Agree, I haven't seen this for D&D for now as I'm usualy the DM for the newbi but I witnessed several games of warhammer with a young player having only minis from starter box being mercilessly destroyed by some guy with a fully optimised army of the last busted faction and I never got the point about where one would get pride in such a one sided fight..
as an adhd person i'd have to say the adhd thing is probably because we've sort of got this goblin in our brain that likes to make noise when we're trying to focus. The best way to shut the goblin up is to either give it something shiny to play with or to give it busywork. Keeping track of all those period modifiers falls under the latter and while it is certainly a weird as fuck thing to be doing it probably DID help him calmly focus on the main game since the ADHD goblin was busy dealing with the period stats. I usually just stick to doodling in a notepad or keeping a paperclip nearby to twist into different shapes but uh bizarro period stat tables work too I guess.
Can relate my school papers were almost always full of the little doodles I did to help myself stay focused I eventually just started bring a sketchbook with me so my papers wouldn’t look messy. Most anyone with a form of adhd can relate to that kinda thing. I love the way you’ve explained it here and I hope it helps more people understand adhd
Classic gaslighting, the narcissist tries to guilt you for your legitimate feelings towards them, by dumping on you how the way that you feel about them makes them feel. They hope you will put your feelings aside to tend to theirs and continue the toxic relationship, never ever give in to this bullshit.
Also if someone already pointed out, it's not so much that keeping track of the menstrual cycle helps Focus ADHD, so much as it is splitting your attention between two tasks ironically helps you focus better instead of focusing on one by itself. Yeah it kind of doesn't make sense but it works, just like how caffeine and other stimulants tend to have the opposite effect on people with ADHD.
the way I would put it is that it's not that doing two tasks makes me focus better than doing one task, it's that my brain will make me split my attention to something else no matter what. If I choose to do two things at once, I can at least choose what the second thing will be and I can make it something that won't completely destroy my ability to focus.
The DM that threw the players up against a Sea Ogre right out of the gate was somebody who should not have been a DM. That was such an excessive thing to do.
Maybe they did against the nice counselor and wanted to vicariously hurt/annoy them through OP since they helped OP with their build. But indeed, guy has issues
the menstrual cycle adhd guy: he probably has a special interest in trying out/making mechanical systems for realism purposes, and indulging in it in dnd scratches the SI itch.
@@Shauntheduke.What planet do you live on where men face more consequences for engaging in sexual harassment by virtue of being men. Because it's not this one.
@@SeymourDisapproves damn so the fact that women on average when convicted of sexual based crimes get less severe punishment isn’t real huh? Guess that teacher who only got a month for sexual abusing her student wasn’t real. Are you really gonna pretend women in general get the same judicial treatment as men for sexual abuse. Now I will say women statistically get harsher for stuff say murder but everything else is dumbed down or played off as something other men should want from a woman.
@@SeymourDisapproves Bruh have you been...anywhere? Theres literally hundreds of cases where Male SA victims of Female predators are LAUGHED AT. Purely because they didn't enjoy it.
The period-story is interesting. If he really created those rules around his experinces with his wife's menstruation I recommend a doctor checking said wife for Endometriosis. It really sounds a lot like that. Generally we all asume that menstruation pain has to be really awfull and tormenting. In reality it rarely is without some medical consition that could (and should) be treated. It's a shame that most women except the pain because they think it's normal when they could actually have a condition and treatment is possible.
This is simultaneously true and false. The simple fact is that few women are experiencing the EXACT same thing the EXACT same way. Some experience breast tenderness; some don't. Some get really aggro; some just keep to themselves. BFF is incapacitated for two days. Mom's bad days decreased with every child she had. Mine are a literal horrorshow and probably I DO need to get to the doc. I know women who tough it out so hard-core you'd never know something is wrong; I know women who will cry because the pain is so bad. There is a such thing as "period flu"; it can wreak havoc on your digestive system; some women get really emotional; some women get super aroused; SOME women better not even hear you mention anything remotely sexual during that time. Some women pass out. Some women become very anemic during that time. Nobody's body is the same; Nobody's experience is the same, either. The period mechanic is a good idea but it can't be fairly represented in a game like D&D because it's a different experience for everybody.
Agree with Policy. It can just depend. I have a friend who has severe periods. Stays at home, is in severe pain. Throws up. She's been checked multiple times, it's just her period. There's not a lot outside of the pill that doctors have said she could do. Myself, I usually get a cold, crave, get angry, and cry a lot. As well, I just get way more insecure during that time, but in a very spiral-y way. I have pain and it hurts, but I don't have endometriosis. It is a different experience for different people. Absurd discomfort and pain, however; should be checked regardless. I had far more severe periods when I had a tumor (fibroid). I was aware of it, but honestly, had I not been, it could have easily been something I just considered as my periods getting worse with age. So it's always beneficial to check these things out, but unfortunately some just have more unpleasant periods than others.
I had PCOS, Endometriosis, and Adenomyosis. I had a period that lasted for over 13 straight months of bleeding and cramps literally every day. The onset was when I was a teenager. I’m now 35. I went to doctors across three states for 20 years before becoming immobilized from the pain and finally getting an oncologist to perform a total hysterectomy plunging me into surgically induced menopause. There was no cancer, but the oncologist was willing to help because of how much pain I was clearly in, when many gynecologists told me it was all in my head. Until 9 months ago I was told, insisted in fact, that I just had to deal with it, and that all periods are just different. I’m now nearly 12 weeks into recovery with several weeks before I’ll be able to sit up again because I couldn’t get help until my conditions literally started to kill me, and because I was a woman and it was “women’s issues” I was ignored and gaslit while begging for help, until it was almost too late. “Treatment is possible” isn’t always true. I reacted incredibly badly to birth control progesterone which is the only solution that was ever tried on me. It was tried repeatedly and at different levels even though it caused weight gain, memory loss, and fits of violent rage which I’m told included me threatening someone with a knife, but I have no memory of that time period, so I couldn’t say. None of my conditions ever showed up on any of the scans they did of me. Women’s healthcare is in need of attention. It’s bad.
@@ladymeredith1831 exactly! Woman's healthcare is really bad. Often there is the possibility for teatment, but doctors don't look close enough at the problems to make the right diagnosis or outright ignore everything and just assume their patient is overly hysteric. It's a shame!
Weiss was older since Ruby was let in the academy early at age 15. I stopped watching RWBY in season 4, but from what I heard time may have passed enough to make her an adult (especially if it takes place in a later arc).
Oh now there's one I haven't heard before. "You're boundaries are stupid." Instead of denying, gaslighting, or straight up lying about crossing said boundaries. Just straight up insulting them instead of negotiating.
Those stats seem more like an endometriosis or PCOS debuff rather than just typical menstrual cycle. Also would have probably made more sense if he'd had some kind of treatment/remedy for it, a magical equivalent of hormone supplements, birth control, or hell, just a flask of ibuprofin.
I was thinking the same thing! The length of time was especially unusual. I'm playing a character right now with +2 in CON, meaning w 3d4 days -2 she could potentially have a 10 day long period?! If these stats are accurately based on his wife I hope she's managing ok. Also I love the idea of keeping ibuprofen in a flask. 😂
The Menstral story is probably the most interesting horror-ish story ive heard in a while. Im impressed had how well thought out he made this system, but Im with op in saying that its very creepy. Though considering how diverse ttrpg groups can be, Im sure there is someone out that that has their own version or will use this in their campaign.
Yeah you need to talk to the DM if you want to build a temporary nerf into your character. They get final say on what you're allowed to do since they are the ones controlling the world you are playing in. I'm saying this from experience since I added a stress mechanic into my bard where he'd sometimes have trouble focusing when he's feeling overwhelmed and would need to do some small task like clean/fix his gear or play his violin. My reason for this was because, after all the numbers were added up, both my passive perception and passive insight stood at 19, meaning I was aware of a lot and that would be a small problem for the DM. I took a note from the book version Sherlock Holmes where he'd struggle to keep up with all the information that passed through his head and needed to isolate himself and do drugs to slow down his mind though my solutions for my character were based more on simple monotonous tasks, something that works for me. My DM also lets me know that I can ignore the system at any point if it becomes inconvenient in a situation so, really, it's mostly just for added character flavor.
Most games I've been in had a DMPC. What made it work was, with one exception, they were basically non-entities and only served to fill roles that the party needed but no pc could fill ie a healer in a group with no cleric/druid
As a forever DM, that is pretty much what my DMPCs were; support / healer characters for the party, since most players *hate* playing healer classes. There was one exception, however, with a campaign where I started off as a player, but then had to assume the role of DM. The problem was, my character was the party's trap-finder, making things a bit awkward. I ended up making it so my character would only do searches and such if a player specifically asked, AND the player making the request would make the roll (adding my character's bonus to the roll). This way, the tasks of trap-finding and exploration was still fully in the hands of the players, without them having to play another character.
I though the DMPC & sea orc was bad still the “mistakes were made “ came in for horror story crazy gold. Everyone in these stories are in my prayers for better dnd experiences to come
To be fair, throwing a powerful monster at a low-level party can work if done right. I threw a cloud giant at three second-level characters. Yes, he was evil, but he was also in a great mood after a good food hunt, plus he was on a specific mission (the BBEG wanted to learn about the "new pieces in my chess game"): To HARASS the party. They did try to fight him, but he just swept them around, inflicting mostly bruises. He was meant to be a plot device. It was the REASON he was there that was important.
