As a DM, I don’t hide my rolls. And chance encounters are based on player rolls, not my own. Once you roll in front of the screen, you’ll never go back. I also think it engages the players a bit more because they watch those dice like a hawk. To the DMs who are worried about accidental 'too hard' encounters- you are the DM, get creative. Add a NPC. Another monster. Allow for the opportunity to escape. – but the RNG gods' decisions hold fast in my games.

— Shawn G. Wood (@thesgw) February 9, 2022

Had a great chat earlier today with @BDaveWalters hello everybody and welcome to demi planer with b dave walters today i have one of my very favorite human beings as our guest um again i asked everybody this question at the beginning but it’s it’s slightly disingenuous with you but you know for somebody who a time traveler who has just emerged from the year 2007 you know from from a separatist who has been out living in the woods up until now uh who are you good sir and where my people know you from totally uh my name is matthew mercer i am a voice actor in cartoons video games and animation and uh me and a bunch of voiceover friends began streaming our dnd game about going on seven years ago oh god uh called critical role and it has been a wild ride ever since it has led to all sorts of adventures and and wonderful friendships uh and uh now we have an animated series that launches in a couple months based on it so uh that’s that’s kind of the the whole shebang exactly you know it’s like they might recognize you from billboards you know around los angeles every time i see one of them like i almost have a wreck i’m always like ah you’re just like it’s the weirdest thing it’s the weirdest thing nope ugh so people come to la and they’re like you know one of these days i’ll see myself on one of those billboards uh i never had that moment and so when it happened it was like i had it this is weird it’s very weird you know but hey you i i can i can tell you you all have absolutely earned it so on on behalf of all the rest of us on the other side of that equation thank you for everything you all have done everything you’ve done personally uh i i go out of my way to gas you up but i’m not gonna embarrass you here in front of the internet but i’m just uh you you guys the work you’ve done and the contribution you’ve made to people’s lives and not just in general but especially during now being in the darkest timeline can cannot be overestimated man so thank you personally thank the whole team you know man that goes both ways honestly like we none of us knew any of this would continue to grow into this wonderful community and space where people have the opportunity to to tell stories through gaming the way that we do and uh it’s just seeing that sort of permission continue to grow and flourish and more amazing people come and elevate it you know every year uh you know there is a proud papa aspect to it you know um and also just thankful that we get to do what we do you know if you told me probably five years ago definitely 10 years ago that not only would it be possible to do what we do for a living but that i’d get to do it i wouldn’t have believed it because again i came up in a time not only i came up in a time that not only was it weird it was actually evil and bad and then it became weird you know what i mean and then it became cool i was like yeah uh okay now you’re doing it on television there buddy i’m just you know i will say at comic-con this weekend i was like introduced i’m like i’m tvs b dave walters [Laughter] none of this uno reverse gassing up on me though i’m loving on you you stop it but uh one thing before we dive into this properly is the new lambert house pride shirts are out there you go uh been at the the new magic the gathering d d shirts it’s uh mtg.com pride i think i posted the link to it it uh whatever your politics are whatever you think i think we can all agree that there should not be homeless suicidal children because of just who and what they are uh in lambert house makes a really meaningful difference it is very near and dear to my heart i’ve got like four years worth of the shirts i flex them all so here’s the new one so there you go they’re out now um i usually like to start these uh talks well before i dive in properly i we already got questions coming in this is the first by the way even before i ask for questions questions are coming in but if you have a question for matt from me put it in chat just put the word question in all caps in front of it so the mods can capture it they’re putting them here on the sheet for me i’ll get to them as soon as i can again a lot of these i already see y’all you know we can’t answer anytime you’re like who is this going to happen on the show we’re not going to tell you you know like we’re just not so you know if uh feel free to ask but if we don’t answer that’s that’s why you know um i usually like to start with like you know a little philosophical softball here you know just to just to kick it to you uh my question for you has two parts why do we tell stories and what makes a good one oh boy out of the gate you know what i mean it’s like not just it’s an underhanded tusk totally totally um i think for for me and i can only really speak from my perspective because i cannot i can’t uh speak for humanity in its history necessarily but i think we we tell stories as a a device for connection and compassion and and a way to to create a shared experience whether that be retelling a story of someone’s experience and thus other people listening can connect more with the person who’s telling it or by telling a fictional story in which everyone can experience the tale together and as such share that space of imagination and you know going into just television and film it’s still it’s still creating a shared experience that brings everyone a little closer together so it’s you know from back when we were telling stories around a you know a burning fire in a forest somewhere thousands of years ago to to now us rolling dice and being nerds on the internet um it’s just it’s an important place for people to set aside their daily clouded mind their uh politics and just kind of like experience and and tell the story together and in that place find commonality find a communal joy that just kind of just brings us all a little closer together as far as what makes a good story i mean there are college courses that break that down i more than anything as a storyteller it’s being genuine in the intent of telling your story and sticking to your guns i say that because so much of modern media is obsessed with the idea of twists and surprising the audience and there are many great stories that were going in a great direction but when the community began to discover what what the big plot reveal was going to be they just pivoted hard to keep it a surprise and in doing so ended up kind of hobbling their narrative i think what makes a good story is having an intended theme an intended idea of where you you know the impact you want this to have and sticking to it regardless you know why why wouldn’t you want to reward the cleverness of people who are invested in your story if they figure it out just because it’s not a surprise doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable or rewarding and for those who didn’t figure it out it’s both um so that’s that’s off top my head a big facet of it this could be a whole conversation on that answer so i’ll stick with that you know yeah i mean it’s not like this hasn’t been discussed for like 3 000 years you know but but you know hey i i i feel like that that’s still very much like landed on it for for people that have you know tuned into the show before and listen to me rant about this because i one thing about me is i love talking about the things i love doing as much as i love doing those things and and for my money storytelling is what makes humans human you know it is what has made us the dominant species on the planet and i mean in the fullness of time when when we truly understand what you know crows and elephants and whales are saying to each other they very well may be telling stories as