No member of the faculty is to maltreat the abos in any way whatsoever—if there’s anyone watching.
Felix
3 years ago
I once had a session where I wanted the PCs to sleep in a town after escaping from a horde of orcs. I didn’t expect the town to be anything more than a pitstop before the adventure went on. They did not like the innkeeper though, as I played him to be a bit of a rip-off, sleazy kind of guy. So they immediately started planning how to rob the guy. Not wanting to simply let them get away with that and at least trying to get some conflict involved I had the guy that was keeping the stable, a… Read more »
One Paladin kept going around villages and towns and scattered a few gold pieces around ‘helping the poor’. The GM, being a medieval history major tried to tell him the amounts he was shoveling out were more than some of these folk would see in months, but he ignored it. So the next time it happened, they started fighting over the golden coins – fists, clubs, knives… there were people dying. Rather than simply scattering coppers, he stopped tossing out money period. Sometimes your team surprises you… I had a party going to a swamp village (Nulb? in Temple of… Read more »
Our DM once had to change a session on the fly because our party spared a group of enemies he had expected us to kill. Long story short, we were facing a Warlock who had hired a band of wererats (recurring villians) and things were set for a nice fight. Only, our party, knowing what the Warlock was after realized there was no way the Warlock was paying the wererats near enough and managed to persuade them to switch sides by convincing them how much they were being screwed and offering a better deal. The DM realized this was not… Read more »
Once had my group in a sessions completely preempt the DM’s planning with a villain. The guy, who was supposed to be a reoccurring nemesis, is like 1 sentence into his monologue when our archer decides to shoot him with a called shot on his head. And then proceeded to nat-20 *3 times in a row*. Villain’s head explodes. Oops. Later in that same campaign, we’re going after a dragon hoard. Enter lair, accidentally wake up dragon, it riles itself up for combat…and our druid, who has tried to befriend every animal she’s met so far, tries to do so… Read more »
i get that not everyone would do it my way, but when i DM, i tend to “hard nope” some things that are, well, unrealistic beyond suspension of disbelief. in my games, a dragon that wakes up to strangers trying to take from their hoard will NOT befriend them to the point of going “sure, take my stuff”. the absolute maximum would be “GIVE me all YOUR stuff, then you may leave alive”. Save for some super duper magic “dragons are gullible idiots around this thing” artifact the group might have. on the other hand, im also strictly against “your… Read more »
Fellow DM here. You never know what the players try to do. I once hosted a rather simple adventure as a part o ongoing SciFi campaing. Basically the whole idea was that there was a pirate operation smuggling goods from planet A to planet B and later on some greedy idiot realized that if they cut the pirates down as local army, they could run the smuggling themselves and no-one would be wiser. Except the local church got a whiff of it (Planet B was a theocracy), and wanted their shares so they declared the pirates (who at that point… Read more »
Some Guy
3 years ago
It’s important as a DM to have plans for every occasion. That way, you know exactly what your players *won’t* do.
Not strange; kinda sad. It’s fairly common to see bad DMs use DMPCs to kinda ‘god-mode’ the game, so I usually assume that when someone believes it to never be good, it’s ’cause they’ve likely had multiple bad experiences.
That’s why I give a skilled player a PCNPC. They can do whatever thye want and craft the character as they see fit, I just request they achieve certain milestones via notes I will pass towards them regarding what I need the party pushed toward and only when the party is loafing around with their thumbs up their collective arses.
It could also be amatter of general perception, in that you likely hear a lot of stories about DM’s that abuse use of DMPCs, but nobody writes glowing retellings about DMPCs done right. Perhaps people have had negative experiences with DMPCs, but just because some DMs don’t do it properly, doesn’t mean it CAN’T be done well. I’ve seen it done well numerous times, but it does require a level of self-control and some self-imposed guidelines. Three chose a support class, one of the two best options for a DMPC in my opinion (the other being a dumb fighter), and… Read more »
There’s also the issue of the DM character ending up, by design of character or just luck, too much spotlight while the players’ characters are struggling. That never feels right. Sometimes a DMNPC can arrive as the result of a player choice. We had Bob the Ranger who ended up being a bodyguard for the party’s mage (because all the sneaks and tanks constantly rushed at the big threats letting the mage get slammed). Another time, we had a lizard man that was a survivor from a battle who converted to the war god the party’s clerics espoused and he… Read more »
Sorry if the comment felt backhanded; that wasn’t my intention. I’ve been reading your stuff from the very beginning and love these D&D comics. The other commenters pretty much nailed why I am not a fan of DMPCs. It’s not that 3 or his cleric are bad; it’s that they unavoidably remind me of some really iffy tables I’ve been at. I played a Curse of Strahd game where the DM ran Ireena as a DMPC. That was interesting, and shook up the way we treated that character. So you’re absolutely right that it can be done well. It’s just… Read more »
No not “backhanded” per se, but certainly not coming from an objective place 😉 I certainly understand how personal experiences can color perception and I will definitely agree that using a DMPC take a certain balance not every DM can juggle on top of their other duties. But I’d like to think that I’ve not shown Three playing Tobyn as any sort of overpowered or domineering presence in their games that takes away from the adventure the others are having.
