illusory portal, is... is that actually a thing? Does Illusion magic actually do that in the Astral Plane?

My first ever DMing one shot had the first session go badly as well as my first PC death. I wanted to reckon it, but my friend who died said to roll with it. I am very lucky that 3/4 of the party playing that session have DMed before and understood my position and all have played dnd before years before me

Yay, I'm early! In all seriousness, though, what a collection of stories... I do wish the OPs better luck in their future TTRPG endeavours! 😀

I think a common theme I see in all of these videos, and the posts they go over, is either the Players or the DM/GM letting things that should NOT be happening at a table, go on for WAY too long without addressing it. I feel like both sides of the table need to get shiny, golden spines in most of these stories. You should be having fun. If something isn't making it fun, you are allowed to bring it up. Be kind, respectful, and appropriate - but don't put it off until you want to leave the table / stop a campaign.

The last story, about the metal dice thing; they could be referring to how some metal dice are particularly hard to read due to shine/intracate designs/small numbers, and how the cheater uses exclusively a tall dice tray to pull the "but I BOUGHT this to use it, why won't you let me do that, you'd be forcing me to waste money!" guilt trip to prevent anyone from making the cheater roll in the open. That way they have a "private" roll that only they'd be able to "read" (lie about) unless someone gets close to the cheater to read their dice - which would THEN be met with accusations of being rude and not respecting personal space. Know it from experience. She was ADAMANT about not switching from her ~super cool and quirky~ dice roller no matter how politely we'd ask her not to. I suspect something similar happened there.

Commenting to support you!

Holy shit, literally.

Story 2: DM clearly is powertripping. MAD.

When the dm helps you... don't crap in their car. Just good ettiquete.

That compound battle just reminded me of Lancelot storming the swamp castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Except that the guards were prepared when he arrived, and killed him, instead of the other way around.

I think the first ever DnD death I have seen was to a gibbering mouther.

Horror stories so very often leave me concluding, "I thought I knew a problem player or two!"

he did WHAT in the DMs car?! Dude i have so many questions. none of which I want answered Anyways DM horror story, and I freely admit im probably the source of several such stories but its also applicible to this thread so here goes: We're playing in a pokemon themed campaign, like dnd characters with pokemon. Kinda cool but to start we couldnt edit their sheets, DM had to do that as it was a PDF, eventually we did get google sheets that we could edit which was neat but those were overly complex too, never appreciated how much math goes into pokemon. As a concept this doesnt sound terrible, I had high hopes and stayed in the campaign for a good while as it was only my second campaign as a player. But we got into the second major arc of the story, a few months in IRL, and there were zero memorable NPCs none of us knew the plot and training the pokemon was basically impossible since the enemy pokemon leveled up so fast it was always better to just catch a new one. On top of this the DM didnt know all the mechanics of DND so it became difficult to play, we basiaclly just gave up on dnd and played RPG pokemon for a while. Just about every week there would be a new mechanic of theme added in, like we started off with mutilated pokeon (I know) then got fusions then mega then mecha and it never lasted more than like two weeks before never being brought up again. It was so weird. The tipping point is when i was twenty minutes late to a session and i was immediately told to roll a flat d20, got a 1. was then told "yeah you just totally piss all over yourself". i said my character calmly gets up, grabs their gear and silently walks out of the building. i then asked if there was a port nearby, DM said yes, and i said i buy a ticket and go back to living in the woods, then made it clear anyone trying to follow me would die. I said i wasnt sure if i was leaving the campaign but i was thinking about it. Told another player i was kinda bored with the campaign anyways because nothing happened and it was so unbalanced. the pokemon side was way stronger than us and the DND side was way weaker, dude sent 12 bandits against a party of five lvl6 characters. I got 9 kills by myself. that encounter also gave a pokemon i think was Mew to the DMs friend who never showed up to sessions but started the game with TEN THOUSAND GOLD AND A CREDIT CARD! also the economy was fucked, my mithrial plate was 1200 GP and a regular cloak was 1000gp. Yeah. three days after I left the DM got really mad and blocked me then moved his campaign off my server, deleting a bunch of stuff as he did. He blamed me for it, said he "tried to accomdate everyone and I should have told him or he would have stopped the other players from messing with my character" like dude you shouldnt have to be told that you cant put a PC in an embarrasing inappropriate situation when their player isnt there, thats fucked up. also this world had furries in it that he spent way too much time describing. not like tabaxi oh no he went with the animal-kin name that was so weird. Spent way too much time describing the lab assistant dog man and his outfit. didnt get a name. The whole campaign is fucked, dude still wont talk to me, blames me for it to this day when I know for a fact that only guy who wasnt sick of the game was the guy who never showed up. Also when i asked why he never showed up he said "Unlike you guys I have a life". I should have kicked him from the server for that alone. I know this is a bit haphazzard and 100% in the order i remembered it in but i mean... am I the asshole here? I mean theres things i guess I could have done differently but i didnt do anything directly mean I dont think? Idk

