#and then you bring in the big powerful items that the players can and can't access but which the admins have ultimate power over

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

tbh i think that even unwinnable fights should be winnable. some of the BEST fights i've ever run as a dm were ones i built kill the players (in a fun way. I had some cutscenes prepped so even the loss would be a different flavour of win)- but then they were clever bastards and managed to either win the fights or pull themselves out of trouble. I think it's perfectly fine to plan for a fight that players aren't supposed to win, but you need to let them. if they can't win, they can't lose, and the meaning of that encounter is diminished. do that too many times, and they stop trusting you to give them roleplay prompts and start expecting to sit there waiting while you drive the story for them.

but if they can win... if there is always the chance to win, no matter how impossible the odds, then they ALWAYS have hope. they always get invested. they feel the big emotions of success or the big emotions of failure, and you fucking Win as a dm/roleplay prompter/lead bastard.

[flightyquinn]

thinking about how cursed objects work in most fantasy RPGs.

typically, they wind up just kind of being a big middle finger from the game master - a kind of "whelp, you should have been more paranoid, so now you get hosed" sort of deal. which includes the somewhat game-y trope of objects that you can't get rid of. it's kind of an un-fun mechanic, when you think about it, which is why in most games I've been a part of cursed items often don't see much play, unless it's as a "punishment", or part of a story arc.

...which naturally leads me to think about how to do it better. in the past, I've tried using a curse as a kind of limiter. restrictions or drawbacks to a mostly functional item that is still worth using despite being "cursed". that's good, but it doesn't let you draw on truly nasty curses, because the item needs to be worth using, but also still needs to be balanced.

so, I'm drawing from a lot of sources here, like the cursed shield in Final Fantasy VI, and especially the comics by @foldingfittedsheets, where curses exist to (literally) teach the recipient a lesson

MEAT OF THE POST STARTS HERE:

what about cursed items that have a way to overcome their curse?

it's actually a fairly common trope in classical literature / fairy tales. every curse has a way to be broken. yet in D&D and Pathfinder, most often the only way to break a curse is to find someone with the specific curse-breaking spell.

so, give each cursed item a condition. perhaps a weapon that fuels a person's anger and causes them to fly into a blind rage in battle waits for them to sincerely forgive a hated enemy. perhaps boots that slow the wearer are actually making them heavy with the weight of past transgressions and a sufficient act of atonement will free them. maybe the perpetually bloody doll that gives its bearer horrible nightmares simply waits for someone to be motivated to action by them, either to right some past wrong, or generally bring a certain number of murderers to proper justice.

...maybe a Bag of Devouring. which is technically actually a creature, not a cursed item (but usually classified with them), can be befriended by figuring out a treat it likes, and will not only carry things for the player if fed and cared for, but even cough up a few things that previous bearers had stuffed inside.

the specifics aren't too important, but the idea is that any item with a curse on it has a reason for that curse, and a way to break it. the players can drop the item at any time, sell it off, give it to someone they hate, whatever, but if they put in the time and energy to actually breaking the curse, it becomes better than it was before, sometimes simply losing a drawback, or sometimes gaining new powers.

for an example, let's look at how that doll idea from earlier could work in D&D 5e;

while the party has the doll in their possession, they will all be afflicted by horrible nightmares, seeing themselves as children being attacked by a group of eight bandits with indistinct features. the details of the dreams change each night, and the players awaken before learning their ultimate fate, but the general gist is always that they are completely helpless, and subjected to harm.

after a long rest, have them roll a Wisdom or Charisma save (challenging DC, but not too difficult), or take a small amount of psychic damage.

if the players bring murderers to justice - meaning deliver them to the proper authorities and see them punished for their crimes - the content of the dreams starts to change. one bandit gets caught or killed by the end of the dream for each real world criminal successfully punished, possibly hinting to the players what they need to do. once eight murderers in total have had their sentences enacted, the next morning the doll will be in pristine condition with a serene expression, emitting a faint glow. thereafter, any player may attune to the doll to gain the ability to cast the Guidance cantrip without components (as thought the doll's ability to project what it wants the players to do into their mind was turned to their benefit.

[rewh0re]

OMG WE'RE MATCHING!!

-headcanons of items that you'd match with each other hehe, very fluffy lol, short short short, this is my way of saying that I'd love to match with my babies. REBLOGS + INTERACTIONS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!

-pairings : reo, chigiri, isagi, rin x reader (separate)

╰►REO :

He'd definitely be the type to get a pair of matching rings. They're expensive too, probably from Tiffany and co. or some big brand like that. Reo would buy these gorgeous pair of diamond rings for couples which would make your eyes almost pop out of their sockets. You would chastise him for getting such an expensive item too but all he would say is that it's a sign of commitment. He'd get so confused when you would tell him that you can't wear it daily.

"What? Why?" Reo would ask, a tinge of hurt taking over him filling you with immense sadness.

"Baby these are expensive. I don't wanna lose them by mistake or have someone steal them," you would hold his hand in reassurance.

He'd find a way for that too. The very next day he gets two thin silver chains for the rings. That way you can wear it and have the ring on you daily without losing it!

╰► CHIGIRI :

I think you guys probably saw this coming but Chigiri would definitely get like these hair ties or scrunchies. He'd buy these sets of 2 and would give you one while the other stays with him. You bet he'd always wear the hair tie or scrunchie on his wrist without fail. He would never take it off and if he ever sees you without it, he'd probably frown a little bit asking where the hair tie was. You would also trade them. He would take yours and you would take his whenever you felt like it and he was always open to it. He probably doesn't like sharing his hair items but when it comes to you taking his hair tie, he'd gladly give it to you and take yours too. Oh he would also try out hairstyles on you and tie your hair with his gift. So sweet.

╰► ISAGI :

Isagi is a bracelet guy. He had bought this simple bracelet with an infinity charm for the both of you before joining blue lock as a parting gift. He would never take it off and neither would you because it was the only reminder you both had of each other. Coming out of blue lock, his popularity hit a surge. His strength as a footballer increased ten folds, he changed a lot overall. However, what still remained was the bracelet he'd got for the two of you. Seeing the little accessory, you knew he had and always would be your Isagi. Later, when he's even more popular, on covers of magazines as a star football player and a lot richer than he was years ago, he gets a more luxe bracelet. Don't get me wrong, he still wears the little infinity charm one but he gets the pair of you, two new golden bracelets with little embellishments of precious gems as you both are settling down. So now both of your wrists have not one but two bracelets as a sign of forever!

╰►RIN :

In his case, you would be the one getting something. Probably like a set of matching t-shirts, and I am talking about those t-shirts that had ‘I LOVE MY S/O’ or ‘IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO THEM��� ‘I AM THEM’ printed on them in bold. You had the most mischievous grin plastered on your face as he opened the packaging to find two absolutely hideous choices of garments (he would frame it like that, not me). However with a bit of whining and a little bit of bringing out your inner theatrics would finally lead him to wear the t-shirts. He would mostly wear it at home whenever you would wear your one. However, recent paparazzi pictures of him showed him wearing that specific t-shirt paired with some jeans and shades, a cup of coffee in his hand. When it reached you through the power of the internet, it sent you hollering. There were memes being posted every second and you lost no opportunity to troll your boyfriend. Rin would be so embarrassed but hey as long as you were entertained right?

[aesthetic-is-life]

GOM Headcanon

Kise

He has very dry skin. He follows his skin care religiously

He has both a huge prize AND degredation kink.

Every thursday he goes to Caribbean dances and has a regular partner for the bachata

He got a degree in something with fashion and marketing. Still working as a model and influencer during the college years.

After he goes works with his sisters in their fashion company

He and Midorima fucked few times between the Teiko and the High school

He's a little bit of a whore (especially at the club half drunk)

Absolutely adores to give orals. Yes let me suck you off sir please

Very good at it

Had a huge crush for Aomine during Teiko, but nothing happened

His romantic relationship never last long (monogamy problem)

He is poly

Feels trapped in a monogamous relationship

Very closed to his sister in the adult age

Vegetarian (vegan at home)

Has a little tattoo for each miracles (like a frog for Midorima, a cherry flower for Momoi..)

Akashi

Lactose intollerant

Aroace King (kise told him about ace people and Midorima confirmed the existence)

Degree in philosophy

Sojio professional player just for saying he has a job (not really need one)

After the winter cup he had pretty bad episodes of depression and eaten alive from his guilt.

