More videos coming soon! I'm not leaving for several months again anytime soon hahaha. I took the holidays off and January sucks for ad revenue so it was a good break, but now we're back babyyyy!
Always great to have ya. Your optimism and advice make these usually pretty bleak stories way better. It reminds me that the game can be great, even when there are some real bad players and DMs.
@@mawrakmaybe for the first few turns? But I can’t imagine it would remain hilarious if the party was committed to keeping one of the players in slavery?
This reminds me of the worst DM I ever had. There was a TPK in session one because we didn't run the first dungeon *_exactly_* the way he wanted us to. So he threw a Gary Stu at us who was invincible, all-powerful, and negated all saving rolls. He was mad because "you didn't stealth through the entire thing like you were supposed to". A party with no rogues, stealthing...through an ostentatious, glittering palace made of gold. Riiiight. He was very pouty and kicked us all off the discord server.
This is why either players need to know the world to make their characters for it or the DM needs to know the characters to make their world for it. If both are made independent of one another, anarchy is certain to follow.
@@starplane1239 Or, alternatively, as the DM you adapt to the circumstance instead of TPKing them with a homebrew CR 30 railroad machine for not bringing pass without trace. It doesn't really matter how well the stealth actually goes... all that matters is whether or not they have fun trying it. (Edit: You do have a point about communication between the player and DM's though, that is important. It's just that as a DM you can stare at the character sheets all you want, but you can never really plan for everything... there's a certain point where you've gotta rely on your improv to fill in the gaps between what you expected and what they actually end up doing. The communication is best for after the fact when something you tried didn't work out well.)
Ok on that last story, OP, you don't get to consider whether or not you should keep playing because you're already not playing. The group already decided to act like you the player aren't there, and you already don't have any control. You never started playing D&D with this group, you only started getting bullied by them and have no reason to stick around after being denied the ability to actually play the game in the first place
While I do agree the other players were kind of dicks, I wouldn't say the OP was entirely blameless there, taking in he first played a total joke character, and then replaced it.... with an autognome, which is a total joke race, and even giving it a complete joke name, so it is no wonder they didn't take him seriously that time either.
@@Klaital1Nah even joke characters should always always have complete agency leashing him up and forcing him to stay put "or else" this or that isn't on. Those other players sounded 8 years old
@@Tom-bi7irMost of my characters are jokes one (I have like two that aren't) and like. I don't know a lot of group that doesn't like their comic relief. Because they're actually pretty neat when they're a need to relax, for the players or the characters
@@Klaital1if the player was only kept as a slave for a short while then maybe I’d agree with you? But based on what is mentioned, I got the impression that the party had no intentions of ever freeing him at any point. In which case the fault is entirely on the party
Wait, do people actually think autognome is a joke race? They get to add extra d4s to their rolls at will, +3 AC while not wearing armor, mending heals them, and they aren't forced to take their +2 in con like warforged are... Idk, sounds fun to me. There's definitely a lot more going for it than "lmao tiny warforged" once you take a closer look, that's for sure
My favorite campaign I've ever DM'd was a revenant campaign. The characters were level 20, fully established in the world, so they had full reason to defend the kingdom they were protectors of. The beast they fought slaughtered them all and each one made a cool reason for coming back, with some sort of weapon or custom cantrip tied to it. The stronger they became, the stronger their ties and their choices became. After two years we're still going and they just hit level 14 last month. I guess my main point is you can still make it a great idea with a tpk, but you HAVE to plan for it.
@@coolgreenbug7551 it was backstory, plus a fun thing where they'd claim to be the dead heroes and NOCs going "suuuuure bud, and I'm the king of thieves"
Hey, can you drop a couple tips on how to do a ressurrection? Im thinking I might want to give that as an option to my players later in a campaign im running.
You mean to tell me that new players don't enjoy the older players having their characters bully the new character and treat them like a three-legged dog? :surprised_pikachu_face:
I think some people get into D&D to work through their inferiority complex. I've had DM's who absolutely gloat about killing their characters in the most horseshoed ways possible. It's like wow, I'm totally amazed that your level 9 DMPC Padlock beat my level 3 Ranger, and after only rolling 3 "secret" crits I wasn't allowed to see, all of which resulted in max damage with all sorts of bonuses. In an imaginary world you invented. Good job. I'm so glad I came to the table.
@bbureau12 hahaha unfortunately this is so bang on. And then the DM looks around the table for praise like wow your DMPC killing us all was so cool you must be a super cool person too
@@Tom-bi7ir5:27 100% i had pc characters that i used as part of side quests for the players to help, or give players some info. I dm tyranny of dragons, had 3 of my characters of 3 different factions and gave a few players invites to the factions and use rep pts to give them some bonuses and items. Spend a few downtime days to train with a higher faction member to get a single use advantage attack in any fight. Doesn't stack. Or +1 to attack rolls for 1 encounter until they return back to water deep. I used some of my other players characters from other campaigns to be quest givers or passersby to buy or sell items that they had no use of etc. These are my DMPCs and how i use them. Its not they're job to be the attention of the story but as the side or background character to the party.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good of a sport the wizard is at the beginning? His character gets one shot before Initiative even starts, and he’s rolling up a new one without complaint. He becomes brain dead and needs to find some DMPC to cure him, and he gets into it with some roleplay. He deserves a DM who could nurture those skills rather than taking advantage of them.
especially because that first death is an easy "set the states & give a good short term goal" bit. Alas the DM didn't fully communicate what kind of stakes they were setting past that.
While scooping the gnome is a classic joke that third story was absolutely dehumanizing. Where it appears its just a DM saying yes to whatever the party wants and imagines and if it means messing with another player the DM doesn't even care
Had a Paladin delete himself to my horror as a DM. He had a barely passed saving throw on lycanthropy. He was sure he failed it so I thought it would be fun to play into that. Dreams during the long rests. Letting the party know the full moon was coming up in a couple nights. Paladin offs himself night before the full moon so he doesn’t hurt anyone. Wizard player was like “we could have chained you up with silver chains or something bro!”
I started DM’ing for my nephew a few months ago after he begged me to teach him how to play. I am currently the DM for a table of three. I have been using these videos as a “what not to do” and it has been working very well for me so far. It is unlikely the creator of the video will see this, but keep posting. Your content is improving the games of hundreds of players out there.
This dm did something that required forcing the players hand rather than telling the player outright, I one did a campaign where every player was undead, and they were informed of this beforehand. They could choose how long they’d been dead and what dynasty they died in as well as what condition their body was in. It’s as simple as telling the players hey you’re all gonna be undead.
Had a DM who blindsided me eight levels in by tossing out my backstory and revealing that my dwarven engineer came from a rich family and owned slaves. No prior discussion or even foreshadowing. We just show up to my hometown and BAM my parents turn from quirky inventors to Gone with the Wind stereotypes.
As a player who easily gets distracted when I'm not doing something. Might I recommend the task: note taker. It gives you a thousand mini games in taking note of NPCs. Names, race, gender, class if there is one, what time of day it is, where you are, etc. My group appreciates my notes, my DM feels their world is appreciated, and I can put the Squirrel Brain to good use
I've always had trouble focusing/listening if I'm just sitting there doing nothing else. Writing down what I'm listening to gives me a physical fidget that keeps my brain from wandering off into itself, that also forces me to pay attention to what's being said.
This is one of a few roles in the party that is absolutely essential. The “acquisitions inc” book had it as an in-game occupation, with a special item that levels with the player as they level. It’s a great reward for a player who enjoys note taking.
Or, as me and my wife just said when I told her about it, you tell the players that is the plan in the beginning. It will lead to some awesome moments in that initial bit, everybody in no fear of going out in a blaze of glory. Though personally, I’d run each character individually through a “how you died” intro bit, since killing them *as a party* kind of ruins the whole “we come together to be strong enough to fight back” angle.
*The last story..* As someone who is playing as a robot-type character currently, I get that. If they're not a ranger or doesn't have a DMPC hobgoblin or beast, you DO NOT get a "familiar" PC, they're a PC. They don't get to treat a PC as though it were a pet, and you don't get to ruin other PCs stories, introduction, or develop features for them (like exhaust pipes or reset buttons), and you sure don't enslave or dismantle/kill PCs. 100%, leave that group, it's clear that they're all trying to meme and don't take things seriously, even the feelings of other players.
I did a horror one-shot once which took place in a realm-of-the-dead. The whole thing started out with me narrating a 'cut scene' about them falling into the river, and then 'waking up' on a strange beach. Granted, the players didn't even know their characters were dead at that point, but had a lot of fun slowly piecing it together and then trying to claw their way back to life.
