Episode 103: Homebrew Systems & Story Arcs: An evening with Evani of DnDisaster Story

Brian Wiggins

0:02 This is the hidden roles podcast by dungeon masters for dungeon Master's. We are going to give you a peek on our side of the table.

Brian Wiggins

0:15 So you can see inside our notebooks and what we've been doing on our side of the screen. Now let me roll my one T. Okay, check my table. And my guest this week is

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

0:30 I am ivani and I am the disaster dm of the DND disaster story of sky daddy is watching.

Brian Wiggins

0:40 Now, fair warning. If you are a player in any of my games, or in Advani games, and you listen to this nice characters, you've got their shame if something happened to them. My guest is ivani or evany. Because apparently

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:06 ivani anchor, whatever. Hey, you.

Brian Wiggins

1:09 Hey, you over there. Yeah, so what are something you had mentioned? You have a few different games you're running. What are some of the games that are you running right now?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:20 Currently, it is predominantly d&d fivey though I did just do the session zero for a gurps campaign fourth edition. So all of my drop ins right now are fifth edition. And my recorded game is a fifth edition. But the imperson one that I'm running is gurps. Awesome.

Brian Wiggins

1:44 What was the first ttrpg that you ever played?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:49 Done Dungeons and Dragons? 3.5. Okey dokey. Yeah, the one with the monster list of skills that was severely over developed and overpowered.

Brian Wiggins

2:02 I think I think I skipped three and 3.5. Okay, because I started. I started with Redbox. And then I didn't get into back into fifth edition. So I think I heard that a lot of people have some feelings, they feel a certain kind of way about 3.5.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

2:20 You either love it or you hate it. And even the people that love it recognize that there's a lot.

Brian Wiggins

2:25 So how did how did that come into your life? how did how did this land on you? or How did you land on it? It could go either way?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

2:37 Well, I have always been a fan of like fantasy and sci fi and those types of shows and books. I read a ridiculous amount. And one of my very good friends in college actually, actually my very first year of college, ended up getting together with her dm and they I think are married and have children and everything. Now I lost touch with her a while ago. But I sat down on a couple of their sessions. It seemed fun. And I found a group when I went back home for the summer ended up changing schools. But that dm has influenced my dming style ever since. And it's been like 1617 years. Wow.

Brian Wiggins

3:26 That's very cool.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

3:28 So it just kind of I fell into it. I was like the only girl in the group because we're talking really early on. So I'm not necessarily an old lady in the Kim campaign setting and everything because there have been a lot of players that have been playing much longer than I have. But it's been a long time for me.

Brian Wiggins

3:54 So was it was d&d and ttrpg. Something you were already aware of going into it kind of just like, Oh yeah, this is a thing or was this like, Oh, I didn't even know this existed.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

4:06 I knew that it existed. I had never known anyone that played it. Or known that my friends played it until I was already involved with it. It turned out that several of my existing acquaintances and friends already played, and I just didn't know about it until I started getting into the same. And then I moved down here and pretty much half or more of my entire social circle is into roleplay games of some kind.

Brian Wiggins

4:40 Cool. That's always nice. So you had mentioned before that you had you know you're playing ffiv right now, you started with 3.5 you're also started a gurps campaign. Do you have a favorite teach ttrpg system.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

4:54 It's currently its fifth edition. I have played in d&d have played 3.5. I've played 4.0. I've played fifth. I am now playing gurps. And I've done a variety of other campaign types like D six systems, d 10, systems, things like that. And I do like d&d fifth edition because it's so accessible. So you can get a wide variety of people. But I have a feeling that because I am a sandbox dm and a roleplay, intensive dm that I'm going to really end up liking gurps for the basically customization that you can do, you have the system.

Brian Wiggins

5:38 So for the folks who may not have heard of gurps before, because so I had a friend of mine in college, who was way into ttrpg. I mean, far down the rabbit hole, like really like obscure systems like I think he talked about, like one call to ill nominee where you're playing as an angel or as a demon or, yeah, yeah. And he had mentioned gurps a lot. And so for folks who may not know what that is, and maybe you can refresh my memory, because it's been a long time, I just remember kind of being like open source RPG, but maybe you can explain that for

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

6:11 folks. Kind of it was created started as an open source. And it's created to kind of be used as an open source. gurps stands for generic universal role playing system. So it is quite literally designed to where you can cherry pick portions of like skill sets and advantages and disadvantages. To fit the setting that you want to create. It can be fantasy, it can be sci fi, futuristic, historical, modern age, whatever you want to create with it, because it is so customizable, which unfortunately leads to the problem that DND 3.5 had, where there's so many options that you can get lost if you don't have a guide. Yeah, I can see. But it is very, very customizable. And since I almost exclusively do homebrew worlds that appealed to several of the prior players that I had had that wanted to do a new campaign with me. And it somewhat appealed to me though learning it is definitely somewhat daunting,

Brian Wiggins

7:25 huh. So we just started a new campaign and we decided we just finished up a 5g campaign. And everything all right. Yeah. shortest podcast episode ever. And we'd started we decided we wanted to get away from ffiv just because one of the players in particular, but I think all of us were kinda like, let's just do something different. So we decided to move to a D 10. And we I adapted some stuff out of the exalted system from White Wolf. But now I see I'm thinking a little check in on gurps now and seeing if that makes any sense.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

8:07 Yeah. I've explored a little bit in White Wolf and the exalted system. And it definitely has more to appeal to a storyteller of a GM instead of a plot device and mechanics, GM than d&d does, because d&d is at its heart, a combat roleplay system instead of like, interactive character roleplay. Everything that you do as interactive character, roleplay, is what the DM decides to do. Yeah, but with exalted, there are certain aspects of it that I personally think, leave you to have too much of the interpretation from the DM. So if that GM or dm is not as creative or doesn't know, as much improv, or doesn't have a lot of rules that they have in their head preset, yeah, can create a lot of interruption or ask hints from the player side.

Brian Wiggins

9:14 Yeah, I could see that. Now. I never thought of it that way. But yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's not it is not for beginner. Like even I think even like the vampire, the world of darkness systems have more stuff for you to rely on. exalted. Yes.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

9:32 Yeah. It's, it's not on your experience.

Brian Wiggins

9:35 That is really interesting. Like as a player, it's pretty easy to jump in. But yeah, as a storyteller, you would need to definitely take a take a step back and make that Oh, wow. Very easy. I had never picked up on that. And that is an awesome yeah, it was just really fun world. They made a reserve sort of concept.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

9:54 They did they created Sunday and it's it's a storytellers game. That That is why they call their GM storytellers. Yeah, it's a storytellers game. It is designed so that you have those little aspects of the politics and socio economics and the social interaction, and all of that stuff. It's designed around that, and some combat. It doesn't have a lot of actual set rules and regulations for how those interactions work. Yeah, the storyteller, the jam is dependent on either their personal experience and knowing how that's typically supposed to run down, or really trusting your players to not make shit calls.

