BRILLIANT DM Swindles Entire Party With Insane Plot Twist
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
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The Party: "We've been tricked, we've been backstabbed, and we've been quite possibly bamboozled!"
DM: "Same time next week?"
The Party: "Oh, you know it!"
"Fuck you and I'll see you tomorrow!!!"
Every session with a good DM
this is a perfect representation of a good DnD session (except it will most likely not be the same time next week)
@@Mythical_Being It was the same time next week, but they killed the rest of the spiders with the missing party member :P
@@blamwhocares533 well that is pleasantly surprising, scheduling can be horrible
"It's a spell called Modify Memory"
And they didn't turn into paranoid wrecks after that moment?
i know right?
Knowing that spell exist would be enough to make me doubt my entire existence xD
If they had turned into paranoid wrecks regarding modify memory, I would have probably made them auto see through the ruse (maybe, not sure). However, the CR of 6 would kindaaaaa.... apply? Basically, if they tried to fight him for real, they probably would have died.
@@blamwhocares533 basically the sorcerer was being merciful by sending them away with an illusion xD
@@Laezar1 Yeah basically XD with that smug grin.
They lost out on 100g, but they got their xp. I reasoned "well, if they went through all that, they learned from it, and it was a huge learning experience against a powerful foe, so they were awarded a good chunk (still less xp than the actual encounter) but enough to reward them for "learning from it". They were happy and alive.
Gotta brag a little here myself: I once had a player try to haggle down the price of a spell that would erase the last three seconds of a target's memory. Her character told the merchant mage that it was overpriced at 500 gold because erasing three seconds of memory couldn't really be that useful. She offered 100 gold instead.
I decided to have some fun with her, so the merchant mage said, "A fair point! So, that's a hundred gold then?"
She paid him, I had her subtract the gold from her inventory, and then the merchant mage said, "A fair point! So, that's a hundred gold then?"
It took the table a moment but one by one everyone caught on and started laughing. She ended up getting away with paying 600 gold, as a good natured slap on the wrist from the merchant mage.
This is adorable, I love it!
"Do what, now?" - Meatwad
To be fair though counting out and handing over 100 gold would definitely take more than 3 seconds lol.
@@HardTelephone depends on what system you're working with. in the old D&D games there were multiple different currency pieces: Copper, Electrum, Gold, Platinum . Platinum is worth 10 gold pieces so basically she could have just handed 10 platinum pieces to the merchant and that would have taken about 3 seconds. And realistically most Table Top RPG's gloss over the fact that currency exchange in these worlds would take hours in some cases. Not to mention the logistics of carrying that much coinage on hand would be absurd. "I have 50k gold coins on hand" following the logic of AD&D that 50 coins= 1 pound that means they'd be carrying a 1,000 pounds on their person. I know we all joke about bags of infinite holding but no one ever said anything about wallets of infinite size. But yeah AD&D ignores the logistical problems when it comes to currency usually.
Edit: In fact now that I think about it. All shops would be setting their prices in accordance to copper pieces not gold. So in fact the merchant saying 100 "gold" would mean 100 copper. So basically she'd be handing him a single gold piece each time which would easily only take 3 seconds.
@@thejkittymews9045 The last part made no sense to me. 100 gold is not 100 copper and saying they would price everything in copper would be insane. If something costs 10k gold that would have a sign saying 1 million copper? I think mostly they would use gold and only silver and copper for the common and cheap stuff.
Also by that logic it would mean the merchant has to cast the spell 600 times to get 600 gold from the player. Something not even legendary spellcasters are capable of doing.
That moment when your players enjoy a good bamboozle is a sign of you doing things right.
A rare example of the "it was all a dream!" trope done right. :P
Ah what a wonderful bamboozle, wonderful.
Would you rather be a giant sized dwarf, or a dwarf sized giant? You keep the bonuses and weaknesses of being a dwarf or giant.
So to sum up the sum up...planning makes memorable/substantial campaigns but improv makes the most memorable moments.
