My first campaign came out of running the We Be Goblins One-shot for Pathfinder. I looked at the second one and the setup for it was the goblins' home town was destroyed and they're looking for a new home, to which I thought "Why don't I actually start at the moment where their village gets destroyed?". So I turned the map of Sandpoint into a land originally controlled by monsters that humans were settling, and had a paladin of Erathis come with a troop of knights to destroy their village. This incited the goblins to go around finding other evil monstrous races to rally together and murder as many humans as they could find, eventually leading to a Helm's Deep style siege with the opposite outcome that the Goblins took over the city. Now while there is plenty of moral ambiguity in this scenario, the players absolutely leaned into being evil murder hobos. Most evil session was when the goblins went to a couple of hunters' homes and killed them and their children while they slept. You know, for fun.
In a way any of my games _can_ be an evil villain game. I don't really lock down the morality of my players when I DM, I just present them situations and let them figure out how to solve it, and I mostly play in games where the DM feels the same way. It's almost never _actually_ resulted in an entire party f evil characters, or even a totally evil resolution to the adventures, though there have been some pretty evil moments and individual plotlines that went that way. The one exception was a game where we all played various monsters and evil characters, given a mission by some powerful drow house. We were to retrieve a stolen artifact, given the means to track its movement, and told that there would be spies from rival houses seeking to steal it, and enemies opposing us who may know of our coming. I was playing a Bugbear Rogue, and we were lead by a very stupid dwarf. Things descended into murder very fast. First, when we were teleported to the location, a place akin to hell--complete with hell hounds--some random Drow was suddenly there along with us. If I recall right he was supposed to be invisible, but someone passed a wicked perception check and figured out he was there and then we caught him. This drow claimed that he was an observer, sent along to make sure we didn't steal the artifact or something. I did not believe him, and assumed he was a spy (I _also_ didn't like the drow, who frequently enslaved my people, and didn't like the idea of being spied on). So I said we should kill him. Some of the party agreed, some did not. We argued (our characters more than us, don't forget the leader had like a 6 Int, so the player was honouring that). And eventually I resolved that the best way to solve this was kill the guy, cause if he wasn't a rival spy we could just claim we never saw him and if he _was_ a spy we would have saved ourselves future trouble. Someone disagreed, but I was a hasty young bugbear Assassin, so I shot at the dude and killed him in one go because I had a bunch of bonuses, and then the leader told everyone to kill me. So I rogued out and hid. No one could find me, and they decided to go along with the mission. I followed, hidden, shadowing them. I helped them through two combats, never being noticed (by the characters at least), before getting close enough to rob them of the device--a sort of homing amulet tied to the artifact, and in the possession of the "leader"--while they were in the middle of a fight against several hell hounds. Two characters died, and I skidaddled leaving them behind. They were able to track me, but could not actually find me. We cat and moused until we reached the sight of an ambush with cultists, members of the group who had stolen the artifact from our employer. I tried to essentially coax the party into triggering the ambush so I could get past them, but we all got dragged into a rager of a battle, and I was the only one left standing in the end. The DM basically said that looking around I realize there's almost no way I can accomplish the mission on my own. Though I did try for a little longer, until I reached a problem I could not solve, and abandoned the quest left trying to figure out how to get out of the strange location. Lesson learned: Evil cannibalizes itself. Especially when the leadership is really, really dumb. (The dwarf was chosen by the party because of fantasy racism. Essentially, we were all races that hated or had prejudice against each other, and he got the vote because he was the least directly disliked/distrusted by all of us, plus the more Int and Cha based characters thought they could manipulate him. This all horribly backfired, as he was a murderous psycho _in addition_ to being a total moron. And eventually he thought they were all working with me, so they all started fighting each other as well as me, and the cultists.)
