May 17, 2024 • 18 mins
In this episode of 'Hello Adventurers,' the hosts discuss a unique challenge faced by a dungeon master (DM) when players wanted to follow the 'Curse of Strahd' module strictly, without any deviations or creative input from the DM. This situation highlights the importance of having a session zero to ensure the DM and players are on the same page regarding game expectations. The inexperienced DM, taken aback by the rigid demands, decides not to proceed with the campaign. The hosts consider the players' perspective, suggesting that previous negative experiences might have led them to such extremes. They humorously explore possible outcomes and solutions, emphasizing the collaborative and improvisational nature of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and role-playing games. The episode wraps up by inviting listeners to share their thoughts or similar experiences.
Send us your horror stories to helloadventurerspodcast@gmail.com or tell us yourself in your best (worst?) Strahd voice at helloadventurerspodcast.com/voice
Send us your horror stories to helloadventurerspodcast@gmail.com or tell us yourself in your best (worst?) Strahd voice at helloadventurerspodcast.com/voice
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:20):
Hell and hello, yea perfect nilding. We're gonna get that again. We're
as my wife. We're gonna leaveit in as is, Thank you so
much. A podcast for game mastersand players and all kinds of people to
level up your game. We're justgonna start it off completely off the rails.
(00:40):
That's fine. Yeah, that wassort of a horror story of an
introduction. Well, today's story isabout keeping things on the rails. I'm
gonna say, is it about playersnot paying attention? Because that was me?
You got me. That's not eventhe story. That's just facts.
It's horror facts. We're going todo horror story today. We're pulling this
one from the RPG horror story subredditfrom user grand Red Larceny. But I
(01:06):
love this story. I love whatit implies. And I know, particularly
Jim is going to have plenty tosay about this, and so do I
so Joe. Yes, our listenersmay have learned that I have opinions about
things. Yes, I should hopeso or else In particular, it's a
pretty host. Today's horror story istitled the Players want to limit the quote
(01:29):
DM influence. I am intrigued onthat's what a good title will do story
goes. So this is something thathas never really happened to me before.
I've been to DM for a while, not extremely experienced or anything like that,
but I've run a few games.A few weeks ago, I started
talking to someone I know and theymentioned that they had a group of friends
(01:49):
looking for a DM and asked ifI could do it since I really liked
D and D. I didn't thinktwice and said sure. I met with
this group for a session zero ofsorts to discuss what they were looking for
in a game. And here's whatthey told me. They wanted someone to
run cursive strawed for them, whichis fine, that's one of my favorite
modules. But that's where the problemscame up. I told them I'd be
happy to as cursive strad actually hasa lot of variables and ways to make
(02:13):
these things interesting. That was whena player stopped me mid sentenced and said,
before you start, I want tomake sure you're running it for us
without change. I want you tonot influence the module at all, don't
even change a comma. I hatewhen dms think they know better than the
folks at D and D. Thatwas strange to say the least. But
(02:36):
I understand wanting to run something asit was intended, and I said I
would definitely follow the module. However, the player continued, No, you
shouldn't even use dialogue that isn't inthe module. Okay, that's how D
and D is meant to be played. Also, you need to roll dice
out in the open for us tosee. Things felt really strange to me.
I know, I'm not experienced oranything, but this didn't feel normal.
(02:57):
So I asked them plainly what they'reexpecting of me, and this one
player, who seemed to be speakingfor the group said, we hate when
dms abuse their powers to manipulate theworld. That's why we only play modules
and make sure the dms don't changea single thing from them. I imagine
my expression didn't seem too good whenhe said that, because what followed were
a bunch of complaints about dms,and from me, it sounded way too
(03:20):
close to player versus DM mentality.It went on for a while, but
there was no way I was dmingfor them. I'm barely experience. Good
choice, I'm Billy's okay, okay, good because like I thought, like
like many of these horror stories startwith, here's the huge red flags that
I ignored. Yeah he did andforged ahead. Anyways, Somewhere somewhere in
(03:46):
our third year of this campaign,I thought, hmm, this feels a
little odd. Yeah, that's good, says I'm barely experienced enough to do
with normal players, and to me, this definitely, this definitely isn't normal.
