The First Time Playing D&D Changes You

There's a moment where it all clicks. #shorts #dimension20
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[@Sinsanities]

"if your character don't have a tragic backstory, the game will be their tragic backstory"

[@Mi..Mi..]

And if they do habe a tragic backstory already *get ready for more trauma*

[@ChillAssTurtle]

Lmfao holy shit

[@MrWasian]

One of my most PTSD riddled campaigns ended with our seemingly unstoppable group getting slaughtered like the adventurers in the first episode of Goblin Slayer. The only thing more terrifying is that some of our foes chased some of our survivors through different planes just to mercilessly murder them. We wanted an apocalypse comeback type of campaign, but at one of (soon to be last) battles we rolled like absolute shit and it ended the campaign there.

[@MrThirtyH]

You have the right to remain silent on your character sheet, but if you cannot afford a tragic past, one will be provided to you.

[@890sigma]

if they don't have a tragic backstory, they're playing it

[@brandongalvan6603]

DM: "That’s a nice relationship with the NPCs you’ve built there. Be a real shame if something happened to them."

[@ohididntseeyouthere2489]

If I ever find myself in the shoes of a DM, I will strive to use this mentality and create a BBEG as twisted as I am, treating it all like a game

[@brandongalvan6603]

@@ohididntseeyouthere2489 You want twisted? Make an Arcane Trickster Rogue NPC and give it the Telekinetic feat for undetectable shoves. Better yet, make it an Aarakocra and choose _invisibility_ as one of its spells since _mage hand_ isn't concentration and the shove doesn't cause you to reappear.

[@marquess2004]

@@brandongalvan6603 so how's your day been, Satan?

[@brandongalvan6603]

@@marquess2004 It's been pretty good so far. Had fun making plans to screw over America's South with another hurricane.

[@marquess2004]

@@brandongalvan6603 I see. I wish you and your chaotic antics good luck!

[@randomflexi8019]

Brennan took a 20 in charisma and 20 in int

[@danielfarfudinov3193]

His parents rolled him 3 18s for charisma wisdom and intelligence

[@quiroz923]

Freaking min maxers

[@Om3n2007]

Obvious statement is obvious ; if you minmax a 1 on any character, youse is bout to be rolled. We house rule 3d6 +6 to ensure players at least get a passing grade on their stat.

[@raleighbean677]

@@Om3n2007 whaaaaaat? Plus 6? That's a 15 on average for every single stat

[@hiimemily]

@@Om3n2007 4d6 drop lowest, my dude. 3d6+6 gives 16 or 17 on average and that's all kinds of bonkers.

[@SantiLokyyo]

It's the "A Girl Worth Fighting For" scene from Mulan type of thing... They were all happy and campy and reality hit them in the face like a well placed slap.

[@gjeanf2005]

This famously happens in Jojo Rabbit as well.

[@cve884]

now a mulan themed campaign... i'm sure it's been done before but i'd love to see that

[@IrisGlowingBlue]

There's a post somewhere about that moment in Mulan being so impactful it changed the genre (t's not a musical after that point), and I think about it with storytelling a lot

[@TheEvilMrJeb]

0:41 Lou is laughing because he knows where this is going. Because he’s played enough DnD with Brennan to see that saying “I love you” to an NPC when Brennan is DM is akin to Death putting his hand on that NPC’s shoulder and saying “it’s time to go.”

[@Grandtheatrix]

This is correct.

[@thomasace2547]

The power of D&D And being the Forever DM

[@wuftchan8299]

forever dms dont exist its just why try looking for a party to join and struggle for a while when you can just make one

[@andrewpowell2730]

@@wuftchan8299 I'm not a forever DM per se as I do have friends who can DM, but I do have a confession to make. I like being the DM more than being a player. I love DMing, and am comfortable being the forever DM. People joke that as a DM they have a long list of PCs they just want the opportunity to play, but not me. When I'm a player all I think about is how much I want to DM. I am a forever DM, not due to a lack of ability to be a player, but due to an intense love of being the one who allows the players to have the time of their lives playing. Giving my friends the ability to have awesome character moments and have fun is how I have fun. The only exception to this is online play, which I hate dming. I'm an improv DM, and online play makes that just so freakin hard that it sucks the fun out of dm'ing.

[@wuftchan8299]

@@andrewpowell2730 there are people who just prefer being a dm thats true but the thing about the term "forever dm" implies in alot of circles that you didnt want to be a dm to begin with you just started doing it instead of being a player and now you cant really get out of it cause its easier running your own game than playing in someone elses

[@wuftchan8299]

@@andrewpowell2730 so your terminology was invalid which confused me carry on

[@Koalinomicon]

Brennan is going to be a player in the next campaign!

[@owoofmybones5090]

GM told us it was going going to take months to complete the game. He wasn't lying. He spent three days of what ended up being four months getting all of us used to the setting, which was a town that was being run from the shadows by a necromancer. He also made us get used to the NPCs, who were all very interesting and had a lot of time put into their backstories and emotions. Fourth day, everything's nice, happy, fun, and then boom. Sleep spell that you would need to roll a 5 or higher to get out of. We all got out, but being that this was essentially a starter town, none of the NPCs did. Suddenly, high-leveled soldiers rush the town, killing every single character we had come to love, and then attacking us, but not killing us. We were forced to watch while this stupid fucking necromancer turned every single one of our townspeople into undead, then sent them after us. We barely got through, and there were a lot of questions before killing some of the more well-liked characters, like, "Is there any way to change them back?" and, "Is there some way I could keep him?" Every single answer from the GM was something like, "Sure, but don't forget that these are undead, not the people you once knew." We ended up killing almost all of them, but kept one, which was a little girl we had done a bit of a side-quest for, where her parents were city guards who ended up being killed by the necromancer for trying to uncover his secrets. In that quest, we ended up telling her that her parents went off on a mission to save the world, and that we would protect her until they came back successfully. We carried her around for the rest of that campaign Nezuko-style, and, at the very end of the game, the necromancer revealed that killing him wouldn't save her, and would instead kill her, as it had nothing to do with souls, and was instead animating and keeping a dead body alive through keeping the brain and heart alive. The jist was that the undead ate people and living things because they could get cells and tissue that way, allowing them to stay alive. Finally, we decided to kill the necromancer and put the girl to rest, which we found later was literally one of the best endings the GM had planned. Overall, a great campaign, and a great experience, but TJ, if you're reading this, screw you for taking my sweet roll because, "iT'S fUnNY".

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

That GM sounds not so great. He made you bond with characters for the sole purpose of killing them off and gave you no chance to save at least one of them. If my party had gone through the trouble of carrying an undead child on them for the whole campaign in hopes of bringing her back, I would have allowed it with no hesitation. That ending was just a big fuck you to all players.

[@NR2GOODTV]

@@hinamiravenroot7162 not at all. some dm's like to have a lasting consequence. granted if the players spent a large amount of time studying the disease and were given a no that'd be suckier but sometimes permanency adds weight to an outcome. sometimes there are things not even we as players can control.

