RPG Horror Story: That's Not What "Classic DnD" Means!

WEBVTT

1
00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:24.079
Hello, measures, thanks much for
tuning in. I'm Jason Portiso, I'm

2
00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.440
Joe o'call, I'm Jim Crocker,
and we talked about D and D topics

3
00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:30.160
near and dear to role players.
Hearts. Now, for those of you

4
00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:33.920
who listen to Jimin's and my previous
show, Commons and Dragons, you know

5
00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:36.719
this was one of our favorite types
of the shows to do. And if

6
00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:39.399
you were a fan of Curmudgeons and
dragons that we are not going to stop

7
00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:43.280
doing these. These are the RPG
horror stories. Even if you weren't a

8
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:45.679
fan of Curmudgeons and dragons, we're
not going to stop doing. I'm just

9
00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:48.600
not going to stop doing these.
I love there's a couple of YouTube accounts

10
00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:50.960
that that do things like this,
and this is one of the things that

11
00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:54.920
kind of got me into like the
discussion part of the game. And these

12
00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.439
are just fun, not for the
people who wrote these stories, but you

13
00:00:57.479 --> 00:00:59.880
know, they're fun for us to
talk about when your games go poorly,

14
00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.120
get content. So if you have
a horror story or even a wholesome story

15
00:01:03.239 --> 00:01:06.400
and you want us talk about it
on the show, send us a story.

16
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:10.920
Hello Adventures Podcast at gmail dot com. And the story it works for

17
00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:12.280
us, then we will gladly talk
about it on the air. Which want

18
00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:17.239
tell us your story yourself, Helloa
Adventurers podcast dot com, slash voice and

19
00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:22.719
leave us a voicemail tell us your
story. But today's story comes from Reddit

20
00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:27.000
user ggm ji dash gm, who
is nice not to let us use a

21
00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:32.159
history. This is the story of
invited to play in a game of quote

22
00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:37.719
classic D and D, but session
zero was anything but. T Jim writes

23
00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:40.480
very light horror with a question at
the end. I'm a part of a

24
00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:45.200
small group six in total of Forever
dms. We call ourselves the DM fight

25
00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:48.640
Club. Usually we meet once a
week and we'll run a battle Royale style

26
00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:53.079
encounter where we put a homebrew monster
at a predetermined cr and just socialize and

27
00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:56.799
talk about our respective campaigns. A
few weeks ago, one of us offer

28
00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:59.599
to run a campaign for the other
members of the DM Fight Club. He

29
00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:01.599
pitched that it would be a classic
game of D and D set in the

30
00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:06.879
Forgotten Realms, so only wants the
official content as written for character creation.

31
00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:09.479
He worded this like you won't have
to deal with any of the Is this

32
00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:13.520
balanced or does this fit the setting? Questions you get from players as a

33
00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:16.159
DM in this game. Being a
group of forever dms by nature, we

34
00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:20.639
are all excited to join. The
issue came when it was time to do

35
00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:23.759
a session zero, and he gave
us the house and build rules. He

36
00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:27.759
has some pretty wild alternate rules.
I'm not talking of variant encumbrance either.

37
00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:31.120
Here are some examples. This is
where it starts to really get off the

38
00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:37.879
rails. Stats would be generated by
rolling two D twelve minus one D four

39
00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:42.639
seven times then dropping the lowest role. Also, the stats had to go

40
00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.280
in order not to be freely assigned, so first has to go to strength,

41
00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:51.680
second to dexterity, et cetera.
Why would you believe it gets worse?