Honestly, at that point, theywere expecting me to be an AI
simulator for their game with a voice, which is not at all what I'm
looking for. I told them thatthat we aren't going to be a good
fit as expected. They didn't likemy response and started to angrily shout at
(04:09):
me that I was wasting their time, that I wasn't a quote true DM,
et cetera. That being said,I would no longer be DM me
for this group ever anyone that's thisfriend of mine introduces me to. I'm
just glad that they didn't go beyondsession zero. They were shouting, but
you're not a real DM unless youdon't DM like you just you just need
(04:31):
to read the book and then justdo just only say what's in the book.
Don't even change a comma. Whydoesn't that player? My first thought
is why doesn't that player Okay,no, Actually my first thought is like
this would make a terrible horror moviebecause you know, like how we're all
shouting like no, don't go downinto the basement, like that's what this
(04:53):
person did. They're like, I'mjust not going to go down there.
I'm just gonna add Yeah, I'mgoing to leave this house. Actually,
I'm not going to go investigate thatweird sound at all. I'm good.
I'm gonna go home now. Yeah, and there's no harm movie that's what
happened here. But then my secondthought is, why doesn't that player just
be the DM right if it's likeif you're just reading from the literal them,
Yeah, you don't need to doanything if you're just reading a story
(05:13):
book to your friends. Yeah,like I'll bring over a copy of,
like, just know, some fantasybook and you can just all work together
and read it together. Yeah.Also, how does that player know if
if if I go off the rails? How does he know? Oh,
you reading ahead? I mean,and part part of me sympathizes though here,
(05:34):
like like I'm trying to find someempathy for these players because clearly they
had a DM like that they hadreal problems with like one of our other
horror stories. Yeah, exactly,like like in the past that led to
this trauma that they're expressing to this, you know, the new guy who's
(05:57):
like, Okay, I was hopingto run D and D and not be
your therapist. So yeah, yeah, yeah, but but but good for
him for like, and that's whyyou have a session zero, folks.
Yeah, and why your session zerois let's make sure this is gonna work,
right, and and you know,and good on him for saying not
gonna work. Sorry, Nope,that's not not how we want to be
(06:17):
going about it. I was scrollingthrough some of the comments here of there's
some golden there, Like my favoriteone of the top comment is nice deck
saving me. They're dodging that bullet. Yeah, yeah, it's that it
doesn't matter if it's not twenty right. The DC was low out out the
way, yes, yeah, yeah, So say, what do they expect
(06:39):
you to do if they speak toan NPC that has no written line?
Just stand there and not answer.Yeah. That was my next question was,
like, you don't have any dialoguewritten for this guy? If I
was citistic enough the DM for them, that's exactly what I would do stare
at them in pure malicious compliance.Yeah, sometimes you got to give people
what they want for them to understandthat they don't actually want that. Yeah,
(07:00):
so what do we do in thissituation? Obviously, the the DM
left, and that is the correctcall to go run a game they want
to play with. The DM isalso a player at the table and should
be having as much fun as anybodyelse. So this wasn't the right game
for the DM. But the players, I hope they either if they want
to continue playing D and D theyshould, you know, figure out that
that's how it runs. I hopethey find a DM that's good enough to
(07:21):
like undo a bad experience they problembad, or they just have storybook hour
and just read a book to eachother. That's kind of what they want,
and I'm kind of serious about that, like like like find a cool
fantasy book and just read it togetherduring a book club. I'm super curious
whether this would be the first timethat that group has played Cursus Strode or
(07:43):
whether they're no kidding, think ofit in terms of like a video game,
and maybe the thing is they playedit through before and they want to
play it again to see if theycan, you know, somehow like like
like optimize or go in different directionsor something like that. But it's got
to run exactly the same way,otherwise they won't know, you know,
(08:05):
whether it was Like I just thinkI think what it is is. I
think they're northern northern Dungeonists, andthey take a very literal interpretation of the
Book of Straw with no room forinterpretation whatsoever whatsoever. Anythink that's probably as
opposed to more liberal Borovianists. Wellyeah, yeah, yeats, they do
(08:26):
allow some interpretation of the bow that'sman and in particular and in particular that
module more than any others. Thefun of that module is as a DM,
sinking your teeth into it and makinglike the weird gothicness of that like
(08:46):
your thing, right, Like notwo dms should have the same straw voice,
right when they talk of you know, when they do his voice,
and when you do the you knowwhatever the fourtune and tell her and all
that like like that is your opportunityto just you know, be weird and
have fun with it. And theidea that somebody is gonna, you know,
(09:07):
wants you to run that that moduleof all of them, you know,
totally on rails is just it's justit's set like it's just a missed
opportunity for everybody. It should bea for interpretation. As long as everyone
agrees that Strat is hot, that'sall that matters. My last because it's
thirsty and you're doing it right.Yeah, So what is your straw voice?