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

@@NR2GOODTV lasting consequences are important but only if you give the players a chance to do something about it. If everything will go to shit regardless and all effords to at least do a tiny bit of help are useless then that's a movie not a game. From what the player said the DM didn't give warnings or hints that the lich would come, no rumors, no people leaving town in fear. No time to prepare defences, set up traps, evacuate or study the undead. Nothing. And from what the himself DM said, having everyone be killed gruesomely twice and only killing the lich was the best possible outcome he planned. It would have taken nothing for the dm to say the girls soul is freed after the lich's defeat and that a cleric could revive her body. The party would have had to explain to the girl why mommy and daddy aren't here. They would have to give her food, shelter and protection and teach her how to live. THAT would have been consequence for their actions. Saying "nah, you are just a bystander and can't do anything about this except try to survive yourself" is not.

[@marmato9332]

@@hinamiravenroot7162 Did the player enjoy the experience? Than it's a good DM. Sometimes stories have to be sad to be emotional. If the party had been able to do something to stop the story from progressing, the premise would have been cool but the actual campaign would have never started.

[@hinamiravenroot7162]

@@marmato9332 I'm not saying they should have been able to completely solve everything. But having them have possibility of interaction is too much. If you present me with a dark scenario and tell me I need to do something about it, then let me do _something_ about it. Even if it's just saving one single girl from thousands of people. If the players are going out of their way to help they should be encouraged or at least given a hint of what they could do. But in the way OP described it, it seemed the DM railroaded them into _his_ story rather than forging one together.

[@prplprince8730]

As a DM when you get a group of people who it’s their first time playing DND that is the reaction you look for. I still remember when it happened for my first group when a Necromancer was collecting bodies. They could tell he was too powerful so they just watched frozen and ghouls under his command took the bodies and left. The looks on their faces was that of “this needs to stop and we need to get stronger *now*!” That’s when they truly became their characters. Two years later and we still play almost every Friday night!

[@albertmartinez2539]

Sounds like Matt Colville introducing Kalarel the Vile to his players.

[@prplprince8730]

@@albertmartinez2539 that’s where I got the idea from! Except I tweaked it a bit as to not be a 1to1 port

[@thegreatgoldenboar1965]

I guess i got lucky, my moment of realizing how powerful D&D is came from me having a crazy idea that my dm even warned me against doing. When it worked out perfectly and saved the day i realized i could do practically ANYTHING as long as i got a good roll. Playing a "too stupid to know better" character helped a lot too i think, because i had no reasons to not try anything i wanted to try lol. Now as a DM i'll let my players do damn near anything if they can justify it through RP and make a good roll. The moment was me deciding to toss my greatclub at a fleeing kobold. When it worked and i caught up to him and prevented him from alerting others in the dungeon we were in, it was amazing.

[@coltonrundall543]

Did they beat the necromancer?

[@prplprince8730]

@@coltonrundall543 Yes! A climactic 2 stage battle where the BBEG's tower began to collapse in on itself which lead to an awesome skills challenge escape!

[@TerribleWarden]

I literally screamed "NOOOO" When he said what happened to Rose. And I only knew her for like seconds.

[@wolfytopia.9317]

what campaign was it from?

[@JayQwery]

@@wolfytopia.9317 Home game I'm fairly sure.

[@wolfytopia.9317]

@@JayQwery thanks! That makes sense, would have been awesome to see I bet!

[@GMdelsXT9]

Well damn. DnD really is powerful.

[@MrMasterGamer0]

Your telling me you physically screamed no? Like way more than just some audible gasp?

[@Golden-ek2ku]

First time playing dnd, we didn't know the rules, not even our dm knew the rules, we had a vague idea of the rules, we knew a majority about how the character creation process went, even when we got most of it wrong. The game was so fun I spent the next two weeks reading and rereading the dnd basic rules, and when I got ahold of a copy of the Phb, I read that too.

[@starsixseven9259]

"We had a vague idea of the rules" I love it; that's really all you need

[@cobaltno51]

"I wanna shoot him with magic!" "sure, pick a spell that has a cool name, i guess, and uhhmmm...roll that pyramid-like dice for me, that looks funky. ray of sickness? 3? doesn't sound that hig...oh it only goes up to 4? yeah, ok he gets mean diarreah. what?! that really sucks, he has to go change his clothes now and his fellow guards will make fun of him for the rest of the month! and its only level two or something like that, so i cant give that dude instant cancer."

[@masterpiplup5095]

My first time playing we played “5th edition” but when it suited our dm he just applied 3.5 rules and we didn’t know better, we were doing a dungeon and one of the first things we ran into was a beholder when we escaped him we found an iron golem chilling in a corridor that chased us into a gold dragons lair. We were level 1

[@cobaltno51]

@@masterpiplup5095 how did the bossfight of that dungeon with tiamat go?

[@offspringfan100]

@@masterpiplup5095 Jesus christ... As a first time DM, like, why?

[@scottbruckner4653]

This is the unfortunate core of DND. When a player realizes two things. The first is that things will go wrong in the world no matter how strong you are. The second is that you can choose to crack your knuckles, grit your teeth, buy enough alchemist fire to make Vietnam look like a Grease fire, and make vengeance count.

[@DreamWorldSyd]

i don't view that as unfortunate

[@thegreatgoldenboar1965]

You're close. The second thing is that you can choose to do aaaaaaanything. Including making that vengeance count. Including NOT saving the world. Throw a big stick at a kobold. Fail to kick open a door and pretend you're just delivering a package. Turn on your friends for money. Turn on your money for friends. Anything. :D

[@dolofonosesostrefis]

That nam line is fire- oh

[@TheSharpShootingKid]

I see this as an absolute win!

[@tl1326]

hey you don’t joke about grease fire when the idiots are around ready to throw water at it

[@nafereuskortex9055]

Without sounding like a psycho my favourite thing about being a DM is watching people feel dread like they left a child they rescued and became attached to with a orphanage and found out a few sessions later that the orphanage is run by a hag coven and watching all there stomachs drop.

[@Heritage367]

Okay, an orphanage run by a hag coven is amazing. That I have to steal!

[@Ardorstorm]

Send those hags to hell. That or bring hell to them.

[@aurorabyrd6104]

[@Squeekysquid]

​@@aurorabyrd6104isn't that just dm noises. We're always up to something.

[@rimyneko5299]

I'm 2 years late, but I'm getting CoS PTSD right now. Thank you 😂

[@rorygiambalvo2955]

Covid hit before we could finish our first campaign, but one of the last things that happened was my druid got killed by a necromancer, and the rest of the party brought her back. It was so odd and beautiful to have the rest of the party members carry her body and sacrifice so much to try to revive her. I nearly cried in the moment, it was so gosh darn good and I miss playing

[@jonathancasais6491]

Your druid allowed that?? That goes against nature itself

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@jonathancasais6491 Druid’s are magical, does magic not go against nature? Do health potions?

