One group I play with, and DM for, is full of "theatre kids," but I find it interesting that none of them are confident or very comfortable with improvisation. It is an odd dichotomy, the two players who are not "theatre kids" are the most engaged in the role play. The others though heavily involved in theatre are far more at ease with a script even in front of thousands than embodying a character on the fly with a hand full of close friends. Still, I love playing with them, while trying to mentor them out of the shells. Conversely in another group I play with, I was the only "theatre kid" (no one has refereed to me as a kid for many years). The DM is a Writer/English teacher while all the others are highly introverted while being either Mental Health Professionals (A licensed therapist and a Psychiatric Nurse, that's me), or are in their masters/PhD programs. to become psychologists and here the role play is highly nuanced and just so much fun. It is interesting how each group can vary so much. Gosh, I love RPGs.
I remember when i first heard about dnd. I thought it was gonna be easy for me because i write a shit ton of stuff, like poems, songs, little storys. Turns out there's a difference between writing the character AND acting the character heh
Hey haven’t gotten into the video yet but I just wanted to say congratulations on getting more sponsors. I love seeing the smaller channels with awesome content grow. Keep up the great work.
My third character is a natural born lycanthrope and killed everyone in his village because he couldn’t control his curse. A monk took him in after he stumbled across the land and taught him the way of the sun soul. “The only way to control your curse is to maintain balance, like the sun rising and the moon falling every night.” So now he wanders the land, dealing with the events of a full moon, and tries his best to balance his morality to a T
Hey similar start to another player's character, however he is a ranger. Right now he is still in they early stages of it, so he still scared of himself harming others. My character saw through his hiding something so she shared her own secret. That of being a succubus in human guise because she is trying to live up to her diety's will. He had nightmares that almost caused a forced turn and she used calm emotions to help keep him safe since he doesnt want the others to know yet.
My favorite moment of getting all the other players invested in my character came from my Cavalier Knight. He was a noble, Isaac Valentine, next in line for the title of High Lord of Valentia, but when the party first met him, he introduced himself as "Bjorn Eberhard," from some small coastal town, simply out traveling and wishing to see the world. Once the players learned who he really was, they figured Bjorn Eberhard was merely the alias he had assumed to travel incognito, and they thought nothing of it for quite a while. Until the party ventured to the city of Valentia months later. While there, Isaac separated himself from the party during downtime, left the main part of the city, and went to some small, rundown dockyard. Two of the other party members followed him (one using Invisibility, the other using Disguise Self) since he seemed to be acting very out of character, and they couldn't figure out why he wasn't just heading to his family's manor. Once they reached the docks, however, they began to put some pieces together. He had wandered to the "Eberhard Dockyard," to visit a couple that looked old enough to be his parents. He regaled them with tales of his adventures, the beautiful sights he had witnessed, the diverse cultures he had encountered on his travels. There was an odd sense of melancholy about the whole conversation, however. They were clearly excited to see him, and to hear of his travels, but it all felt hollow. Like something was missing from this scene. The other players were all trying to figure out what was going on at this point. Did my character lie about being a high lord's son? Was he really Bjorn Eberhard this whole time? It wasn't until the end of a polite supper with Mr. and Mrs. Eberhard that the party finally learned the full truth. My character excused himself, to go pay his respects to his childhood friend. The two other players followed my character to a graveyard, and learned Bjorn and Isaac had been best friends in childhood. While Isaac's life had been decided for him since birth, to rule over Valentia, Bjorn had his whole future ahead of him. Bjorn had planned to travel the world, go on great adventures and become a legendary hero. Until a pirate attack claimed Bjorn's life when they were teens. This entire campaign, my character had been living out the dream of his best friend, forgoing his noble birthright to let the whole world know that "Bjorn Eberhard" was a hero. By the end of it, some of the other players were legit in tears. I think that might be my proudest moment as a player, getting to reveal that story to the party.
I had this one NPC named Billy Bob, he didn't even have the big of a part here or their. Just an old timer up in his 80's still adventuring. He was also a merchant who dealt with enchantments. He would always try to haggle the price with his go to being "20 Gold". But with him just popping up as he sold things all over the place the party got attached to him to the point I said "Heck why not, lets give them a side quest for him" after a couple months of them gathering resources and parts they returned to him in his hometown where we constructed his greatest enchantment work yet. A flying Galleon. Needless to say they party used to to fight a very powerful dragon in the campaign and at the end Billy Bob sacrificed his ship to ensure victory for the betterment of the world. Despite it being his choice he was still heartbroken. It was his life work, over 50 years of perfect each rune and making sure each part has a use. And it was gone in less then 48 hours. The party felt so bad for him they all went to pub to celebrate their victory in saving the city from the dragon and mourn for the early death of Billy Bobs creation.
This is a fantastic video and sometimes very hard to express. I run two social role play heavy campaigns with two different groups. I myself am a theatre kid, and one group has two theatre kids, while the other has more introverted personalities - it is hard for me to try and communicate what is instinctive for me. I've been collecting saved D&D advice videos on my youtube account as a reference for my players. Yours have been consistently good that I struggle to pick which ones not to save to the list. also that scene - oof, still wrenches at the gut.
We’re running into a funny problem with our current table: it’s a big group of “theatre kids” and renfaire performers who were all longtime sidekick/character actors. Why is this weird for focus? Because everyone’s instinct is to look for the chance to throw focus on someone else, even when the story is trying to spotlight someone for the moment.
I got into Full Metal Alchemist due to my wife's interest, but completely missed the thumbnail and title ( my lack of awareness is legendary, just ask my wife ). So I'm just strolling into another entertaining and pertinent video of yours, then the little clip played. It sent chills down my backbone. Bravo! Excellent and powerful way to underscore your main point! Keep doing what you do, you B. B! Side note; I'm 65, so it was nice to have a Capt. America "I got that reference!" moment. Thx.