(09:28):
I didn't run so okay, butI just come up with one right
now. I would probably go supercampy, like like bla, like the
stand, the beating about the likethe like the cartoonish nineteen fifties like bad
Vampires. Yeah, like uh theI think a real solution for those players
(09:48):
is go play Baalder Skate. Yeah, it is a video game. It
cannot be it cannot break it proYeah the game. Go play AG three.
Yeah, it's we can be becau. Everything has to be pre program
and you can play. And thegreat thing about Baller's Gate you can play
co op. You can have yourfriends on the mics with you, and
you can all do it. Yougo through together just like a plaint,
(10:09):
a regular D and D game,and that you don't have to worry that
anybody might inject their personality into Godforbid running go to based someone like plays
a role playing game in their ownvoice. Hello Adventurers, thank you so
(10:31):
much for listening. If you enjoythe show, the absolute best thing you
can do to support us is tosubscribe so you'll be notified when new episodes
are released. You can also leaveus a review five stars. Of course,
that will help us get seen bymore D and D players, and
more than anything else, just tellyour friends about us. If you like
what we're doing here, that there'sa good chance that your DM or your
players will enjoy it too, Andyou don't need to loop gold to do
(10:54):
any of that. We appreciate yourlistening. Now back to the show,
but seriously, kind of picking upon something you said, Jim is getting
down to like like, was thereno room for any kind of discourse?
There was there no like well,okay, hold hold on, I'm not
I don't think I'm better than thepeople at Dungeons and Dragons that wrote this,
(11:16):
and I don't think I know betterthan that. However, however,
like here, let's go to thispart of the d MG that was written
by these same people. Let meshow you this, and and you know
that that's where I don't know.I guess like what kicks in for me
if I'm seriously in this situation afterkind of laughing and being like you guys,
okay, that was a good one. You always got me, and
then we go out you're serious,Okay, well what do you really want
(11:39):
to play? Yeah? Is likegetting into like okay, I obviously need
to educate you on something like okay, so let's let's break that down.
And so so I get saying likeno, not for me, I'm good,
thank you, but no, thankyou. But at the same time,
to your point, it's like maybesomething kind of horrible happened to them
(12:00):
in the past. Maybe it's someonewhere they had some kind of this.
They definitely had some kind of assholeDM that was like just completely arbitrarily changing
what was in the module. Youknow, there's a sweet spot there between
you run it word for word verbatim, and you sit down to play strawed
and they end up in you know, like and they end up in Strict
(12:22):
Saving instead or something like that.You know, you you decide that that
you you really want to run aMagical Academy game, so you drop the
Magical Academy into Barovian they never evensee straed kind of thing as far as
like seeing a room for discourse,you know, if we're ever taking the
story your face value. There aretwo points where the players interrupted DM right
in order to say in order todouble down on saying they don't want anything
(12:43):
fun, so I don't think therewas much room for discourse. And also
like this wasn't the DM's friends.This was a friend friends of a friend
that liken't He doesn't know these people, doesn't owe them anything, So no,
and I don't think that, right, I don't think that. So,
so what would you do? Ishow much time do you have?
