#i might have the possibility to DM for a group at a local game store!

[gobblewanker]

so now that making dnd content no longer makes me feel like I'm signing a deal with the devil...

#gravity falls #dnd project #stanley pines #stanford pines #jheselbraum #my art #i might have the possibility to DM for a group at a local game store! #might test this campaign out on them #you know without telling them its gravity falls

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

Hi there!

I hope you're doing well. 🙂

My random question is (because I think you've mentioned DND) : For someone wanting to start playing dnd, what advice would you give?

Thank you for asking! Always exciting to see somebody else getting into D&D. I haven’t played as much as others, but hopefully this will help get the ball rolling.

First rule everyone should know: No D&D is better than bad D&D

We’re all here to have fun, so if you're not having fun then you should stop

It doesn’t even have to be because you’re having a problem with a person at the table, it could just be the story everyone is telling is just not one you want to participate it

We have a limited time on this earth, don’t force yourself to do something you don’t really want to do

Next, don't do a paid campaign for your first game

There are a lot of paid campaigns online and while I'm not opposed to the idea, you're still learning and so shouldn't have to pay for a DM

If you don't have somebody to play with in person, check out your local gaming store to see if anybody is running a game, failing that, roll20 and D&D Beyond forums are a good place to start

Once you find a group, make sure to communicate any boundaries or triggers you have early

This is a role playing game and depending on the game, things can get intense, so make sure you're at a table that will respect those boundaries

After that, talk to the DM as much as possible

DMs want you to ask about the story they're trying to make, you're not bothering them with questions, I promise you

If you're having trouble figuring out a backstory, they're the best person to ask; and if they're being cagey about helping you, that's red flag

Also, try to get to know the other people at the table before game time

If you're playing with strangers, you should have a session zero allowing everybody to chat and get a feel for each other

These are the people you're going to be telling this story with, take the time to listen to them and ask about their characters

This is collaborative story telling, so communication and listening to each other is essential

I'd also recommend starting with a low level campaign (levels 1-3) to get a grasp of the rules

Staring with a martial character (barbarian, fighter, rogue, or monk), might also be best too as you don't have to keep track of spells

Of course, if a martial class isn't fun for you, disregard, I'm sure you can figure it out

I'd also say that at the minimum you should buy The Player's Handbook. The rest can come with time and necessity

D&D Beyond is also a really good resource when it comes to character sheets and creation

Also, remember that the game you're going to play isn't going to be like a live play or Baldur's Gate

You're a bunch of nerds playing make believe with more math; chances are a lot of it is going to be derivative, and that's okay

So long as you and everyone else at the table is having fun, that's all that matters

#d&d #dnd #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #dnd tips #d&d tips

[trantrumsfromthevoid]

I love your headcanon about Jasper's DnD nerdiness 45 years ago 😂 How big/involved did these games get and who did he play against?

Ha ha, thank you! I'm a big ol' nerd myself so I love these kinds of "deep dive" questions.

I feel like it first started out really, really small with only one, maybe two, people from school. I'm sure Alice played one game to see "what all the fuss" was about but with her ability to see into the future, it probably wasn't fun for anyone ... except maybe Alice. I can also see Carlisle getting into it as well and they played for awhile, but then something happens at the hospital and now Jasper's without any "family" players. Edward tried but didn't understand all the "fantasy lingo" and Emmett was too easily distracted by all the "shiny things" lol. I think Jasper probably posted signs at the high school and maybe even local community college. Maybe at a few game stores back in the day, too. Possibly at a restaurant/coffee shop if he could sweet talk them into it. (Which, knowing Jasper, I'm sure he could/did.)

While I was at the tail end of the Satanic Panic and it had mostly come and gone by the time I was really aware of things, I feel like there was probably still some hesitancy from folks (mostly adults but maybe a few "straight edge" kids) regarding DnD. If I remember correctly, I think there was some "concern" with DnD being Satanic as well. So maybe there was a bit of an "underground" vibe to Jasper's club. Maybe Jasper also used his emotional manipulation to sway people or ease their fears about it, which may have helped to add more members. But I also feel like, with Jasper's ability to elevate the moods - maybe add a little bit of "cool factor" to the appeal - I think it probably caught on in popularity pretty quickly. One week there was only one or two people during the designed game time and then three weeks later you've got eight or nine kids there.

I think, just with Jasper's limited ability to hang out with a bunch of humans, it probably was never hugely popular. I also think that - with my limited DnD knowledge - you probably don't wanna have, like, forty-five people playing, either. I think at its height, there were probably maybe ten to twelve people playing at a time. And he probably broke them up into two groups of five/two groups of six. I think it was always unsaid but Jasper was the president/organizer of the DnD club so he'd be tasked with picking a time, date, seeing about available classrooms (if at school)/other locations, who'd be on teams, etc. I can see this, almost comical moment, the first time everyone gets together and Jasper doesn't bring snacks and the one human kid being like "No snacks? I'm starving!" And then Jasper has a moment of, like, "Oh, yeah ... maybe I'll have more players if I bring snacks. Human snacks. Like chips. Mental note: research snacks."

I feel like even though Jasper seems to be pretty chill, I think he'd always wanna be the Dungeon Master (DM). Like, I think that was always unspoken as well, that Jasper was the DM. I think, too, that once Jasper found "his people" they were able to play steadily for a couple of years. Or at least until the Cullen's would have to move again. By the time the internet rolled around Jasper gave the online RP community a try but it just wasn't the same. He did it, for sure, because you have all this time, you might as well use it. But it just wasn't the same for him, yk? I also think it'd be really cool if all of Jasper's "original" teammates got together once - like a DnD reunion of sorts. I feel like wigs and costumes could go a long way with the Cullen's and I'm kinda surprised SM never thought to use them. But I can definitely see Alice aging him up (and having a lot of fun in the process) so that Jasper could hang out with his high school DnD pals again and look like he was sixty years old (or however old he'd need to be).

#twilightadvent22 #day 2 #jasper hale #the twilight saga #headcanons #dnd #twilight #answered ask #jessicanjpa

[dmsden]

Exploring the Options - Making D&D’s other pillar more robust

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from ididitforthedogs, who asks, “The three pillars of DnD are combat, socializing, and exploring. Do you have any tips on how to build a good exploring section? My group does theater of the mind so it's not like we have a grid to use.”

In my experience, this can be an area where a lot of DM’s fall down a bit. Combat is pretty straightforward, and social interaction is baked into the whole “Role-Playing Game” thing. But what about Exploration? How do we make it interesting and exciting, to bring it online with the other pillars?

My first piece of advice is to avoid uninteresting terrain. If there’s a journey happening, and there’s nothing particular of interest for your PCs to encounter, simply state, “You travel for three days through the dense forest and emerge from the other side, no worse the wear for your experience.” I like to roll for random encounters before the journey even begins and to move things along to the interesting bits. If there’s nothing particularly exciting for the PCs to find in the forest, don’t belabor the point. Get to the good stuff!

The flip side to this is to make sure there’s interesting terrain for your players to encounter. Even in our own world, it’s hard to drive for more than a few miles without finding a natural feature of interest, a roadside attraction, or a store worth browsing. D&D is a fantasy world, potentially brimming with rivers made of lava, waterfalls that go up, forests of giant mushrooms, yawning caves, fairy glens, ancient ruins, and the like. But I have two rules when it comes to this kind of thing:

1. If the PCs are already on their way someplace interesting, don’t offer them too many distractions. The players may be wanting to get on to the Goblin Lair; they don’t necessarily need you to dangle an entrance into the Underdark. While that may be of potential interest, it threatens to derail the narrative, especially if it divides the players in their desire to continue towards their original goal. Instead, save the Underdark lair for when they’re returning to town to pick up their reward. Then they’ll have a potential new goal.

2. If you add something interesting to a journey for the PCs to explore, make their be some reward for taking the time to explore. I’m not saying put treasure into every curious corner of your world; a reward doesn’t have to be treasure. Perhaps eating the giant mushrooms gives the PCs a vision of an enemy they wish to confront. Maybe they can harvest glowing moss from near the lava river that they can use as a light source temporarily. Maybe they meet a merchant who’s also fascinated by the ancient ruin, giving them a chance to pick up some healing potions at a decent rate. In my campaign, information is often a reward. Stopping to examine some curious aspect of the landscape might yield a historical tale from a local, or advice on where to look for healing herbs, or the like.

When the PCs get where they’re going, Exploration should be just as important. One strong caveat I give in building dungeons is to make Exploration have significant choices. Let’s say they arrive at the Goblin Lair. Upon entering, they find three tunnels. If that’s all the information the PCs get, they don’t really have any significant decision to make, as all three tunnels are the same to them. Instead, you might tell them that one tunnel seems clean and well-used, with the stone looking well-worn by many years of foot traffic. The second tunnel might be eerily clean, with all dust and debris curiously absent. A third tunnel could be slowly descending, dusty and seemingly not used in many years, with a smell of decay wafting up from it. Now the PCs have choices to make that offer significant differences. The first tunnel sounds like it’s used by the goblins regularly. The second tunnel might be clean because of oozes that the goblins feed regularly to keep in check. The third tunnel might be a lair for undead that the goblins have learned to shun. Whatever the answers to the riddles posed by the information you’ve given them, the PCs can develop their own thoughts, and the choice they make will have some meaning.

Not every room needs to be significant, but there should be something of interest in any given area the PCs explore. Even a disused and empty room might have some kind of debris that helps tell a story. Is the dungeon the site of an ancient massacre? The PCs might find rusted and broken armor and weapons in otherwise empty rooms. Is it a cult’s temple? Empty rooms might be storehouses for robes, hanging on pegs, or storage chambers with food for the cultists. You can add broken potion bottles, alchemical burns on stone, walls, ceiling, or floors covered in ancient murals, rooms made of odd materials, rooms with odd magical properties, and the like, before you even think of adding traps, puzzles, tricks, and oddities.

