Noob DM Says She's An Expert. (Instantly Ruins Campaign)
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Noob DM said she was a D&D expert. The party quickly found out the opposite. Check out LITRPG!
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To be fair, experiencing a terrible DM is also how Mercer was inspired to give it a try
OP here, I didn't know this! Thank you for mentioning it ❤️
Lol man same here😂
Same reason why I started running games.
Bruh when I read Mercer I immediately thought of Mercer fray from the thieves guild quest line instead of Matt Mercer… I’ve been playing too much Skyrim lately lol
@@tomsky4751 but you can never play too much skyrim
I think the DM may have legitimately confused 'DnD' with 'RPG'. So their experience being from Skyrim would make sense. "I've played RPGs all my life, and always wanted to run a game!".
Kinda what I was thinking. Like she thought D&D was a sub genre of RPGs and not an already existing game itself. And then she plays Skyrim and says "oh this has dungeons and dragons... Same thing obviously".
Now, if she was a life-long Final Fantasy player, ESPECIALLY FF1, then maybe that experience could translate. Maybe. FF1 was just, like, the first DnD video game
Yeah that's not an excuse that's just being stupid
thats probably it ngl. she heard that dnd is a ttrpg (table top role playing game) and thought it would translate over easily
Yeah, d&d is the stand in for rpg in a lot of groups. Also could be an issue of they watched a lot of actual plays or campaign diaries and thought they had this.
Given that the DM's quoted "experience" is just Elder Scrolls games, I think she chose 15 as the starting level because that's pretty low in an Elder Scrolls game, where your level just keeps going so long as you have skills to increase.
It’s kinda weird. 15 is low in ESO and Skyrim, medium in Oblivion and Morrowind, high in Daggerfall and Arena.
@@khristian625 Then again Skyrim is the least RPG out of the bunch, infinite leveling pretty much just makes Skyrim a power fantasy which is ok sometimes. Medium in Oblivion or Morrowind depends on how well you leveled your character. Especially in Oblivion because the level scaling in Oblivion was so bad it was sometimes better just not to level at all. Many mods tried to fix the issue but none really even fixed it adequately. Morrowind by level 15 if you leveled up optimally could actually be considered on the lower end of high level. If you are just playing the game regularly though yeah 15 is medium leveled. Not actually played Daggerfall or Arena though because I could never get them to work on my computer. So no idea about them.
@@khristian625 She used Skyrim as the example, so she probably didn't play the older ones since they are way less accessible to the general public.
Personally, being inexperienced and using pop culture as reference is fine, the problem is to pretend to know things and refusing to course correct when a mistake appears.
@@maiqtheliar789 Daggerfall had a maximum level of 32 if and only if you rolled remarkably low for primary skills. Arena’s maximum level was dependent on what class you played, but buggy Elder Scrolls programming was baked in from day one and you’d skip ahead at 27, and as early as level 14, a Barbarian in Arena can have more HP than the final boss.
@@maiqtheliar789 You can infinitely level in Oblivion and Morrowind - you just go to jail to reduce your skills so you can level them up again.
Excuse me, "evil Vecna"? What did she think regular Vecna was? Giving him a pile of alternate versions like he's the next Tumblr sexyman is one thing, but evil isn't exactly an AU-distinguishing feature here.
Clearly Evil Vecna has a goatee.
He's evil.
nah, the one you know is "Malicious Vecna". normal vecna's just a chill guy
@@gungle2595hell yeah you know Normal Vecna too? Chillest guy I've ever met, he'll be at the barbeque next week
It do kinda be like saying "Swimming Fish"
Honestly I was sympathetic to the DM until she forced a quest on them, and then pulled the "I'm the DM so I'm right and you do as I say" it's okay to make mistakes to not know any better, but to try and force a situation or a quest on a campaign that was already supposed to end is plain dumb. And not even gonna comment on what she did after the fall.
OP here, yeah it was awful. And there were so many more awful things that she did after everything imploded it's just too much to outline in one post
@@MarshmellowMuncher-fx3nl Honestly, it almost sounds like the DMs best friend probably convinced her that she was in the right and you guys were the problem. The sudden flip seems so odd without an outside catalyst.
@DoctorOaks she possibly could have been influenced by someone who was stroking her ego, I have no idea. But at the end of the day she refused to listen to her players and became nasty
@@MarshmellowMuncher-fx3nl I’m convinced the arrogant ego dude was the problem tbh, I suspect he intentionally took the blame for getting all the characters to run from the princess, then as we know he cozied up to her when she did a 180. She was probably messaging him after each confrontation and he was feeding her stuff to make her double guess it all. Look at how op described him acting in game. I think he’s probably a complete sociopath/psychopath who enjoys manipulating people for his own amusement, I think he wanted to completely derail the campaign since session 1 and the conflict that started was the perfect ammunition to carry it out.
