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D&D Court: Squishy Bears, Fishy Crits, and Uncommon Common (Patreon)

Published:
2025-12-05 03:35:06
Imported:
2026-06
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AD-FREE EPISODE FOR $5+ PATRONS!

Dungeon Court is back in session! Join Justices Murphy, Tanner and Axford, along with Bailiff Jake, as they pass judgement on your trials at the table!

CREDITS:

Sound Mixing and Editing by Trevor Lyon

Dungeon Court Theme Song by Sam Weiller

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Comments

Dallas Grey

Best birthday present ever <3

Brock

just in time for bed. thanks yall

Angus

Dice Christ blesses us

Lamp

Praise be to Christ Herwitz

Nathan Remaly

same! I've been having to listen to *other podcasts* and nothing is scratching the itch! maybe I'll do a 4th listen of C1...

emily

Just wanted to let everyone know that mcdonalds has a grinch meal right now 🫶 love and light

Caitlin C.

guys i saw grinch-themed coffee beans (along with the grinch hot sauces of course) at a coffee shop near me

Mo, stoked for Skaldova and about to run Strahd

I've been SERIOUSLY considering a relisten. No lie, I just started this about a year ago and due to my long mf'in commute I've been able to listen to all of it....so I guess I'm asking if it was difficult for you to decide whether or not to just take the plunge and start over

kaylee w

who up morking they borg is crazy work, hugh caldwell tanner

kaylee w

just started my c1 relisten and i can tell you it is worth it

Tavitafish

I could check out 80 tom cruise movies from my library. And have them for 2 weeks

Nick English

Tiamat, the Dragon Queen used her breath weapon. Why would you not have to roll for it even if you can't save? Also, RAW you can't crit on skill checks and saving throughs. You played an entire campaign with a DM who only runs RAW, and you're surprised you didn't get to still save even though you failed? Idk why but that submission and the empathy shown towards the player went up my ass, but that's probably more a me issue than anything haha. I'll hang up and listen.

Adrian Woodhouse

I've been playing for 8 years now, and I've NEVER heard of someone making a nat20 on a save and still failing. DM was at fault for even making the player roll.

kaylee w

lowly lowly say that you’re lowly

Mich Blackie

I think of the 2 crew every time I drive past a Maccas 😂

Mich Blackie

I will never understand DMs who want to crit on their players… I did it once, only like 3 sessions in and it killed a player. I’ve been haunted by it ever since…

Clever Innuendo

Out of curiosity, I looked it up, and Tiamat has a fucking *27* DC save. I want to render judgement against the person that made that stat block.

Evil Anagram

It's interesting that you brought up Lord of the Rings in the communication question because every group in Middle Earth has its own language. The Rohirrim and Gondorans specifically speak in their own languages at times, and there are multiple versions of elvish and dwarfish. AND EVERYONE COULD STILL SPEAK A COMMON LANGUAGE because it's better for stories and also historically people spoke multiple languages to communicate between neighboring provinces and kingdoms. Lingua Franca is a phrase for a reason!

Clever Innuendo

I looked it up, assuming that the DM was just killing a PC, but the actual Tiamat stat block has an effing 27 save DC. You'd need to be a Hexblood to actually save, but the DM was technically just doing a 'normal turn' by asking for the roll.

Jessica

My absolutely favorite line from the wiki page for Mork Borg: "In 2018, Swedish writer Pelle Nilsson designed a dark RPG while waiting in queue for eight hours to have a load of apples juiced."

Benjamin P Parson Gomberg

The crew seemed pretty reasonable in their take? They said it’s RAW, pointed out that the submitter said the DM had been consistent running the game RAW the whole time, and provided several examples for why a roll would still be called for even if the PC couldn’t pass (player abilities, buffs, DM isn’t always constantly aware of the everyone’s saving throw). They just agree it kinda sucks to get insta-killed that way, but still ruled against the submitter. I actually thought it was one of their more detailed breakdowns.

ak

did anyone else think a teddy bear would resist bludgeoning damage and be vulnerable to slashing damage?

wick

So Bear Death? That’s like when we die right?

