Which Storyteller Should You Choose? - RimWorld Guide for Beginners [2024, 1.5+]

[@AdamVsEverything]

This guide is a little more info/number heavy, so doesn't have the typical gameplay stuff in it. I was a little nervous about that and had to go a slightly different route on the video itself. Don't worry, though, more gameplay oriented guides are on their way, I just need to get this stuff out of the way first! - As always, thanks for watching, and let me know in the comments if you have any RimWorld questions or if you have an idea for another RimWorld guide.

[@fremenGaming]

Would you be so kind and tell how was the data in this video gathered? Through some datamining or just by "testing" the game?

[@WinterMute99]

Adam, as a returning player (pre 1.0), this video is an absolute W, yeah sure, different from your normal content / streams, but very informative, even if it "seems" number heavy, better to have the numbers then not have them, the summary in the end sums it up perfectly, and find this video to still be up to date

[@adamf7126]

"why is Randy being so nice to me this stream" mech raid during a plague and a heat wave in 5...4...

[@AdamVsEverything]

My life in Rimworld :'( lol

[@opuser1]

Never forget; Losing is fun!

[@apgamer4053]

so unplug your mic if your playing with randy hes alwase listening ;)

[@Kaarl_Mills]

*PRAISE BE UNTO RANDY!* We must never loose faith in him, because no matter how bad things might seem it can in fact get worse

[@AdamVsEverything]

Or he might just decide to droppod milk on you for a year lol

[@kelast203]

"Bottom text" -Randy, giving me 200 smokeleaf for the third time this week

[@onefellow8635]

@@kelast203 Joints, or just leaves?

[@kelast203]

@@onefellow8635 Just the leaves

[@rafasr0]

"A Rat tamed itself" Thanks Randy.

[@dragroch5536]

Shortly after starting from scratch today playing with Randy on "Strive to Survive" he gave me a pack of ducks to bring to a pen and the next day he gave that pack of ducks plague and flu on the same day lmao.

[@AdamVsEverything]

What a jerk, lol. And people try to call PETA on me during playthroughs! :P

[@hystericxx]

I knew Randy is deadly but never knew he starts events after as soon as 1hr, he is ruthless at times.

[@AdamVsEverything]

In our recent set of challenge runs we've gotten diseases on day one twice, and even a day 1 raid. ANd then some playthroughs we don't get a raid for 40 days... Randy is a weird one for sure lol

[@dragroch5536]

It got pretty close to that for me today with Randy, got 2 of the 3 new colonists hit with malaria midway through day 1 lol.

[@CHRB-nn6qp]

Late ass reply, but I usually start with Cassandra then switch to Randy about a month or two into the game. If it feels too samey at the start, I might switch it up and just stick with Randy all the way through.

[@GeoffreyBronson]

"Randy is the only storyteller capable of hitting your colonists with a disease event on day 1, hour 1" Seems to sum up my every third playthrough.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Nothing like a day 1 plague on naked Brutality to make you exit straight back to the main menu!

[@michaelpapadopoulos6054]

Randys favourite strategy is sending me several drop pods full of valuable but useless resources right before summoning 2 concurrent raids so that my "wealth" is higher and therefore my colony of 15 people deserves to be attacked by 150 pirates.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Ah yes the 'milk and gold' Randy followed by the "I should kill you for having so much milk and gold..." lol

[@RealMisterDoge]

This was super informative, thanks for the guide! I've been going with Cassandra every time since I started playing RimWorld, but Randy sounds like a much more interesting experience now. Unpredictable storytelling is good storytelling.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks! Yeah, there is a reason that people who have played the game for ages usually default to Randy for their playthroughs. However, it is kind of annoying when you get 'Sleeping Randy' and he just doesn't do much of anything for seasons at a time.

[@NorroTaku]

Phoebe = die of boredom Randy = die ob accident Cassandra = die on purpose

[@lynthecookie2k23]

This is actually pretty good to know. I normally play only with Randy because I always thought the girls had a specific set of events (with the first one always being a raid for example). I never bothered to check, I just assumed that was the case.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Luckily they are not that scripted, though still more so than Randy.

[@jonathannorthcutt4132]

Love playing cassandra cause when a colonist dies I know she takes pleasure in it while randy is a tad too random for me.

[@polllarej]

Awesome guide...this helps me understand a bit more about what's going on since I jump in later into the playthrough!

[@AdamVsEverything]

Awesome, glad it helped!

[@sefyravelvetpaw8166]

Randy on day one, hour one, with mass animal insanity, "I don't really feel like playing today, come back tomorrow"

[@bcpond]

After hearing you talk about your guides on your vod, I came to check them out and you delivered. 10/10 you are doing great presentations

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks for checking them out!

[@Ic0nGaming]

Very nice information with some new details for me as well! Cheers, keep it up! =)

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks, will do!

