When corporations try to justify layoffs due to "market conditions" while simultaneously awarding their executives with millions of dollars in bonuses, their words ring hollow and their greed laid bare.

@sirmclovin9184

7 ай бұрын

It's not just the corporations, it's the system.

@davidrowe1557

7 ай бұрын

It is crazy that the CEO was paid 1.5 million salary plus a 9 million bonus. Compare this to Matthew Coleville backerkit where his company aimed to raise 800,000 and have so far raised over 3 million for a game with mechanics that are still in development. 3 million is twice what they projected would fund everything they wanted to do plus extra content. It seems insane to think a company can justify 150 million expenses for development.

@thuglifegame7573

7 ай бұрын

Welcome to the terror dome (aka end game capitalism)

@mistermakebelieve

7 ай бұрын

@sirmclovin9184 It's not the system inherently. I worked for a game company where the three people at the top pulled their own money to invest further in the team. Rather than lay people off. And they were absolutely millionaires. But, in the end, they built loyalty that way. It isn't the system, it is people. Lugalanda in 2400 BC was just as corrupt as the worst folks today but they certainly had a different system.

@Xplora213

7 ай бұрын

Be reasonable. The CEO salary is not their actual pay. The pay including bonus is their pay. Now…… I AM happy to accept that the way that bonus is structured is BS and that it would be wise to give the market some indication of how the bonus is calculated - it’s a public company and CEO bonus should be tied to public information like growth in assets or growth in profits or straight turnover. Whatever. But I am in favour of a contract that is largely performance based. We just need to know that it’s a reasonable contract. Sacking 20% of the staff doesn’t say “good performance” to ANYONE.

Hi. I am the one submitted the dm burnout question. The video you suggested helped. I played one of games recently and I felt better afterwards. Talking to my players was key. The other game one of my player offered to dm. We didn't get play that one yet because of holidays. I am doing better ,thanks.

@SlyFlourish

7 ай бұрын

I’m glad to hear it! It’s a really tough subject!

Bandit captain + Bandit captain = brawl over territory! Today's tip can totally lead exponential value in those DM books! :D

I can't fathom how people continuously seem shocked over and over again to hear heinous giant corporations doing heinous giant corporation things.

@horseblinderson4747

6 ай бұрын

Wish I could throw a love in this comment as well.

Bandit Captain + Bandit Captain = Two competing bandit gangs fighting OR a meeting between two captains where they discuss joint a venture. Now you get your full exponential growth!

@joshuabrown-clay4858

7 ай бұрын

I had the same thought! Bandit captain plus bandit captain: are they rivals? Romantic partners? Rivals that are also romantic partners? Picture two filthy, hardbitten men competing for the same patch of road but also who sneak off for a bit of love in a forest glade!

@northernkoschei

7 ай бұрын

Same thought! I'm here for it, the tale of two bandit captains!

@JoshSmith-kg6ou

7 ай бұрын

I came here to put the exact same thing

@timblighton6216

7 ай бұрын

Fourth!

Kudos for keeping Forge of Foes off your list, despite the fact it most certainly one of the top 5 books offered via crowd funding this last year. Your humility is admirable!

Roll twice!! You win the “Best GM Advice” award of the day 🏆!! Thank you!

This is the deal with me and RPG products. I will buy anything that interests me that isn't tied to a platform that can go away. Physical books, PDFs and DRM free Software. If D&D is turning into a digital product it just falls off my radar, there are too many good products being released to navigate whatever paywall they put in front of it. My group has switched to Traveller for a month and they had such a great time fitting their ship out, hiring a crew and transporting passengers that we only managed to play the introduction of the adventure I planned.

I might give shadow dark a go. Also looking forward to MCDM’s RPG. I’m currently getting used to physical character sheets. The math always put me off as I suck at it, but it’s so worth getting used to.

39:00 The key I found to not burning out on GMing is to not over prepare. If I allow myself to make up more on the fly, I enjoy the actual session more and so look forward to the game more.