Toblerone. jpg

Still boycotting but it’s lovely to hear

Jenna H

Theobald 🤝🏻awakened teddy bear Squishy bears

Bwyan

*Taking notes* Okay so I need to cast heat metal on Pooh's tank right? But thank you Justices I humbly accept your judgement and will be keeping our fluffy friend around for a long time

Nick English

Because they all said they feel like something positive should have happened because of the natural 20. They admitted that it's their play style with actual plays that is influencing that, but still. Again I think this is more a me problem with how my brain is wired, but the player had Tiamat take just a regular turn against them. It sucks getting incinerated but failure is a thing. To write in about it seems silly to me. I fully accept that I probably sound like an asshole lol

Teo Tamashiro-Harris

God as someone who loves languages and travel irl, I would love to be at the DM's table with limited Common. It sounds so fun! I think it's a mismatch of what the DM and the player(s) find fun

J. Gro

IF there's a limit to checking out DVDs from the library, then it's going to be a crazy high number. My sister and her four kids have over 200 books checked out at any given time, so I can't imagine they'd be stingy with lending out a nearly antiquated media format.

Liam Sexton

RSS feed doesn't seem to be showing up in YouTube music unfortunately 😔

Damian Bowden

You had alien on laserdisk as well!

Katrina Dagenais

As a librarian, every time you bring up borrowing DVDs from the library it kills me. It’s so good, yet so hilarious every time. Thank you for promoting library resources!

nvsblty

mork zuckerborg

Jay Barber

YEAHHHHHH DVD FLIPPING JOIN US MURPH

Steve E

Fishy Crits are delicious

Stefan UrKILL (Figgy)

awww man, the first one reminds me of the time i played a (homebrewed to hell) awakened teddy bear who stole your dreams (rogue base with some extra magic). she belonged to a princess who abandoned her once she outgrew teddy bears and her entire quest was hunting this bitch down and telling her off about it 😂😂 rip Lady Snuggles von Corduroy, i was such an obnoxious player in my early 20s and would play her so differently now lol.

Professor Pratt

Bring me The Dip. “NOOO….Not the dip! Anything but the dip.” Pppppppuuuhhhlllleeeasssee!

Professor Pratt

Nanu Nanu-Resistance is futile. Anyone?! Come old-timers, do me right.

Professor Pratt

It’s a platter 5 dvd player…it’ll fit

Steph

What I love about the renting a dvd from the library bit is they assume we all have ways to watch dvds

No Plan Anne

True! I'd have them find an ancient pixie ruin where a tiny suit of +4 mithril and tiny boots of springing & striding will be easily found if they just look. That way, the plot armor has an adorable explanation and teddy can keep up with the party without being carried.

Verdigree

I forget which show Aabria Iyengar mentioned this on, but I bekieve she mentioned she used to make dice, and the only fair dice are the ones used by casinos that go through a bunch of quality control processes and only keep the most perfectly equal one, so our math on the probability of dice rolls are irrelevant in the face of the fact different dice DO roll differently, and it's not superstition

Verdigree

That's actually not in the book, it's just a very very commonly used house rule

mira

as a librarian, the second question I get when I say we have dvds is "can I also get something to watch them on"

Iris Dewey

It's also better worldbuilding to have languages not tied to racial backgrounds! But, that might also be part of the mismatch. If my character speaks common, goblin, and gnomish rules as written, it would be frustrating for the language barrier to always be languages I had no access to in character creation because my dm made them up. Working with the players to figure out which in-game languages they DO know will make it more fun when they encounter languages they don't know.

rosebramblewolf

I had a DM once who wanted me to water test my dice for fairness if I re-inked them with nail polish so I could read them in his basement. I thought that was a little excessive.

Amy Bergeron

As someone from a bilingual province who does have to deal with communication difficulties, I actually wonder whether the DM is interested in playing with those issues via an RPG medium. There could be something thematic that they're trying to accomplish, and I wonder if there's a way to talk with them about their reasons while not giving everything away. I think there is also space to let the players find creative ways to cope with this, just like people do in real life - learning languages in their downtime, paying an NPC hireling to translate... It's maybe a generous read but I can't help but wonder if there's some really cool story / thematic experience that would be missed by just giving the players a Babel fish!

