Are Memes BAD for Players in D&D?

[@PackTactics]

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[@LucanVaris]

I'm sorry, Pack. What were you saying? I was too busy looking at memes...

[@arnijulian6241]

learn to read, draw or drink etcetera as you keep yourself busy while still at the table be it IRL or online.

[@SlinkyTWF]

If the DM has to call your name 5 times, you're taking an unannounced AFK, asleep, or you died at the KB. Only the latter is acceptable under the circumstances.

[@apeters8]

My mic was muted

[@shadeleviathan621]

@@apeters8I feel that

[@KeeganKopas]

Once played in a one-shot with a guy who kept falling asleep. Guy was snoring at the microphone.

[@tylerpimentel906]

"I gave the pie to the kids, they loved it." Nah, you know what you did. 😂

[@PackTactics]

shhh.

[@Smrt927]

When i ran that module years ago i had two of my players break out into a fist fight over the last pie on the cart. I made them roll to hit and grapple each other. At some point they both got nat 1s so i had the pie slip from their grasp and some urchin grabbed it and stuffed it in their mouth.

[@Onethirdless]

Lmao came to comments for thia

[@joshuachapman247]

"I am sure it was your fault, you are very blameable." Lol - nice one Gator

[@40Found]

Not my ADHD ass having to watch the video again because I was reading the memes the first time 😭😭😭

[@prosamis]

FOOL! I, also with ADHD, filtered the background noise as irrelevant as I relished in the memes, proceeded to get called out, and decided not to rewatch anyways for I still processed maybe 5 relevant words total!

[@synppai4802]

How the hell did you comment 10 days before the video was released

[@philippobitz2592]

@@synppai4802 ADHD grants access to many abilities some may consider... unnatural.

[@LyleAshbaugh]

Hits close to home 😂

[@MomijiHVods]

We had a player in our Monster hunter homebrew campaign who was not only playing FFXIV mid-game, but was doing high-level raids which require a boatload of concentration, and I found out because i had to export a twitch vod because it was about to expire and i forgot, so i hopped onto twitch for 30 seconds to export it and HE WAS STREAMING HIMSELF PLAYING WHILE WE WERE RPING. man was CHECKED OUT.

[@zeehero7280]

As a FFXIV savage raid tank, as well as a D&D player, I am dissappointed in this person and would never want to raid with him. (or D&D with him)

[@sharingheart13]

People pay attention to stuff OTHER than the game during a session? Between all the possible things my character could do, double checking features, feats, spells, and what not, listening to what the DM is saying and what the other players are saying so I can jump in, and who knows what else that can pop up during the game, I can't imagine having enough brain space to pay attention to anything else, and I have ADHD.

[@genghiskhan6809]

Me: *exploits any moment my character isn’t involved to double check my class loadout, look over magic items, and plan my build.

[@saqwana25]

i tend to watch the other characters are doing to see what i can do to help, or i am reading over the monsters stat blocks in the situation where there is confusion over a feature, then looking at items to see what would help my build, also occasionally looking at memes.

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

Same, I'm always refreshing my memory of what I wanted to use or say more with my character when I'm warming the rp bench. You have to, like in Kobold's example, leave me out of the loop for a LONG time before I go "okay, so I'm clearly not getting to play anytime soon. I'll keep my eyes busy with something else while I listen to the game." Even then, I've only had one time where it got bad enough I straight up left a game and that's because I only got 1 short turn in a 4hr session, I didn't get kicked.

[@rogerwilco2]

I agree. There is always more to look up.

[@FelicityUwU]

Is DnD your hyper fixation per chance?

[@aethertech]

I dont care if a player isn't paying full attention, as long as they take their turn without needing to ask what happened for the last half hour.

[@PuppetSoul]

>"take their turn" When you play D&D as an action rpg, people can zone out because you're basically npcs that don't need to actually "play a role".

[@LucasCarter2]

I played in a game where combat was against very easy characters but each encounter took 2 hours because every player needed a recap every damn time their turn rolled around meanwhile when it came to my turn I would be able to do a complex series of things before ending my turn in less than 30 seconds. Then the fighter would take 5-10 minutes on their turn.

[@aethertech]

@@LucasCarter2 Yea, I know that scenario well.... Players that don't read their character sheet, players that keep doing fire attacks against immmunes, players that constantly mute the entire discord not-on-their-turn and have to ask every time it is their turn what happened, players that are either so drunk or high they dont know what is going. Players that just....sit there and umh----ohhh---huh over their simplest decisions... I just take my turn, up to 2 minutes, maybe, if i have to ask the dm questions about something not RAW.

