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thisisnotthenerd · 8 months

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got a little too bored today and started tallying up d20 cast appearances for the intrepid heroes (and brennan). this is only off of the top of my head so if i forget something don't get on me about it.

Intrepid Heroes D20 Cast Appearances, including sidequests (and BLeeM), ranked from highest to lowest:

Brennan Lee Mulligan with a total of 17/19 seasons that he has appeared in; dm/gming for 14 of those seasons. 7 of those are main cast/intrepid heroes, so assume they each have a baseline of seven.

next up is mister Lou Wilson, with a total of 10 seasons; 3 sidequests, all with guest gms. the man is a combination of dnd knowledge and commit to the bit. great with any season, but has always sidequested with brennan.

tied at nine, we have zac oyama and ally beardsley; ally featured heavily in 2021 sidequests while zac has been more recent in '22 and '23.

tied at eight we have the lovely ladies emily axford and siobhan thompson! i'm so glad siobhan has joined the ranks of intrepid heroes in sidequests, it feels like they just have a lot of fun on the shorter runs.

and in last place, mr brian 'murph' murphy. i know he's busy with naddpod but only intrepid heroes seasons? 7/19? please come on a sidequest my guy. i promise it's fun.

halfway through this process i've decided that guests are also being included now.

Guest Cast D20 Appearances, ranked from highest to lowest:

at the top of the guest list, the effervescent aabria iyengar, with 5/12 sidequest seasons! 2 seasons of gming, 3 seasons as a player, all 3 of which are in established d20 worlds e.g. spyre and calorum. assuming we have an intrepid heroes season coming up at some point in the future, murph can get a bit of a lead, but if aabria's coming on to guest more there's a very real potential that she will outcompete him. i look forward to the day.

next up: erika ishii with 4 seasons. they came on in the first sidequest and have had a steady stream of appearances since. always some kind of mage--tends towards druids/nature magic. 2/3 of her dnd appearances have been druids with an eye for creepy crawlies and the darker side of nature. he's got an aesthetic that he sticks to, and i admire that. real commitment, and not just to the bit.

tied with three we have rekha shankar and matthew mercer. ooh four-syllable names. sorry i got distracted. anyway. very excited to see rekha in desiquest, though she's a fantastic player on d20. big swings, fun character choices, a good balance of support for narrative and spotlight. and then we have matt--one season gming, but for the seasons he's played? some truly cringefail guys who learn to believe in themselves and break out of their personal depression to deliver an asskicking in their finale episode. man likes his themes.

now for the team of two (not the 2 crew) in chronological order of first appearance: mike trapp, ify nwadiwe, lily du, carlos luna, danielle radford, and izzy roland. just enough to make an average d20 table! i'm getting my fill of trapp and danielle in the current season, but seeing a table of these players together? it has potential.

and for the full list of one time appearances on d20 in chronological order of first appearance (only full seasons, not including oneshots atm):

amy vorpahl

justin mcelroy

clint mcelroy

jessica ross

griffin mcelroy

travis mcelroy

marisha ray

krystina arielle

b. dave walters

katie marovitch

sam reich

raphael chestang

grant o'brien

becca scott

persephone valentine

gabe hicks (gm!)

dani fernandez

jasmine bhullar (gm!)

omar najam

oscar montoya

surena marie

anjali bhimani

monét x change

alaska thunderfuck

bob the drag queen

jujubee

alex song-xia

freddie wong

hank green

i've devoted entirely too much thought to this. and i still have more thoughts. too many thoughts and not enough time. can't wait to see who comes on in the future! don't know if i'll edit this or make a new one. probably just edit this.

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 meta #this is mostly for personal record #and is based on my memorization of the seasons #having now seen all of them #(mentopolis ongoing of course)#no referencing the wiki or dropout at any point #thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats #long post #dimension 20 statistics

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atticcreationz · 7 months

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Dimension 20 fans! A lot of folks have been asking me recently where's a good place to start d20. I give them the usual (send them the wiki, talk about chronological vs connected seasons, ask them what genres they like so as to point them in a direction) but it reminded me of something I'm curious about!

I know a lot of my friends who love/started with Critical Role are big into A Crown of Candy, and Adventure Zone fans tend to gravitate more towards the likes of Fantasy High etc. So my question for you is: what dnd show is your favourite (besides d20) and which season do you think is the closest match for the tone of said dnd show?

So the list would go:

- if you like Critical Role, try A Crown of Candy for its world building and intense drama, or try Escape from the Bloodkeep where Matt is a PC

- If you like The Adventure Zone, try Fantasy High for a show that starts whacky and with the players learning 5e but transforms into a beautiful story, or try Tiny Heist for the McElroys

- If you like NADDPOD, try (fill in the blank) for (tone), or try (fill in the blank) for peak Murph and Emily

- If you like Dungeons and Daddies try (blank) or try Mentopolis where Freddie is a PC

- Friends at the Table

- Acquisitions Incorporated

- Hello From The Magic Tavern (not technically a dnd podcast but it feels like it's all the silly downtime moments with the actual game part cut out)

- Etc!

I'd love to have another metric for recommending D20 seasons to friends and this sounds like a fun one! Suggestions welcome!

#dimension 20 #d20 #lynn

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juiceboxman · 3 years

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Advice for New DMs

I’ve been lucky enough to have DM’d a weekly game for over a year now and I’ve had conversation with people irl and online about how they think about DMing but aren’t necessarily too confident in their own ability or don’t even know where to start. So here’s some things I would suggest to get started, things to keep in mind and advice about general stuff. Here we go;

1) Familiarise Yourself with the Rules. You can read the DMs Manual or the Player’s Manual for rules. You can find rules explained everywhere online from Roll 20 to DND Beyond. But if you don’t like reading, and I get that cause the thought of reading a 200+ page instruction manual on how to play a game does sound daunting, I would suggest watching or listening to Actual Play Shows. If you watch like a few episodes of Critical Role or Dimension 20, you kind of get the basics of DnD. That’s really all you need to start DMing, just the basics like “what which Dice do”.

