LIve! The Villain Chat! Or whatever else you want to talk about!

Just hanging out, talking about whatever folks want to talk about

[@lamfaux]

It was very rude of Matt to speak to mortals with his real voice for the whole first minute. And without so much as the customary "Be Not Afraid!" I'm glad he added several synaptic filters so we could comprehend him.

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Bahaha

[@matthewshroba1511]

💀

[@SkimoStories]

@@cholulahotsauce6166 bahaha

[@VosperCDN]

That was a bit trippy hearing it on the live stream.

[@McLovinTTRPG]

I found it very generous.

[@elogan5817]

That beginning is trippy with the repeated laughs

[@krymsonkyng5573]

HaHA huha

[@tassiebushranger6233]

Accidently awsome intro 😆

[@KalonOrdona2]

Super great, hilarious!

[@craigsisco1894]

An excellently creepy open for the Halloween season

[@peterlarson233]

The system Is down The system Is down

[@Tysto]

1:10:24 I really liked the campaign diaries. It's cool to hear you talk about what you were trying to do versus what you happened. Seth Skorkowsky does great reviews of adventures that includes what his players did. You could do something along those lines. Not a video after every session but after every adventure.

[@Philippians--co6ww]

I thought for a split second you had perfected your own weirding module! Lol I really enjoy your content, man. I'm a 1971 model myself so it really resonates with me. Blessings to you!

[@matthewshroba1511]

I want to recreate Matt’s self repeating monologue for my evil villain and make them roll wisdom saves for madness 💥

[@angelalewis3645]

😂

[@JustKellH]

I really enjoyed the campaign diaries. It felt like lower stakes, and it was fun to gets peeks on the story you and your friends were making. If nothing else, I hope they come back.

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Convincing a villain to defect is also super useful because it saves you dropping all sorts of clues to your players; now you can just bloody tell them through the defector.

[@cesargeney5268]

"His name is Expos Ition. He Will tell You everything You need to know"

[@TheTSense]

One of my players once asked me how I start game creation. It was at that moment I realized I start with the Villain's Speech. The reasoning why he is actually the hero, the good guy. What needs to be done. Who he is. Race. Position. Home. Powers. That comes later. What he does, what the world looks like. That all comes later.

[@adrianorlando4067]

I definitely start with an "ending" cut-scene, where a villain in a video game would deliver a monologue, but my villains usually aren't prone to monologuing haha

[@andrewduitsman3918]

It is sad to me that the Chain will not be back in an official capacity. I loved that set up. I was so hooked in that story and wanted to see what the Chain under Judge would look like.

[@Calebgoblin]

While I miss it too, I think it is probably kinda upsetting for them to hear it brought up and asked of them dozens of times for years

[@shanna864]

Yeah I’m pretty devastated tbh. Like I respect the decision but I’m still really sad as it was a hyperfixation of mine that I was desperately hoping would return.

[@Marvin-sj9lr]

On one hand thats understandable. But on the other hand, you can run your own game using that set up.

[@andrewduitsman3918]

@@Marvin-sj9lr That is true, I could run my version of the Chain, but that is not the same as watching the upcoming Book of Judge unfold. I will not know how Capital the greatest city in this, or any other age would unfold. I could make my own version, but I felt like Matt was creating a virtuoso performance.

[@andrewduitsman3918]

@@shanna864 The little teaser for what would happen next with the chess game was so good.

[@angelalewis3645]

Matt, you’re so dang cool. Every time I listen to you, I feel more confident and better about life!

[@shanna864]

The Chain is/was a comfort show of mine and I was really really hoping it would get the Dusk treatment. I’m really sad that we won’t get to see the Book of Judge. I know you think it wasn’t the most “entertaining” game but it wasn’t about that for me. I loved that it was just a real game. And it was extremely comforting and relaxing for me. I’ve listened to it in Spotify at least 5-6 times over. I was really excited when I thought it was coming back. 😔 I respect your decision but I just wanted to express how much I love The Chain.

[@bryan__m]

Yes, I wish there was a way to keep streaming but without the stress it puts on Matt & Co. I never could sit through 2+ hour D&D streams until I started watching the Chain, and now I can, but find many of them don't live up to the same level that his did.

[@trekbody]

That was like an awesome Matt nightmare! Love it.

[@theemperormoth5089]

The Matt Dome

[@peasant_purple]

The last 15ish minutes of this live stream is some of the best advice ever.

[@SlothWithShades]

I have rewatched the answer to my naming question multiple times now. And I can't thank Matt enough for it. To me it was excellent advice. Thanks!