When he was talking about characters dying and you not caring because you didn't get to know them, I had some hard flashbacks to Doctor Who. That show is great at getting you to care about someone and then killing them. :(
My amnesiac character recently remembered the face of her wife and noticed a wedding band on her finger, so now every time that she gets nervous or sees someone else being romantic she’ll fidget with the ring on her finger and it always breaks the other players hearts.
I've been inadvertently doing all this since starting our current campaign. Our newer players wanted to branch out and try role-playing their characters, so I made a character that would facilitate that. He's a changeling bard that writes songs about people he's met during his journey, as a biographer of sorts, and its gotten people excited about talking about their characters. As for finding ways to connect to others characters, we recently headcanoned that when bards cast Raise Dead (a spell with an hour casting time) they play music to guide the soul back to their body and the spell works best if they play the deceased's favorite music. So I asked in character what music everyone liked in case he ever needed to cast it on them, and it got our characters talking. I think my favorite unintentional roleplay aspect of my bard is that there are some parts of his past that he's cagey about, and others he'll overshare. For instance, he'll overshare on stuff like how he used to be in a thief gang who functioned as a con artist that used his changeling abilities to case nice houses so they'd be easier to rob. He's very quick to talk about grift strategies in a "Hey this how you can avoid getting scammed" sort of way. But his personal life? A closed book. They know he has an old friend from the gang he still talks to via Sending, was briefly engaged, and he absolutely HATES lutes and lute players (he plays a hurdy gurdy).
Been following all this advice accidentally already, which is great because my character is really reserved and doesn't talk/open up that much. Despite that, the players are really invested in him and there's some decent in-game connections, too, which makes my heart sing with joy😆 There's two characters that he feels particularly bonded/close to out of the other four party members and I'm hoping to strengthen his bond with the other two as the adventure continues (he got off on the wrong foot with one and the other he isn't sure about. The first one looted bodies (he's really sensitive about messing with the dead) and the other is a gentle giant....who wears his heart on his sleeve and speaks without thinking, making it hard to trust him with anything important-)
I like how you cover topics that are not usually talked about online a lot about D&D but that are very important to D&D and rp it's refreshing to see on UA-cam.
I need this video. I just started 2 new characters. Both of them have a huuuuge twist in their backstory. But in order for the twists to have impact, the players need to be super invested in my characters. Thanks for helping me blow their minds. They're gonna hate me :)
I love 1985 games has the exact amount of aesthetic that I'd expect out of that name also, I forgive you for using HER in the thumbnail because we were ALL invested in her
I'd say this is a good video. I've seen all of this advice played out, at the same table no less, but I'd add one more and that's *not forcing others to care about your character by hogging the spotlight.* Two people at my table, one barely talks but has an interesting character that shines when the light falls on them. The other can't stop talking about themselves (literally spouts their backstory to every NPC who asks who they are.) and belittles everyone else or ignores their actions in favor of his own. Despite the fact I probably knew more about the second guys character, I cared more about the first person's character and couldn't care a cent about the second person's (past the negative).
Ironically, one of the times my players were most invested in a character (or in this case, a creature) was when, in the middle of a horrendous lab where soul experiments were made, they found a sentient talking chimera creature who was apparently suffering for at least some decades. It had Nina's apparently. Not even the boss of this lab was this hard to kill, they were yelling "F*CK YOU DM" at me while their characters cried and the Bard had to took the 50 damage Fire Breath of the chimera in order to take her down peacefully. This thumbnail reminded me of that, so... thanks.
My man: “Be honest about your backstory, don’t be cagey.” Meanwhile over on Critical Roll they can’t order drinks without assuming everyone in the bar has a personal grudge against them and is waiting to shank then
I really love this channel, there are so many channels that min max stats, and those are great, but he is the only creator that “min-maxes” role play, and it’s so helpful
Oh this video is spot on. The others wonder why my character gets so happy when we run into others from his own timeline. Because the dm and I played a campaign that was a year long that I bonded with the npc's there is even an adoptive daughter he saved. Our rogue met her as a child and now thanks to the feywilds is older. We are about to face the big bad and his group. While also dealing with a war. The others dont know or in some people care because they rarely interact sadly. But hopefully we will see him react since his characters are in the next part. Since this campaign was 4 into 1. Meaning we started 4 campaigns over two years ago and now the villan world merging has brought everything to the current time. So old characters and people are now together.
Today had some great roleplay. My character released a rescue skunk. Last person on watch ended up killing a skunk and my character woke up to see it. In response, she sees that the party can't make good decisions and goes to smash a couple dragon eggs they stole. PvP is started. However my ranger is already at low points. Almost immediately knocked out. Cleric ties her up to make sure when she gets healed she doesn't immediately go after the eggs. Instead, she starts having a PTSD attack due to backstory. Seeds planted
My favorite character I've played was a trickster God that was turned to a mortal elf when someone grew tired of his pranks. He paid no attention to the passage of time and after 50 years returned to find that the mage had passed away from age 15 years prior. However his decendants were left a book with my characters name on it, it was an account of the quest my character was on and the final page was an encoded spell in many languages that my character believed was a counter spell to his mortal condition. All that was backstory that my character would be hesitant to tell much of and only asked people if they could read certain languages to help decipher the spell, he did that with almost any non-hostile and coherent NPC he met and on short rests or while traveling he would have his nose planted in the book. My character thinking of himself as more never treated anyone significantly, so this became the small window that anyone could get him intrigued in talking about. And deciphering it became a goal of some of the party even if no one knew why, just that it was important.
I love the World's End clip. Thank you for the chuckle 😄 I love roleplay and character investment. I know I personally love to invest a lot into my own characters (maybe a little too much? 😅), but I definitely struggle to invest in others in my group, which I feel guilty about. I mean, only one of the other four players actually seem to go out of their way to initiate roleplay, whereas the other three are more quiet outside of combat, which makes it a bit difficult, but still... 😟
I played in a Game where I was playing a Aasimar Paladin and my friend played a Tiefling Warlock, we both were orphans and decided we were raised in the same orphanage and regarded eachother like brothers than anything... so we became family out of necessity and circumstance.
