So Your DM Is A Sociopath | Castle Super Beast Clips

[@pyropoyo]

I like to imagine that despite Woolie hating every second of it because of his old job, he's still retained everything from Football Manager and could take a real life team to the World Cup out of spite.

[@MillenniumDays]

Hearing this and seeing him go through menus in FF6 recently, I think you're on to something.

[@angrymushroom26]

would love to see tha, just the version of like The mighty ducks but they don't grow or be a better person, just doing it, making those kids champions just to say fuck you to someone at the end then drop it.

[@DerEliteBaum]

You put 300 hours into it for your job I put 200 into it for fun - we're not the same

[@Trynt33]

@@DerEliteBaum >laughs in 1333 hours in EU4

[@TheItachikiller]

"you are the flesh that is in the way" is a very Warhammer 40k thing to say, actually. surprised it came full circle so quickly

[@ethanr3480]

Calling pat angron is funny because of what he becomes after the heresy. Calling Woolie lorgar means he found a new religion after leaving the old one, the worship of short hair girls

[@WeaponOfMyDestructio]

They could of gone with Vulcan and Mortarion

[@RattlesnakeRose]

It might be a reference to when Lorgar turned Angron into a Daemon Primarch. Angron had the chance to try to heal himself from the Butcher's Nails but Lorgar intentionally ruined it for him. But without the context of what's happening between Woolie and Pat idk what the correct interpretation is

[@imedudes2196]

@@WeaponOfMyDestructio ... OK but (internet persona-wise), Pat really is like if pre-heresy Angron became a champion of Nurgle. Used to be pissed off all the time, now he's more relaxed. I wanna shout out the idea that Matt is Magnus, looking for esoteric knowledge (Wha Happen?). Which I guess means that Liam is Fulgrim... hmm. That almost works too well. He was jokingly referred to as the pretty boy of the group, which Fulgrim certainly was. Creepy Anime Bullshit. Youngest of the group (more a Slaanesh thing, I guess).

[@vivianbloomfield3624]

Woolie definitely worships Necoho

[@WeaponOfMyDestructio]

@@imedudes2196 I just said Morty cuz Pat breathes in farts jokes my guy

[@DatAsuna]

DM shoulda kicked him from the game for not preceding his email with "OOC:"

[@kapkant6197]

I woulda kicked him for not staying in character in public, that just shows a lack of commitment to MY epic narrative I'm weaving. Shouldn't have dropped character while visiting his bed ridden mother if he wanted to stay.

[@SivTheScribe]

Yes.

[@Jordan-sb5jb]

So I'm the guy who sent the question, Reposting what I said in the subreddit. -Friendship ended that night. Everyone else in the group also left after finding out about it. -It was an unofficial 5e book. - I was comparing Woolie and Pat to Lorgar Aurelian and Agron from Warhammer 40k. it was me failing at a joke because Lorgar's a character who went Griffith levels of evil in the search of truth/To spite his dad and Angron is.... Well Angry. -I said Paris, Canada because I didn't think (Sorry)

[@NevetsTSmith]

SHORT and angry.

[@An_Inconvenience]

So... does that mean the Butcher's Nails are just Mind Goblins?

[@THEDERPYARBITER]

@@An_Inconvenience the goblin nails

[@flikkerflash]

Stop lying

[@Trynt33]

@@flikkerflash

[@ubermenschen01]

Pat's story about the "Yeah your mom just died but what about us?" sounds like an abuser or something, glad that person got removed from their life.

[@FrozenOver0]

How parasocial of you, you don't know anything about these people! (I kid, I kid.)

[@Staringathesun]

The trick for people who like to write long backstories is as follows: 1. Write the short story that is your backstory. That's for you. 2. Sparknotes it down to a single page for the GM. Maybe less if they want. 3. Condense it further to a paragraph or two for the rest of the group if they're curious. I once wrote a ten page backstory that mostly was about how the character spent his days before becoming an adventurer. It helped settle how they acted, what they believed in and their vocal mannerisms. But not everyone needs to know about your character's daily chores.

[@nathanieltodd5767]

Over the years I've come to the attitude that a good character summary should (just barely) fit in a tweet.

[@thelastchannelonyoutube]

Or you can go the old man henderson route where you write an entire novel and never shorten it down (that way you can make up things about their backstory and no one will have the patience to double check)

[@KrytenKoro]

@@thelastchannelonyoutube I have always felt certain that the old man Henderson story was a bit that the two were doing. It's too punchy to be accurate memories, and the whole thing is just beyond satire

[@charleswisconsin9196]

this is my Cleric, he is named Steve. what more do you need to know?

[@xsoultillerx]

@@KrytenKoro old man henderson is probably one of the most misunderstood TTRPG stories. henderson was solely made as a fuck you to the GM by henderson's player to basically fuck the game up because he felt the GM cheated and most people think it was a "how to".

[@bw6188]

“It puts the points into Dex or it will get the hose again.” The end state of the player they’re describing

[@ac0tactics]

I have a negative modifier on con I need hp. I cant live to the next boss without it. "Just don't get hit you're dps not the tank"

[@ken_cognito]

Every time they reference DnD my heart breaks at the table lords mini campaign that will never be. The character builds that they'd make, the role playing, and yes ands off of other player's hijinks.

