Campaign Diaries 22 & 23!
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2019
- The Recap:
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• The Chain of Acheron: ...
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No straight lines in Ringwell?
They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is...
Theeeeey say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon iiiiiis....
what do they say what do they sayyyy
He's going to say to going to say!
Fight, fight, fight, fight!
I'm always surprised when different things I adore overlap. QI and Matt? That's just amazing.
"And, they're not normal Xorn. That wouldn't be very interesting. They're MCDM Xorn!"
3:37 "My players rarely enjoy meeting people that have conviction in any department." HAH! Applies to the Chain, but often many game groups I think!
I keep trying in hope my PCs can pick up on the mood and have conviction themselves, perhaps foolishly, but man's reach should exceed his grasp etc.
Unless the players like the fantasy of being a very, very good character.
After a time, I've kinda found out that I do. Next character I play should totally be a paladin.
@@gjjpabkriner2714 Mine are mostly the fantasy-of-being-heroes type. Makes it very fun to throw them ethical dilemmas - I know that I can get them to make tactically sub-optimal decisions in the name of protecting innocents.
As a player of a cleric with a very high wisdom, I really enjoy having a week in between sessions to ponder over my character's decisions. I think wisdom represents that, knowing how to act and react "wisely", sometimes I am really dissappointed with my decisions that happen later during a sessions when everyone gets tired :-)
The rod might be a good way to bring back the undead lady's husband back.
blimey?
Sounds like a good way to bring back a vampire lord wearing the undead lady's husband's face if you ask me.
@@ooccttoo that too.
Sounds like a good way to bring back Sweet, Nails and (of course) Red.
I know your campaign is very tactical and stuff, but I always love the RP moments, so the scene where Boots and King talk to the Prisoner were really great in my opinion.
I love how much opportunity you give your players to think about their characters thoughts and actions, and I was very happy to hear your concession to the idea of the game as a storytelling game at the end there. It feels like you are very successful in giving your players agency in the world beyond just which monsters they kill.
You may be evil Matt, but you're awful good!
Awful good>lawful good
I learn just as much about DMing from your campaign diaries as I do from your running the game videos. I love it!
If the Rod is an "Artifact" then identify will not work on it. Although finding that rule in the DMG is not trivial.
Do you remember where it is in there?
@@robertcox9871 I just looked and I appear to have been mistaken. I may have remembered from an old version of the game. I started with AD&D. Curses are not identified with the Identify spell but apparently artifacts can be although, if they are tiered items then I would only allow the identify on the active abilities and of course any curses would not show up. You would have to decide if a "negative effect" was a curse or not...
The Internet says the curse thing...
The DMG (p. 139) says about cursed items: Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although lore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the item's user when the curse's effects are revealed.
@@joereilly7082 Thank you 4 the reply, no worries, cheers for looking, i was going crazy Looking for it
Matt, I think this was your best and most important video you've ever put out. The advice, examples and theory in this video are top notch and get to the nitty gritty of playing and running RPG's. Great stuff, dude.
Thank you Matt! You have no idea how much we appreciate all your hard work on these diaries!
Ringwell was built to avoid the Hounds of Tindalos
What are the Hounds of Tindalos?
@@dragatus HP Lovecraft monsters, like emaciated Dobermans that travel through time, but they can only exit into our time through angles, like between the walls and floor. Curved space defeats them.
He is ancient! He is the land!
Poseidon quivers before him!
Strahd: “I am the Land.”
Octavius Maximus: “Hold my Goblet.”
5th Level "Modify Memory" would fix the problem, but I don't think they have access to it.
Campaign diaries are the juice of the channel. keep the awesome content mate!!!
I really cant believe Matt straight up had strahd references and people aren't freaking out
In all honesty, the party didn't actually explain to Lady Arosavar - forgive my spelling - why she can't tell the Church. They just told her she can't, and then when she wanted to leave they got aggressive. I think if they explained to her in detail that the relics in Ringwell were locked up for a reason, and if they were to get out it may cause havoc in Capital, and perhaps even cause hysteria she may listen to their rationale.