@formes2388

7 ай бұрын

Prepare lots. Insane amounts even. But do it Intelligently. Have a list of encounters ready - 5-6 per general region. This means you have SOMETHING to slap on if you struggle later on. Use factions - 1-2 dozen might sound like a lot, and kind of is, but depending on the scope of the map you are presenting to the players over the course of a campaign can be really nice. With a Faction you can have general enemy types set up, and beyond this you can use the Faction goals and directions, along with what towns/area's they are active in your campaign map to dictate an entire campaign premise. Draw a world map - and I mean a WORLD map. Have the boarders, and trade routes, alliances, and then slap down a big fat monster (dragon, lich, or whatever) and consider HOW it will impact the world around them. The displacement of monsters into nearby area's, the disruption of trade, and all of this generates an entire campaign theme. From here - you have an entire frame work to build up from on the fly with just enough guidance that you can keep everything consistent. And the entire world can be used again, and again, and again for entirely different unique campaigns, one shots, and whatever else.

I'm actually stunned they dropped Mike Mearls.

I’m looking at that list of WotC people, and there are enough people there to handle the major roles in a small dev studio of their own-rules design, art, communications, creator relations/marketing, etc.

@mistermakebelieve

7 ай бұрын

It would be a wonderful dream. A good deal of money is needed to start a project, let alone a studio. These people probably had healthcare through their job. And indie tabletop game devs don't make a ton of money, plus there are so many. In most cases it is a side job - a passion. I hope they end up somewhere and if a miracle happens it is at their own studio.

I've been using the GM's Astounding Random Tables and have been using the Secret Society and Tavern generator to create actual NPCs. The Secret Society tables present a lot of interesting motivations too

Hey Mike... as always a fantastic show. I love your stuff (but you know that already!) Wanted to drop a spot of advice for those using Trials & Treasures, because as you rightly point out the encounters just say something like "Ogre" and you mentioned you'd prefer more context. The way we intend for that to be used is you then look up Ogre in the Monstrous Menagerie.... and there we give you all the context. We have different encounters and treasures, we have signs, we have behaviours, and so on. We didn't want to reprint all that stuff in T&T (folks hate paying twice for the same material!) but the two books are intended to be used in conjunction. The entry in the encounter table points to the MoMe entry, which contains everything you (as a GM) need to run that encounter. That's the intention, anyway! :)

@user-xs8oz2qd2v

7 ай бұрын

(Sorry, that was me, Morrus. Dunno why it says I'm user-xswhatever!) -- anyway hope that tip might be useful to somebody!

@SlyFlourish

7 ай бұрын

That’s a fantastic idea. I wish I’d mentioned it! Next show.

I think it's important to say that rolling on Random Encounter tables should be done as part of session prep when possible. That way a DM has time to flesh out the encounter and figure out how they fit together and with the overall campaign. At the very least, they can get the stat blocks ready.

@davidburns9766

7 ай бұрын

This. It shouldn’t be random at the table, THAT is how you get TPKs and the game flies out of control. Sort your random encounters out before. Personally I sort out 4-6 loosely, and I’ve already decided that IF a random encounter is to happen, the roll at the table is not IF one happens, it’s WHICH one happens.

@avengingblowfish9653

7 ай бұрын

@@davidburns9766 Hah... I do the opposite. I roll to see IF a random encounter happens, and if it does, then I choose which one happens. I mostly use random encounter tables to put time pressure on players and unplanned travel. For planned travel, I plan the encounters.

This was a great video. The WotC/Hasbro info was interesting and I absolutely loved the idea of rolling on 2 tables for random encounters :)

Great information and well stated. So insightful on every topic. Love your products also. Keep it coming!

Mike, how are you always coming up with some crazy new way to get my brain thinking. I love it! Ive recently been using a mixture of random monster tables and the oracle tables from ironsworn to fuel my encounter design. Same vein as this!

Great video, Mike!

Roll twice is one of the favourite tips I heard from Dungeon Masterpiece for random encounters but I never considered that for other things from books. Love it!

Thank you for being one of the few channels that mentioned the past firings in the 3.5 and 4 eras (I felt like I was the only one who remembered that). Horrible behavior for sure, but I keep hearing a bunch of other channels clutching their pearls like this is the first time it ever happened

34:56 - I remember the line being in an Adam Sandler sketch, but had forgotten that was in Carrie! My hope for avoiding burnout is to form an RPG troupe that switches GMs every so often in a West-Marches-like shared campaign. Everyone has a couple characters who are all crew on a ship or members of an adventuring guild. Someone has their characters sit out while running the game, but then after an adventure or short arc, the GM role rotates. Everyone can learn the rules together and give rule-reminders. That's how a lot of groups played back in the early days, and think it's time to make it a prominent style again.

Thank you for the upload 👍

I'm going to disagree with one point, you can totally build an interesting encounter from two identical rolls on the random encounter table. Are the two bandits groups allies? Rivals? Enemies? Are they negotiating? Partying? Fighting each other?

