theoutcastrogue

[theoutcastrogue]

#rome

[theoutcastrogue]

Portrait commission of The Silver Sparrow <3

Commissions open! Link here: https://marcelafrcommissions.carrd.co/

#rogues gallery #elf

[theoutcastrogue]

HE'S BACK, BABY

EA-NASIR IS HERE FOR US, RIPPING OFF CAPITALISTS

AS PER MY LAST TABLET

#practice #I've been bamboozled by Ea-Nasir

[theoutcastrogue]

Carcosa? The monstrous city at which unspeakable horrors are done in name of the great old one Hastur they call their leader? Great. How much is the average rent price?

The king of Carcosa will eventually consume and destroy the entire city with everyone in it when the time comes to increase his power? Well that's every politician ever for you, tell me something new.

The entire city is populated by a cult that worships the King and they often do unspeakable horrors in his name? Yes im aware with how political parties work

The nearby lake of Hali is said to be inhabited by a being of unspeakable power which sometimes comes into conflict with the spawn of Cthulhu at that lake? YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS PLACE EVEN HAS A NICE LAKE TO SIT NEXT TO!? And yes I am also aware about how tourists can be annoying sometimes.

Your spooky "Black stars on a bright sky" you keep mentioning imply there is little air pollution, since seeing a large amount of stars in a city is often wishful thinking. Housing crisis considered this place doesn't seem half bad

#the city speaks #carcosa #the king in yellow

[theoutcastrogue]

It's so him :P

[theoutcastrogue]

"The rich stole all your shit. Don't give em your empathy too"

Seen in London, Ontario

#the writing on the wall #the rich remember #big thief little thief

[theoutcastrogue]

Here's an important question.

And here's something relevant:

"Playing a Rogue in 5e demands more system-mastery from the player than it maybe should. Not just because it's one of the core-four, but because the role (sneaky guy who survives amongst tin-can knights and spellcasting wizards through guile and derring-do) is an iconic one plenty of new players gravitate towards. It's not just sneak attack, but also action economy and (particularly for melee rogues) ending your turn in a defended position. It's hard to build a bad rogue, but easy to misplay one." ~ from a discussion on ENWorld (I reworded the first sentence for clarity)

When I first read that, my gut reaction was hey, that's a feature, not a bug! When we choose the role of "sneaky guy who survives amongst tin-can knights and spellcasting wizards through guile and derring-do" (what a lovely way to put it!), we SHOULD welcome the need for some system mastery, and not expect to just declare "my Rogue does a clever thing and prevails" in order to prevail. We gotta actually do the clever thing!

But then I remembered that the 5e core books are VERY badly-written for new DMs and players: they don't adequately explain aspects of the game that the rules were made to support, so when said rules are half-baked, everyone's like ????????. And that's the main reason some people struggled. If you come to 5e with Experience™, and already have Opinions on how things should run, it's conversely VERY easy to run, and play, and tweak to your personal preferences.

So I think the Rogue in 5e demands exactly as much system mastery as it should, HOWEVER the books are shockingly bad at teaching system mastery to new players.

And I fully agree with @honourablejester about positioning. Rogues and especially hit-and-run Rogues NEED a battle map. Tanks may not, you move to the target and start hitting, and that's that. Rogues (and anyone with AoE spells and abilities) need to know the relative positions of everyone. You know who else needs a battle map? I do. I can't do theatre of the mind folks, I just can't. I have a huge problem visualising the field if I don't actually see it. I don't need a grid (though it's certainly convenient and vastly preferable) or minis (though they're certainly cool), but at the very least I NEED a piece of paper where I can place tokens, move them around, and measure distances (with rulers or pencils or compasses, I ain't picky).

So at least for me, that's one thing that 5e DESPERATELY lacks: combat visualisation. Technically, playing on a grid in 5e is a fucking variant. Here's the only thing the PHB has to say about grids:

And here's the only picture in the entire PHB that helps people visualise combat in any way:

Pathetic. And here are the only pictures in the DMG:

What, even. How can people learn to do tactical combat like that? The game is FULL of rules that assume, rely or thrive on keeping track of everyone's exact positioning, as they move though the battlefield. And the core books pretend that's optional, and don't explain how that works! Good grief!

THAT SAID (audiatur et altera pars), many people did NOT struggle. We know for a fact that the Rogue was one of 5e's most popular classes, for old and new players alike. One way or another, it worked for them. And if I can't do theatre of the mind, and can't mentally visualise a map that's not there, well I know that others can, and even prefer it. How many prefer it? I dunno, hence the poll. (It's not a proper poll of course, I mean it's on tumblr, but it's not like we'll ever have official stats for that anyway.)

Want to know my spiciest d&d take as someone who introduces a lot of people to the game?

