I mean that Rezmir is a female half-dragon instead of a male dragonborn, and she doesn't seem to have daddy issues. But... yeah the similarities are way too close to be a coincidence.
Honestly that’d be amazing if he could pull it off. The players think it’s a lame dmpc, but upon reaching the supposed final boss the dmpc gets reckless and starts hurting the pcs, and upon fighting back the dmpc blurts out “oh fuck I gotta tp!” or something similar, before vanishing. Turns out that they’re meant to be npc followers in a game, and the dmpc is the real bbeg cause it was part of the original plot of this “game” that he becomes emperor of the land if he kills the original bbeg
These are my favorite kinds of RPG Horror Stories. No assault, no bad baggage, no weird sexual stuff, just a DM wanting to roleplay his OP anime protagonist with the other players as a captive audience.
Yeah, comparing It to other things Crab narrate to us, yeah, it's Just annoying, and a silly history that probably will steal a laugh from this people in the Future when remembering the moment
Oh, my, fucking, god. I cannot believe that he really said "It's a hologram!" It takes me back to the good 'ol days as a 7-year-old at the playground, playing an "imagination game" with my brothers and some random kid at the park, and this 5 year old, desperate to not have his character die, made the exact same claim. For years, that has been my go-to line to poke fun at bad storytelling/writing/roleplaying. I cannot believe I have seen it in the wild once more.
Or like those kids who have that unobtainium armor that makes them all powerful, or they can't be tagged because reasons. Those instances feel terrible in the moment, but are absolutely hilarious in retrospect.
what really makes it even worse is D&D has illusions that actually exist in the game but he chose to use a hologram because he couldnt think of it at that moment,
when it got to the point that the DM was describing Rezmir continuing his extended monologue as the party literally galloped away from him, I couldn't help but think that the entire table was playing along at this point and having a big laugh.
How to use an op NPC: 1) Save the party 2) Be nice to the party 3) Reward the party and give them quests 4) Have the NPC get killed by the BBEG to hype them up as more powerful and scary
One time, our party got saved by an OP DMPC as part of the opening. He was built up as our sort of guide/tutorial character, as a legendary hero. And then, when he took off his helmet to dramatically reveal his identity... ...he got shot with an arrow and died. Not an enemy arrow, but a stray one from a nearby range. Then, he was used to establish that all of the gods are all fucked up and not working properly, including the god of death, by making him immediately came back as a ghost, bound to his corpse and unable to really do anything but speak. It also meant we had to lug his corpse around because he couldn't stray too far from it.
I think Martin Septim (from ES4 Oblivion) is a good example of an NPC where the main storyline revolves around him. As he is a non-fighter, the player acts as his right hand man, helping and protecting him throughout the main story. In the final battle, Martin sacrificed himself to save the world, while the player lived and was hailed as a hero, both becoming a legend in their own way. It gives the both the player and NPC their own spotlight, unlike our Reznir/Rezmir here...
Pretty much the definition of "DMPC as MacGuffin", but with said character taking an active role on the political side of things, which I think is a great way to do it.
@@Former_Halo_FanI can't take these people serious, as they are basically admitting to be (or wanting to be) a Mary Sue. Both Martin and the Champion of Cyrodiil are heroes and while Martin was the one who banished Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion, the player was the one who had the most active role in every single step along the way. And it's not like we didn't had our own final battle against Mankar Camoran.
@@tripple-a6031 @Tripple-A _I can't take these people serious, as they are basically admitting to be (or wanting to be) Mary Sues._ - Well yeah. This isn't D&D or published fanfiction we're talking about. An Elder Scrolls game is a single-player experience in a genre practically defined by power fantasies and by people making and living out their own stories. In a game like this, if the player doesn't feel like the main character and focus of attention, the designers arguably did something wrong. Elder Scrolls games aren't even story-driven enough to justify shifting focus too much away from the main character, since the main questline is going to make only a fraction of the time you'll spend in the game anyway. Accusing the player of an Elder Scrolls game of wanting to be the main character is as misguided as a GM accusing his players of wanting to make the game about them and their characters. It's simply what it is _supposed_ to be about.
Our DM had a literal dragon join our party and he watched as we nearly tpked. When we asked why he didn't help he said "Oh, I don't get involved with mortals, it's nature running it's course" like he was watching a nature documentary 😂😂 he was a well played character and a good example of how to do it right
Next thing you know that dragon is gonna yell at one of you when you're getting chased by some roided out goblin as if it was that poor gazelle getting chased by a lion
@@emPIEror bruh it got so much worse, dragon is technically an Archfey who wants to free my character from their demon patron, but for his own "self pleasure". I'm literally trapped between a demon and a horny dragon 😭😂😂
honestly a fanfiction dnd campaign sounds awesome. Like, running a game in an existing setting from a movie or book or something, and playing as canon characters from that setting, except something different happens and you play like an altered version of the plot from the original story? like you play as harry hermione and ron except voldemort rises earlier in the timeline and you have to destroy the horcruxes in fifth year now and everything shakes out a little differently? or something like that
Yeah, agree if they can remember it's a game, with multiple players, and tell the story in a collaborative way, could be great if everyone is interested. Plenty of social circles love collaborative fanfiction, why not make it a game. This is just....not that.
That’s precisely the largest issue with 5e right now. Players think the game is for them to live out their fan fiction as the default way to play D&D. It’s not. You’re there to take PART in the DMs story. Sure the DM can choose to do a campaign specifically dealing with player backstories etc. absolutely. But don’t expect to walk into Curse of Strahd with a 2 page backstory and have the DM change the entire module to suit you.
To be fair one GM I played with many times basically offered me and my then-girlfriend "you guys wanna play a campaign that fills in info for homebrew world's setting and one of its most historically important characters?" As in, he told us up-front, before we agreed to even playing, that it'd be basically us filling in his 'fanfiction' with our actions. And that way it did work, we were aware our characters were not the main ones, but the important people pushing the MC into correct direction. Had we started the game with thought that we're the main characters, I'd been pissed by session 2. But because we were told it before we even thought of any character ideas or anything, it was 100% okay for me. It was even a blast to play with, 'cause we knew things would turn out towards something specific but we had control how to get there. Train WOULD arrive to a destination, but we could decide how fast and how rocky the ride there was.
@@luigiboi4244 "Do you know how many of you have died screaming Leeroy Jenkins?! MORE THAN ZERO!!! Which, as far as I'm concerned, is justification for exterminating the human race!!"
I loved my DMPC character, because they were, as I put it, completely incompetent. -Step One the guy was mute, and only wore a white featureless mask so there was zero verbal roleplay. Named "Lee" -Whenever the PCs asked the guy's opinion (or commonly made fun of him) he would give them a thumbs up, or pull out a sharpie and draw a frowny face emoji on the mask. -The DMPC, always did all the shopping for the party, he made the camp, cooked, cleaned, booked the rooms at the inn, did everything the PC's didn't want to do, and it was just handwaved with "Lee does it" -He carried all the loot, not in a bag of holding, just on his back, like a giant ball of loot wrapped up in the tent cloths. It got to the point that instead of a cart and mule, the party just rode in the wagon, and "Lee" pulled it. -And the PC's started to figure out the guy had looney tunes level of survivability, "Lee" would unquestionly trigger off traps and take damage if the party asked him to do it. Lee also mundanely healed the party with a healer's kit, or if asked in battle would use a potion everytime they asked (which they started to risk their own life, not wanting to "waste" their own spell slots when "Lee" would just fix it later) Lee would also heal them to full after each battle (as long as they didn't die). -Lee was the best support character ever. Which is why it was so so delicious when I had the character killed off. They party was like lambs thrown to the wolves. They had to make survival checks to find food because no one thought to buy rations, they all failed charisma checks for buying stuff at discounts (rolled for disadvantage because they were the party that got Lee killed, who was every npc's best friend). -I started to use encumbrance rules now that they had to carry their own stuff. -It was hardcore DND after playing babymode with the DMPC. And it triggered the whole plot of the game, which was the fact that "Lee" was a part of a "league of assassins" type guild. Each member had a unique mask, and was a part of the "Lee-gion" with a code name (______ Lee) like the strongest guy was "Strongly, aka Strong Lee" or the merchant of the group was "Cost Lee" or the accountant was "Greedi Lee" It was cool to see the party miss the DMPC for the rest of the campaign.