[@Blunder-Blue]

I am so fucking lucky that my D&D group is made up of friends and that all my DMs are open about their worlds upfront so that when it comes to writing backstories and integrating into the world, it's super fucking easy and they even encourage us to ask questions. Like, I wanted my character in this upcoming campaign to be a town guard who gets caught up in something far greater, and when I asked my friend if that would work he was basically like "Hell yeah dude, here I'm already writing this settlement's code of laws and I have an idea for what type of armor the guards would wear. Wanna see?"

[@Khotgor]

Gooey is a high-class Kirby character for sure; you have good tastes

[@shadowfragment]

That's cool to hear. People who play need to understand that it's collaborative storytelling. The DM and the players are all working together to build the story. I DM for my group sometimes. I do creative writing as a hobby, so I know I can be a little controlling over the stories I tell at times. I'm also not the best improvisor, so I like to try and plan ahead where possible. So, when I DM a game, I'm asking players every session how they felt about the game, anything they'd like to see changed, what they want for their characters, etc. I also only create a very rough outline for major story arcs, and only plan things in detail one or two sessions ahead, because I want to be focussing on the player decisions and be open to changing things based on their actions. I always try to keep my players in mind and create things that they would want to play. Most of the time that means notes getting drastically rearranged and rewritten to fit my player's actions, or going completely unused because they did something so surprising and big that it completely changed the story, but that's the fun of playing the game. That's why we roll dice instead of just deciding what happens. Because it's fun to add that chaos and unpredictability to the story. It makes me stress out a little in the moment, but my favourite memories of DM-ing are seeing my players completely thwart my plans and completely derail the story.

[@SeruraRenge11]

"How do you deal with players that try to break the game?" "Lie to them. Rob them. Drive them mad. Concoct impossible scenarios whose only outcome is their death. And then, when their eyes glisten with shame and rage, drink their tears."

[@theangriestpigeon4403]

DM, "Ok, I need your backstory" Hands him a purposefully vague backstory so he can fit it into his world "I need more, though" Go much more in depth "Yeah, you see, I can't work with that" Rewrite it again "Dude, I don't think I want you in our group if you're this controlling" People wonder why I stopped being in DnD groups.

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

Sounds like you kept running into really shitty DnD groups. We're you trying it with people you were friends with/already like or new people?

[@AnarchicArachnid]

nah that shit is ridiculous

[@ohmygoditisspider7953]

So I DM. I give my players a rundown of where their race tends to live, then let them wing it whole campaign. I don't even care if you don't pick a background, flaw, bond, character traits, whatever

[@ohmygoditisspider7953]

@@AnarchicArachnid also that's a good username

[@AnarchicArachnid]

@@ohmygoditisspider7953 thanks, same to you

[@MinersLoveGames]

As someone running a DnD campaign for the first time for my group of friends, trying to be in control is the *last* thing you want to do. You have no control. You have just released a group of morally dubious assholes into this world and all you can do is shake your head and laugh along with them as you desperately try to keep them from lighting everything on fire. You as the DM are there to make sure everyone has fun. They're having fun? Good, you've succeeded in that regard.

[@ShayneRawls]

DM's should have fun as well. as long as everyone is happy then good.

[@GusJenkinsElite]

The DM takes more time than the other members setting up and running the shit, they're entitled to have fun too. It's not a job, it's a role so it's important the players recognize that

[@kylekillgannon]

If your group can't or won't respect you then you're just playing Drew Carey in Who's Line, you're giving a prompt and letting the inmates run the show. If you enjoy it? Fine. But if they're holding you hostage then you need to tell them they have to have some degree of respect to you.

[@nahuel3433]

Tempering your expectations. Imagining you'll basically be running an episode of the 3 stooges instead of imagining you'll recreate the lord of the rings in another setting can help the DM have fun too. Which is not to say you can't at all expect to have a more serious game. But the fact you want one as a dm and convince everyone to play along is something thay must be very well established before the first game starts. More preparation is required. And even then the DM has to expect things to not go entirely according to plan but immerse himself in the characters and the world everyone is collectively creating.

[@MinersLoveGames]

I can assure you all, I'm having fun with this game. These are some of my best friends and having to adapt to their antics on the fly is incredibly fun for me. Plus, its a homebrew world of my own creation, so being able to flesh out more and more of it as time goes on is exciting, too.

[@Rafaeleao2]

I ran my first campaign as a DM a few months ago with my group of friends and we had a blast. Nobody was 100% sure of the rules, we had a half naked cannibal halfling, an orc rogue that liked to scream "Invisible" whenever trying to stealth, a cleric who actually tried to help but had the worst rolls I've ever seen, and one trying to make a cool edgy mage character. I was constantly changing the story and the situations based on the antics, but we all had a good time.