Even if your party doesn’t have a rogue, you should occasionally add locks, secret doors, and traps into your games where they make sense. One thing I always say is not to put anything of crucial value behind a lock, trap, or secret door (or riddle or puzzle for that matter). If your dungeon can’t be finished without overcoming one of these, then there’s a chance your players won’t be able to finish it, and they’ll be disappointed. Instead, use these things to hide side bits, extra treasures, and maybe an encounter or two. Never allow your adventure to dead end.

I can strongly recommend adding oddities in to spice up the Exploration portion of your adventure. Once upon a time, they were super commonplace in the so-called “funhouse dungeons” of yesteryear. Rooms full of large vats of different colored liquids, old wizard labs with strange reagents, fountains with random magical effects, and enchanted stones that slowly scintillate different colors are all possible in dungeons. Dungeons can have, to use our beloved phrase from Starlord, “some weird shit!” And examining these, experimenting with them, and learning about them, all fall squarely under the Exploration heading.

I hope this article helped inspire you, friends. Until next week, may all your 20s be natural.

[tabletopjourneys]

Session 35 Notes

The Silver Scale Pack get to know various members of Rana's immediate family, get woken by draconic-speaking rodents, find out more about their quest, and hit a few stores on their way back through Longview, headed for one of the local taverns.

@gher-bear @aradow @telurin @epimetala

On this day we have a nice visit with Rana's mother, Romy, stay over and find out Anesh, for as long as anyone can remember, has a population of tiny animals that speak draconic. They all speak draconic and have infected our rats with the same! It's totally normal guys! And no, Diem, it is not because one of the town's people is secretly a dragon. We'd know. For sure.

The next day we move on to meet Rana's brother, sister-in-law, niece, and niephew. We find out a little more about Haldric and Phi's daggers, which she hides in her pack and displays her common daggers in their place instead. Ixayl'anu gets her platinum ring made, Diem gives the kids their putty vivis as a gift. On our way toward the tavern, we hit a general supply store and maaaybe one other??? Dried fruits and granola were purchased along Phi's medical supplies at any rate.

(Read More)

Session 35 Notes

Notes!

(Chillin’ with Rana’s mom)

When we go in Rana’s home, Phi becomes a wandering cat who helps herself to exploration, comes back and says “There’s a hot tub!”

Mom: You’re welcome to borrow it.

Phi: Is this where you grew up?

Rana: Yep! (pulls out duck sauce, honey, apple jam etc. - giving it to her mom).

Phi sees this and pulls out her very expired mixed fruit to hand over, along with her gummy owlbears.

Mom: Oh no dear, that’s fine, you don’t have to start pulling supplies out of your pack.

Phi drops the gummy owlbears into the pile anyway.

Rana: Really sorry to barge in like this, but we just needed a couple of days, we’ve run into some situations and I’m looking for someone in Bouldergap - wanted to see if Stell knew anything about them.

Romy tells us we’re welcome anyway, stresses that this is still Rana’s home too and says something about friends that I missed for note-taking.

Rana pulls out the silver scale and letter from Retin and talks about him, says she’s pretty sure the guy Retin is sending us to is a dwarf. We were told he might be helpful, but we weren’t told where he was. She figured Bouldergap was the place to look and knows it’s a long shot her mom or brother would know him but we also needed a place to stay on the way, so thought she thought she might as well ask.

Romy: I can’t be sure but I feel like Stell has mentioned a Haldric in passing but I certainly don’t have a whole lot of communication with anybody of that name.

Rana: No ironbands as customers then?

Romy: No

Rana: It’s a weird thing, handed us this dragon scale gave us that name and sent us this way.

We’ve noticed Romy has a bone of contention with Rana over the news about shadowood travelling.

With prompting Diem remembers they’re the story teller and should tell it, 13 performance, gets smoother as they go on. However, to their friends, who have heard Diem tell this particular story among others many times, they definitely seem off their game a little.

When we get to fighting the dragon, Romy is worried, Diem insists healers were on standby so nobody died

Rana: We almost had him.

Diem: Well I mean technically one of us did get him later that night…

Phi cracks up laughing

After stories Rana says something about the meteor

Mom says something I missed for note-taking, GM is telling us about blacksmiths/nosy customers (so maybe something about that?).

Through conversation we gather that Grismor is innkeeper/tavern keeper of The Smiling Dragon - one of 2 inns who trades in gossip. Smiling Dragon is better for gossip, better drink, does his own ale, seasonal brews, jolly little dwarf who is as tall as he is round. Square dwarf.

Rana tells us about her messages to her brother which provided a nice distraction about meteor news for Longview.

Rana offers her mother the camels then belated asks us if that’s alright.

Diem says that they can’t obviously take the camels everywhere they go after this anyway.

There’s some talk about whether they’re needed for the trip further North.

Romy: Lets see how they do with the sheep

Rana: Elk’s in with the sheep and they’re doing fine (I think we ended up deciding ooc that it’s in a separate paddock though).

Rana is playing with the silver dragon scale while making small talk which eventually includes Farford gossip too - specifically the mention of a firecat.

Romy: Yeah someone was talking about seeing one here too.

Rana: No one saw the person it was with so I’m thinking it’s just a stray

Romy: We do have a lot of flame point cats in the area so it’s possible I suppose.

Ixayl’anu: Is it the same type of cat?

Conversation about them being wild cats vs tame, a specific species, etc continues.

Rana: No like flame point siamese not actual fire

DM: these are not just cats they are more akin to avatars of The Candace

We find out the entire town is talking about firecats too

Rana: How’s Stell (Stellan) doing? I picked up a few things for the kids, so hopefully they’ll like it.

Romy: Good

Rana: Nothing alive

Romy: I’m sure Stell will appreciate that.

Diem asks about the kids so we find out Rana has a niece and niephio (I have no idea on the spelling for this and a google search turned up only nibling as a suggestion for enby niece/nephew). Diem grins further to learn of the niephio in particular.

Rana (upon mention of the niece): She big enough to help with the forge yet?

Romy: She’s big enough to do the bellows and help out

Rana: We will hunt them down tomorrow

Phi: Yay!

At some point Phi would say “So your brother only has two kids?”

Rana: Yeah just two kids

Phi: Oh, so they’re just starting?

Rana: No I get the impression they might be done

Phi: Interesting...

Rana: At least he doesn’t (something I missed)

Phi: Well, that’s why you have more, so they can be together.

Rana: I’ll mention it to him...better yet you could mention it to him

Phi: This is the starter pack right?

Romy is extremely amused by this conversation.

(Dinner prep and additional conversations)

There are dress mannequins and clothes everywhere, fabrics everywhere.

Diem and Romy eventually start talking about the tailoring and different fabrics and fashions etc.

As they talk about that, Rana wanders off to make food for everyone.

Phi goes to help cook.

Diem wanders off with Romy to talk about fabrics and fashion some more (Rana will throw them out the second story window if they do more than that lol).

Rana was half sorting her bag and still has her rocks and stuff spread out on the rug even as she’s making dinner now.

Romy gifts Diem an outfit by the end of their conversation, still so happy this is the first time Rana’s brought anyone home. As she’s got Diem pulled aside though, she asks for more details about everything that happened, worried and just making sure everything’s truly good, and how is Rana really doing?

Diem spins it well about how capable Rana is.

Her mom def agrees and looks worried, but noticeably less so.

While waiting for dinner we all talk more, telling Romy about how we saved Perfection. She does not look ready to come to terms that her daughter is an adventurer now, but accepts it.

Part 16 of Rana rumors according to the other townsfolk who saw us all: “Yeah we knew something like this was gonna happen eventually”

Rana brings up the thunderbird and we talk about that.

Food got delivered, rats were introduced, how Rana and Phi have been training them to spy, rat race story from the Harvest festival gets told as well.

Rana notes that she is actually showing us off to her mom <3

Rana prompts us to talk about ourselves to her mom.

Phi happily tells her whole life story, or at least all the things she’s said to us as a group.

Ixyal’anu talks a little about herself as well.

Diem hangs back and doesn’t say much during this portion as they already talked pretty extensively with Romy already.

Rana: And Ixayl'anu’s on a task for her god but she doesn’t have a fire cat, she has vague dreams.

Romy asks about Ixayl’anu’s deity, pleasant ‘mom questions.’

As things wind down, Diem remembers the find familiar spell and asks if they have a moment, whether it would be alright to summon them while they’re here - noting it would listen to their directions and not make a mess or break anything. They get permission, but never end up doing the spell before bed.

Phi takes her hot tub bath, Diem takes one after.

After Rana gets us settled to bed in the guest room, she goes out and takes a point of exhaustion spending 8 hours to cast enriching the land again since she’s been gone a few years and it only lasts a year, then she goes and sits with the sheep, all of the sheep bed down next to her in a sea of white around her and she leans back against the nearest sheep for a nap/meditation during the spell. They remember her and know she’s the source of the good food.

(Mice vs. Rats: Draconic edition)

During the night, in the wee hours of the morning Ixayl’anu wakes up hearing some very high squeaky voices arguing “This is our territory”

“No, we were invited,” back and forth half awake-half asleep and thinking “what is this? Oh...this is real, this is something that is happening here.”

Very tiny angry voices continue.

Investigation check for more details 15: It’s dark in the room, she can kinda see in the shadows, she doesn’t see anyone. At the foot of Ixayl'anu’s bed is Horatio, four little house mice are around him being territorial against him, and the strange thing is they are all speaking draconic, including Horatio.

