March 18, 2024

You're Playing (these mechanics) Wrong!

You're Playing (these mechanics) Wrong!
You're Playing (these mechanics) Wrong!
Hello, Adventurers!
You're Playing (these mechanics) Wrong!

In this latest installment of 'Hello Adventures', the DMs take a deep dive into commonly misunderstood or misapplied rules within Dungeons & Dragons, with the aim of enhancing gameplay for both players and game masters. They dissect a range of...

Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
Podchaser podcast player badge
Podcast Addict podcast player badge
Deezer podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player badge
JioSaavn podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconPodchaser podcast player iconPodcast Addict podcast player iconDeezer podcast player iconSpreaker podcast player iconJioSaavn podcast player icon

In this latest installment of 'Hello Adventures', the DMs take a deep dive into commonly misunderstood or misapplied rules within Dungeons & Dragons, with the aim of enhancing gameplay for both players and game masters. They dissect a range of topics, including inventory management, long rests, spell components, concentration, bonus actions, and more. Shedding light on specific nuances such as sunlight sensitivity for certain races, initiative tiebreakers, movement flexibility during turns, invisibility mechanics, and death saves, the hosts provide valuable insights to ensure these rules are applied accurately, thereby elevating the overall gaming experience.

Furthermore, the episode introduces the concept of 'inspiration' as a player incentive tool and explores effective strategies for overworld travel, offering practical guidance for creating engaging and dynamic gameplay scenarios. Whether you're a seasoned adventurer or just starting out, this episode promises to be a treasure trove of knowledge for navigating the intricate rules of D&D.

What rules have always confused you? Ask us at helloadventurerspodcast@gmail.com or send a voicemail at helloadventurers.com/voice

WEBVTT

1
00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:26.039
Love the podcaster role players and game
master has to help level up your game.

2
00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:30.399
We are your dungeon Master's Jason Portiso, Joe McCall, and Jim Crocker,

3
00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:34.719
and today we want to talk about
how you're playing wrong. That's it,

4
00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:37.600
You're playing wrong. I'm playing wrong. I'm absolutely playing Rogerson. Jim.

5
00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:40.359
Are you playing wrong? Jim?
Would I mean in that I'm not

6
00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.119
playing an active D and D game
right now? Yes? I am.

7
00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:45.479
That's a that's that. That's the
only wrong way to play is to not

8
00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:49.880
playing completely. I don't care what
that Fred Savage movie tells you. So,

9
00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:53.640
Tody, we're talking about rules in
D and D that get often looked

10
00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:58.200
over or just straight up played incorrectly
or purposely forgotten to make the game a

11
00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:00.560
little bit easier and a little less
crunchy. So we're gonna get into a

12
00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:04.159
couple of those things today. Joe, I want to kick this right off

13
00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.560
with you. This this episode was
your idea. So I need to know

14
00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:10.719
what was bothering you so much that
you called me to talk about it for

15
00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:14.879
an hour. Yeah, so this
really stemmed this podcast, or this episode

16
00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:19.000
stems from a text message that I
had sent to the two of you about

17
00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:25.519
something I was becoming increasingly frustrated with
in the game. I ended up finding

18
00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.400
my answer mostly because we have an
episode on it, because I asked you

19
00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:33.319
to do the research exactly like cool. It turns out I may have just

20
00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:36.719
been looking in the wrong place,
so for me is pissing me off.

21
00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:42.079
You know what, you could read
a book into an episode, Oh there

22
00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:45.000
you go, yeah, or that
you can find the answers at your local

23
00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.359
library. By that, I mean
my my D and D shelf, my

24
00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:53.719
shelf for the D and D beyond
app or somewhere else on the internet from

25
00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:57.040
where I was looking. So what
did you need to find? All right?

26
00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:01.239
So I was trying to figure out
how much the distance a party can

27
00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:07.599
travel in a day, specifically on
horseback. So I'll pose that question to

28
00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:10.520
you. Do you know? First, do you know the answer to what

29
00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:16.199
distance can a party cover in a
day without any vehicle with just on foot?

30
00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:21.360
My answer is as much as I
need them to for narrative purposes.

31
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.479
But I'm sure there's an actual number. And that's I think what I had

32
00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:28.919
been up going with. I don't
know, is it is it rough terrain?

33
00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:34.000
Do they have a road that is
as having to foreinge as they go

34
00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:37.759
along or have they brought splies?
So on average, do they have a

35
00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:40.520
ranger with them? Yeah, that's
important. The ranger is important. But

36
00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:46.159
on average your party can cover about
twenty four miles a day at a normal

37
00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:49.120
pace. You can go fast pace
and you can cover a little bit more.

38
00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:52.120
It's really not even that much.
But twenty four miles in a day.

39
00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:55.840
Do you now on horseback? Do
you know how far a party can

40
00:02:55.879 --> 00:03:00.639
travel? We have very much established
that I do not. It's the same

41
00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:05.159
distance. Oh yes, so so
so that's the thing that that's a thing

42
00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:08.280
I knew from being like a longtime
fan of westerns, right and western stuff.

43
00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:13.599
The point of being on a horse, of being on horseback is you

44
00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:15.560
can go, like you can go
a lot faster than a person on a

45
00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.840
sprint, not for very long,
but they get tuckered out. But like

46
00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:24.879
you're on horseback all day a so
that you can carry a lot more crap

47
00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:29.639
than you can carry yourself, and
like you don't get tired. It's the

48
00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.280
horse that's getting tired at the end
of the day, you know, and

49
00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:38.240
you're just riding along. So but
yeah, but it's not that much like

50
00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:40.520
you can maybe push your horses to
get a little further. Yeah, it's

51
00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:45.840
that's a good way to kill your
horse. So yeah, yeah, so

52
00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.960
so it's it's the same distance if
you had fresh amounts available, which is

53
00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:53.120
something you see again in westerns,
right, Like they come into town and

54
00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:57.240
they switch horses. The exhausted horse
pulls up to the to the pony express

55
00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:00.759
station and they've got a fresh one. It jumps right on and keeps going.

56
00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:02.360
Yeah yeah right, And a lot
of us think of like, no,

57
00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:05.199
it's always the same horse. It's
not. It's not the same horse

58
00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:09.199
in those movies. Right, So
yeah, to fool. Now they silver,

59
00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.000
they're all silver. There's like twenty
eight silvers. Are you telling me

60
00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:16.240
that old westerns had been lines me
this whole time? No? That No,

61
00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.399
a lot of them are telling the
truth. They show them switching horses.

62
00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:23.160
They come into town and they go, we need fresh mounts, and

63
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:28.800
then they get fresh mounts. The
lie that John Wayne is not a grizzled

64
00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:30.879
tough guy, that he's actually just
a Hollywood actor. Are you already telling

65
00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:34.560
me that this whole thing is just
a veil that lies to me? Over

66
00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:39.639
and over again? The Witcher makes
hay out of that, you know,

67
00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:45.399
sorry so to speak, you know, like it's a running yeah, that

68
00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:49.120
that wasn't an accident. You know. In the Witcher, it's a running

69
00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:55.120
joke that all of his horses are
named roach. Regardless of whether it's the

70
00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.720
same horse or not. He just
calls it road. Yeah. I think

71
00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:00.600
they actually covered that. It kind
of treats this succession of horses like it's

72
00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:05.319
the same horse, even though everybody
understands it's not. So yeah, then

73
00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:09.839
they have fun with it. The
approaches always mean though it always he always

74
00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:14.759
bites if you read the Richard book, So yeah, so and then so

75
00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:16.600
I looked it up and I'm like, well, how long how far does

76
00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:24.160
an actual horse cover in a day? It turns out Gary Geigex or whoever

77
00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:27.519
came up with this rule originally,
or I don't know if it's changed,

78
00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:32.360
Jim, maybe you might know if
it's again, I only know five E.

79
00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:39.759
But it's it's about twenty five miles, you know, maybe you could

80
00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:43.399
get to forty. But I was
expecting it to be a lot more sure.

81
00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:46.560
I was thinking like, oh,
they could cover so our came you've

82
00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:49.720
been covering like fifty miles a day. No problem because narratively, we need

83
00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:54.720
it to narrative. Yeah, and
you know distance, right, and so

84
00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:58.560
it doesn't really matter, is the
end. But so I was having trouble

85
00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:01.279
finding this do you know? So
my next question is do you know where

86
00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:09.879
you can find this information in your
books and your guns and dragons? Like

87
00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.600
it's almost certainly like three quarters of
the way back in the dungeon Master's Guide,

88
00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:17.160
because that's where all that kind of
stuff seems to be. It's not

89
00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:21.120
some appendix place. That's the first
place I would think to look for.

90
00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:25.600
That's the first place and the only
place that I thought to look before I

91
00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:30.160
took through the internet and I was
pulling out my hair and you guys taking

92
00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:32.759
for clarify, it was the only
place you looked. We all knew it

93
00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:40.600
just got one and that one website
Www dot Google. Oh yeah, buried

94
00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:44.480
like buried in the Ranger class description
might be the other place. It's in

95
00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:49.000
the player's hand like that. Yeah, okay, it's sure, page one

96
00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:55.680
eight one in the player one of
those technically one of those chapters between character

97
00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:00.879
creation and spells that nobody ever reads. It's chapter eight Adventuring. It's the

98
00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:05.519
second page of chapter eight Adventuring on
travel, like and who knew? Who

99
00:07:05.639 --> 00:07:10.920
knew where you would find that?
Sure? And I googled enough that that's

100
00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:14.800
I'm like, why can I find
this in the Dungeon Master's Guide because that's

101
00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.519
where I thought it should be,
So ass the coast. If you're listening,

102
00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:21.279
please move that information to the Dungeon
Master's Guide because that's where I think

103
00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:25.360
it belongs. Yeah, I would, so, Yeah, that was that

104
00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:29.480
is my that is kind of what
kicked off this episode. That's what was

105
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.720
bothering me. So so we'll freeze
call in and tell me what an idiot

106
00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:36.040
I am. So what's happening is
that we have in the game that we're

107
00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:40.439
playing with you, we have to
deal with a lot of overworll travel.

