I like how 90% of Zach's advice on how to deal with problematic players is just to remind them they are grown adults and not little piss babies who need a nappy change
Sadly this never de-escalates any situation, it only makes them angrier. If they have the retrospective to realize how childish their actions are in the moment, they probably won't need to be told that they are being childish. But he is right, they likely wont be reasoned with either way.
Monday's are currently my favorite days. Especially when I play Saturday, then DM Sunday. Hop on here, and be so glad I don't have any of these issues at either of my tables 😂😂😂
I'll admit when I'm wrong. You are correct. Where's Waldo's face is longer than yours. I wanted to follow up on player-goal focused campaigns. I learned about it from reading "The Gamemaster's Guide to Proactive Roleplaying." I interrupted the system itself as being more instructive for players who are new to RP. By forcing them to act, instead reacting to what I'm doing. I'm currently running it for my nephews. I still created the world, characters and factions. They create public goals. Short, medium, and long term. Those goals have to be specific and failable. What it results in is this. They can't really have secrets, and they generally know what the next "chapter" in the party's story will be. But they don't know what will happen within the chapter. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Proud to be a bolder.
Watching and listening to you approach having an aneurysm because of all the "voices" in you head arguing against yourelf is hilarious 🤣 Thank you for making these, they always make me laugh like a Viking in a meadhall.
My recent online dm has been very "unique" and has had a very bad dm pc/npc problem where the npcs, yes multiple tend to take over the story and make the rest of the party of 6 sometimes 7 feel like side characters. Thanks to your podcast I've gained the courage to start dming myself and put an end to the dreaded main character disease that has been the last 6 months
In my nerd rage i forgot to mention some important tid bits. The dm has 3-4 npcs/pc that are in the party and follow us on every mission. They are stronger than us cause he min maxes the characters.
As a pathfinder 2e bro, I want to apologize on behalf of our community. There's grounds for criticism of WOTC/Hasbro as companies but the actual D&D players are our dice slinging brethren. I have had to block/unfollow some Pathfinder 2e fans online because they spend their every breath shitting on 5e like that makes PF2E look good somehow. D&D 5e brings people happiness even where the company fails to do so. Just last week I visited my doctor for a refill on my prescription and he busts his ass for his patients and during covid he had some insane eyebags from being up all the time. He just completely lit up when I mentioned I run a ttrpg and he excitedly told me about his character and how much fun he was having. That's beautiful and I don't care what system people play if they can experience joy like that then it's worth it and valid.
@@jadenthomas5261omg I also play a halfling monk! Also gnome monk because I don’t really vibe with halflings but for some reason I picked one. Your story is also super sweet btw!!
This has made me want to try pf2e more than any of the sweaty reddit pf propaganda. Big love! I hate Hasbro too but DND doesn't belong to them, it belongs to us!
The Magic ban comment was 1. topical 2. HYSTERICALLY funny also I'll finish your comment, D&D is the reason Pathfinder exists lol, i love all of the unique systems!!!
Hi Zach, I liked the last piece of advice around 52mins. It puts my mind at ease. As a DM, you want the odds to be close, you think your players want to be pushed to their limit to prove that it was a challenge to beat the big bad. That overcoming that challenge with the last dying action is the big pinnacle moment. Instead, after a 3 year campaign with level 16 players, they wiped the floor with my final boss. I felt like I had let them down because of that. When ultimately, they did awesome heroic actions that won the day. It wasn’t close and I think about that with regrets. But really, I should be glad that my players achieved that regardless of how close the odds were or weren’t. Because they made it all the way to the end after 3 years and stuck around to keep playing.
bro says what I want to hear and what I am thinking 100% of the time, god tier podcast love the content keep up the goodwork, which is just being yourself
Side note for the Plot Armor argument. simulacrum is the single best spell in the game for this. They beat the bad guy? Boom. Turns to a puddle of water. It was a simulacrum. They feel satisfied they just beat the bad guy, but then they also realize it was only him at half hp, and the story goes on. You’re welcome 🙌🏻
@@PigOfGreed Absolutely, just don't overuse it. Situations like this typically happen *maybe* once, so it’s fine. It’s a pretty fail-safe approach. And if it’s a goblin or some other creature where it’s unclear how they got a simulacrum, remember, simulacrum has a touch range, meaning you can create one of other people. As a DM, this gives you the opportunity to flesh out a new entity, villain, or plot hook for your party to explore. The players will feel accomplished knowing they *can* win, while you introduce new drama and roleplay opportunities to keep the story going.
The guest player thing is actually crazy. I’m running a really tight 4 person session, combat is already crazy, I can’t imagine 2 more people added. The max I run is 5. I allow guest joiners all the time, because my friends who can’t play are happy with literally that little amount of play. I just make it clear from the get go, you are there to serve as aid for difficult combat, I will never allow guests if it’s in like the under dark, but in the middle of a city? Sure! I have 3 recurring guest players that come in and they are treated as almost npcs that live their lives separate to the pcs. But it’s always a one off. I always tell the guys in the event of a great last battle everyone is invited.
The next wave of ZachTheBold T-shirt merch: "Railroad, railroad, railroad!", Merriam- Webster definitions of trope and cliche, and something quippish like "sweaty towel sessions" or "two drink limit"
yeah... I tried leaving cryptic breadcrumbs. It ended with my players trying to "charge" a transdimensional Arcane Crystal that made them travel between parallel realities by fireing fireballs at it and coming disturbingly close to blowing up a mid-sized City in the process. They've been getting Signposts and DM-NPC's spelling out the way ever since.
In the first campaign I ever GMed, my players pissed off a group of druids/rangers and then ran off. So for the next few sessions I kept mentioning how, whenever they went outside, they'd see one or two ravens, and one raven would take off and fly west (which was back the way they'd come)... I thought it was really obvious that the druids/rangers were keeping tabs on the party's whereabouts as they came after them.... My players just thought I was re-using the same text box descriptions instead of writing new ones...