2) Know your Players. DnD is a collaborative game and all good collaboration necessitates some base understanding of who you’re collaborating with. You don’t necessarily need to know the people you’re playing with very well, but just enough to get where you can decide whether these people are chill to play with. So say if you’re gonna be playing a horror/scary campaign and you know one of the people in mind for playing isn’t too into horror- maybe don’t have them play cause it will make them uncomfortable. That example is perfectly fine but it delves into extremes when you’re dealing with people who are just difficult. You can look up online and find tons of stories relating to bad dnd experiences with just rude, shitty people. I would like to clarify that by saying that these experiences aren’t a DnD problem- it’s a social group problem. If you hang out wih a shitty person they will inevitably do shitty things, and honestly its better that a shitty outburst occurs at a controlled environment such as a DnD Game than say a house party where all sorts of shit could happen. So know your players. If they’re cool people, they’ll make cool players. If they’re kind of shit heads, they’re going to cause a lot of issues and not the fun kind. Know the difference between “shenanigans” and “open disrespect” because you as the DM put a lot of work into the game, if the players don’t respect that- maybe don’t play with them. No dnd is better than bad dnd

3) Know Your Game. This rule helps a lot if you are familiar with lots of DnD shows, which gives you a frame of reference for the type of campaign you wanna run. If you wanna go big dramatic epics with a lot of strict survivalist rules, Critical Role is a good place to reference. If you wanna go for balls to the wall humour with a lot of heart and emotional moments, NADDPOD is a good place to reference. You want a proper scary campaign, watch Sophomore Year from Dimension 20- it is primarily a comedy show but when they do drama they do DRAMA. Knowing your players allows you to know the game better. It took me quite a while in my own campaign t realise “Oh I’m not running a CR game, I’m running a NADDPOD game” and ater I realised that I was able to play it better. Know the game, know the genre, know what you and your players like and enjoy and try to maximise that fun.

4) Preparation. DMs do a lot of preparation whenever they intend to run a game. I would argue that the amount of preparation you want to do should be equal to the amount of time you’re willing to spend. Sad fact of life is that DnD, and other activities with friends, are all dependant on IRL scheduling. A campaign can fizzle and die out at a moments notice, not all stories get finished and if you wanna start any creative process that’s a reality you have to accept. I’m a creative person, I do quite a lot of writing and stuff on the side so when I do prep for DnD I don’t want to spend too much of my creative juice on a project that only six people at a table will know about compared to one that would feature a larger audience. Also if you have a busy schedule you might not have time to worldbuild, so short cuts help. So in those respects I don’t see anything wrong with being lazy. There are plenty of websites online where you can randomly generate maps, towns, characters- you name it. You don’t need to spend hours on end developing streets of a city that no one will walk down or lore behind businesses no one will ask about. You just need to be familiar enough with the history or your world, its vibe and tone in which you can effectively improv the rest. I’ve been DMing a game now for well over a year, I spend less than an hour a week doing prep. I write a few bullet points for stuff to bring up in the session, I make a brief map for encounters, I’ll look up monster stats, maybe draw up some homebrew and heroforge pictures of the NPCs- that’s it

5) Improv. I think 90% of DMing is pure improv. Depending how well you know your players and their characters, you can predict certain behaviours. So if you have an NPC say or do something that you know will gaina certain reaction from a player, that’s something you are certain about. Everything else however can be improv based. Players will surprise you. They’ll do weird dumb shit and they will do really cool game breaking shit. You have an NPC who was supposed to be a big villain? Well the PCs all teamed up and with an effective strategy, that NPC is now dead. It’s the lay of the land. The goal with prep is to have enough prepared that you can effectively pull stuff out of your ass with no issue. Improv isn’t necessarly difficult, all you really need is to listen. When a player responds to something and you feel its worth rolling for, have them roll for it. If tey roll well, tell them they did the thing. If not, tell them they didn’t. If the thing they asked for is impossible, tell them it’s impossible. You can come up with all sorts on the fly

6) DND isn’t like TV/BOOKS/MOVIES. DND is a weird medium of entertainment. Its a collaberative game where you all make a narrative, but a lot of strange stuff happens in between. Like if youre watching a movie or a show or reading a book you might think to yourself “why is this character spending twenty minutes talking to this waiter that genuinely isn’t that interesting?” or something like “why did the main villain die five pages in?” DND doesn’t follow a beat structure or format. Plot armor doesn’t fit here, it’s all decisions and luck- that’s it. Don’t be dissapointed in your work in regards to storytelling. Don’t worry about plot holes or inconsistencies, just focus on player engagement. If the players are having fun, then you’re playing the game right. You as the DM have to make sure that everyone is playing fairly and having fun. Treat your players equally, don’t be a dick, don’t be a pushover. You have to know what your players want, but also know what they don’t want. If your players like a weird NPC, have that NPC show up more cause they enjoy it. If your players discover an ability ot a magic object that left untouched will alter game play (e.g. one of my PCs recently gained an ability in which they gained the breath weapon of an ancient red dragon) that if used effectively could elminate all threat from any boss fight ever- don’t be afraid to NERF that. You need to be considerate about your enjoyment and the players enjoyment, its all in the balance.

That’s the main six points I have so far. If I have anymre I’ll be sure to add them. If anyone has any advice, feel free to add below. Hope this helps! Also; Brennan Lee Mulligan has a good podcast giving DM advice called Adverturing Academy. Has a lot of cool guests. The episode featuring Carlos Luna from Roll 20 is actually good career advice and gets me motivated just thinking about it. Definitely worth checking out!

