>you will never be this good of a dm

I will never have long drawn out boring combats?

>>45103363
I don't expect to be, but I know I'm getting better with each session that I run, so I'm happy.
>>45103478
Most games do, and I think its worth it for the good plot and storytelling skills

>>45103363
He's extremely articulate and fast on his feet but he basically gold-plates mediocrity plot-wise in his games. Basically if he had a good idea man behind him he'd be 11/10 but as-is he's a 6.5 or so, since if you look past how charismatic and descriptive he is he's basically artfully embellishing the color grey.

>>45103363
I have no idea who this fuckwit is, but he's using a 4e GM screen, so I can only assume he's a complete retard who loves nothing more than filling his games with pointless combat.

>>45103525
>Most games do,
Only if you're not good at it.

>and I think its worth it for the good plot and storytelling skills
It's not. Especially if you're running a combat-focused came like D&D.

>>45103363
He's a good GM. Better than most. He's got flaws sure, but all GMs do. He has experience, and excellent descriptions. I don't see why /tg/ has to keep mentioning him at all though, unless they're actually talking about his show. I guess because there aren't many popular RPG themed shows out there, and they he's the most popular, so they only one they can really hate on. Who gives a shit? Either enjoy his content or say hes over rated and ignore it.
Threads like this are garbage, I just dont see the point of this dicussion. It's always the same.

On the subject of becoming a better GM, I'm trying to stream music for my players to make it more immersive. Shoutcast now requires a subscription to stream .mp3s, VLC chops out when connecting and changing tracks, and web based streams hog bandwidth and have a delay/stutter. Anyone have any recommendations?

>>45103620
Unless you GM yourself you cant talk, and I doubt you're that great if you are. He's got his strengths and weaknesses just like everybody else, stop whining about something that doesnt affect you at all.

>>45103651
>Unless you GM yourself you cant talk,
I do.

>and I doubt you're that great if you are.
I am.

>He's got his strengths and weaknesses just like everybody else, stop whining about something that doesnt affect you at all.
How am I whining? I'm only pointing out that he has flaws so that new GMs who try to emulate him thinking he's the greatest GM ever or something know what to take from him and what not.

>>45103746
>mfw chris perkins is salty in MY /tg/ thread

>>45103527
beats bland stories with bland description (when there is description)

Thread Forecast: People get mad at popular thing that's getting people into the D&D wrong, and proceed to claim that Matt Mercer is a bad GM because of a couple of players that are just really cringe-inducing to put up with, as well as having a brainless twitch chat going.

And I say this as a guy who considers himself better than Mercer in a few big ways. He's a good solid GM, don't spend another thread pissing on him just because Geek and Sundry sucks.

>>45103649

SHOUTcast is free software--I don't understand how it can cost anything to stream. It should be a direct connection from your computer to your players', unless something has changed significantly in the past few years (and if it has, just use an old version).

>>45103968
One quick question, which players do you think are the most cringe worthy?

>>45104008
not that guy, but marisha 100%

>>45103968
It was a dumb thread in the first place. It didn't point out what makes him a decent GM and what doesn't so it's not actually any help to anybody who wants to be a better GM and would actually be a useful and interesting discussion. It's just a dumb pointless thread to fellate a semi-famous e-celeb over his decent GMing skills.

>>45104008
The bard character and the druid player.

>>45104055
I'd have to agree on that. Think the rest of them are pretty okay, excluding the Ranger. She can be a bit odd at times.

>>45104008
Riegel up until the last two sessions, and Marisha. And Laura on her bad days. She's usually fine, though.

>>45103914
Very true. I wouldn't claim to be a better overall GM but I think my plots are better than his. He's much more articulate than me, and we're both pretty good at improv. As has been said a ton already though, strengths and weaknesses and all that.

>>45104073
I think Vax can have some ehhh moments at times, but few and far between. Percy's entire corruption arc with his family and all that was awesome.

>>45104073
You think so? Riegel can do some pretty crazy shit (pooping everywhere comes to mind) but the dude can be funny at times.

>>45104087
I legitimately don't get the hate for Percy. Taliesen absolutely knows the kind of crazy he's bringing, and he's playing an interesting character, all things considered. Plus he does the dark and the funny both pretty well.