Nate P

Hope you guys review the grinch meal

Miranda G

It does sound kinda like the DM has a cool idea that they weren't able to land. I agree, the idea finding solutions to deal with a language barrier, and gradually become more proficient in the language over the campaign, sounds like fun in theory.

Hunter

another idea for the language barrier submission could be homebrewing different dialects for different cultures/regions that share a language. it could go more in depth than this but wood elves and high elves having different forms of elvish as an example. idk i’m not super informed on linguistics so i apologize if that’s not how dialects and language work. an old coworker who spoke arabic couldn’t always translate arabic for us depending on the person’s dialect. that’s pretty much what i’m going off of lol

Hunter

they also touched on this when they were responding to that submission but i like the idea of lowering the persuasion DC by studying the language. like it might still be hard to converse but knowing a few phrases or words might go a long way. the PCs might not make out everything the NPCs are saying and vice versa but they have a chance of at least coming to an understanding.

SimpleWater

You don't understand. This DM REAAAAALLLLLLY wants to kill off this bear and destroy his players fun. Lol

Brant

I would’ve come out the other way on the language case. I find it weird how much language barriers get avoided in TTRPGs. I get WHY — communicating is fun — but personally I think overcoming language barriers in a fantasy setting can lead to a lot more entertaining situations. Plus it makes spells like Comprehend Languages even more powerful, when often those spells get neglected or ignored. Just my two coppers.

Brant

Completely agree.

The Wizard Syntax

For the communication case, everyone forgets the limits of literacy in low tech cultures. I would make the Common language a low language without a written component at all. Without the standardization the written word gives, every community has a different way of speaking the "low" language. DC 10 near the capital, DC 15 or higher for smaller towns to understand complex concepts. Add read/write language as a separate language skill that you can take.

Xacris

the nat 20 saving throw case, that's why I think the fact that the rules are that nat 20s don't do anything other than on attacks is just dumb, because it goes against what combat crits train players to expect and failing on a nat 20 always results in a deflating moment and hurt feelings. I don't blame the DM for being a rules stickler, I blame the designers for not realizing how many bad moments this rule would create

The Magic Strugglebus

How does the bear have AC 3? How does anything have AC 3? A commoner who is actively trying to throw themselves onto the BBEG sword is higher, and they’re a larger target! Cloth items usually have 11 AC, +1 for every size class smaller than medium, and the HP is either 2 or 3 depending on size category(this is assuming it’s considered a “delicate” item and not a “resilient” one). If it’s tucked into a bag or armor, it has total cover. So if you’re going to murder this bear, at least do it by the books.

Xanian Jamfalcon

First case made me want to read Threadbare by Andrew Seiple litrpg series again.

Chase

Idk if it's actually that common of a house rule only because the situation where a nat 20 fails so rarely happens. It almost exclusively applies to nom-proficient saving throws at high levels against especially high CR enemies. So I think it's more like people just assume 20 = auto success because in 99% of cases it does

Chase

Murph said this in the ep but the GM doesn't necessarily have all the player's saves memorized. And (also mentioned) there are lots of abilities that boost saves that could stack even just a higher roll up to a success. Paladin aura, flash of genius, and bless all come to mind and I'm sure there are many more. But if you want a d20 game where nat 20s always matter, there's a pretty popular one available lol

Chase

That whole section I could just feel the pathfinder evangelist in me fighting to get out lol. Nat 20s always boost your degree of success in pathfinder even if the DC is so high that you'd normally fail! It's great! lol It even happened for Emily with Cinnamon, nat 20 against a dragon's breath weapon to take NO damage instead of half damage

Tim G

I was mistaking Vanila Sky for October Sky this whole episode

Liz

Teddy Bear DM—my childhood teddy bear literally got run over by a tractor trailer on a highway in Connecticut 36 years ago but my mom stopped the car and grabbed him off the road and he is really no worse for wear (although he did lose an eye). I think the party’s little guy is honestly gonna be fine. 😂

miriamc

to be fair at such a high lev that theyre output is 300+ damage its reasonable for the designers and dm to account for pc creep such as flash of genius, bardic inspiration etc to boost saves (esp w tiamat’s dc of 27!!), like caldwell said. its not in the case as presented but if youre fighting tiamat and youre good enough to do combo attacks like that youd think the tactics of having saving throw boosts would be assumed and balanced for.

miriamc

its also just REALLY hard to balance for high level players

Jeff_Plagues

Going to WWE tonight murph! Not related

Neil Dutton

This teddy bear actively wants to die?