Brian Wiggins

10:40 Yeah, yeah, there's that. And now that I'm thinking about it, it's probably not even for beginner role players that don't have that necessarily, unless they have that skill set. Like if you took a bunch of actors and put them into that. They probably be okay, because it's so rules light, that you're saying, alright, you have to describe the stunt you're going to do Oh, yeah, I'm going to do this, this blah, blah, blah, blah, boom. Whereas someone who's maybe just getting started? Yeah, I can see where like, starting with d&d is going to be a little bit easier. Because it's like, No, we have a rule for that. Or at least we have a rule adjacent to that. And if not extended for it.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

11:21 Yeah. So like, if you're good at improv, it doesn't matter if you've done acting or done role plays before, if that's just something that you can do when you're bullshitting with friends and people. Or you can come up with stories in your head, which is what a lot of people that roleplay appeals to, are good at that it's not as much of an issue. So jumping in as a player for that is more of the if they have not gotten the indication, or the habit ingrained in them of being that problematic player, or that toxic player, I just see the exalted system being more vulnerable to those types of players. And if it's a beginner player, you don't always know if that's how they're going to end up true know if they're going to have main character syndrome, because they've never put and frequently new players have main character syndrome, because they're not used to working with it as a group.

Brian Wiggins

12:22 I am writing that down nuke main character center. I have never heard it before. But it, it describes it. It describes that so perfectly. And you know what, I think it actually takes some of the, it takes some of the onus off of someone being a toxic player, because if they don't realize it, they're just like, Well, yeah, of course, I'm the main character. Well, yeah, you're all the main character of your own story. But this is an ensemble cast.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

12:50 Yeah. tabletop role playing games, and voice over IP role playing games, become now our collaborative storytelling. So you have a group of protagonists instead of a main character. And that's how I try to phrase it to new players.

Brian Wiggins

13:08 I like that. So how did you make the transition from player to the self inflicted masochism, that is being behind the screen.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

13:20 So the the weird thing about me is that I don't view it as Mac. I have been into creativity and writing I was. And still, I'm a fanfic writer, I, there's, there's a little bit of the skeletons in my closet.

Brian Wiggins

13:41 Now you say that with pride. Don't Don't, don't shy away from

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

13:44 I'm a little bit of a fanfic author for like, you know, trademark and copyright purposes. I won't say what I am a fanfic author of on official recordings. But in addition to that, I do eventually want to become a published fantasy author, oh, I'm used to creating worlds because the way that I've always approached it, is if you understand how the world works, and if you understand how the people around your protagonist function, then the story 70% writes itself. So that just kind of fed into being a DM being a GM. And when I had a group of friends that were interested in playing a game, but no one could decide to be the DM. While I didn't did very much want to play, I also was willing to run. So my very first campaign was actually a codium campaign, we would each take a section of the story, and our character would become an NPC when we were the one running the story, and then when that particular quest line or whatever ended, the next person The other person would take over. And we would jump back into actually playing our character interesting. It required a lot of trust from from the players so that you didn't have the NPC doing all the heroic stuff.

Brian Wiggins

15:13 Well, now I'm in the driver's seat. And now I am the main character. So you all sit down.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

15:17 Yeah, you got to be careful with that. But I had a pretty good partner for that particular session and only lasted for about a year or so before the group just kind of fell apart to adult responsibilities. But yeah, it gave me a taste for damming and I really liked the world building and the NPC aspect and the creativity of it. Very cool. Yeah. So

Brian Wiggins

15:42 what's your favorite monster?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

15:44 I don't have one.

Brian Wiggins

15:45 Really legitimate monster agnostic.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

15:48 My favorite monster is the one that is most fitting to the situation.

Brian Wiggins

15:55 Okay. Yeah. Okay, I like it. So, now that we've gotten to know you a little bit here,

Brian Wiggins

16:03 we can start getting a little bit more behind the screen here, which is really what I like doing here where we can start kind of letting people hear behind and see what it is we're doing. See our notes seem a few of our fudged roles, things like that. Which I mean, I mean, we've I've never finished a role myself, but

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

16:20 I totally have. No players know it. Yeah. My players know it. They know that I usually it's a federal role to their benefit. And yeah,

Brian Wiggins

16:31 yeah, I've done that when. So I've got to level one campaigns. I'm running right now. I've got Oh, that's painful. It Well, it isn't. It's not. And it is because yes, it's level one. And it's and it's not, though, because they're both groups are brand new. So I've gotten to break them in and okay. So that it's been, yeah, it's kind of both where it's like, I like running level one. I like running characters from level one up, because then you get to see the ramp up of the character development and also the power development, you know. But the downside is it's so easy to one hit characters and TPK characters. And so yeah, I fudged a couple when it's like, oh, wait, if I have the next rat come in, this is the shortest campaign ever. Alright, rats won't come in. But they don't need to know that.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

17:28 Hope that they don't trip.

Brian Wiggins

17:29 Exactly. And do an athletics check. Oh, no, no, no, no, you're okay, new rolling new characters, guys. So I bet you had mentioned you just run session zero. And that's something that is obviously universally considered one of the most important things. So what are questions that you ask of your players? Or what is information that you need? When you conduct your sessions zero to ensure that everyone at the table, yourself included, has the maximum amount of fun achieves whatever goals they're looking to achieve as people there? What is the information you need? What questions do you ask?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

18:12 Well, for a lot of sessions, zero itself, I consider it more of a group discussion. So that they can figure out how they fit with each other. Yeah. And I can figure out what they're looking for, for their character and out of their character. So a lot of people just want to create something that's fun to play. Nothing of themselves is in it. And it's just a puppet that they play around with. And then there's also a lot of people that it's some aspect of their personality, and they want something specific for that character. And by playing that character, a lot of the people that are in the scripts campaign, I can because I know them personally, I can tell that there are certain aspects of their personality that took a major role in creation. And that helped me through more implication than direct question, figure out how they really wanted to go about it. I don't use session zero as questioning them because they create their characters prior to it. Right. I use it as figuring out what the dynamic of the group is going to be. And the style of the campaign. Okay, my gurps campaign. I wouldn't call it super serious and dire but significantly more serious than the one that has been labeled sky daddy as watching

Brian Wiggins

19:40 I would imagine that nothing could be as serious as sky daddy is watching but

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

19:47 but yeah, so it actually

Brian Wiggins

19:48 sounds like it should be like the next like dating sim that everyone's playing.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

19:52 Almost. But the, the gurps one which I have labeled the awakening and that's like a working title since they haven't really been able to name themselves yet, like, we got into the intricate laws and designations of judicial due process for of a militiamen versus a soldier versus a regular citizen. Wow. And who would try that person versus in like sky daddy is watching campaign there session zero, quite literally changed the personalities of a variety of NPCs that I had pre designed for them to fit with the complete fucking chaos. So we've got like, the people that arrested someone and want to take them to the correct juror versus I'm going to roll a potato at you.