108
00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:46.120
Yeah, there's there's towns and cities
and settlements that are pretty far spread apart.

109
00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:48.519
We're in Wildmount. So if you
have the Wildmount Book or if you

110
00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:53.120
are a critical role fan, the
maps are available for the for the general

111
00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:58.199
continent that we're on, so it
is a predetermined amount of space in between

112
00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.800
them. So now you have to
kind of like figure out how we're going

113
00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:03.040
to travel from town to town and
some of these are hundreds of miles apart.

114
00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:07.199
In fact, we just had a
little side quest because we wanted to

115
00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:09.759
shave like two days off of our
travel, so we went instead of going

116
00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:13.480
directly to where we needed to go, we went to a completely different place

117
00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:16.000
because they have teliportation stuff, and
that's a whole different thing. So the

118
00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:22.600
part that made you start researching was
the actual number, the numerical value of

119
00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:26.720
how much we can travel in a
day, which then tells you how many

120
00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.839
days we need to be traveling.
So with that knowledge, how should overworld

121
00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:37.559
travel work? So exactly that right, So you can travel on horseback or

122
00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:41.320
on foot, there's no difference.
You can travel twenty four miles in a

123
00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:45.600
day. That's an average. If
it's all rough terrain, maybe it slows

124
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:50.399
you down. Maybe your DM or
as a GM DM you can have you

125
00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:54.799
know, rolls determined. You know, you hit something and that slows your

126
00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:58.559
pace, but that's averaging that you're
going to encounter rough train, easy terrain,

127
00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.840
hill, flat, you know,
and all that that's your average at

128
00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.399
twenty four miles at a normal pace, you can go a little bit exactly.

129
00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:09.840
So we lost of these these settlements
are two hundred miles apart. That

130
00:09:09.879 --> 00:09:13.919
puts us on like a like a
seven day travel So and you know,

131
00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:16.279
I want to hear your your thoughts
on this too. So players have a

132
00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:20.639
plot point in City A, and
then their next major plot point is in

133
00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:26.120
City B. And the overworld map
that has already determined and the players have

134
00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:30.080
a copy of and like they know
how far they have to go. It's

135
00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.360
going to take your players seven days
of game time to get to City B.

136
00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:39.720
How do you run that? I
mean, generally the way I am

137
00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:46.080
inclined to run it is to have
a conversation sort of at the beginning of

138
00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:50.679
the campaign or maybe you know,
when they leave the city in overland travel

139
00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:54.240
starts and say, does anybody give
a crap about this? Like are you

140
00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:58.519
interested in, you know, meeting
traveling merchants on the road and having encounters

141
00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:03.200
and like law and I explicitly always
want to make sure that those encounters are

142
00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.200
not just like here's some cobalts in
this encounter could happen anywhere. It should

143
00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:13.039
happen somewhere where you learn a little
bit about the world by having that encounter

144
00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:16.759
in that place, whether it's because
you meet people or you know it happens

145
00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:22.440
at a particular in that's at a
crossroads that maybe you're going to come back

146
00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:24.279
to or something like that. You
know, I try to have a point

147
00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:30.720
to it if I'm going to do
it in but in general, I kind

148
00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:35.799
of like to follow the open world
video game mode of doing it, which

149
00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.639
is the first time you go somewhere
and you're not sure where you're going and

150
00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:41.799
where you're not sure what you might
run into. That's maybe when you have

151
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:46.720
an encounter or two. That's when
you have the ranger actually make their roles

152
00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:50.159
if you've got a ranger in the
party, stuff like that. But once

153
00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:54.960
they've made that trip once or maybe
twice, then you effectively kind of fast

154
00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:00.159
travel that you just say, okay, three days past now sure, yeah,

155
00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:03.200
you're back at the Gold Coast or
whatever, and you can you know,

156
00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:05.879
you can catch a boat like you
like you wanted to so, and

157
00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:09.279
that that's kind of generally how I
try to do it. Oh yeah,

158
00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:11.840
I like, well you can have
the do it the long way the first

159
00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:13.200
time in the fast travel next time. I like that a lot. Yeah,

160
00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:16.080
especially if you don't if you don't
know, like like so in our

161
00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:20.159
campaign, a lot of these are
roads, So it's not like you have

162
00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:22.200
to make a roll to like figure
out what direction you're going in. But

163
00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:26.360
I do like that when when you
don't right, if you're traveling through the

164
00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:31.000
wilderness, then then there should be
right. It's going to slow your pace,

165
00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:35.320
especially if there's you have to get
here within this amount of time or

166
00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:41.559
else you know something bad is going
to happen, right, Yeah, the

167
00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:43.080
next thing I was going to say, yeah, and then you're rolling when

168
00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:48.840
see if you go in the right
direction because you're traveling through a desert and

169
00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:52.240
you know north is north, your
time, when your time on the road

170
00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:56.320
matters, then you can start to
get into like, well are you going

171
00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:58.679
to take that long rest or you
know, are you going to push through

172
00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:03.159
the level of exhaustion to get there
on time? Stuff like that, and

173
00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:09.120
you know that then that's what it
matters. And when it's interesting to actually

174
00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:11.720
play through and just while we're at
it too, the player's handbooks, so

175
00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:16.080
it actually gives you options. If
you want to travel at a fast pace,

176
00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.720
you know you'll be able to cover
thirty miles, so an extra six

177
00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:24.360
whole miles, which I mean can
matter again again, especially if there's a

178
00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.679
time constraint an additional six miles a
day, but you get a five negative

179
00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:33.159
five penalty two passive perception scores normal
bases is the twenty four miles, like

180
00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:37.320
I said, and then a slow
pace allows you gives you the ability to

181
00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:41.200
use stealth. So again to what
we're talking about, like if you need

182
00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:46.120
to go somewhere stealthily without the King's
men seeing you, know you, or

183
00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:48.879
spotting you, then you would go
eighteen miles in that day. So that's

184
00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:56.279
another that's a six six mile that's
penalty. So yeah, that's pretty stilly.

185
00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:01.320
That's that's the rule is written again. So I've seen a few different

186
00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:05.159
ways for overland travel to be done. Now, of course my answer was

187
00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:07.879
I kind of meant it to be, you know, to kind of take

188
00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:09.120
a shot at show where it's like, okay, yes it's whatever I needed

189
00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:15.720
to be for narrative purposes. But
there's I've seen three pretty interesting ways to

190
00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:20.039
handle overworld travel, depending on how
you need it to run in your game.

191
00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:22.679
So if your major plot points are
really I just want them to go

192
00:13:22.679 --> 00:13:26.759
from A to B, or if
like okay, in today's session, I

193
00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:28.000
want to do things in both cities, you can you can mix these up

194
00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.480
too, so like if you really
just need to get from A to B,

195
00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:33.919
you can do something along the lines
of I think this actually might be

196
00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:37.200
in the rules as well. I
forget, I can't remember what is real

197
00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:41.039
and what's made up anymore. But
you just, you know, take the

198
00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:43.639
amount of days that's going to travel, and when they rest overnight, you

199
00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:48.600
just roll on the random encounter table. You know, extra above they're safe.

200
00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:50.720
Extra below, we have a random
encounter and then you just roll on

201
00:13:50.759 --> 00:13:54.360
the random encounter table. That's fine, if a little boring, but it

202
00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:58.120
works. And if they could have
a little skirmish. If they're camping in

203
00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:00.320
the woods, they can find wolves, if they're camping off the road,

204
00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.559
they can find bandits. If you
want to, like Jim said, I

205
00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:05.320
use this as a little bit of
lore. They can find I know,

206
00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:09.639
a Toaln's guard from an enemy town
or something like that. You can find

207
00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.320
ways of making it narratively what they
should be encountering. The second way is

208
00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.440
to completely ignore it, which I
don't think is right, but an interesting

209
00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:22.159
one that that I saw, and
I've played this in my one shots because

210
00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:24.559
I need one shots to be I
need them to hit their their city points,

211
00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.080
but I didn't want to overland travel
to feel meaningless. What we did

212
00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.879
was I had them kind of role
play out, even just one night on

213
00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:35.639
the road that they said they're we're
gonna take a long rest. I'm like,

214
00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:39.240
cool, We're just gonna roleplay a
bit during this long rest. And

215
00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.600
I kind of have them there their
characters, you know, kind of get

216
00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:43.399
to know each other a little bit, comment on the things they've just done.

217
00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:48.000
And I asked them specifically around the
table, one by one, what

218
00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:52.159
are you doing to make this rest
work? You guys? Are you guys

219
00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:56.399
are putting up camp for the night. What does your character do to put

220
00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:58.080
up camp for the night. And
they'll get answers like I'm the one that's

221
00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:01.279
going to pitch to ten, I'm
one's going to hunt for food. I'm

222
00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:03.919
the one that's going to check for
edible berries. I'm the one that's going

223
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.799
to check for animbal princes see if
we're safe. I'm the one that's going

224
00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:11.240
to check that. I'll stay on
watch for the first like two three hours,

225
00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:13.519
and then we'll switch. And I
kind of looked to make them think

226
00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.360
about, Okay, in in my
character design, what would this person do

227
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:20.960
or thing because there's a lot of
dragon burns on my tables, and how

228
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.000
would that help us survive the night? Then I had them all go to

229
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.120
sleep and they all roll either.
So depending on what they're doing, that's

230
00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:31.080
going to depend on what that's going
to tell me what kind of role they're

231
00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.840
going to make. If they're checking
for If they're checking for food, it's

232
00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:35.840
survival, If they're checking for traps, it's going to be perception. If

233
00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:39.559
it's if they're just staying the night, and maybe it's constitutional se if they

234
00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:41.879
stay awake, something along those lines, that makes them all roll for it.

