Genius D&D Player Expertly Outsmarts The DM

[@jesternario]

I love this. When you take what the GM is doing and don't wreck his campaign with your actions, but instead make the story so much better, that is such an interesting thing.

[@MaximumAaron]

The beauty of a proper "yes, and"

[@francecruz4157]

I am now going to do the exact opposite but veeeery slowly so they get annoyed and only the dm notices it, and when the party notices, it will already be too late.

[@aceaszwall8333]

@@francecruz4157 But .. why?

[@hermes667]

Bon appetíte!

[@CCgivemeawedgy]

Because balance goes both ways. When this much good goes out into the world, just as much evil must come out.

[@GoldenSunAlex]

'They didn't die - they were just sent to another dimension.' "I banish you to the Shadow Realm!"

[@karkajouautomaton4882]

I think you mean FROM the Shadow Realm, because they were in the Shadowfell when it happened, and were now in the Astral Sea.

[@notoriousgoblin83]

More like that Astral thing from Zexal

[@EylulTurksever]

​@@karkajouautomaton4882It's a reference to yu-gi-oh, since it's a children's cartoon, they can't say someone is killed, instead they are sent to the "shadow realm".

[@agsilverradio2225]

Yeah. The afterlife.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

@@EylulTurksever Yeah I knew that reference!!

[@Gravity_Fish]

DM from story 1 here! Big thanks to CritCrab for telling my story and thanks everyone for the kind words! Dnd for me it's always about collaborative story telling, I'll never tell my players they can't do something if it's something their characters can and would do. In return they help shape the world i make in ways I'd never be able to ❤ Saw a few comments about being incapped after banishment. But RAW, that's only if they're native to the plane and they go to the demi plane. But as someone else said, even if it wasn't the case, it's way too awesome of a moment to not let it happen. Rule of cool 🤘 And yes, i have biiiig plans for the soul eater 😈

[@WhiskeySins]

As a Triton Sorc from the Plane of Water in a campaign on material plane, I've always joked that Banishment on self is my "Get out of jail free" card. That said, I am also very concerned whenever we fight enemy casters because of that spell.

[@Gravity_Fish]

@@WhiskeySins such a nice thing to have in the back pocket. The fun downside is that it's non specific where you get sent. The Plane of water is a large place 😁

[@danelo13]

That was incredibly awesome. You have great players. Cherish them

[@aurav4643]

We NEED an update

[@Wolfog_]

Like how technically he couldn't of concentrated on banishment for the duration due to being incapacitated during the banishment but honestly I also would've let it slide for that , super cool moment

[@Saavryn]

That first story is full of unintended consequences... They let a soul devourer into the plane of souls. I don't forsee anything good coming of this.

[@zoboothemafoo]

THE PLOT THICKENS

[@animeotaku307]

OP did say that they had plans…

[@Undomaranel]

Om nom nom...

[@BlazeIgnitus]

That's assuming the Ultroloth doesn't cross Vlaakith. If it does, it's fucked.

[@maeves.w.7156]

They handed the DM a perfect future encounter! 😮

[@redstoneraptor8101]

Instead of “are you sure you want to do that?”, maybe DMs should be asking, “What do you expect to happen when you do this?”, and then with brutal honesty just say, “Yeah, that’s not how it would go down, but you’re welcome to try.”

[@CritCrab]

That's actually a really smart idea. "Are you sure you want to do that?" Is shorthand for "please do not". But digging in to why they want to do the thing could totally help clear up some misconceptions.

[@MrFoxtheSpy]

I'm probably going to start saying that instead. The circumstances here with the sith using the force to open the door causing it to pull the whole ship instead seems a tad ridiculous, because his character would have known that would likely happen even if the player didn't

[@bragnir]

@@MrFoxtheSpy Absolutely. Or, at the very least, the character would have felt something being wrong when he was about to start.

[@ChristophelusPulps]

I like to ask, "What are you trying to accomplish?" whenever the PC is doing something that doesn't make sense to me.

[@polly5770]

My DM does, “With a passive wisdom of 11, your character realizes it might be a bad idea because ________.” I appreciate him for dealing with me, cus usually my character is the one acting impulsively

[@WulfgarOpenthroat]

"I pull the door" "Ok, you pull the entire ship" is some serious troll logic from the GM there. No way a reasonable person could have expected that, even with the "are you sure?" warning.

[@donovanmahan2901]

That's a kind of thing you'd find in the Henry Stickmin collection, needless to say bad design for a tabletop campaign.

[@biancaesteban1652]

Bianca Esteban 11 minutes ago I just started watching this video (posted by our DM) thinking it would be similar to our campaign. As the story went on, I realised “Hang on a sec. That’s exactly what happened in our campaign!” And then…OMG THIS IS OUR CAMPAIGN!!! I was sitting right next to the Cleric when he pulled that move and all six of us were stunned into speechlessness. I started to tear up. Our Cleric is the heart and soul of our party. He’s the glue that keeps us all together. That he sacrificed himself for us was perfectly in character, but we were ruined afterwards. We were doing so well in the fight…right up until the Ultroloth started sucking the life out of our allies. We couldn’t save everyone, but our Cleric saved everyone who was left. We just this past session finally found him in the Beastlands and, OMG, it was another tearjerking moment 😭 so unbelievably poignant and bittersweet. We absolutely still have the Ultroloth as a huge problem (and it’s not even the biggest problem we have, btw), but we’ll be better prepared next time, and of course, we have our Cleric 😍 We love you!!

[@senecanevraska5356]

Do you have any VODS of your campaign?

[@Debatra.]