Brian Wiggins

20:56 I so first of all, first impression is that those are two completely different flavors of joy. But they both taste like joy, because it's just like, wow, yeah. But I first that I thought you were about to say they were gonna roll stats for a potato.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

21:10 Which Listen, yeah, but I wouldn't put it past them.

Brian Wiggins

21:12 We ended up with potato scouts in our last campaign by accident. And it was so much fun to the consequences of their actions. And it was Oh, by accident, they started like this youth group found that they were working out. Yeah, yeah. And now the new campaign that we've been haphazardly trying to play because life keeps getting in the way. And it's been about two months since we've played it since. But we Yeah, we decided to go kind of grittier with this one and darker and I had this world that I had built. And I was like, do you guys want to play it? And they said, yeah. And then we spent about a month long session zero, just talking things out, making sure that we were doing the things that everyone wanted to do.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

21:56 Yeah, so like, So prior to session zero is when I start asking questions. First one, of course, is always the safety tools, questions. What's your line? What's your veil? And then I also add, what's your wish, and they're like something that you specifically want as a goal for your character, okay, so that I can make sure that everybody is comfortable and knows when to x card in the game. Yeah. And that changed a couple of things in each of the games. But it's more my questions are about their characters, their motivations, I don't necessarily need a full backstory, because your backstory is developed with your character, your character isn't finished, when you start the game. But I want to know, what you envision for your character, like some of the personality what their interests are. And that is much more of a conversation prior to d&d than it is prior to gurps. Because there are so many advantages and disadvantages that create very, very unique characters, like you can have a character that is has no, like sense of taste or smell, you can have a character that is a fanatic, you can have a character that has a random, odious personal habit. And that odious person happens to be that they suck their teeth. Oh, like, that is defined in girl Wow. That create it's very easily known characters for me to just look at the character sheet and go Okay, I have an idea of how the character will behave. But what what's what's your mood on this character? What are you looking for? Where's your interests lie? What type of personality? Are you thinking of giving them? Why are you going in this direction? Give me a reason behind this particular disadvantage, or this particular advantage? Why did you choose that? So it's much more targeted toward each player than a specific question that I asked. Right?

Brian Wiggins

24:04 So going off of that, because you just awoke to not great memories, games that I run. What are your thoughts? Because Well, first of all, I mean, it sounds almost like first edition like with all the tables and everything and I miss some of the tables second edition at so many tables and as a child It was like oh, I don't know what these are for and now I'm like, I missed the treasure tables. How do you feel about min maxing? How do you feel about characters that are trying are players that are trying to build like the the Opie character? What's your Is that like a game by game situation? Yeah,

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

24:44 yeah, it has its place. If everyone does it, it can work. And if you go in as the GM, knowing that that's what's happening. Yeah. And that's the type of game that they want to play. Sure. That's not the type of game that I want to run. However, right? Because that makes very black and white or grayscale characters, in terms of how you play them, like even the characters that I play. I wouldn't call the minmax though they are efficient. But I also give them very, very heavy, actual personality. Right, and sometimes psychosis, because that's funny to me. But like actual minmax are generally don't think about the actual characterization and roleplay side, so it depends on the min max or and whether or not everyone else in the group has agreed to that game. Yeah.

Brian Wiggins

25:44 Yeah, I haven't make sense. I had. I had it happen to be once in college, I was running a vampire, the masquerade game. And I didn't realize that the character at the player had min max, because that was, you know, they have this system where you can take flaws and whatever. And if you take a flaw, it means you get bonus points to buy other things. And I didn't realize what he had done until it was too late.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

26:09 gurps is the same way. So if you explore it,

Brian Wiggins

26:13 I yeah. And I had a I had someone who did it after we expressly said we didn't want to do that. And then for the first year that he was with us, the only year he was with us, I don't think he failed a single check. Yeah. And to me, that's no fun. Because some of the fun in the storytelling is in failed roles. I want to see that natural and that's it. It's, it's, it's great when you're in that tense situation, and you need that role. And Nope, you rolled it to. And it's That's for me as part of the fun because it's not always succeeding. And it's it could be great storytelling, and like, Oh, I thought I was going to succeed in this and no, in the hero fails, there's some great storytelling there or it can be great comedic effect.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

26:58 But yeah, so like, it's the same thing can happen nowadays, and the two players that I have in the group's campaign that have not played under me before, were trying to warn me about how it's so possible to min max, and you've got to set a limit on the amount of disadvantages people can do, because they can create really powerful characters. I'm just like, Well, are you going to do that and mess with the balance of the party? Because you have two people that have never played this system before that are playing with you won't even know how, yeah, or you're going to create a character that you will enjoy playing. That's an actual character. And so it was as much a discussion as anything else. But yeah, it's just I don't think min maxing personally is particularly fun, either to run or to play. Yeah, some people do enjoy it. Some people just want to murder hobo their way through a dungeon instead of having an actual story. Yeah, and I don't judge those people. If that's what you enjoy. That is the game that you play. Exactly. And a way to play that game. Yeah, I'm just not personally going to run it.

Brian Wiggins

28:14 Yeah, I get that. It's like playing God of War. Some people like that game. Some people don't have that. Nothing wrong with it. I told this new group I'd started their first game was on Sunday, and it's brand spanking new creating character and everything. So it was a lot of fun. But I was trying to explain to them because none of them had any concept of the game outside of like Stranger Things, which is perfectly fine. Yeah. But it's like, yeah, you know, it's like, hang on, you know, it's a little different. But they're playing they're playing like second edition. You gotta. But uh, I'd said d&d is a game that is shaped like water, it will take up the space and fill whatever vessel you put it in. Yeah, so um, what do you do to plan a session like going in? Are you like in a copious notes? Because then I'm not saying like the world building, because that's a whole thing. Because I know that if you're like me, you're spending Oh, I have an idea. And you have all of your notes either in your head or written down somewhere. But I'm saying for actually planning for this session. What is your planning look like for that?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

29:15 Depends on the game. Because that also depends on the group, chaos group, my disaster story people. I have a general idea of where they're going, as well as some stats ready to pull from if they trigger that. But beyond that, I don't actually have a story or steps that they need to take because as I said, I'm a sandbox. So I create the world and you play in it. And so I will 90% improv, those sessions. I've like if they're going to encounter a specific area that needs the tactics of a map all Something like that. But beyond that, I've just got a list of characters that I've pre created. Okay, for certain areas that I can pull from instead of having to prep for a specific session, they've gone into a session. And the entire thing, like an hour of gameplay was them arguing about a note that one of them for someone else, and whether or not it was a threat on their life.

