D&D Players, lets hear your stories of DMing Done Right #1

[@GMAugril5482]

When a DM helps you with your characters backstory. In this campaign, there are five players. Our DM sat down with each of us and over many mini sessions, before session 0, helped us FULLY flesh out our OC’s backstories. She wanted us to truly understand our OC’s before the campaign officially got underway. Brilliant idea if you ask me.

[@Mrryn]

As a player and DM, this is right up my alley. I have gone over things in mini sessions with individual players before or straight up incorporated an abridged version on both sides of the table during the session 0. Being able to not only get a full feel for each PC but also give the players a chance to really flesh things out, take things in different directions than initially considered with outside feedback, and giving me, the DM, or even the other players an opportunity to intertwine their character details and backstories into the campaign setting and even into the details/background of other characters. Especially helpful for religious characters in either a homebrew or just atypical pantheon from the standard Forgotten Realms, and allowing for fun session 0 character pairings, like siblings traveling together, a character and their bodyguard, a PC with a "life debt" with another PC, or straight up people with pre-existing history as a mercenary band or troupe of circus performers. It allows every character to feel genuinely a part of things and the world more lived in, and gives the party a reason to be sticking together aside from the stock standard "met in a tavern at a jobs board post" sort of thing. And it's a natural way to break the ice with the whole group and let everyone get a feel for the dynamics of the game and each player/PC. And lets the players not feel worried about getting into specific details with their character, out of fear of it "not fitting with the setting," and making the room to incorporate it and even make it a potential driving plot point down the line.

[@guts60]

I have the prime example: The DM actually let the Bard seduce, lay with, and have a child with a dragon. He then played as the dragonborn offspring in the next playthrough, as a bard. He then had another child with a dragon. This is our third campaign with him. He’s playing as the offspring between the dragonborn and the dragon. According to him, he wants to keep going until he’s playing as a full-grown dragon but holding a lute to be a bard

[@Scorpious187]

Dragonborn aren't born from dragons, despite the name, lol.

[@Malkuth-Gaming]

@@Scorpious187 THE PHB begs the differ " Born of dragons, as their name proclaims, the dragonborn walk proudly through a world that greets them with fearful incomprehension. Shaped by draconic gods or the dragons themselves, dragonborn originally hatched from dragon eggs as a unique race, combining the best attributes of dragons and humanoids."

[@Laskivi]

@@Malkuth-Gaming Yeah, that’s actually an often-misinterpreted passage, because it’s worded really poorly. The dragonborn were “born of” dragons because they were created by them. With magic. Draconic gods and dragons magically made dragonborn eggs spring into existence in order to combine the qualities of both humans and dragons. But that’s just the WotC lore, your game can be whatever you want lol. No need to adhere to anything.

[@Scorpious187]

@@Malkuth-Gaming I got news for ya. Dragonborn aren't a 5th-ed race, they're from 4th-ed. Depending on which origin story is to be believed, they were either created by Io as servants to the dragons, or they were bred as slaves. However, regardless of the history, dragonborn were never directly born from dragons. That would be a *half-dragon,* not a dragonborn.

[@Scorpious187]

@@Malkuth-Gaming MrRhexx explains it all well in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZi2ZpKKdsmVhsU

[@deviantgazer4626]

I was a part of a session that lasted a full year before some things unfortunately fell out. But the DM for the campaign that I was in was phenomenal. At the time I was extremely new. I have not really experienced anything involving D&D outside of watching some online campaigns like Critical Role. The other members of the party had experience with Dungeons and dragons, so I was a complete newcomer in a group of experienced players. I was very concerned of making some mistakes, but the players and especially the DM were very patient and willing to teach me as things go along. That on its own is pretty good. But what really set this DM apart from others was just the impeccable story he wove. The overall storyline of the campaign is a little complex to explain properly, but every detail he ever said about the lore or story from any one of the NPCs was vitally important. Even the smallest details or lines that someone would think as just banter actually had a significant purpose. I know I'm probably not doing a proper job explaining, but my DM has incredible imagination and the adventure I was on felt so much more real

[@alejandrocamberosrodriguez4222]

My current DM is a really patient guy, and he's got one main rule when it comes to his game: "always say yes". Your players want to stop chasing the BBEG and open a bar in a small town? Say yes. They want to pick up the (obviously cursed) weapon within a giant skeleton turtle island? Say yes. Your paladin wants to bed every female he encounters and establish a trade network across your continent instead of fulfilling his oath? Say yes. Obviously, there are consequences. And sometimes I (as a player) get frustrated for all the shenanigans the rest of the party causes (I'm more of a story-focused player), but I can't deny our DM is awesome. Respectful, creative, commited and good with roleplaying, I really enjoy our sessions with him. Richy, if you see this: you the man.