Ixayl'anu: What...what?

When Phi wakes up she doesn’t understand her rat any more, but she does hear the rat and mice speaking draconic.

Ixayl’anu: What?

The four mice squeak in a mousy scream

Horatio: Yeah you better run (turns to Ixayl'anu): Thanks!

Ixayl’anu: What? Why? Why are you speaking draconic?

Horatio: Is that what this is? I don’t know I was just suddenly able to and these mice were speaking a weird dialect and I found I could speak back in it as well.

Ixayl’anu: What...okay...and you’re still speaking it, who were they what were you fighting about?

Horatio: They live here and were being territorial and I was telling them I was an invited guest ‘cause I’m with you all.

(I am dead to the world as Phi wakes up)

Phi: Why are you talking to yourself?

Ixayl’anu gestures at the rat

Phi: Have you been teaching my rat that...?

Ixayl’anu: No…. Do you think that’s just something you can teach a rat?

Phi to Horatio: How are you doing that?

Horatio: I don’t know it just happened!

Phi: You’re still doing it…

There is conversation back and forth as its established among the three characters that Horatio still understands Phi, but since he is no longer speaking rat, she can’t understand him, but now Ixayl’anu can both understand and speak with him through draconic.

Ixayl’anu says something I missed.

Phi: what are you saying to my rat?

Ixayl’anu says something else I missed.

Horatio: You all can just decide what language to speak in? That’s weird.

Ixayl’anu: Yeah it is weird

Horatio: It’s a weird dialect and apparently it’s infectious.

Hamlet is mentioned in the back and forth and Phi, recognizing the name, wonders aloud if Hamlet is like this now as well. She tells Horatio he’s changed and she hopes it’s not permanent

Ixayl’anu tries to stop her to ask about that back and forth but Phi slips out of the guest room.

Phi 25 stealths through the house looking for Rana. From a window she sees an odd clump of sheep in the field. She goes out outside and climbs the fence.

Rana is deep in meditation.

Phi: Hamlet, wake up Hamlet…

Rat wakes up and cleans his face but says something back in draconic that she can’t understand.

Phi in common: Oh my god.

Phi uses her stone to let Ixayl'anu know not only this, but what she can see out here around Rana (visible plant growth around her - she’s decided to sleep on her sheep in the field which is weirdly moving and Hamlet’s doing the same thing, Rana’s not moving, I feel like I’m dreaming I don’t know about you…)

In squeakish Phi tells Hamlet that she can’t understand him but she knows he can understand her so “If you want to find out what’s going on you have to talk to Ixayl'anu about it because she’ll understand you. So I’m going to go now.”

Hamlet is irritated and goes back to sleep. All the sheep watch her. One sheep baas at her, then they all start baaing for food, none of them were speaking draconic.

Ixayl’anu to horatio while Phi’s gone: They just walked up to you and started talking to you and that was it?

Horatio: They tried to fight me!

Ixayl’anu: like biting and scratching?

Horatio: Yeah, look at this wet spot! And I’m an invited guest!

Ixayl’anu: That’s rude!

Horatio: That’s very rude, yeah! I’m an invited guest *stamps tiny rat feet*!

Together Ixayl’anu and Horatio determine they probably live in the roof or something, not pets.

Ixayl’anu casts detect magic. She sees the faintest little glow around Horatio. So faint you may think it’s not there and the only reason she sees it is because the lights are off, a wisp of power with the vaguest sense of magic. The source of it is nowhere nearby and the magic itself is so barely there she can’t even see the mice in the walls like she should have if they were properly bespelled in some way. It’s not any specific school for it. Mostly all she really sees is the glow of our various magic items.

At this point Phi returns

(Diem’s perception rolls were 2, 3, and now 0 lol. It is at this point we determine Diem is actually being held in sleep by their patron, catching up, talking about the familiar, and the follower and the spells and just having tea and a lovely bonding time. Probably when they were Tarma out in the desert, they did less communicating)

I missed some back and forth between Ixayl’anu, Phi, and Horatio.

Phi: They were being aggressive and picking on him?

Ixayl’anu to Horatio: Would you be willing to see where these mice have gone?

Horatio: You want me to bring one back to you? Yeah I can do that.

Ixayl’anu: You don’t have to but it’d be nice, I can give you food for it, *looks at her supplies*

Horatio: What kind of treat do I get, what’s in it for me?

Ixayl’anu: Nope no that’s not food I have nope that’s not food. *pauses in her rummaging* Well, what do you want, I suppose we can find something for you?

*thinks on it* A gummy owlbear?

Ixayl’anu: Oh I have some of those. Sure. *finds her little package of them*.

Horatio: Okay! *scurries off and disappears*

About two minutes later she hears furious squeak yelling, Horatio reappears holding a mouse by the scruff of its neck in his mouth “I found one!”

Ixayl’anu: Where’s the cage you keep the rats from? To put the mouse in?

Phi: We sold the cages, the carrier is Horatio’s home...there’s this box?

Ixayl’anu: Yeah that’ll do.

They find a box of rocks to gently empty real quick and put the mouse in it/close the lid (15 animal handling check).

As soon as Horatio had dropped the mouse: “Gummy owlbear please.”

Phi: He knows fetch now!

Ixayl’anu: All that training you’ve been doing with him is paying off! *taps box* Hello?

Phi: Ask if it if it talks like that if it knows it’s doing it or ask if it knows any dragons? I don’t know?

Ixayl’anu: Right?

Mouse is bouncing around in the box trying to get out.

Rana head canoned the rats as 400-550 grams

Horatio is gaming the system a little bit and only found a wine gummy to eat, never officially given one (Phi bought fancy rat treats for him)

(More things I missed and wrote down as “Talking to mouse ah 2”)

The mouse is screaming obscenities at Ixayl’anu.

Horatio is on his back in 7th heaven and suggests she should also give the mouse a gummy owlbear, maybe it’ll talk then.

Ixayl’anu sneaks in a smaller portion and it takes awhile for it to calm down and then it’s quiet for a little bit after until... “This doesn’t make us friends!”

Ixayl’anu: You want more? I’ve got more.

Mouse: I mean...yes

Ixayl’anu: I’m not planning on keeping you here I just want to ask a few questions

Mouse: More first

Ixayl’anu: Okay *puts in other half of gummy*

Mouse is very very quiet

Ixayl’anu taps the box: Hello?

Mouse (slurred): What do you want?

Ixayl’anu: Where’d you learn to talk like that

Mouse: I always talk like this this is how mice talk

Some similar back and forth about this.

Mouse (when asked about dragonborn/people like Ixayl’anu): People like you don’t come around here.

Ixayl’anu: Really? Oh… (to Phi in common now) I don’t this is how they talk, this is weird.

Phi: I think they just don’t know, they don’t know that they’re weird, you know

Ixayl’anu: But horatio thinks it’s a weird dialect

Phi: Did you ask if it if they saw any dragonborn? Or dragons?

Ixayl’anu: Well they haven’t seen anything like me (then to the mouse in draconic) Have you seen anything big with wings?

Mouse: Yeah outside but I live in this house I don’t have to worry about that

Ixayl’anu: Are there any mice that you can’t talk to?

Mouse: Everybody kinda talks like this around here

Ixayl’anu: Kind of or they do?

Mouse: They do?

Ixayl’anu: They all speak this...they all...speak this...I’m really confused.

They decide to try and wake Diem up for a third opinion, and it takes awhile before Diem’s patron allows it, letting Diem know that their friends need them for a moment, so they will have to continue catching up later.

Ixayl’anu as Diem finally starts waking up out of sorts: Weird things are happening

Diem continues to be out of it enough for a bit until eventually Phi catches them up - including the detail about Rana meditating in a cloud of sheep.

Phi (to Diem about the mouse in the box: It’s drunk

Diem: Are you guys sure you’re not drunk?

Phi: I’m not sure we’re not dreaming

Ixayl’anu: This isn’t dreaming not even close.

(I didn’t tag these two responses so the first might be Ixayl’anu and the 2nd Phi)

Too tired to bother with ritual magic, Diem uses a slot to cast comprehend languages.

Mouse asks if we’ve got more of those treats, which Horatio hears and says “Yeah! I’ll eat another!” *perks up*

Diem translates for phi who turns sharply to Horatio to talk about how many he’s already eaten and how he got one in the first place to ask Ixayl’anu for another, etc.

Horatio looks sheepish: Weeeellll sometimes you don’t secure your bag very good and I was hungry and they smelled good.

Phi smirks and retrieves Ixayl’anu’s package of owl gummies, then gives half to Horatio, and half to the mouse.

Horatio: YES! (helping her), I want this one I want the bigger section ‘cause I’m bigger and I get the big one (little grabby rat hands)

Diem does a history check on any stories they might have heard about talking animals like this (21). There are plenty of fairy tales with talking animals, sometimes it’s afey kind of thing - playing a prank on people. They’ve heard of similar events happening before, pretty disparate not tied to one physical location. Sometimes they’ve heard stories of animals in an area like within a mile circle will be able to speak draconic or sometimes other languages, not really a pattern to it. Sometimes it’s little towns, other times it’s connected to a whole city. Might be a natural phenomena. Specifically tiny beasts/birds/lizards are usually the type able to speak.

They also know various fae and wish spells can make this happen, but still they’re just random.

Diem shares this with Phi and Ixayl’anu.

(Insert missed conversation here)

Horatio or the mouse (not sure which): Yeah sure sometimes you say words that are funny and I don’t really understand what they are and they kinda sound like that and I don’t know what they are.

?: All the fangs or one specific thing? (I have no idea who said this or where fangs come into play)

We discover the mouse once met a gopher, stuck his nose in its burrow and it yelled at him back in draconic.

