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ghostlycoyote0 · 6 days

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Two fandom blorbos and two oc blorbos. Still holding that gun.

Oh, easy. Spoilers for the end of Skulduggery Pleasant book 3, and much vaguer spoilers for book 7 (just scroll until you see the Drow in the green cloak to skip them)

Fandom first. Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, the main duo of my absolute favourite book series, Skulduggery Pleasant. I’ll assume you know nothing about them because that lets me ramble even more

At the start of the series, Valkyrie is 12 and her uncle just got murdered as part of a plot to bring back ancient eldritch gods (of course, they don’t know that from the get-go). She meets Skulduggery when a nameless henchman (who I later found out from the wiki is called Vindick Leather) breaks into her uncle’s house while she’s staying there for the night and attacks her; Skulduggery then uses air magic to blast the front door off of its hinges, sets the guy on fire, shoots him in the shoulder, and loses his disguise in the fight therefore revealing that he’s a skeleton

Long story short, she takes his hat hostage and threatens to trample it if he doesn’t let her tag along, and now she’s his partner in crime

Sorcerers choose their own names by the way, so Skulduggery literally named himself Trickery, and this happened before he became a skeleton and it also became a pun. Valkyrie named herself partway through their first case

Great, context and exposition out of the way! I LOVE THEIR DYNAMIC SO SO MUCH!! They shaped pretty much my entire sense of humour, I love them, I’ve loved them since I was 9 or so and I wanted to be like Valkyrie when I grew up. The way they bounce off of each other, the way they’re perfectly in sync, the little codes and recurring phrases they have that only have meaning to them (“the sparrow flies south for winter”, “doors are for people with no imagination”, and “until the end”). I just love them both so much

The fact that Valkyrie was willing to open the portal to the home world of ancient eldritch gods who despise humanity, just on the very slim chance he would be alive and have even the smallest shred of sanity left, after having been dragged there a year prior. The fact that Skulduggery was willing to go into complete and total isolation for eternity to protect her in the magic equivalent of cryogenic sleep if it came down to that. They would do literally anything for each other. I think I’m running out of ways to put how much I adore their dynamic into words, so I’ll sum it up as the ideal example of platonic soulmates. They’re very, very special to me

I mostly just talked about the serious side of their dynamic because I have no clue how to put the more lighthearted side into words without rattling off quotes. Rest assured, they are also hilarious

Skulduggery is also very quotable, too

Right, OC time. I have a limited selection; most OCs I made have been lost to time, either because they got attached to bad memories (like Kai Zoku, who I am only mentioning because I still think his name is great; it’s literally just the Japanese word for pirate and he was the Ultimate Pirate Captain. It’s an Ace Attorney level name pun, I love it), or because the D&D campaign they were made specifically for crashed and burned and I never found somewhere else for them to fit (looking at you, Myra.. at least I could recycle her name into my GW2 character)

Anyway! This is Kyrae, my Drow Warlock. Her campaign has been on a cliffhanger for two years and is officially coming back next month! This is a picrew, but I edited all of the colours myself. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s the best I can do

Kyrae (no last name) is from the jungle region of Xen’drik, a continent where dinosaurs still roam and everything is shrouded in disorienting, cursed mist. Her campaign is in Eberron, a lesser-used official setting, and Eberron Drow are split into three main cultures; the Sulatar, the Umbragen, and the Vulkoori

Kyrae is Vulkoori, a culture of many tribes - some more nomadic than others - who all worship the scorpion god Vulkoor, all in different ways. In Kyrae’s tribe, he has the epithets Vulkoor the Hunter and Vulkoor the Wrathful. They honour him via skilled hunting, and when given a reason to, being so ruthless and brutal that they’ve gained a reputation as bloodthirsty. That reputation came from their enemies, but they’ve never corrected it. They’re mostly isolated, with a few good allies to trade with

Her cloak was a gift from her best friend, Ryzul, who was stung by a scorpion while they were out hunting together. He was dead before they got home. Kyrae overheard a discussion about what to do; this was clearly a sign that Vulkoor was angry with the tribe, so maybe a sacrifice would appease him. And who better, than the victim’s closest friend, who was with him at the time? It’s been implied that there was another reason for that decision, but that was said out of character, so she has no idea

She ran when she heard that, and didn’t stop until she bumped into a shadowy figure wearing a smooth, white mask, with nothing but three black crescents in the shape of a smiling face. An Archfey. He seemed surprised that she could see him, and they struck a deal. She clearly needed help, and he was incredibly bored, so he would provide that help and she would provide a good story to watch. He helped her find the only port, and she boarded a ship to Korvaire, the continent the campaign takes place on

Fast forward maybe 20 minutes after stepping off of the boat. Kyrae caught a goblin child pickpocketing her, which lead to a guard attempting to throw the goblin off of a ledge, which of course lead to combat. Kyrae wasn’t having that, no harm had actually been done. For her first turn in the first combat in her first hour of being on this continent, she had her familiar, Vanguard (a winged mongoose who was summoned on the boat ride, more on him later), barrel into the guard and send him hurtling off the ledge. The rest of the party saw the fight break out, helped her, and she just kind of started following them because no one objected. They’re her tribe now, and her entire sense of identity, morality, and purpose is based on them, what she thinks they would or would not approve of, etc

So, Vanguard. A winged mongoose. The wings don’t have much significance, I had a choice between a familiar that can fly or a familiar that can swim really fast. They’re feathered, but I was so indecisive about what they actually look like that I ended up deciding they’re from a different bird every time he’s summoned. Now, the other half of his description is way more important, and I spent SO LONG deciding on it. I didn’t concern myself with specific species because then I would have never settled on one and he’s technically a Fey anyway, but. A mongoose is not only an animal Kyrae could have reasonably seen before, but they’re known for resisting venom and fighting venomous animals. Kyrae just turned her back on a scorpion god. It’s simple, but I think I’m clever. This art is, as always, by @prince-frederic

LOOK AT HIM. I LOVE HIM. MY SON

I could also talk about everything Kyrae is now dealing with and the trauma that’s happened, but I think that’s enough paragraphs about her for now /lh

I’ve already explained Sigurd’s full backstory once or twice here, so I think I’ll pick Vivian for my next OC

This is Vivian Harker, a Bloodborne OC! The token is a picrew that I did the colours for again, and the art is once again by Milo

I’ll pull back the curtain a bit here; she was inspired by Hammerlock! More specifically, it went like this:

Hammerlock would be really fun to have in Bloodborne, but I obviously can’t just take an existing character and use him in this TTRPG. It boils down to someone having the time of their life fighting the horrible monstrosities and maybe writing things down about them - can’t take cool trophies when you need to stay mobile. How do I justify that in such a dark setting? Maybe their dad was a hunter and they’ve grown up hearing stories about it, but they have no idea what they’re actually getting themselves into!

The end result is Vivian, who’s thrilled to be playing out the stories she’s grown up with now, and is filling out a sketchbook (with suspiciously red ink) along the way. She became a 16 year old white girl because she was made for a TTRPG campaign, and I can’t change my voice very much. She has no idea that when her father told those stories, he left out the traumatic parts

Daniel Harker was a fairly accomplished hunter. I say was, because this time, he refused to leave home to hunt. That was the first sign that something wasn’t right. The rest were little things, like teeth that are slightly sharper than before, eyes that reflect light like a cat’s. Little things, that indicated some kind of transformation was coming

Vivian could tell. She knew that the monsters used to be people, that hunters get affected the worst of all. She couldn’t get answers, though. So she took his equipment - the clothes a little too big for her - and left only a note to explain where she had gone

She’s thrilled to be here, to actually be fighting these creatures she’s been told about so many times, to be slowly filling her book with sketches and notes, but time is limited. She just doesn’t know how limited

The other, crucial thing she doesn’t know, is that there are no happy endings to be had in Yharnam

AND THEN THE DM GHOSTED ME SO SHE NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO DEVELOP OR ACTUALLY EXIST. SHE WAS OLDER THAN ME WHEN I MADE HER. THAT’S HOW LONG SHE’S BEEN IN STASIS

Anyway. Two fandom blorbos and two OCs!

