Dungeon Master HATES Playing With Friends | D&D Reddit Stories

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One Shot Questers is a comedic channel dedicated to tabletop role-playing games, encompassing a range of titles such as Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition 2014 & 2024 (DnD 5e), Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3), Pathfinder (PF 1, PF 2), and DC20. Our content covers a variety of TTRPG topics, including news, class or character stereotypes, guides & how to’s on gameplay, rules, tips, tricks, and much more, all presented in a humorous and entertaining video. For a quick taste of our most popular content, check out our short-form videos on platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels.

[FireballN]

Thinking that systems shouldn’t be relied on in DND is just a bad take imo. When you have too much freedom and everything can happen, there is way less room for out of the box thinking. Without systems there is almost no story or structure and everything is just confusing. Also if all RPGs are considered than some rely on systems for both their functionality and popularity.

[Juju]

Let me guess, the first group of the players were the type of kids that said they had the "Anti - "Anti everything" shield" when they were playing make believe at 10 ?

[thewitiefling]

I must say, TTRPGs are like books. People who say they hate reading most likely haven’t found a book that resonates with them. Ditto for tabletop systems. 5e isnt for everyone, and that’s ok.

[killer_rabbit]

13:02 One of the first things I tell new DMs when they ask for advice on running an RPG: When presented with options: A, B, or C, players will choose option Q. You can never be prepared for everything but try to be reasonably flexible with players' ideas.

[_elifilen]

1st DM was not the asshole
2nd DM didn't do the good job making those NPC relevant

[DarkAngelBluejay]

The lights reflecting off her glasses look like "eyes".
I had this video on in the background while typing up a one-shot I am working on and moved my curser out of the way of something. It hovered over the tab, bringing up the mini-window, and all I see are glowing eyes layered on glasses. Had a good laugh at it.

[gamemasteranthony]

As one of Scandinavian descent, I approve of the Norway T-shirt.

Also, pro-tip for those who want to use homebrew: Work with the DM. They can help with fine tuning the minutiae to make the homebrew work better.

[torgranael]

The speed dating sketch reference was one hell of a callback, and I loved it.

[RurikDankil]

I'm about to run a game with my family. My mom hasn't played since the original Dungeons and Dragons. Not even AD&D. I haven't DMed in 15 years. And two of the players are chaos players.
Maybe I should write a few stories if (when) the chaos happens.

[kurtoogle]

7:00 THIS!!! THIS!! Being selective of players by compatibility is crazily important!! If you can be selective with players, DO IT!!

[MissNemo]

1st story: OP aws looking for a gentle and empathic way to break down those news to their group of freinds to avoid being called a douchbag and proceeded to gently and empathically explain the problem. THis means OP already has those skills and YET they fear a overblown negative reaction. They fear and expect it.
That means the problem is the friendgroup. OP sounds like a pathological people pleaser, not good. They should express themselves as eloquently and gently as they do in the post and let the friendgroup react as they may. If someone gets pissed off, op is better of without that "friend".

[twas_a_cat]

The TTRPG from the 2nd story "Das Schwarze Auge" is called "The Dark Eye" in it's english/international version, it is most commonly referred to with the acronym DSA though.
So if someone doesn't get what you are talking about if you refer to "The Dark Eye" just say DSA and people who know that system should understand and you won't have to try and get through the mess that is german pronounciation.

It is an interesting but truly daunting system in terms of complexity. Worth checking out though, since it does do some actually interesting things with what are otherwise somewhat bland systems in other TTRPGs.

[lexistential]

the "cool" at 12:31 sounds like the old minecraft hurt sound

[Dlnqntt]

Your friends are not always your TTRPG friends. Don't force something that is clearly not working.

[samhammy]

A funny story in my campaign: there was a griffin on top of a tower surrounded by caltrops, so the barbarian charged, after they got to the tower, they tried to climb it which took them a while, but only four of the five got up, the griffin soon attacked knocking the cleric off of the tower with only 5 health, then the wizard had the “great idea” to light the nest they were standing in on fire, which eventually knocked out the Druid who was thrown off the tower by the barbarian. The wizard was then knocked off the tower by the griffin leaving him unconscious and the barbarian, who refused to rage or leave kept fighting, though he kept missing 😂, the griffin realized it was hurt and left, but not before throwing the barbarian off and leaving him on 2 hp. The party then decided to take a rest on top of the caltrops and when they woke up, they took 5 points of damage and making them laugh.
All in all, we had a great time and a good laugh

[christineherrmann]

Boy, that first story is timely. I have a group and I'd like to run for 4 of them, but two of them... not so much.

[jessecapra]

Barely 3 minutes in

"One of them even became a Discord mod..."

I already see a problem.

[herrhartmann]

Second Story:

First off, DSA has way too much lore!
As one veteran player once put it:
"My character can't even spit on the ground without that particular square inch being described in at least two different sourcebooks."

This means that anyone who's into rich and complex backstory can really go off the deep end there.
It also means that the difference between lore-fans and non-lore-fans is even bigger than in most other games.

I think this is exactly what we've seen in this story.

Also:
If I get to meet the high priestess of my religion, I will make sure not to waste her time with irrelevant chatter. That woman has important work to do!

[vanpheonix]

My DMing style revolves around 2 things:
1) Understanding the world I am DMing. If I am running a pre-written campaign, I will read and re-read that book at least 3 times just so I understand what is in that world, why things are bad, and who the NPC's are. If I made the world this step is automatically done
2) Giving more "urgency/consquence" for their actions. For example I often will give my players 2 - 3 sidequests that are simultaneously active. For an example:
sidequest a) Take care of a bandit camp threatening the main village.
b) Find a missing child.
and c) Kill a wyvern that is terroizing a farmer.

If they decide to find the missing child first I will randomly pick either a or c to advance. If a advances the bandits attack the village, now uh oh these bandits that were left un-attended were plotting to raid the village and you now need to deal with them mid-raid. After they complete that the next day c will advance and that wyvern has now not only taken the farmers' sheep, but the farmer became so fed up with the wyvern he decided to hunt it himself, and he hasn't been seen in the last few days. Now you have to find the farmer hopefully he's alive and defeat the wyvern.

You will of course still get all the rewards, but it's important to tie in these "sidequests" to the main plot somehow. Maybe the bandits made a deal with the BBEG and they are alliances. Maybe that wyvern was close to the village in the first place because the BBEG has destroyed it's home. Now there may be a monster investation that needs to be dealt with lest there be more wyvern attacks.

But what if there isn't any sidequests in the pre-written book you had? Make one or two up. The key is the understanding of the world and ultimately your own interpretation of it. I really enjoy this because I never feel like I get frustrated that "My players aren't doing what I want them to" and my players feel like their choices mattered. They begin to wonder "What if I dealt with the bandits first? These people wouldn't have been in danger" could happen, maybe they don't care but that's fine. With this style the world literally revolves around the players, which is how it should be.

[IgnatiusWillGrimm]

Duke's face at 4:28 cracked me up.