RPG War Stories - What Bug? 

UPDATE: I made a video about how we setup our campaign so we could rotate Game Masters while still continuing a single story (a.k.a. a Relay Campaign). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jKkGv_HblpM.html

GM: You enter the tavern and a waitress comes over to you and says “What you drinkin’?” Seth’s PC: “I will have a Coke.” GM: “We don’t have Coke. Pepsi products only.” Seth’s PC: “BOMBSHELL.”

Having actually played with you, I can confirm your dice - whether virtual or real - are full on voodoo cursed.

Whenever someone says: "Don't worry. I got this." I start worrying and have my character slowly back up in the opposite direction.

"Hello internet, Seth Skorkowsky." Oh how I have needed to hear those words.

"Hey, you ever want to run a game?" "Bombshell"

So a Cyberpunk game, a corporate lobby, and a Matrix lobby gunfight reenactment, but with fumbles in lieu of acrobatics.

Great example of how to react to getting called out on a habit. Says a lot about how a player and DM can handle derailments without drama

You remember what happened last time?

That image of the two punks in suits will remain forever etched in my memory. It was too good.

I would love to see how you would do rotating DMs.

Still sounds like a success, overall, to me. The GM adapted and the players still had fun. If he were to GM again not long after, I would've recommended he reconstitute all the prep he did into another game in the near future. Changing the location name and the lobby a bit. All that prep doesn't have to be tossed out the window if it was never experienced. Modularity.

Thats very mature of you to tell a story where you dont come out super clean looking. Mad respect.

Seth, I enjoy all your content, from the game reviews, to the meta breakdowns of player and DM types, to the occasional live stream Q&A. But so help me God, if we don't find out what happened with that turtle wearing a hat, I'm sending Scott Brown Realty to repossess your house, and he's bring the Bonesaw with him. Make this right Seth, for all our sakes. :| Turtles in hats, Seth. Turtles in hats.

I completely lost it at 6:29!

This is common with most forever game masters. It's due to not being use to knowing almost everything and being in control of the world.

Yes! Time to live vicariously through Seth again!

It takes a truly wise man to admit his own wrongs. Respect dude.

So I've been running a game for a year where my players are my wife, three coworkers, and four people I found on the internet. It's been great. I told them I need a break as I work on next stage of campaign, and asked if anyone wanted to run something short in the mean time. It was my wife who stepped up. She had never played before current campaign and has obviously never dm'd. I will be keeping this story well in mind when we play.

I too have failed to make it past the lobby.

As some one who GMs 99% of the time, I think its a trend with us - we get excited to actually play, assume we know what's happening, and get into cliff's notes/yeah, yeah I know what's coming next - lets do THIS!

5:05 best part. Those facial expressions when you pretend to shoot. That's hilariously awesome

"Hello internet I'm Seth Skorkowski and I'm I murder hobo"

"He asked to borrow my Pacific Rim book..." Wait what? ** sees cover of book ** Ah, ok...

The dreaded Bank Lobby of Doom.

At the "Bug? What bug? There was no bug," part I love how the character behind the speaker is sincerely nodding his head in agreement. Put a big smile on my face!

"Hi internet! It's us, Gorakowski." Thanks autocaption. Keep doing what you do.

I’ve learned over the years to never underestimate how badly players can turn a situation. In this case you had no way of knowing how it was supposed to turn out, let alone that they wouldn’t start firing at you guys on their own anyways. It is Cyberpunk after all.

I wonder how many takes it took to get those double 1's on camera?

"Scott Brown! Bombshell!"

I noticed the Alien RPG box behind you, I hope it's a teaser of things to come!

George is running games all the time but never invites you Seth 😉

Definitely do a video on rotating GMs! I've heard a few groups have success with it running more open-ended adventure of the week or West Marches exploration games. I could also use some points to help convince my group so that I could be a player again for once. :P

This story reminds me of the first time I almost cried as a GM, my players decided that instead of exploring the building that I had spent hours creating they should just light it on fire instead. It's a bitter pill to swallow, and a hard lesson to learn.

This was just one long apology to George, wasn't it?

I don't know... Sounds like "George" would be a pretty good GM. He oughta give it another shot... I mean, you NEVER EVER get it perfect the first time out of the gate... Re-skin the building (adventure?) and try again... You've both grown since then. ...or is he just chicken??? ;o)

I'm looking at the re-enactment and Seth wearing that bloody _Scott Brown_ shirt and finding it hard not to laugh. Friggin' hell! That was an epic war story!

*BOMBSHELL*

Hey Seth, love your videos. The story telling, the acting, all the characters you do. Your videos are just "FUN" to watch. Thanks Seth & have a great day.

So this is the impetus of the "When a Player GMs" video. Thanks for your openness and experience.