[@travisbewley7084]

Here is my story of how I though I did DMing right. So I'm teaching a 4th grade summer school class. The kids get in and on this day only 5 kids showed up. It's too few kids to move on with the lessons. So I get the idea to run a TTRPG game with them. The first hour of my day is teaching English. so this becomes charecters creation. We actually cover a lot of the topics we were studying. They all decide on our genre, in this case superheroes. Then we talk about charecters descriptions (The day before we had been learning about charecters traits) so I make them come up with descriptive words for both how their charecters look but also how they behave. Then we get started playing, which lines right up with an hour block of math. They have the easy math of rolling a D20, then adding the bonus but after a bit I start telling them the difficulty for the roll and asking them how likely they think they are to succeed. I also give them 2 "heroic moments" to spend. Using one will let them roll a D4 and have that number multiply their result. The kids were so excited to be doing multiplication, it was startling. They got really into it. For one kid it was his first time in a general education room and had till this point only been in a special education self contained room. That kid slyly asked on the side if his charecters could turn out to be a bad guy and turn on the team. Kid made an awesome villain speech BTW At the end of summer I asked what everyone's favorite part of summer school way and every single kid that had been there for that game agreed it was the best part. I never thought my proudest moment as a DM would also be my proudest as a teacher.

[@jonathanmarks3112]

5:52 Oh yes, I WILL ask! Details please. 9:17 Hey, the dice give and the dice take away. A good DM shouldn't argue with the dice. 12:17 Creative ideas right there.

[@johnscarborough9627]

You know what, my current DM deserves some attention!! (If you see this Jadaji it’s absolutely True). He’s been the DM that has run my main campaign for nearly 1.5 years now. Here are some highlights of why he’s a great DM! -the entire story revolves around the party, rather than us facing down some unrelated Big Bad, all of the story elements have been heavily intertwined with our character’s backstories. The first arc saw us face down and avenge the person who killed and then enthralled our Dragonborn Ranger’s Mentor, and the second arc (which we just finished) saw us face my characters shady past. -at the start of the story, he gave each of our characters an item that fits their character and backstory. The Dragonborn Ranger had an Arrow of Slaying that she used to severely wound the unnamed Big Bad at the end of our first Arc, and he gave my character 500 gp off the bat, since my character was running a business at the start of the campaign! -he has shown an interest in homebrewing weapons and gear!! My rogue is currently sporting a Homebrew dagger made out of Tail Spikes and Claws scavenged after a battle with a Manticore. It’s tailor made with an ability that works well with my character’s abilities! -he will allow us to come up with some Hairbrained Schemes to deal with encounters. Meatuniclus has since become a Legendary event (Dancing Lights cast in a humanoid shape by our Sorcerer and Mage Hand lifting a lump of raw meat into the middle of it cast by me to distract a swarm of ‘piranhas’ that were attacking our allies. He let the dice do the talking and the dice were in our favour xD All in all, he’s a fantastic GM and deserves some recognition xD

[@rebasack21]

My first DM we played a game that lasted nearly 2 years. I suspect some of it was shortened at the end as we fished the game over discord as 2020 hit and a few players work in the medical field. This was intended to be a learning game to encourage new players to let loose have fun etc. the best part was if we did something he found brilliant and/or hilarious he gave us a inspiration point. This had the effect of on nights when the dice were being mean as long as we could be creatively silly rolling a 1 might not be the end.

[@magenstaffarts]

I needed that encouragement at the end as I try hard for my players. That being said... My best DM loves to pay attention to the little details of characters, all the way down to asking the players what their characters' birthday was if they KNEW the birthday, and managing to make the birthday of the character as exciting as it would be if it were the player's birthday. In fact, he has a special DM Super Inspiration thing he does for your or your character's birthday and that just makes it all the more meaningful. I've also seen the other group he DMs, as he runs a D&D stream as well, and it's amazing all the effort he puts into things for his players, whether it's the alternating Friday group...or his consistent Tuesday streams.

[@WarChallenger]

I have a current DM who is a literal dungeon MASTER. I'm a player in his campaign, and he's a player in my own. However, he's a professional DM who creates and runs various games for a living. I'm a new DM looking to use it as a hobby. Throughout the time we've spent in each other's campaigns, he's been showing me the ropes of being a DM. That, I feel, truly makes his DMing style special; he's actively passing on the torch to me along the way. We discuss various things about the game even long after the game that I run on Wednesday evenings is done, sometimes going well into the night. We work with each other on aspects of characters, NPCs, and settings, to make each session following truly special.

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

I want you to ask Reddit for their best/funniest “oh you’re gonna love this” moments

[@NoSympathyGiven]

what is an “oh you’re gonna love this” moment? is it like being said by the player or from the dm

[@eggnoglogdog5121]

@@NoSympathyGiven probably the dm

[@Joshbosh022]

I would pay for a therapist even half as good as Brian

[@Muropfel]

In all honesty, this episode gave me a huge confidence and motivation boost to work on my campaign again. Thank you

[@shakespearenuketh3233]

