The D&D Corner (and other Pen & Paper - or virtual - RPGs!) <3

[Rath Darkblade]

As for the Wrath of DMs...
Image4.png

For some reference - the Discord event button - you click "Interested" to the event to let folks know you're going. (It's mostly just a reminder for everyone when the game is... but it is nice when people do use it correctly!)

So the player who plays Twilight in this game... is in all of my other games... She plays Korra in another game... Galiena in another game... and Kasumi in another game (there's actually one more game she's in that I didn't cite here)... but she'd been the only player not to click the Interested button so I did this...

Yep -- Do Not Anger Your Friendly DM.

Just wondering: do players ever go the other way. Fluff up a cushion on your chair, let you have the last slice of pizza -- that sort of thing?

[Tawmis]

As for the Wrath of DMs...
Image4.png

For some reference - the Discord event button - you click "Interested" to the event to let folks know you're going. (It's mostly just a reminder for everyone when the game is... but it is nice when people do use it correctly!)

So the player who plays Twilight in this game... is in all of my other games... She plays Korra in another game... Galiena in another game... and Kasumi in another game (there's actually one more game she's in that I didn't cite here)... but she'd been the only player not to click the Interested button so I did this...

Yep -- Do Not Anger Your Friendly DM.

Just wondering: do players ever go the other way. Fluff up a cushion on your chair, let you have the last slice of pizza -- that sort of thing?

Oh. My players know that I want them to win every battle. They just think sometimes I am out to kill them.

The in person game there's always a ton of food and stuff. We all bring something.

[Rath Darkblade]

Oh, fair enough. Yes, I know there's always a ton of food in the in-person game.

I'm just wondering if players, instead of angering the DM, try to ingratiate themselves with him instead (in the hope that he will not be angry with them or kill them)?

[Tawmis]

I'm just wondering if players, instead of angering the DM, try to ingratiate themselves with him instead (in the hope that he will not be angry with them or kill them)?

Hah, hard to tell, because the people whom I play with are all very loving people.

[Tawmis]

Uploaded 11th installment of character backstories, each one of these is over 50 pages long full of various character background stories...

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/459712 ... ook-Eleven

[Tawmis]

From the chit chat thread - just posting it here since it's veering into D&D type stuff...

Wow. Part of me wonders what kind of D&D session he was playing where the DM allowed that, but mostly? I don't want to know.

