I recently saw new player get told this, by a fairly experienced DM. 'Whenever you're making new character ideas, try to retire or kill your current character so you can play them immediately' He didn't seem to get that most DMs don't appreciate players switching characters every session.
Also (for me at least) the whole character idea is about seeing how the character plays out or develops over time and the story they can tell. So I as a player also don't appreciate switching characters every session ^^
This sounds like a grognard DM who played OD&D, B/X, or AD&D - where characters can die very easily and re-rolling is far more common than WotC D&D - for a long time giving advice for modern D&D. In older editions, it wasn't a great idea to get elaborate ideas and backstories for characters because the game was actually dangerous, but in 3.x or especially 5e, your character is designed to live long enough that the Players Handbook even tells you to write a backstory, with backgrounds, bonds, flaws, motivations, etc.
Some DMs will say to that "If you're thinking about your next character, then go play your next character in another game." The DM is just as invested in your characters as you are and they are working to integrate your backstory and create some unique and interesting plot and story hooks for your character. By saying you want to retire or kill off your character, you're saying you don't care about the efforts they put in to make your character part of the world and that can be a real slap in the face.
Regarding "the goal is not to have fun, it's for the players to have fun." I keep thinking of a dnd horror story (think it was den of the drake) where the players (including OP) completely derailed the DM's campaign to start buying all the goats they could find, with the goal of starting a nation-wide goat monopoly. The DM (accirding to OP) tried to get the campaign back on track but eventually left and the campaign/goat monopoly simulator ended. In the comments people were divided; some said DM was right to leave, others called them a bad DM who couldn't roll with the punches and said that if THEIR players wanted to stop adventuring and focus every(!) session on Goat Tycoon, they would drop everything else and start prepping goat breeding charts and rival goat monger NPCs. ...because the goal was not for the DM to have fun, it was for the players to have fun. It's just... at some point it stops being a healthy give and take between players (including the DM) and a point of self-flagellation where the DM sacrifice their campaign, time and enjoyment in the name of 'yes-and'-ing.
I don't know if people don't read the Dungeon Masters Guide anymore, or if they just don't know the definitions of the words "impartial" and "referee," but changing your campaign, game world, sessions, etc. to go along with the derailment done by the players and to appease them is not impartial, it's being in favor of the players. Letting your players run roughshod, not challenging them in any way, tossing all plans you had and sacrificing your own enjoyment isn't just to your detriment, but may result in a game that's a 5/10 for players when you could deliver them a 9/10 otherwise. Honestly, the AD&D 1e DMG phrases it far better than I ever could: " . . . Be good to yourself as well as them, and everyone concerned will benefit from a well-conceived, well-ordered, fairly-judged campaign built upon the best of imaginative and creative thinking."
4:40 ironically enough, one of my absolute favourite TTRPG moments came from our entire party forgetting something the DM told us and ending up in a bigger fight than expected. The basic story was we were tracking down cultists, we found their camp but on the way we'd seen these strange dog like spirit animals hunting and attacking the cultists. DM described that we saw a few patrolling around the camp, a few minutes later we all forgot this when someone had the bright idea of using robes we'd stolen from a dead cultist to sneak into the camp. We all agreed this was a good idea...he literally took about two steps before being attacked by the dogs. I tried to calm them down by saying we were after the cultists...which alerted the cultists. Cue combat for the stupidest reason any of us had experienced.
I've had my players run into an Adult Black dragon when they were level 3. He's a reoccurring NPC that they don't really like and they're getting to the level that they think they can kill him :) But putting higher-CR encounters out there for the players to encounter only works if they don't see the need to fight against every monster they encounter.
Regarding CR, it's like just about everything else in D&D in that it's not set in stone. Too often, it seems, that GMs either forget - or simply don't understand - just how much power they have over a TTRPG, which is to say, all of it. An encounter, be it a goblin or a dragon, can be as easy or as difficult as the GM decides it is. Powers can be ignored or added on, enemies could have more attacks or less, and HP and AC are just numbers the GM can change on a whim. And yes, there are GMs out there who are lazy or just plain assholes. Just don't play with those guys. No D&D is better than bad D&D, as they say. Doesn't have to be D&D, either, just don't play with bad people.
Personal view on using creatures your party can't beat: Run that strong a creature as hazards, not creatures. A red dragon becomes a claw smashing through rafters of the roof to dodge, flames covering a bridge they are rushing to and making it weak and dangerous, wind from wings knocking them down the shingles of a roof, and a social stare-down holding back your fear and exhaustion.
or have the dragon be sick. less HP. lower AC. then it can take on your level 2 party. There are no rules that says it is lower than the book levels. Or no rules that says that it has a higher hit die - "you encounter a kobald. 20th level party thinks - can take this easy.... kobold has more HD than an great wyrm."
