#like spelljammer stuff

[micromekas]

Will soon be done with a big work thing. When I am, I will finally be able to go back to GMing the games I want. Now it's just a matter of choosing which one.

God damn it.

[leavingautumn13]

this one's for the, like, three people who follow me for spelljammer stuff

remember when i said i was having trouble working out neogi martial classes? i figured one out. hold on, bear with me, i think this is funny

be me, spending years planning a spelljammer campaign using pathfinder 2 mechanics

homebrew neogi as a playable race

give them the basic 1d6 bite attack that most beastfolk species get

attacks of that nature also have the agile and finesse traits

realize rogue class sneak attack runs off of the agile and finesse traits

check rulebook: you can in fact apply sneak attack damage to unarmed attacks

conclusion:

neogi rogue whose main method of fighting is sneaking up on people, biting them, and then running away

[elbiotipo]

Some thoughts for a D&D Spelljammer setting I'll probably never get around to actually write:

Spelljamming ships should be a revolution in transport and not only for fantasy space, they're basically flying ships, they could transport things from one end of a planet to another. Worlds that know spelljamming must be very different than those that don't.

What's the limitation here, then? Spelljammers themselves, that is, the guys who pilot the ships. They need to be magic users and you would need at least 2, preferably more, for shifts. That means you need to have mages that could be doing other useful magic stuff piloting a ship.

There's also the cost and skill required to make spelljamming helms. 5000 GPs in materials and level 5 spell apparently. Now, gold and levels in D&D don't mean much to me, so for the purposes of this scenario, I will assume making a spelljamming ship is costly and needs a lot of skill regardless of the actual numbers involved. So you don't have ships flying around the skies of every world, just a few have both the "human resources" (that is, trained mages) and material resources (I assume the spells and components are expensive and rare) to make spelljamming helms and crew ships.

Do we have equivalents of this in the real world? Yes, actually! The entire aircraft industry! Airliners, which are among the most complex machines produced in mass, are basically built only by Boeing, Airbus, and recently Comac on China (there used to be more) and pilots aren't easy to train either. There might be few worlds with the concentrated *productive forces* to build spelljammer helms in "serial" production, outside of some crazy wizard in a tower.

In fact, this is a bit besides the point but in general, the world(s) of D&D are pre-industrial, and this makes sense as for complex tasks you wouldn't really think of using a machine to do it, you seek a magic user who can do it instead. They are very jealous of their trade secrets too. We are looking at a kind of Renaissance economy in a large scale then, with guilds and church(es) and other institutions for "artisanal" complex goods instead of industries. Fantasy settings have always been strange about the demographics of mage users, but I think knowing the role of monasteries, alchemists, etc. during the real-life Renaissance helps you get closer to the dynamics.

Returning to the ships, I think spelljammer ships (or helms) might be hard to make but very hardy, long-lasting and easy to pilot, sort of like DC-3s that were built before WWII and are still used in Colombia. So that fits with the adventurer idea of getting an old ship and going into the stars. And maybe there is a surplus of them in some worlds that used to have large navies (like post-WWII surplus of airplanes and ships).

In Spelljammer you can stick a spelljamming helm on anything and make it fly, even seagoing ships (which are preferred for many reasons) but the true spelljamming ships like the Hammerhead Ship, the Squid Ship, etc. have strange shapes. I will say that those are not just decorative (because that's frankly a bit silly) but actually designed for better navigation through the currents of the Phlogiston or Astral Sea.

The 5e rules of spelljamming navigation basically say that ships go into the Astral Sea and then the spelljammer at the helm just thinks where to go and flies "100 million miles in 24 hours", that's it, just think about it and you're wherever you want, or, if you're not in a ship, you can just fly through the astral sea and, I quote "The more intelligent a creature is, the faster it can move." Which is frankly too stupid for words. I'm actually kind of angry at how stupid it is.

I'm completely ditching the 5e Astral Sea with its whole spiritual thing (to me that's a completely different thing) and making it a material plane of phlogiston (or aether, that sounds better) where the crystal spheres float. They aren't fixed, they move and flow with the stellar currents, but you CAN navigate them if you're attuned to them, you can use navigation equipment to find particular spheres and you can use your sails to get more favorable currents, this is a skill you have to learn and can cut travel times or let you find some things in space.

Doesn't that sound much better than "you just think and you're there xdxddxddxdxd"?

So how fast then? I think we'll just play it safe and see the top speed of sailing ships on the real world. Clippers, the fastest sail ships before steam ships, took roughly 100 days to cross the Pacific. The usual before was about 4-6 months. It depends on how big your setting is, but I think that's a good estimate to go to "the other side of the world" as one would say. And it of course would depend on how well known the routes are. It could be that you simply CAN'T fly to other spheres without doing extensive navigation first.

So instead of having 10 to 100 days at random to go somewhere (like in the original Spelljammer) or the somehow even stupider rules of 5e, you would have a map of well navigated, average, poorly known, and completely unknown spelljamming routes. Every time you got farther away from the well-known routes, navigation becomes more dangerous and travel more slow. You need (both in game terms and in setting terms) to have good navigation skills to get anywhere fast and safe.

You could have crystal spheres grouped in "constellations" (in my setting I do) that are easier to navigate inside, where the currents are known. This is also useful for worldbuilding "regions" in fantasy space that share cultural traits.

