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The Burgers at Wendy's are called "Dave's" after the founder Dave Thomas. He was in all the commercials in the 90's and I believe Wendy is based on his daughter.

I really loved the first point. I recently had a similar situation come up in the first campaign I DMed. It was my first time, and the party had cornered a flameskull from the module I was running. The skull belonged to a wizard who had died by casting fireball in a room too small for it. The party was on low health, and they had backed the flameskull into a corner with only 1 HP left. I had a moment where I thought, "If I were the skull, I would use fireball," but I hesitated because it could have caused a TPK. However, I decided to go with it, thinking that this is what the skull would do. I think the party definitely preferred that to the alternative of fleeing or using weaker spells. 3 out of the 4 in the party went down and the last was a circle of moon druid that has wildshaped into a bear and had 5 hp left after reverting, they took the final swing destroying it (for now) then got the party up.

One roadblock I’ve had as a first time GM: I’m working with players of varying experience, so I’m struggling to allow outright metagaming (myself as well as the rest of the players) to help the first-timer understand actions and the related consequences, yet still be able to do “fool around and find out” for the experienced players. It is quite the significant challenge.

ITS CLOGGIN TIME !

I feel like #1 is neither a green flag nor a red flag, just a flag. Different people will like different game styles. Green flags are supposed to be more "the objectively correct thing" and less "the thing preferred in a certain situation" - both are fine for different settings and different groups of players. I, as a player, prefer my games to be games. I don't always need to feel like there are "stakes" because real life is already dark enough, why does my entertainment need to be? Other people will prefer a more stakes-heavy game and that is also fine for those people. It doesn't make either approach better, or more of a green flag. You are certainly welcome to prefer this if you want, I just don't think "green flag" is the correct terminology when discussing just a personal preference.

New DM and experiences player and DM. In my friends first game running as DM we had a couple of me pointing out rule clashes. Nothing major, but I think we have established a moment of. She'll ask if she wants. If I know something I might say it but try and end with DM discretion as well different games Different DM's etc.

0:28 poor Margaret's tum tum

Not about any of the topics but! With any sort of thing that adheres to the skin like those heat pads jack was struggling with (or like the thing i have the most experience with: kinesiology tape) it always helps to, on top of cleaning the skin with like soap and water, to ALSO clean it with some sort of alcohol wipes (or putting some on a cotton pad or something) and THEN applying. It makes SURE there's no oils or anything else on the skin that could make the adhesive less effective. But I also have never had much luck with those heating pads staying on especially on the back, so you are NOT alone. I definitely recommend just getting some sort of heating pad you can put in the microwave or recharge or something that has a strap so you can strap it on whatever part of your body is giving you troubles and that way you aren't beholden to a cord like with the electric ones that plug into the wall.

This was fun 😊 can't say what my green flags would be since I'm not able to play but I feel like I agree with most here Also I'm eating a kimchi - chicken sandwich that has become my new favourite snacky thing 🙂

14:49 - DMs that are not afraid to kill characters. 17:28 - DMs that don't act mean but act like a bad guy 21:50 - DMs leaving sessions on cliff hangers 23:47 - A DM that can be the adjudicator during conflicts 26:15 - A DM that asks "why is your character doing X?" to better help you 31:38 - DMs that let players use spells in an unconventional way 37:35 - Willing to stop play if a player seems uncomfortable 40:31 - Willing to help players change things about their characters if they are not enjoying it anymore 46:42 - Asking for feedback 51:49 - DMs that take small fun interactions and tie it in with NPCs or interactions (RIP Fartbuckle) 56:45 - DMs willing to admit mistakes and rectify it. 1:05:32 - DMs letting people mess around and crack jokes. 1:12:01 - This one you just got to watch and trust me

I completely agree with Jack’s first point. I had the exact situation: enemy with three attacks took me down with the first. i even said ‘if it makes sense for him to kill me, kill me.’ but he didn’t and moved to attack someone else. it just felt so hollow, especially because the enemy was specifically trying to sacrifice us to bring a demon through. like cmon, you think he wouldn’t kill me?!

Recently our DM has said she's trying to keep our characters alive but that is only so we get to fight the dragon (coming up soon) and then anything can happen.

"I don't want these battles!!" Oh A MOOD!! Have you tried bitters before? They've been a HUGE help when my tummy hurts even if they taste absolutely awful xD

Ooooooo creator pass hype.

alright, nobody right now, brownie

1:03 my tummy also hurts and I'm not being brave about it either

It cannot be underestimated how intimidating making a character is when you’re new. I needed a help. The DM should always be willing to do that. When teaching new players, session 0 is expectations, rules, character creation, and a small combat to introduce mechanics. The last is optional, BUT I’ve had fantastic success because it highlights issues in builds, gives the player a chance to decide if they want to change anything, but it also removes the scary unknown of how those mechanics work, and each time at least one person says, “thank you so much, I was really nervous, but now I’m actually looking forward to our first session.”