...While I'm not going to defend someone ignoring "Are you sure about that?", or Varok's conduct in general, that crash definitely seemed to come out of nowhere. I can't really blame him for not forseeing "open door = instantly crash ship".

[@kayq3231]

My dm once confessed to me that, for a while, whenever I'd make a plot related guess that was right, he'd change what was going to happen so he could keep the element of surprise. (He'd previously mentioned that he made hooks and foreshadowing really, really subtle.) He realized it was a jerk move and swore to himself that he wouldn't do it again. But by that time I'd decided I wasn’t going to discuss my serious theories with him anymore because I was tired of always being wrong.

[@7thsealord888]

As a long time DM, I'm close to the exact opposite. If Players can figure it all out early, good for them. That's on me, not them. I won''t mess with that except MAYBE to toss in a complication or two so it isn't TOO easy. Maybe. However, I also listen carefully to my group whenever they are trying to figure something out ingame. A lot of the time, the ideas they come up with are so much better than what I had planned. If possible or practical, I'll then incorporate some of those ideas into the game. Result being a good session with players who are extra happy about ALMOST figuring it all out, and who also think I'm a damn genius. :)

[@bragnir]

@@7thsealord888 This is a great approach, honestly.

[@genericname2747]

I had my players figure out the plot before the campaign even happened. We were all talking the day before, and I joked that it'd suck if they immediately figured out what monster was causing all the mysterious disappearances in town. One of them said "Oh, I don't know very many d&d monsters. The only thing I know about is dragons, and something called a False Hydra". The monster in my campaign was a false hydra. They all saw my look of panic and immediately realized. Good times.

[@stargate525]

@@7thsealord888 this. My best campaigns were born from listening to my players going corkboard and string on the plot hooks, and going 'damn, that's WAY better than my idea.' Thus the corrupt nobleman with self-identity issue (no mirrors in the castle) turned into a vampire seeking out ingredients for a cure.

[@hexi9595]

@@stargate525Ive seen similar stories of how player paranoia ends up making a better story. Like how a random howling in the woods turned into a werewolf ambush cause someone asked what phase the moon was or how some algae turned into a water monster that the players accidentally brushed by and panicked about.

[@wolfleclair1399]

The first story was good, but in the second.... Without criticizing the characters involved..... The force pull should have just ripped the door off directly at Varok, either injuring or possibly killing him. The whole ship would not have moved as the pull was only focused on a small part of the whole, also it's not like ships in Star Wars are diecast and assembled in only a few pieces. I've ran Star Wars games before and that is just not how you properly utilize force power manipulation or ships. Thank you CritCrab for another brain tickling experience. =^_^=

[@MagnaFae]

I exploited an unintended mistake made by my DM and defeated his CR 10 mini-boss with a single spell. In a campaign session four months back, the party was storming a magic college to stop the headmaster from completing a ritual that would ascend him to godhood. Because of the ritual, space-time was distorting, causing the interior dimensions of the college to change and expand/compress when we passed into a new area. We passed through one door into the middle of a possibly infinite stairwell. We dropped a stone down the shaft and we never saw/heard it land. It just got swallowed up by the darkness below. We climbed the next few hundred stairs up, and the next door we needed to get through was being guarded by a hulking golem of flesh and stone, inlaid with magical gemstones for eyes. The headmaster had presumably stationed it here to deter anyone like us who might stop him. Our DM makes a big point about how massive, heavy, and imposing this golem is, and how it sees all of us, waiting for us to make the first move. So our fighter, who recently acquired a gun, got into position and tried to shoot at it. The bullet hit but glanced off the stone, which probably meant that it was resistant to non-magical weapons. I’m detailing all this to stress the fact that the DM built up this golem to be a very difficult enemy, and based on past fights, we could expect this combat to take about 1-2 hours. But I had a stroke of brilliance, and a devious plot began to brew in my mind. We rolled initiative to start combat. My warlock rolled highest with a total of 23, and I told the group, “I’m gonna do something that will either achieve nothing, or end the combat immediately.” The other players are intrigued, and the DM has no clue what shenanigans I’m about to pull. I casted a 5th Level spell called Telekinesis, which (if my Charisma roll beat his countering Strength roll) would allow me to move the golem 30 feet in any direction. I roll 20 Charisma. The golem is very strong, but only rolls 10 Strength. “Okay,” says the DM. “Where do you move the golem?” And I tell him my plan. “I move the golem 30 feet diagonally off the stairs, so that it’s suspended directly over the endless chasm. And I drop concentration on the spell at the end of my turn to make it fall.” And the golem falls. It has no ability to fly, and no nearby ledges to grab onto. It falls, and falls, into the abyss. The other players lost their shit (in an excited way) and the DM said he couldn’t even be mad that I outsmarted him.

[@zacharyperlee4179]

Nice! Fall damage/ endless pit for the win!

[@Temperans]

You see, the GM could had played it that the stone you threw earlier falls next to one of you. At which point it was only a matter of time before the golem fell and potentially crushed on of you.

[@destroyerinazuma96]

​@@TemperansOr on the BBEG. That would have been comical.

[@ZorotheGallade]

"I told you about the stairs bro!"

[@ReannaAloi]

😆😆😆😆 Awesome thinking!

[@JKevinCarrier]

That first story was brilliant! Good on the Cleric for coming up with the plan, and good on the DM for allowing it. That last story -- I'm tempted to say Everyone Sucks Here. Varok was obviously being irritating. But instead of trying to talk it out with him, OP deliberately pushes his buttons and makes things worse. And then the DM doubles down by deciding to have his powers go wonky at the worst possible moment ("You open the door so hard that the ship crashes". Seriously?). The result is a completely predictable and preventable disaster. Bad form all around.