Aight, you want an example of DMing done right? Here goes... A good DM's gotta be able to roll with absurd chaos and just accept it when players take things in entirely unexpected directions, right? My DM takes that to the absolute next level. Perfect example, one day our party is fighting this notorious outlaw leader and his gang. The fight starts going our way, and the outlaw leader has his faithful spellcaster lieutenant create a portal for him to get away, which he immediately flees through. Pretty sure the intention was for this villain to just slip away for a later adventure while we were stuck dealing with his minions... Well, I suddenly realize something. I'm a monk... If I dash, I have eighty feet of movement... And the portal's within range. It's then that I happen to glance over at our party Druid, and I see this look on her face. It then occurs to me that she's a grung (froglike player race), and she has that spell that supercharges her jump distance... Meaning she can just leap straight into the portal. She and I make eye contact, and both simultaneously register what the other is thinking. I proceed to full speed book it through the portal. And our DM's facial expression is just utter shock, you know, DM.exe is not responding type thing. And now it's the Druid's turn... Yep, she goes straight through the portal after me. We then quickly find out why our DM is so broken. See while we tangle with a couple of our target's goons on the other side of the portal, it closes... Stranding us literally half a continent away from the rest of the party. A lesser DM might've tried to retcon the situation away somehow, but this one just rolled with it. For the next like session and a half, our DM basically simultaneously runs two separate stories, one with the rest of the party and one following what my crazy monk and his unlikely friend the Druid frog were up to, until the party could eventually reunite. So yes, I absolutely think I have the best DM ever.

[@swarm-of-moths]

My first game of DnD, the DM just let me keep setting things on fire. Made it a memorable and enjoyable first time.

[@cosmoniums5990]

As the player from the one piece game, I’d like to say thank you for sharing my story (and the story of my fighter Norm L Mahnn of which there will definitely be more to come). While I agree that some bad dnd experiences can ruin the whole game for someone, I am either incredibly stupid or incredibly stubborn cause I came back to the platform each time with a love for the game, and the knowledge that if I kept trying I’d find something great I just needed the determination to continue. I just don’t have a very strong love for the platform of playing in person (due to some really bad campaigns) , but even then I’d be up to give them another shot if I had the right group and the time. Which I will unfortunately have, due to scheduling conflicts putting the game on hiatus for the time being

[@katielynne]

My last DM, Legend of the 5 Rings. He built a world so expansive, and our campaign ran 4 years over it. He had us vote to see what direction the factions went, it was epic. I can’t even think of any standalone epic scenes that defined it, the entire thing was just… L5R.

[@EitherProductions]

I can't VA even if my life depended on it, but everything else mentioned here I try to do the best I can with. I aim to be the in-depth storyteller type, but we haven't gotten far enough yet for any of it to really show up. We've been playing for almost 8 months now and they're still at level 2 due to distractions from getting side-tracked, as well as a 12 week hiatus from the main campaign due to real life things with one of the players. During those weeks, I created a "one-shot" for backstory exploration, though both ran for 3 sessions each. We also only play every other week, so that also slows things down. I have tons of ideas for their group up to level 20, but it is unlikely to reach that point unless we play more often. Like that one DM that was mentioned that lore dumped on group chat, I would also enjoy that. I take every little nugget I can from my player's backstories and integrate pieces of secrets regarding them throughout the campaign, doing my best to tie as much of it with the modules we can end up playing, so the more active my players are with their backstories, the better.

[@carolinelabbott2451]

I always love your wholesome honest talk at the end of each video. Thank you.

[@DHTheAlaskan]

This is a very low bar but for the longest time I had a DM who treated me horribly, but DMs who don't bully their players and make them feel useless and keep them from trying to join other groups because the DM wanted to keep someone under their thumb.

[@thedarksoul9879]

I remember giving my players a daylight lantern as one of their first magic items. Group of absolute newbies, learning experience for all of them. As the adventure continues, they met the big bad, a gooey shadow monster that chased them through the woods. They were scared and terrified when one of them realized :”Wait a minute, that thing only appears at night. I wonder if…” unpacked the lantern, fired it up and blitzed the shadow, turning it’s oily body into brackish stone. It’s movement was halfed and it’s immunity to conventional damage types became a weakness to slash, pierce, bludgeon and force damage. My players were super excited about having gotten to the conclusion on their own and I just sat there, smiling contentedly at them enjoying themselves. That was a good session

[@peripheraldevotee94]

One of my DM's recently had to roleplay my arcane trickster's criminal contact, a cousin who ran a potion shop that served as a front for some purloined magical items that the cousin's wife fenced. What she did was have the cousin place the non-healing potions within locked cabinets - and when my party members bought a couple of those (fire breathing and calm emotions), the cousin used a pair of enchanted gloves she wore to teleport the potions into her hands. Blew my expectations out of the water, and it was completely on brand for what I'd designed.

[@KieranH612]

All of my previous experiences playing just felt like my character was just sorta shoved in as an afterthought rather than being a part of the world, but my latest dm actually took all of our characters and their storues into consideration and gave them moments to stand out, and I think about that a lot :)

[@ShekinahGwaii]

Five veterans of various branches and our civvie DM were loving our campaign for about a year when one of our players caught Covid Delta. While he was getting treatment in the hospital, we continued with him phoning it in when he could, and the DM played him when he could. Almost six excruciating months later, our friend passed away. It was some weeks before we could all meet safely, and decided to have a last session to wrap up our campaign, buidling a place of rememberance, before moving on to a new campaign. It was grounding to have the healing leadership our DM brought into the mix, knowing it could have broken our group otherwise.

[@natthekiwi7074]

I thought this was about sliding into dm’s but then I remembered this was Reddit

[@steveaugust7797]

I gave a round of applause. :D Well, it was more a series of golf claps, but I'm indoors.