As someone who needs to do multiple things at once to really focus on something, I think I understand the ADHD bit. I have ADD and while in games, I have to move my cursor around on Roll20, review my spells, and even watch a short video on mute while 2 other players or whatever are having a private roleplay moment together. This is just to really concentrate on the game. I think him being caught up on the Menstrual thing helped him concentrate and not be a disruption because that energy is directed elsewhere.
I was going to make my Tavern Tip on that but yeah! I agree. It’s a great and unique way to make your character special to you. Just another thing on top of what TTRPGs normally have.
I’ve never played D&D before, but your horror story videos-despite being god awful in terms of how people treat others- has got me intrigued. I’ve created my own player already, and lucky for me I have like 3 friends who are DMs and are willing to teach me. The only downside to getting really addicted to these stories is that… I’ve watched every one you’ve posted. I need mooooore! 😂 Keep up the good work!
The Mistakes Were made OG DM is the kind of guy that I'd bet got punched in the face a lot. Saying you have no boundaries tells me that you have no respect for other people. Hasta la vista, baby!
Qmd many of those sort of people have boundaries...They just don't respect other peoples boundaries and tend to be the most agressivly upset when you decide to find theirs and push past them, being sure to wipe your shoes over them as you do.
Wow that guy saying I do t have boundaries so why do you is one of the most selfish and toxic things I’ve ever heard…and sadly I’ve know a few people like that
uhhHhHH funny story for bleach! Yesterday, our undead freaky looking cat man (my words), Hannibal, rolled crappy on a stealth check (i don’t remember what it was, i think it was in total like a 5?) and bumped into a lady on the street, sending her cabbages flying. Obviously, half the party yelled, “MY CABBAGES!!!” and the DM gave us all 1 point of inspiration :)
Honestly the period thing wasn't what I was expecting, which... is emphatically a positive, considering how bad it COULD have been, based on the usual horror stories history/format. It IS a little weird, tho. As for the ADHD thing, some other commenter said smth about switching tasks helping him focus, which, yeah, I can kind of see that? I'm not diagnosed or anything but depending on what it is I'm doing, doing something else at the same time can strangely kind of help. Like these videos, for instance; hell if I know how or why, but I've gotten really into watching- or rather, listening to- DnD Horror Story videos, even tho I don't play and honestly don't know the first thing about the game or its mechanics and/or world (the same goes for literally any/every other TTRPG or LARP out there). They're still fun to listen to, however, and a lot of the problems can be parsed from either context, or because you don't need to understand the details of the game to know why it's a problem. I like to put these on while I'm drawing, especially; under the right conditions, drawing while listening to things like music, RPG Horror Stories, and various Reddit narration videos, where I don't have to engage visually with the contents (usually, anyways) can be a very chill time for me. Productive, too!
For the first story, my first thought was that he was trying to garner sympathy to guilt the OP out of rejecting his application. But yeah, if that was the case he could have just said he needed to have his dog put to sleep rather than going so specific as "shooting him because there was no vet", so maybe it was an edgelord who thought he was being funny.
Fourth Story: I think the ADHD thing is, maybe, a way for him to keep a focus on an ever-changing character that he has to keep track of in terms of how she acts or functions based on whether the condition is active or not? Or maybe it feeds into a part of his brain obsessed with figuring out how the actual mechanic functions; it could've been something he'd been thinking about for a while, and putting it into practice helps quiet that curious part of his brain in some way. I don't know, just guessing.
Those could definitely be factors. Here's my opinion based on my experience with ADHD: For a lot of people with ADHD, ironically splitting your attention between two or more tasks increases the amount of focus you're able to spend on both. Yes it sounds counterintuitive, and it kinda is, but it works. Just like how caffeine and other stimulants tend to have the opposite effect on people with ADHD.
Ignoring the exact context of the system the ADHD player was working with, it's cringe, no lie, but creating intricate systems and experimenting with mechanics makes perfect sense as a way for someone who has a need for more mental stimulation to stay engaged in a campaign during the slower sessions. It should absolutely have been communicated with the DM, and in that context could have been engaged with together for some more interesting roleplay, or the DM could've just consented and not been suspicious and needed to come up with an excuse to prod. A less weird concept that I'm working with in my current campaign, with my DM's consent; I have autism/adhd and my monk also is canonically ADHD. I am working out the mechanics for an executive function system to determine whether he is able to remain focused during generally unstimulating situations (pretty much only happens when we return to our hub city where the environment is familiar and predictable), and on occasion he will ask me the result as it might impact whether he will add modifiers to a perception check I'm doing as sometimes I can be hyperfocused or distracted. I'm also the campaign artist so I'm allowed to use my ipad to sketch events we're experiencing while we play for visual aid so that I'm less distracting, can stay engaged, and am contributing to the overall experience. If you're neurodivergent working with your DM to help you engage and enjoy DND is good. It'll tell you everything you need to know about the DM how they respond to knowing, and how willing they are to accommodate you. But don't hide mechanics from them in secret. And maybe leave menstrual cycles out of the game unless it's pertinent to the plot.
I think the ADHD thing in the last story was meant to imply that he was so focused on the idea that he needed to incorporate menstrual cycles for a female character that not doing so (or having to mentally keep track of a self-imposed debuff as opposed to having a separate character sheet) was frustrating him as he tried to play the game? That's my best guess, but I honestly don't know.
No, it's not that but good guess. It's because for a lot of people with ADHD, ironically splitting your attention between two or more tasks increases the amount of focus you're able to spend on both. Yes it sounds counterintuitive, and it kinda is, but it works. Just like how caffeine and other stimulants tend to have the opposite effect on people with ADHD.
I actually found it interesting, he seemed to somewhat understand what someone on their period can behave, although a little bit cartoonish. Its also funny to have that happen in the background and the characters questioning your character why theyre acting suspicious only to realize its the time of the month
@thatonewitch this, honestly. Haven't quite finished the video yet to be fair, but I'm afab and also autistic/adhd and like. He's not imposing it on anyone else, and it's only debuffs, so I don't see what the harm is? But then again I'm also someone who (with DMs help) made a stress system that triggers a scourge aasimars radiant consumption to activate autonomously, and someone who regularly rolls self imposed wisdom checks to see if they can avoid the impulse to do potentially reckless things, or to see if they can act on something that makes them anxious. A much more toned down thing to be sure, but idk. I like niche little mechanics like that that really only affect the player That said, 3d4 seems pretty excessive... max lasts way too long. I'd make it 2d4 days with no modifier or 1d4+con days. And probably just do disadvantage on strength/con checks
Quote "Boundaries are stupid. I don't have boundaries, why do you need them?" That's the thing about people who don't get it. If they don't respect their own boundaries, or understand why they maybe should do so, they won't respect anybody else's boundaries either. I'm not saying you should be like a super stoic samurai cowboy who marks out their boundaries a days ride in all directions and will kill trespassers who try to talk about their emotions uninvited. There's a healthy midway semi-squishy common sense personal boundary practice to be found. But people who don't maintain any personal boundaries ... well, you better be prepared to get hurt somewhere down the road. The reason I feel the need to share this warning is that in real life it's not always super obvious. And a lot of times (well, maybe not in this particular case) people who don't maintain personal boundaries are exciting to be with. You get super close super fast. They can be unbelievably open and fearless about their own feelings, they can be prepared to go places emotionally where it's maybe a little bit scary, but with them you dare too. It can feel liberating. It can feel safe. But it might not _be_ safe. And yeah, I'm speaking from own experiences. I've been that person (you know the saying "But that was a long time ago, and further north"), I've also been burned by that person, and I've seen it play out a couple of times around me. Just a road mark. Here be danger. Having said that, I also didn't get a really good feeling about the OP in that story, but I can't quite put my finger on what set my hair on the wrong way.
I was 8 miles away from an emergency vet and still willing to walk my cat there. It was winter and nighttime, thankfully my gram folded and got my aunt to bring me and my cat to the vet. He wouldn’t have survived the night if she didn’t
Last story: I am not a woman, so perhaps I shouldn't ask this question. Yet if I don't, it's going to prey on my mind for the rest of the day, so here goes: Why in the Nine Hells would menstruation reduce your ability scores? And for 3d4 days? Greg is basically unnecessarily debilitating his character for half a month! I am given to understand that different women have different reactions to their cycles, but this seems a little extreme. Assuming that the plague doctor rat doesn't just delete this comment outright, I now open the floor to any women reading this to tell me to bugger off.
3d4 days is wildly inaccurate and I think for most women it wouldn't do something as extreme as reducing ability scores. But.... well the pain or other effects can be crippling for some. That's not an exaggeration. A fairly common one is getting bad migraines at the same time; so nausea, light sensitivity, auras in your vision, more pain etc etc. I haven't known a lot of women who get that but for those that do it can be hard to do basic stuff. Especially if they can't take migraine meds for some reason. There are also (thankfully rare) conditions where a woman can get severe pain throughout her entire body (I think it's to do with tissue basically forming in the wrong place, gimme a sec- Endometriosis! That's the one.) Honestly? I think this sounds like his wife had an undiagnosed condition that a doctor should have taken more seriously then they did. For most people it is not that bad. But for some it is really terrible.