The reason why zac raging to become clear minded was so good was because it was actually simple, and he rp'd it rlly well. Like he was only able to hide what he was doing because it was so simple. If h was just like yeah i go into a rage and im not mind controlled anymore it would have been so forgettable
With the whole burnout situation, my personal remedy is just playing instead of DM'ing. I encourage my players to run smaller sections, things that are relevant to their character, and when I've got a schedule conflict or need extra time to prep, a couple of them have grown confident enough to run 1-shots (typically 2 sessions lol) or just random goofy nonsense for a weekend. Those sessions tend to go full on ADHD energy, and rules tend to be thrown out the window if they counter levity lol but they help me focus and breathe, then when I come back I'm fully inspired. Once again, just really lucky with my group 😅😅
Hey zac, this is the first podcast episode I watched and I'm immediately going to binge them all! Also oh my god the intensity and ferocity of your very good opinions have left me without literally a thing to say so just sending love
Having rolled 3 characters ever, I agree it’s about the story. You’ve really helped me not stress the minutiae as a new player and have a good time vs metagaming TF out of everything and eating up the few hours a week we can even play. It’s collective storytelling and I’m here for it.
I remember we were on-top of a tower inside a purple dragon's cave. There was a ballista on top with gloves of ammunition (summons whatever projectile you need). We used to to summon a bolt and decided we would wrap the bolt in rope and light the end on fire. The DM decided in that moment that the bolt was explosive with the argument "its a magic bolt, of course it'll be explosive" or something along those lines. The bolt was no described as such prior. Needless to say we got TPKed apart from the rogue who then failed to hide us from the Dragon with his magic and we all got captured.
Zach you are spot on about not posting and talking about running a fun campaign. Since I started my Ghosts of Saltmarsh 5E campaign, I have been posting on my socials about "awesome" sessions with a quick battlemap pic. Well now I have 4 additional friends wanting to join my campaign that I must turn down as I'm already at 5 players. (Buuuut I might try to run some Shadowdark seperately with them as its much less work for me)
Zach, please make a short where you act out that dramatization of the smug dm being Dr. Stranged when the player said “that was a fun encounter” I am begging you
In my first proper Homebrew campaign I had a character who was basically the BBEGs right hand man. He was supposed to every once in a while when the party was feeling themselves too much to come around and whoop some ass because I wanted them to properly feel like the world they were in was not their turf. So yeah that guy died on his first appearance. Which was a little bit of a problem because the BBEG was an absolute clown and most stuff was only working out because the BBEGs right hand man was dealing with shit. In the end it worked out though as the players actively felt the impact of killing the guy throughout the game (because the BBEG was slacking) Luckily enough I already had them discover hints though that the Right Hand Mans mount was an "eternal companion" granted by the BBEG. It was a wyvern made of frost that was immortal. Kept hunting them down with the Wyvern that was out with a vengeance. Played the Bazelgeuse theme everytime it showed up and everything.
My hot take is some skill checks should be impossible depending on how your character is built. There’s no reason my fighter with +0 religion should be able to nat 20 and succeed while my cleric fails with a +5
If the stats are high enough I sometimes dont let them roll to begin with. In your example the cleric would already now what the fighter would know with a nat 20 if not more. There are also situations where I dont allow rolls if the player lacks proficiency in certain skills.
I can see your point, but I see those situations kind of like slumdog millionaire. Like there is some random super specific event that causes the fighter to know it, but maybe the cleric knows so much their memory is muddied? Mental gymnastics for sure but it’s how I cope lol
About making NPCs that use player stat blocks. I will, on occasion, craft a NPC by using the character creator because it's a more streamlined way of making a villain than the homebrew tool on DND beyond. I can add magic items and have things attuned to them with little issue and my players cant acuse me of cheating since the enemy is using the same tools they are.
loving the podcast! keep it up! also i was wondering if you could help me out, im trying to roleplay a sea elf drakewarden with an overly heartening relationship with a sea drake without trying to seem like im being one of those main character pcs, any advice?
On topic of lots of interested players, I host a monthly open one-shots. These always tie into the long-term campaign I'm running and people who aren't in the campaign get priority on the one-shot. I max games at 6 players and it works great. We invite them into the discord and (not shocking) for every 5 people who "want to play" only 1 person actually joins us for a game. Honestly, I feel like an evangelist for One-Shots because everyone wants to be in a long-term campaign but few want to actually commit to one.
Mr. Zach, idk if you are able to adjust the podcast playlist here but could you reverse the sort order in the playlist if you can? It’s sorted by ep5 depending -> ep1 right now so when you “Play All” it plays from your latest episode down to the first. I use this as some recurring BG noise but I enjoy starting from ep1 -> latest to see the podcast’s progression, and former episode callbacks~ Again, only if you can. 🤙
I never really understood dunking on 5e; sure, I'll always prefer Pathfinder 1e, but that's just because I'm a crunch goblin. 5e is so simple it's hard to be mad at it. Is it a perfect system? No. But it's good enough.
5e is still at its base about 300+ pages of rules and info. That's not really "simple". A simple system would be any of those fun one shot 2 to 10 page systems.. which you could criticise for not taking the time to explain their rules fully or lacking content or whatever. So yeah no DND has plenty to dunk on because it's a complex game with overlapping rules.
@@glonx639 5e IS a simple system, despite having 300+ pages of rules. ESPECIALLY if you compare it to what came before. Like, it's genuinely so easy to learn, to make characters, etc, because it's simple and understandable. And that's a good thing for new players. The simplicity is what some players have gripes with it for; coming from something like 3.x/PF1e, which is an incredibly complex, mechanically dense system where, for example, you can have as many archetypes (similar, sort of, to 5e's subclasses) as you want as long as they don't overlap in what they change in the class. Compare that to the very same subclasses of 5e where you get one per class and you're locked in, leading to some players feeling cheated out of choice. My point being, there's a reason 5e is the edition used to let kindergartners play. It is not a complex system. Some even may say it went a little too far with simplification, but whatever.
