Intelligent people are more likely to self report high trait neuroticism. This makes sense, because things take a discrete length of time to happen, and thinking faster means you have more of that time to think of how something can go wrong after you finish thinking about how it can go right. Intelligent people enjoy listening to stream of consciousness of other intelligent people. This all checks out, no crazy here.
You see me now a veteran of the last edition war. My money’s spent at last and my dice have been destroyed. I’ve used up all my pencils and I’m helpless and bereaved. HP is all I’m made of. Dare you say that this is victory?!
I have a d6 with: yes, no, yes but, no but, yes and, no and. It is one of the best things I have added to my regular GM kit. I use it for moments with no obvious outcome or players ask if something might be around that I haven’t thought of, often I have the players roll it. It’s been a fantastic addition to my games.
Hi Matt, after learning about the controversy surrounding JoCat recently, I felt compelled to comment on the channels of some of my favorite RU-vidrs to express my support. Yours was one of the first channels I found when I first started DMing. Your videos eased a lot of the anxiety I had at first, and after learning from your advice and experience, I was able to say "Okay. I can do this." And then I ran several games that were absolutely terrible. In the first game, we argued about rules until we hated each other. In the second game, I TPK'd my group because I let my best friend play the villain, and let him design his own stat block. In the third game, I played with my ex girlfriend and my current spouse in the same campaign... You get the idea. But it was always okay. My takeaway from your videos was that these mistakes would happen, I could learn from them, and it would be okay. I could always learn to do better next time. This is all just to say that I enjoy your videos, you should keep making them, and remember that internet trolls are vulnerable to fire and acid.
I dunno man content saturation is a thing... I think Matt's doing an excellent job of keeping us wanting more on the correct platforms at the correct time
You see me now a veteran, of the thousand Edition wars I've been living on the edge so long, Where the peeps of rp troll And I'm young enough to look at And far too old to see All the eds are on the same side I'm not sure if there's anything left to grief
If you want a company to grow and survive, never take it public. As soon as a company goes public money starts being siphoned out to the shareholders instead of being reinvested in the company and its people.
I loved the history lesson in the new video. I've also started using Flee Mortals! in my campaign to great effect. Can't agree more with the sentiment that "you can't review something you haven't played". Context is *super* important.
The fair compensation bit regardless of your geographic location makes me feel completely at ease with throwing all my money into any MCDM product whether I use it or not
The part at 45:25 gets me emotional because I work in finance and some of the most talented and senior people I work with get paid 1/4th of an entry level person in America because they’re on a Singapore contract, or an India contract and I wish I had the power to pay them what they’re worth.
If everything they ever need to buy costs them a quarter of what it costs you, they are making the same money. You will need to forego any pay increase for decades if you want them to catch up. And no one around you is keen to give away their pay raises for your mission. You should start your own business and you can pay whatever you like. You HAVE that power. Don’t ever push your fatalism onto the rest of us.
It's great to hear that you pay artists from South America, Eastern Europe, etc the same as U.S. artists. It's a very generous/respectful/modern...I don't know the right words for it, but it is great to hear that's how you treat people that work for you!
Very happy I'll be able to back the crowdfunder since I got my new job and am making actual money! I've been watching the channel since about episode 50 of Running the Game, and have only ever grown more and more excited about the MCDM RPG as it has been given proof of concept. There's so much fun to have with your brain :)
Matt is just... I'm so thankful I get to hear this man think and talk and share. I really really appreciate it. In this digital world it helps me feel less alone and I take the lessons I learn and apply to my own life/game. Thank you, Matt.
Man, ‘Flee, Mortals!’ Is probably the best written D&D book I’ve read. Certainly the best monster book. Whilst it can’t replace the monster manual, the content within it is inspired and is probably more useful with regard to planning a campaign or session around a particular monster.
It is the passion and the ability to look into the camera which makes it look like he is talking to me; this is the reason why I love this youtube channel. Great stream Matt
It was great to hear the history unfiltered. It's much different than looking at a sanitized timeline of it, but having that understanding and background is relieving as heck.
I had the exact same response to Flee Mortals as you described. I'd already been using many of the monsters for some time and was pleasantly surprised to find "oh, wow! it's fully out now. Time to pillage it for more fun monsters!"
