Video

Just ran a Dungeon Crawl Classics one shot with this magic system and had a blast. To my horror the wizard chose “Skin” as their word. It went about as well as you would expect. Anything from pulling a shrieks head skin forcefully to the ground to knock it out to stealing skin from a horse to make leather armor. His first casting resulted in a catastrophe (snake eyes) so instead of skinning a single flying seagull he skinned the entire flock simultaneously raining down gore, skin, and feathers on the entire party forcing saves or damage. In addition he understood that the entire subconscious of the seagull race forever would hate him. Overall had a great time with it. I love the creativity that this brings. I allowed DCC spell burning with this system and that did add some chaos. Sebastian the Skin Wizard was able to suffocate an ancient titan guardian with a huge spell burn and a good roll. Unfortunately for him the Titan didn’t die immediately and it crushed him before he could get away. RIP Sebastian the Skizzard

Always love your work mate. I feel that evil is always masked as a good. Trying to reconcile that with the modern players' morals is the challenge I face, for they often confuse the evil in the game as a good

On one of your earlier points, I think it's entirely reasonable to send the town guards after the players if they're being murder hobos BUT it ought be telegraphed to them just as much as with a really deadly trap. Fifty high level guards shouldn't swoop down into a quiet, isolated village when the players kill an NPC, like they might in the starter area of a video game. But if the PCs are in town and there's an obvious presence of heavily armed guards patrolling the streets then having the guards appear make sense. Regardless, it's probably also a good to talk to your players (out of character) first.

I heard that the original d&d campaigns had something like 50 characters per campaign. One dungeon master would run a shared campaign setting with multiple player groups all sharing that setting

So many Conan stories are excellent D&D adventures. There's good historical reason for this. My favorite is The Tower of the Elephant.

It occurs to me that Metro 2033 qualifies as a game set in a mega dungeon WH40k Darktide, as well

Thanks for all the enthusiasm, Daniel! As an old school gamer it was heartwarming to see one of my stories being used as inspiration here. Thank you for reading and I hope some of my other stories inspire future play.

Its my story, the players are in it. The world isnt static though.

was bummed I missed the KS for this....hopefully late pledge happens soon! the supplements for LFG are amazing, and assuming this will get same great support.

Yeah it's always a struggle. Thanks

There are no cantrips in BECMI. Magic is incredibly powerful and dangerous. It is one of the most fundamental differences between the D&D world and the real world. Being so world altering, I have always felt it should be uncommon and special. If magic and its use is commonplace in a world, it is no longer special. There is a lot of risk vs reward to consider with magic and a deep gorge of unintended consequences to be discovered. Tread with care out there. BECMI Forever! Long Live King Elmore!!

Such cool video I am just about to multi class as a thief magic user in a homebrew game this has really got the juices flowing g so much so I went out and bought all four of the wizards compendium lol

A space demon offered us treasure to leave it alone and go bother its equally awful rival on the other side of the continent. We huddled, counted its offer and thought "If this weirdo can offer this much up front, how much more do they got under the bed? With that we can easily fund an expedition to the other twat." Even hexcrawling around around a region gives them some connections over time. They will get to know people in the important hubs, other wanderers who are out and about and factions with a regional reach who will be around even if they move ten hexes away. Playing a one-off adventure after another makes connections harder. Player characters are effectively a faction in the making, or they start off as the trailblazers and vanguard of an off-map faction. The PCs are on the side of the PC faction. Others start to think of them as a faction, like "the danish" or "the feds" or "the chimneysweeps". They will grow a faction reputation, if NPCs see one dane doing something they might assume this dude represents the rest.

Alignment is not a reliable predictor of character conduct.

To me, murderhobos are always inherently out of control. Unpredictable, not exclusively evil. Opportunistic, without being vultures. They live in the moment, more often than chasing a lead for hours on end. They're ''oh, piece of candy''. Morally flexible has always been my personal go-to's, both playing and leading. In the game i'm currently playing in, half of the party's been arrested by the guard several times already. And, we've yet to even leave the city we started in.

I love your video. I like your ideal play style-except for Vancian magic. I can certainly play the original magic user, elf and cleric without gripe, but prefer some other magic/casting systems. I love allowing the characters to interact on different tiers in the world. I don’t push but will hint or make it obvious that there are greater pursuits than just killing and looting. I love weird, fantastical worlds that can get more weird as the PCs explore leaving their comfort zones. The D&D Gazetteers were my favorite expansions introducing new realms, governments, and weird tech. I followed that style when the players wanted more and this was a perfect way to reveal new classes, backgrounds, and special maneuvers. That you are working on a system is great. Just based on your videos, I’m certain you’ll craft something spectacular. Please, give purpose to all the dice types-frankly, I just love rolling dice. It’s sad to think I’ve bought 100’s of dice only to use maybe at most 5 at the table.

Going to have to re-read the 3-9 alignments.