235
00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:45.279
And depending on how I'm feeling that
day or what level we're playing,

236
00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:46.919
the DC's in my head. I
don't have to tell them that. And

237
00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:52.600
if more than half of them fail
their DCS, we go straight to a

238
00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:56.000
deadly encounter. So it's it's it's
a pretty low probability. But if they

239
00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:00.759
all screw up that bad, yeah, some really big things are going to

240
00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:04.000
find them. And depending on who
fails, what could tell me what I

241
00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:07.799
want to throw at R and I
kind of make it up on the spot

242
00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.080
and try we try to keep it
narratively in that same vein that I just

243
00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:14.080
says, like, you know,
is it is it just a couple of

244
00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:17.159
wolves or is there some brown bears
with them too? So then and and

245
00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:21.399
that worked out pretty well. The
few times that they have failed were actually

246
00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:23.919
interesting fights. Instead of just like
okay, well you guys fall asleep and

247
00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:29.039
rolled like oh you guys encounter roll
three goblins, It's like, okay,

248
00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:32.440
let's fight some goblins for no reason. I don't know where these guys came

249
00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:34.279
from. I didn't ask them their
name. I just killed them, you

250
00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:38.559
know. But yeah, the other
the alternate, the deadly encounter route is

251
00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:42.759
one that I would absolutely recommend.
That was a lot of fun. So

252
00:16:42.919 --> 00:16:45.799
one of the other things I wanted
to bring up while you're while we're on

253
00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:52.919
the overland travel is how do we
feel about if we have to hand weave

254
00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:59.720
overland travel? How do we feel
about that? Almost invalidating most of what

255
00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:02.320
are is good at. If you
have a ranger in your party, now

256
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:07.319
do you just not handwave of overland
travel anymore? I mean you ask the

257
00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.039
player, I think is what you
do. This is a situation where if

258
00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:15.440
someone is playing a ranger because they
want to do all the rangery stuff and

259
00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:18.000
they're like and they think that this
is a fun part of it. Then

260
00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:22.720
yeah, then then you know,
you pay more attention to overland travel.

261
00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:26.839
You take the time to do the
you know, to actually mechanize it and

262
00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:32.559
have it matter and have the Ranger's
actions have an impact on what's going on.

263
00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:34.839
And I think the important thing to
do when you're doing something like that

264
00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:44.039
is to make sure that it's not
just you know, can you avoid getting

265
00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:48.319
screwed, but you know the actions
of the ranger in that overland travel should

266
00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:53.119
give the party some kind of advantage. You learn something, you get some

267
00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:57.119
kind of resource, you don't have
to burn as many rations, stuff like

268
00:17:57.160 --> 00:18:00.519
this. And I think this is
I mean, some of the this is

269
00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:03.240
is baked in already just to what
the Ranger can do in terms of like

270
00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:06.319
being able to forage and stuff exactly. And that's kind of the point.

271
00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:10.759
But but there may be a Ranger
player who's like, you know, na,

272
00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:12.079
I just want to be drizzed and
use two swords, man, I

273
00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:15.920
don't care about any of that,
you know, like whatever, like like

274
00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:19.400
just you know, take us to
where there's you know, like you said,

275
00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:22.640
to where there's more goblins so I
can do my thing or they want

276
00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:26.519
they want to use that's why I'm
a Ranger. Yeah, so using the

277
00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:30.960
video games cheminology, they want the
quick travel button. Yes, exactly,

278
00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:34.759
Yeah, fast travel fact, because
this is one of the reasons why Rangers

279
00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:40.079
are often oopooed on, where like
it's like, oh you rangers. Rangers

280
00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:41.079
have a bunch of abilities that don't
matter. It's like they don't matter.

281
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:45.319
If your DM says they don't matter, that's correct. Also, that also

282
00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:48.799
doesn't mean to like make this whole
table do you know, crunchy over world

283
00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:52.640
travel stuff, just because there's a
Ranger at the table, you can kind

284
00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:56.200
of pick and choose what works,
which is why I'm just coming back to.

285
00:18:56.240 --> 00:18:57.400
And I really like what you said
before about you know, kind of

286
00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:00.680
do it the hard way of the
first time, you know, and this

287
00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:03.400
it might bog down the table a
little bit, but it lets them know

288
00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:07.240
like the reality of what their characters
are actually going through if you don't just

289
00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:11.359
handwave it. I think there's a
way to do it and be brief.

290
00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:15.039
Be brief, you know, you
don't need an encounter for every day that

291
00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:18.599
you are on the road, right, And that's where rolling comes in.

292
00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:22.119
So you can roll to see,
like like, how well did you make

293
00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:26.519
your pace today? You know,
roll to see if you hit some terrain

294
00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:30.319
up, okay, you got an
extra day or like I've seen you know,

295
00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:33.200
on critical role. I think they
do it like, oh, you're

296
00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.319
on a ship and you got you
got some better wins today, so you

297
00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:41.000
actually take a day off of your
travel because you went a little bit faster

298
00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:44.920
than what I think they did that
like an airship or something. It's also

299
00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:48.119
one of those things where you can
make a player feel cool about the character

300
00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:52.240
by what they don't have to do
just because their character is there. Like

301
00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:56.759
if you've got a ranger with them, every time you fast travel between villages,

302
00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:00.839
you go, well, your ranger
knows the way. He just guides

303
00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.440
you without any difficulty, you know, and so like they don't have to

304
00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:07.319
make a roll or something like that. But but you're reminding them that it

305
00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:11.240
is the you know, the ranger
being good at this is why this is

306
00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:14.519
not a problem for them. And
you know that's kind of a little just

307
00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:15.920
like a little bone you can throw
them even if you're not asking them to,

308
00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:19.000
you know, kind of actively roll
and use their abilities that way,

309
00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:23.759
sure, And the other way to
handle it is is to not really worry

310
00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.799
about the overlay part of it.
If you have a party, if you

311
00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.839
have a long enough running game,
and it's less about the overarching, big

312
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:34.519
bad story and it's more about just
having a game every week. This is

313
00:20:34.519 --> 00:20:37.640
great for like characters that have already
kind of maxed out the level, or

314
00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:41.920
if you're already passed your main story
point and you're just continuing on with these

315
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:45.160
characters. It's like, hey,
we're going to calculate this is a this

316
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.680
is a ten day travel, and
then for the next like ten sessions you

317
00:20:48.759 --> 00:20:52.400
get to do your little side quest
one shots and then finally pick up where

318
00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:56.920
you're left off in the main story
wise, you see this all the time

319
00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.640
in like adventure cartoons, media and
likes like SERI shows. It's like,

320
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.160
yeah, there's a huge over warking
point. This is the Mandalorian. Like,

321
00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:06.839
yeah, there's a huge overworking thing
where he's where he's got to you

322
00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:10.039
know, you know, get the
babe to the thing. But every episode

323
00:21:10.119 --> 00:21:11.240
is like, oh, we have
to complete the slow side quest because my

324
00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.799
ship broke down and I have to
go get milk or whatever it is.

325
00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:19.440
That's why basically Mandlorian in two seconds. Do you know where that happens?

326
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:23.119
A ton is Avatar the Last Airbender. Yeah, that's all where you know,

327
00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:26.400
Aang's got this whole thing, this
whole destiny he has to fulfill.

328
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.079
But you know, we've got to
deal with the like you've dropped into this

329
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:34.279
village per day and there's a there's
a you know, a face stealer there,

330
00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:37.519
and you've got to deal with that
face stealer because you're not just going

331
00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:41.000
to leave those people, you know, to the victim to the face stealer,

332
00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:45.759
even though it's not part of your
overarching plot. It's you know,

333
00:21:45.880 --> 00:21:49.200
that's kind of a that series just
in general, is a masterclass for how

334
00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:52.480
to do that. You know,
have an overarching plot that everybody's aware of

335
00:21:52.519 --> 00:21:56.039
all the time, but those individual
stories and the people you meet are still

336
00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:59.839
important. Jokes on you, My
players would be like, we don't have

337
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.440
for this, We need to go
and that's your table. That's that's that's

338
00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:06.160
things you suss out to your table
too. Do we want to just go

339
00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:07.799
do on a B line for the
main story role or are we just here

340
00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:11.400
to play a game every week and
you know you can throw weird things at

341
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:15.079
us. Yeah, no, and
sometimes when you get encounters on the road,

342
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:18.880
it's because you're going too fast.
I ever prepared for the thing that

343
00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:22.839
you're going to, and I just
there needs to be a communication where if

344
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:25.200
you make it clear to your players, if you, guys, spend a

345
00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:27.920
day or two here in this town, I'm not going to hose you by

346
00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.240
saying you get to the capital too
late or whatever. You know. So

347
00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:34.799
so this is something if you you
know, but if you don't want to

348
00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:38.359
do it, that's cool. We'll
just roll on. So so for overland

349
00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:42.119
travel, if you're if you want
to be exact, you can go to

350
00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:45.559
the players and book chapter eight on
adventuring. You can get all of the

351
00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:51.599
rules on travel and pace and everything
else. But you don't have to just

352
00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.119
because it's written in the book.
You don't have to do that. There's

353
00:22:56.279 --> 00:23:00.559
tons of options to handwave it to
to your own measurements. Let's if you

354
00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:03.519
fifty miles a day, guys,
that goes for everything in the book,

355
00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:06.720
by the way, Yeah okay,
yeah, yeah, So so just kind

356
00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:07.759
of put a button on this whole
thing, because we have other things you

357
00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:11.559
want to get to, so ways
to make overland travel matter. I might

358
00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:14.720
be going to say more interesting,
just to make it like a thing,

359
00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:17.400
so that doesn't just sound like you're
going from one room to the next and

360
00:23:17.400 --> 00:23:19.240
sudden they're two hundred miles away.
If you are going to calculate it,

361
00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:22.759
it is twenty four miles in a
day, and ways to make that make

362
00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:27.359
ways to make that matter. You
could do something like make the time matter.

