Anyone's opinion on this would be lovely- our DM stopped gaming because he can't take criticism without taking it personally. We love him. He's just the one talking the entire time, too much detail, too many fights, no character development chances, or rare character development chances. He isn't the worst DM. He is very excited. He's just new to the game in general and his first time playing, he wants to DM. That's fine. But how do I tell him that he doesn't need to quit DMing to make everyone happy (because he threatens so much...), and how do I explain that it's not personal? The least annoying thing he did last session was let me check for traps on a box, and then gave me gold inside the box. Then the gold was trapped.... Do I have to check for traps on literally everything? I don't remember my other sessions being like this, but I've only ever played 3e.
I've gotta admit; I'm an inveterate loot fairy. Normally, I can easily adjust the CRs of my plot to compensate for my compulsive need to make it rain on my players, but I recently ran a session of Mutants & Masterminds (Marvel setting) where I dumped far to many XPs (power points) on my players for one encounter. Luckily, I owned my mistake, outright telling my players that I fucked up, though I didn't want to withdraw their rewards (it seems unfair for them to pay for my carelessness). Hopefully I'll take this lesson to heart (after 23 years as a GM, it's about time, right?). Also, love the skits, man. Great video!
If a player bothered to tell me they can't make it to a session, I would be falling over myself to thank them for being so considerate, and holding them up as an example for others to follow! I'm used to people not even bothering to come up with an excuse!
notoriouswhitemoth I got tired of a consistent flake player. Always no notice. I drew the line when he told me, day of, he would be able to make it, and then bailed with no response. His excuses were always vague and I would have been fine if he was upfront. Decided to stop inviting him to games.
If you run on Roll 20 you're bound to get zero notice...I don't begrudge the players because life does happen, but sometimes it's like do you want to play or not? So many players sign up for a campaign and then never make it past the character creation phase. I've never found it to happen as much in real life.
Consistency is always a problem with D&D, but your players should absolutely tell you if they can't make it; we have a group chat were we plan our next meet-up (which is typically bi-weekly with some irregularity), and none of us are amazing at communicating, but if one of my players didn't show up for a session, and did so without telling us that they couldn't make it, I would be quite annoyed. First time would be a warning, second time the boot. Don't stand for your players giving you the run around: It is an insult to you and the effort that you go to crafting an adventure for them; if they can't respond to that we the slightest bit of respect (and I would consider it a bare minimum) then you need to talk to them and if they still don't respect it you should kick them out of the group. You are not their servant, and they are not yours; everyone should have fun, everyone should respect each other and the time we put into this hobby. No two ways about it.
Life happens and people will have to miss sometimes. My issue is that doesn't excuse shitty behavior or disrespect. Not showing up to anything you committed to without communication or valid reason is incredibly disrespectful to the time and effort that the GM and the other players have put into the game.
The throw a bone point made me think of one of the things Call of Cthulhu and some other games say about failing rolls like search or sneak, etc: if you fail the roll, you don't actually fail to do what you wanted (ie, find the secret door, sneak into the guardhouse, etc), it just takes you longer than expected, or there are unexpected complications to your subsequent actions. A failed roll doesn't need to grind things to a halt.
It isn't always rolls, however. If the obstacle is something like, "They need to talk to the guy in the lighthouse" but they never bother going to the lighthouse because they're talking to everyone else, or missed the hint, no Taking 20 or whatever is going to fix that. Some systems, like Call of Cthulhu, incorporate the Idea Roll, where a GM can put things back on track, but the problem is that it's a roll that announces, "You guys messed up. Let's fix it." Throwing a bone would mean either having the guy in the lighthouse walks into town for groceries and a beer and they bump into him there, or someone in the town says, "Oh, you should talk to my uncle in the lighthouse," or someone else in town now has the information to give as if they were the lighthouse keeper. There's no announcement that a mistake was made. The game simply adjusts around them and keeps going like nothing wrong happened. I keep Idea Rolls for those times we just can't adjust the game without announcing it, either because of a unique situation or when my brain just isn't coming up with a smooth solution fast enough.
This reminds me of a thing I saw in a rules-light game whose spirit can be taken even into crunchier games; the rule was "if nothing interesting would happen if the player were to fail the roll, then don't make them roll." While you obviously can't have players succeed at everything they try, the thing to take to heart is that *something* should happen as the result of the majority of rolls, good or bad.
@@ZvelHaj I think it's FATE Core that has a rule/guideline/whatever of "Say yes or roll the dice". In other words, don't make them roll for something that should be a gimme.
in terms of searching for traps, the only time it's an automatic failure is on a 1. if the trap DCs are 25 for 3 traps in the room and the best roll they get is a 19, i'll let them find 2 of the traps, but they miss the 3rd. sometimes a failed roll has to be a failed roll. as seth kinda points out, sometimes you need to just change the game or lower a difficulty just to keep the game moving.
@JoeRingo118 In all fairness - if there is no time pressure, then there's hardly a reason to roll at all. Only if you speculate on a fumbled roll or something. If you search for certain informations in the local newspaper archieves you eventually find them as long as they are there. If you want to repair the ship stranded on the asteroid you will get it back to fly eventually, even if you have to canibalise some less important systems to get the spare parts. It's another thing if the archive is on fire or the asteroid is one of those ship-devouring monstrosities from Star Wars...
I thought of a Game Master sin, but it might be a variation of the "Obvious Object." It's "Don't let the player do something his CHARACTER would know is stupid." I've seen DM's punish their players for making a decision that their character class should have been familiar with. Examples below: Here's an example. We were playing Rogue Trader and I was the pilot of a ship that was docked. Our team was locked out of the hanger, so I told the GM that I was going to shoot the door open with the ship's guns. The DM described the ship firing a blast so large that the entire hanger blew up. The idea being that "the guns on the ship are huge." That is something a PILOT IN THE 40K UNIVERSE would have known... even though, as a player, I didn't know the guns were that big. Another example. It was a Star Wars campaign and the party was on a space ship. One of the players who specialized in tech wanted to hack the ship's computers. He opened a panel in the wall and asked the GM: "are their wires in the wall?" The GM said yes. "I connect to the wires!" The GM told him his data pad fried and he took damage from connecting to power cables. The next part is what made me mad. The player said "wouldn't my character have known that these were power cables and not a data stream?" and the GM literally said "yes, wouldn't you have?!" That's not fair! I hate these kind of GMs. If you know something about the world that everyone in that world should know... TELL THEM! Don't let them do something stupid because they didn't know the lore. It's okay to cut them off BEFORE they make a mistake.
i once played someone from a gang (in some warhammer setting), we got into a fight in a bar with a gang. they shot at all of us, all of us at them. at some point, another player just rolled a die to determine what gang that was. it was the gang that i was part of. like, wtf. as if my character would not have realised that at the first instance. which is also one reason why i did not even think about rolling that die in order to realise it...
I think you phrased it wrong. It's not don't let them it's warn them not to. Like that 40k setting, the GM should have said beforehand they were massive and if you still wanted to, let them.
This is a highly underrated comment. I'm GMing for the first time in a Cyberpunk Red game and I was trying to find a way to balance character knowledge vs player knowledge and this really helps.
0:52 #7 Loot Fairy 2:34 #6 Obvious Object 4:35 #5 Not Throwing A Bone 7:27 #4 Favoritism 9:55 #3 Not Reading The Room 12:21 #2 No Consequences 14:49 #1 Forgetting That Life Happens
*Facing Consequences* -- One of my most treasured gaming moments in one of Seth's games was the time we decided to use a golem to pull us over a lake of lava. The lake was 50 feet below us and, between us and the other side, there were these little islands in the middle (each just a few feet across) that poked up to the same height as us. Clearly, we were meant to attempt to cross this lake, but many of us didn't even remotely have the amount dexterity that would have been required to make it. The solution we finally agreed upon was that our most dexterous character would make the trip. He would then cast a golem on the opposite side. The player would then order the golem to take one end of the rope, leave the golem there and then make the trip back with the other end. Our spell-caster would then cast a magical box around the party (sorry, I don't remember the name of the spell... I lean towards playing archers... and idiots... often simultaneously). Anyway, with the rope securely attached to the top of the box, and all of us *totally impervious* to anything damaging us from the outside, the idea was simple... the golem would "safely" drag us across the lake and we would all arrive chipper, fresh and (most importantly) completely unmolested on the other side. We felt like geniuses... Seth was utterly emotionless. The order was shouted for the golem to begin its simple task. On the very first pull, our cage fell over and we tumbled about within it. A wry smile appeared on Seth's face as he immediately asked us to all role for damage, we of course complied but, I mean... no big deal... the cage had only fallen on its side... how big could the damage be from something as minor as... (!!!) *[the golem tugged on the rope for the second time, and the box inched forward]...* I think the thought dawned on all of us at nearly the exact same time, and then one of us (still in character) spoke it aloud as he commented to another player, _"Sir... uh... it has occurred to me that... we may have overlooked one... very serious..."_ *[the golem tugged on the rope for the third time, and the box inched forward]...* The precipice. Yes, we were completely protected from any of the outside elements... but falling 50 feet is exactly the same when you slam into each other, or the inner walls of your "impervious magical box" than if there were no box at all. We were now one tug away from the edge... we were all potentially about to die... and yet I've never seen a group of people (GM obviously included) more gleeful to watch the disaster that was about to unfold. We were already picking up our dice on the off chance that Seth would allow us some sort of saving throw as the golem pulled on the rope for the fourth time. We felt like such "geniuses"... ... it was glorious.
@@mattpace1026 I can see your logic, but the box didn't protect them from inside forces, only outside. It was mainly them slamming into the box and each other. Think of it less like a plane, and more of if you got a box of fragile, glass objects and shook them around, or dropped the box.
@@mattpace1026 -- As.... [underscore] said. It was us slamming into the side of the box and each other that did the damage. Seth is very, very practical. If it's something that would be a concern in the real world, like gravity, it's something that would be a concern in the fantasy world (hence why it's a really, really bad idea to shoot a fireball in a hallway, when you're also in that same hallway... just because the description says that explosion is only going to be so many feet in diameter... that number is going to get pushed way out if that explosion is being restricted by stone walls). During another game, we searched for the big bad all through a dungeon and finally found him in a room, with a couple of henchmen. After drawing it out, Seth asked us our intentions... I was the first to go and I said I was going to run, in the opposite direction. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, and then stated they were stepping in to take him on... then we got to the player I was most concerned about (he is his biggest spell or biggest weapon). Give him a fireball, and he's opening up with fireball, every... single... time... After Seth drew out the room I realized it wasn't big enough for the diameter of the fireball, meaning it was going to blast back up the hallway we were standing in. I beat Mr Fireball's initiative and I was the only party member who didn't take damage.
@Matt Pace - Yes, the G-forces would be too great in a plane... If the plane accelerated from 0 to top speed instantly. Because it's soft acceleration over time, you only suffer a fraction of the G's. Regarding the box; A falling object increases it's speed with 9,82 meters (aprox. 30 feet) per second for every second it falls. A rough estimate gives us a fall time of 1.8 seconds and a speed of 18m/second, which is the equivalent of being hit by a car going 40mph!
one gm sin that I've seen is "being too real". it should be remembered that this is a fictional world. a gm does not need to figure out all the physics of how a trap works or the time it would take for a potion to hit the blood stream and take effect. the goal is to have fun, not have a science or math class.