As for CRPG names, I use "Rath Darkblade" for most of my CRPG characters, and I thought that one was a bit of a strange name. (Of course, I alternate sometimes. When I played Heroine's Quest, I named my heroine "Magenta Ambershard". I like how it sounds, and the colours in the name.
And, just because it's Sunday here and I'm bored ... *drumroll*
Some Really Bad D&D Names
- Bladder the Cleric, Keeper of the Holy Water. (He was never asked to play a cleric again)
- A detective called Humphrey Bubblegart
- Dwarf Fighter named Bragg Ironballs
- Bloodcleaver Deathhelm (from a random name generator in a Dragon magazine back in the '80s)
- A mounted, unarmored female Artificer named Lady McGiva
- Xanfalcon Dragonsoultouched, Male Half-Elf Barbarian. (This was actually created by the official WOTC name generator)
- Eric the Cleric
- Tray Cee the Annoying Shouty Dwarven Bard. She wants to speak to your manager. Now.
- Ser Puff, the Marshmallow Knight
- Bear Thrills, Celebrity Ranger
- Braggan Dorn the Dragonborn, a rhyming bard from Thistlethorn!
- Bjork the Berserk, a Half-Orc Barbarian
- Asmodeus the Kink-Shamer
- Another Dragon magazine name generator: a Japanese samurai named Toi Oda.
- Rob the Rogue, aka "The Perpetual Counter-Productive"
- Filchbatter. (Sadly, it appeared in the 2nd ed PHB)
- Tony the Joyful Weretiger.
- From Pathfinder: a Tengu Summoner named Tchoitoyou ("Tcho-ee-to-you"). No-one in the party could remember his name, so they called him Toyota or Gesundheit.
- Twiggy The Hippy Druid.
- Admiral Rabkca (i.e. Ackbar spelled backwards). The party found it annoying to say, and forgot his name, so they called him Rebecca.
- Neverwanna Choochoo, Paladin of Tyr.
- Tyrone Shoelaces, a Bounty Hunter. (Let's put him up against Jack the Tripper).
- One I just thought of: a 1st-level human fighter called Hank the Tank.
- We have a dwarf named Frawd. His idea was dwarf backwards, but now everyone thinks he's a fraud and doesn't believe him. It leads to some funny role playing though.
- From a DM:
I had some nameless cultists that players wanted information on, so I revealed they were twin brothers Cole and Cal of the influential House Tist. Eventually they got my masterwork of a pun and threw something at me.
In response when they investigated House Tist I made sure they came face to face with the head of the family and lich-in-the-making, Lord Connor Tist.
Finally their informant was revealed to be his exiled daughter, Eleanor. Her friends called her Ellie. At that point they decided as a group that they would no longer ask me the names of random cultists.
- Best of a bad bunch:
As a player, my last character was Melvin Beasley, a 65 year old Paladin of Deneir. He'd signed up for the crusades when he turned 18, was bestowed the title of Paladin, then the crusades ended. He's spent the last 45+ years balancing books at a library before being reactivated.
His armor barely fits, his sciatica bothers him, his knees creak when it rains, and he always tries to find the peaceful solution when possible because he's "too old for this ****".
=================
I'm sure there are plenty more, but these just made me laugh. Thank all the gawds. My head and neck have been killing me for two weeks, so I could use a good laugh!

While, "Dick Poop" is not my idea of a funny character name (nor is "Elon Dusk", but I can at least respect the play on words)...

Some of my current co-workers want me to run a D&D game, because we do monthly virtual happy hours, and we usually play JackBox games (which are more fun) but if there's ever only a few people, I said I'd run a game, so I created a campaign told them to all create characters... most of them were solid....

Aram Raethran - Elf Fighter
Breara Morningshaper - Aasimar Paladin
Ramsey - Human Monk
Wyldsyde Thunderthorn - Firblog Druid (granted the "Wyldsyde" reminds me of the song "Wildside" by Motley Crue)...
Then there's...

Dingo... Halfling Rogue
Nortle the Tortle Ranger
Sumyungsloth - Half-Orc Rogue

That said, in the off week game, it's just two players (third one dropped) so I brought in an NPC (that the party had encountered before - a human fighter) to "join the ranks" and help out - and his name is "Waesyn" but I always (try to) talk like Arnold when I voice him, here's some recent examples...

[notbobsmith]

I was watching Game Grumps play Phantasmagoria recently and was reminded of the character Malcolm Wyrmshadow. That's a D&D name if I ever heard one. Seriously, is there anyone on this planet with that last name?

[Tawmis]

I was watching Game Grumps play Phantasmagoria recently and was reminded of the character Malcolm Wyrmshadow. That's a D&D name if I ever heard one. Seriously, is there anyone on this planet with that last name?

That'd be an epic last name.

[Rath Darkblade]

While, "Dick Poop" is not my idea of a funny character name (nor is "Elon Dusk", but I can at least respect the play on words)...

Agreed. Neither of those are funny. "Elon Dusk" is ... meh. If he does something with it (i.e. make the 'dusk' part relevant to his character -- maybe something happens at dusk?), then I can respect it.

Maybe (since he's trying to create a spacecraft), it'll only ever work -- or do something? -- at dusk?

...And then there's...

Dingo... Halfling Rogue
Nortle the Tortle Ranger
Sumyungsloth - Half-Orc Rogue

Sigh. Maybe Dingo might be salvageable ... if Dingo turned out to be his name because he was bitten by a Weredingo or something. *shrug* I don't know.