Can a fairy artificer battle smith ride it's robot like a mech and cast spells from inside it and spam the mend cantrip to keep it alive if so how will that work will that have to destroy the robot first b4 they can hit you the robot is size medium and fairy's are tiny/small and you can always enlarge it if you use it this was and u get attacked would shield portect both and if things get too dangerous and you have fay touched feat would misty step teleport just you out or both you should do a video explaining that it's a build I would like to play but don't know if or how it would work my DM doesn't know either
I'm not sure the build would work the way you want it to. If you want to use it as a mech - like an exo-skeleton rather than a mount to ride on - I'd suggest going down the Armorer route. That subclass of Artificer is all about creating an exo-suite like armour (or mech). The Steel defender is a robot that fights along side you - it wouldn't be something you can enter and use as a pool of HP. Casting spells from inside it would be dependant on the spell and what you're using to see through - if its glass and you're firing say firebolt from inside, then it'd hit the glass as it would be behind full cover. This is why Armorer is useful as it allows the use of the armour itself to be a spell casting focus. But to each their own, if its fun for you and your DM is fine with the alteration - go for it. As for the more specifics: Using the battle Smith Steel defender as a mount - if the creature is willing and is atleast one size larger than you, you may use it as a mount. Its anatomy must be appropriate - so as long as it is designed in a way that it could be mounted - like a dog, small horse or even made into a humanoid. Mending - the spell requires 1 minute to cast which is 10 turns. So yes you could cast mending whilst riding it - but it wouldn't work in combat as it will take 10 turns. It would be more efficient to be attacking enemies whilst riding it. When you're in mounted combat - the attacker can choose to attack the mount or you. As long as you're both in range of the attacker they can choose to hit you or the target - the rules here are in Chapter 9 of the PHB - making an attack. Enlarging the mount - the mount will gain all the benefits of enlarge. Would the change in size catergory give the rider a defensive advantage? Depends on the monster - the rules you'd go by is the "making an attack" and "cover" - Are you still within the attackers range? If its a 4 foot tall goblin, it might not be able to hit you if you're 10 foot off the ground (assuming a humanoid steel defender, doubling from 6 foot to 12). If its a ogre, then it still would be able to hit you no problem as they're also large. Now lets say you're on a horse or dog shaped steel defender, jumping from 3 or 4 foot tall to 6 or 8 foot tall - if its a small creature, you may still be in range, but the DM could choose to use the cover rules - 1/2 cover gives a +2 to ac, 3/4ths gives a +5. Though the steel defender does have in built defensive features - it can use its reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack within 5 feet of it (Deflect Attack) Fey touched would allow you to cast misty step to teleport 30 feet away. You could also just use the disengage action and your fairies fly speed to abandoned the mount if it got too dangerous - this uses an action over a bonus action, but means you don't need to invest a feat for the niche situation - though misty step is a very useful spell to have anyway.
Before even watching I'll give my personal piece of advice: Do not start bringing up your backstory in the first session or two. At least for me, if a character starts spouting their past to a party that they just met, they are about as uninteresting as possible even if the backstory is well written. You're a lot better off for not mentioning it as long as possible then drip feed the info. Just bits and pieces to keep people curious until you drop the bomb that shows the full picture. That'll give it some impact
As a person who has a super thorough back story and am prepping to play my first ever session soon, thank you. My biggest question has been "how much do I tell them in session 0?" So seriously, thanks.
@@ln9256 With my current character, we started by playing lost mines of phandelver and then eventually decided to continue on after. I don't think my bsckstory was even referenced until after lost mines ended. It was a factor in decisions I made but I didn't tell the other players that. It's now starting to trickle out and it's been pretty compelling. We have one other guy who wrote a full ass essay and I have basically no idea of what's in it. Probably more excited to learn his past than anything else in the game
@@donniejefferson9554 I really like the advice to be just as invested in the other players characters. I feel like it creates a great dynamic for the storytelling elements
I played a character that due to his int and wis score was not...how do I say this gently? He was simple. He liked simple things, they were easier to understand. I didn't play him up as Rainman, more the Disney Ferdinand cartoon from the 60s. He was great in a fight, but what made him engaging was his diehard loyalty to his friends. He wasn't freakishly strong because he was challenged, he was freakishly strong because he wanted to protect his friends and didn't hold back like more intelligent people might.
Right now i am playing and DMing for first time. We are playing the adventure that is in the Essencial kit. And I decide to create Pickled Pete as a NPC because I know that my players will love it. It happends. Now I am planning that at some point the dragon will by face to face with Pete. Maybe he will died or maybe not. Or maybe it will not happend. But I know that my players will want to protect Pete
yo mr play your role, quick feedback or cool tip for your videos. You have a nice introduction to the topic before your small intro plays, but i would talk about that at the start of the video, then play the sponsor and then the intro. small work but in my studies we always have to put the attention grabber before anything else so people get invested before the ad/sponsor plays. I think it will play a bigger role the more subs you get. cheers
This all rests on the presupposition that the other players are open to being invested in your character, and aren't just there to kill stuff, show off their own character, and "win."
You know maybe I've just had really good groups who manage to get invested in other people's backstories because I've never had an issue but this is really good advice.
This video is totally legit for the first part: the best and easiest way to get the table invested in your character is *definitely* to invest in others' characters. That makes perfect sense and is true to life: nothing endears you to another person more than nice to you, and we see it in other video games: our favorite characters tend to be NPCs that have backstory stuff going on but respect our characters and are willing to help. Reminds me of the time my druid cast Plant Growth on my friend's earth genasi character, he loved it and now the party has a much stronger bond than before. It really got him into my character and that got me into his in turn. But please. PLEASE. Do NOT take this man's third piece of advice. There is no dnd character more overplayed than the edgy loner who's constantly doing mysterious things for mysterious reasons. Doing mysterious stuff that relates to your backstory is cool in moderation (my redemption paladin / fiend warlock talks to his patron pretty much every night, and my party still thinks it's an angel or something), but when it gets excessive or your character is overly cagey about it, it can really bog down the table's experience.