I used to have this one player back in college who would grill me on weird specifics. Like a trap would go off and he'd say, "I want to study this and learn how it works." Then he'd start asking very specific questions about the counter balance systems of a dart trap or something and when he managed to get me into a corner he would pout because is just wasn't 100% realistic. Or he'd start digging into the economics and trade routs of random region they were just passing through and once he could poke a hole would become all pouty and make me feel like some worthless GM. Only later did I realize it was some passive-aggressive bullshit he did to intentionally set himself up for disappointment and others for failure. He was a great roleplayer. One of the best I've seen. But when he decided he wanted to make himself and everyone else miserable, he wouldn't hesitate.
Suspension of disbelief can be weird tho. I can believe Batman can fight super villains, go to outer space in his own mech suit but for some reason Gotham having a civil war between villains that the local police and military were incapable of dealing with was somehow too much for me to accept. The answer is always; It's Magic!
Yeah, I'm bad for reading the room. Confession time (spoilers for OotA): Out of the abyss, final boss fight with Demogorgon, the party struggling to handle a demon Lord 10 levels over them. The rogue managed to grab the wand of orcus and strides in gloriously with an army of undead drow at his heels. Demogorgon sees a little mortal meatbag walk up holding the greatest weapon of his rival, uses that dominate person gaze to have the rogue wield the wand against the party, planning on taking it for his own after the party was dead. That rogue, with a wisdom save of +1, wasn't able to make those DC 23 saves, and the fight was drawing to a close before it dawned on me that he had controlled his character for all of one round that fight. I was so swept up by this against-the-odds epic level boss fight that I never realized, among all those players having the time of their lives fighting a worldending demon, one of them was sitting there waiting for me to tell him what his character did that turn. Not my proudest DMing moment, to be sure.
Usually if I "mind control" a PC, I let them do the heavy lifting of deciding what their character actually does with some guidelines from me, it seems to work and people seem to have fun with it regardless, though you do have to have players who aren't going to hold a grudge over it if they're attacked in this way. ( and I have had people who would, silly as it is ). In such a case I would still have them make some decisions but I would tell them who they are going to attack that round, or if multiple options make sense, I'll roll for it, randomly assigning numbers to potential targets. That way said salty susan can't hold it against the mind controlled player if they get hit.
Yeah, I'm *very* leery of mind-controlling my PCs. For me it's a question of why they come to my game, and they come in order to play. If I mind-control them then they aren't playing their character and I am. For something like dominate person, unless I'm mistaken, you can only give very simple commands, so give those to the player and let them interpret what their character would do with the overhead of wanting to fulfil that command as spoken.
I was once mindcontrolled and even though that GM was horrible in almost any other way, he just told me: You're dominated. The creature tells you to fight your allies with all your might. You decide the rest. I almost killed a guy when I unloaded my most powerful spell on him.
@@royal9743 I think that's the best way to do it. Still have to be a little bit careful as by having PCs fighting PCs you can no longer fudge die rolls to keep players alive if the dice are being a little-one-sided but, depending on the group, I can see your situation as either being pretty funny or super dramatic, either of which is really good.
I was a vampire hunter with the innate power to just feel vampires if they were close (feat) and another player thought it was a good idea to bring a vampire in. We were in a mansion of a powerful wizard who forbade any kind of violence in his house when this happened. Then the encounter began and I got dominated, so I of course targeted the vampire. Almost killed him too. He died the session after that anyway because he tried to dominate a Hobgoblin Matriarch wih who we already made a deal with and made her agressive. Seeing the only way to salvage that situation I burned the vampire-pc in front of her eyes and then burned the coffin. Don't worry, the player was a dick anyway. What I'm trying to say: I fucking loved the opportunity and nobody at the table would've been sad. (except maybe for the DM. The dick player was his favourite. Like I said, he was a horrible DM in any other aspect.)
#3: Not Reading The Room. So, one time there was a D&D game at my apartment. (I was not the DM by the way). My roommate was in the kitchen starting to work on brewing a batch of mead. One by one people drifted into the kitchen. We got to a point where all of the players were in the kitchen literally watching water boil. Don't let this happen to you.
I don't think I'm a Loot Fairy DM, but I was really caught off guard when one day the 5th level wizard in my party announced that she had 11 magic items. I'm, like, wait, what? Is that counting the potions and scrolls you've found? Nope. It turns out it was largely due two main things: 1. I'd been giving out a bunch of "common" magic items. Little technically magical do-dads that don't do much. For example, there was a tiny orb that functions as a compass, and a hat that sometimes lets you cast cantrips (with a skill check). Not super powerful items, but technically magical. 2. Often times when the party was finding magic items, they'd hand them over to the wizard to be identified, and if nobody wanted it, then the wizard would just hoard it. The wizard was also carrying the Bag of Holding, so there were a number of magic items being kept in there.
Over how long though of a campaign? 11 items, not counting scrolls, isn't terrible if you're counting those little do-dads you mentioned or if 4 players all have +1 weapons.
@@tiatrips It was surprising because the PCs were only around level 5 or 6. And that wasn't just magic items among the party. It was only counting things the wizard had.
I’m making my first foray into being a GM and, although I won’t be able to play for some time as my group already has 3 games going on, these videos give me SO much more confidence going forward. It’s all such good advice. Thanks so much Seth. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your stuff.
Not only will you have tons of fun running your game, but I’m willing to bet your current gm will enjoy playing. Sounds like you have a group where you may have multiple gms if you already have a couple games going on. It’s a great formula to prevent gm burnout.
ddesouz6 We do. One who’s DMed our first game (it was his first time and it was a lot of fun) and we found another later who has done much more. So, with both of them, these videos, and my own love of studying mechanics, it should be interesting.
One reverse of GM's giving perks is throwing story perks at the character of a player who is less involved. I did this once upon a time as a way to try and get an uninvolved player more involved and it just went on way too long. In the end, he proved himself a bit of a jerk who would never actually care about the game and was asked to leave, and I felt like shit for investing so much in his experience. Fortunately, my players all understood what I had been trying to do, we discussed it, and had a fantastic 12 more months in the campaign.
I have a similar issue where sometimes I do manage to improv my way to something pretty decent when the player goes beyond what I've premade but then completely forget to write it down so that when it comes up again, I'm screwed.
PhyreI3ird I’ve done this so much, I had to find a solution. I forget which DM UA-camr suggested it, but in my new campaign I gave the PCs a patron who demanded written logs, samples, rubbings, etc of every scenario. When they returned, I’ve made it clear thru the patron, “You’ve told me so much, but where are your logs, your samples, anything as proof of your stories. I’m sorry, but I will only pay you for these that you have provided me proof.” Logs are improving, since the work is shared across all the players & I.
Quick tip: during downtime, make a list of names. Keep it on hand during a game. Then, when the players inevitably befriend Random Merchant #14, glance at the list and use one of the names, and male a note beside it who that NPC is.
Yes. This. Exactly. Up to not remembering the name of the made-on-the-fly NPC from the last session. You know that beared dude with the fur cap. That hunter guy. Let's... let's call him Dimitri...
I enjoy all of what you're doing in your videos. On "reading the room", a concept that might help is to classify your players as one of these three archetypes; The Wrench, the Gun, and The Walkie-Talkie. "Wrenches" are people like doctors, engineers, mechanics, magicians, pilots, farmers, chefs, thieves, blacksmiths - they build, they repair, they manipulate materials, they lay their hands on something. "Guns" are what they sound like: pure combatants. Warriors. Guards. Soldiers. Weapons operators. Brawlers. Hunters. Assassins. "Walkie talkies" are administrators, scholars, scientists, clerics, bards, lawyers, officers, leaders, merchants, academics, diplomats, salesmen, secret agents, cops. Maybe not realtors, depends on the game. They work indirectly thru the other two types to do/get what they need, they use words and ideas and are knowledge workers. A balanced game party has enough of all of three types in it. A party that's all one type is very limited and usually boring. When making NPC's this can also come in handy as a quick way to sketch out how they will react to situations, without scripting anything. The point of this is to say; if player one likes being a wrench and that's their character, they need wrenchie-things to do in the game from time to time to be happy and feel they get something out of it. Doesn't mean they do wrench stuff excslusively though, and the real fun begins when the archtypes have to work in one of the other two milieus. Like a Gun character who only fights, has to suddenly be a diplomat or a healer or a lawyer. Or a "wrench" engineer has to fight. An Engineer might not fight like a dedicated gunfighter: she might instead manipulate the ship's grav fields to ping-pong the bad guys between the deck and ceiling until they are pudding, or override an airlock and blow them out into space. The Walkie Talkie might fight by bribing you to leave him alone, or hiring a merc or assassin or thug, or fight you indirectly by planting rumors, messing with your credit, manipulating situations to get you into trouble thru the law or whatever. A walkie talkie can't fix your Jump Drive but will know who to get and where to get them. They are also your "face men" when you need to con someone, fast-talk them, whatever. Keeping each archetype player "fed" from time to time with Tasks related to their specialties satisfies their basic participation needs, then making them work "across type" makes for the fun and memories. You need all the types for successful gaming, and identifying their type gives you a handle on what would be fun to challenge them with.
Super old comment lol But I wonder how Seth preps his skits Maybe just reaches for a random game? Honestly would love an explanation on his script process
@@mathunit1 I'd add, if you literally can deduct your dungeons, books and handouts from tax as it is your job, then it surely adds to your professionalism :D
I just had a game where I avoided #3. Created a challenge where the players were in a cave to fight kobolds, but found an underground river they could use to get behind them and grant them the element of surprise. To traverse the river, I created my own special rules for the occasion. Things were going only somewhat well. They made progress as well as taking some damage when they rolled poorly. However, things were beginning to drag and I could tell the table was beginning to get agitated as well as bored. Thankfully, they had round the last bend of the rapids bit and I decided to play it as a short cut scene that cuts to black and reopens with them coughing up water and reaching shore at the end. MY sin here that I realized is that I should've playtested my own creation before using it on the players.
This is one where I could see it being acceptable, depending on what the player said. If they said something like “I check the walls looking for a trap or sign of a hidden passage”, then an answer of “you don’t see anything where you are looking” is completely acceptable imo.
Is really Not Reading The Room always a sin? I have a personal issue of concentrating on one thing I am doing, so much so that sometimes I do not notice what others say. Do not know if it is even overcome.
Here's one I'm guilty of...running the session too long. My friends dont always have the schedules to meet every week/month/etc. so i cram in as much as possible for as long as I can endure, when ending the session a few hours with an exciting cliffhanger prolly would have been better. Although this is something like not reading the room (mostly because we stream online), I am a new GM and trying to learn too...also i cant remember the points from the previous videos, sorry lol.
I’m right with you Seth on it being BS Dweebles “had to” miss the game because his stupid boss went and got his wife knocked up! That is HER problem, not too much of his boss’ concern and certainly not Dweebles’ or Seth’s!
You start with "Loot Fairy", and I immediately see that I am exactly the opposite. My baddies only have the stuff on them that they need at that moment - a weapon or two, a bit of spare change maybe, and a bit of food. That's it. And abandoned ruins? Those have usually already been salvaged, so there's nothing of interest left.