Xacris

it's literally not about the balance of the fight at all that I have an issue with, it's the social consequences of the rules being written this way that I have an issue with. They wrote the rules in a way that will result in people feeling this way, and that was a mistake. Pathfinder does it better by accounting for this with the degrees of success

phosphomimetic

Disadvantage on charisma checks when you’re speaking Common feels like a good compromise

Kaidan C

What’s so crazy about a DM wanting the languages of the world matter? They take up multiple parts of the book, show up in multiple steps of character creation, have entire rules about them… and most tables prefer to completely gloss over it. One DM tries to incorporate a language barrier challenge and suddenly it’s a crisis

Kaidan C

It’s wild to me that there are people out there without something to watch a dvd on. There’s like 17 different ways to play them, none are particularly expensive (except a new PlayStation I guess?) and most are pretty ubiquitous

The Magic Strugglebus

I don’t know what to tell you bud, your sticky little teddy bear shook my leg and said “Please destroy this vessel. Our damned soul chews its limb free of this teddy bear Hell and wishes for the void.” So I guess we gotta boycott build-a-bear now.

Ryanne Wallace

I can't believe Murph would tell Emily to be quiet like that

Tim

To shine some light on the Mork Borg case: I have played Pirate Borg, which uses the Mork Borg system, and death is very common. I would say almost celebrated. I have rolled really well in Pirate Borg and still ended the session dead. So, maybe that’s why the players relented the DM going back on the PC death. But your players insisting that you’re lying is bullshit.

22 Hilda Street

besides, the dm should know their players classes at the very least. which would inform them whether there are bonuses available.

22 Hilda Street

the dm should have those things memorized. bless would be cast in that combat, and the DM should know if theres a paladin, bard, or artificer in the party.

22 Hilda Street

for the confessional, the player might have either been a rogue with reliable talent, eloquence bard, or might have had expertise in the skill. so it might not have been a true sin against dice christ

jaydee meowr

I think the issue is when it becomes a barrier to interacting with the world. Let the characters learn the language or at least have a means to communicate even if it’s just gesturing. But having no means of communicating isn’t a great story building experience.

jaydee meowr

Teddy Bear has really crap dex?

Tannictor

I'm surprised Caldwell didn't say final fantasy ten albehd dictionary

jaydee meowr

Dude, what dm do you know has each player’s set of six saves/modifiers memorized or even written down? Thats not even standard practice.

jaydee meowr

DM could have used Sidekick rules for the Teddy if the party wanted Teddy to start entering the fray

The Magic Strugglebus

AC 11 is for cloth items, which are typically not moving(on their own). AC 3 is a joke AC that means it’s a near impossibility for anyone of any level of any proficiency to not hit this bear, maybe even by accident.

Grasse Biche

We were level 3, I don't think this could be reached even with great luck for ability scores, could it?

GC

Regarding Emily's affection for winks at ~58:00--whoever wants to see Emily *herself* wink right down the barrel under the most unimaginable of circumstances needs to get over to Gastronauts now

Derick Gadd

Apparently languages are just so you can get a buff in combat lmao.

J. Gro

I distinctly recall watching "Richie Rich" on laser disc. I'm honestly surprised anybody even remembers that format existed.

Francisco Hernandez

As a fellow Dec 20 bday, excited to start calling it the Crit bday

Greg Lohman (tsarducci)

If it makes the nat 20 saver feel better, vulnerability does not overcome immunity, so their grave and tempest combo should have done 0 hp.

Greg Lohman (tsarducci)

And yet, thier rules stickler dm forgot that vulnerability doesn't negate immunity so tiamat shouldn't have take that 300hp hit.

Kelly Gilbert

My library allows 50 checkouts for 3 weeks, but the caveat is we have a really dismal DVD collection.

Professor Pratt

Você não consegue lidar com a verdade.

Lilli of the bog

I think if nat 20 as a "critical success" regardless of how much it adds up to, and ones the same way.

