I am convinced All things DnD is reading the comments, we asked for more happy or cool stories instead of Dnd horror stories, and he has delivered so far.
It's good to have both horror and glory stories. The horror stories can help you spot red flags and potentially stop That Guy™ from ruining the campaign and glory stories remind you of just how good DnD can be if the cards are played right.
I am all for balanced stories, positive and negative. We had a long time with mostly horror stories, so we should have a bigger focus on positive ones to even things out.
I disagree some, lately there have been quite a number of d&d horror stories from him... It's gotten to the point where I've actually stopped watching quite a bit...
Just got inspired for an alternate way of taking the Husk concept. The idea: Husk Islands are from alternate universes. Things that leave their island stay in the universe they drifted in on, becoming part of that universe. And things that stay on the island before it vanishes from the reality are then remembered as "only Husks".
Yh this was too meta. If the only way to understand your world's mysteries is to stop suspension of disbelief you haven't created an elaborate enigma; you've wasted your friend's time. Imo
Reminds me a little of a conversation a PC had with an NPC. In the end what makes a true adventurer isn't our skills or our magic, it's our psychology. Even if we are up against something surprising and terrifying. Even when the chips are down and were probably all going to die, there is still a part of us that is above it all, just trying to figure the angles like some chess-master. Normal people would scream and run in blind terror, but the chess-master keeps us fighting.
And yet little do those adventures know… the chess-master is their literal role, rather than just a metaphor. All the adventures hardships and victories, losses and gains, even the very emotions they feel… it ultimately amounts to little more than a piece on a chessboard.
I just hate false Hydras, in my campaigns I make sure everyone knows they went extinct because someone got tired of those darn things and hunted them to extinction.
So here's a real life scary story for y'all: This video is only a week old, and I'm just watching it for the first time. After enjoying it very much, I start scrolling through the comments, and find this one. Liking the false hydra stories, I go to like the comment, only to find it already liked... I panic, of course. I remember nothing of this story. And it's good, too. Something I will remember. Is it possible I've already watched it and forgotten it completely inside only a week? And this is a comment I would like, obviously, so I would have to have forgotten that, too, and all the other comments I've read in between. So I click the like button anyway... ... ... Nope, youtube was just bugged. Despite already being highlighted, the likes went from 48 to 49. I clicked it again and it finally dehighlighted, and then I reliked it. Thought I had lost my damn mind for a minute there. Have a great day, y'all!
My players would not be able to handle such a twist. I have 3 and only one of them is on the level. I would love to see the reactions as they realize something so profound.
Unfortunately, according to the set rules of that world, the PC's knowledge of their original island becoming a just island would have been overwritten, and the would have been given new backstories. All realization is only with the players not the player characters, and the PCs couldn't act on any of it due to the fact that it's all metagame knowledge.
Given that the event at 6:42 goes well beyond the amount of meta-knowledge one can reasonably be expected to avoid acting on/ignore I think you should probably ask if your appraisal of your players is accurate and if you're providing an immersive RP space in the first place. PS I'm a story first TRPG veteran of 10+ years and I still would have left the table after 6:42 AKA plot twist one.
@@janschievink1586 why, it's a revelation to the players not the characters, it's up to the players to rp it properly, it you would leave then and there I guess you wouldn't have been up to the task as simple as it was.
@@johnathansanford8206 Yeah it's simple but so is loading and unloading a moving truck that doesn't mean I'm going to stick around to do it if someone reveals that's the activity instead of the expected D&D session I don't like being surprised with work and I don't like being jerked around.
@@janschievink1586 lol then what do you do in dnd during your "10years" of experience? 1-2-3 dungeons? Doesn't sound like you have much experience at narrative dnd at all.
I wouldn't say that the 4th wall break is necessary. It works as a concept without that. Basically their memories of their past simply was false, and that was given credence by how Husk Islands work in-universe. They came into existence, and unbeknownst to themselves they freed themselves from being Husks. The meta aspect is just another layer to it.
I had a pretty good idea on where things were going but some details I was a little off on. I figured the husks and true islands were essentially one and the same at two ends of the same spectrum. When the first player became a husks I wondered at the reality of the PC's as well. Didn't get the real life comparison though as I am used to altered and alternate realities. Cool that the DM made that link.
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, we've got work to do!" - Doctor Who - Survival
I wonder how was the conversation " nah uh, you got all this wrong" and the adults on the table they look to each other and say "my house is on fire, I need to leave"
_"We are husks_ _Alive but barely breathing_ _Sometimes we pull ourselves together_ _But our efforts fade away._ _We are dust_ _Crumbling by the moment_ _We try to push away the ending_ _And black roses fall the same"_
Plot twist: the characters come to realize that their entire world is effectively one husk island that disappears when the “trues” at the D&D table together stop playing.
That's interesting, I was considering why the islands had "rich" histories but apparently they were all elaborately stories, made-up, fabricated yet believed. I had thought that the Husk islands weren't really the "fake" islands but the true ones were and it was indistinguishable to either which was dunking in the sea. Just like two groups of people coming and going and each group seems completely new every time.
I really like this story. I am writing a homebrew world and some if this was similar to an idea I had but this ending is so much different and I love it!
Yeah, this story reminds me of my own campaign a bit. It's not *that* 4th wall-y, but, in my campaign, there's a secret cult centered around worshipping the players. They haven't encountered it yet though.
This was By far, The Best Campaign Story i have ever heard. This was incredible. I will be taking/ borrowing some elements of this for my Open ocean/ One Piece campaign setting.
I new after he read the set up of how the world worked, husk and true island s, that the players were husks. Still loved the twist amazing that he came up with that. I love stories so much, thank you for the amazing content
My first thought when I heard of islands appearing and disappearing with people on them - was "Lost" - but only because that's the only thing I've seen of the TV series
3 года назад
Remainded me a bit and for a second of "Westworld"... Like the idea a lot. I hope to have this chance of a twist in a campaign some time. Regards from Tabasco, México [Land of The Olmecs]!