My rule as a DM is that if life gets in the way of gaming that week, have the decency to call and let me know. That way the rest of the group doesn’t end up wasting time waiting for you to show up and we can just continue the session without you.
"I was in a hostage situation!". I love these frigging videos. Please Seth don't ever stop. As a beginner Keeper you've taught me so much on how to keep my games fair and fun. Ran my first DC comic/CoC crosser game this past weekend with two players (Batman and John Constantine) and they had a blast! And your videos have already given me a good idea for the next case that they will NEVER see coming. Thank you for all the work you've put in to these videos. It has not gone unappreciated!
The worst GM sin of all is allowing a problem player to continue to be a problem. Assholes need to be ejected IMMEDIATELY. No three strikes and you're out. You = Problem --> You = Gone. (Duh, of course talk about it first so there aren't misunderstandings, but repeat offenders need to GTFO right away.)
Just one thing to note when it comes to avoiding being a Loot Fairy: Make sure you know the game system you're running because a lot of people are far too stingy with loot and with some games that can mean that your campaign is set to Nightmare difficulty where even basic encounters will eventually be mathematically impossible to beat without some serious min maxing. Seriously, those recommended tables are the minimum you should give to each character. If you find it hard to give them loot then just give them money and access to a magic item shop and let them buy items that are up to couple of levels higher than their current level, which they usually can't afford unless they choose to ignore some important level appropriate items for the sake of just having a better weapon. Messing up that way is perfectly fine, let players make mistakes like that.
LOL! Love the lame scenarios, Seth. Love the GM Sins series. Been guilty of every single one over the past 36 years, myself. Thanks for this series. Really well done, and on target. We all need a little reminding every once in a while. Cheers!
I may have committed a selfish act by canceling a session in order to see Endgame before the spoiler embargo ended. I also cancelled sessions before when the college students in my group had finals but that is more a courtesy thing.
A variation of the "Favoritism" sin are DMs that yield to demands of certain players (usually, but not always their spouses) because they fear that not letting them get that little bit extra benefit will result in them getting mad. I know that it's primarily a player sin, but I just wanted to mention it. Also to share a story. We once had that situation where our DM asked if his girlfriend can join our group since she wanted to get involved in his hobbies. She was new to roleplaying while we had been playing for almost 10 years, so of course we had to tone down a little to not overwhelm her, which was a little annoying but fine, everyone was a newbie once and she got the hang of it quite fast. Initially it was fine but then he started to break certain rules when it came to planning our next session. We had the rule that if 5 out of 6 could make a certain date, we would play and made the missing char catch up later. It was the only option to have a fairly regular schedule and we were all fine with it. However once she had joined the group our DM started to veto any date where his girlfriend couldn’t make it, despite him having time on that date, which means from playing about every other week we were down to playing less than once a month, since his girlfriend apparently had a pretty busy schedule. Things started to get ugly when she started to get annoyed or grumpy every time out DM attacked her. He was quite good at spreading damage out equally and in accord to the situation unless people almost demanded being hurt due to stupid playing and placement. However she still got mad when she got attacked about every 5th turn in a 5 player game, and it kind of got to our DM after a while, so he started to attack her less and less and if he did, he would miss her almost every time or do little to no damage. It was quite obvious. One event stuck out though: She was playing a wizard, so range attacks and very little armor to prevent or reduce damage in hand to hand combat. Yet she got so used to not being attacked that at one point she moved her char ahead of the fighter’s right in front of the big evil boss to get better coverage for an AoE spell. Knowing that EVERYONE would call him out if he didn’t attack her, our DM made the boss smacked her across the room and against a wall, not killing her but knocking her unconscious for most of the fight. This time she didn’t just grumble like usual but actually yelled at him, to which everyone responded that what she did was simply a stupid action and she basically offered her char to the boss asking to get hit. She was still mad but did shut up, but the mood was down for the rest of that session and we finished shortly after. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the very next session. She got us in some rule-discussion (deliberately in my opinion) and basically everyone agreed what the rule was (including the DM) while she refused to accept that, despite her interpretation not even make any sense except getting her char out of a bad situation she brought herself into. In the end our DM backed down and accepted her rule interpretation. We later called him out on that and he just told that he didn’t want to get in another big fight with his girlfriend like they did after the last session. Apparently she was so mad at him for attacking her that after the session she yelled at him for a couple of minutes and didn’t talk to him for almost a day. After hearing of that we voted unanimously to remove her from our group. We felt she was deliberately starting trouble to annoy us and that this was an issue, even though he didn’t agree. He wasn’t allowed to game with us after that because his girlfriend, as expected by us, forbid him to. They broke up a few month later. Apparently similar things happened with all groups she wanted to get introduced to. She just started trouble and annoy people so eventually they stopped inviting him in order to not having to deal with her, which was what she wanted to. We got back to gaming with him eventually and he apologized for being such an idiot and not realizing sooner what was going on. Sorry that got long, but I had the urge to share this.
Always have a one shot as a backup for when life happens. Ours are even in the same world so we don't have to worry about world-building or learning a bunch of new information. We each just have one simple character, and the one shot group can be moderated by any player who wants to step up to that role and give us a simple side-quest. ^_^
I once plaid LARP in Star Wars universe, and our GM "totaly forgot" to inform us that Sith Empire Fleet was caught on the radar. Yes, it was an honest mistake but we were informed about it with the following words " Oh, I just forgot to say that Sith Empire Fleet was caught on the radar a few minutes ago, and now they started the orbital bombardment." And after ours "WHAT?" He said, "So any last words?". And it was not even the worst thing in that particular game.
I experienced a GM showing favoritism to his childhood buddy first hand. Can you say off-camera side quest where he ended up with Boots of Elvenkind and a Dagger of Poison? Definitely BS. >: |
The "Hostage Situation"..... Now, why am I having a vision of a bunch of guys playing D&D at a bank during such a situation, with one of players being one of the bank robbers, and he's playing a Paladin of Devotion?
Hey, Seth! Enjoyed this video like all the others! Don't know if you put it in your last video but I was kinda like the loot fairy during my Dark Heresy campaign but with exp. Dark Heresy was more free-form in giving exp than most other systems and could be spent on upgrades and traits/skills in between level ups which would unlock more traits and such when you level up. I gave WAY too much exp way too fast. It was mostly because I had a GMPC in the group and wanted to see him get stronger (a GMPC the players actually liked despite being a psychic blank) It didn't take too long before I toned it down lol. That campaign lasted a crap ton of sessions so much so the players were almost on the cusp of becoming Ascension level characters. And my friend enjoyed it so much he still maintains it's the best P&P campaign he's ever played.
Funny, I have that same rule on my "Game Night" Discord server. As for players who miss too many sessions in a row (since someone else brought it up), I try to talk with them about it because, while it certainly hurts to let someone go, that does need to happen from time to time.
A couple of decades ago, we were all at my friend's place, waiting for one player who had said he was on his way. Now, we knew that he played Everquest, so one of the other players got onto my friend's computer and opened up EQ - someone else had put it on in order to show off their characters in the game to the rest of us - logged into his account, and... ...lo and behold, there he was ingame. Yep, busted!
Nicely done. I especially liked the "No Consequences" part. I've seen too many games where the characters were never in any danger of anything bad happening to them. It seems like most of the online games on Twitch are like that, with DMs and GMs refusing to have consequences at all.
X X That’s not what he’s saying. Every player at the table is there to fulfill a role and help everyone else have a good time. The DM is arguably the most important since they are in control of practically everything that happens, so they have the most influence on the enjoyment of the most people at the table. Remember, this series is called Deadly GAME MASTER Sins. It focuses on that one particular person at the table that’s in charge of everything.
I play a gunslinger in Pathfinder and my older brother (the DM) always singles my character out to kill him and I find it really annoying when I do 8-12 damage a turn when there’s a Paladin who does 20+ each round
You can always just word it differently. Say it takes a quick knee before resuming it's attack, or that it seems to have lost a lot of blood or is breathing heavily and looks strained. There's definitely descriptive ways to do that without revealing in-game mechanics.
You know... I was super-close to naming it 7 Game Master Sins: The Return, but decided against it because I figured no one would get my sense of humor. I can see now that I was mistaken.
