It is true. I usually play lawful evil characters and it raises some eyebrows when the character is introduced to new tables. But people become cool with it once they realize I keep my slaving, backstabbing, politics and other evil deeds to npcs and try my best to help the party with all of my actions and never dick them over (unless it will prove advantageous to the group later). In other words if you play evil chars and everybody else is playing good your mission should by to prove why evil actions would be advantageous to the final goal and to impress, and embolden your allies so even if they are hesitant they will at least tolerate your actions. Please try to keep most power fantasies to yourself back dealing and political manoeuvring are fine but most people wont put up with deliberate torture etc, and keep your slaves and their treatment as much out of sight as possible.
"Rogue! we were so worried when you get knock out! unfortunately, the raiders loot most of the gear you acquired during the adventures. No need to worry about us, we found a cache with many useful and expensive things, that superficially look like what you lost, but it is out loot, not yours, because you were down when we found it."
I hate the "I touched it first so it is mine" type of finding loot. One of my players sold a +1 adamantine battleaxe because he wasn't proficient with it... They had a barbarian in the party using his starting ax...
@@JayF2912 My (Least)favorite moment with the player. We we playing a Men in Black game and he executed a prisoner who had surrendered in front of the head of MIB. this was the first prisoner my group had managed to take. They were so excited to interrogate him. this broke me a bit. It made me walk away from table top gaming for six months. I don't play with this guy anymore...
When one of my players pulled that line and turned to me, the GM, for confirmation, I simply answered: "No, it isn't. Legally speaking, you're a robber. Even if your killing of the guy who you looted it from might be legal under the circumstances, that doesn't make the item yours, it'd still legally belong to his heir. You just happen to possess the item at the moment, but nobody else (player or npc) is obligated in any way to recognize it as yours or let you have it." It was a party of fresh, new roleplayers. There was a whole lot of party infighting, sometimes with lethal outcome, but everyone still managed to have a jolly good time. We're still playing together, a decade later, much matured.
@@roofied_galahad1675 Middle school is usually grades 6 to 8 or 9. Primary would be k-5, Middle 6-9, and High 10-12. Different school districts can run it differently, and most actually just do the k-8, and then 9-12 school run.
Especially the wizard. I played in a group where out of game one player didn't like me and so in game his wizard would "miss" or just not care if he hit me and killed 2 of my characters in less than a month. He had gotten into the dms good books and it just wasn't fun sooo I jumped into a pit of animus turned into a flesh golem and wrecked his shit. Then quit the table.
@@Pyroniusburn "As you fall, you see circular disks with art painted on top of them, as you fall into the pile of circular shiny art, you suddenly feel your flesh change shape, the pain is unbearable, you are getting angry. You become a flesh golem and wreck the shit out of Asshat Mcgee."
Make a new character who is a friend or relative of your dead character. But they happen to be a lawyer with summoning papers. Maybe an evil aligned character with high intellect. Make that bastard go broke to the point it has the chance to bankrupt the other players.
Lockret personally, I find Travis and Sam to be my favorites. Both are really good players, but their Roleplay is almost unparalleled. Both those guys were the general stats of campaign 1, and they are really strong this season. Add to that Matt’s expansive world, and the great group dynamic, and it’s no wonder this show is the most popular D&D show
I love Liam, but I'd say Talesin is my favorite player. His characters are so compelling and deep in completely different ways from each other. And while he doesn't jump into the forefront of most situations, he has some moments that are just complete gold. *Spoilers* Molly's death was and probably still is the single most important moment of campaign two, and that proves how much of a master Talesin is at character writing.
@@nikhilbhavani981 Liam is a great player, augmented by being a DM in his own daughters games, but I agree with you. While there are several people famous for being THE DMs, and you use as examples, I think that Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel are two of THE playes of our time. Liam is great at roleplaying and thinking through combat, but Riegel and Willingham are just great all round. The are great at roleplyaing, combat, creating characters, improvising, but most importantly it is their table manners that puts them above the others. They are always setting up others to have great moments, as well as cheering when they succeed or fail, they also encourage the players around them and don't try to always get in on the action.
My trick for playing a klepto rogue is to just take one or two extra coins for myself when I open a chest before divvying it all up. I've informed my group that's the character's little quirk and it's always entertaining when someone comes up a little short and then the rogue spots you a few gold pieces, or when they buy the drinks for everyone, or when one of the other characters makes me foot most of the bills because they know I have the money.
I always try to do something similar... or steal random, and valueless items... need to sign something? Borrow a pen, and pocket it etc... I once swiped all the parties spoons, and replaced them with forks, that her more valuable because they were silver, that she'd stolen from a restaurant, and then hid the spoons in places where the party should find them if they did their jobs... (she stole for the thrill rather than for the reward)
I feel like there should be an extra tip in here like: "Don't backseat game your fellow players." One of my biggest pet peeves as a DM and as a player is when somebody tries to play another character's player: "[Player] does this while I do this" without asking the other player. In a campaign I played in we were trying to sneak into this mansion, and our wizard tried to railroad my ranger into trying to unlock the front door by saying "Me and [ranger] sneak up to the front, and he tries to pick the lock while I look out.". I responded with "No, actually I'm going to try and get on the roof." Fuck you, guy. It's my character. If you want me to do something then ask. Your party members aren't skyrim followers you can boss around.
Man speaking as a DM, I really appreciate this. It's incredibly frustrating when a group puts all the responsibility on the DM and then don't put any effort in themselves. Be kind to the person running the game and take some initiative :)
Performing can also assist in letting players know when a conversation is happening in game or out of game. In games I've played when someone drops the character voice to use their normal one it makes it clear that we are discussing a rule verification or something we shouldn't know yet.
One of my friends likes to DM but isn't entirely versed in D&D mechanics. One example is that he ignores armor class and makes you do a dodge roll every time you are attacked. For a while ((he stopped)) he made casters use their constitution stat for spells instead of their stat specific for the class. Almost forgot: he acknowledges his mistakes and uses the excuse of "it's just homebrew"
yes, it is a vampire sword, as in a sword that drain your life as long as you touch it, and cursed so you can just throw it away, maybe you should have let me explain that before drawing it.
@@JayF2912 actually the sword was merely enchanted with a reverted "vampiric touch" so every time the wielder was touching, he was harmed and healed his foe. A fair punishment for the warrior too interested in the edgy magic sword: Magically enforced pacifism.
“I seduce the banshee,” is a meme in my group. That’s my fault. So, once I was playing 5e, and the dm had a npc explain a quest in a way that sounded like I should seduce the banshee to learn the location of a spell book. My dm made the dc super high, but the roll of the dice said 20. Plus my modifier, and my dm said that they looked interested in me in an odd way. At that moment I regret everything. P.S. I did learn the location of the spell book, but my dm decided (since we’re all close friends) that he would make some innuendos about what happened while the rest of the party made sure no surprise attacks were coming.
Dude that legit sounds amazing, I remember the first time I ever played a Bard on D&D and I fell off the Inn roof while my character was drunk off his ass and I had to roll with Disadvantage to not fall flat on my ass... I rolled a double nat 20 and when I landed I dabbed on a royal guard and walked away, with the bottle still being carried by my tail. (I was a Dragonborn)
Love the video davvy! Not a lot of UA-camr shave videos about being a player. The most thanks from me and to others for obviously showing your care to D&D.
the have your moment thing is totally true. I was the healer but I managed to get 2 crits in a row on one turn with my X4 2H weapon, rolled max on both damage die and managed to kill the BBG in more or less one round. will never forget that and would have been ruined if someone chipped in.
I particularly appreciate the parts about taking responsibility for your part of the game, and helping make everyone else' game better: both cooperation and roleplay.
Spoilers 1: Be team player (no "it's what my character would do"). 2: Let people have their moment. 3: Stop taking loot as soon as it's revealed. 4: Don't be a jerk. 5: Be a performer. Work hard on your character. Be your character.
This is good. I'm currently rumning a game as a new DM, and most of my players (excepting two one more experienced than the other) are newbies. Some, like our bard have taken well to the new game and are honestly a better and more reliable player that the second "experienced" player. But some of my players (around 4 of them) are either extremely disruptive or quiet. Honestly I wish that the new players were just quiet and learned how to play effectively and include anyone before jumping in and repeating "I STEAL FROM THEM" 1 thousand times before the first experienced player has to butt in and and tell them to pay attention. I don't know what I expected with some people, (who are usually disruptive and counter intuitive before they even said that they wanted to play) but I'm conflicted because I thought that my player; thats the bard that I mentioned was this type of person, but as I said they are fitting into the game extremely well. I suppose ill just have to lay down the groundworkings for some type of ruling at the table. Numerous times in our last session (its our third) I found myself sighing and feeling overwhelmed. And in combat just saying "you miss" or "they hit" when I know I'm supposed to all discriptive? I have seen other DM s handle this better and I think that an experienced DM would be better for this group. I've found myself not being able to motivate myself to write more for the players to experience with different options and varying outcomes (without railroading of course) but I feel certain players just kill my ability to run the game properly. Even in roleplay Idk why I wrote this here, aahhh. Geez
CulturalCloud10 just talk to the players. It helps if they know what they are doing is not helping you. The game’s hardly fun if the DMaint enjoying it
I had the same problem. New dm with almost no player experience trying to herd 5 players (2 experienced and 3 new). After a while i just wasn't having any fun, so I asked the experienced player if he could dm in my stead. He said yes and well, problem solved. I mean, it's a game. If you're not enjoying yourself, what's the point in playing?