She could have salvaged herself by improving, and she chose not to.
If the OP is saying the truth, the new DM probably picked level 15 because she was more familiar with videogames, since she talked about Skyrim, as was going by 1 to 100 levels and when she realized it was too high she didn't want to admit not knowing and doubled down on it.
Clearly the DM needs therapy, not RPG, because she has some issues.
RPGs are therapy she is just stupid
OP fought with every player in that group. I am not sure the problem is the dm.
You don't need therapy for simple mistakes lol and no where in the story did she "double down" she happily took help from OP without strife.
@@rynowatcher I agree
@@rynowatcher Not sure either. But even if the OP is a bad player, she (if she was real) was showing signs of being the kind of people that will never admit a mistake and will just insist on lies.
But, maybe the player is the lier.
The worst part is, from that description of "You're typical dnd characters from typical dnd times, but now you're in the 1980s and have no clue what's going on.", that actually sounds like a really cool setting.
Yep. I would play that.
Kidding. I am a forever DM. That seems to be my lot.
@@jopestushey I'm always looking for players because I actually like being a forever DM. There can be many like me on r/lfg.
If you'd wanna join my table do know that I don't do dnd. Hate the system for many reasons I can underline. I do pbta games, currently finishing a monster of the week-come-city of mist campaign, i wanna try lancer next and I do like pathfinder fine enough.
I would do that, guys from a medieval time who were always used to fighting magic and swordsmanship suddenly having to face modern opponents with guns and tanks could be a fantastic setting especially if you made some quest lines about learning to wield “newfangled technology” and unlock usage of stuff like the internet for an intelligence boost or Google maps to prevent getting lost, reminder apps to remember things from previous sessions, cars for storage and a speed boost, guns to replace bows etc
You could even implement a battery system so whenever you use something that requires a phone it runs low and using lightning magic on it can recharge it with a chance of overloading it and breaking it with the amount reloaded and chance of failure being based on spell rank
I should be writing this down
*smiles in Le visiteurs*
How much do you guys wanna bet a non-zero amount of her constant flip flopping was due to that one guy playing kiss up and saying she did nothing wrong and that everyone else was to blame.
Definitely. Though they're both in the wrong, bad guy was definitely an agent of chaos.
None because fake story
@@srego7630 who gives a fuck if it is. it’s fun to discuss and hear
@gwitch waste of time but go off
Level 15 is the base level for skills in Skyrim (not character level, this start at 1). Each level in a skill increases very slightly how you perform on it, hence the "high" start, you need more levels to feel any difference. In DnD however each level has a substantial increase in power (it's only 20 after all), i think her mind was in Skyrim (yet still somewhat wrong).
Bruh this chick is giving me confidence in being a DM too and I’m a huge baby about how bad I think I’ll be at it
Do it! The only way to learn is to give it a shot!
if you got a group of good friends you are a player in then my recommondation is to just ask for a go doing some one shot or small campaign and see how it goes then ask everyone how they felt about it and if they liked it then you have no reason to doubt yourself
thats basicly what i did and after putting a well running campaign on break for a while and recently announcing to continue it everyone playing was really excited so despite my doubts about my campaigns quality i guess they like it a lot
Your players will understand if you're a first time DM. You don't have to be great at it immediately. Just make sure your players have fun and learn as you go.
your first session in a campaign will most likely be shit, BUT if you build around and plan from everything that happens in the first session, it gets a whole lot better!
@@OfHollowMasks damn thanks for that christmas confidence I for sure needed it
Oh, lawd the mention of "mouth noises" made my brain lock up. Big respect to OP for trying to help out and co-DM
Yep I can forgive a lot of things, but mouth noises are one thing I physically cannot deal with. I would not have made it past a single session lol.
I feel like the new DM was socially awkward person trying to make friends. After the first game, inviting them to play in a game may have helped introduce her to it. But then the crazy stalker bit I went “wha?”
I started Dming last summer after watching tons of Crit Crab and a couple episodes of Critical Role along with a "Guide to DnD youtube mini series". Before my group of equally inexperienced players got to the table, I spent an entire month just researching how the game worked, how to build encounters, and making the world thorough enough that they could go anywhere they wanted and I'd have a general idea of what could be waiting for them. (I wrote my own world because I felt it was easier and cheaper than researching someone else's. I can't get any of the NPC's wrong if I made them all up haha)
I'm really thankful for these horror stories because they made me more cautious about being a DM and realizing to set aside my wishes for the story and my ego in order to maximize the fun my players would have. Not only do we have session zero's, but after every session I check up on my players to see what they thought and if there was anything they need me to improve or do to help improve their experience.
you're checking all the right boxes there, friend. good on you :)
Man you're very good!