Hey Zach! I’ve been enjoying all of your commentary on the ludicrous amount of idiocy and selfish behaviors in the D&D community. Love all the honest bashing of dumb ideas, hopefully some people notice their stupidity through your kind words. I would like to ask you a quick question though. I thoroughly enjoy roleplay and often find myself getting lost in the mind of my character. How a character would think and act in certain situations is an extremely interesting concept to me. Recently, a character of mine, a teen with no experience in combat, witnessed a death of an npc who was like a mentor to my character. The session ended on him seeing this npc’s dead body and now I have had a lot of time to think about how he would react. I think he would become depressed and possibly suicidal, blaming himself for what happened, but I don’t want to make the other players at the table uncomfortable or annoyed. I want a second opinion so I can be sure I won’t make the game less enjoyable for everyone, what do you think I should do? And do you have any experience with this sort of situation?
I've been having trouble finding a good encounter balance for my games, but I'm having the issue of my encounters being either way too easy or way too hard. I have a group of 5 lvl 5 players who have been able to CC and dps down bosses with 200+ hp, groups of 4 CR 7 monsters, etc. I gave them some strong magic items that has made them stronger than average because I thought it would feel more satisfying if they get a higher levels of power progression. However, now I am now having trouble balancing encounters as they are usually either too easy or would result in a TPK if the party didn't run away. I had an encounter where they fought against 2 PC enemies where 2 of the strongest party members went down and I had to pull deus ex machina-style stuff to save them and they all felt very dejected, but then the next boss they fought they absolutely destroyed because they killed them in an ambush by getting lucky with several crits and a bad saving throw on the boss's part. I want my party to have satisfying victories because I'm afraid they will get bored if they defeat all the villains too easily, making them look like cartoon villains going "oh darn, you beat me again 🤪". I know you don't like PC enemies, but I haven't been able to figure out how to make an interesting stat block for villain NPCs otherwise. My idea has been to double or triple boss enemies' hp, but I can't reasonably do that when the enemies are also mortals, same as the players. That being said, do you have any ideas for how to make encounters more balanced for stronger parties that are fun but still somewhat challenging?
How do you guys feel about one shots that are parallel to the campaign to give insight onto an upcoming event or boss? Usually involving no name npcs who may become staples should they survive or do something incredible?
My DM set up a blood sport/Mortal Kombat type of campaign that basically ends up having everybody wait actual hours for their turn. None of the combat or rp has been anything close to satisfying. Some people got only 20 minutes of actual play time across 8 hours of over-engineered exposition. the first bout of the tournament killed my character (fighter 3) who had his subclass features nerfed against a Minotaur with 3 attacks, melee dmg resist. , 50% more hp. He retroactively fudges the crit that killed me and rp’d my ‘victory kill’ when that right should be reserved for pcs IMO. Everyone complained to me the following week and now i have to ‘talk to him’ Oomf
Hello Zachary the bold, I have been a DM since this April, since I had some issues with my previous DMs, from then on I have mostly taken over small notes my previous DM had and built a world out of it and have since then ran a game with mostly 4-5 players. Last session I ran I killed of one of the PCs, since he said he wanted to be done for now and he had some school stuff goin, he was happy how I put his character down essentially (like the bad guys destroying his amulet of the devout to not be able to return to his god). Now to the question, aside from DMPCs do you know other ways to engage players into the story arc/lore parts? And also, do you know other ways to scale combat or save the PCs if I made it a bit to difficult? Thanks, and may your pillow be cool when you sleep
I know you only brought it up in passing but I want to say while it's early days, please never take a hello fresh sponsorship that company is evil. And generally please research sponsorships I'm sorry if this comes off as preachy or anything I've just seen so many youtubers taking sponsorships from awful mealbox companies and it always puts me off their stuff.
TRUUUUE, idk how but DND has the biggest anti-fan base ever. When I hate a game, I just stop playing and leave the communities and move on with my life. When TTRPGers hate DND, they endlessly lurk & dominate all the dnd communities and are constantly trying to convince others to hate dnd as much as they do. It's so toxic. The dnd subreddits are rampant with people constantly shitting on dnd and insisting their prefered TTRPG (that has a fraction of the playerbase) is better. Ya know, I think the thing I like the most about DND is that it's easy for non-DND players to get into. Which are the ideal people to play with because average DND players are just miserable complainers.
theoretically, if the acid splash lasted a super long time, you could just sell the acid for infinite money. I've always interpreted it that the acid disappears after the spell ends otherwise itd be super abusable.
Wouldnt it be the other way around? Acid splash is a cantrip so it can be assumed that a lot of people can cast it in a highly magical setting. The consequence would be that it would be close to worthless since you can get it anywhere.
iirc acid is listed as like 10gp per vial which just wouldn’t make sense if the acid from an easily repeatable spell stuck around for a while. Also, even if it did, I don’t think magic is common enough in most settings to make selling it worthless. Adventurers commonly have magic but the average citizen likely doesn’t, which is why there would be a market for it.
I just looked up Acid Vial and Acid Splash. The vial costs 25 gp according to dnd beyong and deals 2d6. Acid Splash deals the same amount at lvl 5, so a commoner or wizard student wouldnt be able to cast Acid Splash with the same quality. Consequently the production of an Acid Vial through the cantrip is only possible to court wizards or experienced adventurers. While I do believe that the base DnD rules imply enough magic around that a few commoners would be able to cast a cantrip (since some races have innate cantrips and there are enough artificers around to craft items for that one magical shop that is in every city) the comparison between Acid Vial and Acid Splash show that it pretty much wouldnt tank the price. Unless you assume that Acid Vial costs so much because lower quality acid is pretty common through commoners being able to cast a cantrip (and the cost is justified since the product is more refined).