>>45104104
He was either in the background not doing shit, or he's making really stupid jokes, shitting places, or doing singing.

That said, between doing a solo dinosaur assault, destroying the cursed gun, and meeting his daughter, I'd say he's redeemed himself.

Is this the hot new troll? We just talk about this shill factory over and over, while most people don't give a shit, a smaller subset call it hot garbage (and they're right), and some turducken mongrel like OP just spams up the joint?

It's very uncreative. We don't need a Wheaton Abortion General.

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>>45104156
Then what do you call /bgg/?

>>45104209

Baldur's Gate general

>>45103979
http://wiki.shoutcast.com/wiki/SHOUTcast_DNAS_Transcoder_2#Registering_for_MP3_Stream_Encoding

>>45103363
Literally who

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Matt's a good DM and everyone at his table seems to have a lot of fun playing (especially now that Orion is gone.) That's the most important thing. He puts on an enjoyable show and it's helped me get people into tabletop who might not have otherwise.

For someone with a full time voice acting career he does pretty well getting a game together every week.

>>45103363
This is a perfect 4chan thread. Congrats OP

>>45103363
I don't know who this faggot is but that's the most tryhard picture imaginable.

>>45103363
There's a fucking glitch in the matrix because less than a week ago we had this thread comparing Chris Perkins to this faggot.

OP clearly just watched another episode of his show and now wants to stroke himself off thinking about him on /tg/.

Yes, OP your new boyfriend is very nice.

>you will never have a player ask to take a photo of you doing Blue Steel behind your DM screen

>>45107866
You know the funny thing about that thread? Chris Perkins was clearly the preferred GM.

Why are you hellbent on turning this board against this guy? I don't think he's that great either, but your obsession has become uncomfortable.

Did he ruin a favorite animu character of yours with his voice acting work or something?

>>45107954
Sorry OP, we won't be mean to him. . .
Oh gosh, isn't he like the best GM ever?
Yeah, I love the way he emotes it makes me swoon.
You know what else? Hey, Hey! You know what else? He's modest.


Great fucking thread you got here.

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Best DM right here

>>45108003
Right? This dude is relentless.

May as well be false flagging as Mercer for them hate views.

>>45108017
Abed was a shit GM.

seriously

who?

>>45107866
It's business. Advertising for hateviews is relatively effective.

>>45108062
Explain, guy had every rule memorized, was able to improv no matter what his players did, and also was good at roleplaying NPCs. He just had shit players.

>>45103363
He's smalltime

>>45108185
He let a disruptive player dictate the plot of his game. He treated himself like a computer that was there to parse the rules instead of a member of the group that was there to make a fun time.

It's even more of a fuck up the second time he GM's, where the game had a specific goal in mind, that he throws out the window because 'muh impartiality'.

Also, while knowing the rules is generally important, having them all memorized doesn't make you a bad or good GM.

>>45108241
He also rolled for the players.

>>45103363
He's pretty mediocre and it's not helped by the fact he's playing D&D which just makes everything worse.

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Best DM right here. He wrote a whole fucking book for the campaigns backstory and hosts the game 24/7. Also sick world building. He literally created billions of billions of uninhabitable stars and planets no one will ever visit just for the fluff.

>>45108377
That's not necessarily good or bad. Especialy if you only have one d20, are running a game for a bunch of people that don't actually play DnD, are trying to speed up play in a large group, and are being used as a storytelling device by Dan Harmon.

>>45104488
>For someone with a full time voice acting career he does pretty well getting a game together every week.
I would guess he works between 30 and 60 hours in a typical week. Plenty of time to do GM prep.

>>45108444
>working 60h/week
>plenty of time
Is role playing allowed in north korea?

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>>45108407
10/10
Would play. What I'm talking about. I'm playign ti right now. And I'm mediocre at it. I really think that I could use more dwarf in this quest.

>>45108478
I work 80h a week and I do have time to set up DM shit.
Barely, but I do.

>>45108478
I'm pretty sure it is Haraam.

>>45103363
>you will never be as good at X as this person
kind of what I'd expect from a bunch of basement dwellers.

