"How do you wanna do this?" "I climb on its back, cut the harness holding the enemies and I finish it with three arrows in its neck!" "Well, ok, but that's a lot to do at once, so you'll have to burn your action surge"
Gollum was actually Boromir's players character in the Hobbit, and DM is slightly upset that he played Gollum because he wasn't supposed to appear again, at all.
Same, my group is a mix of people who get into character and don’t and it doesn’t bug me but it does leave me feeling like I’m the only one trying at times
I can just imagine the DM thinking back to the Mines of Moria and being like, "My players are right, these characters suck" and having Merry and Pippin get captured to write them out of the campaign only to have Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas all randomly do a 180 and be like, "NO! We will get the hobbits back! The Fellowship is not a failure!" and the DM is like "OH FOR FUCKS SAKE--"
Then when he writes in a whole part about rescuing them and meeting Ent’s and taking down Sauruman his plans get completely upended by the party deciding to go do a random side quest to get an army
I like how Aragorn’s player is a bit too much into his character and backstory, sometimes to the annoyance of the DM and others, but is still respectful enough to see when he needs to take a step back and let others decide the course.
Honestly, I'd take a player like that in my campaign any day. Someone who really engages with the backstory and the world, and builds his whole character around it? 100% yes. Add in the fact that he's super respectful of other people getting screen time? Oh yeah.
@@Arzanthemehgamer DM: "the party spots an oliphaunt tearing its way through the army. legolas, that looks like a very dangerous enemy. you will need the entire team to take it down" legolas: "i singlehandedly fight the oliphaunt" DM: "uh... okay, but it will be very, VERY difficult. are you sure you want to do this?" legolas: "yes" DM: "alright. roll the dice" legolas rolls a nat 20 DM: *sigh* you manage to mount the oliphaunt, but you still have to deal with the easterlings riding it. this looks very difficult. maybe someone else on the team wants to help him?" gimli: "i approach the oliphaunt and..." legolas: "i fight the easterlings alone" *rolls a nat 20* DM: "i... uh... legolas cuts the rope holding the platform the easterlings are on and kills them all. he also kills the oliphaunt. happy now?" legolas: "yes" gimli: "still one kill, you know" legolas: "what about the easterlings riding it?" gimli: "they were part of that kill" legolas: "i can live with that. i am in the lead anyway"
I like to imagine all the "encounters they skip" are all the wild adventures from the beginning of the books that were cut out of the movies, like the Barrow Wights and such
@@Jebu911 but the Gollum one is Perfect because it implies that Boromir's player is REALLY into the Ring. Also it justifies Gollum's knowledge of Middle Earth
I was actually laughing out loud at this, as I too was certain of the old brother cliché. Making Gollum and Boromir the same player makes so much sense though! Now I've got to find out if the player shows up in both parties, playing Gollum in one and Faramir in the other.
Dude, the fact that “Boromir’s new character” is Gollum is actually genius/ hilarious because of how perfectly it plays into the video’s idea that Boromir’s “player” is the one who wants items rather than it just being his character rolling poor wisdom. It’s so perfect in fact that I’d be willing to bet Jacob did a little dance when he thought of it.
The problem is that he didn’t mention Boromir’s player being in the last campaign, so the DM must have given him a prebuilt character sheet he drew up for a villain he ran before. The DM would only have done this is he wanted the player to keep going after the ring. I think Boromir actually just rolled really really badly, and it had nothing to do with the DM being sick of his shenanigans.
He absolutely HAD to have been a prebuilt since Gollum was a hostile npc in the last campaign. He wouldn't have played at the same table with Bilbo's character, instead being under the DM's control.
@@ShadowNinjaMaster93 what if that he was the player that was gollum in the previous campaign, and just saw it fit to bring it back after his character got canned for this campaign?
I kinda figured he'd go "Oh my character had a brother..." and then the DM gets fed up with his crap a few sessions later and tries to kill him again. But the Gollum angle is also funny.
About the part in the Moria, more realistically, the DM just realize he has nothing planned and just take a pre-made adventure from a book, but Gandalf’s player knows the book, but doesn’t want to meta game, so he rolls with it.