#dimension 20 #critical role #naddpod #adventure zone #dunegons and dragons #dnd #d&d

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utilitycaster · 2 years

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so, question as an inexperienced DM who's never run up against this before and is looking for advice:

I've been putting together a homebrew setting for a campaign, and from the very beginning one of my players has been extremely pushy with me about it (attempted to wedge in a homebrew race of theirs, repeated attempts to horn in published races that I said were no-gos bc they wanted to minmax, ignored my explanations of specific aspects of the setting and then got mad when I said "no, that's not how this works"). it's to the point where I've asked them to leave the table if they won't play by my (extremely lax) rules, and they immediately guilt-tripped me about it for several hours, pitched a big fit when I continued to enforce things, and attempted to slander me behind my back to the other players. we managed to work through most of the issues I've already mentioned, but I'm worried about it happening again, bc this player has never let anything go in their life.

the question is, what—if anything—can I do about this? if I actually try to kick this player out of my group, they'll ruin my friendship with most of the others, but their refusal to listen and respect me as the DM is making my job way more stressful than it should be.

Hi anon, this is a tough one not because I feel it's that ambiguous a situation, but because there's no answer that works out for everything. Also, as someone who has let precious few things go in my life I do have a certain impatience with people who don't realize that there is, in fact, a time to step off.

Obviously I only have your side of things but as described this player is being completely unreasonable and pushy. I also have mentioned the NADDPod Dungeon Court episodes before, and while they are very funny one thing I appreciate about them is that the group discusses that while the DM has a huge amount of control over the story, they also are putting in tons more work. I really do think there's a certain attitude that's not universal but definitely floats around D&D playing spaces that the DM is here to as I think I said recently, build a playground for the players' OCs. They're not. They're allowed to want things and to say no to things like a homebrewed race (seriously that is uh....fucking ridiculous).

I cannot promise that this will work out, but I do know that if I saw this as another player, I'd be furious at this player. In fact I've been on the opposite side, as a player at a virtual table where slightly less pushy behavior of this type is happening, and the DM has been something of a pushover, and I've been furious at this player. I really don't know what your other players are like, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that they would end their friendship with you. I seriously wonder if this is something of a broken stair scenario in which everyone secretly wishes this player would leave but assumes everyone else likes them and doesn't want to make waves.

I'd approach this in two parts:

The first is to call for anonymous feedback (with the free online survey tool of your choosing). Keep it neutral, but ask "Is there anything that's working for you/not working for you/feedback for me or the group" and see if the other players say anything to the effect of "Yeah actually <shitty player> is making it hard to enjoy myself." Again, it's just a hunch but I would jump at the chance to say "this player is driving me up the fucking wall."

If you get a few responses of "I'm frustrated w/<shitty player>" then I think it's easy; you can in fact just kick them out, which will be tense but won't damage the other friendships to the extent you fear. And, in the unlikely but possible event that the other players do wish that you were indulging this player's bullshit more? I think it's okay to come back and let the group know that you heard their feedback, and you don't think you are at a place where you can run the game they are looking for. I get that this is deeply frustrating and going to suck but I'm of the mind that bad D&D can be worse than no D&D and this goes tenfold when you're the DM. I think it would be ok to propose that maybe the group do a bunch of one-shots and rotate, or someone else take over, or you play GM-less games.

The second path forward is if the anon survey is inconclusive - the other players don't say "oh my god please kick out <shitty player>" nor do they say "oh my god <shitty player> is right". This is frustrating. Here's how I'd handle it.

I'd start having the conversations with this player in front of everyone. This is going to be awkward. It's also really hard to keep calm when someone is being this much of an asshole and I fail at it all the time, but it is absolutely crucial. Feel free to find a third party friend if you can to have practice convos or to do a pass at your language but essentially, if this player acts up, you can stop the game and say "I'm sorry, but this is how the setting works."

You can also, if you really want to go hard but be mature about it, ask for a conversation with everyone present after a session (or if you have to cut a session short even) and say something to the effect of "<shitty player's name>, I feel as though you don't want to play the same kind of game that I'm trying to present here. That's okay, but in that case, I don't think this game is for you. I'm also very concerned that you've tried to misrepresent our conversations to the other players here. How would you like to move forward?"

Basically: do it in front of the other players not to call this person out and humiliate them, but because this person has tried to slander you when you've talked to them separately. Again: can't promise the other players will side with them but I really do think it's possible they're also frustrated by this person and just don't know how to express it.

Anyway, my point is, again, this is going to kind of suck, but I do think there are ways to do all you can preserve the friendships with the people you do like, even if it means having to end the game. The good news about DM-ing is that you can usually find a group who wants a DM, so you won't be without a game for too long if you have to stop this one. Good luck, and if you do enact any of these I would love to know how it goes (even if it goes super badly and you want to scream at me).

#i have the opposite problem of being the one who loudly screams HEY THIS STAIR IS BROKEN AS FUCK #and i can't say it always works out...uh...in fact i'm in the midst of a situation where it's not #but a decent amount of the time people are like yeah it is actually i was just unsure how to approach it #or they're like oh i thought i was the only one and i was just being sensitive or off-base but apparently others agree #m gives d&d advice

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magical-awesome-kid · 4 years

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Just because I was thinking about NADDPOD and the fact that Hardwon of the three boobs has the shortest lifespan, I started to remember that Moonshine LITERALLY teleported them into basically a room in Heaven to have Hardwon visit Elias Sr. So it got me thinking that Hardwon, even when he goes, won’t be out of the story.