There must be all sorts of magical and non-magical navigation means, especially for landing on planets. Magical lighthouses, compasses, communication (a kind of morse code that can be communicated by lights, when magical communication isn't an option). I would think that for convenience, since planets are so big, spelljammers might sort of memorize the land of the main port and not bother with the rest. It might be that in an entire world, only one or two ports are truly visited by spelljammers. This also means that it would be very easy to set up a new base somewhere, even in well-travelled worlds.

What about power projection and star empires? We can read about colonial empires and age of sail trade to get a hint here. Empires where you rule by posting armies in every planet are very unlikely, since we established spelljammers are kind of expensive to make. Imagine invading and controlling, say, Earth in the 1600s with a dozen ships.

But imperialism where an external power controls key trade routes and ports, economically controlling a world, is very possible. This control means that those worlds must be integrated into the *galactic* economy somehow, as a large world can be self-sustaining, but its connections to the greater galaxy can be controlled. So, an imperialist power might succeed into controlling the economy of a world by controlling its trade centers and politics, without needing large armies or simply enlisting local collaborators. In fact, many might not be even aware they belong to a interstellar empire in their maps. On the other hand, *more* *voluntary* associations similar to the Hansa or Greek leagues might arise.

[vintagerpg]

UK7: Dark Clouds Gather (1985) is the last of the series and, the final product designed by TSR UK (or close to it). It is firmly in the genre of D&D modules that I enjoy reading and would never in a million years decide to run. It’s an in-the-air adventure, which initially might seem unusual, but in execution shares many of the same problems that, for me, make underwater scenarios a pain in the ass.

Still, it’s a fun read. The aarakocra (who have a pretty dope temple) are in conflict with the ba’atun, also known as snow demons, but, come on, look at the cover art: that’s a flying monkey. They’re pretty cool antagonists that use ice-based attacks and swarm tactics to be a pretty effective problem for the players. Kind of surprising that this is maybe the only time they have appeared in an official publication? They kind of remind me a bit of the flying sabreclaws from CM3: Sabre River.

The problem is actually an evil sorceress flying monkey who leads them and who is able to possess other creatures — in this case, a cloud giant. The stakes are epically high (oof, sorry for that pun) and require the retrieval of the sky fish, a magical flying machine shaped like a manta ray which seems like a clear precursor to Spelljammer designs. The bits in the air seem tedious to run, but the stuff with ground in it is pretty good — I like the initial episode in which a local zealot is plucking an imprisoned aarakocra to get it to confess to being a demon, at which point he’ll burn it to death. The intent is for the players to intervene, which man, I hope your players do because that shit is effed.

Brian Williams art throughout. I love his color covers but the interiors seem a bit rushed here. In all, the look of this module lacks a bit of the pizazz I expect from a UK production.

[sprintingowl]

Changed Stars

More TTRPG reviews!

DieselShot sent me a copy of their big full-featured scifi TTRPG Changed Stars, and it was both polished and modern and a trip down memory lane to the mechanically robust heartbreakers of the 90s and early 00s.

I'll put the full review below, but if you like stuff like Farscape and Mass Effect and the Expanse, you should give this a look.

--

Changed Stars is a space opera TTRPG about a universe where humanity tried to colonize the galaxy and got quickly set to rights by the other reigning powers of space. Instead of simply backhanding humanity into their home gravity well, these powers took on humanity as a project---could they make us less like violent children and more like proper citizens of space?

The PDF is 306 pages, ​with small, dense text in a professional layout. This is an old school style full featured TTRPG, and it packs in information and art and mechanics. Everything is bookmarked and hyperlinked, and it feels relatively easy to navigate.

Writing-wise, both the ideas and execution are solid. The text feels compellingly told, and the geopolitical situations the book sets up feel chewy and interesting. Most of the conflict comes from humans falling back on old human atrocity-doing, and I think Changed Stars get a lot of mileage out of positioning us as the galaxy's work-in-progress disaster.

In terms of character creation, things are decently granular without being overcomplicated. There are four stats, twelve skills, quick and slow hp, and a decent spread of species to choose from. Classes are loose, and come with some attribute and skill bonuses, a couple feats, and a unique gimmick called an Edge Break where you can go all out in a class-specific way and then fall into a coma. To round things out there's a robust equipment section and a big chunky drones and vehicles chapter. Ships are quite detailed, and come with a wide range of things for crew to do in combat and while exploring, hitting a very gameable sweet spot in between "5e spelljammer" and "this game is now entirely about ships."

Mechanics-wise, Changed Stars uses a d6 pool. Sixes are hits, one hit is enough to succeed, additional hits can be used to "yes and" the success. Players have decent control over the dice with Edge, that same thing from the Edge Break I mentioned earlier. You can use it to nudge regular rolls too, taking smaller consequences in exchange for goosing the dice a little. Combat, survival, healing, and other tabletop staples are all at about the same level of complexity, but feel fully fleshed out.  Violence feels dangerous, and its consequences feel life threatening, but you can absolutely go loud and have a hero moment without dying.

For GMs, there's a huge worldbuilding section plus general advice, safety tools, a bestiary, and a starter scenario. Nothing feels missing, but also I don't know that anything in here will fundamentally change the way you GM if you've been doing it for a while.