>>45108638
>I work 80h a week
I hope you make enough money to retire in your 30s then.
I honestly don't get people like you.

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>>45108478
>MFW Kim Jong-un is the only deity available to Clerics
>MFW Kim Jong-un is the patron of all Druids
>MFW Kim Jong-un name replaces all the arcane spells like "Kim Jong-un's Acid Arrow" or "Kim Jong-un's Hideous Laughter" or even "Kim Jong-un' Sword"
>MFW Kim Jong-un is a DMNPC who always appear on the game to save the party
>MFW army soldiers enforce that the DMNPC of Kim Jong-un always appear on the game to save the party

>>45108668
I literally have to work for free.

25 of those hours are studying tho.

>>45108688
What, are you the janitor?
Why would you work for free, are you an intern or something?
In any case I thought you were one of those nutjobs who honestly want a career of working 80h/w, if you're only doing 80 because you're studying too it's different, it makes much more sense.

>>45108721
>What, are you the janitor?
Not knowing that the janitor is often one of the most well payed people on any business model. If he can into mechanics or electric, shit, he's also an specialist which makes him one of the most well payed shitlords in the building.

>>45108746
pretty sure he meant 4chan janitor, anon
>he does it for free

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>>45108746
Dude, I wrote *THE* janitor, not *A* janitor. Is this your first day here?

>>45103538
Quite the opposite my friend!

>>45103363

>DM
>DM
>DM

Child came into the game late then. If experience is a measure of skill (and it usually is at these sorts of things), no Storyteller will ever catch up to a Gamemaster, who will always lag behind Dungeon Masters, and Dungeon Masters can't fucking touch a Referee like me.

>>45103620
>D&D is a combat focused game

I am so triggered by this meme.

You do realize that there's light rules for anything except combat because the idea is that you don't need mathematic abstractions with dice to pretend to talk to people or to tell a story.

>>45108638
>i work 80hrs a week
>11 3/4 hrs a day, 7 days a week

No, you don't. I didn't work that long when I was deployed to Afghanistan, and we worked 16 hour days.

>>45103363
>>playing with some non-stoner friends house for the first time
>describing a combat between a Heavily armored skeleton and the players
>>stoners come in and listen in respectful awe as I describe the scene

>>45104008
Since Orion left? Probably Laura, solely because of Trinket.

>>45104156
As long as you stop shilling for ItsMeJP

>>45108407
>He literally created billions of billions of uninhabitable stars and planets no one will ever visit just for the fluff.
>no one will ever visit
Well, the campaign's not over yet.

>>45108537
I'd just like to have had point-buy instead of rolling for stats, but it's the GM's call, not mine

>>45110586
>If social interaction has good mechanics than it's just autistic
>talking should just be talking

No this shit is even stupider. Sure you don't need to have complex combat rounds or something for a conversation but role-playing is half the game and deserves support through game mechanics, character options and fluff choices. D&D focuses almost combat and character choices are based almost entirely around combat, so it's a combat focused game. There is no shame in it.

>>45110586

Anon there plenty of games out there that have mechanics for things like minions, followers, relationships and running companies.

Many of these games and mechanics are GOOD too. In fact they're stellar in some regard and they interact with the world and setting.

D&D doesn't have anything like this. And what small elements like this it does have tend to suck balls.

Why is that? Maybe cause D&D started as a war-game and that's where its strength lies?

>>45103363

I know...

>>45103649
Roll20 has a jukebox :^)

>>45103649
It's not like this will get answered, because we're too busy arguing about other dumb shit.

But I use Syrinscape for my sounds right now (though I wish it had better background music for combat, I'm working on that).

My main issue is that I can get my audio to all my players just fine by piping it through Skype's microphone channel via virtual mixing board (not as complicated as it sounds), but when I play back recordings of the game later, the music is almost non-existent. Not sure how to fix that.

>>45103363
color me retarded, but who is this?

>>45108681
>"Kim Jong-un's Beautiful Laughter"
ftfy

>>45104488
>everyone at his table seems to have a lot of fun playing (especially now that Orion is gone.)
Haven't watched the show; what did Orion do that ruined everyone else's fun?