well but the fact that we can sit around the fireplace and share something that connects us just like what you were just saying but that we can take actionable insight about life from you know that that uh odysseus sailing between cilla and charybdis you know we’ve got our own metaphorical sillas and charybdis crib disease what’s the plural of cry i don’t know there’s only one christmas you know um but yeah and be able to you know take meaningful knowledge now we don’t have to experience because it has now been imparted to me in such a way i i think is is uh what what makes us us and and it it’s not a coincidence that the kids that grew up reading jules verne talking about going to the moon took us to the moon you know now the kids that grew up watching star trek with replicators and data pads made replicators and data pads you know like it’s it’s the world that is envisioned through these stories you know then manifests afterwards uh which i think that’s why i i take i take storytelling so seriously um uh in in in the meaning and the impact it can have you know um in your experience as an actor uh how if it all does it does it inform your tabletop storytelling because uh oftentimes and obviously correct me if i’m wrong you know you’re given the lines but it’s kind of up to you to bring that to life and make this you know a a a living breathing person you know um so i it’s it’s interesting my my initial forays into acting back in back in the old days um were inspired by my experiences the tabletop i had the opposite entry point where i was i never thought about acting i never felt comfortable publicly jumping into the shoes of another character necessarily until i had rolled the dice with some friends and and found that that was something that was natural to me and something i wanted to explore and so through acting i learned one a comfort in that sort of bold decision making to just make a strong choice and go with it and see where it takes you um i think general culture especially american culture tends to instill you with a fear of failure and so people are less likely to to take a bold choice for fear of looking like a fool or fear of being the wrong choice uh in training as an actor you learn that through that failure there are lessons to be had and that not every incorrect choice is a bad choice sometimes it’s just part of the process of honing yourself as a performer your comfort in making those decisions and changing your perspective on the moment even on text that you’ve memorized in and performed hundreds of times you can see two different stage shows months apart with the same actors and get two very different tales because maybe the performers have learned a different way they want to exhibit that story and different emphasis on interactions and story beats so for me my training as an actor just kind of gave me a very strong permission to embrace the unknown to embrace the bold choice in the moment and see where it takes you as well as just the the skills to feel comfortable living in the the skin and perspective of someone that is not myself and that helped me i mean just like tabletop did it helped me become who i wanted to be there’s so much of that kind of introverted quiet nerd kid that learned to learned to be comfortable speaking to people become full of public speaking to to really kind of find the people that made me happy and i wanted to make happy and kind of forged the type of friend circles that i wanted to through tabletop gaming and through acting kind of together creating who i was to eventually become this weird nerd amalgam it’s it’s and and also uh we’re all fans of that weird nerd amalgam for the record uh yeah it’s interesting you say that somebody asked me after we did the first invitational party who was like how are you so quick on your feet how do you just respond to everything so fast and i was like because i’m not afraid to make a mistake i’m not afraid to just completely fall flat and mess something up because either i’ll roll with it or i’ll laugh it off and and we’ll keep going and it just so happens in the very first episode when we went up the uh the teleprompters didn’t work like we’d rehearsed so many times it was always fine and they were like 30 seconds and i’m like teleprompters blank and they were like 10 seconds i’m like teleprompter’s blank you know and they counted it in and i was like well here we go and i was like we’ll do it live and it just so happens that that studio we’re in is the exact studio bill o’reilly’s will do it live rant no way physically the same space so there’s just like a teleprompter goblin in there you know that just messes with a joke yeah yeah yeah but you know it’s like well hey something’s about to happen let’s go let’s just see you know it’s it because there there is there is no failure you know there’s only feedback and i must just say just as a performer tip for all y’all giving speeches anything like that if you make a mistake keep rolling the audience doesn’t know unless you tell them something’s wrong you know just just keep at it um although you you said something that triggered interesting thought there if if the goal or at least the original vision was not acting what what did you think you were going to do what what did little matthew aspire towards uh i was aspiring to be an animator actually i was i’d spent a large part of my young life as an artist and i had many sketchbooks with me at any given point in time and i was studying a lot about 2d and 3d animation i was going to go to calarts for animation and then realized the last minute whether i mean i’m glad things worked out the way they did but at the time my my sense of of the quality of my art was very dismal compared to other professionals and the people in my field of the same age and so i i did not want to put myself into a position of owing a lot of money in student loans and putting my family into further debt for something that i was not fully behind at the time so that that was kind of where the animation dream died but i’ve lived vicariously through all the amazing artists and animators in our community and that’s part of an additional layer of joy is getting to see all these amazing people create things that i could never dream of doing that you make a very interesting point there um that you know i i’m i’m always you know you can do it don’t give up all these things but part of the thing that i think a lot of times people overlook is the life path that the universe is calling you towards it may call you north because of some of the people and experiences you’re going to encounter on the trip that may ultimately take you east you know but it was necessary to head north um how do you make the decision between you know when you should just keep your head down and just keep working and you know your day will come versus kind of admitting to yourself that maybe maybe this isn’t the play maybe i need to do something else i mean that’s that’s relative to each person’s life experience for me personally it’s it’s hard to pinpoint because there there been multiple times in my life that i’ve essentially hard shifted from a career goal you know after the after the animation feature didn’t work out i got a day job as a game tester for video games which people are like oh it sounds amazing you play video games for a living anybody who’s worked in qa will understand that it’s not like that um very very meager pay especially out of the gate for you know 70 80 hour weeks playing at the time land before time great valley racing adventure for the playstation one uh it gets to you over time but uh that moved into a career path in production for video games and on the dev side of things and i worked for some great companies on you know god of war one and two over at sony santa monica studio worked with infinity ward on the call of d2 and the first modern warfare but over time began to realize that in that space and i you reached that point where like do i want to make this a career or do i have lingering things i want to aspire i’m a person who believes in at least trying something and not being afraid to fail and i’d rather fail at it than