[@shupasopni]

That sounds like a great party. I bet your group got into some shit

[@MostLikelyMortal]

THIS is the beauty of TTRPGs. Not the perfectly manicured critical role-types or stories authored by GRRM (though I do enjoy those), but the insane hijinx you get into when you let loose over a set of dice

[@MarquisdeL3]

As someone who has been running a lot of different ttrpgs lately (and watching a lot of GM advice as well), the biggest piece of advice I see over and over again is that being a good GM is about being fluid and adaptable. If you try to control for everything, your players will find the one thing you did not control for and destroy you. There's a reason "take improv classes" pops up frequently for tips to become a better GM.

[@ichimaru96]

This! Like I've been planning on playing ttrpgs for years but something always gets in the way, and i really enjoy the idea of being a gm and have story ideas vaguely in mind, but even i in my inexperienced way know to keep the story to background details and side characters only. Like have an instigating plot point, but then after that let the players do as they please and build the story around that

[@ShayneRawls]

I have also dealt with a sociopath like that but because it was long distance I stuck around way too long. It was after the umpteenth time that my time with family was perceived to be a waste of time that I said Fuck it. And stopped talking to that person

[@adams3627]

People look at me funny when I say I've run tabletop rpgs for myself, but it's actually really fun. You just have to accept that you're manually giving yourself split personalities for entertainment purposes.

[@GrayderFox]

That just sounds like creative writing with extra steps, honestly.

[@adams3627]

@@GrayderFox it is, but I also get to roll dice! Which makes my goblin brain very happy

[@cobra29935]

I've been thinking about trying this when i heard it was a thing cause I can't find anyone to play with

[@MUGENanaya]

@@GrayderFox singeplayer ttrpgs exist!

[@Trynt33]

It's like being a writer! Or an actor. We GMs just naturally have to splint up our brains like they're soul fragments

[@Lonequacker]

I convinced my friends we should try D&D. It was fun for a good chunk of the summer but I had to work 40 hours a week at a very shitty job with a shitty customer base and management while also dealing with being recently diagnosed as clinically depressed. The DM despite having more people playing while I was gone kept begging me to come constantly because none of them had any creativity but the exhaustion from work and side effects of anti depressants left me barely able to function. Somehow all of them blamed me for it not being fun and would give me shit for not being around when none of them had any jobs or obligations because the DM and his brother were losers with wealthy parents that sent them weekly allowances. It didn't end well.

[@dagdammit]

I think sociopath is the wrong take. Based on personal experience, this sounds more like desperation. I've seen people who were close to suicidal cling to a group recreational activity like a D&D campaign with fervent earnesty & ignore the IRL needs of other participants any time they might conflict with said game, because they can't bear the idea of losing one of the only good things in their life. It's still shitty behavior, but you don't have to be some kind of sociopath to fall into it. Just someone who's currently so hard-pressed to make it through life that you can't spare the energy to be considerate of anyone else.

[@veracity-]

This is a very generous take lol. Almost too generous if you're alluding to that maybe being the reason the DM from the email acted in the way he did. I definitely wouldn't call him a sociopath, maybe just an asshole or inconsiderate. For that guy's case, it's more likely that his DnD group flakes a lot/is non-committal and they don't finish campaigns so this time around he's really trying to nail them down to the point he's willing to cut out anyone who wont fully commit. I understand what you mean though about people becoming desperate when they rely on a group like DnD as their only joy or whatever. But usually in cases like that, the person sacrifices their own happiness/needs to make the game/thing happen. There would be a fear of losing the group, so it's more likely the person would cater to members in the group. You wouldn't threaten to cut people out of the game/group that you're desperate to cling to.

[@Americanbadashh]

A few weeks back the main character of D&D twitter was the polar opposite of this guy, but still on the sociopath spectrum. Where instead of wanting a 14 page backstory, he was going to kill the character of the player who dared give him a 1 page backstory, on purpose just because it was a few paragraphs longer than everyone else's

[@warlerker]

He didn't space his Paragraphs properly? Kill em.

[@MUGENanaya]

That's a lot of words too bad i'm not readin it

[@Trynt33]

@@MUGENanaya Weird GM on Twitter tried to kill another player's character for their 1 page backstory. For the attention span version: "A few weeks back the main character of D&D twitter was the polar opposite of this guy, but still on the sociopath spectrum. Where instead of wanting a 14 page backstory, he was going to kill the character of the player who dared give him a 1 page backstory, on purpose just because it was a few paragraphs longer than everyone else's"

[@Trynt33]

@@MUGENanaya 😉

[@TruKriegsaffeNo9]

I've GMed and played in games most of my life. I can tell you this: nobody needs this much prep at the table. "Play to find out," as Powered By The Apocalypse games put it--have an idea to start out with, and see how much emerges in play. I'm playing in the official Dark Crystal RPG right now, and what I wrote as a prissy minor royal turned into a way more compelling anxiety-ridden sheltered wreck with a tragic backstory PURELY through details emerging unbidden by playing off other characters.

[@SupremeUnit]

Ah, the good old sociopathic Stalker Blowout moment, classic.