#skulduggery pleasant #valkyrie cain #oc: kyrae #oc: vivian harker

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silversiren1101 · 2 months

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What is your favourite fantasy setting? And which one would you rather live in?

Golarion is my favorite fantasy setting and I would not want to live in it. Shit is happening all the time. Disasters are like, a monthly thing. As much as people want to believe they could become a wizard or fighter, realistically I would probably just be some guy* and my ass would not survive.

As for the setting I'd like to live in most, maybe Eberron? There's still the potential to become some empowered and trained combatant or spellcaster, with cool tech thrown in too. Not as much "catastrophe 24/7" as Golarion.

Another thought would be the ATLA universe, because even if you're not a bender there are still so many other options!

#ask game #ask meme #anon ask

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vonkarma2 · 2 years

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22 for Angel, 2 for Joseph, 8 for Cirillo, 12 for Rocio, and 33 in general? sorry if this is too many :)!

ok these actually turned out pretty long I now realize so I’m putting them under a read more

22. if they were to have a social media profile, what would it look like? the username, bio, type of thing they’d post about, etc.

I kind of want to say he’d like be a dedicated fan of 2000s video games like half life resident evil etc who’d use discord (real name as his username except when he changes it for jokes, pixel art he made himself pfp) and sometimes Reddit (default username, customized Reddit avatar pfp). This is only tangentially related but I also think he would like vocaloid a lot

2. what is their favourite article of clothing that they own?

Hmmm I don’t think he pays much attention to clothing outside of whether it’s comfortable or not (also I don’t want to think about what they wear in Reles so painful to design futuristic outfits that also look like people would actually wear them 😞) I think he really likes his hairstyle though if that counts he thinks it looks cool

8. what is the most interesting thing that they regularly carry on their person?

I don’t think he does this anymore since he’s like broke and all but when he still lived in Avarrecia he used to always like carry different small gifts to give to people. Also I think he’s the type of person where if you gave him a good luck charm he’d keep it with him constantly.

12. do they tend to hold a lot of tension in their body? if so, where?

Probably lol I think in her arms (so tensed) and hands (which would be like clenched). Can you have tension in your eyes from like staring at things. Does that make any sense. Ok well in this universe you can and she does

33. when creating your character, did you take inspiration from characters in other media? or just other media in general? name them, if any!

these albums (and a few more but these were the first that came to mind + probably the most important)

witch hat atelier :)

a dnd podcast that will remain nameless :|

muppets most wanted completely unrionically. Ok a little ironically. Ok completely ironically it was an actual influence though

Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

Community

This One Piece fan art by heyitscorinth on twitter

Any and all cool art I’ve seen of the sun, moon, ocean, or night sky in the past 2 years

Many, many other songs that I don’t feel like listing (I actually wasn’t influenced by other media That much tbh, with the exception of a lot of separate songs that like gave me an idea or reminded me of a concept or whatever, so that’s like my primary inspiration I guess)

#my ocs #ty :)

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castellankurze · 3 years

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Might I please ask if you have any favourite tabletop RPG settings besides the Dark Millennium? (I'm personally rather partial to RAVENLOFT, which suggests that I have a Type and she is quite, quite Gothic).

A thing to understand about my roleplay history is that it has some very large gaps.

I got into playing D&D with some friends in late high school, around the turn of the millennium. Most of the stuff we played was OC, although we hijacked some setting elements from Faerun, and wholesale looted a ton of Eberron stuff when the book came out in 2004. Occasionally we used modules like The Shackled City or The Red Hand of Doom, but these were always incorporated into our own worlds. One particularly memorable campaign did pull in a bunch of Ravenloft stuff for a Castlevania-type game of defeating bosses in a huge, haunted castle.

However when the financial crisis hit in 2007 I had to start looking for a new job, and that would eventually lead to me packing up and moving from Buffalo NY to Phoenix AZ. Online gaming wasn't as developed then as it was now, and so for a long time my tabletop games were a thing of the past, and such things migrated to games like World of Warcraft. (Although I did manage to play a couple games of Magic with a coworker at one of the jobs I held before securing long-term employment.) Eventually after a few years rolled by, some people that I'd met through such games (including my future wife) joined together for some 40k games - Deathwatch, Rogue Trader, Black Crusade in series of back to back campaigns, but, well I'll spare you the details on that group's breakup.

By this time it was 2017 and my job was demanding more of my time, routinely working 50 hours a week or more, something that would continue for much of 2018 and practically all of 2019, and I was just too damn tired to look for new games. Fortunately, my wonderful by-now wife had found a group playing online with a couple of people I vaguely knew from the WoW days and when a couple of their players couldn't make it one week, I was invited for a one-shot game of one player's modern OC setting. It turned out pretty well. I was later invited to join said group for their ongoing game in the Blue Rose setting, which was also great fun, and sadly ended a few weeks ago.

I have a great deal of fondness and nostalgia for the BattleTech universe, although my participation in it was even earlier than my RPG experience, all the way back in the 90s around the time of the Clan invasion and the early Mechwarrior games. Although I've never played a game in Eberron proper, as mentioned my friends and I jacked a lot of stuff from that setting for our games and it always struck me as having a lot of great ideas. I did read a few of RA Salvatore's Drizzt novels back in the day, but ironically my first real Faerun campaign is actually just starting up. Does Star Wars count? Eh, let's count Star Wars, as I played the old pen and paper RPG back in the day too, as one half of a Trandoshan/Wookiee bounty hunting odd couple in a short-lived but incredibly fun game.

I guess I've rambled about all this so that it's made clear I haven't had a lot of experience with many official settings for TT games. So, as far as favorite goes? It's a bit up in the air - just pull from whatever you like.

(It's probably still BattleTech.)

#kurze life #rp stuff #asked and answered

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mattkenzie · 3 years

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By Kouper Porch-Pasley

My Battlesmith, Harley.

His father spent every dime he had to send his son to the capital when he showed some affinity with the arcane. However Harley was never able to perform magics from any of the main schools without the spells either detonating or fizzling out which inevitably caused him to be expelled. Returning to a now impoverished home, Harley became the towns blacksmith to try and earn back the money his father had spent. Eventually Harley learned that monster hunting paid much more than blacksmithing so with his still formidable arcane abilities and tools to use as conduits, Harley now ventures out to earn his fortune.

So I’ve always had an affinity for artificers (when Eberron introduced this class) so they have become one of my personal favourite classes in D&D but I love seeing artificers on Hero Forge. What I love about Harley is his hammer/forge hybrid weapon and how the light is glowing through the hammer (feature on beta).

#hero forge #artificer #d&d 5e #dungeons & dragons #dungeons and dragons #d&d #dungeons & dragons 5e

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drinkingdeadpeopletea · 4 years

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@mithrilwren tagged me in this first get to know you and @aberfaeth, @chungledownbi, @fangirlsftw, and @jolenethegreen all tagged me in the second one, so i guess i should do them!