Not really a horror story but I DMed a small tiny mini campaign/one shot recently and I swear... the fighter was always targeted by charm magic (rolling randomly for the effect AND the target + he failed all 3 times). The dices really wanted him to attack his friends :O

It's funny how crap like this, pun included, they get away with it, but heaven forbid they do it to the wrong people, they will end up in the gutter for stunts less than what they pull off.

Slight typo on my part. More than one other player said they were not optimistic. Myself and the other players talked to the DM. They explained that we failed to catch that a member of the guild the cleric had charmed told us that the compound had a hidden cave entrance that my characters body would be dumbed out of. They also agreed that the party would recover before we continued. Exhaustion levels healed, madness mostly cured, hit points restored ect. They also told us that while they couldn't force us to do anything, they were really hoping that we'd run, not charge at the compound. Most of us expressed that we didn't want a hells campaign and they told us that they'd keep that in mind and that they'll go easy on us. I guess time will tell. Overall I feel like I need a break from the game. The only reason I haven't left yet is because I love this group and multiple members have told me their optimism has been restored. I do think our situation is not as bad as we believe it to be. Though it's not going to be easy to escape the hells. Forgot to add this; the DM told me that the archers shot at me while I was a bird because they were paranoid. The mages did run out of spell slots, but started casting using higher level slots. Didn't get a reason as to why the wizard got shot while they were invisible, I forgot to ask about it. Update to this story: I stuck with the game for while to see if the game would improve, it did. We wandered around the city of Minauros for a while looking for leads that we could use to get out. We were warned that the acid swamps outside the city were very hostile, the landscape itself, not because of creatures. We finally found a lead in the form of information that a higher devil could get Mammon to authorize us to leave if we rendered services to them. We ended up deciding to try and get a pit fiend general to hear us out, but we'd first need to give them a gift in order for them to agree to help us, on top of us rendering services. After some digging around and talking to some devils that were serving under said pit fiend we found out that our general has a soft spot for a romance novel from the material realm that most of the party had heard about, and that my character had read. Bingo. The general was looking to acquire a copy of the book that was acid resistant, because of the acid of Minauros. We failed to find a book in the city, so we went with plan B: turning the book into a play. My character was a Bard and was able to write the script within about an hour. We had very little time to rehearse, but stuck it out and went to see the general. When we met him, we made this offer; our artificer had the idea to create an acid resistant book to keep the play script in, on top of preforming for him once we made the book we would give it to him to keep. In exchange for him arranging us passage out of Minauros to Dis, the second layer. He deemed the terms acceptable. The rolls the party got when rehearsing where pretty bad, with 2 single digit rolls and a nat 1. Our rolls when we preformed to play were incredible, all of us rolled double digit rolls with one of us rolling a nat 20. The result was that the general was so impressed with our play that he didn't have any job for us other than to get out of the hells and spread our play across the world. We still need to escape Dis and Avernus but we're making progress. We also leveled up to 11th level.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

I didn't expect to hear that DM improve, probably because they reminded me of other stories about enemies knowing to counter players or thinking bleakness is automatically better writing.

