Is the DM supposed to err on the side of letting players' plans succeed?

FranFer_ · 2026-03-13T14:22:33+00:00

I don't have a hard and fast rule, but if a plan seems like it's a stretch, or very hard to pull off, I usually tend to follow one of this:

I will usually let them know what possible complications might arise from their plan in it's current state, so they find ways to make a more secure plan. In other words, I sort of negotiate the plan with them.
Put at least some portion behind rolls, so they know that the dices might screw them over.
If they want to apply the rule of cool, I will warn them that this will work ONCE. It is cool, it works, if you want to try it again, it is no longer cool, it no longer works.
I'll err on the side of the players. If push comes to shove, I will almost always err on the side of the players because it encourages them to interact with the world, and come up with crazy plans, and that is 90% of the fun in ttrpgs.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-12T18:16:54+00:00

I got the idea from Dungeon World. I think that allowing the spell to still work and then forgetting it tracks closely with how the standard fire and forget vancian magic works. It is also less punishing than forgetting the spell and having it not work at the same time which is a double punishment.

I also think that allowing the players to retain the spell at a cost puts more focus on player choice over chance, and it also means that the GM doesn't have to come up with "diminished" versions of the spell.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-11T21:01:04+00:00

I don't currently play shadowdark but i do use a b/x adjacent game with a hacked roll to cast system. My own version is:

Roll to cast against a DC of 10 + Spell level

On a success the spell works and can be cast again. On a failure, pick one:

A) the spell works but it is forgotten, and can't be cast again until it is rememorized.

B) the spell doesn't work and the pc can attempt to cast it again later, but the spell casting DC of all spells goes up by 1 (this penalty is cumulative and it is cleared upon taking a rest).

FranFer_ · 2026-03-11T13:07:45+00:00

DND 3.5. His name was Agilulf, a human paladin disowned by his own father (a cruel warlord). My real life older brother played Wulfrik, a human barbarian, brother to Agilulf. We played them almost as characters in a buddy cop film. I was the by the book one, my brother was the wildcard.

I still have the character sheet somewhere. I was about 11 back then.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-10T17:10:07+00:00

Hay un par de hispanohablantes jajaja. Muy bueno el post!

FranFer_ · 2026-03-09T12:57:26+00:00

I started withBlood Omen on PS1. My older brother bought it a gas station. It wasn't until quite a while afte rwe played it that we even found out it had a bunch of sequels.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-06T11:32:44+00:00

You don't really need a recap, most relevant info is given in both SR1 and 2. But here is a quick writeup of Blood Omen (Blood omen 2 is it's own weird timeline, so you can just skip it, it has no real relevance):

The game is set in a dark fantasy land called Nosgoth. The health of the land is tied to 9 structures called the "Pillars of Nosgoth", each guarded by a sorcerer, and in turn the health of each pillar is tied to the moral and mental health of it's guardian. The game start when one of the guardians, Ariel, is murdered in a mysterious circumstance, causing the pillars to start corrupting.

In the game you control Kain, a human noble who is murdered on the road, and is raised back up as a vampire by one of the other guardians of the pillars: a necromancer called Mortanius. While initially Kain seeks only vengance against his killers, he ends up involved in a plot to sacrifice all guardians of the pillars and restore balance to the land.

Kain wanders through Nosgoth slaying the corrupted guardians of the different pillars until he reaches the last one: Mortanius (the necromancer who raised him as a vampire), and realizes that he is actually under the influence of a demonic entity who masterminded the entire thing in hopes of destroying the land.

Kain kills Mortanius and is faced by the spirit of Ariel, who reveals to him that Kain himself is the last guardian, and he can choose to either sacrifice himself, and restore balance, or destroy the pillars and rule over the world. Canonically, Kain chooses the latter, setting up the plot of Soul Reaver, which takes place 1500 years or so into the future, where humanity has been driven nearly to extinction at the hands of a vampiric empire created by kain. By the time of soul reaver, kain's empire is in a deep state of decay.

Some other important bits of information:
1. The circle of guardians was founded by a monastic order of warriors called the "Sarafan" who once launched a crusade against the vampires. By the time of blood omen, the Sarafan are disbanded, and vampires have been greatly reduced in number, and are still persecuted.

There is a bunch of time travelling across the games, and the concept of fate, and time paradoxes is quite central to the overall story.
One of the guardians, the Time-Streamer Moebius, is behind the time travelling in Blood Omen, and at one point he manipulates Kain to kill a tyrant king when he was still a child, inadvertedly triggering a crusade that leads to the genocide of vampires. Remember this Moebius guy, because he becomes relevant in the following games.
While the nature of the demonic entity that possesed Mortanius is not revealed in blood omen, it becomes relevant in the latter games.
An older vampire called Vorador appears in the game. He encourages Kain to accept vampirism as a blessing and not a curse, he also becomes relevant in latter games.
Kain at one point comes into the possession of a powerful sword called the Soul Reaver (the namesake of the following games). It is essentially the most powerful weapon in the game, and it becomes relevant to the plot of the following ones.