[@mynoc1113]

Thank you for yet another Awesome vid Adam

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks for watching!

[@MyrtheDV]

Thank you for the guides, I've been playing Rimworld for maybe 2 weeks but I haven't been able to manage that well >.< (Although it gets better every time)

[@AdamVsEverything]

My pleasure! If you ever have any questions feel free to ask here on KZbin, at the Twitch channel, or in my Discord server.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

What really sets Randy apart isn't so much that he's random but that he can wombo combo events together to create a kind of meta-event that forces you to adapt. With Cassandra and Phobe events are treated as a kind of set peice. "Here's a raid or a disease, now do something about it and it specifically." Whereas Randy can do stuff like hit you with intermittent eclipses in spring, toxic fallout that same summer, and them brutal cold snaps during fall, essentially leaving you with no lifestock, not much wildlife to hunt, and no crops for a soldid sixty days over which nobody visits your colony to trade anything except pirates who deal in fists and human trafficking. The only way to deal with this is to come prepared with hydroponics, nutirfungus, shelters for your animals etc. -- stuff that a beginner wouldn't know to employ, forcing them to learn, and an experienced player might not realize they need until they're twenty days into said year and running low on supplies.

[@TherandusGaming]

So vanilla rimworld I always played cassandra, however modded rimworld I play pheobe especially with the events mods that I add. It allows for constant events, as well as events where the storytellers are bored and they go crazy for like a season or so. And as pheobe builds up raid points, she dishes out some harsh combinations.

[@AdamVsEverything]

That's interesting that Phoebe interacts with the mods that way. - Thanks for watching!

[@katanah3195]

Yeah, with mods she gets scary. Partially due to the old saying - Randy kills you by accident, Cassandra kills you on purpose, and Pheobe kills you by overconfidence.

[@anyshittynickname]

"You have to be pretty unlucky for having Randy sending you a raid every single day". My first Randy playthrough in the game: raids for 5 days (fortunately they were manageable, but anyways).

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thank you for taking the bad RNG swings so that I may not suffer (that's how it works, right? :P)

[@bitbucketcynic]

Cassandra and Phoebe start off easy, but they escalate until they break you. They play to win. Phoebe just does it slower. Randy is in it for the lulz. If you lose, his fun's over. Yeah, he can screw you over right out of the gate, and slap you with nasty event combos that synergize into a loss, but he doesn't ramp up his game. A sufficiently robust colony can basically shrug off anything he can dish out. He's probably the best choice for a long-haul game if you don't want to have to play tower defense to hold off 100+ enemy raids every few days.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Yeah, it just depends what sort of playthrough you like. There's also a crapload of modded storytellers these days as well... so something for everyone.

[@bitbucketcynic]

@@AdamVsEverything It's just like you put it: Cassandra and Phoebe kill you on purpose; Randy kills you by accident.

[@katanah3195]

@@bitbucketcynic An addendum to that, is that Pheobe kills you by overconfidence... or by boredom.

[@safety_cuddles8112]

omg you make such good content im so jelly ive never been that good at public speaking

[@AdamVsEverything]

I'm glad you think so! And I am not great at public speaking when I can see faces, lol

[@AloofTheDuck]

Had my first successful colony going! Then Randy decided to throw 2 raids back to back as well as light my entire base on fire (because I was dumb enough to make almost all of it out of wood).

[@AdamVsEverything]

That always hurts. I really like the beginning of new runs, though, so starting fresh isn't always a bad thing.

[@katanah3195]

Well, only takes one tinderbox to learn your lesson about wooden bases!

[@scyobiempire4450]

even with all the Vanilla Expanded storytellers, i almost always use Randy the amount of orderly randomness makes it fun and keeps you on your feet. you could go ages without a raid and neglect your defences only to get a huge siege but because randy is your friend, you’ll also get a self tamed rat to help you

[@raiwenduravwin3166]

Wow cool, this info is helpful. I'd feel way less like a baby now playing Phoebe until I learn more of the game! Do you know any streamers that play it regularly that don't mind questions *hint hint* that could help me out if I have something more specific? Can't wait for more of these guides!

