Campaign Diary 011: The Temple of Antisanity

[@stevenneiman9789]

16:46 I have a quicker, more general version of the rule of thumb you talk about here: "Make it fun or make it fast". The principle applies to both GMing and game design.

[@fhuber7507]

If you are going to make travel difficult you need to provide ACTION Encounters with opposing forces (creatures or NPCs) Dealing with extreme weather (with skill rolls to see how well they cope) Solving an obstacle that blocks their path. Otherwise, follow the D&D norm: 30 seconds of combat can take 3 hours to resolve 30 years of travel or down time can be reduced to 30 seconds of narration.

[@RyanRoat]

Matt OD has been a lot of fun. I don't feel 'stuck' with him in the party temporarily. Would love to see Leech return to the table somewhere down the line, when the junior officers have leveled a bit as well as the main party.

[@fhuber7507]

I created a character that I decided would be a gnome mage. Rolled for random background: Haunted, speaks to unseen spirits. So I rolled with it. I have a gnome from a cursed family. There is some sort of spirit that harasses the gnome by making snide comments deriding his abilities and takes pleasure in rubbing it in when he fails at anything. The rest of the family is dead from un-named causes (to allow DM to fill in to fit the campaign) The gnome has fled from his homeland seeking someone who can remove the curse. Many clerics have tired, at great cost, with no effect. The gnome sees clerics as greedy fakers who make promises and never deliver. When the gnome was an apprentice mage, his tutor got him to the point of casting Find Familiar. Tutor: "Lets summon a Fey spirit cat" Gnome: "OK, Here goes!" casts spell... And a bedraggled looking infernal spirit bat appears. The voice is ecstatic of course, cackling with glee. (that only the gnome can hear) The gnome of course goes into a fit, screaming at the spirit.... The tutor kicked him out. Repeated attempts to re-cast Find Familiar have always left him with the same bat. The bat appears to act like a normal familiar, obeying commands and allowing touch spells to be cast via the familiar and the gnome can see and hear through the bat. So far its just a very ugly bat. The gnome has chosen to follow the path of necromancy in an attempt to find the way to drive the spirit out. Not a normal happy gnome wearing bright colors, he's wearing greys and browns so dark as to almost be black.

[@jpenhall]

Agreed. Really like OD as a player. I would love to see him become a regular cast member or if that's not possible a regular guest.

[@robbperez1278]

You mean it's not Leach, as in Archie Leach?

[@Nagazongas]

I admit to enjoying the group dynamic that Mr. O'Driscoll brought to the table this week. I'm not advocating his staying or leaving, but his assumption as to the nature of what insanity will make the guards do proved to me just what an asset he will be to me... next week. This is my favorite campaign ever.

[@asciblue]

These 20 - 30 min debriefs are perfect!!

[@brandonharrison970]

Love these diaries, Matt. Thank you!

[@Nemo2342]

I really enjoy these diaries, so I am very glad that you've been able to continue them.

[@WraithMagus]

I do have to say, though, that players can enjoy themselves on a "slow session". If they want to poke every panel of floor with a 10-foot-pole, then maybe have a few traps go off just to make them feel like they're doing it "right". (Or have a patrol come up from behind if they're going too slow.) Personally, rather than just having monster encounters, I try to keep a handful of random locations or mini-adventures the players can stumble across for any terrain type. (The players come across a small cave with a couple gold pieces on the ground outside, and a dried trail of blood leading along with it into the cave. Nothing to do with the main plot, but hey, they just came across a deceptive trap, where a will-o-wisp will lure the players to collect gold pieces over a slippery slope that slides them into a deadly pit. There are plenty of "one page adventure" or "two page adventure" resources out there.) If it's not a monster encounter, just use something like Bits of the Wilderness to randomly make certain areas feel like they are important when they're just random, or have some sort of dangerous animal (like a group of giant toads) that the ranger can talk out of fighting so that those abilities feel useful. D&D isn't about "completing" things, it's about getting to role play and feeling like your character is cool. I've had games based on a module where I threw events that happened in town to foreshadow future dungeons and surprise random adventures or random encounters during travel into it enough that it took three sessions to even reach the first dungeon, and the players loved it.

[@guitarmuser6150]

I 100% agree. It's all about balance. If it's action-all-the-time it starts to feel like a video game, which there's nothing wrong with if you're into that. My group and the groups I've been in before however tend to prefer the immersive role-playing style that requires ups and downs, slow times and action times etc. I also agree with the idea of inserting things that let each class use some of their special skills and/or abilities to feel useful and important because that's fun and after all, that's our job as DMs; to provide fun for the players. We are servants first, "masters" second. That's my philosophy on it at least. YMMV. 8-)

[@donc.7465]

Question for Matt: Were you concerned by the lack of progress because your players seemed bored/frustrated by it, or because you are worried that the viewers of the stream would be bored/frustrated by it? At no point did it seem to me that your players were not engaged in what was happening. Nobody was on their phone, checking their Twitter, going for a snack, etc. If your players are engaged, the viewers will be engaged. All you need to do is follow your own rule: If the players get bogged down in "planning paralysis"...Orcs Attack! (Or googly-eyed fish men in this case). You're doing a great job, keep up the good work!

