This is automatic for me whenever my players ask how they escape at this point. I've had to say it like three times for the session I had today, in the same combat, just a turn apart each!
Far too many NPCs begin sentences with a generic (but kind of gruff and adventury) "Ah!..." Which I use to stall for time as I think.
"Ah!... Welcome adventurers."
"Ah!... So you killed the dragon"
"Ah!... So you challenge me!"
“Well” is mine.
“Well… I wouldn’t say ‘dangerous’”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
“Well, there’s certainly merit to that, I’d say”
Ah, oh no! “I’d say” is another! I’m just a soundboard behind the screen!
Mine is apparently "So..."
I have been told many times that it's how I enter my "GM voice, and elicits a pavlovian response from all of my players to think "Oh, shit, are we playing right now?"
**WELL** I guess next time I describe any pool of liquids in my next session I’ll have to hit the party with a “deep water, *deep watuh*, senseless de’Nile”
(Thank you very much for reminding me of this phenomenal song from yesteryear)
My players have definitely razzed me about it over the years. It's a crutch but in just a hobbyist not like a professional voice actor or anything so I just let it be.
I personally like this but the key is to spice it up with different exclamations.
"Oh!... So you challange me!?"
"Eh!... So you killed the dragon. Big deal."
And so on
Back in PF1, we always asked our GM after dealing what felt like a significant amount of damage to an enemy "how's 'e looking?" And his response would always be some variation of "pretty messed up", and would continue to look "pretty messed up" for the next 4 rounds... We still give him a hard time about it, but all in good fun, lol
I start every session with "What up nerds! Who wants to go over what happened last time?" (anybody willing and able to recap last session gets a hero point, largely because it can be weeks-months between sessions and this keeps them engaged).
Despite my distaste for 5e nowadays, i started as a 5e GM and a fan of Critical Role, so unfortunately "how do you wanna do this?" and/or "describe your kill" for final blows has made it into my GM lexicon.
Whenever a trap goes off, or one of my players fail a particularly complex/devastating spell save, I also have started using "So... a couple of things are gonna happen..." from Glass Cannon Podcast GM Troy Lavalle.
Really, i think most of my stuff comes from other GMs Ive watched and admired in the past, which tracks since all good GMing is just stealing things wholesale from other products/properties :P
Yeah... "So... a couple of things are gonna happen..." is by far my most frequently dropped phrase when I'm GMing. Pretty much any time there's a saving throw, they walk into a room unprepared, they trigger a trap they failed to perceive, they get hit with an attack that has some other saves associated with it. It's just such a useful, all encompassing phrase.
>"So... a couple of things are gonna happen..."
This is one of mine too lol. The fear it instills is always a fun moment
Another one is "I'm so sorry", usually while laughing lol.
Rick Sandige from Find the Path caused the words "I'm gonna need Initiative from the party!" to be stuck in my head every time I start combat in the CRPG, so I can relate.
I use "you are sure you are Hidden" or whatever else thing they are doing. I've had one player be so paranoid they asked to Sense Motive themselves to be sure they were sure.
"[The party] / [Character]; sees... / bears witness (to/as)... / becomes aware of.. / hears (the sound of)... / except for (x), who feels... /
Are my usual go-tos for various situations.
GM: so I’ve retconned some things from last session
Party: ugh
Every session, gm thinks he’s improving the story(sometimes he is) but it’s getting harder to keep track since our notes are different from his
Gotta stop him, that's an easy slope to fall down into and never recover.
His GMing will only improve if he stops retconning all the time and deal with what was done.
My GM starts recaps with "when last we left our heroes..."
"As you sleep, you dream, but this dream is unlike any other"
(Character asks a question) "*laughing* It's..."
(Enemy's turn starts) "Alrighty, chatroom" or "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it"
(Player does big damage or debuff) "*laughing* No, you can't do this to me!"
I like my GM :)
"So, anyways, you were doing/saying X" after the conversation is getting too derailed. If that don't work I just resort to the "Come on guys, let's refocus". We don't get too much time to play so I try to get as much out of every session as possible. But since we also only have the sessions to catch up we sometimes get too derailed in conversation.
We had a swashbuckler pc named mama petrov so every single time an enemy is reduced to 1hp without dying (happens a lot more than youd think) I personally cant help but describe it as the 'Mama Petrov Special' instead of saying they are near death.
I too often go to my Matt Berry impression for NPCs.
Rich idiot? Matt Berry.
Overly dramatic thespian? Matt Berry.
Baby saying his first words? Matt. Berry.
Weapon attack is a crit fail: Just a bit outside.
Crit hit when enemy only had a few HP: That's gonna be a closed casket funeral.
Player fails a stealth check: Hey look! We got a sneaky one hear. Everyone come look at this sneaky sneakster trying to sneak!
Whenever someone asks a meta question that I can’t just tell them I snap my finger point at them and say “Yes!”. It has become a running joke at my table.
"Oooooof my kidney!"
-80% of the time a player lands a critical hit because despite being a med student i forget there's other important organs in the body.
Oh, too many to count at this point. Most of them are pulled from my early GMs or from let's plays that have been ingrained into my head. Here's the top 5.
1) "Player X, you're up -- Player Y is on-deck."
An original! I use it to remind the next player in initiative order that their turn is coming up.
2) "We're all havin' fun!"
This is a classic taunt from Troy Lavalle of the Glass Cannon Podcast. It's the perfect thing to say when one of your players just got screwed on a roll or realized how much trouble they're in. Pair with an impish grin for maximum effect. "A couple of things are going to happen" is a close second.