Have been Dming for 5 years and at the end of every one of my sessions I quickly go around the table to ask each person for one thing they enjoyed and one thing I could improve on/do more of. It keeps me humble and looking forward to improving my craft while also having any problems or concerns addressed immediately instead of potentially festering in the back of their minds and creating negative feelings at the table. Glad to hear OP opted to help the dm instead of immediately drop the campaign but it is a shame that she went a little wack near the end, either way though, OP got some good experience.
9:45 If she's coming from video game RPGs as her marker for experience, she probably thought that D&D levels go from 1 to 100. It's an understandable mistake, but yeah, once she found out it was so high, she should've scaled things down.
I was once told that great DMs inspire others to become DMs. This story, like my own DM origin story, proves that you can be inspired to be a good DM out of spite. Same reason why some people become parents to spite their own parents and become better ones.
I don't know why anyone would lie about their experience and ability in anything. You just don't do that for two major reasons.
1: It will show, and rather quickly.
2:It will come back to bite, often very badly.
Because it works, sometimes.
Thing is, I think for some people, they're not "lying". In their head, they've convinced themselves that they *are* that experienced/good/knowledgeable. The whole "fake it until you make it" taken to the extreme. And sometimes, it does work out - other times, like in this tale, it does not.
@@jaimerivera2382 It usually won't work out.
I imagine the thought process was "it's easier to attract players if they think you're more skilled than you are."
@@PTp1ranha It's not a good thought process.
It'll bite you where it hurts the most every time.
I have had people tell me the longest running campaigns they played in where the ones I ran.
Even with that knowledge I still refuse to consider myself an expert... or even talented!
So, when I hear someone say they are an expert, I don't expect the campaign to last more than a session.
Yup I definitely learnt that lesson in all this 😅
If you make a campaign could you consider me as a player please? I always wanted to play a long campaign but the ones I join only last one or two sessions.
If her knowledge of RPGs comes from Elder Scrolls, then starting Lvl 15 makes sense,. That is super low level in those games, probably equivalent to D&D Lvl 3.
Yeah, the mistake was insisting after being told that it was high. It sounds like the DM is the kind of person that insists on doing what she wants even after being told it was wrong.
@@williansnobreI think you’re projecting too much, just seems like a beginner dnd fan that got over their head
@@ce5122 Mayhaps
@@ce5122 There's no projecting. There's a difference between a beginner and someone who pretends to know everything and in lying about what they know, drag others down.
Damn, I was rooting for the experienced guy. OP's addendum that he ended up doing something really shitty to the group and got subsequently kicked out bummed me out, man.
Same.
But I also would like to hear what happened there, then.
@@Lillyluri that too, I kinda want to know how far the rabbit hole goes
Hey, you can feel better by thinking the OP might not been exactly honest with their story. It is kinda weird he seemed to end at odds with everyone minus one person. Possible, but sus. And there are some.... suspicious details about how he narrates the story, besides he seemed very engaged in a drama he portrays himself as trying to evade.
As always, all these stories are by all means, fantasy (as all narrations are by nature of human cognition), even if what OP described might resemble reality more, or less, or non at all.
OP here, we were intimately involved for most of the time I knew him, we were extremely close and he was my main cheer leader and confidence boost for becoming a DM. But then he screwed around with my best friend who I added to my group when I created it, I hadn't told her I was involved with him because I felt very secure and didn't feel the need to broadcast it so she wasn't in the wrong at all and he hurt her too. So yeah, that's what happened between him and I, so I of course kicked him. Took me a long time to recover from that especially since it happened right after this horror story. He genuinely broke my heart
@@MarshmellowMuncher-fx3nl Well if it is true, im sorry for you. I myself experienced a "betrayal" of sorts from a very dear friend long ago. Still, i hold my point, and hope you understand the, well, healthy and generally justified degree of scepticism.
What I've found in my first time DMing, is that home-brew games are real great at keeping things not complicated at all. For example, I'm not messing with the Underdark, the Feywild, or the Astral plane, I'm just making this stuff up.
Yup, and you can also easily soft railroad your players in the right direction. I had a homebrew world which included a massive forest of giant trees where even for the people that have set up their entire country in there the locap wildlife is more dangerous than any invading army basically in terms of story setting it was meant to be part of the mid to late game story as a high risk reward area. But since upon hearing of the place just after starting the campaign my group of 5 lvl characters wanted to go there (it was relativelyclose tp the area where they started but the main goal i intended for them early on was to go north, not south) i did have the locals warn them that for the nation wothin the forest the wildlife was a natural military repellant, but they still wanted to go there.
