which is worse? "git gud scrub" or "I win"

I've had a DM like that. I felt like he was trying to get a tpk. I'd get vibes that he just wanted to kill the players and that he was playing against us.

Haha, so true xD

When the DM is the main villain

@@user-ge3tu1ut1e No the DM isn't playing against you, some of his npc's are. The DM is supposed to be telling a cooperative story, not winning/losing.

I'm shaking and crying

Thanks for telling me. I had no idea she said that otherwise

"It's only a model"

Bye sister 😂❤😮😢

"Farewell sister"

Well, he won after all.

So great he didnt even recognize her when she was first presented as an evil villain...or know she didnt have any kids or husband..

It would be have been funnier if he said, "Farewell, Schmerple"

Love this comment. 🤣

😂

"Not really"

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Or he was referring to the game night. Heh

​@@Tullowitor It was a castlevania reference

Lol’d at this

"Farewell Sister" "Curse this forest" "Will thia curs-ed night never end" NGL this is totally me at the table. I totally commit to whatever the DM is trying to make happen, no matter how fumbling or inexperienced. DMing is hard and as a Forever DM I always try to encourage and support baby DMs!

@@cchapa7470 Im like this in my day to day life. I just immediately jump on the train and see where it takes us. Sure, theres a 90% chance we crash... but what if we get lucky and have a great time?

Chances are you wouldn't notice. Because he is over-prepared.

"Oh, let me find that." Five minutes later DM finishes flipping through his lore book.

just watch Rob tear out pages in any of the other skits :-)

It would just be a compilation of PCs walking around and having seventeen adventures to pick from. Per location. With mini-quests on the way.

You enter the dark forest of alkazymkarach. you notice the trees here have grown in an unnatural way. As you inspect the trees closer it is clear that someone or something has tampered with the natural order of things. You see the bark has a bubbly surface and as you try to pinch it a violet fleeting dust appears from underneath. You inspect the bark closer and notice small insect of some unknown kind is the cause of this corruption. As you inspect the insect closer you notice the tinyiest speck of arcane magic coursing through them. As you inspect the arcane magic closer you notice a similarity between this magic and that of the mysterious tome you found earlier. As you inspect the tome closer you start to notice....

what cave... its a giant snapping turtle mouth that snaps shut. you are dead.

"Oh, shut up. You step on a trap and lose both your legs. Roll for a survival"

"I have dankvision!"

how can you see how big it is when it’s dark in there? You know caves are pitch black :D

Ever get the feeling that everybody else is getting a reference but you're not?

They just joke around with different levels of immersion.

Also, "Hey sister... How are the kids?"

"Will this cursed night never end?". Man's living up his character

Man's trying to pull through for the group, respect

He must have helped write it :D "What's the worst DM that you can imagine?"

Just his facial expression when asking if there is anything significant about anything says it all lmao.

Same 😂

There's nothing significant about the screams

What would Rowan do with a one-shot campaign?

I could see a campaign working if it's setup that the DM is like an unreliable narrator set against your party. But not with the dynamic you described. That just seems toxic lol

I still get asked who won!

My intro to D&D was very similar playing with a DM where it wasn't the DM vs the group, it was more the DM vs me, because they didn't like me but was the only DM in our group of friends.

DM versus players is basically tower defense in pen & paper. sounds like a lot of fun if done right.

@@BayWa4eva Not really. The DM has control of the world. They can just say "rocks fall, everyone dies" if they want to 'win'.

Indeed, that perception check could have saved them rowan broke all rules of DMMING

Yeah and I would like to see castle if we are in the middle of the forest at night... lol I think, that this ambush was set up by paladin's sister. (she's evil)

@@akheira3726 It's truly hard to blame her, anyone in her position would be evil if he/she has a paladin for a brother or sister.

@@SzaraSzarancza palas done nothing wrong, they just wanna drink, tank, drink, eliminate evil, drink and tank - they also like to drink sometimes

Eh. If a player tries to initiate a roll, my go-to is usually 'why?'. 'I look around for ' is probably a better way to achieve your goals. And, depending on what you're looking for, a roll may not even be necessary...