I was most proud of this character when it came to getting the others invested So my Monk/Articifer is an ex Yakuza in a steam punk 1880's Japan type of setting, he is now a Ronin with one pinky gone. His name is Flint This happened with a scheme from his patriarch to hire a private military company of Vampires to help cause a fake fire fight where blood was shed, the patriarch faked his death in that battle having effectively pinned the blame on Flint and getting him completely banished from the family. With him out of the way the patriarch of his family can now focus on his scheme in putting all of Japan in a state of Vampiric unity and creating a one market. His way of doing it? He is a double agent acting as the Shogun of the nation, he will gain the nation's trust and spill blood until the market is created in a dystopian version of Japan where Laws will work around the vampires rather than the other way around.
I'm in a really weird situation where a story arc our DM kind of shoehorned us into and one of the players railroaded us into made it so my character actually doesn't want to save a city full of people anymore (this is Descent into Avernus). The DM has modified the story heavily but has essentially turned the citizens into people who are seized by "rule of the mob" and now devoid of morality. My character no longer sees why they should be saved given they've become the monsters they themselves fear, and no matter how many times above game I try to tell the other players how much I've disengaged from the idea of helping despicable people like that they simply gloss over my concerns. It's tough because I then project that frustration back into my character which alienates her from the party more and irritates the other players because they think I'm pushing back against their agenda, which is true only because they won't listen to me
Your character is bottling and so are you. This is not necessarily a bad thing. An emotional outburst at an inopportune time (say, during a group Stealth check) would be a huge chance to get some storytelling done AND get the group more invested in your character (there are consequences for not caring). Maybe just play your character sullen and shittier than usual, and if she rolls a nat 1 on an attack or skill check, maybe she loses it from there. Maybe you roll every in-game day for how well she keeps it together and whether or not she tries to talk to someone privately about her change of heart. Could be great. Hope it goes well!
so with explanations of why your character does their funny rituals, I would just say you don't want to come across as "allow me to tell you my entire backstory", try to keep it to a sentence or 2, for the case of the book "oh yeah, reading this reminds me of my ma" or in the case of the music box "well it was gonna be a gift, but I haven't seen the person I was going to give it to in years. probably for the better, can't even get the thing working". You want to let your fellow player ask more, or maybe others could overhear the conversation, maybe they have something to share with you on your individual points that they feel less comfortable asking about because you already moved on, if you draw it out too much it can really shut people off
I haven't had the opportunity to play DnD before as I have no friends that are interested on top of the fact that I don't have that many. Plus, I grew up somewhere DnD isn't even a thing. But I so want my first character to be a human fighter that is super helpful and trains his skills everyday not for mastery itself but because he is inherently insecure about his skills especially when compared to magic wielders and/or other races. Most other races live so much longer and/or have natural affinity for magic, naturally stronger, etc. Some kind of Racial Inferiority Complex if you will that he will slowly break out.
Haven't watched the video yet and I'm excited to because I feel like this will be very valuable advice but.. I came here first to say- YOU BETTER BE FUCKIN SORRY BRO That's so damn disrespectful to put her in the thumbnail /nm /lh /hj
One group I play with, and DM for, is full of "theatre kids," but I find it interesting that none of them are confident or very comfortable with improvisation. It is an odd dichotomy, the two players who are not "theatre kids" are the most engaged in the role play. The others though heavily involved in theatre are far more at ease with a script even in front of thousands than embodying a character on the fly with a hand full of close friends. Still, I love playing with them, while trying to mentor them out of the shells.
Conversely in another group I play with, I was the only "theatre kid" (no one has refereed to me as a kid for many years). The DM is a Writer/English teacher while all the others are highly introverted while being either Mental Health Professionals (A licensed therapist and a Psychiatric Nurse, that's me), or are in their masters/PhD programs. to become psychologists and here the role play is highly nuanced and just so much fun.
It is interesting how each group can vary so much. Gosh, I love RPGs.
I remember when i first heard about dnd. I thought it was gonna be easy for me because i write a shit ton of stuff, like poems, songs, little storys. Turns out there's a difference between writing the character AND acting the character heh
What a paradox!
Hey haven’t gotten into the video yet but I just wanted to say congratulations on getting more sponsors. I love seeing the smaller channels with awesome content grow. Keep up the great work.
Thank you so much! The recent growth has been absolutely mind blowing... I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it
My third character is a natural born lycanthrope and killed everyone in his village because he couldn’t control his curse. A monk took him in after he stumbled across the land and taught him the way of the sun soul. “The only way to control your curse is to maintain balance, like the sun rising and the moon falling every night.” So now he wanders the land, dealing with the events of a full moon, and tries his best to balance his morality to a T
That's actually a super cool concept ngl
Yo Thats sick tho
Hey similar start to another player's character, however he is a ranger. Right now he is still in they early stages of it, so he still scared of himself harming others. My character saw through his hiding something so she shared her own secret. That of being a succubus in human guise because she is trying to live up to her diety's will. He had nightmares that almost caused a forced turn and she used calm emotions to help keep him safe since he doesnt want the others to know yet.
My favorite moment of getting all the other players invested in my character came from my Cavalier Knight. He was a noble, Isaac Valentine, next in line for the title of High Lord of Valentia, but when the party first met him, he introduced himself as "Bjorn Eberhard," from some small coastal town, simply out traveling and wishing to see the world.