“When you’re sat with your in laws doing something you don’t want to do” I am incredibly grateful for my in-laws, they defy the stereotypes, are wonderful people, and I DM for them, my wife, and two of her siblings. It’s the best.

Hi! I’m book_wyrm_45, next story is on the way!

Fourth Topic: I have to wonder if that player had an issue with OP, and created that character hoping that they would have that reaction just to have a reason to get them kicked out of the group. Like, why else would someone create a character from an extinct race that one of your players explicitly hates? Unless you're trying to go for a "not all warforged" story between the two characters, which is entirely dependent on the non-warforged character not having this exact initial reaction, as well as all the interactions between the two characters going better and the warforged character working to change the other character's perspective, I can't think of another reason to do this other than to piss off the other character. If the player is the type of person, as OP describes, who just makes characters and abandons them when they get bored of them, then I'm betting that their plan was to have fun by trolling OP, having this character that their character hates, but because they're a player character, OP can't kill them, and would take advantage of that fact until OP did, in fact, attack and kill them. Just a gut feeling on that, though, based on the limited information provided.

Third Topic: I agree and disagree with your take on it. It is kind of disrespectful of them to be not paying attention, but if it's so ingrained in them that if they pay attention they'll accidentally do it, then maybe them not paying attention when they're not around is the way to do it. Also, the example of the party planning something and then OP messing it up because they weren't listening wouldn't be a thing, because I'd assume OP would be involved in the creation of that plan, so they'd be attentive for that. This sounds more like "Character A is going off to meet with an NPC by themselves, so I'm gonna go on my phone while they do whatever it is they're doing, and if they want to share what happened between them and the NPC when they get back, then I'll pay attention." If that's how they're doing it, then they aren't exactly in the wrong, because they're not involved in the scene, and if it's nothing important or something only important to the other character that they're keeping secret or that is super-minor and doesn't matter overall, then OP doesn't -need- to be 100% invested in that, because even though it's happening to a party member in their group, it isn't something that necessarily affects their character or the party as a whole.

Ok so the penultimate story annoys me. I've been the DM and player where games have been cancelled due fo external factors. On the onw hand it sucks on the other if you're more then making a joke about being dad you've missed again then boo on you. If gou guys have enoguh players to play, talk and establish ground rules. I've played on gsmes where we play if one player is missing unless the DM thinks its a big story moment this is the tatic I like. It does however depend on the party. Of my groups most of them are once a fortnight which is great, my preference. The other well, it's more likely to have the odd off session, so we play more frequently to make up for it. Another of my table we've devised a light off campaign for when one or two are missing and if we cannot play either we just chat.

Fortnite, apex, Val, ow, xdef.. they're all the same now and it's becoming so frustrating to enjoy fps anymore 🥺 Love playing for the hell of playing but it's just so unfair going up against people with a clear advantage. It's 2024 and we apparently have brain and hand chips but we can't stop fkn zen 😂

Congrats on winning the CRIT Award!!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

It's just one thing, but I feel like there's so many times players get out of 1 on 1 situations with an NPC and will say "I tell the party everything" to have a player respond with "tell us all of what? I wasn't listening, what happened?" Would be so so frustrating

Re: the Warforged character (edit now that I finished the point fully LMAO) I'd be a lot more willing to extend the bridge to a character who I know would last the sometimes months it could take to have those emotional scenes and bonding moments than I would be to a character who might be gone in five sessions because the player was bored of playing them. This isn't a cry against people who enjoy character swapping, I enjoy it, too! I'm the type who tries to make short-term characters to help other people's stories, though, and I think there needs to be a lot more communication and trust for the long and short-term character playstyles to mesh well. *Especially* if this were the character's first interaction with a Warforged since their disappearance, I personally would try to avoid doing something so confrontational unless they had said they were willing to explore that.

as a brit i did not know ppl categorised some rock as "brit rock" so that was a weird discovery

A good way to avoid metagaming without tuning out of other people's scenes is to take notes only on things your character learns. So if you remember something in a moment and aren't sure if you're character knows it you can just skim your notes to figure that out.

