Видео

I like the part where you talked about your cabin game. It reminded me of a weekend I had where I was part of a group that played for 72 straight hours. A lot it Moutain Dew and coffee. I was a teen so it was a bit easier than it would be now. I’m now 53.

I ran Lost Mines for my party's virgin foray into dnd. At the end, they wanted to take an expedition back to Thundertree to clean it up and reclaim it. According to TftYP, the sunless citadel is not far from thundertree. Could I just.... replace oakhurst with thundertree with like a short time skip and beef up the monsters a bit?

Full Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PL_1gLniRsbW5QZD8NTmzY16wWl9Dqbuz7

Nature based made me think of Barbarian, Nature Cleric, Druid, Green Knight (paladin), Ranger, Scout Rogue & Witch (warlock), maybe even an Alchemist Artificer, though that might be stretching it a bit.

Thank you so much for this video, it was awesome! I'm currently in the middle of running LMoP to my friends (of course after I've watched your wonderful videos about it), and this video and the previous one about the Shattered Obelisk really helped me think about, and already start incorporating, things into the last session we had. You rock!

🥳🫂👍🏿 🔄

I ended a long campaign this weekend and thought a shorter one might feel good for a next act. I was thinking about running Stormwreck Isle, and the youtube algorithm led me here. This is a really nice set of videos, and the DriveThruRPG/DMsGuild content looks good too. Subscription earned.

My character was literally ENTHRALLED by this adventure. Thank you for DMing Winter's Daughter for us, Ryan. You are an amazing DM.

Dude; just saw this. I didn't notice a ping for some reason when it was published. Thanks for the opportunity; it was FUN to roll up a random character with your book.

Bout to be a dm for my first campaign in couple hours I’m excited lol

Thanks for the advice.

The advantage I see in having the monsters and treasure segregated from the rest of the narrative (maps, strategy, descriptions) is to facilitate "re-skinning" adventures for other party sizes/strength to make sure everything that needs adjustment is adjusted and the rest that doesn't, isn't.

I try to do this as much as possible, in every situation, as long as my players are comfortable with it.

Zeds unite 😅

Finally got around to watching this. Very interesting interaction. I've learned a lot about Loot.