I disagree with rule 1 to an extent. I’ve made characters opposed to the party (or rather, just one of the other PCs) and that became the source of a lot of good roleplay and drama (the good kind). As long as everyone keeps the conflict in character and doesn’t get so attached to the character that opposition to the character means opposition to *them*, I think it’s perfectly fine to have a character that buys heads with another character or characters.
yeah I agree, my party has an asimar paladin and a tiefling warlock and its interesting watching those two roleplay the extreme opposites of character creation and it makes it fun
It’s good to an extent. Personally, I wouldn’t want a chaotic Evil Barbarian PC who thinks Chaotic Evil means “kill the party and be a dick to all the NPCs.” In the same respect, I don’t want a Lawful Good Paladin who drags his entire party through his view of righteousness, especially if other players don’t like it. Though I do agree with you. One of my favorite players was a Lawful Evil Bard who lies and cheats his way through life. The party hates him, but they keep him around because he fills a role no one else fills, and he sticks around them because that’s his best shot at survival. This led to some of my favorite moments in that campaign.
Yeah, I don't like the idea that players should feel obliged to make a character that fits in with the rest of the group and has to go along with every decision they make. Like if everyone in the group aside from one PC agree to do an encounter one way while the last PC feels that way of handling it is tactically or morally wrong, then it should be fine for them to act as they will, as long as they at least try to not screw the rest of the party over. Though even then, if the party comes across a moral conundrum, like if a party been told with strong evidence that the only way to prevent a disaster would be for them to kill a character that one of the party members have a strong relationship with, I think it would even be fine for the player to side with the character they were supposed to kill and go anti-party. Edit: Though this way of thinking may be something that's completely right in some groups but completely insane in others. Personally, I like to think of D&D as a story that unfolds where my character tries to achieve their own goals, and I, on a more meta level, try to do it in a way that entertains or helps out the rest of the group. But others may think of it more as a team experience (not unlike a co-op video game) where everyone attempts to move towards a common goal.
Exactly My current D&D party has so much infighting and conflict that my sorlock is orchestrating a plot to kill the rogue and also the one who's warning said rogue about the murder plots before they happen and helping the rogue rob the other players blind. As long as everyone at the table is ok with this kind of stuff (please check before you try to do it, we all individualy allowed for this to continue and explained this to any newcomers at the table) then it can be so much fun to have the greatest threat to the group be each other.
I have a bad bad habit of doing number 3. Recently my character came across a shit ton of gold when the rest of the party wasn’t there and I had to fight that voice telling me to pocket it all so hard. Luckily that’s when the “it’s what my character would do” mantra came in handy and I split it but still, i need to curb that impulse. Another amazing video!
There was on time i played withsomeone who run off on their own, while we were in a hostile village... and then proceeded to bith about how we "couldnt sneak-kill those 2 high lvl units" ... the point is... those 2 high lvl units would be dealt faster with the entire group there... then 1 single figther charging alone because it fits their character.
I agree. I hear about Matthew Mercer being the best DM ever, but I actually get really bored with him as a DM. I like the guy who plays Scanlan significantly more... Even though I can't remember his name because I only watch clips from CR and a bad memory to boot. Mercer knows a lot, and he STARTS the immersion into the world, but the characters are the ones that sell it for me.
Kuma Suna Sam Riegal is Scanlan Shorthalt. I do personally like Matt a bit more, but the reason people love the show is because it’s a bunch of nerdy-ass friends playing a game they obviously enjoy. Everyone adds to the enjoyment. The DM creates to world, but the characters add flavor to it. It’s a cool way to bounce off each other.
Kuma Suna I can understand. But still, who’s your favorite character or player at the table? Cause I guarantee you wouldn’t like them half as much without the others. Maybe the DM made an awesome moment more epic. Maybe your player and someone else had great dialogue. It ain’t one person doing all the work.
Thank you very much for this, when I first started out DMing I'd heard some stories about things like these, but naively thought it wouldn't apply to my group (if in part it was because we all knew each other at least a bit). Needless to say, we had every single one of these problems. The first half-dozen sessions were a constant race of 'how do I try to keep the party together' because they'd all (except one, non-first time player) do the 'but that's what my character would do' and try to leave the party. Eventually I realized that I should stop forcing it and broke it up.
My character is a Tortle Rogue with Urban Bounty Hunter as a background. He uses his stealth and rogue abilities to gather information on a bounty. He's traveled with a group before and after splitting up he's trying to find a new group. He loves gambling and gold, but he also loves close and trusted comrades. Also, he is a bit reckless sometimes and will gamble with his life, and only his, if there's great treasure to be had.
Any rogue worth their salt knows that their team is a force multiplier, and by actively making the rest of their party better with their maybe less-than-moral material acquisitions, they're making all of their future jobs easier, they're putting that 300gp diamond in the their Cleric friend's pocket, spells in their wizard buddy's spellbook, a magic sword in the fighter's hand, and making the healing potions flow like water. A rogue that makes sure they share the loot with the party is a rogue that lives a longer, richer life. Even the most selfish, kleptomaniacal, asshole rogue knows that making sure the party is happy means that they stay alive and happy. That's kind of why rogues tend to form guilds, y'know? That whole "Support networks and teams are useful" business. And everybody -- every single person going through Day One of Rogue School knows that you don't double-cross your crew, because that means you find yourself without a crew in short order and then unable to continue lining your pockets and filling your belly -- and that goes triple for Adventurer/Player Character rogues. You hang around with Glafor the Wise, a Wizard who you literally saw tear a demon into its component molecules and astral essence by waving a knotty stick and uttering a few words, and this is the guy you want to steal from? There's a saying about old thieves, stupid thieves, and old. stupid thieves you may want to learn...
People really latch on to the idea that characters are an extension of their player when they say that cooperation is super important. Run your character by your DM -- if he allows a natural or evil self-centered character, play the character you have not the one the group wants you to. It's up to the in character party to purge out problematic group members, not to the players (to an extent -- constantly fucking up the party is never OK)
All good points, Chappy. I especially liked pointing out that OUR GLORIOUS DM OF THE AGES MATT MERCER does not make Critical Role amazing all on his own. The players have to take what the DM presents to them and build off of it. One reason why I let my players contribute NPCs and subplot ideas that I then mold and twist and bring back.
Hi, howdy. First time commenterer... Chappy, you articulated the hell out of that. Thanks for the video and sharing your opinions on this topic. They ring all kinds of true.
On not stealing from the party: My current group has swung so far in the opposit direction that we looped around to being fine. We steal from each other so much that (with the exception of attunement items or items of significant value to a player) every item is treated as silumtaneously belonging to the entire party until it's used.
1:58 You think this meme is a joke but I actually had a party member like that. Our monk decided he had a vendetta against our sorcerer just because the sorcerer defended my character after the monk attacked me because I wouldn't let him ride in front. This went on for multiple sessions and might still be going on--I don't know, he has missed several sessions.
Might i suggest "Understanding group exile or leaves." I bring this up as it makes since for a lawful good Paladin to have issues with his "good friends" just slay some villages for no reason and wanting to leave or if in a character backstory "family was wiped out by the 'Suggestion' spell" be willing to part with them because it makes since! Also if a player decides in character that they would want to leave, allow it! Let that character possible come back later as a plot line or even an antagonist to the story! It makes since that a group of murder hobos or magical abusers would be targeted by other groups, good or evil, and then you have those characters you can use! It writes itself! Allow in character choices to leave the party; it opens a lot of new interesting possibilities without outright killing them
Such a good point about the players in critical role adding to Mercer’s epic games. I didn’t even think about this as another piece to the “Mercer Effect” where players expect so much of their DM’s and DM’s have existential crises because his games are so much better by comparison. Player: How come this isn’t like Critical Role? DM: Because I’m not a professional voice actor with years of acting experience and neither are any of you. Player: Ouch. DM: I’m sorry. I wish I was more. (Tears)
I think another tip is to not steal someone else's unique aspect. If a person is fine being the sneakiest person in the party and most likely to sneak the party members out of imprisonment or to scout ahead practically unscathed, don't be the random character who's dex is super high for no reason just to out do the other person. If someone's character is designed to be an insanely good evocation caster, don't be the person who tries to steal that from them. If you can't create a character with a unique little thing they can do, then settle for being highly useful as a catch-all or jack of all trades. Same thing for if you arrive at a campaign in the middle of it all. Don't be the person to make someone else's character reskinned. If the party already has a hexblade warlock, don't come in as a pact of the blade archfey warlock and pick the exact invocations they did. Would even recommend steering clear of oathbreaker paladin, especially if the hexblade has the eldritch smite invocation. Better to be your own character, not someone else's. I think it's region specific where people have copycat syndrome, but I don't know.