Kingzley Sparkman

I took it from the submission that there are ways to communicate, it's just not as easy as everyone knowing common. I don't think it's a big deal and if that's how the DM wants to build their world, it only take some tweaks, or stocking some spells that help get past that language barrier. Especially since it sounds like the DM wants to work with them

Mickey Mars

Caldwell's pooh voice🤣🤣🤣

Kingzley Sparkman

The case reminds me of this one guy that was with us when we went out to dinner in Japan. He refused to order anything off the menu because it wasn't in English. We told him the menu had pictures, and there were a couple of us that could translate for him, but he said that if they didn't have the hospitality to provide an English menu, they don't deserve his money

Emma41420

In ~2018, I found a beautiful collection of classic animated films on laser disk at a thrift store still shrink-wrapped! I brought them back to school with me because I helped run the animation department's stop motion lab. Our visiting professor excitedly suggested I arrange a screening series, so I started making arrangements... I contacted FIVE DIFFERENT LOCAL COLLEGES and nobody could locate a laser disk player ☠️. Some people disappointedly told me theirs had been given away or sold, stopped working or thrown out, or lost among piles of defunct equipment. A few actually just laughed at the idea I even asked 😅. It got to the point where we even pursued funding to purchase one-- until realizing they average ~$300. To this day, I've kept the collection in hopes of fulfilling that dream 🥲💭💫💞

Pali Endi

We follow the RAW of our hearts! 🙌❤️

22 Hilda Street

eloquence bards get silver tongue at level 3, turning any number rolled below a 10 into a 10, but that's only for persuasion and deception. they also get expertise so it is theoretically possible, but only for those two skills. if that player did this with anything else, then he committed a sin against dice christ and must be punished

electric_claire

I cannot disagree more on the Uncommon Common case. The campaign sounds very fun. It seems like the DM wants to recreate the experience of actually traveling. The hosts say that this isn't an issue in LotR but there are tons of stories where it is. All kinds of pulp fiction has the heroes hiring translators, learning bits of languages, etc. It's an exciting vector for story-telling. If the player wants to be able to communicate more with other people they should spec their character that way! Spend a feat on learning some common languages, focus on intelligence, etc. Spells like comprehend languages are a leftover from a vision of D&D that did care about language difference and reducing them to combat buffs betrays a lack of imagination about what D&D can be.

Hammy

“Teddy bears are at war right now” that made me very sad

Smiththebat

Why did Murph all of the sudden get stuck on the stats of eight Nat 20’s in a row. The boyfriend never said she rolled 8 in a row. Unless I fully missed something.

Sata Prescott

Our library keeps an "obsolete technology collection" for all the media that we can't reformat that still have any circulation. You have to handle it here, generally (though I think we do have loanable VCRs?), but we ensure that everything can still be accessed.

Bryce Peterson

I get what you mean, but I took it as limiting the recorded rolls to the first 2 of each encounter, then acknowledging the insane odds those would ALL be 20s.

Bryce Peterson

Agreed, I’m genuinely surprised the DM was shit on at all in this case. The player just kind of sounds entitled.

Bryce Peterson

God speed, see you again in Eldermourne.

Smiththebat

Yes, I think you’re right, it’s insane and she was cheating but it’s no wear NEAR as low odds as rolling EIGHT IN A ROW. …that’s all I was getting at. At most she rolled 2 in a row… and lol, started 4 battles in a row with a crit? I see what you’re saying but the odds reset every roll. So spacing them out between battles makes it waaaayyyy more likely than rolling straight up 8 in a row.

William Blankenship

So I actually did a campaign with a lot of languages and it worked out great. It was a pirate campaign, where the party at least the original party were all from the other side of the world and they traveled across the sea to get here. Think “the new world“ But I made it where some languages are similar enough that if you spoke elvish back home it was similar here. But some human languages were brand new. The key is having the party all know DIFFERENT LANGUAGES from the start. This is why character sheets have a languages part so it’s not just for combat. It resulted in some players being the ones to relay the messages from some people, getting trusted npcs to help, and having broken conversations that were mysterious. So I would leave out words or what not. I would speak kinda broken language IRL bc the npc didn’t know common well or the party only knew a little bit of the language they were speaking. So it can be very fun but you gotta be upfront and give players the chance during character creation to pick out languages bc many people see that as just fluff so you need to be clear before the game starts. But that is only for some languages again mine they were explorers so some they had no clue about and had to go find someone to help. It seems to me that the “shady inn keeper” was a plot hook where you had an unreliable translator which would be fun to get into trouble when you can tell they are lying but you can’t figure out how or why.