Aint even seent the video yet. Started to worry weeks ago you had gone forever. Glad you're still at it CritCrab. You and Sir Knox are all I've got left of DnD after deployment!
I'l always be baffled at the ego of these DMs to create ultra-powered DMPCs. Being GOD, being every NPC, being every monster and shaping the entire world wasn't enough for you? You've got to control the players aswell? This is DND, not Ego Flex Simulator
Meanwhile, my brother's DMPC (a warlock) was dirt poor and (accidentally, but he ran with it) poorly spec'd. He started a running joke going, "Don't worry, guys, Chet's here" each time his turn came up. He eventually got a new patron, becoming more competent at combat, but never even tried to steal the spotlight. In fact, sometimes we had to remind him to acknowledge Chet's existence!
Random ass NPCs don't tend to last very long. It's nice to have a character that you can have regularly interact with the group and bounce of the PCs, as well as a potential in-character source of plot hooks and nudges. ... but please for the love of God do not make that character more powerful than the entire group.
Nice to see more stories from ya Crit Crab. I feel the last OP's pain about swapping a joke character for a serious one. I did a similar thing between a "smart yet socially dumb" lizard folk artificer and a "hardy and life worn" Tortle Barbarian. Party just took the "crazy tendencies" of my first character and would not take anything my Tortle would say seriously. Even when id roll checks for info, succeed, and be proven right at the end, the party just stuck with "crazy reptile being crazy again", and would not listen. It took me no longer engaging with the party for them to have an Intervention night FOR ME to properly understand my frustrations about the treatment. Campaign didnt last after that
Yeesh. The last story gave me some flashback to a horrible larp event where my own guild put a leash on my character and sold them to the brothel while I was in werewolf form. And because it was larp, I was forcefully put on a leash physically. That was a horrible larp event in general, because SA was permitted in-character (by marking the other character’s face with a marker), and the whole ordeal let me realise that my guild was an extremely toxic friend group. I left them behind and now I became a TTRPG DM and I try to extensively communicate with the players about their comfort.
I feel like if the first DM had informed the party of their intentions with the story/the npc beforehand, especially the forced TPK that was probably happening for story reasons, things probably would have been okay in that campaign
At least I would have asked the DM what was the idea behind that fight or those characters. Because letting us play a battle for hours that we can't win, having to defend a useless character that seems wasn't useless... Give me something. If they can't justify it well, that's a wrap.
Well even then, I feel like it wouldn't be worth playing. Its one thing to open with TPKing the party via a Lich or something to kick off the Revenant Plot, of opening up with an explanation on how the Party Members each died, and opening with their resurrection. You know, like a tangible and easy to understand reason for their deaths, that would be fine. But if the DM is willing to open with w CR 30 Homebrew Monster that can kill them if they simply move at all, which is a huge part of combat, and that CR 30 Monster was made by the BBEG they are supposed to kill, it doesn't feel like something they would be able to win. Like if a DM opened by explaining what happened to my character before resurrection like "Over 400 years ago, you were tasked with exploring a seemingly long abandoned mine, only to be confronted and killed by a Lich" that's something I, the player, can wrap my head around and be like "Yeah, that checks" But if a DM opens with "Okay, so you're fighting this monster, and everything you do seems to not affect the monster, but everything it and you do, seems to damage you greatly, including breathing" I wouldn't want to play in that game, cause the task doesn't sound difficult, it sounds insurmountable if everything I do against this creature kills me
As for the last story, many people really enjoy a constant banter and taunting with each other whenever possible. I honestly never get along with such people, but at the end of the day they are just having their own fun. Still, the majority are smart enough to realize who they can playfully banter with. I love it when I get excluded of such treatment, since I'm just not that kind of person.
If he would have at least gave them a heads up what the plan was it could have worked. For the second tale I'd have outright said no to the DM when the fighter tried to pick me up and told him either we shut this crap down right now or I walk. I know I am likely an outlier in that but as a Forever DM myself I've learned that while it is almost always better to let the players do their thing the keyword in that is "almost." I do wonder how CritCrab would feel about my Gundam based TTRPG somehow spiraling into a situation where the players are helping a Crab God who talks like Macho Man fight against a cabal of cartoon evil geniuses led by a dracolich hiding among them. Most interesting part is how the transition from grounded mech story to "Macho Crab hits a boney lizard with the Carb Jab OH YEAH!" was entirely organic and rather spur of the moment as I never intended it to go this way (All started with a Nat 1 on a player's attempt to catch a crab during the token beach episode).
To play devil's advocate; If the campaign was meant to mostly take place in various afterlife planes, I could see this TPK idea working out. I actually had a PC in one game "let themselves" die because they wanted to play a different character, only to have that character RP in the afterlife until the party was a high enough level to resurrect them. His character was a worshipper of Cayden Cailean (playing PF 1e) and so he spent most of his RP time in the Boneyard's (the N death plane where souls go before their final destination) chapel to Cayden, which (being that he was the Drunk God) was a bar. He'd hang out with a Catrina Psychopomp (a female Dios los Muertos skeleton that helps welcome & guide souls) or deal with an ambassador from Hell & other planes, trying to get his soul, etc. It was a fun "meanwhile..." thing we'd do every so often until he returned to the Material Plane.
@@zeestar0112 I'm thinking of pathfinder specifically, I have a build that's a druid monk multiclass. Wildshape into a plant creature so they get regeneration like a troll (possibly a form that only cold can shut it down), natural armor, DR, and a monk's wisdom bonus to AC and other monk-ish abilities. Never actually going to use him, but I like the threat of him. "You want me bring out Weald?"
Another cool idea for the revenant story is let the players know the jist of the campaign "the campaign starts with you guys waking up after your deaths, you do not remember your life but you only remember the entity that killed you. Also i would like the first session to be us playing your last battle." Then in the battle you gotta give the players a huge win at the cost of their lives, maybe the bbeg was doing a massive AoE and the players has a chance to save a lot of townsfolk at the sacrifice of their life. Something that gives their death meaning.
I had an idea for a revenant campaign. The general idea was that the party would agree to investigate some strange happenings at a noble's estate, they arrive at the manor and... Suddenly, it's a week later and they're mysteriously revived from being dead. How did they die, what revived them, and what happened during the week that they lost? Those are mysteries to be uncovered during the campaign. I never ran the scenario, so I can't properly say how well it would go over.
Our DM, back in 4th edition, ran a game where we died in the first session. It was planned for the story and we knew it was going to happen. However, our characters still fought like it was their lives. We pulled some incredible stunts and managed to survive the encounter that was designed to end us. He had to direct some of the other monsters in the area to finish us off because we essentially could have run it to a stalemate. We all have been playing D&D for years and some of us work together very well as we know what each other are thinking and play into that cohesion. In the end it was fine and was an actually fun battle and we regularly bring it up in our stories as the two characters (mine was a Goliath warden and the other was a cleric of some sort, can't remember) that held off against impossible odds. But, as stated, we all have been playing for years, decades by now. Friends and family so it is a pretty solid group. Sadly, that campaign ended due to other reasons, can't quite remember but I think it was from a couple people moving away. It's fine, we all have a discord game running now, Pathfinder 2e. Abomination Vaults. And have a side game running with a couple other people as well, live game at a table.
I had been trying for literal years to become part of a D&D campaign. I had wanted to play since I was a young child. It absolutely blows my entire mind when people check out in the middle of games. If you don't want to be there, don't waste everyone else's time. I get checking your phone every once in awhile or small things like that, but many of these stories talk about players doing all kinds of shit in the middle of games. It's rude, absurd, and inconsiderate.
Love the videos. I appreciate your (usually) level-headed input that gets sprinkled throughout the stories. All that being said, does anyone else struggle listening to these at 1× speed? Or is it just cuz I have adhd? Lmao
I think it could be really cool to tell the players beforehand that their characters will die during an encounter somewhere in one of the first sessions. As long as you have players interested in roleplaying their characters they can use it as a chance to show of how their characters deal with a hopeless situation as well as show how their death changes them. I think it could feel like a pretty neat character introduction that could become really memorable. Just make sure that they know that they aren't guaranteed to be brought back if they lose to the wrong encounter. Or at least make sure that you have players who understands that their characters don't know that they will be brought back.
So very happy to see you're okay and still making videos. I noticed you hadn't posted in quite awhile when I was going through my subscriptions this past weekend and got a little worried.
13:40 At that point I would keep talking and when he eventually comes back I tell him his character died off screen. And the last story was "wtf". Just tell them to go f themselves and be on your way...
