Episode 8 - Death of Some BBEG

[00:00:33] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome back to tales from the tabletop, a podcast about assholes. [00:00:41] Speaker B: Nothing. Nothing happens. Nothing happens about assholes. All the assholes. They're usually assholes. [00:00:47] Speaker A: My name is Kayla Williams. I'm your favorite DM. [00:00:51] Speaker B: And my name is Jeff Lunter, your forever festive DM. We're in the new year. We got to change things up every week. That's what we're going to do. [00:01:00] Speaker A: First recording in the new year. Last one was recorded before the new year but released after the new year. This one, we're actually in the new year. So glad to see you all again. Thank you for tuning in. We're changing up our format a little bit, too. We did bloopers on the last one at the very end. I know we haven't done that before, so that was fun. Fuck you, Jack. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Incredible when it comes to editing. But honestly, I love the idea of bloopers because they're mostly going to be you and I don't have to. [00:01:31] Speaker A: You're so rude for that. [00:01:33] Speaker B: This is the only fucking thing I need to do. Just listen for Kayla to go, and then we'll be fine. [00:01:41] Speaker A: He makes fun of me so much. It's because my etiquette isn't as good with recording. Because I don't have to edit it because I'm a princess. [00:01:49] Speaker B: So what if I'm, like, hawking loogies? [00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah, he doesn't. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Exactly. That happens at least 15 times. You don't understand. [00:01:59] Speaker A: He is looking for any excuse to tear me down. He hates to see a good bitch win. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah. We got to start at the bottom. We need to start. Honestly, not the bottom. We got to start at equal footing. [00:02:09] Speaker A: I'm also funnier than you, so there's that, too. [00:02:12] Speaker B: It's true. For now. [00:02:14] Speaker A: For now. [00:02:15] Speaker B: 2024. Be funnier. [00:02:18] Speaker A: That is the only thing on his whiteboard for his new year's resolutions. Mine says kick Jeff's ass. [00:02:25] Speaker B: And that's gonna happen. No, you can't. No, wait. No. We're having in person session in a few months. I don't like this. [00:02:30] Speaker A: Kick Jeff's ass. So I guess I'll go first. I can't say the forbidden phrase anymore, so I'm just going to start. This one is called am I the asshole for kicking someone from my DND group after the first session by Sam and D-J-A-S-P-Y-A spy. A spy. These names are not meant to be read aloud. I feel like they look more appealing, like, on the page itself. Anyway, I 32 m am a forever DM who has been playing for nearly a decade now, and I love dming. Complex and nuanced world. Heavy on roleplay. They just wrote that stupid. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah. That doesn't make any sense. It's okay. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Some time ago, I started putting together a new campaign that I was proud of. An amalgamation of all the lore building and writing skills I had developed. Yeah, I'm sure you've been using those, writing them opus. [00:03:30] Speaker B: Yeah, these writing skills are clearly working. [00:03:33] Speaker A: Wish you would have used some of them here, my friend. I invited a few longtime players and friends and seeking to make up numbers to a party of four. We included a friend, 37, male, of one of the players. Okay, so a friend of a friend from the get go, he was a bit odd. Super secretive about his character and kept telling me he had a story he was going to tell, but he wouldn't let me in on what he had in mind, despite me being the DM. And honestly, the snippets I did get seemed like run of the Mill white savior Mary sue shit. [00:04:09] Speaker B: No. Please, no. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Look, here we go again. [00:04:14] Speaker B: You don't need to surprise the DM, bro. You can surprise the players. I feel like the DM is, like, the perfect person to disclose this information with because we can make you look cooler. [00:04:27] Speaker A: The DM is on your side, y'all. They're on your side. Except for when they're. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Well, you know, I do try to kill you guys more often than not. [00:04:35] Speaker A: I was listening to the dungeons and daddies live show this morning, too. And when they introduced Anthony, everybody was like, woo. Yeah. And then he said something like, fuck Seattle. And then they went, boo. And he goes, that's the energy I want. I want you to like me, but not too much. [00:04:53] Speaker B: That's my energy. You just want to be loved by everyone, Kayla. We know. [00:04:57] Speaker A: It's so true. I mean, when I'm perfect, how could everybody not love me anyway? He also kept adding elements to the story that involved dictating how certain parts of metaphysics magic worked in the world. Despite that being a core element to the story, we pushed through creation. And on the first session, at the first sign of any conflict with NPCs fishermen who wanted to purchase one of the party members a talking crab. That's fucking cool. [00:05:25] Speaker B: Whoa. What the fuck? Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. [00:05:28] Speaker A: I need to know the logistics. Is it a man sized crab or is it just a crab who can talk? [00:05:33] Speaker B: I mean, I believe the latter because that would be far more interesting. [00:05:37] Speaker A: How human is this crab? Show me. He decided to let all hell break loose and lightning bolt the group of innocent fishermen. How innocent could they be? They wanted to kill my boy. [00:05:50] Speaker B: They found a talking crab and went, we want that from you. [00:05:53] Speaker A: We're going to eat. That's going in a museum. What followed was the party attempting to flee. And when cornered and given the option to surrender so I could get this shit under control in parentheses, he decided to escalate again and attack. The guard captain requesting their surrender. Okay. [00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Immediately attacking the soundguard. We're starting off so fucking well. We love murder. Hobos. I don't know. [00:06:19] Speaker A: I'm starting to see. Starting to see a point here. [00:06:22] Speaker B: No. What? [00:06:23] Speaker A: Where they tried to kill my boy. [00:06:26] Speaker B: They did try to purchase a crab. [00:06:28] Speaker A: You no longer get to live. Sorry, your life is forfeit. [00:06:35] Speaker B: That's it. You tried to buy my friend. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Disgusting. I ended the session normally, but shortly after, I sent him a message saying I wasn't comfortable with how he played the game and that I didn't want him to continue. He told me I was an asshole and that I should give him more chances. But even when we talked through an alternative, things he could have done, they were all like the same version of establish my dominance through violence. [00:06:59] Speaker B: What the fuck is he playing if he's not playing? A barbarian. What is this? [00:07:03] Speaker A: I have no idea. [00:07:04] Speaker B: My God, is Thor. [00:07:05] Speaker A: I have a story. Let him cook. [00:07:08] Speaker B: No, but go on. [00:07:10] Speaker A: I don't know the guy. He is just some dude to me. I also run A-D-D group as therapy for teens and children with autism. Whilst I witnessed a lot of cringe during this, a, I was getting paid for it, b, eliciting cringe was an intended goal of the therapy in parentheses, breaking down the game, social situations out of game, and c, the kids were always super receptive to feedback. None of this is true for this guy, and I couldn't be asked with it. Am I the asshole for not having the patience and just booting him after. [00:07:42] Speaker B: Session one now he's an asshole. You got to give this person a chance. I've played with so many people in the past that have been really difficult to work with, but if you have at least one person in the party who's focused on the objective, things work. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. I mean, I was joking a little bit too earlier when I was like, let him cook because it is funny. I guess we don't have the context of how the other players felt about it, because if everybody's kind of like, oh, come on, dude. Not a good group dynamic. And if he wasn't willing to budge on it, makes sense that he's not compatible with the group. If you're making people uncomfortable, I get it. I know he talked him through being like, hey, what would you have done different? Maybe we can try something different next time. I think the fact that he wasn't open to feedback the other player was kind of like, no, thank you. I think we were talking a little bit about this earlier off the mic, but it opens up an interesting conversation of, like, what is your role as a DM in removing people from these social situations? Because I'm a big advocate of, like, if it's upsetting you, remove yourself because that's the only thing you can control. But for the DM, like, if a player leaves, the game can go on, but if the DM leaves, there's no game at all. [00:08:57] Speaker B: It is an incredibly uncomfortable situation when a player leaves, though. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Was it even his responsibility to boot him, though, because he was a friend of a friend? How do the other players feel? [00:09:07] Speaker B: There was probably a reason, like you said earlier in the story, like, this person had a story he was going to tell, so maybe there was a reason he was acting this way. And not even getting the opportunity to play that out kind of ruins everything they're building towards. [00:09:23] Speaker A: I see that. But also you have to loop in the DM. I know it's a big meme of, like, players versus DM. The DM wants to kill you and your dog. Me, I'm going to kill your dog. [00:09:36] Speaker B: Are you the dog? Like, are you the dog or the DM in this situation? [00:09:40] Speaker A: I'm the one killing the dog. But genuinely, if you tell them the story beats, you want to hit. Like, Jeff and I have collaborated a lot on me being secretly evil to the know and playing behind the other players backs. And because it makes a cool story to have the DM on your side. Because they can either know to give hints to the other team members. Because if you're trying to play this evil person who's sneaky to the team, you're not going to randomly call out and be like, hey, can you roll