[@novarag]

Thank you Matt, I always listen to these before my own game to get me in the right mind set.

[@BlackTearDrop]

"How did we play for 3 hours and get so little done?" Same. Every week.

[@oz_jones]

"I can answer that, coach. Instead of going for the obvious plot hook you send us TWICE, we went gambling." But props on our GM for accommodating our bullshit.

[@callahanjohnson]

Three cheers for Jerry editing! 🙂

[@GuardianCitadel]

The truth of pro-DM non-superdungeon design is that the shortcut and the front door lead to pretty much the same place. The decor may change, and maybe the entryway, but if you've got a fairly bog-standard 6-room, 4-encounter dungeon, it really doesn't matter whether is the front door or a storeroom. The important thing is for the players to feel like they did a legit level skip and not a Colville Screw. Nothing goes to waste, unlike designing a 10-level, 100 room dungeon that the players largely try to avoid. One of the things I make clear when I do my dungeon design is that I 'bake' the adventuring rewards through the level, and usually make those rewards relevant to a properly appraising eye. Skip to the end, you may get half or less the potential items of value. Skip those history or craftsman skills, and you can miss out on a lot of money from valuable rarities and artwork.

[@FamilyBales]

Your description of the towers and the alien writings on the island suggest that, once again, you dipped into your love for Moorcock... I see the parallels to the Tower of Voilodion Ghagnasdiak and the temples that held the minds of Agak and Gagak 🤓

[@ignaciogallarati7287]

This Is the best of your channel man, keep up the great work!

[@narutobankai]

They are drawing out this contract cause everyone wants OD to stay.

[@MrDunaengus]

Thanks Matt

[@sophiescott143]

Hey, Matt, thought you'd be interested to know: I bought Priest awhile back, just got around to starting it. Good stuff, so far. Will leave a review on Amazon when I finish.

[@jasondrake7324]

Matt it would be so cool if you did a video on how you go about the process of designing adventures.

[@mrskkrueger]

Ok, whew, I can finally face the world. Don't beat yourself up, Matt!!! Hugs!!! Glad to hear your Peace Out is back!!!

[@scabbynack]

I struggle with forcing players to go through the motions rather than just narrating. Usually it's because I feel like they might come up with something else to do or a better way to do it, but the more I skip with that stuff the more fun sessions feel.

[@Antipodeano]

Game was great as it was. It's d&d so pottering around a bit is just fine. Loving it al!

[@patrickhill8494]

If it will drain the players' resources to accomplish nothing it should be "skipped", but I love listening to the descriptions and the players' thought processes and reactions to the descriptions.

[@toveandrews17]

Say, is the sound not in sync with image for this video or is it just my laptop being weird? Anyone else have this problem? (My PC only has issues with this YT vid, I've just checked other vids just in case)

[@CptPoodlehats]

No, it's definitely the video. It's about a half-second desync between the audio and video. Our minds immediately notice that it seems a bit off.

[@seraphlord]

Thanks for this!

[@Unelith]

The commander of the Chain: *about to be eaten by a beast* The Chain: Not again!

[@tkthetank]

Anyone knows where he posts the notes online after the patreon? Havnt seen anything on the mcdm website.

[@jhinpotion9230]

I think it's invalid to disregard the minor details of character interaction and regular fun that happens when you run it the way you did.

[@robbperez1278]

Matt, I love your content, man, and I may be asking for more than I should (and maybe more than we deserve), but how difficult would it be to podcast the campaign diaries, too?

[@crows2808]

Hey, quick question: When Tom was insane within sight of the dwarves and the Chain are just waiting for the spell to wear off, is there any particular reason you didn't twist the knife? I assumed the priest would know when the spell is about to end, and it would make sense for them to attack the one enemy they have in sight and get that first hit in. It seems sensible to me, and I worry that I often do what seems sensible to me when I DM and end up hitting my players way too hard as some sort of object lesson.

[@ariaflame-au]

Robert N'zengou-Tayo you expect sense from insane creatures?

[@mythnam]

In this case the fact that it was an insane Derro is a convenient excuse, but I think it's a reasonable move regardless because, knowing that Boots had friends nearby but not being able to see them, it could have been an ambush.

[@mcolville]

You’re saying; why didn’t they abandon their defensive position and expose themselves to attack?

[@thewaterbear]

I am sorry to hear that you were disappointed. That sucks, man.