Brian Wiggins

30:30 Those are sometimes some of the most fun sessions.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

30:33 It was hilarious. But we didn't really achieved anything in the game, because it was all interactive roleplay, which I encourage Oh, yeah, I like fed them situational things to help with it, because that was what my job was for that particular session. But I didn't need to prep. Okay. After you argue here, you're going to go there, and you're going to talk to this person. That was entirely improv Yeah, versus the more serious players, because they have specific things that they want to do. I will have events that will happen on a specific timelines list, as well as that random card catalog of characters, right with pre designated stuff. But I am very, very loose in it because I sandbox. So it's never going to be a full notebook or even just multiple pages. Yeah, have something for a single session. All of that goes into the world building and the pre prep of NPCs. And monsters and such.

Brian Wiggins

31:38 Yeah, I learned the hard way. The over of the over prepping and you have all the detail. And what do they have they do this, they're going to do this. And this because I was in my head, because I hadn't gone near d&d, or any ttrpg and probably about 20 years. 18 years, something like that. And so when I was jumping back in, I was planning but I was trying to build it out almost like you see the modules where they have the little bits of dialogue if they do this, and they do this and do this. And of course, yeah, five minutes into the game. It's already broken.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

32:13 Yeah. That is, and that that was actually very common that was part of play during the older versions of d&d, like a lot of the newer players don't know that when you play Redbox or even first edition. It was very much a set story that you were flipping through the storybook and playing that specific story that the DM had catered to you. It was a catered experience. As more people have gotten into it, and brought their own personalities and what they want out of it.

Brian Wiggins

32:53 I'm gonna I'm gonna pause you for a little ones. I'm gonna pause you for one second because I don't know if I'm recording still. Oh, yeah, what happened here? I can see us one second here. Okay, so we're definitely still there. But I just noticed, like the thing that's keeping time, okay. is seriously lagging. Oh, no, we're fine. Okay, okay. Okay. And we're gonna, we're, you know, I'm gonna keep it in, because, okay, let's show the imperfections. Do it, man. Yeah. Do you just said, because it isn't. This is exactly like it has been behind the screen. Oh, crap. Actually, this brings us to a different question. I'm going to switch some of the questions, the orders here, the order of the questions here. So when players do something completely unexpected and unplanned. You've mentioned a lot of improv. So you have a lot of world that how do you how is it that you deal with it? Is it just because you have the world built? So at least for the moment, so built so well in your head that okay, I can just grab this, this, this and this? And I have the NPCs? Or do you have? Like what because I know that's a thing, especially new dmws who have are just getting to the table. And they might only have seen it in fiction, in a environment like a stranger things where you're seeing a little tiny snippet or maybe you're even seeing one of the big games that are out there where you have a DM who's so good and they make it seem seamless, like everything they've planned for everything. And I mean, listen,

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

34:29 dimension 20

Brian Wiggins

34:31 all Yeah, I mean, just, I mean, I get I'm gonna reference I'm gonna reference Jerry Hawkins from Penny Arcade. I will reference Mike, our friend or our Frank's who's me, Matt, because I have a huge crush on him. I am a proud hetero man who has a massive crush. He is a sexy dude in every possible way. And part of it is because I'm right there with you. Cuz he's just He's just so but I part of that again is is I always say is part of it is that he's he's playing with some of his best friends. And there's obviously a very tight loving relationship there. But God Damn, that man is smooth. You like, Oh, yeah, we're gonna go right or left. And it doesn't matter which way they choose because they didn't really choose it he got them to go exactly where he wanted them to go. And or maybe he didn't. And you'll never know. I'm sorry. I have to I have to just sort of I have to Gosh, I haven't. I

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

35:29 haven't actually a strong opinion on that. Okay. It isn't just that Matt Mercer is an amazing storyteller does and you might see him flipping through notes.

Brian Wiggins

35:40 And he's got fabulous. Let's just let's just put them out there.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

35:46 But, but let's see him flipping through notes. And you know that he probably has vocal notes on PCs because he does all the actual voice acting, which as a voice actor yourself. Kudos, more props to you. But in addition to that, well, he has very self admitted imposter syndrome. Mm hmm. One of his greatest skills, isn't his voice isn't the story. Yeah. It's how he can read his players, which does, knowing them. But he can read and time things perfectly. He can catch when they're in that pause. When something needs to happen, or when he needs to interrupt because they're starting to go off on a tangent

Brian Wiggins

36:32 or when to sit back and not do Yeah, yeah. And

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

36:35 he's great at controlling his face. I can't do that. Until Well, since expressions so well,

Brian Wiggins

36:41 every every now and again, Sam breaks. But

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

36:45 what am Laura? Yeah, yeah, you what you should take away from Mercer. Isn't that you need to be amazing at your voices. It isn't that you have to create a flawless story. players should not realistically expect that from every dm true. What you should aspire to that he does. isn't all of that it should be learning your players and learning how to time with your players. Yeah, so that it is collaborative with them. And he does that same thing with all the ones that we end up really, really adoring. Bria was able to do it. And Mike, all of them are able to do that. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why they're so good.

Brian Wiggins

37:29 Yeah, no, I would. Yeah. You know, you're kind of hitting on something there. And it just kind of tickled something in my brain that it seems like what maybe, I don't know, there, that'd be interesting to do a study on this. One of one of the most powerful tools that any good dm, GM, whatever you want to call them. Disaster master should have is empathy. Yeah. And actually, that makes you you probably be a better human too. But um, theoretically, if theory and theory or a really successful sociopath would know it anyway. But But yeah, cuz it's like, I mean, if you hear the other side of it, too, like the the DM horror stories, it's from someone who is definitely not showing any empathy to the people at the table or not able to read the room, I don't want to say because empathy, empathy, not having empathy implies that you're incapable of feeling what someone else is feeling this is you're just not reading the room. And being

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

38:34 sometimes and sometimes it's the players not having empathy for the rest of the group, or the DM, or the Yeah. What about us? miscommunication? Yeah, a lot of it is really just miscommunication. Because one person or the other or both. Don't want to engage in communication and communication is 90%. Nonverbal, makes online roleplay very difficult. People talk over each other, you can't read each other, you can't see that someone is trying to get your attention or how they're inflecting or expressions, etc. So there's all of that as an issue, but it's just not wanting or being willing to connect.