1 point about CR, as a DM I sometimes include way to high CR creatures in my setting to make the world feel alive. These creatures aren't restricted to the other side of the world and might be in the neigbbourhood. That said, I don't drop them in front of the party and say "roll initiative". I try to forshadow that such a creature is nearby and give the party opportunities to escape from it or negotiate with it. For example the party was around level 5 and travelling through a swamp. In the distance they saw a large snake standing still. When they got closer, they saw a big pile of human bones behind the snake and noticed that the water was quite deep here. A player saw other snakes sleeping in the water and concluded that this was a hydra (cr 8, too difficult for them but it wouldn't one shot them). They then snuck away. If they fought it, they would have at least one opportunity to flee. You need to know your party if you do this, because diehard murderhobos will just TPK trying to kill the monster.
I think one thing you should NOT do when you're a DM, at least for some people, is track how long you worked on a session I saw a bunch of people talking on reddit about keeping track of how long you work on a session and I just thought to myself, that sounds like you're clocking into a job and clocking out and then expecting to get paid by the hour. Obviously this doesnt go for everyone, but I know that if I ever tried that, I'd start to feel like it's a chore. Work on a session whenever you want to, you're not always set in stone, 90% of the time, your party will spend the first hour doing something completely random.
Oh man, on the "DM is always right" thing- I was telling some friends recently that a DM of mine makes me feel like some kind of rules lawyer because he's the kind of DM who will say "You can't do that because RAW.." about the move you're making- and when it's something like my Moon Druid Wildshaping as a bonus action, it's critical to how the character plays and I'm an experienced player who tries to know my characters well. So I end up pulling out the book a lot to prove to this DM that he isn't correct and yes, I can do the thing.
The DM is not always right, but they ARE the final arbitrator at the table. Once I make a call, that's the call. If we need to look up the rule or talk about it more after the game, we can do that, but we all want to keep the pace of the game moving, so unless it can be resolved or looked up quickly, the DM should decide how the rules apply in that moment and then keep going.
The main problem with "The DM is always right." becomes obvious when they really aren't. The DM _should_ always be right, but that requires them to have valid reasons for their decisions. For that to be the case they need to be informed and have their priorities straight. That way, even in a situation where the rules lawyer arguing against them is _technically_ correct regarding the rules as stated in the book, the DM is still _right_ when they knowingly tweak that rule a little bit because it leads to a more enjoyable story. Players should give their DMs a chance to earn this kind of trust until they demonstrate that they won't.
Oof that one at 16:50:00 I think it's important to keep in mind that the DM is also a player. So ideally everyone should be getting some kind of fun out of the game.
Hi, running my first campaign. And some of these "bad rules" i did. I spend over 200 bucks, I made a homebrew system in the elder scrolls world. I work a lot on my campaign. To the point I am building an Elder Scrolls Module. But the difference is. I enjoy this a lot. I love being a dm more than a player. I enjoy guiding my friends through a story! And I can't wait for the BBEG reveal!
I have the same opinion about "The DM is always right" as I do about "The customer is always right". It doesn't encourage dialog and only spawns Airship stories and Karen's.
Hot take, but I don't think new players or DMs should be messing with homebrew. At least not out the gate. They're already busy just trying to learn the rules and mechanics of this new system they're playing. Adding homebrew on top of that will just complicate things further, because now you have to figure out this entirely made up race/class/spell/magic item that basically has no concrete rules and could potentially ruin your game if not balanced properly.
Taking notes is beyond important and at least one in the group should be the „group’s note taker“ so important info doesn’t get lost - however, even if the players compare and rewind and revisit info, their overall picture/ understanding will never be as complete as the DM‘s, so it should always be a possibility to ask or be reminded.
I agree with not throwing a red dragon at your level 3 group. So, I’ve been trying to figure out why DM 2 made a black dragon and a white dragon split the party and take the split parties to their lairs, then later on gave something to one of the newbie player without saying what it did (the player proceeded to turn it on causing the item to attach the two dragons.) and had the dragons proceed to kill/petrified some of the characters. The ones not petrified, dragged the petrified characters through this portal that appeared after the dragonborn remembered that he had his magical inn key and unlocked the hut door with the key. Basically, the inn key opens a way into the inn, if you unlock any door not in the inn with it. All of our characters wake up at the inn because it turns out that our characters had all been put magical asleep by an effect that was rolled on a chart for the effects a drink for the gods did (going to ignore that some of the characters were elves). The DM never told us that our characters were in a dream and said that he had it happen that way because we would never go back to the dragons’ lairs. (Because we were at most level 3 or 5, but I believe we were at level 3 when this happened.)