I see it coming up a lot of times in the podcast, and I think I disagree on the whole acid splash thing, not because of player agency or whatever, but because what you as the DM reward and punish determines how your players play the game later on. I disagree that if you allow them to use acid splash once that’s all they’ll use, because it’s a creative use of a spell, what you are rewarding when you give them some benefit for using the spell that way is not acid splash, it’s the act of creatively using a spell. If you say no too many times to attempts at creative solution, you are telling your players that is the incorrect way of playing the game. For the record I don’t think acid splashing the lock makes that much sense, but you can at least give them advantage on a strength check to destroy the lock if you want them to feel as though playing creatively is the way they’re supposed to play.
I usually allow my players once to use a spell or other action not as rules as written to encourage creativity and they know that. That being said, I think you underestimate how often players choose the most easy and boring way to overcome obstacles if you let them abuse the system. I had 2 different players in 2 different groups try to repeatedly abuse a bird as a drone and scout literally anything ahead in excrutiating detail. I had a player try to ambush multiple times in every combat in the most degenerate ways possible in the hope to oneshot a guy every other round. There was even a situation where RAW my player could generate infinite numbers of inspiration (we played Savage Worlds) so he technically would roll with infinite advantage every session so I had to limit that to once a session.
@@yogu3046 bro you're bananas if you think he is right like wtf who would do something like this, I'm honestly thinking of unsubscribing after listening to him saying that stuff
26:36 I get the argument against guns in DnD. Having run one with the Critical Role Gunslinger as well as the Heavyarms Gunslinger I can say that balance wise there's really no issue here and if you want Artificers to have a place in your world then basic firearms existing are a great way to justify the technology and tinkering aspect of their class.
32:28 The commenter didn't necessarily do this, but no one person, whether DM or player, should ever be allowed to invite a new player to their table without first checking in with the rest of the group.
On the "5e vs other systems" bit at ~25:00 where you say that sometimes you don't want to learn other systems, on the one hand that's fair, but on the other hand I think there's a bit of a trap way of thinking that people can fall into when they have GMed a system before and then get to be a player in a different system, where they feel like they need to learn everything about the new system before they can be a player in it. You're so used to having all the answers that going back to being like "I just need to know my character's basic mechanics, and anything else I'll just ask the GM if it comes up, or explain what I want to do and let the GM tell me how to do it" feels really hard to go back to.
Just throwing it out there, searching 'chaos theory" brings up everything but a dnd campaign, i think people could find it easier if you just link it in the comments or send them to the channel its vods are found on. (Sorry not to tell you how to do your stuff) But it took me a hell of a lot of looking to actually get to the chaos theory dnd campaign on youtube :) love your stuff! Keep it up!
Hey zach. I dont want to sound like a drooling shill but have you ever played the LANCER ttrpg? Its honestly the most fun ive ever had running a ttrpg.
I feel like it's not a DM NPC unless it is someone who actively is in the same light as the players. Like as the DM you can introduce whatever powerful character you want to so long as they're not constant. And so long as they don't take up a lot of the decision making. Like if you make a random dwarf of a crossbow in the party loves them and then goes along on the adventure that's great. But if that dwarf ends up taking a lot of The kills or becoming more of a main character in the story stealing the PC thunder that's a DM NPC.
To DM's "losing" their favorite NPC's / baddies and not getting to reveal their backstory and play them out, just reuse stuff. If they one-shot the big bad, well he wasn't the REAL big bad... his brother was the one pulling all the strings and has all the actual power. Like Mandarin scenario or something from Iron Man 3.
The podcast is not the same when you're not on the verge of a heatstroke, you should buy a heater
Agreed. Bring back the sweet towel at least.
Something about the heat sends him straight into his most manic rants
Best induced psychosis is heat induced psychosis.
He needs to talk more about how it's hot too.
I’ve figured it out, I turned my AC off while I watch his videos and it really helps with the immersion. Just kidding, railroad.
I like how 90% of Zach's advice on how to deal with problematic players is just to remind them they are grown adults and not little piss babies who need a nappy change
Sadly this never de-escalates any situation, it only makes them angrier. If they have the retrospective to realize how childish their actions are in the moment, they probably won't need to be told that they are being childish. But he is right, they likely wont be reasoned with either way.
Monday's are currently my favorite days. Especially when I play Saturday, then DM Sunday. Hop on here, and be so glad I don't have any of these issues at either of my tables 😂😂😂
Yeah, Zack needs better friends..
Same lol, I dm mondays and listen to this Tuesday morning at work thanking god it didn’t end up like that
DM Friday or Saturday, play Sunday, get yelled at by some internet psychopath Monday. Good life.
Who knew that a month of sweaty ranting on the internet could land you two sponsors? Congrats Zach, keep it up!
This is rapidly becoming D&D therapy.
Gandalf is a dm pc. He only ever does what’s necessary to keep the plot moving
you're right and i hate you
I'll admit when I'm wrong. You are correct. Where's Waldo's face is longer than yours. I wanted to follow up on player-goal focused campaigns. I learned about it from reading "The Gamemaster's Guide to Proactive Roleplaying." I interrupted the system itself as being more instructive for players who are new to RP. By forcing them to act, instead reacting to what I'm doing. I'm currently running it for my nephews. I still created the world, characters and factions. They create public goals. Short, medium, and long term. Those goals have to be specific and failable. What it results in is this. They can't really have secrets, and they generally know what the next "chapter" in the party's story will be. But they don't know what will happen within the chapter. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Proud to be a bolder.
By far, my favorite part of the podcast is watching zach laugh at his own insane imaginary scenarios. Keep it up big dawg🙏
Watching and listening to you approach having an aneurysm because of all the "voices" in you head arguing against yourelf is hilarious 🤣
Thank you for making these, they always make me laugh like a Viking in a meadhall.
I noticed that your AC isn't working. Pathfinder 2E actually fixes this issue!