363
00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:30.680
Something's going to happen in six days, but it's an eight day travel,

364
00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:33.480
what do you do right? Or
or it's gonna happen in five days

365
00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:37.920
and it's a five day travel.
I hope nothing goes wrong. Things like

366
00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:40.359
that. You have mishaps on the
road, you can hit difficult terrain and

367
00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.039
things like that. If you are
if you want to do the travel part

368
00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:48.240
fast but still have encounters, you
could try the random table method or the

369
00:23:48.279 --> 00:23:51.440
deadly encounter method that I mentioned before. And if you have a range join

370
00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:55.279
your party, you find ways to
engage with that player and make the Ranger

371
00:23:55.359 --> 00:23:59.599
parts matter. Rangers have a lot
of class features that do deal with overworld

372
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:03.400
travel, and if you're just handwaving
overworld travel, you are kind of in

373
00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:07.480
validating half of what makes a ranger
ranger and just have a chat with that

374
00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:11.279
ranger player and make sure that's okay
with them and it is not. Find

375
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:14.480
a way to engage those parts kind
of covers it. Yeah. Cool,

376
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:21.759
Hello Adventurers, just stepping in here
to remind you guys that we're actively looking

377
00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:25.920
for submissions for our Hello DMS episode
that gets reported every month. Send us

378
00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:30.680
your burning D and D questions the
Helloadventurers podcast at gmail dot com, or

379
00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:37.440
send us a voicemail by visiting helloadventurers
podcast dot com slash voice. Don't forget

380
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:41.000
to begin your message with Hello DMS. You can't wait to get your questions

381
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:44.119
to talk about them on the show. Send us your questions today. That's

382
00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:49.640
Helloadventurers podcast at gmail dot com or
a voice at helloadventurers podcast dot com slash

383
00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:59.079
voice. Now let's get back to
the show. So before we even get

384
00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:00.759
into Jim's think, I want to
say that when Joe approached us with this

385
00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:03.920
episode idea, He's like, I
want to do an episode on things that

386
00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.519
people forget even exist. He's like
overall travel, and I knew exactly what

387
00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:11.200
I wanted to talk about. And
then Jim comes in with a whole page

388
00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:14.440
full of notes on the thing that
I wanted to talk about. So we're

389
00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:17.279
going to tackle this one kind of
together, and then I'm going to give

390
00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:18.680
this some quick stuff in the end. So, Jim, what is the

391
00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:23.880
thing that you and I want to
remind everyone exists? Well? When Joe

392
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:27.359
sent that text message to us,
I was inspired, if you will,

393
00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:33.640
to write my own page full of
a notes on inspiration. Which is a

394
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:37.640
thing that is to be fair.
It's a little loosey goosey in the way

395
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:41.200
they handle it in the actual rules, which I like, which I think

396
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:47.400
is which I think. I think
of all the things that could be exact

397
00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:51.680
and written now in granular little rules, I like that this is not one

398
00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:55.480
of them. Mm hmmmm hmm.
But it's one of the things they added

399
00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.400
to fifth edition that I really really
liked. That I think is just,

400
00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:03.039
you know, unquestionable, a good, you know, a good and wonderful

401
00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:07.960
thing, especially for new players.
It gives you a little bit of control

402
00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:14.000
over which roles you think are important. The constant struggle that we face in

403
00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:18.359
D and D is the fact that
that D twenty is totally linear. Right,

404
00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:21.519
you have a five percent chance of
rolling this you know, any given

405
00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:23.799
number at any time, and there's
not a lot that you can do.

406
00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:29.359
You know, if you roll a
three to make that not a three,

407
00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:33.799
you know, no matter how important
that is. And inspiration is one of

408
00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:37.799
those things that puts some tools to
maybe mitigate that a little into the hands

409
00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:40.920
of players. And I think that's
fittastic. So what exactly is inspiration let's

410
00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:42.640
start Let's start there and kind of
make sure that everyone's on the same page.

411
00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:48.240
So inspiration as a mechanic they have
added to fifth edition that allows a

412
00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:55.359
player to essentially bank an instance of
advantage that they can use at the time

413
00:26:55.400 --> 00:27:00.720
of their choosing, and you can
use it to mitigate disadvantage because as we

414
00:27:00.839 --> 00:27:04.640
know, no matter how many instances
of advantage you have and how many instances

415
00:27:04.680 --> 00:27:07.720
of disadvantage you have, those will
cancel each other out, so that you're

416
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:11.519
making just aread with flat role.
So if there's a time where you've got

417
00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:15.720
disadvantage and you really really don't want
to have that disadvantage, you can spend

418
00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:18.519
inspiration to give yourself advantage to cancel
that out. If there's a time where

419
00:27:18.519 --> 00:27:22.000
it's really important to make that role, you can decide you're going to spend

420
00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:26.599
your inspiration to give your self advantage, which of course means you roll two

421
00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.799
D twenty for whatever check it is
you're going to make, and you take

422
00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:33.480
the higher of the two, and
we start to get into the slightly loosey

423
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:37.519
goosey part of it that we talked
about, and the thing but that I

424
00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:40.680
think Jason, I think you and
I would both frame it as you have

425
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:45.440
some freedom to say how it works
in your campaign, which I think is

426
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.920
great for what you want it to
be, because it is a wonderful tool

427
00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:56.079
to reinforce the kinds of behavior that
you want to reward at your table,

428
00:27:56.119 --> 00:27:59.640
the kind of stuff you want to
see players doing. And I mean,

429
00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:03.680
you know, I've got the text
from the Player's Handbook right here which says

430
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:08.200
your DM will tell you how you
can earn inspiration in the game, you

431
00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:11.559
know, kind of one of the
one of the other things that's cool about

432
00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:17.519
it that's actually canon that's written into
the rules is that if you see another

433
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:22.160
player do something that you think is
super cool, you can hand them your

434
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:27.519
inspiration if they don't have inspiration currently. And so that also for tables where

435
00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:33.799
the system might be you know,
whoever makes the DM laugh gets inspiration,

436
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:37.079
and there's one player that's just a
cut up and that is just constantly cracking

437
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.319
the DM up. And so they
tend to get inspiration more than the other

438
00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:45.640
players do. That gives them a
chance to divvy it out to other people

439
00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:49.920
so that they can you know,
so you can even that out, which

440
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:55.480
I really like. Yeah, that
also encourages like player to player interaction.

441
00:28:55.559 --> 00:29:00.279
That's great. Can I hoard my
inspiration as a GM that does not currently

442
00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:04.240
use inspiration because the person that I
learned from didn't didn't use it our late

443
00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:10.759
great friend Walter Wilson. You cannot
hoard it. It's it's not something that

444
00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:15.640
accumulates, Okay, So I can
keep either have it or you don't.

445
00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:19.880
And and the way that you kind
of the control over it that you have

446
00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:26.279
as the DM is to determine how
easy it is to recharge it. Right,

447
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.839
if you're inclined to like kind of
let players be a little more you

448
00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:33.079
know, active with it, and
to kind of let them put the thumb

449
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.000
on the scale a little, you
can have a thing where you know,

450
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:41.279
you can use inspiration and then two
rounds later you do something that recharges it

451
00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:44.640
and use it again in the same
encounter. I tend to try to keep

452
00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:48.200
it to be a you know,
kind of a one encounter thing and then

453
00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:55.680
have it be behavior that happens sort
of like between encounters that that allows you

454
00:29:55.720 --> 00:29:57.960
to recharge it. But you can
kind of set up whatever system you want

455
00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:03.400
that you that makes it as you
know, you can be as generous or

456
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:06.640
a stingy with it as you like. I have to start using this.

457
00:30:06.839 --> 00:30:08.519
So this, this is something I've
been using a lot recently because I mostly

458
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:12.599
forgot it is even a thing that
exists because my DM doesn't use it.

459
00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:17.200
Thanks show. But it lets me, like you said, set the expectation

460
00:30:17.319 --> 00:30:18.880
of the type of behavior that I
want to see and have a way to

461
00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:22.759
directly reward it. And then the
players can see as being rewarded, and

462
00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:26.359
just like children and dogs, I
get to train them. You don't use

463
00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.079
a stick, right. I actually
made for because I run so many public

464
00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:36.400
games now. I made laminated cards
with cool little designs on them as say

465
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:40.720
DM inspiration. You know, use
this for one reroll and I get to

466
00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:44.039
actually hand them a physical thing that
says here you earned this, as to

467
00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:48.799
say this inspiration sponsored by Hello Adventurers
podcast. The next patch I make will

468
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:55.960
the little QR code on them.
So in my pregame talk, I tell

469
00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:57.960
players, so let's use for example, I run games at a at a

470
00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:02.400
game store, and I games at
breweries, which allows me a couple of

471
00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:04.559
different freedoms that I don't have at
the game store that does not that does

472
00:31:04.599 --> 00:31:08.000
not sell alcohol. But the breweries, the age of the players is probably

473
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:12.119
a little bit, not that different, a little bit I get. I

474
00:31:12.119 --> 00:31:15.160
get a lot more at twelve or
fourteen year olds at the game tables than

475
00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:18.920
I do with the breweries. But
my little pregame spiel is I, you

476
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:22.599
know, kind of tell them what
we're expecting today, how long we're expecting

477
00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:25.079
to do it, you know,
some general game stuff. So then we

478
00:31:25.119 --> 00:31:29.000
are using inspiration today. This gives
you advantage. You want this, you

479
00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:32.960
want to get these? How do
you get these? If you character does

480
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:36.279
something that I think is just awesome
and out of the box and something that

481
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:40.640
I genuinely did not expect you to
do, I'll give you inspiration for it.