Oh! I forgot another one, that was run by my little brother. It was in a futuristic magipunk kind of society, and we were all playing different rival hitmen/mercenaries who were respondign to a big bounty put out by a crime boss to get into this devil run club, and acquire by any means, a particular ring. I played a gnome handyman, who appeared to be a friendly old Mario type repairman, complete with nonsense Italian accent. But I was _actually_ a Waluigi looking ex hitter who worked for the mob, and had retired with his lovely wife, until she was killed by a Gold Devil, the very same one who owned the club. (I had an assistant, who had no idea I was an assassin, and who thought _I_ didn't know _they_ were also a hit man. So we had this hilarious sub game of pretending we were just co workers in a real spot of bother.) It was essentially a 6 way session of pvp, with absolute mad crime movie nonsense in the mix. There was a thri-kreen ninja, a psionic sorcerer who projected his thoughts by accident (like in that one Tom Holland movie), me a gnome artificer with a mechano tentacle chair thing and a familiar that looked just like my dead wife, my assistant who was a kill them with kindness type, a kid whose whole deal was he wore a trench coat, no shirt, and had a fantasy shot gun, some kind of samurai...and others I can't really remember, not to mention a whole host of npc hit men. The biggest moment of glory came when we realized the huge red frog demon bouncer at the back, with the arm hanging out of his mouth, was not the bouncer at all. He was a rival hit man who had *EATEN THE BOUNCER* and was just hanging out waiting for one of us to make off with the ring. My assistant and I totally did a freaking Laurel and Hardy routine to get into the building with falsified work orders, for a frog demon who basically just shrugged through the whole thing. It was great, he was basically the hidden boss of the game. (I did succeed in blowing up the club in the end, getting my revenge and killing so many patrons of the bar and neighborhood. I can't remember who got the ring...it might have been the Thri-Kreen, but he was inside the frog thing, which sent him to hell? it was a wild game.)
I remember the comments on this one saying “Wow, Travis is actually really smart” because a lot of people had completely failed to understand that Grog was a character he was plying instead of his personality.
There's something cosmically funny about this because when playing Fjord he got to show his smart side while being clowned on equally as much by luck and the other players so Fjord ends up feeling like a Miles Edgeworth, someone who is truly smart and a great leader but who also lives in the clowniest of clown worlds and that functions amazingly
Critical Roles viewers and not knowing what acting is, name a more iconic duo. I rewatching EXU and someone was saying that Liam was bored and only showing up for a paycheck because Orym's chill vibe blew their tiny mind I guess. And some people were agreeing with them!
Especially towards the eh... second half-ish of C1, it becomes apparent that Travis is the smartest person at the table, and that Grog, while not being able to count past 4, is really good with battlefield tactics.
I have complex feelings about his one-shots. He's fantastic. He's so good, in fact, that his one-shots often feel like love-letters to his friends, leading me to feel like I'm not supposed to be watching them.
@@Brion57042 yeah, they definitely have a "you got home and your brother is playing DND with his friends and they excitedly asked you to watch if you want" but in this case you don't know that brother. Idk if this makes sense lmao.
Thank you so much, Mike! I know the players picked their names at least, because Travis DIDN'T give Liam a name, so Liam named his character Tarvis for funnies. Also Ashly's character Dren is just 'nerd' backwards 😂
I believe Liam said Travis waited until the last minute, but did choose one - and in the intro video he even adds, “Yes, that is the name Travis chose.”
@@SupergeekMike might be misremembering but I think he'd said trav had called himself Tarvis early as a placeholder then never came back with a "proper" one, so when he saw his character sheet with that name on it, it was very funny and he rolled with it
I remember Liam saying at some point that he texted Travis a reminder saying "send me a name or I'm calling you Tarvis" and Travis saying "yeah, that works"
@@dolphin64575 Yeah, during the introductions, after Travis tells the other players his name, Liam explains that he chased Travis for a name over a week, and when he finally threatened to use "Tarvis", Travis replied "Yeah, sounds good"
“Thankfully Liam is an incredible game master so if you want to run your own evil party one shot….all you have to do is contact him at the email in the description below and he will be happy to get back to about scheduling one.” Is where I thought that sentence was going to go for a second 😅
The whole even good role players might not feel comfortable playing a bad guy had me instantly thinking of Aimee/ Opal really trying not to hurt her team even though the spider queen had basically taken her over. Hadn't seen another instance of that before so will definitely be giving this one shot a watch. The dicotomy of player vs character. Fantastic video Mike
Certainly true but in Opal's case it feels like the plan was just sprung on her and she was forced to improvise in the spot. Opal was already established and Aimee was forced to play her as something that she really wasn't created to be. A lot of this kind of came out of the Crown Keepers decision to hold on to that evil Vestige to begin with. And there is a lot of conflict with what 5E does (power fantasy with a number of safety nets) and the consequences that Aabria was going for AND the story really needed IMO.