Imagine an old, haggard Hardwon who’s stuck around far too long thanks to Magic but his body aches, and it’s hard enough to lift a hammer these days. He’s already passed on the King’s Hammer to his daughter, a little girl who’s a tall dwarf raised amongst the crick folk. She’s made her own name, and Hardwon couldn’t be prouder.

Moonshine and Beverly have also grown, but Moonshine looks hardly a couple years older then she had been all those decades ago. Beverly has become a young Halfling man, but he also appears much younger then his halfling husband, who is the same age.

So when the two are distraught with everyone else, Hardwon is just “don’t forget to visit me” because in his heart he knows better than to think this is the final good bye.

And then he goes... but doesn't.

He meets up with the Dusk Mother, Kord, Pelor, and Moradin. He can smell the Crick in the air, which soon becomes the land, and he knows Melora is there as well.

Hardwon looks like himself right after the world had settled. Sure, he and the others had played roles in other fights, but they also spent much of the rest of his life being teachers and guides to the new generations of heroes. He feels strong and pain-free for the first time in a while.

So the gods sit him down and explain that he’s got a lot of pull in the afterlife. He was one of them, after all, for a short time, and he stabilized the mortal realm. The Dusk Mother doesn’t want him in the Ruby Dawn (formally Hell), but she also knows that he had a ball while being there, and she could keep him in contact with his mother in Shadowfell. Kord, of course, laid claim through his father, and, in recent years, the two have bonded. Pelor owes his heart to the Boobs, and he’s offering a cruise ship with all the solo cups. Moradin was his OG god and looks after all the loves Hardwon has truly had. Melora, there in spirit, reaffirms that his later life was of the Crick, and, even though she has given up her physical form, she can still offer her a place in her eternal tree stump.

Hardwon doesn’t know how long he’s talking it over, especially because time doesn’t exist where they are, but eventually he asks a favor - that they all pitch together. Instead of a cruise ship, he gets a simple air vessel from Pelor, one which his daughter imbues with her own magic to pierce between the realms. There is a permanent slip for the ship at the stump, Kord’s Hall, and Moradin’s forge. Hardwon is the first of the demigods to find home not in one dimension but many, and, over the years, he becomes a kind of mini-god of his own, one of pure hearted adventurers and never-ending spirit.

Of course, after his funeral, Moonshine has NO IDEA where to go, because her and Bev are like “what heaven would he go to???” So they pop down to the Ruby Dawn because the Dusk Mother likes them a lot and also they like to goof off down there on the race tracks she kept just for them and the spirits who race to work out their feelings.

Of course, they find the ship docked to the highest tower and, racing up the stairs, they find a younger Hardwon helping the Dusk Mother with a painting class for some of her wayward spirits, working out emotions through art. It’s One Big Pile On as Bev and Moonshine hug the ever-loving shit out of the man, and they KNOW he’s dead but Ruby Dawn? Like it’s fun but he doesn’t seem to fit here.

He then explains his ship, its power, and how he’s just... continuing to be him. Moonshine puts her scry sigil on the ship so she can always find Hardwon, and over the years Hardwon collects his own crew of adventurers who just can’t let adventure die, and Moonshine and Bev, until their own passings, come visit regularly to update him on the gossip of the mortal realm and bring him Sticky buns.

Moonshine and Bev settle a bit more than Hardwon, in the Stump and with Pelor, but he visits and brings them along whenever they ask.

#NADDPOD #Hardwon Surefoot #Beverly toegold the fifth #Moonshine cybin #Paw paw

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shieldwife · 3 years

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hey !! i just wanted to drop here & say i love ur blog v v much, but especially hearing about ur paladin recently heheh she seems so fun !! i'm loving to be updated in what happens to her & ur campaign in general hsjdhs also !! i just finished listening to a dnd podcast (taz balance) and i've been thinking abt getting into naddpod & i remember u blogged some abt it a while back !! would u recommend it ?? what are the general vibes to the pod ?? i hope u r having a nice day !! :-)

hey! thank you so much, i’m glad someone actually enjoys my rather varied content fjsdkfjl. my campaign is def taking up most of my headspace rn, and i’m glad that my ranting about it isn’t too annoying.

i’ve never listened to taz balance, but a friend of mine has been trying to convince me to start it for a while (it’s next on the list after i finish fantasy high lol). and YES i would 100% recommend naddpod. i binged their first campaign in like a month, and it was so good. the world and all of the characters are super fleshed out and feel real. listening to them change and grow over the course of the campaign is amazing (and also super heartbreaking at times, but that’s the point. angst is fun when it’s done right). i haven’t had the time to listen to trinyvale or the mavrus chronicles yet, but i’ve also heard good things about them. their current campaign is also super good. arc three just started last week, and it def seems like it’s going in interesting directions. found family is also a really big thing in naddpod, which is probably one of the reasons i loved it so much! if you’re looking for a podcast with a lot of cool worldbuilding, found family, and lgbt rep i’d 100% reccomend naddpod :)

#mail #silly-froggie

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 4 years

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top 10 podcast characters! (sorry if i spam, lol, your answers for stuff are always so much fun!!)

10.) Daisy Tonner (The Magnus Archives). another returning favorite from my list of favorite female characters yesterday. she’s truly got it all: fucked up past, connection to a sinister power that she’s struggling to control, homoerotic co-dependence with her best friend, basically a werewolf... I am obsessed. @ Jonny Sim bring her back immediately so I can be furious at you for however much she’s suffering.

9.) Cecil Gershwin Palmer (Welcome to Night Vale). this is like... my podcast dad. or, no, scratch that. my podcast cool uncle. I exist in a state of being permanently behind on Welcome to Night Vale these days, but every time I go back I hear Cecil’s voice and my brain fills up with exclamation marks as I feel like I’m being welcomed back home. I love this brave, weird little radio host. also, according to recent episodes, he and his husband get up to some kinky shit, and I sort of feel like Amy in the “booOOOOOne????” scene of B99 but also good for them !!