In general.
Nailed it right on the head.
"lord farquad" "two and a half men" XDDDDDD I fell out of my chair
The dwarf compensates by using an oversized weapon.
Plot twist - the "half man" is the prissy elf
no you didnt.
@@Dubstequtie Exaggerations, my good friend. They're fun, why try being so serious?
no you didnt.
Personally I prefer stories like this where the party has a grand time and everyone is pleased with some shenanigans.
Horror stories are entertaining but exhausting in the long run.
Same, we need more of these.
and mostly fake for teddit gold
@@cthulhupthagn5771 who cares, better than yet another real piece of shit story
The story is amazing!! Im definitely stealing that
Do itttt
EEEEEEEYEEEEES
I respect your profile picture!
Just keep in mind Modify Memory doesn't work the way the DM in this story used it. The CR 6 mage has one 5th level spell slot, and it only targets one person. You also must talk to that person as part of casting the spell to dictate to them what you want them to think happened, so if you're with other people they definitely will see it happening.
@@MannyBrum Glad I wasn't the only one to think of that part of the spell...
*SPOILERS*
When you realize the GM planned the twist in even when he allowed them to see *through* the mage's invisibility.
tbh though... invisibility is still a spell, and I would 100% argue it would allow someone to see where they are in general. ie: there is this aura of a spell walking around... they would still have the disadvantage to hit because they still can't see exactly where they are, but they would know where to try to hit at least.
I think the twist was obvious from the moment we learn he can modify memories. Why WOULDN'T the mage use this powerful ability on the dangerous party threatening his life?
CritCrab: "Roll Post"
*Proceeds not to roll post*
Me: "You are dead to me, Mr. Crab."
At least ad reads are typically exactly 1 minute long so they are easy to skip past and pretend he rolling the post.
Modify Memory *ACTIVATE!*
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I play on the fly 90% of the time to prevent that 'on rails' feeling. This, however, was F**KING ingenious. Props and cheers to the OP
I just use "plot waypoints" so that it feels natural & accounts for player unpredictability.
Basically, there's a bunch of story points that I vaguely plan out, and insert them at appropriate points as we go.
Thank you q.q by no means are my players on rails, but damn is it hard when i have to improv all the time XD even along the way to their main quest, and with 3 groups no less.
@@epsilon-eleven i do it to!
@@blamwhocares533 You're the boss
If only a cr 6 mage could actual cast 5 5th level spells...
Well damn I had been sure it would have turned out the tiefling was the real mage using modify memory to get the other guy killed so he can take THAT land
Gears turning, the plot thickens >.>
That's where I thought it was going too
My first thought was "how on earth can a cr 6 mage cast modify memory 2 times?" Then I realize he apparently casted it 5 times....
I thought they where going to find the other player that wasn't there captured by the spiders
@@TAKLProductions NPCs don't have to play by PC rules, if them having access to higher level spells makes the encounter more fun without destroying balance, the DM can just give it to them.
Okay, but I actually love that the sorcerer saw magic. That was an inspired choice by the DM, letting that hint of it all being an illusion in. Something that someone who is aware enough of Invisibility's mechanics could have twigged to, allowing for the player/character to catch it, while not being super obvious. Amazing.
This was great, but I kept expecting the party to be attacked by the village's real villain-The Dread Gazebo.
A gazebo? What color is it? How far away is it? I use my sword to detect good on it!
@@jeffw991 You detect a wretched evil. Possibly the most evil you've found yourself exposed to. It causes your hair to stand up, your spine to curl, and your teeth to grind together as you have no idea what you are dealing with. You are terrified, and it is..... brown.
Haha! Reminds me of the knight of the dinner table where the players didn't know what a gazebo is and thought it was a monster. Yes, they murdered the tall multi legged monster.
The Dread Gazebo is pretty frightening. Worse, though, is once you've beaten or evaded the Gazebo and gone back inside to rest and recover and find the Dire Credenza laying in wait for its next unsuspecting victims...