[@AdamVsEverything]

lol, thanks Faelen. - Of course I know one, he's me. /obi wan meme

[@AndrewChumKaser]

New storytellers idea: "Bad" storytellers. Scatterbrained Suzy: She dropped her notes and mixed them all up in a confusing way. Her downtime and uptime randomly change all the time, and she has no real sense of structure. Be careful, because she might also accidentally send something she's really not supposed to at you. (She has random cooldowns that change all the time and no initial grace period. Stuff such as events, enemies, parties, and even items are sometimes misnamed or misplaced.) Thatch-Guy: This guy just seems to want you to suffer. You get no downtime, no recovery, and no rest, just nonstop action and problems, many of which are deliberately made to be incredibly detrimental. He regularly sends incredibly overpowered, unlikable raiders and traders at you, and they're obviously better than you in every way. (Cooldown is non-existent. Only the hardest events are chosen, and many are scripted to follow up after others in a deliberately annoying way. Some enemies have dumb names and are extremely overpowered, and they keep showing up even if you kill them.) Nergal Nosho: This guy just doesn't care. He never makes anything happen, it's like he's barely there at all. He might occasionally throw you a bone or something, but don't expect much. It certainly won't be exciting, but at the very least you can be confident that he won't really bother you. (Essentially all events are completely removed and won't ever happen. He has an extremely rare chance to make something incredibly mundane happen.)

[@AdamVsEverything]

I would love to see some new official storytellers in an upcoming patch or DLC! I know there are tons of modded ones, but I have yet to try those and it is just not the same. :P - Good ideas, though!

[@daral9217]

Second option sounds like either of the mod tellers: VOID who wants to watch you suffer or Perry Persistent who just keeps hitting you with lots of small issues.

[@LuigiCotocea]

Randy sends me cargo pods like he sent me corn hehe :)

[@AdamVsEverything]

Ah, generous Randy. I never trust him :P

[@Br3ttM]

One thing with Phoebe, or Randy on a less active streak, is that you can either become complacent, or increase your wealth and population and have your raid points increase more than you realized, without raids to work you up to expecting that level of difficulty.

[@giin97]

Ugh. Yesterday Cassandra hit me with back to back raids from the same faction, right after I selected a quest to receive back to back raids from the same faction. 3 raids in 1 day, another raid the next. She also sent a sun blocker right after I accepted a volcanic winter, and the day after I killed the sun blocker a cold snap occured. She really does try to kill you, doesn't she? :P

[@LunaPPK]

as a new player i can honestly say i enjoy randy the most just because the chaos

[@AdamVsEverything]

Randy only really annoys me when he falls asleep :P

[@LunaPPK]

@@AdamVsEverything yeah same here lol sometimes he legit doesn't do nothing for almost a year for me in a game once

[@AdamVsEverything]

@@LunaPPK Yeah, it can definitely happen. That's why I like to do a Cassandra playthrough here and there.

[@Glingol]

Dude... you videos showed me after 500h of gameplay what I don't know. How do you gather these information? Its awesome!

[@youtuvi7452]

I remember on my first colony after I got somewhat used to moderate raids and was prepared for bigger ones (no kill boxes at the time tho) Cassandra got a hard on for mechanoids and sent wave after wave of clusters and regular mechanoid invasions on the events, had to download a mod to tone it down a notch because it became frustrating not fighting level headed enemies

[@MyRkAcc]

Good old randy gave me like 3 trade caravans a day apart. Then couple days later a mech cluster, then cold weather fog for a couple days so my crops don't grow and drop pod raid.

[@kotzpenner]

Randy once took almost 2 years to send me a caravan. I almost had to force it by allying with the Empire

[@popplars964]

man im on a randy playthrough and he has sent raid after raid after raid at me, it wasnt untill i got to assault rifles with my tribe that he calmed down a bit. it was REALLY rough going at start. now all i get are mechs and hes starting to throw them down on my desert colony with mortars! and thats just >< ive never really gotten this far in rimworld and i feel so woefully unprepared

[@MalaysianChopsticks]

After months of manhunters, single man raids and dozens of free food. I’m afraid

[@AdamVsEverything]

Lol. Good luck!

[@acidman806]

Personal experience, Cassandra has a way less chance of toxic fallout or volcanic winter. Unlike Randy.

[@brylyth6029]

Choose Randy for the S K Y M I L K

[@AdamVsEverything]

Mmm, delicious sky milk, straight from the orbital teat!

[@Booya5806]

Randy once sent 3 huge raids at me back to back. Hadn’t finished with the first one and the second came in firing mortars at me. Only just finished with the mortar guys and everybody was badly wounded and then a third huge raid comes. Yeah didn’t have many survivors after that.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Yeah, he can fall asleep for a long while but when he is up and active it can hurt :P

[@mortezamohammadimortem4808]

thanks for the info

[@Antilles1974]

First! Also, great guide!

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

[@EighmyLupin]

Randy is both the hardest and easiest imo. Yeah he throws raids for days, but he also throws cargo pods full of supplies for days lol.

[@AdamVsEverything]

For sure

[@icytux3484]

Phoebe is a trap, she's so easy you can fall into a sort of complacency as a newer player, causing you to potentially lose to her one big event because you didn't prep or let your wealth skyrocket. That's another guide you could do, colony wealth management since it determines raid strength right

[@AdamVsEverything]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIfYkH-ZltF8m68

[@barsozuguler4300]

Summary Cassandra will make bent you over... Consistently Phobe is chill and sweet but also catches you off guard as you become lazy Randy is actually fun but you need to be a pro to endure his shenanigans and double raid in one day is brutal

[@warmerj8520]

Helpful video. You look like Call Me Kevin but American.