🥳🫂👍🏿 Watched and rewatched the Nimble play - they’ve had a couple live shows now to discuss - combat is the part I’m most interested in - going to try the no roll to hit in the next campaign since the party TPK’d this week, womp womp - the PDF was a little confusing for me to - he went thru it on stream today actually if you want to watch that vod - the pamphlet from last year was perhaps more of a 5e mod - this is more of a transformation or evolution - not rolling to hit is very cool - other exploding dice systems have the individual dice explode, but since it’s an all or nothing on hit or miss based on the 1 - I understand why they do the left to right thing - I have players do that when they roll attack and damage at the same time: just read from left to right for d20s then for damage dice - first time I told them to do that they looked at me aghast but also understood it immediately - the adaptability also gets a good description in the live - using actions off turn may eventually lead to abandoning turns in general, tho I do like action/move/reaction as a base for limiting deliberation - I’m on a question to collect every house rule on youtube, which is how I found your channels - feels pretty ridiculous to charge $60 for a small selection of the material in pdf form - I read the first mistborn and enjoyed it but didn’t end up reading further - I went on a deep dive on magic systems a few years ago, and of course Sanderson came up a lot, but I was able to learn about them on wikis without reading the novels - more crunch usually means slower, which I’m not into these days - we’re sticking with 5.5, don’t question it even if the SRD will be 5.2 - strikes and blurring and the like was all ridiculous and yet another unforced error by a multibillion dollar business that can’t remember the biggest advertisers for them are the people they keep hurting - good to see Jim voicing frustration with WotC, because last week I got the feeling from the three of you that everyone just needs to calm down and stop hating on WotC, and that was really weird to hear - I agree we don’t need to hate content creators, but WotC does some downright evil stuff sometimes and deserves our collective ire when they do - Stephanie is correct to love no company: they are amoral entities of capitalism that seek growth over all else - the trouble with loving the game and not the company is that the company is a steward of the game, and while we can keep 5e and boycott 5.5 or 6e, the game will forever be tied to the company that owns it, and anything new that comes out will require interfacing with them - we got a great edition in 5e, and if we didn’t push back against the company for 4e and just said, “keep the game forget the company” we would have missed out on what we got from Mike Mearls & co - yes, copyright and fair use are misused by youtube and advertisers - hey, I’m sure I’m not the only one using “unforced errors” out there, but I’ve been posting it all around, and it’s good to see others using - one hand not knowing what the other is doing doesn’t make me feel any better - in a way it makes me feel worse, because that seems like a more insurmountable issue - yes, Ryan is right - this company depends on the advertisement of creators on youtube and twitch - alienating them is asinine… masochistic even - I pray smaller games gain more market share, but I have doubts - I remember the movement from Dragon & Dungeon to Pathfinder, what an amazing time that was - I am troubled however by systems that, despite emerging from the OGL crisis, are turning up on D&DBeyond, like MCDM - that’s not a sign of competition but a sign of consolidation which runs counter to the best part of the OGL crisis - if you’re looking for easy to pick up, my players and I learned how to play Cairn in one night: met up, made characters, learned the rules, then I ran an entire one shot, finished a half hour earlier than usual - I’m not super into DC20 myself, but Allan has definitely advertised it well - MCDM Draw Steel interest me for the no roll-to-hit like Nimble and throwing people around - good to see Stephanie onboard with Nimble - make sure you back it if you haven’t, because the prices are low and the game is great - my daughter and I play Tails of Equestria, a My Little Pony ttrpg - we’re just waiting for Wizard’s next mistake - such a good article I sent it to my parents - TAZ has embraced this ideal without reading it in their attempts to play as many different types of people as possible - Jim does love a former criminal -now you get to see why paladins have the reputation of being “fun ruiners” - I have a player who always rolls rogues, and we’ve all been making him play not-a-rogues for the past few campaigns, but he keeps recreating rogues with fighters, ranger, etc - he’s finally decided to play something very different with a druid, then he can go back to his rogues - we had a TPK this week, and while I’m more of the “down level your PCs after death” kind of DM, the players aren’t into that, so we’re staying at the same level - I do like the idea of spending a few sessions leveling back up - I had a campaign where we needed a new 10th to 12th level PC, but those weren’t really super common in the setting, so I offered my friend to play one of his previous PCs from 15 years prior - turns out that was a fantastic idea; everyone loved it; I still bask in the glow of how it all turned out - very lucky to have players who will try out my weird ideas - CoS was what brought me into 5e - I wanted to do Ravenloft and was hearing CoS was getting a lot of good press when it came out as a reimagining, so I got my friend to run it for me and our wives - I think the earliest fantasy stuff I was into was probably my mom’s Grimms’ Fairy Tales book -Dark Crystal is very cool as is the Netflix prequel - definitely worth your time if you haven’t seen it - Barnaby Dixon the puppeteer actually has a role in it if you’ve ever watched him on youtube - speaking of Labyrinth: there is a Labyrinth TTRPG - Double Crit Fail did a great video about it and philosophy and so much more about 3 months ago - definitely worth a watch & sub - love a good look-book type art book - if you like trolls, check out D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls by Ingri d'Aulaire - I played Zelda on NES but really fell in love with it on the N64 - Ocarina of Time & Majora’s Mask are peerless - yeah, just because a system takes a rules light approach to a feature of the game (e.g., social in D&D) doesn’t mean you can’t do it - it just means the mechanics are “softer” or more in the hands of the players & DM - I think it’s a common misconception that a rules light approach to a subject means an absence of that topic or that it’s not supported or worse not appropriate in the system - learned how funny Golden Girls was when I was an orderly in a dementia care facility where it was always on - I am ordained and have performed a marriage as well - if you find that article, please post it - I’d love to read it - “wordy title” reminds me of the conversation Ryan had in his recent interview about book titles and how short may be accurate but might not really grab you - see yall next week

Brad's replacement is far better looking 😂

Wow, that seemed fast.