Sad to have missed the stream, just wanted to report that my hardcopy of Flee, Mortals! arrived the other day, and coincides very neatly with the start of a fresh campaign. I am unreasonably excited to unleash the Grave Order upon my unsespecting players.
Respect for paying the people involved better. I may disagree with some things you believe and agree with others, but I will always respect you for taking care of your people alone. Money is tight enough in this industry, it's good that some people fight this.
speaking on the community, this is the first time I've listened to a live stream of yours as a contemporary who recently watched the videos you're referencing after so long of absorbing the backlog and it's a great experience I'm really enjoying it. Also the discord is great for anyone who likes these videos!
after the last video, it puts the "we have no investors on our backs" type sentiment from past videos into perspective, showing that matt and MCDM truly make these things out of the kindness of their hearts and their love of the hobby. it warms my heart :,)
Context is exactly the word that describes what I liked the most about the MCDM video, I think my passion is fueled by knowing how I fit into the big picture. Truly, we must move with the flow of the process, Great videos as always!
I generally don't care which edition is best, the only thing I will say is I was -VERY- angry about the shift from 3.5 to 4th ED, only because I spent close to 1500 dollars on 3.5 books, both official and 3rd party, and even more then that collecting the D&D miniatures game, then when the 4th ED switch happened it -KILLED- the miniatures game locally, all those mega-expensive mini's I had were worthless because they did not go back and make new cards for the old sets for 4th edition. My friends and I, all four of us DM's, just kept playing 3.5 and eventually moved on to Pathfinder.
I think your comment about people not playing anything and giving a review of content is spot on, the Swords bard of 5th edition is an amazing example of it. When it came out I saw tons of “reviewers” talking about how bad it was because of how its abilities interact with bardic inspiration, but when people started playing it they found that it’s an absolutely amazing Gish-type playstyle. Not to mention I find “balancing” in a cooperative rpg kinda irrelevant past a certain point.
If I’m being honest, the MCDM live plays (The Chain of Acheron and Dusk) have been my favorite D&D streams/actual plays of all-time! There are several live streams that, to me, run more like a performance rather than a bunch of friends playing a game together. MCDM is the only one that actually felt like a “real” game of Dungeons and Dragons and not some ad-lib show being preformed for me. Maybe I’m just cavalier to what makes those live games so popular but I get bored by them, I came to enjoy a TTRPG played in a manner akin to the way I enjoy to play with my buddies, not watch a stage show. I digress, I only wish The Chain would return or I could find a game to watch with as high of a production quality and that feels “real.”
Something I noticed about expensive shipping from Colville's store is that bulk orders increase the price significantly. It's cheaper to buy two books and have them shipped to the UK separately than it'd be to order them both at the same time.
I caught part of the live stream, and had to come back and watch the whole thing. Matt Unplugged is completely amazing. Thank you. Especially for the advice at the end. It hit a wee bit close to home.
I love hearing how you run your company and treat you employees and contractors. I hope you continue to prosper, the world would be better off if all companies treated their employees the way you do.
Man. Feels like a year ago that I saw the Fighters through the Editions video and then Running the game videos, and then he quit his job! and then thé kickstarter campaign where I was a playtester, and then it bacame even more Kickstarter campaigns. I wish I could have been there to see more of it unfold, but alas, I had kids 🤣
Damn! I'm mad I missed this live! I love all of your historical vids/snippets! DnD is a legacy in my family, so I've heard every viewpoint regarding the differing editions. I never liked just accepting it, but before I found my own crew, I *had* to play with family, and they hated 4th Edition for nearly all the reasons you said, so I could never try it. We ended up just playing Pathfinder until 5e came out. But now, especially after watching Dusk, I REALLY want to try it on Fantasy Grounds or some other VTT! Keep doing what you're doing Matt, because there are too few creators putting out the quality of content that you do, and I appreciate it greatly!
The research for The Elusive Shift and his other books was done with access to university library collections and private collections owned by some wealthy collectors who were generous in giving him access to all those zines.
