six months later, we sat down and talked mainly about D&D and GMing on Twitch. matt is / mattcolville watch live @ / adamkoebel follow me @ / skinnyghost
Matt³ Injury Lawyers: Was your Paladin massacred by 5 Shadows? come to us and we will work with your DM on how to kill your next character. Wait!?! That's not what I want out of this! I want my character back not advice on making encounters more deadly!
More and more, as I have gotten older, I have started taking from some form of play-like structure. Exposition/Inciting incident, Trials/setbacks, Climax/Revelation (With or without twist), Resolution took me a long time to learn, and building tension was something that took me a long time to create. -- And then 5E did the WORST possible thing to ruin tension-building scenarios... Introducing the Short rest.
Silly Matt, you think you know Twitch, but yet you don't realize... chat always surprises you with what they pick. The only thing you can be sure of with chat, is they are on team chaos.
I loved this! So many interesting ideas! I would totally be down for more conversations between the two of you or a podcast or more roundtables with different guests etc. THAT IS of course if you and either Matt or the others can find the time and want to do it. I would most certainly be interested :D Thank you both for your time and opinions on the topics you discussed.
This was fabulous and I would be delighted to see you two enjoy each other's company and views more. Please know that you can and should do this again.
Thanks Adam and Matt! I got so much info out of this conversation. You addressed so many points that I've been overthinking as I approach starting a gaming stream. I'm going to go back to this video a lot in the near future. You guys rock!
Thank you Adam Koebel and Matt Colville for occupying the same digital space-time, again! You two are my greatest inspirations in the online role-playing community and represent two slightly different, but complementary, styles and voices in the net-o-sphere! Thank you for the time you have both dedicated to the community and your audiences. You both add real value to my life through your work, advice, and enthusiasm. My games are better because of you, and my dreams are bigger! Please keep up the great work, and continue to let us all know how we can continue to support your work. Thank you for your attention!
You probably dont give a shit but if you're bored like me atm you can stream pretty much all the latest series on instaflixxer. Have been streaming with my girlfriend for the last couple of months =)
I'm stoked that you don't know what 'selling out' even is yet. That means that your brains and hearts are in the right place about playing a game with friends and making entertainment out of it. The concept and keys about "selling out" are explained by Matt Mercer on his "Between the Sheets" segment when he tells the story about having to reject numerous ideas by Twitch about how to change their game to commercialize it better. Making the game just fodder for the money making machine. He had to turn their "mainstream" ideas down. I'm SOOOOO glad he did. Some might argue making money is the only point and the baseline measure of success. I'd argue that the game and the people creating together is the point of life. May your projects be fruitful and friendships be true.
I’m glad this happened. My DM got the Strongholds and Followers PDF and is has bootstrapped it to our current campaign. Love it. The wizards tower makes spell casting exciting. Especially since my character is all about manipulating the game world to suit him. It also helps that the DM is building his own world and campaign. Anyway love Colville.
Thank you for that. It made me think harder about my own attemts at DMing and I feel the need to use the PC conflict material more. I kinda wish Adam would ask Matt about his fudging dice rolls video :)
25:36 I think we have seen the 22-minute comedy of Star Trek. It's called Orville, and I like it a lot. I feel like this emphasizes his point, though, because Orville episodes map pretty strongly onto the Star Trek formula.
I saw the entire video on podcast mode, hahahaha. Really interesting topics. As a DM that is thinking on stream ganes (although in spanish) this things help me open my eyes to different options and interesting topics regarding show games
Definitely tune into Matt's game. It's only a few episodes in as of 3/11/19 and it's worth the ride. I made the mistake of getting into Crit Role in the second season when they were already on episodes 30 or so. While I'm enjoying the content I feel like I'm always racing to find time to listen and watch their shows.
I love a fast ruling to keep the game flowing to later look at the rule and then adjust if needed. I don't believe that there is a "right" way to do things, but if we adhere to an ensemble of rules and agree to follow them as a group, a discussion is needed before changing something for good. Especially when we have a limited time to play. We are all doing this to have fun after all.
"It's far more important just to keep things moving be fair ,,, then you don't bog things down by looking things up." - Matt Colville. You heard it here, folks. THANK YOU Matt Colville!
I don't actually think Matt did a bad job of setting expectations for the first episode of The Chain. I think a whole bunch of people completely ignored him setting those expectations. Though yes, Lars does seem to suffer from "resting asshole face". He's just _thinking,_ people!
I have been DMing Dungeons & Dragons in some form since 1st Edition, (except 4th) yet I find myself tweaking and modifying the rules to deviate from R.A.W. or creating my own house rules more now than ever before.
Dogs in the Vineyard really drove home the idea of pushing players beliefs for me. I love how that game forces players to make super direct hard choices.