42
00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:57.479
Magic would not use spell slots.
Instead, each character would have an

43
00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:02.360
MP pool. Each character, regardless
of class, would gain five MP per

44
00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:07.039
character level. Then at the class
would normally gain a spell slot, they

45
00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:10.199
instead gained ten times the level of
the slot MP instead, no spell slots

46
00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:15.840
magic points. Yes, that's just
as needlessly difficult. Hey works for Final

47
00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:23.280
Fantasy right. Spells cost three point
five MP per spell level rounded up,

48
00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:29.120
unless they deal damage, in which
case they cost nine point five MP per

49
00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:35.319
level rounded up cantrips cost one MP, and spells cast as a ritual cost

50
00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:39.840
two MP, and now we're charging
them for me per cantrip. Instead of

51
00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:45.319
gaining proficiency in all skills and tools
given by your background in class, you

52
00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:49.199
treated those skills as a pool.
You had to choose a number equal to

53
00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:53.479
a one plus your intelligence mod from
most classes minimum one two plus intelligence mod

54
00:03:53.520 --> 00:04:00.919
for Ranger, three plus intelligence mod
for Barden Artificer, and four plus Intelligence

55
00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:03.960
mode for Rogue. This guy,
just man, that intelligence is a dumbstat

56
00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:10.479
Sometimes. I guess characters would gain
a level of exhaustion in game for every

57
00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:18.519
two real life hours that incurred in
this session. Say that again, happily,

58
00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:26.720
Oh my god, to repeat,
beautiful characters would gain a level of

59
00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:31.839
exhaustion in game for every two real
life hours that occurred in sessions. Oh

60
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:35.759
my god. Yeah, we would
all be so exhausted. No, I

61
00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:39.800
don't know this counts down time,
because like we have like one fight over

62
00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:43.720
two sessions that we play a month
apart, so you're like imaentually in between

63
00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.879
combat. You just died. Yeah, you died of exhaustion. Your character

64
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:51.160
has been staying there for months and
finally, not a major rule change,

65
00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:57.560
but coins had a weight of point
two pounds per coin. I mean,

66
00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:01.680
that's not a major rule change if
you're not using encumbrance, but if you

67
00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:11.759
are. Ultimately, we all decided
to play, but I expressed that instead

68
00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:15.360
of the game of standard no frills
five V I was expecting, these changes

69
00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:18.160
effectively made this an entirely new game
system, just set in the forgotten realm

70
00:05:18.199 --> 00:05:21.680
setting. Absolutely. Yeah, he
confided in me out to the session zero

71
00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:25.839
that he was completely shocked and unsure
of how I could feel that way,

72
00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:29.720
and that it was totally the same
game. Am I the one taking crazy

73
00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:31.920
pills here? We're all still playing
in good friends, but I just wanted

74
00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:36.720
to know that my opinion is valid. They're still playing this game. When

75
00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:40.560
do you guys think modified D and
D is no longer D and D and

76
00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:46.079
becomes its own game? This is
it now. It's hard to say how

77
00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.199
long they were playing it, and
this posted from a couple of months ago

78
00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.199
at this point, but I've had
it bookmarked for so long that it is

79
00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:57.079
just we had to get on the
show. We need to contact ope yim.

80
00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:01.120
What game system did he accidentally create? I think like if you were

81
00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:08.920
to look at that spell system he
created. Like listeners who are as old

82
00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:15.839
as I am will remember the Iron
Crown Enterprises arms Law and spell law systems.

83
00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:18.839
That sounds to me like spell law. I want to say that spell

84
00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:25.279
Like like the original version of D
and D came out and then like three

85
00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:31.399
days later, the first modification somebody
made was doing a spell point system instead

86
00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:36.920
of the vancy and magic plot system. So like when you are brand new

87
00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:43.040
to D and D, that is
like the first hack that like like the

88
00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.519
first primitive Oh, I know how
we can make D and D better,

89
00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:51.720
Like everybody does, like wants to
find a way to get around the limitation

90
00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:58.279
on spells that are built into the
game for a very specific reason, and

91
00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:00.480
like that's always the first thing to
do. It's some kind of spell slot

92
00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.480
thing. And they're like, well, but then, and it's funny because

93
00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:09.480
like as he goes through all of
that, you can hear the thought process

94
00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:12.759
in the DM's mind as they're coming
up with that. Well, instead of

95
00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:15.480
spell slots, I want to have
people have spell points, So I'll just

96
00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:17.600
have it be you know, one
point. Oh no, no, that's

97
00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:21.079
probably that's too many spells. So
if I go and I do you.