Sorry we stole your breeze but I would argue we needed it more lol

First story, I just don't think they are the right table for all the effort of the campaign. It feels crucial to have people that can make the time and all your effort a priority. If they can't/won't they might not be the right player(s)

The first one. Not the AHOLE, the other players are not interested, find yourself some players that are. If they were interested, they would have at least looked into it, a random video to listen to while doing...insert anything. If they are not even showing ANY interest, get another group. Second one DM is the asshole Third one - I do this, and I think both of you are straw manning the situations the op is implying. I could be wrong but it sounds to me like the op is reffering to charecter moments, not pre combat planning stuff. However, we have a set up that allows this to work. In our discord we (each player charecter) has a dedicated text channel, everyone can view it, but only the DM and the PC can edit it, in this channel goes any and all relivent information the group as a whole knows about THAT PC. So if anyone has a moment where their like... 'wait, does my charecter know that' a quick skim over the relevent text channel will answer it. I don't think OP is doing anything wrong if it's personal PC moments between 2 pc's, or between a PC and NPC, BUT their does need to be something inplace so people don't have to repeat litteraly every conversation.

With the Warforged issue, OP could have taken the opportunity to learn from the Warforged. If NO Warforged exist, this Warforged is probably your only point of reference to learn what really happened. Also congrats on the award!!!!! You dweebs on the internet deserve it ❤️

Imagine telling your friends they can't take a break for personal reasons

15:28 - Is Op wrong for expecting his players to meet with him before the campaign starts? 26:21 - Is the OP an AH for reminding people of their abilities? 34:22 - Is OP the AH for not listening while they are not in the scene. (Titlecard) 44:49 - Did OP go to far trying to kill another PC? 53:05 - Is OP being unreasonable? 58:28 - Is OP's DM being unreasonable?

Y’all deserved that award so much and I’m really happy that you were rewarded for your efforts!! 💕😭

2:57 we also got some fake fall weather Just started a book called The Unbroken and it's a 12/10 read

That last wholesome post had me crying right along with you guys, the poster is an absolute poet, I hope they enjoy many beautiful stories to come 😭

Mine and my boyfriend's dog sleeps in a crate in the living room at night (we've tried having her in our room in her crate; she's a nightmare. She whines every time she hears one of us moving and starts yelping for attention), and last night at like 2:30 am I think she heard my boyfriend's phone fall off the bed, which woke her up, so she started barking nonstop. So neither of us got a lot of sleep because we had to just wait it out for her to stop barking and we have to be up at 4:15 am for work 😑

1:24 but fr this is 100% true. The only reason I look forward to Mondays is b/c of you guys

35:10 I usually message my players the day before asking if everyone is ready for session tomorrow. Then a few hour before I’ll ask if everyone is still going to make it. I still have so many issues.

Jiggery pokery is now going to be my new favorite way to describe the game that looks like cheating magic

Didn't need to cry on my way to work, but that last one got me going.

Last time I did a game with rolling for stats the DM took everyone's stats and worked out the average, then based on that average the lower percentage people got 1 or 2 points to add to bring them up to the average. I rolled the lowest and got to add 2 points wherever I wanted and I actually think that turned out pretty good for my character statwise, I still had lower stats but they were better focused because of those two points.

I honestly don't see the logic of if it meets it misses, the point of the number is obviously to track the minimum you need? Why would you track the last number that doesn't work?

Oh god the amount of grown ass men that can't handle the mention of periods is fucking bizarre. I can easily buy that group was all adults unfortunately.

that last wholesome reddit post “humanity’s oldest pastime is stories, not violence” genuinely made me tear up, what a beautiful and true sentiment

Second Horror Story: Yeah, sounds like the trash took itself out in that case. It's so disrespectful to someone learning how to DM to throw new mechanics at them that you just make up. I'm in a group with a somewhat new DM, and his rules for his first ever game were "if it isn't a rule or class or whatever in the PHB (or, later, in any book he owned), then you can't have it or it doesn't exist". That's totally fair. No homebrew, no made-up mechanics, nothing that wasn't RAW, because he was learning how to run the game, and we all respected it. That's something that everyone at the table should respect, and this person sounds like they just wanted to abuse a new DM's naivete to make whatever they wanted, but it didn't really work out for them, so they left. Also, I kind of think it'd be hilarious if that scene was, like, two characters having a heartfelt moment, then problem player just says, "I walk in and cast Faerie Fire for no real reason, and then I suddenly fall to the ground and start convulsing, and oops, there goes one of my death saves." Like, what a stupid thing to do, and how blatant can you possibly be? Should've just let them die if they were that desperate for it.

Last story: thanks now i'm crying

First Story: This sounds like the DM wanted to bring a new player into a game he was already comfortable with running, to get them into the hobby and give them the hang of it, then handed it over to them to make them the main character in order to further hold them into the hobby. A terrible way for both parties in that situation: it makes the game awful as described for the other players, but it also sets an expectation for the new player that they'll be able to act that way in every campaign going forward. So the next time they get in at the start of a campaign and aren't immediately the main character, and their main character antics are taken poorly, they'll be disappointed and confused, since that worked the first time they played. I mean, considering how the DM isn't doing anything to stop it, it sounds like they're trying to cater this existing game to them at the expense of all the other players at the table, which sucks.

Hit me with a fucking YOLO??????