Crab is back baby! Hell yeah! Coincidentally, I've been binging the entire RPG stories Playlist for like the 3rd time and was almost at the end (just finished the one about the noob dm who lied to her party about her experience), so seeing a new video, and hopefully more to come soon, is great news! I was even thinking about that recently, hoping there would be more soon. I've missed you crab god. Glad to have you back. ❤
oh as that robot? RP: Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, the robot decides to go into standby mode, until some interaction of substance arises. And then i would have proceeded to play mario kart for the DM to see.
In my current online session, if the focus is on another character in an rp moment that my character is not present in, I play... Solitaire. Yes, Solitaire. There are plenty of websites that host it, and it's easy enough to look away from.
Planned session 1 TPKs and meatgrinder openings where you chew through dozens of characters in a night can work- IF you get player buy-in beforehand. Although 5e isn't the best system for meatgrinders. It helps to be able to generate a new character in 30 seconds
We have a campaign going rn where we did about 10 sessions where we got to know everyone's characters and build up relationships and trust... knowing we'd all die before the campaign truly got started. We all knew what was coming and even nicknamed the dungeon the Murder House once we realized what it was, and we were excited to see how we all came back changed. We all knew from jump our characters were going to die before the campaign could truly start, so we purposely did a prequel so we could get more attached and thusly have a more impactful story. Not telling your players ahead of time that's the goal is exactly where that DM went wrong.
The last story really resonates with me. I hope they ditch that group, going along with extremely uncomfortable RP like that may seem harmless to some, but it's really not. When that peer pressure shit invades your fantasy, it screws you up- ruins your perception of fun, social interaction, and safety. Speaking from experience y’all, it’s Hell believing you can't even PRETEND to be safe.
I actually had a player that was laughing out load during my narration. and I laughed along thinking they were laughing at the npc antics but when they laughed again I ask what was so funny and they said they were watching a live stream and I instantly became really mad. They later admitted they just weren't feeling ttrpgs and left which I think was for the best and I'm glad they eventually just were honest about it. But The instance just really frustrated me and makes me wonder what other players are feeling...
6:48 i am just a little puzzled. Why do this as a DM? Do you want to show narratively the NPC (well, DMPC)'s strength? Because at this point there very well be no point to have the other players sitting in the table.
I'm of the opinion that DMPCs can be done right with a good DM. In our current campaign(which is showing signs of the Underdark sprinkled in), the DM is playing a heavy armor cleric as the party has a wild magic sorcerer fairy, a variant human fighter, and a "flaming" tiefling bard. While yes he has pulled a stunt that smells of BS(using create or destroy water to insta kill any enemy because hey it mostly made of water), the only reason was because we were getting hit harder than he was expecting(I blame his obnoxious rolls) and he didn't want there to be a TPK duing the 2nd fight of the campaign. When I say his rolls were obnoxious, I damn well mean it. Scene: I, the fighter, am setting up for an attack(not in range) on an enemy orc when he and the fairy nuke it from range. Then, an eye of grummsh bursts into the room and, me being the closest, charges right at me. DM rolls for the attacks and proceeds to double nat 20 on both attacks. I have Heavy Armor Mastery and I still take at least 70% of my HP. The commotion draws in the enemies from a different room and one of those enemies tosses a 3rd level Scorching Ray at the party and wouldn't you know it, he crits me yet again, finally putting me on the ground. Guess it was my time to tank the floor, as the Bard proceeds to join me for a third time this campaign thanks to the Eye's attacks.
8:56 Actually there's a Vampire the Masquerade pre-written that starts like that. Of course your players go into session 1 knowing that they will die super early on, but the way the book (Giovanni Chronicles #1) does it is this slowly rising tension where your death is the climax. After this long monologue of the main villain your drank and accidentally embraced as the castle is attacked. Great stuff, it's super fun.
These stories have helped temper me to not make mistakes/choices that badly. I'm DMing a play by post game, and was 100% up front in recruitment about it being a Journey To The West style "Escort Mission" type game. The DMPC is built with similar rules to the players, with known exceptions: classes with magic access above 6th level or higher are banned for players, to make magic more limited in setting and have the focus be on various types of martial combat. The DMPC is a Healer/Buffer type, in order to keep the combat focus on the players. And the only lie she's given (as the party quest giver) is that she's the hand-maiden for the Princess of the Empire the party is serving (she's *actually* said Princess, of course). Other than that, 100% upfront with everything in regards to the party and setting, right down from recruitment, and the players so far have said I'm doing a solid job, slight schedule slip around my life aside.
the campaign I'm in had our party sent into a theoretically unwinnable fight to come back as undead for a halloween """one-shot""" (our DM is very passionate about his writing. it was still connected to the main campaign, just a different tone to it) what he did differently was he designed the fight to simply be a bit higher than we reasonably could handle at the time, solidly within deadly difficulty. He even admitted months later that it was in fact possible to survive the planned TPK fight, and that we had gotten a lot closer to doing so than he thought we would have. Our new temporary character sheets were also a level or 2 stronger than our actual characters were, so we would have had a really tough time without our fun little leveled up toys to mess with if we had survived that fight, but either way, we still had agency in the fight despite the fact that he planned for us to lose the fight
To the OP in the first story. The point in time when the DM kills the Wizard in the first round (without activating Initiative) is the time for you to pull out your dagger and run at it blindly and attack until it kills you. Then pack up your things, thank the DM and other players for a great game and leave.
There's a great 2nd edition - era Ravenloft campaign called Grim Harvest / Requiem. In it, the players start as undead creatures: adventurers who happened to be in Darkon's capitol city when Azlin began the Grand Conjunction. Everyone in the city dies in the prologue. Including the PCs. They have Undead types as classes: Skeleton, Ghost, Lich, Vampire, Mummy, etc. It was a fantastic concept, and it worked precisely because it was up-front about what was in store. Players start as undead. They craft their characters using robust Proficiency rules that grant Undead powers and traditional class features. (Incidentally, if you play 2nd edition, you can convert those proficiency slot costs into XP Multipliers using the Class Creation rules at the beginning of the AD&D 2e DMG: meaning the Requiem boxed set gives you a LOT of additional content for crafting new 2e classes) Anyway, your video is great, and made me think of this campaign.
That last story baffles me, not just why the DM would allow other players to take one player's agency, but also why the other players would. I played in a few campaigns with the same group of people, and we know each other pretty well by this point. (Thanks CritCrab Discord for first introducing us all) We do sometimes joke about what one of the other characters might do, but it's obviously always the player's call. The only times I have witnessed one character physically interfering with what another character wants to do were situations like a character being charmed, or a werewolf being unable to stop themselves from attacking the last surviving bandit we need to question. Oh, and one time my character got in the way of the wizard killing a bunch of innocent goblins by standing between the wizard and the goblins. Not that it necessarily mattered, since he was an evoker and could just shape a spell around my character, but it stopped him regardless. Point being: There is no reason to ever take agency from another player, or their character, unless the player is okay with the character needing to be impeded.
I am all for throwing a super hard fight at the start of a session in a souls-like faction but I think a big part of that is that those fights are hard but winnable and teach important concepts about the narrative. You can run from the asylumn demon and explore to find an easier way to kill them or grab firebombs as starter equipment. I’m currently writing an eldritch horror game where there’s a waking world and a nightmare world. If you die in the nightmare world you wake up in the waking world. To illustrate that the world works this way I am starting the world in the nightmare world with a difficult but winnable boss at the end of the area to show that it’s ok to die in the nightmare world with the expectation that they will prepare a counter to the boss while they are awake, but even without preparing, you can flee, sneak, or fight it out and win with good rolls/tactics.
Yeah, if a DM is trying to do a Revanant Style game where the party is dead and comes back to life later on. The thing they are fighting that kills them the first time has to feel like it can be beaten. If the DM designs a monster that's super tanky, hits like a truck, and forces the party to T-Pose in place or die moving...that doesn't sound winnable...that sounds like something that will kill them off one by one as they helplessly hack into it or flee from it. If direct confrontation isn't an option and fleeing isn't an option, it doesn't feel like something that can be defeated soundly, even if you try to use traps, if those traps fail and you need to run to try again, too bad, you die cause moving kills ya
While we haven't actually begun, I am doing a campaign where everyone dies at the beginning and then comes back to life. And I'd argue that, based on the table, you can depict their deaths and ill-fated last stands... as long as you tell them what you're planning. Like I said, based off the table. And while we aren't traditional TTRPG players, we do like our roleplaying and some folks relish in getting to have their character angst over dying.