Be careful that these puns don’t go stale or else it’ll take a cruton of time to sort our tbe flamewars baking this thread.
Norbert
3 years ago
My favourite DM-screw-over was the following: Starter characters, lv 1. We got into a inn, then a howl was heard in the distance. Now all people in the inn started to frantically boarding up all entrances. Half an hour later we found a chewen-off body inside the inn, showing that a werewolf already in the inn. Later we found the werewolf eating a victim. Oversight of the DM was, that my starter equipment for my rogue always consisted two equipment: a two-layered leather armguard with thief tools between them, and a silver dagger hidden in left boot. I rolled the… Read more »
We just had one werewolf, right. But what about second werewolf?
DAK
3 years ago
I had a session where the PCs started off being tied up in the brig of a ship, while they should overhear some NPCs talking, giving them exposition necessary for the whole session. Foolish me, thinking that was going through. Before the NPCs could get more than a sentence out, the PCs managed to free themselves and slaughtered everyone aboard. Including anyone who could sail the ship through the storm. Had to come up with a whole new session on the fly. But it turned out to be really fun.
Unagiman
3 years ago
As a HS teacher I have occasionally had opportunities to play D&D with students. Fortunately there’s never been a group that went full murder hobo, but if that happens I’m going to introduce them to the idea of “Consequences in an RPG” because they’ll stumble upon a sleep picturesque town that just happens to be where a famous adventuring party retired 5-10 years ago.
Ahahahahaha!! Good one. I’d almost pay money to watch that 😀
Drew
3 years ago
I’m kind of disappointed. Four hasn’t tried to stabby-stab anyone recently. It’s as if she’s been satisfied with the blood-flow from her fellow players.
Or something busts from her stomach, like in Alien
Duane E Naulls
3 years ago
Your stories keep getting better. You should submit some ideas to Viva La Dirt League…
Scrysis
3 years ago
As a DM, I feel this little side story so much. Although, there needs to be another session where the players wait to be led by the nose through everything and don’t show any initiative. . . ever. THOSE are my players. >_<
Arcatus
3 years ago
Just me, or is anyone else getting the autoplay esport “ad”? Both in the sidebar and above the comments?
It has been there for months. And it is the same video. For months. “daily” my eye…
Drew Jarrett Hoskins-Smith
3 years ago
In our campaign, we checked out the Adventurers’ Guild of the city we’d just entered and on the notice board our DM described three fearsome monsters: a giant worm we’d escaped from on the road to the city; a giant in the nearby mountains; a likely kraken, which would be our first ship-based challenge. For flavour, off the top of his head, he added that there were minor quests, only mentioning in passing a little girl’s missing cat, for which a few gold was the reward.
Guess what we unanimously decided we really wanted to do?
I hope you’re referring to Cheery Longbottoms famous Battle Buns, nothing else is worth considering.
Drew
3 years ago
The last line made me rage. DMs work so hard that even a mediocre one should be encouraged.
SCIENCE!!
3 years ago
Remember: a DnD group is still ‘unchristened’ until it has its first TPK.
SiliconWolf
3 years ago
Rule #1: The DM is the god of this tiny little world. Do not piss off the DM.
Rule #2: Work with the DM. This is a creation they worked hard on.
Rule #3: The DM actually IS out to kill you. So… bonus points if you can piss them off by ‘accident’.
Del Cox
3 years ago
This one made my DM wife laugh for a good two minutes.
Tonkin
3 years ago
Please tell me that the bbeg is the great british baking dark elf
Vukodlak
3 years ago
Blue’s character was later killed when by a wereyeast infected green.
Nick
3 years ago
For some reason a Daily Esports Weekly Recap started autoplaying when I opened the comic today.
Tomn
3 years ago
Betcha blue actually DID like the campaign, he just couldn’t resist slipping in a “half-baked” pun.
24
First.
I love you all.
okay, whats second?
No member of the faculty is to maltreat the abos in any way whatsoever—if there’s anyone watching.