Because because I'm going to do oneof two things, depending on how much
one of three things, depending onhow much time I have I'm going to
(13:05):
One is nothing and leave. Oneis to say I honestly don't have time
for this. Yeah, this soundslike it's not my game. Thanks,
thanks, but no thanks and leave. The second one is to do what
I said is to try to educatethem. Sure, okay, you know
this is open to interpretation. I'mnot going to change any anything. I'm
not going to change anything. However, there are parts that are maybe slightly
(13:28):
ambiguous that I need to kind offill in. That's how this game is
designed. And here's a two sentencedescription of this shopkeeper. And if you
guys want to talk to him,I got to make some shit up right,
and like kind of explain that.And then the third one is,
if I'm feeling particularly saucy, I'mhaving a bad day and I have some
time, I am going to malicious, maliciously comply. I'm gonna give you
(13:52):
exactly Okay, that's what you want. Sure, here we go, and
you're going to get the most vanillamhm yep land game of your life.
Yeah, and that's maybe exactly whatthey want. Maybe they'll be thrilled at
that. I don't know, Yeah, but certainly that like like I like
(14:16):
the kind of like that. Imean, like, like you say,
we only have one angle on thisstory, but the fact that he spent
some time going do we really understandeach other? Like do I actually are
you really asking what I think you'reasking me for. Let's poke at this
a little bit, them going ohyeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
(14:39):
You know, it sounded like hedid kind of take some time to try
and you know, come at itfrom a different angle and make sure that
they were really no kidding as adamantabout this is as it seemed like they
initially were. Yeah, like Isaid, the player interrupted him twice to
double that for me, that's Idon't think it's any there was any room
for or for educating anybody on thison this particular day. And hopefully they'll
(15:03):
figure it out, or they gopick up a copy of Boulder's Gate or
start a book club, and Ithink those are all perfectly fine ways to
spend your afternoon. This is Thisdoesn't make them bad people, bad D
and D players, And if thepeople that were playing this game and interrupting
this DM are listening, some ofthe best lines in the movies, some
of the best lines of movies areimprov Okay, I'm just gonna throw that
(15:24):
out there. Yeah, the partwhere Eric gorn Broker's thumb, he improved
that line that wasn't in script.He was like, you know what,
I'm gonna break my thumb here.Or when Harrison Ford was hungover or no,
not hungover, he was sick inIndiana Jones and the guy comes and
he does all these cool night thingsand they shoot him Like that was just
improv because he didn't want to befilming that day. They kept Yeah,
(15:46):
you know, I mean my favoriteimprov I think of the last twenty years
is because the truth is I amiron Man, not in the script down.
He just did it and everybody lovedit so much that you know,
that became that iconic thing, andthat just that's and that's where that that's
where those things can can happen.Yep. Yeah, a lot of the
(16:07):
magic happens folks and the commers.There's a lot of speculation exactly what you
said, Jim, is that theseguys have run Strawed before and they're trying
to optimize their speed run. Yeah, a lot of speculation on that Twitch
speed road of straw And then piggybackingoff of that is that saying that some
people just want to win whatever gamethey're playing, even for a game that
doesn't really have a win or lose. Yeah, David, that's the wrong
(16:32):
module to play then, from myunderstanding and having not played it, if
they've done it before or optimized ontheir speed run, then you can absolutely
win D and D. It's notthe module to play. So what would
you have done in this situation?What and have you had a DM that
went a little too far off therails and maybe you sympathize with these players
a little bit. Reach out tous Hello Adventures Podcast at gmail, dot
commerce store, tell us your storyyourself, Hello Adventures Podcast dot com slash
(16:56):
voice and if you can do itin your straw voice, that would be
awesome. You have to make ithot. Yeah, uh anything bad boys,
No, I think this is goodfrom me. Yeah, this was.