Luckily since i had set my campaign in the world of one of my novels (i am a hobby writer) i had plenty of nasty low-ish level monsters to streer them back. Let let them go most of the way there, but before they could reach the forest itself (it was in view but that is only logical when the trees are several miles high, yes i went with super skyscraper trees, some with cities in them) but a simple fox mom with a nest of pups would be an easy discouraging measure since said fox had a coat that on the entire back, tail and top of the head consisted of hairs glimmering as metal so i explained that they could try and fight the fox, but since they could clearly tell the fun in question was an almost literal coat of razorshap blades of metal, they wisely went the other way.
After the session when they asked me why i simply told them that the forest was a genuinely dangerous area meant for when they were far higher level and the fox they saw outside was the less dangerous variant and the versions in the forest had those sharp blades for fur everywhete, both would lead to them constantly taking chip damage in melee combat because of they.
They ended up appreciating the freedom and the gentile nudging in the right direction... then we got stuck 8n a DnD dating sim in a city for 3 ingame months on accident and it took a wyrmling dragon to get them on the move again (considering rhe campaign setting was an overall high threati used slightly beefed hp on normal wyrmling stats, but for description it was basically an adolescent dragon, it worked and once they got the explanation that any dragon older than adult, so elder and ancient, are considered natural dosaster for which entire countries up-end themselves and relocate. It was a fun campaign for as long as it lasted, plenty of fun shennanigans.
@@alyssabaerne9508 Yeah, I think it's pretty fun watching the players galavant around without a time limit. I once had a group who was on track for a more lower level quest get an item for a much higher leveled journey just by sheer dumb luck.
Considering this was online, I have to wonder if the "DM" that kept flip flopping was someone else influencing her or using her account with permission
Or just plain bipolar.
Hi OP here, no this was definitely not the case, I know for an absolute fact that this isn't the case
@@lynx655 Yeeeeah that’s what I was thinking. That lady’s behaviour screams “undiagnosed and untreated mental illness”
@@MarshmellowMuncher-fx3nlWhich one? The influencing or being bipolar?
No, women are just like this. Especially with D&D in my experience.
I learned a lot from the first long-form campaign I ran. The players made it to level 15 after we had been playing for four months. In my experience, the best way to challenge a party that high is… puzzles. I utilized traps and puzzles a lot and I buffed the ever living heck out of the final beholder.
Video begins at 1:33
Thank you
I think we all should be supportive to DMs like this. It's stressful. The only real way to learn is to actually do it so if too many people are scared of ridicule, there won't be DMs.
They tried to help her, 3 hours worth after the bad session, and her problem was she couldn't take criticism, lied about her experience, and/or was gaslit by a guy that told her she did nothing wrong and it was actually everyone else's fault things went poorly.
Six level fifteen, holy cow. That's like fighting thirty dragons every battle encounter. Amazing lol
(I recently did a level ten game because we never get to those levels and it's a different animal for planning encounters lol they have so many stuff to break things)
Well this gives me some confidence in the homebrew campaign that I’m making as it can’t go as horribly bad as this and it’s with good friends
Learning about all this horror stories gave me the confidence to run a one shot on the bachellor party of a friend, and it wasn't easy but it was great enough to think of giving it a try again.
As a DM of over 5 years, I personally ALWAYS recommend new DM's start with either
A. A module book to help them understand the basics of good storytelling and plot.
or
B. Another system with simple mechanics to get a feel for the flow of DM'ing.
My players have really enjoyed discovering the narrative I wrote for them in my homebrew world, and it is thanks to years of practice and learning. Many people do not realize the amount of work being a DM entails. I have easily written over 300+ pages of things for this campaign alone. lol
Monster of the Week is a great and simple system compared to dnd for starting! At least, in my opinion.
Sticking out the awful DM to give the two newbies a fun time was really wholesome and sweet. I know a lot of this is frustration incarnate, but that bit made me smile.
It's pretty unfortunate because I feel like if the gm was honest initially and said "I'm new and I'm going to try to run a game." It could have potentially gone way better. But also considering the way she acted after the fact, maybe not who knows.
I'm going to be running my first small game soon and I've been worried, like op said, I don't think I can do worse than that.
They actually aren't wrong about there being non god Vecna's. They established because Vecna has some magics to time travel that you can totally encounter a lich version of him despite him being a deity at the same time. That's why they released stats for him somewhat recently
Gotta say, the "biggest idiots than me are doing it worse right now" is a fantastic midset for people who needs a confidence boost. I myself became a DM because my wife and her friends and I played with a terrible DM (She would not know which player is which character, she seemed to make the plot on the go, plagued everything with distracting pop culture references, etc, etc) so much so I think we didn't even got to play 5 session with her, some time after my wife was pinning for playing dnd and lamenting that her friends could not experience a nice game. So being the sucker I am for making my wife happy I just went "Want me to create a long campaign for you guys?" Even tho I had very little experience prior, we just broke the 75th session some sessions ago and they are still engaged and continuously memeing about it and having fun, so I guess... Bigger idiots than me are doing it worse
I played my first 3 dnd sessions at the beginning of covid and then decided that all a dm really needs are basic combat rules, setting an appropriate DC and fun ideas. 3 years and 4 successful campaigns later I still havent read a single rules book, but learned everything from playing. Everyone can be a great dm if you put your hearth into it. The dm in the story was bad no questions about it, but some of ops points seem mean to me, like the thing with vecna. Its her world, there can be multiple aspects of vecna, that could be cool.
