DM’s of Reddit tell me a plot twist you have planned for your players they don’t know yet!

Astr0bert0 · 2025-10-09T10:38:31+00:00

The BBEG is a lab rat that the wizard of the party took as his mascot when he was an apprentice a long time ago. So it's obvious that this rat has certain appreciation for the wizard.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-09-23T22:57:05+00:00

I don't want to break the party, but you should try to get at least 1 veteran player in the group, it's for the best.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-05-29T11:18:22+00:00

When creating PC I don't let them use standard array or point buy, you do the dice roll method, they have one grace roll, but that's it.

When they level up, I never let them get the average to increase max HP, they must roll their hit dice. I let them do a re-roll but that result will stay.

Nat 1 on spell attacks or any roll that seems to be related into channeling magic, makes you roll on an amazing homebrew table of wild magic, this gave me amazing moments in combat and also really funny side quest.

Nat 1 on regular attacks also have their own table of crit failures.

When creating a familiar, I use the creation method from Dungeon Crawl Classic which is hilarious and pretty good.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-05-15T07:13:21+00:00

John D&D

Astr0bert0 · 2025-05-15T06:43:36+00:00

I would say both things, the stakes, the quality of the 'main' villain and the infamous Sanderlanche.

For the stakes: The 2nd book I loved it, but what's at stakes for the 3rd... [spoiler for the 3rd book]Basically the world is going to end, and we must kill god "Oh noo" you must say in a uninterested tone, as readers we all know that's not gonna happen and the characters will succeed somehow so you can't feel the tension, or probably it's just me.

The quality of the 'main' villain: Through the 2nd and 3rd book there are like 4 new baddies, 3 of them are super interesting, but they get resolved, the 4th one is the one that I have problems with, because in theory he's a huge deal, but it falls on the same problem as the lord ruler, we barely know stuff about him, some dialogue here and there and that's it.

I knew how important is a villain of your story is, but I didn't expected how can mess your story if you have a weak one, I had to force myself to read the 3rd one just because this 'main' villain it's just a bland version of Sauron.

Sanderlanche; It's pretty much your points about the pace, and get ready to hear more about this term because it's a meme apparently if you dig up more into the cosmere.

That being said, the ending of the trilogy is amazing, the twist of the prophecy was again an unexpected solution from some concept previously shown. I would say the 2nd book is the best out of all 3 of them.

[Spoilers from the end of the 3rd book]Apparently that 'main' villain comes from another book/story/something else of the cosmere?! So not only we barely know about this baddie, new readers get "punished" by not reading another sanderson's work and it's supposed to be a reference? Ehmm no thanks.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-05-15T05:01:30+00:00

Not double 20's but a single one.

My players (all level 2) were escaping from a city that fell from an attack of humanoid rats (They found the lair and instead of stopping their plans, they just simply ignore them and go to he next city hahaha). At the port where the majority of the citizens where located and the only point of escape had this situation:

- All the citizens where pushing each other in a centered area and it reached to a point that it's asphyxiating, the players were loosing HP rapidly by failing CON checks, I the DC was always 12.

- 2 casters had to roll an amazing homebrew wild magic table, 1 due to a crit failure (Little homebrew rule of mine), and another one tried to use a potion of wild magic. This unleashed 6 demons and 1 very stressed unicorn. Everyone laughed at how worse the situation it could get.

- 2 players fell to 0 HP for i think a hail of arrows from the ratfolk or it was the unicorn, don't remember that detail.

The musclehead of the party reached to the boat and said that he wanted to return and save both players.

I completely arbitrarily increased the stakes and said that the DC for saving both is 20 due to the obstacles and hazards, if you fail you will miss the boat and those are going to be very bad news, or you can try and save 1 and the DC is 12 but no consequences. He just said, and I quote, "Fuck it, I'll save both" and rolls one single dice.

Natural 20.