Hi guys. You are welcome, Nacho. Now you are a RUclipsr with that improved camera and microphone setup. lol

As a GM that had run Trouble in Otari a couple of times and started the first and 2nd floors of Abomination Vaults, this guide video is great!! Your ideas are Awesome!! I planted many story & backgrounds seeds into my players experiences based on their characters backstories. Thanks a lot for this. Hope to keep seeing more of theses.

🥳🫂👍🏿 Hey there, Wizards - think I"ve been seeing you in the Friday hangouts - the gate keeping is a real shame - always good to see someone excited to share instead of tear down the next generations - OGL certainly tipped off a seemingly endless series of SNAFUs on the part of WotC - any one of which might have flown under the radar had they not drawn everyone’s ire in 2023 - staying positive is important, but I’m glad you said your piece and didn’t stay silent - collective action is so important - depending on how you define evil, companies fit the bill: only motivated by avarice regardless of the harm they are fully aware it does to anyone else, constantly demanding more and more beyond what they need and what is sustainable - as a truism “no ethical consumption under capitalism” is more meant to motivate us to work toward a better system (through collective action - yay team! take that win!) and not leave us apathetic - tho some (many) days it certainly does do that - yes, continue to withhold your support from companies that threaten your hobby and engage with it outside their reach - I’m still boycotting them - I had planned to stop once they released 5.5 into OGL & Creative Commons, but with them continuing to make unforced errors, I don’t know when I’ll purchase their products from them, if ever again - love a physical copy - something about holding the book in your hands is just *better* - I was born into 2e and raised in 3e/3.5 - love a good Spotify podcast - easier to listen on walks than with youtube - yes, 5.5 is the right way to go as far as I’m concerned - I essentially started during an edition change, probably the most profound one aside from 4e, and this feels more like the jump from 3e to 3.5 than 2e to 3e - invincible players comes back to what we talked about before with the DM having to pull the trigger and how that is crummy - true, resurrection also gets in the way - one way (house rule I suppose) to throttle backstory length would be to have a word limit based on level - 1st level gets 1 to 2 sentences, whereas that 50 pager should be reserved for 20th and beyond - I was introduced at summer camp at the end of 2e and loved it - I coveted my friends books the rest of the summer and told him I was going to buy my own when I went home - he told me they were coming out with a new edition in the fall and that I should just get those - I roped my best friend into the game - he and I played just the two of us for a few years until he started recruiting people into our group - we played nonstop thru the end of high school - yeah, the satanic panic was wild - one of my teachers in high school actually went to school with Dallas Egbert - he mentioned that Dallas was always a little off, that he always wore a suit to high school - yeah, metal was a huge part of the satanic panic - for a while I thought it was just D&D but it was a trans-genre movement - reading, shows, movies, games, one off statements from a friend… misinterpretations of other ideas has been surprisingly useful as inspirations - love the idea of relistening to games - not sure my players would be into that, but I should ask them - it is interesting how players can pick up on a foreshadowing for the endgame but miss the body in the room - gives us an idea how poorly we understand how other people engage with and interpret ideas we put out there - I like that: “beginners eyes” - important to not cut them out while teaching them how to play the game, since we want that lateral/unhindered thinking they naturally have prior to indoctrination - psionic goblins had stats in the expanded psionics handbook in 3.5 and they were called “blues” at the time for their blue skin - is that still the case? - myself, not a huge body horror / gore guy - higher level combat can be a real slog - I used to get mad at the players until I realized it’s a consequence of the game’s design and not just “lazy” or “bad” or “distracted” players - no one is perfect, but combat has so many moving parts and gets so dense and arcane that it essentially has infinite room for improvement - I have a few videos to recommend for people looking to up their combat game - look up Evil Squeegee - he has the absolute finest series on creating fun, interesting, tactical encounters (FITE) - bar none - monster lore is such a source of inspiration for me - I usually change them up and rarely use the vanilla lore & stats - love a good subversion and a chicken walking into the arena would definitely be that - I know it’s bull-lay but I can’t; I have to say bullet - I prefer in person as well - I ran VTT for a few years before and after covid and was so glad to get with a group that does live games - excellent system to steal from another DM: AmazingWizard’s Running a Maze or Labyrinth with Cards (D&D 5e) is just top tier - I know it’s usually what we call it, but I never loved calling it “stealing” from other DMs - bringing player stories into the game is key, fundamental even -with a lot of the older adventures being shorter than what they want to put out these days, anthologies seem like such a good idea - I’ve never run a published adventure - I played in Curse of Strahd, but the only pre-made I started to prep was Rime of the Frostmaiden just before OGL, so that group pivoted to looking for other systems - the power creep is really real - I am almost always looking to nerf back down some of these outlandish abilities, especially the ones that slow down the game - if they don’t slow things down much or at all, I’m down with improvements (e.g., cunning strike) - I keep hearing about the kind of railroading required for 5e modules - I guess I’m glad I haven’t really had the chance to run them - unified d20 was a great idea, but it’s interesting how more varied dice mechanics are making a comeback to add variety back into the game - I painted one little goblin mini once, and it took like an hour and a half - I don’t think I have the time to invest in that even knowing I’d speed up with time - great stuff - looking forward to the next section