For visual readers, the art by Patrice Danielle Long is excellent! It's a mix of black and white and color, and it does a very necessary job of anchoring the descriptions in the text to something immediate and tangible. The xenofauana looks nice, and the playable species have a lot of charm to them.

I think the folks who might bounce off of this game are those who are looking for something mechanically simple. Changed Stars isn't complicated for the sake of being complicated, but I'd also say it's at about Shadowrun complexity level. A 4--6 player group that's been doing TTRPGs for a while should be able to tackle it with ease. 

Overall, I'm glad games like this are still being made. A GM who clicks with the setting can spin a robust tale inside Changed Stars' universe, and a group who plays in it will get to make detailed characters, get into space hijinks, and more than likely shoot their way out.

[honourablejester]

D&D Deity Spotlight: Celestian

Celestian (se-LES-tee-an) is the Oeridian god of Stars, Space, and Wanderers. His symbol is a black circle set with seven stars. His color is black.

Celestian often appears as a tall, lean man of middle years, wearing black garments set with his symbol, often worked in jewels (diamond, amethyst, sapphire, emerald, topaz, jacinth and ruby) that shine like distant suns. His smooth skin and his eyes are ebony. His voice is a cold and unearthly whisper, which carries well despite its softness, but he seldom speaks. He has power over meteors, comets, asteroids, and similar bodies, and some influence over light and weather. He can summon astral devas to serve him.

Celestian is brother to Fharlanghn. It is said that the two followed similar but differing paths; where Fharlanghn chose to wander the wide world, Celestian chose the void of outer space and the Astral Plane. Celestian wanders the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, and the Inner Planes, but especially favors the Astral. The souls of those who worshipped him in life become the stars in his robes, and travel with him. When their wanderlust becomes so great that they want to travel on their own, they and Celestian become one. Some claim that the souls of Celestian's faithful are ranked by how many worlds they have traveled to, but this is not considered official doctrine.

Celestian has but a small following in the Flanaess, being revered by astronomers, astrologers, navigators, philosophers, dreamers, and others who are interested in the sky and the cosmos. Demihumans and some other humanoids with their own racial deities sometimes worship Celestian alongside their own gods. Members of nocturnal races who have been banished from their kin, perhaps for crimes such as mercy or love for humans, often take to the worship of the Far Wanderer because though the sunlight hurts their eyes, the gentle light of the stars offer acceptance. While Celestian's following on Oerth is small compared to that of his brother Fharlanghn, on other planes of existence and in the depths of space he is much more popular than his land-bound sibling. He is the deity of choice for planewalkers and many spelljammers. On Oerth, Celestian's followers wish to keep their journeys secret from those outside the faith.

Celestian's priesthood is divided into seven ranks of ascending power and knowledge, each differing from the last in its number and the placement of the gems in its holy symbol. They search the world, the sky, and other planes for magical meteorites, artifacts, and lore relating to Celestian's spheres of influence. They are adept at divinations. They are very studious and meditative, secretive, and detached from day-to-day existence. They will not use their expertise with stars and space to pilot warships or slave ships, and they will not aid unjust conquerors. Their favored weapon is the shortspear. They cooperate with the priests of Fharlanghn extensively.

There are Celestian hospices throughout the depths of space, tended to by priests who have decided to stay in one place for a time. They give shelter, food, air, and advice, appreciating donations, though there is no set schedule of fees. They may give directions and help travelers find work.

--- The Great Library of Greyhawk (https://www.greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/Celestian)

I’m having to quote from a wiki for this, because Celestian is a Greyhawk setting deity, so his information is scattered across a bunch of 1e/2e sourcebooks and entries in Dragon Magazine. Forgive the cheat, here?

But I do want to talk about him, because I deeply adore him. People may have seen a theme among deities I enjoy, a theme of stars and space and discovery, and yes, that is very much a theme for me. And Celestian is the D&D space deity. He has a tiny church on his home planet, because he wasn’t staying home to cultivate a larger one, there’s all this stuff out here. He buggered off to the Astral Sea, to Wildspace, to Planescape, to explore everything he could get his sparkly midnight hands on. He is the patron of wanderers and explorers and planeswalkers and spelljammers and space travellers. He’s the god of just going out there. The god of exploration.

Did you grow up with Star Trek and ‘boldly going where no one has gone before’? Because I have a god for you, if so.

And. Listen. If you die as a member of his faith, you get to become a star on his robe as he explores, so you can keep exploring forever. Your god scoops you up and puts you in his pocket so you can just keep travelling, so you can see what he sees, so you can explore the wonder of the cosmos forever and ever. And. That, no joke, is the most perfect heaven I have ever heard of. I want that. Me, personally, in real life. I want that. What a beautiful thing to imagine after death. Forever travelling, forever seeing new things, tucked in a god’s pocket as he wanders across everything there is and everything there will be. An ever-changing flow of stars and worlds and realms. I would pledge myself to him in a heartbeat on that promise alone.