[@_2Guard]

Damn, never played with anyone that bad but my first DM ever was "the Murder hobo" of the group and OMG he made every interaction a combat. Like, I'm playing but a humble blacksmith wanting to make fantastic Artifices and I literally had to Ruin my character sheet trying to convert it into a competent fighter. "Can I sit out this fight?" "No, the assailants are mad at your entire group, you are REQUIRED TO FIGHT"

[@SorakuFett]

14 pages of backstory is an awful idea, particularly for low-level starts, cause it builds up an expectation of experience and skill that often does not correlate with what the dice want to say. Your big legendary champion of the arena who rose out of slavery to earn his freedom or your master wizard who sealed away an entire army of demons will look really silly when they fail a perception check.

[@coleviloria3800]

Second ever time doing D&D I made a barbarian character with little to no knowledge whatsoever, the DM personally made it his goal to kill my character or hit 0 hit points each encounter, because I didn’t have a vernacular of whatever edition of D&D we were playing at the time and the player handbook. I still have ideas for campaigns I want to do but I never want to be that DM ever for any player.

[@Naoki00]

This is the most I’ve seen pat move on the podcast in a long time and I wonder if it’s because he’s secretly solar powered.

[@thewraithwriter22]

The opposite. He's moving so much because the sun is burning him.

[@michaelmaguire4147]

I kept running into the problem where I'd go from playing a 4x game to an rpg to one of those "idle rpg/autoclicker" type games because "ultimately it's just about watching number go up" and then a few months later and I'm like "what am I doing with my life". fuckin mind goblins

[@cobra29935]

Sounds like cookie clicker is right up your ally

[@ragnar3434]

Cooperative board games do tend to have a quarterbacking problem, but it's something designers can work against. Spirit Island holds it off by giving each player too much to think about for any single player to take over, for example, whereas Hanabi is a game about restricted communication where that's not possible in the first place.

[@AFoxNamedBox]

40k memes Lorgar: Started worship of the Emperor as a god. Was told that was dumb. Went and worshipped Chaos instead. Angron was the angry boi.

[@ShintoArt]

I'm the exact opposite of the crazy DM described in this video. I've never had any of my players(who are also close friends) need to write a backstory. At most I just look at their character sheets to get an impression of them so I can adjust the adventure as necessary.

[@Sanodi21]

1) That should be on r/rpghorrorstories and 2) That kind of player basically wants a captive audience for their story when they should just will write the damn thing as a book

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Here's an idea if one is going to be that insane of a control freak where human behavior itself is an inconvenience. Get your own Discord server. Add Tupperbot to it. RP everything yourself with all your botted messages. Please, JUST do that. I guarantee that'll be more fun than ruining the mental psyche's of half a dozen people or more. I literally made one for myself if I ever get *that* bored and don't feel like interacting much one day. Thankfully that day has not come yet.

[@peterwhite6415]

There is an FF14 DND 5th edition pdf, but its homebrew. From what i remenber it only has Races, Classes that are base of the ingame ones with diferent simplified mechanics, a few other subclasses for the official dnd classes and a couple spells. Its overall pretty good and reasonable. But really this guy was desperate to run the game, i think its one of the few good things he has OR hes trying to write a book and needs everyone to be there to make it work (yes this kind of dms exists, usually their extremly railroady.)

[@Pabloxio28]

Check out Finalfantasyd20 if anyone wants ideas for a FF campaign. It has boatloads of custom classes, races and spellls.

[@thatcherpholway]

Learned how to play Magic this way. Me, some old coworkers of mine + the manager would close down the store at night and set up a table in the middle of the floor and play MtG. My buddy would always sit next to me and surreptitiously look at my hand every round, and mutter some key advice, as I didn't know how to play the game. As it turned out, I realized he was basically using me as a "second life" in 4-player games we had, quietly molding my deck/hand into something he could help me lead to victory so he would still "win". Great guy, tbh.

[@jdcamar]

Ive actually played a campaign with several page requirement backstory, it more for the roleplay factor so that the character and decisions in their past reflect well with the campaign story. Those campaign tend to focus heavily on character decisions. Even the cutting people out of the campaign makes sense in a way because of all the time and energy setting up such a thing cost the Dm. But the rest was definitely toxic .

[@ragnar3434]

Tell these people about ironsworn/starforged and let them never blight your doorstep again

[@anachronologist2017]

My brother was like this in my original D&D group, He always had to have the best character, the campaign always revolved around him, etc. It took a while for me to really learn to play well with others in regards to that because my first 5 or so years were basically spent playing under a dictatorship.

[@xsoultillerx]

i used to be friends with a guy like that who wanted to play DnD 24/7 non stop with no breaks. and he couldn't/wouldn't understand why the people in the group at the time who have jobs & school at the time wouldn't be available for that. he was kinda boring as a DM when i played with him and he'd never shut the fuck up about WoW (i still wonder how he felt about what happened with blizzard since he built his whole identity around their IPs) specifically vanilla WoW to the point where he'd try to balance encounters around his nostalgia of vanilla WoW as some super hardcore RPG (even though when actual hardcore MMOs were presented to him like EvE he'd go quiet almost instantly). i dipped out of his games years ago when he wouldn't stop harassing me about sessions and i stopped being friends with him when he basically ghosted me on anything not related to DnD or PF. i heard from a friend who also stopped being friends with him that he got worse as both a DM and a person where the final straw with my friend's relationship with him was when he disrespected said friend's SO in a game and kicked everyone out in his house in a temper tantrum over how people only reach out to him for DnD despite pretty much only responding to people if it was only related to DnD. to this day i never understood what his problem was.