[@planetchain]

Hi Matt. I loved this Campaign Diary. In fact, I watch the episodes, and then I watch the campaign diaries, for the wonderful advice :) Could you please let us know the diaries may contain spoilers, for an upcoming episode. I think there was a, "spoiler alert", before it was revealed that two of the Darrow are spellcasters. Unfortunately, I don't think there was a warning, before it was revealed the gong would activate the symbol of insanity :( That would have been a great surprise , for me at, least. I'm not mad at you, though. And, please give Jerry a big thank you, from us, for doing the editing. See you and your pals on Wednesday.

[@JetstreamGW]

Huh? He can see through his Familiar's eyes as long as they're on the same plane? Find familiar says you have to be within 100 feet. Did you house rule that?

[@mortalLP]

Eldritch Invocation: Voice of the Chain Master. Haven't played a warlock yet, so I had to look that one up.

[@aliciacordero7436]

I believe that's a pact of the chain thing, not a find familiar one

[@JetstreamGW]

@@mortalLP Ooohh, an Invocation. that's why I couldn't find it. I went through the rest of the Chain benefits and it wasn't there. Didn't think to check the Invocations.

[@ultr4tr1ps]

it's time to kick Odie off the table Leech don't do it, that's our pet imp Odie you're going into orbit, you stupid devil

[@SteveSwannJr]

Where is the balance between "didn't advance the plot" and "adding color" to the story?

[@PonyusTheWolfdude]

I'm curious how you deal with inner city/in town travel. I feel that i never paint a clear enough picture for my players, like sometimes big cities are like small towns with bigger and better shops

[@ROYBGP]

Ponyus Describe the differences between the districts.

[@paulcoy9060]

If you ever come across some old National Geographic Magazines, flip through them and mark the pictures of towns that best SHOW what you are trying to DESCRIBE. Even recent issues will have older places, and sometimes you get maps and layouts.

[@ROYBGP]

paul coy That's a lot of work and fiddling.

[@paulcoy9060]

Fortunately, my grandfather collected them, and I have a great selection to choose from. I consider myself lucky, but what about Googling things like "Arcane Cities", or "Medieval Tourist Spots" ? Something is bound to pop up.@@ROYBGP

[@adeptusvoxradio]

12:47 it's my new ringtone.

[@christofferhougaard]

I approve... GREATLY!

[@Nihxen]

Hey Matt, sorry to ask, but you said a long while ago that we were going to talk about Dark Sun at some point, when will that be? Or have you already done it

[@nocopyrightaudiomusiclibra7802]

nice, I think it is great keep sharing great video =D I think I am saving this

[@erikeverson7812]

I started skipping travel when I switched to milestone leveling. Unless your players really want the chance to explore random encounters, travelling becomes tedious.

[@AinaLove73]

yea we love the diaries!!

[@nikkibrowning4546]

How do you help PCs give up investigating dead leads without breaking suspension of disbelief? In my last session I had to tell the PCs that nothing was going to happen for the rest of the day. It killed the mystery and drama for the session.

[@professorrhyyt3689]

Trolling OD by trawling Leech? #dadjokesallthewaydown

[@leewmurdock]

Can anyone link the module he mentioned that the puzzles are from?

[@eddieblake4039]

You guys should keep Matt ODriscol. Leech is great.

[@markinok.8787]

Does that mean that the print editions won't have the revisions

[@dard1515]

I can't tell if it is just me but the audio seems like it is a fraction of a second off from the video.

[@ShadowWolf289]

Nah, I see/hear the audio desync too. It's not the whole video, but there are a couple of places where it doesn't line up like it should.

[@Xsuh]

I'm stealing your behavior for Derro.

[@paulcoy9060]

8:20 What, no clip of Ted Cassidy ?

[@K_play8]

Keep up the good work

[@ofgreyhairwaifu4089]

I don't know why, but it feels like there's a small desync between video and audio. Like a 0.001 sec or around that. Might be just me.

[@mcolville]

Yeah we've been monkeying with the mics here and the settings went off.

[@chrissinski355]

My notification came about 48 minutes late judging from the comments. Just stating this sense I know the view count has been lower in these vids.

[@kentthompson1370]

Chris Sinski mine want 9 hours late😥

[@freddymittler8349]

The isle of dead sounds like rylae from cuthulu

[@bladerraps]

This always gives me new ideas :) of what i can do in my campain

[@toddparker2377]

Whats the name of the podcast?

[@oceanwavelength2518]

I MISSED 10 AHHHH

[@robinberberat3665]

Notification Gang here

[@TheJackOfFools]

Doing my part!

[@big53mac]

@@TheJackOfFools it aint much but its honest work.