This is like the perfect type ofhorror story that we'd like to see
on the show where it's just likelike what were these people thinking? Yeah,
it was cool man, and theyhad a happy endingwhere with the potential
(17:18):
d M left without them this Yeah, that was like like like Joe was
saying, the house said, yeah, you know what, too bad,
we can't stay. I will thankyou. They had capital idea. Sir
guys, thanks so much for listeningwith Hello Adventurers. Where your host Jason
Ptizo, Jim Crocker and Joe McCallproducer, editor an engineer Jason Piso a
(17:41):
music by n Experior outwork like Christand Roderick. You can meat out to
us with any feedback We're suggestions byemailing Hello Adventures Podcast at gmail dot com.
Hello Adventures is a j TP oilproduction by Adventures, but to have the
Hell and hello, yea perfect nilding. We're gonna get that again. We're
as my wife. We're gonna leaveit in as is, Thank you so
much. A podcast for game mastersand players and all kinds of people to
level up your game. We're justgonna start it off completely off the rails.
(00:40):
That's fine. Yeah, that wassort of a horror story of an
introduction. Well, today's story isabout keeping things on the rails. I'm
gonna say, is it about playersnot paying attention? Because that was me?
You got me. That's not eventhe story. That's just facts.
It's horror facts. We're going todo horror story today. We're pulling this
one from the RPG horror story subredditfrom user grand Red Larceny. But I
(01:06):
love this story. I love whatit implies. And I know, particularly
Jim is going to have plenty tosay about this, and so do I
so Joe. Yes, our listenersmay have learned that I have opinions about
things. Yes, I should hopeso or else In particular, it's a
pretty host. Today's horror story istitled the Players want to limit the quote
(01:29):
DM influence. I am intrigued onthat's what a good title will do story
goes. So this is something thathas never really happened to me before.
I've been to DM for a while, not extremely experienced or anything like that,
but I've run a few games.A few weeks ago, I started
talking to someone I know and theymentioned that they had a group of friends
(01:49):
looking for a DM and asked ifI could do it since I really liked
D and D. I didn't thinktwice and said sure. I met with
this group for a session zero ofsorts to discuss what they were looking for
in a game. And here's whatthey told me. They wanted someone to
run cursive strawed for them, whichis fine, that's one of my favorite
modules. But that's where the problemscame up. I told them I'd be
happy to as cursive strad actually hasa lot of variables and ways to make
(02:13):
these things interesting. That was whena player stopped me mid sentenced and said,
before you start, I want tomake sure you're running it for us
without change. I want you tonot influence the module at all, don't
even change a comma. I hatewhen dms think they know better than the
folks at D and D. Thatwas strange to say the least. But
(02:36):
I understand wanting to run something asit was intended, and I said I
would definitely follow the module. However, the player continued, No, you
shouldn't even use dialogue that isn't inthe module. Okay, that's how D
and D is meant to be played. Also, you need to roll dice
out in the open for us tosee. Things felt really strange to me.
I know, I'm not experienced oranything, but this didn't feel normal.
(02:57):
So I asked them plainly what they'reexpecting of me, and this one
player, who seemed to be speakingfor the group said, we hate when
dms abuse their powers to manipulate theworld. That's why we only play modules
and make sure the dms don't changea single thing from them. I imagine
my expression didn't seem too good whenhe said that, because what followed were
a bunch of complaints about dms,and from me, it sounded way too
(03:20):
close to player versus DM mentality.It went on for a while, but
there was no way I was dmingfor them. I'm barely experience. Good
choice, I'm Billy's okay, okay, good because like I thought, like
like many of these horror stories startwith, here's the huge red flags that
I ignored. Yeah he did andforged ahead. Anyways, Somewhere somewhere in
(03:46):
our third year of this campaign,I thought, hmm, this feels a
little odd. Yeah, that's good, says I'm barely experienced enough to do
with normal players, and to me, this definitely, this definitely isn't normal.
Honestly, at that point, theywere expecting me to be an AI
simulator for their game with a voice, which is not at all what I'm
looking for. I told them thatthat we aren't going to be a good
fit as expected. They didn't likemy response and started to angrily shout at
(04:09):
me that I was wasting their time, that I wasn't a quote true DM,
et cetera. That being said,I would no longer be DM me
for this group ever anyone that's thisfriend of mine introduces me to. I'm
just glad that they didn't go beyondsession zero. They were shouting, but
you're not a real DM unless youdon't DM like you just you just need
(04:31):
to read the book and then justdo just only say what's in the book.