8.) Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives). I don’t know, I’m just obsessed with this story and this sad dumpster of a man! I can’t even really explain what I like about him; on paper I don’t think I do but he’s really burrowed into my heart and gotten cozy there. his life is such a mess and I want him to be okay! like actually okay! he’s definitely not going to be and it’s going to mess me up a lot.

7.) Bellow (Rude Tales of Magic). An incredibly recent addition to this list, since I started listening to RToM all of a week ago, but I just... really like this good good boy. at first glance you’re like “okay, that’s an annoying tiefling frat boy, ew” and five minutes later you realize he’s actually just a super chill sweetheart who offers to help everybody he meets and remembers all the NPC’s names when no one else ever does. there’s no normal-sounding way to explain this but he tries very hard to potty train a 4 foot tall rat man after everyone else has given up on him and it’s very sweet in the WEIRDEST way.

6.) Taako Adventurezone (The Adventure Zone: Balance). I can’t even quite put my finger on what it is with this dude... well, I kind of can. I knew he was gay going into the podcast and I always latch onto the queers (I mean... look at this list lmao), but that’s not all it is. Justin McElroy is just a damn good D&D player and makes a lot of really thrillingly creative character choices both in character and out, and I can always be won over by jerks who are secretly pretty okay.

5.) Moonshine Cybin (Not Another D&D Podcast). my fungal queen! NADDPOD is the first not-TAZ D&D podcast I got Extremely into and it’s just... such a breath of fresh air to have a woman in a game of D&D? which isn’t a dunk on the McElboys at all, but god, Emily Axford is such a fun and creative player, and Moonshine is an absolutely delight. disaster bisexual hick elf druid with a big gooey heart while reveling in spores and decay? that’s a big yes from me.

4.) Lord Arum (The Penumbra Podcast). it should surprise absolutely NO ONE that W39 and the Penumbra dominated the top spots; that’s just who I am as a person right now. anyway, Arum’s a stubborn bisexual lizard man with four arms who complains constantly to hide the fact that he’s a huge softy who doesn’t know how to handle anything, especially having a crush on two people who are supposed to be his sworn enemies. it’s like someone wrote a character SPECIFICALLY for me to be into.

3.) Isabel Lovelace (Wolf 359). Lovelace also got a spot on yesterday’s top 10 female characters list, and I can’t... not... put her on this one, too. I said a lot of what I love about her there, which is that I’m always a sucker for a badass lady who’s been through hell and come out the other side rattled but determined to keep doing her best. Lovelace is a delightfully contradictory lady and beautifully acted by Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs, and I love the shit out of her.

2.) Juno Steel (The Penumbra Podcast). how do I even start to explain how much Juno means to me?? he was one of the very first explicitly, canonically bisexual podcast protags I got to know, his struggles with depression knock me off my feet every time, his ultimate resolve to grow and do better by others makes me want to cry a sweater of tears, and his relationship with gender gently opened the door for me to become comfortable with so many things about myself. Juno Steel, you dumb bitch, I love you.

1.) Daniel Jacobi (Wolf 359). this is going to be so melodramatic after my gushing about Juno but I just like this one because I’m gay; that’s literally all there is to it. Jacobi is a shitty little trash man and I hate him and listening to his stupid voice shoots serotonin directly through my ears and into my brain. I wish I could explain my poor taste but truly I cannot.

#podcast stuff #icannotweave

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swilmarillion · 4 years

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Tagged by @crackinthecup. Thank you!!

Are you staying home from work/school? My classes have moved online, but I’m still physically going to work full-time. I work with live animals, so it can’t be done remotely. On the one hand, it lends a sense of normalcy to a very weird time; on the other hand; it stresses me tf out haha

If staying home, who is there with you? Mr Swil is also still going to work, as are the housemates

Are you a homebody? Very much so! I feel like I’m much more insulated from the stir-craziness that other people are experiencing

What movies have you watched recently? I’m more of a tv person, honestly. I’m rewatching castlevania with my husband and also watching Kim’s Convenience

An event you were looking forward to that got canceled? Nothing big, but it is a bummer we can’t travel to see family, since we live 7 hours away

What music are you listening to? I’ve been on a serious podcast kick lately. I’m keeping up with tma and catching up on naddpod. I also listened to the joe exotic podcast and stranger in the window, and I’m halfway through the dating game killer

What are you reading? Mindhunter by John Douglas

What are you doing for self-care? Napping, mostly. Taking a break from guilting myself about not getting anything done

@mywoesaregranular @asgardian--angels @feanope and anyone who’s bored and wants a distraction

#only if you want to of course!!#tag meme thing

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jq37 · 5 years

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Have you done breakdowns of the last few episodes yet? If not 👀

**spoilers for a new york wedding**

Prologue: I had a partially free day today (as in the day I started writing this which is now two days ago) so I decided to swing by Central Park and check out the Bethesda Fountain where I saw both a proposal and a man on a segway with a live snake around his neck so, yeah, New York is just Like That.

"Here's a possibly magic crown. Why don't we ask the butt stuff guy about that?"

The face Brennan makes when Emily says, "I used to do colonics at the salon," is great. Like, "We are two minutes into this ep, your sentence isn't even complete, and I already can't handle it."

So they get out of the sewers and Bethesda Fountain has been attacked (which is a shame just aesthetically because, having now seen it in person, it's a really pretty fountain). Em is devastated and explains that the fountain is like a Important magical symbol of good change and a source of divine purification magic.

Another side note about the fountain: There are these little cherub figures around it in additional to the Angel. I wonder if those are sentient too. Also-also, the promenade across from the fountain has these cool murals of the seasons. My point is, there's a lot of fodder for possible lore just in that small area of the park.