[@AshleyBeby]

0:01 players derailing the campaign sounds like the fun of D&D (as someone who has only just made a character sheet)

[@ronodenthal100]

Recently had players realize a boss had reasons to value a bridge they needed to cross for their mission more than they did. So they just bypassed the fight entirely by threatening to cut the ropes. Boss was on the other side and I had intended for this to be an hour+ long slog of them trying to cross while under fire and being intercepted by mooks. Turned into a pretty terse negotiation session that was pretty cool. Yeah it was both terrifying and hilarious at the same time. They apologized but I was pretty pleased with their ingenuity.

[@hackcubit9663]

Another excellent green flag: when the DM is happy to be outsmarted. I read so many crazy stories where the GM refuses to process the curveballs that their players throw at them, when as far as I'm concerned, these curveballs are always the best parts of the roleplaying experience.

[@apossiblyhereticalalphaleg3595]

This is just straight up so true, there is nothing more fun than seeing the DM earnestly try to play around innovative tactics by the Party, and recognizing when they've been outsmarted. Or even outsmart the outsmarting via something the Party did not foresee.

[@Ghostchanter]

I absolutely agree with this and finding a player/DM relationship like that can be hard. Me and my DM for life have been playing for around 10 years in the same universe. We’ve thrown curveballs at each other frequently, even one time forcing him to pause a session because he 110% forgot he gave me an item over a year ago that I never used and put it to creative effect 😈 We’ve also had some amazing custom hex blade lore developed which has caused me to be unable to enjoy playing a standard hex blade as I think the standard lore is so sub par lol. It probably isn’t, but those personal stories mean so much more ❤

[@cmrhodes90]

Having done some dming myself, I find being able to improvise as you go makes the story a lot more fun for everyone. No one likes to be rail roaded and players will improvise as they play so if you balance within the realm of possibilities in the campaign that's when everyone can really enjoy themselves.

[@EwMatias]

To be absolutely honest, Verrick was playing a perfect Sith. I don't think it's fair to blame him for that. I also don't believe "force pulling a door"="force pulling apart the entire ship" is foregone conclusion that anyone should have seen coming.

[@saulgallagher5668]

Force-pulling a *sliding* door after the DM hits you with a "are you sure about doing that" probably should give you pause

[@EwMatias]

@@saulgallagher5668 I would expect it would maybe break the mechanism or distract the pilot. Not that it would rip appart the ship.

[@Cappuccino_Rabbit]

Imagine if the death star were destroyed because Vader got mad and force pulled a door

[@xryeau_1760]

I think the problem was that instead of using his evil traits to work with the party, Verrick as a player was working against the party. He didn't want to use the party's in-fighting to tell a good story, he was just actually fighting the party

[@iamalbertwesker2]

​@@xryeau_1760 So acting like a true sith

[@mellsfunni9204]

The second story’s campaign seems to be directly inspired by the start of the Sith Inquisitor story in SWtOR.

[@wolfleclair1399]

Definitely sounds that way.

[@Eye_Of_Odin978]

"directly inspired by" Aight yeah, we'll go with that.

[@SamLabbato]

I had a dm that basically ran us through the SWtOR campaign but in dnd. some of the players that picked up on it were a little annoyed he ripped so many thing one for one, but I wasn't a big star wars head at the time and enjoyed the campaign thoroughly

[@ZorotheGallade]

The portable hole and bag of holding planar implosion is the kind of Godzilla Treshold you cross when you absolutely need everything in close distance to disappear and don't care if that includes you. Ballsiest move you can pull.

[@Tony2-Dirty]

To quote the great Sam L Jackson, “When you absolutely, positively, got to kill every mothafucka in the room, accept no substitute”

[@Random_Chiroptera]

Now imagine weaponizing this concept by creating specialized arrows that do this on impact.

[@Temperans]

​@@Random_Chiroptera Hey that's exactly what I thought

[@apollyonnoctis1291]

@@Random_Chiroptera I’d probably call it an ‘Arrow of Annihilation’

[@carolynwilliams5918]

Ahh, I love smart players. A number of mine tend to find as many ways to exploit certain mechanics because they can. This is how my party ended up with a plan to 'hug' Tiamat, which involved the ridiculous triple-classed barbarian/rogue/fighter becoming huge and grappling the Dragon Queen to stop her from moving about the battlefield when she emerged from a portal. I wasn't even mad, I just made sure I had a suitably epic looking Tiamat figure and a suitably big figure for the character. It was GLORIOUS! Incidentally, my husband is lovingly 'banned' from playing control wizards, because he's REALLY good at it. This man has beaten two liches in two different campaigns with Bigby's hand and various enviromental factors.

[@marybdrake1472]

Wow, that cleric player was beast of lateral thinking. I wish I could have thought up the banishment play myself.

[@Undomaranel]

Yeah, taking a soul eating patron to the Astral Sea made of souls. That won't be problematic... like if Skyrim's Dragonborn wasn't dropped in a pit filled with dragon souls for an immediate multi-level up...

[@PubstarHero]

That was a rule of cool ruling. RAW states concentration breaks banishment, and for the permanent banishment to be complete, you have to hold concentration for a full minute.

[@matfalkner]

Did you know that You’re nodded at in a LitRPG book? Ryan Rimmel mentions Crit Crustacean in a part in his book Fifth Era Apocalypse One Bad Role. When referencing how bad a player was in game. It was cool.

[@matfalkner]

It’s also cool he co wrote books about a crab. Sir Crabby. Gets powers kicks ass.