But even in life, for a character who serves him. Celestian is a god of divination and exploration. He’s a god of stars and divination and gentle starlight and acceptance of those who can’t walk in the light of day. I love that little detail, the stars as a softer, gentler light, welcoming those who are more comfortable in the greys and the twilight. If you enjoy the Twilight domain in 5e …

Also. Out in space, if you’re playing Spelljammer, his priesthood has set up hospices and waystations in the void, islands of light and life and air and guidance, populated by priests taking a brief stationary sabbatical before they get to wandering again. If you want to explore. If you want to help other people explore. If you want space stations in the void trading spacer tales and advice and divination magic. If you’re a priest of Celestial and you get tired and want to put your feet up for a bit, you can sign up to help run Deep Space 9 for a bit, until you’ve got your breath back and want to head back out yourself once more. I love it.

I just. He’s such a good god. Tailor made for me. Celestian, the god of stars and space and wanderers. The god of not being able to stay still. The god who scoops you up when you die, and puts you in his pocket, and carries you onwards for all eternity to see whatever there is to be seen. Best. Afterlife. Ever. He’s so cool. I love him so much.

[the-heap-official-totally]

Hey! We’ve been busy working on a busted up spelljammer that came into port and I kept forgetting this blog exists. Dani’s just been obsessing over the spelljammer (don’t tell Oto but I think she might actually be breaking more stuff just so it stays longer) and Roy’s trying to woo one of the deckhands instead of doing work, which means I have to work double time so it actually looks like we’re doing our jobs.

I’ll try to answer more questions soon and I’ll try to get the others to answer some too. Don’t worry, we’re all still alive and we’re not going anywhere!

-Egan 🔨

(hello this is mod N’s way of saying “I’m gonna try to keep up more with this, I’ve just been bombarded by the Tasks and the Events and I do in fact keep forgetting abt this blog but hopefully I think I’ll be less busy soon! -N <3)

[daemon-in-my-head]

Past Life Dark Urge Asks - 8th Edition:

The Patriars, what does Durge think of them? Do they share the same mindset as Gortash or do they maybe like some of the messed up stuff the patriars did?

Durge was around when Elturel was dragged into Avernus, what did Durge think of these events? Were they maybe even personally affected by the aftermath?

Did Durge ever believe in a deity that wasn't Bhaal? Which one?

Gortash wanted to ascend as God himself, and he wanted Durge to join him. But what did Durge think of that plan? We're they on board or did they consider it heresy?

What does Durge think of Bards? Do they like them, despise them, did anything ever happen?

The vampire coven in Baldurs Gate is responsible for a lot of people disappearing. Did Durge take advantage of it and blame some of their murders on them? Did they dislike them?

Children; a great source of joy, perhaps annoyance, and certainly nutrition. But what exactly was your Durge's opinion on them besides being a great snack?

Spelljammers are a beloved mode of transportation on Toril, both for military and cargo means. Did Durge ever board one of these vessels, and what did they think? Or did the sole idea of getting close to something like that terrify them?

Generally speaking, if Durge needed to travel, how would they go about it? By foot or horse, or did they have a familiar to use?

Describe them with 1 quote, it can be anything you like but give me their whole being in a nutshell.

[jessica-problems]

I’m definitely in that second group, the TTRPG as a primarily a story-telling medium with rules just there to guide the narrative collaboration. I definitely appreciate the in-depth rules as a DM, but I don’t find all of them necessary?

I might just be an anomaly, though. When Spelljammer got its 5e book, I was super enthused with the races, ships, monsters, and wildspace environment characteristics and didn’t really care that we didn’t get any new rules for actual ship vs ship combat.

@edgemarquess the thing is, I think *both* groups would describe TTRPGs as

"primarily a story-telling medium with rules just there to guide the narrative collaboration"

Actually, I think D&D is kind of an outlier in how unopinionated it claims to be in what kind of story it's trying to tell. (when in fact the rules are *very* specific about what story they want to tell) The reason you don't think rules are helpful for storytelling is because D&D specifically has unhelpful rules for storytelling.

A ton of very complex games with all sorts of moving parts are carefully constructed to dynamically guide the narrative collaboration in interesting directions. Off the top of my head, Eureka by @anim-ttrpgs, Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine by Jenna Moran, or basically any game built around the Powered By The Apocalypse engine all have all sorts of interesting and complex rules specifically built to direct the narrative in interesting ways, focus the spotlight on certain characters, systematize common but boring scenes so you can breeze through them to get to the interesting stuff,move arcs to their resolution, and all sorts of other things you'd want out of a storytelling tool. The whole reason people enjoy games like that is because the rules help the collaborative storytelling happen. Like, I *could* just sit around with friends playing make believe, but there's a lot of clever TTRPG designers who've put a ton of thought into writing rules that will make for cool and interesting stories, and it feels kind of... I dunno, dismissive, or maybe naive, to write them off as if they're in direct competition with my own imagination. I promise TTRPGs make for cool stories. That's why I keep playing them.

[grifff17]

Audio Drama Sunday 8/18/2024

There was so much new stuff this week. Midnight Burger, Worlds Beyond Number, World Gone Wrong, and Wanderer's Journal all release an episode every other Tuesday, and this Tuesday was that day. Then on Wednesday 3 actual play released new episodes. I didn't actually get through everything new this week, the rest will come next week.