My recent online dm has been very "unique" and has had a very bad dm pc/npc problem where the npcs, yes multiple tend to take over the story and make the rest of the party of 6 sometimes 7 feel like side characters. Thanks to your podcast I've gained the courage to start dming myself and put an end to the dreaded main character disease that has been the last 6 months
In my nerd rage i forgot to mention some important tid bits. The dm has 3-4 npcs/pc that are in the party and follow us on every mission. They are stronger than us cause he min maxes the characters.
As a pathfinder 2e bro, I want to apologize on behalf of our community. There's grounds for criticism of WOTC/Hasbro as companies but the actual D&D players are our dice slinging brethren. I have had to block/unfollow some Pathfinder 2e fans online because they spend their every breath shitting on 5e like that makes PF2E look good somehow.
D&D 5e brings people happiness even where the company fails to do so. Just last week I visited my doctor for a refill on my prescription and he busts his ass for his patients and during covid he had some insane eyebags from being up all the time. He just completely lit up when I mentioned I run a ttrpg and he excitedly told me about his character and how much fun he was having. That's beautiful and I don't care what system people play if they can experience joy like that then it's worth it and valid.
He plays a halfling monk btw and I don't really like halflings in any system but since they make my doctor happy I guess they're alright.
@@jadenthomas5261omg I also play a halfling monk! Also gnome monk because I don’t really vibe with halflings but for some reason I picked one. Your story is also super sweet btw!!
This has made me want to try pf2e more than any of the sweaty reddit pf propaganda. Big love!
I hate Hasbro too but DND doesn't belong to them, it belongs to us!
@@ronanmagee7557 D&D is what it is because of creative and passionate fans. That's just a fact.
The Magic ban comment was 1. topical 2. HYSTERICALLY funny
also I'll finish your comment, D&D is the reason Pathfinder exists lol, i love all of the unique systems!!!
I appreciate the temp conversion for those of us in the midwest
Hi Zach, I liked the last piece of advice around 52mins. It puts my mind at ease. As a DM, you want the odds to be close, you think your players want to be pushed to their limit to prove that it was a challenge to beat the big bad. That overcoming that challenge with the last dying action is the big pinnacle moment. Instead, after a 3 year campaign with level 16 players, they wiped the floor with my final boss. I felt like I had let them down because of that. When ultimately, they did awesome heroic actions that won the day. It wasn’t close and I think about that with regrets. But really, I should be glad that my players achieved that regardless of how close the odds were or weren’t. Because they made it all the way to the end after 3 years and stuck around to keep playing.
So excited to wipe the spit off my face at the end of this episode
bro says what I want to hear and what I am thinking 100% of the time, god tier podcast love the content keep up the goodwork, which is just being yourself
Boulders huh interesting wait a minute are you calling us all fat 😮. JK Zack keep being bold.
I love how much Zach hates the game he loves so much. Thank you Mr.TheBold for another episode of delirious sweatiness.
dnd jerma is back!!!!!!
you keep saying "DMNPC" but i think you actually mean "DMPC" which is different
Side note for the Plot Armor argument. simulacrum is the single best spell in the game for this. They beat the bad guy? Boom. Turns to a puddle of water. It was a simulacrum. They feel satisfied they just beat the bad guy, but then they also realize it was only him at half hp, and the story goes on. You’re welcome 🙌🏻
DO they feel satisfied?
Yo i was the one who submitted that question, this is a fantastic, thank you so much
@@PigOfGreed Absolutely, just don't overuse it. Situations like this typically happen *maybe* once, so it’s fine. It’s a pretty fail-safe approach. And if it’s a goblin or some other creature where it’s unclear how they got a simulacrum, remember, simulacrum has a touch range, meaning you can create one of other people. As a DM, this gives you the opportunity to flesh out a new entity, villain, or plot hook for your party to explore. The players will feel accomplished knowing they *can* win, while you introduce new drama and roleplay opportunities to keep the story going.
@@mindybindy127 Happy to help!
Also works to say it was merely a vessel holding an entity's presence and not the true entity. Depends on the scope of your game
YAAAAAAY I am so glad you made it an hour instead of sticking to 45 minutes! 😄
You know, I think this is REALLY fucked up actually. A podcast with only one person is really railroady. Fucking Zach stop railroading us!
I had two angry orchards and could not finish the video.
YELL AT ME ZACH
The guest player thing is actually crazy.
I’m running a really tight 4 person session, combat is already crazy, I can’t imagine 2 more people added.
The max I run is 5.
I allow guest joiners all the time, because my friends who can’t play are happy with literally that little amount of play.
I just make it clear from the get go, you are there to serve as aid for difficult combat, I will never allow guests if it’s in like the under dark, but in the middle of a city? Sure!
I have 3 recurring guest players that come in and they are treated as almost npcs that live their lives separate to the pcs.
But it’s always a one off.
I always tell the guys in the event of a great last battle everyone is invited.
say it with me "HE HAS YET TO MISS"
The next wave of ZachTheBold T-shirt merch:
"Railroad, railroad, railroad!", Merriam- Webster definitions of trope and cliche, and something quippish like "sweaty towel sessions" or "two drink limit"
yeah... I tried leaving cryptic breadcrumbs. It ended with my players trying to "charge" a transdimensional Arcane Crystal that made them travel between parallel realities by fireing fireballs at it and coming disturbingly close to blowing up a mid-sized City in the process.
They've been getting Signposts and DM-NPC's spelling out the way ever since.
In the first campaign I ever GMed, my players pissed off a group of druids/rangers and then ran off. So for the next few sessions I kept mentioning how, whenever they went outside, they'd see one or two ravens, and one raven would take off and fly west (which was back the way they'd come)... I thought it was really obvious that the druids/rangers were keeping tabs on the party's whereabouts as they came after them.... My players just thought I was re-using the same text box descriptions instead of writing new ones...
