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theresattrpgforthat · 11 months

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I have ADHD and memory issues, but the _Patchwork World_ writeup seems to focus on learning the rules and chargen, which are the aspects I have the least trouble with (I can do them asynchronously, alone and between sessions) -- my main issue is with maintaining attention over the duration of a play session. Are there games designed to be played in short bursts -- maybe sessions of 10-30 minutes?

THEME: Quick / ADHD friendly games.

Hello friend! So I’m going to break down this ask a little bit to hopefully make it more helpful. I’m going to include games that can be played in short bursts, but I’m also going to highlight some games that might help in other ways.

I’m also going to include some advice I’ve picked up about gaming from ADHD - tips that I got specifically from creators who have ADHD themselves. I recognize that it works differently for everyone, so your mileage may vary, but hopefully one or two of these tips will be useful!

Disclaimer: I do not have ADHD myself. I am forwarding advice from other creators. The two creators that I took tips from are the following:

10 Tips to Make Your Tabletop RPG More ADHD Friendly, by How to ADHD.

DnD and ADHD, by Azrai.

Both of these videos are focused on D&D, but there is advice that is translatable across games.

One of the biggest helps to understanding the obstacles to gaming with ADHD is the re-contextualization of how an ADHD-brain works. As far as I understand, ADHD brains have an easier time focusing on something if it’s engaging. If it isn’t engaging, or if your brain can’t sort through the information to understand what’s going on, it just kind of… shuts off. So the biggest thing is to think about what makes playing games interesting.

Short Sessions and One-Shots.

I can definitely understand the effectiveness of short sessions and one-shots. You don’t have to retain information from a previous session, and short games are usually rules-lite so you don’t have to keep a lot of information in your working memory.

Oh No It’s Gay, by blake stone.

a quick, single-session dice-stacking RPG about flirting, falling in love, and being super queer. rules for both two-player and multiplayer games are included.

I’m recommending this game because of the dice-stacking mechanic that I think might be engaging. The game itself is pretty simple, and I don’t see a session lasting longer than a few minutes. This game seems to work best with two-to-three players, and the dice-stacking requires you to pay attention when it comes to making sure the dice stack stays up. At the same time, you don’t have to hold much information in your head, and most of your actions are determined based on how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling flirty, then you’ll probably be stacking lots of dice!

Subway Runners, by Gem Room Games.

Life is tough for the cash-strapped in Prociopolis. Ever since the secret to immortality was discovered, nobody retires anymore! With all the steady jobs taken and no sign of any new ones opening up, there’s only one sure way to make some quick cash: sign up as a Subway Runner and work for the Metro Authority to hunt monsters and repair subway lines below the city.

The minds behind Gem Room Games prioritize making games that can be run quickly, and Subway Runners is an excellent example of that. Characters are randomly generated, so you can cycle through the generator until you find one that you like. Then you can download the character sheet and print it off if that works easier for you! You roll a number of d6’s whenever you attempt to do something, with 1-3 being bad, 4/5 being a partial success, and a 6 (or more) being a full success. The staggered success is similar to the way Patchwork World works, but instead of trying to keep track of moves, you just need to find which skill of yours makes the most sense to use.

Subway Runners is a great game for one-shot play! If you hold sessions for longer than 30 minutes I would recommend having a break partway through and doing a re-cap when you come back from the break, to make sure everyone is on the same page and is able to focus on what is about to happen next. If you hold sessions for 30 minutes at a time then I can see the game as functioning as essentially a min-campaign, in which case a quick re-cap before each session is absolutely fundamental.

Finally, if you’re going to be playing shorter sessions, it might be more logical to play online so as to reduce transport costs and the amount of time you need to set aside for a game, and Subway Runners is designed to be run online!

Firebrands: Mobile Frame Zero, by Meguey & Vincent Baker.

Humanity has spread through the Milky way, using interstellar transit gate technology to colonize the galaxy. Mobile frames are the hard-working, hard-fighting combat- and labor mecha they’ve brought with them. You are romantic ace mobile frame pilots, caught up in an undeclared war for the future of the Bantral system.

I don’t know anything about how Firebrands-style games play, but I do know that they are effectively built to be a series of mini-games. You might be able to play one mini-game per session, in order to keep each session short. The biggest downside might be that each mini-game uses a different set of rules, but if you’re only doing one mini-game at a time, that might not be an issue for your group.

The Score, by Tin Star Games.

THE SCORE is an all-new kind of collaborative story game that lets you create the world's greatest heist movie with just 18 cards in under 18 minutes of game time. It's a revolutionary take on shared storytelling that needs no GM, no complex rules, no hefty rulebooks and gives you all the idea prompts you need to be the mastermind.

This game is still in funding but it's meant to be played in 18 minutes, which is probably the shortest tabletop roleplaying game on this list. You can check out the link above to find reviews, playthroughs, and a short guide on how to play!

Visual References and Tactile Player Pieces.

A game that has a visual reference can be stimulating and can help someone keep focus over an extended period of time. This visual reference might just be pictures that you share online to help you visualize what’s going on, or it might be something that is can be seen and interacted with in front of you, to help keep you engaged and interested. This is probably a mandatory thing in games that are long, with a lot of rules.