5:51 - "They have a little RP bit because Aragorn is extra and wrote a whole song for his character that he _sings at the table!_ Frodo's player, of course, _loves this_ and roleplays with him-!" My laughter woke my dog who was sleeping.
GM: **wants Boromir to play a new character because his character’s obsession with getting the Ring is actively disrupting the group** Boromir: **makes a new character whose sole personality trait is wanting to get the Ring**
I am more surprised it did not go with the player playiing Boromir took over the DMC characters saying they got him kill, so now they are his. To explain how they became useful later in the movie, and the DM being mad, made Golem.
I always interpreted the door to Moria as a really simple puzzle that just got WAY out of hand. The DM sets the scene with the crystal clear lake and the magic glowing door with Elvish writing. It has a dumb riddle "Speak, friend, and enter," but that's baby stuff, so no problem. But Gandalf completely misses the hint. "I speak Elvish and command the door to open." "Okay. The door remains closed." "Um... I try to push the door open." "It's still locked." Gimli's a little miffed at the situation since he can't speak Elvish. The DM had lore that it's a friendship door between dwarves and elves since Gimli's really latched on to the 'dwarves hate elves' thing, but Gimli still thinks it's stupid the dwarf can't help open the Dwarven door, and... that's fair. Gandalf continues to make investigation checks, but there's nothing to find since it's just riddle. The DM jokes that Merry and Pippin are just skipping stones because he's taking so long. Aragorn dramatically stops them, thinking the DM is going to have them start shit since he mentioned the pristine lake. The DM wasn't, but thinks that's a good idea. Frodo makes a general Intelligence check and rolls well enough that the DM tells him that it's a riddle. Frodo asks the Elvish word for friend and as soon as Gandalf says it, the door opens. Everyone has a moment to laugh and/or freak out at how stupid it was. As they go inside, the DM sets up how difficult the journey will be by describing the dead dwarves and goblins littering the ground. Gimli let's out a dramatic "NOO!", half-RPing and half him realizing they're not going to see a single goddamn dwarf this whole campaign. The piles of bodies spooks the party enough they decide to go back around. The DM's not going through another hour of the party figuring out where to travel, so he pulls up the first monster he can find, some random tentacle-y thing, and has to attack the party, driving them into the mine and destroying the door. If they wanted to go through the mine, they're gonna go through the mine. So the party accepts that they have no where else to go and press on.
The next "but it's d&d" episode should be Pirates of the Caribbean. It's got 4 movies and plenty of Acrobatics, Persuasion, and nat 20 checks. Not to mention a great cast of NPCs
I love this but you left out one part "Aragorn and boromir try to teach the hobbits how combat works. Sam pays attention and frodo decides to role play on a nearby rock"
Gimli is a new player Barbarian who was like "I don't need dex" and the DM punishes him for it for the whole campaign by making him roll Acrobatics instead of Athletics, citing his short dwarf legs and suspiciously dictating rough terrain when he tries to do anything. Gimli has armour proficiency feats, stacked Constitution, and consistently rolls high hitpoints, so the DM keeps knocking him prone (to waste his rage) or tries to kill him with fall damage. Aragorn notices it and starts performing the Help action at every opportunity, turning it from punitive DM fiat to a fun character meme between the two throughout the campaign. Gimli and Legolas are mostly focused on combat (and flirting at the table), and make it into a competition, but Gimli can't keep up because of all the Acrobatics checks, large combat arenas, and because Legolas has action surge. Aragorn spends a lot of the game trying to prove that "rangers are good, actually" and encouraging Gimli and Legolas to roleplay more.
@@CacadasdeFoghart I'm going to say... Tasha's Guide influenced homebrew strength ranger. He's got a lot of Monster Slayer in him. But his connection to Arwen gives him a few Fey Wanderer traits, as he's more a part of the Elven world than the world of Men. But once he binds the army of the dead under the mountain? Swarm Keeper.
@@CacadasdeFoghart Honestly i think he is a ranger-fighter multiclass. Only way to explain the fact that he wear heavy armor at the end (i refuse to believe he took a feat only for that). I don't know about the ranger class (honestly i don't even think he put more than 2 lv in ranger) but i'm 100% sure that the he is a fighter battlemaster.