Your channel just came to my attention today and I enjoyed your So, Your D&D Edition is Changing video. I hear your "sufficiently complicated boardgame" and finish it in my head "is indistinguishable from magic"
32:00 to 36:00 (-ish), that's my biggest problem with trying different RPGs. Most RPGs take away all the rules for the sake of narrative focused gameplay, but my brain requires that extra bit of context and logic to properly engage with. I don't want a game less complicated then D&D, nor do I want one more complicated. I want one that refocuses its complexity on different aspects of fantasy adventure.
"F you, pay me." was also prominent early in Goodfellas when the mobsters took over the club. Also recall hearing Harlan Ellison rant a time or two or second hand
I bounced from Gardens of the Moon ( I tried twice before finishing it.) Then I read the second and found out it's with other characters. Read the third novel, then went back to the second and then fell in love with the whole series. There is a massive learning curve to the lore, but it really gets epic later. :)
Many of the Zines were available online if you sail the 7 seas of piracy. I have many PDF scans of material from the 70s from back then "The Trove" was operational.
You’ve tempted me to run a 4th ed game. I played it and really enjoyed it, but never ran it. 4th is also what got me back into D&D, I’d been playing other games (including AD&D 2nd Edition until about 93) since 1989, but third was just so _crunchy_ that I had no interest in it. I’m not sure it was actually all that much crunchier than other games I was playing, but once all the books started rolling out I was just overwhelmed. But 4th was a fresh start and an interesting take on the game. I can see why people didn’t like it, but it was fun if you didn’t have third ed baggage.
After about 25 minutes in... this video really clicked in my brain. Talks about rules and why they are the way they are really sounded in my brain. Its like i just made fore for the first time.
I was an edition warrior though I came into the hobby in 2006, but 4th edition was both too complicated with all it's powers and too basic because it didn't have a setting to talk about. Then my group moved on to D20 Star Wars and I stopped caring, and I am happy we did because I have found and played far more games that fulfilled what I wanted to do far better than D&D could. While I am happy I have played D&D since then, it was more about playing a game with friends and less about the game we were playing.
The comment about lack of setting in 4e making you bounce off it seems weird to me as a long-time D&D player and DM. I’m not picking on you specifically, but it’s an opportunity to address something I see a lot with new players which wasn’t a problem in the past. Here’s why I find this expectation troubling and problematic for the hobby: Back in the day, there were no “settings”. You made up dungeons for people to play D&D in, and then maybe you made a town to resupply in, and then maybe someone asked what was on the other side of the mountains, and things grew into a land or world, because why not reuse what you had come up with? Later, TSR started publishing adventures you could use, and you could fit them into your world if you wanted. Later still, TSR published settings as books, or boxed sets. These were just the maps and information about the worlds from people’s personal campaigns. Gary Gygax’s personal campaign was in the land of Greyhawk, and Ed Greenwood’s campaign took place in the Forgotten Realms. They wrote up the accumulated lore from their games, and published that for others to use or be inspired by. (And to make TSR some money. People gotta eat). You could purchase them or not, and use as little or as much as you wanted, or change whatever you wanted. But as soon as it made it to your group’s table, it was YOUR setting now. And whether you used TSR’s content or not, the responsibility to create a game world was still on the DM and players at the table, not TSR or WotC. The idea that a setting might be baked into the game is rather recent, and personally I do not care for the idea of an “official setting”. I think this inclusion in core products in 5e causes problems for new players because it sets expectations that there is a “canon” storyline to D&D that they are visiting with their characters, instead of a world the players and DM build themselves. For example, I often run an introductory adventure set in a town that borrows broad concepts from a town in the FR setting. However, I gather that in some products at some point, the town was written as having been destroyed. I had a newer player (ie started with 5e) at my table who insisted the town had been destroyed, and had a problem with my changing this “canon”. So, I have a fun adventure I’ve perfected over decades running for many groups, and content I’ve paid for over the years, and then embellished with my own work. So I’m just supposed to throw all that out, and future groups aren’t supposed to enjoy this adventure, just because a couple of schmuck WotC writers, who probably aren’t even employed there anymore, decided to destroy a setting location to amp up the epicness of whatever product they were selling? (I say schmuck to mean their ideas about a theoretical game world aren’t privileged any more than the ideas of this schmuck. Actually less though, really, because they aren’t running the game at our table). And what about all the content I purchased over the years? Perhaps I could have more heavily veiled the