[@stealthington]

I've had a few different DMs over many years of playing. I don't often play module games, but one thing that has made me feel good about the DM in (some of) those cases, is when they look at a story beat in the module and declare "This is stupid. This doesnt happen, we'll do something better". Breaking from the adventure to make sure your players are enjoying it? DMing done right.

[@edamommy]

My DM was so supportive with my comparitvely weak Order of Scribes Wizard in a party of Eloquence Bard, Vengeance Paladin, Echo Knight and Peace Cleric. I worried that OoS is very dependent the gold and spells the DM provides. She provided a perfect amount of both to keep it interesting and challenging at the same time, and really leaned into intel gathering and subterfuge, which even kept my Wizardly Quill in play. Had a great time!

[@captainpolar2343]

OoS? Step 1: take the spell fireball step 2: take spells that deal damage of low resistance / immunity (magic missile: force; earth tremor: bludgeoning; thunderwave: thunder; ice knife: piercing*) (I also made a homebrew spell similar to magic missile that deals radiant: Sun Bolt**) Step 3: cast 'fire' ball and change damage type to fit the situation all of these can be learned naturally Step 4: 8d6 of force, bludgeoning, piercing, and radiant *This does 1d10 piercing (on hit) and burst damage of 2d6 cold to all surrounding enemies (regardless of hit or miss) **1d6+spellcasting mod, has a lower range of 90 feet

[@EitherProductions]

@@captainpolar2343 The damage type that is being substituted in has to be from a same level spell as the one being cast, so a Fireball can't be exchanged with a spell that's lower than third level, and if the spell is higher than third level, the Fireball has to be upcast to that same level. "The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend" XGtE p.78. This means that none of the official spells you listed are applicable. To get those damage types, you could instead take Summon Fey (force or piercing), Erupting Earth (bludgeoning), Thunder Step (thunder), and Spirit Shroud (radiant or necrotic or cold), which are all on the Wizard spell list.

[@captainpolar2343]

@@EitherProductions Be nice if the wiki mentioned that, since I don't use XGtE, i will go off the wiki, and it says nothing about similar spell level

[@CroobieLetter]

I hadn't written a character background, all of it came from ingame jokes and comments. When I told my DM that my character wrote his parents to come retire in his town, he asked for a written background. I finally wrote one and included two little blurbs about his parents' personalities and how they treated him. Well my DM picked up what I was putting down and RAN with it. It resulted in some of the best roleplaying I ever experienced. There have been other incredible, unbelievable, over-the-top moments, but nothing hit quite like a simple conversation between my character and his parents.

[@codylawrence7535]

I'm so glad I've stumbled upon this channel. Love listening to b4 bed guys ty!

[@mentok1]

My friend basically rewrote the 2nd act of his game because of our decisions. In Act 1, he had a minor antagonist that was part of a paladin order sworn to wiping out, among other things, Lycanthropes. The big baddie of Act 1 was a werewolf. This was supposed to be the only interaction we had with this group. In Act 2, the intended enemies were supposed to be the organized crime family that had a grip on the city, controlling it through their own political power and gaining votes through bribery and blackmail. We the players hated the paladin order (that wasn't supposed to show up again) so much, we ended up forming an alliance with the crime family and rallying allies from other groups in the area and the big end of Act 2 was a huge battle at the fortress of the order. He confessed to us that we had thrown him for a loop when we decided to go after the paladin order and make nice with the crime family, but he never forced anything. He didn't have the family backstab us and we were actually able to use their connections and reach to gain assistance with the battle. During the battle, he also allowed us to have mini sessions with one or two players using alternate characters to influence the main battle. It was glorious the way he tied it all together.

[@dustyb0ne631]

It was a simple thing, but it really made the session for me. My character had died, and the rest of the party had planned to resurrect her. However, my character was a very devout follower of Kelemvor, the god of death, and weren't sure if she would want to come back. They decided to have a wizard use Speak with Dead so they could ask my characters permission, with one of the PC's asking the questions. Here's where the DM made his mark. The PC had only used two of the five questions the spell let's you ask before resurrecting me, as he didn't want to pry (my character has some pretty f***** up s*** going on). The spell states that the target's soul is not actually there, and cannot learn new information. When we got to a safe location to rest, I asked the DM if I could take "a small narrative liberty." He said *yes.* That yes led to an incredible roleplay moment as my character sat down with the PC that was asking the questions and said: "Is there anything else you wanted to ask? You still have three left."

[@BlackRainRising]

I think I was rather proud of my first ever DMing, I did NOT start them off in a tavern. Before we'd started, I had told each player don't worry about filling gaps, play what you want to play, I'll work around it. When we started, I asked each player, what are they doing what is their character doing, after giving them the setting of what was going on in town. Two were watching the caravans come in for the festival, one was in the wizard tower doing wizard things, rogue duo was patrolling the streets doing rogue things, half-orc fighter was being paid a few silver to help some residents move heavy stuff around, they were all spread out, not a favorable condition for a DM. After a series of events that began the big plot for the story, the wizard was tasked with investigating something and finding her own party she felt would suit the task. Rogues and fighters had eventually wound up at the tavern to wind down the day, wizard goes there knowing she needed some muscle, listening to patrons talk she winds up introducing herself to each party member asking them for help. Rogues signed up for promise of treasure, fighters signed up for glory! (I had 2 fighters, 3 rogues, and 1 wizard to start this whole shindig). So, with no cleric, and being set on a deep investigative quest by a council member, they were given a small crate of healing potions as a "just in case", and so the adventure began. Strangely enough there was no hang ups, everyone had fun, they got to do whatever and still get to the point of the session... it was great!