And then: "I win!" xD

Before the rocks, Alan sees his sister and switches his name to Jaime Lannister.

Funny story of how one DM had to kill off an OP character (basically showed up and killed a level 20 at level 7 without a scratch), they summoned "A giant rubber ducky as big as a city and made of lead, travelling at 9000m/s." Basically give their friend a most ridiculous and unavoidable death. The broken Homebrew item was a nipple ring that boosted AC by how much the character isn't wearing, so with nothing but the ring they had like 20 AC bonus from that, plus rolls, modifiers, etc.

@@praetorian3902 Beat me to it! I was going to say, it worked for Game of Thrones! Just the worst way to kill characters, especially ones with that much history and backstory. "Oh a few rocks fell on them, they're dead now, end of story." That happening in a high school dnd game between a group of friends is bad enough. But it happening on a giant HBO production? It's no wonder the creators got fired from their upcoming Star Wars production. The one they rushed the Game of Thrones ending to do. They ruined the show and their own careers for nothing.

​@Suzuki_Hiakura had a dm do something similar. He summoned 2 high level demons out of nowhere just to kill me, but didn't know one of them was susceptible to my attacks. I died in the end, but i took one out and the other knew I'd been there! 😂

Great times ❤

I usually stay out of the comments section. But I wanted to let you know that reading "The castle was 5 feet wide and contained 3 ogres." Had me cackling aloud for a good minute.

Railroading in TTRPGs being a bad thing is a lot more debatable though. In my experience, players always expect some level of railroading, unless they want to play a pure sandbow game with no DM. In DnD, you absolutely want a relatively high level of railroading when it comes to the story. Sure, options are good, but sometimes you need a good "cinematic moment".

@@Ezullof Depends how the world in which the PCs "live" is set up. In my opinion, it is possible to set it up so that through various encounters several options are available on the players' "to do list". In that way, railroading can be kept to a minimum. Sure, one of those options is the main campaign, but it can be made so that it isn't all that obvious because some of those "to do" are appealing for various reasons (revenge, greed, heroism, etc.). Sure, once an option is selected, there will be some amount of "railroading", it's unavoidable, but over all players do feel that they have a say in what is happening. But such a set up does require more preparation from the DM, so it isn't for everyone. Also, if players prefer a short campaign, with an end, and then take a break for some time before starting again with a different campaign, then what I'm writing about is not for such players. Personally, I play with different DM's, and one of them is very good at this. Over time (we have been playing for several decades) we have built a list of about 8 or 10 choices on our "to do list", we can guess the main one, but several of them are connected so it's not all that obvious. Finally, there isn't a "main" campaign to finish, i.e. we keep playing, always meeting new NPC offering new challenges, so it never really ends. What I mean is that we don't have one big final goal, we have a goal, out of several ones, that once attained just opens up a new door to continue our story towards a new goal.

Communication aside, Rowan's real issue is that he thought it was a game where he had to kill the party to win.

​@coranbaker6401 the best explanation i heard was calling dnd " collaborative story telling"

Poor pALANdin trying his best to interact with everything 😢

love that the comedy comes from Rowan being dense (lmao just remembering the scenes), and how polite the band is trying to "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" him for more. "I wonder if there's anything SIGNIFICANT about this place." xD

"Isn't the best communicator"? That's a weird way of saying "he has no idea what he's doing, or what he's even meant to be doing".

Hey, monsters suddenly getting a phase 2 is a respectable technique for when you realize you woefully underestimated your party.

@@lukeari9890 Yeah a Phase 2 power up is a totally valid trope to pull for a boss.

Actually no. Because your examples are of bad DM's that actually exist. Rowan is a parody of the worst of all that, portraying an impossibly bad DM that won't ever see the light of day.

Aren't you just talking about CR3 90-92?