"The goal is not to have fun it's for the players to have fun." The goal is for everyone at the table to create a story that is fun for everyone present. I have a shadowrun group. We play regularely with me as the Game Master. Every year right after my best friends birthday we choose the following saturday to play Shadowrun instead of celebrating his birthday. Birthday so much, that the best gift I could give to him is a session of Shadowrun that prevents him from having to celebrate. Every year I try to choose themes for the adventure that he especially likes, because it's his birthday. This year he told me, that because my birthday is only for days before his, it would be totally valid to celebratte MY birthday. He is right, you know. Therefore to celebrate my own birthday I will send my players on an adventure that have Hawaii, volcanos, magical critters, Maria Mercurial and gay harumans in it. 😁 Happy Birthday to the Game Master!!!
So much of this seems to boil down to "Do what's fun for everyone at the table; if everyone's having fun then your playing the game right." Maybe that should be the real rule zero.
5:30 yea i like if players take notes but id much rather just tell them stuff esp mechanics wise they’d already know then have an impromptu study session every game. even world wise i have certain world notes freely accessible since their characters would reasonably know these things but if they forget the name of smth but their character would know i just let them know
Should've also mentioned how there's UNDERPOWERED homebrew out there aside from overpowered. I'd have spending money if I had a dollar looking up paths for unarmed options for non-monk classes for every one that forces some arbitrary condition for a shitty 1d4, maybe upgrading to 1d6 at best unarmed strike. Oh, and for some reason these homebrewers conveniently ignore the monk standard of unarmed strikes counting as magic at level 6 plus.
Challange rating is rather decent for it's job, it does require a lookover as the CR can overlook the traits of the creature (say the str drain of a shadow). However you tossing monsters for coolness and awesomeness, can make the following encounters suck. Having the party kill a ancient red dragon at level 3 and then fight orcs? Just going to feel trivial. For homebrew, I think the best idea is to reflavour. A easy trap new DMs and new players get into is when they get a concept they'd rather homebrew something cool to fit rather than working with the published material. Say wanting a catgirl dancer, reflavouring a tabaxi bard does the job. The DM is always right is horrorstory fuel. The DM isn't a allknowing god but a falliable human like the rest of us. Sometimes even a on the spot discusion on the table is needed (say a ruling would make a PC live or die). And the always right mentality would make more arguments as it'd be talking to a stubborn old wall. And the DM isn't there to have fun only to facilitate player fun. It's a sentiment stated even by RPGhorror readers. And very much can lead into horrorstories where players creeps out the DM but the DM should just suck it up becouse the players are having in so doing.
Honestly, don't think I could play in a campaign that lasted more than a handful of sessions. After a certain point I start thinking of games I'd love to run in that time block and get antsy, definitely a DM for life.
1. Challenge ratings aren't perfect (the party might be different from the norm in significant ways or the designers thought parts of the monster was stronger/weaker than they actually are), but they are at least in the right ballpark. And it's easy for a thematic enemy to fit better but be a much worst encounter (I'd assume that's a more common and worst problem than a chest mimic in a normal library to go unnoticed until now). A good approach is to consider both when designing a boss/encounter. 2. Yeah, talking to them is usually the best thing to do. It's fine if your playstyles don't mix and you have to drop them. Explain that and try to depart on good terms. If they're reasonable, they should understand and look for a group that better first their playstyle. This goes for players as well. Don't fear dropping out if you aren't enjoying the playstyle. Let the DM know that's your main issue (hopefully it is) and wish them luck finding your replacement. 3. I think the advice is correcting the player's knowledge much later than you should. Personally, I'd try to correct them as soon as I hear them forget something their character should know sooner rather than later (especially if they're planning something). 4. I don't have much to say about the homebrew world thing other than it's very much a DM preference thing. Some love homebrewing their own worlds, some like to use pre-made stuff, and some love the official worlds and want to use them. None of these are wrong. 5. I think homebrew should be minimize for new DMs unless they think they can handle it. It's a lot of work to make sure it won't break your game, and most new DMs have more than enough on their plate already. Other than that, use as much as you are comfortable with once you get the hang of things. 6. My first campaign had a DM who stood by that rule 0 was that the DM was always right. If memory serves me well, he wasn't a dictator with it, but used it to keep the going (as Crispy said the rule is for). 7. Yeah, you shouldn't DM if you need to invest money into it to justify it to yourself. Save investing for things things you enjoy or things you expect to give you more money than you put in. 8. I hate the DM vs Player mentality. I swear the people who started the "the players should have fun, not the DM" had bad friends/players or who were the bad friends/players. If anything, making your DM suffer will cause them to stop DMing for you or make them resentful, causing them to go out of their way to ruin your fun. No one wins in those scenarios.