3d4 days is definitely overkill, 1d6 is more accurate as it tends to last around a week, and the effects are definitely extreme, no clue what the average is but typically [mild] pain lasts for the first day and that's it
As someone who has had the ability cramps for most of their life, this is not an accurate for a lot of people. I have fainted, not been able to get up, cold sweats nausea and vomiting. I have fallen and hit my head before, I have literally had to crawl to get to the couch after I passed out on my way from the bathroom. He based these stats off of his wife's condition, the closest woman he knows and would make no secret of what she's going through. I have an understanding that his wife may Beast nothing from anything from endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS, to anything else.
@@AmazingAutist Incredibly valid and I'm really sorry you've had to go through all of that, the only time I ever had ability cramps was after my wisdom tooth surgery and I felt like I was dying so I can't even imagine having to suffer through that monthly. They really need to put more money and effort into funding better treatments for menstrual conditions.
In the Vivvav story, I feel like that GM was just a terrible one in general. He was likely either the sort to run meat grinder campaigns where you'd lose dozens if not hundreds of characters, the sort to make things needlessly brutal or complicated because "Of course you should've known that" OR he was the sort that wanted to "win" at DnD. In "Mistakes were Made", the OG DM should've been kicked and blocked the instant he started trying to sext someone in a relationship.
1:49 i regret to confess that I didn’t have _that_ guy in high school due to having /been/ _that_ guy in middle school. (Never actually did any of the shit I was bragging about either.) Certainly mot my finest era.
Man the DM from the "mistakes story" I beat myself up from anxiety a lot too but some of those "mistakes" were clearly OP blaming themselves for OGDM's actions. No, him melting down and lying about OP after she justifiably removed him from her group is 100% not a mistake on OP. Learn to be mad at people for their actions not yourself for "letting it happen"
The neck beard story, it's possible he didn't know what he was doing with the sea ogre, but it's also possible all of that was intentional and he was a gate keeper or one of those dm vs player guys who likes killing player characters, when it's a neck beard all of those options are equally possible.
I don't know why but Greg idea made me want to create a character with multiple personality disorder so that my adhd Brain could swap between them at random like that
Hearing stuff like the "I Think He Wants to Kill Us" story makes me appreciate my first DM all the more. Very first session, we were going through a Moria-esque setting. I was a Paladin in full plate armor, so not optimal for a setting where jumping and stuff was required. Naturally, I fail a check and end up falling. DM didn't want my first character to die without having any time to shine, so allowed every character to try rescuing me. They all failed, so DM just bent the rules and allowed me to be rescued. The campaign fell apart due to some IRL drama (not involving me, just to get that out of the way), but it really helped me get into the hobby and gave me inspiration to start writing my first full-length novel.
Just started the dmpc story. Heard about the heart songs. Just remembered that this might have been stolen from the anime "The Sacred Blacksmith". Gotta love dmpcs in a world inspired by anime
I'm not sure 3d4s minus a con modifier's a good way to set up a menstrual cycle. If your modifier is +3 or higher, you just don't have one after rolling three 1s. Here's a better way: Roll a d4, add +3. That's it. Do it once, note the number on your sheet, and that's their permanent number of days menstruating.
As a woman my periods are never the same amount of days every single time. Since he said it's based off his wife, I'm willing to bet that she has a very irregular period.
@@ArcCaravan Might be "Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai" which is called "Seven Mortal Sins" in English which is on Nanatsu no Taizai's wikipedia page at the top in the "not to be confused with" area and the image on its page has all the 7 deadly sin demons as big titty anime girls
Been binging your videos for a while (I have anxiety that keeps me from sleeping so now I fall asleep to them, you have a very soothing voice) since have just started out as a GM and want to be a good one. It's not D&D but another game. That second story is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Me being a first time GM and my players having not played much and not in several years and one never having played anything like it - and no one of them knew the system I was using (I am familiar with the universe so it's easier for me to write and improvise). They messed up in their first fight. They were supposed to sneak into a warehouse where baddies were. By sneaking in they could take out 1-2 of them before the fight by using stealth. They....knocked on the door. Alerted everyone. They nearly got wiped in that fight. Two of them rolled crit fails after crit fails. But I nerfed the enemies. I did what I could to keep them alive besides going "And then a meteor came through the ceiling hitting only the bad guys". I did this because I want them to want to keep playing. I have worked in a system for injuries so that they know that actions have consequenses but I want them to enjoy the game. They are not protected from death completely...but I mean, the first fight in the very first session with new players? No. They have to live through that one.
The Menestral Story didn't seem as much bad as just weird/personal experimentation which I think is alright that he kept it a secret. But I'm a man and don't understand the female experience nor whether this would be offensive or not.
the last story: i had a DM who wanted to have something like that. cycles last 1d6-1 days minimum 1 day, you had to roll % to know if your cramps were bad (100) or unbothering (1). monsters could "smell you" so you took -2 to stealth checks. i don't remember if anything came of it cause me and the other female player forgot to roll once and the DM never bothered to check. personally? i don't see the point in making a period a mechanic. the only thing that came of it in that game was a NPC making a joke about how one of the female characters needed a better perfume to "cover it up". its just... kinda weird and creepy.
Menstrual thing reminds me of the episode of Community where Abed accidently started tracking the group's cycles. I realize it is creepy, but as a fellow detail obsessed person I could also completely see it happening.
Can someone explain to me why it was weird or inappropriate for Greg to base the Menstrual Cycle Debuff (I still laugh at that oml) on his wife during period? I've never been in a relationship I've only had the monthly pain, but for someone who doesn't have those it seems logical to base it off of the closest person to you who suffer through that every month. Is this something that is able to be explained, or is it a social standard that is hard to put into words?
Most guys are grossed out by anything related to periods for some reason so they see this guy as extra weird. I'm a guy and I don't understand their discomfort, some guys won't even go down the tampon aisle to buy them for their significant other because it's "icky". They need to grow up
1:11 "Nearest vet was 4 miles away" that's 1 mile less then my vet's office is from my house, couldn't even grant his dog the dignity of the vet's office instead shot it. What a psycho
Man that poor kid. Ive DMed for kids before (i kept the rules VERY simple, since it was ages 7-9) and there were 2 main rules: no pvp, and i wont kill your character, because dying is no fun in your first game. And the first fight was with a handful of goblins, so they could learn the base mechanics of how fighting even worked. ( or how fighting worked in the very very simple version i did ) To just do that to a kid out the gate is... monstrous honestly
Hi! Local anime nerd here! Seven Deadly Sins is....a series so to say. The mangaka really likes a certain trope *coughs* turning adults into children and having their partners be possessive/having characters who look like middle schoolers be sexual or in romantic relationships *coughs* but that mechanic the Giga Chad DM was using doesn't exist in universe. Which makes it a 1000x weirder that he knows the series is really odd in a lot of ways and still decided sex was the answer here. And this type of thing isn't uncommon either. My old DM wanted to use the Monster Girl manual for encounters at some point and if you know about the manual, you know why I would be extremely nervous.
To defend the female op I have several male players that I’ve banned from playing women because they would always make fetishized lesbians and made all the women on the game uncomfortable so I get it
I have had players (Male and female) who wanted a menstrual cycle thing... I said no because it was something I as the DM had to also keep track of. Also, not even gonna try to deal with the understanding of different races and their cycles, once we hit werecreatures and moon phases I closed the book on it once and for all.
Funny thing about goblin fights as first combats being the "easy" setting - my firsr 5e game, the first big combat was a fight against some goblins and I frigging DIED several moves in. Partially my fault, since I waded into a crowd of them, partially the fault of the dice for most of my attacks missing and also the goblins hitting and doing massive damage to my low-level character. I proceeded to roll death saves, pass one, fail one and then roll a 1, which is two failures, meaning I was dead immediately. Only thing that saved it was the DM granting a mulligan because I didn't fully understand combat rules yet and he could tell I was pretty upset at having a character I put energy into suddenly die early on.
To the ending point on the last story, I had a player in my game last Saturday who entered a boss battle with their 9th level Barbarian with 10 hp. After they went down after the first attack, he realized he had forgotten to heal and was willing to just accept it as is. I had to explain to him that he is hurting everyone else in the group by not retconing it and healing when they had time.
Why? Why... would you want to simulate the menstrual cycle in your game?!! Especially when you don't know what it's like. Don't you play Dnd to escape reality? Keep the fun and leave the boring and the painful behind. Trust me : period isn't fun. 💀
The only two times I ever had this come up were: 1. an attempt at the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" RPG (yes there was one) where during brain storming about a potential limit that could be placed on The Slayer PC, someone remembered that in the original movie with Christie Swanson Buffy's super strength seemed to increase based on her cycle. "Oh great PMS is my super power" was actually one of the jokes from the original movie, though this was dropped during the TV series obviously. We did experiment with the idea and attribute fluctuation, but to be fair it was too complicated, and didn't really fit the campy tone of the game. 2. Some Anime RPG that had a world book based on "The Slayers" anime series, as fans of 90s anime can tell you in the first season of the series there is a reveal that female spell casters lose their magic during their period. This renders the otherwise generally overpowered female lead vulnerable at an unusually bad time, causing her to become totally dependent on her male co-lead, who was a warrior type for protection until she regains her super powers. This is never mentioned again to my knowledge (and I watched several series) but was part of the RPG, so was something that warranted consideration in what was otherwise an over the top satire (and occasionally an outright parody) of D&D type fantasy adventuring. Those are literally the only times I remember it ever coming up, and this is with numerous men and women through my games over multiple decades.
wait wait wait in the giga chad story, in the RWBY part, i assume the "beast" was Grimm (cause its the only monster in that setting) and if it was, then i wanna know what that DM was smoking to think anyone would be happy to be presented with a tamed Grimm
I once played a warforged paladin who was unknowingly racist. She wasn't going around using stereotypes or anything the only racist thing she actually did was not know that brown people existed. When she met one for the first time she was super excited as she didn't know humans could be brown "I didn't know they came in this color!" It got a laugh from my party.