Once the players learned who he really was, they figured Bjorn Eberhard was merely the alias he had assumed to travel incognito, and they thought nothing of it for quite a while. Until the party ventured to the city of Valentia months later.
While there, Isaac separated himself from the party during downtime, left the main part of the city, and went to some small, rundown dockyard. Two of the other party members followed him (one using Invisibility, the other using Disguise Self) since he seemed to be acting very out of character, and they couldn't figure out why he wasn't just heading to his family's manor. Once they reached the docks, however, they began to put some pieces together.
He had wandered to the "Eberhard Dockyard," to visit a couple that looked old enough to be his parents. He regaled them with tales of his adventures, the beautiful sights he had witnessed, the diverse cultures he had encountered on his travels. There was an odd sense of melancholy about the whole conversation, however. They were clearly excited to see him, and to hear of his travels, but it all felt hollow. Like something was missing from this scene. The other players were all trying to figure out what was going on at this point. Did my character lie about being a high lord's son? Was he really Bjorn Eberhard this whole time?
It wasn't until the end of a polite supper with Mr. and Mrs. Eberhard that the party finally learned the full truth. My character excused himself, to go pay his respects to his childhood friend. The two other players followed my character to a graveyard, and learned Bjorn and Isaac had been best friends in childhood. While Isaac's life had been decided for him since birth, to rule over Valentia, Bjorn had his whole future ahead of him. Bjorn had planned to travel the world, go on great adventures and become a legendary hero. Until a pirate attack claimed Bjorn's life when they were teens. This entire campaign, my character had been living out the dream of his best friend, forgoing his noble birthright to let the whole world know that "Bjorn Eberhard" was a hero.
By the end of it, some of the other players were legit in tears. I think that might be my proudest moment as a player, getting to reveal that story to the party.
"Please don't do a drinking game, you will die" *jack daniels commercial starts playing*
Hm... I think google wants me dead
Hmmm they're watching you 👀
Dude, I'm just impressed you managed to fit both Nina and her dog in the same thumbnail.
[shot]
I had this one NPC named Billy Bob, he didn't even have the big of a part here or their. Just an old timer up in his 80's still adventuring. He was also a merchant who dealt with enchantments. He would always try to haggle the price with his go to being "20 Gold". But with him just popping up as he sold things all over the place the party got attached to him to the point I said "Heck why not, lets give them a side quest for him" after a couple months of them gathering resources and parts they returned to him in his hometown where we constructed his greatest enchantment work yet. A flying Galleon. Needless to say they party used to to fight a very powerful dragon in the campaign and at the end Billy Bob sacrificed his ship to ensure victory for the betterment of the world. Despite it being his choice he was still heartbroken. It was his life work, over 50 years of perfect each rune and making sure each part has a use. And it was gone in less then 48 hours. The party felt so bad for him they all went to pub to celebrate their victory in saving the city from the dragon and mourn for the early death of Billy Bobs creation.
This is a fantastic video and sometimes very hard to express. I run two social role play heavy campaigns with two different groups.
I myself am a theatre kid, and one group has two theatre kids, while the other has more introverted personalities - it is hard for me to try and communicate what is instinctive for me.
I've been collecting saved D&D advice videos on my youtube account as a reference for my players.
Yours have been consistently good that I struggle to pick which ones not to save to the list.
also that scene - oof, still wrenches at the gut.
Thank you so much for sharing the advice, I really just hope to help as many people as possible have the best game they can. I hope this all helps!
Can you please make public the Playlist with all those DnD advice videos?
@@jasdanvm3845 Sure, just made them public - split into categories for Players, GMs, and Writers
@@lordandrak
Thank you
We’re running into a funny problem with our current table: it’s a big group of “theatre kids” and renfaire performers who were all longtime sidekick/character actors. Why is this weird for focus? Because everyone’s instinct is to look for the chance to throw focus on someone else, even when the story is trying to spotlight someone for the moment.
An eternity of “after you.” Like a four-way stop in the Midwest.
I got into Full Metal Alchemist due to my wife's interest, but completely missed the thumbnail and title ( my lack of awareness is legendary, just ask my wife ). So I'm just strolling into another entertaining and pertinent video of yours, then the little clip played. It sent chills down my backbone. Bravo! Excellent and powerful way to underscore your main point! Keep doing what you do, you B. B!
Side note; I'm 65, so it was nice to have a Capt. America "I got that reference!" moment. Thx.
When he was talking about characters dying and you not caring because you didn't get to know them, I had some hard flashbacks to Doctor Who. That show is great at getting you to care about someone and then killing them. :(
Are you mocking me. I just finished that arc yesterday. I feel personally attacked.
Yes, I have been waiting for my moment to strike
My amnesiac character recently remembered the face of her wife and noticed a wedding band on her finger, so now every time that she gets nervous or sees someone else being romantic she’ll fidget with the ring on her finger and it always breaks the other players hearts.
Well, the thumbnail sure invested me in this video...
Now I know what kind of Transmuter I'm gonna play as my next character.
I've been inadvertently doing all this since starting our current campaign. Our newer players wanted to branch out and try role-playing their characters, so I made a character that would facilitate that. He's a changeling bard that writes songs about people he's met during his journey, as a biographer of sorts, and its gotten people excited about talking about their characters. As for finding ways to connect to others characters, we recently headcanoned that when bards cast Raise Dead (a spell with an hour casting time) they play music to guide the soul back to their body and the spell works best if they play the deceased's favorite music. So I asked in character what music everyone liked in case he ever needed to cast it on them, and it got our characters talking.
I think my favorite unintentional roleplay aspect of my bard is that there are some parts of his past that he's cagey about, and others he'll overshare. For instance, he'll overshare on stuff like how he used to be in a thief gang who functioned as a con artist that used his changeling abilities to case nice houses so they'd be easier to rob. He's very quick to talk about grift strategies in a "Hey this how you can avoid getting scammed" sort of way. But his personal life? A closed book. They know he has an old friend from the gang he still talks to via Sending, was briefly engaged, and he absolutely HATES lutes and lute players (he plays a hurdy gurdy).