But with the power of friendship (Mibuchi had called the miracles for and intervention) and therapy he got better

He would need a heavy session of consensual BDSM (he subs)

He and his dad ignore each other basically

Didn't took well the death of his horse, and after that doesn't want any more pets

He and Midorima suggest books each other

Doesn't drink, but can handle alcool pretty good

He play golf with the mother side of the family

Totally an addicted to

Only the Gom knows that he was diagnoed DID (dissocative identity disorder)

He would be a perfect menwife

Doesn't like to drive

Midorima

Doctor bccouse his daddy told him to

He and Takao got married at some point

His best man was Akashi

His dad was kind of homophobic, but had a change of heart

For each birthday he does the the natal chart of all the Gom + takao and Kagami

Can't hendle alcool (no at all, like half beer and he is WASTED)

Takao is an architect and he designed their house

Doesn't talk before his coffe

Morning person (after the coffe), Takao is not

Still listen to the oroscop every morning and brings the luck item (Takao is forced to have his too)

Has a thing for dirt talk (Takao doesn't complaint)

Still play piano and composes song for Takao

Would like to have a kid or two

Rei Ryugazaki (from free!) are cousins

Every sunday the have a lunch with the over miracles in their home

Aomine

His career in the NBA (because yes he entred) has benn pretty short for injuries

so he come back in Japan and makes the delivery for the flower/ plant shop of Sakurai.

in the US he and kagami lived togher, but they were in diffrent teams

He adoped a dog he found on the side of a road

Really like beers of all kind and flavors

Decent cook

He and Kuroko fucked everywhere in Teiko. But like everywhere, not corridor, bathroom, storege room or class was safe (they enjoyed)

He and Kagami had drunk and angry sex in the US times

Prefers women (boobs)

As an adult he went to therapy and understood what was wrong during the last years in middle school (depression time)

He and Momoi are big fan of horror movies

Very warm person

Can't stand gloves

Kuroko

Cold hands

He and Kagami moved in together, but neither of them belives in marriege

Kuroko would love a cat, but Kagami is allergic

He works in a kindergarten

and come home full of drawings of the kids

Doesn't want to have children though

Exhibitionist kink

Having sex is a park in the middle of the night

Kagami usually cooks and he drives

Brings his kindle everywhere with him

He smokes a little (like two or three cigarette per day)

Murasakibara

Chronic back pain and at the joint because he grew up too fast

Acne and bad skin in general because he eats to much chocolate and sweets in general

Became a pastry chef

He, Himuro and Kagami opened a nice coffe shop

The type with cultural events, book crossing and stuff

Doesn't really like having sex. He finds it really tiring

He and Himuro have an open relationship

Ass eater king. Not a big fan of penetrative sex because he dosent't want to hurt Himuro with his huge cock.

Has a little aquarium and adores stares at the fish

Can't swim

He got diabetes at some point

Momoi

She got a degree in statistic and after a very high paid job

When Baribe went out, she and Kise went all pink

In her highshool years she did something with some girls, but she found it pretty wet. Prefers small and cute boys

Seirously considering breast reduction surgey

She and Sakurai are together

They have an adorable little dog

When Aomine was in US they used to videocall every fucking day

She and Kise are the queens of gossip

Never had smth physical with Kuroko

Very good at videgames (had a youtube chanal)

especially the shooting ones

Wears high heels at work

Adores cherry

Allergic to something stupid like kiwi or apple

During college she made a lot of female friends

Pretty dominant in bed

Good at drawing

[kirain]

What's your least favorite thing about bg3? Mine's the inventory system. 😒

Okay, side rant before I answer! 😆

I actually really like the inventory system, but I've heard a lot of people say they hate it because it's too open with very little direction, and I know that can be a nightmare for a lot of people. In fact, a good friend of mine nearly lost his mind over it, so I showed him how I organise things and he said it helped. Maybe my method can help other players, too.

When I start up a game, I take a companion's alchemy pouch and camp supply pack (usually Shadowheart's, because I use her the least) and add it to my Travellers Chest. If you don't want your companion to be without those items, don't worry. They'll either pick up new ones on their own or you'll find some extra ones you can give them later. Plus, they don't really need them. I never let my companions pick up food or ingredients, or really much of anything without sending it straight to me. Otherwise I know I'll forget they have it. I also add two additional backpacks to my Tav's inventory.

Then, every three or four times I visit camp, I empty my alchemy pouch and camp supply pack into the ones I stored in the chest. Make sure you extract all of your ingredients before doing this (unless you're getting mushrooms of Omeluum, in which case make sure you give those to him before extracting any ingredients or they'll be destroyed, possibly locking you out of the quest). The moving process can be sped up by opening a pack and clicking "take all", then sorting your inventory by "latest". With the items now in your personal inventory, all you have to do is open the packs in the chest, hit "multiselect", and click each item one by one until you can store everything you desire. This sounds monotonous, I know, but it's honestly really fast, and you'll get into a habit if you do it enough times.

Now, in addition to the alchemy pouch and camp supply pack, I also add two different style backpacks, a crude chest, a gilded chest, and a heavy chest to the traveller's chest. Since I bought the deluxe version of the game, I also have the peculiar clothing chest, but if you don't have one, I would suggest grabbing another gilded chest with a different design. Most of these things you can find on your way to or in the Grove, except the crude chest, which you can find in the goblin camp or in Auntie Ethel's teahouse. But you don't have to be insane like me, you can just use another heavy chest or whatever. I organise them like so: backpack 1—dyes, backpack 2—potions, crude chest—weapons, gilded chest—quest items, heavy chest—miscellaneous shit I can't bring my hoarder self to part with, peculiar clothing chest—clothing/kits.

The two backpacks I carry are used for scrolls and explosives/important items I can use to pass checks or teleport, etc. Arrows I usually split between Lae'zel, Karlach, and Astarion, since they have no magic abilities. Though when I played as a fighter, I also kept those with the explosives. That said, since I'm already giving advice, I highly, highly suggest you give most of your arrows to Karlach, as her blows don't seem to be quite as powerful as Lae'zel's, and Astarion can pull off some pretty hard-hitting ranged sneak attacks. I'd also suggest giving Astarion the Shadow of Menzoberranzan, a helmet you can find in the treasure room in the Myconid Colony. It's invisibility is a great boon to any of his rogue builds.

Other than that, the only items that go directly into my traveller's chest are the big boy explosives (barrels, Wulbren's bomb, etc.) since they're too heavy and I usually send them straight there from the wild. I also put Dribbles' body parts in there, because they're annoying and I hate them, but they don't stay for very long.

As for my least favourite aspect of BG3, I'd say it's the companion management, but it looks like they fixed it with the latest patch! I loathed having to manually dismiss everyone just to swap them out with someone else, then run to that person's tent to add them to my party. I also hated having to add a companion to my party just so I could give them a ring or piece of armour. I'm so glad they fixed it. Thank you, Larian! ❤

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Looks to the Moon

I LOVE BIG SIS MOON AHHHH... she's literally so so sweet and perfect and i love her…

MY GIRL!!! She deserved so much better. She's one of the first of many MASSIVE supercomputers called iterators designed to solve a problem which her creators eventually gave up on any of them solving and thus was left behind to gradually fall into disrepair. Even though she appears as a small humanoid, iterators in their entirety are actually buildings full of machinery that have entire cities built on top of them.

As one of the senior iterators, Looks to the Moon, sometimes called Big Sis Moon, looks after her younger peers and is very caring towards her fellow iterators. Tragically, her kindness ultimately leads to her structure collapsing leaving her weak and with limited cognitive ability, but even then she is so sweet to the main character. You can bring her random items and she'll describe each one, even if it's just a rock or something. She also gives you advice whenever possible.

She's gone through so much and yet is still so incredibly kind please vote for her she deserves it

Looks to the moon is an iterator, a city-sized biomechanical supercomputer. When you meet her, she is trapped in the flooded and collapsed husk of her superstructure, barely alive. Despite this, she is warm and kind and will tell you about any object you bring her. Looks to the Moon also goes by the name Big Sis Moon, as she is the most senior iterator in the local group and views the other iterators in her care as younger siblings

Moon's the best! She's an iterator, a sentient supercomputer whose structure used to be so big it housed an entire city on top of it. However, the civilization that built her is long gone, and she and the other iterators were left behind, unable to die, unable to leave their structures. Imagine once being a god with an entire civilization relying on you for all their vital resources, only to be left behind, literally a mountain bolted to the ground, as the wildlife slowly takes over the land and your communications with the other iterator fail. Moon's little brother Five Pebble's couldn't accept this fate, and made some rash decicions. This badly damaged Moon's systems, causing her structure to come crashing down to the ground, and her to lose most of her memories and processing power. There's something magical in discovering her for the first time - this fallen Goddess taken over by rust, abandoned inside the giant ruins that used to be her body. Still, she's friendly, and should you be kind to her, she'll return the gesture. She doesn't have much, but she'll gladly give you company and tell you stories. She also still cares about her brother very much, even though he's the one to blame for her bad state. 