I love Cugel! and Rhialto :)

No need for balance. If the players want to spend fifteen levels in a small town hunting goblins and ankhegs, that's fine. If they want to try to influence or run the local kingdom at level three, that's fine too. Especially in 5e, by level three most charisma characters can seduce, befriend, or intimidate most of the mayors and nobles in a realm. Adventure just kind of grows from whatever they decide. And by level five or so, most combat specialized characters can hit way above what their mere stats suggest. Also, if orcs are in that pass, then it's orcs in that pass. Doesn't matter if you are level one or twenty. The desperate low level battle will be fun, and it will also be fun when your tenth level fighter runs through an entire war party without a sweat. On the same note, if it's a scary dragon, then it's a scary dragon. They can try to sneak, or flee, or test their luck. All are fun.

I usually use the deck of cards from Ex Umbra as an oracle. I draw three cards and try to interpret the situation from them.

Off video topic question: what is a decent outdoor random map generator that is capable of doing a large swamp area of say 200 square miles in a 1-5 mile per hex map? Google is being useless as usual and only shows me discussion boards that are not helpful either. I don't have a budget to purchase maps, neither do I have a computer, other than my phone. I do have someone who is willing to print out anything I can send to them. Maybe someone will be willing to help me out with a link or 2. Thanks very much.

Personally, while I don't play, I'm tired of hack writers trying to make every antagonist be a "morally gray" character with a tragic backstory and good reasons for doing bad things. You can have amazing writing and characters like that but it's so overdone. If I were to run a campaign, I'd make the BBEG be comically, obviously, over-the-top evil.

I’ve been playing the black sword hack solo, and it’s been an exercise in Law and Chaos. Great video and I am 💯 onboard with how you go about Law and chaos. I’ve played at some great tables that have that ONE guy….lol.

The biggest moral dilemmas in my games tend to come up in the most unexpected places. I didn't think the party would question stopping the mass execution of slaves but they discussed it and walked away where other times i present a two doors scenario and they practically shoot the hostage without a thought.

Players will do what interests them. All the classics of this genre would be considered MurderHobos... Elric, Conan, Fafard and the Gray Mouser...so there is nothing wrong with this type of play. if you desire otherwise it is on you as the GM to frame better... or in the case of a player... acting more noble.

I run the gamut of good evil etc at the table, including monster babies, which usually the players try to raise to be “good” if sentient or useful if not. One of them took owlbear cubs, raised them, took the bulk of her gold and hired a bunch of people to help her capture or bear cubs (usually killing the parents because cubs were easier to train, but didn’t waste the parents carcasses either). Founded a village based on owlbear ranching, they are a mounted society which is a cultural feat you get from being from that village now, with a high or low chance depending on class of starting with an owlbear, and alternate chance of a warhorse. Other times they almost got a pair of gnol cubs to adulthood, and once a pair of kobold hatchlings (though they had a straight up fight about killing the babies), who became their characters apart of a legacy campaign. They’ve made deals with litches, devils, elementals, it’s always a guess as to what they will do next

*Sorry but the d20 is perfect,* you are far too lost in the sauce as the kids say. Why does everyone want a Bell curve distribution for their stupid game. What are you, a racist?

After playing B2, I got a sense that alignments are very symmetrical. Given reaction bonuses for character alignment, players might as well live in the caverns of chaos, raiding the keep on the borderland with other monsters. The adventure is structured perfectly for this kind of campaign.

In my group players generated ongoing moral dilemma by them selfs and it was: humans vs nature, but in an "eco" kind of way. Half of the group (two dwarfs and an elf fighter) was ok with chasing gold, personal gain and growth of the civilisation and the other half (gnome, druid, werecat) was in favour of protecting the wilderness. I remeber then debating if it was ok to attack trolls in their lair (treasure, reward and safty of humans VS killing "inocent" trolls just performing their role in the ecosystem). It was frustraiting at first, but I now appreciate the potential this conflict have for my group. I plan to center my next campaign around this civilization vs wilderness conflict doing my best to show the best and the worst of both sides. And trolls will be the big part of it xD

I enjoy all of Bandit’s Keep videos

so I played a low tech (dark age style game, post zombie apocalypse) regular magic westmarches style game that ended a little while ago, I took a group from it and am running it in a higher tech (16-1700s) lower magic world (Only humans), which just discovered a new continent, they are exploring and the moral dilemma which I think will develop is that they now have two countries they as players are really invested with that will come to blows, I am getting them into a more compromised moral position by starting them with encountering nonhumans non traditional species/races, so orcs and beast people. As they push further and further into the unknown they will be lauded by their home country but at some point they will run into elves, dwarves, and eventually humans, and they will need to choose which side of history they want to be on. Colonizer, or colonized.

Great Vid. Your PCs are lucky bro.

apropos of nothing but for years (and decades ago now, lol) I did try to instill in the players that NPC patrons would not be acting in the PCs best interests (think the stereotypical cyberpunk / shadowrun Mr. Johnson) as a way to encourage them to develop their own agenda and come up with their own plans

Great video as always man great concepts, I always aim to create situations and problems for players to problem solve and overcome, though making a more sandbox world its highly rewarding when these come into the game naturally.

My evil foes and villains are grey in the spectrum of black vs white, evil vs good. Everyone has their reasons for being, wants and desires.