Don't even change a comma. Whydoesn't that player? My first thought
is why doesn't that player Okay,no, Actually my first thought is like
this would make a terrible horror moviebecause you know, like how we're all
shouting like no, don't go downinto the basement, like that's what this
(04:53):
person did. They're like, I'mjust not going to go down there.
I'm just gonna add Yeah, I'mgoing to leave this house. Actually,
I'm not going to go investigate thatweird sound at all. I'm good.
I'm gonna go home now. Yeah, and there's no harm movie that's what
happened here. But then my secondthought is, why doesn't that player just
be the DM right if it's likeif you're just reading from the literal them,
Yeah, you don't need to doanything if you're just reading a story
(05:13):
book to your friends. Yeah,like I'll bring over a copy of,
like, just know, some fantasybook and you can just all work together
and read it together. Yeah.Also, how does that player know if
if if I go off the rails? How does he know? Oh,
you reading ahead? I mean,and part part of me sympathizes though here,
(05:34):
like like I'm trying to find someempathy for these players because clearly they
had a DM like that they hadreal problems with like one of our other
horror stories. Yeah, exactly,like like in the past that led to
this trauma that they're expressing to this, you know, the new guy who's
(05:57):
like, Okay, I was hopingto run D and D and not be
your therapist. So yeah, yeah, yeah, but but but good for
him for like, and that's whyyou have a session zero, folks.
Yeah, and why your session zerois let's make sure this is gonna work,
right, and and you know,and good on him for saying not
gonna work. Sorry, Nope,that's not not how we want to be
(06:17):
going about it. I was scrollingthrough some of the comments here of there's
some golden there, Like my favoriteone of the top comment is nice deck
saving me. They're dodging that bullet. Yeah, yeah, it's that it
doesn't matter if it's not twenty right. The DC was low out out the
way, yes, yeah, yeah, So say, what do they expect
(06:39):
you to do if they speak toan NPC that has no written line?
Just stand there and not answer.Yeah. That was my next question was,
like, you don't have any dialoguewritten for this guy? If I
was citistic enough the DM for them, that's exactly what I would do stare
at them in pure malicious compliance.Yeah, sometimes you got to give people
what they want for them to understandthat they don't actually want that. Yeah,
(07:00):
so what do we do in thissituation? Obviously, the the DM
left, and that is the correctcall to go run a game they want
to play with. The DM isalso a player at the table and should
be having as much fun as anybodyelse. So this wasn't the right game
for the DM. But the players, I hope they either if they want
to continue playing D and D theyshould, you know, figure out that
that's how it runs. I hopethey find a DM that's good enough to
(07:21):
like undo a bad experience they problembad, or they just have storybook hour
and just read a book to eachother. That's kind of what they want,
and I'm kind of serious about that, like like like find a cool
fantasy book and just read it togetherduring a book club. I'm super curious
whether this would be the first timethat that group has played Cursus Strode or
(07:43):
whether they're no kidding, think ofit in terms of like a video game,
and maybe the thing is they playedit through before and they want to
play it again to see if theycan, you know, somehow like like
like optimize or go in different directionsor something like that. But it's got
to run exactly the same way,otherwise they won't know, you know,
(08:05):
whether it was Like I just thinkI think what it is is. I
think they're northern northern Dungeonists, andthey take a very literal interpretation of the
Book of Straw with no room forinterpretation whatsoever whatsoever. Anythink that's probably as
opposed to more liberal Borovianists. Wellyeah, yeah, yeats, they do
(08:26):
allow some interpretation of the bow that'sman and in particular and in particular that
module more than any others. Thefun of that module is as a DM,
sinking your teeth into it and makinglike the weird gothicness of that like
(08:46):
your thing, right, Like notwo dms should have the same straw voice,
right when they talk of you know, when they do his voice,
and when you do the you knowwhatever the fourtune and tell her and all
that like like that is your opportunityto just you know, be weird and
have fun with it. And theidea that somebody is gonna, you know,
(09:07):
wants you to run that that moduleof all of them, you know,
totally on rails is just it's justit's set like it's just a missed
opportunity for everybody. It should bea for interpretation. As long as everyone
agrees that Strat is hot, that'sall that matters. My last because it's
thirsty and you're doing it right.Yeah, So what is your straw voice?