[@frostfiredirewolf8517]

There is a much older meme than seducing a dragon...A much more nerdy and lame one. But is dear to my heart. "I cast magic missile at the darkness"

[@geneericii3689]

Galstaff!

[@maxshaw1930]

9:16 As a perfectionist DM who regularly beats themselves up for the most inconsequential mistakes and finds themselves overthinking if players are even happy, I needed to hear this, thank you.

[@eatskatefastass]

I agree so much with the playing with artists thing. One of my friends is pretty new to TT and goes silent for long periods sometimes, but its because they're working on a meme relevant to the campaign that makes the entire discord call lose their mind in laughter. Definitely hugely improves the sessions

[@Shnauften]

Crafting memes mid-session is actually a great way to show you're actually listening because you not only follow along, but you even understand what's going on enough to turn it into a relevant meme. If you end up taking too long to craft said meme, however, you might start to lose out on some things that are happening. You have to be quick to make memes in the middle of a scene.

[@sheilwood]

"You probably got distracted from all the memes I showed" I feel called out

[@pederw4900]

Another good reason to never split the party! None of this would have happened if the whole party was present for these scenes!

[@logancuster8035]

Yes 💯 Kobold splitting off from the party is the reason this happened. As a player you should do your best to keep the party together. I understand that isn’t always possible, but if you spit you should do so with the understanding you will be forcing other players to wait and that you are making life harder on your DM

[@funnyman359]

@@logancuster8035 Both as a player and DM I find it interesting to learn about the/other PCs when they split up for a downtime session and I think it is never explicitly written down but there is a shared understanding that we will "cut" to another group/person once there is a narrative beat, e.g. exiting one shop and heading for the temple? Now let's see what the Barbarian is up to in the underground fighting ring. He won 2 rounds and someone mysterious approaches him with a bag of coin? BAM cut to the Wizard in the Library

[@logancuster8035]

@@funnyman359 yeah, it can work. It can even be narratively compelling. But I stand by what I said. It is harder on the DM and you should expect that you will be making other players wait. Especially when the whole party splits to do their own things. Those tend to lead to the longest breaks with players doing nothing and most scene juggling for the DM.

[@tuseroni6085]

in most tables i've been in, if you split off from the party you are probably gonna die.

[@pederw4900]

@@tuseroni6085 what is a shattered party and ended campaign but death of another kind?

[@TakaD20]

I'm a Level 4 memesmith and I cast 'thank you (slaps table)'

[@Ace0Spades17]

I once played a Kenku that only communicated with memes. I used a meme soundboard on my phone. I tried not to overdo it so my character wouldn’t talk much. But when I did I’d try to make it as funny as possible. I’d have to pick my moments to make sure it was actually funny 😂. It was great and the people I played with loved it

[@bladeRoller]

Yes. Im sick of the memes corrupting and coroding new player perspectives of classes, monsters, exct. "Im playing a bard." "I roll to seduce to the waitress." Oh good job bud. Thats exactly what the bard class is meant to do. Yeah lets just reduce all of the flavors of classes to one shit and tired narrative .

[@SamuelDancingGallew]

At the very least, you could try something fun like having Bardic Inspiration being granted through the Macarena. Barbarian: Heeeey Macarena! *WHAP!*

[@ecothunderbolt257]

I feel like the Stereotypical Class Expectations get a lot of crap because they've been done so many times poorly. A well-done "horny bard" could be a lot of fun. Serious? Not really, but it could definitely be fun if there's character beyond that. (Assuming of course that everyone at the table is fine with sexual themes). Similarly your archetypical White Knight Paladin gets a lot of crap for being Lawful Stupid, but there's also potential for meaningful RP. Same goes for the Fighter with a Dead Wife, The Ranger that's literally just a hunter, the loot-hungry Thief Rogue, the Merlin Wizard etc etc. That is of course the caveat. We get mad at these sorts of characters because they "lack depth" and are played poorly. When these kinds of characters are played well they aren't problematic. Would I rather play an actually educated Bard with deeper goals? Definitely. My fav Bard I've played was College of Spirits and I loved leaning into playing a character that is a Fortuneteller as something other than a Divination Wizard.