482
00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:44.160
In fact, just this past Monday, my players had an encounter with

483
00:31:44.279 --> 00:31:48.319
a pack of bully rugs, and
the ranger can't speak with animals, love

484
00:31:48.359 --> 00:31:52.960
bullyugs, human earth fun. She
can't speak with animals and talked her way

485
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.880
out of the fight, and that
wasn't supposed to happen. I was ready

486
00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:00.440
to have this fight. I had
miniatures printed for this thing. And and

487
00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:04.240
as she completely just like goes through
it, rolls super high on her persuasion

488
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:07.400
and I even set it at like
like an eighteen in my head for level

489
00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:10.480
three and she nails they she nails
the role, and I'm like, yeah,

490
00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:14.079
they kind of back off. I
guess I let her have it.

491
00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:15.680
And I'm like, you know what, you take inspiration for that too,

492
00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:19.200
because I would not have ever thought
of that. And then the classic example

493
00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:22.119
is if you make me genuinely laugh, if you're if you're that type of

494
00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:24.559
player, this is that kind of
game of fortune. We were playing a

495
00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:28.559
horror game and there wasn't a lot
of room for that this week. But

496
00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:30.799
made me genuinely laugh, then then
yeah, I would absolutely give you inspiration.

497
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:36.680
I want to encourage that behavior.
And the group that I'm dming for

498
00:32:36.799 --> 00:32:39.839
is called Dungeons and Drafts. Then
their whole point is to run D and

499
00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:45.000
D games at breweries on slow nights. We are there to drive sales,

500
00:32:46.359 --> 00:32:50.079
yep. And we're and we're not
shy about saying it is like, listen,

501
00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:52.079
we're here to support the brewery today, So if they buy me a

502
00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:57.119
drink, I can absolutely be bribed
as a DM on that particular day,

503
00:32:57.160 --> 00:33:00.000
you buy me a drink, I'm
gonna give you advantage. And some players

504
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:04.839
take advantage of that. Yeah,
yes you do. Guy. I got

505
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.640
fourth and just games and I wasn't
driving all that yet. I wasn't driving

506
00:33:07.640 --> 00:33:10.079
that day, so that was great. I was driving this week, so

507
00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:14.559
I capped at it two or three. And that's one of the things I

508
00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:16.079
love about it is that, like
like you say, you can be as

509
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:22.000
loose about it. You can be
if you do something quote cool unquote,

510
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:27.279
we'll give you inspiration or it can
be you know, one of the things

511
00:33:27.319 --> 00:33:30.000
we talked about when we're talking about
with overland travel was one of the things

512
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:34.759
like where you have everybody at the
campsite and you say, what do you

513
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:36.839
do? What do you do?
What do you do? One of the

514
00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:39.480
ways you can kind of reframe that
is, okay, how do you use

515
00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:44.680
your class abilities to help set the
campsite up? And you know, you

516
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:46.559
give a good description of a couple
of sentences when you get them, you

517
00:33:46.920 --> 00:33:52.359
give them inspiration and to maybe take
a moment every now and then to do

518
00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:55.640
those scenes that otherwise might be you
know what we might think of as like

519
00:33:55.759 --> 00:34:00.000
free role play or something like that. That's when you can set up inspiration,

520
00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:06.559
and you can also offer inspiration to
have people go out on a limb

521
00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:08.960
or put their character at risk a
little bit or something like that. You

522
00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:13.280
know, you know, you can
say, well, I know that you're

523
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:17.320
inclined to just hunker down and stay
in tonight, but if you go walking

524
00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:21.320
around town, I'll give you a
point of inspiration so that you've got it,

525
00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:23.119
you know, while you're walking around, in case you get jumped or

526
00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:27.199
something like that. Yeah. I
think this is something that needs to be

527
00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:31.639
and your level of generosity with it
is is going to differ from table to

528
00:34:31.679 --> 00:34:36.079
table and from from game to game, especially with and I'm just gonna use

529
00:34:36.119 --> 00:34:40.920
my example again because I'm running very
different games as one offs when with mostly

530
00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:45.719
new players. And this week I
happened to run a horror game and I

531
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:49.159
had to reward it for different things, and I was a little stingier with

532
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:52.440
it than I would have been on
a cillier game. The next game I'm

533
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:57.480
running is designed for first time players, and I'm going to just hand these

534
00:34:57.519 --> 00:35:01.880
things out like their f I almost
envision it again as somebody that doesn't use

535
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:07.360
it, but it is considering it
as say, you have a party that

536
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:12.840
just wants to fight and kill everything, but you kind of want as a

537
00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:15.840
GM, you want a little bit
more role play involved in it because it

538
00:35:15.880 --> 00:35:20.079
helps stretch out the sessions and everything
else. You don't have a million enemies

539
00:35:20.119 --> 00:35:22.719
just ready to go. So if
you want to encourage more role playing,

540
00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:25.880
if they give you a good role
play scene or something like that, then

541
00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:30.000
you can award inspiration for that.
Hey, that was that was really great.

542
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:32.480
Heause role play kind of thing.
Or you can go the opposite way

543
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:37.159
too, for those for those groups
that talk their way out of every combat.

544
00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:42.320
Sorry, you can almost aage for
not doing that. Yeah, you

545
00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:45.800
guys. You guys go back and
forth between the two extremes a little bit,

546
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:51.679
and it always it Actually, it's
really funny. It's one friend and

547
00:35:51.719 --> 00:35:54.800
it's depending on whether he's there or
not, because he's very good at being

548
00:35:54.840 --> 00:36:00.239
like, well, hold on,
we're gonna we're gonna talk our way out

549
00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:02.400
of this becomes by really three four
months, so I we're good. So

550
00:36:02.440 --> 00:36:07.840
it's a good balance. So I
don't need to use this no, but

551
00:36:07.079 --> 00:36:10.760
yeah, okay, that's the thing. You don't and you know you absolutely

552
00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:13.760
don't. You can still have.
But one of the one of the first

553
00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:15.920
things you said in that in just
what you were just saying there is that

554
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:21.079
I want to see these players role
playing more. And Jim and I just

555
00:36:21.320 --> 00:36:23.679
know I'm gonna I know you guys
rack up me for for using dog metaphors,

556
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:27.960
but this is this is the this
is the high value treat that you

557
00:36:28.039 --> 00:36:30.760
use to train your dog and to
you into the behavior you want to see.

558
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:34.199
So's not just dog. You can
do that with children as well.

559
00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:37.400
When I have company come over and
Davy puts himself into his little dog bed

560
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:39.360
or you know, dog, he
puts hi stuff into his little dog bed

561
00:36:39.559 --> 00:36:44.119
that I assume he has. It
just doesn't bite gel yes, which is

562
00:36:44.199 --> 00:36:46.280
even funnier that my dog's name is
Davie. When you have a dog with

563
00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:50.679
a human name, things can get
really confusing when you're when you're saying you're

564
00:36:50.679 --> 00:36:53.280
training them. So but yeah,
when I when he starts doing the behaviors

565
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:55.840
that I want to see him do, he puts himself in his bed and

566
00:36:55.880 --> 00:37:00.159
doesn't jump on people. You know, we give him the treat that he

567
00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:05.840
likes the most. We save those
for my special occasions and giving out advantage.

568
00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:07.840
The only thing you can do that
is more enticing than that just handing

569
00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:12.840
out free magic items, Right,
We're not doing that. Yeah, that's

570
00:37:12.840 --> 00:37:15.599
just not going to happen. One
of the other things that's and it's I

571
00:37:15.639 --> 00:37:22.000
also wanted to just kind of interject
because before you refer to inspiration as a

572
00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:24.519
reroll, and there may be people
going, wait a minute, it's advantage,

573
00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:31.719
but the DMG is actually pretty specific
about saying spending inspiration after the role

574
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:36.599
is a viable way to use it. It is written into the rules that

575
00:37:36.679 --> 00:37:39.679
if you want to allow that at
your table to have it effectively be a

576
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:44.320
rerole essentially, you know, if
that second role is higher you can take

577
00:37:44.360 --> 00:37:49.480
it. Then that is totally valid. It's canon. It's you know,

578
00:37:49.519 --> 00:37:52.159
written into the rules, and that's
the way I always play it because then

579
00:37:52.280 --> 00:37:59.760
that nothing feels better for players than
turning a whiff into a hit. Yes,

580
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:05.119
every now and then, like once
or twice. In my decade of

581
00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:08.719
running Fifth Edition, I ran hundreds
of Fifth Edition games. When I owned

582
00:38:08.760 --> 00:38:15.719
my game store, and a few
times someone would roll that one on the

583
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:19.559
first roll, right, and then
they go, oh man, yeah,

584
00:38:19.639 --> 00:38:22.360
no, I gotta spend inspiration,
and then they'd get that twenty and there's

585
00:38:22.440 --> 00:38:29.960
like nothing that is more so good
awesome. Play table just freaks out when

586
00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:35.159
that happened. I feel that feels
great. Yeah, fearing that, you're

587
00:38:35.480 --> 00:38:37.719
like, you get a little like
like you start to you know, you

588
00:38:37.119 --> 00:38:42.639
tear up a little at the thought
of h yeah, that's just something similar

589
00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:45.920
happened at our table. The last
time we played was our our rogues a

590
00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:51.719
halfling and forgot about halfling luck,
Like, hey, you're halfling, right,

591
00:38:52.320 --> 00:38:53.880
yeah, but it's that kind of
halfling luck. So if you roll

592
00:38:53.880 --> 00:38:57.119
it one, you can reroll it. He's like, I do right,

593
00:38:57.440 --> 00:39:00.960
Yeah, he was about to spend
a luck pointing to the lucky That's right,

594
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.639
that's he was going to waste.
You don't need to do that,

595
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.320
Yeah, And I'm happy to let
that player spend inspiration to reroll a third

596
00:39:09.400 --> 00:39:15.360
time. You know, that's if
you want to, you know, you

597
00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:16.199
know you want to, you know, use it, but you know,

598
00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:20.280
burn burn it right up. The
other thing that I love about it is

599
00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:22.639
that kind of Jason, like to
sort of spin off from you talking about

600
00:39:22.920 --> 00:39:27.239
using it to buy, like giving
inspiration for buying drinks or something like that,

601
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:30.599
is that it's not just role playing
or being cool about your character.