[@Trynt33]

Seems like his character sheet had one too many hindrances to work with

[@cookechris28]

Dude, hearing all this makes me feel so bad for committing similar (though not NEARLY as agregious) mistakes in my time as DM. DM PCs, railroading, the works. I've certainly gotten miles better than I used to be, but horror stories like these always make me second-guess myself and worry I'm far worse than even *I* think I am.

[@jordanetherington1922]

Hey man everyone makes those mistakes. That's how you get better

[@Roronoa2zoro]

You're already aware of those behaviors and it sounds like you're trying not to fall into those traps as a DM, that alone no doubt makes you better than you think you are. But if you have doubts about your DM style, just talk to the group about it.

[@Trynt33]

Aye and there ain't anything wrong with being a player DM if you aren't going to give yourself an unfair advantage/make that guy the main character sidelining everyone else. It's natural for a DM to wanna have fun with their party and there's a diverse amount of player types in tabletop gaming. Some prefer being GMs, some only wanna be players, some hit that spot in between. If you're at the point of being introspective and questioning yourself like this, then you are miles better than the subjects of these horror stories, since a lot of those people just don't have an inside voice

[@RandoChrisYT]

I am so glad that the group that I started playing D&D with have been mostly chill. Of course there's been a few problems but more within the players and the growing pains of getting used to D&D, not our DM. Still, we have our creative freedoms to put as much or as little into our characters as we want. And when the group is coming up with using 5e for a Paper Mario setting, I say that we've got some freedom. Plus we do it Westmarch style so people who need breaks or are busy can handle their stuff. (Shout-out to SkeletAlpha, our funky skeleton DM lol)

[@dylanheisroth415]

Dnd isn’t necessarily about winning or loosening. It’s about telling a cooperative story with a group of friends

[@helios566]

That's your perspective which is not the perspective of someone who acts like this. To them there is a win con to DnD.

[@SeruraRenge11]

Unless it's a player killer module, then being the DM is definitely about winning.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

but i want to do big number.

[@kapkant6197]

I was briefly apart of an EA Battlefront 2 clan about 2 years ago, and every couple of days we'd do "raids" (20 stacking against pubs) and the clan leader was OBSESSED with control. You were not allowed to select special units like ARC Troopers or Commandos without going through a boot camp they set up, and they would only allow 4 Commandos in the clan. You also weren't allowed to play Heroes like Obi-Wan and especially not Anakin cause the leader had perma dibs. If you discussed anything besides tactics for even a second he would flip out (once again, we were 20 stacking against pubs in BATTLEFRONT 2). There was a raid where my entire party (cause we had to separate into squad parties and each party were forced to use a particular Clone Legion skin which cost money to buy) started doing Rick Sanchez impressions as a joke and when he found out he got PISSED. It eventually came to a head when me and my irl friend I'd known since school were playing Red Dead Online and we ended up in a lobby with some of the clan members. We ofc started to fight them cause it's Red Dead Online and they complained to the leader who proceeded to kick us temporarily and put out a rule saying "If you attack clan members in any game you will be punished." After that tbh I started intentionally fucking with them before the group fell apart due to the leader being a control freak

[@DatAsuna]

Reminds me of the after school club I went to as a kid where the other kids set up a melee tournament but certain characters were "owned" by specific kids so in order for me to say, be allowed to use samus I had to beat adventure mode on hard in a time limit then 1 vs 1 one of the older kids to be allowed to pick samus. lol Sweatiest dumb shit ever.

[@kapkant6197]

@@DatAsuna Jesus Christ, you can mirror match as Samus too literally why? The only reason I could be a Jet Trooper is because the clan leader forgot to make Jet Trooper a locked role and couldn't be bothered to stop me on that ONE thing cause no one else cared about the Jet Trooper lol

[@DatAsuna]

@@kapkant6197 smh, jet trooper was OP if you found a smart high ground and used the rockets

[@kapkant6197]

@@DatAsuna That's what I kept trying to tell them! Jet Trooper's rocket launcher fucked harder than anything the ARC Trooper had!

[@sharkodile22]

What kind of fucking chud calls PERMAdibs on Anakin? That should've been your glowing red flag right there.

[@dornob13]

i have a similar story with almost married couple that mum died. A friend of the family was married for a good number of years and it was one of her birth days that fell on a weekend so they made her birth day party the weekend with friends and family and just a grand old time for everyone who was there, her husband wanted to go fishing because of how nice the weather was. so on Sunday he was getting ready to go fishing and she was all like "what are you doing? you can't go fishing, its my birthday party." and he said "Honey, I already sacrificed 2 day". Guess that was the last straw of a lot of things, they got divorced shortly after that.

[@dornob13]

now i don't know which day her actual birthday was, but it either in the "2 days that were sacrificed" or the day he tried to go fishing.