Classes (and subclasses) should be rated for complexity, and newer players should be steered away from overly complex options so that they're not asked to do double or triple the work of memorization of other players. This is especially true if the player is going to be slower to pick up on game mechanics, be they young, old, or simply not someone who's very experienced with games in general.

Think about it this way: everyone at the table is expected to learn the base game (what dice to roll, how to pilot their character by talking, actions in combat), some of which is written down but the rest being vibes based and mostly communicated through gentle coaching by the DM. On top of that a portion of your players are going to have to learn how spells work, effectively doubling or trippling their early game class features. This is to say nothing of druids, who not only have to learn all the base features and spells but also have to keep several different statblocks on hand when it comes time to turn into animals/summon familiars. If you have my luck, it's always going to be the shyest/most anxious player at the table who selects the most complicated class, paradoxically meaning the player who's least likely to ask for help is usually in most need of it.

I'm not saying we should restrict all new players to only playing vanilla human champion fighters, but I think a level of oversight is absolutely necessary when guiding new folks into the game. Consider running a trial adventure that's limited to martial classes, introducing a few magic items half way through to give them a taste of what spellcasting could be like.

Forget about the traditional Tank/dps/expert/support/caster party balance, that shit is for experienced players who know what they're doing.

#trs #how to rogue #d&d #5e #crunch #polls

[theoutcastrogue]

[theoutcastrogue]

"Oh, well I like your feather bed And well I like your sheets But better I like your lady gay Who lies in my arms asleep"

"Well, get up, get up," Lord Donald cried "Get up as quick as you can It'll never be said in fair England I slew a naked man"

"Oh, I can't get up, I won't get up I can't get up for my life--

#(for you have two long beaten swords and I have not a pocket knife) #Matty Groves #prison ballads #folk #Fairport Convention

[theoutcastrogue]

Faun by FlammenmenschArtWatch

#faun #fey #rogues gallery

[theoutcastrogue]

"I’VE NEVER BEEN VERY SURE ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT, said Bill Door.  I AM NOT SURE THERE IS SUCH A THING AS RIGHT. OR WRONG.  JUST PLACES TO STAND."

Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man

#Terry Pratchett #Reaper Man #rogues in fiction #heroes and villains

[theoutcastrogue]

“Wait why is this one blank— oh god fucking dammit”

#stealth #invisibility #d&d #how to rogue

[theoutcastrogue]

Room with a chest with a sign in front that says "beware of mimic"

The mimic is the sign

­

#mimic

[theoutcastrogue]

Haunted by a fantasy world where "adventurer" is handled in the same way as "assassin" in John Wick. An ifykyk secondary economy running on gold coins where everyone knows each other but no one acknowledges the elephant in the room because we have manners about our weird-ass line of deadly desperate dangerous work.

Rolling into town, looking immaculate. Checking into the Inn. Not an inn, or the coaching house, or the traveler's hostel. The Inn. The one that takes my ridiculous oversized coin and says that my room is ready, and will I need to visit the Smith today? Perhaps a meeting with the Vintner? Shall I send up the Gourmand?

"Good afternoon, Master Whicke," the Smith says, putting aside the barrel scraper he's been working on to flip a switch beside the forge. Racks of tenpenny nails and trowels and hammers fold back to reveal the glittering points and edges of a score of swords and axes and spearpoints lit with the flicker of finely-tuned enchantments. "Shall we tour what's new?"

"What sort of occasion are we hosting, Master Whicke?" The Vintner asks, pocketing the coin with a sigh. "A funeral," you say.

"Ah, well perhaps something light to start, then," she says selecting a straight-walled flask that glitters with contained starlight, proof against the touch of the undead. " And something for remembrance," she plucks a small crock of something evil-smelling and phosphorescent. "And then something to really bring down the house." She gingerly selects a double ampoule of energetic looking jellies.

The Gourmand carefully runs his knife through the salted flank of a cockatrice with a pursing of the lips. "So many neglect trail rations, Master Whicke, and it is their shame. Paired with goldenwheat pancakes and carrion honey, a mouthful of cockatrice--properly seasoned of course--will keep the mummy rot at bay, even post-exposure. I have been given to indicate by the Management that your current escapade may make such information useful to you. I will of course wrap your purchases exceedingly carefully. Rot will be your constant companion in the Black Pyramid."

There's something here.

#john wick #adventure #how to rogue #fluff

[theoutcastrogue]

I’m allowed to be lazy. Disabled or not. Laziness isn’t an inherently bad thing y’all just too caught up in hyper capitalist hustle culture to care. I don’t owe you productivity. I’m allowed to rest.

My rest is radical.

#the right to be lazy #paul lafargue #tag namer

[theoutcastrogue]

and the second is "be yourself"

#rogue tech

[theoutcastrogue]

The Nigerian Job.png

#leverage #heist #rogues in fiction