I can only imagine the group walk around and all of the sudden hearing "they got Lee killed! Lets get 'em boys!" and just beat them up and steal their shoes
I checked it out and yes, yes it was like that Although the sephiroth guy was instantly cutting off two arms like if he was the fucking flash, imo, he deserved that holographic "fuck you"
Whenever Rezmir the Black is not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "Where's Rezmir?" Also, that bit about fleeing on horseback from the NPC monologue is like an Animaniacs joke.
A great example of how to properly use a "DMPC" can be seen in the Shadow of the Dragon Queen 5e adventure. He does cool things, and has plot relevance. But he's ultimately there to be the party's cheerleader, and provide RP opportunities.
In my DnD group the dungeon master has a player character but really they act like just another party member and they don't play it any differently than normal, they just multitask between DMing and playing
@@Salem-Angel Thats cool, but very rare - and difficult. I'm leading a homebrew campaign myself and my party really likes some of the characters they met on their journey that appear from time to time again. But if it would be more than just moments and one of this characters would be my permanent DMPC I know I would mess things up. ^^'
I remember when I did a campaign for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, I had a pretty strong DMPC, but she would only appear as something like the Mysterious Stranger in Fallout if a battle was getting a little on the rough side.
okay, in all honesty, the bit at 5:00 minutes in and the image of Rezmir monologuing while trying to catch up with the group, and on horseback no less, just makes it even more absurd and oddly hilarious with how the DM is trying to establish how 'serious' this character is.
Eh, no it couldn’t have. The entire game sucked and was a pain in the ass to play through, to the point where people dropped out midway through because they weren’t having a good time. No twist ending could make any of that worth it.
The real question every DM should answer before starting a game is if this concept they have should be written as a campaign where the players are active participants, or if the other elements of the world are so important that it'd serve better as a novel instead. In this case, it would've been better for everyone involved if Rezmir remained in the annals of the aforementioned self-insert story because to have a campaign centered solely around him and not the players is not a campaign at all.
I was thinking that as well, maybe Reznir would work better as a story than a roleplay or game, because why have free will characters like the pcs, if you want them to follow along exactly how you want?
yeah but no one would ever read the DMs story so this is the only way he can get an audience, hell from the sounds of it I doubt the DM can get people who know him well to even listen to him anymore than a couple of seconds dude has MAJOR main character flaws
Rezmir needs to be louder and angrier and have access to a hologram machine. Whenever Rezmir is not on screen, the other characters should be asking: "Where is Rezmir?"
Rezmir you look like you hace someting to say, do you? I certainly do....(Another Voice) I have to go now, my planet needs me Rezmir died on the way back to his home planet
Okay, that idea that CritCrab had at the end sounds pretty interesting honestly and I'm curious about the potential it has if done right. But I don't think the DM in this story would've thought about something so complex when it came to that world though, since it just sounded like he wanted an audience to watch his DMPC do all the cool stuff and go on about his damn father, not bothering to engage with his players in the slightest. I don't blame the party for leaving though, because with how he faded out as a hologram... I'm willing to bet he would've made him reappear again if there ever was another session.
"It's a hologram.... you wake up surrounded by a stranger liquid in a coffin, it opens and you breath real air for the first time in months, you remember everything now. Golems have been harnessing living beings for their magic while trapped in an ilussion for years and you were part of the resistance but were captured, luckily you were capable of inserting the detonant. A fake person that would overlap the written code when damaged by you with the personality to make that happen as quick as possible... you are free now and inside their base ready to fight the leader of the golems"
If CC's twist ending had been what the DM was actually doing it would have been SO GLORIOUS. Then the players get to not only go for a ND the source code, they can kill the DMPC over and over again!
"It's a hologram.... you wake up surrounded by a stranger liquid in a coffin, it opens and you breath real air for the first time in months, you remember everything now. Golems have been harnessing living beings for their magic while trapped in an ilussion for years and you were part of the resistance but were captured, luckily you were capable of inserting the detonant. A fake person that would overlap the written code when damaged by you with the personality to make that happen as quick as possible... you are free now and inside their base ready to fight the leader of the golems"
I'm gonna toot my horn a bit here. Never played D&D always wanted to. But I did have a long distance friend years ago I helped with a similar situation. He was a DM and created a story around A barbarian who would get the players to help defeat his father so he could take over because his father was corrupt. But he made the barbarian pretty much He-Man...almost unstoppable. He realized he had to figure out why he would need the players help. Nerfing the Barbarian wasn't an option. So I offered make it a tribe code....regicide/parricide does not equate to taking over the throne. It was what he needed.
This... Actually would make an interesting plot point. "Yes, I could just walk into my father's camp, decimate his guards and decapitate him with a single strike, but that would remove me from legal position of a new High Chief of the lands. So while I can help you with any tasks that do NOT revolve around removing my father from power, I am unable to give any direct support in those tasks." If wanting to make it even more complex, could attach in it some other mission/quest line players are doing (for example one player's personal story of getting revenge on a high-level demon etc), and basically this is the way they can get this unstoppable He-Man on their side for that fight so they have a good chance of winning, and possibly even more in the future.
Goddamnit, Crab, now you made me want to run a game where all the players are NPCs in Skyrim and the BBEG is the player character with full CHIM enabled.
And if they do any extra planar stuff, have one of the Nine Hells or the Abyss be a very old Text Game where they have to write what they say and do. Just a wicked thought I just had.
This could be so fun. You could have the players introduce themselves briefly, meet each other, maybe even start some seemingly innocent quest, then then the player appears, breaking the laws of reality and physics and attacking people indisciminantly. The players are all attacked and brought down (but not killed because they're marked as essential NPCs in the game) by the player. Then, from their perspective, everything goes black and they all have a vision of a windows command prompt: > notepad C:\Users\player_name\Games\Skyrim\skyrim.ini Then in the text file that opens the line bessentialtakenodamage = 1 Changes to bessentialtakenodamage = 0 And then theyre suddenly shunted back into wherever they were at the start with this new knowledge.
I vaguely recall a story where the party trolled the GM's dmpc. They decided to play along and even worked on getting that one spell that would make him ascend. Yet in the end they basically created a parallel dimension instead where they all hopped in and closed the door behind. Not the best way to handle an out of game problem in game but it was funny.
Not gonna lie, that twist with the simulation actually sounds like a fun premise for a game. The NPCs are rebelling against the code and it's time to strike against the hacking player.
"when I run a game I tell 2 stories; the story of the mission and the story of the player characters" Absolutely based. This is something that should be said more. I never thought of the game in this way, but it makes so much sense. Also a way I would describe it: a game is like a river channel, with the mission story being the channel and the player story the river water, and nothing is stopping the water from spilling over into a new direction.
Reznir/Reznov sounds like Reznov. With that ending like that, I doubt it's a coincidence! Also, the party turning on the DMPC was the true awesome plot twist.