Diem to Ixayl’anu: Ask the mouse if it knows any fae in the area

Mouse makes an intelligence check when she asks, but does not know what she is talking about.

We confirm the mouse has always spoken draconic

Diem tells a quick rendition of cinderella as an example of fae meddling with small creatures where dress making is also involved (theorizing that perhaps Rana’s mother gets help from the mice as well)

We’re fairly certain it’s a normal mouse though and it’s now snoring softly so we’re not getting any more info.

Horatio by now is sprawled out on the bed, Phi cuddled around him while Diem gives him scritches. At a loss, we all go back to sleep for now, planning to ask Rana more in the morning.

(Good Morning!)

In the morning Phi will figure out the coffee situation and make some for everyone.

Romy (waking up to this): This is such a nice change of pace, somebody making the coffee for a change, and friends Rana brings in not destroying the house by the time I get up.

Phi: It’s no problem, I was just watching Rana from the window and figured she’d really like some, she’s gonna be tired so I can make sure coffee is waiting for her. We do have quite a story to tell her though.

Romy shows Phi where the biscotti is and such.

Rana is just now getting up and plucks Hamlet up.

Elk: something happened something happened something happened

Rana is feeding the sheep and clearly thinks the elk just wants some too

Elk: Oh is it breakfast? I’d like breakfast too!

Diem, after sleeping on it, performs a new arcana check on what sort of spells and effects cause draconic-speaking critters (21 again). They know now it can be caused by fae, wish spells, high level wizarding things will happen, and that similar strange effects happen around ancient dragon lairs (a little nugget buried in all their Miova dragon research they’d forgotten about), and that sometimes it’s just random without no discernible cause.

Rana comes in covered in sheep wool, hay, butt and legs wet, but she’s happy. Everything outside is noticeably green and lush.

Phi: We made coffee

Rana is super grateful and makes a beeline to grab a cup.

Rana: I took care of the plants and the animals

Ixayl’anu comes down around this time with the mouse in the box.

Romy: Your friend made coffee and something happened last night they were just about to tell me about.

Rana statues over her mother’s words with an ‘oh no what kind of things?’ sort of reaction.

Phi we’ll explain: Where’s Hamlet? Is he in your bag? Wait I’ll go get Horatio (who is snuggling Diem upstairs still)

Rana scritches Hamlet who asks “Oh is it breakfast time?” (in draconic) She’s tired enough she just hands it the biscotti without thinking.

When Phi returns she gets down on her knees in front of hamlet with horatio

Phi: What about today? What are you speaking today?

Speaking to her around his mouth of biscotti “I dunno what am I speaking today?”

This pings for Rana like hey…

Diem comes down as Ixayl'anu is talking about what happened.

Rana healing words the mouse. 7 pts healing. He immediately wakes up and feels great.

Mouse while cleaning his face: I feel really great?!

Ixayl'anu: You want some biscotti?

Mouse (very distrusting): Yes...

She sets the biscotti down. After awhile she’s half grinning and looking at her mom now.

Rana to the group: They just do that around here, always have.

Romy: That’s why the rumor mill here is so lively.

Diem: Why draconic?

(missed conversation)

Rana: Most people understand at least a few words.

Diem: What’s the local lore on it all? I mean...there’s gotta be stories involved?

Romy: The local lore - I did ask around since I’m not from here, it was very strange at the beginning but the townspeople didn’t seem to be bothered, the general consensus is that it’s a blessing of Vkandis.

Diem gets us all talking about maybe the silver scale dragon living nearby as they also share what they remembered about such events after they woke up.

Rana insists she would’ve seen it

Romy thinks you would know though, Diem mentions that they slept with one and didn’t know until the next day though so...

Romy: Rana you did see those kites though (a local cryptid)…?

Rana: That was definitely not a dragon.

Ixayl’anu: Birds? What?

Rana: They almost look like a roc but they’re definitely not rocs (some people write them off as rocs or pterodactyls but the markings are different they are an air cryptid - Ropen from New Guinea).

We get enough from context to realize this is an unusual sighting, but we are not outright told it’s a local cryptid, like spotting bigfoot.

We are told to watch what we say because the bakers bribe the birds and the whole town will end up knowing.

Rana: That thing is def not a dragon though.

Romy admits she’s never even seen a dragon before.

Rana: Diem rode it

Diem (laughing): In more ways than one

Phi laughs too

Rana still insists she would know if one of the townspeople were a dragon though while Diem insists you really couldn’t know that for sure, what if they just enjoyed a simple life and to avoid discovery they just chose a form that aged with the town, no one the wiser. Rana still insists it’s not possible.

Diem: So sure you’d know? We’ve traveled a month together on the road practically living together. How do you actually know I’m not a dragon?

Rana: I don’t.

Prepared for a similar pushback, this admission clearly surprises Diem. “And yet you’re this sure about people you haven’t spent every waking moment with?”

Rana says she thinks if you are not living time people need to know they need to know they will find out what you are doing.

Ixayl'anu: It could just be sleeping somewhere.

Rana: Either way this is just a normal thing

Ixayl’anu: Sure not really but sure.

Diem: Could be the innkeeper and has always been an innkeeper because they enjoy it. Everybody needs a hobby.

Ixayl'anu wants to know if V’kandis has anything to do with dragons.

(It is at this point we are informed that we’ve seen Romy has a shrine to V’kandis in the house as we’ve ignored this fact in favor of being like oh no, it’s not ‘cause a god blessed your town, it’s because of a secret dragon!).

Ixayl'anu scoots the mouse on his way and turns the topic of discussion toward our reasons for being in Longview and Anesh: So we’re looking for this dwarf?

Rana: No we’re looking for my brother

Ixayl’anu: Does he know where he is?

Rana: Maybe.

Phi: How old is he?

Rana: Older than I am

Phi: Oh, so definitely should’ve had more kids by now

Diem: Wait, Phi how many kids do you have then?

Phi (mishearing): Ooooh lemme get back to you on that...between 80 and 50.

Diem: You have at least 50 kids?

Phi: Oh no I have 0 kids, I don’t have that kind of life.

Rana herds us out the door, she leaves most of her heavier stuff at home.

(To Stellan’s house we go)

For some reason we established Diem definitely gets changed under an illusion of Ixayl'anu ever since using her image as a changing screen back in Budelia. Ixayl’anu has no problem with that, but they’ve all probably seen flashes of Diem’s side and leg tattoos anyway over the month we’ve been together.

Before we leave the house Diem casts comprehend languages as ritual. The birds quiet as we approach, but then the chattering starts up and we catch names and normal gossip presumably about people around town.

Ixayl’anu and Diem have a bit of a side chat about this in the RP text snippets section.

We have an uneventful walk over.

We walk in without knocking - Stell is clearly working on a sword or piece of armor.

Amira (the little girl def notices our presence, specifically Rana’s)

Rana quietly holds out her arms for a hug and Amira runs over squealing with excitement.

Diem: That is so adorable.

Rana scoops her up and has her on her hip now.

Amira looks at us and her eyes get really big - like who are you all? With continued excitement.

Stellan takes notice, surprised Rana brought friends, but still busy hammering out the sword.

Rana: Did you get your pigeons?

Stellan (withering look at his sister): I got THREE pigeons, yes.

Rana grins even bigger at his tone and expression.

Stellan is still working on whatever he’s hammering into during this exchange.

Rana: I was worried they wouldn’t get through so I had to send 3 of them.

Stellan: Well they all got here - first one was very surprising, after 3 though...

Phi: What was the message again Rana?

Rana: Oh, I sent him pigeons telling him about the meteorites and that we knew they were going to hit Anesh but we didn’t know where.

Stellan lets us know the meteors have been diverted and are scheduled to hit somewhere in the desert where there are no people.

Rana nods

Diem: Did they use magic to divert them?

Stell: You’re not from around here are you? Must suck to be from a place without a god that cares what happens to you.

He is a BIG guy. He stops hammering to shake our hands

Phi shakes with both hands to see how much she can get them around one of his (she can’t, there’s a gap between her fingertips).

He is very amused to have Phi forcibly shaking his hand with both of hers.

Meanwhile, Hamlet pokes out and gets on Rana’s shoulder to investigate the new passenger on Rana’s hip.

Amira: You have a new pet?

Rana: Yes, but this one is coming with me - you can still play with him for a bit.

Hamlet: What?

Amira in draconic: Wanna be my friend and play?

Hamlet: Okay!

Diem said some things during the exchange I forgot to note (probably a few cool stories about auntie Rana idk, asking about her speaking draconic?) that resulted in Amira excitedly adopting them for a tour of the house/playing with Hamlet. They follow Amira’s excited lead to do just that, but not before stopping near the next doorway for introductions to Adri, her mother.

Diem to Adri: She’s very adorable

Amira (talking about Aunt Rana): Look! She has a pet rat can we have a pet rat too?

Rana: I could probably get them a pet rat?

Adri: I could probably also get them one, if they’re responsible enough and can prove they’re ready to take care of it.

Some possible missed conversation before Adri, Amira, Diem, and Hamlet head deeper into the house while Rana continues talking to her brother.

Rana asks about the dwarf and shows him both the letter and silver scale, which he looks at while listening to the story about the wizard in the shadowoods

Stell: Are you sure it was Haldric that they wanted?

Rana: Yes (she double checks letter)

Stell: I know a Haldric Ironband but he’s a master blacksmith, but I...he...he’s never mentioned anything about wizards or honestly going anywhere so far away?

Rana: To be fair the wizard seemed to know who I was so maybe Haldric never met him either.

