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I just watched the DM go through all the stages of grief in less than 10 seconds.

As a DM I am extremely jealous that it took that long for the party to ruin the entire story arc.

and this is why, as a DM, I always say things like 'for a moment you have a flash of inspiration and realize that, should you cut that rope, the oracle who you have spent the last 3 sessions tracking to save will certainly die, and the staff you've been hunting for will be destroyed by the fall.'

“Not today’s session no” I love that. Implying that nope you didn’t just ruin this sessions, but several future ones yes.

Plot twist: Vivian's an Oracle and probably a magic user. She casts feather fall on herself to survive the fall into the canyon. Trapped and alone she's forced to survive on the only meat available, the remains of the hobgoblin army. Vivian's sanity degrades and she vows revenge on those that trapped her down there when she escapes. Vivian becomes the BBEG.

To be fair to Brit, an entire army of the scale he was describing crossing one of those rickety ass rope bridges was probably doomed to fall into the chasm.

What kills me about this is that the whole thing happens because he's like "Oh the bridge? Yeah it's made of... ropes and planks of wood, I guess." The WHOLE PLAN is ruined, that plan he spent 4 weeks preparing, because of that one "minor detail" that he for some reason never thought about in those 4 weeks.

Got to love that the one time Rowan does something helpful, it basically enables the team to ruin the whole game!

"I can't make that miss." The sound of the last straw slipping out of the DM's grasp.

Well, the oracle is dead, so.... now you need to travel down into the chasm and fight an army of undead hobgoblis : )

One of my players once firebombed a bar that was also a hideout for the local criminals. He knew that, of course. He wanted to "show them who's boss", in his words. Mind you, he played a scrawny non-combat scholar type, the criminals weren't their enemies, and their own boss had told them before sending them off that the literal most important thing was to NOT draw attention to themselves.

I love the instant goldfish brain where the DM says he can't fire a spell down the bridge line because the NPC they want to save is at the front, then they immediately decide to destroy the entire bridge. Side note, Shatter has a range of 60 feet, and could potentially hit a target 70 feet away (ten foot radius). If the entire army was on that bridge when it fell and they weren't even close to reaching the party yet, then that is either a very small army, or the bridge is well beyond 70 feet long.

"I thought Vivian was going to be my mother." "She was. Your party just murdered her."

Man, you guy's special effects budget must be through the roof. I could hardly tell that dragon was CGI.

Hands down the best DnD skit I've EVER seen from any channel. I was cackling. My wife is a DM and I'm just giddy sending this to her.

3:12 For someone that fail perception check and the ladder he was carring before, Rowan did notice something quite revelant there.

There’s nothing more funny than a D&D DM trying to improvise “I AM SKYGROUNDTREE, THE WELL-ESTABLISHED DRAGON!”

"The 'well established' dragon lands in front of you." "What does it say?" "It says ROLL INITIATIVE!"

2:53 DM could have said "Ah ha! The bridge was actually magically enhanced and cannot be damaged."

This has happened to me directly. Planned a whole weekend event with one very powerful villian, and 1 player had a bright idea to use a Time Travel Spell and go back to kill the villian during child birth. Upturning 30 years of game history that had directly affected the hero party's childhood causing a temporal paradox where no member of the party became heroes.

"Just as you're about to cut the rope, you hear a divine voice echoing from above saying: Please don't do that..."

Brit: "Did I just ruin today's entire game session?" Rob: "Not today's session, no." ... only just the next few weeks of adventures, meticulously crafted and planned. I feel your pain, Rob. 😧

As I always say, "Never make plans, make NPC's with plans." It's made situations like these more enjoyable since I'm not as attached.

LOL, I've experienced this very thing. Except the game ended right there. I had a Game Master (not DM because it wasn't D&D) that was hosting a Star Wars roll playing game session based on the 3.5 edition. Most of us were classes other than Jedi, but we had a force adept character in our group that was trying to become one. The GM at the time had planned out weeks worth of information based around an arching story featuring a low end female Sith lord that wanted to frighten our force adept character into joining the dark side. Upon introducing her to the party the GM had us roll initiative. He was going to let us fight her long enough to show how powerful she was, and set the tone for the rest of the campaign. However, our force adept character rolled extremely high on his initiative, and was able to go first. When he rolled to attack her he rolled a "20", followed by a "20", which at the time meant that if you rolled another dice and hit again it would be an instant kill according to the rules. He rolled a "19"... which was high enough to kill her instantly. The GM sat there looking dumbfounded for a few seconds, closed his game notebook, and said "So what do you guys want to do tonight? board games, video games, watch a movie."