[@MK-zf2sz]

It felt like my mind was falling out of the Material Plane at the beginning

[@MotiviqueStudio]

Well that got wild fast.

[@All4Tanuki]

The whole thing about art fueling our own creativity is so true. I just happened to listen to the song Footfalls from Endwalker and went immediately to my novel draft that's gone untouched for months. It's amazing how quickly inspiration can just *unlock* like that Anyway! Thank you for the streams, Matt, your advice has been so helpful to me as both an author and a DM. I know "don't write the stuff people will skip" isn't originally your quote but I'd never have heard it without you ♥ Stay rad!!

[@geddees]

The beginning had me rolling! Great chat Matt, thanks for hanging out.

[@militarysimulationclub6922]

I gained a lot of appreciation for Matt when he said that he sees this channel not as entertainment but as education, citing it as why he didn't continue live streaming The Chain. There are too many channels whose content is mass produced and disposable because that's what's profitable and YT is their income, so I appreciate that this channel only posts things that Matt feels are helpful and worth sharing.

[@meaypie11]

I thoroughly enjoyed your video. Thank you for answering all those questions, and for discussing how to make interesting villains. It's really helping me with NaNoWriMo prep. :D

[@zacharydegarmo2745]

shucks i just missed this! thanks matthew, love picking your brain for roleplaying ideas! the villain video was a great help with my weekly(ish) D&D game, i've been suffering DM/writer's block a lot regarding how the main villains' threads will culminate. keep up the great work!

[@CleverPsuedonym1]

I thoroughly enjoyed The Chain. I think I’ve watched it three times, once to see what it was, and twice to remind myself of the things I wanted to remember. Lessons, details, noodly things like “oh, a secret club where some guys hunt for magic stuff for you resolves my internal dislike of the cheapness I perceive the ‘obligatory city magic shop’ as lending to the lore of my world”, or “oh wow, the Celestials/Elves in Matt’s world are so different from anything I’ve seen”. Those were great! They shaped the setting I’m building so much, along with the other art that inspires me, like Brandon Sanderson novels and an endless deluge of pinterest boards. I watched the chain for entertainment, ‘cause the fun you guys had was naturally pretty palpable (you weren’t having it out of nowhere lol), but I also stocked my creative pond with it. The worldbuilding streams did the same thing. They’re why I obsessively use excel spreadsheets to think. Those worldbuilding streams meaningfully impacted my job performance just by getting me hooked on spreadsheets. Having received the boon of your product in those videos and many others and seen the effect they have on my game, I can’t feel any way other than positive about you cutting out the stuff that was negatively impacting your game (or just the time before and after it). Have fun hurling a chrysopolis at the chain, man.

[@Antipodeano]

Fantastic, loved listening to this while out for my walk! I agree Matt, always do what you love, not what you think 'we' want. We are here enjoying what you love for a reason. It is because a lot of it is what we love too. :)

[@lucasthomas9184]

I love the campaign diaries, and I'm sure some cool shit will happen that you'll want to inform us all of. Youre the man Matt.

[@redheathan1386]

Bro that was the funniest duel audio, your chuckle made it all sound like a villainous nightmare scene where your head is just spinning center screen with a hypnotic pattern behind you. I thought it was an awesome mistake👍🏻 thanks for all your help over the years Matt Long live MCDM

[@craigsisco1894]

Matt, thanks for the update on The Chain. I appreciate your openness about the path forward. As a long-time GM I empathize on the pressure of preparing a game; I imagine it’s intensified exponentially when prepping for one with such a vast audience. Good fortune to you and crew on unleashing hell on Ajax!

[@Tysto]

28:00 Another way to manage factions is to pick a real-world situation and translate that into your campaign world. For example, take a few baseball teams, and follow their wins and losses against each other, trades, and injuries. Their starting lineups gets re-skinned as their leaders' top henchmen, trades become defections or deaths, etc. A bit ambitious, but you can catch up with their rivalries easily at any time, and how else are you going come up with Sir Framber Valdez's dad overcoming his fear of flying to be carried by flying carpet to help his son win a battle?

[@angelalewis3645]

I love so much in this, and especially the three rules at the end. :) Thank you, Matt!

[@Armaggedon185]

Hearing that consistency is the bugbear of tiny minds makes me a little sad, because filling out checklists like that helps me immensely. Still, I understand where the sentiment is coming from, and I've also seen the awesome stuff MCDM makes when they allow inspiration to strike naturally.