Rule #4 reminds me of a channel called Puffin Forest whose entire party NEVER stops making fun of when one guy cast darkness on a dragon unaware that dragons have blindsense. So, basically, making fun of them for not meta gaming enough. And if I had to deal with that from a whole table I'd never touch D&D again.
I mean tbf, darkness is one of those spells that you do have to think about how to use it since if you don't if can often screw over the party as much/more than the enemies. Don't get me wrong, I fully agree with you it is still dickish to keep making fun of him for it and I'd definately feel uncomfortable being at that table if that happened to me, but given it was a spell he just straight up didn't read properly it was a bit more than 'he didn't metagame enough'
Arcturus Azathoth it’s less so about the meta gaming in the scenario because presumably a caster would know what their spell does and use it in the right scenario but he used in away that was harmful to them as even without the dragon being able to see in it no one could hit it. It also depends on the group largely on what they comfortable with.
Indeed but consider that you could have simply not subjected yourself to Puffin Forest in the first place, never experiencing that or any of his other terrible nonsense.
To be honest, my fighter charging into rooms when encouraged is helping the party a lot. also I give them 10mins of planning before I decide to hit the monster out of nowhere.
My character in my current game is an oddly noble pirate. He's chaotic but has strong feelings towards family. When a fellow teammate killed two undead who were the adoptive parents of an npc, my character tried (and sadly failed) to stop her. When the npc ended up becoming a God's champion, my character convinced the other character to sacrifice herself to hopefully get the npc on our side and take down the god (well she seems to be willing but I don't think the DM is gonna let us follow through on it).
Just finished a session around an hour ago. This is for rule 3. We found a, forget staff or rod of ressurection. I’m a cleric, and we have another cleric. I told our other cleric that he should take it, even explaining why. I’m a war domain cleric, so I run up to things I should not be running up to, if anyone should have it, its him (the other cleric). And rule 5, when I’m playing that game. I speak in a Boston accent (i think) when speaking as my character, and normally for out of character, or explaining my actions.
i once had a player who always had to grab shit and put it on or use it without checking it. this was back in 3.5, so i gave him the Robe of Vermin. the next battle was awesome, lol
Rule 3. Tip for a DM. If you have someone who does this, just make sure the best thing in the room has a curse which activates when it's grabbed with no warning.
Our campaign has its share of awesome moments. In what we dubbed to be "Season 1" of our campaign, of us fighting and ending a war between humans and their allies and Elves and their Allies, our Cleric Channeled in 2 Solars to save the party from death and slayed the boss we were fighting. My Firbolg Druid that I am still playing in season 2, managed to do the unthinkable, and talked down a grief stricken and confused boss that was unaware of how much the outside world had changed in the thousand years she had been holed up in an old hospital that was so out of the way and forgotten, that none cared or could find it. Hell, at the end of the encounter, she sent the others away as my character smiled gently to her, and promised that he would do his best to find her son, and if needed, give him a proper burial, before allowing her to use a locket to intertwine herself with his mind and senses, so that way she could see the world that had changed so much in those thousand years. In our campaign, we ALL have our moments that we each applaud the others on for how they did their thing, combat or otherwise. Hell, my entire event was literally me irl going into a speech and conversation, using kindness and compassion that one would expect of a Firbolg Druid with a heart of gold, and genuinely FELT that I was my character in that moment, trying to help another sad and confused soul, who had lost someone dear to them that they wanted, no, NEEDED back. Keep in mind...This is all from my first ever campaign, and honestly...I look on it with love and fondness. The DMs and I but heads in and out of game a lot, but we are only human, and the rest of the party is no different. We won't let a single little disagreement over something like a video ruin our fun. We say our apologies, and we continue having fun. I know it isn't likely, but i hope all of my campaigns end up like that in the future. I want them to be wonderful, beautiful things that I can smile about on a bad day. Not something that sours my day at a mere passing thought due to how they played out.
I remember someone fireballed my character without permission after I refused to make her drop to the ground to avoid it (the boss we we're facing would've literally killed me if he hit me) and people acted like I had no right to be angry about it, then were confused as to why my character felt completely betrayed because of literally being blown up to kill some guy, magical death weapon in his hands or not
Oh god rule 2 happened to me the other day. My gnome bard had this big moment where his musical prowess granted him a blessing from a powerful god, and I had to role-play the interaction (I'm a very bad actor) but it was all great. It was my moment. Then the our Rogue says he's going try and get the blessing too. Cool moment ruined. So much to the point where our DM "accidentally forgot to mention the rogue" when doing a recap of the session. Don't do this guys, support your fellow players when they're having their moment.
Man, this video...talk about rough timing. Last night, my campaign had a big blowout where several players had to voice their problems with a specific character at the table (but no issue with the player behind the character). Had to have a one and a half hour group therapy session.
I had a Kenku Wizard who used Fly at every chance he could (having to run away, jump past anything, climb anything, etc.) but my party was okay with it because I did everything I could to make my character op (as he was constantly down a spell slot to fly) so he was pretty balanced compared to the rest of the party.
I bought ink while my party was talking to two other player's grandma and I feel bad after watching this video because of it (because they were talking about recovering from addiction).
Man... That part about back biting... My group was a family and I remember a few days where I just wanted to go home because of that... I really like D&D but when comments get personal and people start ganging up against you it really makes you wonder why I you even tried playing... I'm so glad I'm still a fan of D&D but man do those times hurt...
Cutting off a HDYWTDT is the most egregious thing any player can do. I don't care who you are, that is a SACRED thing nobody should interrupt. A team HDYWTDT is one thing, reserved for a 'Big Bad' who everyone has beef with. But interrupting someone's moment is horrific!
One of my friends wanted to take a dire wolf, but another one decided that it was going to be his and his alone. The wolf turned out to be a 60 year old female werewolf who was a little bit raunchy. The friend who had the wolf hated that he became the but of all of the jokes for a session, then he realized that the werewolf was really strong and would go out of her way to protect him.
So here’s an issue I have I want some peer thoughts on it. In my group of dnd players we have a dm and 3 players. I’m the player this time around. It’s a halo themed campaign revolving around before the human covenant wars. The main issue is that he has it heavily combat focused as in every 5hr session has 4hrs of straight combat. I’m not much a combat player I enjoy skill checks and dialogue and a couple other players feel that way to. I’m just not sure what to really do about it were 4 sessions in and I’m not really having fun but I’m the only squad medic so they’re depending on me to heal the party in a firefight. Just looking for thoughts can provide more info if needed.
You may want to consider talking to your gm about it. Perhaps you can strike up more of a balance of rp and combat. If not, that game may not be the one for you, which is perfectly alright. You need to find groups who suit your needs.
After having a dm with his own character running his own "protagonist" adventures by himself (serious, he treated it like a eletronic game, playing alone in the chat), I can say that the "that's what my character would do" was his favorite excuse
At the moment I’m playing a warlock. The sorcerer in the group is a bit of a ninja looter. 2 game nights ago he dibs on a magic sword. The sword has my patrons mark on it. I know that it will corrupt the wielder. Out of game the dm has told all of us that it will corrupt him, but he don’t know that in game. So at the moment my character letting him ”see the light”. The sorcerer have both identify and detect magic. He only cast detect magic but rolled bad.