SCP fan here, yeah the gender switchng stone IS a thing, but using it for a prank is fucked up. The Foundation has it in their custody for study and trying to understand it.
The shooting the dog thing i can believe is possible, i had a similar experience living in a very rural area and the vet being closed on chirstmas when the dog took a serious turn for the worse. Was a real way to forever leave the holidays a shit time to a then 16 year old me.
I'm sure the comments are full of this but good lord someone, please tell that man his poor wife needs to get checked for endometriosis or similar like ASAP! Not normal and there are treatments! Also in the event the two of them want to procreate they're gonna have issues if that's how the poor woman's cycles go. It was an odd thing to do but at least he wasn't being obnoxious about it. If he wanted to give himself a different individual focus/challenge with his char for ADHD reasons he could have come to the DM to begin with and planned something together, maybe it could even have worked into the greater campaign, but idk maybe there was some weird catharsis for him doing a personalized self RP that dealt with his feelings about his wife's struggles and that's why he chose to do it that way?? I can't think of any other particular reason he'd have made that specific choice but in the end, he's the only one who knows. I'm just intrigued by the whole thing, probably the most uh, unique DND story I've heard yet XD
Didn't know the guy wo bragged about feeding anials cyanide, but there WAS a guy who thought he was a werewolf and whose sister and best friend swore up and down that he committed bestiality on his own dog to impress his girlfriend. Twice.
I get the ADHD thing, as some times it's hard to focus, so a player with it might need something to release this... I have a player in my in person game who often brings a squishy or fidget toy to help , and a player in an online game I was in would gave something like an idle game (omg cookie clicker) or something in the background so they could remain focused and not fully detach. I think the menstrual thing is like that... I mean it could be similar as well to a character with lycanthropy tracking symptoms until the full moon
The DM who killed off a first time player's character needs to either not be a DM again or learn to be a better DM who can ease players into the game vs throwing them into an encounter they're clearly not ready for. As for the menstrual cycle story I guess it could possibly be that switching between the two sheets allowed him to focus better but as for the chosen second tasks that was his own making. I have ADHD and either I'm completely drawn into something that I block out everything else or I need two different tasks to keep me focused on what I'm doing. For example: When I'm playing a ttrpg game I'll have a little music playing in the background (on low volume & only I can hear) to help focus on the game &/or set the mode of the game for myself. Such as if I'm playing Call of Cthulhu I'll play dark & creepy music or if I'm playing DnD something a little more fantasy adventure
The GMS sounds so weird... So weird that I am slightly morbidly curious what happens if you have a original con of 18 and roll 3 1's on the d4's... Resulting in -1 for duration.
If my character lost 2 strength, just for being on their period, while I a woman, do not even experience cramps, I would be as furious as a PMS stereotype. I dont care about anyone's "but some women have..." rhetoric in a game, unless your going to commit to your character having everything else that comes with Endo. or PCOS. Menstrual disorders arent a part time gig, they are full time salary job, without PTO. A mechanic of [something] isn't inherently bad, but a debuf of "naturally you have to be weaker during that time." is just an insult. Here is a Bio lesson. Women uptick in testosterone in the week before their ovulation. If you are weight training, this is the week where you might notice performance spikes. It is also the week after your period. So give a gal 2+ during that time, if you want to "be realistic." Commit to the bit. Don't make it exclusively a negative thing.
I think if I had a homebrew game that I was running, I would make something that was something like Earth Mythologies meets Star Wars, with a bit of Percy Jackson style flavoring for the former to more easily integrate it into the latter. The system it would run on would be dnd5e, so all DnD classes would be available to players. Jedi and Sith would not be classes themselves, but if you multi-classed as a mystic and one magic user and/or martial class, you could theoretically build a Jedi or Sith character or at least something close to it, however the Force would not exist in this universe, which makes such builds kind of moot anyway. Magic and Psionics would be roughly equal in power to each other, though one would not affect the other unless specifically stated within an ability’s description. Demigods would be an available race, however they’d be classed as celestials like aasimar as any DnD race could be a demigod if one of their parents is a deity of any given pantheon. For example, a tabaxi demigod daughter of Bastet, or a dragonborn demigod son of Ares, or perhaps a wood elf demigod child of Loki, things like that. The racial pantheons of DnD standard would also exist here, so demigods of Lolth, Tiamat, Gruumch, and even Bahamet would also be possible. Lightsabers would exist even if the Force does not, they would be magic weapons by default that deal radiant damage as well as slashing/piercing damage and would definitely be finesse weapons. Only an artificer would be able to construct one for the characters or for themselves, and they would need to be attuned to the user before they can be used in combat. The gods of the various mythologies would have star systems that they call home within the greater galaxy that could be traveled to via spaceship. I think it would be a fun ride if I could work out the finer details
(as cis female) Honestly I kind of commend the guy, it seems like he was trying to put himself in hs wifes shoes a little..... BUUUUT why do guys trying to mechancs involving a cycle do the debuffs but never add the buffs? Yeah there might be a significant con hit some months, but where is the lifetime pain resistance buff? Where is my + barbarian rage bonus? Unless I can play as a 20 foot barbarian Rage machine whos fury is only quelled by chocolate and heartfelt emotional support, Then you can keep your gender spesific rules. >:D
It's just a hunch. But probably 90% of those horror stories are either just made up or massively exaggerated with infinite lies by omissions and selective framing that it might as well be fake. Still fun to read.
I made a super powerful NPC that exists for lore reasons, and I've been making up excuses and reasons on why he isn't dealing with the problems at hand (many of which involve him being a very selfish person), but they keep trying to figure out ways for him to help. Like... guys stop trying to make me put an OP DMNPC into the game! lol
Few things piss me off more than hearing about a kid's genuine enthusiasm getting destroyed by some selfish adult.
Or older teen.
Agree, I haven't seen this for D&D for now as I'm usualy the DM for the newbi but I witnessed several games of warhammer with a young player having only minis from starter box being mercilessly destroyed by some guy with a fully optimised army of the last busted faction and I never got the point about where one would get pride in such a one sided fight..
@@gabrielrognon6238it's crazy some people have this win at all costs attitude even against literal children
as an adhd person i'd have to say the adhd thing is probably because we've sort of got this goblin in our brain that likes to make noise when we're trying to focus. The best way to shut the goblin up is to either give it something shiny to play with or to give it busywork. Keeping track of all those period modifiers falls under the latter and while it is certainly a weird as fuck thing to be doing it probably DID help him calmly focus on the main game since the ADHD goblin was busy dealing with the period stats. I usually just stick to doodling in a notepad or keeping a paperclip nearby to twist into different shapes but uh bizarro period stat tables work too I guess.
My adhd goblin really likes playing in hero forge during dnd, i like making my companions' characters as well as my own
Can relate my school papers were almost always full of the little doodles I did to help myself stay focused I eventually just started bring a sketchbook with me so my papers wouldn’t look messy. Most anyone with a form of adhd can relate to that kinda thing. I love the way you’ve explained it here and I hope it helps more people understand adhd
"You make me feel unwanted."
Well that's because you are unwanted.
💀
Pretty much my first thought at that.
CORRECT! YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! WO-HOO WO-HOO WO-HOO WO-HOO WO-HOO!
Lol "oh good, you picked up on that"
Classic gaslighting, the narcissist tries to guilt you for your legitimate feelings towards them, by dumping on you how the way that you feel about them makes them feel. They hope you will put your feelings aside to tend to theirs and continue the toxic relationship, never ever give in to this bullshit.
Also if someone already pointed out, it's not so much that keeping track of the menstrual cycle helps Focus ADHD, so much as it is splitting your attention between two tasks ironically helps you focus better instead of focusing on one by itself. Yeah it kind of doesn't make sense but it works, just like how caffeine and other stimulants tend to have the opposite effect on people with ADHD.
the way I would put it is that it's not that doing two tasks makes me focus better than doing one task, it's that my brain will make me split my attention to something else no matter what. If I choose to do two things at once, I can at least choose what the second thing will be and I can make it something that won't completely destroy my ability to focus.
"Are you sure you wanna remove me? Think about what I can do."
"You mean make things super uncomfortable for the people around you?"
Thinking if what he can do is just making kicking him all the more appealing.
The DM that threw the players up against a Sea Ogre right out of the gate was somebody who should not have been a DM. That was such an excessive thing to do.
They shouldn't have been a camp counselor if they were also one.
@@hiro4344 Probably not. It's almost they had a grudge or something.
Sounded a bit like DND gatekeeping, like "I beat a sea troll, you don't deserve to play if you can't navigate this"
@@aquietdarkness It could be that too.
Maybe they did against the nice counselor and wanted to vicariously hurt/annoy them through OP since they helped OP with their build. But indeed, guy has issues
the menstrual cycle adhd guy: he probably has a special interest in trying out/making mechanical systems for realism purposes, and indulging in it in dnd scratches the SI itch.
A moment of silence for the players the OP made lava swim in blind rage because of OG DM in the "Mistakes were Made" story.