The conversation at about the hour mark was really interesting. It reminded me of the first few times I played 'Masks: a new generation'. See, there are backstory questions for each playbook, but the last one is always "Why do you care about the team?" Curiously, most of the responses I received could be boiled down to 'safety in numbers'. There's a common, but hardly universal, assumption in RPGs that the party must work together, that they are all united in purpose. I've certainly had a lot of players who have thought this way. This concept can lead us to forget that our characters should have a reason they work with the group. Masks brings this up at least twice. First in the backstory questions, and then whenever the team engages a threat. It asks the individuals what their goals are. And while it doesn't blatantly encourage dissent among the party, by pushing the players to examine their characters' motives, it almost pushes them to defy the preconception of a united party. While Adam and Matt talked quite a bit about flaw as a seed of character, I am lead to believe that the illumination of motivation should be the intent of any good character-building question.
Pretty much the second thing in my "new player talk" (right after explaining what an RPG even is) is to make clear that RPGs are a team sport. From the game perspective, we're all a bunch of people trying to have fun. But from a roleplaying perspective, the narrative follows the adventures of a group of characters. Players are required to create characters who want to adventure, who want to adventure _with this group_ and whom the group would want to adventure _with._
Been running Masks for a few months now, and I love the focus on character motivations and why they team up, etc. (Now I just need to remember to ask what their goals are). It's been really fun so far!
@@LoseTheBeat Hell yeah! I love Masks. Sorry Adam, but it may be my favorite Powered by the Apocalypse game. I've played few games that mechanically encourage socially complex characters as well as Masks does. In fact, I've seen few games who's mechanics and fiction mesh so smoothly. Damn, I've got to start up a new Masks game...
@@LoseTheBeat I've GM'd for a few Delinquents. They certainly make the game interesting. I've been itching to try the Beacon. Drives are such a cool feature.
Yeah, Matt made me realise I'm using Thunder Wave wrong. However, my players had used it already with them being the centre of the wave. So the next time one of them casts it they'll have to pass an arcana check of like DC 10 to use it the "proper" way. Which will show the growth and expanding knowledge of how magic works. The players are happy with this.
"The viewing audience isn't watching television, they're watching live and in the space, like the audience of a Shakespearean play in a theatre house." paraphrased from like halfway through. Good knowledge!!
Also, "Give yourself as a DM the CHANCE to react to things that are happening." Paraphrased again from about progress bar under the 2nd T in Matt's name. Thank both y'all, I'm ready to see this international diplomacy stuff ...
I wish I had been there live so I could have reminded you guys to TALK ABOUT HEAVY METAL!! Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm sure you guys will talk about when you feel like it and are in the proper mindset... In another 6 months. ;D
I'm surprised Adam isn't into the 2nd and 3rd Dune novels - if he sees Paul as an angsty teenager and has problems with the portrayal of his messianism... that's exactly the point the other books were making by tearing down the messiah-myth and for which fans hated Herbert! Adam, re-read those if you haven't in a long time, I've underappreciated them myself because I was to young to get them when I've read them the first time :)
I have noticed a weird thing where the longer I've been running game, my amount of prep has decreased (run games for about a year and a half now), and now I'm noticing that the sessions where i have pretty much nothing planned, and just improv the entire thing and my players seem to enjoy my purely improved sessions more than my planned sessions. And even when i have a planned session, i often end up with a big chunk where i just improv everything because i think of something in the session, and those always seem to be the most enjoyable parts of the sessions.
I have a tangential question for Adam, and Matt, that arises out of watching Court of Swords intros (I'm yet to get to Far Verona): The Expanse?! How come I have heard Adam or Matt or JP bring this up yet? Only the best hard sci-fi maybe ever... They've probably discussed it at length on pods or vids I haven't seen yet, but I'm kinda surprised it's not a regular topic of conversation for such committed sci-fi junkies. :)
I've had my personal built campaign, ran it and it lasted 2 years. started again with a new group and has been running 3 as of now. never had to do with the not taking off thing
Dunno if anyone told you, but Adam is not in the business of ttrpg actual plays/twitch streaming anymore. He got hecka canceled. So, I wouldn't count on a part 3
"you turn the corner and see familiar shapes in the darkness; Orcs and goblins holding swords. Roll a perception check" *Rolling sounds "10!" "15." "8..." "Nat 1." "Okay, you two notice that something is off with the Orc and Goblin shapes, but you can't quite put your fingers on it in the stress of the situation. Roll initiative." *Rolling sounds "Alright looks like the wizard is going first... God's help you." "I cast Fireball at the largest group of forms." "Okay, if you move ten feet to the left you can hit... these six guys all at once." "I'll do that then." "Alright the fireball goes off and... none of them save. The fireball goes off and you hear the sounds of pain as they burn. Roll another perception check." "Okay...? Ummmm, natural 20, total of 22." "Your experience with fireballs and these creatures is long and storied, and you notice as a chill goes up your spine that the screams are very... high pitch. The forms themselves are small and shaking, barely keeping their swords raised; you see them turn sharply to look at the fireball that just burned and you see the terror on their faces." *Silence at the table "Did I... just incinerate... a bunch of scared children?" "That is what it appears, yes." *Horrified silence
I had the thought at some point during this video that was just "twitch chat plays D&D". I don't know how it would work, but I think there's something there.