1. I can't believe Hasbro did the plot for the Bill Murray movie Scrooged just minus the happy ending. Well...maybe I can believe it. 2. "Roll twice" is shockingly good advice. So simple, but so genius

Great video as always. I will definitely be rolling twice from now on!

"There is no Dana, there is only Zuel"

"Roll Twice" is brilliant!

Roll Twice is really great advice!

With regards to burn-out. In my experience I’ve had it with most hobbies I’ve ever done. I’m an operatic tenor, do BJJ and coach Thai Boxing. Having time away to be a fan and play the game, watch games being played, or completely have a week or two away and reassess your feelings about it. With regards to DMng, I’ve felt fatigued when I’ve over-prepped and felt the players didn’t want to engage as much with my world as I wanted. So, now I start prepping 2-3 days before I DM and try to prep as little as possible so it’s more of a rush in game.

Bandit Captain + Bandit Captain sounds like the players stumble on two rival Bandit Captains or a mutiny in progress!

Love the message to try other games and that doesn't mean you have to exclude games.

Bandit captain plus bandit captain= something like " 2 bandit captains are meeting to negotiate a dispute of territory. Players can turn them against each other or just kill them all."

Uncharted Journeys & Flee Mortals where also my top pics for 2023 but also Chains of Asmodeus; cannot wait to use these in my next campaign

Thanks

Holy crap! Hammer of Thunderbolts!! When your player wants to be Thor! Thanks for the vid. Good stuff as usual!

I knew it would be Shadowdark!

Re: Hasbro/D&D, It's 1991/1992 all over again. I'm enjoying the variety.

The growth seems to be quadratic (order O(n^2)), not exponential (exponential growth means something like 2^O(n)).

@SlyFlourish

7 ай бұрын

Nerd

I have always rolled twice or even three times on random tables and gotten some really awesome and totally random encounters. Recently I had a group of giant spiders facing off against a band of gnolls. The encounter was located at a stone henge like structure but the battle was “frozen in time”! A gnoll had attempted to use a magic item . But the magic in the henge had warped the item’s magic. Then I rolled Ogre. I had the ogre trying to enter the time stop space in an attempt to steal something but got trapped halfway in. His front half was time stopped but his back half was rotted away . The adventurers could see the ogre’s guts through the time stop. A hint to not enter without great caution. Hilarity and chaos ensued.

"The Spice Must Flow...With Fewer Workers!" -Hasbro Probably said it 😢

Shadowdark! 🙂

15:51 - Two bandit captains could totally work. Does the party want to get involved in one or the other side of a turf war, try to calm it down, act as double agents to weaken both, or just escape?

Ty for covering this and what can be done, wait, what about the employees?

I will continue to play 5e and 5e adjacent RPGs on Fantasy Grounds for as long as I can, but I will NEVER play on the WotC VTT. Also, I don't allow D&D Beyond at my table and never will. I am also encouraging my group of friends to try other games. We are a few sessions away from finishing Out of the Abyss, and I plan to get my friends to switch to Level Up. I have the Level Up books and the VTT versions of them on Fantasy Grounds and have been itching to run a campaign with them.

1. These people at D&D made a bunch of promises to us. Corporate may have made the timelines (Publishing Schedules) impossible to maintain. 2. Are we doing this to goose the Stock price before the end of the year for tax or stock based bonus issues?

@jacobvardy

7 ай бұрын

The EnWorld news podcast did a deep dive on 2. The layoffs have been in the works for two years. Investors are unhappy that share price has not been increasing.

15:53 The Captains of two different bandit gangs are arguing over who got to the ambush site first, when the PCs approach.

Focus on how you feel after the game, and if you still feel that anxiety it sounds like burn out.

i like the ogre in the pit the classic lion with a thorn

Bandit Captain + Bandit Captain can work, two different Bandit Captains fighting a duel or arguing and their gangs are hiding in the trees waiting to attack if things get violent?

Since the OGL disasters, I have not purchased anything from Hasbro and I intend to keep that streak running. With the upcoming Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press, the already available Level-Up Advanced 5e and the upcoming DC20C7 from Cubicle 7 no one will ever have to buy a book from Hasbro ever but still be able to play 5e DnD for as long as they want.

Hey Mike, Please cover the Wotc charity book "Chains of Asmodeus" Also, does the bundle of holding include random tables? I don't want to spend 50 bucks on Advance 5e for the tables. Thanks!