I'm with you on this one Seth. Anyone who's seen any casino movie knows that you once the guards take you to the back room they don't "just let you go"

The rotating DMs video would be cool, but as far as this one goes, idk. "Trust the DM" is great and all insofar as you should trust that the DM is trying to offer a fun and compelling game experience, but at a certain point the players need to be free to feel they've screwed the pooch and act on that. "Trusting the DM" here seems to go further than what I think is desirable into trusting the DM will save you from your own failures. Rather than "trust the DM," I think the lesson here is more along the lines of don't let your knowledge of the dice rolls make you too quick to assume the situation is unsalvageable.

Oh no, your cyberpunk PC costumes are simultaneously hilarious and awesome.

I had a similar thing happen to me in Shadowrun. I had written a mission where the PCs had to investigate a series of really messy murders. They asked around and got a lead on a violent gang that used massive attack dogs to terrorize the neighborhood. On their way to their crack house hideout to bust heads and get answers, one of the players says "I want to check out the crime scene again." Once there he wanted to roll to see if he could pick up any extra clues and since he had knowledge about paracritters and absurdly high tracking skill with specialization for urban environments he got to roll a figurative bucket of dice. Dude rolled some of the most hits I've ever seen on a single roll. I had to tell him that "The gang probably has nothing to do with this at all and everything points to something coming out of the sewers." That roll bypassed about 50 % of the adventure. We still had fun and said player got to feel like a complete boss.

I needed this after learning Cyberpunk Red is being pushed back again today.

The fact that this story was so entertaining is proof that nothing went wrong. That player/GM needs to understand that no plan survives war and no plot survives contact with players. What makes rpgs fun is the unexpected twists and turns that come from the player's decisions and improv. Seth did nothing wrong. It made perfect sense for his character to do what he did, especially with a mohawk character as the skit reenactment showed. lol

Thanks Seth! My withdrawal was getting real bad!

To be fair. Given that Cyberpunk corps can be a bit grumpy towards spys, your reaction was pretty reasonable especially given how natural it is for many folks to panic under pressure. Being told 'You should've trusted the GM' is kinda being asked to metagame. Of course, I can only speak for this instance and not for the many times you've done it before :-p

Hitting yourself with a flashbang sucks. You know what sucks worse? Hitting yourself with a krak grenade in a 40K Dark Heresy campaign. RIP Lazarus Ramirez.

Yes going bombshell wasn't in keeping with you "Don't fuck up your opportunity to be a player by ruining the dm's game", but I wonder if he'd had the npcs say "Get these jokers outta here" from the start it might not have started a cock-up cascade leading to player frustration and the scenario going down in flames.

Your willingness to admit your own mistakes and poke fun at yourself is a big part of what makes this channel required viewing for me. Great war story, I'd love to see a video on rotating GMs if you decide to do one!

Seth, i seem to have been missing your feeds lately (early 2021). You are my favorite RPG commentator!

Seth keeps on churning out works of art during the pandemic! Good work, man! Please do a video about rotating GM's if you think you have useful info or stories! I did it once for a Mutant: Year Zero campaign. The players and I worked to build a world together and even had player create and play NPC's, so when I got to the end of my story arc, I let another player take over.

You know who has the best fast talking skill? BONESAW! THROUGH THE BOOOOOONNNE!

Honestly even though the GM was pissed at Bombshell I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with the call. I get the entire idea behind trust the GM but at the same time you don't inherently know what they are planning either.

Oh wow, that reminds me of a story that happened to my group. Previously, my players prevented the Orcs from getting a powerful artifact they would have used to ravage the kingdom, but while doing so unwillingly casted a curse upon the land. Right afterwards they handed themselves over to the guards in the big city and told them roughly what happened. Naturally, in the next session the city was preparing their trial. As I wanted it to go smoothly, some villagers the PCs knew and who lived in a vale sent a letter to the city guard, saying they were struggling against the curse and that the PCs were their only hope. My plan was that the PC would go to the vale, get rid of the effects of the curse there and the friendly guards escorting them would witness it and testimony that they are working for the greater good during the trial. But nothing went the way I expected. They persuaded themselves that the letter was fake and that the guards just wanted to take them in some isolated place to kill them and let them rot. Nothing I could do would make them consider the fact everything could actually be fine. After their rough attempts at stopping the travel (such as breaking the leg of one of the guard’s horses), the way I maintained the guards friendly was starting to become ridiculous but I truly wanted them to go to the vale. Then the last thing they did was pretty clever. From the first time they went there, they knew the region and there was a clan of barbarians led by a stupid ogre. They went there and managed to persuade the ogre with some good rolls that the guards insulted him and he should eat them. So he did. And then they fled in the opposite direction. That was really funny, but still I was really disappointed everything I created was blasted away just because they feared the guards they handed themselves over to willingly... Why are people so scared by guards?!

The most hilarious actual play I've seen since Vox Moronica on geek and sundry. And also cool with the Cthulhu backdrop

Do it, George!

Hilarious as always; love the War Stories. You went Full Murder Hobo.

Lmfao, "What bug!?" Idk why that made me lose it

This was fantastic. As a new GM but long time player my players have bombshelled me twice in the last three sessions. This made me laugh and I needed it. Have the best day

As a Forever GM, the chance to play and wreck somebody else's stuff sounds so fun!