A was expecting the spiders to return at some point
Now THAT is a great example of being a DM- kudos for fast thinking and a willingness to try something off the top of his head. No doubt the DM had something planned, but when the players derail your intentions it's nice to know the DM can create a great experience out of it.
Gotta love that he dangled all the clues in front of them and just didn't catch on. He used modify memory on the towns people, the book flat out said "nothing is as it seems." That's at least partly why they had fun. They had a great fight, and had a great twist spring on them and were given ample opportunity to catch on and just didn't. Well done!
It's been said that the best plot twist is the one that you don't see coming but, afterwards, it feels like the only thing that _could_ have happened
About the last point with plans, I remember Eisenhower being cited saying "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." That's a good lesson for a DM to be sure.
Oh look, a positive story about a DM
*Crab talks about how DMs need to find a balance between planned events and awesome improve*
Me: Haha, jokes on you, I can't do either!
That would technically qualify as balance...
I think my favorite stories are the ones where the DM actually comes up with something neat and brilliant, and everyone has fun in the end. I like the ones full of drama too, but the ones like this bring a smile to my face.
Plot Twist: CritCrab is the DM to our real lives. We are all just players in his world.
So thats why we see his posts one a week
If that's the case, I ask for new dice.
@@sansdaco Yeah, all thes Nat 1's are a pain.
Yea , then I'm rolling only 1 and 2
No one is that bad a storyteller.
Honestly the way things were playing out were getting increasingly more sinister, but it all ended up being an elaborate illusion. That’s incredible, I expected something way bigger at play
As General Patton said, plans are useless but the act of planning is essential (or something like that).
The moment I saw “4pm” appear in the text after they left I knew
Bravo, OP, bravo!
"Perhaps a little after" is clue that I needed. Some fine detail right there!
Plot twist: CritCrab has never actually played DnD. He is a crab, and one else can play a pen-and-paper rpg underwater
You can if the sheets are laminated...
Waterproof ink
"Hey, if we're underwater, how can there be a-"
@@Wow-cr2ll *pssssst*
No way. XD I'm honored! (was my post)
:D
@@CritCrab You're 100% correct, there needs to be a balance, and I was ill-prepared for this encounter (large map, 3 groups, guna have to cut some back). The research I did regarding illusionary encounters helped me plan on the fly. It was very risky to play it out the way I did, and in some ways game breaking based off the rules. I'm still new, and I have much to learn.
I see some people in the comments got irritated or pissed off that I semi-broke the modify memory spell, and it's mechanics. I also see some people making fun of how I appear to be congratulating myself like some ego "full of himself" guy. I don't know, I just felt so happy and proud. I wanted to share it with others, and make others smile just as much as I did when the players expressed their joy.
Just so others see and read this: I just want to make my players happy, and make people smile. That's all I want. That is what makes me happy, so happy that I want to share that experience with others so they too can be happy. I apologize if I sounded cringy at the end, I'm not trying to over glorify myself by any means. It just made me happy too.
@@blamwhocares533 It made for a hilarious and fun story, the players enjoyed it, that's all that matters, honestly. XD
I thought it was the tiefling who actually cast modify memory on them.
Larry: _"Oh my god, it just hit me, there must have been catnip on those sausages"_
Kate: _"What are we going to do"_
Larry: _"Oh my god, it just hit me, there must have been catnip on those sausages"_
Plot Twists Can be pretty fun sometimes. Lol.
reminds me of the time the party had to spend the night in a Totally Not Haunted But Actually Super Haunted castle. I had encounters with various spirits planned out bc knowing my players they would for sure go on a ghost hunt, what I had not accounted for was all of them immediately saying "is there a murder basement? lets go there!"