[@TheNoMoreGamer]

“Sneak attack is OP” “Ranger is the worst class”

[@bladeRoller]

@@ecothunderbolt257 Yeah I'm not saying these things can't be involved in good character creation, I'm just expressing frustration that these memes are perpetrated so frequently that they're warping people's understanding of what the class is actually about. This very rudimentary and honestly diminishing portrayal of what the baseline of the classes identity is actually about not only misleads those looking for soil to plant their seeds of creativity, but warps newcomers very grasp of what the core (soil) of a class's identity. It also promotes the idea of running your characters personality based on their class rather than their life experiences and their roles in society. And if we're being realistic, these jokes were probably funny exactly three times before they became tired and concerning. I just ask that content creators and even players try to avoid continuing these jokes for much longer. It tends to create a worse experience in the end as new players are introduced to the game what's a mindset that limits complexity and creativity. It's really sad because I've actually met some people online that actually think this way and end up feeling pressured to do certain things or act a certain way. Not because it's what the character would do, but because it's what their class should do. Hopefully one day everyone will have a open mind free from tired memes limiting their creativity and expression when first learning the game.

[@SamuelDancingGallew]

@@TheNoMoreGamer Don't forget: "Ranger is just Nature's Rogue!"

[@dextra_24703]

My DM is like a Master of multi tasking he roleplays with us, while playing minecraft in the background, he knows his entire world so well he just thoroughly knows who our characters are and who we are in the room with, of course if there is a fight he can't really play as he has to move tokens, constantly describe if changes to the battlefield can happen or if a NPC is in danger, but during roleplay he is either moving tokens in the background or playing Minecraft.

[@Styrixa]

Great video! We need more videos like this that are about the social side of TTRPGs. Yes, your "optimize" and "rule" videos are what brought me to your channel, but these videos I genuinely think are your best.

[@Dakarai_Knight]

Well it's a social group Game and being distracted all the time is not optimal.

[@ether4211]

As a DM I fixed the long party split problem by giving the other players things to do while they wait - eg assign them a minor NPC to roleplay like a guard or have them come up with the drinks list for the bar or describing what shops the town has. This way they still get to be part of the scene even when their PC is somewhere else and you get to outsource some of the DMing work during a party split. This has lead to some real highlights like a heroic last stand of a unnamed low level town guard vs the high level PCs.

[@SeldonnHari]

When I play, I try to put my phone away. I'm easily distracted.

[@skeepodoop5197]

Me when I show up to this video before it was posted because I made a meme for it: (Side note: Whenever I'm not doing anything in a game, I usually boot up Pokémon showdown on another tab, instead of looking at memes.)

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

Kobold: New video, no spoilers Look inside: spoilers

[@ozcarp92]

The groups I play with always post memes and reaction gifs on discord regarding things related to what is currently happening in the session. It's great and I love it.

[@pdubb9754]

My players post memes in Discord during the game. But it is typically with reference to what is happening in the game. When I DM, I usually have a PDF of the adventure open, I have Roll20 open, I have D&D Beyond open, with character sheet tabs and monster statblock tabs, and I have discord open, which we use for audio. I do not look at Discord during the game. I like to look at what the players posted, maybe the day after the game, and match the meme to the in game event that prompted it. I tell the players which ones made me laugh and which ones I found puzzling. I realized that if the players meme searches I grounded in the game, they are paying attention, and most importantly, the game is contributing to a sense of group fun, just in ways driven by the player instead of the DM or the characters. As long as it is fun, I have no beef with it. I've had the same players at the table for about a year, so I guess they like the game. I try not to let this meme business make me feel like I am doing something wrong

[@marcellopz50]

While it’s nice that the DM every so often asks what which and everyone wants to do, players should also be interested enough that they will should interest about the things they’re thinking of doing. In the case in the video, 2 players go to the bar, when they leave the bar to go around the city, the other players should already know what they want to do in the time the two others were in the bar and the DM can easily change scenes to that before continuing with the first scene.

[@jamcdonald120]

5:25 oh we are back? I was looking at memes durring that story

[@CopiHuman]

Have to agree on the bit about artist players. I'm in a game with one and we've had some super funny bits drawn out that we still laugh about to this day, possibly one of the highlights of playing with them!

[@umbreeunix]

Artists drawing memes and stuff mid session is less 'multitasking' because ultimately they're still focusing on the session. Have to be to draw parts of it. Plus it helps maintain focus, similar to how walking and talking can. (speaking as an artist btw ^^)

[@VSPhotfries]

So, I'm a severe ADHD case, and everyone I play with knows. I'm lucky people understand (in no small part due to another with the condition among us). I actually most often write music in another program while playing our current game, in fact. You know what I'm also doing at IN-PERSON games? Also usually fiddling with a drum machine or synth of mine. I manage to keep up fine, so nobody gets offended if I do that, or bury myself in my sketchbook, etc., but as I mentioned, I am fortunate to have understanding friends.