Great podcast, I love the content Zach keep it up!! Love from Mexico 😊
Oh sick! Congrats, man on getting a sponsor and being number 1 on apple for 4 weeks straight! Thanks for everything, man!!!
The reason why zac raging to become clear minded was so good was because it was actually simple, and he rp'd it rlly well. Like he was only able to hide what he was doing because it was so simple. If h was just like yeah i go into a rage and im not mind controlled anymore it would have been so forgettable
Your DM NPC should be like an uncle Iroh or the satyr and later on the lion from Narnia
With the whole burnout situation, my personal remedy is just playing instead of DM'ing. I encourage my players to run smaller sections, things that are relevant to their character, and when I've got a schedule conflict or need extra time to prep, a couple of them have grown confident enough to run 1-shots (typically 2 sessions lol) or just random goofy nonsense for a weekend. Those sessions tend to go full on ADHD energy, and rules tend to be thrown out the window if they counter levity lol but they help me focus and breathe, then when I come back I'm fully inspired. Once again, just really lucky with my group 😅😅
Hey zac, this is the first podcast episode I watched and I'm immediately going to binge them all! Also oh my god the intensity and ferocity of your very good opinions have left me without literally a thing to say so just sending love
Having rolled 3 characters ever, I agree it’s about the story. You’ve really helped me not stress the minutiae as a new player and have a good time vs metagaming TF out of everything and eating up the few hours a week we can even play. It’s collective storytelling and I’m here for it.
Is it just me or do the dice behind him get bigger every week?
I remember we were on-top of a tower inside a purple dragon's cave. There was a ballista on top with gloves of ammunition (summons whatever projectile you need). We used to to summon a bolt and decided we would wrap the bolt in rope and light the end on fire. The DM decided in that moment that the bolt was explosive with the argument "its a magic bolt, of course it'll be explosive" or something along those lines. The bolt was no described as such prior. Needless to say we got TPKed apart from the rogue who then failed to hide us from the Dragon with his magic and we all got captured.
These are too good, I accidentally saved last weeks episode for the perfect occasion too long, so now I have two!
"Last question everyone, im sorry" *Checks timestamp* : "20minutes left out of a 1hour video. " You're good Zack.
Zach you are spot on about not posting and talking about running a fun campaign. Since I started my Ghosts of Saltmarsh 5E campaign, I have been posting on my socials about "awesome" sessions with a quick battlemap pic. Well now I have 4 additional friends wanting to join my campaign that I must turn down as I'm already at 5 players. (Buuuut I might try to run some Shadowdark seperately with them as its much less work for me)
ZachTheBald
Thanks!
Zach, please make a short where you act out that dramatization of the smug dm being Dr. Stranged when the player said “that was a fun encounter” I am begging you
Simply the best.
In my first proper Homebrew campaign I had a character who was basically the BBEGs right hand man. He was supposed to every once in a while when the party was feeling themselves too much to come around and whoop some ass because I wanted them to properly feel like the world they were in was not their turf. So yeah that guy died on his first appearance. Which was a little bit of a problem because the BBEG was an absolute clown and most stuff was only working out because the BBEGs right hand man was dealing with shit.
In the end it worked out though as the players actively felt the impact of killing the guy throughout the game (because the BBEG was slacking)
Luckily enough I already had them discover hints though that the Right Hand Mans mount was an "eternal companion" granted by the BBEG. It was a wyvern made of frost that was immortal. Kept hunting them down with the Wyvern that was out with a vengeance. Played the Bazelgeuse theme everytime it showed up and everything.
6:51 "[my rounds are 45 minutes] was hyperbole"
I have unironically seen rounds over an hour, so... yeah, sometimes it's not :D
I have too.
I've had players take 30 to 40 minutes on average.
HOUR LONG EPISODE YES!!!!🎉
Ah, finally home from work so it's time for my weekly dose of the sweat-meister himself 😎
My hot take is some skill checks should be impossible depending on how your character is built. There’s no reason my fighter with +0 religion should be able to nat 20 and succeed while my cleric fails with a +5
If the stats are high enough I sometimes dont let them roll to begin with. In your example the cleric would already now what the fighter would know with a nat 20 if not more. There are also situations where I dont allow rolls if the player lacks proficiency in certain skills.
I can see your point, but I see those situations kind of like slumdog millionaire. Like there is some random super specific event that causes the fighter to know it, but maybe the cleric knows so much their memory is muddied? Mental gymnastics for sure but it’s how I cope lol
@@julcarras I find it narratively unsatisfying as the GM and incredibly frustrating as the player lol
Brennan Lee Mulligan guest star when?
I love these
About making NPCs that use player stat blocks. I will, on occasion, craft a NPC by using the character creator because it's a more streamlined way of making a villain than the homebrew tool on DND beyond. I can add magic items and have things attuned to them with little issue and my players cant acuse me of cheating since the enemy is using the same tools they are.
Best dnd talkshow around, keep talking your shit king!
awesome the idea was my fighter dwarf just took a one level dip at level because he found God just for a few extras u get
a bit of utility
loving the podcast! keep it up! also i was wondering if you could help me out, im trying to roleplay a sea elf drakewarden with an overly heartening relationship with a sea drake without trying to seem like im being one of those main character pcs, any advice?
my favorite shouty boy is back! go white boy go! yell about dnd! whoo!!!
My favorite episode so far
For the one with a ton of players maybe a west march campaign
19:06 Dunce hat mimic plushie when?
On topic of lots of interested players, I host a monthly open one-shots. These always tie into the long-term campaign I'm running and people who aren't in the campaign get priority on the one-shot. I max games at 6 players and it works great. We invite them into the discord and (not shocking) for every 5 people who "want to play" only 1 person actually joins us for a game. Honestly, I feel like an evangelist for One-Shots because everyone wants to be in a long-term campaign but few want to actually commit to one.
You are adorably giggly
Mr. Zach, idk if you are able to adjust the podcast playlist here but could you reverse the sort order in the playlist if you can?