How id use this as a campaign. •islands are either false or true. •people who live on false islands ho down with them never able to stop there fate. •eventually everyone ventures deep deep inyo the ocean to find a large aquatic humanoid pushung islands up using his bare hands. •he pulls up an islnad just a few feet away from you then the as he swims off to go find another island he noticed you. •his stare freezes you into place, he moves closer and stars talking. •" *why are you here? To make these islands preeminent? Its not so simple... you must first kill tbose who pull these pillers down, i merely pull these places back up, but by then its to late, everyone changes... no one is the same ive lifted this island so many times... i could recognize its beutiful plants from miles away... but those people... there memories are gone* " •you venture deeper into the water and find a very reptilian looking humanoid many times bigher than the one before slithering on the ocean floor, then another and another grabing onto islands pillers and pushing them back into the grpund laughing at their little " *game* " •they make an islands completely sink to the bottom of the ocean. They laugh and suddenly smash the islands. • " *thesssssssse puny little beings live on ssssssuch high places, its yo bad we cant reach the puller... but we can alsssssso pull, we can desssssstroy..." •you travel up tp meet the giant humanoid he tells you he is bound to a barrier just like them, but that you arent, and you go to a true island to post a mission with a giant pay off, then another and another until you have a whole fleet, you make a speech amd the npcs use mater magic to venture deep deeper amd deeper into the sea, and fight the servants you kill all three amd use water magic once more to raise every false island amd sever their pillers. Then the barriers also shatter, but as they do more threats emerge. •the end.
I put together a character a little while ago named Roman Newtimes Ghostwise Halfling Sorcerer He used to be just a regular halfling from a Shire like village. Before a necromancer attacked kidnapped and experimented on everyone there. As far as he is aware he is the only “survivor“ although you wouldn’t think so given the fact that his left arm and head are skeletal. (he even has two glass size but they’re just there for aesthetics since he can see just fine) His most interesting quirk, is that ever since then she wears a ruby Icosahedron on a necklace and he says that it’s the sign of his religion. That every so often duties who guide the actions and fate of random individuals to go on great adventures and stop evils, all under the command of a Divine Menstrual (or DM for short)
personally, i think the monk should have been the abandoned party member. the "rich histories" were all real, it was simply a matter of timing. saying "you were born an adult with memories of a life you never experienced" to players feels a bit cheap without making the memories real in some way, be it time loop shenanigans or stolen life/possession. What is the point in making your players write up a backstory if you are just going to reveal that none of it ever happened? At that point, the DM has TOO much control, as a twist along the lines of "this is your REAL backstory" is not far away, and that sounds like extreme railroading to me, even if it is in the past. If the past can be so easily overwritten, it is not that much farther until the DM starts making the future rigid. As "long" as the story is, i feel like we need even more context to make it work. this revelation becomes a psychological horror without the context of the aftermath, or the prior context that makes such a revelation less existential.
I wouldn't have gotten that far as a player the amount of meta-knowledge I'd be required to ignore from the 6:42 event alone far exceeds my tolerance. Asking me not to metagame is one thing asking me to do so well actively feeding me setting lore my character should not be aware of is simply Beyond the Veil this stuff's a two-way street and the DM is driving on the wrong side of the road.
@@janschievink1586 i completely agree. my complaint was with the bigger picture, but it stems from that exact problem. maybe high intelligence characters could piece together the twist in universe, but to them, there is no twist. Instead it is just a historic discovery, one in which the presence of submarines really should not have lasted as long as it did. Then finally comes the nameless NPC monk who's words should not have been coherent enough in universe to clue in the characters that were being played that they should check if they are ex-husks. Even with all that said comes the question of reality as a whole. The waifu's backstory was completely rewritten when she became a "true" (princess of one tribe of warring tribes=>shipwrecked drifter), so why do the players even remember the port they set out from? If they retain their memories of the port, the port could not be a husk by the rules previously established in the campaign, as they should have been modified the moment the husk island sank. If such discrepancies exist, why in the world is it a new discovery, and why was there ever the thought that husks were lesser beings? The more you think about the twist, the more holes appear, and the concept completely falls apart. It would take a lot of context to explain away each hole before the story works, and if said context exists, why do we never see it?
@@cullenlatham2366 Just wanted to point out for your backstory point, maybe it has to do with them leaving before the shift versus leaving as the shift happened? They left their Island well before the shift so there were no inconsistencies in their memories to be cleaned up. For the princess, the party members knew she was a husk, she was present watching the island sink (and therefore knew that her tribes were husks and didn't exist anymore), and there was a party member who was turned into a husk. These factors were probably why they would have their memories altered for the Princess but not when they left their island. As for why it hadn't been discovered yet, maybe it had. Maybe people knew but didn't share it as lots of people might not believe it, and it would cause lots of issues so they might hide the information. Even if it hasn't been discovered, there is the bit about how people think a husk has never left their island. That means that it is likely that whenever someone witnesses a husk leaving their island or when something would cause the husk to know they were a husk, their memories get changed to prevent it from being noticed. That would stop people from realising.
@@calebmorri You are missing the point at the heart of the matter. How did the characters understand what the monk was saying? It requires meta knowledge to figure out, which is something that even the most intelligent characters would not be able to figure out. To solve the twist in universe, the characters themselves need to know that they have no agency, and that some gods in a different dimension are dictating their every move. Assume for a moment that the discovery about islands is known to the characters in universe. How do they react? The answer would never be "am i an ex-husk?" with the context the world establishes with them being lower class citizens. Husks are beings who dont exist on the cosmic scale. If a character even attempts to pursue the train of thought, they would not be able to properly remember the port they set out from. Assume for a second that you are right, and that timing is the only difference in why waifu's history was changed but not the player's. The basis of the twist is that there is no separation between husks and trues other than where they are located at the time of the shift. The twist itself is so earth shattering a revelation that it would be impossible to ignore in universe. By that logic, the players would have to be the FIRST people to discover they were ex-husks. Now combine that with the second rationalization you make that the twist was already known on a small scale. In what universe could both explanations happen simultaneously? It is the same suspension of disbelief problem as submarines being a known tech but the truth of the islands being a secret. Now how about a problem with the idea that husks maintain their memories if they dont witness their island sink. Where did their backstory come from? If they were born an adult with a fake history, that automatically makes them different from "trues" who are born a baby and create their backstory themselves. If there is a difference, then a husk can NEVER become a true, as an in-depth investigation of their backstory will reveal the truth. "Hi! My name is (X), and i grew up on island (y)." Seems like a standard enough greeting for the universe, dont you think? If husks are secondary citizens, such an easy check wont change their rights or the views the general public has towards them. Heck, it wouldnt even be that hard to discriminate or segregate at that point. Then think about the mass hysteria of such a greeting from an ex-husk on a true island. THE SECRET WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP HIDDEN! Maybe 1 of your rationalizations could work with enough setup, but it is impossible to make both work without entirely reworking the system.