[@Uphold-your-Rights]

Seems like the perfect beginning considering the topic. Thanks for the videos.

[@Aplasticjones]

Sensei says to steal the the things you like and put them into your game. The sun is a prison for a God. Yep, I’m stealing that! Thanks Matt!!!

[@CleverPsuedonym1]

If ever you became interested in ship combat, I watched Dimension 20 use the Star Wars 5e system and the ship combat seems pretty fun, if intricate. Each player has a role on the ship that functions like a second class, and the ship has various stats like hp and movement and a set of actions, and each role allows you to do fun things regarding those stats, like the pilot can make the ship move in different ways, The engineer can “divert power” from one thing to another, the gunners can… shoot stuff in various ways, and these things all interact. It’s more involved than I’m making it sound. It’s very setting/genre specific and trope-y, which is to its benefit.

[@thebowedacious]

Nice shirt man! I'm so stoked for the new book! Loving the packets and getting pieces of the book before it arrives in full. Keep up the great work!

[@nikki594]

Oh no, I missed it! Next time. I'd love to ask him how to actually make the Villain seem epic. How do I tell my players "this person is really bad news" without having them resort to fighting the heroes? Just giving him an epic outfit probably won't cut it.

[@nikki594]

And thank Matt (and team!) for sharing his wisdom with us. He IS a river to us people.

[@mkklassicmk3895]

You can always use the Vader technique. Introduce an NPC who is a known badass though a little past their prime. Have said NPC do something that shows that they still live up to their reputation. Then shortly after or immediately after have your bad guy show up unexpectedly, have NPC instruct the party to high tale it out of there and then just before they are out of sight have bad guy kill NPC. Its best done at low level before the party is all hopped up on magic items and feels like it can take on the world.

[@vincentnicosia2315]

matt awesome stream, you are my number 1 inspiration to run this incredible game no matter how much work or how much of a headache it can be, keep being you! :)

[@matthewfullerton1416]

On the point of multiple bad guys in conflict question, I like to have it that though they're vying for control, resources etc they're all very much at a stalemate, one can't get a leg up over any of the others until the players come along and push the needle in favour of one faction or another

[@jakobtonkin9712]

Firstly Matt thank you for making my games better and allowing me to bring joy to my friends. Secondly I think that point on rerunning campaigns is really important. My reruns of our of the abyss and Curse of Strahd are so much better than the initial runs. I'd love to see you talk more about it cause I feel most DMS don't want to rerun a game they've already done

[@houseofjesseworship]

The beginning of this stream sounds like a Steve Reich piece.

[@brandeluna6419]

Thank goodness we all managed to escape that intense Colville Psionic Blast he transmitted directly into our brain stems during that first minute. Had we gotten the full blast in person and not through this KZbin window, I think we’d all be mush

[@haleg68]

I once ran a game I wrote at a convention and played it five times over four days. I learned so much and had so many different experiences from TPK to cakewalk with the same PC's

[@jek_si2251]

I just finished a session of my campaign in which an NPC companion of the party (a Dragonborn Justicar) got his brain eaten by a Mind Flayer. An unintentional but very effective setup for the rest of the adventure.

[@emdeo]

Loved the thing about Tiamats prison..... that's how I love to run my fantasy settings.

[@thewovenmantis6813]

First minute is what it’s like falling through the abyss. XDD

[@TheJurzerker]

Ita funny you mention the Maginot Line, as its been an inspiration for an area in my game. My players are in Belgium, essentially, and have no idea whats coming.

[@Bryon1187]

We used to go dungeon delving until we were strong enough to go wilderness exploring.

[@philipboardman1357]

I had that "Maginot line" moment in a video a couple years ago when he was referring to something called the "Delian tomb." The Delian League is often called the Athenian Empire today.

[@philipboardman1357]

Just to give a little of the backstory, the island of Delos is a holy island. It is supposedly where Apollo was born. It was a neutral ground for powerful city-states, the most powerful of which was Athens. The Dillion League was set up in order to defeat Persia. Eventually, Athens moved the treasury from Delos to Athens. That's when the mask slipped. The other members of the alliance found themselves under the Athenian Empire.

[@giantgoblinman]

I live by " Every time I run the game, I recreate my world from scratch." The sun Idea is rad. Question for the readers "Have you considered playing in your worlds past or future, or alternate future?"