In the second story I get the dm has anxiety, we all do. But if someone out of nowhere is playing another game and doesn't pay you attention when you call them it's their problem, not yours. If people aren't feeling engaged with the story or there's something wrong with your ways as a dm people will let you know, because they care. If they ignore you it's because they don't care... Of course I'd advice to talk to them about this, tell them "if you aren't interested no one forces you to play". That story made me so angry that the guy called off the game because of that!
"DMs are supposed to support and guide players. " Sorry, but between railroading and telling the players how awesome my DMPC is, I got no time for that.
I've only started listening to a few of these DMPC stories, but, honestly, I think the DM's would get WAY more attention and positive feedback if they just streamed them playing these things alone. ETA: Having a "revenant" storyline seems like something you need to warn your players about, as that could be so distressing. Lack of player agency. Mental health struggles. Like, if the DM came to me and said "I have this idea - jailbrake hell", I'd respond with "What did you have in mind?" and discussed how we got there. I wouldn't be okay with self-ending in that situation. But I would've been okay in the wizard's shoes for a few sessions if it meant all the characters died in ways all the players were comfortable with.
I relate to that last story with the character not being taken seriously. It's part of why I somewhat resent my first d&d group. My characters were often made fun of (my character was suggested to be gay despite not being, but two of the other players acted like he was anyway. Then another character was very much made as a joke; despite his more serious backstory involving his wife, the character's wife was somehow turned into a joke character. I really felt like I was the butt of most of the jokes, especially since one of the other players insisted on his clearly edgy characters be taken seriously (more or less main character syndrome). It wasn't fun to play when it felt like I wasn't being considered a real player, but a punching bag for humor.
I feel like being a player is a balance between claiming the spotlight your character deserves, while also uplifting your partymembers and letting them have their moments. I am terrified of taking up too much space in the campaign. I'm in a modern campaign and my character is STUPID RICH. So i tend to encourage other players in weird ways😂 "I don't want to make a fuss. I can't afford to." "I CAN. USE ME. I KNOW SOME GOOD LAWYERS."
I had a player that would consistently play Minecraft when we were playing d&d on roll20. I let it go for a couple sessions then I asked her "why should I spend all my time setting up a campaign, think up different scenarios, and put 100% of my brain power towards reacting to what the group is doing when you can't be bothered to give the game any attention."
In my experience, players don't need help getting killed. My players literally ran *Into* a bomb site to look for loot . . . they rolled extremely well and managed to get the loot and with enough potions of healing managed to save themselves and the npcs they were trying to rescue. They narrowly survived the blast, being on the outer extremes of the explosion, all their goblin friends were on fire but they survived thanks to the help of potions. They managed to get just about 100% of the high tier loot from the blast radius and make it out with no casualties. I still chastised them for risking everything for some loot, if they failed a single roll they would have tpk'd. I am a little proud of them though... And just so you know, my players weren't suppose to be there at all, I invented a three part security system to keep them out, making it extremely hard to even arrive at that location *because I had intended to bomb it in the story* They Nat 20'd so many times...
So since it's been a while, you're getting this late but, here's what I planned to say to your fist video of the year..."Happy new year everyone! and as I know there's a lot of bad out there and hope to help counter it with good, I just want to start the new year off with sincere thanks and love for all you do and remind you that you are awesome, and we appreciate you!!!" still true even if it's a bit latter than I expected!
I had a buddy who dm’d for us. He was absolutely horrific at it(not that I’m talking shit, I would be too.) but even though the campaign was pretty bad, I still put as much effort in as I could to roleplay and engage with him. I let him know what I thought of it when it was over, but yeah. Even if your dm isn’t the greatest, don’t disrespect them by completely ignoring them to play games.
For the second story, another option is if you need to keep your hands or eyes busy while playing but it helps you focus or at the very least you don't lose focus talk to the DM in private about it and make sure it isn't distracting anyone else in the group for both online and in person groups. Courtesy to your DMs goes a long way
There’s part of me that wants to share a story from my campaign, but I know that the person I’d be talking about would know it’s them since they regularly watch this channel
The best way I’ve seen killing a character done was in a one shot where I died a minute into meeting the final boss and the DM had me play as the orphan we were supposed to save as a fighter or monk, I chose monk, escaped, and helped beat the boss. Then before dying he told us a sacrifice was necessary for the towns harvests to continue so they don’t all starve, the wizard who hired us to help was right there, everyone agreed an orphan’s life wasn’t worth this harvest until I said “well I don’t want my town to starve” and proceeded to bash the wizard from the back of the head with a wooden staff I found and proceeded to Negan him, completing the ritual as the final boss smiled and faded away. The DM (in the “this is hype” way) lost it, and the other players did the same. Everyone was happy and I wish other DM’s adopted the same things at least for one shots or small instances. Also the DM in this story was remarkably stupid for how he executed this plan.
CritCrab's back; Happy Day!!! The first one is failing to understand that no matter how cool you think your idea is, if you're brute-forcing the PCs into it, they're going to be annoyed and may not hang around for long enough to experience the 'Big Payoff' you have planned. The second one, I'm familiar with from all sides and if you need something to occupy you when you're not present IC or not included in the current scene, choose something that you can pick up and put down immediately and that doesn't take too much focus and either don't let on (as CritCrab suggests), or do the reverse and explain to your GM and fellow players that no matter how awesome their GMing/playing is, your brain can't maintain focus. Let them know it's a You thing, not a Them thing and you'll avoid a lot of potential upset. They may even have suggestions for how to deal with the issue (Some may just go dor the r/thanksimcured approach and say "Just pay attention!" or the like). The last one is 100% a bail situation; this GM is letting the other players bully OP and that is a definite "No D&D is Better than Bad D&D" scenario.
If I were in the last situation, I would probably have abandoned the Autognome and rolled up a character as its original operator to attack the party to get the Autognome back
More videos coming soon! I'm not leaving for several months again anytime soon hahaha.
I took the holidays off and January sucks for ad revenue so it was a good break, but now we're back babyyyy!
Always great to have ya. Your optimism and advice make these usually pretty bleak stories way better. It reminds me that the game can be great, even when there are some real bad players and DMs.
Finally i can cure this crab deficiency ive been struggling with
i'm glad to have you back! you're getting me into DnD and i'm still to learn the rules and find somewhere to play but i absolutely adore your videos!
We missed you! ❤❤❤
Welcome back.
"Short answer: Don't. Long answer: Do Not." Love this line.
I’m definitely stealing that one
Just as Nameless Deity once said:
*DO NOT!*
idk getting captured into slavery immediately after introduction is hilarious
@@mawrakmaybe for the first few turns? But I can’t imagine it would remain hilarious if the party was committed to keeping one of the players in slavery?
Had me roaring, fantastic line! XD
DM: Slavery in Waterdeep is fine.
Skullport: Wait, WTF? Since when???
How are going to have our criminal slave trade now.
They cut us out of the picture boys!
@johngleeman8347 business is not going good. What are we going to tell the boss.
@quagsiremcgee1647 We Tell em someone's pulling up on our territory!
This reminds me of the worst DM I ever had. There was a TPK in session one because we didn't run the first dungeon *_exactly_* the way he wanted us to. So he threw a Gary Stu at us who was invincible, all-powerful, and negated all saving rolls. He was mad because "you didn't stealth through the entire thing like you were supposed to". A party with no rogues, stealthing...through an ostentatious, glittering palace made of gold. Riiiight.
He was very pouty and kicked us all off the discord server.
Yea. I bet some of you where Heavy Armor users as well. Making Stealth even less of an option
@@redholm Yup, we had a Paladin and a Barbarian. Stealth? Stealth how? 😂
@@WobblesandBean Yea. I often play Clerics. And it's like. If you want Stealth. I'll just stay at home while you guys deal with it :P
This is why either players need to know the world to make their characters for it or the DM needs to know the characters to make their world for it. If both are made independent of one another, anarchy is certain to follow.
@@starplane1239 Or, alternatively, as the DM you adapt to the circumstance instead of TPKing them with a homebrew CR 30 railroad machine for not bringing pass without trace.
It doesn't really matter how well the stealth actually goes... all that matters is whether or not they have fun trying it.
(Edit: You do have a point about communication between the player and DM's though, that is important. It's just that as a DM you can stare at the character sheets all you want, but you can never really plan for everything... there's a certain point where you've gotta rely on your improv to fill in the gaps between what you expected and what they actually end up doing. The communication is best for after the fact when something you tried didn't work out well.)
So many RPG horror stories just boil down to the DM refusing to explain to the players what he actually wants to happen before the game begins.
Because they want the story to be a surprise or something like that.
