RPG War Stories - What Bug?

Recounting that time some terrible dice rolls and a paranoid murder hobo burned a Cyberpunk game so bad that the Game Master never ran again.
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#RPG #Cyberpunk

[@SSkorkowsky]

UPDATE: I made a video about how we setup our campaign so we could rotate Game Masters while still continuing a single story (a.k.a. a Relay Campaign). kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHzOeKmVfcefpq8

[@gabrielcarelidealmeida7055]

The update we want is to know if George has GM for you since then? Love your videos btw

[@SSkorkowsky]

@@gabrielcarelidealmeida7055 He' currently running a few of us through a Cyberpunk Red game. I've yet to shout "Bombshell" once.

[@gabrielcarelidealmeida7055]

@@SSkorkowsky did you go back to that building in Tokyo? maybe the cursed lobby can change the bombshell situation by the way i love your content!!!😊

[@Socialdogma]

GM: You enter the tavern and a waitress comes over to you and says “What you drinkin’?” Seth’s PC: “I will have a Coke.” GM: “We don’t have Coke. Pepsi products only.” Seth’s PC: “BOMBSHELL.”

[@SSkorkowsky]

This is true.

[@andrewdiaz3529]

Pepsi breaks out the navy the got from the Russians

[@richmcgee434]

That is a perfectly reasonable response to being told you have to drink Pepsi.

[@Volvandese]

@@richmcgee434 agreed

[@revan7383]

perfectly justified

[@DumpsterGoof]

At the "Bug? What bug? There was no bug," part I love how the character behind the speaker is sincerely nodding his head in agreement. Put a big smile on my face!

[@ts25679]

Yes going bombshell wasn't in keeping with you "Don't fuck up your opportunity to be a player by ruining the dm's game", but I wonder if he'd had the npcs say "Get these jokers outta here" from the start it might not have started a cock-up cascade leading to player frustration and the scenario going down in flames.

[@martin7092]

This is my new favorite d&d channel

[@SorryBones]

Yesss, a Skorkowsky video. What a treat

[@AK_Wargamer]

Awesome war story Seth.

[@finnmchugh99]

I really would like to hear about this World hopping cyberpunk 2020 campaign I hope its like those Twin Serpent videos... Those were awesome. Maybe some vids on CP: Red as well

[@ChronicGames365]

Omg please keep these stories up, they’re so good!! Also please please please do some more cyberpunk adventure reviews

[@Ralndrath]

Always great when you upload a new video, mate. Thanks for being so entertaining. Keep up the awesome work!

[@NatsuMatto]

Thanks. I needed that.

[@wesleywalkerthewriter]

I'd totally GM for you and your buds, Seth.

[@peterlewerin4213]

I was a sub-par GM. I liked setting up adventures, but I couldn't stop myself from imagining the gameplay beforehand. Then I would become upset when the characters did it otherwise (and sometimes it was noticeable). That scratching-the-blackboard feeling can take away some of the willingness to GM. It did force me to learn to improvise, though. Just gather up some assets and see where we end up. Of course then the players felt that the game was too elastic. A friend of mine could literally draw two rectangles on a piece of graph paper and give us a couple of hours of sharp action and clever conundrums: I never reached that level of ability.

[@johngleeman8347]

Poor Dockworker George. XD

[@Kevlar-78]

Haha. Great story. I frequently run and every once in awhile I'm a player, but I think I also might be a bad player. I get so excited to be playing I think I start committing all the annoying player sins. It's hard to jump out from behind the screen to play sometimes ! 😆🍺🍺

[@birdofhermes4725]

"When a player GM's their game master." Just remember: DON'T F*CK THIS UP Poor Seth learned the truth the hard way. One day he may run a game for you again...one day.

[@LakeVermilionDreams]

Is it officially confirmed now that Jack the NPC is Seth's player character from this game?!

[@midnightprince30]

I'd almost move to your area to have a player like you. Lol. Plus, admit it, you'd love to have a dm that had your books and eventually would have to throw something you wrote in one right back at you. Lol.

[@bradhoover1644]

YES!!!

[@DollanFerinal]

Game master 101 if you care about it your players will find a way to ruin it.

[@cuperceva]

Oh, Alien book in the background. Are we going to get a review soon ? hm hm.....teasers.

[@Tysto]

I once had a party of NPCs get the drop on the D&D PCs in the forest. They were the local lord's champions, higher level, & had the party dead to rights, but my players refused to even put their weapons down. The NPCs were going to just question them & maybe give them advice about monsters in the forest, but nope, my players flipped out, & the NPCs were all killed-straight up murder. So they had a rougher time with the doppelgängers and werewolves in the forest than they needed to and one got kidnapped. Smh

[@PaulGaither]

The 80's, 90's and early 2000's: The year 2020 is going to be amazing. Cyber pink and flying cars and... Actual 2020: Imma stop you right there and ask you to wear this mask.