"No one should complain when a woman wants to touch you!"
Hey, the 90's called, they want their logic back.
I mean that applies even today honestly though not as much complain as women just get away with it with significantly less backlash.
@@Shauntheduke.What planet do you live on where men face more consequences for engaging in sexual harassment by virtue of being men. Because it's not this one.
@@SeymourDisapproves damn so the fact that women on average when convicted of sexual based crimes get less severe punishment isn’t real huh? Guess that teacher who only got a month for sexual abusing her student wasn’t real. Are you really gonna pretend women in general get the same judicial treatment as men for sexual abuse. Now I will say women statistically get harsher for stuff say murder but everything else is dumbed down or played off as something other men should want from a woman.
@@SeymourDisapproves Bruh have you been...anywhere? Theres literally hundreds of cases where Male SA victims of Female predators are LAUGHED AT. Purely because they didn't enjoy it.
The period-story is interesting.
If he really created those rules around his experinces with his wife's menstruation I recommend a doctor checking said wife for Endometriosis. It really sounds a lot like that.
Generally we all asume that menstruation pain has to be really awfull and tormenting. In reality it rarely is without some medical consition that could (and should) be treated. It's a shame that most women except the pain because they think it's normal when they could actually have a condition and treatment is possible.
This is simultaneously true and false. The simple fact is that few women are experiencing the EXACT same thing the EXACT same way. Some experience breast tenderness; some don't. Some get really aggro; some just keep to themselves. BFF is incapacitated for two days. Mom's bad days decreased with every child she had. Mine are a literal horrorshow and probably I DO need to get to the doc. I know women who tough it out so hard-core you'd never know something is wrong; I know women who will cry because the pain is so bad. There is a such thing as "period flu"; it can wreak havoc on your digestive system; some women get really emotional; some women get super aroused; SOME women better not even hear you mention anything remotely sexual during that time. Some women pass out. Some women become very anemic during that time. Nobody's body is the same; Nobody's experience is the same, either. The period mechanic is a good idea but it can't be fairly represented in a game like D&D because it's a different experience for everybody.
Agree with Policy. It can just depend. I have a friend who has severe periods. Stays at home, is in severe pain. Throws up. She's been checked multiple times, it's just her period. There's not a lot outside of the pill that doctors have said she could do. Myself, I usually get a cold, crave, get angry, and cry a lot. As well, I just get way more insecure during that time, but in a very spiral-y way. I have pain and it hurts, but I don't have endometriosis. It is a different experience for different people. Absurd discomfort and pain, however; should be checked regardless. I had far more severe periods when I had a tumor (fibroid). I was aware of it, but honestly, had I not been, it could have easily been something I just considered as my periods getting worse with age. So it's always beneficial to check these things out, but unfortunately some just have more unpleasant periods than others.
They also accept the pain bc many doctors don’t take it seriously when there’s an actual problem
I had PCOS, Endometriosis, and Adenomyosis. I had a period that lasted for over 13 straight months of bleeding and cramps literally every day. The onset was when I was a teenager. I’m now 35. I went to doctors across three states for 20 years before becoming immobilized from the pain and finally getting an oncologist to perform a total hysterectomy plunging me into surgically induced menopause. There was no cancer, but the oncologist was willing to help because of how much pain I was clearly in, when many gynecologists told me it was all in my head.
Until 9 months ago I was told, insisted in fact, that I just had to deal with it, and that all periods are just different.
I’m now nearly 12 weeks into recovery with several weeks before I’ll be able to sit up again because I couldn’t get help until my conditions literally started to kill me, and because I was a woman and it was “women’s issues” I was ignored and gaslit while begging for help, until it was almost too late.
“Treatment is possible” isn’t always true. I reacted incredibly badly to birth control progesterone which is the only solution that was ever tried on me. It was tried repeatedly and at different levels even though it caused weight gain, memory loss, and fits of violent rage which I’m told included me threatening someone with a knife, but I have no memory of that time period, so I couldn’t say.
None of my conditions ever showed up on any of the scans they did of me. Women’s healthcare is in need of attention. It’s bad.
@@ladymeredith1831 exactly! Woman's healthcare is really bad. Often there is the possibility for teatment, but doctors don't look close enough at the problems to make the right diagnosis or outright ignore everything and just assume their patient is overly hysteric.
It's a shame!
The "Weiss wanting to sleep with the DMPC" is so much weirder when you know Weiss is *15 years old*
Think Wiess is 17, Ruby was the 15 year old. (tho Wiess might be 18-19 by the latter sessions) Still in the yikes.
Hopefully she was aged up in this game. Not that it improves it by much.
Weiss was older since Ruby was let in the academy early at age 15. I stopped watching RWBY in season 4, but from what I heard time may have passed enough to make her an adult (especially if it takes place in a later arc).
I think Weiss is 16 in Season 1 since she is between Ruby and Yang in age
Honestly, judging by the behavior of the people in this campaign, I would guess the players would also be 15
Oh now there's one I haven't heard before. "You're boundaries are stupid." Instead of denying, gaslighting, or straight up lying about crossing said boundaries. Just straight up insulting them instead of negotiating.
Yeah total abuser talk by invalidating someone else's boundaries
Those stats seem more like an endometriosis or PCOS debuff rather than just typical menstrual cycle. Also would have probably made more sense if he'd had some kind of treatment/remedy for it, a magical equivalent of hormone supplements, birth control, or hell, just a flask of ibuprofin.
I was thinking the same thing! The length of time was especially unusual. I'm playing a character right now with +2 in CON, meaning w 3d4 days -2 she could potentially have a 10 day long period?! If these stats are accurately based on his wife I hope she's managing ok.
Also I love the idea of keeping ibuprofen in a flask. 😂
I have pcos and i agree. It would be fun to have a mechanic like that so I could get comfort thru my characters.
Unfortunately, birth control does not mitigate my debuffs. I'm going to see a doctor about it.
"I don't menstruate, but I feel like those debuffs are wrong" -my immediate reaction to it.
lmao the use of Zagreus Hades with the title
Giga Chad is no longer a cringe term when used for Zagreus.
IN THE NAME OF HADES!
@@CrispysTavern I read the all caps part in the voice of Valvatorez from Disgaea 4. Couldn't read it any other way, not even in Disney's Hades.
The Menstral story is probably the most interesting horror-ish story ive heard in a while. Im impressed had how well thought out he made this system, but Im with op in saying that its very creepy. Though considering how diverse ttrpg groups can be, Im sure there is someone out that that has their own version or will use this in their campaign.
I could see myself doing this, just with a different reason the stats keep changing.
Yeah you need to talk to the DM if you want to build a temporary nerf into your character. They get final say on what you're allowed to do since they are the ones controlling the world you are playing in. I'm saying this from experience since I added a stress mechanic into my bard where he'd sometimes have trouble focusing when he's feeling overwhelmed and would need to do some small task like clean/fix his gear or play his violin. My reason for this was because, after all the numbers were added up, both my passive perception and passive insight stood at 19, meaning I was aware of a lot and that would be a small problem for the DM. I took a note from the book version Sherlock Holmes where he'd struggle to keep up with all the information that passed through his head and needed to isolate himself and do drugs to slow down his mind though my solutions for my character were based more on simple monotonous tasks, something that works for me. My DM also lets me know that I can ignore the system at any point if it becomes inconvenient in a situation so, really, it's mostly just for added character flavor.
Most games I've been in had a DMPC. What made it work was, with one exception, they were basically non-entities and only served to fill roles that the party needed but no pc could fill ie a healer in a group with no cleric/druid
As a forever DM, that is pretty much what my DMPCs were; support / healer characters for the party, since most players *hate* playing healer classes. There was one exception, however, with a campaign where I started off as a player, but then had to assume the role of DM. The problem was, my character was the party's trap-finder, making things a bit awkward. I ended up making it so my character would only do searches and such if a player specifically asked, AND the player making the request would make the roll (adding my character's bonus to the roll). This way, the tasks of trap-finding and exploration was still fully in the hands of the players, without them having to play another character.
I though the DMPC & sea orc was bad still the “mistakes were made “ came in for horror story crazy gold. Everyone in these stories are in my prayers for better dnd experiences to come
To be fair, throwing a powerful monster at a low-level party can work if done right. I threw a cloud giant at three second-level characters. Yes, he was evil, but he was also in a great mood after a good food hunt, plus he was on a specific mission (the BBEG wanted to learn about the "new pieces in my chess game"): To HARASS the party. They did try to fight him, but he just swept them around, inflicting mostly bruises. He was meant to be a plot device. It was the REASON he was there that was important.
i think you meant to say prayers lol. prey being you "prey upon your victim"
@@demonkingt lol sorry it kept auto correcting
@@acemaison2834 all good just Incase lol
As someone who needs to do multiple things at once to really focus on something, I think I understand the ADHD bit. I have ADD and while in games, I have to move my cursor around on Roll20, review my spells, and even watch a short video on mute while 2 other players or whatever are having a private roleplay moment together. This is just to really concentrate on the game. I think him being caught up on the Menstrual thing helped him concentrate and not be a disruption because that energy is directed elsewhere.
I've only just started the video but I love the "soulsong" world concept
I was going to make my Tavern Tip on that but yeah! I agree. It’s a great and unique way to make your character special to you. Just another thing on top of what TTRPGs normally have.