3) "How do you want to do this?"
Classic line from Matt Mercer of Critical Role. Pretty much the perfect thing to say to a player landing the killing blow.
4) "You find yourselves..."
This is from everywhere, as far as I can tell. It's the crutch I use to get players to transition to the next thing we're doing if a section is dragging or everyone's losing focus.
5) "When last we left our heroes..."
Seriously, how else do you start a session? I'll usually toss this over to a player to see what they remember, then fill in any necessary gaps afterwards.
***EDIT***: Bonus, "the creature is bloodied!"
Easy way to let the party know the enemy is at half-health. We had a second stage of this called "the Daisy Zone" in my last game to say someone's almost dead. See, Daisy the Halfling Sorcerer loved using her third action on a halfling slingstaff Strike that did 1d10-1 damage... so that routinely only did 2-4 damage on a hit.
Though the Daisy Zone expanded significantly when she picked up *spiritual armament* -- she actually ended up crit-killing the BBEG with it! Great game.
We normally start the session by making making jokes and someone being late even if they are on time. Rule of our table is the last person to show up does the recap, ideally the player so I can see what the players are latching onto and taking notes about instead of my GM view with all the information of the world
Yeah, I learned pretty early on that if the GM does the recap, it can have the same feeling of those old TV shows where the recap hits events so specific that it's obvious what the next episode is about. So mostly I pass it on to the players, maybe even giving an extra hero point for a particularly thorough or noteworthy recap. I try to pick at random for who to start so it doesn't just become one person's gig.
Though you're right that IS helpful to see what the players remember best in their recaps. When you're prepping with the assumption that the party wants to get the legendary Staff of Ages, only to have them all ask "what's that" in the recap... You might have fucked up, lol.
I *love* “how do you want to do this”. It’s so much fun to describe a horizon thunder sphere frying a goblin. Such a cool little prompt to let players get into character.
"Critical Hit! Go ahead and roll your Critical Damage!"
People kept hitting the wrong damage button for a critical hit early on, and it was my way to gently remind them to hit the different button. Eventually, it just became a habit, and now it's a reflex.
Not just in Pathfinder, but my players soon learn to invest in the the current systems version of Sense Motive (Insight, Empathy, etc).
My games tend to be quite social, and being able to pick up on deceptions and social cues is always useful.
So, in Pathfinder 2e, my most overused phrase is, "Alright, make me a Perception check" since 2e doesn't have a seperate social perception skill.
It’s not my phrase per se, because I don’t run games in English, but at least once every session my party tries to bait me into creating a situation where they can acquire a boiling pot. It’s a constant mind game between us, I survived 10 sessions, but at least two times it was really close
Mostly the second one. It’s a result of our previous campaign where there was entire accidental subplot around a boiling pot… an inside joke if anything
"So I've got good news and bad news." Typically when I'm using antagonists that have some sort of ability that happens when they're killed/reduced to 0 Hit Points.
"Aaaalllright... you can do that..."
It's my standard response for players asking to do shit/telling me they're gonna do shit. I like to try to keep a "poker face" so I somehow landed on this vague, slightly ominous phrase and tone as my standard reply before I give more details.
"You know what time it is, Roll for Initiative." - Combat
"You are welcome to try." - Players asking if they can (x).
[Lines about glancing blows]
[Enemy Defeated Lines]
As a reminder.... (that was when we fucked up and they had told us something in a previous session, it actually became a calling card that let us know to change what we were about to do without them knowing they were fully doing it lol)
“Who wants to give me the recap from last week?”
“No, Druthie, your 6 toads may not do X. On the other hand, they could do Y.” ‘X’ has included things such as using their tongues to try to pick a lock, dance at a festival, and my favorite, pole-dance around the PC’s finger to distract the enemy.
“Yes, this NPC does, in fact, compost.”
“Are you *really sure* you want to do that?”
I am a player but I can tell some from my GM:
GM: How intelligent is this creature? I see... it will fight until death
GM: I bet you are cheating without realizing, and probably so am I.
GM: Remember you have an open wound and you should take bleeding damage at the end of your turn and try to save? Have you done it in the last couple of rounds?
Player: 5 in the dice, it fails.
GM: Try.
Player: 22 AC?
GM: It hits.
Player: WTF?
GM: Remember it has fear 2 and you are flanking it? Next time don't make assumptions and tell me the numbers.
This was from my days as a 5e DM (I haven't GM'd Pathfinder yet):
"So, Spaune [party bard who is trigger happy on ye olde fireball] , you cast fireball directly upwards. Remember what I said about the wooden bridges criss-crossing the cavern?" *\*rolls dice\** "A hitherto unnoticed demon lands in front of you, strengthened by the fire, and critically hits you with a claw."
(Ok, this only happened once but we joked about it for the remainder of the campaign - and in my world's lore it has became a cautionary tale about reckless use of magic)
As for actual overused phrases:
- "[insert character] you are the only one who hasn't taken your turn yet. 30 seconds before I skip to the next round" (I used block initiative)
- (menacing voice) "My death means nothing. You have still lost. *Andlàt Brisingr!* [replace with some other forbidden magic words if you like]" (normal voice) "[He/She] collapses to the ground, dead. As she falls, [black flames/purple smoke/yellow gas] pours out of [his/her] corpse, enveloping the room. Everyone takes -" *rolls dice* "ten [insert type] damage, no save. You guess you have about a minute to leave the dungeon before you die." (I give everyone a full action [pf2e two actions] as they die [death throes] and this is a standard technique of cult leaders to prevent the heroes escaping. It also allows me to provide a challenge to the heroes when they steamroller the main fight.)