Just started my first campaign last week, and we're playing again this week! Gotta say, I've learned more about being a good DM from your channel than in all my days of being a player. Thank you! Wish me luck!
no
This is why i set my first campaign in the elderscrolls universe so that the setting and lore was familiar to me. I understand the whole first campaign struggle but I had at least played a few times before i ran. In the end I still made the mistake of wanting to make the "BIGGEST AWSOMEST ELDERSCROLLS CAMPAIGN EVER!" needless to say I should have chosen one province instead of all tamriel. The second half of it ended up grounding itself near the the border of blackmarsh and The city of deshann in the southernmost region of morrowind. I'm just glad my players liked it enough to ask for more. after starfinder they are getting a sequal campaign.
I’d love to play an Elderscrolls campaign!!
I rolled high on my initiative
The GM would probably be happier playing a PBTA game or some other storytelling RPG. She doesn’t seem to be inclined for the mechanical nature of 5e and similar games
I started DM'ing with 2 previous friends, and pitching it I told them "Im inexperienced but enthusiastic" and the few sessions we had leading up to March2020 were great fun.
(Edit, my actual point) I think more new DMs should really just own up to it. You are most certain to recieve support and help when necessary. Rolling with the "I'm lacking knowledge" punches also improves your Improv. I've made up some interesting wildlife and mechanics at times. It's a part of the fun
Also it’s incredibly mentally unwell of this person to stalk someone on the PlayStation network, that’s like messaging someone on linked in when they block you
I once worked with a compulsive liar, he would just make stuff up for no reason other than being admired for his made up achievements. I realized it when he got us in trouble after I let him drive our vehicle for a while on a long trip (we did cellphone tower work, so involved a lot of travel) and we got stopped at a random cop checkpoint, and he didn't have his driver's license, his excuse was that it must have been left behind on his firefighter clothes by accident. The cop let us go without a ticket or anything, just someone with a license must be on the driver's seat. But after that event it clicked, he was telling stories about things that would make him an admirable person, constantly, but there was never any proof of any of it.
He was a good kid, other than his compulsion to lie. I made sure that he wasn't stealing, so it all was only about wanting approval and praise.
Why do I get the feeling that the DM liked op, wanted to impress him by saying she's played DnD for years, but her pride didn't let her just be wrong in a public place when things started falling apart?
OP was a her btw
@@thetzar2573 ah, my bad. But still kinda gives off that feeling.
Most of my experienced dm friends would not run lv 15 campaigns
I am running a long campaign (going on 2 years), started at lvl2, likely to come to a satisfying close late this year or next. Unless I am wrong, the highest lvl the players might reach is 15, if they pursue all the 'optional content'
Ok... i get the feeling this DM has/had a crush on OP and this whole fiasco was a way for her to hang out and get close with him, maybe impress him.
I could be wrong but i cant imagine why else she would just suddenly claim to be an experienced player and try to set up a game.
I believe she chose 15 because in Skyrim, that is the level where players have enough points for a basic build.
I am so fortunate for my first time as a DM for four one-shots that I ran. All of them at level 5. I knew what I was doing; had an idea what I had to do and learned. Now I am gearing up for my first ever campaign and having fun tweaking the monsters. I think my players will love it.
As a long time player who has never DM'd (but is considering trying), the highest I would be comfortable starting is level 3.
3 and 5 were my group's favorite places to start because (especially when adding people who haven't played before) because it gives you your class abilities and subclass off the bat, but doesn't overwhelm with options and power. (and it makes encounters easier to balance, since most premade things are built for 1-5)
@@GeneralArin i also feel like a lot of subclasses are hard to level into contextually. Like some are easy, a fighter becomes more skilled and becomes a champion or a battle Master, or even a Cavalier. But how do you level up into somebody defined by a noble birth like a Samurai. Or level into spontaneously developing psychic powers other than being a Kalashtar and saying they got stronger. (Which is exactly what I did)
I tend to start my players at 3. Sometimes 5 for a more experienced group , and 10-12 if it's a high power one shot.