During a 2E campaign I ran a "one shot" within the framework of that campaign. I had the PCs experience a shared dream/vision, joining this other group of adventurers "in media res". I handed each a short script of dialogue with their parts highlighted, and the character sheet for their (temporary) PC. Each had a character that was different than theirs both in terms of class as well as disposition/personality. As the session played out, they got insight on or access to information they otherwise wouldn't have. They (thankfully) enjoyed it.
I like opening my worlds or games with one shots that tell the story of the past and like mythological heroes. In my current game I had the players run a quest as level 17 heroes who at the end were defeated by the Big bad and turned into living statues. So now the party is trying to free them from their fate so that they can presumably help them beat the big bad.
These are a good way for me to catch the gist of Liam's oneshots as I've not watched them all, cheers! Edit: you missed a chance to go "play dirty and be mischievous" for an evil campaign
With the Dunk Tank trap, I could also see that as something that's common advice in Call of Cthulhu games (which tend to be investigations more than heists, but many similar principles can apply): Have multiple vectors to the path. Sure, the puzzle room was Option A, and there might have even been something else in one of the passed sections that would have given an Option B, but the big trick is Option Z, whatever last thing is on the chain, is not an option. It just HAPPENS. This could be the clock running out and suddenly the plot comes to THEM. And it can have weights to it, with different paths being more or less difficult or having different rewards. Maybe if they HAD done the puzzle room, they would have gotten critical intel on how to handle something else in the heist. One other thing that I think was interesting is player placement. You've got the two lovers on one side of the table across from the other three, already making a sort of "us vs them" divide, even if subconsciously. Especially with Ashly revealing her feelings right up front, Travis now know HIS plan is going to get more messy right at the end. But as well, on both sides, the final back stabbers were both placed opposite each other for their respective groups.
Those mimics remind me. I ran a one-shot where the party cleared out a manor of monsters for the new owner. One player noted two distinct times that he goes up to something but doesn’t touch it yet, basically moving the party forward without being careless, but both times I planned a monster to sit in front of the thing and attack. The first was the front door with an angry animated tree, the second was a chest with a Rug of Smothering on the ground before it. I felt a bit bad about it, but it was funny both times. This was far from my only trick of course, and the players were able to spot or withstand most of the traps (like a changeling disguised as a little girl bouncing off the paladin’s armor, or a very obvious gargoyle). I was filling in for their dm, so I never saw them, but I hope they had fun.
Regarding using narration to skip boring stuff, I think it's so cool to see in relation to the past few demystified videos where Matt would "over narrate" if you could call it that. Sometimes this causes a lot of boring moments, but it also is a chance for improvisation and I think this is the risk/reward about Matt's style. I know as a player, I'd much rather have Liam's style. But, unfortunately when I gm, I'm afraid to skip anything because sometimes it feels like cheating
This video reminded me of how terrible i felt about Travis's AWFUL rolls in this one shot LMAO. At least he had better luck in a certain other miniseries
The upside of the terrible roles was that it added to the drama - it made me think that Dren and Derwan might have somehow made it out of there. If Team Tarvis had rolled even slightly better they would have been cut down very quickly !
I watched this one shot to watch your analis XD I planned to dod it eventually anyway... But once I saw your video I thought, now is the best time. I love how you analize those episodes man. Good energy and aproach, and I get to learn a lot. Thanks
I did a hist story in my ongoing game recently that included mimics. The team were trying to liberate some domesticated delivery mimics from some creepy preachers.
as much as i love your videos, one of the best parts for me is whenever you call out the injustices of our justice system in the states. let's vote accordingly y'all!!!