never do it in fact i i hope that either in the slight chance i do succeed in that path that would be great but i would rather go forward without the regret of of having not tried that question that lingering what if i did do that what if i did take that absolutely you know yeah i’ve run into a lot of times what people when they deal with the fear failure there’s like i don’t want to try cause i don’t want to fail and it’s kind of like yeah but by not trying you already didn’t do it you know what i mean like i mean you you you’ve gained literally nothing like i mean you you do not have that thing like you possibly could have had the thing or you know again you know develop something else somewhere along the way or whatever versus just standing still it’s like always swing at it man swing at it sure because yeah you never know you know um it’s when along the way did you decide that you wanted to pursue being a full-time creative because presumably while you were walking that path some of these other things are kind of coming up in parallel yeah uh i i’d always had a level voice over because i was a huge nerd and uh i was in that time where you know anime had really kind of hit the mainstream you know i grew up with anime in the background you know trading vhs tapes uh which those who don’t know those are an old school means of video distribution that’s how it was turned ash in front of you i had to watch it and you know dragon ball z in japanese with korean subtitles my friend got at the local imported korean video store this is all true yeah uh but but i i don’t know for me i i was uncomfortable on camera so i love the idea of still being able to perform for animation which i grew up loving and when i realized that was a career path it was something that seemed so impossible that when the opportunities arose to even shoot for it i it was something i wanted to kind of push for slowly over time and so i had little opportunities when i began to try and reach out to connect with the right people and and continue to hone my craft as a performer over time i reached a point where i had saved enough money working in the in the video game industry and had just enough of a taste of small opportunities that i was like okay i want to take this full hog i want to to give it my all for a couple years and if that shows that it’s not gonna work out then i can move forward to the next venture comfortably knowing that i gave it a shot and i don’t have to look back with regret um and so i quit my my at that point still growing career and downsized my whole lifestyle dramatically for an extended period of time and that that was when i decided to go full creative if i could and i always i always felt like at least i had some creative in my life because i loved playing role-playing games that was my my outlet that was my my real creative hobby where no matter what sort of you know inane uh career i was having to do to to subsist to live in this capitalistic healthscape um i always had role-playing games with my friends as a way to to create something that was meaningful to me and to my friendships around me and so i had no idea i could turn that into a career for a long time because like you said before there wasn’t really a path to that unless you were creating the games themselves um but but yeah i think that that for me was the major point where i decided to go full creative uh with the the very firm belief that it probably was going to fail but at least give it a shot for a bit and then move forward without regret if it does that’s that’s all you can do uh we have tons of questions that have come in already i sort of like looked away for a second and i look back and then i’m like oh scroll scroll scroll scroll oh boy so i’m gonna i’m gonna ask you a few of these i have one quick thing i’m gonna poke you there here in in our in our side chat here quick check in there um and then uh let me pose one of these to you here um this is from a dear friend of mine murphy pop art shout out to megan um what’s the game moment that made you realize the power of storytelling with others i think there was a uh for me i was running a 3.5 raven uh ravenloft game the expedition to castle ravenloft for a bunch of my friends and we’ve had like emotional moments in the past but there was an element this campaign because it was so dark and the people that were playing with me were on board to really kind of not unspokenly so kind of really live in the tragedy and the the heroic rise from that tragedy and as we went through the game there were there were moments where characters you know suffered because that’s kind of the the experience of ravenloft and what what you know crafts these heroes is is is struggle and through some of these improvised stories the the players were letting themselves go to these dark places and you know of course we’re checking with each other to make sure it’s it’s cool um and then [Music] watching loss at the table watching and accepting the loss and not like in a frustrated player that’s [ __ ] in a way but just like allowing the loss of a member of their party wash over them and the tears at the table begin to flow and the player as they died kind of them letting go and watching the smile across their face as they see the impact it had on everybody else at that table and delving into the aftermath of that and how each player character kind of processed the loss layered with the player processing the loss and then when we finished the session it was like a an irish wake like let’s pour some drinks let’s laugh about how amazing this moment unexpectedly was for all of us and in a weird way for some of the players that were processing their own grief for real world circumstances unrelated to the game it also for them was a very cathartic moment and i think that unexpected session and everything that surrounded it kind of really really was the first time it crystallized in my mind how important these experiences can be as a human being let alone a group of friends bonding so yeah that was that was kind of the first real moment it hit me i think for me it was um the world of darkness games that i ran for my patreons you know about 18 months we were like 35 40 games a month at one point so it was a lot of flight time [Laughter] and uh what what i realized the the i have found this consistently to be true with the world of darkness the barrier of entry is so much lower because it’s this world you know it’s the the that gas station is on the corner that movie theater is over there it just so happens 30 of the population are monsters you know um with with d and d you very much can get to those places but it’s almost like there’s more filters in the sense that it’s like i got to keep track of what an elf is what a paladin is you know where nevermind terry is okay that’s bad i got it you know and you can become steeped in it and get to those places but vampire in the world of darkness in general it’s so accessible and and what i found was i saw again and again and again new players often times their characters flaws were their flaws in a way that they would often be unconscious of this also happened to me too by the way um and as their character work through some of these things the person was working through those things and as the character changed the person changed and i got so many messages and things that were like this helped me so much because you know i i didn’t know that i needed to forgive my father you know or i didn’t know why i i was this like unrepentant people pleaser or any of those things and just getting to see you know real human healing happen in the context of what overtly should be a horror game and i think it’s not it’s not unrelated that you and i both kind of had these initial experiences in the horror setting because horror is so intimate and you have to be so trusting yeah because it’s like i’ve already sat down at the table to get put through the ringer you know what i mean i i consented to that when i put my quarter up on you know on the game case you know and then you can you know you you go down that road and and when we did uh we did a wraith uh four-part game