Counterpoint: your characters meet outside the tavern because they're all in line to use the outhouse. I've done it and it was a good twist on the classic. Also you can start with an initiative roll to see who's first in line, I like to get them rolling dice asap.

wow!

I am SO stoked for Dolmenwood. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it! I would love a DM Guide series on it from you (maybe on all the prewritten adventures Gavin brewed up). I'm new to DMing and all of your guides are so wonderful. You're absolutely the best!! <3

🥳🫂👍🏿 nice - was looking forward to this follow up - I've used purple worms as a stand in for shai hulud, but a whole class sounds superb - the art reminds me of V for Vendetta - I'm a big fan of simple, descriptive names, but those don't really jump off the page and entice someone to get the product - my editor and layout artist recommended "Dynamic Travel System" over just "Travel System" for this very reason - witches are making an appearance in Nimble 5e thanks to a collaboration with Faerie: A Realm Wanderer's Guide - always interesting to hear how words (here witch) change over time - those swirls in the d20 are mesmerizing - my house is full to bursting, and I would love to purge - ope, here come the fey again 😄 - nice, a third space (in the more vernacular usage we've been hearing lately - not so much the architectural theory, more problematic sense from Edward Soja) - oh an traveling/astral bar, love it - I had a friend use a similar space for where you go when you die to start a campaign that was a trip thru the 9 hells - this one could be sort of a twist on the classic magical vehicle - special ales are super - we had a dwarven spirit that had a higher proof than physically possible - I'm imagining using a microplane to top a nice drink with minotaur horn like I've seen done with nutmeg - love "dungeoneer" - one of my favorite D&D words - it was a dedicated skill in 3.5 that was almost always applicable at our table - "I'm not proficient in History... wait, could I roll dungeoneering?" "I mean, you are in a dungeon 😄" - love a bar with a forest growing inside - possums are one of my favorite animals ♥🐀 - monks really do love their beer - always nice to see a bit of an occidental monk present in D&D - drunk fey raccoons sound more dangerous than rabid ones - I was immediately interested in apron with extra pockets 😥 - oh we're back to it - thank goodness - a witch learning dimensional magic sounds pretty cool - I think there was a dimensional witch in Dungeons & Daddies' first season - ley lines & leannán sídhe 👍🏿 - destabilizing the structure an interdimensional tavern definitely seems like a local crisis waiting to happen - this character has started giving me some time lord vibes - when you force yourself to keep going after the first few easy ideas, you really get into some wild spaces - definitely got there with 5200+ prompts - intentionally losing a cursed object reminds me of the cursed kimono story where you can't sell it - I was about to say, "wow, he's getting lucky with a lot of bar related results" then I remembered that wasn't a coincidence 🤦🏿‍♀- "growlers" drinking literally the devil's share - ope there you said it - I have to give Mila Kunis credit for introducing me to the concept - magic fey alcohol perfusing the foundations👌🏿 - being hunted for simply knowing something reminds me of River Tam from Firefly - oh ho a chance to reintegrate the familiar served up from the dice gods - Nya reminds me of nyan cat the poptart rainbow kitty - perhaps a familiar to use for my next sorcerer NPC - at my table, I like sorcerers to have familiars and wizards to have staves - I like to think witches and warlocks get to pick - having a table to help the DM integrate these fantastical characters was a good move - could see this character in Changeling - would love to get a physical copy of this book - if you think that will happen soon, I'll continue resisting the pdf, otherwise I'll get it and grab the physical copy when it comes out too