Brian Wiggins

39:17 Yeah. Yeah. Man, how many of the world's problems would be solved if we just did that?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

39:25 A vast majority. Yeah, right.

Brian Wiggins

39:27 I am. I am kind of tangential, but not and whatever. But I was thoroughly convinced that the key to world peace was Anthony Bourdain. And I say that half kiddingly but half not because no, but that dude sat down and talked with everyone but more importantly, he sat down and listened. Yeah, and I do think world peace will come through food. Because food man, yeah, it's true. If so go down and share a meal of something that someone loves and something that someone has prepped with love that they just, you know, that's you're giving something of yours anyway, that's a whole other thing. That's, that's, that's a whole other podcast right there. So I have a feeling I know the answer to this, but I want to hear it from you. Do you prefer tactical versus theater of the mind? Where on that scale? Would you nation

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

40:27 Yeah, combination. In person, because you're able to gesture, it's a lot easier to do entirely theater of the mind. But even with my three five campaign that lasted like four or five years, before it came to a very abrupt and early close. For the very special sessions, or specific combat situations, we still brought out either a grid system or some sort of layout. Even if they didn't have like actual little minis and all the fancy stuff. It helped to gauge distance. Yeah. But for the most part, if you are in pravi enough, and your players trust you to not screw them over, then you can do predominantly theater of the mind. And that's what I like to run. With my five v games, I do run it as theater of the mind unless you need tactics for reason, in which case, we'll use rule 20. But I don't even have like a grid map at home. I've got an entire room dedicated to d&d, like I've got a big ass wooden table, entire room is dedicated to tabletop role played. And I don't I don't even have like a grid map to use.

Brian Wiggins

41:50 I just don't know what to say to that. I just. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm jealous of the room.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

41:58 Oh, yeah. I'll send you some pictures.

Brian Wiggins

42:01 Why? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I am gorgeous. Yeah, man, I see I'm with you, I theater of the mind one easier to prep, at least physically. And you don't need maps for everything. But um, so when I was I started playing as a kid, I think I was like 1011. So for me drawing all the dungeons you just spent hours drawing dungeons that no one would ever see no one would ever crawl through. But it was just like, I want to draw a dungeon. So I think that kind of got ingrained in me early. And very recently, I have started to fall down a very deep, dark black rabbit hole. And I'm starting to make my own terrain.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

42:43 I saw some of those pictures, which Good job. Do you follow black magic

Brian Wiggins

42:48 craft? That is where I'm getting all my stuff. That dude is awesome. He's just amazing. His his love his explanations. He's Canadian, so automatically a nice guy. And but he I liked that he has there and there's a lot of other good people out there that I've cribbed from but he's got really good descriptions. So Eddie, yeah, yeah. And I like his he might have talked me out of magnets. He might have done it. Yeah, black magic craft, and he does a great job. So that Yeah, yeah.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

43:22 So So admittedly, I follow all of those tabletop terrain crafters on YouTube. I watch their stuff, I will binge it for hours at a time because I am also a crafter. I love crafting stuff. I love making stuff. Yeah. And I would use those techniques for like the special sessions so that I don't have like this big backlog that I meet that I'm trying to find a use for because I've created it. So for like the season finales, I instituted something called Season Finale for my big campaign before and at the anniversary of our first game, we or as close there in that we could arrange, we would do a longer session, they expected there to be terrain, and some in some like major plot stuff to go down. And they also for surviving and being good players for the rest for the year. Like they haven't been complete assholes to each other or to me, they got something that they've been wanting for their character that they normally wouldn't be able to find like, I had someone that was playing a halfling that wanted for some reason to be unusually tall for half length. So her character quite literally fell into a wizards alchemy kit, like stumbled into it, had some potions fall on her and grew a foot. Oh wow. And it to be unusually tall. And that was her like Season Finale prize for that particular season.

Brian Wiggins

44:52 I like that. That's very cool.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

44:54 And for that I got to do the creative stuff of creating all of the interesting terrain pieces, and I Did like a giant hill with a wizard dour on it and everything. And that allowed me to do the fun crafting stuff without a timeline on it. Except that I needed to have something ready. Yeah, by that one point in the year. But I didn't have to have a huge backlog of it. So it's fun. It's fun to create. I love it. I love making the stuff I like did an entire like mirrored Labyrinth and everything. But I don't want to have to be under pressure to create all of that.

Brian Wiggins

45:32 Yeah, or have the budget just to get to work and forged which is just a whole other. Over one of my friends is a Dwarven, forge addict, he has your library of the stuff. And it's Listen,

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

45:45 he got a lot of the scatter that I've created over the over the years there. Yeah, I didn't need to use it after the one time.

Brian Wiggins

45:51 There you see that? That's it's there's the budget part of it. So and we talked about this before we started recording. And I will preface this, we know that there was one piece of information you said you're not going to reveal. And I'm not going to ask you to reveal it. Yeah, it's just another god. And I am also going to remind all of your players Barbie Barbie, that this is the part if you have been listening to tune out for about five minutes or so just give or take. Because otherwise I can't me personally, Brian, I cannot be held responsible for what happens to your characters or your character sheets. The players will be fine characters. I make no.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

46:37 This. This is the liabilities of mirror face. Oh, Jesus,

Brian Wiggins

46:40 I don't even want to know. What is a secret, and I put this in? I put this in here. Two more as a way of helping people who might be dming right now and feeling like they're stuck somewhere or someone who's thinking about getting into it, or whatever, that we obviously don't know all the answers, or. But this is also like we make stuff sometimes that people never see. Yeah, what was a secret that your players never uncovered? Um, that you were maybe dying or it doesn't have to be lore. It could be something that you did like there was going to be a TPK and I as the DM said, No. So it can be on either side of that.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

47:27 Well, in my current in my current fifth edition campaign, it is virtually impossible for me to CPK them because of a specific thing that I put into place. So I don't have to worry about TPK paying them. One of the things that I find fun that they have not figured out yet is who everyone works for, which I will Oh basically sent you the message of who's in charge, but they haven't figured it out despite the hints that I have dropped. Okay, for those of you who are familiar with old d&d lore, which since you're a red box player, or you were you might recognize this they found a lot of sickles including on an old underground altar.

Brian Wiggins

48:24 Oh, why is that? ticklin something in my memory. Oh, wait a minute. I'm gonna have to ponder that for a moment here because that's okay. I sicles I think I think I know Yeah. Oh, my lord. Oh, man, okay. Oh, that's who I think it is. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah. Oh, geez. Just the realization Ah, the realization

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

49:06 like it's because of that it and like, Oh, you you the group has essentially signed a contract saying that they will adventure on this island for the term of one year or until permanent death if they choose not to use their get out of death free coins.