I can't agree more with these tips. I wish more players would follow them. Especially in the games I'm a part of. Just so many of those players that do these exact things. Blaming their actions on "It's what my character would do!" or blaming their class "Well I'm a thief!" or "I'm a barbarian!" or some other nonsense when they steal, kill, attack, or refuse to trust or help the party. It's annoying and makes the game more difficult than it has to be. You can not trust your party, but still be friendly with them. :\
That last one, while I wanna do it really badly, cause boy do I love doing voices... My native tongue, danish, sucks massive balls when it comes to that. There's just something about Danish and silly voices that doesn't go well together.
had a moment a few months ago that very nearly had me drop one of my groups (i was a player, so they could keep going). we were on our first real session of Starfinder, first session was just learning rules for a few players as two of us had played already, and the DM getting a feel of it. for the first real session I had changed my character to a healer monk type, one obsessed with going on adventures (as the group was mad that, in the last game, my character wanted to live, and so had issues with attacking a dragon clearly beyond us, that kinda thing) other players had: an aspiring politician Envoy. my Mystic, and Android mechanic, Android operative (she wanted to play a sniper) and a Technomancer hacker. the learning session went well, we got to the next bit and the android (players are brother and sister in real life) went to go look for a job for us while the rest talked to our old employer. DM had a guy following our sniper, learning about the item we'd brought back, while she spotted him, she then failed most of the other rolls to catch him, and ended up running afoul of the police. things kept escalating there, our politician catches up and intervenes to try and calm things down. that's when the other android opens up with his heavy laser drone and his own weapons, killing an officer and setting another on fire. politician takes off, sniper manages to get to a roof and firing on the cops as well, wizard later shows up and sets a cop car on fire to try and give a distraction so the others can get away, but the mechanic is doubling down and is sure they can win. my character finally arrives, only knowing that my friends were under attack, to see a police man on fire, others shooting at the drone and mechanic, ETC. I rush over to put the cop out, not knowing what is going on (in character that is) and trying to save who I could. the brother and sister then got pissed at me for, yet again, not being a team player and healing his mechanic so he could stick out the fight. they, for some reason, took issue with my character having a problem with shooting cops in the street... that character was the fastest I've ever had to retire a character, as there was no way he would go with them after seeing that, same with the player playing the politician (he'd never get elected now that he was on film helping in that madness). he is now playing a gladiator type character, and I'm a creepy borg-like character. and they were STILL MAD at me for now making an evil character while 'the rest of the party was neutral'. I don't think I've ever face palmed that hard before. so in this instance, what do you all think, was I the asshole for playing my character that way, and being against the group, or were they for suddenly launching us down a piracy/evil storyline?
If you handwrite a several hundred page multilingual character backstory, you deserve a good few perks. Just don't expect anyone to read it and make sure you're not straight up power gaming for no reason.
All of my players are colossal pains in my ass. They're life long friends and In some cases, I was the one to introduce them to D&D. I have love (most of) them immensely. However I also suffer from clinical depression and there are times I have to remind them about Rule #4... not because they are trying to actually be hurtful but when you're already not in a good headspace for one reason or another the banter can go over the top. And it's always painful. On one hand I love them and for the most part I join in on the back and forth shit talking but its not always easy... and I know most of them feel the same way... So when Davvy says REALLY REALLY know them... you really should just not build that sort of relationship with people you don't know outside of D&D... especially if you're into playing through Roll20 or other services like that. Because it takes having a genuine feeling of camaraderie and affection to want to ask a person how they're doing and actually listen... You can't always be on that level with an acquaintances... and if your inadvertently bullying them and not having a follow up to that sort of relationship you're probably going to cause them more problems then enjoyment. In short this is just a further illustration of the point Davvy made: Don't be a Dick to people you don't know very well and care about to a degree greater than just a casual acquaintance.
Im honest i can confirm this special " what you wanna do" moment for players ass a dm I didnt thought it would be that special till one of my players litterally asks " how can i kill him" after he defeated a boss scince then ill let them
oh my gosh I'm so tempted to send this to my sister now after hearing the "stop stealing fucking everything!" line. we were in the middle of our first boss fight, I get a HDYWT on the bad guy and cut him into pieces before turning back to the wisps harassing everyone and my sister goes "I'm gonna go loot the bad guy" I'm sitting there like, WTF?!
In a campaign there were 3DMs and 3 groups that were kinda against each other and I might’ve cast spare the dying when everyone died and said “that’s what my character would do” since I didn’t want to kill all of them
I have one friend who I can no longer play any tabletop roleplaying games with because of situations perfectly described in the "don't be a dick" section. In every game I've played with him, all of his characters are dicks in some way or another and I'm not the only one that doesn't want to play with him anymore because of it. I remember one campaign I was in with him, my character had saved his life, run him back to the nearest town through the night to get him medical attention, spent the next few days using all my spell slots to cast Cure Wounds on him to prevent horrible burn scars all over his body and even trusted him to visit my character's home. On the other end, HIS character throughout what we played had Lost my character a job, constantly insulted him and called him an idiot, stole from his house, and LAUGHED IN MY CHARACTER'S FACE WHEN MY CHARACTER FOUND OUT HIS FATHER FIGURE HAD DIED. I had to to talk to him about this kind of thing many times. I'd tell him it wasn't fun for me, how it was making game night miserable and ask him to please stop, and he just ignored me. Now because of that, if I ever play a character that is anything other than a nice person, I always tell my fellow party members "If my character seems like too much of a jerk, let me know, I'll tweek them or play a different character," . Thankfully I haven't had to worry about that yet.
Another one I have is don't force or pressure a PC or a player to doing something that they wouldn't have fun doing, and don't tell anyone at the table how they should play their role. Just because you are a cleric doesn't mean you have to be spamming healing spells left right and center. If the player wants to be that one murderer hobo cleric that spans Channel energy on all the undead then let them. If the Bard doesn't want to be social with any of the NPC's the don't force them to. These are things that happened that either left a bad taste in my mouth or just cause me to quit the group.
I played a money maniac in a oneshot once (not a rogue though). A party member threw 10g onto the street in the "criminal district" just to see what would happen. My character made an acrobatic dive to snatch some of the coins out of the air and then fought in the crowd for the rest.
I had an old-school players tell me, "Party and player cooperation is more holy than any god, oath, or warlock patron that would say otherwise."
It is true. I usually play lawful evil characters and it raises some eyebrows when the character is introduced to new tables. But people become cool with it once they realize I keep my slaving, backstabbing, politics and other evil deeds to npcs and try my best to help the party with all of my actions and never dick them over (unless it will prove advantageous to the group later). In other words if you play evil chars and everybody else is playing good your mission should by to prove why evil actions would be advantageous to the final goal and to impress, and embolden your allies so even if they are hesitant they will at least tolerate your actions. Please try to keep most power fantasies to yourself back dealing and political manoeuvring are fine but most people wont put up with deliberate torture etc, and keep your slaves and their treatment as much out of sight as possible.
I'd rather have my patron and faith make us split. Turning said character an NPC and rolling a new one.
You don’t steal from the party, you steal For the party
"Rogue! we were so worried when you get knock out! unfortunately, the raiders loot most of the gear you acquired during the adventures. No need to worry about us, we found a cache with many useful and expensive things, that superficially look like what you lost, but it is out loot, not yours, because you were down when we found it."
atta boi! well said!👏🏽
Nobody complains about a generous kleptomaniac. That's why my Rogue never gets in trouble with the Paladin
omg. . . . yes. . . . my dm will thank you
Mal_Havok omg thank you
I hate the "I touched it first so it is mine" type of finding loot. One of my players sold a +1 adamantine battleaxe because he wasn't proficient with it... They had a barbarian in the party using his starting ax...
Fucking asshat
@@JayF2912 If you knew the player you would have added another expletive.
@@worthasandwich big F for you and the party :(
@@JayF2912 My (Least)favorite moment with the player. We we playing a Men in Black game and he executed a prisoner who had surrendered in front of the head of MIB. this was the first prisoner my group had managed to take. They were so excited to interrogate him. this broke me a bit. It made me walk away from table top gaming for six months. I don't play with this guy anymore...
When one of my players pulled that line and turned to me, the GM, for confirmation, I simply answered: "No, it isn't. Legally speaking, you're a robber. Even if your killing of the guy who you looted it from might be legal under the circumstances, that doesn't make the item yours, it'd still legally belong to his heir. You just happen to possess the item at the moment, but nobody else (player or npc) is obligated in any way to recognize it as yours or let you have it."
It was a party of fresh, new roleplayers. There was a whole lot of party infighting, sometimes with lethal outcome, but everyone still managed to have a jolly good time. We're still playing together, a decade later, much matured.
5:06 Davvy that hit a little too close to home. Like, that was my whole experience in middle school and I almost started crying.
Where do you think I got the anecdote from?
@@DavvyChappy Good point. Seriously though, middle school was horrible and I'm so glad I'm done.
seriously I felt like he was talking directly to me and it brought back some less than stellar memories..Fucking manipulative dickheads.
Would middle school mean primary or high school?
@@roofied_galahad1675 Middle school is usually grades 6 to 8 or 9. Primary would be k-5, Middle 6-9, and High 10-12. Different school districts can run it differently, and most actually just do the k-8, and then 9-12 school run.
Especially the wizard. I played in a group where out of game one player didn't like me and so in game his wizard would "miss" or just not care if he hit me and killed 2 of my characters in less than a month. He had gotten into the dms good books and it just wasn't fun sooo I jumped into a pit of animus turned into a flesh golem and wrecked his shit. Then quit the table.
I'm aware of the word animus but I can't help but picture your character jumping into a pile of anime dvds.