98
00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:25.800
Okay, so like three oh,
but it would be funny if it was

99
00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:28.800
three point five because then it's like
three point five d and d oh.

100
00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:30.000
But then it can't be three point
five. I have to round it up.

101
00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:32.920
Okay, So yeah, so cool
that works. So let me see

102
00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:35.560
how this. I'll go, oh
shit, that means they can cast eight

103
00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:40.680
fireballs. Okay, that's not good. So maybe if I make damage dealing

104
00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:43.439
spells be a little more how many
of them? If I do this,

105
00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:49.519
and what happens is you end up
with this system that effectively means you're casting

106
00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:55.720
around the same spell exactly you have
just kept it in spell spell slots in

107
00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:59.360
the first place. Yeah, just
so part of it reminded me. I

108
00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:03.639
don't know if you're familiar with the
So when we're at the time of recording,

109
00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:07.079
Nick Bargatzi had recently been on Saturday
Live and to that whole like George

110
00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:11.360
Washington thing, He's like how many
feet in a mile? Like you're like

111
00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:13.639
one hundred, and you're like,
no, that's nobody knows. Nobody knows.

112
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:18.560
That's what that reminded me of.
Like with three and a half points

113
00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.800
per beaten the miles fight, right, but the whole point was there's this

114
00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:28.279
many in the metric system where it's
a real resident of it. But yeah,

115
00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:33.039
no, yeah, but five thousand
feet in a mile three point five

116
00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:35.720
spell slots person, Yeah, And
I only know that because one of my

117
00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:39.279
friends in high school that was her
phone number. That's that's what I remember.

118
00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.879
I mean, And you and you
can make the case that it's like

119
00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.240
that, it's still D and D
because if everything else stays the same.

120
00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:54.240
My bet though, is that that
is what that player was able to remember

121
00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:58.759
or that stood out most because they
were playing a wizard. But I bet

122
00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:01.120
you, like if somebody and played
a Druid, they would have gotten four

123
00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:05.919
pages of a wild shape Now works
oh yea in that system because because boy,

124
00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.360
once you decided that you're going to
go down that, you know,

125
00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:13.480
that rabbit hole of making D and
D better, it's really hard to stop,

126
00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:18.320
Like, especially if you're like,
oh, we're all dms, so

127
00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:22.840
like you figure like everybody's going to
be down to experiment and mess with it

128
00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:24.879
and stuff and everything, So you'll
do stuff for a group of other dms.

129
00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:28.919
You would never lay on players.
See a bunch of bartenders, let

130
00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:33.600
me make you mild. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, trying to fix it's

131
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:39.120
just such a fantastic analogy. So
this really kind of boils down to,

132
00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.519
like, if you're a group of
forever dms and you're tired of D,

133
00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:46.639
it's totally fine to play in another
system that's been played tested and is known

134
00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:50.159
to work. Jim does it all
the time. Yes, Yeah, I've

135
00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:54.279
been dying to play Powered by the
Apocalypse and I have the Avatar books.

136
00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:56.559
Well, let's go play our vendors. Yeah, that's Part by the Apocalypse.

137
00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.600
But yeah, like I have books
of other systems, have not gotten

138
00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:03.879
to them yet, but there's some
cool things and and sometimes like you borrow

139
00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:07.200
something in kind of like five EI
SAP and like, but there's some things

140
00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.759
that other systems do. Right,
if this is the kind of stuff you're

141
00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:13.799
trying to do, i'd even,
you know, go so far as to

142
00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:16.720
say it is totally fine to try
some you know, wack and do magic

143
00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.559
system. Like I've got this crazy
idea for how I think this might work.

144
00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.480
But you got to tell everybody going
in that that's what they're getting into.

145
00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:28.919
Like, like, like you cannot
invite people to a play test that

146
00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:33.080
you present as just another D and
D games. So This is actually where

147
00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.720
I take issue, and it's not
what the DM of this DMS group.