Anyone else thought he was going to say "Read them!" to get more out of DM resources?

@joshuabrown-clay4858

7 ай бұрын

I did think that was going to be the two words!

I'm so sorry about the layoffs. I hate what big business is doing to everyone. So cruel.

@keechpeach2863

7 ай бұрын

Going to take your advice to stick to pdfs and physical books. Love me a kickstarter!

Gotta pay with that wallet; the language of corporations.

Is it "Bandit Captain and Bandit Captain" or "Bandit Captain vs. Bandit Captain"?

When you buy a product or brand (like D&D Beyond), you're not actually buying that product, you're buying the list of devoted fans who are dedicated to that product. WotC bought the digital fans of D&D for that price.

Wow, I would not have thougth you would pick FM! as N°2, based on your past review. Has it grown on you?

Bandit captain and bandit captain. Both claim to be the bandit captain but ones an impostor or even better a doppleganger

@SlyFlourish

7 ай бұрын

Spider man gif

I’m just not going to buy WotC or Hasbro products anymore. There are so many other games out there, I can get out of my comfort zone and try them.

@thebeatles9

7 ай бұрын

This will just cause them to fire more people

@paulbigbee

7 ай бұрын

C’mon over, the proverbial water is better than fine! To Mike’s point, you don’t even need to leave the 5E system (though there’s even more out there to enjoy like Forbidden Lands, Star Trek Adventures and Traveller 2E).

@GrantBrees

7 ай бұрын

@@paulbigbee That’s very true! I think I need a change anyway, but if I go back to 5e I know where to look :)

There is no -Dana- WOTC, only -Zuul- Hasbro.

@samsampier7147

7 ай бұрын

Hasbro Board of Directors: Are you a GOD (Shareholder)? D&D and Magic Game Customers: No. Hasbro Board: Then DIE!

@seileurt

7 ай бұрын

@@samsampier7147 Ray (Whinninger), if someone asks you if you're a god... say yes!

Regarding Hasbro: I don't quite follow you here. Why would now be a better opportunity to play other games, just because Hasbro is not performing at its best (financially)? I am quite sure that WotC will continue to publish books as well as digital versions of the same products. I am also pretty confident that D&D will come out stronger, once that new edition is out. I absolutely love the random table approach!

@wingedhussar2909

7 ай бұрын

There was money to make a movie, money to buy dnd beyond, money to make a new edition but no money for the people who were loyal all those years.

@FamBoren

7 ай бұрын

@@wingedhussar2909 That is true. Different times, different priorities and different consumer behaviour. Note that this is not D&D-originated problem, therefore I'm confident that D&D will remain strong.

@dwil0311

7 ай бұрын

@@wingedhussar2909 Why would you reward loyalty. That is not an effective business strategy. You reward those who make you money. And obviously these people weren’t. I went through the list so far and you see a common theme that most of these people have their credits tied to most of the projects that performed poorly over the past few years.

25 years and I still get pregame jitters. It's not so much that they will laugh but more that I will have disinterest

I know it shouldn't bother me so much that I'm seeing the corporate rampage of TSR's darkest era being reborn right before my eyes, but it really, really pisses me off. I shouldn't be discouraged from D&D playing /DMing by this, but I can feel it happening... What I'm sure of is that I've stopped buying any WoTC product; I know, it's essentially nothing more than an empty gesture - but then that gesture is a fat middle finger towards HASBRO/WoTC. The ones I've bought so far are enough for a long life and I'll be buying 3rd party publishers' releases rather than new ones. In addition, some really great TTRPGs exist in Hungary too, from domestic authors - not dollar-eyed, microtransaction loving CEOs. D&D is clearly starting to lose its fun character for me, somehow leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth... Tragic. BUT, the "ROLL TWICE" advice is simple AWESOME, Mike :D

If your company is laying off 20% due to nothing but corporate greed, and youre one of the remaining employees you should organize a mass labor strik and a walk out. If they think you do 20% more work for 0% more money while watching your friends get fired to fuel their greed, let them try to run the company with none of you

it's wild to me that Shadowdark can drum up a million bucks, MCDM 3M, Dolemenwood more than a million etc etc etc. And yet the big companies are struggling?? Clearly the disparity between actual creators and management is huge and growing

@Xplora213

7 ай бұрын

Totally makes sense. Large corporations make money by having HUGE economies of scale. They pay half if they print ten times the amount of books, so their profit margin is stronger by spending more money…. But the difference between a good company and a bad one is the ability to make good decisions about the printing. They print more for good products and good market conditions. They make more money. They print less during weaker times. This is all obvious to anyone who can manage their own budget… but these companies start sniffing their own farts and they don’t realise that they are not in control of the economy. TSR thought they could just print more books and ignore if they were good quality and when the market turned down, they had destroyed their profitability. And Hasbro is doing the same thing now!!