[@CritCrab]

WHAT??? THATS SO COOL HAHAHAHA

[@matfalkner]

@@CritCrab yeah you are officially a big deal! A permanent fixture of the culture. You're referenced in a book! It's the guy that writes noob town.

[@rossjohnstone4689]

Great video, as always, crab king :3 Good to hear a happy story and a slight horror story in one video :3

[@MGlBlaze]

Casting Banishment on yourself to go to your own home plane is a really funny example of lateral thinking. I don't know if I would have thought of that.

[@badgamer453]

I love the DnD horror stories but seeing more DnD Glory Stories would be a great breath of fresh air inbetween. As always i love the content you put out regardless.

[@Idkwhythemilkmmanleft]

Bro, I know that dm towards the end he had so many campaigns that ended so quickly holy crap didn't expect to see that

[@posymackenzie9575]

And he's kinda self centered 🙁

[@Senatios]

I love how the second scenario is literally the beginning of the plot of the sith warrior class in star wars: the old Republic

[@nightfire731]

First story is a beautiful example of “Hold up, let him cook.”

[@KayBbyXOXOXO]

I discovered the pocket dimension inside a pocket dimension trick while I was DMing. They wanted to stick a bag of holding inside a bag of holding in order to avoid a boss fight. I had to remind them they were currently standing inside a pocket dimension … with two bags of holding

[@pastaconnoisseur8441]

OP is in a suspicious amount of friend groups that break up "for some reason"

[@Typhoonator]

I actually had a similar moment, where my paladin with a cloak of the mountebank had his redeemed Angel npc companion get stuck at the center of a dimensional collapse, like black hole level warping. Having obtained the sword of zariel previously, he flew straight up, and used the momentum to dive straight into the black hole. Two nat 20 con saves later to survive the event horizon, he dimension doors straight to her side, and banishes them both back to their home plane (which they shared)

[@Sellesion]

That first story is amazing. Moments like that in game are my most favorite by far!!

[@jessicaschoen6647]

As a side note beyond the stories, the Dragon Shield spell book is my favorite D&D accessory. I'm looking at picking up the player companion soon.

[@ShadzeriosFIN]

In the current game that is made out of mostly first-time players exception to myself who already has played a few times. I decided to go with a barbarian since 3/6 players were already spell casters to balance things out, and it has been fun for me to play a melee-based class since I am custom to always play a some type of healer character. As a player I mostly try to give the new players the spotlight and just have fun playing the game. At times I give ideas to other players to how to approach a situation if they are unsure how to go forward, or they feel unease because of a high risk situations. I am also there for the DM to sometimes politely asking people to get back to the present in the game when the youngsters get distracted at times something silly. For clarification I am not the party mom or a party leader. I am more of a support and my small kobolt barbarian has had her moments carrying fellow party members out of the harm's way. Dear Gods have mercy on our party as we are on our way to take down an elder black dragon (with help of some NPC's) on our guest to create a vessel to capture and banish a powerful demon lord, and restore the world back into its beautiful state from the currently apocalyptic wasteland filled with demons.

[@annalachelt7441]

I really enjoyed the first story. I'd love to see more stories like that, of the really good times at the table! Love your videos.

[@realdragon]

I honestly do what my character would do. Since my current character writes journal then I am taking notes. My previous character (kobold) was free spirit just going where party goes not really caring for their objective so he (and I) remembered things that are important to him so I didn't take notes. We're doing session summaries and I like doing it in character

[@endershogun8231]

The first story was a super smart play, using all the knowledge of your items and what they did, just plain awesome. As for the second story, yeah varok sounded like a total asshole. And i feel the force thing was entirely his own fault, as he straight ignored the dm telling him it was a bad idea. Now i’m no saint when it comes to stuff like that, but man, almost all of what he did was just plain stupid

[@Hironomus]

Doing things that are a bad idea is a great idea and you should always do it. Too bad Varok couldn't accept the consequences, it could have been awesome.

[@clintriggen3554]

Honestly Story two is an Everybody bad story.

[@xenonsan3110]

I play a custom system and absolutely wrecked my DMs battle plans one session on purpose. He created two huge sky snakes that were attacking a train we were meant to be protecting. My character essentially casted a spell that mind controlled one snake till it completed its task. I had it attack the other snake till it died. One of our other players also casted a spell that would share damage taken by the snakes. So essentially we just stood there till they killed each other. Really proud of that moment

[@sirennightshade4977]

Fun idea with the Banishment scroll, but there's a problem with it: you can't maintain concentration while incapacitated, and Banishment incapacitates the creature being banished. Unfortunately, by the mechanics as written, you can't do this. The cleric would break his own concentration after one turn and be back in the Astral Sea with the Ultroloth. That said, if I were the DM, I would've allowed it too. Rule of Cool, y'all.

[@arcadiusrex215]

The Incapacitation portion of banishment is linked to the "Banish the target to a harmless demiplane" segment of the spell. If you banish a creature that is not native to whatever plane you cast the spell on, the creature is not incapacitated.

[@FallenFromGlory]

@@arcadiusrex215 Yep!

[@Ezasur]

Loved this one, and it reminded me of an arc from an ongoing story of about 5 years where the players went into a similar tour to the first story.

[@krazedkoi]

Ah yisss I get home from work, pack a bowl and have brand new Crit Crab to enjoy. Thanks for the video, it was awesome as usual :)

[@goisles6728]

In the second story, it sounds like Varok’s player isn’t willing to accept failure or a lack of control as a part of the TTRPG process. Both of those a critical parts of storytelling, exploration and combat. If you’re immune from mistakes, why bother rolling dice?