Lancer, by Massif Press.

Lancer imagines a future where a survivor humanity has spread to the stars after weathering terrible ecological collapse on Earth - the end of the Anthropocene as a consequence of unrestrained consumption and poor stewardship. Thousands of years later, humanity lives in the wake of a desperate revolution, one where the victorious radicals now manage the galaxy they've won.

Lancer is a mech game, set in the far future, and it has a lot of moving pieces, but it also has an immeasurable wealth of player aids. The creators (and fans) of the game have provided the Comp-Con App, which acts as a Compendium, a Character Creation Tool, and a Character Keeper all in one. The App helps you track damage, plan out your mech build, and mark off deployables as you engage in combat.

I play Lancer in person with a small play group, and we use a hex-map and chess pieces to keep track of what’s going on in combat. This gives us pieces to pick up and move, and it also gives us a visual reference to track where we are and what we want to do next. While our game has chunks of narrative play to provide plot points, the bulk of our game sessions involve combat, and the nice thing about that is that you only really need to know what your objective is, and therefore you can focus on moving across the map and wiping out your enemies. If you want to make combat shorter, you can stop partway through or break it up into smaller skirmishes with a few enemies at a time.

I’m the GM for the game, but I personally cannot keep all of the rules straight in my head - luckily I have a player or two who love rules and will happily remind me how inflicting Burn works, whether I can shoot things in soft cover, and what exactly a Veil Rifle does.

Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast, by Possum Creek Games.

Welcome to Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, a slice-of-life tabletop RPG about a heartless witch, a peaceful house, and all the folks who have made their home inside.

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast is a very special game. It uses pre-set characters, quick-play chapters, and an adaptable ruleset unlike anything else out there. It takes less than a half hour to learn how to play and get started, but with new chapters and secrets to unlock folks can stick with the game for years and years.

Jay Dragon, the Project Manager for Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast, places accessibility at the forefront of all of Possum Creek’s games. Each chapter of this game has slightly different rules, but you use the same characters for each one. Many of the games use tokens, which will be earned, spent, and placed on tracks to make things happen in the story. Each session looks as if it is meant to last 40-60 minutes, which is a bit longer than you might be looking for but is certainly shorter than a typical D&D session.

Because of the token usage in this game, I can see this game having a big tactile element. The character art is also colourful and engaging, and provides you with a really strong visual reference that can help you identify with whichever character you decide to play. Yazeba’s B&B chapters also mean that not every character has to be present for each game.

If you want to check out this game, there is an Ashcan Version on Itch.io, and if you want an Online play option, you can check out Yazeba’s Online by One More Multiverse! The Online game has a whole map of Yazeba’s that you can actually move your character through, and I think that really improves how easy it is to keep engaged with the game.

Light Rules and Communal Player Resources.

If there are not a lot of rules or math that has to be done, you don’t have to spend time thinking about how you do something and you can spend more time focusing on what you want to do. Communal player resources can also be a big boon because if the entire party has the ability to see what’s available, it’s not up to just one person to remember what kinds of tools you have at hand. I personally love online player-kits that are visible to everyone, because you’ll never lose your character sheet, and you fellow players can help you find the pieces of information that you need to figure out what it is you want your character to do next.

Camp Flying Moose for Girls of All Kinds, by Alicia Furness.

Camp Flying Moose for Girls of All Kinds is a PbtA game about teen girls at a summer camp filled with strange supernatural occurrences. Inspired by Lumberjanes, and my own experiences of summer camp, the game investigates mysteries, monsters, and teenage identity.

You mentioned Patchwork World as a game that you felt worked for you. Patchwork World stands out to me as a PbtA game that lets you customize your character, but only really requires you to remember the moves that you specifically have to make. Camp Flying Moose is also a PbtA game and also lets you create a character by putting pieces together. You will choose a two special moves that define your character, assign numbers to five stats as you like, and answer two characters about your experience at camp.

I’ve also created a communal character keeper that you can use to track all of your character information as a group! You can check it out here.

Visigoths vs Mall Goths, by Lucian Kahn.

Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is a tabletop roleplaying game and dating sim about the conflicts and romances among the warriors who sacked ancient Rome and 20th century spooky teens, set in a suburban Los Angeles shopping mall during 1996. There are a lot of bisexuals.

I talk about this game a lot, and that’s because it’s good. The player aids are easy to understand and follow along. There is a map of the mall to help your characters figure out where they want to go next. There is a day tracker that the GM will move along as you play, which ensures that you finish the session within a reasonable time. And there are things that you as a character can do even when the spotlight isn’t on you to help keep you engaged even when it isn’t your turn - characters can embarrass themselves in order to give a bonus to a friend while they roll.

I also find that this is a game that encourages competition, so if you like games where the goal is to (humorously) one-up other characters, you might find this game to be up your alley! This game is also PbtA, often hailed as a hall-mark for being rules light.

I also made a character play-kit for this game, which you can find here! There’s also an Online Supplement made by Chloe Sutherland that makes it easier to play this game online.

Finally...