Brian Wiggins

49:28 Oh, okay.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

49:29 Yeah, so the patron, the owner of the island that is funding all of the adventures to essentially clean it up for public is essentially working for someone that they have already as players figured out that if the island patron isn't the beat BB eg big, bad evil guy. He at least works for him, which is Very, very true. Something that only one of them knows about is their very, very favorite NPC was also trained by a PC that one of them played in another game. So we made that her old, old character is somewhere in this world. And what none of them know is that he is in direct opposition to their current boss. And yeah, so he's a good guy, despite the fact that the character himself is an asshole. Yeah, everybody, go watch rule of law. Kula is hilarious. A cobalt. I love him. And he made his way into being an NPC, legendary character in my setting. Oh, very cool. It's hilarious. Yeah, I like one of my players plays Kula in rule of law, which is a twitch streamed great dragon Lance. No water, deep water deep water campaign. And a cool cool is this hilarious little cobalt? I love them. And I'm just like, you know what? Yeah. But their very favorite NPC was his apprentice. And is stuck working on this island right now.

Brian Wiggins

51:18 I like it. Yeah. So

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

51:19 they have no idea who the big bad evil guy god of the setting is? Yeah, I have a vague idea that the island patron works for him is actually an avatar of him. Oh, yeah. And a variety of stuff. And that's just kind of the background plot. They might never discover it. I don't know. It's a Yeah. Box campaign.

Brian Wiggins

51:46 Yeah. But they wander into that area.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

51:50 I can't I kind of do. I kind of hope that they eventually figure that out. And I hope that they eventually figure out that there is an adult Black Dragon lurking in the swamp of the up in the north of the island. Was has a black dragon terrorizing his family in his home backstory, and I placed that there is a special gift for him.

Brian Wiggins

52:11 Oh, I like it. I like it. Yeah, I've got two pieces that I'm hoping I can reveal to my players if we play again. I am really hoping I can reveal I revealed one of them with one of the other guys. I'll tell you. I'll tell you what we're done. Right. But there's two pieces there. There. It's like, I don't want to shoehorn it because then loses it they need to discovery if I don't

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

52:37 figure it out. I gotta figure it out. So please figure it out. Yeah, I know that feeling.

Brian Wiggins

52:43 Okay, so now we get to the questions from the community. So this is kind of like an AMA thing. So this is one I'm looking to set. I'm looking at Reddit, I'm looking at the subreddit of dm Academy. And this one is how do I deal with rogues. And this was posted by user c j g 97. Hi all in need of some advice for how to fairly fight back against a rogue slash Ranger PC that can quickly resolve most encounters with I attacked with advantage bonus action hide and reliably doing around 25 to 40 damage a turn. I have struggled with making my combat encounters compelling since I start since starting as a DM and I'm not interested in forcing this character skills to be nullified. But I can't but feel a bit helpless when the archer is willing close to 30 on a stealth check. And the only creatures with perception high enough to beat that are cr 15 Plus, and would not fit my setting. I struggle to strategize with my monsters motivi suggestions would be greatly appreciated. So how would you deal this is that this comes up a lot with with any dm really, because the players are always going to find a way to subvert no matter what it is you planned. And they're always going to do something unexpected, sometimes in very delightful ways, sometimes in ways that make things very difficult for us. This is one of them, especially rogues. How would you deal with that situation where you have a rogue who just at whatever level they're at his robes are I know there's a debate whether they're broken or not I, but it doesn't matter. They just are the way they are. How would you deal with that situation when you're going to have the constraints of you can't just drop in a CR 15 that could one hit the party or just would not and I'll say this good on the DM for saying I'm not just going to drop in something that doesn't fit the campaign setting. How would you do that?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

54:35 Well, that makes it a little difficult not knowing the campaign setting as a habitual scoundrel type player. So I in three, five I played roles. I played rogues pretty consistently. In fifth edition. I've played some rogue and I've played some Warlock. So I'm used to the stealthier one In d&d, for a DM that is dealing with someone who is super stealthy. You can do things like instead of having to severely up the challenge rating, you can give them a reaction to the fact they have been attacked like a parry or something pulse and stuff from the various fighter maneuvers, okay allows them to counteract the sudden attack. You can also if you're worried about the stealth being completely insane, which, if that's like a 30, then you're talking about people that are already in the double digits. So those are country famous, if not, if not world famous think about that, if you're a level 10 character if your level like eight to 12, you are known through the country, if not through the continent at that time. So you can start interest introducing creatures or people with similar Li, not quite supernatural or vaguely supernatural abilities, such as blind sight or tremor sense. Because while you can hide behind something, you do have to reach that safe 30 gap hidden from the blind sight or from the tremor signs. But that's because you are holding so perfectly still. So as soon as they move, they are no longer hidden, right. Or you can create a situation of depending on the type of Rogue, it depends on either the phrase of do not have disadvantage, or must have advantage, because there's a variety of types of products, right. So if you put them in situations where they no longer have advantage, but they don't necessarily have disadvantage, then that negates the whole snake attack issue. Or if you're just worried about finding them, glitter, dust, fairy fire, etc. All of those will highlight people. So utilize more than just the power to see them. You don't have to perceive through normal sight and hearing the way that a lot of people and creatures do. Yeah, and don't. Don't be afraid to rescan an existing creature or monster. replace an ability with that blind sight replace that ability with that tiny cantrip that lets you see the invisible.

Brian Wiggins

57:41 Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

57:43 only just slightly.

Brian Wiggins

57:44 That's something that I like that idea of just adding you take something and you give it a little extra juice. Is that could be a little I mean, I know that you're there's always the worry. Am I going to unbalance this monster now, there's a reason why the monster is designed this way. And I'm not saying that the you know, listen, I don't know if they did 1000s upon 1000s of pages. But it might be that, you know, they tested it out enough to know, all right. If it has too many powers, obviously, then it just, you know, it's a tereska. But yeah, I like the idea of kind of combining some things or even just creating a dark version of the other character.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

58:22 Yeah, dark version of the other character mirror monsters as seen in critical role even. they existed prior to that having a mirror or shadow or dream version of the character so that they fight themselves, or they fight an alternate version of themselves. Yeah, that's a great storytelling idea. And it creates self reflection. On top of that, you can use lower CR characters in a group, and then swarm they have yet swarm them. And you can only say, attack once, twice, however many times you happen to have an action. And then that's a lot of people that have reactions, that's a lot of characters and creatures to have reaction. And if they are close enough to each other. For example, swashbuckler is going to have that negated of not being able to have sneak attack if they rush and because it's not either an ally or alone,