NEW SHOW ALERT Starwhal: Odyssey, a spelljammer-inspired actual play from the cast of Skyjacks Couriers Call, is no longer Patreon exclusive! I really liked the first 2 episodes of this show, I love the way these people do collaborative storytelling. The little things like the rent collections robot and the streaming rat were so good. At the end of the episode, the mental vision of Saach teleporting into the gamer chair was so vivid. Also, I've never heard more revulsion in a credits sequence than them crediting Wizards of the Coast for the Spelljammer setting. I'm curious about the system they're going to move to for the later episodes.

In @midnightburgr I love the new set of characters, I bet the next spinoff series going to be the Paradise. However, they can’t keep ending episodes like this. I’ve never been happier to hear the sound of the diner jumping, but Ava and the Mucklewains are gone. At least this time Ava isn't totally alone in a jerry rigged space suit. And David is joining the main cast, at least for the rest of the season!

So much happens in every @worldsbeyondpod episode, and this one had even more than most. The audio design for the opening scene goes so hard, Taylor does such an incredible job. When listening to other APs, I can't help but compare them to WBN. The King of Night loredrop was insane, Orima is apparently sworn to him? I like how the core conflict - Witches and Spirits vs Wizards - is designed to create tension and strife between the PCs. I love the intrigue of this arc so much, but Ame lying to the coven was such a massive misstep. I still think my favorite part of the show might be whenever Suvi uses identify on something plot relevant. The smell of soap from Ursulon was so mean by Brennan, callbacks to the Children's Adventure like that always break me.

I didn’t realize the new season of @storiesfromylelmore was starting already, when I saw it pop up in my feed I went to bed early to go listen to it. Despite what Keryth says, her moms are super cool. Can't wait to learn more about them. Keryth’s parents giving her a magic item to make her quiet reminds me of a lot of my childhood. What my mom wouldn't have given for a silence bubble spell. There was so much worldbuilding in this episode, the quote “I don’t know what they do with them, but I think it’s better if they don’t have pieces of you” was terrifying. The final scene of the episode created such a vivid mental image, I could see the three of them in the backseat.

I also listened to ItMe's other show besides Ylelmore and InCo, Of Gods and Lanterns. It was short but sweet, with a total runtime of less than 30 minutes runtime. I really like the world, I would listen to 100 more episodes of this show.

I listened to parts 3 and 4 of the Spout Lore Critshow crossover. The Spout Lore cast on earth is so funny. The two shows really mesh so well together, this has to be the most "natural" crossover I've ever listened to.

The new season of Second Fiddles also started this week and woah the ending. I'm guessing that everyone forgot about Tammie, but Linus’s mom was unaffected because she was in the book. IIRC we've only met one character who can erase people memories, and she could only do it to one person at a time, not everyone, so I suspect 4th Wall/Macguffin shenanigans.

I also started The Cryptonaturalist this week. The tone of this show is so unique. I love the narrator. I also very quickly found that this is a perfect podcast to fall asleep to.

This post ended up really long this week. No judgement if people don't want to read the whole thing. Next week will be a lot shorter I think.

[taki-yaki]

If you’re still taking prompts: Tav was abducted from wildspace, maybe she was a crew member of a spelljammer, maybe she was a passenger or a merchant, either way she’s not from Faerun. She falls for Astarion, but after the brain is defeated she has to return to wildspace. Perhaps staying in Faerun drastically shortens her very long lifespan, and her realm isn’t safe for Astarion, but she vows to return every so often, like once a year (e.g. origin story of the Tanabata festival in Japan). They essentially become immortal star-crossed lovers.

Hi Anon, my inbox is always open, unless stated otherwise on my pinned post as the first thing you see.

I haven’t really read much on dnd spelljammer stuff so this finally got me around to reading it. For this Tav though, I’ll make them an astral elf as I found their culture to be interesting.

Astarion x Astral Elf Tav/Spell Jammer Headcanons

You are an Astral elf, known for exploring the wild space cosmos for over 150 years of your life, as a part of a crew of spell-jammers. Being one of the younger members of the crew, as a gifted aristocrat, able to channel the power of sunlight through your magic that courses through you.

Despite your bounty of skills at your disposal, the only weakness you face is leaving that plane seemed to shorten your lifespan making you bound to the astral plane for your entire lifetime. But after the mind flayers snatched you from your ship, the tadpole inside seemed to have gifted you a normal lifespan, allowing you to survive in the land of Toril.

But exploring the land of Faerûn seemed to be a short-lived dream, as your new goal was to rid yourself of the guest who has now taken up residence inside your head, wishing to transform you into a mindflayer.

The Githyanki in your group, who’ve you known to be hostile in most of your encounters in the astral high seas, seemed to have both united over a common hatred for the mind flayers who put you in this position in the first place.

However, you weren’t the only one who realisation that having these tadpoles isn’t for the best in the long term. Astarion, who you thought at a glance was a variant of astral elf himself, was a vampire. Now able to giddily enjoy the glow of the sun without having to feel as he describes “the wrath of biting ants all over your skin.”

Most of Faerûn’s customs are unfamiliar to you, from the ritual the priest makes you go through in the goblin camp to the gifting of wild floral plants to ones you care deeply for. 

Another struggle that you face is your lack of elvish language knowledge. Growing up, you only ever saw the need to learn common and celestial. 

Astarion would notice your lack of elven knowledge and try to teach you some basic phrases, although most of his classes would involve him trying to teach you flirty phrases to say under the pretence that it’s a common greeting.