I really can't think of a good reason for a new dm with new players to start at level 15
Imagining a small child pretending to be an expert and DMing for a bunch of teens and adults is just the funniest thing. 😂
This just sounds like a simple, if not a bit stubborn and silly, misunderstanding about conflating "D&D" with "RPGs in general "
While I don't know the details of what could've happened behind the scenes, I have a sneaking suspicion that the bad player somehow played a role in the DM's heel turn. I don't have any evidence to prove otherwise but based on how much enjoyment the bad player seemed to have gotten out of messing with the newbie DM.
I just find it hard to believe that such a seemingly nice and understanding person would suddenly do a 180 and become a bad person. Idk I just find it hard to believe that such a seemingly understanding and open minded person could quickly devolve into...that.
I had to pause because I couldn't believe something in the story:
They where taking notes? I have to note my own sessions because none of my players ever did that!
And I asked... nicely... many times.....
4:53 To be fair, the Elder Scrolls originally evolved from some Bethesda developer's home brew DND campaign, but that's still a stretch...
I have derailed a new DM's game because he made a DMPC *AND* and ahorrible first encounter. We literally only had one seession because of me.
Context: I was apprehensive from jump because I am a person who can't forget slights. I had played two and a half campaigns with the new DM. Let's call him Argonaut. Argonaut had the habit of being very opinionated and attention seeking. As a DM he made a vampire bard/knight with a super high charisma.
The party isn't worth noting because we never got far. Thw game started with our characters in town not knowing each other aexcept the dmpc is out guild contact and suddenly a dragon attacks. Green dragon with temorsense, blind sense, Damage reduction 25/magic, and a breath weapon it can use every turn.
We were level 5 and most of us were new players. We manage to survive two rounds of combat because the vampire dmpc tanking everything until thw dragon grabs him and flies off. Note, the DM had talked about how beautiful and mysterious the dmpc was so often that I literally got up and made a sandwich while he was doing it once. I had tome to fry the ham and egg before he finished. I wish that was a joke. After the battle we PCs all look up and see our contact flying away.
I as the party spell caster say, "Nope, dragon can have him. I am gonna go see of the book shop survived."
One party member, a mercenary fighter type, says he would never leave a contract for anyreason other than money.
The party monk (my twin) silently communicates asking what to do. He actually just lifts an eyebrow and I just give a nod. Party monk then hands a gold to the mercenary and tells him to forget about the dmpc. Mercenary pockets the gold and we search for a book store. End session as the DM lapses into silence for twenty minutes. He asked what was wrong and I tell him that he homebrewed a monster and didn't warn us, his dmpc was spot light hogging, and none of us had any motovation to go after the dragon considering it wiped the floor with us. He moped for a while and eventually he parted ways with us but that was way later. He never got to DM again. He was a worse player.
Everyone comment your favorite dinosaur in honor of Jurassic Park’s 30th anniversary!!! My fav is a velociraptor!!! 🦕🦖🦕🦖
I'm a triceratops fan
Spinosaurus is pretty great and also the only one of my favorites I actually remember the name of XP
It's aquatic!
My favorite dinosaur is triceratops. I actually own a dice set with little triceratops in them.
Argentinosaurus, or the Patagotitan
Ankylosaurus, I loves them. =^_^=
This is the best example of "apply for the job anyway" I've ever seen.
One thing I wish people would do more often is explain what the acronyms they use mean. I'd never even heard of an INFJ until today and had no idea what it meant until I googled it
I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure there’s a good guy in this story. Sure, the DM has no boundaries and is a compulsive liar. However, the rest of the party either is abusing her inexperience to get whatever they want (I hate, HATE players that do this), lecturing her for hours over lore (which is really not that important for a new DM), trying to slyly circumvent quests (just tell the DM above board that you’re not interested) and acting hostile to change even when change is asked for (heavily criticizing a new DM then getting salty about a retcon is really, really unforgiving). Offering to Co-DM is the one thing I send redeeming, but even that I usually find presumptuous. But it was warranted in this case.
I am not excusing the DM. Shouldn’t have lied, should have opened up to their mistakes, should NEVER have stalked the party out of game. All of those actions are way worse than what the party did. But honestly, I’d steer any beginner DM away from a party like this.
Tbh a good way to start DMing is just using a premade story... from a book, minimizes the chances of messing up a story and can be great fun for everyone
>i met a woman
this is where most horror stories start
I just DMed my first game yesterday. I studied hard for four days straight leading up to it to make sure I was as competent as I could possibly be before sitting in that chair. I double-checked rules and books whenever I could without distrupting flow. I didn't even schedule that first session until I was certain I was **ready**. I could not imagine approaching a game like this without even knowing how to do combat. It's almost amazing.
I feel like "do this thing for me if you want this" is a valid thing for an NPC to do. Even if the players get nothing else from it, they want the pendant. Letting them steal it, however, would have been the right choice.
