wowawesome117

[wowawesome117]

I write ttrpg stuff

Hey Tumblr, I’ve written a lot of ttrpg stuff, mainly for DnD, the OSR, and all other clones. 

I’ve cross posted a few stuff here and people like it. 

Here’s my reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/DeathMcGunz/

Here’s my blog where I’m redoing the 5e monster manual: https://insidethegiantseye.blogspot.com/

Here’s my book that’s FINALLY IN  PRINT: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/258940/Haunted

And here’s my patreon which I just started: https://www.patreon.com/johnbattle117

I’m posting all of this for two reasons:

1. I hope someone likes something here. I want to know if Tumblr is something I should focus on. I’m kinda trying to find my footing somewhere in a community. There’s so many and it’s hard having fingers in a lot of pies. 

2. I want to work with people. Some of you. All of you. Collaborators are how great products get made. And I want to make something spectacular with fellow writers and artists.

[wowawesome117]

“Oh what a brave soul.

He’s proud to be straight, but like a host that feeds, bigotry inebriates.

No one’s ever been compromised for being a white, straight male with two blue eyes.”

[wowawesome117]

The Same for Everyone

[wowawesome117]

[wowawesome117]

weekend vibes

[wowawesome117]

‘Overwatch’ players turn to Reddit to share their horrifying stories of sexual harassment and racism

follow @the-future-now

[wowawesome117]

Pirate Queens

There used to 13 pirate Queens sailing the Sea. After years of fighting and being hunted, only 8 remain. Born from Atom, the Pirate King, the 8 sisters sail the Sunbroke Sea on their living ships, seeking to subvert one another and be the one to release their father from his prison and be crowned the “best daughter in the world”.

Atom

An Astral Giant who rode the sea on his father’s mutated body, devouring giants who opposed him and subjugating humankind, pushing them back to the land whenever he could. The sea and sky were never split to Atom, and his ship parted clouds as well as it parted waves. He was cut to pieces and scattered to the bottom of the ocean. Gathering the pieces will allow him to return.

How this is set up

I have basic stats (Hit Dice and Armor), plus their main form of attack.

Then there is the town they dock in. Some of them are places, but most are cities on the coast.

Then there's the rule of three: what they say they are, what they don't say (subtext), and what they actively hide.

Followed by their ship.

If you have any questions, try to answer them yourself and put your answer in the comment. After I post something here, it's as good as yours.

1. Chrome, the Medusa, with her ship “Celebrator”

HD 12 ARMOR 15

Makes two attacks per turn

Instead of stone, she turns people into chrome

Docks in Paradiso, a religious city.

Says she’s a reckless monster with no regard for life

Doesn’t say she admires human women

Actively hides that she wants children

Her ship Celebrator is made of the chrome bodies of the ones she has slain. Her ship grows with each conquest, and she can unchrome people at will to create terror and expendable bodies.

2. Lyra, the Vampire, with her ship “Delighter”

HD 12 Armor 16

Makes two attacks per turn

Drains years from you to create minions

They gain 1HP and do 1dmg per year drained to make them

Docks in Nirvana, a war-ravaged battlefield.

Says she’s all about peace and love

Doesn’t say that she loves pain

Actively hides the right hand of her father

Her ship Delighter looks like a normal ship with a mouth and two large fangs. It attaches to other ships to drain the years from them and restore itself.

3. Thalia, the Lich, with her ship “Luxuriator”

HD 6 ARMOR 12

Casts spells as a 12th level wizard/cleric

Her spells involve animating wood, water, and blood

Docks in Cackaigne, the ruins of a megalithic bridge.

Says she’s young and innocent and stupid

Doesn’t say that she’s the oldest sister

Actively hides her phylactery

Her ship Luxuriartor sails the underside of the ocean surface and attacks from the underside. Thalia animates opposing cruisers to attack themselves.

4. Itchycoo, the Witch, with her ship “Lullaby”

HD 6 ARMOR 12

All of her spells turn [blank] into [blank]

Docks in Elysium, a pillar of faith on the edge of Muck.