[@maddkossack1157]

@Paul Gaither TFW the only things Cyberpunk 2020 got right was America collapsing into a neo-feudal corporate dictatorship, afflicted with poverty, disease and the world literally on fire, but none of the sweetass cybernetics that would've made such a dystopia somewhat bearable.

[@richmcgee434]

@@maddkossack1157 Can you imagine anyone actually letting the internet directly access your nervous system even if the cybertech did exist to do it? Go in to have a brainjack installed, log in, and thirty years later you wake up and discover you've spent the intervening decades as a literal corporate zombie slave and only a software bug broke the cycle.

[@jefferydraper2551]

@@richmcgee434 or worse working for Zuckerberg as a reviewer of community standards complaints.

[@BudsRPGreview]

Having actually played with you, I can confirm your dice - whether virtual or real - are full on voodoo cursed.

[@SSkorkowsky]

This is true. If I'm running a game, I'm all crits all the time. When playing, it's only failure.

[@danacoleman4007]

@@SSkorkowsky I definitely have the same "problem" 😁

[@Goddamnitiwantaname]

Whenever someone says: "Don't worry. I got this." I start worrying and have my character slowly back up in the opposite direction.

[@SSkorkowsky]

That's a solid piece of advice for not just gaming, but for everyday life.

[@richmcgee434]

@@SSkorkowsky Accurate. "Watch this." is also a clear danger sign.

[@jefferydraper2551]

Right up there with "Hey ya'all. Watch this!" You just know its going to be a trip to the ER.

[@MidnightDStroyer]

@@richmcgee434 In Cyberpunk, the phrase "Hold my beer & watch this" should go "Hold my Smash & watch this."

[@Revan_7even]

The last time I said this I crit, and when asked to confirm the crit, I cockily said "No problem" and confirmed with a crit. Made up for the last year of below-mediocre rolls XD

[@FuriousJorge]

You remember what happened last time?

[@TheJimPlays]

Not sure if this would be a redemption story or a troll-fest! :D GM: "So our adventure begins in..." Seth: "BOMBSHELL!" Seriously though, good on ya for having a serious talk with your friend about bad gaming habits and still being cool with each other. I've lost count of the times I've seen people either unwilling to bring up someone's bad form only to have the behavior get worse, or just as bad, have them bring it up and the bad actor take it personally to the point of affecting the relationship. Cheers!

[@Plaugue1122]

Is this the actual player?

[@FuriousJorge]

@@Plaugue1122 indeed

[@egillskallagrimson5879]

@@FuriousJorge That suggesting looks of Seth has convince you to run another game? xDD

[@girlbuu9403]

Just so you know, you are the best Seth at the table.

[@michaelfoye1135]

So a Cyberpunk game, a corporate lobby, and a Matrix lobby gunfight reenactment, but with fumbles in lieu of acrobatics.

[@johnf.kennedy5454]

As he takes aim with his twin automatics, both magazines fall to the cold, polished stone floor, scattering bullets everywhere...

[@WoobooRidesAgain]

It's the Matrix shootout, but Neo and Trinity are played by Laurel and Hardy.

[@nomadjensen8276]

That mental imagery made me happy. Fumbling grenades to positive effect and accidental awesome gunshots.

[@HoundofOdin]

"Hello internet, Seth Skorkowsky." Oh how I have needed to hear those words.

[@larsdahl5528]

I have been a bit puzzled to they way he say it. I mean... Like a sports commentator or radio speaker, they often skip punctuation... Leaving out that "," between "Hello internet" and "Seth Skorkowsky." make it sound like: "Hello internet says Skorkowsky".

[@Tony-dh7mz]

Tron theme tune "Greetings Program"

[@PossumMedic]

@@larsdahl5528 Also a true statement! xD

[@cyclone8974]

"Hey, you ever want to run a game?" "Bombshell"

[@daveanderson775]

I would love to see how you would do rotating DMs.

[@SorryBones]

Same

[@CRESELEG]

Definitely!

[@charlesrhodes3337]

Players that gm. Sometimes try to help their selves cause they can effect the campaign they are playing in.

[@DADeathinacan]

Yeah, as someone trying to do something similar any tips and tricks would be great. Currently it just takes the form of "well, one dude is doing a storyline and everyone else is doing one-offs I guess". Ways of avoiding GMPCs while doing it in particular. The GMPCs have yet to go Mary Sue in about two years, but its just... Not as enjoyable interacting/running with them, if that makes sense.

[@erc1971erc1971]

2 words: Episodic Campaign.

[@goblinfacegraphics2298]

Great example of how to react to getting called out on a habit. Says a lot about how a player and DM can handle derailments without drama

[@matthill5426]

Seth, I enjoy all your content, from the game reviews, to the meta breakdowns of player and DM types, to the occasional live stream Q&A. But so help me God, if we don't find out what happened with that turtle wearing a hat, I'm sending Scott Brown Realty to repossess your house, and he's bring the Bonesaw with him. Make this right Seth, for all our sakes. :| Turtles in hats, Seth. Turtles in hats.