Moon is a superintelligent AI called an Iterator. She's designed to (basically) help the lesser beings of the world escape samsara, along with the potentially thousands of other iterators. She was accidentally killed by her brother as he attempted to escape samsara for himself. She's the only character the player can meaningfully interact with, and she's very sweet and kind.

Majora's Mask Moon

Now that's a very angry looking Moon!

Omnipresent. The best way to describe them. You look up. They are there. You can reset time as many times as you like…but until you deal with the problem…the moon is still there.

They are the moon. You can't get moonier than the literal fucking moon. Any yes, they are a major character with autonomy in the story. 

[patchwork-crow-writes]

On the topic of 'other secret bosses', have I told you my Rouxls Kaard theory yet? Specifically that I think halfway through the game, he's going to disappear and become a Secret Boss.

My reasons for thinking this firstly, because like the Joker Card, his real-world form is another item that always gets discarded: the Rules Card. His similarity to Gaster and Papyrus also help(since they're also both very affiliated with the idea of being 'Forgettable', and I suspect one of them may be the 'Strange Someone'. (Maybe both? I will NEVER give up on the Gaster is Papyrus theory.)) Anyways, those things, but there's also how Rouxls' theme has spoken words in it, and Jevil and Spamton have spoken words in their fights (Jevil's 'I can do anything', the lyrics to Big Shot), and there's ALSO something very important--

Rouxls is very important and no one really likes him. He's always running around, trying to find a boss to suck up to, but the Fun Gang treats him as 'eurgh, that guy again,' and neither King nor Queen really LIKES him. Much like Jevil, only one person(Lancer) really seems to appreciate him, but much like Spamton, he's not very good at all at what he does.

So I think that, in some future Dark World, Rouxls will meet someone he's not supposed to. And he's eagerly offer to be their lackey. And that will cause him to disappear. Stopping him from disappearing is out of your control. But what IS in your control is if you just give him up for lost, or go looking for him, even knowing that you can't ever undo the damage done by his having gone missing, even if he's radically changed by what happened, even if you don't think you'll be able to really bring him back...

Maybe Noelle felt similarly after losing Dess. No one seems to talk about them anymore. Life continues on perfectly fine without them. Even those who knew them and miss them still have a life to live. Maybe this was always going to happen. But still...

I've heard about the idea of Rouxls being a secret boss at some point, but this is a really cool take on that idea! I really like this for a couple of reasons - the first being that in a way this has already happened in-game! When we first enter the Cyber World, Rouxls slips out of our pocket in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, and I'm willing to bet most people didn't even notice he was gone from our inventory until the next confrontation with him... myself included.

The other reason I really like this idea is because it would give Rouxls something else in common with other secret bosses - which is that we as players would have to really go out of our way to discover and fight him, and it's entirely likely that our efforts in that regard could cause many more problems than it might solve - see Kris's mental state after the whole Spamton ordeal. It's kind of like an extension of the philosophy behind the Sans fight in Undertale - we do it because of our morbid curiosity, because we want to see what happens, and because we can, we "have to"... no matter the cost in-game.

Quite aside from that, Rouxls fascinates me because it's entirely possible that his abilities could be literally game-breaking... if he only knew how to use them properly. As the Rules Card, he literally defines the terms of a game of cards - imagine what he could be capable of if he suddenly decided "you can't hurt me anymore" or "I win if I so much as graze you". I think that potential power may be largely curtailed by his need to be subordinate to a "higher power", because you cannot play a rules card in the same way you can play a face card... so maybe becoming subordinate to "something he wasn't supposed to meet" will allow him to use that power to its fullest extent.

To further hammer this point home, look at his appearances between Chapters 1 and 2. Under King, who is a incredibly myopic and cruel ruler whose subordinates either hate him or are completely indifferent to him... Rouxls' puzzles are equally rubbish. Then in Chapter 2, Queen does a slightly better job of "ruling" her domain, and actually commands loyalty from the Swatchlings, and suddenly Rouxls is able to construct a pretty elaborate house-capturing game in his fight. So there's a correlation between how powerful and competent a ruler is, and Rouxls' ability to craft puzzles and games.

So imagine what he might be capable of if he ever came into the employ of somebody with very intimate knowledge of Deltarune's game mechanics... somebody like that person who drove both Jevil and Spamton to insanity. And your theory here would be the perfect way that could happen. And then it's up to us whether we care enough - or are morbidly curious enough - to actually find him once he disappears. And what exactly such a search would entail, for Kris and the other main characters of Deltarune, the game's themes and motifs, and the nature of the nested worlds (e.g. Real(Light(Dark(Something else?))))

Thanks so much for sharing this with me! Rest assured it'll eat away at my grey matter for some time to come, which trust me, is the highest compliment I can give something here :D

[catblackard]

THIS WEEKEND (Thursday Aug 8th - Sunday Aug 11th) the annual Worldcon (aka The World Science Fiction Convention) hits Glasgow, Scotland - but you don't have to be in Scotland to attend!

Omniverse will be there, represented by myself, @cthulhumystery and @gbresurrection's Doug Banks, and @mothershewrote's @cmdrjessie, along with Tess Tanenbaum who you'll meet in an upcoming Surprise RPG project. (Tess is in-person in Glasgow, while the rest of us appear online.)

We're all taking part in a number of panels about all sorts of things: JRPGs, food in anime, horror podcasts... but the big ticket Omniverse item is on Friday at 12:30pm EST / 17:30pm BST:

Surprise RPGs: Interactive Storytelling on the Bleeding Edge Or… How a Back to the Future RPG Changed My Life

Gathering around the table to tell stories is a powerful experience - powerful enough to fuel new innovations in storytelling and even therapy. Actual play pioneers Cat Blackard and Doug Banks (The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program) take you down the rabbit hole of Surprise RPGs and "The Omniverse Method". Their experimental roleplay techniques pull players and audiences into the game like never before, opening hearts and minds and offering bold new storytelling opportunities that blur the lines between fiction and reality. They're joined by interactive narrative scholar and game designer Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum and game master Jessica Mudd to share stories, findings, and advice for bringing your games to life.

We're discussing the methods of play we've developed for Surprise RPGs in a large public forum for the first time. This method began in concepts first tested in Ghostbusters: Resurrection and The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program and came to fruition in K8 Was Here, The Extermination, City of Daemons, and our upcoming shows A Walk in the Park and Étude of the Storm.

There's more info on all the other panels we're a part of below!

You can get online (and in person) tickets to Worldcon here* and if you can't make them live, your ticket gets you access to video replays.

*Not gonna lie, Worldcon's sign up/ ticketing is obtuse and not user friendly at all, but if you read the above linked page and follow the directions therein, you'll manage. I believe in you. 

OUR PANEL SCHEDULE:

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Let Them Cook - Food in Anime - 08:00 EDT / 13:00 BST (In-Person and Online) 

Omniverse personnel: Jessica Mudd 

We've all wanted to take a bite out of a gorgeous piece of animated food: the hearty and comforting bacon and eggs of Howl's Moving Castle, the explosively flavorful wagyu of Food Wars, or even the dubious treasure bug sorbet of Dungeon Meshi. Come find out with us how anime can create connections between food, the audience, and cooking - but bring your own snacks!

Friday, August 9, 2024

Predicting the Shape of Things to Come  - 05:00 EDT / 10:00 BST (In-Person)

Omniverse personnel: Tess Tanenbaum

The panel discusses how ideas from the past – whether presented as science fiction or factual predictions – have stood the test of time. Which have come true, which were way off, and which are still future possibilities? And who proved better at predicting the future? Was it the scientists, mathematicians and engineers… or the science fiction writers?

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Musicals on Stage -  09:30 EDT/ 14:30 BST (In-Person)

Omniverse personnel: Tess Tanenbaum (moderator)

Return to the Forbidden Planet rocked our spaceship. The Rocky Horror Picture Show had us dancing the Timewarp. The Little Shop of Horrors, taught us botany and Young Frankenstein put on the Ritz. The panel will talk about the best and worst SF musicals, originals versus adaptions, and why we should have more of them.

Surprise RPGs: Interactive Storytelling on the Bleeding Edge Or… How a Back to the Future RPG Changed My Life - 12:30 EDT/ 17:30 BST (Online)

Omniverse personnel: Cat Blackard, Doug Banks, Jessica Mudd, Tess Tanenbaum (moderator)

Gathering around the table to tell stories is a powerful experience - powerful enough to fuel new innovations in storytelling and even therapy. Actual play pioneers Cat Blackard and Doug Banks (The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program) take you down the rabbit hole of Surprise RPGs and The Omniverse Method. Their experimental roleplay techniques pull players and audiences into the game like never before, opening hearts and minds and offering bold new storytelling opportunities that blur the lines between fiction and reality. They're joined by interactive narrative scholar and game designer Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum and game master Jessica Mudd to share stories, findings, and advice for bringing your games to life.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

The Return of the Witch to A Hostile World - 05:00 EDT/ 10:00 BST (In-person)

Omniverse personnel: Tess Tanenbaum

In recent years, fictional witchcraft has seen a large resurgence, both in online communities and in contemporary horror. How does this interact with the rise of real practitioners? Who are some of the great new witches of speculative fiction? What is it about the idea of witchcraft that appeals in these times of uncertainty, as queer/trans rights are being rolled back and abortion access denied?