602
00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:37.559
You can also use it for like
whoever does the recap of the last session

603
00:39:37.559 --> 00:39:39.400
at the beginning of the game,
they get a point of inspiration. You

604
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:49.599
I'm the keeper, you know,
But like like whoever fills out the whoever

605
00:39:49.840 --> 00:39:54.360
fills out your your whiteboard for the
order of initiative or something like that,

606
00:39:54.519 --> 00:40:00.440
they get a point of just a
great, great purpose reward for in character

607
00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:07.000
and you know, good player,
behave. That's called social engineering, Jim.

608
00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:10.360
If we do it out of the
game, that makes it sound not

609
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:20.320
exactly, but you know, the
good kind. This is a social engineer.

610
00:40:20.679 --> 00:40:24.239
No, no, don't like that. Don't like that. But it's

611
00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:29.679
it's a little positive reinforcement. So
yeah, so to put a button on

612
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:31.719
this one too, so DM inspiration. The very fast version is you can

613
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:35.880
just give advantage or reroles however you
want to play it to your players for

614
00:40:35.960 --> 00:40:37.760
doing the things that you want them
to do. So be as creative as

615
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:40.320
you need to be with that.
Maybe start with whoever can make you laugh

616
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:45.159
or whoever does something just in the
in the very subjective realm of just doing

617
00:40:45.239 --> 00:40:49.920
something cool, and you can be
as generous or as stingy as you want,

618
00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:52.119
and you can make you can make
them feel like something they really have

619
00:40:52.199 --> 00:40:53.239
to go earn, or you can
make them feel like, hey, this

620
00:40:53.559 --> 00:40:57.679
is a loose table. We can
just you know, just just keep being

621
00:40:57.719 --> 00:41:00.800
cool. We can keep getting these. Don't don't yourself in the foot by

622
00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:05.679
giving out too much. That don't
be a jerk about it either. Yeah,

623
00:41:05.800 --> 00:41:07.440
go back a three episodes to our
last horror story and you'll see what

624
00:41:07.480 --> 00:41:14.599
we're talking about. But that's that
inspiration is supposed to work. So this

625
00:41:14.719 --> 00:41:16.679
episode is almost long enough for me
for me to call it. But I'm

626
00:41:16.719 --> 00:41:20.679
gonna throw a couple of extra ones
out there. These are some some bonus

627
00:41:20.719 --> 00:41:24.320
things that often get misplayed. I'm
taking this from an article from the gamer

628
00:41:24.360 --> 00:41:29.039
dot com. This is from an
article called twelve Dungeon and Dragons Rules Everyone

629
00:41:29.079 --> 00:41:32.320
Forgets And while I was searching for
things to talk about other than inspiration,

630
00:41:32.760 --> 00:41:37.400
those are the ones that I think
deserve the most discussion, with the exception

631
00:41:37.440 --> 00:41:39.280
of maybe one of these, and
we'll get to that in a second,

632
00:41:39.639 --> 00:41:43.679
but we'll have a whole different episode
on that one. But just in the

633
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:46.400
air, twelve D and D rules
that are often forgotten. So we'll do

634
00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:50.760
just a quick blurb on each one
of these and just encourage you to go

635
00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:52.920
look these up and make sure that
you're playing these correctly. Yeah, the

636
00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:58.000
Gamer, the gamer dot com or
TheGamer Yes, they're not sure how yes

637
00:41:58.119 --> 00:42:01.519
them of course to this article be
in the show notes as well as well

638
00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:07.400
as a much longer one that is
called the Forgotten Rules Index. And this

639
00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:12.320
is other forgotten rules with links to
the actual rules themselves. I'm having a

640
00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:14.360
link to that one too. But
the one we're going to talk about is

641
00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:17.760
this our article from the Gamer.
So coming in number twelve is inventory management,

642
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:21.320
making sure you actould have a place
to put all your stuff because it's

643
00:42:21.360 --> 00:42:23.519
kind of weird to be carrying seventeen
swords. Make sure you sell your old

644
00:42:23.559 --> 00:42:28.039
inventory or get rid of it somehow. Bag of holdings should be a cool

645
00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:32.000
item to be sought after, not
an automatic conclusion. That is inventory management.

646
00:42:32.400 --> 00:42:37.039
Long rests. Everyone forgets that you
can only long rest once every twenty

647
00:42:37.039 --> 00:42:40.400
four hours, and abusing long rest
is a way to completely destroy. You

648
00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:45.039
don't need to sleep for eight hours
very long rest. Yeah, it's one

649
00:42:45.039 --> 00:42:46.559
of those it's only supposed to be
like six. Well, but you also

650
00:42:46.599 --> 00:42:50.679
don't you don't need to actually sleep. It just needs to be like downtime,

651
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:52.199
like you can you know, sleep
with some of it, but it

652
00:42:52.239 --> 00:42:54.079
doesn't have to be the full.
Yeah, it's supposed to be the other

653
00:42:54.079 --> 00:42:58.480
you're bandaging your wounds and prepping your
spells and that kind of stuff. That's

654
00:42:58.480 --> 00:43:00.719
why all that happens during that time. The other thing people forget about long

655
00:43:00.760 --> 00:43:06.639
rests is that as the DM,
you are always allowed to say there is

656
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:10.519
not conditions that allow you to take
a long rest here. So if people

657
00:43:10.599 --> 00:43:15.840
are trying to do the like one
encounter a day thing, you can just

658
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:17.920
say no, no, no,
no. It's going to be at least

659
00:43:17.960 --> 00:43:23.039
four encounters before you find another place
that will be suitable for a long rest.

660
00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:28.079
And you should not feel any guilt
or you know, let anybody buffalo

661
00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:31.159
you in the rocks. Yeah,
well I spent all my spells thoughts on

662
00:43:31.199 --> 00:43:36.119
that first encounter. Sucks to suck
you. You do want to communicate that

663
00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:37.880
you're going to do that, you
know, don't count on having a long

664
00:43:37.960 --> 00:43:40.840
rest until at least four encounters.
Here, guys, I'll tell them that

665
00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:45.159
the wait res dungeon's going to work. Yeah, so I'll let them find

666
00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:47.840
out number ten of spell components.
So a couple of things that with spell

667
00:43:47.880 --> 00:43:52.440
components. This just came up.
Yeah, So a your verbal and somatic

668
00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:55.840
components can be taken away from you, whether by being gagged or muted or

669
00:43:55.880 --> 00:44:00.000
having your hands tied or removed,
depending on the type of game you're play.

670
00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:05.360
But the for the idea, yes, the material components are things that

671
00:44:05.519 --> 00:44:08.320
you really should be forging for if
you if that's the type that you need.

672
00:44:08.599 --> 00:44:12.159
So, like when we've been coming
across some loot, like with with

673
00:44:12.280 --> 00:44:15.199
gems and stuff, I always tell
those I'm a barbarian, so what do

674
00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:17.000
I care? But I tell the
casters like, hey, guys, take

675
00:44:17.039 --> 00:44:21.079
look your spells, see what you
need. Grab the things that you need,

676
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:22.159
and if we don't need them,
then we can sell them. Especially

677
00:44:22.159 --> 00:44:27.440
at higher levels, your spellcasters are
going to need like diamonds worth a certain

678
00:44:27.480 --> 00:44:34.079
amount of gold or certain gems and
a lot of a lot of the components

679
00:44:34.119 --> 00:44:37.519
you can not exactly handwave, but
like something spellcasters should do at every town

680
00:44:37.599 --> 00:44:42.199
is hey, I'm going to go
shop for components, and you know you

681
00:44:42.199 --> 00:44:44.880
can kind of be like, yeah, you spend ten gold and you get,

682
00:44:44.960 --> 00:44:46.360
you know, all the components.
So you spend a couple of gold

683
00:44:46.360 --> 00:44:51.119
and get for wizards and artificers and
the ones that are getting stuff that you

684
00:44:51.159 --> 00:44:53.480
can buy druids and rangers. They
need a lot of nature stuff. So

685
00:44:53.639 --> 00:44:58.840
yeah, so they send during a
long rest that that's something that they'd be

686
00:44:58.880 --> 00:45:04.519
doing during the long rest. Now
that is good for spell components that are

687
00:45:05.360 --> 00:45:09.400
not consumed or even consumed and are
not really worth much of anything. So

688
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:12.639
like we're not gonna we're not going
to say, okay, you four drownd

689
00:45:12.639 --> 00:45:15.280
and you find diamond dust worth three
and your goals. You're not going to

690
00:45:15.320 --> 00:45:20.400
do that. And also that was
a really good survival. Also, your

691
00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:24.800
material components that are not consumed and
do not have a cost attached to them

692
00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:30.480
can all be replaced by your spell
casting focus. So that's another one that

693
00:45:30.519 --> 00:45:32.519
gets that gets that's that's that's kind
of what wan't get in here by putting

694
00:45:32.559 --> 00:45:36.440
this on the list. Wizards can
have their their wand or even their book

695
00:45:36.440 --> 00:45:38.559
itself, or like we're just something
that is is there. There are Arecaine

696
00:45:38.599 --> 00:45:44.000
focus Clarity usually have their holy symbol, you know, artificers have their gun

697
00:45:44.119 --> 00:45:47.719
or whatever they have. I think
certain certain warlocks to like Warlock of the

698
00:45:47.800 --> 00:45:53.440
Tome. I think they the Tome. I think that their tone acts of

699
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:57.719
book itself. Yet as there,
I'm fairly certain that's right. But I've