[@coatlizard]

I pulled a similar thing in a campaign I still play in. One of our party members had been pulled into a pocket dimension whilst dreamin and talked to a person who was trapped there but couldn’t get a lot of answers before they were sent back. Then, by chance, some days later I get pulled in, manage to convince the person I was there to help, and then banished both of us out of there. My DMs face when I started by askin if this person was native to this current plane of existence was priceless because he didn’t know what I had planned but he knew it was somethin

[@Rheinguard]

Honestly, I stand with Varok for 1 decision and 1 decision alone. I would've killed that out of control animal on the spot too. ESPECIALLY as an evil Sith purebloob character.

[@emberfist8347]

I also stand by him force pulling the door the force doesn’t like the DM made it work.

[@treebender-bl2du]

Glad to have a new story to keep me entertained at work. Love the channel and hope that all has been well to the king crab and all the other crablings that find this comment. Be well, and love each other.

[@Nisshoku776]

"are you sure you want to do this?" i swear i felt my bloodpressure go up

[@chuckawood]

Great episode! I enjoy a good rpd disaster story but the successes are just as fun. Great selection of two stories that illustrate a single theme from both angles. Really liked this approach.

[@dr3dg352]

This is my favorite of your videos in a while! :D Also, congratulations on the Dragonshield sponsor! I already love the brand for MtG accessories, and have seen these awesome DM and player sets at my local gaming stores. ❤

[@natebardwell]

I had a whole big bag planned out, railroad, mapping, etc...I could never have foreseen randomly becoming so invested in a dragonborn I just dumped for them to see die and get some magic armor from. I had to come up with a quick backstory, and they decided helping him was the play to get resources to take on the big bad. Biggest derailment of any campaign I've run, and honestly I'm so glad they did it. Their idea made it so much more fun for all. I mention this because one of my players did the black hole trick. In an ancient Dwarven mine. 500ft underground. Destroyed an entire Dwarven city, and had multiple groups trying to find out whodunit. It got intense!

[@dbpeanut510]

I'd like to comment on Story #2's lore background. The Force itself is tied to emotions and keeping emotional control (or some form of control.) For that reason, Varek should have known that force pulling the door was incredibly dangerous because it was an emotionally turbulent situation, and the DM clearly understood this and I think even some of the other players picked up on this. Story #2 isn't about a story being mishandled necessarily, because everybody was playing the role of Sith perfectly. Sith characters are ***all*** emotionally turbulent in some way, it's the nature of the Dark Side. However, it seems like for Varek, this *wasn't* a Star Wars DnD group, this was *his* story where *he's* in control. And players like that will be unable to separate their failures in game from real life. Which is, if I had to guess, a reason why the friend group imploded. If you have a player like Varek, it's honestly the best thing to keep an eye on them or just limit who they play with to people who are ready for IRL turbulence.

[@KatarnandKanos]

"Because the door is part of the ship, pulling the door pulled the entire ship." That doesn't make sense and really isn't how that works. Varok may have made a dumb play, but the DM made a really bad call.

[@swissarmyknight4306]

Its technically true that the force would act on the ship, but it would mostly be negated by inertia.

[@goggles8691]

​@@swissarmyknight4306 but apparently the force pull was really strong or something, and assuming the door is a sci-fi spaceship slider and not a normal door with a handle (it doesn't seem like it has hinges), the direction of the pull is not the same as the direction the ship is falling (probably) which might do something or other to the ship falling and make it crash

[@emberfist8347]

It isn’t really a dumb play. Force pulling a door out from the hinges shouldn’t cause a crash.

[@phawkuffe9491]

That's first story was pure genius! I would be so proud of my players for think outside the box like that!

[@terra6713]

God, the self banishment move is something I wanted to do somewhen (but recently moved to Pf2e so I doubt its gonna happen any time soon), pretty cool to see that it happened somewhere else AND was a cool moment!

[@fovarberma752]

Perma-DM here. Love being outsmarted. EG: - Star Wars Saga, modded to play like the two firsts KOTOR game in the KOTOR era. - That means the lackluster "Jedi" Class was divided in three different "Jedi Guardian" / "Sentinel" / "Consular" classes, which could borrow talents from Soldier / Scout&Scoundrel / Noble classes. - Introduce a plethora of gems for Blasters/Sabers that act like enchantments (replaceable), and Force-attuned gems for Force users - Introduce a specialization for scout (and indirectly Jedi Sentinel / Sith Inquisitor) that allows to modify equipment. Ships, armors, guns... - Krath Artefacts, charged with negative force, attuned to each deadly sin, act as MacGuffin. Two groups of players racing for Guffins. Only "Group A" matters in this story. - Players find the location of two: Wrath & Sloth. Makes for very efficient pathing in the Galaxy. Loving it. - Wrath has a sith ghost maintaining a capital ship together through anger&force alone. - Keeps respawning and hunting players. - They destroy his NOT!Phylactery - Phylactery is made of "force-friendly bullshitium", basically force-friendly steel made by Sith alchemy, later named Hematium (Blood metal). it is red, and refined from blood. As the ship collapse they manage to loot the remnants even if it almost cost one's life. - Get to ship holding Sloth Gem - Mynock flock around it. Basically space-aids for your ship. - Go: *"NOPE"* - Use my rule to replace a gem in the Cannon as you'd do a blaster because WRATH is basically a huge gem itself. That wouldn't work because it's not the same type of energy BUT they have a Force Sensitive Tech Specialist (Jedi Sentinel with Scout talent) *_AND_* a metal that can interact with Force. - *_A THOUSAND YEARS OF THE WRATH OF CATHAR LOADED IN A BLASTER CANNON_* - They fail the check to build it (nat 1), I give them a warning through a huge explosion (because it made sense) - OH SHIT IT'LL WORK - They aim the thing. - I already ruled to myself that if they shoot, *no matter the die's result,* the capital ship they aimed it at it insta-killed and the backlash completely cripple their space-transport. - One of them go "You know what, I'm not so-" - *"I SHOOT!"* - Nat 20. Critical hit. Of course. The spaceships holding gems floating in space were basically space-dungeons. They killed the dungeon. The ship crashed, causing a lot of damage, but for a moment, just for a single moment, a MacGuffin was more than a MacGuffin, and quick-thinking derailed my session. As a reward, it also derailed the campaign in a good way, changing the whole objective and main villain. BECAUSE IT WAS A THOUSAND YEARS OF WRATH UNLEASHED IN AN INSTANT. But hey, by that time, it wasn't my campaign anymore. It was theirs. And I had a lot of fun tagging along.