@ethanrose9682

Жыл бұрын

If your Artificer is still alive and knows the Replicate Magic Item (Bag of Holding) Infusion, he could replicate two Bags of Holding and send all of you to the Astral Plane if you wanna fuck around there for a while instead of the Hells. According to another comment, at that point any illusion magic you cast there has a 50% chance of being real so you can just Minor Illusion a portal to the Material Plane over and over again until it works.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

@@ethanrose9682 I don't think artificers can make two of the same replicated magic item. And I recall the story saying the Artificer died, unless one of the new characters have the class.

@zeonimation9135

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan I know it sounds like that in my story, but they actually survived. As did the wizard and cleric. My character, a bard, the warlock and paladin died. I have thought about bringing the idea of escaping with two bags of holding to the artificer. Not sure if we'd be able to pull it off though but it's certainly worth discussing with them.

@ethanrose9682

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan Neither Infuse Item nor the RMI infusion say anything preventing this, I just checked. The only clause for an infusion, unless I missed something, is that you can only use one per item (unless you're an Armorer), not one use of an infusion. Thus, if you get two pouches, you get a Space Nuke.

You are paying for this pain? That's pure masochism. Ghost them.

Third Story: Slight devil's advocate, but there are people who play D&D in a way where all of their characters are dicks. My friends have told me about a D&D module they played where every single NPC was an asshole to the party, and they were told that was how the book described their personalities, and when they checked themselves, the players found that no, in fact, that isn't how they were all described. Does that forgive the player for supposedly taking out their frustrations about his partner in-game? Absolutely not. It sounds like there's more going on with them that they just aren't talking about, and are kind of using D&D as a pseudo-therapy to be mean to their partner in a way they can play off later, which is pretty toxic and should have an eye kept on.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

I missed the part where you played devil's advocate.

I think shooting the hawk is pretty reasonable on the part of the thieves/GM, but everything after that....

My husband's first PC kill was me 😂

I vividly remember my first kill as a DM.

I think the OP of the boyfriend story meant “martial” and not “combat”

Yeah, as a player and a DM I live for darkest hour situations.

My first player death as a Dm was a new player as well

That Vladimir guy sounded like a . . . shit player. Hah ! Got'em ! xD

Good god, no... not in the dms car

"What is DnD without roleplay?" Math, mostly

I really don't understand why people pay for DnD. Me and my two friends are doing our own Homebrew dnd campaign and were almost done with things so we'll be starting soon.

Showtime dudes

I needed a NSFL warning for the last story 🥲

Bro.. what the fuck is that last story? Why didn't the DM intervene when Vlad started attacking the player?

Maybe you weren't supposed to attack the compound.

You did what in the DM's car?

The final story just wow. Vladamir is a piece of garbage, but that seems to fit because he is named Vladamir in-game. Nobody with that name seems to be anything but a terrible human being.

@KnightsRealm98

Жыл бұрын

Very closeminded take. I'm sure there are plenty of Slavic men named Vladimir that are perfectly charming.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

​@@KnightsRealm98Emphasis on "seems".