[@jonathancasais6491]

@@DeathnoteBB druids commune with nature and it grants them spells and gifts its different druids are about life and the circle of life death is final.

[@TheGamingDavester]

@@jonathancasais6491 Just because you want to protect nature doesn't mean you're going to hard stance on certain things though. Sometimes a life is taken too early before it has a chance to "blossom", and what's more precious in nature than life itself, really?

[@rorygiambalvo2955]

@@jonathancasais6491 she was dead, she didn't know what they were doing and had no say. I was delighted because I liked playing her, but she was extremely upset and now no longer feels as part of nature. She also now feels indebted to the rest of the party and feels she has to spend the rest of her unnatural life in service and aid of them.

[@sofiagarza6817]

This is one of the best stories I've heard in regards to how powerful D&D can be when the world feels organic and connections are made between characters.

[@BradGreer]

I love how Brennan tells this story like this is just something that happened to Rose, and that clearly the Baron's men are responsible. Just completely absolving himself of his agency. (I kid, obviously he takes responsibility for his worlds)

[@Glmorrs1]

Brennan is all the bad guys.

[@RunningPen]

We're deep into Act 3 of a campaign and the DM gave us a 3-part Helm's Deep style siege battle where we protect our home village. At this point some party members have attracted younger proteges, apprentices, or siblings to our adventures and the teens formed a sort of Team B who go out to accomplish less dangerous tasks as the party prepares itself for the final boss. The siege battle forced Team B into a real fight for the first time in the campaign. The party had close calls before, and NPCs have died, but when one of the teens fell in battle it was the first time all of us were silenced by complete disbelief. One of us even cried. Two of us refused to take a long rest because we roleplayed spending the whole night digging a grave and then being unable to sleep afterward. It was the first time any campaign felt so REAL for me. Watching Brennan talk about moments like that just makes me love this shit even more.

[@elmatilda]

The idea of a Team B of teen protégés is so precious. Must protect at all costs

[@alonosh7184]

Yes. as a DM myself, the Team B became the "Little League of Young Adventurers" (A Hero's Guild focused on getting the younger generation set up and established), and seeing as how I am doing my level best to keep and maintain a continuous Multiverse for my players to come back to from time to time... You bet your bushel that I'm bringing them back in the future!@@elmatilda

[@CheckTMOW]

One campaign, we befriended a tree blight who was just a random sub enemy of the first boss, and brought him with us throughout the rest of the play through. He became our most cherished member and our paladin used all of his magic to grow flowers on him. They eventually got married and it was beautiful

[@ShadowDemon_4]

Wholesome ending. ☺️

[@Nemephosis]

That is strangely beautiful and wholesome. 😀

[@KetamineKarl]

For a homebrew campaign I ran for some first-timers, I made a sterotypical fantasy village, filled with merchants, quirky npc's, social issues, dungeons found deep within the city mines, and a few sidequests to help some villagers. It was mostly a for shits and giggles game, but they stayed there until level 5, got really well acquainted with the storeowners and the lawmaster, and genuinely liked the "small village heroes" vibe to the game. Then I had some Drow attack in the middle of the night with a tamed dragon, burned every last villager to ashes, except for the party who had the idea of hiding in the tavern's food cellar, since it was made of concrete and would protect them better against the dragon fire than the wooden and thatch structures. When the attack was over, the party got out of their hiding spot, realized that they had left everyone to die, and right then, I watched a weekend beer and pretzel game about killing zombies in mines and getting drunk in the tavern fterwards turn into a full-fleged revenge plot where they would stop at NOTHING to avenge the villagers they couldn't save. TLDR; the best way to get your new players invested in the game is to kill the funny npc they love so much. (And sometimes the whole village too)

[@symphony_in_plaid4592]

I had that moment when the race of creatures that killed the family of the other PC showed up and she started showing PTSD symptoms. That was the moment when I was like "okay this is NOT cool I will protect her with my LIFE"

[@eaglefan2569]

"Bean? Bean. Protecc the bean."

[@symphony_in_plaid4592]

@@eaglefan2569 eXACTLY. She was one of those characters that's just filled with childlike wonder and love for everybody despite the trauma she'd been through and seeing her upset was a big ol' nope for me lol

[@eaglefan2569]

@@symphony_in_plaid4592 That's adorable :D I know not the name of this bean but I wish her well

[@planettrax9754]

We once had a campaign that was very light in tone, very fun, a lot of inconsequential dungeon crawl. One day we had to save a little girl NPC (we had bonded with her as well) but because of failure in dice and running out of time, she was gone. That changed the stakes of our game instantly and instead of breaking our group, it was very cathartic. A lot of crying even from the tough guys. It remains one of the best sessions we had.

[@Whingal]

Last time I DMed I improvised that small-town guard that was cheerful and nice to the player party. When the demon came in town as the players expected, the town guard came to defend. He was trembling, completly overwhelmed by fear, yet standing with his sword out, ready to fight. I had one player that was playing DnD for the first time, she got into the game completly at that moment. She would have given her lvl 5 fighter's life to protect that town guard. I loved her reaction

[@jaydeleon8094]

something similar happened to me, though it was a party pet/ animal adventurer/ treasurer. you see a talking cat is fun and all for the all-druid party, not so much for the superstitious townsfolk. We left him in town with a caretaker, a young girl in her early teens, since we were going to be on the road for a long while through dangerous territory. Smokey was an all-black cat with 9 lives and was blessed by the goddess of Luck giving him those lives, if he died, he would get a shade lighter. after we return from the mountaintops full of organized monsters, the young girl strung up outside her home, and Smokey was dead below her with more stakes in him than his internals. So you see. These townspeople were goaded by an enemy party who convinced them that the girl was a witch and the cat her familiar. Once confronted smokey tried to defend her, severely wounded several townspeople(he was wearing full cat plate armor and had adamantine claws he could retract). This solidified their views, and both were eventually killed in the name of "Justice" and "the safety of our village". Seeing this when we return, not only the party pet, the party pet of 5 druids, and a coveted friend who had been with us, lore-wise, for years? on top of that, a young girl that had been working to take care of her younger siblings in her parent's absence that we had saved and traveled with? There was only one way it was going. Our party openly declared war on not only the town, but the local Lords, and yes I meant Lords, as they were the ones who instigated the lynching in the first place. The party had many talents, but It was my character, Nowhere, that I think did the most damage. You see, while the others were tearing up the town and the people who fought us for sure, Nowhere was a Druid of the Wildfire and had a great many fire spells at her disposal. in the middle of a village. made of wood and thatch. by the time the responding armies had arrived, all was left was the welcoming gate, scorched, with the Garrisons Officers hanging from it. Reading this back it sounds like we just decided to go HAM on people who hurt our friends, but it was being there, seeing all these relatively new players with only 4-5 sessions under their belts, actually getting goddamn angry over these characters who were supposed to be throwaway NPC's. It was that look, it wasn't just a stone look, it was legitimate anger. That was honestly one of the best sessions I have ever been in, simply because none of us had to fake or think about how our characters would feel, nor what they would do.