1. Challenge rating has its problems and game design is more art than science. As Matt Mercer says, game design doesn't end when initiative is rolled - that said, don't use creativity as an excuse to be uncreative. The two have nothing to do with each other. 2. You can't control how other people act. Knowing when to say it's not a good fit is a balancing act. It's not black and white, it's fuzzy logic. 3. Don't just tell the players it won't work - never screw your players over Make sure negative consequences are foreseeable. Let the PCs make mistakes, things going wrong (or horribly right) can be fun! 4. D&D's canon is an incoherent mess. Edit, curate, decide what to include and what not to include. That's worldbuilding. 5. See 1 and 4. (There was a giant in Berserk (the manga) who used half of a ship as a helmet and the other half as a shield) 6. I don't like the phrase "always right", it has some pretty serious problems. That said, the GM gets to make unilateral executive decisions for the benefit of game flow. 7. The sunk cost fallacy won't make you a better player. You don't need to invest financially to invest emotionally - in fact, if anything sinking money into the game could leave you resenting it as an unwanted obligation. 8. If you're not enjoying it, find something you enjoy to spend your free time on. Apparently a lot of people who play D&D don't like playing D&D? So... why do they play it? It's a game, it's entertainment! It's not supposed to be an obligation you're begrudgingly forced into! (The bisexual lighting is nice :3)
Things were brutal for my artificer before I got my arcane firearm.. the artificers spell list is almost all utility, very little damage dealing.. now my dude can do 2d10+1d8+2d8+1.. Before level 5 though I was doing a measly 1d10+2d8 per turn. Nearly died in every encounter
I haven't played the game much, but I've heard that level 1 combat kinda sucks. I have an idea for an artificer build that, assuming everything hits, can do 2d12+(2xINT mod)+2+1d8+PB at 5th level. I'm pretty sure that's good, but it'll probably be rough getting there, and I think it's the same with most characters.
@@firstnamelastname7244 yeahh everyone said I should go armor or battlesmith but I liked the idea of doing 2d8 from 120 feet away. Getting close to a 4d8 bonus action ^.^ only a few more sessions
When I started playing ADnD (late 70's) there were few modules out there, and the ones I was seeing didn't appeal to me. I discovered that I love world building. I would do it even if I never got to DM. It's not for everyone, but everyone should do what they love.
I'm suspicious of lore when worldbuilding, and try to avoid it as much as possible. 99% of will never matter in your game, and 99% of players don't give a damn about it. It's much better to build from bottom up and create stuff that is immediately useable in your next session. Start with the town where the players live. It produces something or otherwise it wouldn't exist. That production is controlled by someone. Then think of the connections to that town. It trades with someone, and if there's trade then someone wants to tax it, be it a lord or a bandit group. And so on, generating content organically that the players can interact with. To worldbuild you never need to know what the fifth king of the sixth country did a thousand years ago, because none of it will ever matter to anyone. Stop scaring the newcomers by telling that to worldbuild they have to spend years to make something grandiose and extensive and epic for it to be valid. Tell them to create something useable instead.
Meh - "homebrew" monsters and enemies are WAY easier to balance against the party your players are playing, and make encounters more engaging and entertaining. The stuff in the book just ends up being either too easy, too challenging, too out of place, or just too stale limited to standard action economy gameplay. And it's way less fun for the DM as you're forcefully stiffling creativity :P
I recently saw new player get told this, by a fairly experienced DM.
'Whenever you're making new character ideas, try to retire or kill your current character so you can play them immediately'
He didn't seem to get that most DMs don't appreciate players switching characters every session.
*Kills third character in span of 20 minutes*
Also (for me at least) the whole character idea is about seeing how the character plays out or develops over time and the story they can tell.