Says she hates her sisters

Doesn’t say that she just wants to be accepted

Actively hides her terminal illness

Her ship Lullaby is invisible. All the time. You don’t see it till it crashes into you. Then her invisible crew ties you to an anchor and tosses you into the water.

5. Persephone, the Valkyrie, with her ship “Dancer”

HD 15 ARMOR 16

Wields her father’s sword, two handed, crits cut off limbs

Docks in Tir Na Nog, an abandoned monster lair.

Says she upholds her father’s legacy

Doesn’t say she thinks her sister’s are weak and foolish

Actively hides her stuffed animal from childhood

Her ship Dancer is actually several smaller ships, fast and deadly. She uses other ships as decoys, explosives, or holds for her gold.

6. Tyrany, the Demon, with her ship “Rapture”

HD 12 ARMOR 12

Demon of Greed, whatever you have is never enough

Docks in Aaru, a sacred city blessed by witches.

Says she wants nothing to do with her father

Doesn’t say that she knows where a piece of him is

Actively hides that she collects gold the means to collect his pieces

Her ship Rapture is in the center of a hurricane. She comes to harbors or fleets of ships in the sea and wrecks them with the storm, then collects the riches from the rubble.

7. Corvid, the Raven, with her ship “Preyer”

HD 12 ARMOR 15

Controls an army of ravens that tear sails and pick apart enemies.

Docks in Folkvangr, burned Crowland island.

Says shes always trying to bring her sisters together

Doesn’t say that she doesn’t like them much

Actively hides that she spies on them and sabotages them

Her ship Preyer is jet black and blots the sun with an army of ravens. Birds are absorbed by the ships to heal it.

8. Gwyndonlin, the Imprisoned, with her ship “Speaker”

HD 16 ARMOR 12

*Imprisoned by her sisters, her ship was sunk, and she was forgotten

Docks in Tlalocan, an abandoned Elven city.

Says shes weak, helpless, and wrongfully imprisoned

Doesn’t say that she’s been plotting revenge for years

Actively hides that she has the Ring of Wrath

Her ship Speaker was destroyed and scattered. If Gwyn takes over one of her sister’s ships, she can infect it and change it into the Speaker.

[wowawesome117]

Bright - the feral city

First come the wisps.

Little balls of kinetic energy. Entities that feed off an emotion. Their color will tell you what they eat. They come and feed off of people, bleeding gently out of the alleyways and shadows of a city. This draws the Psychonauts, emotion thieves. They flock to these wisps, bottling them and selling them to the desperate and emotionless. Emotions make great potions, poisons, and drugs. Who wouldn't want to buy liquid joy? Or mix blue fear into the well of an unsuspecting village?

Second comes the Torchstealers. Children stolen from their homes for the sole purpose of darkening city streets. Painting towns black. When they grow old enough to think for themselves, or question their purpose, they are eaten, flesh and bone. So you will see toddlers, nine year olds, an everything in between. They weave out of alleys and down side streets, throwing damp towels over torchers, blowing out lanters, spitting on candles. They will not speak to you, because they know that means the other children will get to eat their tongue for dinner. They will not look at you, because they know that their eyes make great jelly.

Third. There's looters. Or what appear to be random burglaries and smash-and-grabs. But a keen mind will notice that no one is ever purposefully harmed, and only knowledge is stolen. Scrolls, texts, tomes, diaries, letters, brains in jars. The Wissenzerst, knowledge thieves, purge the city of all they can carry. What they cannot, gets burned. The containment of the fire is not their problem. They do not claim this destruction or the deaths caused by it. They only claim the knowledge.

And lastly, there's nothing.

You think it's done. It's gone. But it's not. The smart few of the city place saucers of milk on their porches, along with delicious sweets. This is to appease the fae.

The houses that don't do this, who disrespect the fae, have their children stolen in the night. These children become Torchstealers or they are eaten. In their place, pixies craft skins to resemble the children and puppet them in the real world until it's time to move on. Doing this they steal more children, or torment the parents to horrific conesquence. A terrified body tastes like chocolate to Bright.