cue me throwing out the four or five fleshed out encounters in favor of making up a dungeon layout on the fly and letting the party run around while mysterious entities banged against and scratched at the cell doors. THEN cue my players deciding to OPEN the doors, which eventually led them all to discover the vast majority of specters in the castle were actually long-dead silver dragons who were trapped there due to their remains being locked in the dungeon which was warded with powerful magic specifically made to hold dragons. AND THEN the party decided to spend the next whole day (while on a time sensitive greater mission) working to take the remains out of the dungeon so the dragon spirits could pass on. Which meant the one living member of that flight, who was living in the abandoned castle in human guise in the hopes of one day being able to either free or join her kin, is now indebted to the party...
tldr; DM underestimates party's desire to punch ghosts, then underestimates their compassion, so players learn big dragon reveal early and have an ancient silver dragon as an ally,, at level 5
You got a moment where the audio just got yeeted for a moment
That DM has it going on. A great example of a proper plot twist.
Next session, modify memory to have successfully befriended the mage and helped him gain the vacant lot next door
I mean, if one of them learned the ability, and they did that... XD They saw this video, they see the comments. Don't go giving them any ideas.
When they started looking through their items I immediately remembered that they figured out that the mage had modify memory and I scremed out liud "MODIFY MEMORY" in the living room and nearly gave my dad a heart attack lmao 😂
CritCrab i love youuuu! Amazing vids
Thanks!
I pulled a similar trick to this on my group, had them unconscious in a temple and a dream that gave them their desires. They defeated the corrupt mayor and each got rewards. The thing is, one character had no goals so his reward kept changing. This gave him what he needed to break the curse and they found themselves back in the temple. My players were so mad that I fooled them that the campaign ended right there. Guess it helps to have the right group for this sort of thing (or maybe I just handled it terribly).
The right group is what you needed.
Before anyone goes and tries this in their own campaign, just keep in mind Modify Memory doesn't work the way it was cast in this scenario. It targets only one person, and to cast it you have to be talking to that person and tell them the series of events you want them to believe. If they had done this RAW, only one person would have been affected and the rest of them would have seen the spell being cast in the most obvious way. It worked out in this scenario because the players enjoyed it, but it could easily backfire if one of them pulls out the PHB and looks at the spell (either because they suspect something is up or want to learn the spell themselves later) and realizes that it doesn't work like that.
Special lair action?
You're right, but it did make for a good experience. I'm a very new DM, and I have yet to learn everything. It was hard to improv, but I did some reading bout creating illusionary encounters prior, and wanted to give it a shot. He did talk to the players. Perhaps that 10 minutes of memory could have been hastened through all the events they experienced, or they only remember the few minutes that the mage is forcing them to remember. Perhaps he could have used modify memory on one and the other back to back. Perhaps it's a special ability he has acquired, an enhanced version of the normal one. The great thing about D&D is that rules are simply guidelines and tools, but the game is all fantasy and about having a good time. I think it's okay to stretch the truth to make the encounter feel a bit more real to the players, so long as it ends with THEM being happy/entertained, not just ME being happy.
You must be fun to play with
@@sophiejackson2575 Rule of cool is not the only way to play DnD. The right way to play DnD is the way everyone at the table has fun. That also goes for tables that like to play by the rules.
@@XFeuerFestX Right.... But my point still stands. If a game that is largely about role-playing and storytelling becomes all about rules lawyering... Then go play a war game... Like it's super boring and I can't say I even know anyone that would do this and I play in multiple playgroups with all styles and ages. And literally nobody would pull out the rulebook on the gm and be like 'um actually' bc it's a fucking game. And like we respect the dm
I like the idea of having these fun, good DM stories every once in a while
One of my best on the fly encounters was a party i through out during a pathfinder adventure path that the players thought was part of the book with the detail i thought at them and when they ran it again with a different DM they where confused when they didn't have a party because it was the thing they remembered most from that adventure.
Thank you for not being a robot voice, I love your videos as well...
The real bamboozling here is a cr 6 mage that can cast a 5th level spell 5 times.....
I will say though, I've always considered modify memory a spell that you can't really use as a dm... this was a great way of using it as one.