148
00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:41.440
It's the rest of the DMS that
agreed to this and then are kind of

149
00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:46.559
like he the DM whoever was with
this, you know, crazy magic system,

150
00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:50.879
Like he put it all out there
and they said, ray Op says

151
00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.000
like, well, we played,
but I just I mentioned that I wasn't

152
00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:56.279
really happy about it. Yes,
yeah, well that kind of makes you

153
00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:00.639
annoying in a lot of ways.
Sorry, Well, that's the others kind

154
00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:03.159
of like looking at each other and
stepping back at the same time, so

155
00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:05.639
that that guy's the only one that's
still standing out there, you know what

156
00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:09.759
I mean. Yeah, that's I
can't imagine that everybody else wasn't like what

157
00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:11.879
the hell you know? Or like
I said, maybe he's the only one

158
00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:15.679
playing a wizard that got this laid
on him, you know, the guy

159
00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:20.600
playing the fighters. Yeah, yeah, guy playing the Fighters like, oh,

160
00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:22.639
special combat moves, Yeah, give
me the list, you know,

161
00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:28.360
you know, a crazy elaborate critical
hit table. Yeah, yeah, let's

162
00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:30.879
do it. Even the fighters have
magic points. Was just like, yeah,

163
00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:35.320
I'm not going to use it.
Yeah, Corngar the Blameless would thrive.

164
00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:41.960
Credit to J I GM on Reddit
for the story what do you think

165
00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:46.759
of this Kami system? It's so
wacky that I'm using phrases like kakami,

166
00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:50.600
Like it's not like phrases like I
said, this is the kind of thing

167
00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:54.720
that like, and I hate to
say kids, but like new D and

168
00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:58.320
D d ms get into this and
they get ideas about like this is the

169
00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.960
like you know, reinventing the wheel, and a lot of these indie game

170
00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.759
spaces that I'm in, people are
like, what about this cool idea?

171
00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:07.440
And you know, and it'll be
like, okay, so we all know

172
00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.759
we went through a cycle five years
ago where everybody was doing that. But

173
00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:15.159
if you're new to it, you
don't know that, and so you want

174
00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:18.320
to try it and you know,
and find out why it doesn't work and

175
00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:22.159
why nobody has done it that way, and that's just kind of inevitable,

176
00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:24.720
you know what It's like like if
you want to have a sense of humor

177
00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:26.960
about it, like it's a baptism
of fire and it's you know, just

178
00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.159
going through the same you know,
I know how to make D and D

179
00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:33.440
better. That has been happening for
decades. So yeah, and I don't

180
00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:37.399
think there's anything wrong with that,
right, Yeah, just that it's not

181
00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:39.039
that broken, Like even if it's
not your favorite, even if five V

182
00:12:39.159 --> 00:12:41.759
is in your favorite, it's not
that broken that you need to like completely.

183
00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.879
Yeah. No, congratulations, You've
just had the same experience that I

184
00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:52.000
had, you know, in like
nineteen eighty four. So it's a like

185
00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:54.279
I like to think of it as
you know whatever, it's the circle of

186
00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:58.320
life, D and D right time
march is on. Tell us about your

187
00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.879
keist homebrew rules that got dropped on
you on session zero. Yeah, presented

188
00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:05.279
us no big deal. Yeah yeah, given the word no big deal,

189
00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:09.759
what if you and if you ended
up being pretty good? Tell us tell

190
00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.480
us dot Hello Adventures Podcast at gmail
dot com, or tell us yourself Hello

191
00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:18.440
Adventures podcast dot com. Splash voice
and leave us a voicemail and tell us

192
00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:20.720
about you. Cracy's humbry game.
I think that's going to do it for

193
00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:24.519
today. So I'm Jason Portiso,
I'm Joe o'call, I'm Jim Crocker and

194
00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.480
costs me one spell point to say
that I don't know if I have enough

195
00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:33.679
MP to get through all this.
Thanks for listening to Hello Adventurers. Your

196
00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:37.799
host Jason Bortizo Jum McCall and Jim
Crocker, producer, editor and inineer Jason

197
00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:41.519
Portiso. Our music is by Nick
Spurry or artwork by Christo Roderick. And

198
00:13:41.559 --> 00:13:45.039
I think with nothing else, we're
just gonna say adventure