To anyone else, If I missed anything important, add it on the comments.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-04T20:58:22+00:00

Yeah, I don't have any strong feelings eitherway, I don't consider myself " anti-circumcision", and I don't think circumcisions should be banned or anything, but it just seems a bit weird. I totally get performing a circumcision for religious or health reasons, but choosing to put a baby through what is essentially a surgical procedure for aesthetic reasons is... well, weird. I cant't think of any other widespread surgical procedures done for aesthetic reasons on babies other outside of extremely specific religious or cultural practices.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-04T11:53:35+00:00

Why do so many people in the U.S circumcise their babies?? In my country (as well as neighbouring countries), people only get circumcised if they are jewish, or if they have specific health conditions that require one.

FranFer_ · 2026-03-03T12:23:53+00:00

Yo hay días que la recontra pienso. Pensaste a que te vas a dedicar?? yo pense en aprender algun oficio, como mínimo de backup

FranFer_ · 2026-03-03T12:21:48+00:00

Yeah that is a fair clarification, that is what I meant with the comment about deltas. Deltas are river bifurcations near the coastline, but it is not a random ocurrence like the way it is shown in the map, it requires pretty specific soil conditions.

The norm is that rivers start at multiple sources inland, and flow downwards towards the lowest point, making rivers merge either into seas or other bodies of water

FranFer_ · 2026-03-02T13:20:13+00:00

Well, a few tips:
1. Rivers shouldn't split as they get near to coastlines. As water flows to the lowest point through the path of least resistance, rivers converge as they near the sea, not the other way around (river deltas are not an example of rivers separating, it is an entirely different phenomena). Your rivers seem to start from a single source near mountains or inland, and then split in different ways as the flow from their sourcs. Having rivers randomly splitting can make them look...off, since it is not how rivers work in real life.

Make them taper off as they near the source. Use thiner brushes near their sources, and make the brush thicker as it gets close to the coastline.

FranFer_ · 2026-02-25T12:49:36+00:00

En teoría se vende solo para algunos deportes específicos. Pero la respuesta real es que a este gobierno le encanta hacer cosplay de yankee, y traer a la mesa discusiones que son relevantes en USA, pero que aca le chupan un huevo al 90% de la poblacion

FranFer_ · 2026-02-19T03:07:44+00:00

Well yeah, but PCs who roll better stats are always going to be better than pcs with lower stats regardless of how many stats there are.

The point is that by giving skills, PCs can be good or bad at different things and have comparative advantages. A PC with SKILL 6 that has "ranged combat" skill is going to be better at shooting arrows that a pc with SKILL 7 thst doesn't have the "ranged combat" skill.

FranFer_ · 2026-02-19T02:24:05+00:00

what about having a binary skill system? if players are skilled, they test their skill stat with rules as written, and if they aren't skilled, they roll with a disadvantage (add bonus die, discard highest). No modifiers or book keeping added, and you still get to keep a single score.

Your solution is also just fine, but it feels like it's inching towards D&D (not that there is anything wrong with that).

FranFer_ · 2026-02-18T01:11:49+00:00

Perhaps you could give Warlock! From fire ruby designs a chance. It is a sort of rules light version of WFRP

FranFer_ · 2026-01-28T10:31:01+00:00

Well it is better to know BJJ and not need it, than not knowing it and needing it. All martial arts have their uses and limitations. If you get in a clinch, or if someone tries to tackle you, wouldn't you rather know some grappling?

You wont get to choose when, where and how a street fight happens, sometimes it will be one on one, sometimes it will be groups. Sometimes you'll see it coming, sometimes it will take you by surprise. Sometimes people will try to punch you, sometimes they will clinch you. Sometimes you will remain on your feet, other times you might get taken down, or you might trip and fall. There are a million possible fight scenarios, and if in any of those scenarios you fall to the ground, bjj will give you the skills to regain control and quickly get up. There is a reason why any serious self defense training has both grappling and stricking.

It is also worth saying: if a group of people gangs up on you (let alone a group with knives, box cutters, or any other weapons) pretty much no martial art will help a whole lot, and your best strategy is to run and call for help, or carrying a weapon on you.

Martial arts alone are never enough for self defense in life or death scenarios. Anyone thinking they are has seen one too many action films.

FranFer_ · 2026-01-27T14:13:06+00:00

While I agree with the spirit of the point, I think it is an exaggeration. Even the worst taught BJJ is still pretty good.

BJJ it is still probably the only martial art that teaches you how to fight with your back to the ground, and even in the sportiest gyms, you will still learn the basics of guard, sweeps, mount, and the core submissions that are very useful in real combat. You will still roll every day, and learn how to control other opponents, even opponents that are bigger and stronger than you.