[@shadowheartart3898]

Yes! We NEED to know!

[@Dovahkiin62]

Thank God I thought I was the only guy wondering about the Turtle with a hat we gotta know

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

RIGHT DOWN TO THE *BONE* , PEANUTHEAD!

[@seasaltsky]

What?

[@thanhool]

Thats very mature of you to tell a story where you dont come out super clean looking. Mad respect.

[@pixeldonut6058]

That image of the two punks in suits will remain forever etched in my memory. It was too good.

[@NefariousKoel]

Still sounds like a success, overall, to me. The GM adapted and the players still had fun. If he were to GM again not long after, I would've recommended he reconstitute all the prep he did into another game in the near future. Changing the location name and the lobby a bit. All that prep doesn't have to be tossed out the window if it was never experienced. Modularity.

[@Skullkan6]

Yeah this was nowhere near as big a failure as seth made it out to be.

[@charlesrhodes3337]

I never throw away a good map. Couple of my bars maybe similar. Players hardly ever notice.

[@UrsaFrank]

You're not wrong but if you're brand new to GMing then it's still increadably heartbreaking and a kick to your confidence. And if you're not a regular GM (or even semi-regular) then finding ways to rebrand large amounts unused content without it being obvious becomes much more difficult especially if the players already saw the start of if.

[@arbiterally101]

@@UrsaFrank I agree. I think the problem is personal, not the game. I've played with rookie GM's and having a really cool session you planned out go completely haywire and out of control can really do a number of their confidence and willingness to take the risk of GMing again. And unfortunately, this can also extend to having certain players in the group. They might not feel confident in having a good story when it ends up going from a cool espionage game into an active warzone in the span of a few minutes or trust a player not to squander everything for giggles. That isn't what happened, but it's easy to fall into a bit of pessimism when you're just starting a hobby like this and you have to put so much of yourself into the game. There's a lesson to learn here. A habit of reckless player activity can have consequences and often they're entirely unintended, and even if it was justified at that time with perhaps the dice screwing the players over and feeding their paranoia, it isn't justified every time. In games like this, it does pay to sometimes just take the L as a black trenchcoat, than going full pink mohawk and turning the scenario into something much worse. I don't necessarily agree that it's fair to condemn the players for assuming the guards were out to get them, because in their line of work, that does happen and a runner should be prepared for that. But I also note that if every run keeps going from a simple recon job into a full scale firefight, then your GM may get fed up of putting in a lot of effort that's not going anywhere.

[@vidard9863]

Honestly it sounds like he tried being a GM, and was good at it, but found it too be too much work and just found a good excuse to be a permanent player... That or with the group he couldn't couldn't run the game he wanted. If you want to do an intellectual spy game and all you have is murder hobos....

[@JesusSkywalker92]

I wonder how many takes it took to get those double 1's on camera?

[@MSpacer]

Might have filmed them separately and them edited them together.

[@nicknumber1512]

"I try to roll a 1." "Ok, roll your dicerolling skill to see how you do."

[@EyeOfEld]

On average, probably around 100 rolls.

[@JesusSkywalker92]

@@EyeOfEld law of averages says 100, law of dice being assholes says a lot more

[@juddgoswick2024]

This gives me an idea. I know a guy that could be a professional fumble stuntman for RPG reenactments. Guy's curse could be a blessing!

[@ryanwaits6733]

Yes! Time to live vicariously through Seth again!

[@JKtheSlacker]

I completely lost it at 6:29!

[@DTDdeathmas]

So did I.

[@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec]

This is common with most forever game masters. It's due to not being use to knowing almost everything and being in control of the world.

[@joshkellemen5931]

So I've been running a game for a year where my players are my wife, three coworkers, and four people I found on the internet. It's been great. I told them I need a break as I work on next stage of campaign, and asked if anyone wanted to run something short in the mean time. It was my wife who stepped up. She had never played before current campaign and has obviously never dm'd. I will be keeping this story well in mind when we play.

[@spacedinosaur8733]

First time DM, awesome! In the words of Seth...DON'T ** THIS UP! kzbin.info/www/bejne/i33EaKmQiph9nrM

[@thephilguy1]

Definitely do a video on rotating GMs! I've heard a few groups have success with it running more open-ended adventure of the week or West Marches exploration games. I could also use some points to help convince my group so that I could be a player again for once. :P

[@juddgoswick2024]

My group did a rotating GM campaign of the classic D6 Star Wars RPG and it was amazingly fun!

[@kalajel]

"He asked to borrow my Pacific Rim book..." Wait what? ** sees cover of book ** Ah, ok...

[@richmcgee434]

Not a kaiju or giant robot to be seen in the thing. Wasn't exactly an original name for a film franchise. :)

[@seb24789]

There are rules for giant robots in Cyberpunk. That gives me an idea....