It’s sorted by ep5 depending -> ep1 right now so when you “Play All” it plays from your latest episode down to the first. I use this as some recurring BG noise but I enjoy starting from ep1 -> latest to see the podcast’s progression, and former episode callbacks~
Again, only if you can. 🤙
My favorite new show
I never really understood dunking on 5e; sure, I'll always prefer Pathfinder 1e, but that's just because I'm a crunch goblin. 5e is so simple it's hard to be mad at it. Is it a perfect system? No. But it's good enough.
I do fuckin' hate D&D beyond though.
5e is still at its base about 300+ pages of rules and info. That's not really "simple". A simple system would be any of those fun one shot 2 to 10 page systems.. which you could criticise for not taking the time to explain their rules fully or lacking content or whatever.
So yeah no DND has plenty to dunk on because it's a complex game with overlapping rules.
@@glonx639 5e IS a simple system, despite having 300+ pages of rules. ESPECIALLY if you compare it to what came before. Like, it's genuinely so easy to learn, to make characters, etc, because it's simple and understandable. And that's a good thing for new players.
The simplicity is what some players have gripes with it for; coming from something like 3.x/PF1e, which is an incredibly complex, mechanically dense system where, for example, you can have as many archetypes (similar, sort of, to 5e's subclasses) as you want as long as they don't overlap in what they change in the class. Compare that to the very same subclasses of 5e where you get one per class and you're locked in, leading to some players feeling cheated out of choice.
My point being, there's a reason 5e is the edition used to let kindergartners play. It is not a complex system. Some even may say it went a little too far with simplification, but whatever.
Hey Zach! I’ve been enjoying all of your commentary on the ludicrous amount of idiocy and selfish behaviors in the D&D community. Love all the honest bashing of dumb ideas, hopefully some people notice their stupidity through your kind words. I would like to ask you a quick question though. I thoroughly enjoy roleplay and often find myself getting lost in the mind of my character. How a character would think and act in certain situations is an extremely interesting concept to me. Recently, a character of mine, a teen with no experience in combat, witnessed a death of an npc who was like a mentor to my character. The session ended on him seeing this npc’s dead body and now I have had a lot of time to think about how he would react. I think he would become depressed and possibly suicidal, blaming himself for what happened, but I don’t want to make the other players at the table uncomfortable or annoyed. I want a second opinion so I can be sure I won’t make the game less enjoyable for everyone, what do you think I should do? And do you have any experience with this sort of situation?
I've been having trouble finding a good encounter balance for my games, but I'm having the issue of my encounters being either way too easy or way too hard. I have a group of 5 lvl 5 players who have been able to CC and dps down bosses with 200+ hp, groups of 4 CR 7 monsters, etc. I gave them some strong magic items that has made them stronger than average because I thought it would feel more satisfying if they get a higher levels of power progression. However, now I am now having trouble balancing encounters as they are usually either too easy or would result in a TPK if the party didn't run away. I had an encounter where they fought against 2 PC enemies where 2 of the strongest party members went down and I had to pull deus ex machina-style stuff to save them and they all felt very dejected, but then the next boss they fought they absolutely destroyed because they killed them in an ambush by getting lucky with several crits and a bad saving throw on the boss's part. I want my party to have satisfying victories because I'm afraid they will get bored if they defeat all the villains too easily, making them look like cartoon villains going "oh darn, you beat me again 🤪". I know you don't like PC enemies, but I haven't been able to figure out how to make an interesting stat block for villain NPCs otherwise. My idea has been to double or triple boss enemies' hp, but I can't reasonably do that when the enemies are also mortals, same as the players. That being said, do you have any ideas for how to make encounters more balanced for stronger parties that are fun but still somewhat challenging?
How do you guys feel about one shots that are parallel to the campaign to give insight onto an upcoming event or boss? Usually involving no name npcs who may become staples should they survive or do something incredible?
I love ya bro but i don't understand the vitriol to stun vs paralyzed or unconscious?
My DM set up a blood sport/Mortal Kombat type of campaign that basically ends up having everybody wait actual hours for their turn. None of the combat or rp has been anything close to satisfying. Some people got only 20 minutes of actual play time across 8 hours of over-engineered exposition. the first bout of the tournament killed my character (fighter 3) who had his subclass features nerfed against a Minotaur with 3 attacks, melee dmg resist. , 50% more hp. He retroactively fudges the crit that killed me and rp’d my ‘victory kill’ when that right should be reserved for pcs IMO. Everyone complained to me the following week and now i have to ‘talk to him’
Oomf
Idk if it’s my new head phones or is there a echo that wasn’t there in previous podcasts
Wait this guy also looks like Daniel Thrasher
Wow it's an hour !
Hello Zachary the bold, I have been a DM since this April, since I had some issues with my previous DMs, from then on I have mostly taken over small notes my previous DM had and built a world out of it and have since then ran a game with mostly 4-5 players. Last session I ran I killed of one of the PCs, since he said he wanted to be done for now and he had some school stuff goin, he was happy how I put his character down essentially (like the bad guys destroying his amulet of the devout to not be able to return to his god). Now to the question, aside from DMPCs do you know other ways to engage players into the story arc/lore parts? And also, do you know other ways to scale combat or save the PCs if I made it a bit to difficult? Thanks, and may your pillow be cool when you sleep
What’s your favorite module and why? Do you recommend one for a seasoned DM and is it different from what you’d recommend to a beginner DM?
i had no idea you had a podcast
I know you only brought it up in passing but I want to say while it's early days, please never take a hello fresh sponsorship that company is evil. And generally please research sponsorships I'm sorry if this comes off as preachy or anything I've just seen so many youtubers taking sponsorships from awful mealbox companies and it always puts me off their stuff.