Misty finds ashes by the fountain (concerning) and wipes it on Kugrash's fur (rude).

I love that Emily thought Pete was pouring one out (one being one bag of cocaine).

"Sophie, your magic is that you're a wonderful person and you jump really good."

"The Bread Wedding"

Kudos to Brennan for all the wide range of crazy voices he had to do in this ep. Don Confetti. The Golem. Perry the Pigeon. That can't be easy on the throat.

Sophie is fully ready to fistfight Don Confetti over their last names which is wild for a lot of reasons we're not gonna get into.

So Brennan has everyone roll a Wis save and everyone did OK except I think Ricky. Brennan never explains why he had them roll that. Concerning. I'm wondering now if it was something that would have needed a nat 20 to save from it or something where the people who saved didn't realized they saved from it and the people who didn't are just ticking time bombs or sleeper agents or something else awful.

Pete is such a dangerous friend to be around when you're emotionally compromised. His solution to everything is drugs.

"It's an off-white!" --Misty upon being called out for wearing white to a wedding.

Brennan has Perry go on a wild 39 second monologue about relationships that Pete interrupts by stuffing drugs down his gullet--see again my previous bullet about Pete.

Sophie notices that a lot of the pixies recognize her which pm confirms her brother is In This which, to use the word of the day again, *Concerning*.

Emily having Sophie get really emotional but also struggling to keep the laughter out of her face is always super funny to watch.

So Pete finds a table of vampires. Brennan spends a couple of minutes describing them before he gets to it outright but it's pretty immediately clear they're vamps. Well, vamps plus a suspicious older guy and a girl (Melissa) who seems to be playing Renfield to the vamps. Getting high so they can drink her blood and get high. Pete brilliantly confirms this by getting the suspicious guy (Rob, as far as we know) to go off on Politics and then deep mind-reading the girl. That's one of the most clever RP things I've seen a player do. Pete also sees that Rob is hanging out with the vamps but he doesn't seem to be one.

Pete fails his wild magic check but nothing happened that we know of. A lot of stuff on the wild magic table is situational though (like the reincarnate spell from Bloodkeep with the potion Sohkbarr drank).

Rob implies he knows what happened with Pete's dad. Pete goes into a tailspin, as if he isn't constantly in one.

Everyone dancing so they can talk in public instead of just, like, having a sidebar. Just that entire sequence is peak comedy.

Ricky, the good boy, is dancing with his pigeon date while everyone else is mystery solving (or, in Soph's case, crying in a closet or something).

Rob is supposedly in finance. Last time there was a character involved in finance/banking in D20 it was the whole KVX fiasco in FH.

"Did I use up my favor? I could have had anything in the world."

Sophie upon seeing anything young woman in any kind of situation immediately springs into action, ready to drag them out by any means necessary. I love her.

Robert works at a hedge fund and Kug recognizes him. Brennan explains how he knows him in a very vague way which the rest of the table clocks instantly. Murph asks if Rob knows Gabriela. He does. Who the hell is Gabriela, Misty and I wonder.

Emily goes galaxy brain and theorizes that the bad guys are laundering souls which is equal parts bonkers and brilliant. The camera unhelpfully *doesn't* cut back to Brennan so I can attempt to read his DM poker face. I am reminded of Emily wondering if [redacted] was in the sword in a recent ep of Naddpod and Murph just deciding that they were on the spot because it was cooler than what he had planned. I know you can't win at DnD but I think Emily is winning at DnD.

I mentioned this in passing I think last recap, but Pete's magic is really interesting to me because Pete doesn't know what his character sheet looks like and he's not someone like Kingston or Ricky who's been doing their thing for a while and knows that they can do and what the things he can do are called. So Ally has to get a little creative about activating abilities (like True Strike in this ep) without being too meta, if that makes sense.

Kug knows Rob from a while ago (from the 80's he later says) but he doesn't seem to have aged. The group is thinking vampire, but he wasn't drinking blood in the memory Pete saw. Suspicious. Put a pin in that with everything else on my conspiracy board.

Misty: Eyyyy Macarena!

Kug kisses the pigeon. Sure.

Misty/Siobhan also does a clever thing and suggests taking a selfie with the vamp table in the background to see who shows up. Only Melissa and Rob do, so they're not vamps for sure.

So they go back to Kingston's place and he, Pete, and Sophie cook for everyone which has basically nothing really to do with the plot but I think it was a nice character beat for them.

Kingston and Misty fought a mummy on Long Island back in the day. As you do. Sidenote, when I was in Central Park today (two days ago), I passed by a big-ass obelisk that apparently exists and that I am *certain* Brennan has lore for, even if it doesn't come up.

Misty, a very wealthy Broadway star: If you pay for the Metropolitan Museum, you're a Goddamn fool.

Sophie had not put together that Misty is a fairy before now and I was like ??? for a second but, actually, with the info she has, that's not necessarily the conclusion she would draw. She could just be a really short lady with magic. It's been that kind of week.

Kingston presses Kug on how he knows Rob and Kug reluctantly confesses that HE USED TO BE A GUY. Zac blindly guesses that he was a stockbroker which is ALSO CORRECT.

"movie horse breeder" is such a specific job to pull out of thin air.

Siobhan, making a choice: Let me tell you about my good friend, John Wilkes Booth.

Brennan's total break of composure when Zac/Ricky says, "I wasn't always a firefighter." Zac lowkey has the best comic timing of everyone on the squad. He's just really understated about it.