@@Pyroniusburn "As you fall, you see circular disks with art painted on top of them, as you fall into the pile of circular shiny art, you suddenly feel your flesh change shape, the pain is unbearable, you are getting angry. You become a flesh golem and wreck the shit out of Asshat Mcgee."
Nextime just laugh it off , do the same thing to him, and have it be a annoying, but funny inside joke
@@Spiceodog Nah fam. If someone goes out of their way to kill your PC, it's not "funny". They're being an asshole, and getting away with it.
Make a new character who is a friend or relative of your dead character. But they happen to be a lawyer with summoning papers. Maybe an evil aligned character with high intellect. Make that bastard go broke to the point it has the chance to bankrupt the other players.
Yeah, Matt is cool but HAVE YOU SEEN LIAM? That man can pull of the extravagant Vax'ildan and the reserved Caleb like a walk in the park.
Lockret personally, I find Travis and Sam to be my favorites. Both are really good players, but their Roleplay is almost unparalleled. Both those guys were the general stats of campaign 1, and they are really strong this season. Add to that Matt’s expansive world, and the great group dynamic, and it’s no wonder this show is the most popular D&D show
I love Liam, but I'd say Talesin is my favorite player. His characters are so compelling and deep in completely different ways from each other. And while he doesn't jump into the forefront of most situations, he has some moments that are just complete gold. *Spoilers*
Molly's death was and probably still is the single most important moment of campaign two, and that proves how much of a master Talesin is at character writing.
You called?
@@nikhilbhavani981 Liam is a great player, augmented by being a DM in his own daughters games, but I agree with you. While there are several people famous for being THE DMs, and you use as examples, I think that Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel are two of THE playes of our time.
Liam is great at roleplaying and thinking through combat, but Riegel and Willingham are just great all round. The are great at roleplyaing, combat, creating characters, improvising, but most importantly it is their table manners that puts them above the others. They are always setting up others to have great moments, as well as cheering when they succeed or fail, they also encourage the players around them and don't try to always get in on the action.
@@nikhilbhavani981 Funny thing is Travis and Sam are the "newest" to DND, compared to the rest of their party.
My trick for playing a klepto rogue is to just take one or two extra coins for myself when I open a chest before divvying it all up. I've informed my group that's the character's little quirk and it's always entertaining when someone comes up a little short and then the rogue spots you a few gold pieces, or when they buy the drinks for everyone, or when one of the other characters makes me foot most of the bills because they know I have the money.
I always try to do something similar... or steal random, and valueless items... need to sign something? Borrow a pen, and pocket it etc... I once swiped all the parties spoons, and replaced them with forks, that her more valuable because they were silver, that she'd stolen from a restaurant, and then hid the spoons in places where the party should find them if they did their jobs... (she stole for the thrill rather than for the reward)
I feel like there should be an extra tip in here like: "Don't backseat game your fellow players."
One of my biggest pet peeves as a DM and as a player is when somebody tries to play another character's player: "[Player] does this while I do this" without asking the other player. In a campaign I played in we were trying to sneak into this mansion, and our wizard tried to railroad my ranger into trying to unlock the front door by saying "Me and [ranger] sneak up to the front, and he tries to pick the lock while I look out.". I responded with
"No, actually I'm going to try and get on the roof." Fuck you, guy. It's my character. If you want me to do something then ask. Your party members aren't skyrim followers you can boss around.
Yeah that's some godmodding bs and that gets demolished IMMEDIATELY. My character, my choices.
If a player wants your opinion, they'll ask for it
Man speaking as a DM, I really appreciate this. It's incredibly frustrating when a group puts all the responsibility on the DM and then don't put any effort in themselves. Be kind to the person running the game and take some initiative :)
Our Overlord Cthulhu demands you make a video about illithids.
ClericOfCthulhu praise tentical king Cthulhu!!?
@@shandaniel2999 I see you are a man of culture as well
I'm playing an illithid and my mate is playing a cleric of cthulhu. Now the great dreamer is a key part of our campaign.
Oh no, I've seen enough Hentai to know where this is going.
Cthulhu fthagn
Performing can also assist in letting players know when a conversation is happening in game or out of game. In games I've played when someone drops the character voice to use their normal one it makes it clear that we are discussing a rule verification or something we shouldn't know yet.
Nott steals things sometimes
But nott doesn't steal EVERYTHING
C2 Spoilers:
"I can't steal from this one" and "Molly said to only steal from Grumpy people" are my favorite quotes on the issue
Stealthninja8
Exactly, Notts a good influence. . . Most of the time
One of my friends likes to DM but isn't entirely versed in D&D mechanics. One example is that he ignores armor class and makes you do a dodge roll every time you are attacked. For a while ((he stopped)) he made casters use their constitution stat for spells instead of their stat specific for the class.
Almost forgot: he acknowledges his mistakes and uses the excuse of "it's just homebrew"
Taking loot too fast ohh I guess it's time to just drop a few cursed magic items
yes, it is a vampire sword, as in a sword that drain your life as long as you touch it, and cursed so you can just throw it away, maybe you should have let me explain that before drawing it.
@@ludovicm5585 see, it does drain your enemies, but it it also drains you to feed its own power...
@@JayF2912 actually the sword was merely enchanted with a reverted "vampiric touch" so every time the wielder was touching, he was harmed and healed his foe. A fair punishment for the warrior too interested in the edgy magic sword: Magically enforced pacifism.
DM: "in the chest you find a de..."
Player: "I'll take that!"
DM: "...deck of many things"
Player: *hands the deck to the wild mage*
"It's what my character would do" then change your character. It's aLmOsT lIkE yOu HaVe ToTaL cOnTrOl OvEr WhO yOuR cHaRaCtEr Is
“I seduce the banshee,” is a meme in my group. That’s my fault. So, once I was playing 5e, and the dm had a npc explain a quest in a way that sounded like I should seduce the banshee to learn the location of a spell book. My dm made the dc super high, but the roll of the dice said 20. Plus my modifier, and my dm said that they looked interested in me in an odd way. At that moment I regret everything.
P.S. I did learn the location of the spell book, but my dm decided (since we’re all close friends) that he would make some innuendos about what happened while the rest of the party made sure no surprise attacks were coming.
Dude that legit sounds amazing, I remember the first time I ever played a Bard on D&D and I fell off the Inn roof while my character was drunk off his ass and I had to roll with Disadvantage to not fall flat on my ass... I rolled a double nat 20 and when I landed I dabbed on a royal guard and walked away, with the bottle still being carried by my tail. (I was a Dragonborn)
Ah yes good ol' bards being bards
Where is the transmutation guide davsky?
*dunks head in toilet bowl*
Where is the gold volovsky? The rouge says youre good for it. Wheres the hecking money shitheaaaaad?
Bro your making great content. While I don't get into the role play quite as much as you I definitely dig the enthusiasm. Good advice keep it up.
Having fun at the table with your friends > trying your hardest to role play and feeling uncomfortable
@@Perial51 couldn't agree more
You used the wrong “your”
@@trashy056 don't you dare tell me how to live I use the words I want
How To Be a Better Playe...
Me: AND THEN I CAST FIREBALL!
I have finaly started to go more into character when talking, im still not good at it, but im working on it.
Literally this is one of the players I play with. Every. Single. Rule.
Love the video davvy! Not a lot of UA-camr shave videos about being a player. The most thanks from me and to others for obviously showing your care to D&D.
the have your moment thing is totally true. I was the healer but I managed to get 2 crits in a row on one turn with my X4 2H weapon, rolled max on both damage die and managed to kill the BBG in more or less one round. will never forget that and would have been ruined if someone chipped in.
Clerics, they're not just for healbotting any more! (Trying to get my players to comprehend this)
@@danielpayne1597 exactly, with the proper buffs a cleric can be just as if not more effective on the front lines than the fighter
Light Clerics get Fireball, that is all I have to say.
“It’s what my character would do” is what I said deciding to heal my party. I was a forced joke
"Miss Pauline, you have my word, I kill the goblins."
I particularly appreciate the parts about taking responsibility for your part of the game, and helping make everyone else' game better: both cooperation and roleplay.
Spoilers
1: Be team player (no "it's what my character would do").
2: Let people have their moment.
3: Stop taking loot as soon as it's revealed.
4: Don't be a jerk.
5: Be a performer. Work hard on your character. Be your character.
We have a party member who is always
LOOT LOOT LOOT
When 2/3 players were dying he was like
“I loot the bodies”
LIKE WHY MAN
So far the best part of my new campaign was when i rolled a natural 1 when i tryed to drop kick a wall and ended up hitting a team mate
This is good.