💯

The Alans interaction with his sister had me rolling. It looked like you were hiding behind your bow trying not to lose your shit laugjing during that exchange 😂

Has some Castlevania 2 vibes from the NES. "What a horrible night to have a curse"

feels like a Dragon's Dogma quote imo

I'm leaning more towards "Diablo" quote...

Not a problem, since we got to TPK pretty quickly. Not a moment too soon, you might add.

P-Alan-din

I lost it at "bye castle", which acknowledged the castle's brief existence as the only thing that was significant about The Place.

But he set up a dungeon and a foe. That's still more than Rowan managed.

"Guys! How could you all be dead? It took me hours to plan this!" Rips away half binder.

Benny and the jets!

DM Benny in Call of Duty: you are in desert, enemy nuked you. Twice. End.

LOL From 1994- 1999 and again from 2003- 2013 when a central member died; I played in a group of four- five, where three of us took turns GM-ing for the rest. Half a year each. Then you had a year to be a player, be inspired by the others and plan the next chapter of your campaign.

Rawr!

@@VivaLaDirtLeague Will Horatio gain a beast mode? Pretty please 😜

"Cursed villain!"

​@@simplyspenser887"I wonder if there is anything significant about this villain?"

AI would do better than this.

I asked ChsrGPT to generate me an example of an opening for a D&D campaign. I got Of course! Here's an opening for a D&D campaign: "In the land of Verathia, whispers of an ancient prophecy echo through the valleys and forests. It is said that a great darkness will soon descend upon the realm, threatening to consume all that stands in its path. As the first signs of this impending doom emerge, a diverse group of adventurers from different walks of life are drawn together by fate. Each harbors their own secrets and motivations, yet they share a common destiny: to uncover the truth behind the prophecy and vanquish the darkness before it's too late. Their journey begins in the bustling city of Eldoria, where rumors of strange occurrences and disappearances have begun to spread. Little do they know, their path will lead them far beyond the city walls, into the heart of Verathia's most dangerous and mysterious realms. Are you ready to embark on this epic quest, brave traveler?"

AI is not good at all at DMing still. But somehow it would still be better than this.

​@royalgm completely agree, all it takes is the correct prompts and it can do a pretty good story. I tried it once to see what it was capable of and it did pretty good, you just have to tweak it a bit after for a better flow and to nerf the fights it listed as some had insane levels to go up against lol

This reads like the old version of AI Dungeon at best.

I wouldn’t say NPC energy. He is acting how players are supposed to act.

@@AzraealGamer I get that. I meant that rather than bicker and argue he simply stayed fully in character with reactionary lines and didn't engage in the table talk.

@@zacheryc5724 I agree with you. That has always been my favorite players when I ran games

it actually wasnt bad xD this is some of their best work.

Looks like the classic Windows XP background

@@najkraemer3117 Nah i mean like it was obvious it was a greenscreen if you look at their edges and their lighting.

​@@najkraemer3117 Uhm... Are you watching on a tiny phone screen or something? 🙂

@@perlundgren7797 no he watching from the pinhole that show the window of the neighbour Phone

Some people really have a problem with taking "no" for an answer.😮‍💨

Glad I wasn't the only one that was seeing that

"It was long journey, from Windows NT 4 to Windows XP".😁

Glad you noticed the reference to that 😂

​@@VivaLaDirtLeagueWas it intentional? You guys are legends😂

​@@VivaLaDirtLeague guys I really wanted to get in touch with you guys, but I only have youtube and switch, I tried to see on a live if rowan could shout out my mum Annette, it was a embarrassing disaster for me, I don't like to bother people I don't know, but she's 73, she has emphysema, she's doing well, she's a huge gamer, especially ghost of tsushima, horizon all of them, lately assassins creed, she'll be 74 on the 23rd of July, the reason I stupidly asked for a shout out at the wrong time with to much information is because it made me so happy seeing her laugh because of all of you, I know she's scared, and you guys helped her forget, and anyone that makes my mum laugh makes me extremely happy ❤ if you get this, and you can, let me know here, I would never forget an act of kindness like that 🥲🦘🇦🇺🦘💕💕💕.