I'd say that it sort of depends on the setting/execution. One of the main reasons that you let the player design their character is so that they care about them. Which is not only an important feature in a game with an existential twist, but, I'd say that it still works in this case. Even if the backstories aren't "real" it doesn't change that the memories of them are very real to each character and effectively defines them as that particular belief they carry. The DM is not changing how the PC views itself, just what they're perception on reality is. The white dragonborn princess from a Husk Island in the story is still a white dragonborn princess from a H(Wisdom Saved Failed) out at Sea. Vice versa for their friend Amon who they know is now a Husk. Same even then for the Island they first began at because for all intents and purposes it was a True-for they were true-and it is now a definite Husk. The princess is the princess, Amon is Amon, the island is an island, the PCs are still the PCs. All that's changed is their understanding of the Nature of The Shifting Seas. It's not that the dm has too much power (besides being the dm) or is even railroading the party, though that depends on execution. Now that the players know the rules, what can or did the DM let them do with it? Edit: As for how the characters understood the Monk, look around 8:20. They did a thing which caused a Husk Island to become a True and the PCs (not the players) were able to realize that there's more to The Shifting Seas than previously noted. And they became more certain of this at 9:16 when investigating a sunken island.
Hey i've been watching your content for a while and have always enjoyed it although i never actually played DnD, but finally this sunday im gonna have my first ever one shot to see how ill enjoy and ill be playing a drunken gnome warlock named Gurdol. Wish me luck.
I actually did something almost identical in concept to this, as a DM, in my latest completed campaign. Spoiler alert: none of my players were very happy about the ending. They felt the campaign had become meaningless when it ended, due to it breaking the fourth wall. I honestly wouldn't do this again.
@@knightfellnightna8231 Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps, I may have not foreshadowed the twist well enough. I'm not really sure. Either way, I appreciate the kind words, thank you :)
@@RioDrake Honestly- you could make your own story in it easily enough. It just provides you the tools for making items, and giving you monsters. Not much stopping you from having local towns under threat from brand new invasive species- and tasking players with taking them to town, and then discovering their bodies basically exude magical properties. >>
By previously established rules, shouldn't they have forgotten their original island and "retconned" their origin story the instant the original island sunk? That's how it happened to the princess. If the princess honestly thought she was a 'Real' who was rescued at sea instead of a former husk, then they should have had new backstories, too. Otherwise, all the husks that go out to sea would've figured it out when they tried to return home. Now, this could have been another point where player and character knowledge diverged... but then the characters went back to the starting island to check. That shouldn't have happened. The revelation should have been: "We have to go back to Point Jack!" GM: "Point what?" "You know, Point Jack! The island we started on!" GM: "None of your characters have never heard of any such island." Extra points if you've figured out a way to go back and edit all their backstories on their sheets right before (or maybe made new copies of their sheets and switched them somehow). The board as the starting point doesn't really jive, either. Yes, the campaign started in that moment, and it's very meta to suggest that these characters did not EXIST before then and their backstory is ALL MADE UP. But... the real starting point seems to be when they chose to deviate from 'the quest'. That's honestly the most clever part: the quest, as given, would have them arrest a man on the same island. Nothing is directing them to leave. But because the target is sympathetic, they choose to go against the preset script and flee. THAT is clever. THAT is cool. Of course, the target is sympathetic on purpose, and the GM was hoping they'd do something like that, but that's still their big moment of choice. Ending it all with some monk who shows up out of nowhere with the info dump isn't so great. There's really nothing for the players to... do there, except listen and be shocked. And is this really where the campaign ends? What about the machines that, clearly, must be hidden inside every island (and broken in the 'real' islands)? What about untangling why everything is like this? Honestly, I am not a big fan of these campaign stories that all END on a short-story style twist that the GM had intended all along. Too many of them feel like, yes, the GM just wanted to write a short story, and the player actions never mattered. In most of them, I feel like the players and characters really should have kept going, instead of ending it all on the twist. What do the characters do after the revelation? Just go mad or retire to a depressing "bad ending"? Come on. You're the GM. Don't just lead them to a pile of "nothing we did matters!" sadness. Let them keep working towards finding a meaning or fixing things.
Not really. The Princess from Husk Island was still a princess. Amon was still Amon. The only thing that changed was the PC's perception of who and what was a Husk and a True. Whatever magic that governs the Shift seems to only care about that particular factor where everyone thinks that they fit into either category, so a group of PCs who think they're a widower woodsman, a gangster for a shadow syndicate, and an amnesiac wretch named after a gardening tool do not disobey that rule by continuing to believe that they are those particular things. As for Point Jack and why they didn't have altered memories of it, that revelation happened after talking with the Monk. Which happened after they discovered a broken Island Stem. Which happened after they learned that Husk can become True. 8:20 and 9:16 for those key details which suggest that the spell as been altered, at least for them.
Where did you get the notion of “nothing we did matters” from a story about characters discovering that a ‘fundamental truth’ of their world was alterable, and the mechanism by which to alter it? They discovered a *literal* world-changing power that is now at their disposal.
I would not have tolerated someone replacing my hobby time with a philosophy lecture, it's especially Grievous since the DM did so without players consent.
@@LetholdusKaspyr TRPGs are cooperative storytelling exercises all parties involved should be signing off on that stuff instead of having their contributions to the story retconed at a single person's discretion this reverse Deadpool crap isn't my idea of fun.
@@janschievink1586 Yes, but the DM manages the setting, and secrets and plot twists are valid. I probably wouldn't sign up for a game involving a mystery of islands that vanish after a week, but if I did, I would expect some Shyamalan-style revelations about the setting. What the DM did here isn't bad or wrong, but it's not as mind-blowing as people here are acting, or as the DM clearly believed.