Been following all this advice accidentally already, which is great because my character is really reserved and doesn't talk/open up that much. Despite that, the players are really invested in him and there's some decent in-game connections, too, which makes my heart sing with joy😆 There's two characters that he feels particularly bonded/close to out of the other four party members and I'm hoping to strengthen his bond with the other two as the adventure continues (he got off on the wrong foot with one and the other he isn't sure about. The first one looted bodies (he's really sensitive about messing with the dead) and the other is a gentle giant....who wears his heart on his sleeve and speaks without thinking, making it hard to trust him with anything important-)
I like how you cover topics that are not usually talked about online a lot about D&D but that are very important to D&D and rp it's refreshing to see on UA-cam.
Atleast you said you’re sorry about the thumbnail
I know what I've done is wrong 😔
This Video is 99$% a masterpiece the other 1% is for that thumbnail
I need this video. I just started 2 new characters. Both of them have a huuuuge twist in their backstory. But in order for the twists to have impact, the players need to be super invested in my characters.
Thanks for helping me blow their minds. They're gonna hate me :)
I hope it goes amazingly!
I love 1985 games has the exact amount of aesthetic that I'd expect out of that name
also, I forgive you for using HER in the thumbnail because we were ALL invested in her
I'd say this is a good video. I've seen all of this advice played out, at the same table no less, but I'd add one more and that's *not forcing others to care about your character by hogging the spotlight.*
Two people at my table, one barely talks but has an interesting character that shines when the light falls on them. The other can't stop talking about themselves (literally spouts their backstory to every NPC who asks who they are.) and belittles everyone else or ignores their actions in favor of his own.
Despite the fact I probably knew more about the second guys character, I cared more about the first person's character and couldn't care a cent about the second person's (past the negative).
Ironically, one of the times my players were most invested in a character (or in this case, a creature) was when, in the middle of a horrendous lab where soul experiments were made, they found a sentient talking chimera creature who was apparently suffering for at least some decades. It had Nina's apparently.
Not even the boss of this lab was this hard to kill, they were yelling "F*CK YOU DM" at me while their characters cried and the Bard had to took the 50 damage Fire Breath of the chimera in order to take her down peacefully. This thumbnail reminded me of that, so... thanks.
YOU USED THE CLIP TOO! YOU MONSTER :D
Consider yourself forgiven for the thumb, apologize again for the clip...NOW!
I made the thumbnail, my assistant editor added the clip this is on them 😂
Editor here! NOW LISTEN! Jay and Micah never warned me about this scene and it has haunted me ever since so it's their fault not mine.
My man: “Be honest about your backstory, don’t be cagey.”
Meanwhile over on Critical Roll they can’t order drinks without assuming everyone in the bar has a personal grudge against them and is waiting to shank then
To be fair given the tendency for a bar fight and their renown may not be too off.
I really love this channel, there are so many channels that min max stats, and those are great, but he is the only creator that “min-maxes” role play, and it’s so helpful
Oh this video is spot on. The others wonder why my character gets so happy when we run into others from his own timeline. Because the dm and I played a campaign that was a year long that I bonded with the npc's there is even an adoptive daughter he saved. Our rogue met her as a child and now thanks to the feywilds is older. We are about to face the big bad and his group. While also dealing with a war. The others dont know or in some people care because they rarely interact sadly. But hopefully we will see him react since his characters are in the next part. Since this campaign was 4 into 1. Meaning we started 4 campaigns over two years ago and now the villan world merging has brought everything to the current time. So old characters and people are now together.
Today had some great roleplay. My character released a rescue skunk. Last person on watch ended up killing a skunk and my character woke up to see it. In response, she sees that the party can't make good decisions and goes to smash a couple dragon eggs they stole. PvP is started. However my ranger is already at low points. Almost immediately knocked out. Cleric ties her up to make sure when she gets healed she doesn't immediately go after the eggs. Instead, she starts having a PTSD attack due to backstory. Seeds planted
My favorite character I've played was a trickster God that was turned to a mortal elf when someone grew tired of his pranks. He paid no attention to the passage of time and after 50 years returned to find that the mage had passed away from age 15 years prior. However his decendants were left a book with my characters name on it, it was an account of the quest my character was on and the final page was an encoded spell in many languages that my character believed was a counter spell to his mortal condition.
All that was backstory that my character would be hesitant to tell much of and only asked people if they could read certain languages to help decipher the spell, he did that with almost any non-hostile and coherent NPC he met and on short rests or while traveling he would have his nose planted in the book. My character thinking of himself as more never treated anyone significantly, so this became the small window that anyone could get him intrigued in talking about. And deciphering it became a goal of some of the party even if no one knew why, just that it was important.
my DM inadvertently pulled a Nina Tucker plot on us a few sessions back, and he had never even watched FMA.
I love the World's End clip. Thank you for the chuckle 😄
I love roleplay and character investment. I know I personally love to invest a lot into my own characters (maybe a little too much? 😅), but I definitely struggle to invest in others in my group, which I feel guilty about. I mean, only one of the other four players actually seem to go out of their way to initiate roleplay, whereas the other three are more quiet outside of combat, which makes it a bit difficult, but still... 😟
I played in a Game where I was playing a Aasimar Paladin and my friend played a Tiefling Warlock, we both were orphans and decided we were raised in the same orphanage and regarded eachother like brothers than anything... so we became family out of necessity and circumstance.