I’d pay to watch a dungeons and dragons game where Tolkien is DM’ing for his university buddies and CS Lewis is just the player who’s annoyed he can’t do his 7 part campaign because Tolkien’s taking forever to end his
Player: yes Boromir really wants the ring, its what he would do. Dm kills Boromir Player: Fine my new character really wants the ring, its what he would do because of backstory stuff Dm: Uggghh
Can't wait for the arc where Boromirs player finally "gets" the campaign, brings back his old character sheet, crosses out the name and says "Hi I'm Faramir"
Honestly yeah! It shows a lot of the kinds of players you'll see, teh different campaign styles, things to do and not to do, etc. DO be like Aragorn, Frodo, and Sam. Be invested in the setting, engage with the world and characters and players. DON'T be like Boromir. Mostly...if the player was playing Boromir as he was characterized in the movies and books, then I would actually allow it because he had very good character motivations for taking the Ring. But mostly, make characters that work in a team environment.
Was expecting it to be Faramir to be honest. Yeah my character Boromir had a brother called.... fara...mir yes Faramir. And he is also a fighter. But with a higher WIS stat.
I’ve watched this series at least 5 times and this is nothing short of comedy genius. The world needs you to give “Williow” and “The Princess Bride” the same treatment. Please! A thousand times, Please!
I love the implication that Merry and Pippin would have given Frodo and Sam _any_ chance to fight a Nazgûl. It makes sense in a D&D context, but in a Lord of the Rings context, it's funny to imagine Sam's player trying to start a fight and just getting the party _destroyed._ What a short campaign.
My favorite thing i noticed was at the end, Frodo excitedly says the names of all the characters as they show up to see how he is, except Legolas, who he just smiles at.
I know you tried to make Aragorn appear like he tries to hijack the narrative but I still can't help but think that he's the best player at this table for actively taking an interest in the DM's story and doing what he can to make the story and the new players be at their best. The background stuff with his hot elf girlfriend was a bit awkward, to say the least, though.
His player kinda sounds like a forever DM when they finally get to play. Super-invested in worldbuilding, master of rules, knows every monster in the MM by heart, but can't shake the DM-ing instincts and ends up overshadowing everyone else and being kinda disruptive.
@@TheMonkeygoneape As a forever DM can also confirm. I have to consciously make a character designed not to steal the limelight in order not to accidentally do so.
I love the different ways this movie is explained in DnD terms. It Mat Colville's video, the Mines of Moria was what the DM wanted, and the Pass of Carhadras was the "it'll be super hard and deadly" path. In this, it's the reverse
I find Frodo's general feeling of being lost and bumbling around as a new player so relatable as an ineperienced player myself XDD BOROMIR'S NEW CHARACTER IS GOLLUM, THAT'S JUST BRILLIANT Is there more?? Will you make more?? PLEASE PLEASE cover the rest of the lotr movies the same way [and possibly hobbit trilogy?] this was the most entertaining thing I've seen in MONTHS!!!! It's fantastic!!!!
"Baramir rolls a new character and his name is Golem" Holy shit this is such an amazing line with the set up of Baramir's player as a ring hungry cretin hahahaha 10/10
I assumed he was a 10th level champion fighter with the archery fighting style and like 20 dex so he has like +9 to hit and crits on a 19, maybe some sort of homebrew feat as well so he has +11 to hit and some special gimic.
There's an old webcomic called DM of the Rings that turns the films into a game like this. It's got Gandalf as the massively overpowered DMPC who the DM uses to railroad the party and constantly save the day and get all the glory.
I want this idea to go so far afield that it doesn't even make sense for a DnD campaign anymore. "The players were wildly underprepared. Only one of them brought a character to the table and he still had no reason to be there. The DM was so fed up with them at this point that he just said 'okay, the three of you all play triplets and use the same character sheet.' They thought this was hilarious, so they all named their characters almost exactly the same thing to make it even more confusing. Finally, the fourth player showed up and actually had his own character. It was clearly a knockoff from a Charles Dickens book, but at least he had a motivation to be there. They decided that the other players motivation would just be being related to him. So, from then on, they all called his character 'Uncle Scrooge'."
Gimli's player - "I wont to destroy this ring with my hammer." DM - "No, it is so very powerfull item, you can't just destroy it with one hit." Gimli's player - "But this is what my characted would do..." DM - "Ok, you can try." This was one of first dialogs I thought about when I see this video.