Diversity in Tabletop RPGs - 08:00 EDT/ 13:00 BST (Online)*

Omniverse personnel: Cat Blackard (moderator)

Roleplaying games can provide players the opportunity to embody a diverse range of characters with different backgrounds, gender identities, sexualities, abilities, and more. Our panelists will discuss the importance of diversity in tabletop RPGs, introduce audiences to a wide variety of decolonizing and inclusive game systems, and look at how players can push beyond stereotypical representation.

*There are two versions of this panel, an online one and an in-person one, with different panelists. There is a chance that this one may be re-titled "LGBTQIA+ Representation in Tabletop RPGs"

The Immersive Possibilities of Horror Audio - 14:00 EDT/ 19:00 BST (Online)

Omniverse personnel: Cat Blackard

Eerie, unsettling, and spooky tales are a perfect fit for audio dramas. Our panelists converse on modern horror audio dramas, like The Lovecraft Investigations, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia, and how they use clever sound design, ambient audio, and other audio techniques to immerse their audiences in the world of their stories.

 Sunday, August 11, 2024

Podcast Production: Audio Recording and Editing - 05:00 EDT/ 10:00 BST (Online)

Omniverse personnel:  Jessica Mudd, Cat Blackard (moderator)

How do you make sure your podcast audio is clean, professional, and appealing to the ears of your listeners? Join us for a deep dive into the audio recording and editing process, showcasing strategies for gracefully integrating music or sound effects into your podcast, integrating multiple audio files into a balanced and unified whole, improving the quality of sub-standard audio, and output formats appropriate to your unique circumstances.

Let's Kill and Dethrone God: the History of JRPGs - 08:00 EDT / 13:00 BST (Online and In-Person)

Omniverse personnel: Jessica Mudd, Cat Blackard (moderator)

Japanese Role Playing Games have developed relatively independently to their western counterpart, evolving their own unique tropes, mechanics, and worldbuilding staples. In this panel we will discuss what makes a JRPG, trace its history, and shed light on some hidden gems of the genre - it's not all just Final Fantasy!

[12pt-times-new-roman]

y'all I'm not fucking ready for this.

How many weeks in a row is this with no DDB sponsor?

Matt is dressed in Ruidus colors. fear

personally? I think it would be very funny if somebody replaced Liam's chair with one that's a foot shorter than everyone else's.

I'm fully expecting Ira to be a Garmellie/Artagan situation. This motherfucker is an archfey slumming it on Exandria and ancient god-killing wizard dilfs are his dive bar of choice.

Ira was around for at least one previous apogee solstice, but he was in the Feywild when it happened so he didn't get to see the true extent of is power.

"What do you think about the gods?" "I don't think about them." good answer, good answer

Aberrations and other "mythological creatures" born on solstices (even normal ones) are particularly powerful.

The circlet prevents Imogen from hearing the thoughts of people around her. It just eliminates that entirely. And with it goes most of the reasons she'd have to side with Ludinus and Otohan. Truly the peak of non-wizard mortal hubris, to consider killing the gods before looking for an item or a spell to solve your problem first

Sending to Keyleth from Imogen: "We're a couple hours out, to the southwest. Are we meeting up? Just going for it? Help?" "I'm gathering those of able-body who recovered from our last endeavor. I'll look for a tree. Let me know when you need the cavalry; our arrival isn't quiet."

"I go over and give Fearne a big hug." "Aww—" "I reach into her pocket." never change, Ashton

A ways out from the crater, the Bells Hells come upon a structure in the storm — the wood and stone wreckage of a skyship that carried a cathedral on it. It's mangled and burned; the brumestone has been scavenged. It looks recent, and the outer hull is covered in mounts for heavy armor, harpoons, and cannons, but it was brought down by battle on the deck, not by massive damage to the outer hull. The iconography indicates that it was from Vasselheim, possibly a Judicator ship.

jesus fucking christ. Matt could not say "DO NOT GO THROUGH WITH CRASHING THE SHIP" any more clearly.

if that dispel pulse is shutting down the automatons briefly, then maybe it's not actually intentional. maybe it's a by-product, an unintended consequence.

it never ceases to amaze me that without fail and across all of his characters, Travis manages to be both the voice of "fuck it we ball" and the person who slows down combat to calm players.

like, does CritRoleStats keep track of how many combat encounters each PC has started? bc Chetney has got to be up there with Imogen this campaign

this battle music has the same opening notes as the 2001 theme and now I can't hear anything else

The spellcaster has a +6 spell attack, but also cast hold person at 5th level and did 15 damage on a fire bolt, so they're most likely 9th level with a +2 spellcasting ability modifier.

Ashton rage build update: 2 on the d4 is the space build (portals!). they took the Crusher feat for their 8th level ASI. also, when the space build is active, they can use portals (either as a bonus action or as a result of hitting a creature or as a result of bringing a creature to 0 hp) to teleport to any space they can see within 30 or 60 feet of them.

As a reminder, shock flare is a reskin of arms of hadar, but it pushes creatures away instead of preventing them from taking reactions and deals lightning damage instead of necrotic.

Tal saying "five foot step" gave me hella flashbacks to Pathfinder 1e

"Well, I don't get to choose, do I? Let's just go with it." god fucking damnit. Ashton's rage abilities and how fucking random they are is so poetically and narratively intwined with the themes of this campaign, it's wild

it will never not amuse me that Matt, without fail, misunderstands the way the command spell works. it's super minor and not a big deal but as someone with a DM who's pretty on-top of it, it's very funny

Imogen gets pulled into a tent by a very quick and quiet force.

"Who are you, and why are you fighting the Vanguard?" "I've got friends coming in. Friends or enemies?" "I asked you first." "The question isn't why! It's 'are you fighting too'?" "Who are you with?" "

oh my god of fucking COURSE there are already infiltrators in here. of course there are. why wouldn't there be? Ryn didn't come here alone.

BEAUREGARD???

BEAUREGARD!!!!

y'all you have no fucking idea how excited I am——

"He can go say hi to the rest of his friends we've put there [in jail]." how fucking many of the Cerberus Assembly are in jail now? we know Trent is in there but who else?

CALEB!!!! blorbo!!!

"So. What's the play here, Beauregard?"

They're both friends to the Verity, and they've worked with Ryn before. They came here with her, trying to do a recon mission before she was taken.

The Children of Malice are a front for the Ruby Vanguard.

Caleb and Beau saw the other skyship go down. It was from Vasselheim. The Vanguard struck the skyship from the sky at Ludinus' request, though Caleb hasn't seen any sign of Ludinus being in the crater for many days. But the perpetual dispel pulse was intentionally installed.

Caleb, Beau, and Ryn were all on the Shadowfell team — they were able to damage the key, but unable to completely destroy it.

Caleb refers to Ludinus as the most powerful of the assembly, "the one who could topple it all" if he goes down. He and Beau came here alone;

The entire site is illusion-proofed, there's a dispel wave every minute. There are also mage-hunter golems here, which we've only ever heard of existing inside the Heirloom Sphere. I am forcibly reminded of the fact that Ludinus Da'leth is aware of the Happy Fun Ball.

"The absolute, absurd amount of muscles she has—" "Like Marisha?" *raised eyebrow* Matthew. (fuckin' simp (affectionate))

Ludinus has been reverse-engineering Aeorian technology and using distilled dunamis energy to power it, with multiple mesh-like power sources. He's "obsessed" with divinity and appears to be "counting on opposition, which makes [Beau] uneasy."

"What's dunabis?" "...there isn't time to lecture. It's a very obtuse form of magic that exists between the fabric of all other forms of power. It's one of the oldest and most fundamental forces within Exandria and beyond. It can alter time, space, probability, entropy — it is dangerous in the wrong hands, and unfortunately, a very strong source of it has been in the hands of Ludinus and the Assembly for some time." The 'very strong source' is presumably the beacon, which Ludinus has had since 835 PD.

The Cobalt Soul has been trying to nail down Ludinus for a long time, but "he's always one step ahead."

Caleb specifically refers to dunamis as chaotic, referencing Ashton.