I once had a session where I wanted the PCs to sleep in a town after escaping from a horde of orcs. I didn’t expect the town to be anything more than a pitstop before the adventure went on. They did not like the innkeeper though, as I played him to be a bit of a rip-off, sleazy kind of guy. So they immediately started planning how to rob the guy. Not wanting to simply let them get away with that and at least trying to get some conflict involved I had the guy that was keeping the stable, a… Read more »
Just stopped to get some rest.. Yeah, right 🙂
They DID all get an alignment chabge, right?
One Paladin kept going around villages and towns and scattered a few gold pieces around ‘helping the poor’. The GM, being a medieval history major tried to tell him the amounts he was shoveling out were more than some of these folk would see in months, but he ignored it. So the next time it happened, they started fighting over the golden coins – fists, clubs, knives… there were people dying. Rather than simply scattering coppers, he stopped tossing out money period. Sometimes your team surprises you… I had a party going to a swamp village (Nulb? in Temple of… Read more »
Our DM once had to change a session on the fly because our party spared a group of enemies he had expected us to kill. Long story short, we were facing a Warlock who had hired a band of wererats (recurring villians) and things were set for a nice fight. Only, our party, knowing what the Warlock was after realized there was no way the Warlock was paying the wererats near enough and managed to persuade them to switch sides by convincing them how much they were being screwed and offering a better deal. The DM realized this was not… Read more »
Once had my group in a sessions completely preempt the DM’s planning with a villain. The guy, who was supposed to be a reoccurring nemesis, is like 1 sentence into his monologue when our archer decides to shoot him with a called shot on his head. And then proceeded to nat-20 *3 times in a row*. Villain’s head explodes. Oops. Later in that same campaign, we’re going after a dragon hoard. Enter lair, accidentally wake up dragon, it riles itself up for combat…and our druid, who has tried to befriend every animal she’s met so far, tries to do so… Read more »
i get that not everyone would do it my way, but when i DM, i tend to “hard nope” some things that are, well, unrealistic beyond suspension of disbelief. in my games, a dragon that wakes up to strangers trying to take from their hoard will NOT befriend them to the point of going “sure, take my stuff”. the absolute maximum would be “GIVE me all YOUR stuff, then you may leave alive”. Save for some super duper magic “dragons are gullible idiots around this thing” artifact the group might have. on the other hand, im also strictly against “your… Read more »
I mean, I’d let them choose an item for a couple nat 20s, maybe give them a quest to retrieve an item for the dragon to gain his friendship
Fellow DM here. You never know what the players try to do. I once hosted a rather simple adventure as a part o ongoing SciFi campaing. Basically the whole idea was that there was a pirate operation smuggling goods from planet A to planet B and later on some greedy idiot realized that if they cut the pirates down as local army, they could run the smuggling themselves and no-one would be wiser. Except the local church got a whiff of it (Planet B was a theocracy), and wanted their shares so they declared the pirates (who at that point… Read more »
It’s important as a DM to have plans for every occasion. That way, you know exactly what your players *won’t* do.
Yeah, you keep telling yourself that 😉
programming TPKs for the next 10 sessions
Half-*baked*? Got one last pun in before the end! Loved it. 😀
Love this. Really glad to see Yellow stopped running a DMPC.
He didn’t. And that’s a strange thing to be “really glad” about, isn’t it?
Not strange; kinda sad. It’s fairly common to see bad DMs use DMPCs to kinda ‘god-mode’ the game, so I usually assume that when someone believes it to never be good, it’s ’cause they’ve likely had multiple bad experiences.
“They don’t think my DMPC is cool? They’ll see. They’ll all see!”
That’s why I give a skilled player a PCNPC. They can do whatever thye want and craft the character as they see fit, I just request they achieve certain milestones via notes I will pass towards them regarding what I need the party pushed toward and only when the party is loafing around with their thumbs up their collective arses.
It could also be amatter of general perception, in that you likely hear a lot of stories about DM’s that abuse use of DMPCs, but nobody writes glowing retellings about DMPCs done right. Perhaps people have had negative experiences with DMPCs, but just because some DMs don’t do it properly, doesn’t mean it CAN’T be done well. I’ve seen it done well numerous times, but it does require a level of self-control and some self-imposed guidelines. Three chose a support class, one of the two best options for a DMPC in my opinion (the other being a dumb fighter), and… Read more »
There’s also the issue of the DM character ending up, by design of character or just luck, too much spotlight while the players’ characters are struggling. That never feels right. Sometimes a DMNPC can arrive as the result of a player choice. We had Bob the Ranger who ended up being a bodyguard for the party’s mage (because all the sneaks and tanks constantly rushed at the big threats letting the mage get slammed). Another time, we had a lizard man that was a survivor from a battle who converted to the war god the party’s clerics espoused and he… Read more »
Sorry if the comment felt backhanded; that wasn’t my intention. I’ve been reading your stuff from the very beginning and love these D&D comics. The other commenters pretty much nailed why I am not a fan of DMPCs. It’s not that 3 or his cleric are bad; it’s that they unavoidably remind me of some really iffy tables I’ve been at. I played a Curse of Strahd game where the DM ran Ireena as a DMPC. That was interesting, and shook up the way we treated that character. So you’re absolutely right that it can be done well. It’s just… Read more »
No not “backhanded” per se, but certainly not coming from an objective place 😉 I certainly understand how personal experiences can color perception and I will definitely agree that using a DMPC take a certain balance not every DM can juggle on top of their other duties. But I’d like to think that I’ve not shown Three playing Tobyn as any sort of overpowered or domineering presence in their games that takes away from the adventure the others are having.