and you know it was heavy and intense and just brutal and just been and they were just awful to each other because for people who aren’t familiar with wraith you play two characters um you’ve got yourself and you have your shadow in your shadow is everything you’re not proud of every lie you ever told every insecurity you’ve got it’s your shadow and it’s not your evil twin it’s actually you and when you’re at the table you play your character in someone else’s shadow and they just beat the hell out of each other man they just went in and you’d get to the end of these episodes that were objectively awful but everybody just felt so light afterwards and it was such an odd disconnect you know and it was that catharsis just like you were saying you know being able to just let it out um cypher it’s here tanya’s in chat what’s happening tonya what’s happening tanya i did pass along your hello i said i would and i did um if matt if you could play an evil character what class in race and why and apparently we have another another evil character question here uh that i don’t see so but there’s we’ll just leave it at that until i see the other one oh man i mean hmm there’s there is a like an equal joy and discomfort of playing an evil character as a performer it’s i i relish in the opportunity to play something that is so different from my values both as an example is to remind me why my values are the way they are um but i think i think if i were to play in the terms of like 5th edition d i i love the classic idea of a fallen paladin like a lawful evil fallen paladin i love the idea of somebody who has fallen from grace and lawful evil to me is such a fascinating thing because there is still a very strong sense of a code of of us of a dark side of the moral you know a hard edge and and there is there is a an honor you know in a weird way to it that i think is it’s a fascinating tightrope walk as a as a player especially if you’re in if you’re the only evil character in a group or in a group of fully of evil characters it’s i don’t know to me that that’s a very very fun performing challenge that i would love to dive into someday maybe shout out to arthas menethil our homie who ain’t here there you go there you go that archetype is my favorite uh arthas menethil anakin skywalker uh the the hero who gets lost with the best of intentions you know that was that was trying to do right the whole time you know let’s be honest there’s a lot of villains like that in the real world yes there are yes there are um oh the the other question was also from another homie hello prince of bards uh was what inspiration do you both draw on for villains um i mean often often real world historical examples you know uh there are there are new villain archetypes that i learn as the years go on and technology and social media continues to expose us to new new types of villainous personas and i’ve taken notes on certain documentaries been like this is such an odd weird terrible human being that i want to incorporate as a villain in my campaign i have little like notes in my notepad about it so yeah i draw inspiration from real life um that’s my point i think i think the most important thing to remember when designing villains is villains are the heroes of their story uh in in so you know the the things that they’re doing and are trying to do should make sense from their point of view and the more it makes sense from their point of view the more compelling it is like you know characters like killmonger magneto they make a lot of sense man they make a lot of sense you’re like i’m not supposed to agree with you and yet um and yet you know and i think um i uh i watched an interview with anthony hopkins and somebody asked him about being villains and um or was it malcolm mcdowell i think it was malcolm mcdowell and he was like he was playing titus andronicus and he was having a lot of trouble with it in in the advice the director gave him was like yes you’re terrible but have a good time with it because he’s having a good time about it he is unrepentant and so you should be and it’s like well okay yeah you know yeah like i’m going to be playing tiamat tonight and the finale of idol champions presents and tmi’s having a great time being diamonds so yeah and to that point too like you know for every villain you’re like this villain i can understand where they’re coming from or there is kind of an empathic idea and very much in in mainstream media an idea a strong just wave of the villain that you can understand that is an important archetype and is interesting but sometimes people are just monsters too exactly just evil evil people i i do agree with you in fact i actually somewhat don’t like this wave of here’s why you should empathize with them it’s like no you know hannibal’s just eating people we cannot be okay with that that’s all right uh speaking of eating people this was the very first question here quick on the draw from the anxious dm what’s your favorite snack to eat while playing people that’s my favorite snack yeah right here we go long pork um i will honestly gummies i’m a big fan of gummies they’re quick they’re easy they’re right there a little sugar rush um that’s kind of my go-to free enduring game snack uh beyond that it sounds so acne but just like doritos i mean hey gamer fuel bro you know right i thought i don’t eat much when i’m playing because i eat like a toddler like i make a lot of noise i make a big mess you know but yeah those gummies doritos that’s the basics um if uh so here’s you have a deep interest in science how do you incorporate that into your world and make it digestible clear to the players there’s actually there’s a bunch of just world-building-ish questions so let’s just kind of loop all that in together you know getting across science let’s just talk a little bit about world building the process that goes into it because this will save us about 12 questions okay um i mean anyone who’s building their their world for their home game uh you want to build it and build themes and ideas that are dear to your heart you know not everything has to be focused in science if you don’t have an interest in you know various aspects of you know astro or quantum physics um but uh find things that you’re passionate about that you do know a lot about and see how you can incorporate elements of that into your world and in doing so kind of be able to convey part of that passion to your players because that’s going to be a an easy cornerstone for you to begin your world building and then you can expand into things from there that maybe you aren’t as familiar with and from there it’s research from there you know i i don’t i did not have a long uh uh history of of understanding all the different multitudes of of government through history uh the different types of of uh monarchies and and you know all the different ways that societies eventually build a form of government but you have to kind of have a vague idea if you’re going to build a world that has any sort of political elements to it and so that then goes into late night wikipedia deep dives and you know watching digestible videos on youtube that people explain the historical aspects there so utilizing the internet is a great way to learn things that you don’t have a lot of knowledge or experience with it’s all out there for you um for me incorporating science just comes from uh specifically our second campaign really more than anything i’ve grown up with a a a deep love though nowhere near a a mastery of quantum physics astrophysics uh you know grip reading a lot of stephen hawking a lot of uh on just the idea of the fabric of our universe and the great mysteries of why now um and so i wanted to bring a little bit of that into a world of magic and swords and sorcery uh and for me it was just finding that that middle ground where i could incorporate themes of that right incorporate l elements of that mystery that brings a scientific flair but it doesn’t feel like it’s butting against the tried and true genre of magic and elves and monsters um so it just took a little time to sit with it and i did sit with it for a while it was partially over