[@Chamelionroses]

This end advice of team player can work with so much like family, work, and friendships in general.

[@hartssquire9386]

I have to constantly remind my cousin "tell me your intent. Not your actions." Because he'll ask weird questions hinting at something without telling me what it was, he's an engineer by nature and an IT guy by profession so he's got these crazy concepts and awesome ideas but he doesn't tell me what he's doing he just tries to make it work like it would in the real world and I keep having to remind him "I run the physics in this world, you can't just expect it to work because it should, you have to tell me what you want to achieve!"

[@AzureGreatheart]

Sometimes the players throw the game off the rails, and sometimes the rerailed story is better than what the DM would have been able to achieve alone. When the players and DM cooperate, amazing things can happen.

[@Gabriel-rj9gn]

1: put bag of holding in portable hole while near the big bad. 2: cast banishment on self. 3: ??? 4: profit.

[@videogamerNattie98]

6:50 I immediately saw where this was going its even one of my theorized uses for Banish, Banish is a powerful spell but a lot of people forget the spell has a third function that is a byproduct of its effects. Its a planar recall if you cast it on yourself when not in your home dimension or plane with the option to lock yourself out of the plane you found yourself in if your sick of winding up there. Also if your wondering what the Demi-Plane effect is useful for with creatures on the same plane, since it renders them unconscious in a pocket space it essentially pulls that enemy out of play for a full minute. Also because there incapacitated during that time they are essentially prone when they comeing back as they are coming to from unconscious that's how it usually goes some DMs rule that differently of course, and also any concentration spells they had up immediately end because of the incapacitation. This also lets your party get a full surprise round if everyone readies a action to attack or cast when they come back by standing over where they are gonna be and because there usually prone that's a lot of advantage being given out. 10:30 For a Star Wars fan I highly recommend looking into Star Wars Saga edition if you don't want to homebrew your own sessions, its basically a officially made version of D&D for Star Wars and I flipping love it. A lot of resources can be found online I highly recommend the wiki for all you need to know while yes it was not the easiest for me to swallow but over a day or 2 of study that can be broken into very small segments across the week can easily let you know all of the things you need to know. I actually got lucky and found a hard cover book that was originally published by WotC for cheaper then MSRP on second hand while I use the Wiki for a lot of the knowledge the core book is used for official reference but you don't need it if you have the Wiki on stand by. The only downside with Star Wars Saga is by RAW you cant play as a Sith because of the systems around how Sith work without homebrewing. As the game by default prevents one from doing it somewhat. And if your wondering how it plays its like 2nd edition and 3rd edition had a kid with 5th edition watching over the parents, and the kid. It possess a few of the older outlines of 2nd edition with many of the modern touches by 3rd with some rules playing out how 5th would rule it. 11:25 Okay hot take I actually really dont like Wizards and Bards. But not because of the class but because of who is playing them if they are a chad who is trying what I do that being the utility caster of the group they are actually really good if not amazing. BUT if ya get a player who is egotistical/Arrogant who is mean spirited with the magic I can tell you from experience its not a fun time because if you yourself are not a magic caster good luck dealing with the nonsensical magical shenanigan's that will be thrown your way. For Wizards they scream this air of untouchable, and for Bards its extremely annoying trickery that is very hard to nail down. I give Wizards more lenience as the magic is much more in general so it can go either way but for bards I tend to disagree with more on the mean spirit since there tool kit is specially designed to work with that. So best word of advice when dealing with a Arrogant or egotistical wizard in the game is to catch them in the early game, and deal with them then as you don't want to deal with them in the late game when there arsenal is insurmountable thanks to...a really shunned term, Arcane Supremacy a problem that is id argue at its worst with 5e thanks to the lightened restriction on prepared spells. For Bards while they are hard to nail down strong martial classes like Barbarian and Fighter give them a hard time especially if said classes are aided with magical items that can even the playing field. I will happily play them but you will never see me be a overbearing jerk with the magic I am also not saying you should hardline against them I am just saying you need to be more weary of the players playing these classes.

[@Machamp-ps7wx]

I’m a first time DM running Icewind Dale. I’m really trying to add a unique mechanic into the campaign by making the ten towns instead the ten islands. Thus adding AC Rogue/black flag naval combat etc. and everyone’s having a good time, as well as being super creative like shoving a beholder into an endless void a PC created, but the one thing I wish I did was be more strict on the items I let the party have. Like one character who created the void before the session I saw he had a few magic items, one was op so I told him to get rid of it, come the session at one point he reveals that he ended up replacing it with a bag of holding which he did not have when I checked his inventory pre session. But I’m planning to make that bag of holding bite him in the ass with a Bagman encounter.