I'm currently rumning a game as a new DM, and most of my players (excepting two one more experienced than the other) are newbies. Some, like our bard have taken well to the new game and are honestly a better and more reliable player that the second "experienced" player. But some of my players (around 4 of them) are either extremely disruptive or quiet. Honestly I wish that the new players were just quiet and learned how to play effectively and include anyone before jumping in and repeating "I STEAL FROM THEM" 1 thousand times before the first experienced player has to butt in and and tell them to pay attention. I don't know what I expected with some people, (who are usually disruptive and counter intuitive before they even said that they wanted to play)
but I'm conflicted because I thought that my player; thats the bard that I mentioned was this type of person, but as I said they are fitting into the game extremely well. I suppose ill just have to lay down the groundworkings for some type of ruling at the table.
Numerous times in our last session (its our third) I found myself sighing and feeling overwhelmed. And in combat just saying "you miss" or "they hit" when I know I'm supposed to all discriptive? I have seen other DM s handle this better and I think that an experienced DM would be better for this group.
I've found myself not being able to motivate myself to write more for the players to experience with different options and varying outcomes (without railroading of course) but I feel certain players just kill my ability to run the game properly. Even in roleplay
Idk why I wrote this here, aahhh. Geez
CulturalCloud10 just talk to the players. It helps if they know what they are doing is not helping you. The game’s hardly fun if the DMaint enjoying it
I had the same problem. New dm with almost no player experience trying to herd 5 players (2 experienced and 3 new). After a while i just wasn't having any fun, so I asked the experienced player if he could dm in my stead. He said yes and well, problem solved.
I mean, it's a game. If you're not enjoying yourself, what's the point in playing?
I disagree with rule 1 to an extent. I’ve made characters opposed to the party (or rather, just one of the other PCs) and that became the source of a lot of good roleplay and drama (the good kind). As long as everyone keeps the conflict in character and doesn’t get so attached to the character that opposition to the character means opposition to *them*, I think it’s perfectly fine to have a character that buys heads with another character or characters.
yeah I agree, my party has an asimar paladin and a tiefling warlock and its interesting watching those two roleplay the extreme opposites of character creation and it makes it fun
It’s good to an extent. Personally, I wouldn’t want a chaotic Evil Barbarian PC who thinks Chaotic Evil means “kill the party and be a dick to all the NPCs.” In the same respect, I don’t want a Lawful Good Paladin who drags his entire party through his view of righteousness, especially if other players don’t like it. Though I do agree with you. One of my favorite players was a Lawful Evil Bard who lies and cheats his way through life. The party hates him, but they keep him around because he fills a role no one else fills, and he sticks around them because that’s his best shot at survival. This led to some of my favorite moments in that campaign.
Yeah, I don't like the idea that players should feel obliged to make a character that fits in with the rest of the group and has to go along with every decision they make. Like if everyone in the group aside from one PC agree to do an encounter one way while the last PC feels that way of handling it is tactically or morally wrong, then it should be fine for them to act as they will, as long as they at least try to not screw the rest of the party over. Though even then, if the party comes across a moral conundrum, like if a party been told with strong evidence that the only way to prevent a disaster would be for them to kill a character that one of the party members have a strong relationship with, I think it would even be fine for the player to side with the character they were supposed to kill and go anti-party.
Edit: Though this way of thinking may be something that's completely right in some groups but completely insane in others.
Personally, I like to think of D&D as a story that unfolds where my character tries to achieve their own goals, and I, on a more meta level, try to do it in a way that entertains or helps out the rest of the group. But others may think of it more as a team experience (not unlike a co-op video game) where everyone attempts to move towards a common goal.
Exactly
My current D&D party has so much infighting and conflict that my sorlock is orchestrating a plot to kill the rogue and also the one who's warning said rogue about the murder plots before they happen and helping the rogue rob the other players blind. As long as everyone at the table is ok with this kind of stuff (please check before you try to do it, we all individualy allowed for this to continue and explained this to any newcomers at the table) then it can be so much fun to have the greatest threat to the group be each other.
I have a bad bad habit of doing number 3. Recently my character came across a shit ton of gold when the rest of the party wasn’t there and I had to fight that voice telling me to pocket it all so hard. Luckily that’s when the “it’s what my character would do” mantra came in handy and I split it but still, i need to curb that impulse. Another amazing video!
Zero dislikes, as there should be
Truly epic
Anyone else hear a rapid pulsing sound in the video?
Yes
Davvy's hypnotizing you to be a better player. Just give in to it.
@@Galastan The assimilation process has begun
It's likely just an issue with Davvy's mic or background noise.
That's what I thought after the confirmation from others I just wanted to know if something of mine had messed up.
There was on time i played withsomeone who run off on their own, while we were in a hostile village... and then proceeded to bith about how we "couldnt sneak-kill those 2 high lvl units"
... the point is... those 2 high lvl units would be dealt faster with the entire group there... then 1 single figther charging alone because it fits their character.
I agree. I hear about Matthew Mercer being the best DM ever, but I actually get really bored with him as a DM. I like the guy who plays Scanlan significantly more... Even though I can't remember his name because I only watch clips from CR and a bad memory to boot. Mercer knows a lot, and he STARTS the immersion into the world, but the characters are the ones that sell it for me.
Kuma Suna Sam Riegal is Scanlan Shorthalt. I do personally like Matt a bit more, but the reason people love the show is because it’s a bunch of nerdy-ass friends playing a game they obviously enjoy. Everyone adds to the enjoyment. The DM creates to world, but the characters add flavor to it. It’s a cool way to bounce off each other.
@@nikhilbhavani981 Agreed. My introduction to tabletop RPGs was actually HarmonQuest, so I feel more attached to that.
Kuma Suna I can understand. But still, who’s your favorite character or player at the table? Cause I guarantee you wouldn’t like them half as much without the others. Maybe the DM made an awesome moment more epic. Maybe your player and someone else had great dialogue. It ain’t one person doing all the work.
Absolutely spot on! Nailed it!
Thank you very much for this, when I first started out DMing I'd heard some stories about things like these, but naively thought it wouldn't apply to my group (if in part it was because we all knew each other at least a bit). Needless to say, we had every single one of these problems. The first half-dozen sessions were a constant race of 'how do I try to keep the party together' because they'd all (except one, non-first time player) do the 'but that's what my character would do' and try to leave the party. Eventually I realized that I should stop forcing it and broke it up.
yeah there really is nothing as infuriating as players interrupting the the DM every two goddamn words
My character is a Tortle Rogue with Urban Bounty Hunter as a background. He uses his stealth and rogue abilities to gather information on a bounty. He's traveled with a group before and after splitting up he's trying to find a new group. He loves gambling and gold, but he also loves close and trusted comrades. Also, he is a bit reckless sometimes and will gamble with his life, and only his, if there's great treasure to be had.
Awesome content - thanks for being vulnerable and honest about this topic, I’ve had some fears calmed from it. You rock!
I needed this
Any rogue worth their salt knows that their team is a force multiplier, and by actively making the rest of their party better with their maybe less-than-moral material acquisitions, they're making all of their future jobs easier, they're putting that 300gp diamond in the their Cleric friend's pocket, spells in their wizard buddy's spellbook, a magic sword in the fighter's hand, and making the healing potions flow like water.
A rogue that makes sure they share the loot with the party is a rogue that lives a longer, richer life. Even the most selfish, kleptomaniacal, asshole rogue knows that making sure the party is happy means that they stay alive and happy. That's kind of why rogues tend to form guilds, y'know? That whole "Support networks and teams are useful" business. And everybody -- every single person going through Day One of Rogue School knows that you don't double-cross your crew, because that means you find yourself without a crew in short order and then unable to continue lining your pockets and filling your belly -- and that goes triple for Adventurer/Player Character rogues. You hang around with Glafor the Wise, a Wizard who you literally saw tear a demon into its component molecules and astral essence by waving a knotty stick and uttering a few words, and this is the guy you want to steal from? There's a saying about old thieves, stupid thieves, and old. stupid thieves you may want to learn...
Lol I love this video, my rogue who I DM for steals everything, so I've put curses, and magical bad item traps if he steals obviously dumb stuff.
People really latch on to the idea that characters are an extension of their player when they say that cooperation is super important. Run your character by your DM -- if he allows a natural or evil self-centered character, play the character you have not the one the group wants you to. It's up to the in character party to purge out problematic group members, not to the players (to an extent -- constantly fucking up the party is never OK)
The only time I think it's expectable to jump in when the player is getting hurt and your the healer
All good points, Chappy. I especially liked pointing out that OUR GLORIOUS DM OF THE AGES MATT MERCER does not make Critical Role amazing all on his own. The players have to take what the DM presents to them and build off of it. One reason why I let my players contribute NPCs and subplot ideas that I then mold and twist and bring back.
Hi, howdy. First time commenterer...
Chappy, you articulated the hell out of that.
Thanks for the video and sharing your opinions on this topic. They ring all kinds of true.