[@adrianorlando4067]

I have this idea to run what would otherwise be an info-dump of background information session as a one or two session adventure that is "the history being told to the party." Obviously this would involve a bit of railroading if there's a specific event that needs to happen, but I think in this scenario it would be forgivable ahaha

[@kylekillgannon]

I'm currently running a Vampire themed campaign and a big theme is time.

[@JohnnyTightIips]

The start of the stream is what people who see a Biblically accurate angel hear.

[@toribiogubert7729]

As a proud musician owner of a delay pedal,that entry was pretty fun 🤣

[@dford4014]

And great guilt trip, Matt! Now I have to get a shirt with my K&W pledge!

[@saltheart2023]

Best Intro Ever!!!!! Infinite Echo! :-) and I understood them ALL!

[@darkfograven570]

The villain giving the players a corvette is amazing

[@quinhoprimeiro1049]

I was laughing SOOOOO hard on the beginning with the echo

[@Alex-tx7ih]

The bit around 54:00 - I really hope you guys maintain this for as long as possible. It's great to hear you're having fun and putting fun as your goal!

[@PatNatOfficial]

Loved the beginning

[@BenSchwartz00]

"Consistency is the bugbear of tiny minds."

[@silenttiger2038]

We know why campaign for North Africa, but I'm not sure anyone knows how Campaign for North Africa.

[@ogt2d]

Saving “Un-Dope their ship” to memory for later use 😂

[@seanvalentinus]

Good energy this stream Matt, really enjoyed the VOD.

[@Flyonaweb]

I appreciate you giving us a choice with the printing issues.

[@Copperwasp]

Great stuff Matt. Really get a lot of good info from your channel. I've DMed only 3x, mostly been a player- I have some confusion regarding Bonus Actions and just understanding their mechanics. Could you address Bonus Actions? Thanks

[@hammeredshitsteak]

My favorite anti-hero & anti-villain examples are Raziel & Kain from the Legacy of Kain game franchise. Exactly as you said, Raziel does the wrong things for the right reasons, and Kain the right things for the wrong reasons. Fantastic story, characters, and setting in that series.

[@chadnine3432]

Evil in Time Bandits has the same motivation as Morgoth and Sauron. His monologue about "I would have started with lasers! Eight o'clock, day one!" illustrates how they think they could have done it better than The Creator.

[@civilbeard]

Good talk! I appreciate the additional insight into villains.

[@laithtabet970]

Damn I actually had the exact quote problem for a Villainomicon I was creating. That's good advice.

[@halfamoose]

I really liked watching the The Chain of Acheron. Thanks for streaming it.

[@pancakewizard1533]

Good stuff Matt. On your new view of campaign diaries: You could disseminate further so 'campaign diaries' literally becomes a catch-all header for any time you play a ttrpg and have cool shit to talk about. eg. you want to talk about the starfinder game you've been playing, so a new 'campaign diaries' video pops up. You want to talk about the The Chain, new campaign diaries video. Maybe Play Diaries would be a better header if you wanted to throw in some other one-off games or something? My thinking is that uncoupling it further from the specifics of The Chain will have a more positive psychological effect on you and the viewers who end up getting into the 'death spiral' of consuming product. ...or I'm just talking out of my arse! Honestly, I'm just glad you get to play with your buds again.

[@SB-yp8vp]

You should definitely do the villain dream with the first 3 minutes of audio of this video in the background. It would freak the PCs out!

[@SavantApostle]

I like watching futurama to inspire me. It fits well for a ravnica setting.

[@Phalcon777]

Super sad to hear about the chain. It was perhaps one of the things i looked forward to every week. Lost Chain, Roleplay, and well blanking but i know there are others. I get it though. Still sad.

[@mcolville]

Time to run your own Chain!

[@jakegoodrich6520]

What about an edited pre-recorded session, something along the lines of the Dimension 20? I really loved the story and more of it would be a huge inspiration but totally get that if it isn't fun for you it won't be fun for us

[@grahamminney5475]

I was really hoping for a Dusk-like return of the chain :(

[@rashadfoux6927]

I wonder if Emperor Palpatine qualifies as an Anti-Villain, according to the Yuuzhan Vong saga...

[@ThatPrettyBMF]

I actually used to live in Mt. Pleasant. No, seriously. It's in Wisconsin.