Name: Hannah

Gender/Pronouns: she/her

Star sign: Libra, although I don’t know enough about astrology to determine if I think that’s accurate

Height: 5′7″

Sexuality: Bisexual!

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor :) although I did think I was Ravenclaw for the longest time and truthfully I probably do fall somewhere between those two. the confusion comes in that i am a very intelligent person and i am not a very brave person, but I do value courage above all else. “me! books, and cleverness! there are more important things, like friendship, and bravery....”

Favourite Animal: Cats, especially big cats, especially jaguars.

Average hours of sleep: usually like 6 and a half on weekdays, plus an extra hour of wavering between sleep and wakefulness in the mornings

Current time: 1:39pm when I’m starting this

Dogs or Cats: I love them both, but cats.

Blankets I sleep with: 2

Dream job: being a full-time writer, still and forever. I would also LOVE to work on D&D at Wizards of the Coast.

When I made my blog: this sideblog was made in August 2018, my main @storybook-souls was made in late 2014, and I had another account before that that I made in like 2012.

Followers: I think half the appeal of tumblr is not knowing, but I will tell you it’s between 2k and 3k

Reasons for my url: I made this blog the week Caduceus was first introduced and his little exchange with Beau that went “are you drinking dead people tea?” “aren’t we all?” was and remains one of my favorite little moments of the show

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top three ships: percy/annabeth from the Percy Jackson books! parker/eliot/hardison from leverage! jonathan/nancy from stranger things! (or, if i’m limiting myself to fandoms i actually talk about on this blog, percy/vex, beau/jester, hardwon/moonshine)

last movie: it is honestly wild how little i watch movies nowadays. it’s because i hardly ever watch a movie on my own, and i haven’t really been around other people much. so it may actually have been when my mom and I went to see Little Women in January; I know that’s the last time I was at a movie theater. GREAT movie, made me cry a LOT.

currently reading: i’m re-reading Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo! if you’ve never read the Six of Crows duology please do, they’re two of my favorite books ever. next on my list is Jade City by Fonda Lee but i might end up getting distracted by re-reading Percy Jackson. I’m also “reading” the Eberron setting book to get ideas for my games but that’s been very slow going, i love having setting books but I don’t really like just reading the lore.

food i’m craving: a quesadilla! fortunately this is an easy craving to rectify and that is exactly what i will be doing once I am done with work

not going to tag anyone because i know these have been going around and i’ve lost track of who has or has not been tagged but! if you haven’t had a chance to do either or both of these yet do it and tag me so i can see your answers!

#about me #long post #tag game #thank you very much to everyone who tagged me!

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recoveryform · 4 years

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Made some dice cage earings, to house two of my favourite gem dice. Unfortunately they got chipped, so I've ordered replacements for my set but couldn't bare to throw these ones out, hence jewellery.

Using $3 jewellery making/earing repair kit and a $4 set of jewellery pliers both from K-mart - I could actually take these dice out and still use them!

The dice set is from Gemco Crafts on Etsy (Yanny sells these dice, and both her and her shop is lovely!) - They're one of the Blue Sandstone sets.

The dice set these come from, I use for my Umbragen drow shadow sorcerer in my DM's latest Eberron campaign.

#dice #dungeons and dragons #d&d #d&d accessories

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arionwind · 4 years

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i cant believe i havent asked you this yet but tell me your thoughts on Drizzt Do'urden (unless you're just not into the forgotten realms setting, in which case, what IS your fav dnd canon setting?)

Of pre-established D&D settings I don’t know that I have a favourite, tbh. I’m more than passing familiar with Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Golarion, and Arcanis and think each of them has their strong and weak points. FR in particular is exceptional at a more bombastic high-fantasy than Greyhawk, more tightly focused on fantasy than Golarion and Eberron, and more black and white than Arcanis. And those are all good things if and only if that’s the sort of thing you’re in the mood for - and a bad thing if not, you know? So I definitely don’t have any real fave canon setting, just ones that I like more for some things than others.

As for Drizz’t . . . I have a lot of complicated feelings, but most of the ones I have about him specifically are positive. It’s only when you get into the weeds of setting elements around him and the fandom surrounding them that negativity starts to creep in. Under a cut because it got Long. I apparently have way more to say than I thought and may need to reread some of these books and possibly get more.

The thing is, R.A. Salvatore writes two things particularly well - fight choreography and complex/compelling spiritual journeys. His writing is at his best when it focuses on the latter interspersed with the former. Note that The Crystal Shard - the first Drizz’t book written - is all about those kinds of conflicts. We get more than just Drizz’t’s conflict over trying to cast off the (justified) hatred of his evil kind and live a free and wholesome life on the surface. We also get Burenor and Cattie-Brie struggling with the cultural difficulties of a dwarf raising a human child, Wulfgar seeking a way to honor the principles of his people and ancestors without falling into cruelty, and even Akar Kessel struggling both for dominance over Crenshinnibon and with his own inferiority complex as a mage.

Salvatore writes all of these narratives well both in isolation and weaving them together, having each character’s journey in proximity to each other impact their perspectives and influence the way they think about their own struggles. Drizz’t is a very compelling character for the Companions of the Hall (and their enemies - Artemis Entreri in particular) to revolve around. The problem is that these sorts of conflicts can become stale if they go on perpetually and never resolve, but if they do resolve the character must necessarily change with their resolutions or else they fall flat.

Now bearing in mind that I have only read up through the Sea of Swords before my childhood money ran out, but for my money at least up to that point Salvatore does a good job resolving old conflicts and creating new ones. But by the end I was getting the sense that, because those internal conflicts are what he is best at, he was hitting a point where he’d have to either keep messing up his characters internal lives in new and increasingly contrived ways or else let them resolve conflicts for a while and have to hang his books purely on fight choreography and his weaker external conflicts for narrative development, which would not be nearly as compelling.

I wish, dearly and deeply, that “Legend of Drizz’t” could be allowed to end, not because I don’t like it, but because I found the Cleric Quintet to be an order of magnitude more powerful and satisfying an experience than any Drizz’t series because of the finality and closure Cadderly was able to reach in his spiritual journey. And it isn’t as if closing the book on Drizz’t’s series would mean the end of him - Cadderly shows up as a supporting cast member in at least one or two Drizz’t novels where he is able to use his completed character journey to provide advice and wisdom to Drizz’t and others still on theirs. Moving the focus away from Drizz’t’s story would still allow him to be around, but would also enable him to become a more mysterious and mentor-like figure to other protagonists, which we know from earlier Drizz’t books is a role he fits well into.

I feel like this is part of the frustration some elements of the fanbase have with him. His internal arcs are what draw people to him, but after a certain point that becomes impossible to sustain and keep a character recognizable. Like I said, I haven’t read far enough to know if Salvatore manages to walk that line or if he falls into exhausting character arcs or empty external conflicts as things go on, but even in the best case scenario of him nailing it and having Drizz’t continue to grow and change as a person as time goes by . . . this means a ton of fans are going to eventually lose the character they fell in love with because he has grown into an entirely different person. And if Salvatore didn’t nail it, well then it’s easy to flanderize and dismiss him due to the botched development and as a result tarnish memories of the past.

I think there’s also an issue where, because Salvatore is so good at writing those internal conflicts, you get people wanting to play that sort of thing in games. And it’s really hard to write that in a fun and compelling way if you have absolute narrative control and a way to peek inside a character’s head. In a tabletop game where the dice can dictate narrative beats and you can’t share internal conflict easily without rambling to people about your character it becomes even more difficult to land that kind of story without being at least a little grating to your friends.