>>45103363
literally who

>>45110827
Underrated post

>>45111971
Matt Mercer. A voice actor who also runs a (monthly?) D&D game for a bunch of other voice actors, hosted on Felicia Day's Youtube channel (although they don't seem to be actually associated with her apart from that).

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>>45108407
>shitty, unrealistic landmasses
>rivers that don't connect to anything
>thousands of Mary Sues in the Hollywood area alone
>being a middle-class white male is objectively superior to any other race/class choices

>>45111407
Hirelings have always been a big part of D&D. They'd be damn well important in war game play, too, since otherwise there's only the 4-8 of you.

New edition has rules on running a business. It's very simple (pretty much: you roll, you either profit, stay steady, or make a loss).

But if you want to apply strict medieval business rules to D&D, you can. I don't think that sort of thing belongs in the rules. It's a part of world building.

>>45103363
>>you will never be this good of a dm
DOESN'T STOP ME FROM TRYING.

>>45112370
Well, something seems to be.

>>45112435
What's stopping you from trying, >>45112370?

>>45112491
This post makes no sense.

>>45112255
>shitty, unrealistic landmasses
Learn to research as good as him, plate tectonics are fucking crazy. He's practically transcendent in his science.
>rivers that don't connect to anything
See above.
>thousands of Mary Sues in the Hollywood area alone
Not really, just a few that minmaxed and took a bunch of addiction flaws to pay for their publicist perk.
>being a middle-class white male is objectively superior to any other race/class choices
Not in 2016e, anon.

>>45112435
>Well, something seems to be.
I'm 3 systems in of the six I've planned to run this year. Claiming success would be preposterous, but I am very much making the attempt.
>>45112491
...what?

>>45103363
He explains everything very beautifully but he is rairoaing his players too hard and I get the feeling that he likes talking too mch which limits his player's screentime.

>>45103363
who is he?

>>45112508
>>45112542
>DOESN'T STOP ME FROM TRYING.
>Well, something seems to be.

= "something seems to be stopping you from trying"?

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>>45112525
>being a middle-class white male is objectively superior to any other race/class choices
>Not in 2016e, anon.

keep believing that, tumblr ;)

>>45112611
>2016e comes out
>taking the MCWM immediately has you making DC24 Charisma checks against every NPC you meet
>If you don't pass you immediately get slapped with the Pariah flaw
>objectively superior
They got nerfed into the floor.

>>45103478
Oh you mean every combat ever in any system?

>>45112225
Weekly
The game had been going for about 2 years when they were invited to stream it live on G&S, other than 2 guests episodes with Wil Wheton, Felicia Day, Will Freider and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, they seem to have no connection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D5RWAn2sIk

>>45112175
Spotlight stealing, blatant powergaming, cringey RP stuff

>>45112255
Where's that pic of Europe with all the criticisms about map design?

>>45103363

I'm a much better DM.

>>45113099
Are you actually?

>>45104008
Keyleth/Marisha undoubtedly. Her backstory is a shitty Avatar: Last Airbender ripoff. Her idea of roleplay is just LOUD DRAMATIC EMOTIONS.

Scanlan/Sam occasionally goes too far with his humor, but he's been reigning it in. He and Grog both fit their roles well as far as party comic relief goes. He needs to learn how to actually play his character though.

Tiberius/Orion was the spergiest but he's gone, and the game is better for it. Having the bumbling old fool in the party was nice, but he was broken as shit and metagamed most fights. Slowed down the game a ton too.

Vax / Liam is the best at staying in character, but his character is a total edgelord. Definitely "nothin' personnel, kid" tier

Pike doesn't have a good grasp on what her spells do or what she should be doing most of the time. Definitely has that "just along for the ride" look about her, and rarely contributes to roleplay or combat. I'm usually happier when she can't make it.

Grog is amazing, but since he's a barbarian he can't contribute much outside of combat. Bro tier for sure

Vex / Laura is way too fixated on Trinket to the point where the bear isn't allowed near danger most of the time. She has a weird fascination with that imaginary bear

Percy is edgelord coolguy #2 and I'm pretty sure he's using a broken d20. Rolling 3-4 nat 20s per session every session is ridiculous.