OP here, you're definitely right but she didn't set it up well at all, it made no sense because that pendent was going to save them all from corruption if we joined it with another pendant and a tablet, so that should have been enough of a drive for them to give over the pendent? Hence why we were like "ugghhh screw it we're stealing it" we couldn't handle anymore info-dumping and more random information about something else that had nothing to do with our clear story-line
She doesnt care about the game, trying to Smash OP, wants to be seen as smart and competent.
If someone talks about "Skyrim" AND "Elder Scrolls" as if they are separate things... thats a big ol red flag.
Everyone lies when filling out those tests
I now need comfort from Cuddly Vecna..
I always hate when I hear things like "we had a separate group chat". If you're doing things like that then you're part of the problem
This! First openly trash the GM for hours after each game, then trash her behind her back in the secret chat. Since we were given no insight as to how the OP gave critic, we can only assume.
It also gave me a red flag
@@Pyrrha312Yeah. CritCrab makes no comments on this, but cornering someone for THREE hours is not constructive.
It just shows they didn't raise concerns to the DM and instead let everything build up. Of course someone is going to be stressed after three hours of this.
I thought they did that to keep the bad player out?
I think that horror and glory stories are two sides of the same coin.
From the girl's lack of understanding in the gameplay aspects and weird force-rewriting of the plot, I have a feeling she's just a fanfic writer that occasionally plays RPGs. She probably didn't realise DND was a gameplay-heavy game, and not just roleplay, so she went into it expecting herself to do way better than she actually could.
The forceful plot change is also highly reminiscent of a solo fanfic writer, since she's probably used to doing whatever she wants with her own characters, rather than creating a story to accompany other peoples' characters.
I ran a small Halloween campaign for six level 15 characters and the balancing was rough. They moonwalked all over Juiblex, Demon Lord of Ooze. I overcompensated with the final boss and had to end the encounter early when it still had over 100 HP left because I had KOed 5/6 of the party and I could tell they were feeling frustrated... I think it was a very smart call to do that, and it was a great learning experience as a DM, but gods, I couldn't imagine handling that level of play being brand new to the game!!
Ayyy made it in under a minute to a new critcrab video! Hail to the crustacean king!
That DM had a crush on the op and was trying to impress him
*her. OP is a woman. But yeah.
@tsifirakiehl4250 fair enough. Narration is always 1st person so I didn't catch the pronouns
I DMed for the first time a few weeks ago. I was really nervouse about my knowledge and improv skills. Now I feels loads better. Thank you 🙏
And this, is why Pride is the most deadly and pervasive of the sins. It ruins people and rots them from the inside out.
This sounds like a really funny story based on the title
7:05 describing it as trying to “rango” her way through the game is hilarious
Honestly reminds me of my first time DMing. I was god awful I didn’t know what anything was because I only had one session of experience, and my co dm would never correct me or wouldn’t show up. I was terrible I didn’t know what ac was or how any of the classes worked. I also had six players like this lady, and one player who kept trying to steal other players for his campaign.
It wasn’t until my second campaign I had the level 15 mistake but mine was a lot worse. I had them pick custom races that pretty much had 6 classes in one. Which got out of hand quickly.
At least I never lied and said I was a experienced DM. Nor did I freak out like her. I was honest when I said I was new and I learned a lot from those days. Now I can actually do good campaigns.
Brian gang, rise up and don't lie to people taking their time to play with you, and do research, also don't railroad everything!
this is why when I do DMing well star doing DMing, I want to get into DND I would start the players off on level one, and plus I would learn everything I could about DnD the armor class difficulty classes and everything. I am building a homebrew world and have a campaign idea but I think I would start with a modal to learn the basics
The ultra crab supreme special of twice in 5 days 💯💯💯💯💯
I feel like she was trying to impress him by faking knowledge about a thing he's into, but couldn't admit when she got caught and doubled down hard, and harder.
Gotta love when people tell a story and then talk about how other people liked their dming lol
No way critcrab actually using NagiAsu on thumbnail, and it's actually the best scene in the series ❤️
first, it is perfectly fine to admit you are new to dming. i've only played 3 campaigns, and i just recently started dming. it is going pretty oaky so far, and part of that is if i need help with something, i can ask the party (half of whom has dmd mane times) for help. that's okay to do. second; at 17:30, the only mistake was joining in the first place
Wow.... It's taken almost two years to reach level 14 ( we play every other week for about 5-6 hours, sometimes up to 7, barring issues that prevent games from happening). I can't imagine starting at level 15.
As someone who only started DMing this year, I've had a lot of imposter syndrome and nerves, not helped by the curse of scheduling conflicts resulting in players dropping out. But MAN has this (temporarily) cured that Imposter syndrome.