Stell: I don’t know this sounds like destiny hero bullshit

Phi is internally happy screaming about oh my god this actually works (it’s just as well that I never noted what actually works since the rest of us might only notice Phi’s happy scream state, rather than mind-reading the reason for it)!

Everyone but Diem learns this shorthand info I can’t entirely follow after the fact. My shorthand is awful and I’ve discovered I am unlikely to remember how to coherently type it later: Bhuxodihr for some reason you do want to mention t by the proper name he’s mostly retired, teaches to a select few, not stellan’s master. Haldric was stellan’s master’s master

Rana holds up the silver scale (again? I guess? lol) “You know what this would signify?” she hands it over to him. “Retin said we could use this, that it would give us legitimacy”

Stellan tests the hardness of it, getting higher and higher and Rana lets him and still nothing happens “Uh…(hands it back) I’m pretty sure this is the real thing.”

Rana: Real dragon scale?

Stellan: Mhm

Rana: Well that’s interesting

Stellan: Who did you say gave this to you again?

Rana: Retin, a wizard who lives in the Rethwellian Shadowoods

Stellan: I think Haldric knew someone down there but they weren’t genasi

Phi and Ixayl’anu tell him that we had a whole argument about it and deduced that Retin takes on the form of whatever will make you feel connected/more at home.

Phi or Ixayl’anu bring up how weird it is that all the animals here speak draconic.

Stellan, however, has hit his limit for weird shit, though not animals speaking draconic - that is a thing that’s completely normal.

Phi awkwardly: You should come visit us some time too, was great meeting you...or...yeah.

Ixayl’anu: Where would he meet us?

Phi: I have a home

Ixayl’anu: But you’re not really there

Phi: Well we can arrange it ahead of time.

Rana: She does have connections in Miova if you every go out that way.

Stellan says some things to Phi about all this, but as he’s talking he looks at her and she sees the moment when he notices her daggers and stops.

Stellan: Where did you get those?

Phi: They’re family heirlooms

Stellan: Nooo….where did you really get those? You can’t take those into stone roost or even bouldergap, not displayed on your hips like that.

Phi: Interesting you say that I was already thinking I should hide them because we found them on the skeleton of a dwarf in a cave in the woods

Ixayl'anu: No it was a corpse

Rana statues a little bit (which Stellan would notice)

Phi: There was a dwarf corpse, yes…

Stellan holds his hands up like ‘I don’t want to hear it’ and points at Phi: You cannot wear those, they’re only given to an elite group of dwarves and they do NOT give them to gnomes, you have to keep them hidden.

A few questions are asked about that. As far as Stellan knows, they’re assassins of some kind.

Phi: So do they have other weapons with the same characteristics?

Stellan: Sometimes they have short swords but not any arrows or large blades - just the small bladed weapons and it was a thing he wasn’t allowed to learn because he’s not a dwarf.

Phi: Do you know anybody who was in this group?

Stellan: No mostly these guys are like--

Rana (talking over him): I don’t think my brother knows any dwarvish assassins

Phi: If I were to return them to the right people, who would I talk to?

Stellan just looks at her for a few seconds: I don’t know if you just heard me but these guys don’t really advertised themselves

Ixayl’anu: Is this a group we wanna have anything to do with or just avoid them?

Stellan: If you’re really determined to get them back to someone, you might try Haldric, but I wouldn’t lead with that.

Ixayl’anu: Are they better to just be avoided?

Stellan: I wouldn’t wanna mess with them but you’re all out there dealing with meteors and who knows what else so maybe that’s what you do now, I don’t know.

Rana: This dwarf found the meteor too and turned into a mushroom

Stellan takes a deep breath.

Rana is enjoying making him uncomfortable now

They all talk about our bag of holding and hiding the weapons, Phi stashes them and pulls out her ordinary daggers to secure in their place.

Rana as they talk about possibly disguising Phi’s daggers: Oh mom has some camels now if you need one, there’re 3

Stellan: Okay I’ll take care of them for you

Rana: Do you want them to talk? I can make them talk.

Stellan (not amused): No, the pigeons are enough.

Phi: Thank you for the information

Rana: Yeah, I would like to not get killed by the people we were looking for

Phi: Yeah that would not be good

Rana: I’m gonna go corrupt tanny for a bit

Stellan: Yeah i’m gonna go back over here and...think about things

Rana: I let mom know everything so you can talk to her later.

At some point before they finish talking to Stellan, Ixayl'anu was looking for signs of jewelry in Stellan’s forge. She saw some platinum but didn’t really see any jewelry (because she needs a platinum ring). She asks him about it anyway while we’re there and it’s simple enough he melts down two platinum coins to make a simple ring for her out of it. He doesn’t even charge her for them since he already has the forge fired up.

He does have Amira help him since he rarely works with platinum and it makes a good teachable moment that takes about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Adri has been following Amira and Diem around, Diem gets introduced to Taniel, 10, who probably is working on magic homework, they got really into potion making because they fan Rana and Rana brings herbs back - real into that right now.

Taniel gets up to see Aunt Rana, but Adri warns her to wait a bit they’re talking about tense things right now.

Through conversation along the tour Diem gets that Adri speaks draconic and has been teaching her kids.

Diem makes casual conversation that includes whether or not Adri grew up here and when/why she learned draconic.

About that time Rana walks in and Taniel gives her a big hug and tells her about her new obsession

Adri answers Diem that it makes sense from a guard’s stand point so she learned it, birds are awfully helpful

Diem: Oh yeah that makes sense

Rana: Yeah, Adri is very good at her job

Diem: You look it, you are killing it in that outfit (she is amused), I’m...yeah, not surprising I wouldn’t make a good guard, I even need help when we take watches (said in good humor)

Ixayl'anu stands awkwardly in the door until Adri invites her in properly (because she’s secretly a vampire! shhh)

Rana: We’re not gonna be in town for terribly long, I was just hoping Stellan had some of the info I needed and he did.

Adri: What info?

Rana: Oh I was sent by a wizard to find someone named Haldric who might be in stone roost and I thought Stellan might know him.

Adri takes it in stride “Well, be safe.”

Rana drops in that it has to do with the meteor.

Nearing the end of the conversation and visit, Phi asks if we can run by a general store to get medical kit supplies to complete her partial kit.

When we have to leave Amira is sad about the rat having to go and starts asking for a rat again in super sad puppy fashion.

Adri tells her they’ll still have to see and Diem distracts both children by pulling out the self-animating putty to give them as a gift, telling them how they can shape their own rat or whatever they like and it moves (makes a little rat and sets it down to walk around on the table and lick a paw clean) see?

Their imaginations take off with excited chatter about making tiny dragons and more, once again happy.

(A trip to the general store)

Rana takes us to Bafor’s general store (Bafor is a dragonborn).

Phi tells us that we would have noticed how Phi progressively jumped on this field medic train and as things have gotten dangerous and sketchy. Phi realized it would be handy to have some skills in healing just in case - more so ever since Phi found the medical supplies in Budelia and ever since Averni she’s been doing a little research here and there, including medical knowledge heading out into the new terrain of Anesh, like what to do for heatstroke and working on more survival skills. Over the journey she’s brought it up a few times to Rana and Edea, and Rana readily taught her some of her new feat requirements from her similar healer feat. Phi wants to eventually learn to make her own poisons too for maybe a damage over time, but also poison check and knowing what to do about poisons in order to help heal them.

Phi’s medicine check will also apply to her background skills, diagnosing a wound, how they died (starving, madness, dehydration, container recently held poison, blood spatter analysis, forensic stuff is part of her past).

Combat triage is cool and useful.

Ruled that with her medical proficiency feat she can diagnose poisons and such, but she would have to take a separate feat to make a poison and do dmg over time.

Phi walks into the store and admits she’s filling out the healer’s kit.

Rana says she has those items already and they have this conversation in the store. All along though she and Rana have talked about this over the month we’ve known each other.

Bafor: Yeah I have the little items, but you could also just buy a new healer’s kit already filled.

Phi: Yeah why don’t I just do that.

Bafor: Tell you what, you buy a whole healer’s kit and I will fill out your other one for free.

I think we hit a fruit stand or a different store where the vendor is gruff but warms up as we spend money (because that was a note for the vendor attached to all these dried fruits, but Bafor seemed pretty amenable from the start).

Phi and Diem also buy a big bag of granola for a silver each, and some dried fruits (Anesh grows pomegranate, apricots, olives)

Diem also buys a bag of mixed dried fruit, dried apricots, and a pomegranate (for a silver each)

#Longview #Anesh #Romy #A talk with Rana's mom #Stellan #A talk with Rana's brother #critter mysteries the draconic edition #Adri #Amira #Bafor #Taniel #Haldric mention #Retin mention

[ruffboijuliaburnsides]

i'm the only one in my group for dnd who has enough experience to be the dm but a l s o i really wanna play an artificer and idk what to d o

Well, I’ve got three options for you, though you may not like them much:

1) you don’t actually need experience with DnD to DM.  If one of your friends has a story they’d like to tell, it’s 100% possible for them to do that, and you should encourage them. Not always helpful bc your friends might be too scared to try.  you could try to convince one of them to run some pre-written stuff to test the waters? 

2) reach out to the DnD community on tumblr or roll20 or your local game store wherever and try to find a game that you can play in with your artificer.  You can either DM your friends on the side or not, as your preference lies.  The issue with this is it’s not always easy to FIND a game that’s looking for new players.