This is where the whole “the entire race of drow are made up of chaotic good loners trying to escape the reputation of their universally evil kin” snark comes from - frustration with players who earnestly want to tell what could be a very compelling arc but are not great at doing so, at least within the complex narrative confines of a collaborative dice-based game and so default to doing it with more traditional narrative trappings that make things all about them and bog down play time.

I feel like a lot of (though definitely not all) the criticism thrown at Drizz’t is projected frustration with players who want to play that story but wind up frustrating their fellows. More of it is usually some frustration with some aspect or another of the drow as a concept and society, which I could talk about for probably as long as this post so I am gonna say anyone who wants that can send another ask because this is long enough.

So yeah, that’s . . . most of my rambling thoughts on Drizz’t, which were way more fun to talk about than I would have guessed, so thanks! Apparently I can infodump about all kinds of tabletop minutia if prompted.

Sidenote, if anyone reading this liked aspects of Drizz’t novels but wished for a final conclusion like I have for so long I cannot recommend the Cleric Quintet highly enough. Cadderly has a different path trying to find and move away from his ancestral evil and come to terms with his spirituality, but it is still one of the most powerful journeys in fiction I have ever read. And even if you haven’t read Drizz’t anything, if you are someone religious or spiritual struggling with any aspect of your faith or spirituality and can tolerate high fantasy tropes, again you really should give it a look. I can’t say it’s likely to solve any of your own internal conflicts, but I all but guarantee it will make you feel heard and less alone by the epilogue.

#Forgotten Realms #Drizz't Do'urden #Drizz't #original ari #all-women-kick-ass

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enddaysengine · 7 years

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Exploring the Manifest Zone - Dragonmarked Houses (Eberron)

Let’s keep playing catchup! Here we have Manifest Zone Episode 3 - The Dragonmarked Houses. This is commentary on a podcast, so I strongly suggest your listen to the podcast first:

https://manifest.zone/03-dragonmarks-and-dragonmarked-houses/

The Draconic Prophecy is one of my favourite parts of Eberron since it neatly solves the typical issue of prophecy in RPGs by being dynamic and ever changing. The way that the Dragonmarks play into that is fascinating, both from a world design and a GMing perspective. The latter is easy to explain, if you have more than one PC with a Dragonmark, anyway in which they interact with each other has the potential to be prophetic. Now you have an excuse to have any number of creatures from dragons to fiends to the Undying Court try and influence the party in a variety of ways. The world building is elegant though. If the dragonmarks are prophetic indicators, what does that mean when the upper ranks of the house gather to discuss business? What about the institution of the Twelve, which serves as a meeting ground and communal R&D for all the Houses? Or what about the matchmaking games that the houses use to try and mix strong bloodlines? Even with their extreme lifespans, I'm certain some dragons will devote their lives to understanding just a fraction of what dragonmarks foretell.

As a teacher of both history and science, I commonly tell my students that math is straightforward, so its difficulty is linear. Math gets harder over time, but if you know enough math it is predictable and has fairly simple rules. Science, the application of math, adds another layer of interaction, some of which are non-intuitive, so the function of the difficulty of science is exponential. Still predictable, but much harder to accurately extrapolate. Humanities, despite its reputation, is the most difficult of the lot. The challenges of the humanities are quadratic, only predictable if you know the equation of the function, or if you have spent your life studying them. People are complex, not always rational or predictable, and vary widely, so there is a lot you need to account for when considering other people.

(As an aside, the only reason humanities have a reputation for being easy is that they are more relatable, so people find them easier to focus on. Genuine insight into human nature or history is not easy and is chronically undervalued as a skill.)

All of this is to say that the dragons had it (relatively) easy studying the Prophecy before the appearance of dragonmarks. There is a reason the dragons freaked out when they showed up. To understand and influence these new signs, they needed to understand the history, cultures, psychology, economics, arts and sciences of multiple races. That is a daunting prospect, but it ensures the dragons will never be bored. It's a solid bet that they pour a good deal of gold into scholarly research so that they don't have to spend time on it, they can just read the results.

Also, a density of dragonmarks is now totally a thing.

I would kill for a 90-page detailed book on each house, at least two pages dedicated each of the bloodlines within that house. It is super easy to forget that for all that these houses are related, it isn’t just one family that controls them. Hence the competitive matchmaking that goes on within them.

A solid idea for manifesting a Dragonmark would be to have someone take the Test of Siberys as they were getting close to levelling up to the point of getting the dragonmark feat. They pass the test, but still have trouble controlling the mark… until they level up. Alternatively, you could also take the feat but “bank” it, not using the spell-like ability until you get a chance to role-play the test or another suitably dramatic event occurs. If you get into a life-or-death battle or desperately need to send a message via whispering wind, wouldn’t that justify using the feat for the first time?

Dragonmark archetypes and sorcerer bloodlines are a thing I want to create. That would be one way to develop them beyond their spell-like abilities.

Dragonmark focus items and the technology/engineering aspect to them massively underestimated. The Houses have vast potential to revolutionise their respective fields and fling the Thronehold Nations into the future. Even just access to that type of technological innovation is, much less a practical monopoly on it, is economically priceless.

Speaking of access, I have been trying to work on a version of occult rituals to mimic the way Keith uses rituals in 4e. It is a solid idea, and again, it makes the mark more than just the spell that you get to use. It is also the potential to use rituals that no one else can. If the Arcane Congress is trying to reverse engineer them, that just increases the theme of magic acting like technology.

I've always looked at the Twelve as being the House's answer to the Arcane Congress, and I think that still fits, but a United Nations for the Houses is a stellar idea. Lots of good story ideas to be had there. You could probably get a sense for what some plotlines would look like by looking at how the UN deals with nukes and other weapons today.

So here's a question that I asked a lot when Eberron was young: does capitalism still work there with these giant corporations controlling everything? Turns out that I never really needed out that. Why? My biggest takeaway from this podcast was that the Dragonmarked Houses hold regulatory powers over their industries that we usually associate with governments. Competition doesn't take place between the Houses and extra-house companies. It occurs between the licensed businesses underneath the Houses. It doesn't matter which of these enterprises lose, the House still wins.

This also is a clear demonstration of how considerably the balance of power has shifted between the nobles and the dragonmarked in the wake of the Last War. In Galifer, it didn't matter if Cannith controls all of the manufacturing standards. The Empire was powerful enough to beat down the House if they get unruly and in the meanwhile, why not effectively co-opt Cannith to be an extension of the imperial apparatus. Instead of having an administration compete with Cannith to ensure quality goods are sold across your nation, employ Cannith and make their expertise work for you. That works great until your empire breaks up during a civil war. Now all of the nations are dependent on Cannith to regulate the quality of the goods they produce, and none of them has the strength to keep Cannith in check. That explains a lot about the current state of the Five Nations.

It's also interesting (at least to this high school teacher) to think about how the Houses act as educational monopolies, at least regarding trades education. If everyone learns how to do things in the same way, they are vulnerable to systemic errors and deficiencies. One has to wonder if Tharashk and Lyrandar haven't been taking advantage of Deneith and Orien's blind spots.

I seriously want a book just exploring the Korth Edicts. That's probably my history degree speaking for me, but I would find it fascinating to have the major provisions in the Edicts laid out in one place, talk about how that impacted the Houses at the time of the Empire, then discuss all of the ways they've been violated since. Super compelling stuff. Seriously! A million plots are waiting to launch there.

By Sovereigns and Flame, I want the text of that chapter from Sharn that got cut for space! House Tarkanan and the Aberrant Dragonmarks are one of my favourite aspects of the setting. The history of the aberrant marks and the counterculture they represent in contrast to the Dragonmarked Houses is fascinating. As are their origins.