Can a fairy artificer battle smith ride it's robot like a mech and cast spells from inside it and spam the mend cantrip to keep it alive if so how will that work will that have to destroy the robot first b4 they can hit you the robot is size medium and fairy's are tiny/small and you can always enlarge it if you use it this was and u get attacked would shield portect both and if things get too dangerous and you have fay touched feat would misty step teleport just you out or both you should do a video explaining that it's a build I would like to play but don't know if or how it would work my DM doesn't know either
I'm not sure the build would work the way you want it to. If you want to use it as a mech - like an exo-skeleton rather than a mount to ride on - I'd suggest going down the Armorer route. That subclass of Artificer is all about creating an exo-suite like armour (or mech). The Steel defender is a robot that fights along side you - it wouldn't be something you can enter and use as a pool of HP. Casting spells from inside it would be dependant on the spell and what you're using to see through - if its glass and you're firing say firebolt from inside, then it'd hit the glass as it would be behind full cover. This is why Armorer is useful as it allows the use of the armour itself to be a spell casting focus. But to each their own, if its fun for you and your DM is fine with the alteration - go for it.
As for the more specifics:
Using the battle Smith Steel defender as a mount - if the creature is willing and is atleast one size larger than you, you may use it as a mount. Its anatomy must be appropriate - so as long as it is designed in a way that it could be mounted - like a dog, small horse or even made into a humanoid. Mending - the spell requires 1 minute to cast which is 10 turns. So yes you could cast mending whilst riding it - but it wouldn't work in combat as it will take 10 turns. It would be more efficient to be attacking enemies whilst riding it.
When you're in mounted combat - the attacker can choose to attack the mount or you. As long as you're both in range of the attacker they can choose to hit you or the target - the rules here are in Chapter 9 of the PHB - making an attack.
Enlarging the mount - the mount will gain all the benefits of enlarge. Would the change in size catergory give the rider a defensive advantage? Depends on the monster - the rules you'd go by is the "making an attack" and "cover" - Are you still within the attackers range? If its a 4 foot tall goblin, it might not be able to hit you if you're 10 foot off the ground (assuming a humanoid steel defender, doubling from 6 foot to 12). If its a ogre, then it still would be able to hit you no problem as they're also large. Now lets say you're on a horse or dog shaped steel defender, jumping from 3 or 4 foot tall to 6 or 8 foot tall - if its a small creature, you may still be in range, but the DM could choose to use the cover rules - 1/2 cover gives a +2 to ac, 3/4ths gives a +5. Though the steel defender does have in built defensive features - it can use its reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack within 5 feet of it (Deflect Attack)
Fey touched would allow you to cast misty step to teleport 30 feet away. You could also just use the disengage action and your fairies fly speed to abandoned the mount if it got too dangerous - this uses an action over a bonus action, but means you don't need to invest a feat for the niche situation - though misty step is a very useful spell to have anyway.
Before even watching I'll give my personal piece of advice: Do not start bringing up your backstory in the first session or two. At least for me, if a character starts spouting their past to a party that they just met, they are about as uninteresting as possible even if the backstory is well written. You're a lot better off for not mentioning it as long as possible then drip feed the info. Just bits and pieces to keep people curious until you drop the bomb that shows the full picture. That'll give it some impact
As a person who has a super thorough back story and am prepping to play my first ever session soon, thank you. My biggest question has been "how much do I tell them in session 0?" So seriously, thanks.
@@ln9256 With my current character, we started by playing lost mines of phandelver and then eventually decided to continue on after. I don't think my bsckstory was even referenced until after lost mines ended. It was a factor in decisions I made but I didn't tell the other players that. It's now starting to trickle out and it's been pretty compelling. We have one other guy who wrote a full ass essay and I have basically no idea of what's in it. Probably more excited to learn his past than anything else in the game
@@donniejefferson9554 I really like the advice to be just as invested in the other players characters. I feel like it creates a great dynamic for the storytelling elements
What's the music in this video? It's honestly a bop, and I couldn't find it in the description.
All of my music is from Epidemic Sound! I actually can't say for certain what it is as my editor is the one who chose it haha
Editor here! It is Meteorite by OTE - found it through Epidemic Sound as Jay mentioned above!
@@annabeth7262 Thanks. I appreciate that both of you responded just to help.
@@jaywalmoose9623 Of course! Have a great day!
I played a character that due to his int and wis score was not...how do I say this gently? He was simple. He liked simple things, they were easier to understand. I didn't play him up as Rainman, more the Disney Ferdinand cartoon from the 60s. He was great in a fight, but what made him engaging was his diehard loyalty to his friends. He wasn't freakishly strong because he was challenged, he was freakishly strong because he wanted to protect his friends and didn't hold back like more intelligent people might.
Right now i am playing and DMing for first time. We are playing the adventure that is in the Essencial kit. And I decide to create Pickled Pete as a NPC because I know that my players will love it. It happends. Now I am planning that at some point the dragon will by face to face with Pete. Maybe he will died or maybe not. Or maybe it will not happend. But I know that my players will want to protect Pete
Another video full of good advice? Sign me up!
Great Thumbnail title, 100% why i clicked on the video.
Does anyone know the name of the book on the left?
Immersive... (Something)?
Immersive Battlemaps! It's a book of battlemaps made by Yarro Studios, they're pretty fun if you want to take a look!
Before I even click the video… “broo..th..eeeerrrrr”
Big.... brother...
Oddly enough, these same strategies are applicable in the workplace ;)
yo mr play your role, quick feedback or cool tip for your videos. You have a nice introduction to the topic before your small intro plays, but i would talk about that at the start of the video, then play the sponsor and then the intro. small work but in my studies we always have to put the attention grabber before anything else so people get invested before the ad/sponsor plays. I think it will play a bigger role the more subs you get. cheers
Hey thats some great advice, we'll probably try that out! Thanks for taking the time to toss it out there!
Great video. Thanks
This all rests on the presupposition that the other players are open to being invested in your character, and aren't just there to kill stuff, show off their own character, and "win."
"I'm sorry for putting her in the thumbnail" yeah you better be 😔😢😭
You know maybe I've just had really good groups who manage to get invested in other people's backstories because I've never had an issue but this is really good advice.