@@LetholdusKaspyr PC backstory is the player's primary narrative contribution retconning it without discussion basically renders the GM the only narrative contributor they might as well have written a book at that point, this is stealth railroading. A good example of GM controlled backstory is the Red Sorcerer from the Weeknight Hero podcast Connor (Red Sorcerer's Player) actually signed off on that. The early episodes are available on the Weeknight Hero RUclips channel if you actually get curious enough to follow up on this, just be sure to include Mutants And Masterminds in your search words apparently there's a spice blend with the same name that comes up a fair bit higher in the search results.
My guess was that the Husks were Trues, or were "alive" at some point and clung to memories of former lives that the creature pulling the islands up and down below the waves fed off of. Guess I got it backwards. xD
It would be hella disconcerting to go from believing you were making the decisions in your own life to finding out someone else has been acting through you, your every action puppeted without your knowledge.
that could expand so hard, so far, so wide. husk islands connected to stems? what is expanding these stems? is it some sort of mega sized sentiend plant form? some eldtritch horror that 'summons' these islands so it can feed? why the severance? did some key event happened that simply caused said stem to break? if its a plant being, did these islands become 'ripe'? if horror, did some divinity intervene (in)directly and caused the creature to abandon that island? so, so many questions
I saw that coming after the Island where the NPC disappeared with the Island, was yep and they probably are all like that. It could of also been played like it was a Isekai where they suddenly are in a new body living that bodies life, almost all RPG games can be seen almost like a Isekai. Skyrim: you wake up as a prisoner. Fallout 4: you suddenly appear facing a mirror (but in this case I'd not count it until you wake up in the Vault) Pokémon: you are now in a child etc.
Yup, this has concept isn't new, though having switches and "machinery" controlling the islands is just weak and would have ruined it for me. Also the moral quandary seemed blatantly obvious from the start.
I quite enjoyed this story, but I it left me with more questions than answers. Where do the stems come from, What happens to the husk Islands when they sink beneath the waves, If all true Islands were once husk Islands who severed their stems, How does the old monk know he is husk, And why is the princess mentioned once and then forgotten?
Highly recommend people who like this story to check out DIE, both the currently in beta RPG and the comic book by Kieron Gillen it's based on. A lot of the meta stuff in this story is basically the entire premise of DIE.
....a one shot worthy of steali*cough* borrowing lol that would be crazy but sadly I have several players that would question being a husk after more then one session
at nearly 7 minute mark, the reveal that the players minds were being altered reminds me of the movie dark city. were everything was just an experiment done by aliens.
Such a world has interesting connotations. Does the shift span time ? does it suspend reality ? Are those that are still stemmed to the world experiencing life in 1 week segments only to be pulled back and preserved until their next rising giving them ACTUAL histories with other islands ? Are those lost to husk islands gone forever or will they resurface in another time with new memories ? I was half expecting them to recognize the old monk as their buddy they lost on the husk island when it went down.
This must be based on the last fryday genesis theory, stating that the universe coule have began last fryday, and everyone blindingly trusting their memory wouldn know
I thought the twist would be that the husks were all part of a larger being. then I thought the twist would be that the shifting seas were somehow connected to the DM. the twist that we did get was pretty cool, but I'm still left with two questions: why? and how?
Right when he talked about husks I thought he probably made the players husks. Super obvious, but I liked the existentialism. I would change the husks to people from alternate universes so the revelation implies moral consequence to the atrocities the players committed.
I just finished watching and I going to add this as a trio of islands that appear near each other and act just like these island with the difference being it 2 weeks and husks that leave are only one who remember the islands and everything that happened in regards to them, and those who are unfortunate to be on the islands even if they are real are forgotten by everyone that wasn't a from the island originally.
I am convinced All things DnD is reading the comments, we asked for more happy or cool stories instead of Dnd horror stories, and he has delivered so far.
It's good to have both horror and glory stories. The horror stories can help you spot red flags and potentially stop That Guy™ from ruining the campaign and glory stories remind you of just how good DnD can be if the cards are played right.
@@VeraVemaVena Hear hear
I am all for balanced stories, positive and negative. We had a long time with mostly horror stories, so we should have a bigger focus on positive ones to even things out.
I disagree some, lately there have been quite a number of d&d horror stories from him... It's gotten to the point where I've actually stopped watching quite a bit...
Any good content provider will listen to their audience and work keep the content flowing
Just got inspired for an alternate way of taking the Husk concept.
The idea: Husk Islands are from alternate universes. Things that leave their island stay in the universe they drifted in on, becoming part of that universe. And things that stay on the island before it vanishes from the reality are then remembered as "only Husks".
DM: *_" Did you know... this entire universe... is just me, you & the dice rolls making sh°° up? "_*
Players: _" °gasp° "_
Yh this was too meta. If the only way to understand your world's mysteries is to stop suspension of disbelief you haven't created an elaborate enigma; you've wasted your friend's time. Imo
Reminds me a little of a conversation a PC had with an NPC. In the end what makes a true adventurer isn't our skills or our magic, it's our psychology. Even if we are up against something surprising and terrifying. Even when the chips are down and were probably all going to die, there is still a part of us that is above it all, just trying to figure the angles like some chess-master. Normal people would scream and run in blind terror, but the chess-master keeps us fighting.
And yet little do those adventures know… the chess-master is their literal role, rather than just a metaphor. All the adventures hardships and victories, losses and gains, even the very emotions they feel… it ultimately amounts to little more than a piece on a chessboard.
After first hearing the explanation for Husks, I immediately thought how one wouldn't know for certain if they were Husk or not
Definitely need to remember this one for future campaigns.
Amazing campaign. I want to personally know who made that or if this is just a made-up story
Reminds me of those false hydra stories where they come home to photos of party members they never knew
Yup, or those movies/books where the main character comes home to a life that isn't their's.
I just hate false Hydras, in my campaigns I make sure everyone knows they went extinct because someone got tired of those darn things and hunted them to extinction.
They're homebrew. They don't exist in your game unless you put them there
@@tholgrimstonebeard5943 Maybe they were always canon but the creators and players forget it is every time?
So here's a real life scary story for y'all: This video is only a week old, and I'm just watching it for the first time. After enjoying it very much, I start scrolling through the comments, and find this one. Liking the false hydra stories, I go to like the comment, only to find it already liked...
I panic, of course. I remember nothing of this story. And it's good, too. Something I will remember. Is it possible I've already watched it and forgotten it completely inside only a week? And this is a comment I would like, obviously, so I would have to have forgotten that, too, and all the other comments I've read in between. So I click the like button anyway...