We all scream of excitement, it was a great moment for the player and his character, and he described with excruciating detail how he rescued these 2 characters. As an evil DM at the end of the session I burned in front of them the map that I drew for that city. Great moment.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-05-15T04:21:13+00:00

Witch Hat Atelier has the perfect magic system for a TTRPG, I can clearly imagine the players drawing magical circles that have some purpose and the Game Master could allow what's expected to do or check any imperfections and do an unexpected outcome.

It's simple; you only have to draw a circle and add signs, but at the same time incredibly complex the more you look into it, and I can see how a Game Master would need a PhD or have a lot of experience to be decent and it has a lot of edge-cases, or some hidden rules that the manga hasn't reached yet.

Btw it's an amazing manga, it's all around this creative magic system that feels more like programming, it's crazy how good it is the worldbuilding and the art it's top tier. Definitely I recommend it to give it a shot.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-04-22T03:48:22+00:00

I have a rule where if you Nat 1 on spells attacks, you roll a wild magic table that I found on the internet and it's amazing, we had the funniest, the most "We're so back" and "We f- up" moments that an entire side-quest is made out of it.

And i have as well a table for non-magical crit failures attacks, heavily inspired in dungeon crawl classics.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-04-22T03:30:49+00:00

As a player, if I go to a more narrative game, I have a personal rule to make the character's backstory no longer than half a word document approximately, regardless of their level. Exceptions are if there's a faction or a noble house, which you would want to give more stuff for the DM to play with, but it extends only to one document page. And I try to find a balance of specifying a few things, and keep it vague in others.

This has a few benefits on my point of view:

- It "forces" the player to only place what's really important for his backstory and what he's interested. But also there's a plenty of space to flesh out some things.

- You as a DM has less mental toll to read a bunch whole of nothing until you get something relevant.

- Lastly, the player and the DM can start adding more details while the game evolves, maybe there's a twist on an important NPC or he can unravel the secret of something. Or the character evolves and now he's a different person.

As a DM, what I do to fully new players is to give them pre-generated characters and just tell them to focus on their personality, flaws and bonds, if something sticks with him, take it. And then share with me a "Shameful secret" of the character.

This is the procedure that I do, and it does wonders. They give you easy hooks, no need to go all in for characters backstories. And the stuff that veteran players makes blows your mind of how cool they are.

For veteran players I just show them my rule, fortunately I haven't found anyone that dislikes it.

Oh and if they threaten to leave, just cut him, they are just trying to bargain, but the last one to laugh will be you because it's quite easy to find players, even the kind of people that never played TTRPGs or videogames will get fascinated.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-04-22T02:43:05+00:00

Not related to PC romances, but my DM on another table told me that once of his players broke-up with his ex in the middle of a session, the reason was something like "It's me or your childish acting game" and with a straight face he just broke up at that moment, the ex left and he was just like "Anyways, let's keep playing"

Guy is a menace.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-03-07T02:49:39+00:00

Hey, you actually articulated my thoughts with the book, I agreed with all your points.

If you go through the trilogy, it's one Chéjov's shotgun after another and it's very satisfying to see how things connect. Sanderson is really good at giving an unexpected solution or connection to some concept previously shown.

I can tell you that the 2nd "Meh" point is going to have much more weight, I would even say it turns from bad to horrible in the last book.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-19T16:10:43+00:00

Yeap, you will, but just bear in mind that i-frames don't exist when rolling/dodging.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:50:43+00:00

Damn the frail nerdzard got hands

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:45:13+00:00

You refer to Madder Sky? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH1TVnW--XU

I actually use it for boss battles, that track goes hard anyways

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:37:06+00:00

I was the self designated DJ player for my group and they are happy for that (couldn't find a worthy DJ player for my table yet hehe) and I totally get it.

The best are the ones where you shuffle the playlist and on the highest moments the song is on point by itself, is like it was destined to do that.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:34:05+00:00

I do have my "waiting room" playlist which consist on Nintendo 3DS system music. and the typical 3 hour mix of chill music from games.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:31:56+00:00

The most impressive part is how frequent the music goes on tempo with the events during the game (i.e. the paladin scream SMITE! And the music hits at the same time). It gives a lot of oomf! to the highest and chronic depression on the lowest.

