DM Claims To Be THE BEST DM, Falls Flat of Expectations | Narrated D&D Story

[@KentaroMiyamoto21]

"The greatest wizard ever" my foot. He lost to a hamster.

[@jorgemigueltavares6041]

Granted, the hamster was huge, but still.

[@thecerberussian7859]

lv 1 wizard be like

[@ericfelipe4198]

Anyone who claims to be "the best" DM is inherently a bad DM. That is a title that is bestowed to you by others. A person can consider itself a good DM, but some fall flat to even be that.

[@ramonserna8089]

I think is a DM thing. Every DM Ive met has told me he/she is the best.

[@ericfelipe4198]

@@ramonserna8089 Well, the ones who could actually be considered "the best DM" would never claim to be it. That's for anything, humility is a characteristic of the greatest.

[@ezrafaulk3076]

@@ericfelipe4198 yep, but *this* DM was filled with nothing but *arrogance* ; and I use the word arrogance instead of pride because there's a *world* of difference between the two. To explain it: Pride *can* in fact be *justified* , but *arrogance never* is.

[@aneishinobinomono]

@@ramonserna8089 as my groups dm, im obligated to tell you i am the best. (just joking, i consider myself barely adequate as its my first campaign)

[@ericfelipe4198]

@A random person Who is random well yes, you might know what's the best way to DM a game for yourself, it doesn't mean you could actually do it.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

Ah, I remember this one! Loved it!

[@theofficerfactory2625]

I saw the thumbnail and instantly thought of Overlord. After watching the video, most definitely Overlord.

[@evilbeardedman]

0:27 The irony is no one of those "Matt Mercer and a select few others" will ever call themselves "best DM".

[@jorgemigueltavares6041]

Bob was, as the saying goes, hoisted by his own petard.

[@timwoods2852]

All I can think of is Hampsky from Overlord. 🤣🤣

[@clericofchaos1]

I'm not sure what exactly he was going for. Did he just want to create some ultimate challenge, or did he want to give players some flexible character creation and see how creative they could be? If all he wanted was challenge, he could have just run dungeon of the mad mage. Which is widely accepted as the most difficult dungeon in the game. Mainly because there is literally only one way to do things and all other ideas are squashed by the dungeon. That's why it can be just as challenging to a party of max level characters as level ones. If he was going for unrestricted creativity, then he should have known better than to expect a fair game for either side.

[@360entertainment2]

I don’t think he was going for any of that, I’m pretty sure he was just super full of himself but lacked any creativity.

[@mr.cobalt1668]

Pretty sure he was just far more confident in the superiority of his creative and strategic ability than he had any right to be.

[@thecharmingone3931]

I’m pretty sure he was just being a dick.

[@willparry530]

he just overestimated his own abilities to balance a setting to whatever the players made

[@Zarkonem]

I hate this whole "look how powerful i am as a DM" mentality. I don't get it. I honestly don't. Your job as the DM is for everyone to have fun. You "win" at DMing when you have players excited for the next session. Ultimately as a DM, you should WANT the players to succeed. You WANT them to overcome insurmountable odds and come out on top. They are the protagonists of the story, make them feel like it! I don't understand how this exceptionally simple and basic concept goes over so many DM's heads.

[@denverarnold6210]

How i see it is, you're a storyteller. You plop/incorporate PCs into your world, and write a story around their background and actions, to oversimplify it. Still need to herd that cats that are the players from time to time in a proper direction, but I like letting them make their own story, for the most part.

[@NobodySoldier]

@@denverarnold6210 As a DM i always try to design my campaigns around a "mindset". I usually give a name to my campaigns, something like "Liberator", because I want to offer an adventure where my players feel like "liberators" and so one and so forth depending on the theme. I design my "trials" based on the party (trying to tie in their story and wishes) and the theme.

[@willparry530]

@@NobodySoldier nice

[@NobodySoldier]

@@willparry530 Thank you

[@kcollier2192]

Despite being full of hot air Bob's game sank like a Led Zeppelin.

[@cicisstormshelter1076]

DM: "You doomed the world, the Orbs are turning evil." Me: *smashes orbs* "I don't a flying feck, you arsewad." Yeah, this DM is not Roz Young. X(

[@ozmasterofmasks5838]

That hamster will never be at the level of honk honk the destroyer

[@PozerAdultRacingTeam]

Well that was a good twist at the end.

[@JustToSaveYou]

Confident New DM: Bring the wildest combination you can think of to this game. Me: I'm an Aarakocra that was born in that under ground city you mentioned and now I'm afraid of the sky.

[@GreaterGrievobeast55]

3:50 sounds like completely human like behavior to me these days. YIRBEL LIVES!

[@FreedomAndPeaceOnly]

That last "ending speech" was so cringe. Also sometimes killing the annoying bastard is more important than safing the world.

