#but those tabaxi uhhhh

[lediz-watches]

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

To quote or paraphrase Andy Farrant (I watched the stream a few days ago, the wording's not in my head) "It was better than it had any right to be."

This was such a fun movie, though. It was silly popcorn fun with legitimate heart, which is exactly what action adventure movies should be.

I loved the overarching narrative and the way it showed a legitimate found family long before it verbally addressed it. I loved the relationship between Holga, Edgin, and Kira, and that beautiful repeated phrase "I'm gonna bring back your mom".

As someone who loves the idea of DnD but has never had much success with it (I think it's very telling that my favourite DnD stream is Oxventure and I couldn't sit through more than ten episodes of Critical Role), it was so curious how they played this. They didn't (although they very easily could have) show you the rolls, but you could definitely feel them sometimes. I'm not just talking about the Nat20s and NatOnes, but like Simon's player in general is a very good player with such cursed dice. He failed so many saves and had to adjust around them.

I actually wonder how someone who has never played the game would react to some of them, actually. Like, there's a point where Simon gets his foot caught in some cobblestones. To a DnD player, what happened is that it's clearly a failed stealth check followed by several failed saves from everyone to free him. But I wonder if to a non-player whether that seemed like a bit of an arbitrary complication to the story for DRAMA.

But there are, I should point out, very few points where I actually noticed those points that would likely end up as a divide. Mostly, I think, the movie was incredibly accessible.

Like, even painfully DnD tropes. Everyone points out that Xenk is either a DMPC or a player who barely ever gets to play and so is always overpowered so they can be a fun addition. But the actual painfully DnD trope about him is that he's just SO Lawful Good. So lawful that he can only walk in straight lines. But rather than it being specifically a DnD joke, he's a parody of The Perfect Hero. Everyone knows that trope. Everyone can follow that trope.

So the only problem I have with it from an adaption perspective is how twisted and messy the story felt. As a DnD player, it was fine - the players were scrambling to find solutions to a problem and were going on multiple quests to figure out what they would do. But I can definitely see how an outsider might find it all... incohesive.

They're gathering party members > oh, that wasn't good enough.

They're going to search for a helmet > oh, that isn't available.

They're going in search of a hero > oh, he's going to give them a different quest for the helmet.

They've got the helmet but more importantly they have this hero > oh, he's leaving, okay.

They've got the helmet > oh, that won't work.

They're doing a heist > oh, that's not going to work either...

Like, I get it. I FELT it. But I can also see how an outsider might react to it in the same way I originally felt watching The Dark Knight. After a point, plot twists get tedious. And some of these plot threads could have been entire stories on their own rather than quick asides. Everything was a little too shallow in order to fit a lot of story into a twisted adventure.

But that said, I enjoyed it. And I loved the complications in this a lot more than I do in heist movies where it all turns out that it actually went exactly as the grandmaster thief intended all along.

And more than anything, I loved the main arc. I am always a sucker for Found Family, but this was beautiful.

From the very start, the film goes out of its way to SHOW us that Holga and Kira are an unconventional but very real mother and daughter. Holga has a closer relationship with Kira than Edgin does. BUT the story is told from Edgin's perspective, so it repeatedly TELLS us that Holga is Edgin's partner, Kira is Edgin's daughter, and the quest is to bring back Edgin's dead wife so she can be a mother to Kira.

I love that dichotomy SO MUCH. I adore it when stories not only use show and tell cohesively, but make the difference between them a POINT. It was amazing, and something that I think couldn't have been done nearly as well in a written medium, I'm so in awe of how effortless it felt.

That one line was... mmph! Nice job, Mr Pine, nice job making that line hit your character so hard.

AND while I probably can't get into it without going on a whole essay about western ethics re: resurrection, there was something I really appreciated about how the film didn't linger over Edgin's wish and decisions about his wife. This was a DnD campaign. Resurrection is expensive and a pain, but it's a thing that happens, the only issue is Faerun lore about other planes, let's move on.

Last thing I'll talk about is the characters themselves. This was such good casting, and I love the characters and how they're embodied.

I love Holga's unapologetic dumb muscle and how much heart she had. (Side note, Bradley Cooper's cameo was wonderful and heartwrenching and that whole mini-arc is going to quietly stay in my heart for a long while)(Side-side note, I love Bradley Cooper so much more as a supporting character actor than a lead. He's SO GOOD at what he does but lead characters make his arcs overwrought)

I love Simon and Doric's blunt, awkward style and how you can tell they'll work well together but would be hopeless without Edgin's charm and energy to guide them.