The curse of the forever DM… I’m a member of that club :))

Its part of the reason I have trouble PCing.

Yeah... I feel that. Especially the moments where the GM wants to "sidebar" like a judge and a lawyer for a second to see what they should have someone roll for an odd thing they want to do.

But that really sold that they were siblings and it was thought out and not just half assed put together on the spot. Not as well put together as Skygrountree, the will established threat and a dragon. But that is some seriously high standards to meet.

Good luck

He's the opposite of Arrow lol Such melodrama

yeah, you can tell he's not rob because he actually lets the players make decisions that matter

​@@mrossknehe does? When?

@@PalleRasmussen think they are referring to Britt cutting the rope bridge, cutting several play sessions they could have played.

@@Suzuki_Hiakura I am confused; I interpret it as if Nichole meant that Rob does not let his players make decisions that matter. IE that he railroads them. You interpret it as if Rob does let them do so, with the cutting of the road example. The statement can actually be interpreted both ways, so there is support for both positions... Interesting...

@@PalleRasmussen It could have been sarcasm? Just reread it and got the same conclusion lmao. I misinterpreted it originally xD

I liked that too

And that he only, and even barely, uses the first page where there are some scribbles and odd figures.

@@fredriksaterby5781 and then says "oh now i've lost my place where were we?"

The stolen version of your comment currently has 188 likes.

@@alterego3734 Well I guess I'm happy people like my writing.

This tale does somewhat highlight the usefulness of a debrief. I'm guessing lessons were learned

Of course he does. It looks like 5 minutes at a casino

@@MyName-Jeff That's a -100 gold, not a 100 gold.😅

Aw thanks!

I've watched every DND episode multiple times & it never gets old.

It's not rowan. He's Rowa

@@lauriewhite8153 No, it's a model

More like Rowan‘s last time DM-ing

no, just by saying "Rowen" you know what to expect lol

Probably all of the above

Nobody saw it coming...

Hey now. You can make it fine like that, you just bookmark well.

Yeah, the binder is a pretty recent thing, and not all GMs use them. Notebooks re completely feasible for good GMs.

@insaincaldo oh well sorry for dissing notebooks

@@Lazybonez378 Meh, you can call it a crutch. My dombass would probably end up ruining some of the papers and lose them from a binder, even with sleeves for the pages.

Rob throws out more pages of notes when his players go off the rails than Rowan prepares for the entire campaign.

This is actually a really cool idea!

Funny enough I believe close to where I live the city's name roughly translates to "Town" just in another language.

yeah, she's evil and greeted "bye", important role 🤪

@@3Clodyes exactly! I’m so glad someone else sees how pivotal that moment was for the Paladin, showing him that even if he is faced with betrayal and loss there will always be others there for him like his party

@@bigyoshi5170 bah, too many words, rowan's dm is more efficient "there's someone, she's evil, disappears"... see? more time to do other stuff like describing the forest! (which is dark so none can see it... aaaand they're all dead)

It was Alam fault for not remembering his sister.

Right!? Literally the most important NPC in the campaign

Don't feel bad. You're needed and if they don't value you, we other tired, poor, huddled DMs will give you the praise you need.

As long as you actually tell them what's going on, and keep up, you shouldn't be a bad DM. Not saying you will be a good one, but not bad is good enough to have some level of fun with.

The elf should have had night vision, suitable for nights in forests. But he wanted to light a torch. That would only be needed in total darkness, such as being underground.

Did it get changed from infravision? It's been a long time since I played.

One of things that DMs should be aware of and be able to identify, direct and properly react to it is the focus/lack of focus of players attention. Expecting players to respond to something that is completely outside of their attention because their attention has been focused on something else by DM is ridiculous and is mainly a pitcher's error not batter's error.

BUT DARKVISION!