[@richmcgee434]

@@seb24789 Mekton is pretty much compatible with Cyberpunk anyway, you barely have to change anything to get them to mesh. Just use that for your giant mecha needs. I'd argue the Z version of it is still the best mech-centric RPG ever made - and we're not getting the new edition thanks to CD Project Red and Pondsmith not having enough hours in the day. :(

[@seb24789]

@@richmcgee434 I know. Z+ has some nice conversion rules. Only problem i have with it is that it turns Reflex into your God Stat.

[@richmcgee434]

@@seb24789 That has always been something of an issue for the game engine - it's not exactly untrue in Cyberpunk either. Haven't seen a good homebrew fix, although maybe averaging it with another stat or something would work.

[@dirus3142]

I too have failed to make it past the lobby.

[@Nickle_King]

It takes a truly wise man to admit his own wrongs. Respect dude.

[@ofthecaribbean]

*BOMBSHELL*

[@SSkorkowsky]

Let's do it!

[@Sniffin432]

I noticed the Alien RPG box behind you, I hope it's a teaser of things to come!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Eventually. Just don't expect it soon. Remember that a year passed between me getting Conan and Traveller before the system reviews posted for each of them. I'll need to play a few adventures and put it through the ropes before I can give a solid review of it. So there will probably be some scenario reviews for it that pop up as we go followed by the system review as more of a Final Report. Right now, I'm about 2/3 through our first adventure. So far, so good.

[@richmcgee434]

@@SSkorkowsky That's the Free League one, right? You tried any of their other systems, particularly Forbidden Lands? I'm finding it hard to process my opinions on that one. So much good stuff at first and then you realize how much is just missing and left to the GM to patch.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Yeah, it's the Free League one. I haven't read any of their stuff before. I'm playing in one group at the moment, making our way through their Chariot of the Gods scenario. So far, I think for horror/action 1-shots the system works pretty damned good. Not too sure how well it will work for longer campaigns. I'll need some more time with it for that.

[@seb24789]

When i tried Chariot of the Gods, it devolved into incoherent screaming. Not because it was scary, it was because i didn't tell my players that there's a traitor among them (to keep the suprise) and one of them didn't take it kindly when someone started to "sabotage the game".

[@richmcgee434]

@@seb24789 Have they never seen the movies? Treachery is the one common theme throughout, even in the really bad ones that the RPG ignores. There's always a backstabbing SOB in the mix somewhere.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

I don't know... Sounds like "George" would be a pretty good GM. He oughta give it another shot... I mean, you NEVER EVER get it perfect the first time out of the gate... Re-skin the building (adventure?) and try again... You've both grown since then. ...or is he just chicken??? ;o)

[@Semiotichazey]

Maybe it means I'm a bad GM, but I love when things go sideways and players overreact. I have the opposite motto: "trust the players." I explicitly tell the players not to trust me. I don't try to screw them over, but I don't guarantee any happy paths, either. But I always trust my players to deliver half the story, if only through mishap.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@Semiotichazey My Players can implicitly trust that I won't outright screw them over... BUT I do warn any new Player, "I'm YOUR friend... NOT your PC's friend. If he or she were to show up IRL and meet me, I'd be burned alive on the spot... as it should be." Anyone should know, there are no guaranteed "happy paths"... Any Veteran knows that adventuring is not for "normal sane people"... Normal sane people stay home, find work, meet and mate, make more people... repeat... Part of my JOB as a GM is to concoct ways to make the PC's as miserable as possible in earning whatever loot I mischievously stash about the Game... Only a lunatic would actually wake up one morning, buy a sword and some armor, and decide, "Yep, I'm going to go hunt me an adventure. That sounds like fun." I try not to drop a PC with a "Hollow Death"... They're beloved Characters who's deaths should mean something... should punch up the interest and emotions of the Game... Not end up "meh" in any way... AND certainly shouldn't be a joke... That's not to say PC's don't die from a string of unfortunate dice rolls. Shit happens... BUT I try. AS for trusting the Players to bring half the story, derail the Arc I designed, send everything sideways and take me by surprise... I don't have to trust Players for that... I have faith that (being a Player myself) WE WILL DEFINITELY NOT DISAPPOINT! I've NEVER had Players who took agency at all, fail at making things a LOT more interesting than I'd have done on my own. It's rare for a PC's Character arc to resemble anything but a plate of spaghetti. ;o)

[@andrewrobinson4019]

That was my excact though: reskin that bad boy and run it again. If it were my sky-scraper I’d run it in Call of Cthulhu and keep mentioning how “you have a peculiar feeing as you enter the lobby...”

[@handlebarfox2366]

traumatized?