Sounds pretty similar to "true names" but more fun
I’ve never played D&D before, but your horror story videos-despite being god awful in terms of how people treat others- has got me intrigued. I’ve created my own player already, and lucky for me I have like 3 friends who are DMs and are willing to teach me. The only downside to getting really addicted to these stories is that… I’ve watched every one you’ve posted. I need mooooore! 😂 Keep up the good work!
The Mistakes Were made OG DM is the kind of guy that I'd bet got punched in the face a lot. Saying you have no boundaries tells me that you have no respect for other people. Hasta la vista, baby!
Qmd many of those sort of people have boundaries...They just don't respect other peoples boundaries and tend to be the most agressivly upset when you decide to find theirs and push past them, being sure to wipe your shoes over them as you do.
If that OG DM really lacked boundaries, he wouldn't have gotten whiny in the first place over being told to stop being s jerk.
Why would anyone genuinely respect someone like this? He's a misogynistic sociopath
People who habitually violate other people's boundaries are abusers
Wow that guy saying I do t have boundaries so why do you is one of the most selfish and toxic things I’ve ever heard…and sadly I’ve know a few people like that
What's really annoying is clearly he dies have boundaries because he wouldn't be bothered otherwise.
uhhHhHH funny story for bleach! Yesterday, our undead freaky looking cat man (my words), Hannibal, rolled crappy on a stealth check (i don’t remember what it was, i think it was in total like a 5?) and bumped into a lady on the street, sending her cabbages flying. Obviously, half the party yelled, “MY CABBAGES!!!” and the DM gave us all 1 point of inspiration :)
Gotta make the cabbage lady a recurring character now
Honestly the period thing wasn't what I was expecting, which... is emphatically a positive, considering how bad it COULD have been, based on the usual horror stories history/format. It IS a little weird, tho. As for the ADHD thing, some other commenter said smth about switching tasks helping him focus, which, yeah, I can kind of see that? I'm not diagnosed or anything but depending on what it is I'm doing, doing something else at the same time can strangely kind of help. Like these videos, for instance; hell if I know how or why, but I've gotten really into watching- or rather, listening to- DnD Horror Story videos, even tho I don't play and honestly don't know the first thing about the game or its mechanics and/or world (the same goes for literally any/every other TTRPG or LARP out there). They're still fun to listen to, however, and a lot of the problems can be parsed from either context, or because you don't need to understand the details of the game to know why it's a problem. I like to put these on while I'm drawing, especially; under the right conditions, drawing while listening to things like music, RPG Horror Stories, and various Reddit narration videos, where I don't have to engage visually with the contents (usually, anyways) can be a very chill time for me. Productive, too!
For the first story, my first thought was that he was trying to garner sympathy to guilt the OP out of rejecting his application. But yeah, if that was the case he could have just said he needed to have his dog put to sleep rather than going so specific as "shooting him because there was no vet", so maybe it was an edgelord who thought he was being funny.
Definitely TMI
Fourth Story: I think the ADHD thing is, maybe, a way for him to keep a focus on an ever-changing character that he has to keep track of in terms of how she acts or functions based on whether the condition is active or not? Or maybe it feeds into a part of his brain obsessed with figuring out how the actual mechanic functions; it could've been something he'd been thinking about for a while, and putting it into practice helps quiet that curious part of his brain in some way. I don't know, just guessing.
Those could definitely be factors. Here's my opinion based on my experience with ADHD: For a lot of people with ADHD, ironically splitting your attention between two or more tasks increases the amount of focus you're able to spend on both. Yes it sounds counterintuitive, and it kinda is, but it works. Just like how caffeine and other stimulants tend to have the opposite effect on people with ADHD.
Ignoring the exact context of the system the ADHD player was working with, it's cringe, no lie, but creating intricate systems and experimenting with mechanics makes perfect sense as a way for someone who has a need for more mental stimulation to stay engaged in a campaign during the slower sessions. It should absolutely have been communicated with the DM, and in that context could have been engaged with together for some more interesting roleplay, or the DM could've just consented and not been suspicious and needed to come up with an excuse to prod.
A less weird concept that I'm working with in my current campaign, with my DM's consent; I have autism/adhd and my monk also is canonically ADHD. I am working out the mechanics for an executive function system to determine whether he is able to remain focused during generally unstimulating situations (pretty much only happens when we return to our hub city where the environment is familiar and predictable), and on occasion he will ask me the result as it might impact whether he will add modifiers to a perception check I'm doing as sometimes I can be hyperfocused or distracted. I'm also the campaign artist so I'm allowed to use my ipad to sketch events we're experiencing while we play for visual aid so that I'm less distracting, can stay engaged, and am contributing to the overall experience.
If you're neurodivergent working with your DM to help you engage and enjoy DND is good. It'll tell you everything you need to know about the DM how they respond to knowing, and how willing they are to accommodate you. But don't hide mechanics from them in secret. And maybe leave menstrual cycles out of the game unless it's pertinent to the plot.
I think the ADHD thing in the last story was meant to imply that he was so focused on the idea that he needed to incorporate menstrual cycles for a female character that not doing so (or having to mentally keep track of a self-imposed debuff as opposed to having a separate character sheet) was frustrating him as he tried to play the game? That's my best guess, but I honestly don't know.
No, it's not that but good guess. It's because for a lot of people with ADHD, ironically splitting your attention between two or more tasks increases the amount of focus you're able to spend on both. Yes it sounds counterintuitive, and it kinda is, but it works. Just like how caffeine and other stimulants tend to have the opposite effect on people with ADHD.
As a woman, the last story I found immensely funny. Why did he even come up with this though lol
It's hilarious tbh
Even the debuffs are kinda funny, if a bit medically alarming. Woulda been even funnier if there was a buff to Strength and Intimidation checks lol
I actually found it interesting, he seemed to somewhat understand what someone on their period can behave, although a little bit cartoonish.
Its also funny to have that happen in the background and the characters questioning your character why theyre acting suspicious only to realize its the time of the month
@thatonewitch this, honestly. Haven't quite finished the video yet to be fair, but I'm afab and also autistic/adhd and like. He's not imposing it on anyone else, and it's only debuffs, so I don't see what the harm is?
But then again I'm also someone who (with DMs help) made a stress system that triggers a scourge aasimars radiant consumption to activate autonomously, and someone who regularly rolls self imposed wisdom checks to see if they can avoid the impulse to do potentially reckless things, or to see if they can act on something that makes them anxious. A much more toned down thing to be sure, but idk. I like niche little mechanics like that that really only affect the player
That said, 3d4 seems pretty excessive... max lasts way too long. I'd make it 2d4 days with no modifier or 1d4+con days. And probably just do disadvantage on strength/con checks
Quote "Boundaries are stupid. I don't have boundaries, why do you need them?"
That's the thing about people who don't get it. If they don't respect their own boundaries, or understand why they maybe should do so, they won't respect anybody else's boundaries either. I'm not saying you should be like a super stoic samurai cowboy who marks out their boundaries a days ride in all directions and will kill trespassers who try to talk about their emotions uninvited. There's a healthy midway semi-squishy common sense personal boundary practice to be found. But people who don't maintain any personal boundaries ... well, you better be prepared to get hurt somewhere down the road. The reason I feel the need to share this warning is that in real life it's not always super obvious. And a lot of times (well, maybe not in this particular case) people who don't maintain personal boundaries are exciting to be with. You get super close super fast. They can be unbelievably open and fearless about their own feelings, they can be prepared to go places emotionally where it's maybe a little bit scary, but with them you dare too. It can feel liberating. It can feel safe. But it might not _be_ safe.
And yeah, I'm speaking from own experiences. I've been that person (you know the saying "But that was a long time ago, and further north"), I've also been burned by that person, and I've seen it play out a couple of times around me. Just a road mark. Here be danger.
Having said that, I also didn't get a really good feeling about the OP in that story, but I can't quite put my finger on what set my hair on the wrong way.
I was 8 miles away from an emergency vet and still willing to walk my cat there. It was winter and nighttime, thankfully my gram folded and got my aunt to bring me and my cat to the vet. He wouldn’t have survived the night if she didn’t
Eyyyy! I’m starstruck that my story was read on the first vid after submission, and love everything you do, keep it up and love the insight!
Last story: I am not a woman, so perhaps I shouldn't ask this question. Yet if I don't, it's going to prey on my mind for the rest of the day, so here goes:
Why in the Nine Hells would menstruation reduce your ability scores? And for 3d4 days? Greg is basically unnecessarily debilitating his character for half a month!
I am given to understand that different women have different reactions to their cycles, but this seems a little extreme.
Assuming that the plague doctor rat doesn't just delete this comment outright, I now open the floor to any women reading this to tell me to bugger off.
3d4 days is wildly inaccurate and I think for most women it wouldn't do something as extreme as reducing ability scores. But.... well the pain or other effects can be crippling for some. That's not an exaggeration. A fairly common one is getting bad migraines at the same time; so nausea, light sensitivity, auras in your vision, more pain etc etc. I haven't known a lot of women who get that but for those that do it can be hard to do basic stuff. Especially if they can't take migraine meds for some reason. There are also (thankfully rare) conditions where a woman can get severe pain throughout her entire body (I think it's to do with tissue basically forming in the wrong place, gimme a sec- Endometriosis! That's the one.)
Honestly? I think this sounds like his wife had an undiagnosed condition that a doctor should have taken more seriously then they did. For most people it is not that bad. But for some it is really terrible.