[@elmatilda]

I love those moments where you just know with absolute certainty what your character would do and you work on instinct

[@Ki_Adi_Mundi]

The saddest part is that old ladies used to be killed like that all the time under "suspicions of witchcraft" but really only because people didn't like or understand them. D&D can be brutally realistic at times...

[@MammalianCreature]

You turn down a suitor in the 1400s, witchcraft.

[@dezh.3892]

The first time I played dnd was with all my siblings and my dad was DM, and the thing about my dad is this man is an author. He loves writing, he loves stories, and any detail he puts into something is usually important. He made a dnd world for us based off of a story thing we were chatting about in the car on a long road trip, and it wasn't your typical dnd game, it was watered down and made for kids, because we were kids at the time. I was like twelve and the oldest, and all of us played, but it was so much fun. My dad really knows how to world build and made us feel like we were actually in the story, and it's really one of my favorite childhood memories. We still do dnd sometimes, but we're all so much older now and usually someone's buzy with work or life stuff. I miss those days sometimes.

[@autismosupremo]

That's amazing

[@thekenyonsquad5672]

it doesn't even need to be a heart wrenching moment like this one. my first character had around 8 names that were strung together to form his full name as a joke. I don't remember the full thing, but the first one was "Dracula" (I wasn't a vampire) and after a month or 2 I started using his first name entirely straight because I was playing the game seriously. Imagine someone saying their name is Dracula in complete seriousness, that was me playing my anime barbarian with blue hair.

[@jonathanchan7896]

Percival Fredrickstein Von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo III

[@brookejon3695]

@@jonathanchan7896 Grog Strongjaw, Grand Pooh-bah of All This-N-That.

[@brookejon3695]

@@jonathanchan7896 Fuck. I think it might be time to rewatch all of Campaign 1.

[@artemiswallace8716]

@@brookejon3695 remember to skip the underd-arc so you don't have to deal with the asshole.

[@lanmandragoran8337]

@@artemiswallace8716 Episode 28 or so he is banished to history.

[@spacezombie13]

as an aspiring DM myself, this is the moment i am hoping for when i finally get around to finding people who COMMIT TO A DAMN SCHEDULE

[@krampusthestoryteller1416]

I feel you buddy. Still on that struggle bus?

[@mcmosfet2856]

This reminds me of my very first character, Ser Vladimir, a paladin of Torm. I was in middle school at the time, and the most nuance I could come up with was the classic "Lawful Stupid". Basically I played him like Dudley Doright in chainmail for most of the game. Goofy but well meaning, helping old ladies cross the street and setting up pratfalls. We eventually got to the final showdown with the BBEG, and Ser Vlad was in bad shape, knocking on death's door. Our DM described how the evil necromancer had his ritual dagger raised, and was about to kill the innocent woman we were sent to rescue. Something clicked, and when the DM asked me what my action was, I didn't think of a pithy joke, or discuss healing with my party, Ser Vladimir charged forth, putting himself between the altar and the necromancer, and put all his strength into a strike(critical hit). He was then immediately felled by foul magics, but his last ditch attack helped the party defeat the evil wizard. That was the moment for me, when it went from being just a game, to a story that we all had the privilege of creating together. Vladimir was eventually resurrected, and the greatest reward was his actions and the memory of the battle, rather than any trinkets or gold or mechanical benefits to a game. That story, led me to decades of more stories with old and new friends, and a lifelong passion for storytelling and writing.

[@kurtdupree1254]

In college I ran a campaign where the party encountered a village of tribal shapeshifters. There was one called Golden Eyes (Common tongue) who was a black sheep amongst the tribe for being more open to the outside world and ideas. The party grew surprisingly attached to him, more than I thought they would. Well at one point there was an eldritch power that caused mass hysteria in the shapeshifters. The party thought they were for sure dead when the shapeshifters turned on them, but Golden Eyes jumped in and killed the one attacking them. The sane shapeshifters defended the village while the party went and dealt with the source of the eldritch power. When they came back they found out Golden Eyes was being banished from his tribe because killing one of his people in any instance is forbidden. He tells the party he doesn't know where he will go now and they are pretty upset about it. They beg and beg him to join their party but he tells them he has to figure out his new path alone... After this the party left the village and they were uncharacteristically quiet. Once in awhile someone would chime in that the village elders suck and they hoped Golden Eyes ends up ok. At that point I knew it was a memorable character and memorable moment for my friends 👍

[@jdirksen]

I will never forget my first DnD session. Winter cabin camping trip with my boy scouts troop. We were huddled in our scoutmaster’s cabin out on his property, clothes drying by the wood fired stove while we took shelter from a blizzard. It’d been a few hours by now, and we’d all grown bored of the card games and board games present. So our scoutmaster brought out this big box of DnD 1st edition paraphernalia/resources and taught us to play. The story was forgettable, but the adventure was the opposite. Pretty standard campaign, albeit with a decently large party (iirc 8-10 players) The main highlight was when we got to an abandoned castle that some bandits were camping out in. On the way in, we fought a green slime, and managed to defeat it *mostly* unscathed, actually getting enough xp to reach level 3! We were all a little confused as to why but found out a bit later when the one party member who *did* get slimed literally just straight up melted into a puddle of goo… mega dead. Only recoverable via true resurrection… Later we reached a treasure room! Glittering gold, trinkets and baubles, paid for in blood. And also guarded by a giant constrictor… Luckily, after nearly killing one of our fighters, our Druid successfully cast animal friendship, gaining us what we thought a useful bit of fodder! Oh how ironic such a notion turned out to be… Finally, after a bit more exploring, we found the throne room. In there were *17 level 5-9 bandits*, specifically 14 level 5s, two level 7 lieutenants, and 1 level 9 bandit leader. I’m not sure what dialogue would have transpired, but let’s just say one failed charisma check was all it took to piss them off. We managed to take down two or three close by ones before we suffered our first loss about three turns in, none other than our Druid… No longer under the effects of animal friendship, our giant snake no longer cared who it was attacking, only that it eliminated all threats. And despite being an ambush predator, let’s just say that the game ended with one less bandit group, one less party of adventurers, and one very happy snake… Needless to say, I (among other scouts) was more than eager to do it again as soon as possible.

[@lazarusbooth8898]

Glittering gold trinkets and baubles, paid for in blood. I see what you did there 😏 "Remind Yourself That Overconfidence Is A Slow And Insidious Killer."

[@jflanagan9696]

My group played a campaign over a decade back where we were trying to infiltrate some kind of temple to stop some big bad, but along the way we found a clear glass whistle. It was never used until (coincidentally) JUST the right time. We had just finished slaying a baby white dragon. We walk into the hallway leading away from the room and we encounter an Orb of Confusion, which causes confusion in anyone who fails their saving throw. My Dwarf Warrior wielding a Fullblade failed his throw and attacked the group Wizard. Double crit. Cut him in half from head to toe. After that happened, we were carrying both sides of the body back to town to bury him, it was nighttime on a clear night, with a full moon. The rogue of the group, who found the whistle in a hidden compartment in a room somewhere, idly toots on the whistle. It doesn't make a sound, but it DOES resurrect our fallen Wizard. Into a zombie. I cut him in half at the waist that time. :)

[@commandercaptain4664]

You should've gone for the head...