Ok on that last story, OP, you don't get to consider whether or not you should keep playing because you're already not playing. The group already decided to act like you the player aren't there, and you already don't have any control. You never started playing D&D with this group, you only started getting bullied by them and have no reason to stick around after being denied the ability to actually play the game in the first place
While I do agree the other players were kind of dicks, I wouldn't say the OP was entirely blameless there, taking in he first played a total joke character, and then replaced it.... with an autognome, which is a total joke race, and even giving it a complete joke name, so it is no wonder they didn't take him seriously that time either.
@@Klaital1Nah even joke characters should always always have complete agency leashing him up and forcing him to stay put "or else" this or that isn't on. Those other players sounded 8 years old
@@Tom-bi7irMost of my characters are jokes one (I have like two that aren't) and like. I don't know a lot of group that doesn't like their comic relief. Because they're actually pretty neat when they're a need to relax, for the players or the characters
@@Klaital1if the player was only kept as a slave for a short while then maybe I’d agree with you? But based on what is mentioned, I got the impression that the party had no intentions of ever freeing him at any point. In which case the fault is entirely on the party
Wait, do people actually think autognome is a joke race? They get to add extra d4s to their rolls at will, +3 AC while not wearing armor, mending heals them, and they aren't forced to take their +2 in con like warforged are... Idk, sounds fun to me. There's definitely a lot more going for it than "lmao tiny warforged" once you take a closer look, that's for sure
My favorite campaign I've ever DM'd was a revenant campaign. The characters were level 20, fully established in the world, so they had full reason to defend the kingdom they were protectors of. The beast they fought slaughtered them all and each one made a cool reason for coming back, with some sort of weapon or custom cantrip tied to it. The stronger they became, the stronger their ties and their choices became. After two years we're still going and they just hit level 14 last month.
I guess my main point is you can still make it a great idea with a tpk, but you HAVE to plan for it.
did they make it up to 20 then die or was that backstory?
@@coolgreenbug7551 it was backstory, plus a fun thing where they'd claim to be the dead heroes and NOCs going "suuuuure bud, and I'm the king of thieves"
Also: you need players who are on board for that sort of story. You don't just throw it in session 1 with no warning.
I just want to hear one of the people in your group said "uuuh they came back to life because they forgot to feed their cat"
Hey, can you drop a couple tips on how to do a ressurrection? Im thinking I might want to give that as an option to my players later in a campaign im running.
You mean to tell me that new players don't enjoy the older players having their characters bully the new character and treat them like a three-legged dog? :surprised_pikachu_face:
I think some people get into D&D to work through their inferiority complex. I've had DM's who absolutely gloat about killing their characters in the most horseshoed ways possible. It's like wow, I'm totally amazed that your level 9 DMPC Padlock beat my level 3 Ranger, and after only rolling 3 "secret" crits I wasn't allowed to see, all of which resulted in max damage with all sorts of bonuses. In an imaginary world you invented. Good job. I'm so glad I came to the table.
You should type up a summary of that shit show and have CC or one of the other D&D youtubers read it. XD@@bbureau12
@bbureau12 hahaha unfortunately this is so bang on. And then the DM looks around the table for praise like wow your DMPC killing us all was so cool you must be a super cool person too
@@Tom-bi7ir5:27 100% i had pc characters that i used as part of side quests for the players to help, or give players some info. I dm tyranny of dragons, had 3 of my characters of 3 different factions and gave a few players invites to the factions and use rep pts to give them some bonuses and items. Spend a few downtime days to train with a higher faction member to get a single use advantage attack in any fight. Doesn't stack. Or +1 to attack rolls for 1 encounter until they return back to water deep. I used some of my other players characters from other campaigns to be quest givers or passersby to buy or sell items that they had no use of etc. These are my DMPCs and how i use them. Its not they're job to be the attention of the story but as the side or background character to the party.
@Yroko congrats? I duno what your looking for
“Insists the players off themselves” thought it was about to get real dark… but now I realize you meant their characters. Haha
And it was poorly executed, maybe I should try do this but it could be challenging in short game
Guy shoulda tried the Handsome Jack approach.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how good of a sport the wizard is at the beginning? His character gets one shot before Initiative even starts, and he’s rolling up a new one without complaint. He becomes brain dead and needs to find some DMPC to cure him, and he gets into it with some roleplay. He deserves a DM who could nurture those skills rather than taking advantage of them.
especially because that first death is an easy "set the states & give a good short term goal" bit. Alas the DM didn't fully communicate what kind of stakes they were setting past that.
That doesn't mean he's good. It means he is letting a bad DM walk all over him.
Did you know that in terms of…
While scooping the gnome is a classic joke that third story was absolutely dehumanizing. Where it appears its just a DM saying yes to whatever the party wants and imagines and if it means messing with another player the DM doesn't even care
Had a Paladin delete himself to my horror as a DM. He had a barely passed saving throw on lycanthropy. He was sure he failed it so I thought it would be fun to play into that. Dreams during the long rests. Letting the party know the full moon was coming up in a couple nights. Paladin offs himself night before the full moon so he doesn’t hurt anyone. Wizard player was like “we could have chained you up with silver chains or something bro!”
I started DM’ing for my nephew a few months ago after he begged me to teach him how to play. I am currently the DM for a table of three. I have been using these videos as a “what not to do” and it has been working very well for me so far. It is unlikely the creator of the video will see this, but keep posting. Your content is improving the games of hundreds of players out there.
This dm did something that required forcing the players hand rather than telling the player outright, I one did a campaign where every player was undead, and they were informed of this beforehand. They could choose how long they’d been dead and what dynasty they died in as well as what condition their body was in. It’s as simple as telling the players hey you’re all gonna be undead.
Had a DM who blindsided me eight levels in by tossing out my backstory and revealing that my dwarven engineer came from a rich family and owned slaves. No prior discussion or even foreshadowing. We just show up to my hometown and BAM my parents turn from quirky inventors to Gone with the Wind stereotypes.
All Praise the Crab King
And the Crab Queen, right?
He has returned from his leave to rule the crustaceans once again! 🦀🦀🦀
The crab king has returned with more wisdom from the deep
U mean
Cring
@@CrustaceanQueenThe crabs are our masters!
As a player who easily gets distracted when I'm not doing something. Might I recommend the task: note taker. It gives you a thousand mini games in taking note of NPCs. Names, race, gender, class if there is one, what time of day it is, where you are, etc. My group appreciates my notes, my DM feels their world is appreciated, and I can put the Squirrel Brain to good use
Great idea!
I've always had trouble focusing/listening if I'm just sitting there doing nothing else. Writing down what I'm listening to gives me a physical fidget that keeps my brain from wandering off into itself, that also forces me to pay attention to what's being said.
This is one of a few roles in the party that is absolutely essential. The “acquisitions inc” book had it as an in-game occupation, with a special item that levels with the player as they level. It’s a great reward for a player who enjoys note taking.
Leaving wasn't likely the best response, it was the only response. That DM in the first story was running a screwjob more or less.
[3] Keep the revenant idea in your back pocket in case of a TPK, but don't PLAN IT, and DO NOT FORCE IT!
Or, as me and my wife just said when I told her about it, you tell the players that is the plan in the beginning. It will lead to some awesome moments in that initial bit, everybody in no fear of going out in a blaze of glory.
Though personally, I’d run each character individually through a “how you died” intro bit, since killing them *as a party* kind of ruins the whole “we come together to be strong enough to fight back” angle.
*The last story..* As someone who is playing as a robot-type character currently, I get that. If they're not a ranger or doesn't have a DMPC hobgoblin or beast, you DO NOT get a "familiar" PC, they're a PC. They don't get to treat a PC as though it were a pet, and you don't get to ruin other PCs stories, introduction, or develop features for them (like exhaust pipes or reset buttons), and you sure don't enslave or dismantle/kill PCs. 100%, leave that group, it's clear that they're all trying to meme and don't take things seriously, even the feelings of other players.
I did a horror one-shot once which took place in a realm-of-the-dead.
The whole thing started out with me narrating a 'cut scene' about them falling into the river, and then 'waking up' on a strange beach. Granted, the players didn't even know their characters were dead at that point, but had a lot of fun slowly piecing it together and then trying to claw their way back to life.
When do monster like to party the most?
April Ghoul's Day.
*throws wadded up paper*
Boooooooo of disapproval XD
Nice.
Aint even seent the video yet. Started to worry weeks ago you had gone forever. Glad you're still at it CritCrab. You and Sir Knox are all I've got left of DnD after deployment!
20:30 dont forget den of the drake
Short answer: “don’t” long answer: “do not” is the best thing ever.