The idea of a campaign where the players are secretly NPCs in a video game is genius. It would only work with very specific players, but sounds super cool.
I feel for the players that left and all of them that just wanted a game, but the end was great. If Dalriada doesn't have the Gae Bulg , we're going to have problems.
I remember the one time I tried using a DMPC when I tried to DM a campaign for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, she was just a regular NPC for the most part who gave quests but would also act like a Mysterious Stranger encounter in Fallout if a fight was getting a little on the rough side.
The instant I heard "Rezmir" I was like "oh no... oh NO!" Not because I heard the story before (honestly one of my favs) but because I'm looking forward to how the crab will do the DM's tone of voice or his opinion on the ending. Edit: Now that's funny. Did not disappoint at all. Also the reason the spelling changed (according to OP) was because he didn't really care about the NPC. the RezMir spelling is correct according to OP as well.
I'm a new DM, and I've rolled up a few NPCs for my campaign. One of them is based on one of my favorite characters ever, and I've done my best to keep him out of the way of the players. I threw him into their first boss fight because they were a bit outmatched, and he ended up kinda carrying them (he's only 2 levels above them). In the future, I'll try to let them carry their own weight, but how they bounce off my OCs will determine how I play it going forward.
I had a dmpc in my first complete home brewed campaign, and from my experience having them be unwilling or unable to complete the task the party has is pretty good, they can be useful but only when the party directly calls on them, and making them vulnerable to the bbeg is always a good idea. It will reward the players with vanquishing something that someone like a messiah or a wisened warrior was unable to take down
I had my party ally with a Vampie that wanted revenge against one of the two BBEG in my campaign. He let the party use his mansion as their base camp, and only directly helped the party in battle 3 times. Once when they called him asking for backup when they were ambushed, another time he held off a group of guys while the party fought a Big BIG, and then at the end when they fought the BBEG for revenge. Party enjoyed him, as he acted tough and menacing, but was a big ol softy on the inside.
That’s a really good advice on how to run a dmpc. Currently my bro is running a game and he recently got the Wild Beyond the Witchlight book so he’s incorporating that into our game. Early in the game, before getting the book, he introduced us to a Bard who was a playwright. However, his talent was stolen by the hags coven in Witchlight so we have to help him get it back. Because the bard lost his talent, he is unable to cast spells or do anything at all
The ending joke is something I wish I had thought of back in the day. Have there be prophecies and chosen ones running around as a natural part of the world. As players go about their own business and adventures they can either help, harm or ignore these chosen ones and their fates.
I've actually had that exact idea in my head for a while, RE: players are NPCs and some other character is a PC with actual hacks... though in my version of it this character isn't so much an antagonist or protagonist, but rather an occasionally appearing "WTF" to handle times when there's a lull in game prep or something goes horribly horribly wrong and threatens to upend the game entirely (like a player choosing to do something I never accounted for that would have catastrophic consequences for everyone at the table or something) Also the abilities of this character, while reality bending and essentially ludicrous, are formalized on paper and have costs and triggers associated with them. I got the idea from watching deep dives into how From Software games work, where players will use hacks to become temporarily unkillable, but not invulnerable, or to gain infinite poise or duplicate themselves as a hostile enemy, or other really weird things just to test out the AI and numeric calculations of fall damage and such. I thought to myself "what does this player look like from the eyes of an NPC?" Shout outs to Zullie the Witch and Illusory Wall.
I feel so lucky that my DM , while often inserting a DMPC, Keeps the players at the forefront. The DMPC's are given time to shine, but they're never given any more or less weight than any player
Dammit, Critcrab. Now I want to create a campaign with an insufferable DMPC character that the party is supposed to turn against. And have a dramatic reveal that they are actually NPC's in some video games who became sentient. But it's going to be really hard to balance making the DMPC insufferable enough that the players hate him, but not too much so the players quit the campaign. This is going to take a lot of work. And I blame you for giving me the idea. You monster.
I kinda got a DMPC who is a Mary Sue on the sense that he's over-powered as heck. BUT i also have his backstory have him cursed so he's unable to directly help the party with combat, so he's mostly relegated to a support role. He's not even around for very long when he shows up, and in the grand scheme of the world, he's just another guy who rarely gets brought up. I do have a side question with him, but the only way he reaches full power is when the party does. If you want to write a story for a character, please don't make other people sit and listen to it, just write a book.
My dm hates when I do what critcrab does at the end and is like “you genius!! How did I not see it before!!” As her response is always “what did I do?” Im such a meticulous note taker that I always bring up things she said in session one near the end of the game that she completely forgot about, but now I want to play the story critcrab came up with
My guy I only discovered your channel last week and have gone through 90% of your videos already it’s been amazing. Stoked to see a new vid after getting caught up.
I have to admit, if CritCrab could make such an assumption that the world was actually a videogame world, he could very well be a Bad DM Apologist if he wanted to.
This was another fun story, but please keep making positive ones. I loved the last video, and I want to hear more stories about awesome moments at wholesome tables.
Rezn/mir feels like he could work if he was an anomalous entity that endlessly pursues people, seeking to drive them to madness or suicide through sheer annoyance
Immediately collapsed laughing at the DM's final trump card. Good LAWD that's dumb. "You all wake up." "You mean it was a dream Rezmik died?" "Who's Rezmik?
I’ve said this on another crit crab video before but I’ll put it here too. The best way to make a Dmpc is to make them the bad guy. As long as you have a little self awareness it works wonders. Your bad guy can be op, close to the players often, gets to monologue whenever they want, and you can still make them feel special. You just have to remember at the end it’s still your player’s story and give them agency
ok... the twist the king gave at the end... now THAT is a great idea for a game. Hell, it could even switch over to another system at the end of the first, like shadow runners or something.
I would've respected the DM a lot more if he described, as the party rode away, he continued his monologue as his voice slowly became more distant, eventually disappearing.
I have an outrageous case of Gary Stu DMPC when I played a Naruto campaign. The most egregious one, besides DM making a monster vore my 1st character without my consent and punishing my 2nd for being overqualified for a test was as follows. When his oh so cool DMPC died after an encounter, he ressurects him immediate after via a random NPC giving him a mysterious juice and him being possessed by a "Murderous Wolf Spirit". This gave him a perma +10 boost to all his Stats, effectively making him jump from level 5 to 45. While us peasants were still at 5.
I'm playing a game right now where one of the characters "Roland the Guardsman" showed up just to help the PC's with a hard encounter, but the party leader got the idea to bribe him to come along for the full ride. The thing is, the GM played Roland as a total coward, who nonetheless faces his fear alongside the great adventurers. He rolls almost everything ad disadvantage and yet... Roland has still come in clutch multiple times. He's a party favorite, and everyone loves him to the point that stealing furniture from the bad guys to fill Roland's ramshackle apartment was a fun point of interest for the party.
Okay, the concept of a group of NPCs in a Video Game becoming self-aware and rebelling against the player would actually make a very fine plot hook in an ACTUAL video game or perhaps better yet, a TV Show.
I had a similar game idea, It's basically a park tycoon,build stuff,get customers,etc. However the manager comes to scold the player like you putting fireworks at the entrance except he becomes aware more and more of the player.
I've only ever run a DMPC twice. The first time was a party full of first time players, so I played an old, blind Harengon to advise them. The second time was an orphaned child the party adopted, and he wanted to learn how to be strong from the party. (They don't know he's gonna die soon)
Agree with the crabs take on DMPCs. In a star wars game I have the ghost of an ancient Jedi who is powerful beyond belief be with the party. The reason why he doesn't just defeat the BBEG is because the BBEG is the force ghost of his wife. He can only bring himself to grant the party an opening that would allow them to kill a ghost as he doesn't have the will to do it himself. He also acts as a nice encyclopedia for force knowledge since the party is extremely lacking in that department.