[@jkbscopes1233]

I had a similar experience as my first time DMing, an old lady who owned a bar, baked cookies and gave them out for free was stabbed and died, it ended in the party uprooting every thieves guild in the world to find this one guy who stabbed their favorite bar owner

[@fishiest3539]

had a similar thing happen in one of my games. not the first session, but it had been a pretty lighthearted campaign up until the party went to the home planet (it's a sci-fi campaign) of the cleric, and her temple of Selune was attacked by cultists of Shar. MULTIPLE mother figures were nearly murdered, and our very sweet jokey moon cleric said something like "I will find their dark heart and rip it out." Most intense moment ever as a DM.

[@OctopusLady]

I'm playing DnD for the first time ever this weekend. This is both exciting and terrifying to hear.

[@eaglefan2569]

Eyyy good luck, hope you have a blast!

[@symphony_in_plaid4592]

oh my gosh have fun!! I'm a new player myself, and it's the BEST 😁

[@mchills514]

Yes!!! GOOD LUCK!! Have a blast!

[@eduardwerewolfhowl6537]

Good luck, also this month i will have my first session as well with some friends of mine what took me under there wing XD

[@eddiemate]

You’ll have a great time. This is just a warning that you’ll likely have a moment where you go "Okay, it’s time to get serious"

[@AgentQV]

I was in a campaign where it was pretty goofy for the first few months. Then a cult performed a blood ritual at the arena we had been competing at for a week and it concluded with an important friendly NPC dying and a PC being taken. It was such a sobering moment of shock for the whole table. Now I’ve been in that campaign for five years playing the same character, and it’s nuts to carry that kind of history with you. Especially when in-game it’s only been like three months.

[@Dragon_Lair]

That moment when people play D&D for the first time, a game of make-believe and pretend, start treating it as important and get invested in the story and the characters, is always a magical moment.

[@BlazeMakesGames]

the absolute strongest reaction a DM can use at almost any time (though obviously don't do it too often) is to take something away that the players care about. It can be anything. Maybe it's a coin purse, or an NPC they've met, or a weapon, or even some minor item that a character likes carrying around. Players will go to the ends of the earth and back to retrieve whatever was taken from them, rescue the NPC that they like, or avenge the person who killed the NPC.

[@daringdarius5686]

Not my first time (first time was super wacky and fun but only lasted 3 sessions) but 2nd time I was playing D&D, same DM, showed me the power of D&D. I rolled and had amazing stats, I was a deemed to be of honorary noble status, and had achieved the status from climbing the ranks to "Captain of the Watch" in my local town. Other adventurers come in, and we get to meet, and understand the townspeople and they are nice and cheerful. Suddenly we find out there is a raiding party about to encounter us. I send a scout who confirms a party of 40 is camping with fires lit, not even trying to conceal their presence. I leave my most trust 3 watch men, and take every able bodied warrior and towns guard, ~17 men eith our party. We go and squash them out in an ambush. 3 of our men die, and we spend our march back in quiet. It was only then we realized the town was on fire. We rush back in through the back entrance to the keep to realize only the keep hasn't fallen. The townspeople explain those we had found were bait. The real army composed of 80, a force we would never have been able to handle unless we had walls and defenses in place. The moment we had left, the main force had attacked, and the 3 watchmen were only able to evacuate half the populace into the keep. I looked around at the survivors, and realized all responsibility lay with me as the Captain of tbe Watch. My fellow adventurers felt bad, but I had killed 70 villagers under my vigil for being stupid. I looked to the men who had come with me, as they sesrched frsntically for loved ones, amongst bandaged wives and covered children. I should have realized a small village such as this had no right to make an aggressive maneuver. I felt like borderline crying at the deaths of these characters I had only gotten to know for 2 hours, and as they hurled insukts at me, or worse ignored me, I could only apologize. I then helped carry the wounded out the back entrance, took all remaining gold from the keep, disbursing it amongst the survivors keeping none for myself and vowed vengeance on the raiders. I joined the adventurers as I had been exiled from my own village. Hey Jacob, if you're reading this, thank you and fuck you. He know's that I love realistic games and knew that this should be completely expected, but I thought I was playing a game, not a tragedy. ;_;

[@HotaruZoku]

I just imagined playing D and D with this guy DMing. I felt the same spike of fear as picturing myself in a plane crash. Sincerely.

[@rianantony]

When the silent wizard who doesn't shut up (friends pc name) died that was wild cause we were both wizards and idk it was just oddly sad. He got revived or something though wich was nice

[@prcklypear3963]

Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook has a great wizard duo you might like :)

[@dickrendell6574]

Without knowing those characters, in my minds eye I've got these, wonderful fairytale, childrens cartoon figures, and then at the end, with such action movie faces, Rambo-camo'd up ready to wage colourful warfare

[@One_Eyed_]

It's the colorful, oversaturated fantasyland shot with the rising playful orchestra that cuts through a canopy as the barbarian climbs the tree that ends with a smash cut to a desaturated, red and grey shot of the witch limping hanging from a noose. Juxtaposition at it's finest.

[@dickrendell6574]

@@One_Eyed_ That's the one. Perfection!

[@deKahedron]

Ooh, have I got a show recommendation for you: Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency, specifically the second season. It's on Netflix.

[@wuftchan8299]

100% true facts, its all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

[@oldsoulyt4757]

@ fabian aramais seacaster, RIP right eyeball

[@MaftaYeahYeah]

To quote James Hetfield: "Then it's all fun and games that you can't see anymore".

[@HarmonicHewell]

The last session of d&d with my friends reminded me of how powerful this game can be. Context: My friend’s character Ferdiad Wulfgar had changed his class from 3 levels artificer, 7 levels paladin to full on 10 levels paladin. Our DM let us keep the items we had gained, though. We were in this town, looking for our crewmates. It was super weird, people kept forgetting things, and kept referring to our group (we have 3 players) as “the four of you”. Our inn had 4 beds, etc. There was a large abandoned house with the name scratched out, nobody could remember who used to live there. We knew there was some aberration following us, and when it attacked us, we only took the damage when we saw our wounds, but we didn’t ever remember fighting it. We got a clue to go to a blacksmith, and we did. He told us he recognised the four of us, he told Ferdiad that he had seen someone who looked like him asking for some blueprints, but couldn’t remember anything else. We went out into the wharf to find what was attacking us, and then we took a rest, after finding one of our crewmates. That was when our DM dropped the bomb. We had been fighting a creature, and when the creature kills someone, we are unable to remember him. Ferdiad was on 1 HP. My friend and I were on half health. All of Ferdiads wounds were in his back, like he was protecting someone. In front of him were the blueprints of all of the items Ferdiad made when he was an artificer, except on the blueprints was the name “Farkass Wulfgar”. A name we didn’t recognise. On one of the blueprints it said “For Dad’s 60th birthday present.” That was when it clicked. We had been traveling with Ferdiad’s son, Farkass, he had been killed by this monster and we forgot he had ever existed. Our memories of Ferdiad being an artificer were us forgetting all the moments when we had been travelling with Farkass. The three of us sat around the table and mourned for a character that never existed. It was crazy. Best moment of d&d in my life.