[@uberpinkwarrior]

There are multiple FF tabletops, depending on if you want to use the FF TTRPG, pathfinder (there's 2, FFd20 is the more popular of the 2 while the other is newer and going through teething issues but solves a lot of FFd20 issues in exchange for new ones), then there's one for D&D 5E that I don't remember the name of. Also in my pathfinder group, if someone shows up with a binder or giant PDF/word doc for their character's backstory, everyone groans. Because it means you expect all that to be relevant, you likely suffer from Main Character Syndrome, and if any aspect of the story interferes with your background it will just make you upset and ruin it for everyone.

[@satorukuroshiro]

I am now more grateful that my group tried to stop me from playing after my home burnt down (it's rebuilt to a livable standard now). I didn't listen to them cause I needed an outlet for my boredom while stuck in a hotel, but still, appreciate the thought now.

[@Maioly]

14:00 So... Thats literally my parents Only my mother went and maried the sociopath. Grandmother is 90 years old, has severe dementia and yet he constantly complains that mother dedicates so much time to taking care of her instead of caring for him... And it extends to us sons and daughters too; If he wants something from us we gotta drop everything to do it first and foremost, even if its shit like work, uni or health that is conflicting with his wants.

[@ichimaru96]

Sounds like the healthiest thing to do is cut that turd loose. Cause that's a shitty person and a half. And I've got a grandmother With dementia too, so you have my deepest sympathies

[@trashman1605]

I can help you look for a retirement home if you want

[@RawkLobstah88]

@@trashman1605 For the father, I hope.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

so that's why you're so screwed up.

[@NurseValentineSG]

as a DM, I learned that the player characters should have *some* backstory. As in, 5-6 sentences. A paragraph. At that point, you can make it work. Someone wants to make a pirate? Put them in a pirate crew, ask them if they are ok with that, work it from there. If they write more backstory, that is fine. But you will reach some point where they write so much backstory that it just doesn't matter anymore. You can't put everything a player character has in the main story if it's 14 pages of backstory. The most important thing is talking with the players. DnD is a group game, after all. If you just want to write a world, write a book.

[@MostLikelyMortal]

I worked with my players for our campaign, I took their three sentence text, gave them the smallest bit of info (parents names, where they’re from/living, one or two people they know, one thing that’s happened to them). Like, page and a half, max. I then let them do whatever the fuck they want. Their backstory is there if they want to use it, they’re not surprised if they find a family member or something in the story, and the campaign can go as crazy as their hearts’ desire. It’s more than the usual, I know, but given that I’m a big story DM and a lot of my players are new, it’s just enough to inform their initial decisions and get the RP/encounters started.

[@SeruraRenge11]

A character that has no backstory can never have it used against them by an asshole GM. Murderhobos didn't come from nothing, it came from a trend of DMs seeing that your character still has a sister alive and then suddenly their sister is being taken hostage to try and make the player give in to demands.

[@MostLikelyMortal]

@@SeruraRenge11 eh, there are plenty of asshole players who murder hobo/ruin the game simply because they’re assholes. Just like there are asshole DMs.

[@MrRivech]

Pat is definitely Perturabo: petulant man-child tactical genius. But instead of daddy issues he tries to make the goblins happy

[@michaelmaguire4147]

When the sportsball team in my city wins they celebrate by having a riot.

[@kazuraba3991]

Last night my DM started the campain with helmed horror as the First enemy

[@kronos1794]

Pat gives me Perturabo vibes

[@lilwyvern4]

There's an overdose of sociopaths in this world. Almost every problem can be traced to one.

[@TheXenochrist]

I've never had DMs quite as bad as this but whooo boy have I suffered some seriously controlling DMs.

[@AndrewTraver]

Honestly, I want to see Woolie and Pat on a D&D campaign XD

[@kyles2519]

'Quarterbacking' is what we call one person giving advice to play through someone in co-op board games (like American football). I'm definitely guilty of it in Pandemic where you need everyone to coordinate well to win.

[@Cloperella]

It's amazing how I have never heard a single story related to D&D that has made me think "wow, what a wonderful experience, no wonder people enjoy this game so much"

[@Trynt33]

The tabletop episode of If The Emperor Had a Text to Speech device is pretty much the perfect embodiment of what a good tabletop game turns into. It's got emotional highs, lows, twists and turns, insane dice rolls, party favorites and redemption arcs, and all the player stereotypes known to man. Especially the way Magnus is portrayed like a beginner DM who clearly had a main character in mind to railroad the party with only for it to keep going off the rails. It's probably more accurate than Critical Role and all they're doing is puppetry with Warhammer art

[@jasonwhigham335]

Girl: my mom died... Dude: uh yeah and?

[@WeaponOfMyDestructio]

After like a day I would just copy the wiki for Freddy Mercury and see if they noticed. I would swap out the names of course, Ctrl H

[@angrymushroom26]

Should have called him Patnus the Red. I mean he is already short and red.

[@TheSpiritus0]

For those actually interested in a FF14 TTRPG system, there is an actual pathfinder 1e project in the FF14 style for you.

[@starfall9612]

That is a Critcrab worthy story if there ever was one.