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@handlebarfox2366 Not what I'd consider a valid excuse... Trust me on this one. There's no GM that's worth a damn who hasn't collected a MOUNTAIN of crap that he or she spent time on and never got to explore with the Players in-game... We've all made that tower, that sky scraper, or those labyrinthian complexes, only to watch the PC's waltz through in a beeline to the goal, or find ways to avoid them all together... Sure, this vid' illustrates how Seth (as great a guy as he is today) was a sort of problem player in the past... Too quick to throw bombs and wreck the scheme, rather than have a little faith in the GM to create leeway around for drama and tension... and another shot at exploring this work he's created... It's one of the BIG reasons I push every Player at my Table to run "mid-Campaign" at one point or another. It not only avoids a "Perma-GM" from burning out and quitting, but it keeps me on my toes when I'm stitching different side-quests and storylines and sub-plots into the "main" Arc I've been creating... I even set up the map I've worked on, and let them have at it... BE the GM... all the way... IF it goes to hell in a handbasket, I can shrug it off and we can start something new... Nobody gets hurt. Maybe somebody learns something... BUT LEARN SOMETHING... You can't get better as a GM or Player if you don't KEEP DOING IT. ;o)

[@blameitonthebubble5294]

The dreaded Bank Lobby of Doom.

[@ajardoor]

Musta built on an ancient Indian money changing ground.

[@mattnerdy7236]

Hey Seth, love your videos. The story telling, the acting, all the characters you do. Your videos are just "FUN" to watch. Thanks Seth & have a great day.

[@enixxe]

The rotating DMs video would be cool, but as far as this one goes, idk. "Trust the DM" is great and all insofar as you should trust that the DM is trying to offer a fun and compelling game experience, but at a certain point the players need to be free to feel they've screwed the pooch and act on that. "Trusting the DM" here seems to go further than what I think is desirable into trusting the DM will save you from your own failures. Rather than "trust the DM," I think the lesson here is more along the lines of don't let your knowledge of the dice rolls make you too quick to assume the situation is unsalvageable.

[@rexhazelwood7302]

Well said!

[@hellhammerCCCP]

Sometimes you fail upwards. Exactly right.

[@B00Radl33]

Not a bad point. Personally as a DM I would hope that I would make a player roll an 'Insight / Common Sense' roll before messing with the whole mission. "The guards look more annoyed than mad. Seems like they get people trying to leave bugs here on a weekly basis." But every DM has to do just as much or more flying by the seat of their pants as a player. And offering those tips can feel a lot like limiting the player's personal choices.

[@vidard9863]

Yeah, it is a balancing act, but based on what was said it wasn't the first time Seth went murder hobo. The thing though, is that their cover had not been blown. They were at that time, just pushy salesmen who planted a bug to see if their products interested the clients, and potentially how much they could charge. Frankly they were too incompetent to be considered a threat by security, give them a gentle beating in the back ally and send them on their way. Killing them would just leave a mess. You should trust the GM not to meta game and assume that the guards really know that these guys are capable player characters and not just NPCs.

[@enixxe]

@@vidard9863 Maybe there's something about the setting that I'm missing since I've never played this particular game, but I don't see how the players should know they were only going to get beaten slightly. That seems like something that would depend on hindsight or by having additional info as the DM. They could have probably tried to talk first to see if they could get out of their and get a bit more information to make sure they understand the situation they're in better, which is where, if anywhere, I think they arguably screwed up, but "a gentle beating in the back alley" doesn't seem like a reasonable thing to expect your players to submit to either because, again, they have no way of knowing where it will stop.

[@drawfiend3104]

This was just one long apology to George, wasn't it?

[@ralphjackson2518]

07:15 is it really a modern/future rpg if the party doesn't flashbang themselves?

[@Sisyphus317]

"Hello internet I'm Seth Skorkowski and I'm I murder hobo"

[@jefferydraper2551]

Hello Seth.

[@nexus8917]

Disappointed by the lack of Scott Brown references in this episode...

[@SSkorkowsky]

Look closer at the shirt I'm wearing in the player skit.

[@nexus8917]

@@SSkorkowsky Can't believe I missed that.

[@jefferydraper2551]

@@SSkorkowsky Yeah, I noticed. Sent that Scott Brown video to my best friend who used to live in Denton. He loved it.

[@GirGasm]

I’ve learned over the years to never underestimate how badly players can turn a situation. In this case you had no way of knowing how it was supposed to turn out, let alone that they wouldn’t start firing at you guys on their own anyways. It is Cyberpunk after all.

[@delcarsdungeon]

As some one who GMs 99% of the time, I think its a trend with us - we get excited to actually play, assume we know what's happening, and get into cliff's notes/yeah, yeah I know what's coming next - lets do THIS!

[@NerdMafiaSV]

I was playing cp2020 in middle school around the same time this happened! Weird coincidence.

[@euansmith3699]

"Scott Brown! Bombshell!"

[@FrancoStrider]

Was just thinking that. Like, Scott Brown is a GM flavor of bombshell.

[@lizardwithhat4125]

I don't know... feels like a Check for Security-Knowledge or Insight might have clued the PCs in about some details of their situation. I mean they were going against a ‘corp in CP - "Disappearing" people is totally in the MO for the ‘corps there, isn’t it? Especially if it is some fluffin’ fortress. Based on that situation I do not quite get the “Trust the GM” part. But the story was a blast. The acting-for-two is amazing and the characters (Players and PCs) hilarous X3

[@Haukipesukone]

Indeed. The GM could have hinted to them a peaceful option was still possible.