Ludinus has apparently been doing this outside of the Assembly. Caleb's contact in the Assembly (Astrid, presumably) notes that even the rest of the Assembly is afraid to get involved in Ludinus' plans.

Halas, Trent, and "Bendathar" are in Beau's list of archmages they've fucked up.

Hey! Beau knows the Ashari! that's cool. She also knows Ira and his history of designing the keys.

There are dozens of mirrors and hook-like spires facing toward the key itself. Everything is reinforced with a massive amount of residuum — the device, the walls of the excavation site, and everything beyond. "An all-out assault would be far too dangerous." Caleb gives a sending stone to Chetney, who gives it to Laudna, under the assumption that the groups are going to split up to cover more ground.

given the fact that the solstice didn't actually happen this episode and that the Mighty Nein and the Crown Keepers are now attached to this, I feel like my "PFS2 special scenario" theory has some more merit

Beau disappears, Caleb goes invisible (they both start to circle around), and the Bells Hells start to descend the crater.

also, last minute update: Fearne would have flirted incessantly with both Beau and Caleb.

threads that have connected in this episode:

Missing residuum shipments: the malleus key and its surroundings are reinforced with residuum. that's a massive amount; it's possible that Trent's supply of residuum, the stuff the Nameless Ones stole, and the stuff the Paragon's Call were trafficking were probably all going here.

The Cobalt Soul and the Cerberus Assembly: It takes a long, long time to dismantle political systems. The Cobalt Soul has apparently imprisoned more Assembly members than just Trent.

Out-of-the-blue rolls: Those random rolls Matt had Marisha and Liam make were indeed rolls for the Shadowfell expedition that Beau, Caleb, and Ryn were involved with. They rolled shitty, so the Shadowfell key wasn't entirely destroyed, but was damaged.

[fishrpg]

2024-09-14: Episode 14 (What Will Come To Pass Pt. 2)

Original airdate September 30, 1992

Episode Synopsis

Dr. How and the gang travel back in time, but can't reach the present and arrive in another dystopian future in the year 2022. The gang must solve the mystery of why they can't travel back in time any earlier than 2022. Each attempt to travel back in time results in a slightly different different reality.

SynCorp has reverse-engineered Dr. How's TIMER and modified it to prevent anyone from traveling back in time to a period before its temporal field effects were operational. Once the gang identifies the source of the time travel interference, they can destroy it and finally travel back in time to stop SynCorp from getting their hands on the device in the first place.

Episode Sponsor: Clamjams

Clamjams is a waterproof boombox with radio and built-in cassette player. However, the radio only works as long as the antenna is above water, and opening the cassette deck underwater has a significant chance of ruining the device. But if you're okay with these shortcomings, now you can bring the party to the pool or beach!

Notable Introduction: P.E.T.E.R. (Item)

The device that SynCorp created with the help of Boris Ozonevich's supply of money is known as P.E.T.E.R. (Primacy Expanding Temporal Experience Resonator) and it stops attempts to use Dr. How's TIMER to travel to times before P.E.T.E.R.'s countermeasures were activated. It creates a new decoy reality each time the gang tries to use the TIMER to travel back in time, but operating the device across an effectively infinite array of realities is both costly and space intensive. As such, P.E.T.E.R. is always housed in a tall, mostly-empty building with a great deal of access to energy. Please use the tables below to generate the broad strokes of the reality the gang encounters:

The Landscape Is (d6)

A desert

Flooded

A dying city

An overdeveloped neon city

Plagued by fire

Completely free of trees

Other Problems In This Reality (d6)

Acid Rain

Smoke and Smog

Constant lightning storms

Plague

Robots control almost all jobs

Massive drought conditions

P.E.T.E.R. Is Powered By (d6)

Burning nuclear waste

A battery bank of people like in the matrix

A dam that flooded out an entire city of people

A giant battery filled with highly corrosive acid

Prisoners running in a big hamster wheel

Energy harvested from several laser arrays focusing their beams

[eight-freakin-gids]

A review of Another Crab's Treasure where I also talk about Slay the Princess  

I've finished* playing two very different games recently, and my experiences with them are such that I feel compelled to share my thoughts on them. This is a long post, so here's a Read More.

      The first of these games is Another Crab's Treasure, the indie Souls-like action RPG. I want to preface this by saying I'm not really a negative person by a lot of standards. My friends and family will occasionally joke that I think everything is "fine," and there's some truth in that. I tend not to hold anything to an exceptionally high standard. I am not overly critical of anything that doesn't meet my standards.

      With that in mind, I did not like this game, and I feel bad about that.

      For some background, I got into the Dark Souls series sometime between the releases of Bloodborne and Dark Souls III. I started with Dark Souls II, and had a hard time getting into it (but later revisited and finished it). Contrasted with that, I got really into Bloodborne, and still consider it one of my favorite games of all time. I played Dark Souls III when it came out, and played the Painted World DLC when it came out. However, I didn't play the Ringed City, and I have yet to play any other souls-like after that point. No Sekiro, no Nioh 2, and not even Eldin Ring (despite literally everyone and their dog playing it). I think a big part of this is due to life circumstances. I don't own my own PS4 or PS5, nor do I own a gaming PC. I could only play Bloodborne and Dark Souls III because I lived with my siblings and could conveniently borrow theirs.

      But I also tell you this because there's a chance I'm just not a SoulsBorne guy. I haven't really had the motivation to seek out these titles I've missed. This could explain why I feel the way I do about A.C.T. But at least, I want to be clear I don't need to git gud either.

      So anyway, we get this new Crab Souls on the Switch, and I think that I might as well try it out. 

      Credit where it's due, Another Crab's Treasure crafts a nice world. It's colorful, it's funny, it's charming, and it brings attention to the real-world problem of polluted oceans. But subjectively, I can't say I enjoyed the game very much. To sum up my biggest issue in one word, it's options. I am a player who values decision making in games. I want to express myself through the choices I make, be it narrative decisions or choice of strategy. Another Crab's Treasure didn't make me feel like I had many choices, and those choices I did have didn't feel like they mattered.

      The game invites us to compare it to its inspirations, so I'm going to compare it to Dark Souls III. I like Bloodborne more, but I want to do Crab Game the favor of trying to create a more direct comparison. 

      In Dark Souls III, you immediately begin with the option to choose between one of a few base character options. Each one offers different tools in order to tackle the incoming challenges. After navigating the opening area and defeating the first boss, you are immediately given access to the game's central hub. In addition to anything you find in the opening area, you can buy more weapons, ammo, and consumable items to help you on your way. The options available to you only increase as you continue to play the game. So many weapons, spells, and armor sets at your disposal, free to mix and match to your heart's content.

      When I played Another Crab's Treasure, I felt stifled. You don't get any starting options. You have one weapon. It has two attacks: light and heavy (compared to Dark Souls games, where you usually have light, heavy, fully-charged heavy, dodge attack, roll attack, running attack, and plunging attack at least. None of that even considering the game-specific movesets like Trick Weapons, Weapon Arts, dual wielding, or Power Stancing). Oh, Crab Game has plunging attacks and running attacks, but you have to unlock them in a skill tree after beating the first boss! Yay! Isn't that awesome?

      I think Crab Game's first boss is really when my opinion on it began to sour. They introduce the Shell mechanic to you, and I do not care for it. What little choice for customization the game would have in this system is offset by the inconsistent nature of it. You can never guarantee access to a specific shell, because you're limited to what you can find in the environment. Even something as simple as a preference between Small, Medium, and Heavy is not something you can guarantee. This lack of consistency only gets worse with the introduction of the Umami system. I hoped that acquiring this game's magic system would help ease my pain, but no. Your "spell" (singular) is tied to what shell you're using. Did you like that spell? Too bad, you weren't perfect, and now you have to manage with something else. Why bother even learning what all of the spells do? It's not like you'll have any of them for long.

      But I'm getting ahead of myself. The fact that Shells have durability also bothers me. Blocking feels like a complete waste of time. You move so much slower while blocking (regardless of what your shell's weight is), and you lose effective health even when you successfully guard against an attack. So. Why. Even. Bother? Also, they throw this entire shell system at you immediately before you have to fight the game's first boss. Better figure it out quickly, fucker!

      It took me an appropriate amount of time to beat Crab Game's first boss. I didn't hate the game, but I was having less fun. Progressing from there, you unlock the game's skill tree system before reaching the second boss. But before that, I want to talk about this game's performance issues. I probably didn't do myself any favors by choosing to play the Switch version. The frame rate drops considerably during certain scenes. And I normally don't give two hoots about performance in a game— I love Bloodborne in all of its 30 FPS glory. So when I bring it up here, know that it means I thought it was considerably distracting. 