700
00:45:57.760 --> 00:46:02.639
not played one. But then spell
components that are consumed or have a cost

701
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:08.840
attached to them, it's usually both
those cannot be substituted by a spell casting

702
00:46:08.840 --> 00:46:13.840
focus, so you are going to
need that diamond dust for revivified that spell

703
00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:17.559
components. Number nine is concentration.
Not so much of this one gets forgotten,

704
00:46:17.639 --> 00:46:22.360
but it often gets misplayed. A
couple key things with concentration number one,

705
00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:27.280
if you take damage, make sure
you're taking that concentration role and seeing

706
00:46:27.320 --> 00:46:30.599
if you keep concentration. That's a
big one that gets It's not so much

707
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:32.880
that I forget that you have to
do it. I forget that they have

708
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:37.000
concentration up and I need players to
be like, oh right, I need

709
00:46:37.039 --> 00:46:40.679
to do that. I have had
DMS in one shot that I played in

710
00:46:40.920 --> 00:46:45.719
If I'm keeping up a concentration spell, they hand me a rubber band to

711
00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:50.239
put on my wrist, yeah sure, or a little table tent or something,

712
00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:52.199
yeah yeah, something that. But
putting you on the player reminds you

713
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:55.039
a little bit more than putting it
in front of them. So they there's

714
00:46:55.079 --> 00:47:00.480
ways to remind people of concentration,
and a really interesting one. And I

715
00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:02.920
never even considered this as even being
a thing. It's not that I didn't

716
00:47:02.920 --> 00:47:07.360
think it wasn't true. I just
never even thought of it. If you

717
00:47:07.480 --> 00:47:13.360
hold your action to cast a spell, you need to hold concentration until you

718
00:47:13.440 --> 00:47:17.639
actually get to pull it off.
So if you're acting first in combat and

719
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:21.199
you say, okay, well I
want to hold my action to cast this

720
00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:25.079
spell after the barbarian goes, and
that's totally fine, but I have to

721
00:47:25.079 --> 00:47:30.960
maintain concentration that whole time. So
if you have already cast a concentration spell

722
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.719
that you're holding until you banish somebody
else, and then you're going to hold

723
00:47:34.760 --> 00:47:37.440
your action because there's another group of
enemies that are coming down into the cave,

724
00:47:37.480 --> 00:47:40.760
there's concentration on one or the other. You couldn't you couldn't hold your

725
00:47:40.800 --> 00:47:45.280
action. Didn't realize you can hold
your action to cast a spell to cast

726
00:47:45.639 --> 00:47:47.239
cap, I can hold my action
to do it something else, do anything

727
00:47:47.280 --> 00:47:50.079
else. But yeah, so like
if you're at the top of the order

728
00:47:50.079 --> 00:47:53.519
the barbarians at the bottom, and
you really want to give them I can't

729
00:47:53.639 --> 00:47:55.800
think an example, tom My head. But you want to cast something on

730
00:47:55.840 --> 00:48:00.840
someone else that's way down in the
order, and you you got to maintain

731
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:02.760
concentration that whole time, so like
you know, all the goblins around you,

732
00:48:02.760 --> 00:48:05.960
we'll see you muttering into yourself.
I didn't know that. Yeah,

733
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:08.320
that's a really good exactly, Yeah, that's a really really good missed a

734
00:48:08.400 --> 00:48:12.320
lot and all of these lists because
I googled a bunch of these lists and

735
00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:14.800
I just happened to like this one
the most. That was a huge one

736
00:48:14.800 --> 00:48:17.599
that came up is maintaining concentration while
you're holding your action to cast. This

737
00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:22.519
surprised there's not more Reddit threads on
that. I found several. Actually,

738
00:48:23.039 --> 00:48:27.000
this one, I think we I'm
going to bring it up because I thought

739
00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.639
it was super obvious, but maybe
two newer players. Is not a bonus

740
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:32.320
action is like a little extra thing
that you can do that does not take

741
00:48:32.400 --> 00:48:36.599
up the time of an action.
We still only get one one bonus action

742
00:48:36.679 --> 00:48:38.920
per turn apparently other tables, so
that that's not ever been something that I

743
00:48:39.039 --> 00:48:43.559
have come across being a problem.
But is reactions on your list? Reaction

744
00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:46.159
is not on my life? That
should I think reactions should be on the

745
00:48:46.159 --> 00:48:51.159
list instead of a bonus action.
Yeah, no, I know because even

746
00:48:51.199 --> 00:48:54.760
again citing from memory, we had
some we have some newer players at our

747
00:48:54.800 --> 00:48:59.199
table, and and there was some
confusion on bonus actually okay, yeah,

748
00:48:59.199 --> 00:49:04.039
you're right, you're definitely yeah,
But reactions, that's the one that it's

749
00:49:04.079 --> 00:49:06.800
like, oh, you get your
attack of opportunity, Yeah, you go

750
00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:07.559
ahead and swing that. It's like, well, what do you mean I

751
00:49:07.559 --> 00:49:12.679
can't counter spell now right? Right? Or how come I can't use what

752
00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:15.119
hellish rebuke? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah, because it's a reaction yep.

753
00:49:15.159 --> 00:49:20.639
Yeah, and you already took atactive
opportunity And that comes up with with sports

754
00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:24.519
druids too, because they get to
use their reaction actively and use that of

755
00:49:24.559 --> 00:49:28.639
that halo of spores effect. Yeah. That was a weird one too,

756
00:49:28.639 --> 00:49:30.480
because the first time that that one
of our players used it, like hey,

757
00:49:30.519 --> 00:49:32.599
yeah, it takes my reaction and
we're like, what are you reacting

758
00:49:32.639 --> 00:49:37.599
to? And it just it just
takes. It just basically uses they get

759
00:49:37.639 --> 00:49:39.719
to use their reaction to do this
thing on their turn. I don't,

760
00:49:39.760 --> 00:49:44.719
but then they don't get a reaction. Number seven is one spell per turn,

761
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:47.760
one leveled spell per turn. Cantrips
do not count towards this, So

762
00:49:47.800 --> 00:49:52.239
if you cast something as bonus action, you cannot cast a leveled spell as

763
00:49:52.239 --> 00:49:54.559
an action, but you can't cast
a cantrip. Isn't there some exceptions to

764
00:49:54.599 --> 00:50:00.400
that to that rule, Like the
entire point of d D is that what

765
00:50:00.440 --> 00:50:05.599
the what your class abilities do is
allow you to break the rules that everybody

766
00:50:05.599 --> 00:50:10.239
else has to follow. So almost
certainly there is some high level caster abilities

767
00:50:10.239 --> 00:50:16.320
that let you make around that specific
circumstances of sorcers we may have covered.

768
00:50:16.880 --> 00:50:23.000
General is one leveled spell perturn and
that should be your you know, the

769
00:50:23.039 --> 00:50:27.119
thing you have in mind as a
spell caster. Yeah, so like you

770
00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:30.199
know, misty stepping and then fire
bolt totally fine, Misty stepping in the

771
00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:37.960
fire ball no good. Number six
creatures provide cover and this is great if

772
00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:39.280
you're playing with miniatures, because then
you have a little bit more of a

773
00:50:39.480 --> 00:50:44.519
of a tactile view of where things
are actually standing. If you're standing in

774
00:50:44.519 --> 00:50:46.920
a line. And that doesn't mean
allies, that means any creature. So

775
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:52.079
if you're in melee combat with anything, and then the archer, you know,

776
00:50:52.519 --> 00:50:53.559
you have a goblin in front of
you, and then the goblin archer

777
00:50:53.559 --> 00:50:58.000
wants to shoot you, they have
to shoot around their friend, right And

778
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:01.119
the fact that's going to provide you
with cover. That also means if you

779
00:51:01.119 --> 00:51:06.880
were next to an ally, you
can have cover behind that. And that

780
00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:10.039
actually I thought that was only if
you are a size smaller, but that's

781
00:51:10.039 --> 00:51:14.280
actually for anybody, No, for
anybody, So even I got that wrong.

782
00:51:14.840 --> 00:51:17.960
Number five sun like sensitivity. This
is the reason why some classes seem

783
00:51:19.039 --> 00:51:21.679
really really really good on paper,
right, and then you get them into

784
00:51:21.760 --> 00:51:24.320
practicality. It's like, oh,
I need to carry an umbrella everywhere I

785
00:51:24.320 --> 00:51:29.199
go. Or yeah, it's like
drought, you want to play drought drows

786
00:51:29.239 --> 00:51:31.480
awesome. I you know, I
have some backup ideas just in case my

787
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:36.119
my barbarian dies and I kind of
I wanted to try a cobalt. They

788
00:51:36.119 --> 00:51:39.119
have some like sensitivity. Also.
I'm sure there's some kind of sunglasses.