[@jamescollinge5043]

There's an actual term for people playing through other players: quarterbacking. It's partly the player's fault, but also the fault of the game designer. A lot of modern coop games have a single, optimum way to play them - like a puzzle - which limits replayability and makes multiple people playing pointless

[@StoryTaylor43]

I’ve got this person who plays ff14 with me and refuses to call me by my actual name and instead calls me my character name…this person is also my room mate.

[@kingofbel6499]

At that point the guy should be writing a book, if he has that much imagination.

[@BTM8109]

Woolie is the opposite of Lorgar, he knows the dark gods are not to be trusted

[@GarredHATES]

These people don’t deserve players, I’m a DM that lives no where near any willing players

[@hellaflaws]

Is Pats hair attached to his headset?

[@Makr0ss]

We did have a bit of controlling in board games at some point in cooperative games, until we started to include games with secret traitors. You end up being suspicious of everyone suggesting things 🤭

[@spongichu9248]

If only there was a way to play D&D with bots.

[@mortimerwake2974]

These are more psychopath traits, though a highly neurotic kind

[@HoChiMints2007]

Ahh Championship Manager, what you play when there's no matches on telly and no friends to come over for FIFA

[@GreenC]

that FM story was so true

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

.........Accidentally having this recommended to me again is a really well timed reminder that FF14 actually is coming out with a REAL official tabletop game.

[@RandgrisAlmark]

My buddy gave me homework for his campaign.

[@orien358]

The naming reffrence at the beginning is from 40k characters Lorgar was a big character that grew up on a religious world and believed his father was god hence the comparison to woolies religious family background Angron is another big character from 40k who in enslaved on a world of gladiators was forced to wear some dreadlock looking torture device on his head that made him a very unhappy man but also didnt help that his father choose not to help him in his most dire hour to save his allys who rebelled against the gladiator slave government of that world Lorgar and angron have the same dad this isnt exact canon its just tldr so people get the joke

[@Just_Another_Muffin]

The thing Pat brought up is something that is so difficult to deal with. It's called quarterbacking and some games like Pandemic really suffer from it.

[@ravensflockmate]

That in fact does not describe rockstar at all

[@atreyuflames]

Ooooooh noooooooo... I'M PROBABLY THAT TYPE OF PERSON!!!!!

[@Eddrian32]

SIX SLOTS??? I mean ok yeah sure I'm DMing for six but it is a doozy. 3-5 is the go-to.

[@dracomundo1498]

Damn can't believe ffd20 ended up on the podcast lol

[@verymelonman12]

Some people can get REALLY detached from reality huh?

[@elijahmcdowell9690]

Okay I had someone exactly like this at my high school. This is fucking weird.

[@BigFingerRo]

1:10 _14 pages?!_ Is this DnD or a fucking writers club?

[@trenchcoatjoe1891]

I swear I'm getting deja Vu from these last few videos.

[@kneeofjustice9619]

As someone who’s DM’d a bunch of D&D games I think that players are seen in to much of a positive light compared to DM’s.

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

come on when was the last time either of them played d&d

[@li-limandragon9287]

I’ve only played D&D once and I’m ashamed to say it was Naruto themed.

[@Americanbadashh]

Lucky

[@69Kazeshini]

Lol how did that go

[@kapkant6197]

I believe it. Only time I played D&D it was Persona themed which is way more embarrassing

[@Kango234]

@@kapkant6197 That honestly sounds fascinating to me... Unless you guys had to rp social links

[@antonhanna2423]

I know I can't talk shit because I've been watching One Piece D&D by Rustage and Pokemon D&D by Lost Pause, but I can only imagine how dumbfounded some of you guys were because you had to google some of the lore because you forgot one of the arcs (No anime filler).

[@malum9478]

it's been known to happen

[@heardofrvb]

There's a Paris, Canada?

[@RSOxSPEC4x]

You kind of have to be crazy to run a game

[@geerabbs2150]

What was that Japanese show that Matt used to talk about called?

[@charleswisconsin9196]

Terasu House or something.

[@Trynt33]

Terrace House! Don't know why Matt always pronounced it as "Ter-ass" house when it's "Tear-ace" but maybe it's a French thing

[@MajorCrasher]

I get that pat doesn't like linear gameplay but he's never gonna stop beating that red dead horse is he lol

[@ichimaru96]

Only cause the horse beat him with its drifting ass

[@pyropoyo]

He really liked the NakeyJakey video.

[@DatAsuna]

TBF it's not just red dead. And ironically the main reason GTAO is good is because it has none of that bullshit, EXCEPT for the heists which snap right back to being failstate city if you so much as take a wrong turn sometimes. (but then also have such exciting roles as the getaway pilot driving in the opposite direction of the action and waiting for everyone else to do almost the entire heist without them. Oh and then for some genius idea, heists were the ONE mode where A on game over was to quit, not respawn, so if anybody mashed A on a failstate, the group disbanded and you all got kicked out.)

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

Disliking red dead doesn't auto equal disliking linear gameplay. He clearly streams and likes multiple linear styled games. He's talking about how rockstar games specifically rail road you a lot to meet their story and narrative ideas. Some people are fine with it, some aren't. Disliking a single game that's linear, doesn't mean he hates everything thats linear period lol, that's stupid lol.

