- Hello, friends. Ginny Di here.
And like many D&D players, I am an introvert.
I know, shocker.
I seem so charismatic when I'm alone in my basement
performing scripted enthusiasm to a camera.
But as an introvert,
I think a lot of you will probably relate to me
when I say that parties aren't always my scene.
I'm that person who ends up often in the corner
with the host's cat.
But when it comes to D&D, it's really important
to make sure that your character has a good reason
to stick with the party.
(upbeat music)
If this is your first time on my channel, welcome!
I talk about D&D, I make music and costumes,
and sometimes I just go completely off the rails
and talk about Neopets for like 20 minutes.
It's an adventure.
There's a common rule in D&D circles
that's often stated as "Don't be Batman."
I know we've all been given a fresh new reason
to not be Batman this week,
but I'm not talking about meeting Catwoman's needs,
I'm talking about being a loner.
A lot of our favorite characters in media
are lone wolf vigilante outsiders,
people with trust issues,
people who have had to make it on their own.
And as compelling as that can be,
in a collaborative game like D&D,
if your character doesn't want to be part of a group,
you're not gonna have much fun.
You're gonna have a better time
and make your DM's life easier if you create a character
who has a good reason to team up with your party.
So in this video, we're gonna talk through
a few different reasons that your character
might wanna be a team player.
Quick note, I always say, "Communicate with your DM"
in these videos but some of the comments that I get
make me think that maybe I need to be a little clearer.
I'm not saying come up with your own storyline and then say,
"Hey DM, this is what I'm doing."
I'm saying, work actively with your DM
and your fellow party members
to come up with storylines that everyone is excited about.
Obviously, whatever you come up with
needs to fit within the world of your game.
As some random person on YouTube who is literally addressing
tens of thousands of you right now,
I cant possibly give advice that will neatly and perfectly
suit everyone's game.
So, work with me here!
You will likely need to adapt this advice
to your own experiences,
and not all of my tips will work for every person.
Alright, here we go.
12 reasons to stick with a party.
Survival.
You need backup.
After all, there's safety in numbers.
Maybe the world you live in is very dangerous
for a solo adventurer,
or maybe you have a specific weakness
that makes you vulnerable when alone.
You have moments when you black out
and lose whole stretches of time, for example,
or there's a bounty on your head.
You need a team with special skills.
Think about heist movies.
Everyone fills a necessary role.
You need a lock-picker to get into the safe,
but you need the muscle in case someone tries to stop you.
Whatever your goal is, you can't do it alone.
Your party offers a set of skills
that you need to have access to.
You have a shared goal
with at least one other character in the party,
so it makes sense to team up.
Maybe you all will do whatever it takes
to stop a specific bad guy,
or save a specific NPC or town.
Maybe you both need access to the same artifact
or magic item.
You want the same thing,
even if you don't want that thing for the same reasons.
Altruism.
For whatever reason,
your character is committed to helping others.
Maybe it's a specific party member,
an old war buddy or a family member
that you're coming along to look out for.
Or maybe you want to help others in a more general sense,
your God has charged you with benevolence,
or you feel a personal drive to make up for past sins.
It's a job. You're an actual team. You've been hired
- [Francis] Hey!
- Oh! Hey. Good to see you... friend?
- Francis. Don't you remember?
You created me for an NPC video,
but it turns out I was just a clever ploy
for a Dungeon Fog ad!
- Oh yeah! The map making tool for RPGs.
Easy to use, and fully customizable,
so you can make a beautiful map
no matter how much time you have.
- Yeah, plus they have a public map library,
which you can use and even edit yourself.
But no! I'm not doing this again! I deserve my own story.
- I'm so sorry, Francis. You do deserve a story.
You are a mapmaker, like your father, and his father before.
When you were just a child, you lived with your family
in a small community.
But since then, it's grown to over 350,000 accounts,
many of whom have made hundreds of maps!
There are now over 5000 public maps,
with a thousand new maps being created everyday!
- Wait a minute,
this is about Dungeon Fog again, isn't it?
- Sorry! I got carried away.
You learned to make your first maps
with little stubs of charcoal
and scraps of parchment leftover from your father's work.