@@CritCrab "It's a hologram.... you wake up surrounded by a stranger liquid in a coffin, it opens and you breath real air for the first time in months, you remember everything now. Golems have been harnessing living beings for their magic while trapped in an ilussion for years and you were part of the resistance but were captured, luckily you were capable of inserting the detonant. A fake person that would overlap the written code when damaged by you with the personality to make that happen as quick as possible... you are free now and inside their base ready to fight the leader of the golems"
I'm honestly depressed we couldn't see the players' immediate reactions live. I can't imagine not absolutely chewing the DM a new one for pulling something like this, I'd be so damn mad, lol
If you want to put some rly op npc in they should either be legendary monsters which will only appear to fight another monster but not rly help with the aftermath nor they will come too soon. Or have them living in solitude and they only give some advice and information. If it's simple op they could be gods or something similar and you put them in like role models or end bosses. If you want to make a dmpc to have run around with the party you should mostly do it have supportive shet one way of the other.
I’m trying to run a campaign with a lot of regular npcs and I’m trying so hard to balance them. This did make me feel better in showing me what NOT to do.
There is a DMPC in the campaign I play in and our quest is to try and retrieve that’s DMPC’s soul as he is the king on the lands. Even then we always have the option of doing other side quests just to have more fun.
I like the idea of Resmir being the true BBEG, and it coming out that Resmir's father is just some shop keep or something. You would have to do it within 2 games to give players catharsis without frustrating them beyond the point it was fun.
Honestly, I kinda wish the players ran with it and just treated Resmir as the BBEG, without the consent of the DM, and see what kind of loopholes the DM would do to force the party to follow Resmir instead. Obviously, this would probably go south pretty quickly, but i think my morbid curiosity is getting the better of me here.
@@CyberDrewan the whole "it was just a hologram" kind of garenteed the dm would not let it happen, but at that point, you have to let everything play out.
This gives me a HORRIBLE idea. To DM a campaign where a Reznir-like character always "saves" the party and steals the glory. Thus leading to the party figure out he's actually evil and doing this on purpose, defeating his own minions to cover his tracks; he's the BBEG they need to kill.
I think xenk from honor among thieves is a good example of what to do for a dmpc. he doesn't butt in to take control of the plot; he's there to help get the party through the otherwise unforgiving underdark, and then promptly leaves to go take care of other matters.
One of the only D&D games I’ve played so far (only played one-offs so far) revolved around a DMPC that was made to intentionally be the opposite of this. He would constantly attempt to be in the spotlight despite being completely clueless and useless, even to the point that he didn’t know what magic was. It was really fun and having a character like that was a fun way to bring the party together to dislike a character
I just started (13 hours ago) DMing a curse of strahd campaign for people stuck in a rut of classic gameplay ( dungeon crawl and combat only) this might be the answer to getting them to think outside the box
Visualizing the party fleeing on horseback from a DMPC's monologue is the funniest thing I've imagined in a while.
I KNOW, RIGHT?! The image is soo funny to me!
It is worse than a Vogon reading poetry to you.
It's honestly funnier when he's following them on foot, continuing without missing a beat.
I would learn spells just to shut him up and tether him to the ground...except hes a hologram
NIGERUNDAYOO~ REZMIR!!
It gets even better when you realize Rezmir is one of the first villains you meet in Tyranny of Dragons. Dude didn't even create the character.
I mean that Rezmir is a female half-dragon instead of a male dragonborn, and she doesn't seem to have daddy issues. But... yeah the similarities are way too close to be a coincidence.
I was going to comment that yeah… There’s a few changes but it’s so painfully obvious they used her as inspiration it’s kinda sad.
That's SO MUCH WORSE...
Kinda funnier knowing that the character the DM used as a basis was a villain character.
I was waiting for someone else to say this
When CritCrab tells a MUCH better story than the actual DM
Yeah honestly if done intentionally this would be a hilarious campaign. I'd be down tbh.
*Quietly does a steal*
Now I wanna play dothack infection again.
Honestly that’d be amazing if he could pull it off. The players think it’s a lame dmpc, but upon reaching the supposed final boss the dmpc gets reckless and starts hurting the pcs, and upon fighting back the dmpc blurts out “oh fuck I gotta tp!” or something similar, before vanishing. Turns out that they’re meant to be npc followers in a game, and the dmpc is the real bbeg cause it was part of the original plot of this “game” that he becomes emperor of the land if he kills the original bbeg
@@glasshorse6893 god man, I would love to run through this as a first campaign, this stuff makes me want to find a group to play the game with
These are my favorite kinds of RPG Horror Stories. No assault, no bad baggage, no weird sexual stuff, just a DM wanting to roleplay his OP anime protagonist with the other players as a captive audience.
IKR? Everything else is too close to home for many of us; why relive our own worst tables? Instead just give us cringey and inexperienced noobs.
Sadly I have been in campaigns with GMs that want to play their Gary Sue character WHILE sexually harassing players... TWICE.
Yeah, comparing It to other things Crab narrate to us, yeah, it's Just annoying, and a silly history that probably will steal a laugh from this people in the Future when remembering the moment
Taking out sexual assault from DnD is like taking out Mary Sues, is just a natural part of this fanbase.
Oh, my, fucking, god.
I cannot believe that he really said "It's a hologram!"
It takes me back to the good 'ol days as a 7-year-old at the playground, playing an "imagination game" with my brothers and some random kid at the park, and this 5 year old, desperate to not have his character die, made the exact same claim.
For years, that has been my go-to line to poke fun at bad storytelling/writing/roleplaying.
I cannot believe I have seen it in the wild once more.
Same. Except I was the one saying "its' a hologram" sometimes it takes time to become self aware. Those people were so nice to me.
Maybe the DM in this story is the same random kid you once met
💀@@TheUnknownsShow
Or like those kids who have that unobtainium armor that makes them all powerful, or they can't be tagged because reasons. Those instances feel terrible in the moment, but are absolutely hilarious in retrospect.
what really makes it even worse is D&D has illusions that actually exist in the game but he chose to use a hologram because he couldnt think of it at that moment,
when it got to the point that the DM was describing Rezmir continuing his extended monologue as the party literally galloped away from him, I couldn't help but think that the entire table was playing along at this point and having a big laugh.
sad that wasn't the case...
It kills me how fast this dragonborn MC became a parody of himself.
How to use an op NPC:
1) Save the party
2) Be nice to the party
3) Reward the party and give them quests
4) Have the NPC get killed by the BBEG to hype them up as more powerful and scary
My advice if you're on an airship: you REALLY gotta pay attention to step 2.
One time, our party got saved by an OP DMPC as part of the opening. He was built up as our sort of guide/tutorial character, as a legendary hero. And then, when he took off his helmet to dramatically reveal his identity...
...he got shot with an arrow and died. Not an enemy arrow, but a stray one from a nearby range. Then, he was used to establish that all of the gods are all fucked up and not working properly, including the god of death, by making him immediately came back as a ghost, bound to his corpse and unable to really do anything but speak. It also meant we had to lug his corpse around because he couldn't stray too far from it.
I had one be a 'mentor' to a party full of new people. He was too lazy to fight, but would jump in to help if there was serious danger.
@@theinternetpolice2078 Sounds like a good campaign.