So I as a player also don't appreciate switching characters every session ^^
Everyone knows the best character concepts are the ones you give no time to develop before you play with them
This sounds like a grognard DM who played OD&D, B/X, or AD&D - where characters can die very easily and re-rolling is far more common than WotC D&D - for a long time giving advice for modern D&D. In older editions, it wasn't a great idea to get elaborate ideas and backstories for characters because the game was actually dangerous, but in 3.x or especially 5e, your character is designed to live long enough that the Players Handbook even tells you to write a backstory, with backgrounds, bonds, flaws, motivations, etc.
Some DMs will say to that "If you're thinking about your next character, then go play your next character in another game." The DM is just as invested in your characters as you are and they are working to integrate your backstory and create some unique and interesting plot and story hooks for your character. By saying you want to retire or kill off your character, you're saying you don't care about the efforts they put in to make your character part of the world and that can be a real slap in the face.
Regarding "the goal is not to have fun, it's for the players to have fun." I keep thinking of a dnd horror story (think it was den of the drake) where the players (including OP) completely derailed the DM's campaign to start buying all the goats they could find, with the goal of starting a nation-wide goat monopoly. The DM (accirding to OP) tried to get the campaign back on track but eventually left and the campaign/goat monopoly simulator ended.
In the comments people were divided; some said DM was right to leave, others called them a bad DM who couldn't roll with the punches and said that if THEIR players wanted to stop adventuring and focus every(!) session on Goat Tycoon, they would drop everything else and start prepping goat breeding charts and rival goat monger NPCs. ...because the goal was not for the DM to have fun, it was for the players to have fun.
It's just... at some point it stops being a healthy give and take between players (including the DM) and a point of self-flagellation where the DM sacrifice their campaign, time and enjoyment in the name of 'yes-and'-ing.
I don't know if people don't read the Dungeon Masters Guide anymore, or if they just don't know the definitions of the words "impartial" and "referee," but changing your campaign, game world, sessions, etc. to go along with the derailment done by the players and to appease them is not impartial, it's being in favor of the players. Letting your players run roughshod, not challenging them in any way, tossing all plans you had and sacrificing your own enjoyment isn't just to your detriment, but may result in a game that's a 5/10 for players when you could deliver them a 9/10 otherwise. Honestly, the AD&D 1e DMG phrases it far better than I ever could:
" . . . Be good to yourself as well as them, and everyone concerned will benefit from a well-conceived, well-ordered, fairly-judged campaign built upon the best of imaginative and creative thinking."
4:40 ironically enough, one of my absolute favourite TTRPG moments came from our entire party forgetting something the DM told us and ending up in a bigger fight than expected.
The basic story was we were tracking down cultists, we found their camp but on the way we'd seen these strange dog like spirit animals hunting and attacking the cultists. DM described that we saw a few patrolling around the camp, a few minutes later we all forgot this when someone had the bright idea of using robes we'd stolen from a dead cultist to sneak into the camp. We all agreed this was a good idea...he literally took about two steps before being attacked by the dogs. I tried to calm them down by saying we were after the cultists...which alerted the cultists. Cue combat for the stupidest reason any of us had experienced.
You're not stealing stuff from other sources, you're being "inspired" by them/that/it.
I've had my players run into an Adult Black dragon when they were level 3. He's a reoccurring NPC that they don't really like and they're getting to the level that they think they can kill him :)
But putting higher-CR encounters out there for the players to encounter only works if they don't see the need to fight against every monster they encounter.
Regarding CR, it's like just about everything else in D&D in that it's not set in stone. Too often, it seems, that GMs either forget - or simply don't understand - just how much power they have over a TTRPG, which is to say, all of it.
An encounter, be it a goblin or a dragon, can be as easy or as difficult as the GM decides it is. Powers can be ignored or added on, enemies could have more attacks or less, and HP and AC are just numbers the GM can change on a whim.
And yes, there are GMs out there who are lazy or just plain assholes. Just don't play with those guys. No D&D is better than bad D&D, as they say. Doesn't have to be D&D, either, just don't play with bad people.
Personal view on using creatures your party can't beat: Run that strong a creature as hazards, not creatures. A red dragon becomes a claw smashing through rafters of the roof to dodge, flames covering a bridge they are rushing to and making it weak and dangerous, wind from wings knocking them down the shingles of a roof, and a social stare-down holding back your fear and exhaustion.
or have the dragon be sick. less HP. lower AC. then it can take on your level 2 party. There are no rules that says it is lower than the book levels. Or no rules that says that it has a higher hit die - "you encounter a kobald. 20th level party thinks - can take this easy.... kobold has more HD than an great wyrm."