Despite his teasing, you would attempt to return the favour by showing him simple celestial phrases, with the surprise that it doesn’t set his throat on fire after speaking in a holy tongue.

During the nights in the shadow-cursed lands, when the warmth of the sun can’t reach, you use some of your solar magic to replicate the feeling of warmth on his skin.

One of these nights on the road towards Baldur's Gate, the two of you are star gazing in silence, until you point up at the sky at two lone stars in the inky darkness above you. “In my culture, we believe our people get carried into the astral sea and turned into stars, I think those two are like us.”“Really, just some little lights in the sky?”, you turn to meet his gaze, “Well you have ‘star’ in your name right?”.

Astarion even suggests going through with the ritual, before having to stop him stating that even if you were made immortal, your soul is still bound to the astral realm and immortality would make you nothing but a husk of a person over time. But you make the promise to visit him one day every year, by opening a portal to the realm of Toril.

During the weeks leading up to fighting the brain, you gift him a small wrapped parcel. “Hmm? Darling, what’s this?” ”Something special, just open it” Looking back at him with a grin, upon peeling off the wrapping, revealed a smooth carved stone with an odd pattern on it. 

He looks back at you, slightly confused as if you’ve got mad “Darling, this is just a rock”, “Not just any rock silly”. You pull out an identical stone to the one he’s holding and quietly mutter some words into it, for the one in Astarions hand to parrot back what was just spoken.“It’s for when I have to go, we can still speak to each other through it, but for now I prefer to hear your voice from you.”

He lets out a soft sigh “You’re always thinking a few steps ahead my sweet, but obviously my voice sounds better coming from my throat than some rock” letting out a smile.

After the defeat of the netherbrain, the tadpole now destroyed, you feel the effects of your lifespan being shortened after being outside your realm for so long, knowing that it is your time to leave, Astarion runs to you carrying you into the safety of the shadows to avoid himself from burning up. “I’m sorry, I want to stay with you, but I have to go now ”

Astarion holds you as tight as he can, uttering the phrase “Ai armiel telere maenen hir.” "You hold my heart forever.” as many times as he can count before you climb onto the dragon, to return to the astral plane, home.

Every night after he would visit the surface from the Underdark at night, looking up into the stars, muttering into the sending stone, message after message, all in Elven tongue, “I love you so much” “I’ve been doing well with the other spawn” “I’m thinking of you every day my love”. He’d wait with bated breath to hear your response back in return.

However, when the day arrives when the two of you are reunited only for a day every year, you stay in each other's embrace, practically bound together, before having to return home to the astral plane.

[4letteraroace]

oooooh the rolling with difficulty thoughtssss

It’s about how the ship is the crew and the crew is the ship and how dani would sacrifice the entire planescape and her ship to save her crew

It’s about VRLA collecting gods like pokemon cards. and somewhere in a different lifetime, VRLA and MRSN are together and in love and perhaps in this lifetime it will be VRLA and Maxim

It’s about Vhas and his go with the flow attitude. Can’t get lost if you don’t know where you’re going. It’s about the fact that he would save a total stranger for the greater good.

It’s about how the only thing Kyana knows is running away. She just goes from place to place and hates being tied down. It’s about how how she has been constantly searching and learning and is never satisfied

It’s about the fact that in the intro, Sophia says that our crew is not the stuff of legends yet. The crew of the Per Aspera has defeated dragons and broken into and out of impenetrable prisons and have learned unknowable spells and killed the lich queen Vlakkith and are the chosen heroes of several gods. But in the minds of our heroes, they are just a few people with a spelljammer and some really persistent enemies.

And I love this podcast so much. These are my blorbos. My weird little dudes.

[fantasyfantasygames]

MiDDDle Space

MiDDDle Space, Stacked Studios, 2002

@identityuniverse sent me a copy of this and I would like to return it please.

The map of Middle-Earth is, as many fantasy maps are, roughly page-sized. It fades out near the edges of its flat world. It is extremely rare for someone working with Middle-Earth to fill in the least bit of that blank space. This game does it in a very unusual manner: it fills that blank space with outer space. It's a little bit Spelljammer, but it's more Starfinder. Elves and Ewarves and even the occasional Ent colony in space, with big ol' spaceships.

"But why the weird spelling?" you may be asking. Well, that's because it's a cross of Tolkien and extremely horny 90's cult TV show Lexx. You know. DDD like a bra size.

Which also explains the name of the game studio.

The setting doesn't bother explaining how anyone got into space or talking about that obviously-Middle-Earth-shaped postage stamp in the corner. It's all about "planet of the Warriors of Men" and "planet of the Dwarven smiths" and "ice planet of the Elven sex clothiers". I like the "Forest Asteroid of the Ents" but that might be more because I love space-forest stuff and Ents. NPCs are bog-standard stock characters who also want to bone.

The rules look kind of like they started off as Rolemaster (MERP, really) hack before shifting over to d20. It uses some custom classes to cover things like the Animist, Mentalist, Mystic, etc. It has plenty of critical hit/fail tables. It ports in some MERP skills directly, overwriting some d20 skills with them. There are places that refer to MERP mechanics like Maneuver rolls, which were not ported in. It's mostly playable if you're willing to do a fair amount of house-ruling.