On not stealing from the party:
My current group has swung so far in the opposit direction that we looped around to being fine. We steal from each other so much that (with the exception of attunement items or items of significant value to a player) every item is treated as silumtaneously belonging to the entire party until it's used.
There is always that one guy who is going to steal something unimportant in the middle of combat.
5:07 dang i feel like he just summed up me & most of my friend's experiences
5:19
oh boy this got REAL
1:58 You think this meme is a joke but I actually had a party member like that. Our monk decided he had a vendetta against our sorcerer just because the sorcerer defended my character after the monk attacked me because I wouldn't let him ride in front. This went on for multiple sessions and might still be going on--I don't know, he has missed several sessions.
Might i suggest "Understanding group exile or leaves."
I bring this up as it makes since for a lawful good Paladin to have issues with his "good friends" just slay some villages for no reason and wanting to leave or if in a character backstory "family was wiped out by the 'Suggestion' spell" be willing to part with them because it makes since! Also if a player decides in character that they would want to leave, allow it! Let that character possible come back later as a plot line or even an antagonist to the story!
It makes since that a group of murder hobos or magical abusers would be targeted by other groups, good or evil, and then you have those characters you can use! It writes itself!
Allow in character choices to leave the party; it opens a lot of new interesting possibilities without outright killing them
Such a good point about the players in critical role adding to Mercer’s epic games. I didn’t even think about this as another piece to the “Mercer Effect” where players expect so much of their DM’s and DM’s have existential crises because his games are so much better by comparison.
Player: How come this isn’t like Critical Role?
DM: Because I’m not a professional voice actor with years of acting experience and neither are any of you.
Player: Ouch.
DM: I’m sorry. I wish I was more. (Tears)
I think another tip is to not steal someone else's unique aspect. If a person is fine being the sneakiest person in the party and most likely to sneak the party members out of imprisonment or to scout ahead practically unscathed, don't be the random character who's dex is super high for no reason just to out do the other person. If someone's character is designed to be an insanely good evocation caster, don't be the person who tries to steal that from them. If you can't create a character with a unique little thing they can do, then settle for being highly useful as a catch-all or jack of all trades. Same thing for if you arrive at a campaign in the middle of it all. Don't be the person to make someone else's character reskinned. If the party already has a hexblade warlock, don't come in as a pact of the blade archfey warlock and pick the exact invocations they did. Would even recommend steering clear of oathbreaker paladin, especially if the hexblade has the eldritch smite invocation. Better to be your own character, not someone else's. I think it's region specific where people have copycat syndrome, but I don't know.
Rule #4 reminds me of a channel called Puffin Forest whose entire party NEVER stops making fun of when one guy cast darkness on a dragon unaware that dragons have blindsense. So, basically, making fun of them for not meta gaming enough. And if I had to deal with that from a whole table I'd never touch D&D again.
I mean tbf, darkness is one of those spells that you do have to think about how to use it since if you don't if can often screw over the party as much/more than the enemies. Don't get me wrong, I fully agree with you it is still dickish to keep making fun of him for it and I'd definately feel uncomfortable being at that table if that happened to me, but given it was a spell he just straight up didn't read properly it was a bit more than 'he didn't metagame enough'
Arcturus Azathoth it’s less so about the meta gaming in the scenario because presumably a caster would know what their spell does and use it in the right scenario but he used in away that was harmful to them as even without the dragon being able to see in it no one could hit it. It also depends on the group largely on what they comfortable with.
Indeed but consider that you could have simply not subjected yourself to Puffin Forest in the first place, never experiencing that or any of his other terrible nonsense.
@@gma5607 Okay plz tell me you're joking
It wasnt about not metagaming, but not reading how the spell works and not dropping concentration.
To be honest, my fighter charging into rooms when encouraged is helping the party a lot. also I give them 10mins of planning before I decide to hit the monster out of nowhere.
*Ch'Talla approves rule number 5*
My character in my current game is an oddly noble pirate. He's chaotic but has strong feelings towards family. When a fellow teammate killed two undead who were the adoptive parents of an npc, my character tried (and sadly failed) to stop her. When the npc ended up becoming a God's champion, my character convinced the other character to sacrifice herself to hopefully get the npc on our side and take down the god (well she seems to be willing but I don't think the DM is gonna let us follow through on it).
This is the best "How to be a player" video I have seen. Well done sir.
Rule number six: Know what you're going to do on your turn.
Fuckin new casters man.
Just finished a session around an hour ago. This is for rule 3. We found a, forget staff or rod of ressurection. I’m a cleric, and we have another cleric. I told our other cleric that he should take it, even explaining why. I’m a war domain cleric, so I run up to things I should not be running up to, if anyone should have it, its him (the other cleric). And rule 5, when I’m playing that game. I speak in a Boston accent (i think) when speaking as my character, and normally for out of character, or explaining my actions.
Liam O'Brien from Critical Role is the reason you need videos like these, he breaks them and belittles almost everyone fun moments.
4:20 Make it a mimic!
i once had a player who always had to grab shit and put it on or use it without checking it. this was back in 3.5, so i gave him the Robe of Vermin. the next battle was awesome, lol
Rule 3. Tip for a DM. If you have someone who does this, just make sure the best thing in the room has a curse which activates when it's grabbed with no warning.
finally a new vid. wish i could support you on patroun
and also anyone know how to spell that last word correctly
Patreon
Our campaign has its share of awesome moments. In what we dubbed to be "Season 1" of our campaign, of us fighting and ending a war between humans and their allies and Elves and their Allies, our Cleric Channeled in 2 Solars to save the party from death and slayed the boss we were fighting.
My Firbolg Druid that I am still playing in season 2, managed to do the unthinkable, and talked down a grief stricken and confused boss that was unaware of how much the outside world had changed in the thousand years she had been holed up in an old hospital that was so out of the way and forgotten, that none cared or could find it. Hell, at the end of the encounter, she sent the others away as my character smiled gently to her, and promised that he would do his best to find her son, and if needed, give him a proper burial, before allowing her to use a locket to intertwine herself with his mind and senses, so that way she could see the world that had changed so much in those thousand years.
In our campaign, we ALL have our moments that we each applaud the others on for how they did their thing, combat or otherwise. Hell, my entire event was literally me irl going into a speech and conversation, using kindness and compassion that one would expect of a Firbolg Druid with a heart of gold, and genuinely FELT that I was my character in that moment, trying to help another sad and confused soul, who had lost someone dear to them that they wanted, no, NEEDED back.
Keep in mind...This is all from my first ever campaign, and honestly...I look on it with love and fondness. The DMs and I but heads in and out of game a lot, but we are only human, and the rest of the party is no different. We won't let a single little disagreement over something like a video ruin our fun. We say our apologies, and we continue having fun. I know it isn't likely, but i hope all of my campaigns end up like that in the future. I want them to be wonderful, beautiful things that I can smile about on a bad day. Not something that sours my day at a mere passing thought due to how they played out.
I remember someone fireballed my character without permission after I refused to make her drop to the ground to avoid it (the boss we we're facing would've literally killed me if he hit me) and people acted like I had no right to be angry about it, then were confused as to why my character felt completely betrayed because of literally being blown up to kill some guy, magical death weapon in his hands or not
Oh god rule 2 happened to me the other day.
My gnome bard had this big moment where his musical prowess granted him a blessing from a powerful god, and I had to role-play the interaction (I'm a very bad actor) but it was all great. It was my moment.
Then the our Rogue says he's going try and get the blessing too. Cool moment ruined. So much to the point where our DM "accidentally forgot to mention the rogue" when doing a recap of the session.
Don't do this guys, support your fellow players when they're having their moment.
Man, this video...talk about rough timing.
Last night, my campaign had a big blowout where several players had to voice their problems with a specific character at the table (but no issue with the player behind the character). Had to have a one and a half hour group therapy session.
I had a Kenku Wizard who used Fly at every chance he could (having to run away, jump past anything, climb anything, etc.) but my party was okay with it because I did everything I could to make my character op (as he was constantly down a spell slot to fly) so he was pretty balanced compared to the rest of the party.
What is the soundtrack you always play in the background? I want to add it to my D&D background playlist!
I bought ink while my party was talking to two other player's grandma and I feel bad after watching this video because of it (because they were talking about recovering from addiction).
Man... That part about back biting... My group was a family and I remember a few days where I just wanted to go home because of that... I really like D&D but when comments get personal and people start ganging up against you it really makes you wonder why I you even tried playing... I'm so glad I'm still a fan of D&D but man do those times hurt...
Cutting off a HDYWTDT is the most egregious thing any player can do. I don't care who you are, that is a SACRED thing nobody should interrupt. A team HDYWTDT is one thing, reserved for a 'Big Bad' who everyone has beef with. But interrupting someone's moment is horrific!