my honeymoon just kind of brainstorming uh and then sitting at my computer and thinking about what would be a really interesting way of of taking some of these themes and introducing it slowly over the course of a campaign so my players don’t feel entirely lost you know if you introduce a facet of your home game and then throw down a packet for them to do their homework on your players might start playing at another table that’s that’s why i keep saying i’m like nobody cares about your 5 000 year back history you know like you can have it in your noodle but for a thousand generations the jedi were the peacekeepers of the old republic that’s it that’s what you need to know you know everything else will be a mur come emergent and also immersive hopefully you know that if you were going to find out about this uh you know multi-headed um uh succession you know plot it should be because you find the people that are all involved in it and figure out what’s going on you know not be like let me sit here and talk to you for 20 minutes you know about why this is important yeah and and to go off that too like i think world building can easily become an overwhelming theme when you feel like you need to create everything i highly recommend loosely plotting out themes and ideas and then fleshing them out as the players show interest in pulling on those threads dunamancy and what i was just talking about as a kind of an esoteric science-based magic force i would never have gone into as much detail with if players like liam didn’t continue to tug on that thread and be curious and want to know more about it in which case i felt more comfortable fleshing it out further and expressing it more in the campaign but you know just because it’s your passion to what vida was saying doesn’t mean you want to force it down the throats of all your players you can loosely introduce parts of it and if the players go oh that’s cool let’s let’s dive a little further into that then you can flesh it out further you can be like it’s a kingdom and if they’re like well what what court lays the law then you’d be like oh well i can now tell you more detail about the politics and if they’re like i don’t trust these politics i want to go ahead and see who is being crushed under boot by those in power then then you’re like okay the players seem to be interested in a political campaign now i can really flesh out the politics and i know they won’t feel you know forced and pigeonholed into the story you’re trying to tell instead you’re creating a story based around your mutual interest and where it’s going yeah and i think you also always have to ask yourself is you know what’s the theme of the game what’s the theme of the world like what what’s what’s the point you’re trying to make about this place i mean is it is it a good place is it a bad place is it you know a a a neutral tapestry upon which all sorts of designs are scrawled you know i always give people the example it’s like the difference between star wars and star trek and this got muddied a little in recent years and i think that’s kind of why people were kind of lukewarm about it is star trek is a fundamentally good universe the the best and brightest of these alien species have made peace they’re out exploring things they’re having a good time things go wrong they fix those things and then they go back to having a good time star wars is a dark and scummy universe where evil has won you know evil is always on the ascent you know good is always on its heels if good wins it is temporary and it is a candle light against the darkness against this oncoming push of negativity that we must fight back against sorry you know ravenloft again is uh ravenloft’s a bad place it’s ravenloft is essentially uh a series of prisons in twilight zones monkey paw-esque you know um uh uh predicaments to to find yourself in and hopefully escape whereas the forgotten realms high fantasy adventure you’re a hero problems have solutions and you go out and you solve them you know so what statement you’re trying to make with your world will also inform a lot of those other things too hell yeah uh another one there’s several several several what recommendations do you have for new dms type thing um so let’s detour slightly into you know somebody who is um you know they’ve seen what you do they’ve seen what i do they’re like i i want to get into this dungeons and additionally dragons that the kids are on about you know uh what what do you think at the risk of over of oversimplifying something that we could easily talk for hours about let’s just say if you could give three pointers to the person who’s never done it we’ll assume this person is played twice never run a game so at least they have a baseline competency with the vocabulary if you could give three points uh one thing preparation for your game is meant to give you comfort to throw it away during the game um you know many people prefer not to prepare at all and just wing it some people like to prepare a crap ton of stuff because it gives them a comfort when they’re at the table um preparation is not what you’re supposed to be playing through necessarily you know you don’t want to railroad your players but it’s enough details in the world and possibilities so that when you do get there and the players are diving in you can feel comfortable falling back on some of those familiar elements that you kind of created in your head and then follow the narrative from there so part of the experience of dming and jamming over time is learning how much preparation is comfortable for you and that is relative to each person who who runs a game um so you know find find within your first few games how much preparation works for you and understand that the preparation is just for your own comfort um secondly to that point as well part of that preparation uh based on your comfort in creating characters on the fly developing npcs factions mysteries on just like flash cards are a very very easy thing to have at your disposal i’ve been at games where people who are newer gm’s are asked by a player to suddenly go to the nearby stables and they’re like i didn’t i didn’t have any staples prepared and they start getting nervous and start floundering and frustrated so just having cards with the names on them or creating a handful of npcs with some loose details that can be tailored really to any position in the world at hand is a really really good resource so when you have to think on your feet and you don’t in the moment feel comfortable creating something you can grab your previously prepared notes and then tailor them to what’s needed in the moment to move forward that helps keep the game flow going and it helps you once again learn how much prep is comfortable for you and the games you want to run um three and i mean this this seems it seems especially modern times standard but i can’t emphasize it enough for new players or new dms have a conversation with your players about the themes comfort lines and veils you know have that session zero conversation to make sure that everyone knows what you’re in for many times that i see stories about people that join game groups and then walk away really frustrated that it wasn’t what they wanted or conversely it was a toxic table um is because there was no initial conversation about expectations of the game about what people enjoy and want out of that gaming session are they more of a tactical combat based you know kicking doors kill monsters get luca experience you know uh diablo-esque type game style uh which is a totally valid and awesome game that i enjoy but if you if you’re expecting a deep emotional you know narrative you’re going to walk away very disappointed and conversely the gm the dm needs to know what types of things the players are excited about so they can work to incorporate them into the games along with what they’re excited to play and exhibit with that’s the other thing too as a gm you’re a player as much as everyone else you should not sacrifice what your joy is for what the players are expecting and that’s part of the weird the weird process of finding a good table is when all the players