Okay, the first longish running game I was ever in, I usually had to leave just a little early. I had made an agreement with my girlfriend to call her every night after 9 because that was when my minutes were unlimited (I was in college at the time, so we were long distance). This wasn't a problem until the GM decided to move the game up an hour, so now I was leaving halfway through the weekly sessions and, because of the way the GM had it organized, pretty much always missed all the combat. I didn't get too much grief for it, although I was often asked if I really had to leave. Was I a flaker for that? I had explained it to the GM before joining the game (from the start btw) and I was actually one of the few to stick with it for the entire duration (about 5 players came and went for one reason or another by the end)
This is probably my favorite channel for table top rpgs. Ofc I like a lot of others, but I like your content and appreciate the time you take to make funny skits to make a point
Things of which to be mindful (my notes on all 3 GM sin videos): EXCESSIVE WORLDBUILDING (don’t make your ‘darlings’ and ‘exposition’ into tedious, drawn-out info-dumps. Work it into their explorations and interactions as flavouring where it is sought, not a monologue) TOO CONTROLLING/RAILROADING (they are not going to do what you have planned for them to do, NEVER outright work to stop them, adapt around their successful and failed attempts, in response to them. Why even ask them what they want to do, otherwise?) THE CRITICAL PLAYER CHARACTER (if the story hinges entirely on one or less than half of the characters, the stakes are lacking (PLOT ARMOUR) and the other, non-essential characters are just that: non-essential. It doesn’t feel good. IT’S THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GM TO MAKE THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE. The freedom of possibilities means the possibility of death.) COMMON RESURRECTIONS (there should always be consequences. If a player character comes back from the great beyond, there needs to be a story surrounding it; a price to pay, a challenge to overcome, a flaw, etc. Otherwise, the players will not learn, and the GM will not learn. Furthermore, if one character gets a second chance when another doesn’t, it generates a severe imbalance, creating a vacuum) KNOW YOUR TABLE’S MAXIMUM PLAYER LIMIT (talk about it with your table of players. You may feel guilty if it means that certain players are excluded, whatever that might look like, but subpar and stressful experience for everyone, including the GM, is not a sustainable way to play. If it must come to it, SET YOUR LIMIT in a way where everyone has the chance to listen, respond, and discuss the matter in a reasonable manner in order to come to an understanding/solution) UNPREPAREDNESS/THE MOMENT IS MY MUSE (find the BALANCE. Too much planning locks you into a rigid mindset. Chill out. This is for fun. Conversely, no planning can result in a mishmash of half-realized ideas, stressful halts in pacing, nonsensical incentives, and floaty-white-noise-space-where-nobody-knows-what-to-do-next. Regardless, a good GM adapts to the players’ choices) HAVE FUN, NOW! (If you are not having fun, if your expectations are so high or so low that they bleed through into the players’ experience, it doesn’t feel good. Be kind to yourself, be kind to the people at the table, be in the moment) OVERRULED, AT PAINS (if the players’ experience/ story opportunity / perfectly plausible attempt to do something would be hindered by the rules, be flexible. THEY’RE MORE LIKE GUIDELINES. Rigidity is the path to regret) NOT KNOWING THE RULES (it can take away from the pacing of the game-it’s boring. It limits the awareness of the extent of the possibilities available to you and your players. They may not be judging you per say, but if it is a consistent enough problem, they might not necessarily feel confident in your verdicts when it really counts) TOO EAGER TO ASSIST (let them figure it out. Don’t jump in and solve the puzzles for them. FIND THE BALANCE BETWEEN CHALLENGE AND TRUST. They will not feel as confident or else they may not even try if they know the solution is always an easy handout. Only advise when a direct and clear question is asked or if there is a problem emanating from a single player that is holding up the game for everyone) MURDER HAPPY (comes down to intent. Accidents and misfortune happen. GM vs party, well, the game was rigged from the start. Where’s the fun in that?) PLACATING EVERYONE (need I say more) COMMITMENT ISSUES (your most important session is your next one. Don’t lose sight of the experience before you for ‘greener pastures’. Your responsibility is to the setting, system, player characters, and your friends' experience) SCHEDULING RESPONSIBLY (the real final boss…) LOOT FAIRY/LOOT FAMINE (find the right balance for reward and incentive. Loot is special. Plan out what items and abilities are reasonable and rewarding and fair when taking into account each player) OMITTING CRUCIAL DETAILS/OBVIOUS REALIZATIONS (if you lock something behind a skill check when it is obvious enough that they couldn't possibly miss out on it, the immersion is broken, the story progression becomes finicky, and objections run amok) which ties into... THE MISSING LINK (if the party misses something that is necessary for the plot to progress, change things up so that it presents itself differently; don’t stall the game because of an out of sequences event or poorly actualized revelation) BLOODY FAVOURITISM NOT READING THE ROOM (close in on the things that interest them, change pace when everyone is obviously not enjoying themselves. Ask questions. Learn about what they would like to do and experience within your own feasible capabilities to deliver. Don’t get tunnel vision. LOOK AT EACH OF THE PLAYERS) A LIFE WITHOUT RISK/ NOTHING I DO MATTERS/ NO CONSEQUENCES (there should always be an element of uncertainty, risk, cause and effect, and expectations expressed by showing and not telling. Death, imprisonment, lost belongings, tarnished reputation, madness, lasting injury, etc. Excessive lack of consequences reduces feeling of accomplishment) LIFE HAPPENS, LIFE CARRIES ON. (remember to have empathy for the people at the table. It can be hard not to take it personally sometimes, especially when you have high expectations riding on it, what with preparation and scheduling among every other stressful thing that you have to manage. They have their own stuff. Everybody is going through something. Talk about it, but never blame. Adapt to their not being there accordingly (see p.g. 235-236 of the D&D 5e DMG for advice on mitigating player absences). If the problem persists, again talk to them, be curious. If it transpires that they are avoiding playing because they are not enjoying themselves, they are anxious, or there is another problem but they don’t want to hurt anyone else’s feelings, make a decision about what to do next, holding them accountable and able whilst respecting their boundaries. Whatever the reason, include the other players in the decision about what to do next only if the absentee is open to it, or has gone completely silent)
"And have some stupid skits!" Ha! I just discovered your channel and I love your skits. They're well thought out and fun. I feel like I'm at the table with you... and you, and you, and you 🙂
Obvious object: Player elf walked into a room using infravision because the previous room was pitch black. DM: "You see a massive source of infrared emanating from the wall opposite...". Player elf: "Is it a fire?" DM: "Yes! it's a fireplace." Player elf: "Because it's giving off light shouldn't I be-able to see normally?" I was DMing... Didn't live that one down for a while...
One reason Call of Cthulhu is so good: the idea roll. The Keeper can first try their best to throw a bone in regular play.. but if it still isn’t helping and play is just getting bogged down, boom, ‘if you like, you can make an idea roll.’ CoC is such a great system.
As Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation said in regards to Minecraft's Creative Mode: "That 50 foot golden cock and balls just doesn't feel as worth it if you didn't have to dig up an entire continent for all the ore." (Paraphrasing, but close enough) So yeah, loot fairy GMs can really dimish how nice it is to acquire loot if the loot is always vast and powerful. I should know, because this is a sin I still occasionally commit.
I don't make exceptions for any of my players. Actually, i killed my girlfriend's fighter in dnd5 already. :D Achievement unlocked: killed gf's character, and still got laid with her.
One I've been guilty of is the Keeping It Real/Not Keeping It Real extremes. A couple examples would be playing alignment and carrying treasure. You can have unrealistic expectations about what a certain alignment means (thinking of AD&D here), and require too much adherence to it from your players. OR, you can pay no attention whatsoever to it and allow decisions and actions that a character of, say, Neutral-Good alignment would never do. When it comes to treasure, you could nitpick over every GP of weight the party is trying to carry back from an adventure, OR you could turn a blind eye to physics and reality, as four halflings transport 30,000 GP (plus items) a hundred miles on foot, and over mountains, to their hometown.
My DM philosophy is that the ENTIRE world is available for the PCs. They can chose to go where the hints point, or just run off in a random direction. I'll figure out what they find. *** But I don't hand out magic items willy nilly. And if I goof, I can put the players on a ship, sink it and make them drop stuff or drown.
15:30 🙄 yeah, a HOSTAGE situation. We all know kidnappers let you use the phone, you just have to convince them it’s for your ransom and speak in code the whole time. So what OTHER excuses do you have?
I would add to 'favourite player', the least favourite player. We might as well admit it's a thing if we're acknowledging favourite player. In the past I find myself giving least favourite player subtle downers, like having NPCs mispronounce their characters name. I'm sure other GMs do a lot worse, but it's worth being aware of and checking yourself. It's not that you dislike the player, just maybe they give you a hard time or they take themselves too seriously or something. It's hard not to abuse the GM chair in that instance.
I had to change the session focus to avoid being the "no consequences-GM"; The players were investigating a murder and the official police investigation was meant to be a paranthesis happening in another part of town. One PC was a complete prat (totally in character) but this time he was it to the police chief, interfering with the investigation. So suddenly the police interviews were center stage and the PC found himself in shackles and detained. Not the kind of GM I want to be, so I explained afterwards why I did it and the player understood, though he insisted his character should be played like that. 🤷♂️
The "obvious object" is a problem I have with all pre-written modules I've read. "A dc15 wisdom check will reveal X" but that's beyond possible for passive perception at low levels, asking for a roll tells the players they're missing something if they find nothing & if it's not hidden why do you only notice the wallpaper has skulls on it if you investigate it 1st.
Heh. I'm such a loot fairy. I know it, and hate it, but I can't stop myself. I like being fantasy Santa. For my next campaign, I'm planning to write up my own loot guide, to limit myself on this particular sin.
I listened to all 21 of these DM rules, and I have to say that the two I fall for the worst is number 1: Life Happens, and number 2: Obvious Objects... Sometimes. I do try to throw a bone, but working with new players it's a little difficult because they don't know what they can, and can't do and sometimes just roll too low on checks. You spend a lot of time trying to create a story, and move game times every week, and can never get solid players.
I was going to say Game Master Sin: "Allowing sexual role-play" - but I guess that falls under reading the room. I mean, if you have an adult group and they seem to be having fun I guess I could just excuse myself while they finish.
The not throwing a bone is the most bad thing every. I do investigation, talking with a lot of people and so on, trying to find clues but find nothing... No bones. But another can just be like "I ask this," And they get everything ...... Favoritism with not throwing a bone
For the obvious object and not throwing a bone combo. THE FIRST TIME I PLAYED DnD, after our first long rest we woke up surrounded by a large fleshy orange and black striped wall which was actually a giant caterpillar we had to climb over in order to proceed. The GM decided not to tell us any details about that wall including the fact that it was a wall at all and made us play 100 questions for literally an hour to figure out not only what it was but also how to get past it. When we found out the solution was as simple as climbing over it we all were so done we just quit.
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I can't believe how selfish Dweebles is, bailing out for his "Hostage Situation"
That kind of unreliability is just not tolerable in a player
Not to mention the funeral. What, did he think missing the game would miraculously give him the secrets of necromancy?
@@doomguy19931 And now we ALL get to mourn Mi-ma.
@@deepqantas ...and shift the story to a heist.
@@deepqantas ... and create characters for the robbers.
Anyone's opinion on this would be lovely- our DM stopped gaming because he can't take criticism without taking it personally. We love him. He's just the one talking the entire time, too much detail, too many fights, no character development chances, or rare character development chances. He isn't the worst DM. He is very excited. He's just new to the game in general and his first time playing, he wants to DM. That's fine. But how do I tell him that he doesn't need to quit DMing to make everyone happy (because he threatens so much...), and how do I explain that it's not personal?
The least annoying thing he did last session was let me check for traps on a box, and then gave me gold inside the box. Then the gold was trapped.... Do I have to check for traps on literally everything? I don't remember my other sessions being like this, but I've only ever played 3e.
The "obvious object" made me mad as a player, so I try to avoit this situation when I run my game.
"Why should WE suffer because of HIS baby?!?" LOL
My philosophy on all children summed-up pretty succinctly.
Because "Screw the Rules, I Have Money" ?
This feels like a jojos reference and I just can't put my finger on it
Kota Why modern society will fail in a nutshell.
"Dude, the last time was a funeral! My meemaw died!"
"And did missing the game for her funeral bring her back to life?!"
well now i'm dead
And now the other party members are gonna have to mourn you too, you're such a selfish D&D player
I am simple man.
I see Seth Skorkowsky, I click Seth Skorkowsky.
^^^ same
S A M E
deus Npc ex machina
I've gotta admit; I'm an inveterate loot fairy. Normally, I can easily adjust the CRs of my plot to compensate for my compulsive need to make it rain on my players, but I recently ran a session of Mutants & Masterminds (Marvel setting) where I dumped far to many XPs (power points) on my players for one encounter. Luckily, I owned my mistake, outright telling my players that I fucked up, though I didn't want to withdraw their rewards (it seems unfair for them to pay for my carelessness). Hopefully I'll take this lesson to heart (after 23 years as a GM, it's about time, right?). Also, love the skits, man. Great video!
Avoid favoritism AND the Gm's Spouse in one fell swoop! Just date all your players at once.
Or... just discriminate everyone! X)
Or, and hear me out, you just murder your players. Problem averted
(facepalm)
I really wonder how a d&d/tabletop game between a 5-way polyamorist relationship would play out.. I suddenly want this to be a movie xD
PhyreI3ird I imagine favoritism would be a lot more likely to lead to murder
If a player bothered to tell me they can't make it to a session, I would be falling over myself to thank them for being so considerate, and holding them up as an example for others to follow! I'm used to people not even bothering to come up with an excuse!
notoriouswhitemoth I got tired of a consistent flake player. Always no notice. I drew the line when he told me, day of, he would be able to make it, and then bailed with no response. His excuses were always vague and I would have been fine if he was upfront. Decided to stop inviting him to games.
It poses the question, then: how do you find players who *aren't* total flakes?
If you run on Roll 20 you're bound to get zero notice...I don't begrudge the players because life does happen, but sometimes it's like do you want to play or not? So many players sign up for a campaign and then never make it past the character creation phase. I've never found it to happen as much in real life.