3) put off your desires to play and DM for your friends for a few months (or more) while they get experience and familiarity with the game and time to build stories they’d want to tell, and just.... hold on to your artificer until such a time as you get to be the player.  Not ideal bc it means you don’t get to be the player for a while.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m currently DMing a wonderful campaign that I want to run for a fair while yet, but if I didn’t have another game pending the end of the semester and our DM having the brain to start a new game, I would a little bit be hoping for the end of the story so I could be a player again, because as much fun as I have DMing I miss playing sometimes.  that said, I also absoultely ADORE DMing and highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t done it before. :)

#Anonymous #audience with the gods

[therorrimsystem]

There should be a chatting app/social network only for a persons internal system. (And other software/app ideas for DID/osdd/multiple systems and software that already does work for us)

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of app or program that allowed alters to talk to each other, where they could all have their own profiles, avatars, usernames, and status updates and dms? It would be so useful to have something like that . Especially when it comes to communicating with alters you might not have a lot of co-consciousness with and for having everything being documented with memory being such a big issue for us.

I’m trying to learn basic programming, ( java, and ms visual basic ) to try to make something like this. I was even messing around with autotype in word (well actually openoffice) thinking I could have shortcuts for alters with an avatar and their name and could easily insert themselves whenever they wanted to talk. But I’m not sure how I can make it to where they can also save their own font/size/color profies for themselves and it’s pretty complicated. Maybe I could learn more about how macros work and that would be easier than coding a whole program? 

After a lot of researching I was able to find an old project on github that had a local “chat room simulator”  an it was very interesting but also very simple. I tried looking at the code hoping I could learn something from it but my knowledge in coding is still very novice. 

And mostly the apps we could find that had to do with “chat simulator” were apps that were for making “fake text conversations”. The best we could find was one called “whatsfake” and it’s main problem is that it’s difficult to switch between people quickly so it’s easy for an alter to lose their train of thought by the time they get to select themselves from the conversation, (as obviously the app wasn’t created for this idea or for long conversations). “texting chat story maker” is really good if you are only looking for a chatting app for 2 alters as it’s incredibly functional and you only have to click your name on the top to take turns typing. 

I wrote to a few of these apps sending in feature requests like easier switching between characters, or adding more people to the conversation, although I don’t expect much to hear back but it can’t hurt to try!

None of those apps have the full functionality I would want but maybe they are good starting points in learning the programming I would need. I decomplied the “fakechatstory” app to see if I could learn to decipher it eventually and write something smilar that allows for more people to type in a conversation easily. 

-------------

I also have a lot of ideas for things that could go together in a software suite that would be helpful to systems with DID.  There needs to be a lot more apps and resources specifically created for us and our unique needs. If anyone has any ideas or examples of apps or programs that already exist specifically for DID/Osdd systems or aren’t for that but you really like to use for yourselves we would be really interested in hearing about it. 

Another idea we had was like a wikipedia situation where alters who like to take notes and keep track of the others could have a place to more easily organize them and link around to other pages when necessary. Maybe even a place to write about specific events that have happened in their life that were significant to them.  And of course others in the system could edit and help just like real wikipedia and the site/program would be entirely private and password protected ideally. Maybe this wikipedia can also be connected to the chat profiles idea so alters who want to edit can select themselves before they do etc. 

A more lighthearted idea would be a coloring/drawing app especially made for littles in a system. Where you could have multiple coloring pages up at once (and maybe it ties into the same profile/avatar system as the other idea) where they can each save their favorite pages and color palletes, and they could all color roughly at the same time. (even the bigger parts could join in if they want) I know it’s a big problem in our system that several littles will want to color the same page and won’t be able to agree on which colors to make things so it would be cool just to have duplicates side by side. 

Another idea would be to have a visual system mapping software (again tied into the profiles already created in the other ideas) It would make it easier to make a system graph if you don’t like drawing it out on paper. You could just add a new alter profile whenever and just click on one you already have to add it to the map. It would also have other visual aids maybe like having a different color highlight around their picture for certain alter jobs (persecutor, protector, manager etc) And different types of lines (dashed, straight, double) to make connections between alters. 

I would also want some kind of character creator like the sims where you can create the world and the people in it, but they would be more like dolls you could drag and pose around in the scenes you created (like recreating your inner world for example). It would just be simply for visualizing so it wouldn’t have to have all of the other extra things the games do so it would take up less space on the computer, less resources, load faster etc. 

----------

Some apps our system like to use regularly that help us even though they weren’t made specifically for DID:

Antistress 

It’s an app with several little toys that our littles love to play with if they come out in a situation like in public where they are stressed but aren’t able to go home to play with their own toys and it really helps to calm them down and help the system to feel more grounded and safe. They are  basically fidget toys (there is even a fidget spinner in it!)

Character

There’s an app on the Ipad just called “character” and we aren’t able to find it on the app store again lately. It’s an app that is useful for writers to organize their “characters”  and give them names, traits, and even have a picture of them. We found it a few years ago and were using it to organize our alters all in one place. 

Notepad++

It’s a notepad software that is mostly meant for programming and coding which we downloaded originally so we could practice and try to learn coding for ourselves. But then we realized how useful the tabbed feature is for several parts wanting to do different things at the same time. Although other writer softwares do this we like how simple and fast N++ is to open. 

Avatar creators of course. There are so many different ones that can be found online and in apps. :)

Please share if you can think of any!

-------------

Overall I would love to see more programs, stories, apps, and games specifically for a system sort of audience. For example “Dear Little Ones” which is a fantastic book addressed to littles. 

Even for things that may seem “insignificant”. I know our whole lives we’ve been taught to think that we don’t deserve better or that we just have to “tough it out” and that our needs are trivial. But I really think that each and every one of our individual needs are important and I think it would be so important if more was being done to address those needs to make our lives just that little bit earlier. If anyone wants to steal any of my ideas feel absolutely free to do whatever you like with them. My only request is that you share the finished product with me if you do and maybe give me a little credit ;P. 

And if anyone's interested maybe we could try to collab sometime? Or possibly make some sort of facebook group for DID artists, coders, and creators in general,  who want to get together to try to make life easier and better for systems like us! And maybe we can try writing to developers and creators and letting them know that we exist, and expressing interest in features that could be added to software that we use everyday that would accommodate us like they do for any other accessibility issue that people might have. 

#dissociative identity disorder #actuallydissociative #Multiplicity #multiple personality disorder #did #osdd #osdd1b #alters

[sepiadice]

Tales of Genius Ch. 1: Mystery in North Fort

(8/5/2018)

Thus I return to the Game Master’s screen, bearing a shirt that labels me of such![1]

Which is good, because there’s going to be no further updates with the Fallen Island D&D campaign. It’s, in theory, still running, but I found myself waiting for an excuse to get out, so I decided it’s healthier to just silently leave.[2]

As previously mentioned, I ran a short GURPS session with the Dungeon Fantasy Box set (and its I smell a Rat module), after which the group and I had a nice long talk and it was decided it was best not to return. Still have nostalgia looking through the revised third edition rule book, but it’s not a good fit for me or my players.[3] Too granular.

Which brings us to Genesys, a system I discovered relatively recently. It’s a generic system, has a narrative focus, and was used by a podcast I like and trust![4] Also, it’s not Powered by the Apocalypse or Fate, neither of which I’ve played but I’m just tired of hearing about them.

So, sit down and prepare yourself for the first episode of a SepiaDice Campaign (yet to be named).

CAST:

Eli Roberts: (Played by Lyons) Child of Clio. Doctor, travelling to write an medical text akin to Gray’s Anatomy

Olivia Grayson: (Played by Maddie) Child of Thalia. Apprentice to Eli.

Fromthe: (Played by Jose) Child of Calliope. Military veteran and current mercenary.

(These references to greek muses shall be explained another time)

DATE: WINTER 1911

SETTING: NORTH FORT

The northernmost town of Astree, sitting in The Tines, the mountain range that separates Astree from its northern neighbor Hervarar. North Fort was once a military fortress standing stalwart against the once consistent wars Harvarar inflicted upon Astree. However, a treaty was forged several generations ago putting an end to such conflict. Soldiers were still stationed in North Fort, just in case. Gradually, however, merchants travelled there more, families came to stay, and the fortress grew into a proper town.

It’s during a harsh winter that our story opens.

For there’s been an avalanche, cutting North Fort off from the rest of Astree. The town has been forced to start using their emergency supplies. However, this has revealed a problem.

North Fort’s mayor[5] has summoned three adventurers who happen to be in town for their own reasons.

The mayor lays out the situation: supplies have been going missing, which could spell doom for the town if the rationing keeps being undermined. No one can be above suspicion, which is why the mayor decided to go outside the City Watch. The party arrived after the thefts started (but before the avalanche), hence why the Mayor is choosing to trust them.

Eli accepts while the youthful Olivia and Fromthe distract themselves, possibly with yo-yos.

To help with the investigation, The Mayor supplies the Duty Roster of the guards stationed outside the emergency supply storage (a converted pantry filled with hard tack, potatoes, and probably barrels of water) and agreed to having a town guard meet them at the same location.

The party then immediately ignored this appointment to suspect the general high class and went to question the proprietress of the general goods store, Isabel. Fromthe, who is currently a merchant of undisclosed goods, tried to glean some information, but didn’t get anything new because Fromthe just annoyed Isabel.

The trio reconvene outside, talked in circles for a bit, then decided to ask a traveling merchant at the local tavern, The Public House.[6]

There, Fromthe once again learned it’s a small town without much of an upper class outside The Mayor and the one member of the clergy, both of whom have more social capital than financial wealth.

Finally, Eli takes his subordinates to the store house, where they meet Officier Morty.[7] They investigate the storehouse, and find a logbook with terrible handwriting, which noted Intellect Eli cannot decipher. Olivia could, however.

The logbook showed that initially the vanishing supplies were minor enough to be marked up as a counting error, before gradually becoming more brazen. The only visitors of note were The Mayor, Debra, the local priest, and a few guards.

Next stop: The local church of Polyhymnia!