[@zenmaster8]

Ive found when playing over internet, its nice to have a text channel where players not in the scene can react and post memes about the situation. That is probably affected by the fact we have people who sit in on our games that arent playing but ive found having a channel to shitpost as long as its related to the session helps improve investment in the campaign.

[@Tony_Goat]

I run a beer and chips style game for my friends and I absolutely encourage players to find and share memes, as I might turn them into funny encounters or one shots down the line.

[@andrewpeli9019]

There are quite a few horrible DMs out there. If it’s a chronic issue that people don’t pay attention, don’t show up to sessions, and you don’t get returning players, it’s very likely that it is because of something you’re doing as a DM.

[@zufinfluby]

Yeah, managing a split part is an important DM skill. Ya gotta flip back and forth between groups, and keep track of time! The one exception I've seen work ok, is if the off screen group are really invested in the scene, and even then you wanna check in frequently.

[@TabletopWorms]

I've found that I pay the most attention when I have a specific drawing I'm trying to finish. I can easily listen to what's going on, visualize it, and still do my turn. Or I can GM and then I'm required to pay attention. 😂

[@thomasbell3647]

Taking notes for sessions has helped me a lot with this issue, not to mention how much the rest of the table has appreciated my notes to remember what happened between sessions. It may not work for everybody, but I am a strong advocate of taking notes as a way to keep people invested in the game.

[@danc6167]

One of my players is a professional artist and he's always doodling on Owlbear and making cool fan art. He's also one of the most creative and engaged players I've EVER had the pleasure of DMing for. I'd never ask him to quit goofing off

[@wmmoller]

I have a one-use-only suggestion for this scenario: try to find an excuse for the PCs to let an NPC into their confidence or otherwise manufacture a reason to do an in-game recap. Carry the ball until the last bit you remember clearly, then plead a dry throat or otherwise pass the ball to someone you heard interacting (so they were probably more zoned-in than you) and sit there nodding politely and pretending that everything they tell you is stuff you already knew 😂

[@zoid3167]

So this is more about getting distracted while playing rather than memes themselves invading game space. I have no problem with people getting distracted it happens, but when you start bringing inside jokes to a table and building ideas around punchlines that are forgotten about 2 weeks later is where I draw the line on memes at the table.

[@Kotenekrazy]

I'm pretty new to Dnd, in the only campaign I played I did find myself distracted occasionally and did happen to fall into a pretty awkward place where at least at one point the party decided to do something my character 100% would not have let stand if she were paying attention. That was rough. To be fair, almost every time I zoned out was because my DM was getting Rules Lawyered by someone and then he and the player went on a research contest. By the time, I checked back in plot was happening. My workaround for not coming across as a disrespectful player or making the DM feel bad was 1) Instead of asking what just happened plainly, I would ask it by saying I think some preconceived bias or idea has muddled my understanding, could you remind me of x. 2) I would hype up the DM as much as possible and would show that I was thinking about the game and stuff away from the table. He has told me that I was the reason the campaign ended conclusively instead of just falling apart due to burn out (from certain other players). 3) My character was pretty stupid, so her not really understand something because I didn't seemed natural for her.

[@mikecarson7769]

related = as DM/GM, i give myself a timer whenever i am talking, ping at 1 minute and buzzer at 2 minutes

[@truecross4090]

Posting relevant means in accordance e to what is currently happening in the campaign on our discord while in session is a source of constant enjoyment for our group. Can't imagine it any other way. Lol.

[@jamcdonald120]

6:00 its the face, the nice blue faux inoccent face with big eyes

[@Tomha]

I think it just depends on the group and the timing. I had 2 different groups and very different vibes. 1 group was small and everyone k ew what they were doing. We were consistently invested, active and having a good time. I did have to check discord often cause I chat up my friends a lot. No disruptions, no missing details. But the other group...oh boy. Imagine being a level 3 and needing to take 10-15 minutes for each player to figure out wtf they were doing every turn against enemies that were a lot stronger than we were prepared for. You're a lvl 4 Barbarian, you know what they do! We don't have any magic gear or potions, you literally have 2 options, attack or defend! It'd be my turn and I'm a Paladin of Glory, I know the assignment. Hit the tough guy with my Halberd, Smite, channel divinity cause I can add it ontop of my smite with this subclass, give the most fragile team mate temp hp from my smite. End turn! Took me like 2 minutes and a RL Chad Pose to Inspire the Bard. Why is the Barbarian needing 15 minutes!? Rage and Slap! So...because the battle would take 4 hours and not even finish, I just end up looking at memes while waiting for a the DMs turn(s.) Literally only my Paladin and the Bard healer took our turns in a reasonable time scale.

