Losing | Running the Game 

Had to do a Custom Thumbnail because the Autogenerated one JUST HAPPENED to grab part of the .03% of the video with the surprise guest in it. :(

It's important for Bards to know Invisibility and Greater Invisibility, so they can survive to sing the tales of the party's heroism when everyone else inevitably dies.

Players: OMG, we are surrounded! Dwarf Players: Great, now we can attack in every direction!

Its not retreating, its advancing in the opposite direction.

Best quote ever. "I think we all feel stupid all the time. You'd think we'd be used to it by now."

You think you're telling me how to play a game. Your actually giving great life advice

And I absolutely say "Marines, we are leaving!" 90% of the time when it's time to hightail it out of an encounter. I thought it was just me! So this is what it sounds like when doves cry.

"Blame is one of those things that increases the more people there are to share it....unlike pizza." Matt are you a wizard how do you come up with this stuff?

“The next round, that player is killed.” oh god, i certainly hope not

Suddenly, Matt Mercer!

I've played 3000 games of league, can confirm complaining starts after the first lost teamfight.

"Building consensus relies, at least in part, some degree of enthusiasm and you're not going to get people enthusiastic about running away." Truly fantastic, thank you!

I thought the five magic words were" F%$# THIS s%$# IM OUT!"

Great look at experienced RPG game. But thank god I never kill any.....oh I cant get that out with a straight face.

nice camio from from Matt Mercer's.

“The complaining starts when the losing starts.” “Blame increases the more people there are.”

The reference to the Medusa was funny... considering one TPK'd the party the last time I ran D&D. They failed to notice the signs of her lair and waltzed right in

So called downer episodes are important. they cover topics that will come up and that are, in many ways, more important than some of the more creative aspects of the hobby.

Most of the party wipes I've DMed is because one person decided to go fight someone else. The player had a plan - sneak up behind another group of enemies and take them out single-handedly. Not only does it not work, it brings that other group of enemies into the fight, who usually achieve a pincer movement that kills off the other characters. The other reason is because the players don't consider the tropes: We're fighting a werewolf, I have a silver dagger and a magic whip . . . I punch it!

I am running a campaign, and actually finished a session 50 minutes ago, where the players are Monsters. They decided to infiltrate a human filled fortress, and fail terribly, ending up with their asses in a cage, about to be shipped off to an arena where they will have to fight against other monsters to maybe get out.

This reminded me of my first D&D character who died in an impossible fight against a level 20 general from the campaign's main villain, we were lvl 5. Our entire party was falling apart, two of our players were trying to heal a dragon we were trying to rescue while we fought this general. He was capable of taking down 4 characters with one of his combos dividing his attacks. My character is an Aarakocra Ranger, I kept my hp full for the entire fight while holding this enemy down using necrotic arrows to cause poison like damage. By the final turn we had, he had taken down my party by hitting each one ONCE, and taking their hp to 0, so when I had to get his attention so the dragon would be fully healed and out of danger, one final necrotic arrow to the face and managed to draw his attention towards me on the other side of the room. He unleashed his entire monk magic items combo on my character, I knew what I was going against, the entire combo was going to kill me, the DM had a worried expression for my character, he said without throwing his dice and doing the math that "oh yeah, uuuuuuh.... you are unconscious!" I told him to do the rolls, I knew what could happen and took the risk. Ultimately, he did even more than he anticipated, brutally killing my ranger, but at the same time this general died from the same poison I caused him, both characters dying in front of each other. I will never forget that fight, my Aarakocra died and that got a reaction from the DM and my party, they legitimately cared for her, she was pretty much "momma bird". It was an epic encounter that will live forever in my D&D experience. They managed to revive her afterwards but at a high cost, she is still fighting and I can't wait for the next session.