As per what you said at the end, the best advice I can give is, prepare, but also prepare to not be prepared.
I tend to prepare a main plot to kind of steer the players towards over time, a bunch of minor progression and side quests they can do in the mean time, and wing it for the rest. Some examples:
-2 of 5 of the party weren't there for a session, so I threw in a random orc encounter to keep them busy. Which turned into them having to deal with an orc advance party, and now a future orc problem they'll have to deal with. Also a fantastic story of "the orc slayer", a halfling that heroically took down an orc captain 3 times his size with just a short sword and his skill in acrobatics. Courtesy of the party bard.
-A routine stop for the night at a fishing village turned into a mini vacation with one party member picking up a new hobby, and good times around the campfire during two nights. The villagers will certainly remember the group of weird adventurers that brought some fun into their lives for a few days, which can also have effects on the future.
Both times the party loved it, possibly because I like to bend the rules for coolness factor or fun rp opportunities.
I try :/ it's hard when you have this huge open world map and 3 parties to consider, all within a work week. I know my limits, and I'm very much so at my limit. I resorted to planning out pre-made encounters/ideas and just plopping them down whenever I feel like they should apply, and winging it as we go from that point on (not too much planning, not an overwhelming amount of improv, but leaning towards improv for the sake of burden on me as my job is very overwhelming atm)
I also gotta create/add walls to maps, create content, characters, etc. I mean, you know how it is being a DM. Me, I'm kinda pushing myself, and it is hard. But, I'm so invested :)
@@blamwhocares533 I generally just wing it when it comes to characters. It'll start with "Oh I need an npc for this store/a mayor for that village/etc" and as I think of a name, occupation, race and general personality, I write it down. Then after the session I'll think about the npc a bit more to flesh them out a bit more.
Of course it's different when I know I'll need a specific npc for a quest or for the plot, but yea outside of that just wing it at first and flesh it out later.
@@Sanquinity Absolutely XD good advice nonetheless!
I noted the 4pm but just like a "huh that seemed longer then needed. Geuss they just wanted to end the day."
Right when he said they killed him I knew it was modify memory. Just like the necromancer who played the gang of palidins, if it was easy then you probably didn't kill them haha.
That was an amazing plot twist for that group. I love reading about great stories like this and gives me some creativity to add to my own sessions.
Video: "Brilliant DM swindles entire party with insane plot twist."
The story: "... Yadda yadda yadda _modify memory_ -"
Me whose favorite spell is _modify memory_ for plot related situations: "Oh yeah, it’s all coming together."
As a new-ish amateur DM, its stuff like this that inspires me. I struggle with more complex storylines for my players than stuff straight from a published module. So to improvise a whole encounter like this gives me the heebie jeebies of stagefright at the mental juggling of details the DM whipped together. Right now my brainchild is something like lord of the rings meets pirates of the Caribbean, with dragons.
Great video like always.
Guys, this general outpouring of support is so amazing. I came up with this scenario back in 3.5E but ported it to 5E and never expected any of my players to ever post anything I run them through. The positive comments are absolutely overwhelming and seeing my players (any of them) being so impacted by this and posting it is just amazing. I have seen another of my campaigns posted on UA-cam as well (back from when I was a really new (first time) DM) but that is neither here nor there and I try to let my mistakes stay where they belong (forgotten).
Imagine two and a half men, but set in dnd. I may need to animate that...
Two and A Half Men, But one of them is Strahd.
That's just 2 Humans and a Dwarf
Woot! Been waiting for kor critcrab
A wise man once said "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
These guys trusted their DM way too much.
Thought modify memory seemed a bit too flexible when it was first realized. No one was seeing it cast, despite everyone being with the person it got cast on, and it seemed to happen instantaneously. I always imagined the spell as the caster sifting through pages/film/computer files and replacing or altering them.
Didn’t guess at what was going on until things started missing though. Great twist and glad everyone enjoyed it.