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned in.

[@charliesendinglove4758]

As a newbie player I got blessed with an amazing dm. He has such amazing stories and has helped me all along the way. This last week we went on a quests to get some juggling chickens that specifically bred for being juggled they love it. And we got the chickens for free after an encounter. So we got to keep the gold. So to Ep your an amazing dm. Can't wait to do a new game I'm doing with KoKo. This is the best group of d n d players I've ever meet. We have 2 dms in the group who switch up every other week and the story telling is just amazing. 💜 Might I also add eps world is completely home brew and it's so emersive wish I had the time to type out about miss delmeneve. Her whole story is amazing.

[@JayEmsey35]

I had an idea for a Dragonborn monk but instead of him being a martial artist, I wanted him to be a brawler. More Stone Cold Steve Austin than Bruce Lee. When I presented the idea in a group chat with my party and the DM, two of the other players mocked me and tried to “Well, actually…” me. I was a little discouraged but agreed to make another character. The DM told me in a private message to keep my character and he would get back to me. Three days later, I received a fairly large word document in an email from the DM. He had home brewed an entire subclass for my idea. He also told the players that made fun of me that if they ever pulled that again, he would ban them from his table. I never felt more included in a game. That campaign lasted over a year and a half, and it’s still the high point of my adventuring career.

[@blakeetter280]

DM has hundreds of NPCs and over a hundred of which are actual characters with full backstories and personalities. The world is fully open with lots to do everywhere and even has alternate possibilities based on the players choices, even the little things. Just yesterday we found out that the time it took us to clear a dungeon affected what would happen to the nearby town that had the plague we were trying to cure.

[@Salad_Pickle]

Totally out of nowhere - an NPC who didn't matter saved the day. TLDR I called an ex adventurer a little bitch and he came in clutch to save our asses.. and we got a cool new hat out of it 😎

[@aribackwood1949]

I was playing Indecard rpg with online group and Gm had most fun way to run combats. Game is simplified D20 rpg, which focuses on gear you carry instead of class abilities and level bonuses. On default characters have only 10hp so they down easily and combat is quick and deadly. Our Gm ran normal combats, with usual DnD style. "Here is bunch of enemies hit them until they fall". But when we fought boss enemies, he was always like. "Your normal attacks deal only 1 damage to this, or this is immortal demigod, who can down you with one strike. What you do?" He put us against impossible odds and when we got creative, like. "Does demigod take damage if I poke him into eye with stake. Or can we manipulate enviroment with this spell and trap that guy, instead of having to beat him till end of time?" He was like, "try it and find out." That way boss encounters became more alive, than just punching it until it falls and we had ton of fun moments. In the end dice was one that decided if we succeeded and gm just narrated it. Boss combats were still scary and tough too, because how easily they downed our characters.

[@alexwaddington9808]

I'm a forever DM, so here to just get ideas

[@thewovenmantis6813]

Chin up king. Us forever DMs will get our chance eventually.

[@DesMuttYS]

Some of this makes me feel kind of inadequate as a DM myself. In my defense, I am relatively new to it, and working to improve, but I doubt I'll reach the same level as some of the people in this post.

[@carolinelabbott2451]

All that matters is that you keep improving upon your past self experiences. Let yourself be inspired by others, but don't compare yourself to others.

[@kaseymathew1893]

This happens on rare occasions, when the situation calls for it . . . Me: I rolled a [poor result] Gm: sorry, you rolled what? Me: (re-roll)

[@samskelly]

Not me taking furious notes so that my players like playing at my table

[@notmuch_23]

Okay, spoiler ahead for Pact World Warriors (a Starfinder Society scenario) ...should see the "read more" option below... ... okay. On the first section, the obstacle course, once the first player gets up the cliff and down the slide, unless they disable it, a slime follows the player down the slide. This was lower-tier, so the slime was medium, with the engulf ability, limited to its size or smaller. Well, the party had a large-size creature with a feat that allowed it to pass through 5-foot-wide sections. The rules for this slide state that players that start their move on the top end it at the bottom. So when the large-sized character went down the slide, the slime/ooze was still at the bottom. As far as I know, even though there are rules for one character landing on another in a fall, there weren't any for a _slide,_ (Paizo Organized Play requires rules as written) so I had to make a judgement call. I think I handled this pretty well: since the ooze/slime couldn't engulf the character, I gave it a reflex save to not get squished. Being an ooze/slime, it failed pretty hard, so I gave that player 1d6 of bludgeoning damage against it. Both the Venture Officer for that location (the player of the large-size character) _AND_ the Venture Captain for the area were there and playing, if I didn't handle that right, or there was a rule that covered that situation, one or both would have told me.

[@MitchT97]

I hope I’m a good dm to my players, but my current dm for our Curse of Strahd campaign (potential CoS spoilers) that’s been going on for over two years now is amazing at constructing stories and rolling with our chaotic decisions. We often bounce ideas off each other best we can without spoilers as we’re in each other’s games. I told him about one of my first characters I ever made (I’d only been in a few one shots until then) and he quickly integrated me into the campaign, I was even the plot hook that got it everything started being of a family in Barovia (the murder house one). Now we’re nearing the end of our adventure and I’m about to take on my own mother the first bride of Strahd.