Dolmenwood is a fantastic setting

🥳🫂👍🏿 I've only ever played in one premade adventure, and altho I've started to prep one, I never actually ran one - woooow 😄 - ah yes classic fairy tales: very different from what we generally think of these days - I took a class once about it, and the professor was very interested in the meaning behind the color of Red Riding Hood's hood - layout can make or break a product - been dealing with this lately while I put my travel system into pdf form - Dolmen wood: been wanted to get it, but I heard you mention in an interview that it's not really available currently? where can I get what is available, or is that old news, and the whole thing is out now - some of the OSR features my players have been enjoying are procedural dungeoneering - oh, here you are mentioning it - I'm easing my people into procedures, so I'm not sure when we'll get into hex crawls - nice kind of Aragorn & Arwen but leaning back toward Romeo & Juliet roots and after his mortality caught up with him ☠ - as some guy said, "brevity is a great way to show how smart you are" or something like that, so I love that they packed so much into so few words ♥

wow!

All OSE layout is awesome. They are the gold standard for layout along with Shadowdark.

Here's the crossover I didn't expect, awesome stuff.

🥳🫂👍🏿 Very happy for more collaborations for any reason, but really like that K-Week brings focus away from shark week that brings a bit of bad press to sharks - so nice to hear the community is warm & welcoming - yeah, even tho the OGL crisis was terrible, the silver lining has been a renaissance of TTRPG exploration, adoption and creation - was a big PF1 fan off the back of 3.5 - unsung is there brilliant work with polymorph/shapechange/wildshape rules - just a fantastic answer to a perennial problem - 3.5 is the love of my life, but these days, I like a little more rules lite system - looking forward to collabs with Mark - one thing about the coevolution of DND & PF that has been troubling to me is the turn bloat - D&D went to a 3 action system (action, bonus, move) then PF adapted and honed that system (3 action economy), but I think turns are too long already and want to go back to Action & Move - house rules around the topic that I'm tinkering with: action + move OR bonus action; strip out bonus actions; or, most extreme but interesting, ONE action turns (good luck getting players to try that 😄) - having watched a few of these, I haven't picked up on the tonal thru-line yet - snacks: I really like Funyuns - best chocolate chip cookies? search Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - you won't be disappointed - make sure you scoop out the amount they say to - don't skimp - pink salt is at the very least pretty 🤷🏿‍♀ - as a scientist, I maintain a healthy skepticism, but if we get some good solutions for problems that people thought were magic, I don't really care as long as it works - magic salt heals rocky mountain spotted fever? cool, pass the shaker - "room to improve" questions are always tough for me - they were a big part of my medical education - even worse are the "rate your proficiency level on a scale of 1 to 100" oof - jumping in, improving & saying "yes" is very valuable, but it can be tough to do in the moment; I just don't want to be held hostage by improvisational/snap rules decisions I made last year when I comes up again - they have so so so many ancestries - I do love the muppet people of PF - miss a good prestige class in D&D - that's something from 3e that could stand to get a little love in 5e - subclasses don't feel the same - I recall a truism that it takes more time to say the same thing in fewer words - a short video taking longer than just rambling extemporaneously on the topic makes a lot of sense - PF customization is a direct outgrowth of 3e/3.5 - ope will have to pick up again at 23:20

As a new gm i gmed a dnd prewritten adventure and a lasers & feelings hack one shot. In the dnd game i was very railroady. In the l&f i was able to let my players do whatever. So i think i needed both systems to find my way.