Once a small, utilitarian chapel for a military base, it’s been renovated and expanded to a full, proper church.

Eli heads in while Olivia decides to scale the side of the building. And falling off. Fromthe catches her, but sprains his ankles, which Olivia fails to heal.  Inside, Eli discovers a detail I forgot to introduce earlier (but I managed to get away with!): townspeople are getting sick, and are coming to Father Brown for advice.

Eli questions the priest, who is quiet and unassuming, and agrees to see a few patients in a side room.  A skilled examination uncovers an unfortunate truth: it’s a mass poisoning with baneroot.[8] Oh no.  Olivia comes in and Eli fixes Fromthe’s ankles, and then sends them out to investigate where the baneroot may have originated.

Olivia, noted druidic sort, walks the streets, but finds nothing in the public places.

Fromthe again goes to The Public House, and finds a travelling plants peddler, who is drunk. The peddler reveals that, yes, he’s sold some baneroot (it’s got a pretty enough flower), but not to whom.

Then the plant seller passes out drunk, and Fromthe and Olivia grab his ledger and jot down notes.  While it does reveal a list of customers, the peddler has segregated the stock count from who bought what. However, a certain priest is included.

Meanwhile, Eli continues to question the sick. Seems that those regularly attending church haven’t gotten sick, and those who started attending after getting sick started getting better.[9]

After the party meets back up and compares notes, they go to the Mayor with their suspicions in regards to the poisoning.

The Mayor isn’t very excited, since he doesn’t really want to accuse such a prominent community member without firm evidence. Also, he hired the adventurers to find out who’s stealing supplies. Also, maybe tell the Guard Captain about crimes?

Now reminded of their job,[10] the party goes to question Debra to see if she knows if The Mayor might be the thief. Specifically, Fromthe is pushed to question her.

Since The Mayor hired them and Debra is likewise innocent, I handed the secretary to Lyons to role-play.[11] It gets awkward and I needed to feed the lack of information, but it was a pretty good exercise.

If your players are up for it, GMs should give them NPCs to play. It’s a good way to keep them engaged in scenes without their characters, and Genesys in particular handles it well since motivation can easily be determined by the social skill rolls, and information is easy enough to feed.

Now having progressed a little on the thefts, the party returns to the poisonings, choosing to just confront Father Brown themselves.  Not wanting to cause a scene, the party discreetly takes Father Brown into the side room to accuse him.  Father Brown attacks with magic. Eli and Fromthe take point while Olivia flees to do other things.

Because it was getting pretty late, I went ahead and ran combat until all three players got to use the combat mechanics (since the main goal was to test the system).

Olivia’s turn was breaking into Father Brown’s room and finding the poison and antidote plants growing, as well as the stolen supplies. It all comes together!

Now shot a little and seeing he’s outmatched, Father Brown is arrested and confesses. He’s a clergyman in a faraway town, and thus has little chance at promotion, so he had hoped to fake a miracle to increase his standing.

Mystery solved! Our heroes are awarded double rations, and all is well.

Except, the only way to the rest of Astree is still blocked by avalanche wreckage, and supplies are running low and are lightly poisoned.

But that’s a problem for another time.

In the end, the players claim to have had fun, and I didn’t feel like I was in a panic attack the whole time, so it was successful. Plus, the system was well regarded (even if we still need to get used to advantages and threats). I’m not ready to move onto the podcast phase myself, and I’m hoping to getting a little more character depth from the PCs, so I’ll just have to keep Game Mastering.

Until next time, may the dice make things interesting!

[1] Actual shirt I have now. It’s neat! [2] Basically, the DM officially lost all my good faith due to external matters, and I no longer wish to humor him. [3] Plus I’ve become disenchanted with Steve Jackson Games. Too much reliance on the Munchkin cash cow, too little support for GURPS and other games, and their use of Kickstarter needs to be discouraged. [4] Well, Campaign uses the Star Wars RPG system, but Genesys is that broadened. [5] Who I don’t think got named. The party named his secretary Debra, though. [6] North Fort are not noted for their inventive naming conventions. Practical people. [7] Named such because Lyons and I inexplicably opened the conversation with spineless voices. He switched when I named the guard. [8] Which I’m hoping is a fictitious plant, for my purposes. [9] This is something I should’ve been more on the ball with, and I should’ve done a better job intertwining the illness into the narrative earlier. [10] To be fair, it’s the same conspiracy, but they failed to connect them yet. [11] He likes playing flirty women.

#SepiaDiceGMs #genesys #Tales of Genius

[dungeonsandn00bs]

5 players and 1 DM who have never played D&D before. As the DM - please help me haha

Oh man, you’re in for some fun!

First off, I highly recommend you sit with each player while they make their characters. That way you get familiar with everything that character can do, and what the players want from their characters. 

Do they want an epic quest, or to play the hack and slash backup for other people’s epic quests? 

What kind of things from their backstory can you exploit later in the campaign to make them more invested? 

Any special quests you’d like to do just for their benefit? 

Second, consider what kind of campaign you want to do. There’s pros and cons of any type. Pre made campaigns require less prep work, but they’re harder to customize to the way your players want to play. Making your own campaign is a lot more work, but can end up more satisfying and memorable for your players.

Since none of you have played before, I’d probably go with a pre made. Pick one as a group that everyone has interest in, and go for it! I personally enjoy horde of the dragon queen, but there’s a ton more out there. That one’s an official release from wizards and there are also a ton of home brews to find online. 

Some tips for pre-made campaigns:

Note that I said *less* prep, not *no* prep. There will always be prep work. 

You should definitely read through the entire adventure thoroughly, so you know where you’re going, and you should read the part that you’ll play next several times over. 

Make sure you have all the monsters readily available before the start of play. Basic stats like health, marked page numbers in the monster manual, etc. 

These campaigns will have specific parts you’re supposed to read to your players. Practice them. Rewrite them if you don’t think you sound authentic when reading it, but whatever you do Practice Reading It Out Loud so you aren’t fumbling over your words in game and you can keep a steady flow. 

Consider what you’ll do if {when} they go off track. Are you prepared to alter course and let them go off before guiding them back to where they need to be, or are you going to immediately put a block on them so they have to go where the quest says to go? Either way is fine, and there’s no shame in the second option. Its railroading, which gets a bad rap, but its perfectly acceptable in some situations. 

Third: remember that this is a game and you’re supposed to be having fun. If your players aren’t enjoying themselves, ask if they’d like to try out a different type of quest or a new setting. Sometimes it take a bit for people to find their stride. 

Also, your players will do something you didn’t expect or plan for. They also might get totally off track and do something stupid for a while. Let them! Sometimes that stupid shit is the most memorable thing and they’ll be talking about it for years to come. Hell, I still tell a story that happened in a game I was in 8 years ago! That random, off the wall, sometimes stupid shit is what makes this game great. You don’t get that from a video game unless the developers put it in there, and that frankly just isn’t as much fun. 

Obviously there is a time to reign people in, like when members of the party start getting bored and frustrated with it. I err on the side of ‘let them be stupid’ but even I know that there are times I should step in and move the story along. Knowing when that moment is takes some intuition and experience, but you’ll get the hang of it!

As an aside to all this talk of players going off track, if they do something you were totally unprepared for it’s OK to ask for a game break so you can figure out what to do next. There is no shame in that, and your players should appreciate it because it means you really care about the game and you want to give them something good rather than pulling something not so great out of thin air. 

Lastly, here are some resources I have used when creating this game that I’m doing now. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve even played D&D, and even longer since I was a DM, so I made sure to be prepared. As evidenced in one of my more popular posts...

GM tips from Geek and Sundry. I know a lot of people got into D&D lately because of their Critical Role series, so you might already know about this series. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7atuZxmT9570U87GhK_20NcbxM43vkom

DM’s Guild. This is one of my favorite websites to find campaigns, setting help, random tables for anything from the weather to NPC names or random rumors you can plant and make a quest from, and a whole lot more: https://www.dmsguild.com/ 

Dungeon Master’s Block. This is a podcast that deals with a variety of issues that come up while trying to DM a game. They have one particular episode that every new DM should listen to, which is episode 44: DMing for Dummies. Not that you’re a dummy, it’s just a great overview of DMing! I listened to it very first when I found this podcast, and it was great. After having a listen to that episode, just skip around to topics that interest you. And make sure you take notes, there is a lot of helpful info in there but that won’t do you any good if you don’t remember it!  https://dungeonmasterblock.podbean.com/

How to Play Dungeons and Dragons 5e, from Don’t Stop Thinking. If you watch or listen to nothing else, watch this video series. Also send it to your players. He walks you through all the basics of combat, the RP, and there’s a few videos at the end where he guides you through character creation. It’s a really great little series, and it’s even animated! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJmFJXf3BXjwXkNFo_-iwtHb24AuJcXqx&app=desktop

Finally, the best place to learn is just from listening to and watching more experienced DM’s. I already mentioned Critical Role, but other real play shows/podcasts are fantastic. My personal favorite is the Sneak Attack! podcast. Another option is to find a local game store and see if they have a D&D night where you can observe and possibly ask the DM questions after or before the game. 

Good luck with your game, I hope this helps, and I wanna say again have fun! 

#dm tips #new dm #new players #dnd #d&d #5e #resources #ask #anon

[but-the-library-of-alexandria]

dnd characters I’ll never use: player or npcs

I already shared this with my dnd playing friends but I’ll put them here too to spread the love far and wide. Disclaimer: I’m not at all experienced with dnd, these are all largely based on fun character ideas and not very rooted in stats, class stuff or tactics. Genders are of course always arbitrary and interchangeable.