[@lizardwithhat4125]

@@Haukipesukone It's why i prefer having lotta different Codes for different Situation. ^^

[@jamesthrice2253]

Was this video just an elaborate invitation to George to GM a game?

[@FuriousJorge]

Can you even imagine trying to GM a GM like Seth?

[@markskarr2257]

Hell, I'll run him. I survived Ziggy K, I can survive anyone.

[@Xingmey]

5:05 best part. Those facial expressions when you pretend to shoot. That's hilariously awesome

[@chthulu27]

Hitting yourself with a flashbang sucks. You know what sucks worse? Hitting yourself with a krak grenade in a 40K Dark Heresy campaign. RIP Lazarus Ramirez.

[@oz_jones]

Cadia stands?

[@chthulu27]

@@oz_jones , I'm not sure how to interpret that reference. Post fall of Cadia affirmation of the will of surviving Cadians applies to this how?

[@si1verg3cko]

Honestly even though the GM was pissed at Bombshell I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with the call. I get the entire idea behind trust the GM but at the same time you don't inherently know what they are planning either.

[@wardkerr2456]

Yeah, I have ended a couple of runs by shooting a prisoners with valuable info. "They had it coming," just doesn't cut it. I messed up.

[@ogreboy8843]

"Hi internet! It's us, Gorakowski." Thanks autocaption. Keep doing what you do.

[@lisquidsnake]

George is running games all the time but never invites you Seth 😉

[@mattfrandsen1244]

Thanks Seth! My withdrawal was getting real bad!

[@P9ctMak3r]

I needed this after learning Cyberpunk Red is being pushed back again today.

[@Plaugue1122]

Wait till when?

[@rolandkushm.d.710]

No!!!! 😫

[@NefariousKoel]

I've always suspected it won't be out until the video game is released, at the least. Coordination and agreements perhaps.

[@P9ctMak3r]

R. Talsorian said there's a few layout and art pieces that need finished but mostly they don't want to release a PDF without a physical book because that could impact small game stores that are already suffering. Which I'm supportive of, I'm just having to scramble to piecemeal CPRed and CP2020 together for my game when I was relying on Red simply being out.

[@wolf1066]

I'm looking at the re-enactment and Seth wearing that bloody _Scott Brown_ shirt and finding it hard not to laugh. Friggin' hell! That was an epic war story!

[@ADiceySituation]

Really wanna see a Cyberpunk campaign diary like you had with Batshit-365 and The Two-Headed Serpent.

[@johanneskaiser8188]

Those fumbles were on point for hilarity. Did you bribe the dice?

[@MithranderGray]

This story reminds me of the first time I almost cried as a GM, my players decided that instead of exploring the building that I had spent hours creating they should just light it on fire instead. It's a bitter pill to swallow, and a hard lesson to learn.

[@Zacknafin]

MithranderGray players.... the greatest agent of chaos! The madness that can come from this is priceless.... good or bad, your going to remember it, years to come. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@swissarmyknight4306]

The problem is spending hours creating a building. You never know what PC's will do, ignore, or burn to the ground. Act accordingly.

[@johnf.kennedy5454]

Try building a whole planet in Traveller, starport, animals, and the whole adventure and the players decide they don't want to go there afterall...

[@cameronjames3499]

A few sessions later, should have some really wealthy scholar or powerful magician doggedly tracking the party down and complicating their lives because they destroyed 10s of millions of gold worth of extremely rare books, spells and magic items by destroying the house that the NPC had been searching for for years only to come across the smoking wreckage of the building a few hours/days late. Might be slightly petty, but it would be satisfying, and extra complications are a good thing.

[@tilleul6917]

Sound like my average gm day. But it's not a problem at all, you can reuse this building set up whenever you want.

[@Pile_of_carbon]

I had a similar thing happen to me in Shadowrun. I had written a mission where the PCs had to investigate a series of really messy murders. They asked around and got a lead on a violent gang that used massive attack dogs to terrorize the neighborhood. On their way to their crack house hideout to bust heads and get answers, one of the players says "I want to check out the crime scene again." Once there he wanted to roll to see if he could pick up any extra clues and since he had knowledge about paracritters and absurdly high tracking skill with specialization for urban environments he got to roll a figurative bucket of dice. Dude rolled some of the most hits I've ever seen on a single roll. I had to tell him that "The gang probably has nothing to do with this at all and everything points to something coming out of the sewers." That roll bypassed about 50 % of the adventure. We still had fun and said player got to feel like a complete boss.

[@mattm4557]

The fact that this story was so entertaining is proof that nothing went wrong. That player/GM needs to understand that no plan survives war and no plot survives contact with players. What makes rpgs fun is the unexpected twists and turns that come from the player's decisions and improv. Seth did nothing wrong. It made perfect sense for his character to do what he did, especially with a mohawk character as the skit reenactment showed. lol

[@doncoyote68]

It's nice when you are playing neutral good and then you just *talk* to the police and you are moderately honesty and they let you off with a warning or a small fine. Most don't even conceive of it as an option. ...then there are the players that try to pull that exact thing when up against fanatic vampire hunters... while playing a vampire. Sigh.