I love Edgin, and I LOVE Edgin played by Chris Pine, who balances that charm and quiet desperation and arrogance into one perfect BARD. He was SUCH a BARD, even though he was missing the magic and lore (yeah... Simon fails saves, Edgin fails knowledge checks all. the. time. His dice hate the lore and it's absolutely a running joke at the table). His personality was just embodied Harper bard and it was perfect.

I love Hugh Grant's villain era because I actually find it a very natural evolution of his typecasting. But more than anything, I love that Forge isn't and never was actually evil. He's Neutral. He's selfish and willing to do either good or bad to achieve his goals. He didn't really want his friends to die, and you know, the overall outcome of the scheme was regrettable, but he would get away with money, love, and his life, so... -shrug- And Hugh Grant plays that so well. He's so dry and deadpan and you're never sure whether he's making fun of you or not, and it just works. So it's Nice. I like it. Nice.

But yeah! I could ramble about the things I loved for days, and there are certainly things I would have preferred, but this was actually a really good, really fun movie using DnD rules and tropes.

Good game, Paramount. Well done.

#dndhat #dungeons and dragons #honor among thieves #movie review #can we have more please? #a tv series #working with Jim Henson's creature shop #Because those animatronics were great to see but #I mean the dragonborn was amazing #but those tabaxi uhhhh #I want to see Kira level up into a scary battle rogue

[basine]

Chapter 3- Really, Him? (Melona)

I held his hand as we entered the dining hall. This was the man who tripped and fell on me three days ago and she was talking to him… again. All Melona was concerned about was getting the correct answers to the homework that Master Yolinda assigned her class. What was his name again? Oh right, Axan. Axan was such a unique name for someone. Of course there weren't many dragonborn in the world but Axan was so much more mortal than she would have ever imagined. He had a laugh that was actually pretty cute.

Wait… did I just think that? Did I just say a boy’s laugh was cute. Melona, you told yourself do not get attached to anyone here. Everyone you have thought was cute has hurt you so stop it, Melona thought to herself. Melona letting go of Axan’s hand took a seat on the opposite side of her black tabaxi friend Carrie. Of course Carrie’s name wasn’t that short. Her actual name was Carry the Flame due to her parents being forge workers but she had just settled on the name Carrie. Melona patted a seat next to her and Axan willingly took a seat next to her.

“Axan this is Carrie. Carrie this is Axan.” Melona said. “Nice to make your acquaintance tabaxi.” Axan said to Carrie. “Likewise. Master Y wouldn’t shut up about how good you are at defense. As someone who is training to be a monk like my older brother, how do you do it?” Carrie said excitingly to Axan. Axan glanced at Melona and then responded to Carrie. “I’m really not that great at it. I just really focus all of my energy on defending not myself but whoever I would be protecting. I’m a big beefy dragonborn so I can take a few punches before I start to look rough. It is all about protecting something. Nothing else really.” Axan said as he took a sip of water. This dragonborn knew how to speak. He spoke with a specific form of confidence but was never too cocky about anything. He understood a lot about combat training. As the conversation progressed Carrie did most of the talking while Melona just sat there and listened to him speak. He was funny and always made sure to include Melona into the conversation even when she was just listening. After the meals were finished they picked up their trays and headed over toward Eli and their cleaning crew.

“You know Carrie, if you wanted to I could show you some things up in the training room about defense. I know those training in the monk specialty never use shields but you could learn a thing or two from sparring.” Axan said to Carrie. “You would like to spar with me?” Carrie said excitedly. “Of course! It is always nice to spar against someone new. Who knows? You might actually catch me off guard.” “Okay! Let me go back to my room to get my gi and bo staff! I should be ready in like 10 minutes!” Carrie said as she hurriedly rushed off toward her room leaving Melona alone with Axan. “You know you can come too, right? If you would prefer not to that is-” Axan was saying as Melona cut him off. “Oh yes! I would love to watch you spar in your fancy silver armor. You seem like you know what you are doing.” Melona said hurriedly. “You wanna know a secret?” Axan said under his breath. “No one knows what they are doing until you are actually doing it.”

Axan then looked at Melona and winked. Melona then felt a rush of emotions run through her whole body. She felt her whole body warm including her face. She felt like her cheeks must have been as red as the tomato soup she just ate.