You have a choice of five ships, with build-your-own ships in a supplement that's "coming soon" (it is not). One of the ships is very Lexx-looking, with the insectoid feel and the phallic look. It's very powerful and extremely unmaneuverable. You can also get a Spelljammer-like galleon with sails and everything, one that looks like an Elven Armada vessel, a vaguely Millennium-Falcon-like ship, or you can each get your own small ship to flit around in. I kinda like that last option. There is never any crew; the ship flies fine with just however many PCs you have. Regardless of which ship you pick, you're going to have a very rock-paper-scissors setup against other vessels and utter domination against anything ground-based.

The art is halfway between Elfquest and Dr. Voluptua. It's all greyscale. I do kinda like that you can see the artist improve in their anatomy and backgrounds over the course of the few years it took to create the game. It does not have a fun-and-sexy sense of humor, and the game plays things straight in multiple senses.

Honestly the thing that makes me unhappy about this game is that it's lazy. If you want to make a horny elfgame (or a horny-elf game), you do you. There are plenty of them out there, another one is fine. But don't make it a knockoff of two or three different IPs, with mechanics from two more, and nothing in it that really provides commentary on any of the above. Do something different or do satire, don't just push out content.

MiDDDle Space was swamped in the d20 tsunami. There were only about 200 copies made in the first place, so it's a bit of a collector's item in some corners.

[pixelwixard]

Spell Trek brainstorms

Okay, so I thought it would be a good time to start brainstorming Spell Trek in earnest, since I’m giving my T’Lyn/Mariner/Tendi fic chapter a few days to marinate (probably pick it up tomorrow, actually). I decided to live-blog my thoughts and just go through the entire process here because why not. It will be messy, but fun. Plus, people could leave feedback if they wished. Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but for now, you all will witness the process. Might leave some questions unanswered, but I can at least go through possibilities. Let’s go!

In case you haven’t seen me talk about it before, and in case the naming wasn’t too obvious, Spell Trek is my fantasy conversion of Star Trek. While I’m a fan of some sci-fi (obviously), I am personally a fantasist, so I thought this would be a good way for me to write slightly bigger stories than I could if I stuck to the canon universe. My knowledge of science is not extensive. Magic, I can do.

I guess the best place to start is with the big stuff and work my way down. So, what’s the cosmology of this setting? Obviously, the original Trek is in space. Should I basically just keep it space, but magic? Planets, nebula, black holes? Maybe it would be analogous to space, but modified. Actually, if you’ve ever heard of Spelljammer, that’s a possible way to do it. I don’t know much about the setting, but I skimmed the Wikipedia article for it, and it’s kind of what I’m talking about. Might have to do more research into it.

Perhaps instead of traveling through space, it’s all interplanar travel? Each species could come from a different dimensional plane instead of planet. Might be some kind of “space” between planes that the ships would travel through, which is where the actual space stuff would occur and would allow for actual travel instead of just blinking from plane to plane. Almost the same as the previous paragraph, I guess, just…worded differently. Planets, planes, same diff. Yeah, it’s pretty much the same concept. Magic space.

It COULD all take place on one world, and each species is a different race and nation. Kind of limits the scope, though, unless I introduce some ways to expand it, like the Underdark, parallel planes, etc. Still would have a physical limit. Unless…it didn’t? Okay, THIS is new to my brain. When I’ve thought about the possible setting before, I’ve usually thought about the previous two paragraphs, really sticking as close as possible to outer space. I briefly imagined it as one world before, but dismissed it due to limited space, and therefore lacking in terms of exploration. But what if…the landscape just had no known limit? One unending (as far as anyone knows) physical landmass/watermass? Could still have ships, but they would be airships instead. Warp could still work, as the landscape is basically infinite. Exploration is still doable. It being a flat world instead of 3D space, that would make travel slightly different, but that’s not important. Actually, maybe the travel could still be 3D? Could have underground species, perhaps landmasses in the sky, too. Or maybe…what if there are multiple physical planes stacked on top of one another? A big lasagna of reality. Cosmology is fun to play around with, huh?

Well, this brainstorming session has given me some things to think about. To summarize, it seems like I have two options for the overall setting (with some sub-options thrown in):

Basically outer space, but magic instead of science (like Spelljammer).

Replace the infinite space with infinite landmass and watermass (and possibly multiple layers).

Not sure which I prefer. I like the latter because it’s the shiny new idea I just came up with, and I wouldn’t have to worry about astrophysics or anything like that, but I guess I could always fudge it all if it’s magic anyway.

Is anyone reading this? If you want to give an opinion, you can. Oh hey, I can do a poll! I love you, Tumblr. So just take the poll. Well, you can reply or reblog/tag too, if you want, but if the poll is easier for you, by all means.

Okay, bye now.