[@rollanddev]

Shilling ends at 1:44

[@SethDakotaS]

The Sith campaign sounds a lot of fun provided you have PCs who would actually play Sith. Jealous, fearful, power hungry, etc. Giving them a mini campaign where its clear only one of them is expected to live by their boss is really fun. Give them threats where they have to collaborate to take it on but always be looking to let another character die sounds a blast.

[@milesmatheson1142]

In the bad players defense; if you give someone else's character a nickname, and they tell you straight up that they don't like it, stop using that nickname. DMs, if you're going to send a character, or characters, through an arc that will have drastic effects on their abilities, or on how they might roleplay the situation, talk to them before instigating ANYTHING!

[@coreyloucks4865]

I feel like playing a dm is like having a complicated 3-way chess match. The players vs. the antagonists, with the dm being like the god who is kinda on the side of the players but must also maintain the balance of the fabric of the world, so they must try to help the players fulfill their quest/purpose, but must also maintain the physics of the world(not necessarily the rules of the game), while also playing the antagonist. So they are essentially playing against themselves, against the party, with the party, and against the antagonist, but ultimately, they’re the avatar of the universe at large, holding balance of the world.

[@KitoBallard]

I had a pretty amusing "Are you sure you want to do that?" moment where one of my players, who was still sort of new, wanted to cast Thunderwave. He's been in a couple of campaigns at that point and I told him for this campaign, I'm taking the training wheels off. He rolls up to the session with a Wizard and I already knew this was a bad idea, since he rarely paid attention to the game and told him (at the start of each session to boot) to make sure to read his Spells. Him and 4 of his party mates get into a fight and his turn came up first. The enemies was pretty grouped up in a small room, but so was his party. Unfortunate for them, he was also in front of the party. He "targets" the closest monster to him and says "I want to cast Thunderwave on it!" I (virtually) look at him and go "Are you sure about this?" and he goes "Yup!". I loudly exclaim "As you point at the monster, you chant your spell's incantation. As soon as you finish, a powerful wave of Thunder sweeps out from you, hitting Every. Single. Thing within 15 feet of you." I pause. The party groaning from his lack of reading, and some already rolling their saves. "these 4 monsters and these 4 players need to give me saves." They all fail and he rolled max damage, downing the whole party, leaving him with a single, *very* mad monster. They somehow survived that encounter though XD

[@Hironomus]

If the second story was a show I was watching it sounds amazing. Being arrogant, self serious and power hungry are all great traits for a sith apprentice to have, I gather Varok just wasn't being played in a way that was enjoyable to the others at the table? To be honest, while I don't think OP did anything wrong per se, their character sounds like the more frustrating one to me at face value.

[@skycastrum5803]

Varok probably was the one at fault there, but I have the slightest suspicion OP really was the catalyst. Could totally see Varok being played by someone with a good idea but not the best social skills. And OP’s character/actions is kind of what I’d expect from someone group-focused but confrontational to people not going along. (That suspicion is likely incorrect, but I wouldn’t judge this given only one perspective.)

[@Cheshire5174]

Man that first story was just awesome. The second one hit a bit close to home, as do many stories here, cause I used to be one of those players, but at the same time, I think it's doing me good to listen to these, granted I tell myself "I'm not like that anymore"

[@WilkeyWonka]

I'm just wrapping up Curse of Strahd rn and hands down my favorite magic item was probably my Robe of Useful Things. It saved our asses in two chase sequences and was super handy a solid number of other times.

[@MaximumAaron]

There is no greater sense of dread than hearing "are you sure you want to do this?" when it's something my character would definitely do. Taking the out would be metagaming and MAMA DIDN'T RAISE NO BITCH

[@DuckTDuckmaster]

The one fatal mistake of the player was the self cast-banishment It makes you fall incapacitated immediatly after casting and yo be sent back to your home plane you need to concentrate for the full duration...however incapacitation breaks your concentration... However even trough those rules i am glad that didnt come up.

[@jefthereaper]

Casting banishment on yourself to get out of a dimension you don't want to be in is a trick I never thought off. Might be good for all those players who cast a demiplane and have the door closed behind them/timer runs out while still inside.

[@Ramen10420]

The astral sea must be swimming with terrasques and BBEG's that parties saved up and used 2 bags of holding on.

[@motivepigeon]

Uses the bags of holdings trick BBEG: "HA, now you're stuck in here with *me* !" Claric: "Nope, you're stuck in with you" *banishment"

[@da_enderdragon]

3:44 My party keeps track of our item. However, in my backstory, my Dwarfificer accidentally turned his beard into a bag of holding. My DM thought it was hilarious, so my Beard of Holding is used for my items along with transporting PCs whose player is absent from the session.

[@Azaghal1988]

To be honest, the second Story's "Villain" is doing good RP as a Sith. The best Sith are total egomaniacs ans their Shtick is dominating and controlling the World around them.

[@kirbylover5418]

I’m my party’s artist. I draw lots of dumb comics about what happened each session (which my PC canonically has on my) and sometimes we use it as a recap… though it’s mostly just silly things like a character falling into a barrel of ale or our wizard always burning flags lol

[@CheerfuEntropy]

I am absolutley loving that you are covering rpg unhorror stories. brings me joy and inspiration

[@notsovietrussia1329]

Dude that cleric thats actually the first time watching one of these video i was actually stunned he pulled some many big brained moves

[@joshuaperry4112]

I once rolled 20s 4 times in a row in a homebrew based on the Vlad Taltos Series; making me Emperor. The DM was absolutely blown away because he just couldn't believe I'd "roll another one" so he kept doubling down. Eventually he just said, "fuck it, I cant just deny this BS even though it blows everything up."