[@RianeBane]

My first game was a homebrewed one-shot I played online with strangers. I will never forget how, after we disbanded the rebellion and defeated the surprisingly benevolent giant praying mantis king's (no, really) jealous relatives, our rogue character, suddenly and without warning, assassinated the king, causing the kingdom to fall into violent anarchy before our eyes as we skipped town. My little 16-year-old halfling bard went home to the family farm traumatized.

[@_The_Dumbass_]

"Oh yeah haha, we're so cool in this story!" Here's a reminder, this is a *world.* Not a story.

[@Sweedog4]

I hadn’t played in some time. Like 15 years since I last played D&D. My now DM had to kill off a pc as the player needed to leave the campaign. Now this PC had a gross mangy cat they had befriended session one and was now part of the group. I (the player and the character) do not like cats. This jerk (DM) had me so concerned with how this cat felt when the PC died that I started crying. I swore my life to this cat. Even got a greater resto done on him to make him less gross. Long love Billy Florez (the cat).

[@kayq3231]

In my first d&d campaign (1 on 1), I begged my dm to promise me he wouldn't kill off any of my character's friends. 4 years and going strong, they're still alive.

[@carloscoello3649]

I wish I was creative enough to play as these guys do

[@lognott]

You are.

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

Same. I think the secret is just a healthy dose of having tons of media to draw from, having things you want to say, and being willing to look and/or sound like an idiot a few hundred times before it starts looking good. I think taking an improv class is a way to expediate the last bit in and get extra good at it, while just reading whatever fantasy you peraonally like every day is how to get the prior (audio books are gold). I know consuming media works, for DM prepping and making characters, but I don't get enough chances to run to really get into that aspect of it, also I get caught up trying to perfect everything before 1st session, and keep getting stuck...

[@HarmonicHewell]

You are my dude!!! Whatever is in that noggin can become great.

[@cobaltno51]

just steal from everywhere. films, books, fellow dms, youtube, history, day-to-day-life.

[@JarthenGreenmeadow]

@@lydiasteinebendiksen4269 "I get caught up trying to perfect everything before 1st session," Dont bother, your party is just going to ruin it anyway. You're better off to get a rough framework and let improv do the rest. The only way to be a bad DM is to have a power trip about it. You have to run a dozen sessions or so to really find your groove, each DM has their own style of handling encounters, NPC interaction, exploration etc.

[@LivingGuy484]

I still haven't played the game myself, but I've seen enough of Brennan's narration that I completely get why people love D&D You build the World well enough, people are bound to grow attached to it

[@fritothedemon6647]

I could watch Brennan tell stories about his awesome dnd games for hours dude

[@BertsBalls]

Playing dnd for the first time tonight! :^) Brennan’s whimsical story telling finally made me try some dnd

[@Fenizrael]

“Actions have consequences!” - Murph

[@lioneaglegriffin]

I remember when our group tried to draft a kid to be our mascot/human shield in front of his mom and the DM was not having it.

[@Faikarias]

The thing that made DnD really "real" for me was my first character death. Wasn't my character but experiencing my friends characters death and just being like ...oh damn

[@jamzee_]

I can remember, the first ever campaign i truly hosted, and the first one played by this group of people ever, besides myself having played a few before, i can remember their faces when they had that moment. They had to flee a collapsing island, and i was going extremely easy on them. As in i only made them roll 5 acrobatic saves even though they should have been rolling for hours to escape let alone get on their boat and set sail. But i can remember the look on my players’ eyes when they turned around and saw a mountain sized behemoth raising from the island behind them, only for that to simply be the nose of The Beast. I remember describing how the sky turned purple in a sudden haze, and the first breathe from The Beast forcing the ocean to rise, shooting the players’ boat to the shore of the mainlands, miles and miles away. I remember killing my PC’s in the most brutal of ways. Only to reveal, that they could not die. In fact, no one could. I described civilians around them crushed under rubble, screaming for aid in a never ending cycle of dying and reviving, their own bodies skewered like shrimp. One of the players walked out of the room for a moment as i explained that one of the other character’s bones continuously tried to repair itself, only to calcify around a plank of wood lodged within her leg, requiring the barbarian of the group to break her leg and pull it out as quickly as possible. All of them were grossed out and i could see that spark of “this is wrong” in their eyes and that determination to fix it. That player that walked out came back in to the scene of me describing how another players chest was ripped open on a large stone due to the ships impact, and how it tried to close itself but left him writhing in pain until he could perform a sufficient fortitude save. 3.5e best edition btw. He had to roll 3 times. He was there for minutes in pain basically, his heart beating against cold stone until he could finally muster the strength to push himself off the stone, dropping to the sand underneath him. I described to the player that walked out that they hd seen it all, only receiving a major case of broken bones, only for them to heal immediately, however wrong as they were. They’re character basically witnessed all this. So imagine the scene that they witnessed.

[@xertSF]

first time playing me and two friends were escorting a carriage as an easy first mission and our first ever fight was against four goblins. KJ rolled to attack with warhammer, needed a 12, rolled an 11 so instead he missed and hit a rock which sparked the goblins cape and ended up burning down the entire forest

[@Xeno_Solarus]

That sounds like it would be more appropriate for a Nat 1 roll, but cool story. D&D is all about having fun.

[@gilgamsht4684]