>>45110827
That uplifting feel

>>45115085
>Percy is edgelord coolguy #2 and I'm pretty sure he's using a broken d20. Rolling 3-4 nat 20s per session every session is ridiculous.
Mercer actually did ban the d20 he was using halfway through a session and made him use Marisha's. Nat 20s kept coming.

>>45112938
I've never that before.

There's such a different vibe when they're just around the table

>>45115237
>marisha's d20 is also broken

Still don't trust it. Sometimes you have a great session and you roll a shit load of 20s

I've never seen anyone have a great 6-7 sessions where they roll a shit load of 20s. That shit is nuts

he can't pronounce Sigil or Chitinous but otherwise he does a good job. His NPCs seem to be his strong point, but his story arch is pretty predictable and generic.

I've noticed him bailing the party out of shitty situations sometimes. He has said that he isn't afraid to kill a PC and has done it once already (before they started doing the show) but now I think he realizes that the sheer amount of fan art, presents, action figures, etc. means he can't really get away with killing off a PC GoT style. Now that there's an audience people expect to be entertained

>>45103478
Their combats are generally pretty brief because they work on a fairly strict schedule. Doubly so considering the high number of slow players.

>>45103363
Please stop this shilling it's embarrassing.

>>45111354
>>45111407
>if there aren't good, written mechanics for it, I can't do it

Holy shit the autism

Use your fucking personal judgment and imagination

>>45103525
>Most games do
>tfw haven't had a combat be longer than 15 minutes ever since I made the switch into new systems without roots in old shit
current game design is great

>>45103363
More successful financially and socially as a DM? No, probably not

Better? Sure!

>>45103649
Got a Icecast server up for streaming.

butt or Mixxx to manage the audio

Doesn't always sync up perfectly but it felt cool when I got it working; I despise Roll20/Soundcloud jukebox BS and their restrictions.

The nice part is they can manage the music volume on their end if necessary.

>>45103478
Having 8 players will do thay regardless of how good you are at DMing, it doesn't help that his players still ask a shit ton of basic questions.

>>45115252
Well they're all actors, so they're "on" now

>>45115527
>4 dragons just showed up to fuck the city hard
If there's a time, it's now.

>>45116091
you'd think so right?

what better way to get everyone emotionally invested in whats going on in the plot, and creates good drama

>>45103363
>remote control on the table
under what circumstances is this acceptable

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>>45112982

>>45116192
Probably for their sound system

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>>45112525
I've been playing 22 years and I still haven't found a good plot hook.

He seems like a cool, fun guy to hang out with and a decent GM, but I don't think I'd enjoy playing in his games.

I like my current DM better, and I won't claim to be better in general, but I think I'm better in some respects.

>>45115769
Alright. Why can't you do that for when the characters get in a fight as well?

>>45112663
It's CURRENT YEAR

But seriously, the best part about his campaign world is that you don't have to upgrade to each new rule change. Most people haven't adopted the white male nerfs, and I suspect they won't for some time.

>>45116259
none of those sound like any criticism someone would level at a dumb fantasy map on here.

>>45104156
>turducken mongrel
I know what a turducken is. I know what a mongrel is.

So what's a "turducken mongrel?"

>>45112572
People always claim this but I don't see it. They clearly have a choice and you say he likes talking too much when there's huge long times where he just sits back and says nothing.

>>45103538
100% true

>>45112287

>Hirelings have always been a big part of D&D. They'd be damn well important in war game play, too, since otherwise there's only the 4-8 of you.

Such a shame their mechanics have ALWAYS been "just bullshit something". And yes wargames typically don't have that small a number but D&D was explicitly made FOR small-scale skirmishes outside of wargames usual giant massive scale shit.

>New edition has rules on running a business. It's very simple (pretty much: you roll, you either profit, stay steady, or make a loss).

Try reading REIGN.

>But if you want to apply strict medieval business rules to D&D, you can. I don't think that sort of thing belongs in the rules. It's a part of world building.

Why? Managing an empire or company can offer you plenty of opportunities. Again: read REIGN. That book gives an excellent explanation for how you can do it in an engaging way.

>>45103538

yes! 4e is such the WoW game

well memed fellow redditor :^)