I enjoy using House Tarkanan, both as an antagonist and a group that PCs may belong to. In some campaigns, I've expanded House Tarkanan's presence and history significantly. Why? To set up the return of House Vol, who was hiding within the ranks of Tarkanan. It's not a plot that I'd use in every campaign, but I love it as an idea, especially if it forces the other Houses to recognize Tarkanan now that they have allies within the elven Vol lines.

The War of the Mark is another topic I'd like to see a book dedicated to, both for historical play and modern plot hooks.

Haven't read the Son of Khyber yet, but it's on my hit list. Maybe when I get off my Star Wars kick (thanks Starfinder).

Aberrant focus items (and artifacts) would be very cool to add into a campaign and could be an excellent potential disruptor. I imagine that each would be unique to the person wielding them since aberrant marks are so unique and unpredictable.

Girl Genius is a great comic for Eberron inspiration in general, but if you want an example of intra-House conflict and intrigue, it is excellent. There are multiple factions of families who have the same end goals, but none of them wants the other to come out on top. The "family plan" is only a success if they are the ones who pull it off and get the glory. I won't say more because of early spoilers, but check it out.

Back in the day, there was a thread on the WotC forums about using video games in Eberron. I don't recall if we ever got around to Resident Evil, but a joint Vadalis-Jorasco regeneration project gone awry is an excellent plot hook!

I want to take some time to stat up my version of the Mark of Death, along with some supporting materials. The Repose domain is probably the place to start, and I think there are some good spells in Occult Adventures (and possibly Horror Adventures). Apex marks would be cool to have some support as well, but I feel like those should be custom built for each campaign. They're like the artifact equivalent of player options, unique and disruptive of the status quo.

Speaking of disruption the status quo, here's one of the ideas I've used for the Apex Mark of Death. In this campaign, it wasn't necessarily the immense power of the Apex Mark the dragons were worried about, but rather its impact on the Prophecy. Specifically, the Apex Mark of Death either made it much easier for the Gatekeeper, one of the Overlords related to death, to escape or one of its powers was bypassing the Prophecy altogether and freeing the Overlord. Hence the "kill first, ask questions later" approach the dragons took.

Okay, I will cop up to being one of the people who was pissed when 4e allowed anyone to have any mark. An excellent point is made here that this could be okay… as long as this represents a major shift of the setting with far reaching consequences. I think the analogy that is appropriate here is Faction War from Planescape (and that’s not just because I haven’t done anything Planescape related this month! I’m on it). Faction War completely changes the fundamental basis of Planescape by kicking the Factions out of Sigil. That's fine, it's a good adventure and an absolutely serviceable plothook. The key is that it works best with a group that is already familiar with the setting and has taken advantage of the many hooks that are already baked into Planescape. Same thing here. I wouldn’t allow a dwarf with the Mark of Healing in a campaign of newbies to Eberron. They won’t have the context for the setting, and there are tons of perfectly functional plothooks with the Dragonmarked Houses without that spanner in the works. After playing a couple of campaigns though, then I would be willing to use off-race marks as a plot hook.

I am definitely going to run a campaign where the Daelkyr created Dragonmarks. Preferably when none of my players see it coming. Possibly in conjunction with giving everyone a dragonmark as a bonus feat. It would be highly amusing.

Non-marked members of the Houses probably deserve more attention than they get. Freedom from the house could drive all sorts of potential conflict, especially resentment from peers. Of course, should a mark develop later in life, the character has to decide if it is a blessing or a chain tying them down…

I see Vadalis and Sivis working together to verify bloodlines for the other Dragonmarked Houses. Vadalis works the biology angle, Sivis works the genealogy/history angle. It's not exactly a DNA test, but that would take half the fun out of it. Plus, the Vadalis/Sivis combo is not one you’d often see, so it makes a nice unique touch to the setting.

Augury works well too though.

Not getting caught up in minutia is good, solid advice. Don’t overwork yourself as GM, keep things simple. I will fess up to having intentionally tried to work every organization from the ECS into campaigns before, albeit with most of them in minor/cameo roles.

Next up - Religion!

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elaristalselin · 7 years

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D&D Character Asks: Elaris Edition

I wanna do all of them because they’re all so good and I love my boy and Sara said to do all the odd ones anyway so....

1) A story for every scar. Do any of their wounds have interesting origins?

He doesn’t have many visible scars, actually! There is a stab wound on the right side of his back, that he sustained almost three years when he was still a naive, young adventurer newly out on his own. (For fellow party members, this is apocryphal and not part of his primary backstory) He met a drow woman known simply as “Darling” who recruited his help in a simple enough burglary job. Get in. Get out. Split the loot 60/40 and go their separate ways. They snuck in and out of a wealthy merchant’s manor while the family was out on holiday and made off with close to 2,000gp. He thought he’d be set for awhile, but when it came to part ways, Darling turned on him and took everything, leaving Elaris in the gutter with a dagger in the back. Luckily, in her haste she missed any vital organs or blood vessels and he recovered in time.

other than that, he’s made it through most of his life relatively unmaimed.

2) Three five songs that show their character progression.

Ok so I have a playlist for this very reason! But it’s 37 songs long. If I had to narrow it down:

1. Beautiful Boys- CocoRosie

2. Bird Set Free- Sia

3. Dance Little Liar-Arctic Monkeys

4. Stars- fun.

5. All These Things That I’ve Done- The Killers

3) If they were a god which god would they be? (to quote my last post:)

Joanne the Scammer; next question please!

Seriously, though? I think The Traveler, among the Dark Six of Eberron is most like Elaris. His domains include chaos, charm, liberation, travel, and trickery, which is just about as close as I can find to what Elaris deified would be. Maybe add in a tiny bit of St. Anthony,the patron saint of the impoverished and oppressed. Elaris may not be a “good” person, but he empathizes and cares deeply for orphans, slaves, and minority races of Cartowitt. Other than those demographics, he’s always ready to charm and cheat his way into people’s wallets so I can’t really see him being even a chaotic good deity.

4) What was their favourite subject at school?

Elaris hated school as a child,but he found joy in music. It was something he was good at, and he loved weaving magic into each note of his compositions. He also enjoyed reading the ballads of the bards of old, and aspired to become one of them.

5) What does their voice sound like?

Elaris’ voice is a sultry tenor, with a vague, unplaceable but sophisticated-sounding accent. As a whole, he sounds a bit like a pretentious, highly educated asshole with a masters in Snobbery™

6) Animal, vegetable, mineral: what one thing symbolises them the most?

He’s got a small shell with mysterious carved runes on it that he has yet to decipher. The mystery of the shell is reminiscent of the secrecy he uses as a defense mechanism.

If not, possibly his small pet mouse, Basil. He sees a lot of himself in Basil, from the petty theft to the insignificance of his role in the world, and would do anything to protect this old, fat mouse.

7) If they could control one of the four elements what would it be?

Probably Earth. I can Imagine him terraforming in a remote area trying to magically mine diamonds and other riches with the least amount of effort or sharing possible.

8) What would their favourite tv show be?

Probably some really ridiculous reality tv show, like Millionaire Matchmaker or one of the Real Housewives dramas. He takes joy in seeing the petty inconveniences of the rich and stupid, though deep down, his dream is probably to be a very wealthy and powerful sugar baby.

9) Would they ever use magic to gain love?