Consistency is always a problem with D&D, but your players should absolutely tell you if they can't make it; we have a group chat were we plan our next meet-up (which is typically bi-weekly with some irregularity), and none of us are amazing at communicating, but if one of my players didn't show up for a session, and did so without telling us that they couldn't make it, I would be quite annoyed. First time would be a warning, second time the boot. Don't stand for your players giving you the run around: It is an insult to you and the effort that you go to crafting an adventure for them; if they can't respond to that we the slightest bit of respect (and I would consider it a bare minimum) then you need to talk to them and if they still don't respect it you should kick them out of the group.
You are not their servant, and they are not yours; everyone should have fun, everyone should respect each other and the time we put into this hobby. No two ways about it.
Life happens and people will have to miss sometimes. My issue is that doesn't excuse shitty behavior or disrespect. Not showing up to anything you committed to without communication or valid reason is incredibly disrespectful to the time and effort that the GM and the other players have put into the game.
The throw a bone point made me think of one of the things Call of Cthulhu and some other games say about failing rolls like search or sneak, etc: if you fail the roll, you don't actually fail to do what you wanted (ie, find the secret door, sneak into the guardhouse, etc), it just takes you longer than expected, or there are unexpected complications to your subsequent actions. A failed roll doesn't need to grind things to a halt.
It isn't always rolls, however. If the obstacle is something like, "They need to talk to the guy in the lighthouse" but they never bother going to the lighthouse because they're talking to everyone else, or missed the hint, no Taking 20 or whatever is going to fix that.
Some systems, like Call of Cthulhu, incorporate the Idea Roll, where a GM can put things back on track, but the problem is that it's a roll that announces, "You guys messed up. Let's fix it." Throwing a bone would mean either having the guy in the lighthouse walks into town for groceries and a beer and they bump into him there, or someone in the town says, "Oh, you should talk to my uncle in the lighthouse," or someone else in town now has the information to give as if they were the lighthouse keeper. There's no announcement that a mistake was made. The game simply adjusts around them and keeps going like nothing wrong happened.
I keep Idea Rolls for those times we just can't adjust the game without announcing it, either because of a unique situation or when my brain just isn't coming up with a smooth solution fast enough.
This reminds me of a thing I saw in a rules-light game whose spirit can be taken even into crunchier games; the rule was "if nothing interesting would happen if the player were to fail the roll, then don't make them roll." While you obviously can't have players succeed at everything they try, the thing to take to heart is that *something* should happen as the result of the majority of rolls, good or bad.
@@ZvelHaj I think it's FATE Core that has a rule/guideline/whatever of "Say yes or roll the dice". In other words, don't make them roll for something that should be a gimme.
in terms of searching for traps, the only time it's an automatic failure is on a 1. if the trap DCs are 25 for 3 traps in the room and the best roll they get is a 19, i'll let them find 2 of the traps, but they miss the 3rd. sometimes a failed roll has to be a failed roll.
as seth kinda points out, sometimes you need to just change the game or lower a difficulty just to keep the game moving.
@JoeRingo118 In all fairness - if there is no time pressure, then there's hardly a reason to roll at all. Only if you speculate on a fumbled roll or something.
If you search for certain informations in the local newspaper archieves you eventually find them as long as they are there.
If you want to repair the ship stranded on the asteroid you will get it back to fly eventually, even if you have to canibalise some less important systems to get the spare parts.
It's another thing if the archive is on fire or the asteroid is one of those ship-devouring monstrosities from Star Wars...
"I was in a hostage situation!" - That line. That was the one that had me dying.
He was taken hostage by a Scott Brown Agent of course!
Same. My sides took 3d6 damage
and as we all know hostage situations with a single pc are bad
I thought of a Game Master sin, but it might be a variation of the "Obvious Object." It's "Don't let the player do something his CHARACTER would know is stupid." I've seen DM's punish their players for making a decision that their character class should have been familiar with. Examples below:
Here's an example. We were playing Rogue Trader and I was the pilot of a ship that was docked. Our team was locked out of the hanger, so I told the GM that I was going to shoot the door open with the ship's guns. The DM described the ship firing a blast so large that the entire hanger blew up. The idea being that "the guns on the ship are huge." That is something a PILOT IN THE 40K UNIVERSE would have known... even though, as a player, I didn't know the guns were that big.
Another example. It was a Star Wars campaign and the party was on a space ship. One of the players who specialized in tech wanted to hack the ship's computers. He opened a panel in the wall and asked the GM: "are their wires in the wall?" The GM said yes. "I connect to the wires!" The GM told him his data pad fried and he took damage from connecting to power cables. The next part is what made me mad. The player said "wouldn't my character have known that these were power cables and not a data stream?" and the GM literally said "yes, wouldn't you have?!" That's not fair!
I hate these kind of GMs. If you know something about the world that everyone in that world should know... TELL THEM! Don't let them do something stupid because they didn't know the lore. It's okay to cut them off BEFORE they make a mistake.
i once played someone from a gang (in some warhammer setting), we got into a fight in a bar with a gang. they shot at all of us, all of us at them. at some point, another player just rolled a die to determine what gang that was. it was the gang that i was part of.
like, wtf. as if my character would not have realised that at the first instance. which is also one reason why i did not even think about rolling that die in order to realise it...
I think you phrased it wrong. It's not don't let them it's warn them not to. Like that 40k setting, the GM should have said beforehand they were massive and if you still wanted to, let them.
This is a highly underrated comment. I'm GMing for the first time in a Cyberpunk Red game and I was trying to find a way to balance character knowledge vs player knowledge and this really helps.
0:52 #7 Loot Fairy
2:34 #6 Obvious Object
4:35 #5 Not Throwing A Bone
7:27 #4 Favoritism
9:55 #3 Not Reading The Room
12:21 #2 No Consequences
14:49 #1 Forgetting That Life Happens
You're doing Gods work man
@@theomegapotato370 True, but which pantheon?
@@michaelfoye1135 Yes
*Walks into a confessional*
Forgive me father Skorkowsky, for I have sinned...
Casts Eldritch Blast through the grill, incinerating the box entirely. Take 2D12 damage.
*Facing Consequences* -- One of my most treasured gaming moments in one of Seth's games was the time we decided to use a golem to pull us over a lake of lava. The lake was 50 feet below us and, between us and the other side, there were these little islands in the middle (each just a few feet across) that poked up to the same height as us. Clearly, we were meant to attempt to cross this lake, but many of us didn't even remotely have the amount dexterity that would have been required to make it. The solution we finally agreed upon was that our most dexterous character would make the trip. He would then cast a golem on the opposite side. The player would then order the golem to take one end of the rope, leave the golem there and then make the trip back with the other end. Our spell-caster would then cast a magical box around the party (sorry, I don't remember the name of the spell... I lean towards playing archers... and idiots... often simultaneously). Anyway, with the rope securely attached to the top of the box, and all of us *totally impervious* to anything damaging us from the outside, the idea was simple... the golem would "safely" drag us across the lake and we would all arrive chipper, fresh and (most importantly) completely unmolested on the other side. We felt like geniuses... Seth was utterly emotionless.
The order was shouted for the golem to begin its simple task. On the very first pull, our cage fell over and we tumbled about within it. A wry smile appeared on Seth's face as he immediately asked us to all role for damage, we of course complied but, I mean... no big deal... the cage had only fallen on its side... how big could the damage be from something as minor as... (!!!) *[the golem tugged on the rope for the second time, and the box inched forward]...* I think the thought dawned on all of us at nearly the exact same time, and then one of us (still in character) spoke it aloud as he commented to another player, _"Sir... uh... it has occurred to me that... we may have overlooked one... very serious..."_ *[the golem tugged on the rope for the third time, and the box inched forward]...* The precipice. Yes, we were completely protected from any of the outside elements... but falling 50 feet is exactly the same when you slam into each other, or the inner walls of your "impervious magical box" than if there were no box at all. We were now one tug away from the edge... we were all potentially about to die... and yet I've never seen a group of people (GM obviously included) more gleeful to watch the disaster that was about to unfold. We were already picking up our dice on the off chance that Seth would allow us some sort of saving throw as the golem pulled on the rope for the fourth time. We felt like such "geniuses"...
... it was glorious.
I'm glad that they're like me and has a shit eating grin whenever the players screw themselves over
@@mattpace1026 I can see your logic, but the box didn't protect them from inside forces, only outside. It was mainly them slamming into the box and each other. Think of it less like a plane, and more of if you got a box of fragile, glass objects and shook them around, or dropped the box.
@@mattpace1026 -- As.... [underscore] said. It was us slamming into the side of the box and each other that did the damage. Seth is very, very practical. If it's something that would be a concern in the real world, like gravity, it's something that would be a concern in the fantasy world (hence why it's a really, really bad idea to shoot a fireball in a hallway, when you're also in that same hallway... just because the description says that explosion is only going to be so many feet in diameter... that number is going to get pushed way out if that explosion is being restricted by stone walls). During another game, we searched for the big bad all through a dungeon and finally found him in a room, with a couple of henchmen. After drawing it out, Seth asked us our intentions... I was the first to go and I said I was going to run, in the opposite direction. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, and then stated they were stepping in to take him on... then we got to the player I was most concerned about (he is his biggest spell or biggest weapon). Give him a fireball, and he's opening up with fireball, every... single... time... After Seth drew out the room I realized it wasn't big enough for the diameter of the fireball, meaning it was going to blast back up the hallway we were standing in. I beat Mr Fireball's initiative and I was the only party member who didn't take damage.
@Matt Pace - Yes, the G-forces would be too great in a plane... If the plane accelerated from 0 to top speed instantly. Because it's soft acceleration over time, you only suffer a fraction of the G's.
Regarding the box; A falling object increases it's speed with 9,82 meters (aprox. 30 feet) per second for every second it falls. A rough estimate gives us a fall time of 1.8 seconds and a speed of 18m/second, which is the equivalent of being hit by a car going 40mph!
@@mattpace1026 Umm...an airplane doesn't negate g-forces. I'm thinking you don't know how physics works.
one gm sin that I've seen is "being too real". it should be remembered that this is a fictional world. a gm does not need to figure out all the physics of how a trap works or the time it would take for a potion to hit the blood stream and take effect. the goal is to have fun, not have a science or math class.
I used to have this one player back in college who would grill me on weird specifics. Like a trap would go off and he'd say, "I want to study this and learn how it works." Then he'd start asking very specific questions about the counter balance systems of a dart trap or something and when he managed to get me into a corner he would pout because is just wasn't 100% realistic. Or he'd start digging into the economics and trade routs of random region they were just passing through and once he could poke a hole would become all pouty and make me feel like some worthless GM. Only later did I realize it was some passive-aggressive bullshit he did to intentionally set himself up for disappointment and others for failure. He was a great roleplayer. One of the best I've seen. But when he decided he wanted to make himself and everyone else miserable, he wouldn't hesitate.
Yeah, I love realism and add as much as I can but in the end, it’s just fantasy.
@@SSkorkowsky That's for the list of Deadly Players' Sins.
I guess what I'm saying is that there needs to be a balance and that balance of realism/ fantasy / suspension of disbelief is dependent on the group
Suspension of disbelief can be weird tho. I can believe Batman can fight super villains, go to outer space in his own mech suit but for some reason Gotham having a civil war between villains that the local police and military were incapable of dealing with was somehow too much for me to accept.
The answer is always; It's Magic!