I had a feeling it was going this way once you mentioned Modify Memory, but it was still very funny to hear their reactions! Totally stealing this haha
ok I just want to steal this for a campaign of mine as it is just fucking brilliant
props to OP
Careful applying the spell, as I semi-broke it when using it. Make sure your players are not rule lawers ^^ otherwise it may not work and they'd be more unhappy than happy, even though you're the DM and things can change for the overall experience.
@@blamwhocares533 thank you for the warning
I will be sure to take your advice if and when I get around to using this trick
Hmm that Dungeon Fog might warrant a check. I’ve had a hard time finding rpg map builders that work for Sci-Fi (seriously if it’s not ye olden fantasy, getting a good map maker is hard)
Dungeon Fog is decent for that
your best bet in general though would be pre-made maps or ones that let you upload your own images to place in the map
Loved that! Hearing those stories is great to help me come up with things that I could possibly try, or mix and add to my own DnD group
This was a lot better than the horror stories and rage videos
I actually got the twist with a passing thought. XD I was sat there thinking "If he's altering the NPCs memories, what makes the PCs immune?"
I’m saving this for my next campaign. Thank you.
CritCrab should become a V-Tuber with his little crab avatar and then read out this stuff live because that would be sick.
Me and a good number of friends are part of a friend's LARP (I'm like the second most veteran player excluding the owner). The DM actually involves in it, and we love it! Yes, we have a lot of fighting stupidly overpowered bosses and our characters also being stupidly overpowered. Every episode's goal is railroaded, but how we ride the railroad is up to us! We know who we have to slay, but how we go about it is around 90% improved!
Hey great story!
I had a game with the players hunting Mimics and had found many piles of gold after killing the mimics. They gathered the gold into their bag of holding (where they kept all of their gold) unbeknownst to them that in my world mimic eggs most often resemble gold coins and require much food in order to molt into their teen stage....meaning every day each coin spent in the bag each egg consumed 1 gold coin. They found out only when gold they had used to purchase otems all across the land were spawning a plague of mimics the players characters had seeded throughout the kingdom.
'The Life Cycle Of The Mimic' was the name of the campaign lololol
That's awesome! I definitely expected the modify memory to be them believing they killed him, but it was Stanor that they killed lol
the hype when a new critcrab video comes out
I'm glad you're sponsored now man, I remember when you were just reading to a few crabs for fun and now (hopefully) you're getting to receive some love(read: money) in return! You deserve it!
This was cool to hear. I'm glad that the party liked the twist too and weren't annoyed or upset with it. I hope this DM continued to make on the fly twists.
Someone is living out his Eragon fantasy, I see
Glad are getting sponsored now good for you mr critcrab :)
Such amusing story! Thank you Crabo for sharing with us. Subscribed.
Classic 😁👍
Plus sponsor looks awesome!
That is a good twist at the end. Well done, bravo.
Thought something was gonna happen with the spiders. Dang.
Oooh, this was informative. The idea of making a story where the players perception is wrong is something that makes me nervous as a DM, but this was executed perfectly. Something to take notes from.
Elf:......THAT MOTHERFUCKER!
Full on made me laugh.
I was like "oh a video I haven't watched yet" then realized it was new.
Is it?
Or do you simply...
Not remember correctly
@@Konpekikaminari bahahahaha XD
I really love wholesome/happy stories more than the "horror" stories.
I prefer to put together an outline, the bones of a story, and let the players put the meat on in sessions.
Im at the 14 minute minute mark and all i can think is "false hydra"
So I have arachnophobia, heard “egg sac”, and ‘NOPE’d the F out!