But now there are new brushes and shapes tools
with advanced editing, a text tool with tons of fonts,
and even room and prop templates,
so you can store custom creations
to use across multiple maps!
- You're doing it again! I want to know about my childhood!
- Oh! Right. You recently revisited your old childhood home,
and in it, you found something amazing.
- What did I find?
- More than 4000 assets and textures,
from fantasy to sci-fi! And even a marketplace
where you can purchase additional assets from artists!
- Ugh! You're the worst!
- Wait! You can get a free account to try it out,
or subscribe to become a premium member
and make unlimited maps!
Use the link in the description to sign up!
(door slams)
Well. Where was I? Oh yeah, reasons to stick with a party.
It's a job. You're an actual team.
You've been hired by someone, as a group,
to go on this quest.
Maybe you use the new Group Patrons feature
in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Or maybe it's just your character
who's been hired to tag along, as a guide for the party,
or a bodyguard for another player.
Whatever the reason, if you ditch the party,
you don't get paid.
You're just lonely.
I know many of us love the "found family" aspect of D&D,
and you don't have to pretend that you don't want that.
It's totally okay for your character to be lonely
and seeking connection with others.
Maybe they were with some sort of previous group,
but something happened that left them solo,
and now they're looking to replace that.
Or maybe they've always been alone,
and something recently made them realize
that they're ready for that to change.
You already have relationships.
I don't know why more people don't take this route,
honestly. The party doesn't have to meet for the first time
in the first session.
You guys can know each other before the campaign starts.
I did an exercise with my first game
where I had each player do a sort of "spin the bottle" thing
to randomly choose another player,
and they had to come up with a way their characters
knew each other, whether it was as shallow as
"she pickpocketed me last week and I remember her face,"
or as deep as "he's my cousin."
Someone has blackmail on you.
Either someone in the group or someone outside the group
has dirt on your character,
and if you split off, it would get out,
and that would be very bad.
This is a good option if you wanna play
an antisocial character for some reason.
It can keep even a grudging character aligned with a party.
You have a protective instinct.
Your party, god, what a bunch of idiots.
Very soon after you met them, you realized that without you,
they would definitely be dead.
You wouldn't be able to handle the guilt
if you abandoned them
and then they all got slaughtered in some dungeon.
So you have to stay, or they'll be toast.
Their safety is on your conscience.
Obligation. You owe them.
Maybe the party, or one of the party members,
saved your life or did some huge favor for you,
and now you have to repay it.
Until that debt is settled, you're stuck with them.
You're just here for observation.
Whatever the reason, you're keeping tabs on the party.
Maybe you've been assigned to spy on them,
or you're supposed to one day double cross them.
Maybe you're doing the D&D equivalent of a dissertation
on adventuring parties
and you have to record their activities
so you can analyze them.
You're looking for acceptance.
Your character is straight-up a weirdo.
There's just something about you that unsettles people,
or upsets them.
This group of adventurers are the only ones
who seem to be able to accept you for who you are.
That's something you haven't been able to find anywhere else
and you're certainly not gonna let go of it now.
Remember, in the end, this is a character, not a person.
You're the one who gets to decide what they do and why.
While I personally really enjoy getting
into my character's mindset
and trying to think of what she would do
in certain situations, the ultimate goal should always be
to have a good time playing a game with your friends,
and that means finding a reason
that your character wants to be there.
I sometimes see people use "it's what my character would do"
to excuse bad behavior, but don't get it twisted,
you created that character.
You decide what they're like, and how they act.
You have the power to create a character
that your fellow party members
are going to enjoy playing with.
So, you should do that.
Whatever form that takes for your specific table.
Oh, also, it's been a while since I mentioned it, so,
hey, you should pledge on Patreon!
My community of Patrons is not only what makes my work
and videos like this possible,
but we also have just such a fun
and vibrant community there.
We hang out in Discord, they get early access to my videos,
which is why sometimes you'll see comments
that are time stamped a few days
before the video actually went live.
It's just like a fun, secret club, and I love it,
and you're invited!
Pledges start as low as $2 a month.
I will put the link in the description
so you can check it out if you're interested.