Yeah, I'm bad for reading the room. Confession time (spoilers for OotA): Out of the abyss, final boss fight with Demogorgon, the party struggling to handle a demon Lord 10 levels over them. The rogue managed to grab the wand of orcus and strides in gloriously with an army of undead drow at his heels. Demogorgon sees a little mortal meatbag walk up holding the greatest weapon of his rival, uses that dominate person gaze to have the rogue wield the wand against the party, planning on taking it for his own after the party was dead. That rogue, with a wisdom save of +1, wasn't able to make those DC 23 saves, and the fight was drawing to a close before it dawned on me that he had controlled his character for all of one round that fight. I was so swept up by this against-the-odds epic level boss fight that I never realized, among all those players having the time of their lives fighting a worldending demon, one of them was sitting there waiting for me to tell him what his character did that turn.
Not my proudest DMing moment, to be sure.
Usually if I "mind control" a PC, I let them do the heavy lifting of deciding what their character actually does with some guidelines from me, it seems to work and people seem to have fun with it regardless, though you do have to have players who aren't going to hold a grudge over it if they're attacked in this way. ( and I have had people who would, silly as it is ).
In such a case I would still have them make some decisions but I would tell them who they are going to attack that round, or if multiple options make sense, I'll roll for it, randomly assigning numbers to potential targets. That way said salty susan can't hold it against the mind controlled player if they get hit.
Yeah, I'm *very* leery of mind-controlling my PCs. For me it's a question of why they come to my game, and they come in order to play. If I mind-control them then they aren't playing their character and I am. For something like dominate person, unless I'm mistaken, you can only give very simple commands, so give those to the player and let them interpret what their character would do with the overhead of wanting to fulfil that command as spoken.
I was once mindcontrolled and even though that GM was horrible in almost any other way, he just told me: You're dominated. The creature tells you to fight your allies with all your might. You decide the rest.
I almost killed a guy when I unloaded my most powerful spell on him.
@@royal9743 I think that's the best way to do it. Still have to be a little bit careful as by having PCs fighting PCs you can no longer fudge die rolls to keep players alive if the dice are being a little-one-sided but, depending on the group, I can see your situation as either being pretty funny or super dramatic, either of which is really good.
I was a vampire hunter with the innate power to just feel vampires if they were close (feat) and another player thought it was a good idea to bring a vampire in. We were in a mansion of a powerful wizard who forbade any kind of violence in his house when this happened. Then the encounter began and I got dominated, so I of course targeted the vampire. Almost killed him too.
He died the session after that anyway because he tried to dominate a Hobgoblin Matriarch wih who we already made a deal with and made her agressive. Seeing the only way to salvage that situation I burned the vampire-pc in front of her eyes and then burned the coffin. Don't worry, the player was a dick anyway.
What I'm trying to say: I fucking loved the opportunity and nobody at the table would've been sad. (except maybe for the DM. The dick player was his favourite. Like I said, he was a horrible DM in any other aspect.)
You deserve more subs, and FAST. Currently one of the best new RPG channels on the platform.
#3: Not Reading The Room. So, one time there was a D&D game at my apartment. (I was not the DM by the way). My roommate was in the kitchen starting to work on brewing a batch of mead. One by one people drifted into the kitchen. We got to a point where all of the players were in the kitchen literally watching water boil. Don't let this happen to you.
This is hilarious
Love this video so much! Excellent advice sir.
Thank you much, sir.
Instead of favorite player, how about least favorite? Haha 😅
“The trap misses everyone, except you. You take 12 points of damage.”
Oof yeah.
I don't think I'm a Loot Fairy DM, but I was really caught off guard when one day the 5th level wizard in my party announced that she had 11 magic items.
I'm, like, wait, what? Is that counting the potions and scrolls you've found?
Nope.
It turns out it was largely due two main things:
1. I'd been giving out a bunch of "common" magic items. Little technically magical do-dads that don't do much. For example, there was a tiny orb that functions as a compass, and a hat that sometimes lets you cast cantrips (with a skill check). Not super powerful items, but technically magical.
2. Often times when the party was finding magic items, they'd hand them over to the wizard to be identified, and if nobody wanted it, then the wizard would just hoard it. The wizard was also carrying the Bag of Holding, so there were a number of magic items being kept in there.
Over how long though of a campaign? 11 items, not counting scrolls, isn't terrible if you're counting those little do-dads you mentioned or if 4 players all have +1 weapons.
@@tiatrips It was surprising because the PCs were only around level 5 or 6.
And that wasn't just magic items among the party. It was only counting things the wizard had.
@@sk8rdman Rereading that, I misread it when you mentioned 11 magical items. I thought that was the whole party. My error.
I LOVE the idea for that hat BTW. Totally yoinking that for my next fantasy campaign
@@jonskowitz It's a common magic item from Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
I’m making my first foray into being a GM and, although I won’t be able to play for some time as my group already has 3 games going on, these videos give me SO much more confidence going forward. It’s all such good advice. Thanks so much Seth. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your stuff.
Glad to be of service. Good luck on your foray into Game Mastering.
Not only will you have tons of fun running your game, but I’m willing to bet your current gm will enjoy playing. Sounds like you have a group where you may have multiple gms if you already have a couple games going on. It’s a great formula to prevent gm burnout.
ddesouz6 We do. One who’s DMed our first game (it was his first time and it was a lot of fun) and we found another later who has done much more. So, with both of them, these videos, and my own love of studying mechanics, it should be interesting.
One reverse of GM's giving perks is throwing story perks at the character of a player who is less involved. I did this once upon a time as a way to try and get an uninvolved player more involved and it just went on way too long. In the end, he proved himself a bit of a jerk who would never actually care about the game and was asked to leave, and I felt like shit for investing so much in his experience.
Fortunately, my players all understood what I had been trying to do, we discussed it, and had a fantastic 12 more months in the campaign.
My biggest GM sin has consistently been not taking sufficient notes on details. Had led to a lot of, "wait, it was what?"
I have a similar issue where sometimes I do manage to improv my way to something pretty decent when the player goes beyond what I've premade but then completely forget to write it down so that when it comes up again, I'm screwed.
i mean... so much of what you say is pure improv on spot.
PhyreI3ird I’ve done this so much, I had to find a solution. I forget which DM UA-camr suggested it, but in my new campaign I gave the PCs a patron who demanded written logs, samples, rubbings, etc of every scenario. When they returned, I’ve made it clear thru the patron, “You’ve told me so much, but where are your logs, your samples, anything as proof of your stories. I’m sorry, but I will only pay you for these that you have provided me proof.”
Logs are improving, since the work is shared across all the players & I.
Quick tip: during downtime, make a list of names. Keep it on hand during a game. Then, when the players inevitably befriend Random Merchant #14, glance at the list and use one of the names, and male a note beside it who that NPC is.
Yes. This. Exactly. Up to not remembering the name of the made-on-the-fly NPC from the last session. You know that beared dude with the fur cap. That hunter guy. Let's... let's call him Dimitri...
I enjoy all of what you're doing in your videos.
On "reading the room", a concept that might help is to classify your players as one of these three archetypes; The Wrench, the Gun, and The Walkie-Talkie. "Wrenches" are people like doctors, engineers, mechanics, magicians, pilots, farmers, chefs, thieves, blacksmiths - they build, they repair, they manipulate materials, they lay their hands on something. "Guns" are what they sound like: pure combatants. Warriors. Guards. Soldiers. Weapons operators. Brawlers. Hunters. Assassins. "Walkie talkies" are administrators, scholars, scientists, clerics, bards, lawyers, officers, leaders, merchants, academics, diplomats, salesmen, secret agents, cops. Maybe not realtors, depends on the game. They work indirectly thru the other two types to do/get what they need, they use words and ideas and are knowledge workers. A balanced game party has enough of all of three types in it. A party that's all one type is very limited and usually boring. When making NPC's this can also come in handy as a quick way to sketch out how they will react to situations, without scripting anything.
The point of this is to say; if player one likes being a wrench and that's their character, they need wrenchie-things to do in the game from time to time to be happy and feel they get something out of it. Doesn't mean they do wrench stuff excslusively though, and the real fun begins when the archtypes have to work in one of the other two milieus. Like a Gun character who only fights, has to suddenly be a diplomat or a healer or a lawyer. Or a "wrench" engineer has to fight. An Engineer might not fight like a dedicated gunfighter: she might instead manipulate the ship's grav fields to ping-pong the bad guys between the deck and ceiling until they are pudding, or override an airlock and blow them out into space. The Walkie Talkie might fight by bribing you to leave him alone, or hiring a merc or assassin or thug, or fight you indirectly by planting rumors, messing with your credit, manipulating situations to get you into trouble thru the law or whatever. A walkie talkie can't fix your Jump Drive but will know who to get and where to get them. They are also your "face men" when you need to con someone, fast-talk them, whatever.
Keeping each archetype player "fed" from time to time with Tasks related to their specialties satisfies their basic participation needs, then making them work "across type" makes for the fun and memories. You need all the types for successful gaming, and identifying their type gives you a handle on what would be fun to challenge them with.
"I WAS IN A HOSTAGE SITUATION!"
See, this is why you hold onto those luck points for emergencies.
I love how in the skits the game screen always tells us what game they're playing.
Super old comment lol
But I wonder how Seth preps his skits
Maybe just reaches for a random game? Honestly would love an explanation on his script process
Man, being in a hostage situation and having a funeral two games in a row - seems suspicious...
Or related
Yeah. Definitively related. Someone should ask Scott Brown if there was any showing recently
@@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel That's unneccessary dark...
Your skits are so good xD
"No game master is perfect" Whaaaaat? This is an outrage, and I will not have any of that slander. Good day, sir! I said, goooood, DAY! :)
shush,,We *have* to say that, because -you know- the players
Matt Mercer exists
@@WolfBerserker13 Yeah, he's pretty good. Not the best, by any extent, but a good GM and also hyped up, so he brings more people to rpg - double good.
@@jakubjanicki3989 I'd say he's one of the best, not just pretty good.
@@mathunit1 I'd add, if you literally can deduct your dungeons, books and handouts from tax as it is your job, then it surely adds to your professionalism :D
I just had a game where I avoided #3. Created a challenge where the players were in a cave to fight kobolds, but found an underground river they could use to get behind them and grant them the element of surprise. To traverse the river, I created my own special rules for the occasion. Things were going only somewhat well. They made progress as well as taking some damage when they rolled poorly. However, things were beginning to drag and I could tell the table was beginning to get agitated as well as bored. Thankfully, they had round the last bend of the rapids bit and I decided to play it as a short cut scene that cuts to black and reopens with them coughing up water and reaching shore at the end. MY sin here that I realized is that I should've playtested my own creation before using it on the players.
I literally noped out of a game after a 20 perception didn't reveal that a room was full of sturges because "you didn't look up"
WaveShock007 Woah, now that’s a new one! That GM sounds like he had it out for you, “you didn’t look up” that’s so messed up and flat out bs
This is one where I could see it being acceptable, depending on what the player said. If they said something like “I check the walls looking for a trap or sign of a hidden passage”, then an answer of “you don’t see anything where you are looking” is completely acceptable imo.
My favorite series! Helps immensely
Is really Not Reading The Room always a sin? I have a personal issue of concentrating on one thing I am doing, so much so that sometimes I do not notice what others say. Do not know if it is even overcome.