Almost a year ago, when I was DM-ing curse of Strahd, my players were thrown into the starting town and I’d used the tavern plot hook. But I threw my own twist on it, I let them explore the town for a while and let them get kinda used to the place, then I had a mist roll in that put everyone to sleep so I could then transport them to barovia. When they woke up, this is where I made my own start and my own plot hook, they woke up on a recently abandoned battlefield, the scenery would’ve been beautiful if it weren’t for the corpses laying around and dead soldiers everywhere. My rogue woke up IN a corpse and puked, the whole party was really dazed because one second they’re in town, some still in the tavern, drinking and getting to know the townsfolk. The next they’re waking up in a battlefield where no one was alive except one man, a wounded soldier that I’d put on top of a rock, just waiting to die. When they approached him and started asking what happened I’d made him very distressed and riddled with PTSD from the recent battle. He told them about how they were originally paladins that went on a raiding party to finally free barovia from strahd’s iron grip. When they faced him they all died and he only managed to escape because strahd told him he wanted that one nameless soldier to be a message to anyone else who’d oppose him. After this soldier frantically told the party about this, he was suddenly possessed by strahd himself, used to lure the party into the town of barovia. The party then makes there way to barovia, doing the vampire encounter there and successfully completing it, I went by the book for this one cus this was my first time DM-ing so I didn’t wanna run off course too much. A while later after they stayed the night in the town they decide to set off for the next town of valaki, to find a core character in the story to get the ball rolling. Along the way they ran into a group of nomads and gypsies, when they’re talking and mingling with the gypsies, one of them decides to tell the party at a campfire about a warrior prince they’d rescued years ago. As I’m narrating the history presented by this old gypsy man, I have them make perception checks toward the end of his story. They all failed except my half orc paladin, she noticed a man walking up the path from the woods, silent, and somewhat unnatural in the way he moved. As he got closer to the campfire, she caught a glimpse of his face and it matched the face of the man that was described by the old gypsy, then I introduced him as Strahd AND THE LOOK ON ALL OF MY PLAYER FACES MADE ME THE PROUDEST THAT HAD TOO OF BEEN THE BEST MOMENT IN MY D&D CAREER IT WAS AMAZING! They all went from somewhat content and distracted by the narration from the old man that when I had the big bad himself standing there, talking with the party, truely made them feel like they didn’t have a chance and it was great. God I love D&D

[@Jordan.A.07]

As soon as I heard the inflection in Brennan's voice when he said the word "glib," I knew... SH## ABOUT TO GET REAL!

[@blueturtle3623]

I currently am playing a character who I had to draw up on VERY short notice, and as such, she wasn't fully fleshed out. Honestly, this kinda became a character trait. "Sheltered kid doesnt really know herself" But anyway, when a DM has a group of characters, there needs to be something uniting them as a party. They aren't a bunch of characters who suddenly work together; theres gotta be a common goal. We didnt have that in this particular campaign, until a player died. That was the moment in this campaign of "Holy smokes, we gotta go fight a fucking god"

[@papitasloup2119]

I love how Lou immediately knows Brennan pulled some shit

[@blackfox2973]

This moment. This is the moment I always hope for, but never expect. This is the moment that you know as a GM, you have done your job well in weaving a story worth playing, and even more so, worth REMEMBERING

[@PsychoMachado]

Been having this power lately DMing Curse of Strahd for two tables. I never thought i vould make 10 people, half of them in their early 30s, crap themselves in fear for silly things. I got people seeing themselves hanged on trees, ghost sheep that crossed them on the road (that one cracked me up), and random creatures of the night surrounding their house when everything was completely safe and secure. So far been feeling really good in delivering some horror punches and making them understand that "There is no Sun. There is no joy. There is only the mists"

[@JnEricsonx]

So...Seattle on a bad day?

[@grumboflipflorp5688]

And that was when Emily made it her personal mission to make Brennan's life a living hell as a player

[@gobbelgub4031]

real cool brennan, hanging a pc's mother figure in the first session

[@FEelDaPAinO]

My first D&D campaign was with a DM who liked to use a system he called luck points. I don't know if he really came up with it like he claimed because I've only played with him and haven't been able to find another group in years so I haven't encountered anyone else who does it. Anyway so luck points, at character creation you roll a D4 and whatever number you get that's how many luck points you get. It's basically an extra life system because he hated it when campaigns were cut short by shit rolls or people screwing up cause they are still learning the game. But he didn't just magically bring your character back to life, he incorporated into the story a reason why you are still alive. For instance me and my buddy (I was an elven wizard and he was a dwarven paladin) were at a goblin cave on a quest to slay some goblins, pretty standard rpg stuff, but as we're fighting more and more goblins keep showing up. What started as three goblins quickly became six and then twelve and so on. So we fucking booked it but unfortunately my friends paladin was not able to make it out and got swarmed by goblins at he was "killed". I managed to escape to make it back to town but my buddy's character (unbeknownst to my character obviously) was actually knocked out, stripped of all gear, and then tossed into the goblins meat pit. His character woke up in a dark cave surrounded by the smell of death and had actual strips of skin missing from the goblins snacking on him while he was passed out. He then had to try and escape the cave using stealth, and again he was a paladin so not the greatest when it comes to stealth lol.

[@eaglefan2569]

Luck points is actually a Feat in 5e called Lucky! You get 3 luck die you can use at any time :)

[@Bloodshark123]

It's actually pretty flavor accurate for goblins to just steal your stuff and leave you unconscious instead of killing you.

[@JarthenGreenmeadow]

So basically action points? It sounds like his system was homebrew but its the same idea.

[@Mithrandir328]

I want to know how they did it. In every sweet vengeance-driven detail! Please! Make it happen!

[@justyce_yt]

I now want to play D&D. If this doesn't sell it to anyone, idk what will

[@Xeno_Solarus]

D&D might be my absolute favorite thing in the world to do as a hobby. It's so customizable with it's settings and stories, you band together with other players to form your own story... It's so much fun. Such an experience. And I haven't even really played a full game of D&D. Me and my friends played like 1 shoddy campaign together and it was so much fun.

[@TheWolfBoy58]

That's like Mulan "girl worth fighting for" and then into the reality of war in the next scene type of stuff.

[@ASquared544]

God if only I could make a campaign start that strongly.

[@mongooseunleashed]

Shit gets real moment in D&D.

[@Funnyjoke12348]

Been DMing a campaign for a year, and everyone has been having a great time with roleplay. We've had some heavy moments, but nothing too bad. I'm about to send them into one of the darkest parts of the campaign, and am *very* excited to watch everyone's hopes and dreams be dashed against the rocks. The NPC interactions are going to be very involved, and the player roleplay will hopefully be *stellar.*

[@Nemephosis]

DUDE. I assume that happened by now? How did it go?

[@Funnyjoke12348]

@@Nemephosis Hey! It went great lol. I'll try to keep it short, since this was multiple months of campaigning. They went to the Underdark in search of a magical artifact- a sapphire tome. The person who currently had it was our drow druid's father- who they thought to be VERY evil. They went to a party, where they met the father, and him and his daughter reconciled a little- but they failed to get the tome. A little disheartened, they decided to leave the Underdark, and try again at a later date. It was the easiest solution. While on their way out, however, they were intercepted by our druids mother- a drow priestess. After a short conversation, they began fighting her, in which she killed the druid. The party managed to fight her off, but the druid was lost. They had used their last ressurection item earlier on, and there wasn't any saving her. After the fight, the Druids father approached, and handed off the book- which he saw as the only reason the party was here. The only reason his daughter had died. The party left the Underdark soon after, and it took about an in game year for any of them to want to even think about going there again, lol. Had to cut some stuff obviously, but that's the jist of what happened lol.

[@negativejam2188]

That moment for me was when the big bad guy was visiting my wizard in his dreams. Tormenting him. The first time that happened, he stood up in a fielding facing the burning manor of his grandmother’s carrying everything he could hold.