[@eliswinney7658]

I admit I’ve sometimes been guilty of just throwing enemies when DMing but I never claimed to be a good dm. I think you could at least add a stone rune puzzle by pressing buttons though

[@willparry530]

that would be pretty cool

[@TigerW0lf]

I have heard at least 3 others narrate this story and I still can't get the image of Bob Belcher in a Wizard Hat

[@siredgen4917]

Gee, an epic RPG where I have to collect four treasures of the elements? I've never heard that one before!

[@michaelbohannon527]

You're missing a few episodes in your guardsmen playlist.

[@Sparkbomber]

DerpM much. At least there's a giant hamster involved, right Boo?

[@SapphireDragon357]

Mixing metaphors fail... Fall flat.. Fall short of expectations.. You don't 'fall flat of expectations'.

[@lostbutfreesoul]

If you want a good Dungeon Master you need a Storyteller with decades under their belt... and fear they are still wrong.

[@wolfancap6897]

Hamusuke in the thumbnail

[@andrewthegeek6522]

anything is permitted and "you will need it" i'd probably assuming 5e as system go divine soul sorrcerrer and at that level cast doesens of guiding bolts twining them the entire time

[@TheAdventStudio]

Actually building an anything campaign right now. Told my players to make any LV10 character they want (if they want to homebrew, talk to me), and pick 5 things I need to work in the game. Now one player is a ghost, and at some point, they are going to meet Santa Clause hunting, and that's just the beginning of the ridiculousness that is going to be this campaign. I'm looking forward to it. :)

[@mediastudies2023]

The game is 3/3.5

[@mayajohnson9731]

giant (space?) hampster! It's Boo! 🐹🐹🐹

[@johnballard3403]

Now and then, stories like this make me want to try a game where the point is for the players to get upset with the uber powerful and glorious DM pc and take it down. Then I think about it, and have no idea how to do it without actually getting people upset and wanting to quit the game. The point of, you are supposed to grow to despise this character and eventually topple them, becoming little more than a lame excuse for doing things as the DM that everyone knows ruins games.

[@trelana]

Be obvious about it. Or just be a considerate person and tell your players. Don't tell them who, just to keep a bit of mystery to it, but tell them that is your intention.

[@BDC39]

Could do a Shane the Shy villain where the quests he gives the party ultimately cause more destruction

[@thecharmingone3931]

As a DM, I admit I have a love-hate relationship with power gamers. On one hand, I’m frustrated with how they make a character to be overpowered and almost just that (especially if their personalty and backstory is half-baked) and seem to care more about side-stepping challenges and beating up enemies without care for the greater story (storytelling is, after all, the reason I became a DM in the first place). On the other hand, I sometimes like how they show off and adopt a more creative approach to game mechanics, especially if it results in a memorable scene (for example, in one campaign a barbarian was beating an entire horde of monsters to death with his bare hands, and I was cheering him on).

[@willparry530]

creative use oif mechanics is definitely a double-edged sword, lol.

[@woaddragon]

Oh yeah, i remember this

[@The_Cakeminator]

I've never claimed to be the best DM ever. But I've been doing it for almost 30 years and the same players still want me to go on, so I guess I'm doing something right at least. You don't have to be the best DM ever, just good enough to make your group enjoy the game.

[@pambronson4467]

I've been running a game for my son and his friends. One session after the party had been captured by an enemy army the rogue/ warlock dabbled in shadow magic thanks to the being he got his magic from. The result after rolling a nat 20, nat 1, nat 20... The bunny shadow puppet cast on the wall by his party's Fighter while trying to entertain a captive child just came to life and is tearing through the army. Their party used the distraction to release all the slaves. But..... they also released a terrifying and homicidal shadow demon upon the world. As the DM I am just waiting to see how long it is until they realize the fallout.

[@cesargeney5268]

Please coment whenever possible what happened with your group. Im intrigued

[@MrGamernova]

Should have shipped 2 of the characters so their kids could show up and proof the party lived happily ever after killing the wizard.

[@bluwzrdphone]

Had a storyteller (Starwars RPG) challenge me to make a character that "could break his game" after I said that I've been looking at the stuff and I realized a way to do so. He was adamant that I couldn't break his game. So I made a Droid bounty Hunter who specialized in heavy weaponry, computers and mechanics. The first few fights he put us in lasted 1.5 rounds because of me mowing down minions while the rest of the party targeted the big bads. His first attempt to counteract me was space combat. I kept our ship running in peak precision during battles. So he went to add more guys to battles. Final fix to my game breaking character he begged me to bring was to have a maxed out Jedi NPC kill me because I had built myself in a way that in every situation I had an answer.

[@willparry530]

Arrogance is always a downfall. Now if he had been unsure and wanted to _test_ the setting, I'd be more sympathetic to that DM

[@bluwzrdphone]

@@willparry530 Agreed, and I explained how the build worked before putting pen to paper, and he seemed excited about the character as much as I was. He later quite our group because he "was tired of learning new systems." The three systems we used were 3.5, Fantasy Flight Star Wars, and IKRPG, all three of which he'd been playing since each dropped.