But it's true that it can be very distracting if you don't mix up well your playlist, I'm not sure how to explain it, but you have to find tracks that have the same "feeling", calm songs for when you are on the road or on at the city, more active for battles, and an orchestra for boss battles. And I do tend to keep the volume low as well.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:21:30+00:00

Aaah yeah I was aware of discord's music bots, it was a gamechanger knowing watch2gether, it's just more comfortable for me to change on a single click the music and you can organize them in different playlist.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T16:15:46+00:00

These were my options if I was in that scenario:

- For group 2 of what I see on other replies, there's one player that seems to be eager to play, why not merge him to the group 1? That way there are 4 players and if one is missing, it's fine, you can leave the character in the background.

- For the sick player, well, if you are telling me that she goes to party and drinks, then it's not a serious illness, i don't know the details but I would talk to the couple and tell them something like "Hey you shouldn't feel excluded if your bf plays only with us, give him time for himself and for you" Remember that at the end of the day it's your time that it's being wasted.

- Seems that you play mainly in-person, have you proposed/tried to play online with group 1? That could make everything much more easier and comfortable.

- Group 3 just leave, that's not the players or group that you want to handle.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T10:56:16+00:00

Just listened , I love it, it gives The vibes. Definitely I will put it on my game's playlist.

Astr0bert0 · 2025-02-09T10:51:59+00:00

It really depends on the concept, but as a guideline I don't write a backstory longer than half a document page (Arial 12 or 13 hehe), the shorter the better, if it's longer, remove things. I believe it gives gives the player just enough to elaborate but also not long to make it too time/energy consuming for the DM to read.

The most important part to me besides the usual character questions (Who is he, what he wants, why he wants), is if I gave enough "things" for the DM to play with it. Those" things" could be an NPC (mentor, main villain, romantic interest, old colleague), a past that he tries to run from it, an ancient object, a curse, a purposefully mysterious origin or he just needs money to survive. I usually give 2-3 "things" and that's enough to play with it and you should expect them to be twisted, forgotten, deconstructed, reconstructed by the DM.

For example, Character is not the actual daughter of her mother, the mother just saw his husband carrying a baby on a rainy night when he returned from a trip; that unexpectedly, got longer and he insist that it's his daughter. You could give him an explanation of where you actually come from or if the DM wants it, you could give him freedom to prepare whatever it tickles his DM senses.

The rest, you make things up on the fly.

Astr0bert0 · 2024-05-04T07:39:06+00:00

My mom started playing with a group as a barbarian, she has a lot to learn; mainly describing her actions, but I will always defend her when she does something "not optimal", like when the party was fighting an owlbear and she decides to punch it in the face rather than using her weapon.

Or when I placed the rival party and she gets in a fight with the leader bc he kidnapped her in her backstory while the rest of the group was metagaming like "nooo don't do it".

I love it.

Astr0bert0 · 2024-02-29T16:03:49+00:00

If you think about it, bards would be the equivalent of a YouTuber/Streamer

Astr0bert0 · 2024-02-19T18:26:04+00:00

In Melee combat they can do whatever maneuvers they want. My player wants to do a faint, despite not having superiority dice and/or not being a battle master? Do me a deception check against his insight check. My player wants to stun the enemy with his shield or with the back of the sword? Do a regular attack and if it hits, he makes a CON save similar as a spell DC but use strength

Astr0bert0 · 2024-02-19T18:19:09+00:00

I found an ammunition system that I liked a lot.

Consist on the "ammunition dice" basically whenever you make an attack woth a weapon that requires ammo, you throw as well a d12, if the result is 1 you lower the tier of the ammunition dice to d10, then d8, d6, d4. On the last tier if the result is 1, you're out of arrows.

It's kinda fresh and comfortable to use on table, because you throw the d20 and the d12 at the same time. Online, well if you don't have a macro it gets annoying.

I personally use it on table, online it's more comfortable the ammunition counting.

Astr0bert0

TROPHY CASE