(09:28):
I didn't run so okay, butI just come up with one right
now. I would probably go supercampy, like like bla, like the
stand, the beating about the likethe like the cartoonish nineteen fifties like bad
Vampires. Yeah, like uh theI think a real solution for those players
(09:48):
is go play Baalder Skate. Yeah, it is a video game. It
cannot be it cannot break it proYeah the game. Go play AG three.
Yeah, it's we can be becau. Everything has to be pre program
and you can play. And thegreat thing about Baller's Gate you can play
co op. You can have yourfriends on the mics with you, and
you can all do it. Yougo through together just like a plaint,
(10:09):
a regular D and D game,and that you don't have to worry that
anybody might inject their personality into Godforbid running go to based someone like plays
a role playing game in their ownvoice. Hello Adventurers, thank you so
(10:31):
much for listening. If you enjoythe show, the absolute best thing you
can do to support us is tosubscribe so you'll be notified when new episodes
are released. You can also leaveus a review five stars. Of course,
that will help us get seen bymore D and D players, and
more than anything else, just tellyour friends about us. If you like
what we're doing here, that there'sa good chance that your DM or your
players will enjoy it too, Andyou don't need to loop gold to do
(10:54):
any of that. We appreciate yourlistening. Now back to the show,
but seriously, kind of picking upon something you said, Jim is getting
down to like like, was thereno room for any kind of discourse?
There was there no like well,okay, hold hold on, I'm not
I don't think I'm better than thepeople at Dungeons and Dragons that wrote this,
(11:16):
and I don't think I know betterthan that. However, however,
like here, let's go to thispart of the d MG that was written
by these same people. Let meshow you this, and and you know
that that's where I don't know.I guess like what kicks in for me
if I'm seriously in this situation afterkind of laughing and being like you guys,
okay, that was a good one. You always got me, and
then we go out you're serious,Okay, well what do you really want
(11:39):
to play? Yeah? Is likegetting into like okay, I obviously need
to educate you on something like okay, so let's let's break that down.
And so so I get saying likeno, not for me, I'm good,
thank you, but no, thankyou. But at the same time,
to your point, it's like maybesomething kind of horrible happened to them
(12:00):
in the past. Maybe it's someonewhere they had some kind of this.
They definitely had some kind of assholeDM that was like just completely arbitrarily changing
what was in the module. Youknow, there's a sweet spot there between
you run it word for word verbatim, and you sit down to play strawed
and they end up in you know, like and they end up in Strict
(12:22):
Saving instead or something like that.You know, you you decide that that
you you really want to run aMagical Academy game, so you drop the
Magical Academy into Barovian they never evensee straed kind of thing as far as
like seeing a room for discourse,you know, if we're ever taking the
story your face value. There aretwo points where the players interrupted DM right
in order to say in order todouble down on saying they don't want anything
(12:43):
fun, so I don't think therewas much room for discourse. And also
like this wasn't the DM's friends.This was a friend friends of a friend
that liken't He doesn't know these people, doesn't owe them anything, So no,
and I don't think that, right, I don't think that. So,
so what would you do? Ishow much time do you have?
Because because I'm going to do oneof two things, depending on how much
one of three things, depending onhow much time I have I'm going to
(13:05):
One is nothing and leave. Oneis to say I honestly don't have time
for this. Yeah, this soundslike it's not my game. Thanks,
thanks, but no thanks and leave. The second one is to do what
I said is to try to educatethem. Sure, okay, you know
this is open to interpretation. I'mnot going to change any anything. I'm
not going to change anything. However, there are parts that are maybe slightly
(13:28):
ambiguous that I need to kind offill in. That's how this game is
designed. And here's a two sentencedescription of this shopkeeper. And if you
guys want to talk to him,I got to make some shit up right,
and like kind of explain that.And then the third one is,
if I'm feeling particularly saucy, I'mhaving a bad day and I have some
time, I am going to malicious, maliciously comply. I'm gonna give you
(13:52):
exactly Okay, that's what you want. Sure, here we go, and
you're going to get the most vanillamhm yep land game of your life.
