"They're really looking forward to fighting this shadow dragon" said the players who don't know what a shadow dragon's breath does.

If Kek's weapon is the weapon of an old Dwarvern hero why not have the demon be an adversary of his hero who has sworn vengeance against the weapon instead of the wielder?

Man, these older RTG videos are full of golden DM tips. I love rewatching these!

Well, technically, Tiamat lives on the surface layer (Avernus) of the Nine Hells, so, what if the giant slaying property that was added to the maul, was stolen from an item in her own personal horde.. and she noticed.

+Matthew Colville Thanks for touching on the more intimate aspects of your DMing experience (regarding the players claiming theyd rather quit than make a new Character)! very cool to address this topic, does not really get addressed in a lot of content and its actually incredibly central to the experience!

A fucking hour? *screams FUCK YEAH to the window on to the brazilian country side*

A succubus/incubus is always my go to with the devil card. Make them follow this cleric, shape change into female dwarves in different towns. Seduce him, make him question his god (or try to atleast). See how far he will fall before he figures out something is wrong.

**pause whatever im doing** holy shit matt colville uploaded a new video!! **hits youtube so fast i have to rely on autocorrect to get me there**

Just as a note for DMs that stumble across this video even a year later: Matt's ruling on pass without a trace is just that, his ruling. And though ruling that way is useful in the moment, after the session it makes no sense to keep it that way. The spell pass without a trace let's you do exactly that...pass without a trace. This means you no longer leave tracks, so you cant be tracked. You can certainly be sensed. If something can pinpoint your current location, you're screwed. I think the confusion comes from the other side of the ability and the reason everyone with access to it casts it all the timen the +10 to stealth checks.

Use the Matt Mercer method of dealing with overplaning. Basically boils down to "what are you doing?" If they don't have an answer in short order, they don't do anything. No discussion by committee, you tell me what your action is or you stand there thinking. A round is only 6 seconds so nothing should take overly long. I think he has a video about it someplace, but the idea and execution of it works pretty well.

If ever you decide to sell t-shirts "I am a river to my- you get it" would be a fun one

Idea for Emnity: The Hammer of the Lawgiver has awoken and somewhere a giant-sized Demon of Chaos has awoken as well, desperate and hungry for revenge. Perhaps it wields the Sword of the Oathbreaker. Perhaps it is related to the Demon-sire of the Duregar as well. Bring this knowledge to him in the form of dreams that STEAL his experience, as if the spirit of the Lawgiver's Hammer is struggling to turn Kek the Warpriest into an ancient warrior like Krazelov Oathblood, Hammer of the Lawgiver. The experience drain will only stop when Kek can find some way of reconciling himself with the newly awakened destiny of the Hammer. Which might actually be represented by instantly gaining a level of some class to make his delayed level 6 worth it.

DMing is hard

I can imagine the FBI going through your text messages (for whatever reason) between you and Phil and thinking "wtf?" at the sight of "I have failed my owner" 🤣

The Devil... ooooooh. If you want to be a dick, you can make that be the Warlocks Patron. But I would be stumped as well and ask reddit for ideas.

I think a really great way to play the enmity of a powerful demon is to give the player something. The deck has stolen some magic item and given it to the player or siphoned off a portion of a demon's power to enchant the player. Maybe the character doesn't know about it right away or maybe they can't benefit from it right away for some reason. But I think it should probably be something that benefits the player that they can learn to use, and the demon wants it back. That turns it from something that may be seen as solely bad to another challenge the players can overcome to get or keep a reward.

I think it's more interesting if the devil is the enemy of the warlock's patron. He can send minions against the party's stronghold, try to foil the patron's plan for the warlock, or at some point try to tempt the warlock to switch allegiance and turn against the patron.

Re: demonic enmity - How about the PC is / has been fated to slay this demon, and the card means the demon's learned about this and is now trying to slay him BEFORE he becomes powerful enough to challenge him.

Wow, sorry to hear things have been not so good, but I'm glad to hear that you have a solution in mind and the players have bought in.

What if the powerful demon enmity from the deck was Graves' sponsor (Batholimogg?), not happy that he's hanging out with someone so close to a god?

When you uttered the words "Eye of Vecna" I almost choked on my own tongue in shock. Holy crap I wish I was one of those players.

Thank you for this Matt! This is excellent insight into the game and great for someone like me who only started DMing a few months ago. Seeing how even an experienced DM makes mistakes, and then, more importantly, how you resolve them is both interesting and helpful :)

Loved listening to this. Really appreciate you describing in detail all the difficulties you had, and even making it clear that i took a while to resolve them all. If/when I encounter a similar mis-alignment in my DMing someday, it will help for me to keep perspective that some things can't be sorted out in a couple minutes -- and that that's okay.