I think that ending works in this scenario. As you said, this way, none of the players felt like their character was screwed over in particular in the end, since they all had the same fate in the end. Also, since this is in the same world as their main campaign, having this one shot be self contained keeps them from doing anything that messes with Matt’s world. I’m sure Matt wouldn’t have had any issue with this little story and may have even found a way to weave it into the main campaign with some subtle nod, but at the same time, best to just keep it separate in my opinion.
Love the premise of the oneshot, with the party secrets. The TPK at the end always felt a little weird to me, and without confirmation from Liam it's hard to tell why it happened. I never considered your theory that it was inevitable and planned, though that makes sense. My theory was that the session was running long and Liam had concluded the party had trapped themselves with no hope of escape (Devan being dead means no blood seal opening), or felt with the remaining players there was no other narratively-satisfying ending. (Delweth would be going 1 v 2 as Obby would side with Tarvis, and those two as sole survivors wouldn't be dramatic as they have no reasons to betray eachother) It still felt a bit abrupt, but the rest of the finale made up for it. Especially Dren turning her haiku running gag into an epic last act of defiance.
I agree that an ending that happens however the consequences is not ideal, doing it one time for a group of players might leave them surprised and that is always fun to see.
Travis/ Tarvis did a great job falling into the role of the evil gang boss. I would probably suggest not bullying and murdering your wife's character at the table, even in a oneshot - unless she's also a professional actor who's very familiar with the concept of separating character from player/performer. Laura took it pretty well but even then I would imagine that this might have been a slighly uncomfortable car ride home!!!
Doesn't dodge political advocacy? Come on, he blasts a talking point right before the end and never addresses any criticism. "Vote democrat because trump is a liar" Good thing there are no democrats who lie, or else Mike would look really silly. smh.
@@IanDaviesRules Mike is clearly advocating against Trump, not for Democrats. That being said, if you think that Trump and his obvious Nazi goons and Rhetoric are equivalent to the morally corrupt capital-first centrist party we call the Democratic Party then, I don't know if you're really thinking about the choices in a way that we could have a meaningful conversation about. I hope you find peace.
@@IanDaviesRules Well, when one side follows a Great Orange Dumpster Fire, it kind of makes the other side look like mischievous schoolchildren by comparison.
Ohhhh, now I’m so glad I got into CR super late, because this is clearly the basis my GM used for our one evil one-shot (which we all had a blast playing) and let me buy in super-hard to my subservient second-in-command character whose betrayal no one saw coming mwahahaha!
I mostly loved this, but I will say, something left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth about the evil campaign scenario and Liam being pretty strict about Laura's character arc. Like...evil campaigns are well and good and all but it's a little easier to divorce oneself from the roleplay when the scenarios are so divorced from reality. Intimate partner betrayal feels like it hits just a little different and is a LIIIIITTLE closer to daily reality than "murdering them all!". And Laura apparently really didn't want to do that, at all. Thankfully, it never had to happen at the table. And I am 1000% positive Liam and Laura had plenty of safety tools in place and resolved whatever hard feelings there could have been. BUT. It would definitely be a good idea for us as GMS to keep in mind to ~not~ overly pressure players into evil actions, especially when they might be a little too close to home - finding an alternative evil action, for example, that's easier to play with
Evil campaigns/adventures are very hard. Over many years of roleplaying I have only played in one (and one that devolved into a chaotic mess that was sort of evil). Many, many games though of selfish, difficult and self destructive characters that make awful choices. Personally, I really struggle to play evil characters because I can't understand their motives. Even many of the villains I run as GM tend to not be evil.
33:20 Minor, non-game related detail, but I like how you kept in and owned your mistake here. Would have, in theory, been all too easy to cut and redo that part of the video. Well done!
I've heard mixed things about the term so i dont know how some folks might see it but you could just say "standoff" or "stalemate" instead of "mexican standoff" to be safe.
@@LostWhitsthose words and phrases are synonymous, unless you only use “Mexican standoff” when there are only people from Mexico involved in the stalemate?
I would have been very frustrated by that ending. Liam straight-up rocks fall everybody, and that doesn't feel very satisfying. Kill me in the pvp or put me in a no-win scenario against a bunch of guards or something, and I would be fine. Killing my character, and I dont even get a chance to fight back, lame.