@reneesteeves3698

7 ай бұрын

@@Xplora213 i get what you’re saying. And i think with the way those kickstarters are going and the way Critical Role is popular and the way conventions like gencon keep seeing a rise in attendance show that the market is still strong. I just dont get why a company would choose to save money by cutting 1100 jobs of the the creatives, rather than maybe cut back on bonuses or raises for just a few CEOs.

@Xplora213

7 ай бұрын

@@reneesteeves3698 the bonuses are part of the package. They are supposed to get 20 million. The bonus is simply a guarantee that they will act in the best interest of the company. If each employee is on 100k, that’s 200 employees per 20 million. We assume they are not bloated as it is. I suspect much of corporate America is completely unproductive. My experience with large organisations is they waste enormous amounts on political infighting and other bs. 💡 I am not surprised that they trimmed it down if profits are bad. The sad part is I don’t think the product will suffer.

Waiting for the day WoTC uses it's enormous profitability to buy itself out from under Hasbro. ... It's gonna be a long wait.

@lucamonticelli267

7 ай бұрын

At this point in time there is no difference between Hasbro and WoTC, since there is a very high redundancy in the upper management of both companies.

The whole "wizard is official the rest is homebrew" is just... arrrgh it makes my skin crawl. Like, try running some free mortals monsters for a few sessions and then come back and tell me what you think.

Chris Cox pocketed over 8 million in bonuses. If a company is going south, how is he justified in pocketing that? How many of those laid off could he have stepped in for? Why not take a pay cut? He has over 5 million in Hasbro shares as part of his CEO deal. Hard not to see his actions as parasitic that is killing the host.

Who TF fires Mike f****** Mearls??

Boycott Hasbro. When these villains starve, someone else will pick up the D&D IP. They still don't realize that we don't need them, they need us. Bandit Captain + Bandit Captain: Party rescues a man fleeing from a group of bandits... Twist: The rescued man was trying to usurp control of the bandit faction. Now that the PCs have cleared out his rivals, he consolidates power and bandit activity increases significantly. The new captain starts offering favors to the party before they know he is a bandit leader. They now have to choose between a friend and the law. If they choose the law, the bandits reveal the player's aid and the gifts they've taken, implicating them as corrupt.

2:50 - I think Hasbro is looking to sell the company, and with it, WotC. Maybe Disney will buy?

@reneesteeves3698

7 ай бұрын

If Disney buys it, i demand a ridiculously cool new park in florida like they did for star wars with their Galaxy’s Edge! They did a cantina bar, a d&d tavern would be easy in comparison i think. Oooh and the rides… !!

The best way to not support Hasbro is... to not support Hasbro. So many other better games out there now, there's really no excuse.

They weren’t laid off… they were promoted to customer.

@thuglifegame7573

7 ай бұрын

Lol

Just buy the Warhammer FRPG starter set and compare it to the DnD Starter set. Then you know how laughable WotC's products really are. Hint: One box is filled to the top with great content, the other one is filled with mostly air ... edit: You recommend Shadowdark? Really? It's just a hyped and mediocre heartbreaker.

haven't given any money to dndbeyond since the BS of the legal crap. Physical copies only.

Subject: D&D. There are enough iterations of the game to run on forever if there was never anything else ever published. They make a new iteration when sales slump. Relax. The game ...and life... will go on.

Hasbro, Inc. is not a bro. It is only a "has Inc".

This action pushed me to walk away from D&D and take my table with me. Never buying Dungeons and Dragons going forward.

Mike, please do two things: 1. Actually script your "state of the hobby" rants, you just end up repeating yourself every time. By that I mean repeat yourself verbatim and then start rambling. 2. Break out the "state of the hobby" videos to a different video series. Keep making them by all means but all I want for the most part is the running the game stuff. Every since January the actual value of your videos has plummeted with the rambling ranting about the "hobby". Also, this whole "there is only Hasbro" thing is not.....accurate. Not even in the context you mean it in.

Would you be so insistent on the necessity of books if you weren't an author? I definitly think over time opinion on AI and using pdfs will change.