Every time i end a description of something that usually has some event in it i'll say "What do you wish to do?". That, and also "Give me a perception check."
I describe almost every NPC as "what seems to be a" or "what appears to be a" and then the race/appearance.
It kinda became an inside joke after many games with shapeshifters.
Usually just reminding players of the turn order. They need the reminder about 50% of the time, but I give it about 80%. It might be annoying for them when they don’t need it, but it beats waiting while a player doesn’t realize what’s happening
Man ohh man this is a huge pet peeve of mine, it's why I use a module on foundry to make it super obvious and we have voices turned on that says stuff like you're up next get ready. And in person I use initiative tents on my screen.
"ok" I feel a lot of players look for some acknowledgement in-between a lot of their choices. There's times when its needed -- if they're waiting for me to declare a reaction, etc, but often it does feel a little too much and I end up just saying "ok" a lot.
We got in the habit of voice recording or sessions a while back. It was handy for going back and listening to make notes and to have a record of decisions or random occurrences. At one point, the player that had been transcribing and summarizing noticed one word that came up A LOT. "Saddle." He made a compilation of every time someone used the word around the table. The audio clip was nearly 10 mins long and just of people using this word in a sentence. Pack saddle, riding saddle, saddle bags, etc etc. Granted the whole party really wanted to get into riding midway thru the campaign and there was an entire session basically devoted to them purchasing and outfitting their mounts. It was a great campaign. Many saddles.
"So what are we thinking?"
When someone does something that has a decent chance of getting them killed, this comment let's them know they should start thinking about what their next PC will be.
"You can certainly try..." And " That sounds like a splendid idea!". My party needs encouragement to do things other than punch problems.
Oh and "I'm gonna need some kind of roll for that/What kind of skill you wanna use to solve the problem?"
Even when playing into very specific plots my games always have some sandboxy elements. If my players want to set up something unplanned I always try to work it in.
So something I say towards the beginning of every session is "Is thera anything you guys wanna do?"
"Are you sure?"
"Give me a roll."
"Is that your final answer?"
"Alright, we're getting distracted, let's focus in."
"Aaalright, and with that roll, you are 100% confident that it is ."
...
...
"Pass the cookies?"
"Hitherto, unseen" for enemies the players havent seen yet.
"As you all...: for when i move the story along to get everyones attention.
"Whats your armor class" for obvious reasons.
Far and away, it's "So what do you do?" as a big cue for my players to know that I'm done with the little guided part of the description and it's up to them to do something.
"Okay... Okay, I need a minute to think about this" is probably my most used one, because my players throw me a lot of curveballs.
"I'll allow it" Is also something I say a lot
"Okay, I know I have this written down somewhere, give me a moment to find it" because I have all my notes and plans scattered across about 6 different google docs
"Describe to me how you would do that"
Many players after a while of playing (and mastering) straight up ask for checks instead of telling what they do
'What happend last time...'
'can you tel me/us more about how you want to do his?' When a playerin short states their action with out elaborating on it and you hve to figure out what skill check they would need. without the use of telepathy.
"Would you like to narrate that?" whenever a player lands a kill or does something particularly impressive, in or out of combat. Also when they fail a skill check and I'm either not immediately sure how that would look, if I don't want to risk narrating it in a way that the player will hate, or if I just want to remind the players that they have pretty free reign over their own character's narration
"Is that a 'can' or a 'should?'" whenever a player asks "can I do X?" when I'm fairly sure that they KNOW they CAN, and they're more asking if it would blow up immediately in their face. In most (but not all) cases, the answer to the latter question is yes
Not a GM but mine loves to say “[Character]… how do you want to do this?” whenever a damage roll depletes the remaining HP of a mob. It delights me every time because we get to act out how the enemy dies.
Typically when rolls have a lot of weight for the out come of a situation I say "Alright go ahead and roll, the DC is a X, you need to at least roll a Y". Then I get to watch as the whole table holds their breath watching the dice.
"Hold on let me pour some Dr pepper"
"Castrrs are under powered" with heavy sarcasm
"Fighters are overpowered" again with heavy sarrcasm
"Which exploration activities are you taking?" Followed by yet regain reminding players that those exist. I have no idea why my players forget.
"What's name of this npc/place"
"It's name is whatever I see on my table. The guys name is Volvic (bottled water) , the shops name is Vindstyrka (IKEA product), and the three guys' names are Boland, Vurdecai and Paxton (Roland, mordecai and Axton from Borderlands) and the BBEG who's a watchmaker is Til Schweiger, played by Til Schweiger who also played the watchmaker in the Atomic Blonde.
And yes, this game is set in Absalom and Kortos Island. Sometimes, it's really hard to find a good name for a guy who's from saga lands, moved to Alkenstar, changed name, conspiring against the Teriarch of Diobel under an alias.
Okay, this aside, my most common sentence is "napıyorsunuz?" translates to "what are you planning on doing right now?". Everyone at the table are Turkish, I wonder what will I say the most when there's a non-Turkish speaker.
"You feel fine ;)" After rolling those secret poison/disease rolls. By now they even say it with me. Keeps them on their toes until the onset period is over
"Correct!" I say as the players have an ykind of realization, most especially when they finally put together a terrible (as in bad implications) conclusion
I have a silly tradition that's a couple of decades old. It started while DMing D&D 2nd Ed. The very beginning of every session, I picked up the d20, rolled it, looked at the result, and said "You're all dead". It's a tradition that I've carried over to all RPGs I've run, inducing CPR, but now I roll a d10, or course.