Here's one I'm guilty of...running the session too long. My friends dont always have the schedules to meet every week/month/etc. so i cram in as much as possible for as long as I can endure, when ending the session a few hours with an exciting cliffhanger prolly would have been better. Although this is something like not reading the room (mostly because we stream online), I am a new GM and trying to learn too...also i cant remember the points from the previous videos, sorry lol.
I’m right with you Seth on it being BS Dweebles “had to” miss the game because his stupid boss went and got his wife knocked up! That is HER problem, not too much of his boss’ concern and certainly not Dweebles’ or Seth’s!
You start with "Loot Fairy", and I immediately see that I am exactly the opposite. My baddies only have the stuff on them that they need at that moment - a weapon or two, a bit of spare change maybe, and a bit of food. That's it. And abandoned ruins? Those have usually already been salvaged, so there's nothing of interest left.
My rule as a DM is that if life gets in the way of gaming that week, have the decency to call and let me know. That way the rest of the group doesn’t end up wasting time waiting for you to show up and we can just continue the session without you.
"Aaaaaaaaand YOU get an invisibility cloak, and YOU get an invisibility cloak..."
"I was in a hostage situation!".
I love these frigging videos. Please Seth don't ever stop. As a beginner Keeper you've taught me so much on how to keep my games fair and fun. Ran my first DC comic/CoC crosser game this past weekend with two players (Batman and John Constantine) and they had a blast! And your videos have already given me a good idea for the next case that they will NEVER see coming. Thank you for all the work you've put in to these videos. It has not gone unappreciated!
I laughed so damn hard during this video. Seth, you should be a comedy writer for sitcoms. You are hilarious. Thanks for the laughs!
I wish my DM knew about point 3, before constantly throwing only Undead monsters, when I played a Bard.
Have you tired playing Thriller?
What's wrong with bard vs undead?
On the flip side of favoritism, I've seen GMs target a particular player for no good reason.
"Missing the game will not bring back her to live!"
When does Jack kill Dweebles?
I'm kidding. Don't kill Dweebles.
The worst GM sin of all is allowing a problem player to continue to be a problem.
Assholes need to be ejected IMMEDIATELY. No three strikes and you're out. You = Problem --> You = Gone.
(Duh, of course talk about it first so there aren't misunderstandings, but repeat offenders need to GTFO right away.)
Yes the master of masters is back.
Just one thing to note when it comes to avoiding being a Loot Fairy: Make sure you know the game system you're running because a lot of people are far too stingy with loot and with some games that can mean that your campaign is set to Nightmare difficulty where even basic encounters will eventually be mathematically impossible to beat without some serious min maxing.
Seriously, those recommended tables are the minimum you should give to each character. If you find it hard to give them loot then just give them money and access to a magic item shop and let them buy items that are up to couple of levels higher than their current level, which they usually can't afford unless they choose to ignore some important level appropriate items for the sake of just having a better weapon. Messing up that way is perfectly fine, let players make mistakes like that.
LOL! Love the lame scenarios, Seth. Love the GM Sins series. Been guilty of every single one over the past 36 years, myself. Thanks for this series. Really well done, and on target. We all need a little reminding every once in a while. Cheers!
I may have committed a selfish act by canceling a session in order to see Endgame before the spoiler embargo ended. I also cancelled sessions before when the college students in my group had finals but that is more a courtesy thing.
god i love the stupid skits. keep doing you seth 😊
A variation of the "Favoritism" sin are DMs that yield to demands of certain players (usually, but not
always their spouses) because they fear that not letting them get that little bit extra benefit will result
in them getting mad. I know that it's primarily a player sin, but I just wanted to mention it. Also to share
a story.
We once had that situation where our DM asked if his girlfriend can join our group since she wanted to get
involved in his hobbies. She was new to roleplaying while we had been playing for almost 10 years, so of
course we had to tone down a little to not overwhelm her, which was a little annoying but fine, everyone
was a newbie once and she got the hang of it quite fast.
Initially it was fine but then he started to break certain rules when it came to planning our next session.
We had the rule that if 5 out of 6 could make a certain date, we would play and made the missing char
catch up later. It was the only option to have a fairly regular schedule and we were all fine with it. However
once she had joined the group our DM started to veto any date where his girlfriend couldn’t make it, despite him
having time on that date, which means from playing about every other week we were down to playing less
than once a month, since his girlfriend apparently had a pretty busy schedule.
Things started to get ugly when she started to get annoyed or grumpy every time out DM attacked her.
He was quite good at spreading damage out equally and in accord to the situation unless people almost
demanded being hurt due to stupid playing and placement. However she still got mad when she got
attacked about every 5th turn in a 5 player game, and it kind of got to our DM after a while, so he started
to attack her less and less and if he did, he would miss her almost every time or do little to no damage.
It was quite obvious.
One event stuck out though: She was playing a wizard, so range attacks and very little armor to prevent
or reduce damage in hand to hand combat. Yet she got so used to not being attacked that at one point
she moved her char ahead of the fighter’s right in front of the big evil boss to get better coverage for an
AoE spell. Knowing that EVERYONE would call him out if he didn’t attack her, our DM made the boss smacked
her across the room and against a wall, not killing her but knocking her unconscious for most of the fight.
This time she didn’t just grumble like usual but actually yelled at him, to which everyone responded that what
she did was simply a stupid action and she basically offered her char to the boss asking to get hit. She was
still mad but did shut up, but the mood was down for the rest of that session and we finished shortly after.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the very next session. She got us in some rule-discussion
(deliberately in my opinion) and basically everyone agreed what the rule was (including the DM) while she
refused to accept that, despite her interpretation not even make any sense except getting her char out of a
bad situation she brought herself into. In the end our DM backed down and accepted her rule interpretation.
We later called him out on that and he just told that he didn’t want to get in another big fight with his girlfriend like
they did after the last session. Apparently she was so mad at him for attacking her that after the session she
yelled at him for a couple of minutes and didn’t talk to him for almost a day.
After hearing of that we voted unanimously to remove her from our group. We felt she was deliberately starting
trouble to annoy us and that this was an issue, even though he didn’t agree. He wasn’t allowed to game with
us after that because his girlfriend, as expected by us, forbid him to. They broke up a few month later. Apparently
similar things happened with all groups she wanted to get introduced to. She just started trouble and annoy
people so eventually they stopped inviting him in order to not having to deal with her, which was what she wanted
to.
We got back to gaming with him eventually and he apologized for being such an idiot and not realizing sooner
what was going on.
Sorry that got long, but I had the urge to share this.
Look! A giant Mushroom! I wonder if it is friendly? Hi giant mushroom!
Cactus Juice... it will Quench you--it is the Quenchiest!
Always have a one shot as a backup for when life happens. Ours are even in the same world so we don't have to worry about world-building or learning a bunch of new information. We each just have one simple character, and the one shot group can be moderated by any player who wants to step up to that role and give us a simple side-quest. ^_^
I have an expression for consequences when dealing with NPCs for my players, Talk S***, Get Hit
I once plaid LARP in Star Wars universe, and our GM "totaly forgot" to inform us that Sith Empire Fleet was caught on the radar. Yes, it was an honest mistake but we were informed about it with the following words " Oh, I just forgot to say that Sith Empire Fleet was caught on the radar a few minutes ago, and now they started the orbital bombardment." And after ours "WHAT?" He said, "So any last words?".
And it was not even the worst thing in that particular game.
I experienced a GM showing favoritism to his childhood buddy first hand. Can you say off-camera side quest where he ended up with Boots of Elvenkind and a Dagger of Poison? Definitely BS. >: |
The "Hostage Situation"..... Now, why am I having a vision of a bunch of guys playing D&D at a bank during such a situation, with one of players being one of the bank robbers, and he's playing a Paladin of Devotion?
Hey, Seth! Enjoyed this video like all the others! Don't know if you put it in your last video but I was kinda like the loot fairy during my Dark Heresy campaign but with exp. Dark Heresy was more free-form in giving exp than most other systems and could be spent on upgrades and traits/skills in between level ups which would unlock more traits and such when you level up. I gave WAY too much exp way too fast. It was mostly because I had a GMPC in the group and wanted to see him get stronger (a GMPC the players actually liked despite being a psychic blank) It didn't take too long before I toned it down lol. That campaign lasted a crap ton of sessions so much so the players were almost on the cusp of becoming Ascension level characters. And my friend enjoyed it so much he still maintains it's the best P&P campaign he's ever played.
I had a big example of trouble throwing PCs a bone in my online game. When in doubt? NINJAS ATTACK!
Yes! I am finally caught up in Seth's videos. Keep up the great work. I too am from north Texas and believe in supporting locals.
I watched an entire 1.5 minute tiktok ad for you Seth, that's how much I enjoy your content.
Am sick of UA-cam hiding your videos from me
The #1 rule at my table is: Life before Game.
Ace Burns True but if a player missed six out of eight sessions it is probably a good idea to find another player to fill that spot
I’ve repeated that so often that my players can recite it. I hate feeling like a broken record. But I’d rather they study or go to the interview.
Funny, I have that same rule on my "Game Night" Discord server.
As for players who miss too many sessions in a row (since someone else brought it up), I try to talk with them about it because, while it certainly hurts to let someone go, that does need to happen from time to time.
Great video. Is there ever a point you can't make great with your skits?
I avoid #5 by a little trick I call "not prepping bottlenecks".
I see a video from my friend Seth and I like and watch the video. I'm a simple man.
I had a DM that was amazing...except that he would drop an item that, while seemingly minor, would break the world.
Has anyone had PCs come to blows? How did you deal with it?
Well, I suppose it depends on why It happened?
I can't tell who my favorite character on this show is. The Hostage Situation guy is golden.
A couple of decades ago, we were all at my friend's place, waiting for one player who had said he was on his way. Now, we knew that he played Everquest, so one of the other players got onto my friend's computer and opened up EQ - someone else had put it on in order to show off their characters in the game to the rest of us - logged into his account, and...
...lo and behold, there he was ingame. Yep, busted!
Love the video, as always. So many of your points hit home and I see happening with my own DM. He's always stingy with loot though. :)
Nicely done. I especially liked the "No Consequences" part. I've seen too many games where the characters were never in any danger of anything bad happening to them. It seems like most of the online games on Twitch are like that, with DMs and GMs refusing to have consequences at all.
>Matt Mercer
The DM is not the players personal servant, EVERYONE at the table is supposed to be having a good time, not just the players.
X X That’s not what he’s saying. Every player at the table is there to fulfill a role and help everyone else have a good time.
The DM is arguably the most important since they are in control of practically everything that happens, so they have the most influence on the enjoyment of the most people at the table.
Remember, this series is called Deadly GAME MASTER Sins. It focuses on that one particular person at the table that’s in charge of everything.
"did missing the game bring her back to life?" LMAO
I play a gunslinger in Pathfinder and my older brother (the DM) always singles my character out to kill him and I find it really annoying when I do 8-12 damage a turn when there’s a Paladin who does 20+ each round
Wow
I'm early...
Aren't I?
One I'm really guilty of is telling the players "the monster has this much health left" it's something I'm trying to fix.
You can always just word it differently. Say it takes a quick knee before resuming it's attack, or that it seems to have lost a lot of blood or is breathing heavily and looks strained. There's definitely descriptive ways to do that without revealing in-game mechanics.
@@penzotoko6619 thanks for that advice
Game Master Sins III: the Warrior’s Revenge!
Game Master Sins 4: Season of the Witch.