Before she was a party member, she was a store clerk. Worked at a soul-sucking supermarket. Has very high persuasion, charisma and constitution. Why? Dude, she’s worked in customer service. She had to pretend to be friendly while putting up the with the worst humanity can offer. War is nothing. She’s being dragged along on this quest, but is largely apathetic. Her job has crushed her spark for good. True neutral. A bard? Maybe? It makes sense that she went to music school and ended up with a retail career.

A paladin/knight who thinks he’s Don Quixote - naive and good-hearted, a classic white knight who wants to rescue all the damsels and ride all the noble steeds. The drawback is that he’s a complete idiot. Very low wisdom and intelligence. Good combat stats, and amusingly high charisma. Probably a noble. Very green. Lawful good to the max.

A fine lady who is extremely posh, quite elderly. Lost her rich husband recently. Probably owns a poodle called Wetherby. Wields the biggest, most vicious giant axe you’ve ever seen. It’s called Verity. She is, in fact, a barbarian. Lawful neutral.

(Based on a tumblr post) This character is secretly just two gnomes stacked in a trench coat. Nobody but the DM must know. Try to keep up the facade for as long as possible. Why are they doing this stunt? Literally just fee evasion. It’s cheaper to pay for one human with very short arms than two gnomes. Obviously chaotic, neutral or good. Maybe each is a bit different.

An ex-schoolteacher who becomes the group mother. Literally. She calls the party her ‘children’. A bard, Sound-of-Music style? Or a cleric. Very patronising in the way she speaks. However, much liked. An all-rounder. Lawful good. Might make a good patron-type npc.

A bard who literally thinks life is a musical. Always singing; speaks only in song, or if she does speak, it’s in a disney-like tone - strong Giselle from enchanted vibes. Terrible stealth modifiers, because she does her own theme music like Kronk. She and the above paladin knight fall in love instantly. Nobody has ever understood either of them until now. They will definitely insist on romantic duets and a giant fancy wedding, despite not really knowing each other. Noble background; an ex actress. Lawful good.

Someone otherwise useful and skillful, perhaps a rogue or a fighter, who has a weakness of instantly falling in lust with any villain they encounter. They just have a thing for the bad guys/girls. Chaotic good, or lawful neutral.

A character who can’t seem to talk without mentioning her boyfriend, Freddie: ‘it’s just like Freddie, my boyfriend, said the other day… Back in the city, where I met my boyfriend, Freddie… damn, this monster is so tough even Freddie, my boyfriend, might not be able to kill it!’ Freddie does not, as it turns out, exist. After this is disclosed, the question is - was she lying? Does she actually think Freddie is real? Is she crazy? Or did Freddie exist, once, and some magical weirdness is going on? Who knows. The poor girl - probably a cleric or someone religiously magical - clearly has some mental shit to deal with.

A mage or sorcerer who performs magic in the style of irl kids’ magicians. They don’t actually believe in magic, and keep insisting it’s all just clever tricks and illusions. Idk enough about the magic-type classes to decide which one this would suit best - maybe a book-learned character, who thinks their entire education system was just really in-character with the whole ‘real magic’ thing. A wizard? Very lawful - so lawful they can’t conceive of a force as irrational and physics-defying as magic. Probably good.

A character who is the butler of another party member - jeeves-style, long-suffering and ever efficient. His most common line is “*sigh* very good, sir/ma’am.” It would be cool if he was a monk class character - maybe coming from a kind of ‘training temple’ for butlers, Artemis Fowl style. Has the patience of a god, the combat skills of a champion street-fighter, and makes excellent tea. Might be a good player character for someone who’s new to dnd and is coming with a friend - or rather, a good character for someone who is experienced and is bringing an inexperienced friend, whose butler they could be. The butler could then advise and cover for their inexperienced ‘master’.

A variation on the above: a character travelling with their fussy, overbearing mother or father, another obviously good one for a friend to teach their inexperienced new friend how to play.

A religious character, probably a cleric or paladin, who has an element of the creationist fangirl-religious Christianity of the midwest to her. Speaks in a texas drawl. She wears a shirt that says ‘what would [insert name of deity here] do?’ and is always singing the praises of their lord/lady and saviour, trying to convert people and reminding everyone of various rules from their holy book. Lawful neutral, because she follows the rules of the faith no matter how immoral they may be. Often burst into hymns. Everything good that happens, it was the lord’s blessing. Everything bad, it was punishment for some obscure sin. Probably had a rough background and found and adhered to this faith later in life, as a kind of religious rebirth - maybe to escape a criminal past…?

A character who is a child but has all the skill in certain areas of an adult. Very creepy, Wednesday Addams vibes. Talks like a grown up. Dark and cynical. Always underestimated. Probably a sorcerer. Neutral or maybe a tad evil. Maybe could be a halfling or something, to implement that small-cute-person stealth bonus. Occasionally takes on the performance of being a normal little girl to manipulate NPCs - fake crying to get to the front of a queue, etc.

Two PCs who are long lost siblings. The DM and the two players know this. No other players and none of the characters know - including the two characters who are related. One or both of them may know they have a lost sibling, but it is only in the course of the game that they find out who they are to each other. I feel like this would be most interesting if they were of a non human species, and of very different backgrounds and classes, and maybe different alignments.

A character who is joining the party as a tourist. He has now retired from adventuring in his homeland and travels around other lands, getting the ‘authentic local experience’ by tagging onto other people’s quests. If you’re in a steampunk-y setting or your DM will let you homebrew it a bit, it would be great if he had some kind of camera and was always snapping pictures at inappropriate times. It would be even better if some of these pictures ending up being vitally useful later in the game. Probably neutral good, probably something pretty low-key class wise. Could be joined by a tour-guide type PC.

A variation on the above: a young character who is trying to break into the adventuring career market and is tagging along on work experience, always taking notes. This might be a good one for a new and inexperienced player to help them learn without compromising their characterisation. Neutral good, any class really.

A member of a certain race who is convinced they are of another race, probably due to adoption, and will attack anyone who tries to correct her, like Ellie in ice age 2. The more physically different her ‘real’ race and her ‘adopted’ race are, the better. A warrior type, hot headed. Chaotic something. Maybe even a barbarian. Someone you would be too scared to contradict.

A case of mistaken identity - the party assume this character is someone, but later it is revealed that they are in fact just a delivery boy or a maidservant. There was a mix up, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when the party mistook them for a powerful ally they were planning to meet, they were too awkward to correct them so they just went with it. The party shouldn’t know they aren’t who they say they are until the person reveals it, either by making enough mistakes and confessing or by being outed by someone else. An NPC or a player. Probably chaotic good. Definitely a people pleaser. Poor kid.

A ‘male’ character who is actually a woman wearing a fake moustache. She had to fake her gender to get into a prestigious all male institution - maybe a cleric or paladin, or a wizard at wizard school. Definitely a con-woman type background. Intensely good persuasion modifier so that people genuinely believe she is a man as soon as the moustache goes on. Other players may or may not know her real gender from the start. Chaotic good.

An adventuring couple who have decided to spend their honeymoon, or second honeymoon, fighting and killing with the rest of the party. Fighters or another physical-combat-heavy class. Good. Full of romantic stories about people they beheaded together and times they almost died together. Bonus points if they have, are having or have had an adventuring child too - the kind who was already wielding a tiny knife in the cradle. Good for couples who play together, and good if one partner is just teaching the other to play, so they can stick together and help them.

A druid who has spent her last ten years in animal form. She has now almost forgotten how to be a person. Still forgets she isn’t an animal sometimes. Lots of animalistic mannerisms and slip ups - trying to fly, using the wrong body language, etc. She’s just very frazzled by everything right now, so please just go easy on her, okay? She’s trying her best to readjust.

A pirate woman who sailed with an all-female pirate crew on a ship with a massively misandristic name. She’s almost definitely gay and very much a bitch to men. Sailor-pirate background, probably a simple fighter, chaotic neutral af. Bonus points if she was the captain. Double bonus points if she was the captain because she engineered a mutiny and is now constantly afraid of finding her jilted ex captain (and possibly also her ex lover) hot on her heels. More bonus points if she is a very butch, bearded dwarf lady.

Champion athlete who turned their particular sporting prowess to a life of adventure, because of some event that befell them - maybe a medal winning runner’s hometown was sacked, and their swiftness allowed them to save forty children before the fires reached the school. Or maybe a record-breaking swimmer was the sole survivor of a flood that wiped out their people and now they have to get by on nothing but their wits and their abnormally massive deltoids. Obviously good stats relating to their sport. Class will depend on the sport too. You could get really creative with sports lauded amongst different races, eg. a dragonborn who was the world champion at distance fire-breathing.

(Based in a tumblr post) A bard whose main attack is Vicious Mockery. Super chaotic neutral, they focus on almost nothing else, just developing this one skill until they can practically just kill with a single insult. Their main driving motivation or goal is to eventually find a certain person - maybe a powerful and abusive parent figure or a hated tyrant, someone who did evil to them or their people - and just fucking obliterate them with the perfect, all-destroying insult, which they hope to have composed by the time they meet this person.

The youngest son of a king or ruler with like twelve children, so far from inheriting the throne nobody knew what to do with him and he ended up being tossed from institution to institution, being kicked out and kicked out until he joined the current party (or an institution the party are working with if he’s an NPC). He’s pretty dumb, with no education, essentially raised by castle servants and never learning a thing about politics. Probably a fighter. Low intelligence, good alignment. All is well, until, uh oh, all his twelve brothers die at once and he is suddenly expected to be king. What do? Help me, more intelligent party members!

#guess who got sucked into an accidental dnd character brainstorm #it me #Elise’s posts #dnd #dnd characters #dnd prompts #dnd ideas #rp characters #rp ideas