It's really quite comforting to hear a story like this, where the veteran GM is the one screaming "Bombshell". Yes, it's good to know everyone makes mistakes, but more importantly: hearing how you guys talked it out, without huge drama.

This feels like an solid argument for why critical fumble tables are a bad idea.

I do not normally comment, but George.. You need to run a game for seth, and post it, so we can eat popcorn, and watch the shelling start. :D PLEASE PLEASE. Love the stories Seth.

Yeah, I have ended a couple of runs by shooting a prisoners with valuable info. "They had it coming," just doesn't cut it. I messed up.

Another Seth video. Great... wait a war story none the less HALLUJAH!

Love this it was totally awesome and hilarious. I have had a few murder hobos in my games before so I know how the friend feels but I also have ways to get around murder hobos or at least make them work to my stories advantage.

We really need more of these! Amazing video!

Your stories make gaming sound so fun. I recall my gaming days and it was pretty awesome, but you really crack me up and make me want to find a group to play again.

Whoa! I was so wrapped up in the story, I almost didn't notice how good your video editing is. Very nice work!

Love your work Seth.

My god, I needed this right now, thanks, boss.

Disappointed by the lack of Scott Brown references in this episode...

Always great when you upload a new video, mate. Thanks for being so entertaining. Keep up the awesome work!

Fantastic, as always pal!

I don't know... feels like a Check for Security-Knowledge or Insight might have clued the PCs in about some details of their situation. I mean they were going against a ‘corp in CP - "Disappearing" people is totally in the MO for the ‘corps there, isn’t it? Especially if it is some fluffin’ fortress. Based on that situation I do not quite get the “Trust the GM” part. But the story was a blast. The acting-for-two is amazing and the characters (Players and PCs) hilarous X3

I'm very glad we have creators like Seth on youtube. Everytime I see that notification I know I'm going to get some of that table top feeling that is sadly missing in the current times.

These videos always make me so happy

I was playing cp2020 in middle school around the same time this happened! Weird coincidence.

07:15 is it really a modern/future rpg if the party doesn't flashbang themselves?

This is my new favorite d&d channel

Great content as usual. I had a game group where we rotated gm's and it was one of the best experiences I've had. We built a city as a group and we all made characters and we would post missions on a "bounty board" that we were willing to run. Whichever mission got the most votes determined who was gonna gm. It was awesome to build the world together like that. I am curious to hear how you did it.

Really enjoyed this war story! This kinda reminds me of the scene in Fate/zero (spoilers), Where the traditional mage rented an entire hotel skyscraper floor, turned it into a maze, filling it with traps and ghosts to have a defend-able position if attacked. His opponent comes along, pulls the fire alarm, gets the civilians out, hypnotizes the staff into thinking the Mage and his family are out of the building before blowing it to kingdom come!

Holy crap, I played in a Shadowrun game where our first mission went exactly like this. It was the GM's idea to run a game in space, on space stations and ships. But we didn't start out there. We were going to a "spaceport" where we would be launched into orbit and we had our whole cover story planned. We were stopped at one checkpoint and our forged paperwork was checked. The GM rolled some dice and the security guard told us to wait while he went in the back. At this point our resolve crumbled and we convinced ourselves in an echo chamber that we were going to be arrested and that our only option was to strike first. So we called in "Plan B," a bunch of guerilla fighters we hired shot RPGs at the airport as a diversion and we blew through the terminal as fast as we could while running and gunning. We succeeded, but after the mission the GM told us we would have totally passed the checkpoint.

Classic "No plan every survives contact with the players." But I sympathize with both you and your gm. Sometimes you just panic and revert and go all in on the kill floor when you really don't need to. I think it's partly because combat is so ingrained into ttrpgs that when all else fails, it's what we default to. But damn, it's frustrating to watch happen as a gm.

You tell my favorite RPG War Stories... I really wish you did these more often. I might need start my own channel and start telling some of my own. It will keep me busy while I wait for your next one.

Great videos. Man, they really make time go down easier.

How the hell does Seth NOT have over 100k subs yet?? He puts in more effort, production and charm than most tabletop channels.

Love these war stories!

You all walk into the echoing halls of the throne room ornate torches attached to pillars light the enormous room. On the throne sits an ol- BOMBSHELL!

Great video omg I hope you share more warstories this was a riot !

Those fumbles were on point for hilarity. Did you bribe the dice?

I freaked out once at the conclusion of a d&d game, we just completed a quest for a powerful thieves' guild and I couldn't shake the feeling of an impending double-cross. My character went nuts and assaulted the NPC quest giver and made a break for the exits. The party backed me up while the players laughed and shook their heads. We fled from the city, under sporadic bow fire and harassment from guild thugs. We made it out, and were ordered never to return!

I mean the lesson was: don’t plan to far ahead as a dm

George, give Seth another chance, he has clearly learned his lesson.

I freaking love your war stories ❤️ they always make me smile and laugh❤

Moral of the story: Never call bombshell too soon. Think first.

"Hello internet, Seth Skorkowsky." God damn that's better than crack.

Awesome war story Seth.