Why did you look so happy saying "They fail to stop the assassination attempt" XD

Death, does not always have to feel unsatisfying. I'm fond of the suicidally honorable and somewhat foolhardy hero I've died to stop a dragon from burning a village. (GM told me i would die if i tried. I told him that it was obvious) I've died to save a group of commoners from being slaughtered by the military i served. (executed for treason by another player) I've died to slow the drow invasion into the kingdom of Saragost. (I died with three thousand soldiers and a great fortress) I've died to allow my party to escape from a dragon that would have killed us all. (His name was steve, i had befriended him before the fire sorcerer attacked) I've died to temporarily become god and stop the demonic invaders from conquering my world. (Harold is survived by his son though, so it's not all bad) All of these deaths were dramatic, they all mattered. My character died well, he fought for what he believed in and his death accomplished something I've had deaths were nothing was accomplished but that's the definition of life, you die in the end It's not that dying can't suck, i have had plenty were dying does indeed suck but sometimes, death is the most dramatic and enjoyable outcome

"Retrograde progress" Awesome phrase that I'll have to start using!

I'm just going to create fog or a pool of water for no reason in my campaign now. Just to mess with players. Great video and I really love the tips! Thanks, Matt C!

its scarry how every time you upload a "running the game" video is perfectly describes my last sesion of D&D. It is beyond perfect

Best line “Losing doesn’t feel as bad as feeling stupid, which is funny. We all feel stupid all the time, you think we’d be used to it by now”

Heh. I several times had "The Chosen One" too. Every time when there's an enemy close to 1HP, or within a certain death by single blow - and party just fails against all odds to land a hit. It's clear that their enemy is The Chosen One.

It's hard and easy to break the rules of magic in d&d. I was running Curse of Strahd and the party entered the amber temple. They took the alternate entrance and fought a gladiator and a bunch of barbarians. They got a good bit of resistance, but they won. they then entered the entry hall. And a lone arcanaloth, using the inside of a statue's head (within a cloud of magical darkness) attacked them. It had a lot of powerful spells (chain of lightning took most of the party down to half health). The party managed to knock the statue down instead of trying to attack the Arcanaloth while it was in a position of great advantage. However, the fighter got Banished. The Arcanaloth can cast invisibility at will. The party was frustrated that they could never see the Arcanaloth even though it was casting spells while invisible, i ruled that if it can cast invisibility at will, concentration to maintain it is unnecessary because it can cast this spell effortlessly. They didn't really like it, but when they got the Arcanaloth within 10 hp, it made itself visible and brought the fighter back so the party would let him live. The Arcanaloth, to me, didn't have a reason to fight these people to the death.

Hahahaha oh jeez, the number of times I've had the "When you killed my character..." "Uh, I didn't kill your character. The Orc Chieftain did" exchange with my players makes me laugh. Glad I'm not the only one.

Having watched all of Matt's running the game series multiple times over, I think the most valuable observation I have taken away from them is that Matt really wants his players to buy him pizza. Lol. It's like an Easter Egg in several of the videos. Love it!

"The player is always reacting..." That is so perfectly worded. Thank you for putting words to my long-time thoughts! The people who make battles a drag in my games are the ones that don't think much about what they're doing, don't realize RP is for fighting too, and that combat can be really fun if you don't just take the dungeon like a sidescroller beat em up.

Watching your videos represent a +2 Wisdom Ability Score Increase.

that mercer cameo

Your point about trying to get consensus about retreating reminded me of a moment in a game a few months ago. The party was gambling with a rich guy in a tavern, and one of the players was caught cheating. We all drew our weapons on the guy, but then half the patrons in the room drew weapons on us. Every single player at that table just went "H'Okay! How far to the door?". We span on a dime. In a heartbeat we were all on the same page. It really did feel like we'd achieved something amazing, even though we hadn't done anything yet. My character still fell unconscious in the fucking doorway, but we all escaped with our lives.

I have a friend who is a power gaming storyteller. He will take 3 to 4 weeks to build a character, pouring over splatbooks in order to flush put every detail, and then righting a 3 page backstory complete with highlighted plothooks. If his character dies, he's done for that session. But when his character lives... man is it epic.