Love your diary vids and the amazingly details fleshed out world you create

I honestly wasn't expecting the two groups to want to return to their own "homeland" campaigns. I thought, just like you, that this was an amazing idea to bring two groups together. I was actually thinking of doing something similiar between two 2player groups that use the same setting for a campaign. But I think ill put it off, or at least discuss it prior and get some consent.

This was a really great video. The second half was super insightful and interesting. I think it's a really important Matt Colville video

I love this video. Thanks for talking about the problems with your groups, Matt. Every time my group has a problem, I feel like I don't understand something about the game and DMing seems impossible. But seeing that you are trying so many different things to try and fix what has become knotted is encouraging. Back into the fray!

Wooh! Was just checking twitter and saw this! Awesome timing, super psyched to watch!

I was literally thinking about your campaign diary and was so happy to see one! Matt, you're the greatest. And I shamefully stole your Dragonborn voice for my own Dragonborns.

I love how the split was between the group that had dealt with nobility (if memory serves) before and plays a more "mature" (for lack of a better word) playstyle. Whereas the other group plays a more traditional dungeon oriented play targeted towards loot and rewards that can brute force.

The master mind flayer takes the derivative of.... I love it. I'm stealing it. I'm going to even use it in my math classes I teach.

Matt, I really appreciate how honest you are about the struggles of running a game. I've been DMIng for about six years now, and I'm learning a ton from your videos.

That early mention of the Belgariad and Malloreon. I squee'd. Also, that Shadow Dragon. I love those.

Murgo Gold, the Ulgo, all the Belgariad references in your campaign are awesome. I know which book series I'm rereading :)

Nice. I do the exact same thing, customize published material to fit my vision. Usually about half an adventure gets adjusted when I use a book adventure, and add stuff I've made up before, or throw in elements from other adventures. You always end up with something unique and well put together

I hope you have a better time with your games Matt!

Wow - love these. Your hubris confession was right in the feels - I think all DMs end up there at some point. :) I swear this is sometimes like group therapy - DMs going to DMs for support. "No one else understands me!" :) Each time sessions break down, it's so unique based on individual circumstance but usually rooted in such common (human) psychology and communication. Thanks for sharing - I always appreciate the time you put into these. Off to read Thief.

Been watching the campaign diary for three days. inspired me to find my own campaign, found a comic book shop and I'm playing for the first time this Wednesday!!!!

Good to see ya Matt! This is the first new video you've posted since I subbed a couple of days ago. I'm still working through the rest of the diary (made it to the last half hour or so of Diary 08, your solo run with the half-dwarf who escapes the underdark) hope to finish soon. They make good listening while going about daily chores and crap. Thanks for doing the videos, and I'll make it a point to look up your books next time I get a chance to tackle a novel! Currently all my free time (which isn't much, I'm a stay at home dad with two young preschool kids) is devoted to managing a 5th ed. Eberron campaign I just got started with a group of new players. In fact, I found your channel while digging for D&D resources online. Keep up the good work buck-o!

The Fiendish Collector, watching the tapestry of the world from the hells he searches for rarities, and oddities. The Deck of Many things, like a bright beacon illuminated Kek when he drew the fiend, bringing his possessions to the attention of the Fiendish Collector. Perhaps have him stalk and hunt them, and generally be a menace, I think. Could potentially weave in some politics of other demons that are perhaps hunting the collector himself. Since when he begins hunting, he can also be hunted - as he is sure to have given people grudges from his "Collecting". That was kind of the first thing that came to mind off the top of my head. Maybe it'll be useful? I don't know.

Appreciated the "learn from my mistakes" video. Thank you.

COLVILLES ALIVE!?

Nice to have you back, Matt. Sorry that the past few sessions haven't gone well but it sounds like you have figured out a good course of action. Looking forward to hearing more of the campaign as it goes.

Might as well get two birds with one stone - Deck of Many Things makes a devil come to mess with and potentially claim that Portable Hole magic item that was his at some point. That depends on how your party acquired the item originally, though.

This entry is especially interesting for high level DM'ing. Thanks!

Wow, that was one hell of a recap! It sucks that you had those issues, but you handled it excellently by talking to your players.