Drunkards that stumble out of taverns late at night and wander down alleys, or streets where the Torchstealers have been, meet women in the brick who flirt with them and carry them inside of walls, leaving them to suffocate. Brick Dryad move through concrete like liquid and can grant you the same ability...until they don't want to anymore. Chances are, if you chip into any stone wall of any major city you'll find bodies long decayed.

The shadows sing songs to those who stay out late at night. Half-formed women strike eyes at you that put you into the deepest state of love you have ever experienced. Shadow Nymphs collect worthy love slaves to work inside Bright, to fill the roles that the children and the fae can't. Though most are eaten. Love tastes like gelatin to Bright.

It's a feral city, Bright is. It reaches out with its streets and alleyways and touches the real world, creating harmonies where the cities are coterminous. Once inside though, the streets are as much an obstacle as the inhabitants. They shift. They hide. They lie in ambush. They fight and leave scars. You can see the evidence of its bad temper in the damage of its brickwork. The shattered windows in the abandoned buildings that line its crooked path.

Once it visits a city, the barren ladies steal out of the harmonies and snatch babies, raising them as Shadowlings. Ladder and Pike are ruffians and cuthroats who sweep out of the conjoined cities and savage the civilizations they meet. Fairy barbarians.

The Whispering Men, cultists of a Faceless Spirit, trade in secrets, bought and sold. They will trade memories as well, but secrets are far more powerful. They will take anything in trade if you don't have the coin. There are whispers of monks who have no memory of loved ones, but who walk the spirit world at will. There are rumors of one who traded so much he exists only as a voice now, but can see the future with clarity. Their temple is the Well of Secrets, where the cultists themselves ply their filthy trade and spend twitching days reliving memories good and terrible from those who no longer own them.

All that live in Bright serve a purpose; to keep it fed, mentally, spiritually, and physically. It moves and grows and devours. Riding its shadowy tendrils requires work, and for the fae the work is passion. Shadow Nymphs and Brick Dryads steal bodies to feed it physically. Psychonauts and the Whispering Men steal emotions, memories, secrets, to feed it spiritually. And the Wissenzerst steal knowledge to feed it mentally. To be safe in the city you must fill one of these roles, or give it something nothing else can give it. Or you become food.

Most get stolen here, but a few fools ride the city like a beast, seeing where the tendril-alleys take them. Others seek the Psychonauts to buy emotions and wind up being sucked within the city. The masochistic of us lay face down in the dark alleys so that they may get a chance to sell their memories and secrets for something more, or perhaps to buy the memories they wish they had, or to gather secrets on those they wish to destroy.

Whatever you do though, do not listen to anything Bright says, or you won't hear anything else.

Miscellaneous Ideas

This is where you get a new familiar if you lost your old one

Bright is creeping into whichever city you're in

You need to gather someone's ancient memory to learn how they died

Your true name is being sold in Bright

COLOR - EMOTIONS

Blue - Fear

Green - Envy

Yellow - Joy

Purple - Ambition

Pink - Compassion

Red - Anger

Brown - Boredom

Gold - Vanity

Silver - Indecision

White - Isolation

Grey - Sorrow

Black - Death

Who would benefit from emotions?

Fae who feed off of them

Shadowlings who can't feel them

Robots who enjoy them

Humans who seek them for drugs

Evil creatures who seek them as poisons

Love potions

A ruler to keep his people compliant

Dragons who hoard them

Demons who use them to gather souls

Wizards who need to feed their familiars

[wowawesome117]

MEAT POINTS

When I run D&D, hit points are meat points. 

I don’t care about RAW. I like combat to have impact. 

It is NOT an exchange of blows that plays out over several long minutes.

When I learned D&D I was told that each round is 6 seconds. Maybe they weren’t being literal, but I remember reading it in the 3.5 phb as well. 

So combat in my games take place in slowed time. Every action is important. The amount of damage you take determines quite a bit, but every roll to hit is a swing/shot. 