      So I'm making my way through the corrupted Fort Slacktide en route to boss #2. At this point, the game's map choices became a mixed bag for me. The implementation of the Grappling Hook was intriguing, but ultimately made it feel like a Legend of Zelda item in the worst possible way. Rather than using it as a generalized tool to navigate any obstacle, you only ever use it to overcome a Grappling Hook Obstacle(tm). I have a few other nitpicks with the Fort Slacktide experience, but I'll spare you some of those. This review is long enough as is. I reached the first shortcut for the area, died, and then never figured out how to use that shortcut. This was also the first and only time I lost all of my Microplastics. So after giving up on finding the shortcut, I try to make my way back up through the same path. And then, I get hit and clip through a wall directly to the fort's second shortcut. I'm not going to hold a bug against this game too much, but know that it happened. With that, my time at Fort Slacktide came to a premature and unsatisfying end. I fought the boss and beat it on the first try. Why is this significant? Because I stopped caring. I just mashed dodge and light attack until I won.

      I have yet to make my way to the alluded-to Big City area. Judging by my collection of Corruption Crystals, The Shallows is likely one area out of fourteen. I'll admit I've played a comically small amount of this game. If you argue that I haven't played enough, I don't think I'll disagree with you. Maybe all of my problems will be solved if only I go a little further, but I don't feel like rolling the dice on that. That doesn't change what I've experienced.

      More than anything, this game has solidified a rule for me: any time a game makes me say aloud "This game is fucking stupid," my enthusiasm for that game is cut in half. 

      Sorry, Another Crab's Treasure. I sincerely hope that I'm in the minority here. I hope your game is the delightful souls-like romp that it looks to be. I hope to give it another chance some other time, but I won't be finishing it now.

      I've written a lot, so I'd like to summarize my points for anyone who doesn't want to read all my hogwash.

Another Crab's Treasure offers considerably less meaningful decisions compared to its contemporaries, and that is in direct conflict with one of my core desires for playing games.

The choices that the game does offer are shallow and come at a slow trickle.

The Switch version has performance issues bad enough that it bothers me, the guy who never cares about game performance so long as the experience is fun.

The systems that set this game apart from its contemporaries (namely, the Shell system) do not serve to improve the game experience for me.

I feel like the game has rewarded me for not engaging with its mechanics. I just did whatever was simplest, and it was the most effective.

I haven't been given any reason to believe that these problems will meaningfully improve if I keep playing.

      Now, I don't intend to talk for long about the other game I played. Partly this is to avoid spoilers, but it's also because I've already written a lot. Above all, I want to leave off on a positive note, so I want to talk about Slay the Princess.

      Slay the Princess is a visual novel. It's a horror story. It's a love story. It's a monochromatic game that features time loops, so how could I, an In Stars and Time enjoyer, not like it?

      I think the biggest reason that I wanted to talk about this game alongside Another Crab's Treasure is to contrast the decision making between the two.

      Slay the Princess, like many other visual novels, features choice of dialog as the primary "game" mechanic. Normally, I enjoy games with complex systems that I can really sink my teeth into. And yet, visual novels are also a favorite of mine. In spite of their simplicity, the impact of your choices is a central pillar to the genre, and that appeals to me greatly.

      This game takes that a step further. It does a thing I love: it makes your decisions matter even when you think that they won't matter. In any given scene, you roughly have two choices: select an "Explore" dialog option, or choose an option that advances the scene. Generally, an Explore option will provide you with new information. Sometimes, it also adds even more dialog options.

      But sometimes, the Explore options will secretly be the options to advance, for better or for worse. Sometimes you can back out, and sometimes you have to live with your decision. I could see that element of the game frustrating some players, but that's the reason why I love it so much. Adding stakes to all dialog invites the player deeper into the role play. You're not just here to mash through all of the text until you reach your next signpost decision. Every line of dialog has consequences, so you need to think carefully. What do you want to say? What do you want to do? Choose carefully. Sometimes, the game will remember your choices even when those choices don't seem like they would have mattered.

      There are a number of other things about this game I adore. It offers an intriguing narrative that had me speculating like a madman, so needless to say I think the story is good. The artwork is gorgeous and haunting at the same time. And, it features the voice talents of Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archives fame.

      I played this game alongside my younger siblings, and I loved it enough that I will happily revisit it in my own time. 

      If anything I've said here encourages you to try out a new game, than that's a win for me. Maybe you disagree with me about Crab Game. Maybe my reservations about Crab Game give you enough heads-up to better work through it's problems. Or maybe my vague praises of Slay the Princess have piqued your interest. In any case, I hope I can contribute a positive experience to your life.

[roguedeck]

One of the things I love about board games is their ability for emergent narratives.

It's a magic trick to take bits of cardboard, plastic, and wood and come out the other side with stories -- to take fundamentally mechanical rule sets and transform them into memories and in-jokes as if you we actually part of an intergalactic struggle or siege of the wizard's castle.

While many games do this well, for my money, Root is the best.

In Root, you take on the role of an adorable woodland dynasty and hack, slash, cajole, and strongarm your way to domination. Don't let the meeples fool you - this is a ruthless war game.

But it is also SO much more.

In addition to the normal rules of movement and combat, Root is a completely asymmetric game. When you choose your faction, you get a unique player board that defines your personal goals and mechanics throughout the game. Out of the box, you have four completely different factions.

Marquise de Cat: The current lords of the forest, the Cats start with the most pieces on the table. They score by building up their supply lines and industrializing the forest.

Eyrie Dynasty: The Birds are an explosive factions that works by programming actions turn after turn. But watch out - if you ever can't complete your program, your subjects revolt and depose you as a ruler.

Woodland Alliance: Everyone's favorite angry toast meeples represent the subversive movement in the forest. They spread sympathy/propaganda through whisper campaigns until they violently overthrow the invading forces.

The Vagabond: While the other players are in the middle of a war game, the Vagabond is playing his own RPG. He travels around the forest leveling up and raiding items from ruins.

While you can get hundreds of hours of great gameplay from the core box alone, there are a myriad of expansions that unlock the games true potential.

The Riverfolk is a big box expansion that brings along two new factions: The Lizard Cult who have limited, but extremely powerful actions and the war profiteering Otters who sell their services to any other faction needing mercenaries.

The Underworld is the second big box that introduces new maps along with more factions: The murderous Crows who sneak around the board setting traps, and the Moles who can spring up from their tunnels to jump-start their colonization.

The newest big box expansion, The Marauders, introduces Hirelings that give more options for smaller player counts. It also brought us the Lord of the Hundreds who commands his Rats to raze as much of the forest as possible, and the Badger templars who use their military prowess to delve for ancient relics.

And that's just the beginning. There are more hireling packs, an additional deck of cards, landmarks, and plenty of aesthetic upgrades you can buy.

Root is a full-on, five-star game for me. It is significantly different than the other euro and card battler games my group favors, but that palate cleanser is an incredibly fun challenge. Root also requires more direct interaction and table talk than anything else on the shelf.

While it can seem untenable from the outside, the rules system is logical and cleanly laid out. It isn't particularly hard to get up and running in a game.

And even if it was, it is worth the effort to be able to play with these little fellas...

[katyspersonal]

Okay I never actually shared the Hunter I am playing as - she is the first one and I still use her.

Her name is Rina, I kinda allowed her to write herself based on how I was playing and progressing, so:

- She started off as being WAY too cautious, hit and run strategy for the win, almost never dying, killing bosses with 1 or no deaths thanks to it

- Developing paranoia fast and thus hitting everything that moved. That included accidentally killing Eileen (no big loss since she dies in ANY case, but that haunts her a lot. That haunts ME a lot. I just wanted to restart the game ooooofffff ;-; )

- Thus she got blade of Mercy fast

- Tried to gather herself to kill Djura but never was able to bring herself to do it, it was like 20 minutes of me walking around in circles around him.. because I wanted his items but I just could not

- Got lost in Old Yharnam too much though, and only after refusing to kill him again found her way to every item she needed, as if he was guiding me for good behavior lol (which I just like to think did happen - like, maybe he'd just see her struggle and just give her whatever she wanted to find himself)

- Honestly that Djura struggle was such a mess fshdsf but some of you remember my posts xd

- Can't use won't use guns at all

- Over time I completely dropped 'hit and run' strategy and stopped being careful at ALL, feeling too confident in my stats and weapon now, which now has me get hit and die way too often lol but I can't remember how to be careful anymore! Project it onto her as becoming way too sloppy.

- Killed imposter Iosefka and Alfred and Beggar with her run tho, so presume she is ruthless and doesn't give people a chance if she sees THEY killed innocents, nor she believes bullshit (this makes Eileen situation even sadder, just end me. At least on this run I didn't trigger Adella yandere mode, or she'd be gone too.)