TRUUUUE, idk how but DND has the biggest anti-fan base ever. When I hate a game, I just stop playing and leave the communities and move on with my life. When TTRPGers hate DND, they endlessly lurk & dominate all the dnd communities and are constantly trying to convince others to hate dnd as much as they do. It's so toxic. The dnd subreddits are rampant with people constantly shitting on dnd and insisting their prefered TTRPG (that has a fraction of the playerbase) is better.
Ya know, I think the thing I like the most about DND is that it's easy for non-DND players to get into. Which are the ideal people to play with because average DND players are just miserable complainers.
When 2 hours long pod
❤🎉
theoretically, if the acid splash lasted a super long time, you could just sell the acid for infinite money. I've always interpreted it that the acid disappears after the spell ends otherwise itd be super abusable.
Wouldnt it be the other way around? Acid splash is a cantrip so it can be assumed that a lot of people can cast it in a highly magical setting. The consequence would be that it would be close to worthless since you can get it anywhere.
iirc acid is listed as like 10gp per vial which just wouldn’t make sense if the acid from an easily repeatable spell stuck around for a while. Also, even if it did, I don’t think magic is common enough in most settings to make selling it worthless. Adventurers commonly have magic but the average citizen likely doesn’t, which is why there would be a market for it.
I just looked up Acid Vial and Acid Splash. The vial costs 25 gp according to dnd beyong and deals 2d6. Acid Splash deals the same amount at lvl 5, so a commoner or wizard student wouldnt be able to cast Acid Splash with the same quality. Consequently the production of an Acid Vial through the cantrip is only possible to court wizards or experienced adventurers.
While I do believe that the base DnD rules imply enough magic around that a few commoners would be able to cast a cantrip (since some races have innate cantrips and there are enough artificers around to craft items for that one magical shop that is in every city) the comparison between Acid Vial and Acid Splash show that it pretty much wouldnt tank the price. Unless you assume that Acid Vial costs so much because lower quality acid is pretty common through commoners being able to cast a cantrip (and the cost is justified since the product is more refined).
Y’all where do we send our comments that we want him to respond to??
I love your content, it makes me laugh uncontrollably every monday. Please shout out my friend and DM parag.
YESSSSSSSS
I see it coming up a lot of times in the podcast, and I think I disagree on the whole acid splash thing, not because of player agency or whatever, but because what you as the DM reward and punish determines how your players play the game later on. I disagree that if you allow them to use acid splash once that’s all they’ll use, because it’s a creative use of a spell, what you are rewarding when you give them some benefit for using the spell that way is not acid splash, it’s the act of creatively using a spell. If you say no too many times to attempts at creative solution, you are telling your players that is the incorrect way of playing the game.
For the record I don’t think acid splashing the lock makes that much sense, but you can at least give them advantage on a strength check to destroy the lock if you want them to feel as though playing creatively is the way they’re supposed to play.
I usually allow my players once to use a spell or other action not as rules as written to encourage creativity and they know that. That being said, I think you underestimate how often players choose the most easy and boring way to overcome obstacles if you let them abuse the system. I had 2 different players in 2 different groups try to repeatedly abuse a bird as a drone and scout literally anything ahead in excrutiating detail. I had a player try to ambush multiple times in every combat in the most degenerate ways possible in the hope to oneshot a guy every other round. There was even a situation where RAW my player could generate infinite numbers of inspiration (we played Savage Worlds) so he technically would roll with infinite advantage every session so I had to limit that to once a session.
So happy to be here so early
Dude this guys opinion on stun is ridiculous. It’s not even a bad mechanic dude is overreacting
30:30 you also have that in Elden Ring, or in Ghost of Tsushima.
the bold take at 53:55 was insane
@@yogu3046 bro you're bananas if you think he is right like wtf who would do something like this, I'm honestly thinking of unsubscribing after listening to him saying that stuff
damn you were actually right
26:36 I get the argument against guns in DnD. Having run one with the Critical Role Gunslinger as well as the Heavyarms Gunslinger I can say that balance wise there's really no issue here and if you want Artificers to have a place in your world then basic firearms existing are a great way to justify the technology and tinkering aspect of their class.
Boulders is definitely better than Baddies. x'D
32:28 The commenter didn't necessarily do this, but no one person, whether DM or player, should ever be allowed to invite a new player to their table without first checking in with the rest of the group.
On the "5e vs other systems" bit at ~25:00 where you say that sometimes you don't want to learn other systems, on the one hand that's fair, but on the other hand I think there's a bit of a trap way of thinking that people can fall into when they have GMed a system before and then get to be a player in a different system, where they feel like they need to learn everything about the new system before they can be a player in it.
You're so used to having all the answers that going back to being like "I just need to know my character's basic mechanics, and anything else I'll just ask the GM if it comes up, or explain what I want to do and let the GM tell me how to do it" feels really hard to go back to.
I love hearing the best takes from the local Heatmiser
Just throwing it out there, searching 'chaos theory" brings up everything but a dnd campaign, i think people could find it easier if you just link it in the comments or send them to the channel its vods are found on. (Sorry not to tell you how to do your stuff) But it took me a hell of a lot of looking to actually get to the chaos theory dnd campaign on youtube :) love your stuff! Keep it up!
Hey zach. I dont want to sound like a drooling shill but have you ever played the LANCER ttrpg? Its honestly the most fun ive ever had running a ttrpg.
I feel like it's not a DM NPC unless it is someone who actively is in the same light as the players. Like as the DM you can introduce whatever powerful character you want to so long as they're not constant. And so long as they don't take up a lot of the decision making. Like if you make a random dwarf of a crossbow in the party loves them and then goes along on the adventure that's great. But if that dwarf ends up taking a lot of The kills or becoming more of a main character in the story stealing the PC thunder that's a DM NPC.
To DM's "losing" their favorite NPC's / baddies and not getting to reveal their backstory and play them out, just reuse stuff. If they one-shot the big bad, well he wasn't the REAL big bad... his brother was the one pulling all the strings and has all the actual power. Like Mandarin scenario or something from Iron Man 3.