shamusyoung

DM of the Rings XXVI: Our Dearly Discarded

"Any seasoned roleplayer knows they are not limited by the rulebooks. Anything is possible as long as they can justify it to the DM." ~Shamus

DM of the Rings XXV: Where Are We Again?

"I had some witty comments to go along with this comic. They are in my notes… around here… somewhere. Ah yes! here they are:

D&D is a sort of simulation. A simulation of living in a fantasy world where fearless heroes and dreadful monsters clash daily in spectacular battles. A world where you are a great champion, and the creator of the universe is frequently disorganized, highly distractable, and alarmingly vague on the rules of the universe he's trying to run.

N...

DM of the Rings XXIV: Loot of the Rings

"Is the loot valuable or not? The price tag is meaningless. It’s all in how you describe it. Take a page from the home shopping channel, where no item is too mundane to be praised.

It’s not a “small figurine”. It’s a “beautiful, hand-crafted figurine of a water nymph”. Yes, this seems silly. Of course it’s hand-crafted. Everything is in a pre-industrial world. I’m telling you: It doesn’t matter if it’s not worth two coppers and weighs as much as a...

DM of the Rings XXIII: Happy Halloween

DM of the Rings XXII: Are We There Yet?

"In defense of the players, I will say that when this sort of thing happens it is usually the result of the players getting restless or bored. If the players are distracted, it means it’s time to change something and recapture their interest. I’m still working on this particular skill myself." ~Shamus

DM of the Rings XXI: The Epic Sounds of Battle

"This happens all the time. No matter how epic the battle, once begun, the thing sounds more or less like a bingo game: People shout out numbers and other people get excited about them." ~Shamus

DM of the Rings XX: Temple of BOOM

"Ask any fighter: A hammer is just a really heavy set of lockpicks." ~Shamus

DM of the Rings XIX: A Pinata of Stone

"Never provide a dungeon without treasure. The longer they search and find nothing, the more your players will be convinced that the treasure is bountiful and exceptionally well-hidden. If left unchecked, they will eventually dismantle and excavate the entire site in their search for loot."~Shamus

DM of the Rings XVIII: Cartographer’s Lament

"Nothing adds excitement to a campaign like hours of detailing room dimensions and doorway placements. Remember, if you can’t keep them engaged, you can at least keep them busy. Well, one of them, anyway.

(As an aside, in our campaigns we use a a dry-erase board for this sort of thing.)"~Shamus

DM of the Rings XVII: Of Dubious Value

"One of the things I loved to do in our campaigns was give out magical items which were interesting but mostly useless. We’ve been trained by movies that if you find some seemingly unimportant bauble, then the story will later create a situation where it will be the key to solving a problem in an unexpected way.

My favorite was a rope I gave them that untied itself the moment you let go of the knot. It was pointless, but enough of a novelty that they hung onto it. Another was a chalic...

DM of the Rings XVI: Teamwork

"Welcome to this special edition of DM of the Rings with special behind-the-scenes director’s commentary…

An alternate joke I wanted to use here was that the other players were not afraid of the monster per se, but afraid of getting involved in a battle which would require knowledge of the grapple system as well as the byzantine system of attacks of opportunity, and they were terrified of trying to wrap their heads around all of this while fighting a many-tentacled...

DM of the Rings XV: Riddle me This

"No matter how difficult or absurd you make a puzzle, your players will find an even more impossible and preposterous way of solving it." ~ Shamus

DM of the Rings XIV: Boring Distractions

"D&D is a sort of simulation.  A simulation of living in a fantasy  world where fearless heroes and dreadful monsters clash daily in  spectacular battles. A world where you are a great champion, and the  creator of the universe is frequently disorganized, highly distractable,  and alarmingly vague on the rules of the universe he’s trying to run." ~Shamus

DM of the Rings XIII: Let’s Not go There

"This is, of course, the most pervasive problem in D&D, and one  which the rules have never addressed. The tension of many battles has  been ruined by some smart-alec suggesting they use the Holy Hand  Grenade.  No fortress – no matter how impressive or dangerous – will  ever seem foreboding after one of the players points out that, “It’s  only a model”.

My own suggestion for the 2023-03-25 10:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

DM of the Rings XII: NPC Non Grata

"Some notes about writing a campaign:

1. It’s great that you took the time to come up with “Count Devron  Masuvius Beldamor the III, High Magester of the Realms of Greeenwood”,  but you need to realize that the players are just going to refer to him  as “that wizard guy”, or simply, “Mister fancy-pants”.
2. If you send along a high-level NPC of great majesty and power to  accompany the party, you need to realize that the players will treat &nbs...
   2023-03-18 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post

DM of the Rings XI: Failure to Communicate

"The DM will do a lot of talking, but if he’s not rolling the dice then what he’s saying is probably not important." ~Shamus

DM of the Rings X: Our Growing Family

"Even more reviled than a typical roleplayer is a roleplayer who insists on roleplaying.  When the dorks need to feel superior, this is the guy they denounce as a dork.  Honestly.  The only person worse than him is the DM himself. "~Shamus

Also, I have been neglecting to point out that Paercebal (a fellow reader and patron) has been translating the comic to French on a weekly basis. The French edition can be found here: 2023-03-03 22:18:39 +0000 UTC View Post

DM of the Rings IX: Too Warm a Welcome Remastered

"When you want an image to use for your character portrait, you have two choices:

1. Spend years mastering the art of sci-fi / fantasy illustration.   Perhaps attend art school.  Hone your craft until you can fully realize  your character on paper just as you imagine them.
2. Use Google Image Search and swipe something that looks roughly like how you want your character to look.