He uses magic to charm and manipulate others as part of his JOB. It’s what he was trained to do as a bard, really. He’s definitely used it to charm money out of people, but he wouldn’t ever like...sleep with anyone who didn’t approach him first or was too charmed to actually consent.

He’s never truly fallen in love with someone, but if he did he wouldn’t want to magically ruin the integrity of their feelings. Being able to genuinely feel such things towards him is a huge step that he doesn’t think anyone would ever reach that point with him. By taking away that choice from them, he would be toying with them the same as any of the people he’s scammed and cheated.

10) What do they think of themself?

Elaris is confident in his skills as a bard, but he (justifiably) sees himself as a pretty shitty person. He likes himself just fine, but is afraid that others would turn on him if they knew who he really is. That’s part of the reason he works so hard on his facades; he doesn’t want people to really see the filth beneath his pristine mask.

11) Gender and sexuality?

Boring I know, but Elaris identifies as just a plain ol cis guy. He’s not afraid of femininity-- if anything he uses it to his advantage and keep people off guard. The way he explores fashion and gender expression as a whole leans towards androgyny, but his identity is still masculine.

12) Do they have a type?

Rich and stupid. If he can get a lot of cash out of them easily, he’ll go for anyone,really.

If he were to get into an actual relationship, he’s attracted primarily to men and nonbinary folks. Regardless of appearance though, deep down he just wants someone he can match wits with that wouldn’t judge his past or skewed moral compass.

13) Playing video games, would they be a completionist, a speed runner, how would they play?

While WIlhelm would be a modder, Elaris wouldn’t mess with much beyond the occasional console command. He wouldn’t be a completionist per se, but he’d spend the vast majority of game time looking for workarounds to the conventional methods of playing. Will certain dialogue options affect ones later in the game? If you jump backwards 5 times after leaving the game on for three days, can you access a secret room that makes finding a rare item that much easier? He’d want to know

14) If they could solve one problem, what would they solve?

He’d really like to abolish slavery and diminish the roles and obsession surrounding the suits, sure, but most likely he’d want to set up plenty of soup kitchens, food banks, and homeless shelters to prevent children from ever dying from starvation and the effects of destitution.

15) What horoscope stereotype fits them the most?

He’s technically a Virgo, but he fits with the charming, diplomatic qualities of Sagittarius much better.

16) Favourite terrain?

While not actual “terrain,” he loves the city and within the halls of the homes and manors within. Regal balls and social events have always fascinated him more than any wilderness, always dreaming of the danger and delight of court intrigue.

17) How do they dress?

His clothes range from masc to femme of center, but he cares more about the quality of materials used and the way they make him look. Rich furs, heavy velvets, and luxurious silks are his favorite materials to work with, especially if intricate details, such as embroidery or woven patterns are included. His favorite color is ultramarine, so often his outershirt will be similar hues.

Please give this boy a reason to dress fancy. He loves fancy more than he loves himself

18) What would their ideal home be like?

It would be rich and luxurious, with fine furniture and fine trophies stolen throughout his escapades. However, it wouldn’t be too large. He may love the finer things in life, but also reviles absurd amounts of excess and the people associated with such extravagance. Fine and tasteful, rather than gaudy to the point of tackiness. To make it an actual home, he’d love to share it with the few friends he does have, along with those he had lost along the way. However, there’d always be a single extra guest room, intentionally left empty.

19) What would they like their mark in history to be? (to quote my last answer)

His whole schtick involves aliases and disguise to prevent infamy. If he were to gain a reputation as a conman, the gig would be up. In an ideal world, he would want to be portrayed as a young, famous musician or maybe even a charismatic diplomat who worked hard and built himself up from the ashes of his childhood to go on to live a fulfilling, preferably wealthy life. Maybe he’d have a beautiful, happy spouse and a life that’s normal and not too far beyond ordinary. Of course given his current circumstance and his outlook on the future, that’d never happen.

In this life, he’d be happy to fade into obscurity, living off the riches he’s swindled out of rich people through unnoticeable skimming and other forms of fraud.

20) If they could be a dragon, would they be a dragon?

To be or not to be, blah blah Hamlet is my favorite edgelord manbaby.

Really though, I don’t think he would be a dragon. Sure, he’ be powerful and rich beyond his wildest dreams, but brute force and intimidation aren’t his forte. He enjoys seduction and subterfuge too much to be a big lump of muscle, stomping around angrily to get his way.

#Elaris #elaris asks

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duckandrollblog · 7 years

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Changing systems

Continuing on with this month's theme of change, today we'll be talking about changing systems. I've known a great many gaming groups and one of the first things that gets asked upon meeting is "What do you play". And then the battle lines are usually drawn, and the edition wars begin, and everyone hoists the banners of their favourite systems. Sometimes though I'm lucky enough to see players speak frankly and honestly about the games they play and why they play them. This can often lead to a lot of excitement and curiosity. There are a lot of gaming systems out there and I always find it energizing to tell or show someone something new. That all being said; a different system is by definition, different and there's a lot to consider about a new system. So let's take a look at how a group can deal with a change in system.

A new setting: Many games have vastly different campaign settings from each other, often by necessity. Even if the rules were the same, going from a fantasy setting to a modern one can be very jarring for some players. Let alone moving from something like a world of darkness game into say a Starfinder game. Even smaller changes to a setting like going from Greyhawk to Eberron can be very hard to get used to. For a game master, the most important thing is to be gentle with your players. It can be very easy to read or write a lot of setting information only to forget that these things aren't common knowledge. It's also important to consider player dedication. Only the most devout players will put as much attention into learning about your setting as you. Think like an exam writer, every question and test should be based on things that you have personally had the players deal with and address. For players new to a setting, think about some of the important basic aspects of the setting and how they apply to your character. If your character is a "Asteroid miner" think about what sort of life they lead. Most importantly, ask questions of your storyteller. If you think the job is basically low class dangerous grunt work akin to a coal miner, double check the case. It may be more like an ice road trucker, doing just a little bit of extremely dangerous work and getting paid enough to need only a few such jobs a year. Remember, when it comes to an entire world different from our own, it's going to be impossible to explain, think of, or remember everything in one night. Take your time, allow for mistakes and do over's, and be patient with each other as you explore a new world together.

New rules: This is going to be one of the major things to get used to when switching systems. When people talk about a new system, most often they're talking about the rules and all their differences. The most important thing to realize is that no system will be your old system. Everything else you play will be different, which can mean better, or worse, but usually it means both. Different systems will be designed for different things. A call of Cthulu game is not likely to have the best rules for computer hacking for example. Likewise a gritty world of darkness game might not have as much detail in say the intricacies of sword combat. If you judge a game based on how well it does something that it's not trying to do, you're gonna have a bad time. Instead look at what the system is designed to do really well, where it puts the most attention and focus. Go into a new system with an open mind. It can be easy to find 1 or 2 weird rules and pick them apart and hold them up as sign of a flawed system, but nobody has ever made or played a perfect game. It's also really important to highlight what you like and why. Even if I'm running a pathfinder game, I might still grab the house and army management rules from the song of ice and fire rpg. I'd use those rules because, imagine that, the system is really good at house management and war. Even a bad system has a few good things to offer, and a great system might be full of ideas you can incorporate into other games. Just like getting used to a new setting, the most important thing is to be patient and to give your best effort to learning the new setting and understanding that mistakes will happen. And that applies to players and GM's alike. Sometimes a rule is misunderstood, sometimes the errata contains something vital, and some rules are just not for every group. My recommendation is to see if you can find videos of someone explaining the rules, including examples and the like. Five minutes of example can make more sense than five hours of just reading. Maybe a rule you thought was stupid actually had a really good reason that only makes sense when you view the game as a whole. Or it could just be bad rule, every game has them, and learning which rules to ignore is as much a part of a tabletop game as learning which rules to follow.