town, but the name of the town fits the core theme, and I like it. And players get the concept. But for this guy, who had learned the game at 5e with an “official setting”, he had expectations of a fixed lore written in stone, the same way a Middle Earth rpg player would expect there to be a Gondor and Elrond’s House and Shire and Mordor, all in the right places. Even veiling it completely so it isn’t really recognizable, he still has expectations for “the D&D world”. The point of all that is that such “simulations” or fixed settings can be fun, but they do close off the possibilities. It’s the difference between injecting yourself into someone else’s story, and making up your own story collectively. The latter is much more open, which is the heart of D&D, what makes it and similar games special. So setting should never be endemic to D&D or similar games, and at most a suggestion. Until you actually breathe life into it at your table with your players, any published content is bullshit, just unrealized potential, which may become something only through your efforts at sculpting it into your jointly created reality. One of the things that makes this hobby so fun is such collaborative creation. And when designers cram a setting down people’s throats in the core products or adventures, even if they make caveats that you are free to change things, they may set up newer players for expectations that this game is like a video game, where you just passively accept an included setting and it is the same for everyone. It never was that, and it shouldn’t be that. I think Matt at some point said something like “Don’t confuse Lore with Story.” Lore is set dressing you use to create Story and the gameplay that is part of that process. And all Lore published for D&D by WotC, TSR, and third parties should be considered as a giant buffet. You have an empty plate. Take what you want, put a new sauce on some, or cook your own from scratch. It’s all up to you. Use as much or as little of the help WotC/Hasbro provides. But don’t expect there to be a setting provided to you, because you really don’t need it. We got on fine without it in the beginning. Think of it like Hamburger Helper or eating out: quick and convenient, and it can help you greatly when you are busy, but in the long run it shouldn’t entirely replace your home cookin’. I’ve been DM’ing for close to half a century now, and I’ve stolen a lot of stuff. I try to make it as seamless as possible for the players, but I’m an egalitarian thief…I steal liberally from a wide variety of sources shamelessly, and I highly recommend it. Sorry this comment is long, but often I assume people know all of this, and lately online and even IRL, I get sandbagged by people not understanding the scope of possibility of D&D or similar games. They think D&D is the DM buying an big adventure book from WotC (which they often erroneously refer to as a campaign, as in “Which campaign should I buy?”) and the players expect to play it through like a video game. Matt’s Running the Game series is so great at showing the possibilities, but I think it is aimed more at the folks who do get the possibilities, but don’t know where to start. On Reddit and other places, I see a lot of the former group…and I think WotC is perfectly content to foster that, because those people are wholly dependent on their products. But it isn’t great for the hobby long-term.
@@MrOffTrail ...Y'know, I wasn't around for the "old days" but I AM a big fan of RPGs that aren't militant about their setting and try to support your own ideas as much as possible. I wonder if the phenomenon you're talking about has anything to do with the way players refuse to participate in the worldbuilding process. Just once, I want a player to go "I'm pretty sure there's an X here" and shape the world in front of them to make their sandbox happen. I'd be like cool, yeah! There's an X there. Players behave like they're in a pitch-dark room and I'm the god controlling the flashlight, when really the flashlight is in their hands as well. (Of course in a traditional dungeon-bound game this is less relevant, and I do think old-school dungeon rules are a tradition that needs to be re-learned, too.)
I tried 4e when it came out. I did DM it for about 2 months and I could not donit any more. It just felt and played so differently compared to earlier versions. We went back to 3.5..eventualy to Pathfinder.
@@colbyboucher6391 I think they’ve been so conditioned to just receive content passively by video games and 5e publishing, it may just not occur to them. I sometimes see the lightbulb go on when I ask players: “ok, your the barbarian, tell me some things about the Barbarian homelands, their customs, etc.”. Then I use their content, but I have the player act as guide for the party. Or when I ran Lost Mines of Plapdoodle, and there was a doppleganger that grappled with a PC, and took their form in the middle of that. The PC seemed to win, but I took the player aside and asked them whether they wanted their character to have won, or the doppleganger, giving them the option to be a plant or spy. I asked them to decide who they were working for, and a whole subplot and opposing faction came from that. Imdon’t think it occurs to them. And it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But even many DMs don’t realize they can do this. And some players think it is somehow cheating, when it is kinda what makes a DM really reaching the potential of the game. Critical Role might have done much to counter this, but not everyone watches that.