Melona, you are feeling this way about a boy? You’ve never liked a boy before why now? Melona thought to herself. “I forgot to ask, what are you training for?” Axan asked and then immediately continued, “No wait don’t tell me… druid? ARE YOU ONE OF THE DRUIDS!?” Axan asked, almost screaming in excitement. Melona’s face got even redder as just nodded her head in agreement.

What are you doing? He is just another person! There is nothing special about him! Melona thought to herself.

“A DRUID! I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT DRUIDIC MAGIC! WOULD YOU TEACH ME SOMEDAY!?” Axan said excitedly.

“Uhhhh… yeah sure! I mean I’m not that special there is like… 7 more of us.” Melona said shyly.

“Yeah, but none of them want to share anything about themselves. They just change into little birds and fly away. I was hoping that the next druid to enter the monastery would be willing to talk about their experiences! Would you mind sitting down with me and talking about that?”

“Yeah! Sure it’s a date!”

Melona suddenly felt a rush of warmth running through her body as she realized what she just said. Did she just unintentionally ask this dragonborn on a date to talk about her druidic magic. Oh gods, she needed to fix this quickly.

“What I meant is that, like uhmmm, we can hang out like we did today and I can tell you all the cool things about being a druid. Like changing forms and all of that.” Melona said, embarrassed.

“Sure! Shall we get going to the training room? Carrie might be waiting for us.” Axan said as he started moving towards the steps up the mountain.

Melona followed in silence. She watched him as instead of taking every step as she did, Axan took two at once. After a few steps Melona realized she would have to pick up her pace to keep up with him. She started running up the steps as quickly as she could. She started to think about what would happen if she fell. Would he try and catch her? Would he help her up like he did a few days ago? 

Melona looked up at the back of Axan and saw his tail swishing in the air as he walked up the steps. She knew that some dragonborns have tails but seeing it in person was very interesting. She wondered how it felt to have one all the time. She only ever experienced that when she changed into a cat and it felt super weird. 

Axan turned around and said “Melona, you doing ok? I just realized that I take two steps when you only take one. Would you like me to slow down for you?” “No you go on ahead. I’ll be up there before you guys start.” Melona said between heavy breaths.

“No. I want to make sure you don’t slip or fall.” He held out his hand toward Melona to help steady herself and take a few breaths.

Melona gladly accepted Axan’s hand and took a few deep breaths before continuing up the steps. Axan slowed down just to make sure Melona wasn’t on the brink of passing out which she appreciated, but was still having trouble keeping up. About three minutes later they reached the dojo that sat atop the monastery. This is where all combat training was held to ensure that no one was carrying a weapon on sacred ground unless they were given strict permission. As Axan swung open the door Carrie was tightening her burgundy belt around her turquoise gi. Axan walked over to a locker and opened it. Inside was a shining set of silver armor. Axan quickly put on the armor and picked up his blue, silver and black shield and a wooden longsword. Both of the combatants stood on opposite sides of the dojo, one wearing armor that sparkled like moonlight and one wearing almost nothing.

“Now Carrie, don’t hold back. First to three hits on the other wins.” Axan stated.

“I agree to the terms.” Carrie replied.

“May the music guide you.” Axan said as he entered a defensive stance, ready for Carrie to attack.

#xaria campaign #dungeons and drawings #oc story #original character

[diabeticgirl4]

@tatianaluz​ :D!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://pin.it/34I5xBt here are the boards I have [so far] ! I only have boards for 5 of my characters so far, the rest are still too undeveloped at this point :’D 

"quick” rundown of who’s who [hidden under the cut bcause Whoops apparently I love talking about them?? and it got longer than expected?? wow who could have seen that coming]

tl;dr these are the ocs I’ve been hoarding over the past few months and I love them

Dess- aarakocra wizard (literally any pronoun works)- a bit of a kleptomaniac/ ex-criminal thief, trying to become a better bird via magic studies!, but still Very tempted by the shiny. based on the satin bowerbird (those funny birds that steal blue things for their nests)!

“Buck”- elf barbarian (she/them)- basically has toph’s backstory- running from noble parents bc they won’t let her fight, “frick that” attitude, etc. She joined the army to learn to fight and use weapons properly and to maybe control her excess energy and frustration, but uhhhh it kinda backfired after she discovered her true passion for fighting and cutting down her enemy :’D yeahh she’s a bit unhinged. she knows this and she tends to use it to her advantage. she collects weapons and will not hesitate to use any of them at any time.