I recognize that a number of games on here don’t look like they run in very short sessions as designed. For a lot of games, I think having a game table that is on board can be the biggest help. You want a game group that understands your need for re-caps and short sessions, and is willing to work with you. Perhaps meeting online makes it easier to schedule a short game, or maybe taking a 5-minute break halfway through an hour-long game gives you a chance to get your focus back. I’d also recommend talking to your GM about what you find interesting in play. If you’re into romance and all the group is doing is fighting monsters, I can see it being very easy to lose focus.

Some final tips:

Keep the table small if possible (only 2 or 3 players), so there is a shorter wait time between each turn.

Our table lets people do things when it’s not their turn, such as get up to stretch their legs, munch on snacks, and doodle. Keeping our hands busy and letting our blood flow gives some of us the re-set we need to keep focused.

Ask your GM to give you one piece of information or one obstacle at a time. Then you don’t have to try and remember all of the things happening around you at once.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #adhd #memory #short games

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alpaca-clouds · 5 months

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How to make the DnD Lore more accessible

I talked on Christmas about how Wizards of the Coast and generally Hasbro are mismanaging Dungeons & Dragons. And I want to go a bit more into one of the things I brought up in that blog. Which is: The inaccessibility of the Dungeons & Dragons lore, or specifically the Forgotten Realms Lore, which technically is the main lore for the game.

To sum up, what I said in that long essay once again:

While more and more people are playing DnD, a lot of them are playing it with original worlds. In of itself that is not really a bad thing, but the reason why so many opt for original worlds is. Because one of the main reasons is that the DnD Lore is very, very inaccessible. Sure, there are several wikis out there of varying quality. But even with the good wikis, there is just the fact that not all pages are of equal quality and there is just a lot of stuff that is just stubs.

Meanwhile the official stuff is fairly useless. Sure, there are quite a few books that give you some great lore - but actually finding the book for the lore that you are looking for is pretty much impossible without once again relying on Wikis. And of course, depending on the age of some of the sources, they might also just not generally be available unless someone uploaded them to the internet archive.

And yeah, sure, Ed Greenwood is a walking encyclopedia on his world - and will answer questions on Twitter. But...

Look, here is the thing: WotC wants to make money with this. So, excuse me for saying this, but... They should put some more effort into making this accessible. Just put some people down there that make a comprehensive write up off the lore.

Or to put it differently: Make a comprehensive Wiki on DnDBeyond.

See, here is the thing. When right now I wanna find out something about, let's say, Tymora, I can totally search for it on DnDBeyond.

But then the results look like this:

So, basically it just lists me source books in which Tymora is mentioned. Which does not necessarily tell me, how much I can actually gleam about Tymora and the worship of Tymora from each sourcebook. And if I click on one of the links, this is what I get:

Which, you might notice, tells me literally nothing about Tymora.

Now, I absolutely get that WotC needs to sell all those books and all of that. But... To keep it like that makes the entire Lore and background of the world completely inaccessible.

This goes double, of course, because each of the books does not necessarily give you a comprehensive writeup of who the goddess actually is or what her timeline is.

And this goes basically for everything. There is barely any information that they make actually accessible.

So, how could WotC actually fix this?

Well, simple: Make their own Wiki - and then use the Wiki as a jump-off point to sell your stuff. It does not have to be the most comprehensive thing ever, but give a general overview of the most important stuff: A timeline and a general idea of the major events (like the Time of Troubles, the Spellplague and the Second Sundering), an overview of the pantheon, an overview of the different cities, and some major characters (like Xanathar, Dagult Neverember and so on).

Because here is the thing: When you do not have a hook, you will not get people to actually buy your books.

To keep with my example: Let's say you are a person who has just gotten into DnD. Maybe because of an Actual Play Podcast, maybe because you liked the movie, or maybe because you just come off Baldur's Gate 3. And now you want to get into playing DnD and would like to do something with that world. So, you google "Play DnD" and get obviously the official side as a first result (with Roll20 coming in second).

But... You basically get not at all a primer on the world and the different settings you can have in it. Nothing.

The "story" thingie basically just also has links to "Buy" pages. No way to properly get a good hook into the story of DnD.

Again, all on its own it is not a big issue that people make their own worlds. You could argue that it is technically a good thing, because it allows people to be more creative. But there are two things you also have to keep in mind.

New players really do have a bigger hurdle to overcome when they want to start playing - because either getting into the lore or creating their own lore does pose a challenge to start with.

More people playing in the official game world, does create a bigger feeling of community, as people work on some connected lore.

WotC wants to sell those books, which does really not work, when you do not give a good hook for them.

People are just more likely to buy a book on details of a world, if they are already kinda familiar with the book - and if they know what they are actually looking for.

This... really isn't that hard or complicated.

So, what I would do is the following:

Create an official timeline (especially as there are contradictions in the timeline as off now).

Create an official encyclopedia featuring major locations, people, religions and the general pantheon.

Use those official encyclopedia pages to link to books and adventures working with that kinda stuff to sell them.

Maybe also create some fairly short official one shots to start with. Let's just say three or four of them. Offer them for free and very clearly available on the official website. (Even with all faults I see in how Catalyst handles Shadowrun, this is something they do very well.)

Also... Just maybe create some more official content like short stories, some good content on youtube... the likes of that. Heck, create an official Actual Play that is actually set in Toril!