New styles: This kind of ties into the previous two things, but many games have dramatically different approaches. Imagine playing a world of darkness game like a DND adventure, kicking in the door, killing with impunity, stealing the loot and moving to the next enemy. You would get killed or arrested very quickly because it's a modern mostly realistic setting. Similarly, a call of Cthulu game where you try to negotiate with or politically outmaneuver cultists is likely to end with you kneeling at the altar of a great old one or being force-fed a sacrificial knife. A game tends to have a sort of unspoken way it's generally meant to be played. How severe the consequences of your actions are, how dangerous the world is, how powerful your character is, and more can vary a lot. It can take time to feel out how a game should be played, what the atmosphere should be like, and what sorts of things are acceptable and not. Luckily everyone at the table is there to help each other out and come together to find the real fun of a game. Make sure to be open minded about a new game style. If you're used to hack and slash adventure and your group wants to put on some sombre roleplaying, give it your best try even though it's different. You never know, you might actually really enjoy it.

If you keep these things in mind when changing rules systems, you're sure to have a more fun, open, and educational experience. Seeing a new game with eyes wide open and an accepting attitude can improve not just your new campaign, but all the games to follow as you pick up bits and pieces of great gaming philosophy.

#Tabletop RPG #gaming #DM advice #player advice #pathfinder #World Of Darkness #call of cthulu

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mattkenzie · 4 years

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So today.. well this evening I’ve got to watch Critical Role’s one shot on YouTube which featured Taryon Darrinton (don’t worry, I shall keep spoilers to a minimum). OK, Tary is considered to be my second favourite character in campaign one (Tal’dori) and first made his appearance in Episode 85: A Bards Lament when Scanlan left Vox Machina, Sam Regal introduced his new character Taryon Darrinton and when first impressions count I hated him at first because he is chavenistic while the other members of Vox Machina hated him for being as Keyleth quoted “a spoiled rich kid who ‘buys his own toys’ with his Dad’s money and is an alter ego of Percival Fredrickstain Von Muscal Klawolsky De Rolo III.” Percy stated “It was looking at a dark mirror” (I think it does depend on which side of the mirror you standing). But as Episode 86: Curious Tides I started to like Taryon the moment his mask slipped off and ‘ugly cried’ in front of Vox Machina when his Father threatened to take away everything from him because Tary spends most of his time tinkering on his automaton Doty and enjoys reading fantasy novels (and having his heads above the clouds wanting to be a ‘hero’) Taryon left Vox Machina at Episode 101: when he wanted to start a new venture in his home in Wildmount called the Darrinton Brigade.

Taryon Darrinton (played by Sam Regal) so 10 years later after the Tal’dori campaign, Tary traded in his frilly collar for an undercut and that’s not all that was traded in the process (the rules changed for him when he was an Alchemist when the first Unearthed Arcana Artificer was released and with the Eberron book officially released Tary is now a Battle Master) Tary is still the same person *cough* with Botox *cough* we all know and love and still flamboyant and naive.

The Owlbear (played by Talisan Jaffe) If you heard Owlbear’s voice right now, imagine it as a very angry/grumpy Caduceus Clay. But Talisan stated he trying to aim to sound like Batman (but in the end it was more LEGO Batman Movie). The Owlbear is a Totem Barbarian but I couldn’t put my finger on what archtype of Rouge he was.

Farriwen Breeze (played by Laura Bailey) an Air Genasi... to be honest I thought Farriwen was an Eladrin at first glance but when Laura stated she was an Air Genasi, it blew my mind.

Hazel Copperpot (played by Marisha Ray) A Dwarf Lore Bard has to be my absolute FAVOURITE character in the Darrinton Brigade one shot! I ignored the fact that she was dressed as a ‘one-man band’ but what blew me away more was “You know... I like Hazel’s voice... she sounds like she has a face for one of those old timey commentators on the radio.” Soon as Hazel whipped out a device that projected an insert from Taryon’s books from one of those a wax/vinyl tubes... *OH MY GOD! SHE HAS A FACE FOR RADIO! I LOVE HAZEL! Plus I enjoyed the friction between her and Doty.

*On a side note, you see, I have a D&D character (who happens to be an artificer) who would love to have to have that sort of invention in his room where he can listen to The Trails and Tribulations of Tary Darrinton as a guilty pleasure.

Damian Vadoma (played by Ashley Johnson) a half elf fighter (I wasn’t sure what her archtype was, but I have learnt that she was playing a Rune Knight from Unearthed Arcana, shoutout for weareunderthesameskies for pointing it out for me.) but I always seem to like Ashley playing as a tomboy. I was fooled by how Damian looked because of the tattoos, I personally though that she was playing a thug but deep down was really polite to Tary’s Mother. Plus I never saw a Dex-Based fighter in action before.

Buddy (played by Liam O’Brian) an Ogre Fighter, I thought that Liam wanted to play something from Mordenkienen’s Tome of Foes because there is this monster that looks exactly like Buddy that can carry 2 small creatures on their ‘backpack’ like halflings, goblins, gnomes and kobolds. Liam kept being in character for the whole one shot by sounding like Ludo from Jim Henson’s The Labryinth.

Macaroni Samsonite (played by Travis Willingham) a Halfling War Cleric (shoutout for zephycrowthone for pointing it out) but not sure what deity he worships though, so I won’t set foot of the pantheons as although not the typical brick and mortar religions we commonly have on D&D, his get up seems quite tribalistic. Travis pretty much sounded like the the voice of the male gnome from World of Warcraft. Macaroni has a very strong relationship with Buddy “Hey Lady! Get your OWN ogre!

#critical role #critrole

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enddaysengine · 7 years

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Exploring the Manifest Zone - The Last War

Here's Episode 2 and man have I been looking forward to this one! It's been a while since life kinda happened in between this being released and now, but I'm okay with playing catchup. Today we are talking about the Last War.

https://manifest.zone/02-the-last-war/

I like that Wayne's bringing up the civil war aspect of the Last War. The fact there are no recent civil wars in Europe or North America certainly does alter our vision of what war looks like, although it is worth pointing out that we are still feeling the shock waves of the American Civil War today, even in the not-United States parts of the continent. Imagine what it must be like for those who are only two years removed from a century long civil war.

The tension of having no winner in the Last War is a plot point that you can spin multiple campaigns out of. It was an excellent call for the setting not to resolve the problems that nations are facing. It adds a level of dynamism because everything is so unstable and can collapse into multiple potential futures.

Huh, I never really thought about the Dragonmarked Houses having terms dictated to them by the Empire of Galifar. Maybe that's because I always saw them as being partnered with the royals, but then again, alliances come and go. Just because Galifar I got them on his side doesn't mean they still had a cozy relationship by the time that Jarot rolled around. It makes sense that the Dragonmarks would be screwed before the Last War if the Empire didn't want to play ball. Stormreach was a minor economic player, and while the Lhazzar Principalities were technically autonomous, but they still bent a knee to Thronehold. I could easily many Dragonmarks feeling that the war was horrible, but that in many ways it saved and freed their families.

I'd love to get an entirely in-universe book that shows the history and contents of the Korth Edicts and the Treaty of Thronehold. It probably won't happen anytime soon and would be more likely as a product produced by fans (or Keith) in the DM's Guild once Eberron finally gets allowed.