I've watched your Running the Game videos several times, because I love listening to you talk as background while I do other things (ADHD sucks, silence drives me completely nuts). You're also quite the GM, and you've given me more than a few ideas and helped me to refine my own GMing style, so thanks for all that.

Great episode as always, but it reminded me of a story from a campaign I was in that I think in part explains the mindset of people who keep going after their resources run out. We were just doing a low level dungeon and ran low on hit points and spells, so we decided to rest in one of the side rooms before taking on where we assumed the final boss was. We awoke and set out, finding much harder traps than were elsewhere in the dungeon, but hey, route to the big bad guy, makes sense. When we finally get there, bruised and battered from the slew of traps, we find an empty room. No invisibility, no hiding, definitely no loot, just empty. Turns out that this was one of those "the bad guys want to win" scenarios, so during their nightly patrols they found that we had killed a good chunk of the dungeon, so they packed everything up and set up the nastiest traps they had before leaving. We were decidedly less risk-averse after that.

I love these videos but hearing that Matt plays/played league gave me such severe whiplash. Especially since I watched this vid minutes after chain inting a whole ranked game. Wild stuff! Gotta sub now!

This was a godsend. I've had these moments as a dm and never know how quite to handle them

every time there is a new video I'm like that n64 kid on Christmas morning! "OH MY GOD! MATT COLLLLLVILLE NEW VIIIIDEO! AHHHHHHHHHHH"

Nice video as always... Just one point that I disagree on (Well, not really. But one I'm going to mention.) In my games, usually the fog is just fog. The full moon is just a full moon, or maybe it's a red herring. The black moon? Same thing. Usually, the pond is just a pond, the river just a river. Don't fear it. Go for a swim. And then, the fifth pool you use, there is a flesheating beast. At the riverside, there is a beautiful lady (Or man, depending on what your character is into), asking you to join her on a swim. The already dark night with the black moon grows even darker, and shadows crawl from the forest towards your camp. And then, the next black moon, you will be afraid. You will watch every shadow closely. Every caw of an owl will be like an announcement of doom. But nothing will happen.

Hi, I've spent the last few months trying to prepare a game for a group of 5 friends. None of us have ever played before and have wanted to for a long time. We finally arranged a date today to get together and play so I just want to say thank you as you're videos have been extremely helpful with making a game. I have a lot of self confidence problems and was initially worried about running a game but after watching your videos I feel a lot more confident about the world I have created. I'm really looking forward to it and I'm pretty sure that I would be dreading the responsibility without watching your videos. Thank you again. I'm pretty sure I'll be using your videos to help me for a while.

It's not "Retreating" it's "Advancing in the opposite direction"

Thank you for this Matt. I just started to DM my first game last weekend and it's for all completely new people. I'm taking them through short one-off adventures for a couple weeks to get them used to how the mechanics and game works. I plan on treating this as a "tutorial" for them and opening up the game to a sandbox after a few weeks. the problem I was facing was I made these one shots pretty easy and kind of hand hold them through, as subtly as possible of course, but once we start the game for real ill be much less forgiving. This petty much puts it all out there and I plan to have them watch this so they can understand the fact that they might, and probably will, lose every now and then. Your videos have been more than I could have hoped for, and I feel more confident and excited about being a DM now that I am equipped with all of these ideas and insights you provide. Keep at it, you are our hero sir, and I plan on grabbing your books this weekend.