Is that all going to cost some money? Yeah, it is. But I would argue that this would do the game good. While there are no official numbers some fan-made polls suggest that actually most people play without any official material. Meaning the game itself right now is super accessible - but only a few people are actually interested in the official stuff. And if WotC wants to make money... Well, they need to get people interested in the official stuff.

And that is of course without going into how the shoot themselves in the foot by trying to change the open game license and what not.

To put it differently: Right now DnD is actually super popular. So popular in fact that you could argue it is pretty much mainstream. And they... just fail to make proper money off it, because they are just too dumb to understand how to actually use it in their advantage.

#dungeons & dragons #dnd #dnd lore #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves #honor among thieves #dnd:hat #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #wizards of the coast #hasbro

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the-ampersand · 7 months

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Since I am still chewing on the DIE Stapling post, I am going to do another about effort mechanics in ttrpgs because I am trying to write that Blasphemous inspired Trophy Gold hack (placeholder name: Penance). And one of the coolest mechanics for Trophy is its Risk Roll, which is basically an effort mechanic.

"But, Ampersand, what is an effort mechanic?" I hear you ask, dear mutual I am making up in my head. An effort mechanic allows you to reroll an action you have already attempted but failed or to get a bonus to a roll at the expense of some resource. Usually, that resource being the character's health. But it can also be something else like clues in an investigative game or even a narrative consequence (but that's usually called a Devil's Bargain).

The important part is that it gives a benefit but requires a sacrifice. And that's when the whole fanfare of psychoeconomics start. Because you need the sacrifice to be big enough to give the player pause and not use it every roll. And also you need the benefit to be significant enough to make it worth the risk and the expense. If properly adjusted, an effort mechanic can become a slow but sure spiral into the characters downfall.

Let's look at some examples!

Numenera is the first system I learn that had such a mechanic (but certainly was not the first ever). It is pretty straightforward in its implementation, too. You spend a fixed amount of the appropriate life pool and you get to reduce the difficulty of a task. Easy enough. But Numenera, being a tradgame as it is, the power creep upends any weight of the sacrifice. Once you level up enough, your pools become deep enough as to make effort something to just add to whichever skill roll you thought it needed a bit more oomph. This is not something wrong per se, but it can easily make your characters overly competent!

On the other hand, there's Dungeon Crawl Classics. DCC is a peculiar OSR game in that it is a really spiced up retroclone, wriggling DnD B/X ruleset to a point where it is almost unrecognizable. I am sure there are plenty effort mechanics peppered in the text, but I want to point out its magic system because I absolutely adore it. To be a wizard in DCC requires active dedication. That is because almost every spell has a writeup of about an A4's length, filled with the various effects a spell may have once the dice is rolled. And the effect can be wildly different from a roll of 5-10 to a roll of as high as 30 or more. There are many ways in which you can tweak your narrative positioning to get bonuses to a spell roll (components, helpers, magic foci, whatever), but when the die is cast and the result is just not good enough you still have a last chance: to sacrifice your own atribute values to get one last push that might be the difference between a proper spell and a fiasco. This is the main cause of withering of elder wizards: they have sacrificed too much in order to achieve the power they sought.

And then, there's Trophy. Both Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold have excellent effort mechanics baked directly into their ADN thanks to the masterful procedure that is the Risk Roll. These are games in which you are tempted first and consumed later by an evil forest. You have a really small ruin pool and once it is filled, you are lost to injury or its dark influence. You are also a destitute adventurer that needs to get any gold or face almost certain death. So you need to get shit done, you need to amass enough successes as to bring bread home and you need to survive the process (or try to, at least). And that's when the Risk Roll comes and lures your with the most satisfying effort mechanic I've ever seen. You can always make a reroll, adding an extra die to your pool to boot. But if those extra dice, dark dice, ever become the highest ones, you automatically mark ruin. You get your success, yes. But you become closer to losing yourself. It exactly hits the spot between actually worth it and inescapably dooming the character.

Obviously not all games need to be about losing oneself to fate or circumstance, but I feel an effort mechanic very much pushes the narrative in that direction. You are sacrificing yourself, in order to achieve your goals.

And I think that's a quite powerful narrative device.

#indie ttrpgs #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #rpg #ttrpg design #osr #numenera #dungeon crawl classics #dcc #trophy #trophy gold #trophy dark

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strawberry-crocodile · 1 year

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Slaad and Gender

Frequently, someone meeting a slaad for the first time will assume masculine gender; in our culture, most monsters are associated with masculinity and referred to as "he" as a baseline.

Further inquiry into slaad gender, however, meets with more complication than a simple male/female divide. Slaad reproduction is entirely parasitic, and does not require genetic exchange. Despite this, slaad "society" (I use the term here loosely) does show two morphs, blue and red, that dominate and are defined by separate roles in the reproduction of the species.

Some philosophers (foolishly, in my opinion) have attempted to map these morphs onto our own gender binary. By this definition, the red slaad, carrying the larger reproductive cells in their eggs, is defined as the "female", and the blue, carrying the smaller cells in their disease, is "male". Their reproduction is of course so different from the male-female paradigm as to make these definitions actively misleading, if not objectively erroneous.