You know... I was super-close to naming it 7 Game Master Sins: The Return, but decided against it because I figured no one would get my sense of humor. I can see now that I was mistaken.
Okay, the first longish running game I was ever in, I usually had to leave just a little early. I had made an agreement with my girlfriend to call her every night after 9 because that was when my minutes were unlimited (I was in college at the time, so we were long distance). This wasn't a problem until the GM decided to move the game up an hour, so now I was leaving halfway through the weekly sessions and, because of the way the GM had it organized, pretty much always missed all the combat. I didn't get too much grief for it, although I was often asked if I really had to leave. Was I a flaker for that? I had explained it to the GM before joining the game (from the start btw) and I was actually one of the few to stick with it for the entire duration (about 5 players came and went for one reason or another by the end)
I love your videos, and as a new GM myself I find your advice super helpful and insightful.
This is probably my favorite channel for table top rpgs. Ofc I like a lot of others, but I like your content and appreciate the time you take to make funny skits to make a point
These three vids have been great to watch. You are obviously a very experienced GM and I really enjoyed all the skits too! Keep up the great work.
Things of which to be mindful (my notes on all 3 GM sin videos):
EXCESSIVE WORLDBUILDING (don’t make your ‘darlings’ and ‘exposition’ into tedious, drawn-out info-dumps. Work it into their explorations and interactions as flavouring where it is sought, not a monologue)
TOO CONTROLLING/RAILROADING (they are not going to do what you have planned for them to do, NEVER outright work to stop them, adapt around their successful and failed attempts, in response to them. Why even ask them what they want to do, otherwise?)
THE CRITICAL PLAYER CHARACTER (if the story hinges entirely on one or less than half of the characters, the stakes are lacking (PLOT ARMOUR) and the other, non-essential characters are just that: non-essential. It doesn’t feel good. IT’S THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GM TO MAKE THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE. The freedom of possibilities means the possibility of death.)
COMMON RESURRECTIONS (there should always be consequences. If a player character comes back from the great beyond, there needs to be a story surrounding it; a price to pay, a challenge to overcome, a flaw, etc. Otherwise, the players will not learn, and the GM will not learn. Furthermore, if one character gets a second chance when another doesn’t, it generates a severe imbalance, creating a vacuum)
KNOW YOUR TABLE’S MAXIMUM PLAYER LIMIT (talk about it with your table of players. You may feel guilty if it means that certain players are excluded, whatever that might look like, but subpar and stressful experience for everyone, including the GM, is not a sustainable way to play. If it must come to it, SET YOUR LIMIT in a way where everyone has the chance to listen, respond, and discuss the matter in a reasonable manner in order to come to an understanding/solution)
UNPREPAREDNESS/THE MOMENT IS MY MUSE (find the BALANCE. Too much planning locks you into a rigid mindset. Chill out. This is for fun. Conversely, no planning can result in a mishmash of half-realized ideas, stressful halts in pacing, nonsensical incentives, and floaty-white-noise-space-where-nobody-knows-what-to-do-next. Regardless, a good GM adapts to the players’ choices)
HAVE FUN, NOW! (If you are not having fun, if your expectations are so high or so low that they bleed through into the players’ experience, it doesn’t feel good. Be kind to yourself, be kind to the people at the table, be in the moment)
OVERRULED, AT PAINS (if the players’ experience/ story opportunity / perfectly plausible attempt to do something would be hindered by the rules, be flexible. THEY’RE MORE LIKE GUIDELINES. Rigidity is the path to regret)
NOT KNOWING THE RULES (it can take away from the pacing of the game-it’s boring. It limits the awareness of the extent of the possibilities available to you and your players. They may not be judging you per say, but if it is a consistent enough problem, they might not necessarily feel confident in your verdicts when it really counts)
TOO EAGER TO ASSIST (let them figure it out. Don’t jump in and solve the puzzles for them. FIND THE BALANCE BETWEEN CHALLENGE AND TRUST. They will not feel as confident or else they may not even try if they know the solution is always an easy handout. Only advise when a direct and clear question is asked or if there is a problem emanating from a single player that is holding up the game for everyone)
MURDER HAPPY (comes down to intent. Accidents and misfortune happen. GM vs party, well, the game was rigged from the start. Where’s the fun in that?)
PLACATING EVERYONE (need I say more)
COMMITMENT ISSUES (your most important session is your next one. Don’t lose sight of the experience before you for ‘greener pastures’. Your responsibility is to the setting, system, player characters, and your friends' experience)
SCHEDULING RESPONSIBLY (the real final boss…)
LOOT FAIRY/LOOT FAMINE (find the right balance for reward and incentive. Loot is special. Plan out what items and abilities are reasonable and rewarding and fair when taking into account each player)
OMITTING CRUCIAL DETAILS/OBVIOUS REALIZATIONS (if you lock something behind a skill check when it is obvious enough that they couldn't possibly miss out on it, the immersion is broken, the story progression becomes finicky, and objections run amok)
which ties into... THE MISSING LINK (if the party misses something that is necessary for the plot to progress, change things up so that it presents itself differently; don’t stall the game because of an out of sequences event or poorly actualized revelation)
BLOODY FAVOURITISM
NOT READING THE ROOM (close in on the things that interest them, change pace when everyone is obviously not enjoying themselves. Ask questions. Learn about what they would like to do and experience within your own feasible capabilities to deliver. Don’t get tunnel vision. LOOK AT EACH OF THE PLAYERS)
A LIFE WITHOUT RISK/ NOTHING I DO MATTERS/ NO CONSEQUENCES (there should always be an element of uncertainty, risk, cause and effect, and expectations expressed by showing and not telling. Death, imprisonment, lost belongings, tarnished reputation, madness, lasting injury, etc. Excessive lack of consequences reduces feeling of accomplishment)
LIFE HAPPENS, LIFE CARRIES ON. (remember to have empathy for the people at the table. It can be hard not to take it personally sometimes, especially when you have high expectations riding on it, what with preparation and scheduling among every other stressful thing that you have to manage. They have their own stuff. Everybody is going through something. Talk about it, but never blame. Adapt to their not being there accordingly (see p.g. 235-236 of the D&D 5e DMG for advice on mitigating player absences). If the problem persists, again talk to them, be curious. If it transpires that they are avoiding playing because they are not enjoying themselves, they are anxious, or there is another problem but they don’t want to hurt anyone else’s feelings, make a decision about what to do next, holding them accountable and able whilst respecting their boundaries. Whatever the reason, include the other players in the decision about what to do next only if the absentee is open to it, or has gone completely silent)
"And have some stupid skits!" Ha!
I just discovered your channel and I love your skits. They're well thought out and fun. I feel like I'm at the table with you... and you, and you, and you 🙂
Obvious object: Player elf walked into a room using infravision because the previous room was pitch black. DM: "You see a massive source of infrared emanating from the wall opposite...". Player elf: "Is it a fire?" DM: "Yes! it's a fireplace." Player elf: "Because it's giving off light shouldn't I be-able to see normally?"
I was DMing... Didn't live that one down for a while...
One reason Call of Cthulhu is so good: the idea roll. The Keeper can first try their best to throw a bone in regular play.. but if it still isn’t helping and play is just getting bogged down, boom, ‘if you like, you can make an idea roll.’ CoC is such a great system.
As Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation said in regards to Minecraft's Creative Mode:
"That 50 foot golden cock and balls just doesn't feel as worth it if you didn't have to dig up an entire continent for all the ore." (Paraphrasing, but close enough)
So yeah, loot fairy GMs can really dimish how nice it is to acquire loot if the loot is always vast and powerful. I should know, because this is a sin I still occasionally commit.
I don't make exceptions for any of my players. Actually, i killed my girlfriend's fighter in dnd5 already. :D
Achievement unlocked: killed gf's character, and still got laid with her.
One I've been guilty of is the Keeping It Real/Not Keeping It Real extremes. A couple examples would be playing alignment and carrying treasure. You can have unrealistic expectations about what a certain alignment means (thinking of AD&D here), and require too much adherence to it from your players. OR, you can pay no attention whatsoever to it and allow decisions and actions that a character of, say, Neutral-Good alignment would never do. When it comes to treasure, you could nitpick over every GP of weight the party is trying to carry back from an adventure, OR you could turn a blind eye to physics and reality, as four halflings transport 30,000 GP (plus items) a hundred miles on foot, and over mountains, to their hometown.
My DM philosophy is that the ENTIRE world is available for the PCs. They can chose to go where the hints point, or just run off in a random direction.
I'll figure out what they find.
***
But I don't hand out magic items willy nilly.
And if I goof, I can put the players on a ship, sink it and make them drop stuff or drown.
15:30 🙄 yeah, a HOSTAGE situation. We all know kidnappers let you use the phone, you just have to convince them it’s for your ransom and speak in code the whole time. So what OTHER excuses do you have?
I would add to 'favourite player', the least favourite player. We might as well admit it's a thing if we're acknowledging favourite player. In the past I find myself giving least favourite player subtle downers, like having NPCs mispronounce their characters name. I'm sure other GMs do a lot worse, but it's worth being aware of and checking yourself. It's not that you dislike the player, just maybe they give you a hard time or they take themselves too seriously or something. It's hard not to abuse the GM chair in that instance.
I had to change the session focus to avoid being the "no consequences-GM"; The players were investigating a murder and the official police investigation was meant to be a paranthesis happening in another part of town. One PC was a complete prat (totally in character) but this time he was it to the police chief, interfering with the investigation. So suddenly the police interviews were center stage and the PC found himself in shackles and detained.
Not the kind of GM I want to be, so I explained afterwards why I did it and the player understood, though he insisted his character should be played like that. 🤷♂️
The "obvious object" is a problem I have with all pre-written modules I've read. "A dc15 wisdom check will reveal X" but that's beyond possible for passive perception at low levels, asking for a roll tells the players they're missing something if they find nothing & if it's not hidden why do you only notice the wallpaper has skulls on it if you investigate it 1st.
Heh. I'm such a loot fairy. I know it, and hate it, but I can't stop myself. I like being fantasy Santa. For my next campaign, I'm planning to write up my own loot guide, to limit myself on this particular sin.
I listened to all 21 of these DM rules, and I have to say that the two I fall for the worst is number 1: Life Happens, and number 2: Obvious Objects... Sometimes. I do try to throw a bone, but working with new players it's a little difficult because they don't know what they can, and can't do and sometimes just roll too low on checks. You spend a lot of time trying to create a story, and move game times every week, and can never get solid players.
I was going to say Game Master Sin: "Allowing sexual role-play" - but I guess that falls under reading the room. I mean, if you have an adult group and they seem to be having fun I guess I could just excuse myself while they finish.
The not throwing a bone is the most bad thing every. I do investigation, talking with a lot of people and so on, trying to find clues but find nothing... No bones. But another can just be like "I ask this," And they get everything ...... Favoritism with not throwing a bone
For the obvious object and not throwing a bone combo. THE FIRST TIME I PLAYED DnD, after our first long rest we woke up surrounded by a large fleshy orange and black striped wall which was actually a giant caterpillar we had to climb over in order to proceed. The GM decided not to tell us any details about that wall including the fact that it was a wall at all and made us play 100 questions for literally an hour to figure out not only what it was but also how to get past it. When we found out the solution was as simple as climbing over it we all were so done we just quit.