More videos, I love your videos. Really enjoy the way your videos are narrated. Maybe you could do a story time series, telling about random memorable encounters in D&D. I am brand new to the D&D world, age 20, just bought all the essentials and got writing (as i have always been into writing since childhood) and I get a lot of inspiration from stories you tell about your games. Love the videos, keep up the awesome work

This is the first time I've ever heard another author/content producer talk about the Belgariad/Mallorean, and that's awesome, great call back to when I first got into fantasy!

great to see you talking about problems, because we all have the tendency to only talk about what it works!

I feel you Matt. There are always dry seasons in my game. We've luckily just started getting out of one. So I hope its the same with you.

I've slowly been catching up, watching all of your stuff. just wanted to let you know that it's great and you've made me much more comfortable to be my groups first DM.

Its nice to see you struggle with many different types of players. Your different type of players video was great and to see it applicable in your game is interesting. This is of course usually the largest source of struggle for new DMs in my opinion.

Hahaha! Thank you so much Matthew for this amazing video (as usual). I really had a blast watching your face as you told us about this player not wanting to play anymore if his character died, that was totally the face I did several times when I heard such thing (among others) from some of my players. Also, that sounded very sincere and honest from you, thanks for that. I however think this player is right to express his feelings, however selfish/wrong they seemed to you. Sure, this is never nice to hear but at least he/she as been blunt honest with you. What happens at a rpg table is a strange thing, full of passion, emotion, not always rational...but if it's your player's feeling, maybe we have, as GM, to listen to it? You were the one (bless you for that) to remind me that the main purpose of a session wasn't about the scenario, the adventure, the world we create (even if they matter a lot) but in the player's enjoyment. All your player said was that he/she was so into his/her character that he/she would feel terrible if that character was to die. This is an immense compliment to you and what you have created, the fun you provide but also the attachment of said player to this character. A character's death is nothing to trifle with in my opinion, it is important to a player, very important and any bad stuff that happens to their character is felt full force by their player. It's not childish, it's not trivial, it's the mere mechanism that makes this hobby a bit more than any other game I've experienced and, again in my opinion, should be respected. Just my two cents in the matter. Thanks for the video, it's great to have you back. I can't wait for the next one! Best regards.

One of the many things I love about the Matt Colville videos is the references to all the cool books, movies, pop culture. Of COURSE you've read the Belgariad. . . I was thinking of Relg when you'd told the story last episode. . . Have you read Mordant's Need? I think you'd really enjoy that "series" really it's only two books - WAY worth the read.

Glad these older videos are still available. Great lessons in here. Thanks! (P.s. My copy of Strongholds & Followers arrives next week!)

Thank you so much! Good to know that even one of the best DM's I have seen, is after all human! Makes me feel better knowing that I am not the only one who makes mistakes! I have made several mistakes teaching my wife to play and it has taken a month to sort it out. The first step was to admit that I was wrong and made a mistake.

The wait for the video was worth it!

So we had the "death talk" before starting our campaign and I think most of our players are more aligned with your odd man out. The players have crafted he hero they want to play, and for most people, anything else would be less exciting to play. Thankfully, I think 5e caters to this mindset and provides ways to potentially come back from death. We've also instated a story point system, where players are awarded points for doing really great roleplaying actions. They can then spend these points to aid them in doing anything from a roleplaying perspective. Often they're used to narrowly escape death and mitigate a potentially deadly moment. They're capped at 3 points, and are awarded fairly rarely, but it gives everyone a potential way to keep playing. Of course, it's still possible to die but there's a greater possibility that people can continue playing the hero they've dedicated so much to.

Ooooh, the tactical combat video sounds awesome! I just moved my campaign to roll20 (because of moving in real life) and I need to start using the battlemat over there, and I'm not used to even having one. I think that video will help me out a lot, looking forward to it.

WOW, What a campaign and adventure, very, very good so far!!

Matt, if the portable hole becomes too much of an issue, introduce a bag of holding. If you enter a portable hole with a bag of holding bad things happen, including destruction of both bag of holding and the portable hole. Food for thought.

Awesome videos. They have been helping my DMing a lot. also +1 for the Belgariad refrence.

"The Old Ones"? Are we talking H.P. Lovecraft's "Great Old Ones"??? Because that would be utterly amazing.

I am enjoying these videos! Sometimes talking to the players about issues can help, but I also find that often just playing more and hanging out more solves a lot of problems that tend to annoy me as a DM. Some issues that seemed really annoying one time just seem a lot less important a few sessions down the line. YMMV :)

Thumbs up for the mention of Relg from the Belgariad :D Edit: and the suggestions about Kek's new enemy being some enemy of Zerok/Ceroc (sp) who's now noticed their old foe's weapon having been taken up by a new wielder sound pretty good to me. New developments building off stuff that's already in place.