[@infinityforse9584]

The first time I played we faced goblins and I a chaotic neutral water genesi half monk half cleric turned one of those goblins into a meat cube by using shape water I splashed on them

[@Zerpderp0]

There was no boot drop moment for our group just yet. I think we're too focused on fun. Honestly this works for me. I love the campaign so far

[@Axqu7227]

I was feeling bad about the twist I have planned for my newbies until this moment. I’m now excited for it.

[@Pirateking536]

Who knew the Baron was plaguing them from day one...

[@jiuhuyyur18]

god you know he was eating that shit up in session. the glee the delight the sparkle in his eye etc etc

[@fleshtonegolem]

What a fantastic example! This really nails the feeling of a shared reality and the power you feel when you are placed within it.

[@dorkmyride]

One of my characters has a NPC parole officer who she refers to as her anger management therapist. He has convinced himself that he's actually her therapist. My character hates him, but I love him to pieces.

[@jacobwright536]

Brennan was like, they were being glib... And I took that personally

[@christopheredwards8219]

Ah yes, the "oh shit" moment.

[@ASquared544]

Brennan feels like the Terry Pratchett of TTRPGs.

[@Miles-qx7qt]

First rule of D&D: every NPC is the DM’s ammunition.

[@lizs2546]

I understand this 100% First campaign I ever played, it was with a group where only the dm had ever played before. First session, we all end up at this little lodge and we're just having a good time. The dm taught us all the game mechanics by having our characters do small tasks for the owner, and we fought of some wolves. There was this little boy that couldn't speak and we all vowed on the spot we would die for him, and we got very close to the family. We found out that the kid couldn't talk because the orc cult in the woods killed his parents and cut out his vocal chords. We buried that cult so deep, no necromancer could raise them if they tried, tortured one orc for information, and tracked down exactly which orc hurt the kid. We brought that orc's vocal chords back as a trophy. And on top of that... Four sessions later, we find out that both the orc we tortured, and the orc that hurt the kid, were brothers to our own half orc warlock. This happened in six sessions.

[@ectonyx]

nothing overly powerful happened the first time i played, but god. after a few sessions you can just *feel* it, especially with the right group. it's absolutely surreal and amazing to get so wrapped up in the story. the first campaign i ever joined is finishing up this weekend. we're starting another one soon after it, but it's bittersweet to see the stories come to an end.

[@__-fm5qv]

I think the power in D&D, or any table-top RPG for that matter, is that the players are fully immersing themselves in their characters, and so after a few hours of this these sorts of events are truly impactful. As the events that happen aren't just to their characters, they are done to them.

[@IceMetalPunk]

I've never DM'd before, but I'm currently planning my first one-shot for my friends. I would have liked it to be a full campaign, but I didn't want to dive head first and get in over my head for my first DM'ing experience. I've already decided that in the back half of the session, my characters will have to return to locations they visited early in the session to get home, and those places will be changed based on what decisions they made there, including possibly new encounters, bosses, or dead NPCs. I'm trying to take the approach of "these places and people exist even when you're not there, so everything has consequences".

[@-Big_Big]

i remember my first game of D&D we ended up poisoning a town well on purpose to kill the people that annoyed us.

[@RottenBen]

First session, party broke out of jail after meeting each other. Second session, I'm busy and the rest of the party kill a criminal and then make food out of his body to feed to the rest of his village. The villagers realize it, and the party massacre the village. I spend the next few weeks not having heard what happened besides the details of them having to kill a guy who had weapons, and then running from the rest of the village who were cannibals. I eventually realize my fellow players are acting really weird every time they mention cannibals, I start asking questions and immediately see through their flimsy lies. It was two months after the session where they did it that I finally found out.

[@commandercaptain4664]

@@RottenBen You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a wargamer who lacks a sense of consequence.

[@daadaa6356]

@@RottenBen I'm so confused. It was two months after the session that you found out what?

[@RottenBen]

@@daadaa6356 That last sentence was in reference to how long between the time the massacre happened and when I had actually found out what had happened during that session: which was the info in my first paragraph. The time between those two sessions I was only told the info I included in the first sentence of my second paragraph.

[@daadaa6356]

@@RottenBen ohhh omg thank you for explaining hahah I was a bit confused there. Anyway: that is MORBID as hell damn

[@comradebusman3]

Brennan “I emotionally traumatize my friends for fun” lee mulligan

[@elis.5350]

I remember being around level 12-14 with my hexblade and after so many sessions of rarely getting through without being knocked unconscious to the point where my character had just accepted his roll was to drop as much damage as quickly as possible so the others could finish the enemies off quickly that my warlock got through rounds of gladiator style fights without going down and playing a big part in securing the win. At that moment I was fully my character and felt after coming so far he had gained a new confidence and battle lust that was always missing and i felt from then on playing him felt more natural then ever

[@robrotron2084]

"C'mon gang, it's time to make Brennan pay for killing other Brennan."

[@potmki6601]

I love this dude, he's so into his thing

[@Jose-nb7hc]

Me when my character finds out there’s no bacon being served at the inn for breakfast. ALL WILL KNOW PAIN!!

[@TDoubleDub]

"....and that was when my party woke up and chose violence."

[@cartkart1]

I feel like if I had a dedicated group and someone to teach me, D&D would be one of my favorite things, it totally seems like something I’d be into.

[@elmatilda]

When I started at my job, I found out a few of my favourite coworkers played dnd together. I was desperate to join them, but I didn’t know any of them well enough at that point. Cut to two years later, one of them was joining a new campaign and invited me along, and it’s now my favourite thing in the world. So I guess my point is, it’s well worth the wait. I hope you get your chance soon! (But also there may be clubs or dnd nights at local game shops which could be worth checking out)

[@florianmeganck3625]

I did a similar thing with a first time player thanks to this video! The effects were wonderful! Thank you so much!

[@darrenmcentire2374]

Moments like this are honestly my favorite to set up as DM

[@JDFisher0415]

This is the embodiment of when you get super invested into a story

[@Lord_necromancer]

I was damning a campaign where our bard met with a wood Carver and they got along really well. While they were talking the other players were screaming "red flag!! red flag!! Do not get invested in an NPC, it's a death sentence in DnD!" And I could not help but laugh

[@leila13dnd]

It's beautiful as a DM to know the exact moment you're creating vengeance.

[@Girthquake42069]

I did something like this that, admittedly, I felt terrible for afterward. I had told my player that this campaign would be centralized in a single town that they all grew up in, knew each other and would be about building the town up to its former glory after a recent war with the neighbouring country took its toll on the town both economically and population wise (young and able meant sent off to war but never came back). We did a whole session zero establishing relationships with the players and people in the town, and they were super excited to build it up. After one session of light-hearted fun, they went to the woods to drive off some goblins who were attacking the hunters and woodsman, but when they came back the entire village was razed, NPC's they loved brutally murdered, and a flag of the neighbouring country planted in town square and the actual plot of a war conspiracy/intrigue campaign started. Most of them were new players, and that bait and switch gave them trust issues for the whole campaign and many campaigns after, which I still get grief from them for.