[@dr0g_Oakblood]

0:48 - what are you talking about, that second monitor is clearly just a colorful spreadsheet…. good mercy is that psychopath playing in Observer mode? (/s)

[@MalloonTarka]

I have ADHD, so I tend to zone out whatever I do. Looking at memes (especially looking up ones relevant to the situation, for the purpose of posting in the Discord) is very much a lesser evil, since I can switch back and forth easily and never pay so much attention to them that I miss important cues. Though that's if I'm not looking up rules, theorycrafting, planning, etc.

[@gamelairtim]

I have seen this happen basically at every form of entertainment where more that three spectators are present.Watching a movie? Playing a game? At a strip club? Someone is on the phone looking at memes. It’s rude, people shouldn’t do it… …but before the internet, these same people would be even more problematic; starting a side conversation, stepping out for food/eating, smoking/vaping, or even interfering with the entertainment. Of the options, memes are relatively harmless.

[@tridentgreen3346]

I will listen to music in Picture in Picture mode at like, 3% volume even if the DM puts music on. Only online though. Actually helpful to keep focused , while still talking with teammates and keep an eye on the state of the VTT.

[@helgiuz]

Is that was a Donkey Kong's King K. Rule reference? )) Cool! )

[@MisterWretham]

Most people who think they are good at multitasking aren't as good at it as they think. Splitting your attention isn't great and if compared on a task to time ratio, we do better completing a single task and then moving on to another single task. Roleplaying games aren't exactly single task projects though, are they? This is a very good topic to discuss, its definitely making me think about this issue in different ways.

[@kardoxfabricanus7590]

ADHD meds plus help from others when it comes to discipline and support will make you function in a way that allows for fun sessions. I have ADHD and I have so many zoning out problems but my DM is accepting and I constantly try to pay attention and ask for memory checks (DMs way of allowing us to use history checks to memorize stuff we accidentally didn't pay attention to. It adds to the roleplay and also makes us have a way to play even if we zone out. It makes for funny moments when we fail and don't even remember basic plot points OR remember perfect details. Highly recommend the memory skill anf you can have it be int or Wis for people who miss important details due to zoning out cuz of autism etc.

[@cultivatedjerk5574]

Alternate view here: If the DM or players are doing a lengthy scene away from the rest of the party, I think it’s completely reasonable for a player to play another game, read a book, etc. until they can participate again. Should DMs run 15 minute or longer scenes with only 1-2 players? I personally don’t think so. Here’s a couple of alternatives: If the Rogue wants to scout the dungeon alone, a good DMing approach is to give the Rogue a few minutes, then pause that scene and swap back to the other players and give them an opportunity to roleplay or solve a puzzle. After several minutes, pause and swap back. If the DM wants to invest half an hour on a single PC, they can always schedule a one-on-one mini session between game nights. Finally, remember that PCs should typically be motivated to work together. I’ll read (and enjoy) a player’s short story about a loner-character, but PCs who want to do everything alone aren’t the right fit for my table.

[@renatocorvaro6924]

I blame Kobold because he's the smartest lizard in the room.

[@primulas]

I thought this was just a thing with my online game. As the DM i love the "meme trail" next day when i have a meme recap of the entire session. I can see how it could be problematic however. It works well for our Saturday night silly campaign. My engagement seems surprisingly high despite the memes.

[@Glorious_Mane]

My tables openly encourage posting campaign relevant memes during the session. It brings a lot to the game, both in highlighting tense, hype, exciting, or funny moments. We're a table that just loves every aspect of the game, we do a ton of RP, love the wargaming side of things, enjoy optimization, and enjoy each other's company enough that jokes are always welcome. It doesn't mean we don't have serious moments, we absolutely do, but that's doesn't stop the memes from flowing. Even the dm gets in on it occasionally. We can generally measure how much people are enjoying a session by how many moments get a random reaction gif posted in the dedicated memes chat. It's an incredibly fun dynamic and I think I'd struggle at an online table that wasn't open to something like this, it just adds so much to our experience.