If you weren't already doing more significant stuff to reset the party dynamic, there is always the classic way to get rid of a portable hole: put them in a situation where they might accidentally put a bag of holding into the portable hole or accidentally enter another pocket-dimension space like a tent of luxury or something. At least in older editions putting a pocket dimension in a pocket dimension = the collapse of both pocket dimensions in a big explosion. If it was worked in well it would be a fun way to introduce them to that bit of trivia. As long as you give them ways to spot it and circumvent it, and don't try to cheaply pull the same trick again if they manage to foil it, it can be a cool moment with the POTENTIAL to get rid of the portable hole without being unfair.

In order to cut down the metagame strat-talk I give my players a timer of approximately 30 seconds per action, or about a minute per turn. It makes combat faster and makes the players have to go on their toes. Out of combat there is none, but as soon as combat starts, I get the timer going.

Fantastic story thus far

When you introduced Koranan(?) all i could think of was Relg so I'm so glad you brought him up. Also if this wasn't confirmed for you by now, yes he is presented in the Belgariad

An hour long Matt Colville video?! Holy shit!!!

For the demon from the deck of many things, (I'm going to fudge and use a devil but..) you could have a succubus (in disguise) tempt him to do dark and evil things (maybe even after getting his trust through lies or feigned good). Not just kiss him to death at the first meeting but really mess with him over a longer period of time and maybe charm him into action or to make him unwittingly do wrong (under false pretense). It could be a good way to make internal conflict w/ him doubting his actions and make good RP moments in general. Anyways thanks so much for the video Matt! always a pleasure to watch and learn! have a good day!

excited that the journey continues

loving the books

"Blink blink" Favorite part of the video

An hour long campaign diary? Hell yeah!

Pass without trace is beaten by Voidsense with is beaten by cloud mind, or cloud mind mass (vanish for you psionic types), which is beaten by detect Magic/psionic, which can be beaten by a number of Spells/Psionic abilities that allow them to hide their abilities, or jam other's psionic abilities. Been in a game with a Gnomish rouge, and a dragon born who love to play hide and go seek. This is something I've done a little bit of research into.

I'm really looking forward to the "terrain" episode!

I've been there myself, more times than I would like to admit. I have had to end games because I wasn't able to resolve things in a satisfactory way. Trying to merge groups rarely works, making new characters should work. As for the anti-climactic battle... more often than not, I feel a battle was a little too easy or over too quickly, while the players are all pleased. So I take it as a success, and try to make notes for the future. I hope your group meshes well and is able to press forward in fun & folly.

Thanks for the vids Matthew.

Relg was in both the Belgariad and the Mallorean, though it was pretty much just a cameo or two in the Malloreon.

Matt that hit me in the heart

Mammon, The Archdevil of Greed (is in Tome of Beasts 5E by Kobold Press) maybe is intrinsically linked to the deck since one reason to risk using that item is of course greed. Mammon commands all sorts of fun things like treasure golems and can petrify players into gold etc. Instead of angering Mammon maybe the card sort of picks the player as a host for Mammon to channel his greed across the planes and progressively make the character more and more greedy.

Late to the party but loved the video. Glad to see you share the hurdles and the triumphs of your DMing. I also salute you for letting a reoccurring villain die when your PC's outsmarted him. I've played several games where the DM had pet NPCs that couldn't die. As for too many magic items in the group perhaps introduce a monster like Warhammer Fantasy's Cygor. This monster can only see the presence of magic and is blind to all other things in the world. So, it likes to eat mages. Maybe a creature like this lives in the Underdark and the more magic items a player has on them the more visible it is to this hunter. It's not tracking the player per say it's tracking their items. Perhaps it even has no interest in the players and as soon as it grabs them it simply goes about picking off their magic items to feed on the magic in them removing the magic properties or drag the items back to it's lair. In my first game of running Rogue Trader I let a PC have a stormbolter ... that was a frustrating game breaking item.

Great episode. I really like the points on PC death.

The second i heard you describe "The Devil" card from the deck of many things i thought of the movie "It Follows". in this a girl becomes cursed and for the rest of her life a demon follows her trying to kill her. It can come in virtually any form, meaning in most scenarios it just appears as a pedestrian to hide in the crowd. This demon also can only go at a walking pace, and only the cursed can see it. I'm not sure how exactly you could fit this into the game but i like the idea alot of basing this devil around this curse from "It Follows'.