I'l always be baffled at the ego of these DMs to create ultra-powered DMPCs.
Being GOD, being every NPC, being every monster and shaping the entire world wasn't enough for you? You've got to control the players aswell? This is DND, not Ego Flex Simulator
Meanwhile, my brother's DMPC (a warlock) was dirt poor and (accidentally, but he ran with it) poorly spec'd. He started a running joke going, "Don't worry, guys, Chet's here" each time his turn came up. He eventually got a new patron, becoming more competent at combat, but never even tried to steal the spotlight. In fact, sometimes we had to remind him to acknowledge Chet's existence!
Random ass NPCs don't tend to last very long. It's nice to have a character that you can have regularly interact with the group and bounce of the PCs, as well as a potential in-character source of plot hooks and nudges.
... but please for the love of God do not make that character more powerful than the entire group.
That last story was just one wrecking ball after another hitting me in the jaw
Nice to see more stories from ya Crit Crab.
I feel the last OP's pain about swapping a joke character for a serious one. I did a similar thing between a "smart yet socially dumb" lizard folk artificer and a "hardy and life worn" Tortle Barbarian.
Party just took the "crazy tendencies" of my first character and would not take anything my Tortle would say seriously. Even when id roll checks for info, succeed, and be proven right at the end, the party just stuck with "crazy reptile being crazy again", and would not listen.
It took me no longer engaging with the party for them to have an Intervention night FOR ME to properly understand my frustrations about the treatment. Campaign didnt last after that
Yeesh. The last story gave me some flashback to a horrible larp event where my own guild put a leash on my character and sold them to the brothel while I was in werewolf form. And because it was larp, I was forcefully put on a leash physically. That was a horrible larp event in general, because SA was permitted in-character (by marking the other character’s face with a marker), and the whole ordeal let me realise that my guild was an extremely toxic friend group.
I left them behind and now I became a TTRPG DM and I try to extensively communicate with the players about their comfort.
I feel like if the first DM had informed the party of their intentions with the story/the npc beforehand, especially the forced TPK that was probably happening for story reasons, things probably would have been okay in that campaign
At least I would have asked the DM what was the idea behind that fight or those characters. Because letting us play a battle for hours that we can't win, having to defend a useless character that seems wasn't useless... Give me something. If they can't justify it well, that's a wrap.
Well even then, I feel like it wouldn't be worth playing. Its one thing to open with TPKing the party via a Lich or something to kick off the Revenant Plot, of opening up with an explanation on how the Party Members each died, and opening with their resurrection. You know, like a tangible and easy to understand reason for their deaths, that would be fine.
But if the DM is willing to open with w CR 30 Homebrew Monster that can kill them if they simply move at all, which is a huge part of combat, and that CR 30 Monster was made by the BBEG they are supposed to kill, it doesn't feel like something they would be able to win.
Like if a DM opened by explaining what happened to my character before resurrection like "Over 400 years ago, you were tasked with exploring a seemingly long abandoned mine, only to be confronted and killed by a Lich" that's something I, the player, can wrap my head around and be like "Yeah, that checks"
But if a DM opens with "Okay, so you're fighting this monster, and everything you do seems to not affect the monster, but everything it and you do, seems to damage you greatly, including breathing" I wouldn't want to play in that game, cause the task doesn't sound difficult, it sounds insurmountable if everything I do against this creature kills me
Fun fact, Power Word Kill isn't even on the cleric spell list. So this "depowered" cleric just switched to casting wizard spells
As for the last story, many people really enjoy a constant banter and taunting with each other whenever possible. I honestly never get along with such people, but at the end of the day they are just having their own fun.
Still, the majority are smart enough to realize who they can playfully banter with. I love it when I get excluded of such treatment, since I'm just not that kind of person.
If he would have at least gave them a heads up what the plan was it could have worked.
For the second tale I'd have outright said no to the DM when the fighter tried to pick me up and told him either we shut this crap down right now or I walk. I know I am likely an outlier in that but as a Forever DM myself I've learned that while it is almost always better to let the players do their thing the keyword in that is "almost."
I do wonder how CritCrab would feel about my Gundam based TTRPG somehow spiraling into a situation where the players are helping a Crab God who talks like Macho Man fight against a cabal of cartoon evil geniuses led by a dracolich hiding among them. Most interesting part is how the transition from grounded mech story to "Macho Crab hits a boney lizard with the Carb Jab OH YEAH!" was entirely organic and rather spur of the moment as I never intended it to go this way (All started with a Nat 1 on a player's attempt to catch a crab during the token beach episode).
I love that the first video after months is Crit Crab with the low tier god meme. Good to see that you're back
To play devil's advocate;
If the campaign was meant to mostly take place in various afterlife planes, I could see this TPK idea working out.
I actually had a PC in one game "let themselves" die because they wanted to play a different character, only to have that character RP in the afterlife until the party was a high enough level to resurrect them. His character was a worshipper of Cayden Cailean (playing PF 1e) and so he spent most of his RP time in the Boneyard's (the N death plane where souls go before their final destination) chapel to Cayden, which (being that he was the Drunk God) was a bar. He'd hang out with a Catrina Psychopomp (a female Dios los Muertos skeleton that helps welcome & guide souls) or deal with an ambassador from Hell & other planes, trying to get his soul, etc. It was a fun "meanwhile..." thing we'd do every so often until he returned to the Material Plane.
Meanwhile I showed my backup character to my DM and now he's afraid to kill me.
What was the back up character build?!?!
W H A T W A S T H E B A C K U P C H A R A C T E R
I love that threat "Dm...you kill me now like this, you know what's coming after right?"
@@tobster9567 eloquence bard with 2 levels of divination wizard
@@zeestar0112 I'm thinking of pathfinder specifically, I have a build that's a druid monk multiclass. Wildshape into a plant creature so they get regeneration like a troll (possibly a form that only cold can shut it down), natural armor, DR, and a monk's wisdom bonus to AC and other monk-ish abilities. Never actually going to use him, but I like the threat of him.
"You want me bring out Weald?"
Another cool idea for the revenant story is let the players know the jist of the campaign "the campaign starts with you guys waking up after your deaths, you do not remember your life but you only remember the entity that killed you. Also i would like the first session to be us playing your last battle." Then in the battle you gotta give the players a huge win at the cost of their lives, maybe the bbeg was doing a massive AoE and the players has a chance to save a lot of townsfolk at the sacrifice of their life. Something that gives their death meaning.
CRABS BACK ON THE TABLE BOYS
(the dnd table)
The DND chair…
I had an idea for a revenant campaign. The general idea was that the party would agree to investigate some strange happenings at a noble's estate, they arrive at the manor and... Suddenly, it's a week later and they're mysteriously revived from being dead. How did they die, what revived them, and what happened during the week that they lost? Those are mysteries to be uncovered during the campaign. I never ran the scenario, so I can't properly say how well it would go over.
Our DM, back in 4th edition, ran a game where we died in the first session. It was planned for the story and we knew it was going to happen. However, our characters still fought like it was their lives. We pulled some incredible stunts and managed to survive the encounter that was designed to end us. He had to direct some of the other monsters in the area to finish us off because we essentially could have run it to a stalemate. We all have been playing D&D for years and some of us work together very well as we know what each other are thinking and play into that cohesion.
In the end it was fine and was an actually fun battle and we regularly bring it up in our stories as the two characters (mine was a Goliath warden and the other was a cleric of some sort, can't remember) that held off against impossible odds.
But, as stated, we all have been playing for years, decades by now. Friends and family so it is a pretty solid group.
Sadly, that campaign ended due to other reasons, can't quite remember but I think it was from a couple people moving away.
It's fine, we all have a discord game running now, Pathfinder 2e. Abomination Vaults. And have a side game running with a couple other people as well, live game at a table.
Reminds me of the play test adventure the party is not meant to win. Where it is meant to test the durability of the player characters
I had been trying for literal years to become part of a D&D campaign. I had wanted to play since I was a young child.
It absolutely blows my entire mind when people check out in the middle of games. If you don't want to be there, don't waste everyone else's time.
I get checking your phone every once in awhile or small things like that, but many of these stories talk about players doing all kinds of shit in the middle of games. It's rude, absurd, and inconsiderate.
Love the videos. I appreciate your (usually) level-headed input that gets sprinkled throughout the stories.
All that being said, does anyone else struggle listening to these at 1× speed? Or is it just cuz I have adhd? Lmao
I think you may have spent too much time watching the UA-camrs who yell everything.
Yeah I have to put these at 1.25x speed. It feels like listening to an Ent talk.
also listen at 1.25x speed, and even then it sometimes feels like he's talking a touch slow.