The joy of role playing. I convinced the players to join the BBEG because I shared a backstory that sounds plausible. It was full of half truths. It got what he wanted and the party has an adventure to embark upon that will take on an evil. An evil the BBEG had a loose alliance. If they eradicate them then he isn’t concerned. And if the party proves useful then he’ll keep on finding ways to manipulate them.

I don't deal with murder hobo types. Actions have consequences.

Very interesting and thoughtful topic. Makes me think back over my own D&D games which started with running episodic location based adventures that began when the PCs arrive at the entrance and end when they return to the surface loaded down with gold. I have run sandboxes, hexcrawls, adventure paths and urban crime settings and those all presented more "problems" and therefore were less fun for me to run than the location episode adventure which I have returned to as my prefered style.

I'd love it for the party to recruit the bandits and have them work for the party, they can clear an old fortress and expand their highwaymen empire. Start bribing guards and smuggling slaves. Eventually become the shadow rulers of the whole kingdom if they wish. I had many characters offer the party to join them instead of killing the party, they're better than the minions they killed after all. Seeing Luke move toward Vader after he cut off his hand isn't likely, but would get a party out of that air tunnel.

I don't try to go out of my way to create moral dilemmas - my players usually create them all on their own!

I love creating problems where the players have to make hard choices that, regardless of how they choose, they know it'll come back to bite them.

I love this video, too. I love sandbox campaigns, emergent stories, and want the players to have fun with their characters in the world. I take ideas, expectations, and small talk from the players and PCs, and gradually incorporate that into the ongoing events. At any given time there are at least 5-6 other adventuring parties in the area. The PCs gradually learn about them and their exploits. This serves to inform the party that things do happen based on their choices and lack of action. At one point, the party joined with an available lower level party who wanted experience. Except for certain circumstances, each player had control of another motivated NPC along with their own PC. I had character sheets for them including personality traits, and definite dos and don’ts. They didn’t fully complete the task, but everyone made it out alive, which was a good thing. Two of the NPCs are son and daughter of a local noble, and the other two are cousins visiting from another territory, possibly revealing answers to some important questions the PCs have pondered. Of course, it was their choice, and I wouldn’t have stuck that adventure somewhere else if they declined to follow that course. I’m glad they chose to explore.

What if the local authorities are evil? Lawful evil.

"Not all problems are solved by the paladins; sometimes they're solved by the rogues. " Gonna lift that line for my own group. Though . . . I think for most the opposite advice is what's needed!

From the very early days, the game has always had a bias towards doing good. You are going to be better rewarded by killing the evil wizard in the world than by doing the same to the good wizard. I don't allow evil characters in my game simply because it is unlikely for a group to stay together and cooperate if every one is looking to steal and loot from the world and each other. They end is always the same - the destruction of the party. I don't mind a little moral dilemma now and then. Keeps the players on their toes.

Chaos, we have blood and skulls cmon over I like framing the struggle between the two, that said I don't run evil groups

Always thought provoking! Love the videos Daniel

I love this video, too. I also love the idea of magic and different magic systems. What I like more are sympathetic magic that requires more physical action and time to cast a spell or even use magic items. I always played a magic user or cleric because understood how incredibly powerful those classes are. Being able to conjure something from nothing in just a few seconds is greatly underrated. In a world that I’ve worked on for about 20 years has magic/powers/spells that allow almost anything to communicate. Using a creature requires that there is a clear path to the recipient, and limited to the maximum speed; however, the magic allows the creature to move constantly without rest until it reaches its destination. So, that could take a few minutes or a few weeks depending on the distance. Dispel magic is one spell that I don’t allow as it a defense or attack that works without knowledge of the opposing spell or magic. Depending on the training and affinity to certain powers and creatures, it’s possible for someone to understand the marks that animals make, as many can communicate with other animals in the locale. Trees whisper, birds call and relay, mushrooms send signals through the ground, and so on. Instantaneous communication typically needs a pair of bonded items. Rune stones in a bag can be removed and arranged yk form a message, placed back in the bag, and given a good shake. The companion bag moves and must be emptied and the runes align to form the message.

Another terrific video. Most of the referees of games I played put emphasis on the combat encounters, and gauged success based on the outcome. That made all other parts of adventuring take a backseat or just a means as an advantage in the final combat. Consequently, most of the players were conditioned to treat every ttrpg as a war game and winning the combat was the only thing that constituted victory. Black and white with absolutely no shades of gray. I never put that same focus on combat and only contributed about 1/3 of the adventure, and if the PCs lost most of those then it didn’t automatically count as failure. Many times, doing something stupid in a village, showing disrespect to some NPCs, or ignoring assistance are ways for the party to fail. Success became anything that kept the party alive and improved the conditions of the locals, or made progress towards goals. Because of this, some new players to the group wanted to build the ultimate power character, and I held another session zero so the player would know more about the world and how the other characters find their place in it. Sometimes, the player said that wasn’t what they were expecting and were intrigued, while others just declined and said that wasn’t real adventuring. Philosophies of role play are something that players rarely consider. Maybe that’s why the munchkin and murder hobo mindsets became popular ways to play these games.

If we stop talking, how are we to communicate with the players? Sign language? I only know 1 sign and it is only useful in limited situations.