1 point about CR, as a DM I sometimes include way to high CR creatures in my setting to make the world feel alive. These creatures aren't restricted to the other side of the world and might be in the neigbbourhood. That said, I don't drop them in front of the party and say "roll initiative". I try to forshadow that such a creature is nearby and give the party opportunities to escape from it or negotiate with it. For example the party was around level 5 and travelling through a swamp. In the distance they saw a large snake standing still. When they got closer, they saw a big pile of human bones behind the snake and noticed that the water was quite deep here. A player saw other snakes sleeping in the water and concluded that this was a hydra (cr 8, too difficult for them but it wouldn't one shot them). They then snuck away. If they fought it, they would have at least one opportunity to flee. You need to know your party if you do this, because diehard murderhobos will just TPK trying to kill the monster.
"The DM is always right" should probably be reworded as "The DM has the final say." Much less open for abuse, I think, and gets the point across more.
This. This is good.
I think one thing you should NOT do when you're a DM, at least for some people, is track how long you worked on a session
I saw a bunch of people talking on reddit about keeping track of how long you work on a session and I just thought to myself, that sounds like you're clocking into a job and clocking out and then expecting to get paid by the hour.
Obviously this doesnt go for everyone, but I know that if I ever tried that, I'd start to feel like it's a chore. Work on a session whenever you want to, you're not always set in stone, 90% of the time, your party will spend the first hour doing something completely random.
Oh man, on the "DM is always right" thing- I was telling some friends recently that a DM of mine makes me feel like some kind of rules lawyer because he's the kind of DM who will say "You can't do that because RAW.." about the move you're making- and when it's something like my Moon Druid Wildshaping as a bonus action, it's critical to how the character plays and I'm an experienced player who tries to know my characters well. So I end up pulling out the book a lot to prove to this DM that he isn't correct and yes, I can do the thing.
The DM is not always right, but they ARE the final arbitrator at the table. Once I make a call, that's the call. If we need to look up the rule or talk about it more after the game, we can do that, but we all want to keep the pace of the game moving, so unless it can be resolved or looked up quickly, the DM should decide how the rules apply in that moment and then keep going.
The main problem with "The DM is always right." becomes obvious when they really aren't. The DM _should_ always be right, but that requires them to have valid reasons for their decisions. For that to be the case they need to be informed and have their priorities straight. That way, even in a situation where the rules lawyer arguing against them is _technically_ correct regarding the rules as stated in the book, the DM is still _right_ when they knowingly tweak that rule a little bit because it leads to a more enjoyable story. Players should give their DMs a chance to earn this kind of trust until they demonstrate that they won't.
Oof that one at 16:50:00 I think it's important to keep in mind that the DM is also a player. So ideally everyone should be getting some kind of fun out of the game.
Hi, running my first campaign. And some of these "bad rules" i did. I spend over 200 bucks, I made a homebrew system in the elder scrolls world. I work a lot on my campaign. To the point I am building an Elder Scrolls Module. But the difference is. I enjoy this a lot. I love being a dm more than a player. I enjoy guiding my friends through a story! And I can't wait for the BBEG reveal!
I wanna see you react to terrible new player advice 😂 some of the things I’ve heard
I have the same opinion about "The DM is always right" as I do about "The customer is always right". It doesn't encourage dialog and only spawns Airship stories and Karen's.
Hot take, but I don't think new players or DMs should be messing with homebrew. At least not out the gate. They're already busy just trying to learn the rules and mechanics of this new system they're playing. Adding homebrew on top of that will just complicate things further, because now you have to figure out this entirely made up race/class/spell/magic item that basically has no concrete rules and could potentially ruin your game if not balanced properly.
Taking notes is beyond important and at least one in the group should be the „group’s note taker“ so important info doesn’t get lost - however, even if the players compare and rewind and revisit info, their overall picture/ understanding will never be as complete as the DM‘s, so it should always be a possibility to ask or be reminded.
I agree with not throwing a red dragon at your level 3 group.
So, I’ve been trying to figure out why DM 2 made a black dragon and a white dragon split the party and take the split parties to their lairs, then later on gave something to one of the newbie player without saying what it did (the player proceeded to turn it on causing the item to attach the two dragons.) and had the dragons proceed to kill/petrified some of the characters.
The ones not petrified, dragged the petrified characters through this portal that appeared after the dragonborn remembered that he had his magical inn key and unlocked the hut door with the key.
Basically, the inn key opens a way into the inn, if you unlock any door not in the inn with it.
