Why Your Campaign NEEDS Good Support Characters

What is the impact of a support NPC? Let's find out
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** ABOUT ME **
Hello! My name is Jay, and I am a long-time veteran of storytelling and a semi-seasoned DM! I began playing Dungeons and Dragons roughly 5 years ago and began my first ever game as the DM. I figured things out by watching online games and fumbling my way through the rules, and never looked back! I've fallen in love with TTRPG's in general and want to share my experience and thoughts with the world and community I love so much. I currently DM two separate games regularly, and continue to learn every day.
** ABOUT THE CHANNEL **
Play Your Role is a project with the intention of helping inspire and coach players and DM’s alike to add story beats and dramatic moments into their games through basic writing concepts, interesting player character inspirations, and discussions on how to effectively roleplay in a way that helps (not hinders) everyone else's roleplay at the table!
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[@Spark_Chaser]

My favorite support moment with Jawbone was his interaction with Adaine. Telling her that she isn't weak because of her mental illness at a moment when her mental illness is actively harmful to the party, and doing what he can to get her back in the fight. Her having someone who isn't a fellow PC showing a level of care that nobody else in her life has shown. It's a wild speech, but it gets a very important point across. That she can reach out for help from others.

[@risperdude]

Squirrley the Spoiler Squirrel is rapidly becoming my favorite character in all media.

[@thepineappleyempireofsuper9612]

Spoilers! I didn't know he was in the video

[@TheOneNotTheOnly]

Murph is the king of dm pc’s with nad pod. Putting a character in that he only plays with so that he can joke around with his friends when everyone is having fun without just having to sit there quietly.

[@J_CtheEngineer]

I would hand wave rules to have my npc say “I’m gonna try and go deeper and plug the fire up!”

[@BHicklin15]

I really wish there was more warning of spoilers on these videos smh. He barely even spends time to let us know that he is giving spoilers for 5+ year old content!! I'm getting my pitchfork sharpened..

[@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie]

I know, he doesn't even abide by the decade until spoilers rule. It's shocking.

[@thedeaderer8791]

I got the torches, this has to stop.

[@LegendStormcrow]

I didn't get a warning for the warning

[@moki4895]

Let’s get him, he’s doomed now

[@jobear41]

Needs more squirrels

[@t2i3m4]

On April fools you should upload a 20 minute video that is 19 minutes of spoiler warnings before you just say Mollymauk dies

[@kaiwilson5628]

Mollymauk dies? Wow thanks for the spoiler warning.

[@UnofficialTranslator]

The first session the party was brought back to life by this girl. They kidnapped her and are now raising her to be some kind of freedom fighter

[@happyninja42]

i use GMPC's to try and shore up any glaring holes in the party. Like I only roleplay with 2 other friends, so it's always a small table. So in the shadowrun campaign I'm tooling up to run, they don't have transportation. so i plan on playing a Rigger to give them someone to cart them around that is in-universe, without them having to really worry about it. but that can also provide some help in certain sessions and encounters.

[@demonzero677]

Honestly, a good example of a whole crew of support characters for a dnd party was in The Unexpectables. The employees of The Sweet Dragon filled the support role wonderfully. Helga was basically the mom for the party who might sell you drinks, might break your legs.

[@tsuchinokofamiliar8092]

In my game I have a Dragonborn Npc who owns a magic shop that my player quickly became attached to I have her this awful French accent and she sold fun magic items and she and the group have saved each others hides in multiple occasions and one of them expressed how sad they would be if she died which was cool

[@venturerweegee64]

“We can’t have all this on the main channel” SAYS WHO? I would LOVE to see all the little things shows us at like the end of the video!

[@jaseofspades72]

Jay, what would you say to a DM who uses DMPC's to solve problems for players or just simply are built to be better than the player characters? This can also include campaign villains that have a perfect counter to everything the players are capable of.

[@darkestlight660]

Im not jay, but for me, the only way they should exist is for the players to overcome

[@emmawessa2102]

hey man! love your videos. I am planning my first campaign as a GM and you have been really helpful! Thanks!

[@trevorwilliams6362]

Amazing insight! I watch these with my nephew and we love you two so much!

[@WolfLuvsSushi]

Backwards Eyebrow Man...wow....that was brutal XD

[@mentalrebllion1270]

Oh now this is a subject matter that needs more chatter. Much appreciated for discussing it!