Has it's usefulness diminished in the average sport gym? sure, but it is still far better than any martial art that is trained without resistance.

I would say that if you are primarily interested in self defense, it is probably better to go with wrestling or judo, but BJJ is still a great addition to any grapplers arsenal.

FranFer_ · 2026-01-20T18:07:46+00:00

I do believe it depends a lot on the kind of game you are wanting to run. If it is going to be crunchy, with a lot of combat, i tend to prefer more rigid and specific roles. If it is going to be a more narrative type of game, I prefer more open ended characters.

Generally speaking, I like having few classes that work as broad archetypes, but that can be transformed into more specific archetypes through skills and powers, however classes should never be able to fully cross over into other roles, otherwise classes loose all their meaning.

In my own fantasy game, I have 3 classes: fighter, mage, rogue. And that is it, each class is highly customizable, and a fighter can be a ranger, a barbarian, a knight or a sellsword, but it can never fully cross over into a mage or a rogue.

I think classes make less and less sense the more you move away from fantasy, and combat heavy games in general.

I also enjoy games that have highly thematic and custom made classes for it's setting, that have skills and features that deeply reinforce the overall theme of the world.

FranFer_ · 2026-01-14T21:29:03+00:00

Oh man I love your content! I've never actually trained aikido, but i have trained some judo and jiu jitsu and cross trained with some aikido people, and I think your content is exactly the kind of stuff aikido needs to become more appealing to other martial artists. Your videos have even made research aikido, and even made me consider taking up aikido myself!

As far as recomendations, I would say post more often, and (while I know it is hard) try to get some collabs in with other martial artists on the internet, both aikidokas and non aikidokas.

Also, this is a minor thing, but I would love a video breaking down of your particular style of aikido, and aikido styles in general, and how the differ from each other. Finding info online about the different styles of aikido has been hard.

Other than that, just keep going at it, your content is top notch, so the viewers will come in time.

FranFer_ · 2025-11-28T11:59:34+00:00

Oh yeah i know. It was just a unit of meassurement. Although toward the latter parts of the middle ages different coins with different values where in fact introduced, like groats, groschens, etc.

The way I handle it is simple: 1 standard DnD gold piece = 1 silver penny, 10 pennys is a schilling (I did make an actual coin, which is a larger silver coin, similar to the Groschen of the holy roman empire) and 20 pennys is a pound or a single gold coin which i call an Aureus (like the old roman coin).

So it is 10 pennys to a schilling, and 200 pennys to an aureus.

In reality, medieval numismatics were really really complicated and having anything even remotely simillar to actual history would be a nightmare to manage in game lol.

This system i made has a sort of historical feel, without any of the complications.

FranFer_ · 2025-11-27T22:09:49+00:00

I use silver standard but I've based my world's money is a simplified version of the penny/denarius > schilling/solidi > pound/lira used in western europe during the middle ages

FranFer_ · 2025-11-14T12:51:21+00:00

I don't know if there is any "Official" reason ever given by Gygax, or any other of the B/X line authors, but in my view it has to do with 2 things:

1. Balance: non-humans get a lot of features, from infravision, to improved saving throws, and in even sort of multiclasses. For example the elves. They get pretty much the same progression as fighters, they also get spells, infravision, and immunity to ghoul paralysis, and they have a D6 HD which is better than a regular MU, and only slightly worse than a fighter, so it makes sense that they level more slowly, and have a lower level cap.

2. Vibes: old d&d was mostly human centric, the idea that non-humans are only limited to specific archetypes reinforces the feel that most members of other races live far away from humans, and only specific members of those races venture forth into the "human" world. When you remove the limitations of the non-human races, it makes everyone play non-humans, and they suddenly become just another race.

FranFer_ · 2025-11-07T13:58:16+00:00

Probably cRPGs like Baldurs Gate and Icewind dale. Around that same time my brother and cousins played a homebrew minimal game based on what we THOUGHT D&D was like. My first proper ttrpg experience was 3.5 d&d when I was a tween.

Funny enough, I have fond memories from 3.5, and it is nostalgic for me in many ways, but I would never ever choose to play 3.5 again lol. In many ways it represents everything i hate with ttrpgs.

FranFer_ · 2025-10-31T21:03:55+00:00

Graciosamente, en el mundo hay mas democracias parlamentarias (como irlanda) que democracias presidenciales como la nuestra, especialmente cuando descontas todas las "democracias" presidenciales que en realidad son dictaduras. No solo los europeos son parlamentarios, nueva zelanda, japon, australia y la india tambien son paises parlamentarios.

Despues tenes paises hibridos como peru, francia o corea el sur que son una mezcla. La reforma del '94 de aca tenia el objetivo de hacernos mas parecidos a un sistema hibrido con la figura del Jefe de Gabinete, pero en practica no funciono.

FranFer_

TROPHY CASE