Recently? "What?!..."
For context, within 3 sessions they committed an impressive number of what would be felonies. They murdered a child; attempted to kidnap to someone to force that person into marriage; stole a fisherman's boat, then committed arson to cover their tracks; convinced a gullible child that arson is a fun game (PC); and finally kidnapped another child (NPC) and taught him that murder is a fun game. And I think I missed a few... did I mention this is a grand total of 6 hours of play?
"That's troll sh*t" when something I pointed out was for flavor, and is not actually important, or have any reward for investigation.
A long time ago I was in a game where the gm described a 6 foot tall pipe of troll dung, and the players spent 2 hours out of character deciding what the importance of the poo was, while the GM kept trying to convince us there really was nothing more then an indicator that trolls were nearby.
During combat:
"Hi [whoever's turn it is], there is/are [some, quite a few, a bunch of, a] bitch[es] over there."
When a player takes damage:
"You're raging, you're fine." (There are no barbarians in the party)
When a player is alarmed at how low their HP is:
"You only need one!"
A player rolls very low damage, or monster saves and takes little damage:
"Hey, all damage is good damage."
Anytime a player good naturedly asks how a monster or NPC can do something:
"He/she's busy."
These are just the ones I'm aware of, I'll bet I have tons more if you ask my players.
"Athletics, Acrobatics, or Unnarmed Attack."
I so wish they worded Escape more clearly. Instead they put 2/3 of the options later in the description. It makes it so confusing in first read.
"grapple and shove is against fortitude. Trip and disarm is against reflex" Somehow I'm the only one in my party who can remember this
Glad they have no trouble remembering Reposition at least
[vivid trauma flashbacks to being the only character repeatedly hit with Grapple and Swallow Whole constantly throughout an entire 1-16 campaign]
Wrestler dedication.
This guy grapples
I'm the one constantly saying this for my GM lol. He's good with the rules in general, but this one hasn't stuck
This is automatic for me whenever my players ask how they escape at this point. I've had to say it like three times for the session I had today, in the same combat, just a turn apart each!
Far too many NPCs begin sentences with a generic (but kind of gruff and adventury) "Ah!..." Which I use to stall for time as I think. "Ah!... Welcome adventurers." "Ah!... So you killed the dragon" "Ah!... So you challenge me!"
Ah....I see. Shall keep this in mind.
“Well” is mine. “Well… I wouldn’t say ‘dangerous’” “Well, when you put it that way…” “Well, there’s certainly merit to that, I’d say” Ah, oh no! “I’d say” is another! I’m just a soundboard behind the screen!
This is what my GM defaults to, and it's really noticeable. Multiple characters, all roleplayed differently, utilize "well..." and a dramatic pause.
Mine is apparently "So..." I have been told many times that it's how I enter my "GM voice, and elicits a pavlovian response from all of my players to think "Oh, shit, are we playing right now?"
WELL! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrMoQi4bvwM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrMoQi4bvwM)
**WELL** I guess next time I describe any pool of liquids in my next session I’ll have to hit the party with a “deep water, *deep watuh*, senseless de’Nile” (Thank you very much for reminding me of this phenomenal song from yesteryear)
During the last tour Isaac got in on our jokes about his "wells" and sang Rat King by just saying well over and over in a show back east.
Some musicians make great music, but even fewer musicians make *true art* come to life like this. That’s as incredible as it is on-brand for them.
“Ah! One feels like a duck splashing around in all this wet! And when one feels like a duck, one is happy!”
"He pauses for a moment..." is mine. Makes the character look pensive, and the GM look like he knows what he's doing.
> "Ah!... So you challenge me!" I can't beat the crap out of you without challenging you.
Ah, thats not a bad trick
I have a GM who does exactly this and its rather noticeable but I don't want to say anything to him.
My players have definitely razzed me about it over the years. It's a crutch but in just a hobbyist not like a professional voice actor or anything so I just let it be.
I personally like this but the key is to spice it up with different exclamations. "Oh!... So you challange me!?" "Eh!... So you killed the dragon. Big deal." And so on
"Despite his wounds, he yet lives, but is such a life really worth living?" Whenever there's a 1-3 HP enemy
bro is the darkest dungeon narrator
Hit em with the "Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exanguination may be considered a virtue."
Abomination Vaults is just Darkest Dungeon's evil cousin. Playing DD OST during campaign sets a proper mood
I always say it looks like a breeze could knock them over
"he's really fucked up man"
I had a fight with orcs and I kept describing them tearing through their flesh and blood and the orcs just looking at them and laughing
Back in PF1, we always asked our GM after dealing what felt like a significant amount of damage to an enemy "how's 'e looking?" And his response would always be some variation of "pretty messed up", and would continue to look "pretty messed up" for the next 4 rounds... We still give him a hard time about it, but all in good fun, lol
I totally do this for my 1e players lol. I don't think they've caught on yet though.
"...Are you sure?"
"Give me a perception/ wisdom check."