together including yourself can go alright cool these are the themes i’m thinking cool you want a little bit of intrigue you want a little bit of you know fight epic monsters you want a little bit of mystery noir okay cool i can think of a way to incorporate these themes in a way that i’m excited about now you can go into your session one knowing exactly confidently that your players what your players want and that you can start bringing it for them yeah absolutely yeah yeah i i a thousand percent agree with all of that of course you know i think for me i i very carefully plan out the beginning i know what i’m going to say right at the beginning and then i have an idea of where it should be roughly by the half in an idea of roughly where i want wanted to end but i never planned the second half of it because you know no no plan survives contact with the enemy you know what i mean like the the dice and the characters will surprise and often betray you yes and and just see where it goes because i think for me my three things would be you know remember it is a collaborative art like you just said you know that a trick that i use a lot and i always recommend other people do that massively increases engagement is you you you say like hey you tell me what this looks like you know you walk into a room it’s terrible tell me what it looks like you know and then give them a chance to describe it you know you’ve defeated the villain you know the monster is tell me how you strike down the monster uh because it it one takes the weight off the dm and increases the engagement of everybody at the table which is always good um you know much has been made of the of the quote-unquote met mercer effect which i know you don’t like uh and it’s no fault of your own in in and i hear that a lot it’s like well i can’t do what mercer does you can’t do what i do i can’t do what jasmine or bria do and i’m like hey guess what you really can’t you really can’t but we can’t do what you do we can’t tell your stories you know so you know the song that is in your heart must be sung the adventure that you want to put out to the world that the world very much needs right now in the darkest timeline you know only you can tell which is to my third point is just do it you know if you’re thinking about doing it do it get your friends together roll some dice have some fun you know in in uh hone your craft over time but the most important thing is that you’re just enjoying it and don’t overthink it because i mean none of us started like this i mean i’ve been playing this game since i was 13 years old you know i mean i feel like you’ve been at it a while as well not the same 14 when i first started playing it’s all right around there you know what i mean it’s like unless you have a parent that like got you into it when you were like eight you know like a parent or older sibling like that 13 ish is you know junior highest you know seems to be like the the gateway time for most of us uh but yeah you know just do it get your friends together and do it and i guess a bonus one is the rules exist to facilitate the story not the other way around you know um so don’t don’t worry about not having you know just this encyclopedic knowledge of it committed to memory because you checked the book during games i checked the book during games because i got five editions of this game floating around in my head along with various other games that you’re like uh you know magic missiles in a lot of games yeah everyone’s like i’ll be like wait how is it got it gotta get it i’ll riff off that one for a quick one too uh fun overrules uh is is kind of a thing that occasionally comes up where it’s you try and stick to the rules because the rules are there to facilitate the story but if the players are like i want to do this cool thing and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility but there isn’t a rule for it or the rule might not allow them to do that think to yourself what is it more fun to let it happen for everyone at the table mm-hmm then why not and create a rule for it it’s as easy as beat this number on your dice let’s let’s roll it let’s see you know roll it let’s see yeah if your players are fighting a roper and they’re like i want to try and cut off one of the tendrils there’s no real rules for a lot of monsters to how to attack and cut off part of its limbs doesn’t mean they can’t do it does it sound fun if they try sure why not that arm has 10 hit points with an ac of of 12. roll and see if you can take it off you do cool now i’ll reduce its attacks by you know minus two for the rest of the combat and whoever it had ensnared is is free that that wasn’t specifically in the rules but was it fun and do all the players remember it including yourself hell yeah yep you’re like here we are now absolutely uh this is one from rom-rom friend of mine went to high school with this guy and his brother uh given the well-earned and hard-fought success of cr in both the broadness of entertainment and the ttrpg streaming niche within it do you see cr as a big fish in a small pond or a little fish in a big pond neither both or something else uh weirdly i think of cr as just a fish in its own weird pond i guess i i’m not how’d i put it in in the scope of entertainment it’s very much a small fish in a big pond um but that i like it that way otherwise there’s too much pressure in that regard um in the tabletop space uh because of how long we’ve been around and kind of you know rose over the years to where it is it’s hard to ignore you know it can be the 1000 pound gorilla in the room uh but i’m also not a fan of of comparing it to the space either because so many people are doing so many different things it i don’t know i i’m a firm believer in the high tide raises all ships at circumstance so fish in a pond is is a metaphor that’s difficult for me to tailor to it um i like to think of it as as you’re a pond in a pond you’re a puppy yeah i’m a there you go a pun in a lake uh or or considerately it’s it’s the heavy stone in the pond that causes the the water level to rise mm-hmm put it there speaking of somebody that surfs those waves this is an accurate statement um let me ask you again we so so many questions wow so many questions thank you all for all of your questions i apologize we can’t get to all of them i’m trying to loop in as many uh conceptual ones as i can as we go along here um i know you you are uh a mental health advocate you know uh about things um what do you think excited just last week i had a doctor i guess last week was mark helms week before that was dr janina scarlett who’s a wonderful human being if you didn’t see that episode you should watch dr scarlett follow her at shadowquill on twitter um what do you think is the mental health value and i’m gonna i’m gonna split this question into two parts because again this is another one we could talk about for an hour of of both the mental health benefits of both as a player as a participant because i’ll say both player and dm but you know participating in these games but also in the in the being a part of the fandom in in the in the belonging of taking the journey along with these people ah that’s that’s a great question uh for the first part um i think when you have found a group of of players and friends that you find comfort and trust enough to to to kind of explore things that might be close to your own struggles to try and and you know maybe work through some catharsis to your own challenges in life that can be an incredibly rewarding experience but even outside of specific circumstances like that there there is a kinship and a shared joy in experiencing these things with other human beings face to face whether it be in person or on video chat online that it it is a very very healthy part of being a person that we don’t get to experience enough i think play play is such an important part of of finding joy as a human being and culturally for so long we are told to shut it out to squash the play that to to play video games to play role playing games to to play hopscotch at the park you know these these things are considered child activities and eventually you