Woke DEI killed DnD. The developers are morons.

Wow great video thank you so much

I just finished watching this video plus the video titled "How to Run the D&D Starter Set: Dragon's Rest." I was watching that one while you were replying to my earlier comment. And I've happily taken your gift of hearing me in good faith. Your comment makes me happy that I went ahead and watched another of your videos. I am nervous about running this adventure and am probably spending too much time thinking about it. My wife brought it home last week and suggested we play (we've never played anything like it). So I'm really wanting to do a good job DM'ing for my wife. I've taken notes from both your videos.

Thank you for making the video. There's plenty of left-wing people who act like certain others are inferior. You don't see it because you have your left-wing glasses on, like others have their right-wing glasses on and so don't see some stuff themselves. There's an overabundance of left-wing intolerance for viewpoints, for lifestyles, and for liberty over how one talks and thinks. And there are lots of tolerant "Liberals." I've met a few of the tolerant ones. They are some of my favorite people in the world. But my goodness there's a lot of intolerance, hatred, and violence coming at conservatives from the Left. It would be better to not have this on your page. It removes your video from the land of pastime. I came here for what I hope to be a new pastime for me. But it appears dnd might not be a possible pastime for me, since I get micro-aggressed against and then (from your response to others) basically told either I'm wrong or suck it up or just go to another page. What if I want to be on your page? Is it so detestable to just make videos without that crap in it? I mean, if it is, then you do you. I'm just disappointed is all. I'm not disappointed in you, just in the situation I find myself in. Don't change unless you want to (though I hope you at least consider what I'm requesting). And, again, thank you for doing this video. I'm going to watch it regardless. But if I keep hearing stuff like that, I'll almost certainly skip out and find someone else. I just want it to be a pastime.

Omg, I love that we even had the same starting point! They turned out sooo different this is great!

"Look at these guys having fun. You're not supposed to be having fun."

Awe man I missed the life stream...time to rewatch!

We played Dragons of Stormwreck Isle first, where Aidron managed to complete his ritual and became a kind of scary hybrid young dragon combining the essences of all the dead dragon spirits used in the ritual. He flew away and turned up again in Thundertree instead of Venomfang. My players loved the connection between the two adventures.

🥳🫂👍🏿 Love a good tea - been exploring other brands lately - second guest to choose Weirdo - Worlds Without Number has a bunch of "drop all the dice tables" - such a great way to do it - starting off on the same "voices" place and immediately moving in a different direction - voices + incarceration = asylum, yes very Lovecraftian - always fun to see these dice fall in ways that just make sense - porque no las dos - love that you include NPCs in this system, because it's surprisingly difficult to get my players to make up allies - I like how we have used this to produce fey warlock and great old one warlock - really drives home for me that those two aren't actually as different as I thought - also cool to see the different ways people use this: Stephanie was going outside the prompts and making big leaps right away, whereas Shawn is keeping it pretty close to the text - birds can be jerks just at a baseline, so an aggressively rude parrot is just spot on - I had a sorcerer pirate once that was physically counter to your average peg leg/eye patch/hook hand looking pirate, but her familiar was a parrot and it had been thru it - it had a peg leg & hook wing plus a horribly foul/fowl mouth - it was always out of breath because when it flew, it had to work really hard due to the missing piece of one of its wings - I liked that little guy - hadn't thought of him for a long time till just now - big giant mimic reminds me of that "I laughed; he laughed; the chair laughed" joke - love a good angler fish - there's a cool one in Heart (which is an AMAZING ttrpg you should check out if you haven't) - players ignoring hooks can be rough (and sometimes a little rude), but I have found that if I throw out a bunch of strings, players tend to remember the ones we tied up and forget the others, and then they think I had it all worked out from the beginning, when in reality, they don't remember all the stray ideas that never panned out - I like the idea of a cheese cult - for this lovecraftian character, I am terrified to ask what exactly is in the cheese - really appreciate when people cite sources - Yeah, Empire of the Petal Throne (a foundational piece of D&D history) has really been tarnished by Barker's bigotry - I don't fault anyone for avoiding his work - I'm currently in a place where I can engage with his work, but there are living authors who's bigotry stops me from even reading / rereading their work, so again, I don't fault anyone for wanting to completely avoid Tekumel - good to know Gygax was spouting incel/meninist/manosphere talking points 50 years before Andrew Tate was even posting to social media 🤦🏿‍♀