[@KumiChan2004]

One thing I've realized in rp is not everything goes as planned. Heck even the back up plan might not work either. You got to be able to adapt and adjust to things. Even rework stuff that are major plot points in some way.

[@Sasuman731]

Day 7 of asking A teifling fighter in the group I was playing in made potato bombs. We were fighting some blobs (like gelatinous cubes and such) he asked to put the potato bomb into the blob and detonate it. He rolled a nat 1 and the DM asked if he wanted the dramatic version or not. He asked for the dramatic version and so the DM told us that the teifling stuck his hand into the blob and couldn't pull it out so he watched shock as a contained explosion happened in the blob. So the player got his hand blown off and the blobs were acidic so it just gave him a stump it was very funny.

[@LoveShaysloco]

ohh i kind of posted this on bad dming for it was a guy that was back seat dming but the rest of it is great for here. my dwarf wurzen was a member of the crafting guild that used dragon fire for stuff improvement. armor/ everyday item that dragon breath defense weapon that dragon breath damage. but they would kill the dragon for the breath. so wurzen didn't want to kill dragons for he saw them in awh and wonder. just note if you are committed to the group after 10 in a row meeting, he would make a quest just for you for an item and if you have an item in mind you will get it but have to work for it. wurzen wanted to make the ultimate blacksmithing hammer that worked all dragon breath into it, and he could add the 1, 2 ,3 or all the effects into the item the better he made the effect/ effects the more $$$$ the item made was. it took 8 meetings. threw harsh sun threw wet rain. from the driest desert to the scorching volcano wurzen yelled to the heavens the hammer is complete for he met and convinced all types of dragons to imbue their breath into the hammer. when wurzen returned home he opened a smithy/ forge to all can learn the craft with a fee to use the equipment but hammer which never left his side. with wurzen smithy the town bloomed traders came from all over from jeweler's metal peddlers fur traders etc. plus several of the dragons wurzen befriended on his quest decreed that his is hallowed ground that no misdeeds shall happen here under there watch and if it did there would be hell to pay from those who did it. meaning their butts would be bbq. to which they kept their word. till one day wurzens old guild came for his hammer which spawned several quiets. for since they couldn't get into the city from 1 all the dragon killings and 2 would be spoted miles off. they would harass traders which hurt the town that wurzen and the group called home. plus, my item helped the group out from repairing armor with a portable forge and not bad for knocking out the annoying guard

[@ambiej123]

My DM let me play a good lizard folk. Then he let he reskin my barbarian so that instead of a bear totem she had a allosaurus totem, and when she raged she got spectral allosaurus “armour” that absorbed the damage. I gave her tavern brawler feet, and as long as I had a free hand, I could attack with my tail instead of the hand (so it was just flavor). Finally, because she got speak with animals as her barbarian subclass, when she asked a large lobster if it wanted to be her friend, I was able to get an animal ally/friend/pet who followed me everywhere. I LOVED playing that game.

[@captainpolar2343]

Anyone know a DM that would allow me to homebrew a feat that functions identically to 'Inspiring Leader' except instead of charisma, it's wisdom? Similar benefits, but with added point of healing all HP to one particular ally if they decide to focus instead of going burst (1 or many) (something something your chakras are unaligned something something it's causing your body to reject healing)

[@darcraven01]

9:11 "i open the door" what about the guard? *rolls nat 20* "I. Open. The. Door." (I know probably not the case but thats what it made me think of xD )

[@Jonas4282]

As the Dm, my players are annoyed by the theft of percolators form the coffee shops in town. Btw the world under threat of a Warforge conversion of the population.

[@josephlaufeia3670]

I needed someone to say they are proud of me as a dm.

[@HikariHellion]