[@masonchapple7669]

Ok, the flipping off sound effect and the "hershe(y) on my players" had me dying 😂😂😂

[@thomasmitchell8902]

My players favourite support NPC in my campaign was a door named Gerald.

[@trooper8835]

Throughout our DM’s campaigns we’ve had two supporter characters. It’s pretty nice to have.

[@dklepto28]

Clearly your wife is the best support character. ❤

[@leffed2109]

I blinked for several minutes and didn't see a spoiler warning and I heard nothing either. How dare you not include a spoiler warning! 😂😊❤ Love this type of content! Keep up the good work!

[@shorgravan]

One day somebody will compile all of these spoiler alerts. It. Will. Be. Glorious. Seriously they're their own art form at this point.

[@judgejohnson2796]

2:33 I understood that song reference! "This will be the day my channel dies! this will be the day my channel dies!"

[@icchasaki]

17:21 I ACTUALLY DID, HOW DID HE KNOW-

[@jenny_of_oldstones3523]

I was gonna mention Shaun Gilmore. We love Shsun Gilmore.

[@ssfbob456]

I had a character I introduced as an enemy. That was the plan anyway, becaise on their second encounter with him, through some good arguments and some very good rolls, they convinced him to swap sides, then immediately wanted to bring him on missions. The problem is, as an NPC designed to challenge 5 PCs, he was very strong, and I could only nerf him so much without them noticing. I ended up having to constantly come up with excuses as to why he couldn't go with them

[@kazeboiii]

(Pulls out a gavel and slams it down) Canceled! Canceled on three counts of sPoILeRS and five counts of ToMFoOLeRY!

[@kazeboiii]

On the real tho-I love Jawbone so much

[@Mary_Studios]

I seriously thought the spoiler warning was an ad and was ready to hit skip

[@danielscantlebury3916]

You should do a video about Sam, I know so many people love him so a video on how great he is might seem obvious but I don't know if i've seen someone mention how great of a D&D player he is overall

[@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie]

He's phenomenal, but I definitely think Travis is the underrated one, as the things he commonly does are all subtle, whereas the others are more on show with their wins.

[@danielscantlebury3916]

100%, love Travis but my point is i've seen videos of how great Travis, Talisan, Marisha and Liam are through either Jay or other youtubers but never one about Sam (or Laura and Ashley) maybe because its a little more obvious with Sam as he's just outgoingly funny but still.@@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie

[@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie]

@@danielscantlebury3916 Oh, that's actually really interesting, I've sorta seen the other way around lmao I keep getting recommended videos on stuff like Laura's creativity when solving problems, so it might be an algorithm thing.

[@AndyReichert0]

perfect timing. my players know they're about to go to the Feywild, and they already need help in the normal world. if they don't recruit someone to help them, i am probably going to have to have an emotional support silly little guy ready to go.

[@anarchybeatbox4993]

RAW Jawbone was immune to the dragons mouth, its teeth arent magic or silver

[@Snaitycake]

I love the idea of a character like Jawbone, especially because they do improve but they’re still a little off 😂

[@berdlyistrans]

do you think dmpcs can be done well

[@mslabo102s2]

"Support Character" might've been a misnomer for this video. In reality it was about NPCs and stuffs, but some viewers might think it's about buffs, debuffs or heals. In fact, I did.

[@er4din903]

Bro why no spoiler tag before that Caleb getting cleaned scene?!! SMH my head

[@BlueTressym]

One thing I feel about support NPCs; don't be afraid to let them be people. I've heard many times of GMs being so anxious to avoid an NPC being seen as some kind of toxic, coul-sucking GMPC that they've overcompensated by forcing all NPCs to be non-entities. There's a huge middle ground between those two positions and it's not that hard to roleplay someone who is good to have around.

[@ShawnLevasseur]

And of course the GMPC that’s the exception to the rule: Essek

[@ShawnLevasseur]

Okay after seeing the WHOLE video. I see Essek actually plays by the rules of support NPCs

[@chameleon8844]

Battlepass popping up on a spoiler warning hahaha look what we made this series into 😂😂😂

[@aquila873]

Squirrley the Spoiler Squirrel is great, but please make sure to say the spoiler warning out loud! Some people may have visual impairments, or are only listening to the video.