But given her zealous nature she would probably think the church and house Navarr are the best and only real choice to guard such important relics. Thats not to say they cant convince her but it would be difficult for a somewhat dim principled knight like her to see the big picture and the consequences of this place being unearth in this time of unrest.They may be able to make a move to open talks with the house's Cardinal but in all likely hood they are going to try and subdue her which can then pivot in many ways
@@kevincullen6627 Yeah, I just watched the new episode, and rationale didn't seem to get through to her. Sigh!
@@filnn maybe the sapphire sky can convince her
An early morning double campaign diary? Woot! Woot!
Dammit Matt, that crumb isn't enough! Two dynasties end in invasion, and the third in Ringwell? What the hell is going on in your setting!?
My guess is that sealing the artifacts stopped the "Barbarian" invasion somehow (maybe it didn't seem to be necessary this time)
Whatever happened to the third empire happened after the emperor sealed his stuff in Ringwell, so they may have been invaded too.
Banzai Bot I have a theory. Each time the dynasties died, their power and knowledge released out into the world. By sealing it up in ringwell, the Khalien empire prevented the cycle of civilization from continuing.
Also, with the dying god, it seems that a cult around this being was based around this power and knowledge. I bet Ajax seeks to become this figure, kind of like an anti-Jesus
Legit made my Wednesday. I really look forward to these campaign diaries!
Also, in part because of you (I think I'm deserving of some credit) I'm a DM now! Ran my first D&D session. My players rolled up a character each and went into a house to look for a kidnapped family being used to manipulate somebody important. We had fun and I'm so pleased to have finally started DM-ing!
“This effect cannot be uncaused”
* King Crimson wants to know your location *
Roondar I can’t escape jojo. Even here.
I've always said: Chaotic Neutral is The Player Character Alignment.
So, the Butcher shop and now a Candle shop ... is there going to be a Bakery involved as well? 🤔
Well, if they do get a bakery going I hope they know the muffin man.
kereminde the Muffin Man?
Butcher, Backer, Waxer, Spy.
@@samsampier7147 The muffin man, that lives on Drury Lane.
@@Crow.Author a butcher, a baker, a candle stick maker (rub a dub dub)
I sat up right when it was said “he his the land”. Flash backs to I, Strahd right there.
A proper use of "inception" ... im in love
Love your videos, love watching the Chain. I have been a D&D player since 1978 in Jr. high. For the last 15 years I have been a DM. I feel sometimes I get writers block. Since watching almost all your videos, you have inspired me in so many ways. Thank you!! keep it up. Huge Fan
Bill Woodson's "Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice" is the inner monologue narrator of my childhood...and my adult self.
2:39 Something really ominous about this line/delivery/editing....
52:16 Goddamit Matt, how do all these awesome titles for your sessions just fall into your lap like this??? Usually I can't think of titles for my campaign diaries better than "Big Oof" or "We Are The Walking Pest", which are basically just dumb puns or memes based on what happened. Calling one episode "Idle Hands" and the next "The Devil's Work" is just soooooo satisfying to me. Great work as always, looking forward to seeing how the Chain sorts out this mess :D
I have been wanting to improve my game with cool names for a while, to honor Matt's advice and examples. I have an Assassin's Guild called The Enveloping Earth stationed in a nearby city. The leader is an Earth Genasi named Mickey Bedrock. His title is The Quake. Others have titles like The Tremor, The Sinkhole, The Avalanche, The Grave, and The Geode. Each one has a different specialty. I think they sound cool. I hope my players agree.
There is a song by The Builders and the Butchers called Raise Up, and there is a repeated refrain in that song that goes “When you make fire with The Devil, don’t be surprised when you get burned. You are among the lucky ones, and he only took your hands.” When I heard that, I found it such a great GMing philosophy : Get your players to the point where they willingly take options that they know are going to have negative reprocussions instead of the safe, easy options.
Update! I did use the line. I was running Curse of Strahd, and I gave it to Ezmerelda d'Avinir when the party encountered her immediately after she escaped from Castle Ravenloft.
On the last point of taking time to work out a flash decision, one other factor I think is that the characters have had years of life and teamwork together, and taking even a couple weeks realtime to figure out and reflect that definitely seems like a worthwhile thing to do.
I think that they could negotiate with her if they want. The question is whether they consider that as an option. There are several ways out of this.