New at dnd came across this channel on accident lmao
Now i cant have enough of it
I've never played D&D but I do love listening too these stories,great content thank you 😊
Super happy to see that players were cool with the DM rolling the save behind the screen. Definitely adding that question to my next application
So I’m a little late but I absolutely love pulling tricks like this. Had a campaign where the BBEG was a shapeshifter and CR 17 illusionist, and the whole setting was these rivaling factions fighting for power in a city, and the players were constantly walking into his plans, and so he had to continually reuse his modify memory spell and suggestions to avoid suspicion. In fact, right after the party was founded, one of the players took a quest from him that would deliver the information necessary for one of the factions to suggest to another faction to begin war on another, and then the BBEG changed the level 2 PC’s memory to running shopping errands, which is what I described to the PC at the time and finally revealed as the party was lvl 12 in the final fight. The BBEG had played all the factions against one another, showing up after many were wiped out disguised as the one person they’d all trust, and instituted himself in a position of magical authority before the party began to realize the city’s savior was not who they thought he was.
That was one of the best story ive heard. More like them plzzz
Sneaky DM. Tricksy DM. DM fools them and makes them think they got the precious treasure.
My character in our long-running campaign, Ni Ethil, turned out not to be 'Ni Ethil' at all. Rather she was an inadvertent parasitic body snatcher resultant from a failed dark magical ritual performed by her mother, who attempted to save her dying daughter's life by transferring her soul into the body of another child, only for the father to interrupt it to save the other child and inadvertently hurl her soul to wander the land searching instinctually for a host. It went across the sea and found an infant, supplanting the infant's own soul and taking over with only a few residual distant memories.
The soul of the original Ni, of course, woke up and then all kinds of trouble was had. But as of now, they are amicably sharing the body as sisters until Emma (as the original and long-dormant Ni now calls herself) can have a new form made for her. New body is being made by the mother who is repentant for what she did, the father tried to kill Ni but eventually relented after a lot of feels.
That's the TLDR of it all at least, a lot of shit went down here. The DM has given each of us a personal plot arc, mine (also happening to be the last) was the one that got said DM a standing ovation for all the horrible things he did to us.
I still get a little giggly when I remember that standing ovation. Applause is not what I was expecting going into that! XD Still, glad you weirdo's got so much enjoyment out of it.
I'll always prefer cool stories to any of that cringe stuff, I hope you tell more of these!
See I thought we were going somewhere else entirely with this story. I was told to see if I can spot the trick, so naturally I was jumpy for any clues. If any of you (or indeed the OP of this tale himself) are curious, here's a little glimpse into the machinations of the mind:
[1] At 4:25, they are told to not "bug the livestock". This, I thought, was a clue to the trick. The Dwarf was covered in spiders before, and I thought he may have still had some of the little buggers on him, and that we'd see something out of the Brothers Grimm movie or something (spider horse!!). Perhaps these spiders were parasitic in some way and would end up infecting the livestock. The plot was going to become a sort of "spider zombie" (Half Life Head Crabs?) sort of ordeal. That'd be some proper horror!
[2] The dirt had gone sour. I wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but I still felt it had something to do with the spiders. Why else would this village be living so close to such large spiders without having any negative side effects? I still thought the spiders might have been parasitic or some such. Maybe the village was in on it? Maybe the villagers were actually spiders, or puppeted by spiders? Maybe there's another reason the dirt "has gone sour". (I imagined the farmer hoeing the earth, only to have it puncture a subterranean egg sac and spiders spewing out of the earth like a geyser. Nightmarish.
[3] There seemed to be a theme with 6am and 4pm. I was half-right to be suspicious but not for the right reasons. I thought the way everyone was backpedaling on following the heroes to the mage's house was because that the Mage had some dirt on them (so to speak) and they didn't wanna get involved once they realized where they were headed (we as readers were never explicitly told that the villagers were given his name before being shown to the house). Perhaps conspiracy? Making the players use their brains instead of their bulging muscles...? Maybe he was a secret good guy and knew about the spider villagers? [At this point I was beginning to suspect the spiders were a red herring.]