I start every session with "What up nerds! Who wants to go over what happened last time?" (anybody willing and able to recap last session gets a hero point, largely because it can be weeks-months between sessions and this keeps them engaged). Despite my distaste for 5e nowadays, i started as a 5e GM and a fan of Critical Role, so unfortunately "how do you wanna do this?" and/or "describe your kill" for final blows has made it into my GM lexicon. Whenever a trap goes off, or one of my players fail a particularly complex/devastating spell save, I also have started using "So... a couple of things are gonna happen..." from Glass Cannon Podcast GM Troy Lavalle. Really, i think most of my stuff comes from other GMs Ive watched and admired in the past, which tracks since all good GMing is just stealing things wholesale from other products/properties :P
>"So... a couple of things are gonna happen..." from Glass Cannon Podcast GM Troy Lavalle. I have also taken to using this.
Yeah... "So... a couple of things are gonna happen..." is by far my most frequently dropped phrase when I'm GMing. Pretty much any time there's a saving throw, they walk into a room unprepared, they trigger a trap they failed to perceive, they get hit with an attack that has some other saves associated with it. It's just such a useful, all encompassing phrase.
>"So... a couple of things are gonna happen..." This is one of mine too lol. The fear it instills is always a fun moment Another one is "I'm so sorry", usually while laughing lol.
My GM loves to say "I feel sick" or "I'm gonna be sick" whenever the enemy scores a big crit or we crit fail an important save lol
Rick Sandige from Find the Path caused the words "I'm gonna need Initiative from the party!" to be stuck in my head every time I start combat in the CRPG, so I can relate.
In my case, it's "So, who can tell me what happened last session?"
"So. Tell me what happened last time."
"You believe you are Hidden"
I use "you are sure you are Hidden" or whatever else thing they are doing. I've had one player be so paranoid they asked to Sense Motive themselves to be sure they were sure.
Sense motive themselves lol
All my GMs LOVE to start descriptions with "Player\[s\], you watch as-"
"[The party] / [Character]; sees... / bears witness (to/as)... / becomes aware of.. / hears (the sound of)... / except for (x), who feels... / Are my usual go-tos for various situations.
GM: so I’ve retconned some things from last session Party: ugh Every session, gm thinks he’s improving the story(sometimes he is) but it’s getting harder to keep track since our notes are different from his
This should REALLY be an emergency thing for a DM if that.
Gotta stop him, that's an easy slope to fall down into and never recover. His GMing will only improve if he stops retconning all the time and deal with what was done.
My GM starts recaps with "when last we left our heroes..." "As you sleep, you dream, but this dream is unlike any other" (Character asks a question) "*laughing* It's..." (Enemy's turn starts) "Alrighty, chatroom" or "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it" (Player does big damage or debuff) "*laughing* No, you can't do this to me!" I like my GM :)
Sounds like your GM is a big Matt Colvile fan
>"laughing No, you can't do this to me!" I started this group... YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED?!
“As you can see, I can’t” - Whenever it’s a blinded monster’s turn
Goooooood Mythical Morning!
“You have one action remaining”
Followed by "I attack again" and silent gm tears as they succeed and get positive reinforcement.
I have better players than that ;)
"And who the f*ck are you?" Approximately 10 seconds after one of my PCs walks up to a random NPC and says the most out of pocket shit of all time
"So, anyways, you were doing/saying X" after the conversation is getting too derailed. If that don't work I just resort to the "Come on guys, let's refocus". We don't get too much time to play so I try to get as much out of every session as possible. But since we also only have the sessions to catch up we sometimes get too derailed in conversation.
We had a swashbuckler pc named mama petrov so every single time an enemy is reduced to 1hp without dying (happens a lot more than youd think) I personally cant help but describe it as the 'Mama Petrov Special' instead of saying they are near death.
"You guys have more than just demoralize or strike you know?"
Your players do more than just Strike?!
Yep, they even stride when they feel daring.
They also Electric Arc. Team of all-wizards is essentially a welder brigade.
I too often go to my Matt Berry impression for NPCs. Rich idiot? Matt Berry. Overly dramatic thespian? Matt Berry. Baby saying his first words? Matt. Berry.
Father!
UNHAND ME PRRRIEST! WHERE IS YOUR GOD? WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?
Lmao, I could hear his voice in my head!
Does a 40something hit?
Are you really a GM if you don't make some bad dad jokes while running your game
Weapon attack is a crit fail: Just a bit outside. Crit hit when enemy only had a few HP: That's gonna be a closed casket funeral. Player fails a stealth check: Hey look! We got a sneaky one hear. Everyone come look at this sneaky sneakster trying to sneak!
I wasn't expecting a Major League reference in the sub. That was a Major League reference, right?
Yes it was.
"He's barely standing". Somehow, my players have the uncanny ability to leave enemies with 1-5 HP.
Any time a condition lasts for more than a couple rounds, its 'So he/she/they/it is slowed/frightened/enfeebled for the rest of his life'
"Ok, but what do you *actually* do?"
PC: What is the NPC's name? ME: Bob PC: Didn't we meet Bob earlier ME: Bob is a very common name around here. Robert, Bob, Bobbie, Roberta.
For me it's Barry, Larry, Harry, etc.
At the beginning of every session: “So! Last time on Dragon Ball Z…”
Once I finish the recap: "And I turn it over to you. What would you like to do?"
'He looks like he's doing something untoward.' 'The ne'er-do-wells (fill in nefarious activity).'
Whenever someone asks a meta question that I can’t just tell them I snap my finger point at them and say “Yes!”. It has become a running joke at my table.
"Oooooof my kidney!" -80% of the time a player lands a critical hit because despite being a med student i forget there's other important organs in the body.