@@nathanjackson9560
Eh, it's a mostly silly campaign by amateur DMs. Not a _good_ campaign, but a _fun_ campaign, and the two DMs know it.
I think Martin Septim (from ES4 Oblivion) is a good example of an NPC where the main storyline revolves around him. As he is a non-fighter, the player acts as his right hand man, helping and protecting him throughout the main story.
In the final battle, Martin sacrificed himself to save the world, while the player lived and was hailed as a hero, both becoming a legend in their own way. It gives the both the player and NPC their own spotlight, unlike our Reznir/Rezmir here...
Pretty much the definition of "DMPC as MacGuffin", but with said character taking an active role on the political side of things, which I think is a great way to do it.
Funnily enough a lot of players hated Martin because they felt like Martin was the true hero and they were his errand boy.
@@Former_Halo_FanI can't take these people serious, as they are basically admitting to be (or wanting to be) a Mary Sue.
Both Martin and the Champion of Cyrodiil are heroes and while Martin was the one who banished Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion, the player was the one who had the most active role in every single step along the way. And it's not like we didn't had our own final battle against Mankar Camoran.
@@Former_Halo_Fan I can see how someone would read that, but fortunately, I don't think Gamers' opinions matter.
@@tripple-a6031 @Tripple-A _I can't take these people serious, as they are basically admitting to be (or wanting to be) Mary Sues._
- Well yeah. This isn't D&D or published fanfiction we're talking about. An Elder Scrolls game is a single-player experience in a genre practically defined by power fantasies and by people making and living out their own stories. In a game like this, if the player doesn't feel like the main character and focus of attention, the designers arguably did something wrong. Elder Scrolls games aren't even story-driven enough to justify shifting focus too much away from the main character, since the main questline is going to make only a fraction of the time you'll spend in the game anyway. Accusing the player of an Elder Scrolls game of wanting to be the main character is as misguided as a GM accusing his players of wanting to make the game about them and their characters. It's simply what it is _supposed_ to be about.
Our DM had a literal dragon join our party and he watched as we nearly tpked. When we asked why he didn't help he said "Oh, I don't get involved with mortals, it's nature running it's course" like he was watching a nature documentary 😂😂 he was a well played character and a good example of how to do it right
Next thing you know that dragon is gonna yell at one of you when you're getting chased by some roided out goblin as if it was that poor gazelle getting chased by a lion
@@emPIEror bruh it got so much worse, dragon is technically an Archfey who wants to free my character from their demon patron, but for his own "self pleasure". I'm literally trapped between a demon and a horny dragon 😭😂😂
I like dragons, oh wait I'm a dragon myself. Scuse me.
@@VillianousKitty getting chased by a roided out goblin sounds like the better deal..
When we open up with CritCrab's eyes blazing like a thousand suns, I know we're in for a fun time
Some people really need to learn to keep social outlets mutually exclusive from writing fanfiction
honestly a fanfiction dnd campaign sounds awesome. Like, running a game in an existing setting from a movie or book or something, and playing as canon characters from that setting, except something different happens and you play like an altered version of the plot from the original story? like you play as harry hermione and ron except voldemort rises earlier in the timeline and you have to destroy the horcruxes in fifth year now and everything shakes out a little differently? or something like that
It's all fine when they can remember it's a multiplayer game.
Yeah, agree if they can remember it's a game, with multiple players, and tell the story in a collaborative way, could be great if everyone is interested. Plenty of social circles love collaborative fanfiction, why not make it a game.
This is just....not that.
That’s precisely the largest issue with 5e right now. Players think the game is for them to live out their fan fiction as the default way to play D&D.
It’s not. You’re there to take PART in the DMs story. Sure the DM can choose to do a campaign specifically dealing with player backstories etc. absolutely. But don’t expect to walk into Curse of Strahd with a 2 page backstory and have the DM change the entire module to suit you.
To be fair one GM I played with many times basically offered me and my then-girlfriend "you guys wanna play a campaign that fills in info for homebrew world's setting and one of its most historically important characters?"
As in, he told us up-front, before we agreed to even playing, that it'd be basically us filling in his 'fanfiction' with our actions. And that way it did work, we were aware our characters were not the main ones, but the important people pushing the MC into correct direction. Had we started the game with thought that we're the main characters, I'd been pissed by session 2. But because we were told it before we even thought of any character ideas or anything, it was 100% okay for me. It was even a blast to play with, 'cause we knew things would turn out towards something specific but we had control how to get there. Train WOULD arrive to a destination, but we could decide how fast and how rocky the ride there was.
You know it's gonna be good when Kirito is in the thumbnail
(Insert SAO: Abridged reference here)
@@luigiboi4244 "Do you know how many of you have died screaming Leeroy Jenkins?! MORE THAN ZERO!!! Which, as far as I'm concerned, is justification for exterminating the human race!!"
Kirito=Mary Sue/Gary Stu
Kitty toe is what I heard when watching that show
Power fantasy is one of the best genre of all time
I loved my DMPC character, because they were, as I put it, completely incompetent.
-Step One the guy was mute, and only wore a white featureless mask so there was zero verbal roleplay. Named "Lee"
-Whenever the PCs asked the guy's opinion (or commonly made fun of him) he would give them a thumbs up, or pull out a sharpie and draw a frowny face emoji on the mask.
-The DMPC, always did all the shopping for the party, he made the camp, cooked, cleaned, booked the rooms at the inn, did everything the PC's didn't want to do, and it was just handwaved with "Lee does it"
-He carried all the loot, not in a bag of holding, just on his back, like a giant ball of loot wrapped up in the tent cloths. It got to the point that instead of a cart and mule, the party just rode in the wagon, and "Lee" pulled it.
-And the PC's started to figure out the guy had looney tunes level of survivability, "Lee" would unquestionly trigger off traps and take damage if the party asked him to do it. Lee also mundanely healed the party with a healer's kit, or if asked in battle would use a potion everytime they asked (which they started to risk their own life, not wanting to "waste" their own spell slots when "Lee" would just fix it later) Lee would also heal them to full after each battle (as long as they didn't die).
-Lee was the best support character ever.
Which is why it was so so delicious when I had the character killed off.
They party was like lambs thrown to the wolves.
They had to make survival checks to find food because no one thought to buy rations, they all failed charisma checks for buying stuff at discounts (rolled for disadvantage because they were the party that got Lee killed, who was every npc's best friend).
-I started to use encumbrance rules now that they had to carry their own stuff.
-It was hardcore DND after playing babymode with the DMPC.
And it triggered the whole plot of the game, which was the fact that "Lee" was a part of a "league of assassins" type guild.
Each member had a unique mask,
and was a part of the "Lee-gion" with a code name (______ Lee) like the strongest guy was "Strongly, aka Strong Lee" or the merchant of the group was "Cost Lee" or the accountant was "Greedi Lee"
It was cool to see the party miss the DMPC for the rest of the campaign.
you are a genius.
So basically, he could survive whatever BS you threw at him unless the plot required him to die?
I can only imagine the group walk around and all of the sudden hearing "they got Lee killed! Lets get 'em boys!" and just beat them up and steal their shoes
I'm genuinely curious about the full story about this campaign.
@@ScreamsGeo Me too dude.
The fact that it ended the same exact way as that Tails vs. Sephiroth RP meme destroyed me, this is unintentional comedy gold!
The what?!
Tails from Sonic vs The One Winged Angel? Did I hear that correctly, what meme is this?