Nortle the Tortle Ranger ... since the name is so silly, maybe a bard could write a silly song about him, to the tune of "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Nortle the Tortle Ranger
has a bear companion too;
But if you ever pet it,
it'll flush you down the loo ...

*sighs and crosses out the above*

That said, in the off week game, it's just two players (third one dropped) so I brought in an NPC (that the party had encountered before - a human fighter) to "join the ranks" and help out - and his name is "Waesyn" but I always (try to) talk like Arnold when I voice him, here's some recent examples...

Wait, wait, wait. Why is everyone laughing when you tell this person to "just do 18 damage", and he says "Oh my gosh"? *shrug* We've established that it's possible.

[Tawmis]

Wait, wait, wait. Why is everyone laughing when you tell this person to "just do 18 damage", and he says "Oh my gosh"? *shrug* We've established that it's possible.

Because - I told him needed to do 18 damage. He rolled. Missed. Used Inspiration. HIT! But only did 17 damage, leaving the guard with 1 hit point, allowing him to blow his horn to alert the other guards.

[Rath Darkblade]

Wait, wait, wait. Why is everyone laughing when you tell this person to "just do 18 damage", and he says "Oh my gosh"? *shrug* We've established that it's possible.

Because - I told him needed to do 18 damage. He rolled. Missed. Used Inspiration. HIT! But only did 17 damage, leaving the guard with 1 hit point, allowing him to blow his horn to alert the other guards.

Aw, rats.

Maybe ... maybe 'fudge' the roll and allow the guard with 1 hit point to totter, fall over, hit his head, and lose consciousness before he can blow the horn? It's happened before.

And then, on another roll, you could 'fudge' the roll your way instead.

[Tawmis]

Wait, wait, wait. Why is everyone laughing when you tell this person to "just do 18 damage", and he says "Oh my gosh"? *shrug* We've established that it's possible.

Because - I told him needed to do 18 damage. He rolled. Missed. Used Inspiration. HIT! But only did 17 damage, leaving the guard with 1 hit point, allowing him to blow his horn to alert the other guards.

Aw, rats.

Maybe ... maybe 'fudge' the roll and allow the guard with 1 hit point to totter, fall over, hit his head, and lose consciousness before he can blow the horn? It's happened before.

And then, on another roll, you could 'fudge' the roll your way instead.

I could fudge the HP of monsters (I have before, to make battles more interesting - either reducing or increasing their HP). However, Dice rolls (these games are remote) - are rolled into Discord for all the world to see. Even my own dice rolls, as the DM.

Which, prior to COVID and doing the game remote, I used to roll behind my DM screen. Now, I think it's more interesting for rolls to be seen by the players, so when a Natural 20 comes up, everyone is like, "Oh damn it."

Or on the flip, when a creature critical fails, all the players cheer (because in my game, critical fails inflict damage unto themselves, or lose a weapon, etc)

[Rath Darkblade]

Wait, wait, wait. Why is everyone laughing when you tell this person to "just do 18 damage", and he says "Oh my gosh"? *shrug* We've established that it's possible.

Because - I told him needed to do 18 damage. He rolled. Missed. Used Inspiration. HIT! But only did 17 damage, leaving the guard with 1 hit point, allowing him to blow his horn to alert the other guards.

Aw, rats.

Maybe ... maybe 'fudge' the roll and allow the guard with 1 hit point to totter, fall over, hit his head, and lose consciousness before he can blow the horn? It's happened before.

And then, on another roll, you could 'fudge' the roll your way instead.

I could fudge the HP of monsters (I have before, to make battles more interesting - either reducing or increasing their HP). However, Dice rolls (these games are remote) - are rolled into Discord for all the world to see. Even my own dice rolls, as the DM.