In a normal combat, you might only swing at your opponent twice, landing a lucky blow dealing 12 damage and knocking the brain out of the goblin. Against a larger foe, your more powerful spells will cripple and maim them, while your arrow pierce them and your swords sever limbs. 

 This seems like a very unpopular opinion/house rule or whatever. But yeah, slow motion, every roll is a single attack and not just one attack in a series of swings, and every point of damage matters.

[wowawesome117]

Divine Intervention

Anyone can be a Cleric in the Cage. All it takes is dedication, piety, and some of your personal time.

Making a Cleric

1. Make a Spellcaster following my Spellcasting rules 2. Choose the Vivomancy School of magic 3. Give up a spell if you want to swing a hammer 4. Give up another spell if you want a shield/armor 5. Actually give a fuck about your spirit/god/whatever and worship them

Number 5 is the important part. Being a Cleric is like being any other character, only you have a faith. You must keep the faith to do anything with it. No lazy mfers in this world. You get what you give.

How to be Pious

1. Pick a spirit - the Cage follows Animism, look it up 2. Create some tennants or talk to me and we'll come up with some 3. Every time you do one of those things, mark a tally on your character sheet 4. If you go a few days without doing anything, lose a point 5. Big and small gestures equal 1 point. This isn't basketball. You're either pious or you're not. 6. When you want to call on your spirit/god/belief, roll a d100 and try to get below the number of tallies you have on your paper

That's it. Clean and simple. But what counts as Piety? 1. Prayer 2. Acts your spirit would consider charitable 3. Acting on one of the tenants of your belief 4. Some other things. As long as you can make the argument.

What doesn't count as Piety? 1. Saying "this one's for you J.C." before hitting a homerun. 2. Saying "my god would want me to have your sandwhich." 3. Fucking a fellow believer of the faith 4. Anything that makes people laugh, usually. Piety is v v serious.

And there you have it. You're now a Cleric.

[wowawesome117]

Court of Thrones

A Lonely King sits upon a throne in the middle of a field.

Tall grass blows around him, but the grass cares not. Not of the kings old castle, and his tales of bravery, not of his curse. The spirits know what keeps this king here, and they have no sympathy.

And there are many like him. It's just thrones dotting hilltops, and ruins, and fields, and catacombs. Each with an ancient king to sit upon it. Eyes plucked out. Trapped for eternity in the land of thrones. You give up a part of your soul on the climb to be a Dread Lord. You give it up and you marry your throne.

Every king has a different story to tell, but they all share similar qualities.

Their eyes are stolen from their head. They cannot see but they feel your presence.

You are cursed when you gaze upon a king or his throne. This is not something you can avoid in this region. Just something you live with.

They make children with their thrones. Throne Dryads of stone and moss and jewelry dented crown-gold.

They were all previous Dread Lords.

The Lonely Curse

When you lay eyes on one of these lost kings you are cursed. You must listen to their tale which takes d12 months to complete. You can surpass this and negate the curse by stating their name and the way in which they died. Be as detailed as possible. If you hear the entire story, you must then tell it to someone else. You cannot speak until you do.

Throne Dryads

Born of the Kings and the throne, these beautiful creatures are wilting legacies. Continuous fragments of dead people who hold no more power. They socialize with other families of Throne Drayds because they have nothing else and desperately need the company.

HP 24 AC 18 (stone skin, fast)

Throne - they can promise you a throne and will give you one if you remove them from their prison and take them far away. To do this, part of what binds them must be taken.

Wrench - After a successful melee/touch attack, if a Throne Dryad lands a second successful attack your heart stops.

Entomb - If your heart was stopped by a Dryad, she can phase your body into the throne, growing it and creating more sisters for her.

D8 Sample Lonely Kings

Ahab, rests on a throne of blubber, covered in his own blood, the king of the uncatchable, salivator of the big whale.

Solomon, rigid on a throne of iron, stark steel bars hold up his body and grow on him like ivy, king of allseeing.