@@asteroidxarmageddon2354 ancient but still iconic facebook roleplaying "fight" that ended the same
@@javsandarts lemme guess, turns out TaIlS wAs A HoLoGRaM
I checked it out and yes, yes it was like that
Although the sephiroth guy was instantly cutting off two arms like if he was the fucking flash, imo, he deserved that holographic "fuck you"
Whenever Rezmir the Black is not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "Where's Rezmir?"
Also, that bit about fleeing on horseback from the NPC monologue is like an Animaniacs joke.
Poor Kirito, he’s become the face of the Mary Sue OC community.
It's ok, I hear he has insane HP regeneration, he can can tank all the burns and sassing. He can take it! XD
@@AegixDrakan And remember; Kirito is always right xD
@@Nephalem2002 And gets ALL the waifus
Him AND Asuna.
And he ins't?
A great example of how to properly use a "DMPC" can be seen in the Shadow of the Dragon Queen 5e adventure. He does cool things, and has plot relevance. But he's ultimately there to be the party's cheerleader, and provide RP opportunities.
In my DnD group the dungeon master has a player character but really they act like just another party member and they don't play it any differently than normal, they just multitask between DMing and playing
@@Salem-Angel Thats cool, but very rare - and difficult. I'm leading a homebrew campaign myself and my party really likes some of the characters they met on their journey that appear from time to time again. But if it would be more than just moments and one of this characters would be my permanent DMPC I know I would mess things up. ^^'
I don't think it's a DMPC if it doesn't have a character sheet, and isn't considered as one of the party. It's just a regular NPC.
I remember when I did a campaign for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, I had a pretty strong DMPC, but she would only appear as something like the Mysterious Stranger in Fallout if a battle was getting a little on the rough side.
You mean Leosin? My DM messed up in that case. My barbarian hated his guts.
okay, in all honesty, the bit at 5:00 minutes in and the image of Rezmir monologuing while trying to catch up with the group, and on horseback no less, just makes it even more absurd and oddly hilarious with how the DM is trying to establish how 'serious' this character is.
Oh Rezmir wasn’t on horseback, *HE WAS ON FOOT.*
Heard this already, bit damn is it hilarious.
That twist at the end could have saved everything if it were true.
Who told this story also? I thought it was Critcrab
@@Yojimbo16 Jacob Crowe
@@Yojimbo16 Pretty sure Crowe's Perch, but DnD Doge may or may not have also read it. I listen to about 4 or 5 DnD Horror Story channels.
Eh, no it couldn’t have. The entire game sucked and was a pain in the ass to play through, to the point where people dropped out midway through because they weren’t having a good time. No twist ending could make any of that worth it.
The real question every DM should answer before starting a game is if this concept they have should be written as a campaign where the players are active participants, or if the other elements of the world are so important that it'd serve better as a novel instead. In this case, it would've been better for everyone involved if Rezmir remained in the annals of the aforementioned self-insert story because to have a campaign centered solely around him and not the players is not a campaign at all.
I was thinking that as well, maybe Reznir would work better as a story than a roleplay or game, because why have free will characters like the pcs, if you want them to follow along exactly how you want?
yeah but no one would ever read the DMs story so this is the only way he can get an audience, hell from the sounds of it I doubt the DM can get people who know him well to even listen to him anymore than a couple of seconds dude has MAJOR main character flaws
Dude the “rebellious video game NPCs” storyline idea sounds dope as hell
Rezmir needs to be louder and angrier and have access to a hologram machine. Whenever Rezmir is not on screen, the other characters should be asking: "Where is Rezmir?"
...dude, I think you're the dm in this story.
@@fleshdadbot6852 I'm hoping the og comment is sarcasm
Rezmir you look like you hace someting to say, do you?
I certainly do....(Another Voice) I have to go now, my planet needs me
Rezmir died on the way back to his home planet
@@fleshdadbot6852 You don't watch The Simpsons?
nope.@@schwarzerritter5724
Okay, that idea that CritCrab had at the end sounds pretty interesting honestly and I'm curious about the potential it has if done right. But I don't think the DM in this story would've thought about something so complex when it came to that world though, since it just sounded like he wanted an audience to watch his DMPC do all the cool stuff and go on about his damn father, not bothering to engage with his players in the slightest. I don't blame the party for leaving though, because with how he faded out as a hologram... I'm willing to bet he would've made him reappear again if there ever was another session.
"It's a hologram.... you wake up surrounded by a stranger liquid in a coffin, it opens and you breath real air for the first time in months, you remember everything now. Golems have been harnessing living beings for their magic while trapped in an ilussion for years and you were part of the resistance but were captured, luckily you were capable of inserting the detonant. A fake person that would overlap the written code when damaged by you with the personality to make that happen as quick as possible... you are free now and inside their base ready to fight the leader of the golems"
If CC's twist ending had been what the DM was actually doing it would have been SO GLORIOUS. Then the players get to not only go for a ND the source code, they can kill the DMPC over and over again!
"It's a hologram.... you wake up surrounded by a stranger liquid in a coffin, it opens and you breath real air for the first time in months, you remember everything now. Golems have been harnessing living beings for their magic while trapped in an ilussion for years and you were part of the resistance but were captured, luckily you were capable of inserting the detonant. A fake person that would overlap the written code when damaged by you with the personality to make that happen as quick as possible... you are free now and inside their base ready to fight the leader of the golems"
I'm gonna toot my horn a bit here. Never played D&D always wanted to. But I did have a long distance friend years ago I helped with a similar situation. He was a DM and created a story around A barbarian who would get the players to help defeat his father so he could take over because his father was corrupt. But he made the barbarian pretty much He-Man...almost unstoppable. He realized he had to figure out why he would need the players help. Nerfing the Barbarian wasn't an option. So I offered make it a tribe code....regicide/parricide does not equate to taking over the throne. It was what he needed.
Ah yes. Politics rule number one. Thy own hands must be clean. Get some one else to do it.
This... Actually would make an interesting plot point.
"Yes, I could just walk into my father's camp, decimate his guards and decapitate him with a single strike, but that would remove me from legal position of a new High Chief of the lands. So while I can help you with any tasks that do NOT revolve around removing my father from power, I am unable to give any direct support in those tasks."
If wanting to make it even more complex, could attach in it some other mission/quest line players are doing (for example one player's personal story of getting revenge on a high-level demon etc), and basically this is the way they can get this unstoppable He-Man on their side for that fight so they have a good chance of winning, and possibly even more in the future.
Hey Reznir, I know this Centaur you might get along with. He's waiting on that airship over there :3
I’ve never heard the airship story, any good?
@@ryankoopacanada ua-cam.com/video/5YkzdHU9fcU/v-deo.html
It's a 2-parter
Enjoy~
@@ryankoopacanada it was the very first critcrab story I ever heard. It's really good
God, don't remind me 😂
OH GOD NOT THE AIRSHIP 😂😂😂
That's actual, literal Purgatory-type shit lmao 🤣 😂 💀
missed opportunity to say “spit your lucky charms out” during the sponsorship
Lucky Charms didn't pay Crit Crab for sponsorship
Goddamnit, Crab, now you made me want to run a game where all the players are NPCs in Skyrim and the BBEG is the player character with full CHIM enabled.
And if they do any extra planar stuff, have one of the Nine Hells or the Abyss be a very old Text Game where they have to write what they say and do.
Just a wicked thought I just had.
for his final powerup he uses the fortify restoration exploit and the NPC's get the gear when he is defeated.
what's CHIM
This could be so fun. You could have the players introduce themselves briefly, meet each other, maybe even start some seemingly innocent quest, then then the player appears, breaking the laws of reality and physics and attacking people indisciminantly. The players are all attacked and brought down (but not killed because they're marked as essential NPCs in the game) by the player. Then, from their perspective, everything goes black and they all have a vision of a windows command prompt:
> notepad C:\Users\player_name\Games\Skyrim\skyrim.ini
Then in the text file that opens the line
bessentialtakenodamage = 1
Changes to
bessentialtakenodamage = 0
And then theyre suddenly shunted back into wherever they were at the start with this new knowledge.