3d4 days is definitely overkill, 1d6 is more accurate as it tends to last around a week, and the effects are definitely extreme, no clue what the average is but typically [mild] pain lasts for the first day and that's it
If you period lasts more than 3-5 days you should see a doctor
As someone who has had the ability cramps for most of their life, this is not an accurate for a lot of people. I have fainted, not been able to get up, cold sweats nausea and vomiting. I have fallen and hit my head before, I have literally had to crawl to get to the couch after I passed out on my way from the bathroom. He based these stats off of his wife's condition, the closest woman he knows and would make no secret of what she's going through. I have an understanding that his wife may Beast nothing from anything from endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS, to anything else.
@@AmazingAutist Incredibly valid and I'm really sorry you've had to go through all of that, the only time I ever had ability cramps was after my wisdom tooth surgery and I felt like I was dying so I can't even imagine having to suffer through that monthly. They really need to put more money and effort into funding better treatments for menstrual conditions.
In the Vivvav story, I feel like that GM was just a terrible one in general. He was likely either the sort to run meat grinder campaigns where you'd lose dozens if not hundreds of characters, the sort to make things needlessly brutal or complicated because "Of course you should've known that" OR he was the sort that wanted to "win" at DnD.
In "Mistakes were Made", the OG DM should've been kicked and blocked the instant he started trying to sext someone in a relationship.
1:49 i regret to confess that I didn’t have _that_ guy in high school due to having /been/ _that_ guy in middle school. (Never actually did any of the shit I was bragging about either.) Certainly mot my finest era.
Man the DM from the "mistakes story"
I beat myself up from anxiety a lot too but some of those "mistakes" were clearly OP blaming themselves for OGDM's actions. No, him melting down and lying about OP after she justifiably removed him from her group is 100% not a mistake on OP. Learn to be mad at people for their actions not yourself for "letting it happen"
The neck beard story, it's possible he didn't know what he was doing with the sea ogre, but it's also possible all of that was intentional and he was a gate keeper or one of those dm vs player guys who likes killing player characters, when it's a neck beard all of those options are equally possible.
17:24 Had to double-take at "greep chat"!🤣
Can I just say that I absolutely love the soul song concept?
I don't know why but Greg idea made me want to create a character with multiple personality disorder so that my adhd Brain could swap between them at random like that
Multiple personality definitely seems like a better use of that plan he had. Doesn't interfere with gameplay balance as much.
Maybe lycanthropy could also be used?
Thank you for the Tavern Tips! I love them ^^
Hearing stuff like the "I Think He Wants to Kill Us" story makes me appreciate my first DM all the more. Very first session, we were going through a Moria-esque setting. I was a Paladin in full plate armor, so not optimal for a setting where jumping and stuff was required. Naturally, I fail a check and end up falling. DM didn't want my first character to die without having any time to shine, so allowed every character to try rescuing me. They all failed, so DM just bent the rules and allowed me to be rescued. The campaign fell apart due to some IRL drama (not involving me, just to get that out of the way), but it really helped me get into the hobby and gave me inspiration to start writing my first full-length novel.
Just started the dmpc story. Heard about the heart songs. Just remembered that this might have been stolen from the anime "The Sacred Blacksmith". Gotta love dmpcs in a world inspired by anime
I don't mind if characters and places can inspired from anime, as long they change it enough to add their own thing. In a good way.
I'm not sure 3d4s minus a con modifier's a good way to set up a menstrual cycle. If your modifier is +3 or higher, you just don't have one after rolling three 1s. Here's a better way:
Roll a d4, add +3.
That's it. Do it once, note the number on your sheet, and that's their permanent number of days menstruating.
As a woman my periods are never the same amount of days every single time. Since he said it's based off his wife, I'm willing to bet that she has a very irregular period.
> Floating city from RWBY… Weiss was the leader
This triggered me so much more than it should have for the lore inaccuracy
I felt similarly about The Seven Deadly Sins, granted it's probably not Nanatsu no Taizai which has the same English name.
Wasn't she the leader in Ice Queendom?
@@TigerW0lf In her dreams. Based on what I've heard, literally.
@@ArcCaravan Might be "Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai" which is called "Seven Mortal Sins" in English which is on Nanatsu no Taizai's wikipedia page at the top in the "not to be confused with" area and the image on its page has all the 7 deadly sin demons as big titty anime girls
@@clarehidalgo I remember hearing about that one existing and figured they meant that. Forgot about the "Mortal" part of the title.
Been binging your videos for a while (I have anxiety that keeps me from sleeping so now I fall asleep to them, you have a very soothing voice) since have just started out as a GM and want to be a good one. It's not D&D but another game. That second story is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Me being a first time GM and my players having not played much and not in several years and one never having played anything like it - and no one of them knew the system I was using (I am familiar with the universe so it's easier for me to write and improvise).
They messed up in their first fight. They were supposed to sneak into a warehouse where baddies were. By sneaking in they could take out 1-2 of them before the fight by using stealth.
They....knocked on the door. Alerted everyone. They nearly got wiped in that fight. Two of them rolled crit fails after crit fails. But I nerfed the enemies. I did what I could to keep them alive besides going "And then a meteor came through the ceiling hitting only the bad guys".
I did this because I want them to want to keep playing. I have worked in a system for injuries so that they know that actions have consequenses but I want them to enjoy the game. They are not protected from death completely...but I mean, the first fight in the very first session with new players? No. They have to live through that one.
The Menestral Story didn't seem as much bad as just weird/personal experimentation which I think is alright that he kept it a secret. But I'm a man and don't understand the female experience nor whether this would be offensive or not.
the last story: i had a DM who wanted to have something like that. cycles last 1d6-1 days minimum 1 day, you had to roll % to know if your cramps were bad (100) or unbothering (1). monsters could "smell you" so you took -2 to stealth checks. i don't remember if anything came of it cause me and the other female player forgot to roll once and the DM never bothered to check.
personally? i don't see the point in making a period a mechanic. the only thing that came of it in that game was a NPC making a joke about how one of the female characters needed a better perfume to "cover it up". its just... kinda weird and creepy.
That sounds closer to what I expected. That or a female barbarian using it as an overused unfunny joke.
Menstrual thing reminds me of the episode of Community where Abed accidently started tracking the group's cycles. I realize it is creepy, but as a fellow detail obsessed person I could also completely see it happening.
The opening story: *WOW!* I'd never shoot my dog when the vet was only 4 miles away.
the last one was _fascinating_ lmaooooo
Props to Greg for being the only player to do secret character sheet shenanigans that *debuffed* his character instead of making himself stronger.
Can someone explain to me why it was weird or inappropriate for Greg to base the Menstrual Cycle Debuff (I still laugh at that oml) on his wife during period? I've never been in a relationship I've only had the monthly pain, but for someone who doesn't have those it seems logical to base it off of the closest person to you who suffer through that every month. Is this something that is able to be explained, or is it a social standard that is hard to put into words?
Most guys are grossed out by anything related to periods for some reason so they see this guy as extra weird. I'm a guy and I don't understand their discomfort, some guys won't even go down the tampon aisle to buy them for their significant other because it's "icky". They need to grow up
1:11 "Nearest vet was 4 miles away" that's 1 mile less then my vet's office is from my house, couldn't even grant his dog the dignity of the vet's office instead shot it. What a psycho
Man that poor kid. Ive DMed for kids before (i kept the rules VERY simple, since it was ages 7-9) and there were 2 main rules: no pvp, and i wont kill your character, because dying is no fun in your first game. And the first fight was with a handful of goblins, so they could learn the base mechanics of how fighting even worked. ( or how fighting worked in the very very simple version i did )
To just do that to a kid out the gate is... monstrous honestly
Hi! Local anime nerd here! Seven Deadly Sins is....a series so to say. The mangaka really likes a certain trope *coughs* turning adults into children and having their partners be possessive/having characters who look like middle schoolers be sexual or in romantic relationships *coughs* but that mechanic the Giga Chad DM was using doesn't exist in universe. Which makes it a 1000x weirder that he knows the series is really odd in a lot of ways and still decided sex was the answer here. And this type of thing isn't uncommon either. My old DM wanted to use the Monster Girl manual for encounters at some point and if you know about the manual, you know why I would be extremely nervous.
They may be referring to Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai which is definitely more adult and ecchi where every sin is shown as a bombshell - save for Gluttony.
Oh no not the monster girl manual... what is with people trying to interject their fetishes into the game?!
To defend the female op I have several male players that I’ve banned from playing women because they would always make fetishized lesbians and made all the women on the game uncomfortable so I get it
"Why do you have boundaries??"
........WHAT 😂
Turning a true name into a song is a pretty interesting concept
I have had players (Male and female) who wanted a menstrual cycle thing... I said no because it was something I as the DM had to also keep track of. Also, not even gonna try to deal with the understanding of different races and their cycles, once we hit werecreatures and moon phases I closed the book on it once and for all.
"Vet only 5 miles away? Whelp, time to shoot the dog."
Greg really said "my middle name is 'Immersion'"
Gotta admire the period chart guy's commitment
Funny thing about goblin fights as first combats being the "easy" setting - my firsr 5e game, the first big combat was a fight against some goblins and I frigging DIED several moves in. Partially my fault, since I waded into a crowd of them, partially the fault of the dice for most of my attacks missing and also the goblins hitting and doing massive damage to my low-level character. I proceeded to roll death saves, pass one, fail one and then roll a 1, which is two failures, meaning I was dead immediately. Only thing that saved it was the DM granting a mulligan because I didn't fully understand combat rules yet and he could tell I was pretty upset at having a character I put energy into suddenly die early on.