[@gabrielmanari4454]

NGL I teared up a little with "I'm alive. I'm home."

[@topspartan117]

Every time our dm says “are you sure you want to do this?” It’s almost a guarantee that it’s going to happen lol

[@Grace-gm5id]

I've had rivalries in the party, but we always talk about it before hand and what we want it to look like and eventually evolve into, be it better or worse. Boundaries are so important in ttrpgs and knowing what the other person wants and doesnt want to happen to their character.

[@insufferableanarchist]

My dm set up a system where we have to use outside items/creatures as catalysts for magic and even gave values to everything. After a nat 20 that destroyed our main base, my dm never wants the words "I have a plan" ever again.

[@diegorassetto]

Hi crab, how have you been? Are you allright? Also, Garlic bread cleric

[@mortimerwake2974]

Discovering an instability in one's powers seems perfectly fair to spring on a player who relies on brute force after they yet again stupidly rely on brute force.

[@Whurlpuul]

The "glow stick" is actually a Death stick, and it's a really deadly drug. I can kinda relate to wanting to take a campaign a little more seriously, but it's still funny.

[@james_k9654]

I outsmarted a DM once, several times through the campaign. It was a homebrew campaign and he wasn't a very good DM. I short, I became the party strategist, and used his systems and lore to my advantage. Eventually he decided to kill my character in a dungeon (split up the party of 4, gave the other 3 some easy lore-based rolls. Gave me a boss fight.) I short, he decided to kill my character with a stronger version of my character, with a single hit, and with no chance to react. Got back at him by counter-seducing one of his final bosses of the campaign, he's since been removed from the group

[@InputToe]

16:16 when crab says “I lied.” It kinda sounded like the Darth Vader meme

[@X-35173]

The second story cracks me up because my current character is named El and there is a running joke in the party players about El being a Jedi (mechanically, not lore wise)

[@fitz8923]

I want to say that I love when my players do things poorly on purpose. If Varok knew his powers were unstable, but is also playing a headstrong character, and gambled on fucking up the ship, I would have enjoyed that as a DM and laughed. To newer DMs, I do want to say this though: just because something is fun for you and one of your players does not mean it will be fun for the other players. This is something I had to learn the hard way. It's a fine line that only experience in reading the enjoyment styles of the whole group can teach you to see.

[@plumdowner1941]

This is the work of This Guy, a lesser known subspecies of Guy, the most common being That Guy.

[@Otinashi]

This is the kind of story that makes me want to try DMing

[@RobotTanuki]

When I hear that some people ACTUALLY "homebrew" (read: jam something into D&D mechanics and hope it fits) Star Wars, instead of using the myraid designed-for-purpose Star Wars ttrpgs, I die a little inside.

[@swissarmyknight4306]

Homebrew Dungeon World Star Wars works 1,000x better than any Star Wars RPG I've ever owned, and I've owned them all. They're slapdash trash meant to cash grab off of the IP's name recognition. You can definitely do better on your own. Fighter to Soldier Bard to Noble Thief to Scoundrel Ranger to Scout Etc Jedi is the hard and overpowered one and the hardest part to adapt.

[@RobotTanuki]

@@swissarmyknight4306 I think it may have to do with your preference with PbtA system (which I'm not a fan of), but to each their own.

[@StSubZero]

They sell that EXACT Gamemaster companion piece at a local game shop I DM and play at! I had no idea it could carry books too! Now I GOTTA get it. Just gotta build up that store credit.

[@demod2080]

Player: You said Kosmo wouldn't cause problems! OP: *I LIED!*

[@IknowTailsDoll2]

I did the banishment thing in a oneshot before except my character offered to be a host for the BBEG after realizing the situation that made them what they are is very similar to the route my character was taking. He didn't approve of the punishment the BBEG got for learning something forbidden, offered to become a vessel, then banished themself to leave the party who would have likely tried to kill them

[@7thsealord888]

A competent DM goes into the game with at least one plan. A smart DM knows that no plan ever survives contact with the Player-Characters. A GOOD DM rolls with whatever happens (or doesn't happen), adapts when necessary, and strives to build a better game.

[@gaster42]

Game coming soon: dark fantasy (Pathfinder) Yah, magice items aren't seen offten. By the way did you know rougs can buy them on the balck market? The DM is chill about it and even side there could be story hooks down there. I can't wait for the game

[@Ernoskij]

In my experience, party infighting is something that needs to be established in session zero, and have ground rules established. What is acceptable to do/say to a party member, what is not acceptable to do/say to a party member. Once everyone is on the same page with that, and expects that there will be infighting, they can prepare for it and be ready to dish back, and it can become extremely fun.

[@skycastrum5803]

Second story is very dependent on the players themselves and I wouldn’t judge anything from only one perspective. Problem player sounds in many ways like a model Sith and OP’s character sounds much less so. It’s totally possible Varok is in the wrong, since even if the setting encourages party conflict there needs to be some attempt to not have the story break at any second. However, I could easily see OP accidentally taking things the wrong way with someone who has a cool idea but isn’t the best at the whole “social” thing. (Also, DM should definitely talk to people they want to take through a character arc. Critcrab says it’s easy to see him having done so, but it’s just as easy to see it not happening.) For “players outsmarting the DM,” don’t know if Critcrab ever covered it (especially because it’s more than a bit edgy and probably made up), but there’s a green text out there called something like elfslayer. The thing is fire and, if true, both the player and DM deserve tons of respect.

[@MarioPastranaGameDev]

Thank you Crit crab, very cool!