this story line is what happens when you dont have some sort of helping guidance to get them to the prepared story.
Crust falls, everybody’s pies.
Rock cakes, surely?
No way I can come up with a better pun. I propose we celebrate this one with a toast.
This is clearly coming from a well bread gentleman who is also a man of action and not one to loaf around.
The Cake is a lie.
OK now this game is no Bun.
Be careful that these puns don’t go stale or else it’ll take a cruton of time to sort our tbe flamewars baking this thread.
My favourite DM-screw-over was the following: Starter characters, lv 1. We got into a inn, then a howl was heard in the distance. Now all people in the inn started to frantically boarding up all entrances. Half an hour later we found a chewen-off body inside the inn, showing that a werewolf already in the inn. Later we found the werewolf eating a victim. Oversight of the DM was, that my starter equipment for my rogue always consisted two equipment: a two-layered leather armguard with thief tools between them, and a silver dagger hidden in left boot. I rolled the… Read more »
We just had one werewolf, right. But what about second werewolf?
I had a session where the PCs started off being tied up in the brig of a ship, while they should overhear some NPCs talking, giving them exposition necessary for the whole session. Foolish me, thinking that was going through. Before the NPCs could get more than a sentence out, the PCs managed to free themselves and slaughtered everyone aboard. Including anyone who could sail the ship through the storm. Had to come up with a whole new session on the fly. But it turned out to be really fun.
As a HS teacher I have occasionally had opportunities to play D&D with students. Fortunately there’s never been a group that went full murder hobo, but if that happens I’m going to introduce them to the idea of “Consequences in an RPG” because they’ll stumble upon a sleep picturesque town that just happens to be where a famous adventuring party retired 5-10 years ago.
Ahahahahaha!! Good one. I’d almost pay money to watch that 😀
I’m kind of disappointed. Four hasn’t tried to stabby-stab anyone recently. It’s as if she’s been satisfied with the blood-flow from her fellow players.
She was too busy vanquishing baked goods with her mighty system of organs…
Is it okay to eat a wereyeast?
Why not turn Green into some wereyeast monster? Or have the wereyeast be a kind of parasite that changes her?
Or something busts from her stomach, like in Alien
Your stories keep getting better. You should submit some ideas to Viva La Dirt League…
As a DM, I feel this little side story so much. Although, there needs to be another session where the players wait to be led by the nose through everything and don’t show any initiative. . . ever. THOSE are my players. >_<
Just me, or is anyone else getting the autoplay esport “ad”? Both in the sidebar and above the comments?
It has been there for months. And it is the same video. For months. “daily” my eye…
In our campaign, we checked out the Adventurers’ Guild of the city we’d just entered and on the notice board our DM described three fearsome monsters: a giant worm we’d escaped from on the road to the city; a giant in the nearby mountains; a likely kraken, which would be our first ship-based challenge. For flavour, off the top of his head, he added that there were minor quests, only mentioning in passing a little girl’s missing cat, for which a few gold was the reward.
Guess what we unanimously decided we really wanted to do?
“Half-Baked.” Doo-doo doo doodoo doo *Bonk*
Next up? Dwarven Bread!
I hope you’re referring to Cheery Longbottoms famous Battle Buns, nothing else is worth considering.
The last line made me rage. DMs work so hard that even a mediocre one should be encouraged.
Remember: a DnD group is still ‘unchristened’ until it has its first TPK.
Rule #1: The DM is the god of this tiny little world. Do not piss off the DM.
Rule #2: Work with the DM. This is a creation they worked hard on.
Rule #3: The DM actually IS out to kill you. So… bonus points if you can piss them off by ‘accident’.
This one made my DM wife laugh for a good two minutes.
Please tell me that the bbeg is the great british baking dark elf
Blue’s character was later killed when by a wereyeast infected green.
For some reason a Daily Esports Weekly Recap started autoplaying when I opened the comic today.
Betcha blue actually DID like the campaign, he just couldn’t resist slipping in a “half-baked” pun.
“Unbread army” is a really good pun.