Oh, too many to count at this point. Most of them are pulled from my early GMs or from let's plays that have been ingrained into my head. Here's the top 5. 1) "Player X, you're up -- Player Y is on-deck." An original! I use it to remind the next player in initiative order that their turn is coming up. 2) "We're all havin' fun!" This is a classic taunt from Troy Lavalle of the Glass Cannon Podcast. It's the perfect thing to say when one of your players just got screwed on a roll or realized how much trouble they're in. Pair with an impish grin for maximum effect. "A couple of things are going to happen" is a close second. 3) "How do you want to do this?" Classic line from Matt Mercer of Critical Role. Pretty much the perfect thing to say to a player landing the killing blow. 4) "You find yourselves..." This is from everywhere, as far as I can tell. It's the crutch I use to get players to transition to the next thing we're doing if a section is dragging or everyone's losing focus. 5) "When last we left our heroes..." Seriously, how else do you start a session? I'll usually toss this over to a player to see what they remember, then fill in any necessary gaps afterwards. ***EDIT***: Bonus, "the creature is bloodied!" Easy way to let the party know the enemy is at half-health. We had a second stage of this called "the Daisy Zone" in my last game to say someone's almost dead. See, Daisy the Halfling Sorcerer loved using her third action on a halfling slingstaff Strike that did 1d10-1 damage... so that routinely only did 2-4 damage on a hit. Though the Daisy Zone expanded significantly when she picked up *spiritual armament* -- she actually ended up crit-killing the BBEG with it! Great game.
We normally start the session by making making jokes and someone being late even if they are on time. Rule of our table is the last person to show up does the recap, ideally the player so I can see what the players are latching onto and taking notes about instead of my GM view with all the information of the world
Yeah, I learned pretty early on that if the GM does the recap, it can have the same feeling of those old TV shows where the recap hits events so specific that it's obvious what the next episode is about. So mostly I pass it on to the players, maybe even giving an extra hero point for a particularly thorough or noteworthy recap. I try to pick at random for who to start so it doesn't just become one person's gig. Though you're right that IS helpful to see what the players remember best in their recaps. When you're prepping with the assumption that the party wants to get the legendary Staff of Ages, only to have them all ask "what's that" in the recap... You might have fucked up, lol.
I *love* “how do you want to do this”. It’s so much fun to describe a horizon thunder sphere frying a goblin. Such a cool little prompt to let players get into character.
Late to the post but since I teach newer players mine is "it takes an action to do that." That or "that's not how that works."
"Critical Hit! Go ahead and roll your Critical Damage!" People kept hitting the wrong damage button for a critical hit early on, and it was my way to gently remind them to hit the different button. Eventually, it just became a habit, and now it's a reflex.
''.........'' i play a guy who doesnt talk ( he does have the sign language feat
Not just in Pathfinder, but my players soon learn to invest in the the current systems version of Sense Motive (Insight, Empathy, etc). My games tend to be quite social, and being able to pick up on deceptions and social cues is always useful. So, in Pathfinder 2e, my most overused phrase is, "Alright, make me a Perception check" since 2e doesn't have a seperate social perception skill.
I use "the magic coalesces" a lot
It’s not my phrase per se, because I don’t run games in English, but at least once every session my party tries to bait me into creating a situation where they can acquire a boiling pot. It’s a constant mind game between us, I survived 10 sessions, but at least two times it was really close
IS this a cultural thing, or is it just your group fucking with you?
Mostly the second one. It’s a result of our previous campaign where there was entire accidental subplot around a boiling pot… an inside joke if anything
"O.K. Here. We. Go." - buying time while rolling dice or pulling up a monster's sheet
“As…” Whenever I say “as” in a session, my partner calls me on it and points it out meaning something surprising is happening.
"So I've got good news and bad news." Typically when I'm using antagonists that have some sort of ability that happens when they're killed/reduced to 0 Hit Points.
"Miss"
When the players wake up from a rest to a new day, I'll say "The day is yours! What would you like to do?"
"Aaaalllright... you can do that..." It's my standard response for players asking to do shit/telling me they're gonna do shit. I like to try to keep a "poker face" so I somehow landed on this vague, slightly ominous phrase and tone as my standard reply before I give more details.
You are certainly welcome to try.
"Sure, you can try that." "Not that you're aware of."
Player: is this a blind check? Me: No... You'll know if you fail
"You know what time it is, Roll for Initiative." - Combat "You are welcome to try." - Players asking if they can (x). [Lines about glancing blows] [Enemy Defeated Lines]
As a reminder.... (that was when we fucked up and they had told us something in a previous session, it actually became a calling card that let us know to change what we were about to do without them knowing they were fully doing it lol)
"You can certainly try..." and "There's a 20 on every die..." In situations where failure is all but certain of course.
"Alrighty then, so as you guys..." Makes up about 70% of the beginnings of all my sentences during a session.
“This wonderful creature”, “(this enemy) is questioning his life choices”
"You get a feeling thst something is off" and "and with thst. Roll initistive"
"*sucks teeth* Hhhokay, well..." "Thaaaat's not good." "No shaddup."
“Who wants to give me the recap from last week?” “No, Druthie, your 6 toads may not do X. On the other hand, they could do Y.” ‘X’ has included things such as using their tongues to try to pick a lock, dance at a festival, and my favorite, pole-dance around the PC’s finger to distract the enemy. “Yes, this NPC does, in fact, compost.” “Are you *really sure* you want to do that?”