[@alannar6189]

My players had to kill their support characters cause they got power word dominated (my homebrew spell) so that they could revive them outside of the possession :) they were very sad about it

[@Echolater763]

how can the egotistical player become more supportive? i have been playing 5e for a few years now and have stumbled my way into fights with my friends and personal mental struggles about making power hungry characters my entire experience with dnd, it's genuinely hard to stop doing this but they haven't given up on me so i want to fight to be there for them

[@Ellievsgod]

Pretty sure Brennan isn't wrong about lycanthropy, werewolves do have immunity against nonmagical physical damage that isn't silvered, and dragons bite attack is not considered magical. Now that isn't to say Jawbone wouldn't have been in a bad situation if the dragon decided to breathe fire, but from what you showed it looks RAW.

[@Jarvolo27]

Absolutely love Pumat as a character but I can't forgive him for being involved in the mutation of Firbolgs into dollar general minotaurs

[@gabrielberger7673]

I cant unhear it; puMATT Sol

[@alliebrown4790]

I know the spoiler warnings have become a big joke. But legitimately this spoiler warning was inaccessible. The problem is that it was only visual and not auditory so anyone with a visual disability or can’t see for any other reason has no idea what the spoiler warning was for

[@ThemermaidPearl]

I mean after the visual one he spends the next 2 mins saying spoiler warning again

[@alliebrown4790]

@@ThemermaidPearl as far as I heard he didn’t say what the spoiler warning was for. Like the specific campaigns. And when he started actually going into the topic I stopped watching so if he said it again after it was too late

[@dopeyiceman]

You are wrong. This is a video. He cannot account for every possible iteration of people who may be consuming this media. Most people watch videos. If you are worried about spoilers, WATCH the video. It is your responsibility to protect yourself at all times.

[@alliebrown4790]

@@dopeyiceman well not everyone is physically capable of watching things. Some people are blind or have vision problems. I’m not trying to call anyone out or be rude. I’m just trying to offer a simple reminder about accessibility. Shouldn’t we all do our best to make the world as good as it can be for everyone in it?

[@dopeyiceman]

@@alliebrown4790 No. Because it never ends. I have to consider all the people with every possible condition, disability, or whatever. It is impossible. It is the responsibility of every person to protect themself. No one can protect everyone.

[@leadingblind1629]

Between those two and Essek,how do you rank them

[@rodolfomaravillasduran8793]

Be nice to that squirrel

[@Toxi_Dragon]

awesome video guys but also WOOOO! 666th like XD

[@MySqueezingArm]

I can't believe you spoiled the ending to Survivor Season 1. For shame.

[@dancollin3465]

I made it halfway through this video before I had to step away to do other things and came back a day later and forgot you were spoiling things. Where is the middle video spoiler warning for people who don't make it all the way through in one go. Absolutely ridiculous!

[@justinc5967]

Dude. Just make an entire series called SPOILER WARNING where all you do is talk about spoilers.

[@mslabo102s2]

I see a problem prevalent throughout your video, (not an overly negative one, however:) Jay Martin assumes you and your group are at good at acting already. He does not try to show ways to apply these lessons for less skilled viewers.

[@bristowski]

Damn, I cannot believe I've spoiled by a guy with backwards eyebrows.

[@LegendStormcrow]

You failed to give a spoiler warning for the spoiler warning! ⚠️

[@Wilmete1]

Spoiler warning and fish. Approved.

[@user-dt2uv8ej2i]

Please do a separate channel. I really like your content, but my ADHD can't handle constant interruptions. I get lost and forget what the hell you were talking about. It's very hard for me to watch your videos lately. But otherwise, great video and great dnd advise, as always! Gonna try and implement it in my next campaign.

[@Picklescape]

I'd be on board with this. I love all the analysis and find it really engaging but tend to skip past everything else. I can see that some people love it, so a second channel (or even just blooper videos!) for those that love that stuff would be great, because then the people who enjoy it get to see it and those of us who are here for the main content don't have to skip past stuff/risk zoning out.

[@rogerwilco2]

The first 3 minutes of this video are not funny. I stopped watching.

[@lolertwtew]

You come here for funny?

[@RedYDG]

I wanted to make a joke about missing the specific time of the spoiler warning, but you just kept warning about spoilers. Really it got in the way of the rest of the video, you should put less spoiler warnings in your videos.