Last session was the first time my party had to retreat. Right now, they're all level 6 with a loadout of magic goodies, but a boosted up Kruthik hive proved to be too much for them. The creatures had taken over a mine, had a lot of Aliens vibes going. Things were going well until the cleric peeked into a nest room that ended up wasting a lot of time and resources to save that character from all the monsters in that side room. Eventually, they got to the room where the boss was at, a homebrewed Kruthik Matriarch. I was excited to do pilot this huge alien queen of a monster, but the party was worse for wear than anticipated. They all decided to run for the exit and take the lift, they figured whatever follows them on the lift would be better than facing down the queen. The sorcerer blasted some eggs on our way out, our hexblade made a timely Aliens reference and it made for a really exciting and tense moment. All of this brought the party into perspective. Their recklessness almost cost them and at where they are in their lives, they did want to die in some whole eaten by monsters. Like you said, this moment added a lot of drama and tension to the situation. Once they made it down there and realized they couldn't handle the boss fight I was disappointed in myself for making the dungeon too hard. But after the session the players were delighted with how tense things got and everybody still can't wait for next session.

"The side that's complaining is always the losing side" You sure you've played a lot of league of legends?

Your movie clips are always on point, Matt. Love them.

Thanks for this Matt. I (my PC) almost died last week, it realy feelt like loosing, even though I lived to see a nether day. but this video helped me get back in the saddle again, so thanks!

"What are the five magic words." *plays clip* I almost had an asthma attack, laughing that hard. WORTH!

"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take."

Grettings from Switzerland Mr. Colville, As someone who was forced into the seat of the DM twenty years ago (I just wanted to play my charming swashbuckling ladies man and so i ginded my teeth...) and grew into the role more and more over the years to the point where i get the most fun when i can host a great experience for others, I really appreciate what you are providing with this Vlog to all new DMs needing advice and afraid of failing. When a player shows interest in trying out the seat behind the screen and wants advice i always lead then to your videos. Keep up the good work and thank you for your efforts.

Everyone hates the word retreat. Thats why I use "tactical fallback"

Those turn-the-tide moments are just the best, especially when you realize you brought the right tool. We got stuck fighting a flesh golem at low level. It crits the rogue and he's down. It lays into the fighter like Ivan Drago. I'm a lightning wizard so my offensive magic is useless. The fighter's got one more blow's worth of hit points, then the golem is going to turn its attention to the cleric or me. We calculate we'll each last about a round. Things are looking grim. Everyone is scanning their inventory, reading their spells one more time. Suddenly I realize I've got a one-shot _glitterdust_ item I had made because that was all I could afford. I make my Arcana check and remember the golem's list of immunities does not include blindness. Untargeted effects bypass spell immunity, and -- POOF! Covered in dust, it proceeds to miss its next five attacks, which gives us the time we need to salvage the situation. Lightning and teleportation are cool, but those "turns out I've got just the thing" moments have been my favorite part of playing a wizard.

I see a pile of Tales from the Yawning Portal in the background.

Matt, This is by far one of the best video on D&D I have ever seen. Thank you for taking the time to make it. I DM for a group of 5 level 8 characters and the concept of losing is one I have struggled with for sometime, the result unfortunately is encounters that I feel are too under powered. Well done, this episode has gained my subscription and support of your channel.

Matt, It's been 4 weeks. We miss you, come back soon!

5:42 took me by such a surprise, I couldn't stop laughing for a little while

I've watched all of MC's videos, and this is my new favourite. Excellent work!

Clips from all of my favorite movies! (I just watched the source of the "5 magic words" this weekend.

So I just watched all of these and all of the campaign diaries and now i'm just waiting for more. Love your stuff!

Thanks to your videos, I got inspired to DM for the first time in 20 years. Bought the books, made up my own adventure, invited some friends over, played the adventure.....and killed all the PC's. Eep.