I had wondered what you'd meant when you said you were gonna use Strahd for something. If this is what I suspect, then you're a devious man
I REALLY love these campaign diaries. They always get me hyped about D&D, as much if not more that the running the game videos. Plus, since I like to watch them in the morning, it gives me something to think about at work other than "Ugh. I want to go home". Thanks Matt!
Instead of eldritch knight or paladin the knight strikes me as zealot barbarian.
Except the heavy armor.
Barbarians can still wear heavy armor
Maybe wear Half Plate and make it really resplendent and fancy?
Or make it plate of elven kind you get all the benefits and don’t have to be proficient
@@trequor no just take the enchant off the chain of elven kind put it on plate. sure she couldn't rage or get bonus movement but thats it.
You're talking about the dragonborn knight being a zelot and considering multiclassing her into barbarian so I feel the need to tell you that there is actually a barbarian subclass called "zelot" in Xanathar's Guide To Everything which would fit pretty well.
That's a classic way to deal with golems. One game I was in 15 or so years ago, we fought a magic immune iron golem. In a fit of drunken genius I cast a disintegration ray at the golem's feet and made it fall like 500ft down a chasm from the bridge we fought it on. Game night was done about an hour early that night....
46:48 why is Soot my favorite character even tho I didn't watch last week's episode yet lmao
I like these because they give me ideas for my game. Usually theyre completely unrelated to your content, but somehow it gets the juices flowing anyway.
You should have them find echoes of nails at points in the future to deliver exposition
As I sit watching this campaign diary of episodes I have already watched, a beautiful thing has happened. 30 seconds after Matt says ‘the next episode will probably be called “the devil’s work” ‘ the notification slipped down from the top of the screen to say Episode 24 - The Devil’s Work has arrived on UA-cam 😍 ah the high, life is good
Matt, this video isn't in your campaign diaries playlist; I missed these episodes the first time I listened to your summaries of the campaign.
I'd recommend that you add this to the playlist to help keep the story of the Chain as complete and coherent as possible.
good god his undercommon voice is great haha!
They could have avoided this problem by simply binding her while she was unconscious. Their choice to be compassionate then is now coming back to bite them. They had the chance to control the situation and gave away that control. If you are going to take a prisoner, you need to neutralize their ability to harm you, especially when they tell you repeatedly that they intend to do something you believe will absolutely harm you.
Well done, Matt! This has been a pleasure to watch.
George Wilson they weren’t trying to take a prisoner though! you can’t really blame the characters for not acting on information that they didn’t think was going to be relavent.
@@Hazel-xl8in they took her with them with the intent to control her actions and limit her ability to relay information. Sounds like a prisoner to me.
I would have had her bound up tight and her weapons separated from her until we could have negotiated some sort of an agreement. It is dangerous having people wandering loose when you are on secret missions.
Loose lips sink ships.
THE PANTHEON ON HAGAR! I NEED IT!
Best birthday gift I've received today!!
Love these campaign diaries! Thanks so much Matt!
I've been really enjoying the diary series! It gives me a special insight in how a veteran runs and thinks about a campaign
Oooh, I like the turn limitations as an area effect of the Inextrical of Time.
"Inexorable". From his book Strongholds & Followers.
Gosh, I tuned out for a bit thinking this was going to be a massive "clearing rooms" Dungeon crawl. I am so glad I am tuning back in because just watching this makes me stressed and excited for the players, sorry for ever doubting
Dang, Matt.
The sessions were great, the diaries were an awesome cherry on top!
I look forward to catching last night's game when I get off tonight, and seeing how this turns out.
Thanks for following your passion, the results are super entertaining!
I love characters interacting/learning with/through Myths of your world!
Me, at The Chain: "In the words of Saint RuPaul, don't fuck it up."
Mentallic abilities? Ajax = The Mule confirmed!
so exciting! I couldn't watch last night, so I'm eagerly anticipating for it to be posted! I started just watching the Campaign Diaries, but now that I'm caught up I love watching both
Please DOn't stop these. I enjoyed listening to both the podcast and matts top level intereptation of events, it made the story feel more whole and multifaceted to me.
If I had to guess, probably would need to like load the Navigator into a psionic cannon to blast the wall down.
At first I thought that Lady Orozavar was somebody who had been stuck in the Ringwell for ages, sort of time traveller from the past. But it is certainly more interesting that dealing with her has bigger consequences for the politics of Capital.