All of our characters wake up at the inn because it turns out that our characters had all been put magical asleep by an effect that was rolled on a chart for the effects a drink for the gods did (going to ignore that some of the characters were elves).
The DM never told us that our characters were in a dream and said that he had it happen that way because we would never go back to the dragons’ lairs. (Because we were at most level 3 or 5, but I believe we were at level 3 when this happened.)
Have fun on your vacatuon, Crispy! Relax and recharge!
"The goal is not to have fun it's for the players to have fun."
The goal is for everyone at the table to create a story that is fun for everyone present.
I have a shadowrun group. We play regularely with me as the Game Master. Every year right after my best friends birthday we choose the following saturday to play Shadowrun instead of celebrating his birthday. Birthday so much, that the best gift I could give to him is a session of Shadowrun that prevents him from having to celebrate. Every year I try to choose themes for the adventure that he especially likes, because it's his birthday.
This year he told me, that because my birthday is only for days before his, it would be totally valid to celebratte MY birthday. He is right, you know.
Therefore to celebrate my own birthday I will send my players on an adventure that have Hawaii, volcanos, magical critters, Maria Mercurial and gay harumans in it.
😁
Happy Birthday to the Game Master!!!
So much of this seems to boil down to "Do what's fun for everyone at the table; if everyone's having fun then your playing the game right." Maybe that should be the real rule zero.
5:30 yea i like if players take notes but id much rather just tell them stuff esp mechanics wise they’d already know then have an impromptu study session every game. even world wise i have certain world notes freely accessible since their characters would reasonably know these things but if they forget the name of smth but their character would know i just let them know
Wooo!
Hello Crispy. I hope you have a good day.
Now that’s a nice looking lux, those thumbnails looking clean
…damnit is this a Smite thing too?
@@CrispysTavern League of Legends
Should've also mentioned how there's UNDERPOWERED homebrew out there aside from overpowered. I'd have spending money if I had a dollar looking up paths for unarmed options for non-monk classes for every one that forces some arbitrary condition for a shitty 1d4, maybe upgrading to 1d6 at best unarmed strike. Oh, and for some reason these homebrewers conveniently ignore the monk standard of unarmed strikes counting as magic at level 6 plus.
Challange rating is rather decent for it's job, it does require a lookover as the CR can overlook the traits of the creature (say the str drain of a shadow). However you tossing monsters for coolness and awesomeness, can make the following encounters suck. Having the party kill a ancient red dragon at level 3 and then fight orcs? Just going to feel trivial.
For homebrew, I think the best idea is to reflavour. A easy trap new DMs and new players get into is when they get a concept they'd rather homebrew something cool to fit rather than working with the published material. Say wanting a catgirl dancer, reflavouring a tabaxi bard does the job.
The DM is always right is horrorstory fuel. The DM isn't a allknowing god but a falliable human like the rest of us. Sometimes even a on the spot discusion on the table is needed (say a ruling would make a PC live or die). And the always right mentality would make more arguments as it'd be talking to a stubborn old wall.
And the DM isn't there to have fun only to facilitate player fun. It's a sentiment stated even by RPGhorror readers. And very much can lead into horrorstories where players creeps out the DM but the DM should just suck it up becouse the players are having in so doing.
Honestly, don't think I could play in a campaign that lasted more than a handful of sessions. After a certain point I start thinking of games I'd love to run in that time block and get antsy, definitely a DM for life.
1. Challenge ratings aren't perfect (the party might be different from the norm in significant ways or the designers thought parts of the monster was stronger/weaker than they actually are), but they are at least in the right ballpark. And it's easy for a thematic enemy to fit better but be a much worst encounter (I'd assume that's a more common and worst problem than a chest mimic in a normal library to go unnoticed until now). A good approach is to consider both when designing a boss/encounter.
2. Yeah, talking to them is usually the best thing to do. It's fine if your playstyles don't mix and you have to drop them. Explain that and try to depart on good terms. If they're reasonable, they should understand and look for a group that better first their playstyle. This goes for players as well. Don't fear dropping out if you aren't enjoying the playstyle. Let the DM know that's your main issue (hopefully it is) and wish them luck finding your replacement.
3. I think the advice is correcting the player's knowledge much later than you should. Personally, I'd try to correct them as soon as I hear them forget something their character should know sooner rather than later (especially if they're planning something).
4. I don't have much to say about the homebrew world thing other than it's very much a DM preference thing. Some love homebrewing their own worlds, some like to use pre-made stuff, and some love the official worlds and want to use them. None of these are wrong.