Mine is from a campaign from which I've posted ANOTHER story from on the Mr. Ripper reddit. The DM wanted to end the campaign because he (and I) were more than sick of the other players being, ah, HIGHLY problematic (Barbarian who tried killing every shopkeeper because he didn't want to pay for stuff, rogue who had a history of sexual harassment disguised as "flirting" with female NPCs (and me), multiple attempts to kill MY character because they didn't like that I wasn't playing a healer, etc). We were supposed to go on a quest to get the McGuffin for the God of Wit in the DM's world, and return it to the god's main temple to prevent the end of the world. THESE chucklefucks decided that instead of doing that, they'd try and rip off the god by commissioning a VERY good copy of the mcguffin and returning THAT to the temple instead, and then selling the real artifact for a fortune. I messaged the DM and told him that since this was the endgame questline, I was going to do to the rest of the party what they were planning on doing to the god. He wondered what I was planning, and I explained it. He actually GIGGLED, and let me go about effectively screwing over the rest of my party. So, we go on this quest. The guys are being their typical levels of problematic, getting into fights in shops over the prices of rope and (on more than one occassion) getting thrown in jail for a couple weeks, or just outright banned from the town. We get the mcguffin. The rest of the party makes the copy of the mcguffin, sell the artifact and get a shitton of gold for it. Get to the temple, place the fake artifact on the altar, and the god is summoned. Understandably, he's pissed, and is about to wipe the lot of us off the map when I step up, pulling the REAL artifact out of my Bag of Holding and handing it over to the god. The plan I had laid out to the DM went like this: I'd wait until we got the mcguffin, and until the party had the fake made. I used some of my in-game "free time" to have ANOTHER copy of the mcguffin made (after lifting the real deal from the fighter while he was in a drunken stupor--this was a VERY common occurrence), which I then had enchanted to have abilites that would mimic the powers of the actual staff. Not enough to fool a god, obviously, but enough so that it'd fool someone who's just looking to destroy or re-sell the real artifact at a profit. Then, during one night where I'd taken first watch, I simply switched out MY fake for the real one, which I then dropped into my Bag of Holding. Then just went back to doing what I usually did--which typically consisted of making sure I took rooms at a DIFFERENT tavern from the rest of the party, so I didn't end up in jail like the rest of them inevitably would be, and making sure they didn't murder shopkeepers when they were informed that they had to PAY for goods and services. The party was PISSED. If this had been a group that WASN'T made up of jerks with murder fantasies that they were using D&D as a way to play them out, I might've felt bad about it. But, they had tried to kill my character MULTIPLE TIMES. The rogue had tried MULTIPLE TIMES to seduce my character, so much so that that he had a permanent -4 or -5 against my wizard specifically. They had, on multple occasions, gotten into ARGUMENTS with the DM about things such as "why do I have to pay for anything" or "what do you MEAN I can't kill the guards" or, my favorite, "she can't say no, I'm trying to seduce her!" And that's not even counting the bullshit I put up with out-of-character, as these guys were veeerrrry much the type who seemed to think the purpose of women playing D&D was to pander to their creepy fantasies. Yeah. I don't feel bad about screwing them over at ALL. After they stormed out of the VC, the DM and I had a good laugh over it all.

[@Jfreek5050]

When the DM permitted the isekai'd Nazi, but not the fursuit wearing self insert. Absolute chaddery.

[@Journey-of-1000-Miles]

It seems like everyone’s definition of a good DM, is someone that caters to all of the whims of the players. I couldn’t disagree more. As far as I am concerned, a good dungeon master is able to introduce and keep continuity, plausibility, and immersion. I do this by introducing consequences. A terrible game is when the characters always get their cake and eat it too.

[@genericname2747]

Sometimes I want to eat a cake that was suspiciously in the middle of abandoned ruins and make the DM pause for a few seconds and tell me I died of poison damage

[@levisallade1976]

I gotta have a question now. How many new series are you going to start? Like 80-90% of Ripper videos in the past month are part 1s.

[@juliagoodwin9510]

My cousin is interested in trying out DnD, and I'd like to get back into it (if not for my short attention span). How would we start?

[@EitherProductions]

For me, I couldn't find any games in my area through online group finders (since I prefer in-person), then one day out of the blue, one of my co-workers asked what I thought about DnD, which led to talking about DnD and me posting a sign-up sheet in the break room. It was a slow start for the first week, then I rapidly got 5 players interested. We've been playing for 8 months now. My advice is simply ask around if you can't find one online, and if you can't find someone willing to DM, be open to doing it yourself. It's hard when you have professionals to compare yourself to, but it's still very rewarding, especially for a world-builder like me. As for the attention span, I recommend starting with a short adventure from one of the Starter Sets or Essentials Kit, the newest one being the shortest to complete (covers only levels 1 to 3). After that, if they still want to continue playing, continue it via homebrew based on their decisions and backstory or with an adapted version of a book module that runs past level 5. I plan on running an increased difficulty version of Storm King's Thunder once they finish their combo adventure (Lost Mines of Phandelver + Dragon of Icespire Peak) that'll take them to level 8.

[@daxxmason8308]

Is there a way i can troubleshoot ideas with someone?

[@askreddit3021]

haha. ah; my whole campaign. but you know what they say:"there's no d&d better than bad d&d".

[@koryh9802]

My Dm for sunday games make character special items that only work for them no one else in the entire game can use them, just the respective members so we all feel like WE have something special for example a key backstory item to my star druid is a mystic orb that he needed to get back once it was found it gifted him more abilities for his starry forms like a custome Starry Shield form that gives me extra AC and give a party member +1 AC also or the ability to project in a 10ft by 10ft cube perfect memories of what i have seen, playing it as if we are in the memory for 10 minutes (at the cost of 1 charge out of 4) the orb only works with me and is even growing with me im told by level 12 i unlock new abilities and that goes for the rest of my party mates Now i don't know about you all but any one that actually pays attention to a groups playstyle give them specially tailored item and is even going above and beyond to have their backstories the priority versus what the main campaign is about has got to fit the category of DMing done right

[@Nnif_Boots47]

why do you keep adding in "ehh" to the sentences?

[@skelecogfromthehitmmotoontown]

Yeah another mister ripper Did I get first

[@BrianVaughnVA]

Nope, you're third I think!