Brian Wiggins

59:31 right. On the other side of it, and I understand what the other person is saying, because a lot of times when you see questions like this come up, it's here's how you notify the power. Yeah, and you don't want to do that because then it's like, well, then why am I being a rogue? If I can't hide and sneak attack? What's the point? I'm just a soft squishy thing that uses a dagger. But something that just came to mind and might be fun is on the arena side of things. The terrain side is maybe where they can hide. But make the hiding more difficult, not so much that, oh, there's this little nooks and crannies. But maybe at the top of every round, you roll a die and the walls start seeping acid. And if the person has to make like some kind of saving throw if they want to stay hidden or take as a damage, or there's spikes that randomly come up, and not, so it's not every turn. So they can still have the fun of being a rogue. But you they got to think a little bit about how they went or just take the creature just double the hit points,

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:00:33 create create higher hit points, reactiveness measures, I'm big on reactive measures. Like it can be a parry like with a fighter, or it can be a monster that, for example, does miss the step as soon as it's injured as a reaction. So it changes its position, it changes the tactics on the right field. So by coming in, you still deal the damage, but they're suddenly in a different place. And you have to factor that in. It creates a little bit more of interest and intrigue to the combat like them. And it's reacting to the fact that it has been interview were effective. But that might screw up the rest of the tactics. And that might screw up the rest of what you were planning to do. Just throw

Brian Wiggins

1:01:22 that away. Especially any no I feel like if you listen if they're throwing routinely throwing over 30s that's a that is not a low level character. No, it's not. So go ahead and throw some wrenches in the plans there. They'll be fine.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:01:39 Yeah, they might they might be playing three five, which 30s You don't even have to be a level 10 for Yeah, yeah, the addition matters. Yeah. So yeah, so if you're playing 3.5 and that's just a particularly stealthy roll rogue that is coming in there with massive amounts of sneak attack, particularly if you play to the combo and three five that I did where he were cross class rogue swashbuckler, which they combined for three, five. And you took the feat that allowed you to like stack your grace and your sneak attack that created a very, very effective comp specifically combat rogue. Yeah. But they didn't have like other than just an offhand attack. They didn't have like multiple attacks per round, like they do in three, five. Yeah. So even if you're able to hide at the end of that, even if you find some way to use that combination to hide, and you have that, like 30, hide that 4050 hide in fifth edition, you are hiding from sight. And if you're quiet enough, if you have high enough stealth, you have both hide and move silent because they separated that and three, five, yeah, self was separated and to move silently and hide. Yeah, I know I'm sure role for both. Be glad Be glad.

Brian Wiggins

1:03:07 I had a I had to I came. I didn't my date. We came up with that go. But yeah, but that sounds now it's like man faco. Sounds positively

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:03:17 faculties, just knowing a formula that you have to do that. I don't understand

Brian Wiggins

1:03:22 why it took them 30 years to say, hey, what if we just reverse the order of armor class? So it's like everything else? Oh, yeah, that makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:03:32 So it's just, it's just understanding that you have to add another formula onto the table. With three, five, they got rid of faco they had the base 10 armor class moving up with armor and dexterity, et cetera, like five or six different things that you can add on. But the they had at at the end of it, like over 40 different skills?

Brian Wiggins

1:03:58 That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot of bloat. Yeah,

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:04:02 yeah, they had like a lot, which gurps has even more, but that's part of the custom creation.

Brian Wiggins

1:04:06 Yeah, it sounds like that's the difference classes and groups. Yeah, that sounds like that's the difference between getting the off the shelf software application that you want, versus getting the open source one that you're gonna have to dive into. But if you have the ability to do so you can get a lot more out of it. But it's not for the faint of heart. Yeah,

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:04:27 yeah. But we also like, Oh, got it. Yeah. Three, five had a ridiculous amount of skills. A lot of them had synergies, which those synergistic skills were combined in fourth edition and further pared down for fifth edition. But like you had things like you hid, and then you also moved silently. Right? So you would have to roll for each so there's the ability to potentially roll portly in each of those And both of them depended on normal sensory experience. The same thing with stealth. Really, really high stealth will still give you either partial cover or full cover or completely hide you from something that has blind sight has tremor sense. But if all the hiding does is make it so that you're not seen or heard that's depending on eyes and ears. That's not depending on blindsense that's not depending on tremor sense. Yeah, that's not that's not depending on say something that's psychic and consents your mind Raul throw in you know what tech thoughts in there?

Brian Wiggins

1:05:39 That's really interesting that Yeah, throwing thoughts in there. Yeah, try hiding from an elephant. Yeah, without wearing your tinfoil skullcap.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:05:50 You got to have a little antenna at the top.

Brian Wiggins

1:05:52 Exactly. So well you have to do that so that way, but then you also have to have three coppers in your undershorts so that way it's averts where the mind rays are going.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:06:03 Yeah, and you have to be wearing cotton socks not silk true. So creates extra statics so they can

Brian Wiggins

1:06:08 sense you better. Yeah, this is very true. These are all more slippy.

Brian Wiggins

1:06:12 We're talking about the game store right not. So this question. This question comes from Twitter. This comes from Howard and Barbie. Oh God, how do you put up with a party that has like only one character within over 10 without just sending a dragon to wipe us out? Will Quinlan ever be our friend? What are the Gobbo is up to in the party's absence?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:06:34 Okay. In my fifth edition game sky daddy is watching a DD d&d

Brian Wiggins

1:06:39 disaster story that's never gonna not make me giggle.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:06:43 Sky daddy is watching. Okay, so story behind the actual name. The very first, like antagonists that the group encountered were a small tribe of goblins. And the goblins were very superstitious and had talismans hanging all over the place completely non magical, because they were terrified of something that could not be translated into common. And since the goblins didn't understand what it was that they were terrified of, you know what it is, but the goblins had no idea what had brought them there or what they were scared of. They just pointed up so the group not having a word in common we're just like so what you're afraid of sky daddy. And it became a running joke that sky daddy was watching because we're afraid of being watched by whatever the power was. I love it. And that's it became sky daddy is watching. That's not what the original name of the campaign was. The original campaign was I love coin.

Brian Wiggins

1:07:44 Sky daddy is watching is I'm just gonna say

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:07:47 it's it's an upgrade. Is it? Yeah, it's just there they are the chaos Gremlins. That

Brian Wiggins

1:07:53 is the premium content we are here for.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:07:56 But yeah, so in my campaign sky daddy is watching. Because they all signed a contract that they could not read and did not fully understand. They without even speaking to each other collectively somehow decided to use intelligence as their dumpster. So the smartest character in the group with an intelligence of 12 is the fighter.