...
...
Nope, youtube was just bugged. Despite already being highlighted, the likes went from 48 to 49. I clicked it again and it finally dehighlighted, and then I reliked it. Thought I had lost my damn mind for a minute there. Have a great day, y'all!
My players would not be able to handle such a twist. I have 3 and only one of them is on the level. I would love to see the reactions as they realize something so profound.
Unfortunately, according to the set rules of that world, the PC's knowledge of their original island becoming a just island would have been overwritten, and the would have been given new backstories. All realization is only with the players not the player characters, and the PCs couldn't act on any of it due to the fact that it's all metagame knowledge.
Given that the event at 6:42 goes well beyond the amount of meta-knowledge one can reasonably be expected to avoid acting on/ignore I think you should probably ask if your appraisal of your players is accurate and if you're providing an immersive RP space in the first place. PS I'm a story first TRPG veteran of 10+ years and I still would have left the table after 6:42 AKA plot twist one.
@@janschievink1586 why, it's a revelation to the players not the characters, it's up to the players to rp it properly, it you would leave then and there I guess you wouldn't have been up to the task as simple as it was.
@@johnathansanford8206 Yeah it's simple but so is loading and unloading a moving truck that doesn't mean I'm going to stick around to do it if someone reveals that's the activity instead of the expected D&D session I don't like being surprised with work and I don't like being jerked around.
@@janschievink1586 lol then what do you do in dnd during your "10years" of experience? 1-2-3 dungeons? Doesn't sound like you have much experience at narrative dnd at all.
Reminds me of a campagn where dreams had influence on the waking world, and vicea-versa. Got hard to tell which was waking, and which was nocturn!
“There is no end to the story. There’s just the point where the storytellers stop talking.”
Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, love that movie ❤️
Ah, I thought that might have been a Terry Pratchett quote at first.
nice
The end! - Me.
Wow, that Monster Mage sure is wearing a lot of, uhh.. a lot of *blue* stuff, huh? Man, I love it when things come full circle.
That was fucking brilliant, its like the whole "Adventurer Egg" thing, but done seriously.
Campaign concepts that require fourth wall breaks for a twist to make sense aren’t my personal jam but this is a cool concept.
indeed
Same but also I don't think this is a good story personally.
@@WhyYouMadBoi I'd still say it was interesting, though.
I wouldn't say that the 4th wall break is necessary. It works as a concept without that. Basically their memories of their past simply was false, and that was given credence by how Husk Islands work in-universe. They came into existence, and unbeknownst to themselves they freed themselves from being Husks.
The meta aspect is just another layer to it.
@@vision4860 Sure, it could work without it, but the meta aspect gives it some extra depth, imo.
I had a pretty good idea on where things were going but some details I was a little off on. I figured the husks and true islands were essentially one and the same at two ends of the same spectrum. When the first player became a husks I wondered at the reality of the PC's as well. Didn't get the real life comparison though as I am used to altered and alternate realities. Cool that the DM made that link.
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, we've got work to do!" - Doctor Who - Survival
I wonder how was the conversation " nah uh, you got all this wrong" and the adults on the table they look to each other and say "my house is on fire, I need to leave"
That story was nuts! I loved all the twists and turns.
_"We are husks_
_Alive but barely breathing_
_Sometimes we pull ourselves together_
_But our efforts fade away._
_We are dust_
_Crumbling by the moment_
_We try to push away the ending_
_And black roses fall the same"_
I see. A fellow Aviators fan.
This honestly sent a shiver down my spine. I was very immersed into it and loved the story.
I watched this a while ago, just came back to say that this story still haunts me. Thanks for making this, it's given me much to think about! 😄
Plot twist: the characters come to realize that their entire world is effectively one husk island that disappears when the “trues” at the D&D table together stop playing.
That's interesting, I was considering why the islands had "rich" histories but apparently they were all elaborately stories, made-up, fabricated yet believed. I had thought that the Husk islands weren't really the "fake" islands but the true ones were and it was indistinguishable to either which was dunking in the sea. Just like two groups of people coming and going and each group seems completely new every time.
I really like this story. I am writing a homebrew world and some if this was similar to an idea I had but this ending is so much different and I love it!
Yeah, this story reminds me of my own campaign a bit. It's not *that* 4th wall-y, but, in my campaign, there's a secret cult centered around worshipping the players. They haven't encountered it yet though.
This was By far, The Best Campaign Story i have ever heard. This was incredible. I will be taking/ borrowing some elements of this for my Open ocean/ One Piece campaign setting.
I'm just happy to have great D&D content. My man.
It’s like the Magic Faraway Tree at sea, mixed with The Neverending Story.
Loving the meta twist.
Wow, this DnD story is basically the equivalent of John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness
Gonna give that a listen now! (I love audiobooks, especially Robert e Howard and sometimes h p Lovecraft)
I know this channel has helped me come out of personally created emotional catacombs, thank bro. 💕 The channel.
This is one of the better twists I have seen on the channel.
That sponsor you talked about sounds similar to another kickstarter I supported. Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting.
I've always loved enemy skill materia/classes from final fantasy.
That sounds like a class i would like to play.
I new after he read the set up of how the world worked, husk and true island s, that the players were husks. Still loved the twist amazing that he came up with that. I love stories so much, thank you for the amazing content
My first thought when I heard of islands appearing and disappearing with people on them - was "Lost" - but only because that's the only thing I've seen of the TV series
Remainded me a bit and for a second of "Westworld"... Like the idea a lot. I hope to have this chance of a twist in a campaign some time.
Regards from Tabasco, México [Land of The Olmecs]!
Mystery, islands?
We got ourselves a Myst fan here!
Ok I wanna integrate this is husk and true information into my campaign
This is such a cool setting. I'll have to remember something like this.
Damn that beginning have me goosebumps
How id use this as a campaign.
•islands are either false or true.
•people who live on false islands ho down with them never able to stop there fate.
•eventually everyone ventures deep deep inyo the ocean to find a large aquatic humanoid pushung islands up using his bare hands.
•he pulls up an islnad just a few feet away from you then the as he swims off to go find another island he noticed you.
•his stare freezes you into place, he moves closer and stars talking.