I guess my problem with this kind of game is I don't play to be frustrated. I play to escape frustration.
I think this is a really good point. It's one thing to be confronted with a difficult challenge that requires some out-of-the-box thinking to resolve. It's quite another to be beating one's head against, "What in the name of all that's holy is even going _on_ here?" for session after session.
@Nick Williams Agreed, Thanks for explaining my point better than I did.
Awesome recap, looking forward to watching the next one
Two more Moorcock mashups, specifically The Runestaff and The Warrior in Jet and Gold! Keep 'em coming Matt!
“MCDM Xorn”? Can we hope to see them in Flee, Mortals! ?
also consider that the characters have a moment to consider it but a lifetime of understanding the world they inhabit. meanwhile the players only spend moments in character but have lots of time to understand what to do.
I've been ruined by Call of Cthulhu, because I see "a room without right angles" and I immediately jump to "Ah, clearly somebody was worried about the Hounds of Tindalos!"
Ah Lovecraft, always exploring the cosmic horror that is geometry.
Ælfwine Blackfeather It was an acute angle BUT IT BEHAVED LIKE AN OBTUSE ANGLE
It's an interesting observation; "most players want to be chaotic neutral". True I think D&D starts as an exploration of having both the ability and licence to do what you want which frankly is a nice break from real life. I will argue that overtime players grow and start to explore more interesting alignments (aka everything other than CN).
You might like this:
ua-cam.com/video/unNSx7ilS4k/v-deo.html
Also, I think some players don't really know how to play CN. I explain it to my table as :
"Imagine you are a house cat. You can act violent for no good reason, but you can also just be totally bored with something. And you can still feel emotions, you can like your friends, hate your enemies, and love that special someone or your family. You're not a crazy person, you have a basic set of behaviors that might be predicted by people who know you Very Well (friends or enemies). Captain Jack Sparrow is also a good example. It may look like he doesn't have a plan, but he does."
My current DM allows any alignment except CN due to how badly he's seen it played in the past.
@@michaelduke9057 It has a _very_ well-earned reputation as "the arsehole alignment".
I believe you mean Sumat Pol.
There are hitches designed to be tied with one hand. A few years back Lindeybeige demoed one designed to be tied with one hand with dexterity limited by a heavy mitten (reindeer hitch).
fun fact: burrowing is part of the movement and doesnt require an action or a bonus action, this is how xorns are supposed to play, its part of their strategy :)
Great Episode. Of course there are no straight lines in Ringwell to keep out all the Hounds of Tindalos. Or is that Hound of Tindaloses?
I hope that as some point in my gaming life I have the pleasure of playing under a dm of your caliber. I have had many a good dm but, you sir are a cut above the rest I really enjoy watching these videos.
I love the editing in this video. Also, what's not to love about a double campaign diary.
Hall of Justice? Shouldn’t it be the Legion of Doom?
Solomon Grundy want pants too!
This one isn't in the playlist (unless I missed it somehow). It should be added. I only found it because UA-cam recommended it.
It looks like this video is missing from the 'Campaign Diaries' playlist, just by the way. The play list jumps from #21 to #24.
Very excited for the episode tonight. I do hope the Knight doesn't die. I do really like her.
Question: if the church’s god could say where their knight died then why wouldn’t he/ she tell them where to find ringwell?
Here is an answer I think would be good/ add tension: ringwell has some ability to go unnoticed, even to gods. That way they still could possibly get away with it but the church would still know where the knight was going and what part of the city she was in before she disappeared. So the church would slowly move into the neighborhood investigating
It's already been explained. All memory of where Ringwell was and what was in it was erased from history.
Awesome as always!
If they attempt to murder the knight, I hope you don't hold back at all. And King? If he's NG, he should immediately shut that down or face loss of absolutely all of his cleric abilities (unless some other ... entity steps in to off him power for obedience.) Regardless, attacking the knight in this way seems like an auto-alignment shift toward evil (so NG becomes TN, LN becomes LE, etc.)
Guess we'll see ...
Phil Norfleet I mean, look who answered his prayer earlier lol
"Unlike you, fine people" caught me by surprise lol
The chain, the "not" chain, the anti chain, and the anti "not" chain. Some needs to make that
So happy to see more of these! Not that phil wasn't doing great, but I need more chain updates! NEED!