Maybe the portable hole should show some wear. Or maybe everyone that was inside the hole shows some kind of sign that it's affecting them, like maybe a finger disappears for a moment. Thanks for sharing. Loved the books can't wait for the next.

I was thinking of a clever way to use an enemy that is thrust upon them that enjoys torture. So what if you give them an ally, who helps them occasionally, but for some reason, though they travel unspotted some enemies know they are coming because their ally is actually the demon who is after him and is toying with him for fun. Or something along those lines, just thought it would be neat.

Man, how could you not be excited by the possibilities of creating a new character in this storyline! How cool would it be to create a Svirfneblin that joins the party, one of the quest npc's perhaps even?

What I do to stop strategy talk at the table: Everything you say is In character, so you can't really have a tactics discussion without sharing these tactics with the enemy, it also adds a tactical advantage to sharing languages. Additionally I usually allow each character 10 secs of speech if they take too long I just say "That's enough speaking for now, you gotta act." Everything is resolved quickly and adds a layer of strategy and drama to combat

The way I prevent metagaming in a battle, is only allowing the player on turn to talk. She can ask a question if she wants (in character basically), but she will only get an answer when others speak in their turn. That limits coordination, but makes communication part of the challenge.

pass without trace has a very specific use and does not, in any way, stop a creature from seeing or detecting them with its senses. (blindsense, blindsight, tremorsense, touchsight, etc) if you want to keep running with pass without trace's effect on those senses, i'd suggest to allow it to give a certain bonus to his stealth vs certain (passive?) perception rolls.

Creating new characters sounds like a good solution. I get the desire to just bring the two groups together and have them blend, but I can see how the different power levels and just how the campaigns have gone would create friction. Also nice that after the underdark wraps up, you'll re-visit the departing characters, so those three aren't just losing their characters. Oh man, "If my character dies, I'm done". I'd never expect to hear that from my old group of experienced gamers, but I could see one of my current group saying it (although probably not after I took them into two false starts last year). I think I'd have the same reaction you did, of feeling like the game was being held hostage. Maybe part of it is I'm used to changing through campaigns and characters, and I have a love for mechanics, so even character death means a chance to try out a new idea. I don't play to kill the characters (I've told my group if I wanted to kill them, I could just pull the red dragon mini off the shelf), but I think the game needs that chance of death and failure.

I love the Deck of Many Things. But I like changing what the cards do. I want to work up a 52 card deck then split it into red (good ) cards and black (bad cards) Shuffle each stack and then deal the deck found by dealing had the cards from each.

"puissant" lol I don't know why this made me laugh so much.

The Enmity of a Powerful Demon or Devil . . . sounds like a set up for the next big-bad, or at least an interesting side quest.

Funny enough, I realize I haven't properly watched all these campaign diaries, so I now realize there's some Matt Colville content I've been missing out on. So it's really interesting to hear you talking about this issue you had at the table like this cause it is clear that not only were there a lot of lessons to be had here. The one bit that really got me was the player who said they weren't going to make a new character if they died. I haven't, as a GM at the very least, come across that. Though I had an incident where a fellow player died in PF1e and he basically declared he wasn't rolling up a new character and that we'd have to go out of our way to resurrect him. Which we did, but suffice to say this was a major inconvenience to us along with not being worth it once all was said an done. Honestly, I am surprised you didn't do a dedicated video that essentially talked to both GM's and players about the fact that character can die in these games. I know you've done videos on campaign lethality, "Let's Kill A Player", and so forth, but honestly it'd been nice to have had a video on the topic of just player expectations about character death. But of course that does fall into "Talk to your GM/Players" but still. At least, I think it'd make good content

" and can’t be tracked except by magical means. A creature that receives this bonus leaves behind no tracks or other traces of its passage." Magic!

Matt's back! Put the world on Pause!

Hang in there Matt! It sounds like you have "progress in motion" and things are turning around.

Yay, Eddings references! Also, I feel like if there were ever a creature whose attacks should steal levels, it should be Mind Flayers. What are levels, after all, if not the accumulated experience of an adventurer, and here is a creature who attacks the mind - the memories - of any foe it encounters, so as it mind blasts you, you forget the spells you've learned, you forget the lessons and drills of weapon masters, you forget your past successes. The problem here is that this can make them TERRIBLE foes for anyone encountering them, and maybe needs to be tweaked in a way so that those lost levels can be easily recovered, or the attack comes up only once in a while.