[@ivancaro1078]

We had a player at our table that just zoned out without looking at memes, his mind just wandered away. We have another player who delves into notes or spells and we lose him every time. Also we have another player that is a businessman and has many calls and messages every session and we lose him sometimes. This happens in a real table, they are good but their attention is difficult to maintain. We know that's the way that it is and, somehow, we make it work 😊

[@scp2539]

no joke I would love a good berry sandwich. Q~Q Why can't reality have magic food? If I go off to relax/drink then so long as the majority of the party doesn't want to go with me I will ask the others if they want to pass the scene to the rest of the party while we talk over text to come up with ideas if we just relax or get into something XD also how i handle shopping sessions, if i need something i just skip it and buy things if I'm going to a separate shop and if i don't need anything I'm either mindlessly following someone or hanging out and waiting on them.

[@Kylora2112]

I (ranger/rogue) and Bladesinger were trying to find some specific items at the magic shops in town, and it took a solid half hour of our 4 hour session. Cleric and Bard kinda zoned out. Totally understandable because it's not super important to the plot that I was haggling over the price of some +1 studded leather and they were trying to gets scrolls of Gaseous Form and Web. But you bet your ass everyone should be paying attention to our cleric talking to one of her ex-cultmates because that's a super critical character moment that's also driving the plot.

[@cyruscrompton8221]

Something magical about having a session where this exact thing happened and then having PT tell me its not my fault I love this freaking reptile thing

[@TsorovanZero]

We need more philosikobold memes.

[@jthompson7175]

Never ever ever ever run a game that's hybrid with half the party in person and half the party online (half of the players are college friends who moved to different states). My game started like that and it was like running 2 games at the same time. In person people would interact with each other and online people would interact with each other and it was impossible to get the attention of both groups at the same time. Things got so much easier when Rona happened and the game moved to 100% online.

[@TDestro9]

I just play solitaire off on the side and me doing it actually makes me more aware of the game when the dm is describing

[@grayson9124]

I’m in a campaign where I gave the DM explicit permission to not involve my backstory, but it feels like the whole campaign is about the player character backstories, so I’ve been reliably left out to where I’m kinda just not allowed to be involved. Last session we went to a magic school, I was playing a wizard so I figured it was finally my time to shine, but the DM didn’t prep for it so there wasn’t really anything to actually do and what little there was to do, another player kept not letting me take the spotlight for a second. Now we’ve reached the point where the one characteristic I established at session zero is something I’ll have to ignore without really being given an in universe reason to do so and half the table is visibly mad at me about it and the other half is upset with me. I asked the dm why he did it and he brushed me off. I genuinely think there isn’t malice, they just kinda forgot me. The dm is one of my best friends.

[@schalkansgaming2781]

i had a player , she was allways distracted allways looking at the phone but at the same time allways complaining that she did not know what was happing in the campange or what was up... kicken was not really a option because she played with here husband at my table. it really drained my enagie and excitement for the game... so far that i noticed that in general the session quallity died down more and more... we finished the campange (the party killed the bbev but intended was that there is a twist and the draco lich was just the puppet ... but we skiped the twist in the end and ended it) it really sucked my enjoyment out of the game we played weekly with no missed sessions everyone was on time and all so really good ... but i questing my dm ability so much and in genral the hobby for me one of my players started first time dm after that(i joined his table and helped him at the start a bit) and the group still plays(i left the table) and does diffrent system and all but i dont know... that one player and how it ended really had a big negativ impact on me ....

[@gammalolman580]

Did you say something? I spaced out for a bit. But for real, some people luckily manage to multitask really well, but others just... completely forget how things go and it's super annoying. Can't really work with that after a certain point

[@aduck5639]

The blame mostly rests on those who have the most control over the situation. Players not in the scene have less control, as they are somewhat bound by the ettiquette of not interrupting another player's scene, and by not begging for the spotlight. So while everyone deserves a little blame, the DM deserves the most, as well as the players in the scenes for not more explicitly trying to hand the focus off to other players. The DM isn't a bad DM nor are the players, but it is definitely a mistake to learn from.

[@joshuaguzman6211]

If you’re playing a game while in a session, play something you can easily pause so you can get back to the session quickly.

[@petergriffin9554]

I often get ideas for memes during sessions and start photoshopping something silly. It definitely leaves me less attentative than usual, but my goal is for everyone to have fun whether I am DM or player and sometimes a funny picture really makes a moment memorable, at least to me.

[@allenfogarty2384]

Every time he says "it just happens" .... DRINK

[@EvelynNdenial]

at any time during that hour the players back at the church could pipe up and say they go looking for kobold and the bard, if they were on social media during the game as well it's doubly their fault. if they're nervous and dont want to engage in rp all the time they can just tag along and chip in when they want. every game i've played had a couple who just didnt rp most of the time, but they always followed along and stuck with the group to not be left out. its not unreasonable to expect players to pay attention to the thing they are specifically there for, that everyone had to organize schedules to attend, that the DM has to put a ton of work into, that's cooperative and requires input and buy in from everyone at the table. if their twitter feed is more interesting and worthwhile than playing dnd with their friends then why choose to roll up a character at all, just sit in the discord spectate and hang out while everyone else plays.

