Concerning Ben's comment on key/door based dungeon layouts, there's a youtube series by Gamemaker's Toolkit called Boss Keys, which goes into great detail on how these layouts can create either linear or nonlinear dungeon layouts. And of course, Jennell Jaquays will be missed, the world is filled with more adventure and wonder because of her contributions.
Playing my second session with a bunch of brand new players, and this episode drops. Thank you, God! Also: as a Brit in Canada, I always love these cultural discussions, it's fascinating and insightful, and prompts me to think more inclusively and holistically in my games.
The most difficult part is that you shouldn't explain too much, But also shouldn't be withholding options from them. This is why whenever I have brand new players I go through their entire character between them finishing their character And them playing their first actual session, Giving a play by play for all the unique traits such as tool proficiencies and class features, While ignoring the less important things like what all of the skills checks do. For example I had a player who wanted to play an Last Airbender inspired character, We landed on Water Genasi Kensei Monk, which checked all the boxes. So I just told them, this is all the water stuff, these are basic attacks, These are things you can do instead of attacking (actions, I recommend having a cheatsheet with special combat actions for martials) This is the special moves stuff, (aka ki point abilities, reactions and bonus actions) And this is the stuff you can ignore (Unarmored defence, ect.) That took care of the bulk of their questions, Since they now understood why things were on their sheet Giving them the mind space to try things.
re: new players. I literally just had this happen this week. I had to talk to my experienced players out of game to ask them to slow down with the "help". This is a 5e game, and things like the pagic system can be very complex. I'm trying to give them the minimal info they need to play, and we'll add more options down the line. When you give people too much information, often they'll retain none of it. I'm trying to give them less in the beginning so they'll retain it.
I was the indeed the Sean from last time, but it might be fun to be two people for a change. Cloning never causes problems. I’m sure there won’t be a power struggle to decide who Sean Prime is…
Best thing to do for new folks is to be patient with them. Give them a few choices of things they can do if necessary, help them visualize the situation and give them time to think. My favorite brand new player experience was a 10 year old playing a lizardfolk barbarian that was fighting a dragon that just bit their friend and they looked at me on their turn took a minute and eventually asked "Can I bite him back?" and rolled double-critical hits (Extra Attack) to the whole table cheering them on and ended up downing the dragon with their second bite attack, which was absolutely amazing for them and for the whole table. I knew in that moment another lifetime player of TTRPGs was born.
I commented this on the community post, but in the Cypher System, fumbles are called GM Intrusions, and they are the GM's primary way to throw a wrench in the players' plans, as GMs don't roll dice in the game. They happen on rolled 1s, but they can also happen anytime the Game Master wants - if the players accept the XP reward that they also get for the intrusion. They take some finesse, but my players have all, always loved them I think I've had one refused in the three years I've been running the system.
I Aussie-ify my games by having all Drow come from the DownUnder Dark. A group of people who are decendants of criminals (in the eyes of surfacers) and are cool with spiders. For the Indigenous side of D&D: "Chicken Salt Baes is an Indigenous Dungeons & Dragons Adventure brought to you by a full crew of Indigenous creatives."
As an Australian gm. For my home-brew I think one of the hard things is finding it hard to conceive of a world that is so close together. Our cities are 800 kilometres apart with nothing but small stuff between. Also I've never seen a castle. But yeah there's just this whole difference in how we experience space down here
01:26 Most of the time, we don't use crit fail tables, but we had a year-long campaign that used them for martial attack rolls (PCs & monsters) and we would chant "FUM-BLE CHART, FUM-BLE CHART" for comedic effect. The results were usually things like "your arrow ricochets and hits an ally" or the one time a PC crit failed a coup-de-grace so his sword got stuck in the ground. It's absolutely something to discuss and agree upon during session zero. If you have players that enjoy the slapstick of fallible heroes, it can be fun as long as it also affects the baddies and isn't excessively debilitating (broken weapon, lost limbs, etc)
What a fantastic episode. You each brought a really unique perspective on helping new players, and addressing the different experiences new players bring to the table. From babies to grandmas, from actors to accountants, different people will be challenged differently when learning any complicated and esoteric system. Loved the sincere and empathetic discussion of different cultural perspectives in design. I thought Ben's observation about morality of Aussies and Americans was interesting; I think any noticeable difference here (not that I have noticed one, myself) speaks more to the Australian ttrpg culture being younger and not as directly influenced by the older dungeon-pilfering Gygaxian style, rather than any broader cultural attitudes. I hope indigenous creators do create things for the wider ttrpg community. That said, I thought there were very interesting points made about the differences between European-descended people and Aboriginal people, as well as between different Aboriginal peoples. That is, questioning which stories are ours to tell. I'm from Aotearoa New Zealand, am white, for context. I think about it like the homebrew design someone makes for their home game that's janky and weird and works perfectly in their game. It's for them, not anyone else, and if it was for anyone else it wouldn't be what it is. They don't have to publish that anywhere. I've only just had this thought now, but I think there's a surprisingly colonial attitude, even if just subconscious, informing the desire for indigenous creators to 'share'. Some things can't be shared, and sometimes sharing something is what destroys it. Wanting to learn about other cultures in every conceivable product format is unhelpful. I would be happy to see more products from indigenous creators in ttrpgs, but I don't think my curiosity should translate into an obligation for anyone else. Not to suggest that's what anyone was doing. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on it - people should always create for themselves before they create for others.