[new-eyes-extra-colors]

@thaethiira hope you don't mind the tag; i wanted to reply to your reblog but felt weird having a conversation on a third party's post.

i am genuinely not surprised that 5e spelljammer is bad for the reasons you listed. i am incredibly disappointed, as someone who's loved spelljammer since the day i heard about it years and years ago and really want more people to get into it. i can't fucking believe they don't have illithids--those guys are like, the d&d monster. that's ridiculous.

you didn't ask, but because there's something deeply wrong with me, back in 2020 i wound up buying every pdf of every spelljammer book i could get my hands on and converted a lot of it to my preferred system (pf2e) (it was a pandemic year and i wasn't doing anything better with my time). pf2e conveniently already had a lot of rules for stuff like vehicles, monster making, new magic items, etc. it was easy enough to get what i wanted converted and build the rest based on the precedent set by the stuff in the core rulebook.

wound up making a lot of custom ancestries for my players to pick from (including illithids--one of my current party's investigators is an illithid on a mission to find out who his host was before she got turned--and neogi). along with, of course, a bunch of other classic d&d ancestries (we also have an aarakocra player, for example).

anyway, it's a little disappointing d&d's actual owners couldn't be bothered, but i'm glad i put all that work into being able to enjoy a very rich setting that actually has some depth to it. even if i had to do most everything myself.

[ryttu3k]

Set 8 of the Dark Urge questions by @daemon-in-my-head ! Previous editions: one, two and three, four to seven.

1. The Patriars, what does Durge think of them? Do they share the same mindset as Gortash or do they maybe like some of the messed up stuff the patriars did?

Honestly, a whole lot of, "Wow, you need a good murderin'." Tavias honestly disliked their manipulations more than anything else, how they hid some good old-fashioned monstrousness behind a harmless exterior. Like if you're going to be a sick fuck, try and own it, y'know?

2. Durge was around when Elturel was dragged into Avernus, what did Durge think of these events? Were they maybe even personally affected by the aftermath?

He was kind of fascinated (a whole city being dragged into the Hells!), but assumed it wouldn't affect him. He wasn't aware of the large number of Elturian refugees headed for Baldur's Gate or he would have maybe taken more interest, if only for the large number of potential victims heading his way.

3. Did Durge ever believe in a deity that wasn't Bhaal? Which one?

Interpreting this as whether he actually actively prayed to or acknowledged any other deities, he had a fair bit of appreciation for Loviatar, would say an appreciative word to Talos during nice destructive thunderstorms, and would drop a small offering and appreciative word to Umberlee if he was spending any time near the sea. He also had some complicated feelings towards Kelemvor, who is essentially like… Dad's Boss. He wants Bhaal to be the big winner overall and to carry out Bhaal's mission to Murder The Entire World, but also acknowledges that Kelemvor is Important for now and would have more say and, uh, a lot more power. Basically he's quietly respectful of Kelemvor, but also fully supports Bhaal's plans.

4. Gortash wanted to ascend as God himself, and he wanted Durge to join him. But what did Durge think of that plan? Were they on board or did they consider it heresy?

Out loud, he was like "wtf absolutely not that is heresy". Quietly, he was… a little tempted. He refused to think too much about it, mostly.

5. What does Durge think of bards? Do they like them, despise them, did anything ever happen?

Good entertainment. He's got some good insults from Vicious Mockery to use on others. Crunchy. Avoid eating lute players' hands, their fingers are all calloused, gross.

6. The vampire coven in Baldur's Gate is responsible for a lot of people disappearing. Did Durge take advantage of it and blame some of their murders on them? Did they dislike them?

Nah. He's a big believer of credit where credit's due. If someone disappeared, he'd be, "Wasn't me, but hopefully they were violently murdered :D" because, uh, pre-lobotomy Tavias was a Giant Edgelord. Beyond that, he didn't take a lot of notice, and his memories were still too scrambled when he met Astarion to remember there were vampires in Baldur's Gate. It's only when Astarion starts opening up about his past that he goes, "Wait, I think I remember something about a vampire lord nearby. That big tacky palace?" "Subtle, isn't it?"

7. Children; a great source of joy, perhaps annoyance, and certainly nutrition. But what exactly was your Durge's opinion on them besides being a great snack?

He wasn't a huge fan of them. Loud critters that he didn't really fit in much with even when he was one, and from age eleven he was trying very hard to prove he wasn't just a child, he was the Son of Murder, tyvm. Occasionally he might have his attention brought to one with particular potential, in which case he'd be observing some frankly un-child-like behaviour anyway.

8. Spelljammers are a beloved mode of transportation on Toril, both for military and cargo means. Did Durge ever board one of these vessels, and what did they think? Or did the sole idea of getting close to something like that terrify them?

Never got to board one, tragically, because he thought they were cool as hell. Going into Realmspace that'd be sick. That's honestly one of the views he still holds even post-lobotomy, the idea of being able to travel like that absolutely fascinates him. (His actual experience with the Nautiloid isn't exactly fun, but the fact that he was even on a Spelljammer in the first place? Extremely cool.)

9. Generally speaking, if Durge needed to travel, how would they go about it? By foot or horse, or did they have a familiar to use?

Depends on the distance? He generally didn't leave the city that much, but joined a horse and wagon convoy whenever he went to Moonrise, protected by Moonlantern within the Shadow-Cursed Lands. In the city itself, he'd generally walk, especially using the Undercity as thoroughfare, unless he was extremely in a hurry, in which case he'd just use a Waypoint.

10. Describe them with 1 quote, it can be anything you like but give me their whole being in a nutshell.

"Wretched thing. Pull yourself together!" (Pre-lobotomy: "Stop thinking about Enver. Stop thinking about other options. You know what you have to do. Everything is for Father. Everything." Post-lobotomy: "*whaps self with newspaper* Bad Tavias! No murdering!")