[@overmancochema]

Love the first minute

[@clockwork_mind]

*TL;DR because this comment got long: In reference to **50:00**, I found a pretty good ship combat system that I'm excited about, Star Wars 5e's Starship rules, check them out of you're interested. I'm working to adapt them to fantasy, and someday may even be able to share them.* His answer to the question at 50:00, about how he's never seen a good robust system for ship combat for D&D, this fact bothered me so much. I'm running a homebrew campaign called Sky Raiders that involves airship travel to floating islands off the edge of the world. One of the first questions I got when I pitched this to my players was, "How are you going to do ship combat?" and I realized in that moment that I had to do it, that it would be a crime to invent this setting and put the players on a skyship without creating a way to have epic battles on it. This is when I really grappled with the utter dearth of good ship combat systems for 5e. All of the ones I could find were stale and boring and restrictive to the players, and I'd seen before how players would strain against the tiny box those systems would put them in. Around that same time, a friend introduced me to Star Wars 5e, a full overhaul of 5e for a Star Wars setting, which has its own completely original (to my knowledge) system of combat for Starships. It has basically a whole new class system called Deployments, with tons of special abilities for players to use, a system that allows players to even use some of their Class abilities to apply to ship combat, and lots of customization options for the ship and its stats. So I've spent the last month or two, plus probably another month in the future, fully adapting those sci-fi rules into a fantasy context, and redesigning and rebalancing certain things to make it (hopefully) run smoothly. Someday I may even get it to the level of polish necessary to share it publicly, because I'd love for other people to be able to have fun ship combat in 5e, without having to do months of work.

[@kaemonbonet4931]

I think campaign books are more digestible than city books. You get less detail but more fidelity. Clear examples and ideas and characters all jump off the page for use in the story and the tone tells you exactly what this story is about

[@jakeo6463]

my best friend's boss literally has their office in a place called "Mt Pleasant", I feel I should warn them...

[@MostLikelyMortal]

My whole campaign hinges on a surprise betrayal BBEG (the King’s diplomat hires them to go do stuff that they later learn is for nefarious purposes) and I have no idea how to not make it fall flat like Frozen or Zootopia or the like. Trying to make his evilness make sense as much as I can but I really hope it’s believable and not just random to the players

[@danaefotopoulou6855]

hey matt if you ever get to play again with friends, we would love some campaign diaries. it seems tedious for you to do it often. i wouldn't want to. it would be great if some of your players every now and then posted or recorded a POV of what has happened in your game. we will hear your opinions on stream but it's always so cool to hear from the players how cool something was! i love to hear that you are getting exited again for this. i know you have been uninspired for some time, i love your twitch live streams!

[@darkjack164]

its like he was a npc, and we spawned in a a gaggle of mats, and they are just barking constantly

[@Sparrow141420]

Oh shoot, I"M SO EXCITED FOR THE BAD GUYS. I need them in my game and I'm about ready to introduce some new ones :D

[@brodystumpf4689]

So you won't be streaming the Chain anymore, will you still be doing Campaign diaries? I love those, and they helped me loads with brainstorming.

[@paulwarren29]

our high level stuff is going just fine

[@cepcode]

Please do campaign diary when the e chain starts back up.

[@JoeAuerbach]

The opening was an accidental modular stream. It was actually a pretty good lead in to a beat drop.

[@tristancotton7222]

I don't think you would be able to ask that 'Maginot Line' question to somewhere where they teach real history.

[@nordicnugz]

It makes me sad to hear that the Chain stream wont be happening anymore. But I understand the reasoning. Hope the game goes well.

[@citizensguard3433]

I can neither see, nor hear. I can only FEEL the livestreams I enjoy. I can identify any streamer ever to stream by feeling alone.

[@katze316]

What are the odds that the former tank commander turned game developer Matt references in the story at 56:29 is The Chieftain?

[@EagleRulerSiena]

51:00 "Un-dope his ship."

[@jamespearsoniii914]

Got mine😁

[@theGENERALlee00]

So has there been any word on when kingdom's and warfare I really want a hardcover book

[@Reformedhillbilly369]

Almost caught it live. Alas, work does not bend to my whims.

[@turtleeasternsea1464]

Does anyone else miss the Peace Out finish from Matt...

[@dford4014]

You've quite the singing voice, Matt. Trained or a natural?

[@Tysto]

17:33 "Synecdoche" (part of something is used to refer to the whole) is pronounced "sin-ECK-doh-kee" rather than "SIGH-neck-doke".

[@KeljornIronfist]

Bloody stupid Johnson in discworld is based on a real architect but in the real world he was bloody brilliant

[@peaceofcrap]

Just FYI Matt you used synecdoche correctly in context but it is pronounced "sin neck dokie"

[@citizensguard3433]

Damnit. I missed it!

[@Alitari]

52:01 ... you have a friend named John Wick?!