I hadn't considered that the creation forges might have been shut down because Cannith came in with a weak hand. It always seemed to me like the forges got closed because of escalation fears. The fact that some Cannith heirs may be resentful towards that poor leadership is an interesting perspective.

Warforged leases or rentals. Excellent idea. It makes perfect sense for Cannith to try and extract payment for warforged soliders multiple times. They may even try and argue that this wasn't so different from pain a soldier salary, and to structure their lease agreements to make it look like you paid less for the warforged.

The separate culture of Valenar from Cyre is something that's come up a couple of times, but I don't ever think got the attention it deserved. Take a look at the pre-War map of Galifar:

What is now Valenar is cut off from the rest of Cyre by the Blade Desert. They were nominally part of the nation and the empire, but they were both distant from the heart of its power and geographically isolated. I highly doubt this is the first time they tried to break away and rebel. I also note that as I compare maps, it does look like there is a piece of old Cyre that escaped the Mourning, the south shore of Lake Cyre. It's now part of the Talenta Plains, but I expect this may be one of the last remnants of the nation that still looks much like it did before the war. There could be interesting plot hooks there.

So, Droaam. One of my favourite nations out there, but Keith's suggestion that the Five Nations treats Droaam like Westerns treat Daesh is fascinating. It's not a perfect comparison because Droaam isn't actively at war with everyone around them (can you even got to war with the Shadow Marches), but it does inform other types of attitudes and plots you could use in stories.

The distinction between Droaam and Darguun's political situations is important listening if you want to use either of those countries in a campaign. The goblins were more involved with the war and had gained allies. Essentially, they played the game of politics and came to the table at the Treat of Thronehold with enough clout and chips to offer to gain legitimacy. They also had a past president. For a very different analogy, consider the relationships that Christians and Jews had with the Roman Empire. Both were disruptive to the state religion, which demanded that homage is paid to the Roman emperor and his ancestors. Both Christians and Jews refused, but the Romans allowed the Jews to practice their religion because they saw that religion as being a fundamental cornerstone of an ancient civilization. To the Romans, the Jews had enough historical legitimacy that they would be tolerated, even though they disrupted the religious status quo. The Christians, on the other hand, were a recent phenomenon for the Romans, so they were not seen as having the same pedigree and same legitimacy. Darguun is like the Jews in this scenario. The goblins not only had nations but empires before humanity conquered them. A goblin nation could be seen as a revival of that tradition and be more socially/politically acceptable than a gang of monsters trying to build a state.

Another important note on that legitimacy thing is the age of elves. An elf's lifespan of 750 years for an elf being about the biological equivalent of 110 for a human (before magical enhancement). The Dhakanni Empires collapsed about 5000 years ago, an extremely extended period for humans on modern Eberron, but more like 1283 CE for them the historical memory of elves. Given that countries like Israel and Greece in the real world were able to garner enough recognization using historical memories from the first millennium BCE, it doesn't seem very far-fetched for the elves to view the rise of Darguun as the return of an old but hardly forgotten nation.

The Mournland being in the centre of the continent create some challenges, particularly in the east to west movement, but the payoffs you get are much larger. I've had several campaign hooks hinge of off Breland and/or Darguun trying to restore overland (or underground) transportation routes to Talenta, Valenar, or Karrnath. There's a lot you can play with there. I also really like having the wasteland in the middle of everything. The whole "World's Largest Dungeon" schtick plays well. The Last War is also useful in justifying dungeons beyond modern structures. Large magical explosions could easily have exposed previously hidden ruins, and now that there is peace, those dungeons can be explored.

The Last War is a great story hook for building a character. I really like the idea of starting a group during the war as a prologue/flashback, then skipping ahead to 998 YK. That helps to give a sense of the significance of the Mourning.

Kalashtar can be tricky to include in the War, and I've never really given them much thought in that context. Their culture is a bit isolationist and it has more than a bit of a superiority complex. Why would they get involved in a quarrel between warring siblings when they have all of reality to save? I like the idea "orphaned" kalashatar who have lost contact with their culture. That does not mean they have to be literal orphans, it could be the result of Kalashtar who fled East from Sarlona and ended up in the Shadow Marches or Demon Wastes, or whose Kalashtar parent renounced the shadow war with the Dreaming Dark to live amongst humans. Of course, that the Dreaming Dark may have been one of the groups trying to engineer the Last War is logical and would be a perfect reason for Kalashtar getting involved. That gets lots of cloak and dagger, espionage, and spycraft stories going.

Thinking about the effect war has had on you is interesting. I've dealt with PTSD (not from combat, but still) so I know there's a balance to walk with your character between having the War impact the way you act without crippling your character. I definitely appreciate Scott's perspective. He's given very good advice on how to get inside a military mindset. Handicapping vs storytelling is also an important discussion to have.

Scott's storytelling advice is excellent in general, not just for warfare, but for everything. Get into more senses than just sight and give your players choices of what do, even if it doesn't change the immediate plot to get them to engage in the moment and the emotions. Then let the ongoing plot further develop from those choices. The experiences shared by a party who served in the war together is a great place to start. I like Keith's questionnaire a lot. Definitely going to steal it.

The idea of a party trying to rebuild their bar after it burned down in the war is a great take on how to tie everyone together. I should write some fiction around that. The impact of the war doesn't have to be all angst and devastation. The war can impact people in other meaningful but relatable ways too.

The reignition of the Last War is something I haven't actually played around with much. That said, I have messed around with the breaking of the balance of power. My games have tended to either be localized to specific cities if they deal with politics. I do want to develop Thaliost and a couple of other cities in the future and it would be a good idea to bear in mind some of the potential local sparks that could set the continent back on fire.

The Lord of the Blades leading a warforged nation is something that I have wanted to do, but haven't had the chance to yet. One idea I had was House Cannith and Orien trying to reattach the east-west Lightning Rail trade routes by going under the Mournlands through Kyber. The Lord of Blades doesn't take to kindly to that, claiming that the caverns are part of the warforged's sovereign land and that it was effectively a declaration of war. I love the question of "Is the Lord of Blades Magneto or Doctor Doom?" It gives a nice touchstone to the personality of LoB.

I know this is beating a dead horse, but Eberron's ability to handle issues from the real world is amazing. Cyran refugees is an easy one since it is a hot topic in global politics. You could pretty easily pull up any newspaper, leaf through it, and use any given article about the current plight of refugees to get yourself a plot hook. If you are looking for something a bit more complicated, I suggest reading into the current controversy around Safe Third Country agreement between the United States and Canada.

Above and beyond that, I've plotted a couple of campaigns revolving around Cyran refugees. On is a straight up adaptation of Pathfinder's Kingmaker adventure path, substituting the Stolen lands for Eastern Breland. The general idea was that between the Mournlands and Darguun, Brelanders were fleeing their lands westwards, so New Cyre was allowed to send out companies of refugees to resettle the abandoned lands. It works well and maps pretty nicely to the geography if you flip Kingmakers east and west. The other one was similar in concept but comes from the original ECS itself. Aundair, not wanting to take in any more refugees, instead resettles them in the abandoned town of Desolute in the Demon Wastes. Effectively, Desolute becomes both a frontier city and a high-functioning refugee camp.

I would be all over a book about wartime technology in Eberron. Technological advances in war have driven a lot of Earth's history, so seeing a magical counterpart would hit my sweet spot where science and history overlap. Treetrunk artillery is a wonderful mental image.

Next Up - Dragonmarked Houses. I'll be quicker this time, as long as the Traveller doesn't steal my keyboard.

#manifest zone #keith baker #eberron #wotc #worldbuilding #3.5

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