When I run 5e a nat 1 on an attack provokes an opportunity attack. It doesn't step on any classes' territory. It creates interesting opportunities, gives an additional use for a rarely used action type, and it helps speed things up.
My favorite thing to do with new players to introduce them to 5e is to start with them travelling and running into a straight forward skill challenge on the way. Like a destroyed bridge over a river, or a herd of giant goats blocking the road. It's a non-stressful scenario where new people can get used to thinking about what their character can do in a situation, rolling a d20 + a stat to figure out if they succeed at it, and continuing on their journey. Very helpful for learning the basics of the game.
Would love to see you guys and Dungeon Coach (Alan) get together for a one shot of his DC20 - and get your thoughts on it. Of all the new games in development, DC20 is the one I am most looking forward to.
If you have the luxury of notice and time, doing a session pre-zero, over discord a phone call or the VTT you may be using, with a simple one-on-one (or -two) session, can be valuable to a new player. During the pre-zero, you can select things such as bonds, flaws and backgrounds where the intro 'rite of passage' weaves the benefits of those elements into a mini-module to illustrate how they will fit into the "real" adventure later on, serving as a primer of mechanisms in a non-threatening and private forum.
Scars (of all kinds, physical, psychologically) as records of critical failures is a great storytelling device. Incorporating those scars for later stories (and really letting your players run with it), like getting magical tattoos that incorporate the scar, is a fun idea.
In our Pathfinder game, we use crits and fumbles with both needing to be confirmed! We also use a luck system, where you roll a d4 to see how many luck points you lose to cancel the fumble or crit and turn it to the other if you want!
for the dice problem Dael, i made a dice label table that you can print out. it has the shapes of the dice with names next to them so new players can identify the different dice. you can find it on my blog
The discussion about doing the wrong thing or doing anything you want is really a fine line. There ARE wrong choices in roleplaying games. Those choices that lead to your death or to the death of other player characters are the wrong choices. Doing whatever you want often leads to stress or anxiety for other players at the table. I recently played in a game with where 2 other players just did whatever it is that came into their heads, which caused issues, and always left me not having fun. Their fun caused me to not have fun cause they never thought through potential consequences. If the game hadn't ended due to the DMs work schedule, I was going to drop out. It's a fine line and telling people that they can do whatever they want often is not good advice.
Tangentially related to fumbles because fumbles suck*, but one of my favorite ideas related to messing up a PC was inspired by a SuperGeekMike video (one of the ones in his series about PC death, I forget which of the three). "That's going to leave a mark." Basically, when a PC goes down, you give them a reverse "How do you want to do this?" where they explain how the bad guy's attack takes them out and the scar it's going to leave if they regain consciousness. Maybe you save this for only the named NPCs, or only if it's a crit that KOs a PC, but the point is to let the players narrate when their character goes down and gets a cool scar. I didn't know about Jaquays' activism. That makes her even cooler. * though other games can make use of things that have a similar vibe. Isn't marking Ruin in Trophy Dark basically just rolling a fumble and having something awful happen to your character?