I did a small dungeon crawl for part of my campaign and decided to put two scaled down red dragons to see what they'd do. They tried to fight them but, after the wizard went down, they decided to retreat and barely made it out the room. I knew it really stuck with them when one of those players ran a game that I played in and had a very similar room where you had to learn to say no sometimes. It honestly made me happier than playing the game knowing he learnt a lesson from that encounter

Another great Video, Thanks Matt. I await your Kickstarter with great enthusiasm. I keep checking for it

I like what Matt says after you lose your character.Had my hot tempered sorcerer get his brain sucked out by a mind flayer. My dice kept rolling under 10 and the mind flayer kept getting back his stun. After my character died I blamed my dice and sulked for about 20 minutes before rolling up my Duragur paladin(who is awesome). Being a DM myself and have had player characters die when I thought they would be fine it's interesting to see how each player deals with the reality of "my character is dead" but then start looking at what to play next. Thanks Matt for the great video (side note: the miniature that killed my sorcerer was my own that the DM was borrowing.)

Matt, love the videos. Absolutely epic advice. I've binged your entire "Running The Game" series over the last few days that I'm at the point where the internal narrator in my head is now you. Looking forward to more of your content!

Matthew, thank you for these great video's. I just found your channel yesterday and ended up binge watching all of the running the game series until 4 am this morning. You have also convinced me to dust off all my D&D books and look around for a game, it's been 20+ years since I played last, and watching these makes me wonder why I ever stopped playing in the first place. Maybe if I had a DM like you I would have never stopped.

Your videos never fail to inspire, thank you for all of your incredible advice

Fantastic Video. As primarily a GM I would love my players to remember that retreat IS a valid option.

You look very tired Matt. Hope you're in good health. Thank you for making these videos. They help me with our groups sessions.

Matt your videos always have such an astounding amount of replay value. You are like a teacher whom I haven't had the graces to meet in a classroom. Maybe, someday at a convention this will change. Kudos on inspiring this particular player to become a DM; all of your hard work has paid off. Keep on keeping on.

This Colville video is a year old, I've already watched it, I haven't typed anything in my browser about the event of my D&D campaign and yet this was placed as the first entry of recommended videos after my party just finished a off a session where the entire party had been knocked unconscious from fighting dragon cultists. Mighty coincidence. If there is a god, they are probably a cruel, dice rolling god with perhaps a magnificent beard.

Thank you for making a video for this topic, I just found it today and it came to me in the right moment, I just lost a character that was the first character that I got to be creative with, and is very dear to me, and now I have watched this my Wis just upgraded +2. Please don't stop making these!

its good to see that no matter how busy you are, you will still upload a video now and then. Appreciate it Matt your videos are fantastic, keep it going :)

Players killed my Black Dragon week before last, I felt genuine loss.

Hey, Matt - your awesome. I just found your videos on running D&D. Your DM tips validate much of what I am already doing and inspire me to do even better. Thank you!

Thank you for doing these. I only wish you had been doing them back when I was stuck in a rather poor pathfinder game.

Awesome to see another video out! Thanks Matt!

I can't truly express how much I enjoy your videos, Mat. The talking points presented are well considered and their delivery is superb. Wonderful stuff. I love to just hear you speak. perhaps I am not much of an internet user, but I have never seen "talking head" style vlogs with anyone nearly as eloquent, insightful and sincere as your videos, Mat. This is an art, dude.

Yes, I definitely want to see how you prep an adventure. This is another great video, Matt. You made great points about managing the personalities at the table.

Thanks so much for these videos Matt! Because of your videos I got interested in D&D, became a dungeon master, and created a D&D club at my school that has now become quite popular. Thanks so much and keep doing what you do! It helps out me and all of my club members a lot. :D

when I play I build 3-5 PC at once just in case I need a new one

Thanks Matt for all you do! Don't stress about the videos, get them out when you can.

A message to say thanks ! In recent months my DM seemed to have became burned out and not wishing our small group to break I thought maybe I would try my hand at it and was instantly terrified as I rarely put myself out there like that . But after watching 90 Episodes of Critical Role and Urealms Live I sucked it up and began to plan. I discovered your channel and without it I dont know that I would have done quite as well. To cut this story off it turned out to be a great success and I am looking forward to continuing their adventures !!! So again Thank you, the perspectives that you give made this all a great deal easier and now there is one more DM in the world !