Rolls nat 1 DM: You swing your ax it hits the ring and shatters throwing you to ground causing stun damage and loosing one health point. Gimili: I will sit in a corner quietly.
@@timesthree5757 I think this would prompt a human character to claim they could do it better. Get my human character the heaviest weapon you have with and edge so I can roll a 14 and still get nothing for my efforts except a tweaked shoulder for the next fight.
Gimli: "A 16, that should hit!" DM: "Uh, OK, I'll roll an item saving throw versus crushing blow (rolls d20, doesn't even look at the result) It passes." Gimli: "Damn" DM: "Roll an item saving throw against your axe, Gimli" Gimli: "What? Ok. (rolls a 4) Aw, shit! It failed!" DM: (laughing) "Your axe shatters into hundreds of pieces!"
I feel like the DM really wants the players to go through the mines of Moria because he has these cool encounters set up: a riddle segment, a Troll encounter, and a final boss.. But the players want to just go over the mountains, so he has one of his main villians force them into the encounter.
So in my game last night, I had a total Frodo moment, and thought I'd come back to this video to share. Like with the entrance to the Mine of Moria, our party had come up to a large set of solid iron doors leading into the dungeon (that we'll be exploring next week). On it were a small number of runes that no-one in the party could read, but thanks to a staff of True Sight that one of the members is using, they saw finger prints on certain runes. They started pressing the runes, thinking it was a combination lock. Nothing. Our druid, who had just stolen the soul of the Frost Giant (that we fought to get in here) to create a Belt of Frost Giant Strength, got uppity and just decided to try and force the doors open... to no avail... My character... despite being a Lv10 Wizard with 18 INT... is very naive and child-like due to his backstory (he was literally created as a biological weapon of war, but was never taught anything before all the scientists were killed, so the whole campaign he's had the party teaching him about life, social situations, how to read and write, etc). I asked to roll Arcana to see if the door was magical, and rolled a Nat20 (29 with my modifier), so our DM said that he walks up to the door, sees the runes that are magically fingerprinted, so he just draws the runes on the door with his finger (not doing anything magical, just tracing them with his finger), and as he finishes the last one, there's a loud click and the doors just open. I couldn't help but be proud of my blissfully ignorant little guy... so as the door opened, I had him just turn to the rest of the party, and do a little smile. Not a smug one, or a grin like he had known what to do all along, just an innocent little smile. It all seemed so fitting for his character
@@luckyowl314 Mylo was such a fun character to play. He was a Simic Hybrid for the mechanics of his test-tube backstory, but that ended up giving him glider wings during the course of the game. Towards the end of the campaign, he ended up befriending a baby Cloud Dragon (that he called Drake), and once all had ended... the final challenge was to stop a cult from summoning a Great Old One to the material plane... Mylo went off to a magic college he'd promised to join during the game, and then later he went to live with Drake and the other Cloud Dragons. Seeing how he doesn't age, I'm thinking of bringing him back as an NPC in other games, if the game is set in the same world (and the DM will let me).
In fairness, chances are that the player you're repeating it to was there as well lol. No point repeating it word for word. The only time I will not do this is either if my character is of particularly low intelligence, so may not really understand it all, or if I want to intentionally withhold some of it, for whatever reason.
@@CathrineMacNiel It depends on what people play for. I don't mind if I have to reiterate bits to players, though we have a couple who write things down for the party, same person usually holds on to the party loot. I'm also strictly against making players roll INT checks to recall information as just because the player doesn't remember, doesn't mean the INT 20 wizard would forget. But some aren't heavily invested in the story, they just want to roll dice with their friends, which is fine. As long as everyone is having fun, that's really all that matters, if everyone can get what they want out of the game, go for it. Same way both my players and I have renamed NPC's (and dealt with the consequences of it in-game for being disrespectful). Such as a dragon whos name was far too complex for us to remember easily, so we just called him Ralph. Ralph, as an adult red dragon (and we had killed at least 5 dragons by this point) then predictably attacked us, so we added his name to the list lol.
@@Grigeral yeah when I play info dumps are nice but I just don't want to repeat word for word what the DM says don't get me wrong I love rp, but I like it when it to the point and moves the story forward.