•" *why are you here? To make these islands preeminent? Its not so simple... you must first kill tbose who pull these pillers down, i merely pull these places back up, but by then its to late, everyone changes... no one is the same ive lifted this island so many times... i could recognize its beutiful plants from miles away... but those people... there memories are gone* "
•you venture deeper into the water and find a very reptilian looking humanoid many times bigher than the one before slithering on the ocean floor, then another and another grabing onto islands pillers and pushing them back into the grpund laughing at their little " *game* "
•they make an islands completely sink to the bottom of the ocean. They laugh and suddenly smash the islands.
• " *thesssssssse puny little beings live on ssssssuch high places, its yo bad we cant reach the puller... but we can alsssssso pull, we can desssssstroy..."
•you travel up tp meet the giant humanoid he tells you he is bound to a barrier just like them, but that you arent, and you go to a true island to post a mission with a giant pay off, then another and another until you have a whole fleet, you make a speech amd the npcs use mater magic to venture deep deeper amd deeper into the sea, and fight the servants you kill all three amd use water magic once more to raise every false island amd sever their pillers. Then the barriers also shatter, but as they do more threats emerge.
•the end.
I put together a character a little while ago named
Roman Newtimes
Ghostwise Halfling Sorcerer
He used to be just a regular halfling from a Shire like village. Before a necromancer attacked kidnapped and experimented on everyone there. As far as he is aware he is the only “survivor“ although you wouldn’t think so given the fact that his left arm and head are skeletal. (he even has two glass size but they’re just there for aesthetics since he can see just fine)
His most interesting quirk, is that ever since then she wears a ruby Icosahedron on a necklace and he says that it’s the sign of his religion.
That every so often duties who guide the actions and fate of random individuals to go on great adventures and stop evils, all under the command of a Divine Menstrual (or DM for short)
personally, i think the monk should have been the abandoned party member. the "rich histories" were all real, it was simply a matter of timing. saying "you were born an adult with memories of a life you never experienced" to players feels a bit cheap without making the memories real in some way, be it time loop shenanigans or stolen life/possession. What is the point in making your players write up a backstory if you are just going to reveal that none of it ever happened? At that point, the DM has TOO much control, as a twist along the lines of "this is your REAL backstory" is not far away, and that sounds like extreme railroading to me, even if it is in the past. If the past can be so easily overwritten, it is not that much farther until the DM starts making the future rigid.
As "long" as the story is, i feel like we need even more context to make it work. this revelation becomes a psychological horror without the context of the aftermath, or the prior context that makes such a revelation less existential.
I wouldn't have gotten that far as a player the amount of meta-knowledge I'd be required to ignore from the 6:42 event alone far exceeds my tolerance. Asking me not to metagame is one thing asking me to do so well actively feeding me setting lore my character should not be aware of is simply Beyond the Veil this stuff's a two-way street and the DM is driving on the wrong side of the road.
@@janschievink1586 i completely agree. my complaint was with the bigger picture, but it stems from that exact problem. maybe high intelligence characters could piece together the twist in universe, but to them, there is no twist. Instead it is just a historic discovery, one in which the presence of submarines really should not have lasted as long as it did. Then finally comes the nameless NPC monk who's words should not have been coherent enough in universe to clue in the characters that were being played that they should check if they are ex-husks.
Even with all that said comes the question of reality as a whole. The waifu's backstory was completely rewritten when she became a "true" (princess of one tribe of warring tribes=>shipwrecked drifter), so why do the players even remember the port they set out from? If they retain their memories of the port, the port could not be a husk by the rules previously established in the campaign, as they should have been modified the moment the husk island sank. If such discrepancies exist, why in the world is it a new discovery, and why was there ever the thought that husks were lesser beings? The more you think about the twist, the more holes appear, and the concept completely falls apart. It would take a lot of context to explain away each hole before the story works, and if said context exists, why do we never see it?
@@cullenlatham2366 Just wanted to point out for your backstory point, maybe it has to do with them leaving before the shift versus leaving as the shift happened? They left their Island well before the shift so there were no inconsistencies in their memories to be cleaned up. For the princess, the party members knew she was a husk, she was present watching the island sink (and therefore knew that her tribes were husks and didn't exist anymore), and there was a party member who was turned into a husk. These factors were probably why they would have their memories altered for the Princess but not when they left their island.
As for why it hadn't been discovered yet, maybe it had. Maybe people knew but didn't share it as lots of people might not believe it, and it would cause lots of issues so they might hide the information. Even if it hasn't been discovered, there is the bit about how people think a husk has never left their island. That means that it is likely that whenever someone witnesses a husk leaving their island or when something would cause the husk to know they were a husk, their memories get changed to prevent it from being noticed. That would stop people from realising.
@@calebmorri You are missing the point at the heart of the matter. How did the characters understand what the monk was saying? It requires meta knowledge to figure out, which is something that even the most intelligent characters would not be able to figure out. To solve the twist in universe, the characters themselves need to know that they have no agency, and that some gods in a different dimension are dictating their every move. Assume for a moment that the discovery about islands is known to the characters in universe. How do they react? The answer would never be "am i an ex-husk?" with the context the world establishes with them being lower class citizens. Husks are beings who dont exist on the cosmic scale. If a character even attempts to pursue the train of thought, they would not be able to properly remember the port they set out from.
Assume for a second that you are right, and that timing is the only difference in why waifu's history was changed but not the player's. The basis of the twist is that there is no separation between husks and trues other than where they are located at the time of the shift. The twist itself is so earth shattering a revelation that it would be impossible to ignore in universe. By that logic, the players would have to be the FIRST people to discover they were ex-husks. Now combine that with the second rationalization you make that the twist was already known on a small scale. In what universe could both explanations happen simultaneously? It is the same suspension of disbelief problem as submarines being a known tech but the truth of the islands being a secret.
Now how about a problem with the idea that husks maintain their memories if they dont witness their island sink. Where did their backstory come from? If they were born an adult with a fake history, that automatically makes them different from "trues" who are born a baby and create their backstory themselves. If there is a difference, then a husk can NEVER become a true, as an in-depth investigation of their backstory will reveal the truth. "Hi! My name is (X), and i grew up on island (y)." Seems like a standard enough greeting for the universe, dont you think? If husks are secondary citizens, such an easy check wont change their rights or the views the general public has towards them. Heck, it wouldnt even be that hard to discriminate or segregate at that point. Then think about the mass hysteria of such a greeting from an ex-husk on a true island. THE SECRET WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP HIDDEN!