[@druidgrif]

Going back to the discussion on the stream from 4/15, what about this for a title: Narrating the Boring Parts - Lessons from the Campaign - Diary 011: The Temple of Antisanity?

[@kyrosvlar]

Where can I find Matt’s campaign notes?

[@bagamer13]

Aldyn Mitchell MCDM Patreon

[@JoeAuerbach]

matt's patreon.

[@reyoscuro5381]

how is writeten balhanad? bollhanad

[@zavierkok102]

Balhannoth

[@kmcd6140]

"Opalescent, like the inside of a clam shell" - The term your looking for is "Mother of Pearl" often Abalone shell. Very pretty, which is why the abalone off the Cali coast was nearly harvested to extinction. On the alternate way in - You could have given them a cave that you decided was part of an old sewer system. Players being players, they're going to take that (probably underwater) cave over the overland route about 8 of 10 times. Oh, and all those ancient cave-ins means they pop out right at the temple they're looking for. Gosh, wonder how that works. ;) The junior Chronicler topic from a previous session has been niggling at me. What Lars said about training new chroniclers by having them copy The Chronicle is spot on what the medieval monks and such would do. They would have the young kids copy the books exactly. Line for line. Illustration for illustration. Often they wouldn't understand the text, assuming they could read at all. Many early works were preserved this way. Also, I'm having trouble buying into the idea of 1000 years (or even a few hundred) of history fitting into a book that can be worn on the hip. Even a backpack sized tome is going to fill up in the 1st 100. Even using shorthand. It's a point that I can ignore for the story, but it's still there.

[@keymaster312]

I get the weirdest sense of deja vu when I watch these campaign diaries... like actually. Not a joke about style or content. This is like the third one of these that's given me a distinct sense of deja vu. It's super strange and a little disconcerting... but I love it. :D

[@ScoutSilico]

Getting too focused on meaningless travel was one thing that I worried about a lot in my last couple sessions. We have a limited time during our sessions but a lot of time in between them so I try to make them packed full of meaningful content. Yeah travel can be fun and interesting if that's what you're going for.

[@theframe100]

One thing you could do is sort out some of the game between the sessions. If the players need to shop they can do it over text. When they're travelling you could ask each to describe what they're doing over text and you can write a few sentences describing the journey and set up a nice scene for the next session.

[@Femerenden]

Basicly you had a Shadowrun game...

[@voyeur4youtubers264]

I didn't realize at the time but Leech's imp is immune to fire so the fire resistance potion would have been ineffective on him. That could have made for some funny commentary if the imp said he felt no different or the potion is worthless instead of saying he felt invincible

[@private2132]

The suspense of anticipating danger, that doesn't even exist, is well worth the "we didn't have any action, before entering the temple" imho. you are arguing against creating tension. not a great lesson, I think.

[@guitarmuser6150]

That's a good point. It's hard enough to manufacture real tension on purpose, but if you create it sort of by accident, that's a bonus in my book. As I was listening to this, I was imagining that tension, I could feel it and I don't even watch the episodes, I just like these recaps. But then when he said that was a mistake or whatever, I was like, "What?" I thought it was great. It's exactly the kind of thing that happens in my games and my players love it. They love to plan, ponder and explore and they really get a kick out of one of the players who always seems to come to the conclusion that "We're all gonna die!" LOL. Even though they always get through it. ;-)

[@kly8105]

11 views 1 (likes) 0 (dislikes) Lol that feeling when you are right on time for something you didn't even know was happening beforehand.

[@Cogito2Ergo2Sum1]

Hey, d8s and d10s confuse me all the time. Kappa

[@flower4750]

are you concerned at all about the way insanity as a game mechanic will reflect on real life mental health issues? exploring insanity in the context of dnd sounds potentially very interesting and impactful, but interpretations like the dm's guide madness effect tables are terrible. they draw from cultural stereotypes that can't be disconnected from real world mental illness, with no interest in how accurate (or harmful) those stereotypes are. have you considered how that would be interpreted by people at the table - or in the audience - if they struggle with chronic mental illness? i know you make an effort to understand where players with different experiences are coming from and avoid alienating them, so i'm not too concerned. "i told you the lights were real, they have returned!" is pretty crass though, so if this comment is presenting an angle you hadn't considered i hope it helps you question whether it's worth thinking about.

[@theframe100]

I think we should make it clear that fantasy world insanities are not the same thing as real world insanities. They're fueled by mad, ancient gods or demons.

[@flower4750]

@@theframe100 it doesn't matter what the in-fiction justification is, you as dm still have creative control over the world. if you decide to use stereotypes based on real-world mental illness, you can't avoid making that association in the minds of your players - whether or not it would exist in the minds of the characters. compare it to creating a real-world racist caricature in your game and defending it on the basis that it's not the same as anything from our world, it's totally justified within the narrative.

[@oz_jones]

Aww.