That said, it does help to view the different colors of slaad as something akin to gender (as they are indeed social roles that are conflated with morphological trends and a role in reproduction), one must simply understand that it is a system of gender completely separate from our own, informed by the slaad's own reproductive system. In fact, the slaadi language does use different pronouns for each color of slaad, although it also has distinct pronouns for categories like "food", "humanoids viable for creating more slaads", and "beings of pure law".

As for how slaad identify within humanoid society, and what pronouns to use for them; few red, blue, or brown slaad have any interest in socially interacting with gendered beings, or at least, not enough to bother understanding our system of gender.

Green slaad, on the other hand, are "born" with a single humanoid form, one they typically continue to use as an identity; as such, most of them form some relationship to the gender of their previous body (informed either by the body's previous associates, or by typical morphological standards). In my experience, most green slaad do not truly "identify" with said humanoid gender; rather, they simply have much more interest in interacting with humanoid society, and thus find it useful to understand and "wear", in a sense, our gender system. I have met multiple exceptions, however, one of which identified in a way her humanoid morphology would not suggest.

Gray slaad, and the many forms derived from them, are themselves derived from green slaad. It may be tempting to continue the gender assigned by their green slaadi form, but few "advanced" slaadi bother to have any kind of consistency with their gender presentation when interacting with humanoids.

All this is to say, one can generally refer to slaads by whatever pronouns one uses as default, although it may be helpful to ease into the pronoun issue when attempting any diplomacy.

-Maria Ordova, Social Guide to the Outer Planes Volume XVII: Slaads

(this diatribe was inspired by @thecreaturecodex 's excellent interpretation of Slaads and their writeups and statblocks thereof, if you're curious about what the fuck I'm talking about or just like DnD monsters I cannot reccomend the blog enough.)

#slaad #d&d #dalucaray

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aemiron-main · 2 years

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good lord i need to do a writeup on eddie’s queercoding and how it ties to mike’s crush on eddie and how the best way that i can describe a lot of it is ‘secondhand’ queercoding where it’s not directly but rather through another layer + how the reason for that is because it’s not necessarily about eddie being queer but a.) about mike’s queer crush on eddie and b.) hellfire as an allegory for queerness theres more to this but rn i am staring Directly at the choice of a dio patch for eddie’s jacket despite the fact that we don’t ever get a dio song associated with him or even a dio tape in his collection of tapes and how imo it’s ‘secondhand’ queercoding because ronnie james dio was also the lead singer of the band ‘rainbow,’ but they used dio instead of rainbow because there’s meant to be an extra layer to it bc they’re not trying to directly show eddie as queer but rather the fact that a.) mike has a queer crush on him and b.) hellfire acts as an allegory for queerness, there’s that hellfire allegory layer to how they address queerness rather than saying the words ‘aids epidemic,’ jason calls dnd an ‘epidemic’ and how just like there’s that hellfire allegory layer to the theme of queerness in st, there’s an extra layer of eddie’s costuming that makes it not directly queercoded but rather second-hand queercoded like how the allegory is like ‘secondhand’ queer imagery. i hope this makes sense but god i need to do a full writeup.

#st analysis #eddie munson #st queercoding #hellfire as an allegory for queerness #st costuming #eddie munson costuming #mike's crush on eddie

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totallyboatless · 1 year

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Eventually I'm going to do a writeup summary of the OFMD dnd sessions I've run for @knowlesian @epersonae @chuplayswithfire @swanofmischief and Charlie (still need to bully him into getting a tumblr), and it's going to be a feat because all of these people are the most chaotic and fantastic players that always elevate the story I had planned in unimaginable ways

#I will never in my life be over hannah betting other hannah in a betting game against Davy Jones #hot problematic daddy jeffrey dean morgan davy jones

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baronraven · 1 year

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The power to be anonymous and post my dnd thoughts it too powerful. I eventually wanna talk about my ttrpg pbta system that I made and the huge lore I've created for the games I'm running. I might even do campaign writeups who knows. Is this what blogging feels like?

#dnd blogging #dnd #forever dm #long term dm #dm #let me feed you

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actionsurges · 2 years

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On a bit of a Sorcerer bout lately, when you have the time can I ask for your thoughts on a handful of things? I love reading what you have to say.

I'd love to know your opinions on Divine Soul, as well as your personal favourite subclass, whether all Sorcerers should get expanded spell lists, and your thoughts on various metamagic options, and specifically transmuted.

hey i know you've got good intentions and you're looking for advice but also you're quite literally asking me to write an essay about what i think about sorcerers instead of forming your own opinion

you want me to go back through all of the subclasses and tell you why they're my favorites and if i like divine soul, presumably for mechanical advice

then do the same thing with all of the metamagic options and transmuted spell specifically after literally two or three days ago i wrote a post that was mostly about why transmuted spell is so good

i am happy to give my two cents on character builds or talk about 'how do i turn this character idea into x mechanics' but i've tried to make a point about not doing entire class writeups because it's a lot of work to ask someone else to do that for you when you can look at all of the information, you can search for plenty of people's opinions on the internet who've already done it, and you can form your own opinion.

it means a lot to me that my opinion on d&d is something that people look to if they follow me and i am happy to give my opinion on things, but frankly i'm tired of being asked to explain my opinion on the exact right way to build a certain class or what the smartest options are and etc etc. it's one thing if i decide to make a post about that on my own time, but it's another to ask me to do that.