[4] They killed him and threw him into the fire, then came back and looted the house, then told the village he probably killed himself on accident, and it worked. Definitely suspicious. Are the players actually bad guys? Were we the reader being intentionally given an unreliable narrator, not telling us that the party was evil? Where was the trick? The video was almost over and my Wisdom score isn't the greatest. They decided to rest in the village then head back to their main HQ. Wait, was that mage keeping the dirt fouled so the spiders wouldn't attack the village, despite it being so close? [Seriously, brain, drop the spiders bit. False flag, man. False flag.]
[5] Was the mage edgy, and didn't wanna seem helpful, or perhaps was he secretly controlling the village? I mean why else would a relatively powerful mage do all this for some rich soil? Like... yer a mage, why settle for farmlife? He was clearly smarter than the podunk folk he lived around, so why would he settle like that. That doesn't make sense.
[6] ..... Ahh, it was because he was modified the party's memory. Very clever. Pity Wisdom really is my dump stat. I definitely wouldn't have seen that coming.... That mage better have fled the village after that, because those guys are gonna come back with a vengeance, and might have advantage on wisdom checks vs memory modification in a second encounter.
I liked throwing in optional bosses. Bosses that only showed up if they went somewhere specific or did something specific. My favorite is where they found a bag of holding in a room covered with gallons of blood. When they took it I had that monster man of holding or whatever it’s name was pop out of it that night
Swindles you say? I'm listening...
what a cool DM.
I love the idea of being the DM, but I'm just not this good, and I know that I never will be.
GG.
i love being a dm and hearing my players "maybe we're 1 step ahead" and then theres me making stuff on the fly mapping out every interaction just like "are you sure about dat"
I've been playing DnD for like 3 months now... And a friend asked me to DM a single player game, since no one was available last week.
I quickly threw together a haunted house, told him he was a "ghost hunting teen" of any class / type, and went at it!
It was a 2 story dungeon with 4-7 rooms on each floor, and one staircase up. I had one room with a chest, and one room with a key (and a couple ghosts). I made the ghosts "ephemeral" by making everyone, them included, have to get an 18+ to hit... But also no disadvantage / advantage to running through / past them.
There was a hallway with extra ghosts in the second level of the mansion, that you were "supposed" to run through, if you realized how ephemeral they were (he did) and a room with a super terrible demon designed to kill him, if he investigated more than past entering / was too loud entering. (He quickly turned and fled from the room, perfect! haha)
I designed a quick 2 level dungeon and some really basic limitations on character creation, and it went amazing! He realized within a few moments that walking through ghosts is better than attacking them in this case, that demons are bad at early levels, and that the chest was the escape... I'm still not sure if I designed it so cleverly, or we're just so used to playing together he naturally followed the rules I set out! Either way, good games were had!
Now THIS. THIS is truly a DM with class.
My party wouldn't get away with this. Modify memory can only target one person and even then, you must make a Wisdom Saving Throw.
I've written plots this twisty beforehand, but to do this on the fly... kudos!
OMG, wow. At first I was annoyed that the players could simply "walk up and fight" - that they didn't even have to make a save roll against a possible deception. The outcome was totally mindblowing, though. So, he disguised the roll and had everything play out. Absolutely beautifully done. I was a bit taken aback when he said that the party left at 4pm after everything was done, like "how long have they been walking around the place, seriously?", but I guess as you play it, you wouldn't think much of it. I might want to steal that trick with the book in a different context, as that was a neat little detail.
That was an ingenious idea! I have been thinking of doing something similar to my group, and this just makes me want to do it even more!
My favorite method of DMing is what I refer to as "homestucking", make sure you try to remember all the details about the story so far, notes are important for this method. all details big and small... if you can provide some kind of payoff for them later even if it's just a little payoff then your players will love it
I find this method important as I improv a lot for small rp stuff
Bonus tip for absolute masochist DMs: want a "fun" improv exercise? give your players the ability to travel into anyone's mind and interact with their mind as another world. nothing will force you more to get creative than making sure that at any time you know the basic personality of every npc so you know where to start on an inner world for them.
yes... I did this. and strangely I don't regret it
Amazing o.o ill be sure to try this! Sounds like an outstanding exercise!!