NGL. This leadin story wasn't even being about it being 'oh no the first time a character death happened in years of 5e play and it was my wife!' Of a campaign. That was self-admission a beer and pretzels and very laid back approach. So yeah. If this tale is real I am giving that DM a hard look. After pestering the wife for seven years and she gives it a go. The very experienced DM couldn't in their casual beer and pretzels FUDGE THAT STAT BLOCK just a teensy bit to go easy on a new player who wasn't even sure they wanted to play much less enioy? I think this deserves a bit more advice than 'oh man sometimes those first death moments amirite?'. If I had been in the new player's shoes (yes strip away gender (if this is a male vs female dynamic), status as married partner and anything else you might say was a reason they were trying to be balanced and fair). The wife comes over, is given a character statblock that could succumb to this particular mechanic and then suffers being the first person the DM kills? I would have been humiliated and at least a little hurt. (Doesn't really sound like the atmosphere would have been kind on the players' reaction either but I hope she got some respect for her position there). Anyway for DMs. Please look at this not as a cringe accident to be sympathetic to the DM about. Rather take it as a learning moment. You DO NOT have to follow the statblock to the letter for new players or veterans particularly IF IT IS GOING TO PROVIDE A BAD FIRST TIME EXPERIENCE. Fudge a bit. You don't even have to be 'biased' or 'heavyhanded'. The creature could have hesitated or been slow a moment and given next player in turn order a chance to move the dwarf clear or stay the beast. Maybe make it an iminient thing instead or an immediate thing. If you want fair pay it forward in a couple of similar 'imininent over immediate' moments to show your appreciation to the players for helping out with a first-timer sticky situation.

you did what in the DM's car?

Why the hell would you do that in someone's car?!

Hardcore!... Parkour!

The hardcore game one? I would retaliate by creating a game breaking character using every niche rule and loopholes. You want us to play hardcore? I will play hardcore by breaking your game.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

Should be fair considering the DM is being paid. Although the DM could make something more broken than you.

@Liu_Guanxi

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan you’re probably right. Breaking the game seem a little excessive.

Psychic archers are the hallmark of an amateur DM who thinks they're being clever. Noooot a fan of that kind of gameplay.

So, is nobody going to point out that the wife's character was *not* dead, and should not have been absorbed into the gibbering mouth?

@KnightsRealm98

Жыл бұрын

Actually, plenty of people are mentioning it. One dude's even convinced it was intentional (for some reason).

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

More like nobody will not mention it when talking about that story.

My biggest grief about what the hArDCOrE DM made, is the lack of interest of such a scene. It feels like a poor video game experience. One I would accept in a multiplayer FPS game where everyone just try to get them sweet sweet shots for the high score. Archers only shoot from their wall and don't do anything else, mages spam fireballs and assassins jump out of nowhere. No logic as to what a character would do here, no impression of life in the compound, no interesting interaction, no way to add some mess in it. All enemies act like they share a thelepatic link and spam boring repetitive actions ... You could have done sometinh similar (with less absud odds, obviously) with some ways to add mess and let the players interact : The ploymorphs scouting was awesome and could have seen several ways of entry with their own pros and cons, the assassins could have been in training letting the players learn about their strategy, uniforms could have been drying outside ready to be stollen, archers could have listen and bite on the bluff ... It could have been interesting.

Paid games are a huge red flag. Used by shitty DMs to keep players due to sunk cost fallacy.

@grave2501

Жыл бұрын

i don´t like to pay for the privelige of beeing a player and being in a no fun scenario, like the jailroad story. how ever i wouldn´t say a paid game is a red flag in itself, but there are definitely bad aplles in the basket. i agree that a lot of people are staying in such scenarios longer than comfortable because the allready invested money. never the less that exact money is those players leverage, i pay you tu run a fun session for me, i have a session but no fun, since your side of the contract is not fullfilled i am not pbliged to pay. like any buisness transaction it is the definition of a service that counts, those paid GMs are not just there as a person to run any session they can think of the way they like to run it, they are entertainers, there for the entertainment of their customers, if the customers aren´t entertained they didn´t do their job, i would not rehire a mechanic or plumber who couldn´t do what they had been paid to do. i don´t know the pricing pay per month or per session or whatever, in the described scenario i would cut my losses, if I allready paid for the month i would ride out the sessions till the next pay and announce my leave at the last session of the paid period, i don´t have enough money to waste it not being entertained ;) i am not a paid the GM btw, nor am i willing to pay anyone to GM for me, the only exception both ways i would accept is helping with the expenses, but not the service itself. as a paid GM i would be to stuck with players demands, as a paying player i would be even more upset if the session is less than stellar for whatever reason. so to put it in simple terms i belive money sucks the fun out of TTRPG on both sides of the screen.