LOVE this series, rewatching it for, the 50th or so time xD
Wanted to ask, this one seems to not be in the Campaign Diaries playlist and I never realised till today! Would you SO kindly add it to the playlist?
I hope the players can make an impressive enough answer that, even if it means that they have to deal with and appease this knight, they can convince her to be quiet.
Riduced instruction set combat? Thats a RISCy scenerio.
Maybe people don't get that this is a computer science pun.
@@tentative_flora2690 , I got it.... :)
People just need to commit more MIPS to solving it.
Right on time when i got off work! 😄
I have a player who is obsessed with looting and killing. He gets genuinely upset to a pretty wild degree when he doesn't get what he wants. It's very enjoyable to listen to the other two players roleplaying calming him down. They sort of brute-force pull him from player anger into character roleplaying.
You say there is no right answer to the situation with the Knight, but seeing as her Order will find out about Ringwell either way, it seems like the "less wrong" answer is to let her go and not make an enemy of her organization.
It depends on how much time they'd gain by killing her and what they'd use it for.
6:30 I disagree. If it's not a dangerous situation, then it makes perfect sense to split up, but how often does the party actually encounter not-dangerous situations? And if it is dangerous, any halfway competent party will know that defeat in detail is a major danger, from the times when they've inflicted it on their own enemies. This is reinforced by the fact that D&D parties tend to have strong synergies, and are greater than the sum of their parts.
There is what I would call "good metagaming" in not wanting to overburden the GM, but it also makes perfect in-character sense to not want to split up.
28:20 they were trying to create a sanctum safe from my puns. The only way to do that was by not having any straight lines.
38:20 wouldn't be be pissed off about the fact that they were the ones who imprisoned him in the first place?
I really thought Von Glower was a version of Gulthias, what with the reverences to his grove/garden and whatnot.
On lifting boots out of the hole with one magic hand - make a slipknot loop in the rope, hand holds it above the knot, drags it around his boot and up to his ankle, pulling it tight. Plausible if tricky.
Rhys Walker well how would you get it under his boot? the leg isn’t hanging there...
@@Hazel-xl8in Lay the noose on the ground next to his foot, move the foot into the noose, pull it tight.
Can’t fucking wait for tonight. Excellent campaign diary
Love that dungeon map! There wouldn't happen to be a link somewhere, would there?
hey just so you know this is not on the playlist thankfully UA-cam recommended it to me this campaign is awesome
Anytime a good cleric is talking about killing another good character it had better be for a REALLY good reason. Otherwise said Cleric will be out of a job and probably will be hunted down and brought to justice.
Yeah. I've actually done that to a cleric in an old 2E campaign where a player who had no business playing a NG cleric straight up murdered someone in the game (I can't recall the reasoning); he was a little surprised when all of his cleric abilities immediately went away ... but nobody else in the group was.
Thanks for this video, good recap but better prompt for thought.
After watching this I really really really want an MCDM Monster and Villans book!!!
Matt, I'm watching this 4 years after posting, but please consider retitling this video to keep the order. I almost missed episodes 22 and 23. Thanks if you do, but thanks anyway if you don't, these videos are great
"Finally the players read the plaque, I don't know why they didn't read it first"
They need to listen to more 99pi to get "always read the plaque" drilled into them!
Well, it's kind of a dirty trick. I mean, if you were standing in front of a plaque with an inscription written in a language you could read, you'd just read it.
Thanks for the straight dope!
Love the video!
Doors are forever the bane of every D&D party.
I’ve learned never to ever put an elevator in front of my players. Ever.
I'm going to briefly guess at what the meaning of that small crumb about your setting means.
All of these fallen civilizations became monotheistic, and then fell. I think they definitely ties in with Nails' "I wonder why humans have so many Gods. Do you think Ajax knows?" line. Combine that with the fact that Ajax is anti-religion, but NOT for the monotheistic elves and dwarves.
I'm not entirely sure how those fit together, but I know that's the three main tidbits. I'm imagining maybe Ajax is a doomsday cult accelerationist type, and is trying to set himself up as the one god everyone worships to provoke the apocalypse. Maybe he plans to defeat the barbarians that always come, and break the cycle? Is this Mass effect? Is Ajax Commander Shepherd, but evil?