[@therealtroy8275]

Seth keeps on churning out works of art during the pandemic! Good work, man! Please do a video about rotating GM's if you think you have useful info or stories! I did it once for a Mutant: Year Zero campaign. The players and I worked to build a world together and even had player create and play NPC's, so when I got to the end of my story arc, I let another player take over.

[@arakuss1]

Reminds me of a game of traveler and well an apple cart vendor and well an elevator of death... grenades and.. blood.. lots of blood all hell breaking loose with our own "bombshell" call... all over someone that did not want to pay for an apple.

[@SpiritWolf1966]

I enjoy all of Seth Skorkowsky videos 😂🎉😮

[@budahbaba7856]

Seth, i seem to have been missing your feeds lately (early 2021). You are my favorite RPG commentator!

[@aesculetum]

Do it, George!

[@JasuchinFaron]

Certainly not the worst "Bombshell" moment I've ever seen. You should've seen that museum heist Spoony tried to run in Shadowrun....THAT was awful

[@keithwinget526]

I hope you mean the guy from CounterMonkey, and I was wondering what happened to him, because I haven't seen any videos uploaded in a long time.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

@@keithwinget526 Last I heard he went a bit bonkers, but I have no details.

[@JasuchinFaron]

@@keithwinget526 Yeah, him. He's caught in an endless spiral of crippling depression these days, but his CounterMonkey videos, specifically "The Code" in this case, were great.

[@zubbworks]

Yo get your guy to DM again. That's a little sad that he dosn't. Still sounds cool.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Yeah he's been running us through an on-again/off-again Cyberpunk Red Campaign and will be running his first convention game at Origins next month.

[@zubbworks]

@@SSkorkowsky Nice:)

[@wildernessboy9996]

Damn Seth u growing like crazy I was here 7 hours ago and u already gained 400 subscribers congrats road to 100k

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thanks. One day I'll hit that 100k mark. One day.

[@wildernessboy9996]

@@SSkorkowsky ya I can't wait to see that 100k play button on ur wall I bet u will hit it by 2021

[@simonholmes6473]

To be fair. Given that Cyberpunk corps can be a bit grumpy towards spys, your reaction was pretty reasonable especially given how natural it is for many folks to panic under pressure. Being told 'You should've trusted the GM' is kinda being asked to metagame. Of course, I can only speak for this instance and not for the many times you've done it before :-p

[@fredricknoe3114]

Another Seth video. Great... wait a war story none the less HALLUJAH!

[@afaultytoaster]

2:30 lol it's LARPception over here, Seth is dressed up as his fictional players who have dressed up as their fictional characters who are dressing up in fictional disguises

[@raynercoslop]

yes! at least four degrees of disguises

[@JackLaPoire]

Oh wow, that reminds me of a story that happened to my group. Previously, my players prevented the Orcs from getting a powerful artifact they would have used to ravage the kingdom, but while doing so unwillingly casted a curse upon the land. Right afterwards they handed themselves over to the guards in the big city and told them roughly what happened. Naturally, in the next session the city was preparing their trial. As I wanted it to go smoothly, some villagers the PCs knew and who lived in a vale sent a letter to the city guard, saying they were struggling against the curse and that the PCs were their only hope. My plan was that the PC would go to the vale, get rid of the effects of the curse there and the friendly guards escorting them would witness it and testimony that they are working for the greater good during the trial. But nothing went the way I expected. They persuaded themselves that the letter was fake and that the guards just wanted to take them in some isolated place to kill them and let them rot. Nothing I could do would make them consider the fact everything could actually be fine. After their rough attempts at stopping the travel (such as breaking the leg of one of the guard’s horses), the way I maintained the guards friendly was starting to become ridiculous but I truly wanted them to go to the vale. Then the last thing they did was pretty clever. From the first time they went there, they knew the region and there was a clan of barbarians led by a stupid ogre. They went there and managed to persuade the ogre with some good rolls that the guards insulted him and he should eat them. So he did. And then they fled in the opposite direction. That was really funny, but still I was really disappointed everything I created was blasted away just because they feared the guards they handed themselves over to willingly... Why are people so scared by guards?!