every post i make, every ask i answer, even if it's just a paragraph long, i go and look at the contents of the book, i look at everything that could be an option to make sure i'm reading my mechanics right and giving good informed advice and opinions.

even writing a post for 'how can i build this' asks takes me over a half an hour and even an hour sometimes.

i really like doing it but something as broad as this is just something i'm not willing to do.

if you want to ask me about 'do you think this is a good multiclass for divine soul' or 'what do you think about these metamagic options' that's a much smaller ask and a somethign i feel like i am more equipped to give advice on instead of an overall ranking of metamagic and subclasses.

go to someone like the rpgbot for that. i give the rpgbot flack for their multiclassing opinions but they give legitimate solid advice on the broad functionality of subclasses and spells and things like metamagic. it's not a perfect place to start but it's a place to get you thinking on your own.

my opinion is my opinion and the moves and mechanics i choose in dnd are not always what most would consider The Best Mechanically and its also entirely based around the way i play. base what you want to do off of how you play too, it's much more rewarding.

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sapphim · 1 year

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character directory ☆

↳ see also: Characters

☆ tags

#oc blab

#worldstate writeup

☆ origins

↳ canon wardens

Eydis Aeducan ← Queen of Orzammar

Micah Brosca

Sulina Mahariel ← Warden-Commander

Rafael [Surana]

Zoraida Tabris

↳ canon non-wardens

Spiro Amell

Gwendolen Cousland ← Queen of Ferelden

Rowan [Surana]

↳ non-canon wardens

Rozi Brosca

☆ exodus

↳ canon hawke

Tabitha Hawke ← Champion of Kirkwall

↳ non-canon hawke

Juniper Hawke

☆ inquisition

Kataara Adaar ← Inquisitor

Vaati Adaar

Rumour Cadash

Shirae Lavellan

Alden Trevelyan ← Herald of Andraste

Amelia Trevelyan

Nola Trevelyan

Ellaran Andrale

☆ mass effect

Casper Ryder ← Pathfinder

Polaris Ryder

Roxene Shepard ← Spectre

☆ tabletop

#dnd blogging

Aurynn

Jannike Rakankrak

Vaughan van Shellsing

Verity

#directory

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bobduh · 25 days

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Spring 2024 - Week 7 in Review

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I write to you amidst a frenzy of creative passion, as both the Evangelion writeups and new DnD projects are flowing abundantly. With our current campaign briefly on hold, my playing party just concluded a two-part post-campaign adventure in the world I created for our last campaign, this time both designed and led by one of our other…

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#Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid #Film #Project A #Ravenous #Society

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flufflecat · 3 years

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designing an RQGsona for myself, aka drawing my old dnd character for the first time in years and deciding for no reason that im gonna force her to fit into the rqg world

#rqg #rusty quill gaming #i need to limit my sonas #so its Her turn to return to the spotlight #except shes gonna be polish now for some reason #gonna be a travelling circus performer from poland who is just sort of wandering on her own for now #with a pet.. lynx maybe? idk. maybe a bear.#shes still gonna be a horrendously unoptimized ranger #is she a member of the harlequins or is she just inconvenient? who knows...#gonna do a proper character sheet writeup for her tomorrow but im too sleepy rn #what like. what is poland in rqg #does poland exist #fun fact: very frequently when the party is doing like random stuff i will think to myself #'but what if MY dnd girl were here. what then'#the answer is 'less arguing' probably #fluffle art #wip #sorry for putting this in the tag lol #i am simply.. a loser.

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orcelito · 2 years

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There were so many bullshit little things that the assistant manager included in the write up. According to her, I was "sitting around" instead of helping cover an employee's shift (blatantly not true), I didn't clock in the moment I got there to cover the shift (it wasn't busy & I wasn't even scheduled in the first place), she had to call me to tell me what to do (she literally called before I even clocked in & made no other attempts to contact me????), I did something other than restocking things for the first bit of my time there (I was unpacking a shipment to get the things we immediately needed, & I made everything I could make that day later), & I "undermined her authority" by telling an employee who was standing around to do dishes instead when assistant manager was in storage (I was trying to HELP her????)

Literally the only thing I'll concede to is that I apparently have been answering questions posed to her from employees while I'm not on shift. Which was never meant to disrespect her, idk it's a question and I could answer it, but it obviously bothered her. So like. Sure. I would've Much preferred she actually fucking talked to me about it rather than including it in a bullshit write up form that she didn't even Give me, I found it on the table for any employee to see.

God, I'm still so angry. I was so frustrated & upset by it earlier that I was tearing up in the bathroom (not outright crying, but that alone is enough to be noteworthy + I was struggling to not tear up before that so 🤷‍♂️). I admit I lost my temper more than a little bit when the manager was trying to defend her. Overall civil tho (aside from the uh. Slamming the storage door as I stormed out mid-conversation).