Daina- tiefling bard (she/her)- 100% absolute lesbian. that’s basically all there is to her lmao. Sunshine lesbian, total sweetheart. she’s a good girl.

Feral- gnome sorcerer (Feral/they/them)- THE EMBODIMENT OF PURE CHAOS. literally I woke up one morning and was instantly like “what if I made the most chaotic being ever, a complete gremlin child, the opposite of what most my ocs are typically like” and thus Feral was born. Feral is basically a 14yo street rat [they’re like 2.5ft tall, they Smol!!], they can’t rly control their magic (nor do they care to tbh), and they steal to live/live to steal. bcause chaos is Fun and they don’t care about anything except for themself and wreaking havoc lmao. 

*Lana- tabaxi rogue(?) (she/her)- more or less on a RevengeQuest for her Tragic Backstory? Whole family was murdered one night, she’s off to figure out who did it and why, etc etc etc. She was my first character and it probably shows [she has like a full 12 page backstory written out lmao whoops]. I’m also not 100% on her class :\

*Nora- halfling ??? (she/her)- one of my super undeveloped!! :’D I’m kinda thinking of scrapping her as a potential dnd character but I still love her whole design concept so idk. In short she’s left mute after [insert tragic backstory] [attempted sacrifice gone wrong??]. and that’s it??  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ like I said. super undeveloped. idk. I just liked the concept of having a mute character trying to interact w a team I guess??

*Constance- dragonborn cleric (she/her)- doesn’t have a board (yet), but she is the Ultimate Mom Friend. I mean, she is a legit mom too, so she’s just the Ultimate Pro Mom. She’s a retired cleric for a noble family, and her daughter convinced her to go travel and join adventures and whatnot to keep her busy, since she likes being around/helping ppl. [I’m a bit undecided on her name, but if you’ve ever read Redwall I was Super inspired by Badger Mother Constance. so yeah.]

[*while all these characters are wips, the last three are Super wips- names, classes, basically nothing about them is totally set in stone, but I enjoy their concepts too much to totally scrap them!]

[also!! if you made it this far I’ve been playing w Actual Moodboards for a few of them! :D]

[Daina]

[Dess]

[Buck]

[Feral]

#tatianaluz #oc stuff #bless u for giving me an opportunity to talk about my characters 8) #also pinterest is so fun?? for building characters?? #I'd love to one day actually maybe use them #but until then I will just play w them on pinterest and dndbeyond

[dxmedstudent]

D&D player/artist problems...

I like playing a wizard; it’s the class most like myself. Pretty similar to medicine in many ways; a huge amount of obscure knowledge that you constantly have to rehash, or you forget a lot of it.We’re never far from your ‘spellbook’ AKA reference book of choice. When I did one of those online quizzes, I came out as pretty much the character I play; good-aligned elvish wizard, much to the chagrin of my awesome D&D group, all of which came out as human XD. I’ve been slowly creating characters out of other lasses I’d be interested in playing in the future, inspired by one of my friends. And it’s really fun, plus it makes me feel better about the prospect of my character potentially dying, and having to re-roll a character if I’ve got a few I actually like prepared in advance.  For my next characters,  I want to play a paladin and/or cleric at some point; combining magic whilst bashing people and battling with a moral high ground sounds interesting. I look forward to creating lots of potential characters to pick from, for future adventures. But I really don’t want want to draw armor every time. Frankly, I’m just too lazy. I love drawing our current batch of characters, even the ones that are a bit more challenging. Tabaxi? Uhhhh....better dig out some furry reference from google... What does a tabaxi look like anyhow? What’s the best way to draw a dragonborn? How to make dragons look cool? The druid is obsessed with turning into a bear, how do you draw bears again? Decisions, decisions.  It's been great fun!  And it’s really motivated me to stretch beyond what I’ve been drawing for ages (there’s only so many doctors I can draw. I’ve experienced doctor overdose. I needed a break!). I look forward to continuing to doodle our adventures in the future. I might even post some of them online, eventually. But I like having a simple, shorthand style, and armor just messes with that. It’s lovely to draw once in a while, but I’m really not excited about drawing full plate in every sketch.  I’m happy to stick to being a wizard for now.

#D&D #dnd #dnd shenanigans