That's awesome! Definitely a nice problem to have tbh
Imagine the party runs into a new enemy like a thief or necromancer and they come back to the music box suddenly working.
you accidentally put "how to you" in the desc. Just letting you know cus it might affect ctr
Speaking of engagement... here's a comment to show the youtube deities who i have faith in
Thank you for spreading the good word of the Legume Crafter
I'm invested in the EATING OF BEANS.
This video is totally legit for the first part: the best and easiest way to get the table invested in your character is *definitely* to invest in others' characters. That makes perfect sense and is true to life: nothing endears you to another person more than nice to you, and we see it in other video games: our favorite characters tend to be NPCs that have backstory stuff going on but respect our characters and are willing to help. Reminds me of the time my druid cast Plant Growth on my friend's earth genasi character, he loved it and now the party has a much stronger bond than before. It really got him into my character and that got me into his in turn.
But please. PLEASE. Do NOT take this man's third piece of advice. There is no dnd character more overplayed than the edgy loner who's constantly doing mysterious things for mysterious reasons. Doing mysterious stuff that relates to your backstory is cool in moderation (my redemption paladin / fiend warlock talks to his patron pretty much every night, and my party still thinks it's an angel or something), but when it gets excessive or your character is overly cagey about it, it can really bog down the table's experience.
F*cking CRYING at the thumbnail 😂
I was most proud of this character when it came to getting the others invested
So my Monk/Articifer is an ex Yakuza in a steam punk 1880's Japan type of setting, he is now a Ronin with one pinky gone. His name is Flint
This happened with a scheme from his patriarch to hire a private military company of Vampires to help cause a fake fire fight where blood was shed, the patriarch faked his death in that battle having effectively pinned the blame on Flint and getting him completely banished from the family. With him out of the way the patriarch of his family can now focus on his scheme in putting all of Japan in a state of Vampiric unity and creating a one market. His way of doing it? He is a double agent acting as the Shogun of the nation, he will gain the nation's trust and spill blood until the market is created in a dystopian version of Japan where Laws will work around the vampires rather than the other way around.
I need to know more about the character with the music box!
...I'm not cry, you're crying...
You SHOULD be sorry... okay, now to watch.
I know I knowwwwww
I like your beard!
Awww thank you so much!
The audacity to apologize in the thumbnail
You did not need to remind me of the nightmares with that thumbnail...
I'm in a really weird situation where a story arc our DM kind of shoehorned us into and one of the players railroaded us into made it so my character actually doesn't want to save a city full of people anymore (this is Descent into Avernus). The DM has modified the story heavily but has essentially turned the citizens into people who are seized by "rule of the mob" and now devoid of morality. My character no longer sees why they should be saved given they've become the monsters they themselves fear, and no matter how many times above game I try to tell the other players how much I've disengaged from the idea of helping despicable people like that they simply gloss over my concerns. It's tough because I then project that frustration back into my character which alienates her from the party more and irritates the other players because they think I'm pushing back against their agenda, which is true only because they won't listen to me
Your character is bottling and so are you. This is not necessarily a bad thing. An emotional outburst at an inopportune time (say, during a group Stealth check) would be a huge chance to get some storytelling done AND get the group more invested in your character (there are consequences for not caring).
Maybe just play your character sullen and shittier than usual, and if she rolls a nat 1 on an attack or skill check, maybe she loses it from there. Maybe you roll every in-game day for how well she keeps it together and whether or not she tries to talk to someone privately about her change of heart.
Could be great. Hope it goes well!
so with explanations of why your character does their funny rituals, I would just say you don't want to come across as "allow me to tell you my entire backstory", try to keep it to a sentence or 2, for the case of the book "oh yeah, reading this reminds me of my ma" or in the case of the music box "well it was gonna be a gift, but I haven't seen the person I was going to give it to in years. probably for the better, can't even get the thing working". You want to let your fellow player ask more, or maybe others could overhear the conversation, maybe they have something to share with you on your individual points that they feel less comfortable asking about because you already moved on, if you draw it out too much it can really shut people off
I haven't had the opportunity to play DnD before as I have no friends that are interested on top of the fact that I don't have that many. Plus, I grew up somewhere DnD isn't even a thing. But I so want my first character to be a human fighter that is super helpful and trains his skills everyday not for mastery itself but because he is inherently insecure about his skills especially when compared to magic wielders and/or other races. Most other races live so much longer and/or have natural affinity for magic, naturally stronger, etc. Some kind of Racial Inferiority Complex if you will that he will slowly break out.
Try roll20 "looking for group" or discord groups - lots of DnD content creators have their own discord groups that have "Looking for group" or reddit.
Nina was obviously invested into Alexander.
first of all, how dear you
I DOE'nt know (haha get it? No? Aw man... Okay I'll leave)
The thumbnail was like... "Man... my day is ruined"
Lol @thumbnail
Please forgive
I know your already going to get enough of this soon but, jeez... Of all characters man, I'm sad now. Good video though
Ed.....ward
Big...brother...
You monster. Let Nina rest in peace
How could you 💔
I dont get the reference. Still aolid content
You are one of the lucky few my friend. But it is a great show.
You Better be sorry!!!!!! Lolol
Bro you can't just show the Chimera from Full Metal Alchemist like that.
Haven't watched the video yet and I'm excited to because I feel like this will be very valuable advice but..
I came here first to say-
YOU BETTER BE FUCKIN SORRY BRO
That's so damn disrespectful to put her in the thumbnail /nm /lh /hj
Nooooooo!! Too soon!!!
>Thumbnail
For shame.
wtf man, why you gotta be like that, bringing up the nina/alexander chymera?
You better be. . .
Next level clickbait thumbnail
You should be sorry!
You should be
Jk :)
I'm here of the clickbait thumbnail.... I mean I was gonna watch yiur video anyway buuuuuuut....
No... no... I don't think you are.
it's ok, but you aren't tho