I'm just glad the manager is willing to listen to me on this, since the assistant manager obviously was not 🙄 God I'm so pissed off

#speculation nation #sorry for the wall of text im just so fucking frustrated #literally if she'd TALKED to me this couldve been avoided #manager told me the assistant manager doesnt like direct confrontations aka why she wrote it out #well huh guess what i wouldve been Much less pissed off had she Talked To Me #instead of leaving a writeup on the fucking table for any employee to see #it was just such a show of bad faith. almost everything on it total bullshit.#how she responds to my message explaining my side of it will dictate how i feel about her from now on #im overall pretty chill with her but i really do not appreciate this #i was literally almost late to dnd bc i stayed so long helping make all these things #and here shes saying it wasnt enough??? bc what. i didnt do it in the Exact Order and the Exact Way she told me to???????#she better approach me with a damn good apology bc i really do not appreciate this.

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dunewizard · 5 years

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Session 3: The Cutlass

I wrote a write up for the last D&D game I was a player for, we’re attempting a duet campaign, so I finally got to play my Evil Aligned Gunslinger Drow character Carric Do’Rae! (Level 4 Rogue with 2 Revolvers found from the Dungeon Masters Guide)

I wanted to post one of the write ups here, i’d keep it under a readmore, but yeah! I added Heroforge figurines to help visualise people and scenes. Carric is a bit edgy and definitely isnt the type of character I go for, I just realised a Chaotic Evil character isnt... fit for most party scenarios. Its got a killer end to the session so if you do feel like reading a session recap written in first person - be sure to read to the end! :D

Session 3: The Cutlass

I surfaced in Southern Luskan, amidst the graves of the dead I rose as the zombies would. I knew The Cutlass was in the south side of town, and under the cover of the midnight moon I stepped out to the streets and hugged the darkness like a shield. I didn't get far before I felt like I was being followed, that hobgoblin from earlier was wreathed in an ominous shadowy cloak, I nodded to him but he seemed intent on getting me back on my mission. Fair enough.

Heading towards the wall I figured I must have been close to the docks, the stench of the muck I was in earlier has washed into the very cobbles that dot the ground in this city. Their stench brought in from seagoers and tradesmen alike, and speaking of them, a sextuplet of ne'er-do-wells approached me reeking of alcohol and rage. I kept to myself but I was more than ready to hit them up the moment they took a step in the wrong direction. They opted to call me out. "Oy! What do you think youre doing walking the streets at this hour?" they queried, slurring their words as they spoke. "I could ask you the same question, do you really want to do this? Incur the wrath of the mighty Spirton Baensek?" I bluffed. They seemed bewildered, the name was shared by someone I would care to forget from my past, but their name became a bit of a personal joke, so i used it. They seemed to ignore the name, and replied in turn with their own - I admit, I wasn't impressed with them in the slightest. At first I took them for a shift of Luskan Guards coming off work, I hadn't seen what they perhaps wore for a uniform so this was the best they had, I mean they appeared to be a Navy division perhaps. But it was evident from their demeanour and their willingness to slash me to death with their cutlasses implied they were Pirates to some degree, once they said they were the So-and-So Pirates, I knew they were little to no threat to me. “Oh! So youre not Luskan Guards? Well that makes this easy!” and With a quick flourish I doffed my cloak and drew my revolvers, I aimed them at the gang.

"Uh oh lads, he's a Wizard," they whispered among themselves "We'd better scram." They began to cower. "Uh - Sorry! Sorry Mr Baensek - we'll be on our way! Don't turn us inside out!". I put my cloak on once more, and motioned for them to clear off, and out of my way. I turned to watch them leave, and out of the corner of my eye I see the Hobgoblin was inches away from sending a deadly arrow into the eyes of their charismatic leader. At least I had a watching angel in case things go sideways. I reached the Inn, a brothel it seemed, brazzieres and bodies were being thrown everywhere upstairs, and stabbings were going on in the lower floor that contained the bar. Quaint. I didnt plan on staying long. There were two tough looking Grunts outside standing guard, I take it they wouldnt like drow - but I wonder about Elves in general. I posed as my Wizard persona Mr Baensek once more and held my tinderbox like a book. Without so much more than a "Get out of here you rapscallion - filthy - no good - snake in the grass - back biting - arrow slingin - stinking ELF" I was sent away like a street rat. Welcoming. Well, I needed to get in, and I didn't feel like waiting outside this location for the next 5 days on the hopes my man Morick wants to pay them a visit, even if I knew what he looked like I'd be up the River Rauvin without a paddle. So I needed a better plan. I took to the thieves highway up on the rooves, hoping to land a shot on one of the bouncers.

Hiding atop a roof, I aimed my Shortbow and took a shot.

His large frame was such a large and easy target.

He dropped like a feather brushed by the wind. Screaming in pain.

