My channel has won the 2019 & 2023 Gold ENNIE Tabletop Award.
I mostly talk about Tabletop RPGs.
My sidekick is Jack the NPC.
REVIEW POLICY: I don't review a game until I've personally played it. I won't play it unless I believe it'll be a good fit for my group. In short - I review what we play, and we play what we enjoy. I do not do "sponsored reviews" (i.e. paid infomercials pretending to be reviews). Sending me a free product in no way guarantees a positive review, or even a review at all. If I read it and don't think it's a good fit for us, we won't play it. Or it might not fit into our play schedule or current campaign. If you wish to request a review, pitch it. Sell me on why I want to play it. 90% of the Review Requests I receive fail to say what the game/adventure even is.
We had a guy who was at least half of those in our local Adventurer's League. He would read the adventures before the session and tried to speedrun them, and he often conveniently forgot the part of the rule which was not beneficial to him in the moment.
Had someone sometime try to tell me you can use prestidigitation to summon a small object inside of someone's heart because of how the rules were written. We argued for an hour about it, and they never backed down. Insufferable bastard also wanted to change the damage of spell types like turning fireball into cold or force damage, when they needed that type of damage, because he couldn't be bothered to prepare other spells.
Have a friend who's a copper thief. First campaign we ever played he wants to strip the doors off a dungeon we cleared so we could try to sell them to nobles. Yes, he wanted us to become door-to-door door salesmen.
I saw Seth has a Kult scenario in an upcoming Kult expansion kickstarter. I’m looking forward to the kickstarter and (I assume) Seth’s review video of his scenario! 😉
I think it's like that old quote by I-forget-who: "power doesn't corrupt, it enables". If the power-gamer at your table is a problem player, they aren't a problem player because they are a power-gamer, it's just more *noticeable* because they are a power-gamer.
Once I was brought into a group for the express purpose of being a rules stickler by request of a newbie GM friend of mine. It felt... weird to do that on purpose.
8:50 I remember having a GM once who was a rules lawyer about a trap. The premise was, this room had a weakened ceiling, so rather than repair it, they stuck a bunch of rickety poles around to prop it up. And other parts got weakened, so more poles. Too cheap to repair the ceiling. But the owner of the place thought the poles were unsightly, so he had someone go around and cast permanent invisibility on all the poles, so they wouldn't be seen. Servants just memorized the route to go through without bumping into any poles. We the PCs get there, the barbarian with Trap Sense wanders in, hits a pole, and the ceiling collapses on him. His roll is just 1 shy of success. He asks does he get to add trap sense to the roll. The GM says no, because it's not a trap, it's just an invisible pole that prevented the ceiling from collapsing. Fun!
A couple that I've stole from other games: (I don't have all my books in front of me so I hope I'm giving the right game the credit) Fate System - When entering a scene where action was expected to take place, the GM asks the players what they expect to see in the room. He gets a list of several different things, writes them down on 3x5 cards or sticky notes and puts them down for everyone to see. On a player's turn, they may choose one of those items, and use it describe their action. For example, if one of the notes said "Large wooden table", he might say "I roll across the table to the other side and strike the enemy". Doing this gives a little bonus to the roll. I like this because it beats the "I swing my sword" line we've all heard a thousand times. Some players do this naturally, but it can help new players or players with less imagination. Savage Worlds - Monologues; once per gaming session the player could give a lengthy monologue. Maybe it's part of the character's backstory, or why they so driven to defeat a certain foe. These were done in down-time, while sitting around a campfire, or resting. As a GM, I ask "Does anyone want to give a monologue? If a player wants to, I'll ask them a question from an NPC "Say, One-eyed Tex, how did you lose your left eye anyway?". The player that gives a monologue gets a Bennie (in Savage Worlds), bonus die, +2, etc (in whatever game I'm running).
Good lord, memory unlocked. Playing a game and asked the dm if I could use a spell to do something. Table loved it, dm loved it, but the one player? "No it says object not Objects, you can't do that!" then argued the dm around to his way.
There is one scenario where I find fudging to not be acceptable: if you have multiple groups of players competing against each other. But if you have the big bad guy you based your campaign around, I definitely won't mind you giving him some extra hit points so he doesn't outright die in the first round of combat to the lucky critical.
I think you separating the rules knowledgeable types into 3 broad categories is a great way to put it. I have to admit I can be a rules stickler sometimes!
I am a novice keeper and will run this in few days. This video really helped me out. Hope my game goes well. It is both super fun and intimidating to run games to people who have played it for a really long time.
I have listened to this before. I am planning a Cyberpunk RED oneshot to hook some buddies into a campaign. I was not ready for young Seth. My guy had that shit ON. Like, damn Seth, that fit was fire.
Funny thing, our Traveller group was working together for two years doing Traveller stuff, then we got betrayed by a crime boss that sent us to a low-tech backwater planet then stranded us there by taking our ship wile we were out hunting some strange peacock bird/lizerd thing. We were stuck for 3 months when we were aproched by a representiive of Drinex with an offer for us. The funny part is we met in a bar. Coolist way I have ever met a group of adventureres in a bar.
I wwould put skill based games into the broader category of Point based gamesas the both level by allowing you to buy points in a wide range of choices
Thanks for the rules sage identifier! I’ve always called myself a rules lawyer even though there are negative connotations to it, but I don’t bring up rules just to benefit myself and I always go with the GMs decision (not always easy but the goal is for every to have fun, not to argue). I hope my GMs and fellow players would agree, but that title is a much better framework to work with. I really appreciate these types of videos, it helps me get out of my own head and really think about how I play and the player I ultimately want to be.