Klaus Undklaus

God damn why are so many people in here rules illiterate? You obviously let them roll. Absolutely no question about it. 1) No, the DM should absolutely never assume they know all of their players options 2) Not letting them do a saving throw is giving the players information that they should not have before the roll. 3) Some players may assume that there is no saving throw

Obed Pacheco

For the bear DM. If you want a hearfelt ending that would allow the bear to leave the party but still be in the universe, is to pull a Toy Story 3 (the TRUE final movie in the series). Just have the lil bear eventually become attached to a child NPC and at the end of an arc, have the teddy bear decide it's wants to stay with the child to keep them safe and be their friend while the party hopefully understands that their time with the bear has come to an end and that it's time to move on. ...but also, a little teddy in a tiny tank blasting monsters would be so frikkin adorable!!

Patrick B

Who up morkin their borg?

Bwyan

As the bear DM (I swear I'm not as blood thirsty as Justice Murphy suggests), I really really like this idea and will probably use it as his write off when wrapping up our campaign

Mica K

Fun fact, I work at a library in MA and each card allows up to 150 physical check outs (with a limit of 6 on video games), so you could, possibly, get every single Tom Cruise movie!

Pontus Knast

Started 4 battles in a row with TWO crits!

Smiththebat

Ya she’s out of control but that’s a far cry from EIGHT. lol

Ghost Ketchup

For the nat 20 save question if there were no other factors (I feel like that would've been brought up if so?🤷‍♀️) I would be just as pissed about having a roll that is just impossible to pass. I don't really see the difference between 'you don't get a roll you're dead' or 'you rolled the best possible and died anyway cause the dc is impossible' But I also don't like the raw nat 20 don't work on checks and saves. You're telling me I can hit extra good with a sword 1/20 but can't jump outta the way extra good 1/20. So just personal taste I guess

soyyyyyysauce

THE TRUTH HAS TO MATTER!!!!!! merch when

Monzi

It's a little annoying to me hearing that people would want to change the rules for "narrative" because d&d was not written for narrative, it was written to dungeon crawl and have your little guy roasted by a dragon. Now with all the actual plays Hasbro is pushing it to be "narrative roleplay" but I think that sometimes people just want a different game. If you want a high roll to always succeed, there are games with that mechanic, it's just not d&d. If there's a chance you could die, you gotta make peace with that. I recognize this is not the prevailing popular opinion by the 2 Crew or perhaps most d&d players.

LM Larson

Emily with the HHGTTG babel fish reference :)

Max Herzog

Nat 20 does not mean auto success

Ethan

My heart STOPPED when murph said lower the volume lmao

riskutforthebriskut

you wouldnt call a "Critical Success" a successful endeavor? lmao your table sounds super fun

Max Herzog

On attacks it's a crit. But if the DC is 25 and you get a nat 20 and a bonus of +3 you missed the DC. You can still narrate something fun with the crit but it also doesn't pass the DC automatically.

riskutforthebriskut

so why am i rolling if i cant succeed no matter what lmao again you sound super fun at the table

Max Herzog

Sounds like your character got into a tough situation. Why did you come here to insult our table? We like playing with consequences, and having a 5% chance to succeed anything at any given moment just isn't fun. Brian Murphy runs his table the same way buddy.

riskutforthebriskut

i didnt come here for anything other than disagreeing with your initial statement lmao salt bag

Max Herzog

You managed to insult my table twice, so thanks for that contribution to the discussion

Nathaniel F

Gotta comment on the language barrier DM. Usually pretty onboard with the rulings, but I think there’s several great reasons to do this that can be very fun if the players aren’t sticks. Are language barriers a life experience the DM deals with, or knows somebody who does? Regardless, It’s a very real experience many people have - through spoken language, deafness, muteness, etc - and bringing that to the table can provide an enriching experience. Sure players didn’t sign up for it, but why does the challenge, which is seen in plenty of media, have to be such a bad thing? Because they maybe missed a few things and had to navigate and roleplay more? Maybe it wasn’t for the players, but it doesn’t have to mean the DM is being some try-hard. So, yeah, lower the volume judges. 💚