Anyway, there are levels to this. How long has Kug been a rat??? I feel like it must have been a while because of all the weird ass stuff that he does. Also, he excuses a lot of his behaviors due to being a rat considering he's actually a rat-MAN, emphasis on the man. The stock broker thing surprised me more considering that Kug is introduced doing some pretty altruistic, non-stockbroker-y things. Did Kug piss off a homeless witch and get Beauty and the Beast-ed? He never actually answered the question about how he knows Rob since everyone got sidetracked by the fact that he used to be a whole-ass HUMAN MAN. Did Rob curse him for less moral lesson reasons? What's going on here????

Esther and Ale have been researching. The grey baby is apparently named Nod, just like the place, and it (it specifically, not him or her) like the ruler of there.

There's this whole group bit Brennan, Ally, and Siobahn do about how you can take the L train really far and then catch a shuttle bus that can only be seen by the pure of heart to get to Nod and it's really funny but how funny would it be if they actually tried to do it in a dire moment and also Ricky could do it for sure send tweet.

Kingston is trying so-so hard to keep everyone on task all episode. Bless him.

Kug asks Esther about her mom, which surprises her. He says they used to be friends (Did *SHE* curse him????). Esther says she hasn't seen her in a long time, since she was 5 or 6. Of course, it's easy to want to connect this to the Gabriela he was asking about earlier but we'll see about that. I think I saw some people speculating that he's Esther's dad which I'm even more skeptical about considering what we learn later but wouldn't that be wild?

Ricky decides to shoot his shot with Esther. His brain is full of love, determination, civic responsibility, and absolutely nothing else, bless his golden retriever heart.

Brennan as Esther drops the best stealth joke (though, it has a very high likelihood of crossing from joke to plot point) in D20 so far with the Imperial Axiom/Sinatra's Law explanation. It was a full, "Wait. What? Oh!" Big gold star for Brennan for that one. I had to take a second and recover from that when I heard it the first time. Beyond the joke, it also seems like a likely hook for the eventual Big Bad of the campaign. First NY, then the world, you know?

The fact that the highways go against the grain of magic leylines of NY in this world is such a good detail and it makes a lot of sense intuitively.

Zac breaks Brennan again with the, "Traffic's really bad," comment.

Please let Ricky's big dumb puppy self win over Esther. "It's really hard for me." Riiiickyyyy.

So Kingston goes to see Willy, the Williamsburg golem about Lazarus from the Bible (New Testament). Aren't golems de facto Jewish? I think. I am correct. However, as much as Willy doesn't know about the New Testament, he *does* know about the Statue of Liberty which is convenient because--shoutout to the people who figured it out in advance--Lazarus is not Lazarus from the Bible. It's Emma Lazarus who wrote the poem on the Statue of Liberty. This of course means that I need to do a close read of that poem at some point but not today baby because I need more information before I start going full Pepe Silvia. Sidenote: What a great place for Kingston to be when figuring out that info. Close enough that Willy can just point out the statue. It's cinematic. Fantastic.

(Also, I made a post about the fact that Siobahn just knew Emma's name off the top of her head, but when it cut to the other side of the table, Emily's eyes got all big too).

Emily gets a nat20 which RUINS her plans because she runs into Isabella aka the woman her husband left her for. They have an adult Means Girls stand-off where Sophie finds out they're getting married (or at least having a ceremony bc Dale didn't send her divorce papers yet). Big ups to Emily for staying in character and ditching all the sleuthing she was going to do because there is no way Sophie would be stable enough for that to be her top priority at the moment (even though I really wanted her to do all that stuff!)

Also, I'm looking forward to watching Sophie rip her to shreds when she inevitably turns out to be a succubus/demon/fiend/whatever. Honestly, she can just barfight her and I'd be satisfied.

So Misty goes home and finds a present waiting for her. It's a big ass mirror. Correction. It's a big ass mirror that Titania immediately uses to angry Skype her. Yikes.

It seems like her shoes of Titania are literally that, stolen from Titania (love that Titania was barefoot in her character art btw). I know they let her cast a certain spell in an earlier episode but I'm wondering why she stole them. Maybe they helped her cross over from Faerie (which happened ~400 years ago we ind out)?

Titania is pissed that Misty is stealing "glamour" that should be hers (via playing her in the new show). Glamour in the fairy sense is like a disguise. Glamour in the DnD sense is a fey-based bard option (which is the class I'm guessing Titania will be if they have to fight her). Curious to get a deeper explanation on that later.

Misty is able to cover back up the mirror but she breaks a hip in the process because of Titania's mojo and has to call Kingston. I already said this but I love their relationship.

(Sidenote, I meant to mention this earlier, but I think whiffs of the undead came up a couple of times in this ep which makes me wonder if the mummy situation Kingston mentioned is going to come back).

"Please, use any one of the guestrooms."

I FORGOT ABOUT KUG'S STUFF AT THE END

Ugh, this ep is an emotional roller coaster

"Wherever you are Rat Jesus, know that I love you. From Wally." What a good boy.

Everyone reacting to Murph's reaction to Wally before they Find Out is like, an experience. It's like that airpods meme.

OK, I'm not going to go through a whole play by play because nothing I could say would be better than watching the scene but I guess Murph/Bren decided in for a penny, in for a pound because we find out via a conversation between Wally and his businessman brother David that he is Kug's SON. HIS SON. S O N.

Wally is convinced that their dad wouldn't have just left them. David thinks Wally is being naive. I want to die.

Everyone around the table except maybe Ally is so visibly upset at this new information and Ally goes, "FUCK!" at the end so you know we all express emotions in different ways.

God, it's so sad! And I'm not gonna say, "I knew it!" because I didn't. I super didn't. But when Wally was introduced (man that scene hits differently now) I remember thinking, this is such an oddly specific NPC. Like, you know when you're playing a game and the stuff you can click is slightly better rendered and you can kind of tell what you should focus on and what's background art? That's how he felt.

Anyway, again, I'm sad. (GMYeah!.gif)

Watching *OVER* you Murph. OVER you. That's how you make it not creepy!