One of my friends wanted to take a dire wolf, but another one decided that it was going to be his and his alone. The wolf turned out to be a 60 year old female werewolf who was a little bit raunchy.
The friend who had the wolf hated that he became the but of all of the jokes for a session, then he realized that the werewolf was really strong and would go out of her way to protect him.
So here’s an issue I have I want some peer thoughts on it. In my group of dnd players we have a dm and 3 players. I’m the player this time around. It’s a halo themed campaign revolving around before the human covenant wars. The main issue is that he has it heavily combat focused as in every 5hr session has 4hrs of straight combat. I’m not much a combat player I enjoy skill checks and dialogue and a couple other players feel that way to. I’m just not sure what to really do about it were 4 sessions in and I’m not really having fun but I’m the only squad medic so they’re depending on me to heal the party in a firefight. Just looking for thoughts can provide more info if needed.
You may want to consider talking to your gm about it. Perhaps you can strike up more of a balance of rp and combat. If not, that game may not be the one for you, which is perfectly alright. You need to find groups who suit your needs.
After having a dm with his own character running his own "protagonist" adventures by himself (serious, he treated it like a eletronic game, playing alone in the chat), I can say that the "that's what my character would do" was his favorite excuse
At the moment I’m playing a warlock. The sorcerer in the group is a bit of a ninja looter. 2 game nights ago he dibs on a magic sword. The sword has my patrons mark on it. I know that it will corrupt the wielder. Out of game the dm has told all of us that it will corrupt him, but he don’t know that in game. So at the moment my character letting him ”see the light”. The sorcerer have both identify and detect magic. He only cast detect magic but rolled bad.
I can't agree more with these tips. I wish more players would follow them. Especially in the games I'm a part of.
Just so many of those players that do these exact things. Blaming their actions on "It's what my character would do!" or blaming their class "Well I'm a thief!" or "I'm a barbarian!" or some other nonsense when they steal, kill, attack, or refuse to trust or help the party.
It's annoying and makes the game more difficult than it has to be. You can not trust your party, but still be friendly with them. :\
excellent video, i like it when i get a pie full of your experience.
That last one, while I wanna do it really badly, cause boy do I love doing voices... My native tongue, danish, sucks massive balls when it comes to that. There's just something about Danish and silly voices that doesn't go well together.
had a moment a few months ago that very nearly had me drop one of my groups (i was a player, so they could keep going). we were on our first real session of Starfinder, first session was just learning rules for a few players as two of us had played already, and the DM getting a feel of it.
for the first real session I had changed my character to a healer monk type, one obsessed with going on adventures (as the group was mad that, in the last game, my character wanted to live, and so had issues with attacking a dragon clearly beyond us, that kinda thing)
other players had: an aspiring politician Envoy. my Mystic, and Android mechanic, Android operative (she wanted to play a sniper) and a Technomancer hacker.
the learning session went well, we got to the next bit and the android (players are brother and sister in real life) went to go look for a job for us while the rest talked to our old employer. DM had a guy following our sniper, learning about the item we'd brought back, while she spotted him, she then failed most of the other rolls to catch him, and ended up running afoul of the police.
things kept escalating there, our politician catches up and intervenes to try and calm things down. that's when the other android opens up with his heavy laser drone and his own weapons, killing an officer and setting another on fire. politician takes off, sniper manages to get to a roof and firing on the cops as well, wizard later shows up and sets a cop car on fire to try and give a distraction so the others can get away, but the mechanic is doubling down and is sure they can win.
my character finally arrives, only knowing that my friends were under attack, to see a police man on fire, others shooting at the drone and mechanic, ETC.
I rush over to put the cop out, not knowing what is going on (in character that is) and trying to save who I could.
the brother and sister then got pissed at me for, yet again, not being a team player and healing his mechanic so he could stick out the fight.
they, for some reason, took issue with my character having a problem with shooting cops in the street...
that character was the fastest I've ever had to retire a character, as there was no way he would go with them after seeing that, same with the player playing the politician (he'd never get elected now that he was on film helping in that madness). he is now playing a gladiator type character, and I'm a creepy borg-like character.
and they were STILL MAD at me for now making an evil character while 'the rest of the party was neutral'. I don't think I've ever face palmed that hard before.
so in this instance, what do you all think, was I the asshole for playing my character that way, and being against the group, or were they for suddenly launching us down a piracy/evil storyline?
Not the assholr
But when is it acceptable to write
The Backstory Of Doom?
If you handwrite a several hundred page multilingual character backstory, you deserve a good few perks. Just don't expect anyone to read it and make sure you're not straight up power gaming for no reason.
All of my players are colossal pains in my ass. They're life long friends and In some cases, I was the one to introduce them to D&D. I have love (most of) them immensely. However I also suffer from clinical depression and there are times I have to remind them about Rule #4... not because they are trying to actually be hurtful but when you're already not in a good headspace for one reason or another the banter can go over the top. And it's always painful. On one hand I love them and for the most part I join in on the back and forth shit talking but its not always easy... and I know most of them feel the same way...
So when Davvy says REALLY REALLY know them... you really should just not build that sort of relationship with people you don't know outside of D&D... especially if you're into playing through Roll20 or other services like that. Because it takes having a genuine feeling of camaraderie and affection to want to ask a person how they're doing and actually listen... You can't always be on that level with an acquaintances... and if your inadvertently bullying them and not having a follow up to that sort of relationship you're probably going to cause them more problems then enjoyment.
In short this is just a further illustration of the point Davvy made: Don't be a Dick to people you don't know very well and care about to a degree greater than just a casual acquaintance.
Damn Davvy 4. Feels like it was directed at me, right in the feels
Oooh I'm gonna try doing the Roleplaying one for my Wendigo Galliard in our Werewolf the apocalypse Campaign. ^^
Im honest i can confirm this special " what you wanna do" moment for players ass a dm
I didnt thought it would be that special till one of my players litterally asks " how can i kill him" after he defeated a boss scince then ill let them
5:07 That description of being bullied really got me.
Who hurt you, Davvy, you glorious bisexual Phoenix, so I may throw d20s at them?
oh my gosh I'm so tempted to send this to my sister now after hearing the "stop stealing fucking everything!" line. we were in the middle of our first boss fight, I get a HDYWT on the bad guy and cut him into pieces before turning back to the wisps harassing everyone and my sister goes "I'm gonna go loot the bad guy" I'm sitting there like, WTF?!
In a campaign there were 3DMs and 3 groups that were kinda against each other and I might’ve cast spare the dying when everyone died and said “that’s what my character would do” since I didn’t want to kill all of them
Tips for an evil aligned campaign
Prepare.
Like.
Fuck.
Evil as in "Us against the world" ? or "Everyone for it self and last one standing get it all" ?
Golden rule of jabs: if your is not responded to with a joke or a returning jab, seize the jabbing
I have one friend who I can no longer play any tabletop roleplaying games with because of situations perfectly described in the "don't be a dick" section. In every game I've played with him, all of his characters are dicks in some way or another and I'm not the only one that doesn't want to play with him anymore because of it.
I remember one campaign I was in with him, my character had saved his life, run him back to the nearest town through the night to get him medical attention, spent the next few days using all my spell slots to cast Cure Wounds on him to prevent horrible burn scars all over his body and even trusted him to visit my character's home. On the other end, HIS character throughout what we played had Lost my character a job, constantly insulted him and called him an idiot, stole from his house, and LAUGHED IN MY CHARACTER'S FACE WHEN MY CHARACTER FOUND OUT HIS FATHER FIGURE HAD DIED.
I had to to talk to him about this kind of thing many times. I'd tell him it wasn't fun for me, how it was making game night miserable and ask him to please stop, and he just ignored me.
Now because of that, if I ever play a character that is anything other than a nice person, I always tell my fellow party members "If my character seems like too much of a jerk, let me know, I'll tweek them or play a different character," . Thankfully I haven't had to worry about that yet.
Another one I have is don't force or pressure a PC or a player to doing something that they wouldn't have fun doing, and don't tell anyone at the table how they should play their role. Just because you are a cleric doesn't mean you have to be spamming healing spells left right and center. If the player wants to be that one murderer hobo cleric that spans Channel energy on all the undead then let them. If the Bard doesn't want to be social with any of the NPC's the don't force them to. These are things that happened that either left a bad taste in my mouth or just cause me to quit the group.
I don’t play heavy or do voices but I describe my character and actions like I’m narrating my piece of their world.
I hate when people only talk bout matt mercer like HELLO have you seen Travis or Liam or Sam. absolute CHADS at the table
I played a money maniac in a oneshot once (not a rogue though). A party member threw 10g onto the street in the "criminal district" just to see what would happen. My character made an acrobatic dive to snatch some of the coins out of the air and then fought in the crowd for the rest.
@Natasel It was a tiefling hobo called Scratches. But i wish i had called him Scrooge xD.