Dr. Eggman

Woah woah woah lower your volume I do agree with you somewhat that I liked the language barrier idea more than the ruling, but what gets me is that the players were interested in learning about the local culture but had no way of doing that. I do think that the dm should've had an alternative way to communicate just enough for the players to be able to adequately explore the world. Something like some townsfolk speaking broken common or having some common words used here and there (similar to how Japanese uses some English words) or maybe something visual like diagrams or posters about the festivities. Even with a lot of what you mentioned a translation app will aleviate a lot of the major communication roadblocks, at least for travelers. I could definitely imagine a translation spell with limitations that would mimic your phone battery dying or not having service even though it works sometimes to translate well in general. There would still be issues but they'd still be able to understand something if they spent time/resources trying to figure it out. Essentially, I don't mind the language barrier but I don't think there needs to be a language impenetrable fortress

Nathaniel F

I like the volume you’re speaking at. Some people with broken common could work, I know I personally know basic words - yes, no, hello, goodbye, and thank you- in a few languages. And some basic hand gestures could bridge a couple basic gaps. I like the idea that for the first town, possibly the furthest from a big city, making it the hardest to communicate with the fewest knowing words in common, and making it easier as you get closer. For learning local culture, visuals can work fine. When I’m a tourist, I’m rarely talking to people but looking around and getting plenty from context. Won’t get a lot of the culture, but enough to work on. I suppose we can internet our way through the culture too.

Alexis

by how they pronounced it I had no idea it was swedish! it translates to something like “dark castle” just a note that I loved how they pronounced it hahaha unfortunately idk how to type how it would be pronounced

Summer Tribe

I know man this case is whack. like they're really expecting the DM to bend the rules just cause the player expects it? I wonder how many times they've had this case, or rather what the essence of the case was. Some player whining that they agreed to play a game and now they don't like the rules of the game cause it doesn't suit them. and then complaining that the DM doesn't know everybody's character sheet front to back. Like why would the DM assume that between your entire high level party nobody has the means to buff their saves? They got a campaign to run, that shit is up to the players. ridiculous

Summer Tribe

why are you expecting the DM to bend the rules to the game you agreed to play? why are you expecting them, the person who already works the hardest at the table, to remember the feature of every character? if you're fighting an avatar of Tiamat then presumably you're at a level where it's possible an ally could buff these saves, even if the DM did know the player's dex off hand (admittedly not a stat that changes much) that doesn't mean they shouldn't be calling for a roll for something that uh calls for a roll. "roll" "22" "doesn't pass" wow look at that it's a 3 second interaction. y'all are so wrong

Summer Tribe

it's an end of campaign encounter bruh

Summer Tribe

Monzi has the right of it in a big way. nobody out here is playing DnD 5e (the 8thish edition) because it's a good game, they're playing it because they've heard of it. this leads to all kinds of whacky expectations from people who refuse to do the legwork to play a system that actually works the way they want it to

Vee

No, you're wrong..if something can't be succeeded at it shouldn't be a roll 😭 if it can't be succeeded at, it has no aspect of chance, so the roll is literally useless. That's literally the whole point of rolling. That there's a chance of success or failure. If there's no way to win even with a critical success, what is the point?

Vee

I'm just gonna copy my comment here 😭 No, you're wrong..if something can't be succeeded at it shouldn't be a roll 😭 if it can't be succeeded at, it has no aspect of chance, so the roll is literally useless. That's literally the whole point of rolling. That there's a chance of success or failure. If there's no way to win even with a critical success, what is the point?

Drew Worth

I think that a more generous read of the DM was maybe merited, but the Justices reaction to this type of game is why I do think the DM is wrong and deserved a mild punishment. I would also love this style of campaign, but with challenges like this as a part of RP the DM should have mentioned it in session 0 and gotten everyone's agreement. This kinda thing is like the hardcore survivalist tables where water and food and equipment are all carefully monitored. Absolutely some people's jam and they LOVE those games, but a lot of players probably won't wanna do it. A good learning moment for the DM, if you have an idea you like that's not plot focused tell your players up front! If they knew about this maybe they would've planned for it and been on board.