[@skelecogfromthehitmmotoontown]

Did you click newest first and scrolled down

[@skelecogfromthehitmmotoontown]

Because the oldest or the first will be at the bottom which my comment is

[@scubasteve1757]

“Adjucate”

[@BrookeA12]

Would you like to hear the story of the session that made me cry, all thanks to my DM? well strap yourself in 'cause its a long one. So I play this character, Aurora, who has amnesia. All she knows is that the plane she comes from; the plane of dreams, fell into a calamity as an army of nightmares attacked. Her people decided to try and survive it through the only way they knew how, hunkering down and waiting it out. So everyone in the city all went in to a magical slumber. But after a few hundred years, much longer than intended, Aurora woke up on the material plane with only a few friends who fell with her and no memories of anything before then. The first thing I remembered about the love of my life was a vision of us two in our home, the beautiful woman before me asking ‘how do I look?’ As she steps into the room wearing a lovely green dress. ‘I didn’t think you could get any more beautiful, my love’ I reply before they leave for a lovely moonlit date. That was when this mystery woman proposed to me, and of course I said yes. Waking from the vision, I finally noticed the glimmering wedding band on my finger. I have a wife… and I have no idea where she is or if she’s even still alive. This was weeks ago. Now for what happened in the most recent session. We managed to find my old home, untouched for years, worn and decrepit in the abandoned plane of dreams. The first memory I received was described like this, if I can remember correctly: “You’re sitting in a beautiful field. Rolling grass around you spurred by a gentle breeze. Your wife stands in front of you, and she looks back at you just as the sun sets, creating a halo of golden light around her that seems to make her glow. As you stare at her and try to tell her that you love her or that she looks beautiful, you find the words are caught in your throat. Deep down in your gut, you can’t help but feel guilty. Guilty for not being able to successfully save your species from the calamity, guilty… for not being able to save her. You desperately try to say ‘I’m sorry’ but still you cannot speak. You feel choked up as you struggle to say something, anything, but before you can she’s gone, and your mind returns to the present, in your small decrepit apartment And you can’t help but wonder if it was all worth it… If you had made the right choice…” I already knew what the DM was getting at, they didn’t have to continue. The realization came to me a long time ago. “If I had let us go down, at least we would have gone down together.” This spurred an argument in our party. My friends try to console me, try to find other solutions, but it only angers me, a character who hardly ever gets angry or raises her voice. The Sorcerer: “Maybe you just needed more research?” Me: “No amount of research could remedy what has already happened!” The Ranger: “You know, when I was young my mom always told me-“ Me: “Shut up. SHUT UP! I DONT EVEN REMEMBER MY MOTHER. I DONT EVEN KNOW IF I HAVE ONE. IVE LOST EVERYONE AND THERES NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. I WOULD SACRIFICE EVERY ONE OF YOU JUST TO SEE MY WIFE AGAIN!” Silence DM: “as you say that, the plane of dreams that you reside in answers your call. A projection of your wife appears. For a brief second you think it might actually be her, but then you see yourself enter to greet her and realize it’s only another memory. The two of you sit together on the couch, cradling each other and discussing your research. Your wife says ‘we’re going to be asleep for such a long time, what if you forget?’ And you reply ‘what do you mean?’ ‘Well, how will you remember?’ ‘Remember what?’ ‘That you love me’ “ I’m fully crying at this point and I take a minute to catch my breath. Me: “tell me her name. Please. *what is her name!?* “ DM: “… she tenderly cups your face as you say ‘Astel the Gentle… in a sea of fields, you are the biggest field and in a sea of fields and moons you are the biggest moon. My love for you; eternal, no matter what may happen, I will never forget my love for you’ “ Me: “Aurora… mutters the name… ‘Astel’ multiple times, familiarizing herself with how it feels on her lips. She then reaches out to the projection of her wife just as the image is fading, but it’s gone before she can reach her. After a moment of silence, she collapses to the floor, tears now streaming down her face. ‘I will never forget my love for you’ she echoes.”

[@dps9390]

Second

[@BrianVaughnVA]

8th

[@skelecogfromthehitmmotoontown]

@@BrianVaughnVA did you check newest first and scrolled down

[@skelecogfromthehitmmotoontown]

Because it doesn’t automatically put the oldest at the bottom on mobile at least not sure about pc

[@Joit_Voitege]

hi

[@BrianVaughnVA]

Hi!\

[@Joit_Voitege]

@@BrianVaughnVA your voice is calming, strangely

[@abelbraulioritenour2300]

I don't get your narrating tone at all. I recommend you watch where you place your pauses and to quit that kind of "meh" tone you use every now and then. But this is a great video still

[@tod557]

Woot! I brought the likes up to 1k! Do i get a cookie?

[@MrRipper]

Have a heart ❤️

[@tod557]

@@MrRipper woooooooot!

[@snowwildpaw3551]

#16 :3

[@BrianVaughnVA]

John 16:3?

[@snowwildpaw3551]

@@BrianVaughnVA lol nice, but I'm like number 16 😝

[@epicmelonman]

9:40 that's how I run my games too actually. My players and I start spitballing about characters and concepts and then we workshop out specifics and their existence directly dictates how I build the world. My DM notes are literally just bullet points and I pull shit outta my ass and improv as we go, always in direct reaction to whatever unfathomable idea my players decide to run with, and thus the world develops. I certainly like to think I do a good job, and hey, my players seem to love it so I guess I'm doing right, right?