Calling All Cases!
Added 2025-09-03 14:26:42 +0000 UTCHey, folks! Bailiff James here, to announce that the Supreme Crit is convening imminently. Please submit your brief (I beg!) grievance and or table top drama on this thread here and we will bring you to justice!
Comments
May it please the court and tease the bailiff; I started a d&d 5e session a few years ago as a new DM, having watched and listened to a lot of d&d live play media such as yourselves. I was running the mines of phandelver, the starter set adventure with a couple of friends from discord and my partner. When they arrived to the first cave after being ambushed by goblins, they successfully snuck up on two goblins that were supposed to be guarding the entrance. The stealth roll was very high and they asked what the goblins were doing, so i improvised that they were playing a made up card game. I must have made them too cute, because immediately they wanted to "adopt" (kidnap) one or both goblins. They tried multiple times to do persuasion and intimidation checks, all which failed until one of the goblins was killed in battle, which intimidated the other one to go along with them. This was fine, as i made sure that the goblin wouldn't contribute much, except for maybe giving away some information about the cave they were guarding with more persuasion and intimidation checks. The issue began when a new player joined, also a friend of all of ours, a couple sessions in after the fact, and pretty much immediately killed the "pet" goblin. It really soured the mood, as it immediately split the party between "should we be keeping this probably evil creature as a pet, it would have betrayed us" (which they probably would have as soon as it could find a safe chance to) and "but its our friend and we can redeem them" (which also could have happened if enough work was put into it) Im not sure if I should have allowed the goblin to be attacked, or if i should have let the goblin join them in the first place; i was new then and i'm still not sure what the correct choice is, i haven't DM'd since. I submit to your judgement as wise and powerful dungeon dragoners, what is your stance on goblins and adopting hostile npc's in general?
Zandor
2025-09-06 13:47:33 +0000 UTCMay it bring immense joy to all 4 lovely members of the court the case of the uninterested irritating player: My partner was running a Pokemon campaign for some of our friends with a system he made himself!! This guy (lame) was interested in playing so we invited him to join, and every session he went so out of his way to have completely misaligned goals from the rest of the already established party. There was once I remember one of the other PCs tried for what felt like 30mins to try to at least somewhat align interests with him. One session in particular, my partner had planned a super fun battle session, and this lame ass dude says “my character wouldn’t do that. I want to go on a solo stealth mission so you should run that for me instead.” It was online so I immediately texted my partner “what a dick lol” and the campaign didn’t last much longer than that bc my partner lost motivation for it (I wonder why), but I think I should be allowed to punch that guy in the stomach if I see him again. What do you guys think?
Lee
2025-09-04 23:00:47 +0000 UTCHi Judges! (Also, hi Bailiff!) I’m currently playing DND with a group of people in their 20s-50s, except for one of the players: the DM’s teenage son. He’s very good at DND and playing optimally, but he is also incredibly locked in to rules as written - to the point of correcting the DM if he gets the lore wrong, not letting his fellow players use spells or magic objects creatively, and insisting things like “all drow are evil” and “kobolds can only be slaves to higher beings because that’s how they’re written.” He obviously loves DND a lot and I do too, so I don’t want to suck the joy out of his game (especially since he’s a kid!). I’m afraid that if I ask him to chill out and let people be a little looser with the rules, I’ll be ruining a lot of the fun that he gets from playing DND and having such a clear rule set to follow. And in no world do I want to go above his head to the DM (HIS DAD). But also I feel crazy every time our party says “let’s put a pizza oven in the garden!” and he brings everything to a halt to insist that we aren’t allowed to do that, because pizza ovens aren’t in the DM’s Guide. What do I do?!
Natalie
2025-09-04 14:46:34 +0000 UTCJudgestices and baeby-boy, I come to you with a case. I ask you: when does one roll for Stealth? Foolishly, you might think as soon as a player advises that they would like to sneak around, but I disagree heartily. To roll for stealth immediately is oft to know if one succeeds or fails immediately, and is often portrayed as a character being spotted instantly. This can be fitting. It can be. However, I subscribe to a different school of thought. When my players asked to roll stealth to sneak past a drow raiding party, I nodded serenely and allowed them to move their tokens. They were trepidatious, and when they asked to roll stealth, I informed them that it was not yet time. It was only at the apex of tension, when getting caught might have spelled a moment of disaster, that I finally asked them to roll. Thus did they roll a four, a five, an eleven, and a natural one. They were caught out, poorly positioned, and though they succeeded in battle, it was a difficult fight and one character was nearly dragged away into the darkness by a giant spider. My players complained that they should have rolled and been seen right away, not when they were caught awkwardly between two subgroups of drow scouts, but I disagree. Should a failure of stealth not represent a true failure, being caught out of position, mid-sneakery? When we roll to attack with our greatswords, we do not do so from thirty feet away. We must get close and seek danger and glory! Thus do I also present this idea for the Tortles! I know you're hiding under those powdered wigs. I'm accepting potential partners for my patented Don't You Roll That Dice Yet system, where the roll is typically not made until the chance for Drama presents itself. Give me eggs a la mode. To start. Okay love you bye.
Scottee
2025-09-04 12:23:15 +0000 UTC