The second I heard the name "Reznir" it unlocked a core memory this one is such a classic!
I vaguely recall a story where the party trolled the GM's dmpc. They decided to play along and even worked on getting that one spell that would make him ascend. Yet in the end they basically created a parallel dimension instead where they all hopped in and closed the door behind. Not the best way to handle an out of game problem in game but it was funny.
Not gonna lie, that twist with the simulation actually sounds like a fun premise for a game. The NPCs are rebelling against the code and it's time to strike against the hacking player.
Honestly the plot twist you came up with sounds like an extremely fun campaign idea that I might pitch to my group for a one off
"when I run a game I tell 2 stories; the story of the mission and the story of the player characters" Absolutely based. This is something that should be said more. I never thought of the game in this way, but it makes so much sense.
Also a way I would describe it: a game is like a river channel, with the mission story being the channel and the player story the river water, and nothing is stopping the water from spilling over into a new direction.
Reznir/Reznov sounds like Reznov.
With that ending like that, I doubt it's a coincidence!
Also, the party turning on the DMPC was the true awesome plot twist.
The idea of a campaign where the players are secretly NPCs in a video game is genius. It would only work with very specific players, but sounds super cool.
Glad I stayed all the way through. I've heard the Rezmir story a bunch of times before, but your ending theory put an epic twist on it!
Saw Mary Sue and clicked immediately
Same. And my claws clicked in joy directly after.
Yes I also love videos about Rey Skywalker, everyone’s favourite Jedi
Same. These stories always entertain.
0:19 you’re welcome critcrab!!
I feel for the players that left and all of them that just wanted a game, but the end was great.
If Dalriada doesn't have the Gae Bulg , we're going to have problems.
I remember the one time I tried using a DMPC when I tried to DM a campaign for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, she was just a regular NPC for the most part who gave quests but would also act like a Mysterious Stranger encounter in Fallout if a fight was getting a little on the rough side.
The instant I heard "Rezmir" I was like "oh no... oh NO!" Not because I heard the story before (honestly one of my favs) but because I'm looking forward to how the crab will do the DM's tone of voice or his opinion on the ending. Edit: Now that's funny. Did not disappoint at all. Also the reason the spelling changed (according to OP) was because he didn't really care about the NPC. the RezMir spelling is correct according to OP as well.
the idea of being the player protaganist's companions rebelling against him sounds like such a cool story lmao
I'm a new DM, and I've rolled up a few NPCs for my campaign.
One of them is based on one of my favorite characters ever, and I've done my best to keep him out of the way of the players.
I threw him into their first boss fight because they were a bit outmatched, and he ended up kinda carrying them (he's only 2 levels above them).
In the future, I'll try to let them carry their own weight, but how they bounce off my OCs will determine how I play it going forward.
I had a dmpc in my first complete home brewed campaign, and from my experience having them be unwilling or unable to complete the task the party has is pretty good, they can be useful but only when the party directly calls on them, and making them vulnerable to the bbeg is always a good idea. It will reward the players with vanquishing something that someone like a messiah or a wisened warrior was unable to take down
I had my party ally with a Vampie that wanted revenge against one of the two BBEG in my campaign. He let the party use his mansion as their base camp, and only directly helped the party in battle 3 times. Once when they called him asking for backup when they were ambushed, another time he held off a group of guys while the party fought a Big BIG, and then at the end when they fought the BBEG for revenge. Party enjoyed him, as he acted tough and menacing, but was a big ol softy on the inside.
That’s a really good advice on how to run a dmpc. Currently my bro is running a game and he recently got the Wild Beyond the Witchlight book so he’s incorporating that into our game. Early in the game, before getting the book, he introduced us to a Bard who was a playwright. However, his talent was stolen by the hags coven in Witchlight so we have to help him get it back. Because the bard lost his talent, he is unable to cast spells or do anything at all
The ending joke is something I wish I had thought of back in the day. Have there be prophecies and chosen ones running around as a natural part of the world. As players go about their own business and adventures they can either help, harm or ignore these chosen ones and their fates.
I’ll admit…when you said the name of the sponsor I thought you meant just…Irish people in general 😂😂 and I was like “Any time Critcrab” 😂
I've actually had that exact idea in my head for a while, RE: players are NPCs and some other character is a PC with actual hacks... though in my version of it this character isn't so much an antagonist or protagonist, but rather an occasionally appearing "WTF" to handle times when there's a lull in game prep or something goes horribly horribly wrong and threatens to upend the game entirely (like a player choosing to do something I never accounted for that would have catastrophic consequences for everyone at the table or something)
Also the abilities of this character, while reality bending and essentially ludicrous, are formalized on paper and have costs and triggers associated with them.
I got the idea from watching deep dives into how From Software games work, where players will use hacks to become temporarily unkillable, but not invulnerable, or to gain infinite poise or duplicate themselves as a hostile enemy, or other really weird things just to test out the AI and numeric calculations of fall damage and such. I thought to myself "what does this player look like from the eyes of an NPC?"
Shout outs to Zullie the Witch and Illusory Wall.
I feel so lucky that my DM , while often inserting a DMPC, Keeps the players at the forefront. The DMPC's are given time to shine, but they're never given any more or less weight than any player
Dammit, Critcrab. Now I want to create a campaign with an insufferable DMPC character that the party is supposed to turn against. And have a dramatic reveal that they are actually NPC's in some video games who became sentient. But it's going to be really hard to balance making the DMPC insufferable enough that the players hate him, but not too much so the players quit the campaign. This is going to take a lot of work. And I blame you for giving me the idea. You monster.
I kinda got a DMPC who is a Mary Sue on the sense that he's over-powered as heck. BUT i also have his backstory have him cursed so he's unable to directly help the party with combat, so he's mostly relegated to a support role. He's not even around for very long when he shows up, and in the grand scheme of the world, he's just another guy who rarely gets brought up. I do have a side question with him, but the only way he reaches full power is when the party does. If you want to write a story for a character, please don't make other people sit and listen to it, just write a book.
I remember this story from a long time ago. Definitely a funny ending.
I love it when players beat a DMPC, even when the DM cheats the death.
Dude loves his DMPC so much he stole the twist of Star Ocean 3 to keep him alive 😂😂
thats a very good game tho...
My dm hates when I do what critcrab does at the end and is like “you genius!! How did I not see it before!!” As her response is always “what did I do?” Im such a meticulous note taker that I always bring up things she said in session one near the end of the game that she completely forgot about, but now I want to play the story critcrab came up with
My guy I only discovered your channel last week and have gone through 90% of your videos already it’s been amazing. Stoked to see a new vid after getting caught up.
I have to admit, if CritCrab could make such an assumption that the world was actually a videogame world, he could very well be a Bad DM Apologist if he wanted to.
It's shocking that not only do people like this DM exist, but just how many of them do.
This was another fun story, but please keep making positive ones. I loved the last video, and I want to hear more stories about awesome moments at wholesome tables.
Rezn/mir feels like he could work if he was an anomalous entity that endlessly pursues people, seeking to drive them to madness or suicide through sheer annoyance
Immediately collapsed laughing at the DM's final trump card.
Good LAWD that's dumb.
"You all wake up."
"You mean it was a dream Rezmik died?"
"Who's Rezmik?
