Sean Merwin

So you are stepping in as a storyteller to change the way things are supposed to work in order to make a better story. For me, you've answered your own question there. Just take out rules, put in dice, and you're doing the same thing. So I get that it's not extremely equal, but the thought there is the same sort of thought process. Teos, what do you have?

So you are stepping in as a storyteller to change the way things are supposed to work in order to make a better story. For me, you've answered your own question there. Just take out rules, put in dice, and you're doing the same thing. So I get that it's not extremely equal, but the thought there is the same sort of thought process. Teos, what do you have?

And everyone will have their own threshold for when it's appropriate to step in to change the story. If I'm doing a tournament play, organized play, where there's things at stake outside of the game itself, then I will not fudge and I will roll in the open.

And everyone will have their own threshold for when it's appropriate to step in to change the story. If I'm doing a tournament play, organized play, where there's things at stake outside of the game itself, then I will not fudge and I will roll in the open.

When we talk about that ludonarrative dissonance, the conflict between the rules of the game and the story that comes from those rules, there's actually a third thing that's there that we don't talk about a lot. But that's the play experience, which is completely separate from the story and the game. And so what is the experience like for me as the game master and the players?

When we talk about that ludonarrative dissonance, the conflict between the rules of the game and the story that comes from those rules, there's actually a third thing that's there that we don't talk about a lot. But that's the play experience, which is completely separate from the story and the game. And so what is the experience like for me as the game master and the players?

If I deem that changing something will make that experience better, without even thinking about the story or the game, I will definitely do that as well. And only you know the players, only you know yourself, and when it is right to do that. And I don't begrudge people who say, I will never fudge an eye roll. That's not wrong, especially if your players are on the same page as you.

If I deem that changing something will make that experience better, without even thinking about the story or the game, I will definitely do that as well. And only you know the players, only you know yourself, and when it is right to do that. And I don't begrudge people who say, I will never fudge an eye roll. That's not wrong, especially if your players are on the same page as you.

And I also don't begrudge a player that says I fudge everything. I roll a die and I do whatever the hell I want. If your players are down with that, I'm down with that too.

And I also don't begrudge a player that says I fudge everything. I roll a die and I do whatever the hell I want. If your players are down with that, I'm down with that too.

One area where I always fudge the dice is initiative. If I have three sets of monsters and there are six players, and I roll all three and I get 20, 20, 19, and the players all roll low, I don't want all my monsters going first. But I do want the monster that can impact the story the most to go first. So I will make that go first and then I will intersperse or vice versa.

One area where I always fudge the dice is initiative. If I have three sets of monsters and there are six players, and I roll all three and I get 20, 20, 19, and the players all roll low, I don't want all my monsters going first. But I do want the monster that can impact the story the most to go first. So I will make that go first and then I will intersperse or vice versa.

If I roll one, one, two and the players all roll high, I'm gonna get one of my monsters in there because the game flows better and the story flows better if we're going back and forth between the game master and the players.

If I roll one, one, two and the players all roll high, I'm gonna get one of my monsters in there because the game flows better and the story flows better if we're going back and forth between the game master and the players.

All right, thank you for those questions. We've got more in the queue, but we're going to have to wait till next week to get to those because we have news and commentary. Starting with the D&D Monster Manual previews continuing to roll out. Now they are talking about lots of different creature types, undead, monstrosities, aberrations, and fey.

All right, thank you for those questions. We've got more in the queue, but we're going to have to wait till next week to get to those because we have news and commentary. Starting with the D&D Monster Manual previews continuing to roll out. Now they are talking about lots of different creature types, undead, monstrosities, aberrations, and fey.

These videos were put out to discuss these particular monster types specifically. Let's start with undead.

These videos were put out to discuss these particular monster types specifically. Let's start with undead.

Yeah. I haven't looked at the table for like the Banshee. So I can't really tell you. And I, You and I both are of similar minds on tables, right? They're great for very specific situations or for certain kinds of game masters at certain steps. I would rather see a... I treat them as lists.

Yeah. I haven't looked at the table for like the Banshee. So I can't really tell you. And I, You and I both are of similar minds on tables, right? They're great for very specific situations or for certain kinds of game masters at certain steps. I would rather see a... I treat them as lists.