Yeah, and that's maybe exactly whatthey want. Maybe they'll be thrilled at
that. I don't know, Yeah, but certainly that like like I like
(14:16):
the kind of like that. Imean, like, like you say,
we only have one angle on thisstory, but the fact that he spent
some time going do we really understandeach other? Like do I actually are
you really asking what I think you'reasking me for. Let's poke at this
a little bit, them going ohyeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
(14:39):
You know, it sounded like hedid kind of take some time to try
and you know, come at itfrom a different angle and make sure that
they were really no kidding as adamantabout this is as it seemed like they
initially were. Yeah, like Isaid, the player interrupted him twice to
double that for me, that's Idon't think it's any there was any room
for or for educating anybody on thison this particular day. And hopefully they'll
(15:03):
figure it out, or they gopick up a copy of Boulder's Gate or
start a book club, and Ithink those are all perfectly fine ways to
spend your afternoon. This is Thisdoesn't make them bad people, bad D
and D players, And if thepeople that were playing this game and interrupting
this DM are listening, some ofthe best lines in the movies, some
of the best lines of movies areimprov Okay, I'm just gonna throw that
(15:24):
out there. Yeah, the partwhere Eric gorn Broker's thumb, he improved
that line that wasn't in script.He was like, you know what,
I'm gonna break my thumb here.Or when Harrison Ford was hungover or no,
not hungover, he was sick inIndiana Jones and the guy comes and
he does all these cool night thingsand they shoot him Like that was just
improv because he didn't want to befilming that day. They kept Yeah,
(15:46):
you know, I mean my favoriteimprov I think of the last twenty years
is because the truth is I amiron Man, not in the script down.
He just did it and everybody lovedit so much that you know,
that became that iconic thing, andthat just that's and that's where that that's
where those things can can happen.Yep. Yeah, a lot of the
(16:07):
magic happens folks and the commers.There's a lot of speculation exactly what you
said, Jim, is that theseguys have run Strawed before and they're trying
to optimize their speed run. Yeah, a lot of speculation on that Twitch
speed road of straw And then piggybackingoff of that is that saying that some
people just want to win whatever gamethey're playing, even for a game that
doesn't really have a win or lose. Yeah, David, that's the wrong
(16:32):
module to play then, from myunderstanding and having not played it, if
they've done it before or optimized ontheir speed run, then you can absolutely
win D and D. It's notthe module to play. So what would
you have done in this situation?What and have you had a DM that
went a little too far off therails and maybe you sympathize with these players
a little bit. Reach out tous Hello Adventures Podcast at gmail, dot
commerce store, tell us your storyyourself, Hello Adventures Podcast dot com slash
(16:56):
voice and if you can do itin your straw voice, that would be
awesome. You have to make ithot. Yeah, uh anything bad boys,
No, I think this is goodfrom me. Yeah, this was.
This is like the perfect type ofhorror story that we'd like to see
on the show where it's just likelike what were these people thinking? Yeah,
it was cool man, and theyhad a happy endingwhere with the potential
(17:18):
d M left without them this Yeah, that was like like like Joe was
saying, the house said, yeah, you know what, too bad,
we can't stay. I will thankyou. They had capital idea. Sir
guys, thanks so much for listeningwith Hello Adventurers. Where your host Jason
Ptizo, Jim Crocker and Joe McCallproducer, editor an engineer Jason Piso a
(17:41):
music by n Experior outwork like Christand Roderick. You can meat out to
us with any feedback We're suggestions byemailing Hello Adventures Podcast at gmail dot com.
Hello Adventures is a j TP oilproduction by Adventures, but to have the
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