Last story: wait... orcs don't get ORC FEROCITY? Only half orcs? That's dumb and makes absolutely no sense.

@violet7773

Жыл бұрын

It's probably because half orcs are a playable race but orcs tend not to be? If I had a player who wanted to play an orc I'd consider giving them that ability, but for NPCs in a fight I probably wouldn't

@kellebrimbor7616

Жыл бұрын

@Violet that's dumb. Ferocity is an orc's thing. That's how they are different from goblins. Otherwise, they're just another goblinoid like hobgoblins or bug bears. Keep monsters cool and interesting.

AHHH THE FIRST SENTENCE AHHHH DON’T CUT MY TEETH

Am I missing something in the first story? The wife‘s character wouldn‘t have been absorbed as they weren‘t killed, just knocked unconscious and still very much alive.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

It was a misinterpretation of the wording. Probably assumed it was like disintegrate, which I recall ignores death saving throws.

@nalcarya

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan Haha, just saw you commented here, too. Hello!

So we all agree that Jacob is mistreating their partner, right?

"Just don't" doesn't always work against diarrhea. My late sister once had a diarrhea attack ON STAGE. She had no choice; she just powered through and avoided sitting down. Fortunately, it didn't show through her multiple layers of clothes in her costume, and her blocking allowed her to stand, instead of sit, although the other actors thought it was very strange. Who stands in front of their stool to paint? But, she made it work. Sitting in a car, though? What, because you don't want to walk down the hill? Just, if you get the gurgles, GET OUT OF THE CAR, and walk, preferably to a toilet, and either deal with it there, or confine it to YOUR OWN vehicle. And if you absolutely are taken by complete surprise, and it hits you without warning, and you can't do anything, have the grace to APOLOGIZE and at least look like you feel ashamed. Best course of action, if it is a surprise attack, is to get out of the car, as fast as possible, so that you don't contaminate the seat. Move, even while you're still squirting into your pants. Then, explain, "I'm so sorry. I got sick. Do you have a trash bag I can use as a liner for my car seat, please?" Then, you stay standing, or sit in your own vehicle, on your trash bag liner, until you get home. Honestly, I feel REALLY sorry for his girlfriend. I also have the feeling he's on of those men who refuse to wipe, because "it's gay" and makes his girlfriend put up with it.

Second story: Yeah in a world where it’s well known magic exists to transform into animals and create familiars who’s eyes one can see through all guards would become extremely paranoid of any animals that approached a fortified area in bright daylight.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

OP of that story had an update where the DM said that.

@AtelierGod

Жыл бұрын

@@ArcCaravan it is an truth, we don’t think about it in our world but shapeshifting would make you question if your neighbors were actually monsters, if every animal was a Druid in disguise or a familiar summoned by like 8 out of the 13 main classes in the game if they’re the spell casting subclass, it doesn’t excuse the harshness of the encounter as that was just designed to kill the party and move them onto the next railroad.

@ArcCaravan

Жыл бұрын

@@AtelierGod There was more details about that update in the comment section of this video, but it doesn't answer everything and might not excuse the encounter.

The bright side about the first story is that his wife didn't create the character herself, so it's not like she put a ton of effort into it.

The jail story I remember that one What an absolute crap show, yikes

He did WHAT inthe DMs car? Nope, not cool. Not even funny happening to someone else.

Please pause to breathe and for fullstops. Listening to you gibber endlessly with utter disregard for punctuation really put me off listening. Constructive feedback for the creator. Not here to argue

12:19 Wow, way to complain about the DM trying a really in depth storyline with high stakes and stepping out of the comfort zone. I would love to play in this campaign. Hack and slash combat as your only playstyle sounds terrible, I hate when players act like OP and put nothing into the game but rolling a die to hit and complain about story and RP.

11:42 just tell the loser off

You did what in the DM's car?

You did what in the DM's car?