[@ArceusShaymin]

Eh, I'm in the camp that everyone has a foot in the soup here, so-to-speak. The DM should be making sure that, if the party scene splits at all, that enough attention is paid to all involved, and the players should be keeping track and making sure that they aren't hogging the scene and/or getting too detached from the game at the same time. In kobold's example, anyone involved could have taken the chance to remind everyone that there were 3 unaccounted-for PCs doing... what again? And spurred some kind of decision. But, of course, everyone involved was distracted - some in the game, some out. If this became a serial problem, I'd likely have a discussion with everyone on how to possibly reduce distractions and see where we could iron out some issues. Maybe keep a timer on-hand to audibly remind everybody that a scene might be dragging, or limit scenes to one building per group/person, or whatever means works.

[@mr.cauliflower3536]

Yeah, I do play vidya while playing TTRPGs but they are vidya where you can just stop the game and nothing bad will happen, and that don't require much attention so I still can engage with the TTRPG. Though I must confess I sometimes zone out for a few seconds and have to ask the GM/coplayer to repeat themselves. But to be fair it is quite late for me.

[@hermitdad8726]

Guess I'm lucky. I run an online game for people across the world and play in two online games. While I have played in several games, including one of the ones I'm in now that have a player who interrupts, cheats and has main character syndrome, they all pay attention for the most part. Now if I could just get the DM of the one game to actually stand up to the problem player and put a stop to it.

[@ringking7]

If your looking at memes at my table, you can find another table. Even if you aren't in the scene, the story is still happening and things are probably being said that are relevant to you. If you cant put your phone away for a few fucking hours, I'm not spending my time and money prepping a campaign for you.

[@severussnape2917]

Melissa isn't just memeing, she serious about dragons

[@zanthox]

"I gave the pie to the kids." Insert "those who dont know/do know meme...

[@zanthox]

then repeat for "they are the kids from the death house" but in reverse.

[@IWestrada]

Can't believe he gave the pie to the kids 💀

[@miguelsuarez-solis5027]

Often times the player hogging time gets blamed because you're hogging time. The dm is also at fault for not switching view but gms have so much to do we sometimes forget, but it is still our fault as well... the reason the player gets blamed more is because you only have one thing to track yourself. Instead of saying oh I wanna do one other thing to should say ok let's see what everyone else is doing

[@Maddness2O2]

I just made my character an orange tabaxi and so when I inevitably space out my character is also spaced out

[@Maddness2O2]

My friend also did something similar in another campaign we’re playing in where their character is a bat with dream magic and so they’re always passing out. Doing something like this is certainly not a requirement, but if you know you’re gonna be spacing out, giving yourself an in character excuse can be good

[@HamLover17]

My XBox is connected to my Steam account and when I would play D&D my wife on XBox would play a game called Disney Dreamlight Valley. And she didn't have a profile of her own so it would show up on my Steam. My DM got pretty annoyed and like talked to me about it, but it wasn't me playing. He didn't believe me and asked me to take some sessions off. Eventually the group fizzled. Crazy. Also I would never play Disney Dreamlight Valley, no offense to my wife, but the game looks boring as Hell lol

[@Jeromy1986]

I'm awful at D&D but memes are good for D&D because they usually bring up rules bullshit that provoke me to do research to Rules Lawyer that very specific thing. I don't know how to learn the rules if I'm not actively cutting down a meme.

[@motokuchoma]

So the thing with D&D in particular is that the game is incredibly DM facing, so basically everything in the game can be handled by the DM. This is why I personally stopped playing D&D because it kept happening that everyone is just waiting their turn and they don't care (and they don't even need to care) what anyone else is doing.

[@mr.cauliflower3536]

Wow, WWN, what a coincidink, I am also playing WWN and I would love to watch more videos about it.

[@JosephSchubert-ww7yj]

And some players have ADHD and are just going to zone out for no discernable reason. They aren't looking at memes, they aren't going down a RAW rabbit hole, and they probably don't even realize they've zoned out. This happens a lot more in virtual sessions because the player's meatspace doesn't overlap with their party members' meatspace. So if you're a GM and you have a player like that, give them some more grace. And try to work out together ways to keep them locked in, because they're just as frustrated that they don't know what's happening and are holding the game back.