Even in a D&D game, Weiss can't catch a break.
I'm going to add "Is that in the X Lore??" to my list of quotes, thanks~
To the ending point on the last story, I had a player in my game last Saturday who entered a boss battle with their 9th level Barbarian with 10 hp. After they went down after the first attack, he realized he had forgotten to heal and was willing to just accept it as is.
I had to explain to him that he is hurting everyone else in the group by not retconing it and healing when they had time.
Why? Why... would you want to simulate the menstrual cycle in your game?!! Especially when you don't know what it's like.
Don't you play Dnd to escape reality? Keep the fun and leave the boring and the painful behind.
Trust me : period isn't fun. 💀
The only two times I ever had this come up were:
1. an attempt at the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" RPG (yes there was one) where during brain storming about a potential limit that could be placed on The Slayer PC, someone remembered that in the original movie with Christie Swanson Buffy's super strength seemed to increase based on her cycle. "Oh great PMS is my super power" was actually one of the jokes from the original movie, though this was dropped during the TV series obviously. We did experiment with the idea and attribute fluctuation, but to be fair it was too complicated, and didn't really fit the campy tone of the game.
2. Some Anime RPG that had a world book based on "The Slayers" anime series, as fans of 90s anime can tell you in the first season of the series there is a reveal that female spell casters lose their magic during their period. This renders the otherwise generally overpowered female lead vulnerable at an unusually bad time, causing her to become totally dependent on her male co-lead, who was a warrior type for protection until she regains her super powers. This is never mentioned again to my knowledge (and I watched several series) but was part of the RPG, so was something that warranted consideration in what was otherwise an over the top satire (and occasionally an outright parody) of D&D type fantasy adventuring.
Those are literally the only times I remember it ever coming up, and this is with numerous men and women through my games over multiple decades.
21:06 When our beloved plague doctor rat had enough and has to spill in the facts as if he's in a TEDtalk.
The adhd thing it keeping your brain focused on something else momentarily in order to keep you busy. Like a figit spinner but math.
wait wait wait
in the giga chad story, in the RWBY part, i assume the "beast" was Grimm (cause its the only monster in that setting)
and if it was, then i wanna know what that DM was smoking to think anyone would be happy to be presented with a tamed Grimm
I once played a warforged paladin who was unknowingly racist. She wasn't going around using stereotypes or anything the only racist thing she actually did was not know that brown people existed. When she met one for the first time she was super excited as she didn't know humans could be brown "I didn't know they came in this color!" It got a laugh from my party.
✨Learning From Mistakes✨
"I shouldn't laugh at that"- Crispy, before laughing again at shooting a dog because of the awkwardness of that statement.
SCP fan here, yeah the gender switchng stone IS a thing, but using it for a prank is fucked up. The Foundation has it in their custody for study and trying to understand it.
Last story: Does his wife know?
I have never had a friend that would give cyanide to animals, u need to be careful with who u hang out with
The 1st story and the back-sitting DM are the worst. Probably the later more so because that guy sounded very manipulative and harasser.
The shooting the dog thing i can believe is possible, i had a similar experience living in a very rural area and the vet being closed on chirstmas when the dog took a serious turn for the worse. Was a real way to forever leave the holidays a shit time to a then 16 year old me.
I'm sure the comments are full of this but good lord someone, please tell that man his poor wife needs to get checked for endometriosis or similar like ASAP! Not normal and there are treatments! Also in the event the two of them want to procreate they're gonna have issues if that's how the poor woman's cycles go. It was an odd thing to do but at least he wasn't being obnoxious about it. If he wanted to give himself a different individual focus/challenge with his char for ADHD reasons he could have come to the DM to begin with and planned something together, maybe it could even have worked into the greater campaign, but idk maybe there was some weird catharsis for him doing a personalized self RP that dealt with his feelings about his wife's struggles and that's why he chose to do it that way?? I can't think of any other particular reason he'd have made that specific choice but in the end, he's the only one who knows. I'm just intrigued by the whole thing, probably the most uh, unique DND story I've heard yet XD
Someone please get Greg a fidget cube.
Ah. Seven Deadly Sins. This is the perfect visual example of why everyone hates DMNPCs.
Four miles is like a ten minute drive wtf
Didn't know the guy wo bragged about feeding anials cyanide, but there WAS a guy who thought he was a werewolf and whose sister and best friend swore up and down that he committed bestiality on his own dog to impress his girlfriend. Twice.
The what 😳
@@ComedyPlastic my high school was insane
How would she be impressed by that?
@@rootfish2671 IDK but apparently she asked him to do it again while she watched so I guess it worked?????
I get the ADHD thing, as some times it's hard to focus, so a player with it might need something to release this... I have a player in my in person game who often brings a squishy or fidget toy to help , and a player in an online game I was in would gave something like an idle game (omg cookie clicker) or something in the background so they could remain focused and not fully detach. I think the menstrual thing is like that... I mean it could be similar as well to a character with lycanthropy tracking symptoms until the full moon
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
The DM who killed off a first time player's character needs to either not be a DM again or learn to be a better DM who can ease players into the game vs throwing them into an encounter they're clearly not ready for. As for the menstrual cycle story I guess it could possibly be that switching between the two sheets allowed him to focus better but as for the chosen second tasks that was his own making. I have ADHD and either I'm completely drawn into something that I block out everything else or I need two different tasks to keep me focused on what I'm doing. For example: When I'm playing a ttrpg game I'll have a little music playing in the background (on low volume & only I can hear) to help focus on the game &/or set the mode of the game for myself. Such as if I'm playing Call of Cthulhu I'll play dark & creepy music or if I'm playing DnD something a little more fantasy adventure
The GMS sounds so weird... So weird that I am slightly morbidly curious what happens if you have a original con of 18 and roll 3 1's on the d4's... Resulting in -1 for duration.
If my character lost 2 strength, just for being on their period, while I a woman, do not even experience cramps, I would be as furious as a PMS stereotype. I dont care about anyone's "but some women have..." rhetoric in a game, unless your going to commit to your character having everything else that comes with Endo. or PCOS. Menstrual disorders arent a part time gig, they are full time salary job, without PTO. A mechanic of [something] isn't inherently bad, but a debuf of "naturally you have to be weaker during that time." is just an insult.
Here is a Bio lesson. Women uptick in testosterone in the week before their ovulation. If you are weight training, this is the week where you might notice performance spikes. It is also the week after your period. So give a gal 2+ during that time, if you want to "be realistic." Commit to the bit. Don't make it exclusively a negative thing.
I think if I had a homebrew game that I was running, I would make something that was something like Earth Mythologies meets Star Wars, with a bit of Percy Jackson style flavoring for the former to more easily integrate it into the latter. The system it would run on would be dnd5e, so all DnD classes would be available to players. Jedi and Sith would not be classes themselves, but if you multi-classed as a mystic and one magic user and/or martial class, you could theoretically build a Jedi or Sith character or at least something close to it, however the Force would not exist in this universe, which makes such builds kind of moot anyway. Magic and Psionics would be roughly equal in power to each other, though one would not affect the other unless specifically stated within an ability’s description. Demigods would be an available race, however they’d be classed as celestials like aasimar as any DnD race could be a demigod if one of their parents is a deity of any given pantheon. For example, a tabaxi demigod daughter of Bastet, or a dragonborn demigod son of Ares, or perhaps a wood elf demigod child of Loki, things like that. The racial pantheons of DnD standard would also exist here, so demigods of Lolth, Tiamat, Gruumch, and even Bahamet would also be possible. Lightsabers would exist even if the Force does not, they would be magic weapons by default that deal radiant damage as well as slashing/piercing damage and would definitely be finesse weapons. Only an artificer would be able to construct one for the characters or for themselves, and they would need to be attuned to the user before they can be used in combat. The gods of the various mythologies would have star systems that they call home within the greater galaxy that could be traveled to via spaceship. I think it would be a fun ride if I could work out the finer details
"we all had that guy who joked about giving cyanide to living animals"
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Learning from mistakes
17:17 Nuclear facepalm.
19:00 OMFG BAN HIM FFS!!!
Did not expect to ever hear about RWBY here at all.
Eh, not that unexpected when emphasis was placed on the DM using other franchises in his game.
Only thing i can think of with ADHD and the period debuff thing is that he was able to hyperfixate on creating this mechanic and character sheet?
(as cis female) Honestly I kind of commend the guy, it seems like he was trying to put himself in hs wifes shoes a little..... BUUUUT why do guys trying to mechancs involving a cycle do the debuffs but never add the buffs? Yeah there might be a significant con hit some months, but where is the lifetime pain resistance buff? Where is my + barbarian rage bonus? Unless I can play as a 20 foot barbarian Rage machine whos fury is only quelled by chocolate and heartfelt emotional support, Then you can keep your gender spesific rules. >:D
It's just a hunch. But probably 90% of those horror stories are either just made up or massively exaggerated with infinite lies by omissions and selective framing that it might as well be fake.
Still fun to read.
I made a super powerful NPC that exists for lore reasons, and I've been making up excuses and reasons on why he isn't dealing with the problems at hand (many of which involve him being a very selfish person), but they keep trying to figure out ways for him to help. Like... guys stop trying to make me put an OP DMNPC into the game! lol
1:50 uh?!