I think it could be really cool to tell the players beforehand that their characters will die during an encounter somewhere in one of the first sessions. As long as you have players interested in roleplaying their characters they can use it as a chance to show of how their characters deal with a hopeless situation as well as show how their death changes them. I think it could feel like a pretty neat character introduction that could become really memorable.
Just make sure that they know that they aren't guaranteed to be brought back if they lose to the wrong encounter. Or at least make sure that you have players who understands that their characters don't know that they will be brought back.
I'm stealing the B.A.D/M.F as either an NPC or a back-up character
So very happy to see you're okay and still making videos. I noticed you hadn't posted in quite awhile when I was going through my subscriptions this past weekend and got a little worried.
13:40 At that point I would keep talking and when he eventually comes back I tell him his character died off screen.
And the last story was "wtf". Just tell them to go f themselves and be on your way...
Thumbnail goes hard
Crab is back baby! Hell yeah!
Coincidentally, I've been binging the entire RPG stories Playlist for like the 3rd time and was almost at the end (just finished the one about the noob dm who lied to her party about her experience), so seeing a new video, and hopefully more to come soon, is great news! I was even thinking about that recently, hoping there would be more soon.
I've missed you crab god. Glad to have you back. ❤
oh as that robot? RP: Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, the robot decides to go into standby mode, until some interaction of substance arises. And then i would have proceeded to play mario kart for the DM to see.
In my current online session, if the focus is on another character in an rp moment that my character is not present in, I play... Solitaire.
Yes, Solitaire. There are plenty of websites that host it, and it's easy enough to look away from.
Glad i learned from these stories, especially the second one cause i have a bad habit of getting distracted. Thanks for the advice and welcome back.
I love how you actually talk about the stories and give your views on them instead of just completely stealing them like i know some people do
"GET THAT CHARACTER BANNED!"
Planned session 1 TPKs and meatgrinder openings where you chew through dozens of characters in a night can work- IF you get player buy-in beforehand. Although 5e isn't the best system for meatgrinders. It helps to be able to generate a new character in 30 seconds
The king crab has returned!
We have a campaign going rn where we did about 10 sessions where we got to know everyone's characters and build up relationships and trust... knowing we'd all die before the campaign truly got started. We all knew what was coming and even nicknamed the dungeon the Murder House once we realized what it was, and we were excited to see how we all came back changed. We all knew from jump our characters were going to die before the campaign could truly start, so we purposely did a prequel so we could get more attached and thusly have a more impactful story. Not telling your players ahead of time that's the goal is exactly where that DM went wrong.
The last story really resonates with me. I hope they ditch that group, going along with extremely uncomfortable RP like that may seem harmless to some, but it's really not. When that peer pressure shit invades your fantasy, it screws you up- ruins your perception of fun, social interaction, and safety. Speaking from experience y’all, it’s Hell believing you can't even PRETEND to be safe.
I actually had a player that was laughing out load during my narration. and I laughed along thinking they were laughing at the npc antics but when they laughed again I ask what was so funny and they said they were watching a live stream and I instantly became really mad. They later admitted they just weren't feeling ttrpgs and left which I think was for the best and I'm glad they eventually just were honest about it. But The instance just really frustrated me and makes me wonder what other players are feeling...
So nice to see you back my man!
I was kinda worried about your absence.
I hope you're back to keep making videos for a while now.
Ah, yes, Dragon Heir. My favorite dragon-type Pokemon.
6:48 i am just a little puzzled. Why do this as a DM? Do you want to show narratively the NPC (well, DMPC)'s strength? Because at this point there very well be no point to have the other players sitting in the table.
I'm of the opinion that DMPCs can be done right with a good DM. In our current campaign(which is showing signs of the Underdark sprinkled in), the DM is playing a heavy armor cleric as the party has a wild magic sorcerer fairy, a variant human fighter, and a "flaming" tiefling bard. While yes he has pulled a stunt that smells of BS(using create or destroy water to insta kill any enemy because hey it mostly made of water), the only reason was because we were getting hit harder than he was expecting(I blame his obnoxious rolls) and he didn't want there to be a TPK duing the 2nd fight of the campaign. When I say his rolls were obnoxious, I damn well mean it. Scene: I, the fighter, am setting up for an attack(not in range) on an enemy orc when he and the fairy nuke it from range. Then, an eye of grummsh bursts into the room and, me being the closest, charges right at me. DM rolls for the attacks and proceeds to double nat 20 on both attacks. I have Heavy Armor Mastery and I still take at least 70% of my HP. The commotion draws in the enemies from a different room and one of those enemies tosses a 3rd level Scorching Ray at the party and wouldn't you know it, he crits me yet again, finally putting me on the ground. Guess it was my time to tank the floor, as the Bard proceeds to join me for a third time this campaign thanks to the Eye's attacks.
8:56
Actually there's a Vampire the Masquerade pre-written that starts like that. Of course your players go into session 1 knowing that they will die super early on, but the way the book (Giovanni Chronicles #1) does it is this slowly rising tension where your death is the climax. After this long monologue of the main villain your drank and accidentally embraced as the castle is attacked. Great stuff, it's super fun.
Low tier crit
GAAA DUUU!! This dude’s doin’ CRITS.
These stories have helped temper me to not make mistakes/choices that badly.
I'm DMing a play by post game, and was 100% up front in recruitment about it being a Journey To The West style "Escort Mission" type game. The DMPC is built with similar rules to the players, with known exceptions: classes with magic access above 6th level or higher are banned for players, to make magic more limited in setting and have the focus be on various types of martial combat.
The DMPC is a Healer/Buffer type, in order to keep the combat focus on the players. And the only lie she's given (as the party quest giver) is that she's the hand-maiden for the Princess of the Empire the party is serving (she's *actually* said Princess, of course).
Other than that, 100% upfront with everything in regards to the party and setting, right down from recruitment, and the players so far have said I'm doing a solid job, slight schedule slip around my life aside.
the campaign I'm in had our party sent into a theoretically unwinnable fight to come back as undead for a halloween """one-shot""" (our DM is very passionate about his writing. it was still connected to the main campaign, just a different tone to it)
what he did differently was he designed the fight to simply be a bit higher than we reasonably could handle at the time, solidly within deadly difficulty. He even admitted months later that it was in fact possible to survive the planned TPK fight, and that we had gotten a lot closer to doing so than he thought we would have. Our new temporary character sheets were also a level or 2 stronger than our actual characters were, so we would have had a really tough time without our fun little leveled up toys to mess with if we had survived that fight, but either way, we still had agency in the fight despite the fact that he planned for us to lose the fight
To the OP in the first story. The point in time when the DM kills the Wizard in the first round (without activating Initiative) is the time for you to pull out your dagger and run at it blindly and attack until it kills you. Then pack up your things, thank the DM and other players for a great game and leave.
There's a great 2nd edition - era Ravenloft campaign called Grim Harvest / Requiem. In it, the players start as undead creatures: adventurers who happened to be in Darkon's capitol city when Azlin began the Grand Conjunction.
Everyone in the city dies in the prologue. Including the PCs. They have Undead types as classes: Skeleton, Ghost, Lich, Vampire, Mummy, etc.
It was a fantastic concept, and it worked precisely because it was up-front about what was in store. Players start as undead. They craft their characters using robust Proficiency rules that grant Undead powers and traditional class features. (Incidentally, if you play 2nd edition, you can convert those proficiency slot costs into XP Multipliers using the Class Creation rules at the beginning of the AD&D 2e DMG: meaning the Requiem boxed set gives you a LOT of additional content for crafting new 2e classes)
Anyway, your video is great, and made me think of this campaign.
That last story baffles me, not just why the DM would allow other players to take one player's agency, but also why the other players would. I played in a few campaigns with the same group of people, and we know each other pretty well by this point. (Thanks CritCrab Discord for first introducing us all) We do sometimes joke about what one of the other characters might do, but it's obviously always the player's call. The only times I have witnessed one character physically interfering with what another character wants to do were situations like a character being charmed, or a werewolf being unable to stop themselves from attacking the last surviving bandit we need to question. Oh, and one time my character got in the way of the wizard killing a bunch of innocent goblins by standing between the wizard and the goblins. Not that it necessarily mattered, since he was an evoker and could just shape a spell around my character, but it stopped him regardless.
Point being: There is no reason to ever take agency from another player, or their character, unless the player is okay with the character needing to be impeded.