me a perception check when it's the DM's job to run that game? Because the DM should roll a perception check to see if they notice your character being evil and give them opportunities. Because all about player agency, XYZ, et cetera, et cetera. [00:10:26] Speaker B: I started this with going, oh, you need to let the DM know everything. But there's a way for you to adapt what your character is going through and what their backstory is into how your character acts, and it seemed like that's where he was going with it right off the bat and like, oh, my character is acting this specific way. And then sometimes some of my favorite moments dming are when I'm surprised by what the players do, which happens a lot in the group that we have currently, where I plan shit. And of course, things go off the rails as things do with dms, but there are some things that players do that's so out of left field that at first glance, I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? Your character wouldn't do that. It takes a minute to step back and recognize where this person's going and not giving them more than one session to do that. Nah, that ain't right. [00:11:19] Speaker A: I see that. But also, you've seen one, you've seen them all. In my mind, you can kind of get a sense of where things are. [00:11:27] Speaker B: Going, but you can't shut players down based on cliches just because you've seen it before in different sessions and stuff like that. Just because you've experienced it in other forms of media, you can't be like, nah, you're out. [00:11:39] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe. I feel very defensive over my time, and playing with somebody who expects you to cater everybody's playstyle to what they want to do seems annoying to me. [00:11:50] Speaker B: That's fair. It's also really interesting that they were doing this in session one when most of session one is introducing the characters to each other if they're not already a part of it. And it's also introducing the players to the world outside of like, okay, well, here's the overarching thing. But this is like, boom, microcosm of where you are and what's going on around you. It's amazing that they had a chance to just fuck it up so quickly. But like I said, there's probably a reason. Maybe they're in the dude's hometown. [00:12:17] Speaker A: I want to know more about that crab. [00:12:21] Speaker B: It was glanced over very. [00:12:23] Speaker A: Oh, my God. How are you just going to gloss over that? A talking crab. I need more backstory. That's my main problem with these stories. I just want to know about the story they're crafting and not necessarily the social conflict they're going through. [00:12:36] Speaker B: We get a lot of really cool dms talking about, like, oh, boom, boom, boom. I have this. Here's what I have planned. And I think last week we were talking about a story that we really loved that was so fucking cool that we wanted to be a part of that. Players were just like, shitting on. And that's a lot of these stories, is we get a little bit of insight only from the DMs perspective, if it's cool or whatever. But we want more. We need more. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Please feed us. [00:13:03] Speaker B: Is this one of those ones where they jump in and everyone's like, fuck you, buddy. [00:13:07] Speaker A: The main consensus was that this guy is not an asshole. [00:13:10] Speaker B: Well, I don't know. I don't agree. [00:13:13] Speaker A: I flip flop so much. When I first read it, I felt like I was like, oh, yeah, the player is definitely an asshole. And I still kind of feel that way because of my natural defensiveness. But I also can kind of see how this guy maybe should have put in a little bit more effort. I wish we knew more of what the other players were thinking, too, because it's not just about how the DM feels. [00:13:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it's one of those snippets where we only get the DM's perspective, which I get. We avoided from episode one, ones where people are just, like, jumping in and every player has something to say, and it's like, I'm the cleric. I'm the fuck it. But sometimes it helps to have that, and it's like, am I the asshole? And you're just, like, giving your side of things versus other people's perspective? That kind of ruins. [00:13:59] Speaker A: I also find, too, people who want to play just, like, evil characters like that tend to lack roleplay experience, and they're unable to play it in a fun way for people, where it's like, every single time you have an interaction with any NPC, it's hostile, and it's like, how did they live this long? [00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, but they also. One session is too early. I guess three sessions, I get. [00:14:25] Speaker A: Two is the magic number. Kick me out, session one. Shame on me. Kick me out, session two. Shame on you. Kick me out, session three. It's a party. [00:14:35] Speaker B: Shame on me again. Shame, shame, shame. So, this one is pulled straight from the rpg horror story subreddit because I am great when I browse Reddit and I only search this, but some are really good, and there's a lot that I go through. Kayla, you don't understand how much work goes into this campaign. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Oh, my God. You're in the archives. You're in the library searching through old memoirs. [00:15:04] Speaker B: Although this one is 21 days ago. So this one is called the shortest one shot ever, and it's by Jojo Warrior. [00:15:13] Speaker A: That's why I should have called my fucking one shot when you guys all left, did we talk about that? [00:15:18] Speaker B: We haven't talked about that story on the podcast, we have to. [00:15:21] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I was running a delightful halloween themed one shot that was. Everybody was Scooby Doo characters. It was super fun. And we get into the mansion. My one shots typically take about three sessions, and they get there, and they're like, what if we just fucking leave? And I was like, what? And they were like, yeah, what if we just go, we don't have to do this. And I said, does everybody want that? And I was playing one of the npcs, and everybody was like, yeah, we could just fucking leave. I was like, I'll flip a coin to see if the NPC is on your side. Which was Scooby. [00:15:55] Speaker B: Yeah, Scoob. Scooby Doo decided, I don't fucking like this. I'm out. And I know he spoke really intelligently. [00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah. It's because Shaggy was the only one who could talk to him because of speak with animals and shit. And I flipped a coin, and I was like, jeff, call heads or tails. And he said, tails. And that's what I got. So I was like, I guess you guys are done. [00:16:17] Speaker B: That was the end of the campaign. [00:16:20] Speaker A: Left. And then they went to a nearby tavern and said, good job, team. [00:16:25] Speaker B: Good job, guys. It was too scary. [00:16:28] Speaker A: There was a second floor full of puzzles that they didn't even get to see. [00:16:32] Speaker B: That's my favorite thing, is we didn't do it in a mean way, though. No, they weren't about it and having a good time. We weren't like, fuck you. We don't want to play this. I know better. As a DM, I would never want that done to me. And you were a fucking sport for taking that and being like, yeah, it's fine. You were, like, very light on our side, too. It was a very light hearted thing. [00:16:51] Speaker A: I was like, you guys. Yeah. [00:16:54] Speaker B: Because we were seeing real ghosts. I was playing the character that's like, ghosts aren't real. Like, the fuck. And we were seeing real ghosts and people being murdered and getting backgrounds and shit like that. Like, oh, well, we want the riches and stuff in this mansion. And all of a sudden, it was like, this is really fucking dangerous, guys. Let's go. I mean, you did throw two gargoyles at us the second we walked into the mansion. [00:17:17] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, I was using roll 20 for the first time, so I was like, I can make tokens. I spent, like, 4 hours making tokens for you. [00:17:29] Speaker B: Anyway, glad none of them were seen onto the story. Shortest one shot ever. This was circa 2007 or 2008 at uni. I was part of Game Sock, which involved board games and ttrpgs. What the fuck is game sock? Games Oc. I don't even fucking know. [00:17:48] Speaker A: Socks that play games. Fucking duh. [00:17:51] Speaker B: Oh, my God. If nobody played and you just had hand puppets over the table and it was the fucking hand puppets. Oh, my God. Can we do that? [00:18:01] Speaker A: Yes. That's what I wanted to do. When we go to the cabin. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Don't say that. We have players that. Listen, sorry. [00:18:07] Speaker A: Cut that out. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Cutting it out. Cutting it out. But I'm going to keep me saying cutting it out because I don't want people to know what we're talking about. [00:18:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. No. Why would we fucking do that? [00:18:17] Speaker B: That's stupid, Jeff. Really stupid. That's a really dumb idea that we would never plan. [00:18:21] Speaker A: We would absolutely never do that. [00:18:23] Speaker B: I'm not cutting any of that out. A three five one shot was planned for a bunch of us who were good friends but didn't play ttrpgs together very much as we were in separate campaigns at the time. There was good notice given to make sure everyone could attend. Enough notice that I was able to draw some of the art of the character I wanted to play. Oh, my God. Speaking on this, I love having Kayla and having my partner and having all the people in our campaign that we do. Most of them are artists. And y'all draw some of the fucking dopest fan art of our campaign. And I love it so much, but no one cares. I think we talked about that. No one gives a shit about our art. [00:19:04] Speaker A: I just draw shit to hurt Jeff's feelings. [00:19:06] Speaker B: You did draw a lot of artwork. That was my characters dying, or like, some of my npcs dying and getting stabbed. I was like, it's fucked up, but I love it. Save in the folder. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Maybe don't kill us and I won't have to draw us dying, bro. [00:19:20] Speaker B: We have fun. A monk with a swashbuckling style who fought primarily by kicking and had a set of killer heels. [00:19:29] Speaker A: Oh, fuck yeah. [00:19:31] Speaker B: I'm in it. I'm invested. Let's go. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Sign me up. I'll go where she's going. Or he. [00:19:38] Speaker B: I support anybody in heels, honestly. The plan was, though, that we'd stat the characters together to ensure a good spread of skills and to craft a sensible party balance, establish roleplay, relationships, etc. Look at that world building before the campaign starts. Fuck you, Greg. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Fuck you, Greg. [00:19:56] Speaker B: The intention was for this to be an all day activity. My character isn't even important to this story, only that I was keen to play them and was disappointed when things were cut short. The key figures here are the GM and the Paladin. We spend an hour or two shooting the breeze as we talk about characters, work out relationship dynamics, draw up our character sheets, and spend money on gear. The paladin is a halfling on a riding dog, and as part of the. Oh, my God, it's so cute. And as part of his purchases, he gets a ghost touched lance, reasoning that the bid bad endgame is known to use necromancy, and he's concerned about ghosts or wraiths being an issue. I can't remember, but he may have had levels of cavalier, too. He was a holy person with amount and charge attacks. The GM looks over all our sheets and purchases and okays everything. See, this is where five e differs from older editions, like Pathfinder. Well, Pathfinder is its own thing by cobalt, but things like three, five, and fourth edition and older campaigns is you had classes like the cavalier and you had all these dope ass classes that just don't exist in five e. And it makes me so sad. [00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why we homebrew. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Yeah, we homebrew a lot. Or we just steal different. I guess their way of making up for not having all those different classes is they're like, we have subclasses, though. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah, you could be. That's so complicated. [00:21:24] Speaker B: DLC subclasses. [00:21:26] Speaker A: I just want to turn my brain off. [00:21:29] Speaker B: As the game starts, we're a group of pre established adventurers being given a mission to go track the big bad endgame necromancer and throw down. His base is on a mountain or in the woods or something. We're going to have to make it through the wilderness to face him. We're ready for an adventure. And as we got out of town, a transparent figure of the big bad Endgame. Maybe I should just say bdeg. [00:21:51] Speaker A: There we go. [00:21:52] Speaker B: That's what it's typed out as, girl. Okay, Peyton, we're ready for an adventure. And as we get out of town, a transparent figure of the BBEG turns up and monologues at us. We let him get most of the way through it, but at the end, heckle him a bit. [00:22:13] Speaker A: Ooh. Get off the stage. [00:22:16] Speaker B: We love talking shit to monologues. Or during monologues. Fuck you, DM. You wrote out this speech. I don't want to hear it. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Fuck you. [00:22:25] Speaker B: Once we've got the gist, the paladin says something like, away with you, Bulgar. And says he's charging. The GM says the BBEG is intangible. The cavalier directs attention to his ghost touch. Lance, the GM looks a little nervous, but lets the paladin roll. Of course, he's also smiting evil. Why wouldn't you? It's a crit. He kills the BBEg. [00:22:47] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:22:49] Speaker B: We figured that this was a ghostly version of the BBEG or an illusion or something. Not the BBEG himself. We're clapping the paladin on the back and are about to set off into the forest to get the show on the road. But the GM goes quiet and nervous and says the one shot is over since we killed the BBG. [00:23:07] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I could just imagine the look on their fucking face. [00:23:13] Speaker B: The GM. [00:23:15] Speaker A: No. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Oh, you poor guy. You could lie. You could have lied. [00:23:22] Speaker A: Oh, no, honey. [00:23:23] Speaker B: Good on it. Look good on the Gm for being honest. [00:23:26] Speaker A: Fuck honesty. [00:23:27] Speaker B: So sad. Fuck honesty. [00:23:30] Speaker A: Never tell your players the truth. Holy shit. [00:23:34] Speaker B: Oh, man, that's so sad. At this point, we realize that what happened actually happened and try to reassure the GM as well as to offer solutions for how to proceed. Anyway, he insists that no, the BBEG was under a specific effect and was totally critical. By a gross touch, Lance the paladin even says that if it's going to end the adventure, he'd rather we retcon the hit. But the GM says something about wanting to be honest and that retconning seems cheap. He's clearly shocked and upset and just talking more about it is making him feel worse. So we all just sort of exchange a look and drop it. No. This poor guy. [00:24:16] Speaker A: Stop, please. [00:24:17] Speaker B: Look, I was hoping this was going to be a relief, but the more I read it, I read it, I was like, oh, poor guy. But considering what we went through last week, I needed a little bit of a light hearted tale or something in the exact opposite direction. This is sad. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Oh, no. And his players were so on his side too. [00:24:37] Speaker B: Like, dude, fucking like, just, we don't do it. It's fine. No, I would cry. [00:24:45] Speaker A: I would cry and I would never dm ever again, dude. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Oh, no. We spend the rest of the day eating pizza and playing board games and have a good time with that. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Eventually the GM brightens up a whole. [00:24:58] Speaker B: They were planning the whole day for this. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Oh my God. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Eventually the GM brightens up a little too. No friendships were tested that day, but it was kind of weird and awkward for a bit. Much, much later. The GM admitted that he should have found some other way to carry on, but he had a very closed mindset about it. But had a very close mindset about it at the time and just got unreasonably upset about it to the point where he couldn't continue. Wow, though. That was the shortest one shot I've ever been in. We've spent more time on character creation than actually playing, and the only dice roll was the paladin's attack. [00:25:38] Speaker A: Oh, my God. And they made art. [00:25:41] Speaker B: I could understand, though, artwork of it, and they were just, oh, no. [00:25:46] Speaker A: A lot of inexperienced dms may not understand that they can just do whatever they want. Changes, hit points, change that he was like a ghost or whatever. It doesn't all have to be by the book. I understand being shocked and embarrassed, though, and not really wanting to play anymore after that. [00:26:07] Speaker B: I mean, you're the one that literally says, I don't plan hp. [00:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah, he's going to die when I say he dies. Okay? That's just how it is in my book. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Cinematically, this makes sense, okay? This is how movies work. This is how my game works. [00:26:24] Speaker A: If you think about the juxtaposition of the players versus the big bad, then. [00:26:29] Speaker B: All right, take off your nerd glasses. Okay? We are already on a DNd podcast. [00:26:33] Speaker A: I can see you without my glasses, dude. Is that the whole story? [00:26:38] Speaker B: Yeah, unfortunately. [00:26:39] Speaker A: I'm glad they perked up, but, oh, my sad God, that would hurt my feelings. There's not really anything to say about. [00:26:46] Speaker B: My favorite reaction to people is just, I love the comments. That's the best part about it, is like, wow, a horror story where there was no real bad guys except the one the paladin killed. I'm glad you guys were so supportive. It's real hard to recover from thwarted plans if you aren't used to that skill. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Improv and being able to bounce back is definitely a skill you need to develop, and I hope it was a good lesson for him, and I hope it doesn't discourage him from doing more stuff. It sounded like he had great players. [00:27:16] Speaker B: Around him, even turning around at the end and be like, you know what? I should have handled that differently is just so much better than what they've been doing. Very good. [00:27:25] Speaker A: I think I have a lot of trust with you guys, too, so I feel like if something like that happened to me, I could just stop in the middle and be like, hey, guys, I don't feel prepared for this. Can we figure something out together? And it wouldn't ruin anybody's experience? [00:27:42] Speaker B: God, this is the saddest. It's such a sad story. [00:27:46] Speaker A: Well, I'm fucking depressed. [00:27:48] Speaker B: You're welcome. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Here is a story that I definitely found all by myself and had no help with. And I was very prepared. Not a single ounce of help at all. It's called sidelined by a long, long string of duels and it's on rpg horror stories by Earth Seraph Edna. I have just come out of a session wherein a couple of hours were spent on duels. Specifically, one pc is an exceptional duelist, a fantastic fighter all around, but a touch better at dueling thanks to duel specific bonuses. So the GM decided to throw the player a metaphorical bone by having a major plot point hinge exclusively on this one pc fighting a long, long string of one on one duels. We were not aware of this before the session. [00:28:47] Speaker B: It's another case of everyone having to sit there while main character gets to play their fucking campaign. [00:28:52] Speaker A: One of my biggest pet peeves is like sitting there while my brain rots while waiting for everybody to take their turns. [00:29:00] Speaker B: How do you keep players engaged when it's other people's turns? That is such a difficult thing to do. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you do a pretty good job because you typically have us roll for social combat and then also we bounce around quite a bit, like, hey, while you're thinking of that, if you notice someone's taking a long time, let's just move on to the next person. Combat. [00:29:23] Speaker B: You and I both, I don't know if you're ADHD, but nonetheless we can't focus, so it's rough and I know I would be bored, which is why I'm just like, bounce, bounce, bounce. [00:29:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it gets to a point. I think we've talked about setting timers before as well for certain people because it's like, hey, if you're not going to have something ready to go, I'm going to move on to the next person and we can just circle back to your turn when you're ready. [00:29:48] Speaker B: That's something I notice hasn't happened since we've been playing fate. [00:29:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been easy. [00:29:52] Speaker B: People like, turns have been very smooth and easy because it's usually just like, I want to do this. Okay, let's figure out how we do it versus I need to go through a list to figure out how to do this so I can do it. It's a very different dynamic. [00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. It says the GM is also poor at multitasking and the other pcs were not allowed to interfere with or influence the outcome of the duels in any way. [00:30:20] Speaker B: Why be there? [00:30:22] Speaker A: That seems like a mistake. [00:30:25] Speaker B: That's like that one scene where I had the captain fighting a fucking giant mech or whatever in one of the I think it was the third season of our DND campaign. It was so hard to keep that interesting for everyone. [00:30:37] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:30:38] Speaker B: So I just had you guys fight and you guys decided to just take it into your own hands and dive into the fight too? [00:30:44] Speaker A: Yeah, might as well punch some shit. All the other pcs could do is mundanely cheer the duelist on. No bonuses or anything like that. The other players had their characters cheer every so often, but I just could not get invested in this, especially since the opponents were statted so conservatively that there was never any real tension. [00:31:06] Speaker B: We're watching a dude grind out a fucking rpg. Like he's just sitting there killing level one rats over and over again. Are you serious? [00:31:13] Speaker A: I understand wanting to be on the side of your fellow players and encouraging them and being like, yeah, do it. But I'm going to be so real. I do not give a shit sometimes if it's boring and I can't focus. Especially I can understand if they're role playing and I'm like, ooh, invested in that. But it's like, I do not give a shit at you. Rolling some dice for the stupid duel just because the GM couldn't figure it out, bro. The session ended just before the final duel, the longest and most complex of them all, so they have to do this shit again next week, is what I'm hearing. According to the GM, the next session will start off with resolving this one on one fight. I cannot stand this. I find it very boring to be sidelined for hours on end. I can see the GM's good intentions in trying to spotlight one pc, but his character was not exactly lacking in spotlight before. Why should the rest of the party be co signed to twiddling their thumbs and being cheerleaders? How do you think I should have handled this? Clarification being that this is a tabletop rpg said extra benefits when dueling are, in theory, primarily intended for quote unquote regular group combat as the character isolates and squares off against a single opponent. Find particularly flabbergasting is how the GM arrived at this decision. To begin with, the character has not had any previous issues with spotlight and is a fantastic combatant in any situation, and yet the GM at some point decided I should have this major plot point hinge entirely on the character's extra benefits. When dueling, which are just a minor part of the character's abilities. [00:32:59] Speaker B: It seems like the GM just goes, oh yeah, you can do this. Your character class is called duelist, so you have to duel someone all the time. Let's make it a character, like a whole major arc. Beautiful. [00:33:13] Speaker A: If you're going to do this, if you absolutely have to, just have a private session with the pc in question. Don't make these people show up. Our playtime is so limited. We only play 2 hours, right? These players show up to just fucking sit there for 2 hours and it's like, I'm sure the player who's actually doing the duels doesn't feel great about it either, because who likes to see a bunch of board faces around you while you're doing this? [00:33:46] Speaker B: Here I go, guys. I'm rolling another D 20. [00:33:49] Speaker A: That would make me feel. [00:33:51] Speaker B: We're not saying that you shouldn't focus on individual players. I don't think that's what you're saying. You should always give people the chance to have the spotlight for moments. It doesn't always have to be a group thing. But this is excessive. This is how many rounds of combat to just sit there and watch? Honestly, anytime I play DND, combat is the weakest part for me because everyone knows we love role playing, but it's focusing on that and focusing on what's going on around. I totally understand when players are just. [00:34:29] Speaker A: Like, no, my brain will literally turn into mashed potatoes if I have to sit there for too long. [00:34:35] Speaker B: Even you don't have to stay on a scene with someone for 15 minutes. You can jump. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Exactly. Or have the players zoom out while the duel is happening and just make like, okay, so for your next, you're going to do ten duels for your first three role and we'll see how those. Give me three roles and we'll see how those ones go and then zoom out and see what the players are doing. Like, maybe they're working on stuff behind the scenes or give them a side quest. [00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah, something happens to them while they're watching. Like maybe one of them gets robbed and they're tracking down the person through the arena as the fight's going on. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Yeah. So many options. [00:35:12] Speaker B: Things they do affect what's happening in the duel. Like, oh, we're chasing this dude through and we knocked over a thing of watermelons and now watermelons are falling into the arena. Do something with the players, man. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Me is shaking the DM. Do something. [00:35:27] Speaker B: Do something. I hate just staring at dice rolling for 22 fucking hours. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Yeah, I know people get in trouble all the time for stacking dice or being on their phones, but I will die. I'll die if I don't have anything to do. [00:35:44] Speaker B: Stack your dice. Do anything you need to, but don't be on your phone. Come on now that's fucked up. [00:35:49] Speaker A: It depends. [00:35:50] Speaker B: Give your players a fidget toy. [00:35:52] Speaker A: A fidget toy is very fair. Thank you so much for joining us for that episode. Happy new year once again, everybody. I'm enjoying it so far. The weather has been shockingly nice. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Fuck you. We got, like, snowstorms. How did you get what? [00:36:12] Speaker A: I know, it's been fucking weird. I'm going to blame the lake and global warming. Really appreciate you guys sticking around. Please find us on all of our social media platforms. Tales from the tabletop on everything formerly Twitter is Tales from the TT. If you have A-D-D horror story of your own that you would like us to read on the podcast, you can either leave it in our Q a section if you want, just like a little tidbit to give us, or if you want us to read your full story comprehensively, please send it to our email at Tales from [email protected]. [00:36:47] Speaker B: So we are changing things around just every so often. We've been adding more and more to episodes. Just make them sound as great as possible. Like little snippets here and there. You may notice things just as we're going, but we're learning. We're growing as a podcast. I didn't know about the Q and a thing, and then you pointed it out and I'm like, oh, fuck, that's so cool. So we have added it to all the old episodes of the podcast if you want to go back and leave a review on those. But also, we did get some feedback on the last episode, so that's pretty nice. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Thank you guys for that. [00:37:14] Speaker B: That was really cool. [00:37:15] Speaker A: Thank you guys so much. It's so helpful. We are very much still like a fledgling podcast, so any feedback we can get is great. Jeff and I are obviously very passionate about this kind of thing. We love hanging out with each other as well, so it's a good time and we just want to make a good product here. We're kind of control freaks and perfectionists. [00:37:36] Speaker B: We're the sad, sad dnd people that host can't change what they have planned and just have to accept that their one shot is over. [00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So we'll see. We are going to be doing next episode, I think either next episode or the episode after that. We have an interview planned. If you enjoyed the last one, it is going to be with Jeff's uncle. [00:38:00] Speaker B: Yes. Tom Flanagan. Incredible guy. I've known him my entire life. And, yeah, he's been doing this for many, many years. [00:38:10] Speaker A: It's going to be really exciting to have a really experienced dungeon master on our podcast to kind of guide us. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah, looking forward to that. I hope you guys enjoyed the podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Leave a review, leave a rating, all that fun stuff. Find us on our social medias. Kayla is doing an incredible job over there, making the best content possible because we're hilarious. [00:38:35] Speaker A: So funny. If you made it to the end type, Jeff smells in our q a box. [00:38:40] Speaker B: Oh, God, don't. Please. All right. Bye, guys. [00:38:44] Speaker A: Bye. Hot dog blanket. [00:38:54] Speaker B: It is a hot dog. [00:38:55] Speaker A: I have a hot dog blanket. No, you do. [00:38:58] Speaker B: Oh, fuck. Are you recording? [00:39:01] Speaker A: I am good. [00:39:02] Speaker B: I have bloopers. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Fuck. I got to watch what I fucking say now. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Why is it a resolution? You're like, this is how I win arguments. [00:39:17] Speaker A: I just burped. Don't put that in. [00:39:21] Speaker B: Now you have something to be worried about. [00:39:23] Speaker A: I'm so worried, I'm walking on eggshells. Dude. [00:39:29] Speaker B: At this point, we realize that what happened. No, at this point, fuck. Like, measure.