There has always been an inherent Australian type of fantasy in my mind and it entirely planted itself there back in the early 80s by one of the first anime I had ever seen on TV called the Noozles. Basically girl Sandy’s dad went missing in Outback but sent her a stuffed koala bear. Said bear came to life when she nuzzled it basically but it wasn’t a bear that came alive, it was like a whole secret koala bear world with its own magic system. Truely the plot of the show was more like Bewitched where Sandy is having a normal life but magic bear tries to help using magic and magic bears brat of a sister that shows up uses magic to sew chaos into Sandy’s life. Anyway for a kid this was amazing, let alone a plot that went on week after week and didn’t just reset at the end of each episode. Of course there is a big climax of going to Ayres rock during some epic meteor shower or northern lights type event to try and save both worlds. Very epic.
I was taken to a dance event where the instructors told the newbies “this is a very free style, you can do whatever you want!” Then when the event actually started, I had no baseline to actually follow and neither I nor any partner could stay on the same page. One of the worst lessons I’ve ever been given. It isn’t just about the fear of being wrong. There are social interactions with a group. Most people will feel pressure to not be a drag on the team. Totally different activities, but the same terrible outcome.
I teach at an elementary school and run D&D for lots of new players. I have a simplified character sheet, only a d20 and a d6 (decisions and damage), and I only tell them what D&D is and that rolling higher on the d20 is good and low is bad. And then we’re off to the races!
There is so much that correlates in this broad cultural discussion that you guys had and as a Brazilian I find it particularly interesting. Also, can someone link to some of Dael's mom work? From the way she speaks about it it does sounds as the kind of thing that I would like to read.
regarding the d10/d% problem, that's why I don't read my d100 rolls as "tens-place, ones-place", but rather just treat the d10 as normal and add its value to the d%. It works out all the same, but you don't have to memorize any special rules (like 00-0 is 100). So a 90+0 (10) is how you roll 100. Keeps it consistent in that 90 is always the best d% face, rather than 90 being the best d% face except for when 00 is the best (and the reverse - 0 is the best d10 face always, rather than 0 is the worst except for on the 00-0 result).
I would guess that the book D. referenced would be one of Patricia Wrightsons works probably either The Nargun and the Stars or The Song of Wirrun trilogy.
I run a southern hemisphere game and without getting into Maori or Aboriginal cultural appropriation it offers a lot. The great whale kingdoms of the Ocean of song to the west. Multi hull boats. The importance of Grandmothers to culture. Different seasons. Wide spaces. Mobile communities. Giant Wombats. Demonic Ibis. Artificers who weave and carve and paint a well as smith. It has been an incredible source of ideas and surprisingly challenging at times because of how deep the Northern bias runs. I tried putting Sourh at the top of my maps and kept screwing up the sunrise. Try setting your game where you live - it's very rewarding.
ha, i just wrote about a game where the players rolled four natural 1s in a single scene. This was in Cypher System (Old Gods of Appalachia), so each time I had to create a GM intrusion.
I would 1000% be down with an Aboriginal play setting involving the Dreamtime and animal spirits and journeying through the outback and different countries. Started thinking about that when the wildfire druid released, I thought it would be an amazing fit to be a medicine/wise person on a dream quest. Would love to have bushfires as a central theme to the setting campaign etc.
I think critical fumbles are fun! (As long as they are sufficiently rare and quickly determined/resolved). That said, I stopped using them for 5e after using them in 1e, 2e, and 3e.
The only time I've had a character die, it was due to another PC's critical fail on an Eldritch Blast, which the DM decided hit me instead of the Gelatinous Cube I was standing next to, knocking me down (we were level 1) just in time for said cube to roll over my unconscious body 🙃
I almost feel that Ollies question around 35:40, was prefaced by some of the worst Australian accents I have heard 🤣 Thank you for both repping in the only way you could - Perth "a hot lizard"??
DAEL IS FROM NOWRA??? Did i hear that right?, as someone raised in kangaroo valley this is so weird. If true Dael is possibly nowra's biggest celebrity (i refuse to fact check this)
8:09 - What movie is that? What movie do I watch for these things? I haven't seen a movie like that in theaters. I think it's safe to say they don't make those kinds of movies anymore. Conan the Barbarian came out in 1982, Excalibur was 1981, Heavy Metal was 1981. Only thing coming to mind is 2015's MacBeth or maybe the Northman from 2022. I think it's perfectly fair not to a lot of popular films coming out nowadays (most of them are pretty bad). Furthermore I think it's wrong headed to dismiss people who like a particular niche of film (especially one so barren), when they express frustration at what they see as a wasted opportunity with a hand wave to tell them to go and watch their movies. It's like getting mad at someone on your life raft for wanting fresh water when you're in the middle of the ocean surrounded by water. "They can go watch their own movie" Unbelievably foul take. I can't believe you said that. Again, what movie? Where am I going to see this mystic film you allude to? Is there a special cinema that only shows the other secret D&D movie that was made this decade? Like come on bro. Call it unrealistic, call it wishful thinking, say you don't like the movies they like, but don't pretend they have an abundance of choice and they're wishes are totally unfounded.