Nice to see that a different group avoided the Patented Colville Screw when it came to encountering Bonebreaker Dorokor. And negotiation is the reason that my group will have the Blue Topknot hobgoblins and a manticore as backup when it comes to my first AO miniboss fight… because they used their words, and not their weapons.
Loving these history takes - Have you come across Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground? Would be great to see your reflections on the history of TTRPG overall
The only thing I've seen so far that doesn't click with me is the name. It serves its purpose I guess, you definitely know what it is haha. I love the Masters of the Universe-esque aesthetic of the logo and all that.
Every update to D&D ("editions"?) has a lot of positive design ideas, but added learning curve and changed nomencature. Which has a negative impact on groups. But the negative impact is usually overcome in a short period of time. So when evaluating a potential transition, you have to look at if the learning curve impact outweighs the positive changes in design.
Reading Malazan is... Not easy. It does not hold your hand and walk you through the world building; you're just thrown into the deep end, and if you don't drown, you survive. Don't know if you actually learn anything by survivng, though. I've only read the first three books and don't remember or quite understand most of what happened. However, Deadhouse Gate is easily my favorite book of the series. I strongly love that Malazan book specifically.
Hey, I understand of this deleted but man I love matt's streams when he's. In a good mood and enjoying it. It just add so much to the experience as a whole. I appreciate him spending his time with us
Maybe it's me but I feel like a large part of needed 5.5e is to clean up the ambiguous wording of 5e. Since they're wanting to make a VTT then the rules need to be clear and concise enough that a program and a human can both be on the same page. Sure they're taking the time to update and change some things, but I do feel the biggest part is like what they were originally doing with 4e. And as you put in your video before, it's for the money people to be happy, since if they can make the rules work with a VTT, then they can profit off the VTT rather then the books.
I actually gotot to help a friend design a game by playtesting his ideas. I t started as a 10 page doc and grew from there. It was a great experince to see it grow and develope.
Signed up for the notice on crowd-sourcing! I am THE Whale!🐳 😂 Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the past and future of MCDM. Great to get a peak behind the curtain
ah yes, Talisman. Like you, we played the crap out of that in the early 90's summer between semesters. One person (generally the current owner) would get sick of playing it and say "someone please get this d@mn thing out of my house!" and give it to someone else in the group. That person would keep it for about a week or two before *also* getting sick of it and say "someone please get this d@mn thing out of my house!". Rinse & repeat until everyone had been the owner. We're still not sure where it went.
I can't speak for other people but, at least for me, watching live TTRPGs feels like participating in a social activity. It's the only thing I'm doing in that moment. There is always that feeling that anything could happen next, the same way that it is when you are with a group of friends. When I am watching a recording, most of that feeling is lost. I still like it, but it's more like watching a slow paced movie.
this video was just Chock full of brilliant shit! Every time I was like "Oh Shit!" or "Ok I'm Convinced" on something, I'd be halfway through processing that information when another one would come along And then there was a Cat! and I was like "ok that's a great place to end on" only of course, ya weren't done and then there were the three rules which again, Awesome advice. Excellent value Matt, thank you for your time!
I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you and your content.. It has come to my attention (from another you tuber I watch) that you are on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me. Viewing your great content I have never once felt like you were attacking me or my ilk. As someone that has played his entire life with people that thought my political beliefs were crud, and we all kept it out of our play at the tabe, I love the way you do it. I hope that your new game does gang busters, I wish you all the success in the world. Please keep up the good work.
I think its interesting how you can start to see the shift in some wargames like in the princes of mars game and boothill the second one of those becoming a RPG later.
I like the idea that the negotiation systems can be used to non-verbally communicate to the players that, this person you are about to fight/kill, not only can you leave with what you want without murder but you can leave with what you want and a new ally.
God I love hearing someone who knows how hard game design is talk about it. Players are great at telling what they don't like and terrible at knowing what it takes to fix it.