[@larsdahl5528]

Seems to be a natural talent we humans have! Let me tell a story from RL (Yes! Real Life!!!): Several years back, a weapon smuggler and an illegal weapons dealer (both from north west Europe) had joined together in delivering weapons to a group of freedom fighters (In India) they hired a plane (Russian) to fly over the area and drop the weapons crates with parachutes. The plan was excellent! Just fly over the area and at the proper place and drop the crates from height 3000. Then the wind would bring the crates to land where intended. However! They had made the "Critical Fumble" (As we call it in role play) failing to take into account that aviation had two standards: Western, where flying heights are measured in feet - and - Eastern where flying heights where measured in meters! So instead of from 3000 feet, the crates was dropped from 3000 meters. - Result: The crates landed in a wrong spot, and thus got discovered and confiscated by the authorities. The group was quite confident that, despite they had failed their mission, there was nothing connecting them to the misdeed. So they continued their plan. Landed to refuel, where the standard procedure is to do a customs inspection. - However in India they do that in a quite different way than most other countries: They did show up with a team of somewhere between 20 and 25 inspectors. That large number of inspectors made that the smuggler got nervous and thought they was discovered, and thus decided to sneak away! Which lead to that he now had entered India illegally, and thus got searched for, and found. - Causing him to blow the whole operation...

[@mathsalot8099]

So this is the impetus of the "When a Player GMs" video. Thanks for your openness and experience.

[@dangarthemighty0980]

Love this it was totally awesome and hilarious. I have had a few murder hobos in my games before so I know how the friend feels but I also have ways to get around murder hobos or at least make them work to my stories advantage.

[@scottknudsen6611]

Your willingness to admit your own mistakes and poke fun at yourself is a big part of what makes this channel required viewing for me. Great war story, I'd love to see a video on rotating GMs if you decide to do one!

[@prtwriter4660]

I had during a playtest of my Campaign. A player burn down an Estate. So, Sideways has always been my way :/

[@patrickgallagher1830]

Been doing a rotating game in Greyhawk for almost 4 years. Would like to hear how you did your rotating campaign.

[@danacoleman4007]

lucky dog

[@arakasi2]

The last time I saw rolls like that was when I played Delta Green at GenCon last year. Two things: I hit with every shot I took I missed every SAN check I made I completely lost it when the Big Bad's dog suddenly grows to the size of a small elephant and sprouts tentacles, so I emptied my M16 at it. Did I say I hit everytime I took a shot? Well, I critically fumbled this shot and put a 3 round burst into our medic's head. Our demo expert had to take it out by jumping on the thing's back and setting off his his whole backpack of C4 The worst part was the players for the medic and the demo expert were friends and I found myself sharing a table with both of them the next day - aaaawkward.

[@andrewdiaz3529]

GenCon 2019? If so, where there test games for new players? I only first heard of Delta Green at GenCon and I've been wanting to try some of it out. If there games for new players at 2019, then there might be some at 2021 and that just gives me more to do there, if I can actually go.

[@arakasi2]

@@andrewdiaz3529 The game I played was listed as being for novice players with characters provided. I hadn't played this edition of Delta Green before - I had only read the rules the night before. The only things that I was expected to know were a bit of the background (that Delta Green was a super-secret agency within the government that dealt with paranormal threats) and a bit of the game mechanics (how SAN checks worked, how to make skill checks). If you've every played Call of Cthulhu, you know most of the mechanics: the only difference is how critical hits and failures work (all doubles on a skill check result in a critical something. If you succeed with your roll, it's a critical success. If you fail, it's a critical failure). If you've ever played a role playing game before, you could pick up the basics in 5 minutes or so and nobody ever gave me grief for asking "how do I do this?". I can't promise that all GMs run to the same standard, but you should be safe if you stick to games listed as "beginner" or "novice" We might just run into each other at the table next year. I'll be the one asking the GM if I can rename my character "Scott Brown".

[@andrewdiaz3529]

@@arakasi2 Thanks!

[@Semiotichazey]

Oh no, your cyberpunk PC costumes are simultaneously hilarious and awesome.

[@DKPseude]

Wait... You mean that there are gaming groups where "BOMBSHELL!!!" isn't the default response to a plan going off the rails? I generally feel it's going well if my players try something else first before just killing anything that's not a player character. The GM was the one who made the wrong call here. This wasn't a learning experience for Seth being called on a bad player habit. This was a learning experience for the GM where what he took from the session should have been the fact that the more carefully you plan out an adventure, the greater the chance becomes that the players will shout "Bombshell".

[@ryangardner3271]

Great content as usual. I had a game group where we rotated gm's and it was one of the best experiences I've had. We built a city as a group and we all made characters and we would post missions on a "bounty board" that we were willing to run. Whichever mission got the most votes determined who was gonna gm. It was awesome to build the world together like that. I am curious to hear how you did it.

[@BSRJR]

I honestly don’t think Seth did anything wrong here. Every GM should be prepared for any social interaction to turn violent and have a plan for it. I realize new GMs get thrown when players don’t do what they expect, but it’s also possible to make decisions that can get things back on track. Having the alarms go off was his choice. He could easily have said, you kill the guards but it doesn’t seem like anyone has raised any alarms… yet. I can certainly understand his frustration. But I feel he unwittingly added to it as much as Seth did.

[@robwalker4452]

Hilarious as always; love the War Stories. You went Full Murder Hobo.

[@civ-fanboy2137]

Love your toy car collection :D

[@thechevyferrari9559]

My god, I needed this right now, thanks, boss.