Too many critical fumble tables end up being lists of how the character is stupid. Nobody wants their character to be stupid. A good critical fumble table should be focused on how the enemy got a lucky shot in or a weapon fails or gets disarmed. It should happen because the enemy is good at what they do or are very lucky, not because the PC is lame.
There is a perverse way in which the fact that D&D has so many systems that are clearly "unfinished" or at the very least unsatifactory, players feel more license to modify and extend the system and make it their own - all while semi-smugly thinking to themselves, "Who are these amateurs? I can do a better job with [ initiative | challenge rating | chase mechanics], etc, than THEY have. It's a bit akin to people who love Jeeps or Harleys getting to "pimp my ride". If you make the default tires or roof too good, you lower the incentive for people to add on anything that isn't stock.
new folks coming to D&D will be the same as new folks who came to D&D since its inception despite the latest take on the game trying to bring in "different" customers that wotc execs would rather have but aren't ever going to get interested under any circumstances. if they continue down this path they will, eventually, get rid of their current customers as planned, but they aren't going to bring in a different type of player. someone recently explained what wotc will never understand: D&D is for anyone, but it's not for everyone. despite shills' best efforts, hasbro is dying and wotc is making sure it will...
I disagree that only those of a particular culture are allowed to tell stories of other people's myths and culture. This is an extremely selective way of thinking and is making assumptions. Will the interpretation of those stories by people of different backgrounds be different, most assuredly, but so long as it is approached with the proper mindset and respect, there is nothing wrong with it? People should always be mindful of what they are presented with and use this knowledge to find more answers for themselves. If people respect what they are digging into and exploring and bring it to the public in the same way, there is nothing wrong with it. Joseph Campbell is a perfect example of this, or, say, the people who are going and helping to catalog dying languages like Navajo. The trick is going in wanting to learn being open-minded, and never presenting yourself as an expert but a continuous student. All that being said, I still think the best way to tackle these types of issues is by teaming up with others who know the material, but this taboo of people of other cultures not being allowed to enjoy and bring to light other great stories is just plain silly in my opinion.
I think the "melting pot" approach to fantasy is something very American, and is assuming every other culture has the same hang ups American culture has which just seems like it is just American exceptionalism by another name. Ie, Canadians have the "stained glass" philosophy where your cultural differences should be distilled and seperate than another so they do not run together and stay unique. In a fantasy world with those values you would see a dwarf section of town, like European fantasy, and it would be frowned upon to serve Dwarven ale outside of a Dwarven tavern or home. A "stay in your own lane" approach to culture, if you will. Chinese culture has largely been encouraged to adopt outside of the nation because common ground makes points of relation and encourages understanding between people. Neither is "right" but if every culture is the same you got a bland fantasy world.
Anyone who knows a story can share it. If you start creating ridiculous prerequisites about what is okay to share based upon your skin color, you are bigoted and have no place in the hobby. Learn about what you like. Share it. We don’t need the ancient art of story telling to become extinct due to racism.
Saw the video title and thought it said "Stop RUNNING D&D for new players" and I got really excited cause I thought the take was going to be that you should start new players on something like Knave or Cairn or Shadowdark instead, which is absolutely true!
Stop RUNning D&D for New Players! Fair enough, there are so many great RPGs out there, and bold of you to deny your business's foundation. Then I looked again. 😅 By the way, congrats on being inside the walled garden of Beyond! It's a real coup. You guys are great developers, and I hope Ghostfire continues to provide flavor and interest as an alternative to the current, boring, neutered versions of TSR era settings. Best of luck!
I really didn't like the DND movie because it had Hugh Grant in it who was amazing as an actor with presence and humor. Compared to him, the other actors and the humor were awful. Maybe people who liked the movie compared the horribly wooden characters to their average friends rather than to Hugh Grant and Robert Downey Jr. Who are amazing actors