Meanwhile, Pete lets a bunch of bug monsters out of his dream into real New York City which, tbh, I'm not surprised. This seems like the kind of thing that would happen. Pete is exactly the worst kind of person to be the dream avatar in terms of being responsible.

I love that Siobhan is like, “I have a broken hip” as if all but one of them don’t have literal magic powers. That’s a very fixable problem compared to other stuff they’ve dealt with that day alone.

Anyway next time, a wasp centaur (thanks, I hate it) and a nat 20! See you then.

#dimension 20 #the unsleeping city #asks #a-salty-alto #there are for sure mistakes in this but I am on a whirlwind schedule rn #and I wanted to get this out before the next ep #so I wasn't too behind

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gmsguild · 4 years

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multiples of 10 for the character asks!!

Thanks Hannah! Answers will refer to my main character, Sahar, my tiefling wizard in a home Tal’Dorei game, but she’s away from the party rn since I’m DMing (our group rotates DMs between arcs). Other folks, if you want to hear more about some of my other characters, let me know! Sahar’s gotten the most playtime recently, but Keoren the halfling monk, Astara the aasimar cleric, Squall the water genasi druid, or Kallisto the minotar barbarian (among others) are all also fair game (some are less fleshed out than others) 10. If your character had time to pick up any artisan’s tools, game set, instrument, etc., what would it be? So this isn’t an actual instrument/mechanic in the game, and it’s never come up in game, but Sahar can sing. Like, really well. She grew up in a troupe of traveling entertainers and learned from a young age, but she stopped when her troupe died (onset of the Tragic Backstory phase, hit me up for more on this I’m an asshole to my characters) and hasn’t really sung in the last few years. She enjoys dragonchess (keeps her mind active). I think a piece of her would like to paint more (she’s proficient in forger’s tools, it’s just a different sort of art) or pick up the lute and start singing again, this time accompanying herself.

20. What is the biggest mistake your character has ever made? It’s hard to say whether the late teen years/early 20s spent as an assassin were a mistake since she really didn’t have a choice in the matter? I think at this point she’s starting to view the years she spent working for the Clasp after escaping her Tragic Backstory phase as a mistake. She didn’t have to stay in the life of crime, but she did and she’s not wholly sure how she feels about that? She’s not exactly a law and order gal, but her alignment has been shifting steadily from the neutral evil/True Neutral that she started at in the Tragic Backstory phase towards neutral good/chaotic good and I think she’s questioning whether or not she’s done more harm than good in her life and how she can make up for that. She also really really regrets leaving behind her baby sister in Ank’Harel when she left to try and find work but it’s been almost 10 years now... that’s a fun knife for a future DM rotation to stab me with.

30. What would most people think when they first see your character? Violently purple tieflings with blackwork partial sleeve tattoos and ice-blue eyes aren’t exactly a common sight in Tal’Dorei. And recently, she’s spent a lot of time in small towns that tend to be a little more judgmental and less cosmopolitan than the big cities. Fear, fascination, disgust, awe... all are fairly common reactions.

40. Where does your character feel the most at home? Sahar has never settled down in one place. She grew up a nomad, and the Tragic Backstory and her recovery from that left her living a very nomadic lifestyle with her two siblings (triplets!), and now she’s living on the road with her party. She feels most comfortable with a good book or some new spell she’s working on, a nice warm drink, and a cozy spot in an inn by the fire with a few friends. But anywhere with family, chosen or blood related, is home to her.

50. Who in the party would your character prioritize rescuing, in dire circumstances? That’s a tough one, because Sahar is developing Feelings for one party member but also feels like she has to be the Big Sister to our warlock... She’s also an intensely logical person so like, she’d probably go for whoever she thought had the best chance of helping her save as many people as possible. In a split second decision, it would depend on who she was closest to but I think a big piece of her would pull towards our party warlock since she reminds her of the baby sister she left behind.

60. What decision would the party have to make in order for your character to consider splitting off from the group? It wouldn’t be a single decision. She’s had some concerns about the amount of killing the party does, but at the same time she doesn’t want to leave folks with grudges out there because that’s a knife in the back waiting to happen... Anything in which children are harmed. If the party knowingly harms children, she’s out of there. 70. What is your character’s biggest pet peeve? People trying to talk to her when she’s ritual casting or absorbed in a problem. She likes to focus. Don’t distract her. 80. How does your character feel about receiving/giving orders? Are they more of a leader, or a follower? Prefers giving. Hates taking. She spent far too long taking orders under threat of torture or with the lives of her siblings held over her head, and she’s started to gain enough confidence to assert herself and she’s very aware she’s Smarter Than You. She’s a team player, but not a follower. Not anymore. She won’t let herself be. 90. Who is your character’s biggest rival? Her siblings Rhana and Zepar in the friendly rivalry sense. There’s some light competition between her and the other spellcasters in the party to do the most impressive shit, but that’s more in her head. And in a less friendly rivalry... she’s got a nemesis or two from her past she wouldn’t mind returning to the Dark Side to kill slowly and painfully.

100. What, currently, is your character the most curious about? So because of the structure of our group, rotating DMs, she’s split off from the group to do some research in Westruun on a puzzle cube the party nicked off the dead body of a hag they killed, so she’s pretty excited about that. She was a little too curious initially and almost opened a portal to the Hells and freaked out about that for about a week, but now that she’s in a safe place with other trained professionals, I think she’s gonna let that curiosity flow

Whoo! Sorry that’s so wordy that was fun! Thanks! (everyone go check out Hannah’s @drinkingdeadpeopletea sideblog it’s got some great critical role and naddpod content and some other cool shit and she’s a great human!)

#storybook-souls #asks #ask games #my games #my characters

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