outgrow them i think that is inherently false and extremely unhealthy and what these tabletop games allow is this very safe space to play as an adult permission to just immerse yourself in imagination with people that you trust to do the same and that not only brings a kinship and a closeness with these people at the table the shared experiences but that is exhibiting and utilizing and exercising the muscle that is your imagination that can only help to benefit other parts of your life um i firmly believe that and there is there’s actual studies to back it up uh as far as uh community goes i think i think there is incredible benefits in engaging with community you have to engage with a mindset of understanding that the internet has toxicity and any community big or large has toxic elements and so learning how to identify and often just not engage will overall help your experience with these places and i i look in some of like the cr spaces and just tabletop spaces in general where so much positivity so much uh support so much joy and so much kind of shared communal uh goodness it happens on a daily basis and that keeps me going when i’m in my darkest hours um but also you know and i see things people mention like all these spaces these tabletop spaces are so toxic they see our community is so toxic these are they’re not wrong about those facets maybe but those are easily can be misconstrued as the overall community when it is really definitively not it is a very minuscule percentage of very loud people um and being able to disengage from that being able to find the spaces uh where there is safety and joy is so rewarding and there are so many wonderful people still finding these spaces and these communities continue to grow uh based around live plays based around just games themselves just based around uh the art in these spaces that happen um the social media doesn’t make it easy sometimes as algorithms reward hot takes and uh negativity so one knowing when to disengage when things don’t seem to be going in a positive way and just step away for a bit and two finding the finding the good spaces and sticking to them there’s there’s a lot of really really really wonderful opportunities to to feel like you belong to find like-minded friends and overall just kind of improve your mental health but this is important to know that line i i completely agree and i would submit that you know that that’s the the nature of haters period is they’re always a small but vocal minority you know i mean the the overwhelming majority of participants in this community these communities uh arguably of the entire human race you know are largely good people with a small number of very vocal jerks you know uh that get a disproportionate a amount of attention in things at times um that oftentimes can get um i think a little more attention than it should you know because ultimately we’re to me fandom is about belonging and um you know feeling like you’re a part of something which uh believe it or not we’re almost at time so i’m gonna pose um one last question for you here all right because uh again you know i i started off uh i mentioned lambert house we’ve talked about um you know fandom and belonging and all of those things i want to give you a chance because obviously um i know how tremendously humble you are like you guys cannot see like the massively effusive text messages i send him all the time because i know you don’t think say these things to yourself so i have to big you up on behalf of everyone else um b davis is the sweetest by the way if you don’t have you haven’t had a chance he’s one of one of the greatest human beings um but but if you could have a chance to talk to that person um right now you know this is this is the darkest timeline hopefully the world is starting to start up again but you know it’s it’s a frightening time it’s a lonely time a lot of people are still um isolated in in or we might be getting the slightest hints of connection with each other again and even going into the holidays the holidays are a tough time for for a lot of people so if you could offer a word of encouragement to somebody who maybe is feeling uh like they don’t belong or a little by themselves or starting to feel a little hopeless uh i want to give you the the remainder of the time we have to maybe say something to that person oh hi thank you i appreciate that um oh as concisely as i can express that there there is always in the periphery of the darkest moments for yourself good people and light to be found um when times are at their worst when you feel the most lonely when you feel the most lost when you feel that cold shadow surrounding you do your best because it’s all you can do to remind yourself that beyond the edge of that shadow there are people and there are places and there are experiences that are wanting to pull you out of it some people may reach for you but it’s you that has to find the strength to take the step to take the hand to try and and make the bolder scarier choice of stepping out of that coldness and it may not be easy to sometimes the path itself is is fraught with bumps and negativity and naysayers and you know toxic elements of humanity but i’ve been in those dark moments i’ve i’ve had very very challenging times in my life in the past even recent past and reminding myself of the good that’s out there reminding myself of the the communities and the people and the friends that either we have or the friends that we’ve yet to make um are there as long as you can find the strength to take a step and then take another step and then take a third step you don’t have to make a big journey just enough energy to take a step and then keep taking those steps until eventually the shadow begins to fade and maybe you’ll bump into somebody that’s looking for connection as well orr is in a better place and can lift you up into theirs um that’s my esoteric answer no it’s it’s a brilliant one one of my all-time favorite quotes is from a rainier maria rielke which is a be patient and tough someday this pain will be useful to you you know just like you said keep moving forward the storm will pass i guarantee it i i promise you just keep moving the storm will pass i don’t know somebody out there needed to hear that i felt compelled to share that with somebody definitely yeah no i appreciate that but hey man believe it or not that’s our time you know oh [ __ ] it’s so fast it’s it goes so fast thank you all so much for the questions again i apologize we couldn’t get to all of them i tried to group as many together at least topically uh as i could um obviously uh i feel like people are probably pretty clear on who you are but you know you know what let me ask you this um are there any non-cr things that you can talk about that you would like to hype here before we go any any other projects coming up voice work anything of the sort uh yeah uh one thing i could think off top my head uh would be the new jojo’s bizarre adventure series is uh starting up on netflix soon stone ocean which uh i returned to voice jotaro cujo who’s a a character and anime character who’s been dear to my heart since i was a teenager and then i had the opportunity to divorce him and it’s been a fun ride ever since so if you’re a fan of jojo’s bizarre adventure which is a wild anime definitely check out the new season if you haven’t you should watch them anyway because they’re wild yeah that that’s an app description yeah so uh again i think every single thing we talked about we could have talked about hours about that one thing but uh hopefully you all enjoyed our little chat here took something from it uh more important than anything else is again keep moving and if you’re thinking about doing what we do do it because the world needs you uh oh yeah mr mercer thank you so very much sir and uh for everybody else we’ll we’ll be back next week with our guest mr todd kinrick to keep deep diving into all of this stuff so uh until next time thank you all so much and we’ll see you then okay thank you everybody about gaming, creativity, storytelling, and mental health. Always a pleasure getting to talk shop & life with this man. <3