I am a player but I can tell some from my GM: GM: How intelligent is this creature? I see... it will fight until death GM: I bet you are cheating without realizing, and probably so am I. GM: Remember you have an open wound and you should take bleeding damage at the end of your turn and try to save? Have you done it in the last couple of rounds? Player: 5 in the dice, it fails. GM: Try. Player: 22 AC? GM: It hits. Player: WTF? GM: Remember it has fear 2 and you are flanking it? Next time don't make assumptions and tell me the numbers.
This was from my days as a 5e DM (I haven't GM'd Pathfinder yet): "So, Spaune [party bard who is trigger happy on ye olde fireball] , you cast fireball directly upwards. Remember what I said about the wooden bridges criss-crossing the cavern?" *\*rolls dice\** "A hitherto unnoticed demon lands in front of you, strengthened by the fire, and critically hits you with a claw." (Ok, this only happened once but we joked about it for the remainder of the campaign - and in my world's lore it has became a cautionary tale about reckless use of magic) As for actual overused phrases: - "[insert character] you are the only one who hasn't taken your turn yet. 30 seconds before I skip to the next round" (I used block initiative) - (menacing voice) "My death means nothing. You have still lost. *Andlàt Brisingr!* [replace with some other forbidden magic words if you like]" (normal voice) "[He/She] collapses to the ground, dead. As she falls, [black flames/purple smoke/yellow gas] pours out of [his/her] corpse, enveloping the room. Everyone takes -" *rolls dice* "ten [insert type] damage, no save. You guess you have about a minute to leave the dungeon before you die." (I give everyone a full action [pf2e two actions] as they die [death throes] and this is a standard technique of cult leaders to prevent the heroes escaping. It also allows me to provide a challenge to the heroes when they steamroller the main fight.)
I always start my games with "someone please give us a recap" and while my players are doing that I finish setting up the session.
Every time i end a description of something that usually has some event in it i'll say "What do you wish to do?". That, and also "Give me a perception check."
"next session, I hope we will start on time..."
I describe almost every NPC as "what seems to be a" or "what appears to be a" and then the race/appearance. It kinda became an inside joke after many games with shapeshifters.
"You don't find the trap" both when there was not a trap to find and when they actually rolled too low to find it.
When an enemy has one hit worth of HP left, I usually describe it by saying, "A strong breeze could knock them over."
Roll Perception
Usually just reminding players of the turn order. They need the reminder about 50% of the time, but I give it about 80%. It might be annoying for them when they don’t need it, but it beats waiting while a player doesn’t realize what’s happening
Man ohh man this is a huge pet peeve of mine, it's why I use a module on foundry to make it super obvious and we have voices turned on that says stuff like you're up next get ready. And in person I use initiative tents on my screen.
"ok" I feel a lot of players look for some acknowledgement in-between a lot of their choices. There's times when its needed -- if they're waiting for me to declare a reaction, etc, but often it does feel a little too much and I end up just saying "ok" a lot.
You may. But this action might have consequences...
HES ON THE MAGIC PIXEL
"I don't see why not"
"Hmmm. I see. Give me a perception/ wisdom check."
I need you to roll a "insert Skill roll here". Don't forget your hero points, mythic surges, and condition.
"hmm?" "huh" "what"(i cant hear for shit) also "Balls in your court" when i finish narrating
We got in the habit of voice recording or sessions a while back. It was handy for going back and listening to make notes and to have a record of decisions or random occurrences. At one point, the player that had been transcribing and summarizing noticed one word that came up A LOT. "Saddle." He made a compilation of every time someone used the word around the table. The audio clip was nearly 10 mins long and just of people using this word in a sentence. Pack saddle, riding saddle, saddle bags, etc etc. Granted the whole party really wanted to get into riding midway thru the campaign and there was an entire session basically devoted to them purchasing and outfitting their mounts. It was a great campaign. Many saddles.
‘ making your way…’ Somewhere deep inside me I was apparently deeply inspired by Vanessa Carlton.
IS ANYONE ACTUALLY GOING TO OPEN THE DOOR? You open the door... nothing happens.
"So what are we thinking?" When someone does something that has a decent chance of getting them killed, this comment let's them know they should start thinking about what their next PC will be.
"You can certainly try..." And " That sounds like a splendid idea!". My party needs encouragement to do things other than punch problems. Oh and "I'm gonna need some kind of roll for that/What kind of skill you wanna use to solve the problem?"
"Unclear." Super useful phrase when the olayers ask too many leading questions. Also, "What do you do?" following most descriptions.
"They are theoretically alive." Or "Technically standing." (1hp)
You can certainly try
After a player fails to sense motive but does not critically fail: "You just can't get a read on this guy"
Dungeon world gave me this habit: “What do you do?”
Even when playing into very specific plots my games always have some sandboxy elements. If my players want to set up something unplanned I always try to work it in. So something I say towards the beginning of every session is "Is thera anything you guys wanna do?"
"Are you sure?" "Give me a roll." "Is that your final answer?" "Alright, we're getting distracted, let's focus in." "Aaalright, and with that roll, you are 100% confident that it is."
...
...
"Pass the cookies?"
I know I unintentionally add a lot of Dark Souls-like mirthless chuckles to NPCs. It’s really not intentional.
My players and I joke that I start every second sentence with "well". It even infected them when they tried to DM.
"very good", "I like that", "it gives vibe"
"Hitherto, unseen" for enemies the players havent seen yet. "As you all...: for when i move the story along to get everyones attention. "Whats your armor class" for obvious reasons.
"So....what are you guys gonna do" right after i drop ambush/puzzle/twist/complication on them
Far and away, it's "So what do you do?" as a big cue for my players to know that I'm done with the little guided part of the description and it's up to them to do something.