Summer Tribe

Vee i beg you to actually read

Summer Tribe

I beg thee to read Vee, you didn't address a single thing

Summer Tribe

I just started my third listen of C1. Really nobody does it like NADDPOD

Invader Jimm

I mostly agree, I do see how the DM might need to adjust things for everyone to have fun, but they sounded like they wanted to do that, they just want the language barrier to be a thing. I feel The Honorable Judge Axford is the only one that was really trying to come up with a real solution for them while the other judges and lowly pet Jeff were too caught up on just abandoning something the DM clearly feels is important to their world.

Ghost Ketchup

Nat 20 auto success is a pretty common house rule to the point that ppl just assume it's a rule rule lol. playing dnd in general there are a lot of rulings that get made that aren't raw to make the game more fun and based on the wording of the submission is sounds like this hasn't come up before cause the submitter is arguing that nat20s should count for *something* no one's expecting the dm to remember everything but also based on the submissions wording it sounds like the dm mightve also been the one to point out they only got to add a plus 2. Either way it still sucks to call for a roll that ultimately doesn't do anything

Ghost Ketchup

Also more than their hp total at full damage there's probably a good chance they would've still been down at half damage so I don't think it's a game breaking ask lol especially cause they're playing the cleric And once it becomes a character death it's no longer a "3 second interaction" 🤣

Vee

I did read. just because someone does not agree with you doesn't mean they didn't read 😭 again, there is no point in rolling if there's no chance of success. The whole point of rolling dice is the chance aspect. If there's a situation where you will automatically succeed no matter what, or a situation where you will automatically fail no matter what, there is no point in rolling in that situation. If success is impossible, it should not be promised to you by some kind of roll 😭

Vee

I quite literally did. in fact I addressed the most important thing, which is that the player had no chance of success, so why TF did they roll? Sometimes "bending rules" is better if the rules you're playing under are making things unfun. Because at the end of the day, the point of the game is not to be the most perfect completely by the books game on earth, it's to have fun and create a story. Having fun comes before any actual rules. And most rules actually make the game fun, but if a rule is actively making the players upset or feel like the game is unfair, the rule shouldn't be used 😭 this obviously doesn't mean we should just get to cheat all day, again, most rules MAKE the game fun. And some people will claim things are unfair even when they're not. But in this case, it is my personal opinion that if there's no chance of success then it doesn't call for a roll. 😭 Rolls should mean something.

Aileen Garcia

Anyone with better memory remember which episode they discussed flurry of blows? My dnd table is fighting over this and I want to play the case for them. Thank you!

Anna Wasilczuk

D&D Court: Bonus Cases - Table Flipping, Table Therapizing, and Table Exile

Tim G

@riskutforthebriskut Why are you being incredibly rude for no reason? They didn’t roll for nothing at that level there’s plenty of abilities that can buff saving throws. The DM probably doesn’t remember all 6 saving roll mods for each PC so it’s possible they didn’t know they only had a plus 2 and like I said above, you still roll to get a base number that other abilities can add on to. What if they add bardic inspiration or a paladin close by providing an aura boost? You roll, that’s how the game works, it’s not personal if you can’t make the save they’re fighting Tiamat. They just did 300 damage and now want the dm to break the rules that have been established? For what? And before you go insulting how I play like you did above, does always succeeding and having no chance of failure sound fun to you? If my party kicked Tiamat ass in 3 rounds because the DM used kid gloves I would be pissed. That’s not fun either.

Tim G

@Vee Calling someone flat out wrong when they are following the rules as written is a crazy look. It wasn’t impossible to succeed, you still roll in case other player abilities come in to play like bardic inspiration or a paladins aura. Also it’s a little entitled to expect the DM to memorize all 6 saving mods for all pcs at the table in the middle of running Tiamat. Don’t take it so personally it’s just how the hame works. You roll, get a number, and see if you succeed.

Compound27

What about on a nat 20 that doesn't save, grants a second roll of dc15 or something. Ferngully on laser disc baby. For the Nat 20 gf DM, make another player confront her lol

Adam!!!!!

the issue is the player not finding it fun, most tables gloss over it because of that.