I remember the look on DM's faces when I rolled 2 natural 20's to kill some boss in a battle that should've required the whole party, in one hit. The stunned silenece. The staring down at her notes/books. They very resigned and quiet "you killed him in one hit". Classic.

Didn’t expect the most logical thing to do would ruin the entire campaign….

I would have just said, “You win! Campaign over!”

Adding the RPG play & on site GM has been the perfect way to expand on your fantasy based skits. Love the D&D channel as well.

Vivian was supposed to be in the other castle, but Rowan forgot about his ladder lol. I love the lack of CGI dragon, because presumably Rob did not bring his dragon miniature today. XD

This is giving me DM PTSD, hours and days of prep, all gone with a simple roll... *Cries*

There’s really a simple fix to this: DM: “Okay you go to cut the bridge. However, the hobgoblin sees you do this, and shouts ‘EVERYONE HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!!!’ This is a very well-made bridge, designed to hold their whole army, so the other end and the rest of the bridge stays intact as the bridge collapses at one end and swings like a pendulum back towards the other end of the chasm. The hobgoblins on the bridge all have to make their choice of athletics or acrobatics checks to hold on to the now swinging rope bridge and not fall into the chasm. The captain and second in command have advantage on this check because they were prepared to hold on as they saw you cutting the bridge” *Proceeds to roll for all the hobgoblins* “Okay, around 40% of them fail their checks, and you watch as a decent portion of their army falls into the chasm. However, the rest of the army takes their turns and dash, climbing back up onto solid land and going back into their fortress, snarling at you and carrying the oracle. What do you do?”

In case anyone is wondering, this is why DMs enjoy inflicting TPKs on their playing groups And as a veteran DM tip, always prepare at least 5 "the party f***ed up my plan" events in advance. I recommend ones that involve putting on a funny voice and acting out an insanely powerful NPC who insults the party and gives them a hard time for whatver they just did, as these are particularly cathartic.

Classic Rob, setting up an intricate well thought up arc with incredible plot, obstacles, and reveals...all just as a red herring for the totally REAL plan all along!!!

1:50 I was expecting Ben throwing fireball at the bridge and burn it down but that could work too 😂😂😂

as my group pushed us further into the dungeon that was 4 to 5 lvls above us, i could see the emotions going through my dm's eyes. the strained smile that says "this was not supposed to happen so soon"

A friend ran an awesome Farscape game, years ago now. We (the PCs) had arrived in a city, and needed to track down a certain NPC. The GM had prepped a whole investigation, and trail across the city, meeting interesting folks... But then the Delvian Mystic buffed the Vorkarian Bloodtracker's sense of smell, and we tracked him to his door, with an amazing tracking roll! xD The GM did the same as in the skit, tossing pages out of his folder.

“32…… we’ll i can’t make that miss” *dies inside*

For once rowan wasn't the actual instigator this time

A chaotic but engaging game session. Those unexpected player actions can really throw a wrench in the DM's plans. Better luck with Skygroutree, hope that gives a fun twist to the adventure!

Reminds me of a campaign I played a long time ago. Our dm had setup this town with a bunch of adventures in it. He put a lot of work into it. His wife even drew and painted a really cool picture of it and we burned the whole town down shortly after arriving. He was really upset and didn't want to play with us any more. I still feel bad about it, but it was pretty funny while we were burning the town down.

Rob went through all the stages of grief, just to land on "fuck it. TPK".

As a DM I know this feeling. In one of my campaigns, my players created a cult about a well and kept throwing citizens in. 😂

This is excellent on so many levels. The acting, production value, vibes & the punchline. Everything is Adorable about this. :)

I really Feel for Rob on this. Honestly the Whole "Adventures of Azerim" campaign has me seeing Rob's stellar performances vastly under appreciated over and over again. Bravo Rob, the Real Star Of The Show ✨⭐✨

Rob is such a great actor. I love seeing him be in more skits now.