I love a good pre-campaign survey - used one once back in 3.5 that was a diegetic screening test for the organizer of an expedition to select a leader - perhaps the first interviewee that took you up on the offer to ignore the dice by selecting Weirdo - good point, not really a hard line between fey and eldritch/alien/lovecraftian - classic examples are the severe congenital defects that may have inspired greek myths - ask them what the worst dice is too, next time, because I vote for the d10 on that - the asymmetry and arguments about how to interpret it are big points against it - "you took this into your own hands" = literally going off book - they do have Welcome to Dolmenwood on DTRPG - I wonder: will this character be retired/handed over to the DM if the fey succeeds or would you role-play a new person in the same body - "someone's gotta push the button" is a very important reality to accept as a player - how many people contributed to Explosive Creation? - once when I brought high energy to a new player, it freaked them out, but their spouse fortunately reassured them that I was just excited to share - this series is a great example of how dice and random tables can HELP us make better stories - I do not believe that "DICE tell better stories", because when you roll, you don't get a story, you get a prompt - your mind MAKES the story when it reflexively works to connect the prompts - we are so steeped in story culturally and genetically that we cannot help ourselves from making them to fill in gaps in our knowledge - chimerically: I believe it's a "k" sound, like chimera - hit hard but drop fast is a good way to up the tension quickly and avoid a TPK - classic glass cannon I suppose - "the hag is always seeing thru your eyes" is a great idea - really fits the greek "Fates" view I have of hags - a bunch of things stapled together is a great way to think about it - I have a bunch of what I call mini-games that I can drop into the game and just pin to the session/campaign/system - "I want to create a bunch of characters from this table": you really followed thru on this right away 👍🏿

I dropped a "how do you want to do this" on a group of noob players who had definitely never seen critical role, and it baffled the player. He said, "uhh, with my sword?" ... :) I had to pick a more descriptive phrase next time

Wonderful video. Thank you Ryan. :) (Also: The new mic really makes a difference. In older video your voice lacked a bit high so it was harder to understand. (My voice is the same)

ive always thought the dms role has been to react to player actions and never to describe how somethign happens but to let the story or dice decide what happens.

My warlock once tried to convince some nobles to follow him to safety from a vampire attack. The DM said, "Roll for persuasion." I replied, "Who said I'm being nice about?" And gave the nobles a well thought out and role played "come with me if you want to live," though not quite in those words. The DM said, "Okay, roll for Intimidation, with advantage." Thank the gods, because I rolled a 2 and a 19

On the rare occasion that my warlock uses Eldritch Blast (2 times canonically over the course of a multi year campaign), he actually takes a moment to remember the incantation. I'll say something "Ryuga waga teki... no wait, wrong spell" before saying the proper incantation. And my Eldritch Blast looks like a big black bird made of living shadow. Three guesses as to what kind of warlock I play and who my pact is with. I also took the time to describe in great detail each of the weapons I conjure with pact of the blade. For instance, my flail looks like a bunch of bird skulls joined at their base, with beaks pointing outward. My scimitar looks like a wing, with each feather having a serrated edge. Each of them is polished so they shine like polished obsidian, but they glow with the same dark shadow as my infrequent Eldritch Blast