For whatever reason, most players take the lazy way and opt for #2, ...

DM of the Rings VIII: A Tearful Reunion Remastered

"Yes, black dragons are powerful. So are level-20 fireballs, demi-gods,  and huge mythic beasts.  But there is no force in the game as powerful  as the combined selfishness and apathy of your players."~ Shamus

Sharon moved out. Now I'm buying the house (my monthly costs almost doubling. Fun times. Probably sake on another nanny job to fill in the financial gaps which will mean less rambling updates from me but I'm not Shamus or Bay so no big deal there. I'm not a story te...

DM of the Rings VII: Let’s go Shopping!

"Remember, nothing will spice up your campaign quicker than long  descriptions of NPC’s doing spectacular stuff while the players sit  around and watch."~Shamus

This is exactly how it went in every town our whole campaign, "Where's the brothel? Why isn't there a brothel. Fine. Where's the tavern."

Unrelated to the post, I ended up on antibiotics for strep so am finally starting to function again but still exhausted. So of course, I jumped right back into ful...

DM of the Rings IV: Lootless Remaster

"On one hand, it makes no sense for the monsters and encounter areas of the gameworld to come pre-stocked with loot. It also makes no sense for feral beasts and the shambling undead to walk around carrying fabulous cash prizes.

On the other hand, gold coins are shiny and make a fun jingling sound when you have lots of them." ~Shamus

I apologize immediately for any mistakes on my part. I've managed to get both strep throat (which I get when I get run down thanks to childhood boug...

DM of the Rings V: First Encounter

"Remember:  That which does not kill you was simply not permitted to do so for the purposes of the plot." ~Shamus

For us (his family) the funniest thing about this particular comic is the quotes he used. Those movie quotes were regular comments in our household, worked into as many conversations as possible. The kids saw all of these movies, most way before they really should have, mostly due to Shamus' excitement about sharing his passion with them, and my inability to re...

DM of the Rings IV: Uphill Battle

"I’ve mentioned before how I’ve had trouble with coaxing players to rest. You have to watch these guys: They will do everything they can to escape the finely crafted rails you’ve put them on. ~Shamus"

The funniest bit about this particular comic was how accurate to how Shamus ran his own campaign. He crafted the story beautifully, complete with hand drawn maps, mood lighting, music...

DM of the Rings III: Small Town Blues

In this box Patreon asks, "What are you thinking about?" 

Well, I am thinking that it has been a 3 week long week, I am exhausted, and I just remembered that the kids decided to do each panel as a single instead of put the double pages together...which means that the number system is different and my brain didn't process that till just now, which means that the text from last week is actually THIS weeks text. Sigh.

Please pardon the mess while we get things sorted....

A...

DM of the Rings III: Small Town Blues

"I think I’ll post these M-W-F until I get tired of them." -Shamus (original text)

Finally fully up-to-date and on track. From now on Patreon Patrons will receive the new comic a week ahead of the website. *insert Kermit Yaaahhh!!! GIF here 

Thank you to Issac for doing all the work of finding the screen shots, transcribing the text for the update, and putting it all together. He's been a trooper about...

DM of the Rings II: Been There, Done That

"A couple of people were foolish enough to encourage me yesterday, so now I’m inflicting another one on you." -Shamus (original text)

Ah. Good news. We are now getting things on track. 

Our original goal was to post the comic to Patreon a week ahead rather than a day ahead but we didn't want to promise that if it wasn't going to happen. As of tomorrow it will. Here is the second comic, which will post today on Patreon and tomorrow on the site. Tomorrow,  Patreon patron...

DM of the Rings Remaster: The Copious Backstory I

Link to post here because the holiday messed me up and I forgot to post because preparing a New Years Day meal. Oops. Future comics will have the post here on Saturday, on site on Sunday: https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=55070

Welcome to the remastering of what is possibly my dad’s most significant legacy; 2023-01-02 01:50:38 +0000 UTC View Post

DM of the Rings Remastered, Coming soon...

To a Patreon near you. Actually coming Saturday, New Year's Eve.

The kids have been working hard to remaster Shamus' DM of the Rings to a much more reasonable (and readable) resolution. The updated version will start posting on Jan 1 on Twenty Sided but will be available here on New Years Eve.

Future Patreon postings of the remastered DM of the Rings will be posted Saturdays while the single pages will be posted Sundays for the non-Patreon readers.

~Hea...

The Late Shamus Young

Shamus Young passed on June 15, 2022. He went suddenly into cardiac arrest after being on dialysis for end stage kidney disease for a few months. You can view the memorial service here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA5ynnyIfq0 and read more about his passing here: https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=545...

Changes to the Credits

Here is a bunch of super-boring housekeeping stuff about having your name in the credits of videos...

I notice other creators on Patreon are doing things like giving bigger backers more attention in the credits. This is a very, very minor thing, but I also kinda like it. When I watch someone else's videos, I often like to read through the backers to see if there are any names I recognize. I've noticed it's cool when the list has variations in it in terms of font / size / color.

In...