[@MajorCrasher]

@@pyropoyo I thought it brought up some great points as well. I agree with most of what he goes over in that video, but I still like the game overall. But like or dislike it, he just keeps finding ways to bring it up and that's funny to me lol

[@victorwagner2423]

To me it feels like an exactly opposite problem than what they're describing, 14 page form to me seems like a desperate attempt to develop a mechanical solution to player engagement. Operating under the assumption that the person who allocated the hours necessary to fill the form is both committed to playing the game and confident that they can act as that character, since they literally just prepared a psych evaluation of that character. He's not trying to control them. He's trying to make sure there is somebody to take control and they actually want to do it. What the grasstouchingless GM doesn't understand is that you can't create an algorithm to solve human decency. It's either there or it isn't, so all you can do is have to trust your players and be terribly disappointed every time until you realize that you should've stopped playing tabletop roleplaying games at the age of 16, at best.

[@raccoonofmotivation20]

This stuff has always sounded so "meh"to me. Like you have literally no rules so you needed everyone to agree. Which means only the right people with great synergy can ever really do this stuff.

[@Trynt33]

"You literally have no rules." >big monolithic tome with "RULEBOOK" descends from the heavens for PF2e

[@Samael1113]

FTR, none of these individuals are qualified to give good advice on actual tabletop RPG groups. Especially not Pat, who has frequently admitted to sabotaging his friend's groups by murder-hobo-ing and not playing a character. Dissecting someone who takes things too far like in this question, is a little different, and ok, sure. They are human, they understand aspects of being an understanding human who isn't completely self-centered in contact with other people. Also, before telling people to ditch friends, remember that people before about 25 years old are effectively still brain-damaged (The frontal cortex that handles most of the "Normal" social decency isn't finished developing), or may be a type to hyperfocus (ASD). There's a measure of understanding and maybe compromise that can usually be reached before cutting off all contact.

[@willadkins1354]

As a graduating psych student, this is the best post here. People act like completely cutting these people off wouldn’t make things worse. I also consider the possibility of ASD. Again, it’s shitty behavior but people are really jumping to conclusions about this guy.

[@charleswisconsin9196]

@@willadkins1354 NO! ONLY EXTREME REACTIONS! NUANCE IS FOR THE WEAK!

[@Trynt33]

FTR? Like FDR? Yeah we need some of him in the comment sections

[@JaitsuStudios]

Hey Pat, I may be from Ontario, but you have to be embarrassed that you can't go a single day without being horribly wrong about something. I know which one I prefer.

[@DoesNotComphoot]

Up until the instant that you are continuing the bitching and shit into finals and life emergencies, I could see this being a somewhat reasonable person who wanted to include a deeper and more personalized story to the characters and was planning on sitting down and writing out hooks and such. And then you cross that threshold and there's really no chance at redemption at all.

[@Mr.Faust3]

honestly backstories are the least interesting part of DnD

[@adams3627]

Yeah, you're supposed to be telling stories collaboratively, no one is going to care much what happened before your character met everyone else. In my experience, the only reason a DM wants that level of detail is because they want to mine the backstory for ways to traumatize the character. It led to a LOT of adventuring parties full of only-child orphans with no friends back in the day.

[@TruKriegsaffeNo9]

@@adams3627 I like games that have 1) controllable "do you wanna be hosed, or prefer to mine it for good things? how 'bout both as you please?" stuff, like the FATE system, and 2) are totally upfront about how you're gonna be screwed and that's half the fun, like Trail of Cthulhu. Trail of Cthulhu straight-up has a trait called "In the Blood," which openly says "if you take this, the Keeper is going to give you an unutterably horrible secret at some point that will probably result in your premature death or total loss of humanity." I have only GMed, not played, but I am all about turning out to be a secret monster.

[@JJJJJJJJJAAAAAA]

Dude, at this point just write a fanfic.

[@note4note804]

I hate that I'm defending the "sociopath" here, but a couple things are painful to watch people react to. 1. A 14 page questionnaire about your character is not asking for a 14 page backstory. Still a cringe amount of questions, however as someone who's been a forever DM I do sympathize with someone who's gotten fed up with constant players coming to the table with, "Yeah, I'm Grog the dwarf, and I like...had my parents killed so now I'm an adventurer." and a set of questions forces people to think about their character for more than 5 minutes. 2. Any good prewritten adventure I've ever ran or played does have a lot of information the players are asked to read and consider when making characters for the world. If it was a FF14 adventure, they're going to want to know stuff like what Grand Company you enlisted with(if any), what country you come from, if you had any history with a dozen+ NPCs that are important to the story. And because of that it also means a good DM that isn't someone who can just improve on the fly is going to want to know that stuff ahead of time so they can plan adventure hooks, side quests, or have important characters be involved in the story they want to tell so your character can feel important. 3. Yeah the guy sounds like a jerk, but the person writing the letter is clearly someone who flaked on them multiple times. If they asked for player info "months in advance", and then we flash forward to OP needing time to study for finals so they didn't have time until 1 month before play, OP was already someone the DM had clearly had to bother over and over again to actually make a character like they said they would.