As soon as I heard rope bridge I thought the same thing

If I were that DM I would have said "Oh, but it was all a shared premonition dream you had sleeping in the Inn, but the real Hob Goblin fortress has sturdy wooden bridges you can't just cut down! I know it sounds like a load of BS, but that's because it is."

Someone pointed out that your players can never really break anything. That hobgoblin fort will be called something else in a different adventure. That NPC they ignored in this one will show up in the next and feel like a new character. It's all good.

The more interesting one is where you absently mention a city somewhere... and then the group decides to go to the city... a city you have not prepared for because it was 10 sessions away.

For some reason Rob can roleplay frustration so very well

Kudos to Rob for adapting seamlessly-ish through his tears.

I'll never forget my first DnD campaign, where we almost all got completely wiped on our first quest because we had the brilliant idea of attempting to talk to the enemy. Our speech skills left a lot to be desired to say the least.

DM: The king of the Nation of solace says to yo- What do you mean you cast fireball.

Time to introduce a hermit necromancer who has just been supplied with an entire army of bodies. As well as a powerful staff.

"If you don't know what to do spawn them a dragon" is something that probably is more common that expected

To any DMs that have had this happen: stop planning ahead. Read *Apocalypse World game mastering notes* and learn from it. Do not plan. It is extra work that likely won't pay off. You can DM impromptu and it will turn out way better. Build Fronts, which are obstacles and ideas that make up a world. Give these fronts specific goals in mind, and assign them an NPC or two and a few ideas. Outlines, not books, guys.

What a great dm. I could never come up with that.

I like the "Oh no, cant blast the entire bridge because of the Oracle," and then "i'll just cut the entire bridge down." 🤣

Utter sidenote, Ben's staff is such a nerdy thing and I love it. The metallic portions are very aesthetic.

You know what I like the most about this? He didn't hold it against the party he could have just as easily said Vivian was definitely still your mother. But he didn't lol.

I have never been a DM before, but I feel like the most difficult thing about being a DM is that, sometimes you are sad that the campaigns you planned have been ruined, and yet you have to comfort the players so that they are not affected by your emotion.

Leave it for Ben to try the impossible and Rowan to follow it up instantly 😂

Perfect video. I especially enjoyed the Bardic Inspiration. Absolutely nailed the feel of DnD. Great work!

I like how within 10 seconds they don’t shoot the sun ray because they don’t want to kill Vivian. Only to cut the rope that holds the bridge. Holding the army. Holding Vivian.

I was a player in a Call of Cthulhu Now campaign once that went awry right from the start. Some guy on a computer turned into a tentacled monster that we were supposed to run away from in the 1st encounter. With some incredible rolls, another player killed it, with a sword cane of all things. The monster was the crux of the whole campaign. He turned back into a guy and we got arrested for murder and thrown in jail 😅

You know you're in trouble as a DM when you have to say "I DID say that..."

I really like the throwing knife sheaths on her armor. Looks slick.

4:14 "The well established threat of these parts!" had me lmaoing, not going to lie. Been there Rob, been there! 😂

A party I was in did that once. The wizard stronghold had a thatched roof, and my character had fire arrows, which promptly ignited the roof and burnt it down with lots of wonderful firework effects. A stack of papers describing the stronghold was ripped up leaving a very sad DM. Shortly thereafter, the party met an unfortunate end due to a surpringly strong encounter.

I swear you can see this happen from time to time during the campaign in Rob’s facial expressions. I worry about this every time I’m DMing.

This was amazing yet soul wretching at the same time. Props on all the wasted hard work with 'what I can only assume was an awesome story line with much character growth from the now avoided challenges they could have faced.

Here's an idea for a vid - just make it around DM bring grumpy and punishing everyone. Kudos to whoever came up with the idea of having the DM walk the scene with the adventures. You guys pull it off greatly.