[@willparry530]

@@bluwzrdphone oof. Sounds like he just didn't wanna put the time in to actually learn the systems he was already using.

[@WolfHunter732]

I was going to say hey just use freedom of movment then I realized that counterspell in 5E is broken.

[@DARKANGEL20PR]

I got a dm horror story the sad thing I have not found a new group

[@DarksideChaotix]

A true DM is one who claims to never be good enough, one who strives to improve, always.

[@mariustutus]

Is that a re-upload or did I read this one on r/rpghorrorstories?

[@AuntLoopy123]

I do believe that "I chew up the wizard's corpse and eat it" is the best version of "Oh, well," I've ever heard.

[@cgillis3989]

He sounds pretty cocky if he thinks being a good DM just means making a powerful character

[@pogggaming4470]

Bullying the dmpc is the best thing to do if you against a bad dm

[@nickwolfe6684]

I'd like to submit Brennan lee mullagin for the claim of best gm please

[@Goats033]

I do love the stories, but it really just until the same without the old artwork

[@ShiroTheTraveler]

You are...Slash Start? 0o

[@adamka-1]

Is giant hamster legal?

[@ryanphillips4720]

I miss when this channel did good Dnd stories instead of just Dnd horror stories. I understand that those were probably their most successful stories, but there are a lot of channels that do cringy stories, and very few that do cool, fun, or epic stories.

[@willparry530]

...just horror stories? _Looks back on the last dozen stories before this one_ I count five horror stories compared to seven good or neutral stories. The channel is keeping a very decent mix of good and bad, it's not just constant horror stories like they had for a little bit.

[@ulrichbrodowsky5016]

I feel like they should have talked about not wanting to play that campaign anymore instead of killing it

[@asdfjoe123]

What's up with the captions being in Korean?

[@Tasfarel]

These kind of DM´s are the worst - always flapping their mouth like they wanna go critical role level jada jada jada and then are not able to run just one decend scene. Been there, saw that

[@warboss3686]

No offense to y’all, y’all are what’s getting me into DND but Den of the Drake honestly did this story better. It’s the attempted voice acting that always gets me

[@angelthefallen3]

The cc for this is so bad and funny

[@therealsteve7653]

Roflaclalb

[@Nazo-kage]

Do you know if you want to play a DM that wants to dick over overpowered characters to show off, just play Tomb Of Annihilation. And I would say a quick way of trying to change the difficulty for the PCs. Figure out what each of the PC characters strengths are, then have them go on the quest for the orbs. Making sure that each orb is empowering the enemies the heroes are fighting in such a way that at least one of the characters specialties is either negated or resistant to in someway. Like the first orb, all the enemies leading up to the orb are either resistant, immune, absorbent, or reflective of fire spells. That means any fireball spamming wizard is screwed. And maybe on the third orb all the enemies are immune to ‘Cleve’ or to be more specific whatever damage type Cleve does.

[@denverarnold6210]

I would just use a catchall of "immune/huge resist to physical."

[@Nazo-kage]

@@denverarnold6210 well I figured that each orb would be different so it’s more shaking things up then feeling like the DM is picking on one character in particular.

[@denverarnold6210]

@@Nazo-kage However, it's also hard to have a hard encounter, even puzzle, with someone who can curbstomp everything short of a tarrasque.

[@Nazo-kage]

@@denverarnold6210 while true with enemy encounters, I don’t see how being able to cause that much damage interferes with puzzles. Plus there’s the part where the DM kept egging everybody on wanting them to make broken builds. And I would only think waves upon waves of enemies only works if you’re dealing with the literal military army instead of just waves of monsters.

[@denverarnold6210]

@@Nazo-kage For the puzzles, 9/10, it's to open a door, or get the meguffin. So chances are, with that kind of strength, they can literally brute force open any door or chest, even if it means tearing it apart in the process. And starting at lvl 11, an adamantine weapon is not an improbable option.

[@andrewthegeek6522]

best dm is highly subjective for example I quite dislike mat mercer

[@hariitokyashimoto3458]

This. It is hard to please the whole table all the time - especially when different players have massively different taste regarding how they enjoy the game.

[@ElizabethAlleman]

First mistake: trash talk when you can't walk. Rules, creative, and group dynamics skills suck. Second mistake: front your s#!t as the hottest when it's second and third hand crap cut with ground up garbage. Sounded like a bad rip of Final Fantasy, via every fetch quest ever, but cheaper and worse. Third mistake: self-insert, with stats. If it has stats, it can (and given frustrated players, WILL) be killed...

[@theworldstoryteller1197]

What a pathetic setup! I could've come up with several more challenging games in my sleep!!!

[@morecringe89]

Half of the stories I saw so far feel like they were made up to make a point.

[@cgillis3989]

is this 3.5e? I hope so, really sick of hearing 5e exclusive

[@Michaeljack81sk]

Nice story but maybe ease up on the Matt Mercer worship

[@The_mekboy_you_deserve]

Bob: admire my majestic orb The party: yes the 69th orb we brought you Literally I wish this was one of the lines.