[@Skimmer951]

It depends from person to person ofc. We play online and i have a player with adhd. We keep combat pretty snappy so its not to long til her turn but also occyping hands in various ways is the way to go. My player for example crochets during combat to keep focus locked in. At the end of the campaign she made this hugeee blanket now dubbed the combat blanket.

[@margaretmyklebust2577]

Great video, Kobold. Stay focused, Gator. 🐊

[@1.21jiggawatts2]

I’m feeling called out here. Im really fast with photoshop, and I’ve become the party’s meme guy. Something will happen in the campaign and less than 10 minutes later I will post a meme of the scene. Edit: Nevermind. Got to the end of the video and saw that he is fine with my type of meming

[@tommihommi1]

some people zone out during the social scenes, other in fights while it's not their turn it's tricky to keep everyone focused

[@nonamegiven202]

you know I was expecting a completely different topic, aka how meme-ing on spells/classes/so on warps the perception of them, but I guess that's due to me being a VtM player and how "serious" people believe the jokes on stereotypes (especially Tremere, see people actually freak out over them like you were going to play a mystic).

[@jatsantsa]

Drawing while listening help with memorasing the data,. That is why your artist are good players.

[@evrypixelcounts]

I'm a very quite person because of social anxiety. Alot of times I just don't end up participating in roleplay, so I take notes. I wonder if my fellow players think I don't care.

[@Wolfslayer6980]

Is it bad I muted and looked at memes this first session yesterday. We have such a messy party and the start of the game took like an hour and a half we were just wondering around town not knowing what to do and half the party was just talking about random off game stuff and talking over eachother.

[@admiraltonydawning3847]

You sound like a type of player who made that 44 rule DM to make that post, ngl.

[@Wolfslayer6980]

@@admiraltonydawning3847 I was fully attentive, but half the party was talking about things other than the game. One was buying scarfs trying talk over them. Half of it was because i was getting bored the other half is I hate a bunch of people talking over eachother

[@PietroMarcer]

I mean taking to long on resolving a character specific scene is one thing, forgetting half the party exist for one whole hour is another. What the hell were they doing, were they just dead silent?

[@killianRock]

As a DM. it sucks. Seriously. In my group I had to write down the rule, to not to share memes during session. Still my players forget regularly what happened in the game because they are browsing or playing Idle games. (Yes Mike, I can see your steam status)

[@thedigodragon]

Hmm? Oh sorry, I was distracted looking up the artist Melissa instead of listening to the session. ^_^;

[@mcleary9615]

Meme are fun and games, but also I think they're too the point where people don't have knowledge of actual things and instead just have like meme associations. Which isn't always bad but can easily be fucking awful.

[@robobeetlepanzer]

Arguably, not getting distracted while the party is split is worse because now you're gonna get in trouble for metagaming (you weren't there, how do you know about that?)

[@grumbolaya]

I have a player who doesn't interact with the game at all. She is playing a rogue and we are lvl 2. Her last character was lvl 8 wizard and she was just as disconnected at the table then. I think she only keeps playing because her boyfriend is in the game.

[@baguettegott3409]

Yeah, sadly, the "if they weren't interested in your game they wouldn't show up at all" thing doesn't always apply, because there are often other social relationships between the people involved, be that friendship or romantic relationships. And a loooot of people have trouble saying no to stuff. (Especially a lot of women do, in my experience, because society imparts to them especially that saying No is a bad thing to do, but let's not get into that.) I don't play with people who can't be honest and say no anymore. Burnt one too many times by people ruining games I put so much work and love into. There is a difference between players who are shy and players who don't care even the slightest bit about the game, after a while you notice it, and the second one I just don't wanna deal with anymore.

[@zeehero7280]

Memes. Memes are the DNA of the soul!

[@doombybbr]

This is NOT an issue of memes in specific, but rather of people having low attention spans in general. Also that a lot of players are completely unoriginal with their characters.

[@wobblysauce]

Low-perception players... always good to set traps, never as a DM set the recap, make it a player thing it really spices up the sessions, and makes it like a story that some one is recalling when you look back at it.

[@Itachi45481]

I have a playgroup who meet up but use computers and we do have a similar problem we use roll 20 except one has computer issues and one is slow and sadly one takes forever on their turn so yeah distraction is an issue in some honestly half of this can be fixed by playing on paper less distractions and less using the computers to do other stuff But I do get if you are all online but this case for me we really don’t need the other distractions

[@eddierolmaster28]

Four hours? My sessions last eight...