About 3 decades ago this actualy happened more or less to a campaign I was in, Temple of elemental Evil or some such thing. Basically a packed multi level dungeon but covering a relatively small ground area. My dufus mate 'The Dark One' had found a horn that attracted all enemies within 200 metres which he couldn't resist blowing at every opportunity, 200 up down and sideways, every monster in the module came running to the entrance hall. We all died horribly. Game over man, Game over.

I love Rob suddenly morphing into a dragon out of nowhere. 🤣

Simple solution: There are a bunch of Shamans and other people in the army with Feather Fall. They all float harmlessly to the ground, including the oracle, who is being held by several bruisers who are affected by Feather Fall. You give your party a chance to escape as the army makes their way up the cliff to either return to their fortress or pursue your party. This gives a great chance for debate, role play, maybe even tactical combat.

As soon as they get done with the dragon, they could probably work their way down into the ravine, find the oracle's body, then raise dead. Might need some water breathing potions or whatever, but it can definitely be done.

Once, one of my players casted wall of fire on the boat their 2 friends were captured on. And was shocked it caught on fire. So they ended up watching as the boat sank with all the loot and important documents for one of the players' backstory on it. The captain of the guard was not happy.

I mean as soon as the army was alerted and began crossing the rope bridge, who wouldn't go for such a high kill count with a single toss of the dice? She's a damn legend. Shame about losing the loot and failing the quest to rescue the oracle. Guess the oracle didn't forsee that happening.

No D&D campaign survives first contact with the players.

Rob's acting was done with full experience behind his voice😅, that grief is potent!

I've been there! I spent hours making a whole trapped fortress and my mage just sent a summoned rhino through it... Destroying all my work in seconds.

3:21 the sadness here really hit me :'(

3:39 adam's scream is so funny!

To be fair... I instantly thought "cut the bridge down" before he said the oracle was with the army. 😂

We have to see more of Rob, he's such a good actor.

That's not how it goes at all! You just say that by cutting the rope, you dispelled the illusion surrounding the fort, revealing that the bridges are actually made of *STONE*! (Haha!) And that you can now see an open portcullis leading to a staircase to the underbridge. 😁

Sometimes you spend so much time anticipating the crazy things players might pull that you miss the obvious one.

Starting to think this season of D&D logic is just Rob's experiences of D&D.

Brit cuts the bridge. "With this character's death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created."

2:17 let the oracle make it across fight the rest while you cute the rope 😅 I don’t think a single thing that could go wrong 😑 😂

Our DM... would have given up when the fireball was cast, lol.

Been there done that. My poor gm's hate when I completely derail a campaign. Had a session where my team was supposed to sneak into this big cooperate headquarters building in Shadowrun and assassinate a target inside. My character had a day job as a construction worker and was a mage with some shape element spells. To make a long story short my team and I just took out all the structural supports and brought down the whole building.

This is the best episode of the season so far. I have been both the DM and the player in this scenario. And yeah, at what level of the party ruining your plans do you just go “screw it, here’s a dragon!”

I've never played a D&D session even though I love cRPGs such as the Baldur's Gate series. What I want to say is that I learn a lot from your videos. When I once get to play a real session I'll know what to do and what I shouldn't do. Thanks yoi a lot!

Oh, god, I've done this. It was in a team tournament at European GenCon about thirty years ago. We were playing goblins fleeing the destruction of our village. As we fled, we happened upon our village's shaman in the woods at a campfire. He was making some strange sounds, and I decided to put him out of his misery. The DM blinked and paused for a second, then asked me to roll my attack. It was a nat 20. He asked me to roll damage (which was d6 plus a couple of modest bonuses), and I rolled a 6. The DM described the shaman's head being cleft from his body, and bouncing in the fire as it rolled away. He then said something along the lines of "Right. Erm . . ." and started leafing through the pages of the adventure module. It looked like I had forced him to skip four whole pages of role-play, plot and exposition before he found a page from which we could pick up. Our team . . . did not win that tournament.

Fortunately there is a spare bridge below the first one, Viviane is saved \o/

Prediction before watching this video: it's Rowan's fault

So Rob got to do more in this one, including some more emotional acting.

The group killing all on the bridge was a fit of genius. On my table I would've applauded my players. Though I would've asked them if they really intend to also let Vivien plummet to her death beforehand:D