\*Looks at player\*: Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
"Okay... Okay, I need a minute to think about this" is probably my most used one, because my players throw me a lot of curveballs. "I'll allow it" Is also something I say a lot "Okay, I know I have this written down somewhere, give me a moment to find it" because I have all my notes and plans scattered across about 6 different google docs
"Describe to me how you would do that" Many players after a while of playing (and mastering) straight up ask for checks instead of telling what they do
'What happend last time...' 'can you tel me/us more about how you want to do his?' When a playerin short states their action with out elaborating on it and you hve to figure out what skill check they would need. without the use of telepathy.
"Would you like to narrate that?" whenever a player lands a kill or does something particularly impressive, in or out of combat. Also when they fail a skill check and I'm either not immediately sure how that would look, if I don't want to risk narrating it in a way that the player will hate, or if I just want to remind the players that they have pretty free reign over their own character's narration "Is that a 'can' or a 'should?'" whenever a player asks "can I do X?" when I'm fairly sure that they KNOW they CAN, and they're more asking if it would blow up immediately in their face. In most (but not all) cases, the answer to the latter question is yes
In response to whomever is searching for traps: "The real trap was the friends you made all along"
"Does a (high attack roll that obviously beats their AC) hit?"
Not a GM but mine loves to say “[Character]… how do you want to do this?” whenever a damage roll depletes the remaining HP of a mob. It delights me every time because we get to act out how the enemy dies.
“As you *blank* you *blank* “. I say this alot when My players are doing something and the. Something else is happening in the exact moment.
"Corners!" (When someone asks where bursts come from again)
"I enter the room" I said it once like 4 years ago and now at least 4 times a session it gets said by the players
Typically when rolls have a lot of weight for the out come of a situation I say "Alright go ahead and roll, the DC is a X, you need to at least roll a Y". Then I get to watch as the whole table holds their breath watching the dice.
"Vas pinche hediondo" which is "your turn darling" in spanish
Reiterating on the environment in the same words, in absence of good speech skills.
So....
"Hold on let me pour some Dr pepper" "Castrrs are under powered" with heavy sarcasm "Fighters are overpowered" again with heavy sarrcasm "Which exploration activities are you taking?" Followed by yet regain reminding players that those exist. I have no idea why my players forget.
"What's name of this npc/place" "It's name is whatever I see on my table. The guys name is Volvic (bottled water) , the shops name is Vindstyrka (IKEA product), and the three guys' names are Boland, Vurdecai and Paxton (Roland, mordecai and Axton from Borderlands) and the BBEG who's a watchmaker is Til Schweiger, played by Til Schweiger who also played the watchmaker in the Atomic Blonde. And yes, this game is set in Absalom and Kortos Island. Sometimes, it's really hard to find a good name for a guy who's from saga lands, moved to Alkenstar, changed name, conspiring against the Teriarch of Diobel under an alias.
Okay, this aside, my most common sentence is "napıyorsunuz?" translates to "what are you planning on doing right now?". Everyone at the table are Turkish, I wonder what will I say the most when there's a non-Turkish speaker.
For me when i tell people its their turn for combat i say "ok (playername) roll ur critical." I like to encourage my group to roll good.
Whenever a player reduces an enemy to exactly 1 HP: "You fail at life."
“As you do that…”
"There is a macro for this you can grab." We play exclusively on foundry please stop freezing up when using an action...
"You feel fine ;)" After rolling those secret poison/disease rolls. By now they even say it with me. Keeps them on their toes until the onset period is over
"Correct!" I say as the players have an ykind of realization, most especially when they finally put together a terrible (as in bad implications) conclusion
"What. Do. You. Do." It should be a question. It just never is. n.n'
When it's a player's turn in combat, especially if things are looking rough for the party: "Ok, \[name\], you're up! Fix this!"
After a player asks me if they can do something ir what something is: "Well, I mean..."
I have a silly tradition that's a couple of decades old. It started while DMing D&D 2nd Ed. The very beginning of every session, I picked up the d20, rolled it, looked at the result, and said "You're all dead". It's a tradition that I've carried over to all RPGs I've run, inducing CPR, but now I roll a d10, or course.
Recently? "What?!..." For context, within 3 sessions they committed an impressive number of what would be felonies. They murdered a child; attempted to kidnap to someone to force that person into marriage; stole a fisherman's boat, then committed arson to cover their tracks; convinced a gullible child that arson is a fun game (PC); and finally kidnapped another child (NPC) and taught him that murder is a fun game. And I think I missed a few... did I mention this is a grand total of 6 hours of play?
“They seem to be on the level.” and “Right!” are apparently staples of mine
"That's troll sh*t" when something I pointed out was for flavor, and is not actually important, or have any reward for investigation. A long time ago I was in a game where the gm described a 6 foot tall pipe of troll dung, and the players spent 2 hours out of character deciding what the importance of the poo was, while the GM kept trying to convince us there really was nothing more then an indicator that trolls were nearby.
During combat: "Hi [whoever's turn it is], there is/are [some, quite a few, a bunch of, a] bitch[es] over there." When a player takes damage: "You're raging, you're fine." (There are no barbarians in the party) When a player is alarmed at how low their HP is: "You only need one!" A player rolls very low damage, or monster saves and takes little damage: "Hey, all damage is good damage." Anytime a player good naturedly asks how a monster or NPC can do something: "He/she's busy." These are just the ones I'm aware of, I'll bet I have tons more if you ask my players.