I am all for throwing a super hard fight at the start of a session in a souls-like faction but I think a big part of that is that those fights are hard but winnable and teach important concepts about the narrative. You can run from the asylumn demon and explore to find an easier way to kill them or grab firebombs as starter equipment. I’m currently writing an eldritch horror game where there’s a waking world and a nightmare world. If you die in the nightmare world you wake up in the waking world. To illustrate that the world works this way I am starting the world in the nightmare world with a difficult but winnable boss at the end of the area to show that it’s ok to die in the nightmare world with the expectation that they will prepare a counter to the boss while they are awake, but even without preparing, you can flee, sneak, or fight it out and win with good rolls/tactics.
Yeah, if a DM is trying to do a Revanant Style game where the party is dead and comes back to life later on. The thing they are fighting that kills them the first time has to feel like it can be beaten. If the DM designs a monster that's super tanky, hits like a truck, and forces the party to T-Pose in place or die moving...that doesn't sound winnable...that sounds like something that will kill them off one by one as they helplessly hack into it or flee from it. If direct confrontation isn't an option and fleeing isn't an option, it doesn't feel like something that can be defeated soundly, even if you try to use traps, if those traps fail and you need to run to try again, too bad, you die cause moving kills ya
Yes! Our beloved crab king returns to grace us with tales of D&D!
While we haven't actually begun, I am doing a campaign where everyone dies at the beginning and then comes back to life.
And I'd argue that, based on the table, you can depict their deaths and ill-fated last stands... as long as you tell them what you're planning. Like I said, based off the table. And while we aren't traditional TTRPG players, we do like our roleplaying and some folks relish in getting to have their character angst over dying.
In the second story I get the dm has anxiety, we all do. But if someone out of nowhere is playing another game and doesn't pay you attention when you call them it's their problem, not yours. If people aren't feeling engaged with the story or there's something wrong with your ways as a dm people will let you know, because they care. If they ignore you it's because they don't care... Of course I'd advice to talk to them about this, tell them "if you aren't interested no one forces you to play". That story made me so angry that the guy called off the game because of that!
"DMs are supposed to support and guide players. "
Sorry, but between railroading and telling the players how awesome my DMPC is, I got no time for that.
I've only started listening to a few of these DMPC stories, but, honestly, I think the DM's would get WAY more attention and positive feedback if they just streamed them playing these things alone.
ETA: Having a "revenant" storyline seems like something you need to warn your players about, as that could be so distressing. Lack of player agency. Mental health struggles. Like, if the DM came to me and said "I have this idea - jailbrake hell", I'd respond with "What did you have in mind?" and discussed how we got there. I wouldn't be okay with self-ending in that situation. But I would've been okay in the wizard's shoes for a few sessions if it meant all the characters died in ways all the players were comfortable with.
Peak critcrab thumbnail
"I am debating if I continue playing with those people" got me 🤣
“Short answer: Don’t
Long answer: Do Not”
That’s merch quote material
I like the sound of ocean waves in the background. It takes the edge off of the cringey stuff happening in the videos
I relate to that last story with the character not being taken seriously. It's part of why I somewhat resent my first d&d group. My characters were often made fun of (my character was suggested to be gay despite not being, but two of the other players acted like he was anyway. Then another character was very much made as a joke; despite his more serious backstory involving his wife, the character's wife was somehow turned into a joke character. I really felt like I was the butt of most of the jokes, especially since one of the other players insisted on his clearly edgy characters be taken seriously (more or less main character syndrome). It wasn't fun to play when it felt like I wasn't being considered a real player, but a punching bag for humor.
I feel like being a player is a balance between claiming the spotlight your character deserves, while also uplifting your partymembers and letting them have their moments. I am terrified of taking up too much space in the campaign. I'm in a modern campaign and my character is STUPID RICH. So i tend to encourage other players in weird ways😂 "I don't want to make a fuss. I can't afford to."
"I CAN. USE ME. I KNOW SOME
GOOD LAWYERS."
Best early bday gift ever, welcome back UrgentLobster
and just when we needed him most, the crabbo returned!
I had a player that would consistently play Minecraft when we were playing d&d on roll20. I let it go for a couple sessions then I asked her "why should I spend all my time setting up a campaign, think up different scenarios, and put 100% of my brain power towards reacting to what the group is doing when you can't be bothered to give the game any attention."
“A few people have already said they won’t be returning.” Return to what? Everyone’s dead. 😂
In my experience, players don't need help getting killed. My players literally ran *Into* a bomb site to look for loot . . . they rolled extremely well and managed to get the loot and with enough potions of healing managed to save themselves and the npcs they were trying to rescue. They narrowly survived the blast, being on the outer extremes of the explosion, all their goblin friends were on fire but they survived thanks to the help of potions. They managed to get just about 100% of the high tier loot from the blast radius and make it out with no casualties. I still chastised them for risking everything for some loot, if they failed a single roll they would have tpk'd. I am a little proud of them though... And just so you know, my players weren't suppose to be there at all, I invented a three part security system to keep them out, making it extremely hard to even arrive at that location *because I had intended to bomb it in the story* They Nat 20'd so many times...
It's always a good time when the king of crabs drops a video 🎉
So since it's been a while, you're getting this late but, here's what I planned to say to your fist video of the year..."Happy new year everyone! and as I know there's a lot of bad out there and hope to help counter it with good, I just want to start the new year off with sincere thanks and love for all you do and remind you that you are awesome, and we appreciate you!!!" still true even if it's a bit latter than I expected!
I've done a revenant campaign. Started in what had been the final battle of the parties' pre-death campaign. But I told the party what to expect
One of the best thumbnails I have seen in ages.
That wizard got treated like sir pentious 💀
Man this came out just as I was going to sleep, but have a comment for the algorithm. Glad to see CritCrab back again.
I had a buddy who dm’d for us. He was absolutely horrific at it(not that I’m talking shit, I would be too.) but even though the campaign was pretty bad, I still put as much effort in as I could to roleplay and engage with him. I let him know what I thought of it when it was over, but yeah. Even if your dm isn’t the greatest, don’t disrespect them by completely ignoring them to play games.
"You are a worthless character, your backstory is literally as valuable as a summer ant!"
Dale has advantage on cope and projection checks 🤣
@@CenobiteMei wonder when dan unlocks the ability seethe i think it would fit him
For the second story, another option is if you need to keep your hands or eyes busy while playing but it helps you focus or at the very least you don't lose focus talk to the DM in private about it and make sure it isn't distracting anyone else in the group for both online and in person groups. Courtesy to your DMs goes a long way
My DM convinced me to do that. Soon as he told me it would make the party cry I was down 😂
The King! HE'S RETURNED!!!!! Surely now peace will return to these opulent under the sea (and some beaches) land! We've dearly missed you, me lord.
Dude, you rock! Keep being awesome!
There’s part of me that wants to share a story from my campaign, but I know that the person I’d be talking about would know it’s them since they regularly watch this channel
The best way I’ve seen killing a character done was in a one shot where I died a minute into meeting the final boss and the DM had me play as the orphan we were supposed to save as a fighter or monk, I chose monk, escaped, and helped beat the boss. Then before dying he told us a sacrifice was necessary for the towns harvests to continue so they don’t all starve, the wizard who hired us to help was right there, everyone agreed an orphan’s life wasn’t worth this harvest until I said “well I don’t want my town to starve” and proceeded to bash the wizard from the back of the head with a wooden staff I found and proceeded to Negan him, completing the ritual as the final boss smiled and faded away. The DM (in the “this is hype” way) lost it, and the other players did the same. Everyone was happy and I wish other DM’s adopted the same things at least for one shots or small instances. Also the DM in this story was remarkably stupid for how he executed this plan.
CritCrab's back; Happy Day!!! The first one is failing to understand that no matter how cool you think your idea is, if you're brute-forcing the PCs into it, they're going to be annoyed and may not hang around for long enough to experience the 'Big Payoff' you have planned. The second one, I'm familiar with from all sides and if you need something to occupy you when you're not present IC or not included in the current scene, choose something that you can pick up and put down immediately and that doesn't take too much focus and either don't let on (as CritCrab suggests), or do the reverse and explain to your GM and fellow players that no matter how awesome their GMing/playing is, your brain can't maintain focus. Let them know it's a You thing, not a Them thing and you'll avoid a lot of potential upset. They may even have suggestions for how to deal with the issue (Some may just go dor the r/thanksimcured approach and say "Just pay attention!" or the like). The last one is 100% a bail situation; this GM is letting the other players bully OP and that is a definite "No D&D is Better than Bad D&D" scenario.
If I were in the last situation, I would probably have abandoned the Autognome and rolled up a character as its original operator to attack the party to get the Autognome back