@@swagaw3some546 yeah dude, that's exactly it. A lot of the time, we will also presume that information is passed on to the party or a playing will simply ask "Are you actually telling us this?" and then move on with the game.
(little addin for about 6 minutes into the video) The DM had even planned out a really cool NPC, he called Tom Bombadil, and an encounter at an old tomb with cool undead enemys as a miniboss fight, but Aragorns character was rolled far too good on survival, so they skipped all of it.
"The DM introduces this huge leviathan of an elephant with a fortress on it and many enemies meant to be a cool encounter that the players will have to overcome...But Legolas rolls a natural 20 and kills all of them. Which kinda upsets the DM."
It pisses off Gimli's player too. He built a sub-optimal fighter with no feats and he's sick of getting overshadowed by Legolas' min-maxed crit fishing bs. He's so tired off that bloody Elven Accuracy feat which he's barred from taking that he's woven a hatred of elves into his character's personality. "THAT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE," he yells. And the whole table feel the Sharpshooter feat that lets Legolas ignore all cover penalties while still piling on extra damage is OP. Just wait till they see the homebrew stuff he brings out in the prequel campaign that lets him defy gravity... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DHQSmJq0nmQ.html&ab_channel=Mzervey13
@@TheRABIDdude It was probably a mistake to decide to house rule arrows and say that "oh, let's just say Legolas has an infinite amount", because it makes his character even more OP.
You can't. DM decides that one of them is really useful suddenly and has it kill a epic-level bad guy, and has his gf play Eowyn to chop the basically-a-dragon's head off. Neither needs a 20 for these things.
It's really Aragorn's players fault. Adding 3 players to a 4 player campaign, especially ones that aren't familiar with the other players, is going to cause a lot of tension and drama. Splitting into two games was the best solution, but I'm surprised that the Boromir player will be joining Frodo and Sam
Frodo: Lacks experience, and doesn’t understand the rules, obsess too much with role play. Sam: Grasps the rules better but also roleplays too much. Gandalf: Most experienced and knows the game too well, not correcting the DM when it affects him. (He knew the balrog could fly, and happens to have every spell prepared for the situation.) Aragorn: Hogs the spotlight. Obsessed with action economy. Legolas: cheating and using min maxing feats. Gimli: doesn’t pay attention or on his phone, unless there is something to hit. Boromir/Gollum: The ultimate problem player of every tabletop horror story. The DM: Has a difficult time saying no, (7 players was bad from the start), forces encounters, and fails to properly address the conflict at the table.
@HotGarbage One of the funniest moments we had in game: Other player: How many of those have you had? Blue Moon player: Three or four (counts the empties) or nine.
“‘Uhh, they have truesight’ and he gets stabbed” is usually a common occurrence with homebrew monsters and wizards a bit too enthusiastic with the invisibility wand
I have never played a campaign of dnd in my life, let alone understand a good portion of the terminology, but this video got me to laugh so hard I had trouble breathing. I hope you can make more.
My speculation is that Gandalf's player doesn't want to play a new character, so the dm compromises; Gandalf changes from a Human Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer to a Protector Aasimar Light Domain Cleric with the stipulation that once the campaign ends, he has to tear up his character sheet and never play that character again.
I hope it turns out Legolas has been fudging his rolls, and that's why he's been doing so good. He rolls like 6 nat 20s in a row taking down the Oliphaunt in RotK and the DM just sidelines him for the rest of the campaign
“Who needs a Ranger? Hardy har har!” (fails their Survival checks & wanders the countryside aimlessly) “Hi, I’m Aragorn.” (campaign gets back on the fast-track to Thrill-Town)
@@PeterParker-ff7ub nah, lotr and dnd are top top top tier, zelda is good and i like the series, (despite how confusing it is) no denying it, but it's not the same level as dnd and lotr
Ya know.. if for SOME crazy reason someone never wanted or hasnt watched lord of the rings, but like DND the way you summed it up is actually pretty well told. Ive seen all of the movies, read the books except for samarillion, and watched the director cuts many times and enjoy it everytime. This is a condensed, but understandible way for others to understand without committing many hours into watching a movie or reading the books. Well done mang!