Which, prior to COVID and doing the game remote, I used to roll behind my DM screen. Now, I think it's more interesting for rolls to be seen by the players, so when a Natural 20 comes up, everyone is like, "Oh damn it."

Or on the flip, when a creature critical fails, all the players cheer (because in my game, critical fails inflict damage unto themselves, or lose a weapon, etc)

So ... why not fudge the guard's HP? (I know, I know ... because him blowing the horn makes a better story).

Ah yes, the joys and woes of Nat-twenties and Nat-ones. Hmm ... if you roll a Natural 20 (or a Natural 1), do the modifications matter? (Sorry, I forget the word for it - but you know how, if a player has - for instance - a DEX score of 14, he gets a +1 to his DEX rolls. Or, if he has a WIS score of 8, he gets a -1 to his WIS rolls. Is that called a +1 (or a -1) modification? I forget. Whoops) *blush*

[Tawmis]

Wait, wait, wait. Why is everyone laughing when you tell this person to "just do 18 damage", and he says "Oh my gosh"? *shrug* We've established that it's possible.

Because - I told him needed to do 18 damage. He rolled. Missed. Used Inspiration. HIT! But only did 17 damage, leaving the guard with 1 hit point, allowing him to blow his horn to alert the other guards.

Aw, rats.

Maybe ... maybe 'fudge' the roll and allow the guard with 1 hit point to totter, fall over, hit his head, and lose consciousness before he can blow the horn? It's happened before.

And then, on another roll, you could 'fudge' the roll your way instead.

I could fudge the HP of monsters (I have before, to make battles more interesting - either reducing or increasing their HP). However, Dice rolls (these games are remote) - are rolled into Discord for all the world to see. Even my own dice rolls, as the DM.

Which, prior to COVID and doing the game remote, I used to roll behind my DM screen. Now, I think it's more interesting for rolls to be seen by the players, so when a Natural 20 comes up, everyone is like, "Oh damn it."

Or on the flip, when a creature critical fails, all the players cheer (because in my game, critical fails inflict damage unto themselves, or lose a weapon, etc)

So ... why not fudge the guard's HP? (I know, I know ... because him blowing the horn makes a better story).

Ah yes, the joys and woes of Nat-twenties and Nat-ones. Hmm ... if you roll a Natural 20 (or a Natural 1), do the modifications matter? (Sorry, I forget the word for it - but you know how, if a player has - for instance - a DEX score of 14, he gets a +1 to his DEX rolls. Or, if he has a WIS score of 8, he gets a -1 to his WIS rolls. Is that called a +1 (or a -1) modification? I forget. Whoops) *blush*

Well it was too late to fudge the guard's HP - because I'd already told him he needs to do 18 damage. And he rolled 17.

And yes, it did end up making a much, much, MUCH better story.

Natural 1 is ALWAYS a failure. It's a Critical Fail.
So for example, if someone has +6 to a skill check. Difficulty is set to 5.
They would AUTO succeed - but there's ALWAYS a chance for something to go wrong.
They roll a D20 and get a Natural 1 - that's going to be a failure.

On the flip side, if a monster (say an Angel) has an armor class of 27.
The person considering attacking only has a +5 with their bow. The highest they can roll is 25.
However, if they roll a Natural 20 - it always succeeds.

[Rath Darkblade]

All right. Nat Crits (and Nat Fails) are always interesting.

On the one hand ... "You hide around the corner and attempt to eavesdrop on the king talking to his wife in bed, but he sees your reflection in the mirror, reaches for the crossbow on the bedside table, and shoots at you." *rolls* "Roll against your DEX to avoid being head-shot."

On the other hand ...
"You shoot the Angel with your bow ... and succeed!"
"Yay!"
"That's 50 damage!"
"Yay!"
"But the Angel is now aware of your hostility and calls down a host of 1,000 Celestials to battle you. Roll for initiative."
"Welp, I'm dead."

(What? Why can't I sometimes be the evil one?)