789
00:51:40.079 --> 00:51:46.239
I feel that there are goggles of
night of dark vision, goggles of skin,

790
00:51:47.199 --> 00:51:50.320
so you know, the you have
sp F two hundred on. Yeah,

791
00:51:50.559 --> 00:51:52.280
what do we got covered? Yeah, well that's something you know,

792
00:51:52.360 --> 00:51:55.559
talk to your DM. But but
that is there that in mind. Yeah,

793
00:51:55.639 --> 00:51:59.239
that is there to kind of balance
out some of these classes that have

794
00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:02.199
a lot of advantage because Drawur awesome. Yeah, Droughur is so cool that

795
00:52:02.199 --> 00:52:07.880
they're probably the best elf to that
alfinest. Yeah, I was gonna say,

796
00:52:07.880 --> 00:52:13.079
except maybe Aladrimad is a droughtist,
but mechanically they're they're one of the

797
00:52:13.079 --> 00:52:16.239
better elf classes. Shut up,
Joe. So number four, this one

798
00:52:16.280 --> 00:52:19.440
comes up a lot, a lot, a lot, and we think we

799
00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:22.280
all know the answer to this,
and the actual answer was so surprising to

800
00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:28.039
me. Number four is an initiative
tie. If you tie for initiative,

801
00:52:28.440 --> 00:52:31.320
Joe, what happens? So I
always go by decks, But it's actually

802
00:52:31.400 --> 00:52:36.599
between the up to the players,
isn't it. Yeah. So if there's

803
00:52:36.599 --> 00:52:39.079
a tie among players and the players
decide who goes first, that's the two

804
00:52:39.280 --> 00:52:42.960
that's the two of you walking into
the door at the same time realizing you

805
00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:45.760
can't go abreast. That's after you
start no, no, no, I

806
00:52:45.800 --> 00:52:47.840
insist after you, sir. That's
if it's among players, if it's if

807
00:52:47.880 --> 00:52:52.199
there is an enemy in there as
well, the DM decides. But it's

808
00:52:52.199 --> 00:52:55.480
really just like, uh, who's
probably gonna go by deck score and then

809
00:52:55.480 --> 00:53:00.239
if that doesn't happen that you do
die do it? I do it by

810
00:53:00.280 --> 00:53:07.800
initiative bonus, I do it buy. Whoever has the highest initiative bonus goes

811
00:53:07.400 --> 00:53:14.519
before the decide situation. That's usually
what I default. Okay, it was

812
00:53:14.559 --> 00:53:16.320
a DM decized thing. Yeah,
I like going by something I can measure

813
00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:19.239
this way. It's not just like
it's like, oh, I'm going to

814
00:53:19.320 --> 00:53:22.480
go first. Obviously I like there
to be a reason behind it. But

815
00:53:22.639 --> 00:53:27.119
the players can can start planning their
attack. They could be a tactical thing.

816
00:53:27.559 --> 00:53:30.440
Well, who's going to go first? So time for advantage. The

817
00:53:30.519 --> 00:53:32.559
rules are, it's up to you. You don't have to go by decks.

818
00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:36.880
Three is movement. This is This
is something that gets mixed up with

819
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:38.760
new new players a lot. You
don't have to move all in one shot.

820
00:53:39.159 --> 00:53:43.159
You can you can move attack,
move back to where you were,

821
00:53:43.679 --> 00:53:45.719
you can move to your action,
move somewhere else to your bonus action,

822
00:53:45.760 --> 00:53:49.159
and move somewhere else again, as
long as it stays within your total.

823
00:53:49.599 --> 00:53:52.280
And this is something that the Balder's
Gate game handles really really well. Two

824
00:53:52.320 --> 00:53:58.360
is invisibility. It doesn't just hand
you your stealth. It doesn't just hand

825
00:53:58.440 --> 00:54:00.480
you the fact that then one can
proceed you. You can still be heard,

826
00:54:00.559 --> 00:54:04.920
you can still be used to be
smelled by creatures with you know,

827
00:54:05.360 --> 00:54:09.039
particularly keen sense of smelling wolves.
That's actually a part of the wolf stat

828
00:54:09.039 --> 00:54:14.920
blocks. They have advantage on perception
checks involving smell. But it really just

829
00:54:14.960 --> 00:54:19.760
gives you advantage and your enemy's disadvantage
on perceiving you. You can still be

830
00:54:19.880 --> 00:54:22.480
really kind of seen. It's just
really hard. Yeah. Yeah, And

831
00:54:22.559 --> 00:54:27.519
again while we're at it, stealth
and the past with that a trace is

832
00:54:27.559 --> 00:54:30.320
that is that on your list?
Because it is not. That's one again.

833
00:54:30.320 --> 00:54:31.360
They were like, I'm just gonna
stealth, Like, well, I'm

834
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:35.719
gonna hide like way behind what right, Like you're in there, You're in

835
00:54:35.760 --> 00:54:37.599
a room, there's nothing. Yes, and this is something actually this is

836
00:54:37.639 --> 00:54:40.079
on this list, but let's let's
just get into that real quick. So

837
00:54:40.280 --> 00:54:45.440
again, in my in my store
level one shots, one of my characters

838
00:54:45.480 --> 00:54:50.039
that I have as a pregen is
a thief, and the bonus action high

839
00:54:50.280 --> 00:54:54.079
was something that was getting abused just
entirely too much. Those they never got

840
00:54:54.119 --> 00:54:58.119
hit because I wasn't. I just
wasn't gonna bother with them. And then

841
00:54:58.239 --> 00:55:01.800
you know, then the question became
okay, hide behind what, and I

842
00:55:01.840 --> 00:55:05.800
just started giving them places they couldn't
hide it. Yeah, just keep in

843
00:55:05.840 --> 00:55:08.320
mind that this is a like if
we're talking about dungeons and dragons. This

844
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:14.920
is a storytelling game. So it's
important to have that. Have that ready

845
00:55:14.960 --> 00:55:17.039
because you will run into players who
say, like, oh, bonus ac

846
00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:21.199
can hide, like okay, hide
behind what, like describe them at least

847
00:55:21.280 --> 00:55:22.880
right like, well, Okay,
I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna one

848
00:55:22.960 --> 00:55:28.920
of the slain enemies. I'm gonna
lay down under. Yeah, and that

849
00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:30.800
might be a good reason to give
an aileration, but yeah, yeah,

850
00:55:30.800 --> 00:55:34.320
and you know, and the feast
whole thing is to stick and move.

851
00:55:34.360 --> 00:55:37.000
But you know, I don't want
to validate half of what makes the thief

852
00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:39.079
a thief. But yeah, sometimes
we get it's so caught up and though

853
00:55:39.119 --> 00:55:43.000
I think in playing and winning that
we forget that this is a narrative driven

854
00:55:44.039 --> 00:55:45.880
I love I want that on a
T shirt and the number one on here

855
00:55:45.960 --> 00:55:50.239
is death seaves a couple of things
that new players may not always know,

856
00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:54.440
and we may even get backwards.
Sometimes once the character goes unconscious as you're

857
00:55:54.800 --> 00:55:59.960
HP, they have to roll dead
seas on their turns. Three failures,

858
00:56:00.159 --> 00:56:04.119
dead, three successes, and you
stabilize, you're still unconscious. You get

859
00:56:04.159 --> 00:56:06.800
one hid point right, No,
no, you won't get them on that

860
00:56:06.840 --> 00:56:10.400
twenty not twenty. You come back
at one HP, but three successes,

861
00:56:10.440 --> 00:56:13.719
you're still at zero. You're still
unconscious. You're just not in danger of

862
00:56:13.800 --> 00:56:16.039
dying. Now. One is two
failures. That one is two failures.

863
00:56:16.280 --> 00:56:20.639
That's not instant death as some people
think you which you would think like if

864
00:56:20.760 --> 00:56:24.239
that twenty is an instant backup and
then a natural one would be instant death,

865
00:56:24.239 --> 00:56:27.039
and it's just not. This just
not the case. So it is

866
00:56:27.159 --> 00:56:30.400
you pop back up at one or
it's two death fails. Right. Also,

867
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:37.239
if you get hit while you're while
you're conscious critical, being prone while

868
00:56:37.599 --> 00:56:42.000
prone and unconscious is an auto crit
which is which would be two death fails.

869
00:56:43.199 --> 00:56:45.000
So those the twelve D and D
rules everyone forgets. According to the

870
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:47.880
gamer dot com And again the link
will be in the show notes. But

871
00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:52.039
I hope you guys learned, like
a lot today. I learned all bunch.

872
00:56:52.280 --> 00:56:54.840
I learned way more than I thought
I would. You know, there's

873
00:56:54.840 --> 00:56:58.519
some crazy stuff from that in that
player's handbook. We got to start reading

874
00:56:58.559 --> 00:57:05.159
it. It's a This thing's full
of real page turner, is what it

875
00:57:05.199 --> 00:57:09.159
is. Yeh. But but Jim, thanks so much for for bringing up

876
00:57:09.239 --> 00:57:13.679
inspiration as well. Joe, thanks
for bringing up over world travel. We're

877
00:57:13.719 --> 00:57:15.239
going to drop some fun things in
the show notes. I don't really know

878
00:57:15.320 --> 00:57:20.599
where we're gonna drop yet. But
what is a rule that you never really

879
00:57:20.679 --> 00:57:23.519
knew how to get around or really
or what's the rule that you were playing

880
00:57:23.559 --> 00:57:28.760
wrong for longer than you probably should
have and then have you epiphany one day

881
00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:30.679
to start playing it right. I
want to know, like I want to

882
00:57:30.679 --> 00:57:32.239
know what took you the longest to
learn? What? What do we learned

883
00:57:32.239 --> 00:57:35.920
by doing wrong? So you can
send your stories about that too, Hello

884
00:57:35.960 --> 00:57:39.159
Adventures Podcast at gmail dot com,
or tell us your story yourself at helloadventures

885
00:57:39.159 --> 00:57:44.800
podcast dot com, slash voice and
leave us a voicemail like the If you

886
00:57:44.920 --> 00:57:46.840
like what you say, it is
putting them on the show. But I

887
00:57:46.880 --> 00:57:50.719
think that's all we got today.
I think that's plenty of plenty. That's

888
00:57:50.719 --> 00:57:53.840
st on think of a studying about
Jim Joe. Thanks so much, Thank

889
00:57:53.880 --> 00:57:59.119
you and thank you for listening to
Hello Adventures. We're your host Jason Portiso,

890
00:57:59.199 --> 00:58:01.679
Jim Crocker and Joe a Call producer, editor and engineer Jason Portiso and

891
00:58:01.800 --> 00:58:05.960
music by Nick Spurrier, artwork by
Kristen Broderick. You can reach out to

892
00:58:06.039 --> 00:58:09.320
us with any feedback for suggestions by
emailing Hello Adventurers podcast at gmail dot com.

893
00:58:09.360 --> 00:58:15.159
Hello Adventures is a JTV audio production. Goodbybe Adventure