Maybe 1 of your rationalizations could work with enough setup, but it is impossible to make both work without entirely reworking the system.
I'd say that it sort of depends on the setting/execution. One of the main reasons that you let the player design their character is so that they care about them. Which is not only an important feature in a game with an existential twist, but, I'd say that it still works in this case. Even if the backstories aren't "real" it doesn't change that the memories of them are very real to each character and effectively defines them as that particular belief they carry. The DM is not changing how the PC views itself, just what they're perception on reality is. The white dragonborn princess from a Husk Island in the story is still a white dragonborn princess from a H(Wisdom Saved Failed) out at Sea. Vice versa for their friend Amon who they know is now a Husk. Same even then for the Island they first began at because for all intents and purposes it was a True-for they were true-and it is now a definite Husk. The princess is the princess, Amon is Amon, the island is an island, the PCs are still the PCs.
All that's changed is their understanding of the Nature of The Shifting Seas.
It's not that the dm has too much power (besides being the dm) or is even railroading the party, though that depends on execution. Now that the players know the rules, what can or did the DM let them do with it?
Edit: As for how the characters understood the Monk, look around 8:20. They did a thing which caused a Husk Island to become a True and the PCs (not the players) were able to realize that there's more to The Shifting Seas than previously noted. And they became more certain of this at 9:16 when investigating a sunken island.
Wow just wow. Thats pretty impressive of a story. Sounds like a really great campaign.
Hey i've been watching your content for a while and have always enjoyed it although i never actually played DnD, but finally this sunday im gonna have my first ever one shot to see how ill enjoy and ill be playing a drunken gnome warlock named Gurdol. Wish me luck.
I actually did something almost identical in concept to this, as a DM, in my latest completed campaign. Spoiler alert: none of my players were very happy about the ending. They felt the campaign had become meaningless when it ended, due to it breaking the fourth wall. I honestly wouldn't do this again.
Man your players are party poopers! Twists like this are so cool! Don't give up on it bro!
@@knightfellnightna8231 Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps, I may have not foreshadowed the twist well enough. I'm not really sure. Either way, I appreciate the kind words, thank you :)
I honestly can’t believe I hadn’t subbed yet I watch every video like “I’ll do it after” but always forgot but not today
There is so much in the story I’m surprised it isn’t longer!
Kudos to this DM, that was great
I super want to know what the deal with the islands ad stems were. where did they lead? what was causing this?
If you like the Monster Hunter genre then Amellwind's homebrew Monster Hunter is exactly that. :)
Im currnetly playing in a campaign using that.
@@CritHit Awesome! How is it? I wanted to run one but worried about being able to make a good story in it
@@RioDrake Honestly- you could make your own story in it easily enough. It just provides you the tools for making items, and giving you monsters. Not much stopping you from having local towns under threat from brand new invasive species- and tasking players with taking them to town, and then discovering their bodies basically exude magical properties. >>
By previously established rules, shouldn't they have forgotten their original island and "retconned" their origin story the instant the original island sunk? That's how it happened to the princess. If the princess honestly thought she was a 'Real' who was rescued at sea instead of a former husk, then they should have had new backstories, too. Otherwise, all the husks that go out to sea would've figured it out when they tried to return home.
Now, this could have been another point where player and character knowledge diverged... but then the characters went back to the starting island to check. That shouldn't have happened. The revelation should have been:
"We have to go back to Point Jack!"
GM: "Point what?"
"You know, Point Jack! The island we started on!"
GM: "None of your characters have never heard of any such island."
Extra points if you've figured out a way to go back and edit all their backstories on their sheets right before (or maybe made new copies of their sheets and switched them somehow).
The board as the starting point doesn't really jive, either. Yes, the campaign started in that moment, and it's very meta to suggest that these characters did not EXIST before then and their backstory is ALL MADE UP. But... the real starting point seems to be when they chose to deviate from 'the quest'. That's honestly the most clever part: the quest, as given, would have them arrest a man on the same island. Nothing is directing them to leave. But because the target is sympathetic, they choose to go against the preset script and flee. THAT is clever. THAT is cool. Of course, the target is sympathetic on purpose, and the GM was hoping they'd do something like that, but that's still their big moment of choice.
Ending it all with some monk who shows up out of nowhere with the info dump isn't so great. There's really nothing for the players to... do there, except listen and be shocked.
And is this really where the campaign ends? What about the machines that, clearly, must be hidden inside every island (and broken in the 'real' islands)? What about untangling why everything is like this?
Honestly, I am not a big fan of these campaign stories that all END on a short-story style twist that the GM had intended all along. Too many of them feel like, yes, the GM just wanted to write a short story, and the player actions never mattered. In most of them, I feel like the players and characters really should have kept going, instead of ending it all on the twist. What do the characters do after the revelation? Just go mad or retire to a depressing "bad ending"? Come on. You're the GM. Don't just lead them to a pile of "nothing we did matters!" sadness. Let them keep working towards finding a meaning or fixing things.
gg
Not really. The Princess from Husk Island was still a princess. Amon was still Amon. The only thing that changed was the PC's perception of who and what was a Husk and a True.
Whatever magic that governs the Shift seems to only care about that particular factor where everyone thinks that they fit into either category, so a group of PCs who think they're a widower woodsman, a gangster for a shadow syndicate, and an amnesiac wretch named after a gardening tool do not disobey that rule by continuing to believe that they are those particular things.
As for Point Jack and why they didn't have altered memories of it, that revelation happened after talking with the Monk. Which happened after they discovered a broken Island Stem. Which happened after they learned that Husk can become True.
8:20 and 9:16 for those key details which suggest that the spell as been altered, at least for them.
Where did you get the notion of “nothing we did matters” from a story about characters discovering that a ‘fundamental truth’ of their world was alterable, and the mechanism by which to alter it? They discovered a *literal* world-changing power that is now at their disposal.
Fairly well executed adaptation of an Intro to Philosophy chapter as a D&D campaign. I have mixed feelings about it.
I would not have tolerated someone replacing my hobby time with a philosophy lecture, it's especially Grievous since the DM did so without players consent.
@@janschievink1586 Eh, it's a valid approach to storytelling. Ask the Wachowskis.