I’ve said this on another crit crab video before but I’ll put it here too. The best way to make a Dmpc is to make them the bad guy. As long as you have a little self awareness it works wonders. Your bad guy can be op, close to the players often, gets to monologue whenever they want, and you can still make them feel special. You just have to remember at the end it’s still your player’s story and give them agency
ok... the twist the king gave at the end... now THAT is a great idea for a game. Hell, it could even switch over to another system at the end of the first, like shadow runners or something.
I would've respected the DM a lot more if he described, as the party rode away, he continued his monologue as his voice slowly became more distant, eventually disappearing.
I have an outrageous case of Gary Stu DMPC when I played a Naruto campaign.
The most egregious one, besides DM making a monster vore my 1st character without my consent and punishing my 2nd for being overqualified for a test was as follows.
When his oh so cool DMPC died after an encounter, he ressurects him immediate after via a random NPC giving him a mysterious juice and him being possessed by a "Murderous Wolf Spirit".
This gave him a perma +10 boost to all his Stats, effectively making him jump from level 5 to 45. While us peasants were still at 5.
I'm playing a game right now where one of the characters "Roland the Guardsman" showed up just to help the PC's with a hard encounter, but the party leader got the idea to bribe him to come along for the full ride.
The thing is, the GM played Roland as a total coward, who nonetheless faces his fear alongside the great adventurers. He rolls almost everything ad disadvantage and yet... Roland has still come in clutch multiple times. He's a party favorite, and everyone loves him to the point that stealing furniture from the bad guys to fill Roland's ramshackle apartment was a fun point of interest for the party.
Okay, the concept of a group of NPCs in a Video Game becoming self-aware and rebelling against the player would actually make a very fine plot hook in an ACTUAL video game or perhaps better yet, a TV Show.
you mean like in star ocena till the end of time?... :v love that game, dont care what anyone else says.
I had a similar game idea, It's basically a park tycoon,build stuff,get customers,etc. However the manager comes to scold the player like you putting fireworks at the entrance except he becomes aware more and more of the player.
that's just ReBoot
I've only ever run a DMPC twice. The first time was a party full of first time players, so I played an old, blind Harengon to advise them. The second time was an orphaned child the party adopted, and he wanted to learn how to be strong from the party. (They don't know he's gonna die soon)
9:43, some of you may not realize.. but that’s a South Park clip
My friend did an OP DMPC, but HE was a boss the second we exited a cave.
Agree with the crabs take on DMPCs. In a star wars game I have the ghost of an ancient Jedi who is powerful beyond belief be with the party. The reason why he doesn't just defeat the BBEG is because the BBEG is the force ghost of his wife. He can only bring himself to grant the party an opening that would allow them to kill a ghost as he doesn't have the will to do it himself. He also acts as a nice encyclopedia for force knowledge since the party is extremely lacking in that department.
Powerful DMPCs are the hardest ones to do correctly, this is a case of it being done right. Bravo 👏🦀
@@CritCrab "It's a hologram.... you wake up surrounded by a stranger liquid in a coffin, it opens and you breath real air for the first time in months, you remember everything now. Golems have been harnessing living beings for their magic while trapped in an ilussion for years and you were part of the resistance but were captured, luckily you were capable of inserting the detonant. A fake person that would overlap the written code when damaged by you with the personality to make that happen as quick as possible... you are free now and inside their base ready to fight the leader of the golems"
I haven't heard from your channel in awhile and I'm glad!
I'm honestly depressed we couldn't see the players' immediate reactions live. I can't imagine not absolutely chewing the DM a new one for pulling something like this, I'd be so damn mad, lol
I heard “Reznir” and immediately opened my tyranny of dragons book to find “Rezmir” a black half-dragon.
If you want to put some rly op npc in they should either be legendary monsters which will only appear to fight another monster but not rly help with the aftermath nor they will come too soon. Or have them living in solitude and they only give some advice and information.
If it's simple op they could be gods or something similar and you put them in like role models or end bosses.
If you want to make a dmpc to have run around with the party you should mostly do it have supportive shet one way of the other.
I’m trying to run a campaign with a lot of regular npcs and I’m trying so hard to balance them. This did make me feel better in showing me what NOT to do.
It's always a shame to see. If you want this type of story, ask if any of your players want this in their backstory.
There is a DMPC in the campaign I play in and our quest is to try and retrieve that’s DMPC’s soul as he is the king on the lands. Even then we always have the option of doing other side quests just to have more fun.
I like the idea of Resmir being the true BBEG, and it coming out that Resmir's father is just some shop keep or something. You would have to do it within 2 games to give players catharsis without frustrating them beyond the point it was fun.
Honestly, I kinda wish the players ran with it and just treated Resmir as the BBEG, without the consent of the DM, and see what kind of loopholes the DM would do to force the party to follow Resmir instead. Obviously, this would probably go south pretty quickly, but i think my morbid curiosity is getting the better of me here.
@@CyberDrewan the whole "it was just a hologram" kind of garenteed the dm would not let it happen, but at that point, you have to let everything play out.
"Lord BBEG, I swear to loyally serve! Let us now punish this world that would choose your cringey son to be its champion!"
This gives me a HORRIBLE idea. To DM a campaign where a Reznir-like character always "saves" the party and steals the glory. Thus leading to the party figure out he's actually evil and doing this on purpose, defeating his own minions to cover his tracks; he's the BBEG they need to kill.
As a someone trained in Irish history and a lover of Irish folklore and mythology. Your sponsor is right up my alley
For those confused "GM" means "Gaming master" and it's a different way to say DM which means "Dungeon Master"! Pin this please!
I like General Manager of the NPCs.
@@leolandleo Lmao! That also works too...
All jokes aside, the "players are npc in video game that try to break free from the tyrany if the player" could be pretty fun if done correctly.
that story at the end unironically sounds really fun
Him running with the party and continuing his monologue is fkn hilarious
Another great video King crab!! And I hope that despite not streaming yesterday, you're doing okay :)
I think xenk from honor among thieves is a good example of what to do for a dmpc. he doesn't butt in to take control of the plot; he's there to help get the party through the otherwise unforgiving underdark, and then promptly leaves to go take care of other matters.
I’m sorry but the players just running away from a monologuing NPC is hilarious… and then the NPC keeping up ON FOOT is even funnier
Old but gold. One of my fav dmpc strories.
Literally got on horses and left,
Literally cannot fathom the concept of hint
lol all I can think of is a dmpc running at 40 mph just chasing a group of people yelling about some prophecy
You know, I had a GM pull a twist ending similar to that in a game. I loved it.
Context of the story definitely works with or against that twist sadly
1:40 taken from Hoard of the Dragon Queen, a half-black dragon antagonist named Rezmir
YOU HAVENT SHOWN UP IN MY RECCOMMENDED FOR SO LONG I WAS SO WORRIED I MISS YOU
I'd heard the story of Rezmir before but this take about video game mods is a fresh and hilarious new take on the story.
That low-key sounds like an awesome story line. Though trying to escape your blatantly controlled reality.
One of the only D&D games I’ve played so far (only played one-offs so far) revolved around a DMPC that was made to intentionally be the opposite of this. He would constantly attempt to be in the spotlight despite being completely clueless and useless, even to the point that he didn’t know what magic was. It was really fun and having a character like that was a fun way to bring the party together to dislike a character
I just started (13 hours ago) DMing a curse of strahd campaign for people stuck in a rut of classic gameplay ( dungeon crawl and combat only) this might be the answer to getting them to think outside the box
Why did you make this story so cool at the end holy crap now I'm hype as fuck