As a new DM for Pathfinder 2e, I can add that new DMs,
PLEASE start at level 1.
Brand, spankin' new DMs who haven't done much yet, start at level 1.
You get to slowly get used to powerlevels, you get to understand what your party can do more, and you just have more control over what happens because they lack many abilities.
As you get better at DMing the game, you get to do more, you get the players to do more, and you grow together.
im noticing a lot of really mean bad faith in this story. Like the worse thing this DM did was be new and try something out while at most she 'lied' about being a pro. Kinda a dick move trying to make this lady off as some asshole.
DMing is hard. Depending on the player's patience, one bad session can end the campaign. It's a lot of pressure.
That lvl of railroading is like my last DM. If we bypassed something or anything he would say "ok session over, I don't have anything besides this planned" so we were ALWAYS forced to do stuff he wanted
"Local man trapped by the system chooses violence" Based ad.
Oh new dm syndrome, that's what I call it at least, the desire to be seen as professional and skilled due to anxiety and fear of rejection, when at best you're swanning, but I'm probably off the mark as I haven't finished the video yet
Update, well I was right for the most part, but I did not see that ending coming
I've had a similar experience with a DM before. He said that he was an experienced DnD player on a small streamer's Discord, after the small streamer talked about wanting to play DnD. He offered to DM and we all started the campaign. Things that are red flags now didn't register at the time. We started at lvl 1 because 3 out of the 5 players were new to DnD. He didn't help the 3 newbies create their characters so the other experienced player and myself helped out. This should have been a red flag but we just thought he wanted the newbies to decide their characters without his bias.
He had no NPCs for the first 3 sessions because he wasn't comfortable with RPing. This was a red flag when we figured it out session 2. During session 1, we just reasoned that the tavern we were at wasn't busy that time of day and we ended up in the forest, looking for 2 of our party members because reasons. Our characters didn't actually know each other but we went along with it because we wanted to see what the DM planned. Session 1 ended with us finding our 2 party members. If you read that and don't know what the plot of the campaign is, neither did we.
Session 2 was us exploring a cave because reasons. (Reasons being the DM said "You guys see a cave in front of you" and us going "why would we go into this cave?" and the DM giving us a pathetic look) We noticed the red flag when we rolled for perception, our first roll of the game. Our ranger rolled a nat 20 and got 28. The DM said that we saw nothing. No doors, no tunnels, no way through the cave. It was a big empty one room cave. We investigated and got a 22 in investigation. No secret doors or anything. So the party turned around and started to leave before the DM yells out "You guys can't leave! You guys are supposed to go through the cave!" We were confused because of our high rolls and saw nothing. DM tells us "you guys just didn't roll high enough to see the "obvious doors" in the cave. I know that rolling a nat 20 isn't an auto-success. But if your DC is higher than 28, you didn't want anyone to see it. The DC problem didn't get better.
We went along with the cave adventure and found... nothing. It was a big empty cave with DC 30 doors. When we were about to leave, we were ambushed by 2 skeletons because reasons. We had to teach the DM how initiative worked and all that. The fight lasted one turn (not round, turn!) as the monk got the highest initiative, and two unarmed strikes against 2 skeletons with bludgeoning vulnerability later, ended the combat. The DM asked if monks were that OP in DnD and I choked on my water.
We offered to help co-DM and got yelled at for trying to take over his game. We went one more session after this and asked the fatal question which ended the campaign. "What is the plot of this campaign? We're kinda just going places because you want us to without character reasons." The DM didn't have an answer and left in a huff.
Hey critcrab you're one of my main inspirations into getting into dnd and becoming a dm, thank you for continuing to make wonderful videos
At first DM seemed to be actually nice person. She lied about her experience, yes, but she didn't go full "shut up, i know what im doing" - she accepted help, listened to advices and complaints, etc. Yeah, until certain moment came... So sad.
"Level 15." "Oh, is that high?" Eject, eject, eject! RUN!!!!!
There is nothing wrong with a DM openly saying they lack experience, and ask for Player assistance. Kudos to the OP for TRYING to help the DM and generally fix things. Kudos to the group in general for short-circuiting the DM's pointless side-quest. Loved the move of using the Deck Of Many Things as, basically, a Doomsday Option.
Even near the end, if this "DM" had the grace to admit where she went wrong, simply listen and genuinely accept the advice available, she could have salvaged her game.
Glad it has worked out for OP.
An ad break 1:30 in to video interrupting an in video sponsorship…. Love you, just not having a great day and not what I was expecting
I've been running games for ages, but I wouldn't call myself an expert even now.
1:03 "the joy of VIOLENCE"
*wheeze*
The best creators on many different platforms comma including making movies have experienced a bad Director or DM or even music creator and eventually thought:
"I could run it better than this", then they did and they became great at it 😊