@@LetholdusKaspyr TRPGs are cooperative storytelling exercises all parties involved should be signing off on that stuff instead of having their contributions to the story retconed at a single person's discretion this reverse Deadpool crap isn't my idea of fun.
@@janschievink1586 Yes, but the DM manages the setting, and secrets and plot twists are valid. I probably wouldn't sign up for a game involving a mystery of islands that vanish after a week, but if I did, I would expect some Shyamalan-style revelations about the setting. What the DM did here isn't bad or wrong, but it's not as mind-blowing as people here are acting, or as the DM clearly believed.
@@LetholdusKaspyr PC backstory is the player's primary narrative contribution retconning it without discussion basically renders the GM the only narrative contributor they might as well have written a book at that point, this is stealth railroading. A good example of GM controlled backstory is the Red Sorcerer from the Weeknight Hero podcast Connor (Red Sorcerer's Player) actually signed off on that. The early episodes are available on the Weeknight Hero RUclips channel if you actually get curious enough to follow up on this, just be sure to include Mutants And Masterminds in your search words apparently there's a spice blend with the same name that comes up a fair bit higher in the search results.
Pretty amazing plot twist. That would make a good movie.
All I have to say to this are two official words
Mind. Blown.
What an interesting world...
7:25 in and it gives me kingdom hearts vibes
That was mind-blowing. I need to sit down
This reminds me of Megaman Legends where the world was rebuilt after Armageddon.
I'm so using this.... Mind blown and I didn't even play the campaign!
damn even temporary husk true enlightenment is true enlightenment .
My guess was that the Husks were Trues, or were "alive" at some point and clung to memories of former lives that the creature pulling the islands up and down below the waves fed off of. Guess I got it backwards. xD
It would be hella disconcerting to go from believing you were making the decisions in your own life to finding out someone else has been acting through you, your every action puppeted without your knowledge.
that could expand so hard, so far, so wide. husk islands connected to stems? what is expanding these stems? is it some sort of mega sized sentiend plant form? some eldtritch horror that 'summons' these islands so it can feed? why the severance? did some key event happened that simply caused said stem to break? if its a plant being, did these islands become 'ripe'? if horror, did some divinity intervene (in)directly and caused the creature to abandon that island? so, so many questions
I saw that coming after the Island where the NPC disappeared with the Island, was yep and they probably are all like that.
It could of also been played like it was a Isekai where they suddenly are in a new body living that bodies life, almost all RPG games can be seen almost like a Isekai.
Skyrim: you wake up as a prisoner.
Fallout 4: you suddenly appear facing a mirror (but in this case I'd not count it until you wake up in the Vault)
Pokémon: you are now in a child
etc.
Yup, this has concept isn't new, though having switches and "machinery" controlling the islands is just weak and would have ruined it for me.
Also the moral quandary seemed blatantly obvious from the start.
Astoshan is love. Astoshan is life. Wait... Death? Undeath?
Question for DMs how do you start your campaigns? Start in the tavern, wake up in jail, or something else?
I see a picasso esque Orangutan dudebro smoking a joint while helpfully handing out directions to nearby passers bys.
hunt, craft, enchat. sounds like monster hunter inspired DnD with final fantasy thrown in there with that Monster (Blue) mage
I quite enjoyed this story, but I it left me with more questions than answers. Where do the stems come from, What happens to the husk Islands when they sink beneath the waves, If all true Islands were once husk Islands who severed their stems, How does the old monk know he is husk, And why is the princess mentioned once and then forgotten?
Highly recommend people who like this story to check out DIE, both the currently in beta RPG and the comic book by Kieron Gillen it's based on. A lot of the meta stuff in this story is basically the entire premise of DIE.
I was expecting a Link's Awakening sort of deal.
Figured out they were husks instantly, before the adventure board.
Him: Monster Mage
Me: Blue Mage
Prevideo, I’m calling it. They are husks.
I called it.
Awesome world building there. :)
....a one shot worthy of steali*cough* borrowing lol that would be crazy but sadly I have several players that would question being a husk after more then one session
at nearly 7 minute mark, the reveal that the players minds were being altered reminds me of the movie dark city. were everything was just an experiment done by aliens.
I am rather fond of that Movie.
All I can really say is awesome
Then what is at the very depths of that world? Where do these islands come from? O_o
That seems a more pressing issue...
Such a world has interesting connotations. Does the shift span time ? does it suspend reality ? Are those that are still stemmed to the world experiencing life in 1 week segments only to be pulled back and preserved until their next rising giving them ACTUAL histories with other islands ? Are those lost to husk islands gone forever or will they resurface in another time with new memories ?
I was half expecting them to recognize the old monk as their buddy they lost on the husk island when it went down.
What a twist!
*Sudden Revelation Meme*
I really like this may use it one day if okay?
The Neverending Story go brrrrrrrrrrr.
Reminds me of the "The main character of Fallout 4 is a synth" debate.
This must be based on the last fryday genesis theory, stating that the universe coule have began last fryday, and everyone blindingly trusting their memory wouldn know
Oh I realized right before the monk... oh my God Jesus Christ oh my my my
Noticed you are doing commercial voice-overs now also. Congratulations!
That was a cool setting/world
I thought the twist would be that the husks were all part of a larger being.
then I thought the twist would be that the shifting seas were somehow connected to the DM.
the twist that we did get was pretty cool, but I'm still left with two questions:
why? and how?
Combine the Monster module with Stibbles Codex? Don't mind if I do.
Oh wow mind-blowing
Now this is some SCP material
Right when he talked about husks I thought he probably made the players husks. Super obvious, but I liked the existentialism. I would change the husks to people from alternate universes so the revelation implies moral consequence to the atrocities the players committed.
This is actually the plot of a novel by Brendan mull
OP must play a lot of Bravely Default.
This would make a good anime
Damn I'm running a campaign called the shifting lands 🤣🤣🤣🤣 hopefully it gets this epic
Hot dang that was good!
This is a good one.
I might have to add this for a Halloween event in my one piece campaign!
I just finished watching and I going to add this as a trio of islands that appear near each other and act just like these island with the difference being it 2 weeks and husks that leave are only one who remember the islands and everything that happened in regards to them, and those who are unfortunate to be on the islands even if they are real are forgotten by everyone that wasn't a from the island originally.
That is really cool