- She has like 50 on every stat now, except for bloodtinge that she has at 20, because I unironically love grinding. But consider it her legit stats.

- Naturally Brador is killed too. Consistency!!!

- Way too much time grinding, especially in the dungeons, as the result I went overpowered against main story and DLC bosses. Yet not even she can kill the two shark giants in the well ;-; #big_mood

- To think of it she has legit personality on accident, you can say she is paranoid and prefers to be prepared - first being overly cautious, then developing too much power to be stopped. Also revenge every time the need is apparent

- Bolt Paper abuse all time every time, when I am not using Blade of Mercy (F in the chat for Eileen)

- League rune always equipped even if I don't do pvps and already killed bosses

- Honorable mention: fight in Yahar'gul against the three hunters that ambush the player near the broken lamp. Even with my power I lost to them like 15 times in the row ok? So my objective was to take down AT LEAST one ok? Because they don't respawn and thus fight is forever easier. But instead of that I suddenly killed all 3 at once, with no damage, and without grinding more level or doing anything. I just take it as her getting PISSED OFF at last lol

- I fucking hate Fishing Hamlet

[paperanddice]

This is an unusual update, but my Age of Worms party just passed another major boss and this is one I wanted to share because it's just so ridiculous. The Overgod is the physical avatar of a false religion, a created faith designed to pull worshippers from three other gods and repurpose them into useful tools. The followers of Kyuss have goals they want to achieve without drawing attention to themselves, so a triad cult acting under false pretenses can progress those goals. Everyone blames the Ebon Triad, and none are the wiser that Kyuss is the one benefiting.

In order to achieve this, high ranking members of Kyuss' followers penned a false religious book, claiming that the gods Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna were destined to fuse together into one greater Overgod, who would bring down other gods and conquer all. They spread this information to vulnerable members of these faiths, luring away members who sought something even greater and driving them to any extreme action that they thought would achieve this impossible goal. A key need for this however was to ensure that the apostate clerics and paladins of these gods would maintain their divine powers, to trick them into believing that their gods still supported their goals. The Overgod was created for this, a fiend formed from the divine power of Kyuss to channel portions of the trapped demigod's power to these believers, replacing their true god with a proxy. This allows a small army of splinter groups to recruit and grow, following the writing of their heratical book to bring about events leading to the Age of Worms.

The Overgod is a three-headed, six armed monster. It towers thirty feet high, a powerfully built creature missing two of its left hands and one of its right. The figure seems to be made of some strange stone that looks almost like leather in places, and one of its three heads is missing an eye. The artwork above was created by Marq, a player in the game and OMEGAtri on Twitter for the session, when I complained that Paizo hadn't included any actual artwork of their super boss monster anywhere in the adventure that included it.

My party recently travelled down into the hidden temple that housed this Overgod, the avatar of the Ebon Triad (renamed the Warbound Triad in my home game because the belief was that this new Overgod created from three lesser gods would overthrow Bane, the primary god of war and tyranny), and found the Overgod. This was a rough fight for my level 15 party, dropping the barbarian to 18 hp, the fighter/rogue/bladesinger to 12, and batting the warlock/paladin off the wall of the chamber like a tennis ball. They were victorious however, even with the extra 100 hp I have the Overgod to face them. They're a group of 6 well optimized characters with lots of powerful magic items and extra features, they can handle a lot. I wouldn't recommend throwing this against most average groups, this is an absolutely ridiculous creature.

A few of the features within this are written in ways that don't necessarily fit perfectly within 5e's standards. I do a lot of stuff for my home games that I wouldn't publish normally, such as the way that the Overgod's Multiattack works. That was a feature where I knew exactly how I wanted to limit its attack spread, and writing it out was kind of a pain. The Overgod can't just claw-claw-claw-bite one creature, it has to spread its attacks around, as it's just too big and bulky to easily bring three clawed hands down onto a single Medium opponent. If you'd like to make the Overgod a bit more generic, you can change Blessing of Erythnul to Blessing of the Trickster, Blessing of Hextor to Blessing of the Warrior, and Blessing of Vecna to Blessing of the Magician, or swap the gods out for other appropriate ones. No 13th Age version of this particular stat block.

Originally from Dungeon Magazine issue 131, the Prince of Redhand adventure. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I'm working on, consider backing me there!

The Overgod Huge fiend, neutral evil Armor Class 20 (natural armor) Hit Points 287 (25d12 + 125) Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft. Str 25 (+7) Dex 19 (+4) Con 20 (+5) Int 12 (+1) Wis 20 (+5) Cha 20 (+5) Saving Throws Con +11, Wis +11, Cha +11 Skills Perception +11 Damage Immunities cold Damage Resistances acid, fire, bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 21 Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Infernal Challenge 17 (18000 XP) Blessing Of Erythnul (1/Day). As a bonus action, the Overgod can separate splinters of itself off into separate beings. It immediately creates two copies of itself in empty spaces within 30 feet of the Overgod. Each of these copies has the same stats as the Overgod, except they cannot use any of its innate spellcasting or legendary actions, do not gain the benefits of Blessing of Hextor or Blessing of Vecna, any attacks they make deal half damage, and they have only 10 hit points, and they act immediately after the Overgod. They disappear after 1 minute or if they end their turn more than 60 feet away from the Overgod. Blessing Of Hextor (1/Day). The Overgod is driven by the battle fervor of Hextor. As a bonus action, it can enter a terrible fury for one round. The aspect immediately heals 44 (10d8) hit points, and has advantage on all weapon attack rolls and a +8 bonus to damage rolls while in this fury. Additionally, creatures targeted by Crush have disadvantage on the saving throw. Three Heads. The Overgod has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks, and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious. Actions Multiattack. The Overgod makes four attacks: three with its Claws, and one with its Bite. It can replace each Claw attack with a Crush attack. The Overgod can't make more than two claw attacks against a single Medium or smaller creature, and it can't make Claw attacks against a creature it is grappling. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target the Overgod is grappling. Hit: 21 (4d6+7) piercing damage. Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d6+7) slashing damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 15). The Overgod has 3 hands, each of which can grapple one target. Crush. One creature the Overgod is grappling must make a DC 21 Strength saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 16 (2d8+7) bludgeoning damage, and is restrained until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, it takes half as much bludgeoning damage and isn't restrained. Swat. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d8+7) bludgeoning damage and the target must succeed on a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet directly away from the Overgod and knocked prone. Spellcasting. The Overgod casts one of the following spells at 5th, requiring no material components and using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 21, +11 to hit with spell attacks): At will: charm person, divine favor, magic missile, shield of faith, magic weapon, pass without trace, spiritual weapon 1/day each: crusader's mantle, dimension door, dispel magic, freedom of movement, polymorph, spirit guardians, dominate person, flame strike Reactions Blessing Of Vecna (Recharge 5-6). The Overgod gains advantage on a saving against one spell, or gives disadvantage to a spell attack targeting it. If it saves against the spell, or the spell attack misses it, the Overgod regains hit points equal to three times the spell's level. Legendary Actions The Overgod can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Overgod regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. Cast A Spell. The Overgod casts one of its innate spells. Move. The Overgod moves up to half its speed. Crush. The Overgod uses Crush. Swat. The Overgod makes one Swat attack.

[dndcharacterideas]

I posted 313 times in 2021

10 posts created (3%)

303 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 30.3 posts.

I added 40 tags in 2021

#dice envy - 18 posts

#dnd - 5 posts

#dungeons and dragons - 5 posts

#d&d - 5 posts

#pathfinder - 2 posts

#ilmater is my favorite dnd god - 1 posts

#this what i picture when i think about making kobold characters - 1 posts

#dnd character - 1 posts

#these fucker have better of at least made themselves back stories - 1 posts

#dm problems - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 65 characters

#these fucker have better of at least made themselves back stories

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Alright guys, one of my friends wants to run a Pathfinder Halloween one shot. He's giving us permission to play level 25 characters and allowed us three magic items that's only limits are that they can't be artifacts, as well as a million gold pieces and 80 days of down time before the campaign begins, all with the promise that he's going to throw something devastating at us.

I intent to make him regret giving me this much power.

I've taken 20 levels of cleric and 5 levels of witch. She's a dhampir, her focus is necromancy, and she's able to control 80 hit dice worth of undead. I've talked with the DM and he acknowledges, accepts, and understands that I will be bringing a small army of undead with me to this fight. He hasn't even given me any restrictions either; I asked if I could do something with intelligent undead and he gave me the green light so long as I could control their HD.

So this is where I'm at, I have a hand full of undead picked out already: a vampire that narratively is my character's father and is very unhappily my thrall now, two skeletal horses, a death coach, a bodak, and an attic whisperer, which I honestly chose more for aesthetic purposes then anything else. Her familiar is also a beheaded.