[@R-Byte-3D]

Had my hardest raid with Pheobe. No shit, this was soooo crazy. I wasted all my animals in it, 2 got kidnapped, 3 are dead inclusive all my animals (Alpha Animal Gallatross, Thrumbo and tons of Boomalopes) Yes it took longer for Events like this but then, holy moly. 51 Enemies, 3 Factions, 1 Siege. All at once. So having fun playing Phoebe.

[@AdamVsEverything]

Thanks for the comment! Glad you are enjoying playing Phoebe. The game code doesn't let her be AS hard as the others, but the raids she does send can be just as hard as a Cassandra raid for sure. It's cool to see some people playing her because she seems left out by most players.

[@katanah3195]

@@AdamVsEverything She can go really haywire with some event mods (often those optimised for Randy, they can mess with Cassandra too), or kill you with overconfidence. Newbies are likely to choose her, have wealth shoot up between threats, and then be underprepared. She can be easier if you understand wealth management and raid points, or just as dangerous as Randy for similar but different reasons if you don't. I typically play her but I'd recommend Cassandra for new players. And point them to your wealth guide.

[@HonoredSword]

With Randy Ive had some bad diseases but I run into his booring phases a lot. Its RNG but I almost allways get booring or imposible never in between.

[@imaginationland474]

last night randy hit me with nothing for half a year then flu, plague, manhunter pack, and finally a giant raid. Half my colony died :,(

[@davidthebluefox7782]

So, does that mean that playing with Pheobe on Peaceful is like baby's first Rimworld? 😅🤔 Never actually played the game, but I would like to get it and try it out.

[@AdamVsEverything]

lol, it is a good way to ease into the game or just have a chill building experience. - Definitely let me know if you grab the game!

[@davidthebluefox7782]

@@AdamVsEverything Nice. And will do. ^^

[@theofficiaIsteve]

I remember when I started playing I accidentally started with randy

[@hozic9929]

I mainly play randy and never played pheobe tbh randy is best

[@mustafaselimibis3186]

Randy be like He he 'le gun goes boom boom

[@AdamVsEverything]

He is a big kid playing with his toys, for sure.

[@kiepyon1]

i always want to go classic. but phoebe is good. but after my archnexus play and the game get easier. i am planning to do classic with archnexus

[@AdamVsEverything]

Good luck! The archonexus is a long one.

[@kiepyon1]

Already on my last part. I have so much fun

[@kiepyon1]

@@AdamVsEverything i want the archnexus to be longer like first part 350k, part 2 500k and part 3 maybe 900k - 1m. i am sorry guys but is just too fast when you are playing in a good map PS: i like the grinding :)

[@cbass7283]

Another thing about Phoebe is that when she does hit, she hits harder than Cassandra, she basically lets you prepare longer and then hits you really hard

[@AdamVsEverything]

Her and Cassandra both have a 1.0 so they hit the exact same (can check game files to see that this is true). It can sometimes feel like Phoebe hits harder just because you have increased wealth+raid points for such a long time since the previous raid cooldown.

[@cbass7283]

@@AdamVsEverything huh, I thought she hit harder than that

[@AdamVsEverything]

@@cbass7283 Her and Cass always hit at a 1.0. Randy can hit from .5 to 1.5. Phoebe and Cass also have the same raid point cap (10,000). Randy sort of has that cap, but can roll his 1.5 over it if you are unlucky :P

[@miniaturejayhawk8702]

Cassandra: periodic events Phoebe: cyclic events Randy: random events

[@AdamVsEverything]

Cass and phoebe are both cyclic.

[@southrodney]

Anything but Randy is objectively the wrong choice ;)

[@AdamVsEverything]

Objectively. :P

[@GurgleThaGobbo]

bro, you said in the last video i watched that you wouldn't go into population and to learn more by watching this video. Then you say the same thing in this video >_

[@AdamVsEverything]

Sorry about that, population curve specifics were on the list for me to make a short connecting video about (like 3-4 mins) but then I got super behind from IRL stuff, and then population curve stuff changed, then changed again with ideology and 1.3. Still on the list, but waiting to see if all the current patches going out changes it further so that I don't make something that is immediately obsolete!

[@selensewar]

As spoken by our lord and savior Sseth: "Objectively, Randy is the best storyteller. He follows no set patterns and keeps you guessing and adapting your strategy, whereas Phoebe lulls you into a false sense of security and Cassandra... Cassandra can go f herself!"

[@JakeA6956]

It's Randy Just Randy