Noticing the noise I hightailed it out of there, I had a plan to circle the block and take a similar shot on the other bouncer, who hadn't moved from his post. Dedicated I guess. No one suspected a thing, noone was helping the sod on the floor - this town has been the first I can agree with in a long time. I couldnt quite find my mark on the second bloke, this angle was weird, but I wasnt going to risk being spotted here. I wedged my feet into the beams supporting a drainage pipe and attempted to fire a shot hanging off the side of the building, it was the closest to a sure thing that I had. Something shifted in my weight, and suddenly I realised I was too heavy - but it was too late. I began to fall towards the floor, I didnt want to miss this opportunity, so I aimed my bow while falling, and pincushioned the second bouncer. He dropped like a stone much like the first. But I was falling now, and I was falling fast. Reaching out I managed to grab onto a ledge, and met my falling speed perfectly. In fact It was so perfect that my momentum was held and sent me through the nearest window - waking up the resident of the house, an old man. In bed, barely awake, he begins fumbling for a broadsword under his bed, I was swift in taking his life. I drove my shortsword through his gullet, and he coughed blood everywhere, but it seemed he was not done dying - so to be sure I pulled his covers over him and made sure to stuff his mouth with his sleeping cloth. Meanwhile I could hear outside - the boucners were screaming about "Finding that damned Elf". Looking to the old man's meager table, there was some charcoal and writing paper with scribblings of death threats and extortion papers. I scribbled a note quickly: "Shut up about Elves" - a simple effective note. I tied it to another one of my arrows, and sent it into one of the bouncers who had began to stand. After reading the note he walked over to where I was, calling out to the old man - telling him to knock it off with his notes. This moron was creating such a ruckus, why didn't I just kill them and call it a day? Ugh. Searching around the Old Man's apartment I located the sword he was reaching for, I've never quite held something so hefty - let alone knew how to use it, I threw the sword out over my shoulder, not quite looking at where it would land. As luck would have it, the sword met the mouth of the bouncer quite well. In fact it slid down his gullet like a wet fish, killing him instantly. Bizarre These encounters took me all the way to morning, as I approached the bar it was coming to first light, parting the nightly fog. Stepping over the bodies of the bouncers, I made my way inside The Cutlass. A crew were cleaning up the exploits of last night, a small crew of women in bodices and corsets were on cleanup duty - they quickly tried to shoo me out, telling me to come back at midday when they open again. I had to insist, I was in a hurry to find Morick. I announced my business, that I was after Morick, I had heard he frequented this bar, and that I could find him here. I would be willing to pay for the information, and flicked the Hostess of this Inn a lantanese golden coin. A hush fell upon the room, "oh no, theyre that poor" I think to myself. I reach for my gold bag, and can you believe it, one of the maids were already reaching to grab it! The nerve! I kick the swine in the stomach, and with her out of grabbing distance I draw my Revolver and point it at her head. "You don't want to see what this does" I warn.

With eyes crossed, looking at the barrel, she stands up and begins to shuffle away. The Hostess suddenly straightens herself up, asks her workers to leave us alone - and takes me a little more seriously. I mean, I've come in with some serious money by the sounds - and I am willing to kill on a single attempt at thievery in a town famous for it’s thieves? I'm glad I made that impression, because it was dead on.

I sit at the bar with one hand on my purse, and the other hand on my gun, I couldn’t trust anyone except except my guns - that much I knew. The Hostess takes my measure and inquires what I'm looking for, I repeated that I need to locate Morick and that I was lead here, the rest was a mystery to me. I knew that money talked, so before she could land a deal I placed my price on the table. 5 Lantanese Gold Coins. The gold alone would likely have been enough but that crystal in the Lantanese made them a near collectors item this far from Lantan. I lay them on the bar and pushed them to her, I then made a case for her. "You don't really like this backwash town do you? With this sort of money you could sell this place and head as far as Baldur's Gate, if you fancy. Start up somewhere new, somewhere fresh, away from the grime of this city. I know I won't want to stay long, why should you?" She considered this for a moment, and the reserved look on her face knew it was enough for her, but for good measure to secure accurate information I threw in an extra coin anyway - she could have made an attempt on my life if she wanted, and then I'd have to kill her, so I'm working good faith into her now. In the true illuskan way, she sells her information of Morick as soon as she sees that 6th coin hit the bar.

She told me that he doesnt really come to this bar, but it was a bit of a trap to catch out those who wouldnt know any better, or learn how to be worth his time. Turns out Morick is a big time thief, assassin, and general ruckus-maker. His real haunt was a second location, across from the Winter Palace on the second floor. She warned he was known for his traps, so I should be prepared to dodge or disarm a bunch if I plan to break in uninvited. She then explained that If I were to flash a light at the 2nd story window facing the street, I may be granted entry but I'll need to learn the pattern as it changes every week.

Rats

She then explained that it'll take her a day and a half to skip town, so I'm not to make my move until she's ready. We'll see if I honour that with time. We’ll see if I honour that in time. This whole conversation was observed by the Bard who was sitting on the other side of the bar. I wasnt threatened by his stance, he was idly tuning a fiddle hoping I wouldnt notice him, I wager. He has been checking out the bag of Gold I have swaddled to my person. I turn to him, and address him directly. "Bard, I'll give you some of this money if you write a song about me - detail the fearsome might of the dreaded Gunslinger, Carric Do'Rae".

"... Sir... pardon... but what is a Gunslinger?" he said, quivering almost. At this point, one of the bouncers who were bleeding out just an hour earlier came to, and woke up. " YOU! " he screamed, pointing at me. He began to charge across the room at a breakneck pace.

While not breaking eye contact with the bard, I raise my right Revolver over my shoulder, and with a BANG I plant a bullet between the eyes of the brute, killing him instantly.

"... That's a Gunslinger"

#D&D #DnD Writeup #Carric Do'Rae #Carric is probably one of my favourite OCs I just wish he wouldn't be so evil #Drow am i right

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