You'd think that would be all my HD but it's actually only 42 of them. I have 38 HD worth of undead and I'm honestly struggling to come up with undead beyond basic zombies and skeletons. To be clear, because one of the people I'm playing with have already suggested it, I'm not just getting a bunch of the strongest undead I can thing of because I'm going off of the idea that my character could have actually gone out into the world and collected all of these undead at some point in their adventuring career.

So I guess I'm throwing this question out into the aether, anyone have any good suggestions for undead to add to my character's collection?

17 notes • Posted 2021-10-25 04:31:23 GMT

#4

In regards to the dicksucking post

In my DnD group, any sexual encounter has 2 rolls

Performance to see how well you do

Constitution to see how long you last

Makes for some pretty hilarious encounters, especially among players who romance or have flings with each other

See, the BoEF I mentioned before actually has built in rules for all this. Con for how long you last, you get a dex check if you're doing something that requires a particular amount of flexibility, and performance and profession are interchangeable as I mentioned before, though you do typically need to be a prostitute or make a living seducing people to have that as a profession.

You also take a -1 penalty for every size category that your partner is smaller or larger then you. Which can be real funny to watch when your player is a human bard trying to seduce an ancient white dragon... and just a little frustrating when he manages it.

25 notes • Posted 2021-06-14 07:29:17 GMT

#3

The Pirate Bard

I had this idea for a unconventional bard. Essentially they are a Pirate bard who instead of using an instrument for arcane spells, sings sea shanties and the ghosts of his crewmates appear and sing along providing more spectral form of the spell.

25 notes • Posted 2021-04-15 00:51:05 GMT

#2

Many dollars spent but I now have everything I need to be unreasonably wizardy. The parrot's name is Charlie, he's gonna be my familiar.

In case it's not clear from the image, the book is very big and very heavy and I love it very much. Now I just need to figure out what to put in it.

32 notes • Posted 2021-07-11 01:10:26 GMT

#1

Okay, I'm interested...

... this person has never played D&D.

325 notes • Posted 2021-05-31 17:22:53 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[doorbloggr]

Friday 1/10/21 - Media Recommendations #20

Contents: Deltarune

I'd been meaning to get to this one for ages, so once again, I think to make it easier on myself, and my readers, today I am only recommending the latest videogame creation of Toby Fox. This ended up being quite an extensive article, so I split it into sections:

MY CONTEXT

OVERVIEW/PREMISE

GAMEPLAY

PRESENTATION

CONCLUSION

Deltarune (Chapter 1+2)

Toby Fox

1. MY CONTEXT

So context for my own gaming experience going into Deltarune, I have never actually played Undertale. Back when Undertale was getting big, it was only a PC game I think, and I just don't play games on PC. I probably should but yeah nah. Soon after it got popular however, I watched a comprehensive Lets Play of Undertale by Rubber Ross and Barry Kramer, and their voices for Sans and Papyrus are still to this day how I imagine those characters. Through that Lets Play, I experienced both the Pacifist and Genocide runs, and got intimately well acquainted with the characters and world Toby Fox had created, and how the actions of the player can shape how we save or ruin that world.

As a general context, I have always been a person who likes the idea of turn-based, random encounter fantasy RPGs, but the deepest I really got was Pokémon. I've been trying to change that recently, and after beating Monster Hunter Stories 2 a while back, I wanted to try more of the genre. Turn based battles are a lot more my speed than pure skill, like fighting games I've become sick of, and RPGs seem to be big on story, so when I heard the Deltarune demo had an update, I thought this is finally the time to jump into that world.

Going forward in this review, I'm gonna try and stay broad and unspecific with my descriptions, so as to not spoil. I may discuss some gameplay themes and characters, but I'm avoiding giving specifics away. I really think you need to experience all parts of the game yourself first.

Minor Spoilers for Undertale and Deltarune Ahead

2. OVERVIEW/PREMISE

Deltarune is a project of love. Pure charm and personality ooze from every aspect of the game. Dialogue is clever and snarky, and that charm even leaks into item and location flavour text. The setting and themes are fun, but with a bloodstained silver lining that is best appreciated by mature audiences. I guess I should just explain the premise?

Deltarune puts you in the shoes of a human named Kris. For unexplained reasons you live in a world of monsters and you are the only human. And by monsters, I mean curious looking critters of a variety of shapes and sizes, since, there is really nothing monstrous about them. One day at school, Kris and classmate Susie end up being transported to a whole different world where dark fountains construct monstrous subworlds, and it is up to the chosen ones, the lightners Susie, Kris and darkner (dark world native) Prince Ralsei, to seal the evils of this dark alternate world.

Deltarune is still a work in progress, and as the subtitle of this article suggests, 2 Chapters of a possible 7(?) have been released, and it is unknown at the time of writing if the rest will come out when the game is done, or as more standalone chapters.

3. GAMEPLAY

Deltarune borrows a lot of theming and game loop premise from its parent game Undertale. The tag line of Undertale was: the RPG where noone has to die. This is because the encounter based battle system is built on two courses of action to take. You may FIGHT enemies and reduce their HP to zero, or you may ACT, and talk the enemy into leaving the battle. Deltarune is built on this same system, but with extra layers. Kris is the stand in for the Undertale MC, who has the options to FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, SPARE, or GUARD. Most of those options were in Undertale too, but Guarding is a new addition where you earn Tension Points, or TP, for not engaging the enemy at all.

This TP is used for extra powerful ACT actions, or for special moves of the other party members. This is the main big difference in gameplay loop. Since the player controls a party now rather than just one person, each party member can specialise in different action types. Kris's ACT can incorporate input from other party members; Susie for toughness and Ralsei for softness, in general. Susie is the powerhouse, and if you chose the violent route, she does more damage. Ralsei is the Mage, and can heal allies, as well as use magic to resolve fights peacefully. Those extra abilities use TP.

In most turn based RPGs, there is a back and forth, where the player chooses actions, and sometimes there is a timing aspect to how well those actions perform, and then there's the enemy's turn, where most of the time you just have to wait and let it happen. Undertale and Deltarune have this truly unique system where the soul of the party members, represented by a heart, is directly controlled on the enemy's turn. It's a mini game unique to every enemy type, where you must move the heart around to dodge their attacks, and how good you dodge will decide whether you take a lot of damage, or even none at all. Deltarune adds an extra layer onto this, where if you make the dodge closer, so that the enemy only JUST misses, you earn TP, and open up more options for your next turn. I found this extra detail really endearing, and I made a lot more riskier moves than if there was no incentive to.

I probably mentioned it above, but just to close out this section, the option to either ACT or FIGHT opens up two types of play. Chapter 1, being a sort of intro part, does not differentiate, but the distinction becomes important later. ACTing to SPARE an enemy earns you money, and in Chapter 2, will lead to befriending monsters. FIGHTing will also earn you EXP in Chapter 2, making your options to hurt enemies more powerful. In Undertale, this difference in playstyle actually changed the ending in real time, and from what we know of Deltarune, it is likely going to be the same case.

4. PRESENTATION

Undertale had this unique visual charm to it that may have been a limitation of its Independent Development, but it was probably also a stylistic choice. Deltarune builds on the same type of artstyle, adorable pixel sprite graphics that bring a lot more colour and depth than its predecessor.

Many, but not all characters have little character portraits in their textboxes, and they change expressions to match the situation, and its so cute.

Character and enemy design are so top-notch. A team of designers have been brought on this time, and every one of them have brought gold to the table. Every random battle encounter is dripping with personality, as you learn how best to sweet talk your way out of battle, or how to best destroy them. Most recurring NPCs are lovable, and those who you hate, you love to hate. Dialogue is witty and hilarious, and the writing is fun.

The chiptune style soundtrack is phenomenal. Although I think Undertale's common enemy battle them was more memorable, that may just be that I have become more familiar with it. All character and boss battle themes are so catchy and energetic. Toby Fox is a master of high energy... fun music. It gets stuck in your head, and your brain bounces around at high velocity.

5. CONCLUSION

Ok so this review is already like 3 times longer than a normal Media Recommendation Article, and like 5 times longer than I planned it to be for this one game, so I should probably wrap it up here. Deltarune is a game experience I put off playing for way too long, and now I can't hold my excitement for when the next part comes out. And important to keep in mind, it is essentially a demo, in that it is just a taste of what's to come, but it is a damn meaty demo that will keep you engaged for many hours.

Chapters 1 and 2 are packaged together as a free game on most game platforms at this point, so there's nothing really stopping you from giving it a try. I don't usually rate my recommendations, but since I wrote this more like a review, I might as well...

Deltarune Chapter 1+2: 9/10

Please play it!