Brian Wiggins

1:08:26 Oh, wow. Yeah, I can see that being problematic.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:08:30 Everyone else has 10 or lower intelligence. They are all morons. And they're acknowledged that they all they acknowledge that they're all idiots. So I don't necessarily handle the fact that they are idiots. I just sit back and enjoy it.

Brian Wiggins

1:08:50 I mean, you're just it's like the Muppet Show.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:08:53 It really is the URL they're just chaotic little creatures. I mean they capture like the of those goblins they captured one. Got it drunk. Once it passed out. They decided to give it a makeover put some makeup on its face drafted one of the dwarf dwarves dresses. So they had to like strap it to this unconscious goblins body. And when it woke up with a hangover, it decided because they rolled really well that it was pretty and that it liked it. So it is now one of the bards in town called on the cross dressing Goblin Bard. That's actually kind

Brian Wiggins

1:09:28 of nice. Yeah, it's kind of sweet in its own way. She never she he he she they they never felt pretty before and now they do. I mean, listen, that's it.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:09:41 But yeah, so like they from that these completely decided they were going to the befriend as many of the random creatures on this island instead of killing them as they could and if they didn't want to be friends, if they didn't want to be intimidated into friendship and that is an actual Quote, then they would deal with it otherwise, we have got so they've captured a variety of goblins like four different goblins. One of them became a cross dressing Bard that like stalks the other Bard around the town and screams at the top of its lungs, the one song that it knows. And then the other three decided to become bakers and ousted the baker. The hostile takeover? Yeah, so I'm not gonna let them know what the goblins have been doing in town, which this will probably not be released before our next session. I don't know when this when is this going to be released?

Brian Wiggins

1:10:41 I don't know yet. So we'll we'll hold off on that.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:10:47 I have time. In that case, the goblins have successfully established their bakery. And given a variety of the workers that are making expansions to the town food poisoning. They have also terrorized one of the other NPCs that was meant to come in as a merchant of some kind and intend to offer a variety of teachers out of there as well because they know the forest better than these other humanoids do. So they're going to just mix up whatever they feel like, like you do, but they love bread, so they're trying and failing to make good bread and have only exploded something once Well, listen,

Brian Wiggins

1:11:36 that's that's that's that's progress. Yeah, I like it.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:11:42 So I answered the intelligence question. And the Goblin question, Quinlan. And this is specifically for Barbie who I'm pretty sure will listen to this and if Don does as well, who plays Breslin, Quinlan says, I am not your friend, I am your handler. Excellent gnomes in that setting, instead of the gnomish accent, and it really is just the accent of gnomes learning common sounds like an Android

Brian Wiggins

1:12:18 I love that they

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:12:19 were convinced that he was a robot to start out with, because I had gnomes, the actual language of gnomish be very little lyrical with highs and lows, that when you have a different grammar set, and different words that you're attempting to fit your mouth around comes out, unfortunately, like a, you know, a robot.

Brian Wiggins

1:12:43 Please tell me more about what you need.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:12:47 And I am not your friend, I am your handler.

Brian Wiggins

1:12:51 That reminds me of the Oh shoot, what were they called? They were in Mass effect was like the giant like elephant creatures, the aliens, the elcor. And they always had to proceed whatever they were saying by the emotion, because their emotions were so subtle and so fair mostly influenced that they realized that nobody else understood they just had this complete flat effect when they spoke anything but their own language.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:13:16 Oh, that's another thing if that I'm hoping the characters will eventually uncover that I will reveal to you in chat because the non definitely Yeah, I definitely can't have that on recording, but you'll find it both sad and touching. Awesome. Yeah.

Brian Wiggins

1:13:34 Alright, so we have three more things here. One tip for a new GM slash dm. They're just getting started brand spanking new, they still have the fresh brand new GM smell. What's one tip you would give them?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:13:51 Don't be afraid to stand by your own creativity. Oh, and yeah, in improv, in creating characters or making decisions about NPCs, or the story that comes from your own creativity, whether using a module are not how you present that how you enact it, and work with it is based off of your own creativity. decisions that you make in the middle of the game off the fly, are based on your own creativity. Don't be afraid to stand by that. In whatever rules is written you're using, no matter the system. One of the first things that they tell you is that the GM makes the decisions because they run the world. You don't want to do that in a way that makes it not fun for other players, but have confidence in the decisions and the creativity that you personally use.

Brian Wiggins

1:14:52 That's a really good tip. I like that. So what is one tip you would give your younger

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:14:59 self Relax, you can't control it.

Brian Wiggins

1:15:05 That should be the tip for every younger day. Just give it up. Just give up. Yeah, do it.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:15:11 Yeah, stop, stop trying to control the players decisions. Stop trying to control where they're growing. They're gonna go wherever they choose. I was originally a story GM instead of sandbox, like I was never railroad. But I was originally a story GM instead of a sandbox, and just give it up with the players that you end up playing with. They're going to go where they think is fun, and you'll have fun too, if you just relax.

Brian Wiggins

1:15:40 I like it. Yeah, yeah. Don't Don't try herding the cats just because they're their cats. They they're gonna go where they're gonna go. Just give it up. So any places people can follow you? Should they so desire, or should you desire that they follow you?

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:16:00 Well, I'm not gonna give out my personal Twitter handle. Oh, no, no, you found me. But I will go ahead and give out to the group Twitter handle for the disaster story. game. It is at di n disaster story on Twitter. We will eventually also have an Instagram and from there you can find our website and we will eventually be announcing the release of the podcast, real play podcast of the DND disaster story. Sky daddy is watching. It's never not funny. Yeah, that's No, daddy. I love it. I love it. And you know who sky daddy is?

Brian Wiggins

1:16:43 I know, which makes it funnier. It's so much better. Yeah. Well, yeah. That brings us to the end of this episode. And I have to say this has been a ton of fun.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:16:59 It really has. It was great talking to you. It's I love her

Brian Wiggins

1:17:02 now about this stuff. And it's Oh, this is Ben. Yeah. I think we might have solved world peace at the very beginning of this every it was just downhill from there. But

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:17:13 it we did. But we still had fun doing it.

Brian Wiggins

1:17:16 I was absolutely thank you so so much for coming on to.

Evani (DnDisaster Story)

1:17:20 Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me.

Brian Wiggins

1:17:26 Well, that's it for this episode of hidden roles. Remember, players if you were in my game, or in ivani game, and you listened to this podcast? Your characters just might get darkling. Yeah, that's the thing. We're the dungeon masters. We can make it a thing. Please make sure to give us a big old five star review on whatever platform you happen to be consuming this podcast on. Please follow the hidden roles podcast on twitter at hidden underscore roles. And you can always give me

Brian Wiggins

a follow up at the same Brian on Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Transcribed by https://otter.ai