5. I think homebrew should be minimize for new DMs unless they think they can handle it. It's a lot of work to make sure it won't break your game, and most new DMs have more than enough on their plate already. Other than that, use as much as you are comfortable with once you get the hang of things.
6. My first campaign had a DM who stood by that rule 0 was that the DM was always right. If memory serves me well, he wasn't a dictator with it, but used it to keep the going (as Crispy said the rule is for).
7. Yeah, you shouldn't DM if you need to invest money into it to justify it to yourself. Save investing for things things you enjoy or things you expect to give you more money than you put in.
8. I hate the DM vs Player mentality. I swear the people who started the "the players should have fun, not the DM" had bad friends/players or who were the bad friends/players. If anything, making your DM suffer will cause them to stop DMing for you or make them resentful, causing them to go out of their way to ruin your fun. No one wins in those scenarios.
1. Challenge rating has its problems and game design is more art than science. As Matt Mercer says, game design doesn't end when initiative is rolled - that said, don't use creativity as an excuse to be uncreative. The two have nothing to do with each other.
2. You can't control how other people act. Knowing when to say it's not a good fit is a balancing act. It's not black and white, it's fuzzy logic.
3. Don't just tell the players it won't work - never screw your players over Make sure negative consequences are foreseeable. Let the PCs make mistakes, things going wrong (or horribly right) can be fun!
4. D&D's canon is an incoherent mess. Edit, curate, decide what to include and what not to include. That's worldbuilding.
5. See 1 and 4. (There was a giant in Berserk (the manga) who used half of a ship as a helmet and the other half as a shield)
6. I don't like the phrase "always right", it has some pretty serious problems. That said, the GM gets to make unilateral executive decisions for the benefit of game flow.
7. The sunk cost fallacy won't make you a better player. You don't need to invest financially to invest emotionally - in fact, if anything sinking money into the game could leave you resenting it as an unwanted obligation.
8. If you're not enjoying it, find something you enjoy to spend your free time on.
Apparently a lot of people who play D&D don't like playing D&D? So... why do they play it? It's a game, it's entertainment! It's not supposed to be an obligation you're begrudgingly forced into!
(The bisexual lighting is nice :3)
Things were brutal for my artificer before I got my arcane firearm.. the artificers spell list is almost all utility, very little damage dealing.. now my dude can do 2d10+1d8+2d8+1.. Before level 5 though I was doing a measly 1d10+2d8 per turn. Nearly died in every encounter
I haven't played the game much, but I've heard that level 1 combat kinda sucks. I have an idea for an artificer build that, assuming everything hits, can do 2d12+(2xINT mod)+2+1d8+PB at 5th level. I'm pretty sure that's good, but it'll probably be rough getting there, and I think it's the same with most characters.
@@firstnamelastname7244 yeahh everyone said I should go armor or battlesmith but I liked the idea of doing 2d8 from 120 feet away. Getting close to a 4d8 bonus action ^.^ only a few more sessions
9:05
To late!
When I started playing ADnD (late 70's) there were few modules out there, and the ones I was seeing didn't appeal to me. I discovered that I love world building. I would do it even if I never got to DM.
It's not for everyone, but everyone should do what they love.
Honestly, that wasn't the worst advice that could have been given out.
Vacation, what? How dare you do normal real life things! I demand that you always entertain me!
Worry not, I’m still actively uploading
I'm suspicious of lore when worldbuilding, and try to avoid it as much as possible. 99% of will never matter in your game, and 99% of players don't give a damn about it.
It's much better to build from bottom up and create stuff that is immediately useable in your next session.
Start with the town where the players live. It produces something or otherwise it wouldn't exist. That production is controlled by someone. Then think of the connections to that town. It trades with someone, and if there's trade then someone wants to tax it, be it a lord or a bandit group. And so on, generating content organically that the players can interact with. To worldbuild you never need to know what the fifth king of the sixth country did a thousand years ago, because none of it will ever matter to anyone.
Stop scaring the newcomers by telling that to worldbuild they have to spend years to make something grandiose and extensive and epic for it to be valid. Tell them to create something useable instead.
Meh - "homebrew" monsters and enemies are WAY easier to balance against the party your players are playing, and make encounters more engaging and entertaining. The stuff in the book just ends up being either too easy, too challenging, too out of place, or just too stale limited to standard action economy gameplay. And it's way less fun for the DM as you're forcefully stiffling creativity :P
Im very new and want to start something small on twitter.
Rotten advice.
Have some great vacations!
Two'th
Rotten Advice!
Rotten Advice
Rotten advice.
Have some great vacations!