Link to the vod below!https://t.co/Yjji4kQn6f https://t.co/lmFLjXqR9H

— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) November 30, 2021

DM CHEATING AND PLAYER PERCEPTIONS Terrible things can happen in the game because the dice just go awry. Everything might be going fine, when suddenly the players have a run of bad luck. A round later, half the party’s down for the count and the other half almost certainly can’t take on the foes that remain. If everyone dies, the campaign might very well end then and there, and that’s bad for every-one. Do you stand by and watch them get slaughtered, or do -you “cheat” and have the foes run off, or fudge the die rolls so that the PCs still miraculously win in the end? There are really two issues at hand. Do you cheat? The answer: The DM really can’t cheat. You’re the umpire, and what you say goes. As such, it’s certainly within your rights to sway things one way or another to keep people happy or keep things running smoothly. It’s no fun losing a long-term character who gets run over by a cart. A good rule of thumb is that a character shouldn’t die in a trivial way because of some fluke of the dice unless he or she was doing something really stupid at the time. However, you might not think it’s right or even fun unless you obey the same rules the players do. Sometimes the PCs get lucky and kill an NPC you had planned to have around for a long time. By the same token, sometimes things go against the PCs, and dis-aster may befall them. Both the DM and the players take the bad with the good. That’s a perfectly acceptable way to play, and if there’s a default method of DMing, that’s it. 4. Just as important an issue, however, is whether the players real-ize that you bend the rules. Even if you decide that sometimes it’s okay to fudge a little to let the characters survive so the game can continue, don’t let the players in on this decision. It’s important to the game that they believe their characters are always in danger. If the players believe, consciously or subconsciously, that you’ll never let bad things happen to their characters, they’ll change the way they act. With no element of risk, victory will seem less sweet. And if thereafter something bad does happen to a character, that player may believe you’re out to get him if he feels you saved other play-ers when their characters were in trouble.

“Dungeon Master’s Guide,” chapter 8, page 235:

“Rolling behind a screen lets you fudge the results [of a die roll] if you want to.”

If you’re running #dnd and you make adjustments to die rolls for the sake of story, you are literally playing by the fucking rules.

— Scott Fitzgerald Gray (@scottfgray) September 28, 2021

My editorial OCD is the gift that keeps on giving. Here’s a fun little thing from the 3.5 DMG, page 18.

“Do you cheat [when you fudge a die roll]? The answer: the DM really can’t cheat…” pic.twitter.com/jBOTcObYxL

— Scott Fitzgerald Gray (@scottfgray) September 29, 2021

Also related, if the creature being attacked has 5 hit points more or less than the average, that is still following the rules as written of that creature. For sure. And you can go even wider than that with hit points within the die range. Go half of the average for mooks and use max hit points for bosses. It’s literally the way hit points are meant to work.

— Scott Fitzgerald Gray (@scottfgray) September 28, 2021

Which is a rule I just ignored… how exactly?

— Scott Fitzgerald Gray (@scottfgray) September 28, 2021

Which is a rule I just ignored… how exactly?

— Scott Fitzgerald Gray (@scottfgray) September 28, 2021

If the roll can be fudged why roll in the first place? I roll in the open just like my players and all rolls stand. We accept the consequences because the dice are capricious, but their word is law. If a character dies, well that is the cost of being a hero and we pay it gladly. I have no problem with that. I likewise have no problem with folks talking about why they like that play style (as you’ve just done quite nicely).

I have a problem with people loudly shouting about how if you don’t play that way, you’re doing D&D wrong and lying to your players.

— Scott Fitzgerald Gray (@scottfgray) September 29, 2021

Being a DM is 50% freaking out about what the heck you just said and 50% freaking out about what the heck you're going to say next.

— Hannah Rose | Tal'Dorei 📚 Netherdeep (@wildrosemage) December 11, 2021

iIn other words, being a DM is exactly like real life, except sometimes a little more fun. 😅😅😅

— Hannah Rose | Tal'Dorei 📚 Netherdeep (@wildrosemage) December 11, 2021

“@BAMB00MBAM: me and some friends wanna try d&d, any tips for how to start?”

The D&D Starter Set, or get the free rules off our website.

— Christopher Perkins (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) January 30, 2015Explore subterranean labyrinths! Plunder hoards of treasure! Battle legendary monsters!

The Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set is your gateway to action-packed stories of the imagination. This box contains the essential rules of the game plus everything you need to play heroic characters on perilous adventures in worlds of fantasy.

Ideal for a group of 4 – 6, the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set includes a 64-page adventure book with everything the Dungeon Master needs to get started, a 32-page rulebook for playing characters level 1 – 5, 5 pregenerated characters, each with a character sheet and supporting reference material, and 6 dice.

D&D 5e BASIC RULES (no pdf)
dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop/players-basic-rules

Access the #dnd fifth edition basic rules now easily through the Wizards page (no PDF required). http://t.co/K0gg4RUV5k

— Greg Bilsland (@gregbilsland) January 10, 2015

That's all my tweeting for tonight. Need to get back to work. These darn TRPG products don't write themselves. pic.twitter.com/4cqFrovn84

— (((Chris Perkins))) (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) December 21, 2014