Hey Matthew thanks for putting out all of these great videos. I'm getting back into RPGs (Pathfinder being my poison of choice) and was worried about the 4 years I've been out of the game effectively. Your videos are a great help in getting my campaign pieced together and making me feel a bit more confident behind the screen.

Really looking forwards to the preping episode because thats the module you inspired me to run! I started with the delian tomb from your videos, ran my own mini dungeon, and went straight into Against the Cult of the Reptile God. It will be interesting to see how you have preped it differently to me as my players are about to journey into the swamp! Thanks for everything Matt keep up the good work!

My group is currently running through Curse of Strahd, and we got over confident with low resources. Needless to say half of our party died before the other half decided to retreat. While annoyed, it was totally our overconfidence that killed us. Love your videos, and constantly give me inspiration while playing der' en' der'. Love your videos, and have enjoyed both your books. Keep up the good work!

Always enjoy your videos and find them very interesting. Looking forward to eveything you have coming up!

Belive it or not, watching your videos became such a habit that I now put them at the same level of my favourite series, and I learn a lot in the process

Well, after never having played D&D before, but being very interested in starting, I did some searching through youtube... Sure enough, this channel popped up amongst a cluster of "how to's" when it came to DM'ing... And after watching the entire "Running the Game" series over two (rather long) days sittings, I must say, all I really want to do now is find a group to play with... Although almost everything mentioned in this series draws back to D&D, there are more tips and hooks on how to craft an intriguing story, and memorable characters across any form of media... You sir, have more than earned my sub, and hopefully I'll be able to relate your stories of triumph and tragedy from my own characters soon.

Great video! I love every movie you clipped, Matt. The biggest take away for myself as a GM from the video is the advice of letting players be pissed, upset, disappointed. I have this need as the GM to make sure the players are having fun. That's part of the job description. And my experience is that players will be forgiving of your mistakes and flaws as a GM if you are a fun one. Being frustrated, disappointed or let down usually isn't fun, so when that happens I have this panicked urge to fix things right away or fudge things to help them. But in the broader context, difficulty can allow for some truly epic moments that make the entire experience more fun or at the very least, memorable. So I need to let them be frustrated. The guy taught me to GM and introduced roleplaying to me always said "don't be afraid to challenge your players because you are more likely to underestimate them than overestimate them." Also, it's just good advice to leave someone alone immediately after they become really upset about anything. Sometimes people just need a minute.

Great episode :) I am HUGELY surprised and happy to hear that you'll be continuing the campaign diaries at long last, and that game streams are returning!!!

God that 'retreat' portion made me laugh harder than I've laughed all week!

My Very first game i ever run as a DM....My Nephews and nieces faced AC 15 giant crabs at level 1. When the First PC ( eldest IRL player) was grapples and nearly died....they all quickly ran. I spent weeks creating it and they ran from my dungeon!! I'm so proud of them!! Love your videos Matt!!

Started watching recently and i have to say i dont think you could have hit the nail on the head any harder, as someone who is quick to anger and to blame i found your reasoning of the emotions the players (like me) feel to be precise and at 16:09 you summed up precisely what ive been trying to tell my DM for months. sending this vid to my DM right now, wonderful insight mate subscribed!

once again great video, can't wait to see your studio up and running. Can't wait to see you live on twitch, glad I found this channel.

I love your videos but I think this is one of your best and most important. I never go in with the intention of putting my players in this position but I know they'll sometimes put themselves there. So, I've made a point of trying to get them to watch it. Love your work, mate.

I can't hit like hard enough. I think I've said that before but I mean it. One of my future players was asking what happens when perma-death occurs, and I told them that it'll be a moment sadness and glory, but you can return to the party with a new character. You mentioning prepreping a new character in-between your time is some good advice to give once in game.

Editing and reference game is on point for this video! Great work!

Awesome, inspiring stuff! Good to have you back.