I just started reading Dune for the third time. I've read all the dune stuff by Frank and Brian Herbert. I agree that after the third dune it did start to lapse, but mostly that's because of needing money. SO I can be ambivalent about a writer churning something out to afford life. The final one of Franks Chapterhouse Dune does have some great stuff for Bene Gesserit. Brian is a very different writer, for me he is trying to write about the people. While Frank was writing about these big ideas that were coming forth during his life. The scientific discipline of ecology was only 40-50 years old when he was writing his book and his envisioning of an "ecological language" amongst the Fremen resonates with me. In my last readings I didn't think about the white person centrism. Due to a combination of my age at the time and the first books focus on the principals of ecology being taken up by a whole people. This reading will be different thanks to watching this chat. Also good GM tips..
I am in awe of Mr. Colville's games .. I have also equally been in astonished ardour with Adam's games. This meeting of their minds has been fascinating to say the least. Ya'll know that I am weird but still I put this supposition to you. The true birth of AI as we will come to know it was incubated in minds like these. D&D players who became Game Masters and went on to design better games. Incorporating chat into internal decisions based on a logical framework. Setting up scenarios in which the many (players) create unpredictable solutions to the implacable obstacle. Yeah, that was a lot of language .. but language is a necessity of navigation, among other things. We Are Stardust, Make Of It What You WIll. But also, play D&D. =)
5E Shadowrun and knowing all the DM knowing all the rules! Not a chance, it is as you say a mess, a glorious mess that with a serious round (or 3) of editing might bring the rules up to the quality of the setting - bet you saved that student a lot of restless nights!
Could not GAF if something is "problematic" or not. *Adults* manage their own emotional responses to challenging or offensive content. Love the rest of the discussion.
Been playing for years with the same core of people, as well as a couple other groups... Still waiting for a campaign to last more than 6 sessions. I hope soon that little sea turtle will reach the ocean
Talking about the translation of Camus and outrage. The translator for The Lord of the Rings books to swedish is known for taking liberties with the material. He changed it so Meriadoc killed the Witch King instead och Eowyn. Apparently Tolkien himself was pissed off about that.
Not entirely accurate. Here is what Wiki says: "Ohlmarks' translation Åke Ohlmarks (1911-1984) was a prolific translator, who during his career published Swedish versions of Shakespeare, Dante and the Qur'an. His translation of The Lord of the Rings, however, was intensely disliked by author J. R. R. Tolkien, more so even than Shuchart's Dutch translation, as is evident from a 1957 letter to Rayner Unwin: The enclosure that you brought from Almqvist &c. was both puzzling and irritating. A letter in Swedish from fil. dr. Åke Ohlmarks, and a huge list (9 pages foolscap) of names in the L.R. which he had altered. I hope that my inadequate knowledge of Swedish - no better than my kn. of Dutch, but I possess a v. much better Dutch dictionary! - tends to exaggerate the impression I received. The impression remains, nonetheless, that Dr. Ohlmarks is a conceited person, less competent than charming Max Schuchart, though he thinks much better of himself. (Letters, 263) Examples singled out by Tolkien in the same letter: Ford of Bruinen = Björnavad! ("Bear-Ford") Archet = Gamleby (a mere guess, I suppose, from 'archaic'?) Mountains of Lune (Ered Luin) = Månbergen; ("Moon Mountains") Gladden Fields (in spite of descr. in I. 62) = Ljusa slätterna "Bright Plains" Other dubious translations include Vattnadal "Water-dale" for Rivendell, apparently by way of taking riven for river. Snigelöv "Snail-leavings" for Esgaroth, apparently by association with French escargot "snail". The Ent Quickbeam becomes Snabba solstrålen "Swift Sunbeam", apparently taking beam in the sense of "beam of light" in spite of all Ents having "arboreal" names. Ohlmarks also appears to have forgotten what choices he had already made, and renders Isengard variously as Isengard, Isengård, Isendor or Isendal. In terms of style, Ohlmark's prose is hyperbolic and laden with poetic archaisms even where the original uses simple or even laconic language. The translation also contains numerous factual errors, straightforward mistranslations of idiomatic expressions and other non-sequiturs, such as "Three stars and seven stones / And the whitest tree you may see." (Sagan om de två tornen 233) for "Seven stars and seven stones / And one white tree." (The Lord of the Rings 620). Ohlmarks' translation remained the only one available in Swedish for forty years, and until his death in 1984, Ohlmarks remained impervious to the numerous complaints and calls for revision from readers. After The Silmarillion was published in 1977, Christopher Tolkien consented to a Swedish translation only on the condition that Ohlmarks have nothing to do with it. After a fire in his home in 1982, Ohlmarks incoherently charged Tolkien fans with arson, and subsequently he published a book connecting Tolkien with "black magic" and Nazism, including fanciful constructions such as deriving the name Saruman from "SA man" with an interposed Ruhm "glory", and conspiracy theories surrounding the Tolkien Society.[1]"