Nimrod, small king on a small throne, egg bearer and hatcher of apocalypse, bearer of small cries

Absalom, blackened king of the wind-blown, sits on his throne of ash, made from his queen of blades

Sodom, empty king of husks and crawling peasants, bug eater of the great worms, sits on his throne of shells and flakes of giants' skin

Alexander, sits on a stone throne, a rapidly aging and deaging boy, largest area and shortest lived reign of any Dread Lord

Hannibal - ivory throne built of melted whistles, howling in the wind, king of the serpents, slain by his own son

Ephraim - king of the graves, serpent eater and lord of the shed weight. Sits on his throne of shadows and epitaphs.

ECOLOGY

Heliolithes

Eaters of sunlight. These tiny maggots absorb sunlight and superheat to temperatures that melt through stone. They feed on thrones and their dryads. They can be held in glass without melting it, but they still get hot.

Damage: when searing hot, they deal 6d6 damage, ignoring armor.

Regent Borers (Giant Weevils)

Giant weevils that dig up from the earth at night to tear dryads apart and feast on their insides. They have rotating mouth parts, like living drills, lubricated in acid so they can drill into stone and suck out the juices.

Use the giant scorpion statblock, but acid damage instead of poison. In the mm.

Ys-Voya

Large vulture-birds that land on kings and sleeping adventurers. They make you heavier and heavier until you cannot pick yourself up. Then they eat you very slowly. A few pecks a day.

Use the peryton statblock in the mm.

Purple Lions

The purple pride roam the court in search of someone to crown as their queen. They don't see gender in humans and don't know how we can bicker over such things. They carry broadswords in their mouths and force people to fight for them. Winner becomes queen. There are 13 members of the pride, no females, one king and all his sons.

Use the dire lion statblock, it's free to view on dnd beyond.

Time Vines

The vines that grow on the kings and their thrones are not apart of our time and they fluctuate frequently. They are sought after as spell components and potion ingredients. They also are used by dragon slayers, as dragons love the taste.

King Berries

Berries from the same vines. They are eyes that follow any movement. Spell components and used in homunculi. It is said that they are the basis of artificial life research in Aberdeen.

Neverending Butterflies

Food of the Nymphs. They grow cocoons in their mouths and as the butterfly hatch the dryads eat them. Eating them is rumored to keep you young and beautiful, but most believe they are a curse, so be careful they don't land on you.

DAMOCLES, CITY OF SWORDS

Resting in the middle of the Court is Damocles (dah-mock-lees). Floating above it, tip down, are the Million Swords of Court. Longswords, bastard swords, greatswords, katanas. Being raised here you know that one day you might be impaled by one of the blades and become a One of Swords, joining the Court. It's not something that can be predicted, and it's not certain to happen if you volunteer, praying to the Court every day.

The sword grants you power and status, part fae, part spirit, you must uphold the laws of the Court and fight as their vassal. If you come across a fellow Sword of the Court, it is your duty to kill them, stealing their original sword and impaling it with you, making you a Two of Swords. This continues on and on, gaining power and rising through the Court, and just like a deck of cards, your eleventh blade makes you a Jack, a Face of the Court.

The Faces are very secretive, because to die as a Face means to take your seat in a Throne out in the fields. But if you collect enough blades to be King, you will become a Dread Lord, gaining dominion of the Court, wielder of all Swords, protected by all Faces, and controller of your army of failed kings.

THE SWORDS

Eacn sword grants you a +1 to attacks, along with a special ability that you can use 1/day, unless specified otherwise

One of Swords - you know the location of the nearest king

Two of Swords - you gain a third eye which must dominate something each day

Three of Swords - you gain advantage on your next attack to hit anything that has hit you

Four of Swords - your eyes become glass and never tire

Five of Swords - you may become shadow

Six of Swords - you can teleport to Damocles, you will arrive in the center of Gatetown

Seven of Swords - you can change your appearance to that of any of the kings who rest on the thrones, you look as they did in their prime, hiding your swords

Eight of Swords - chains rise up from the ground and bind one target in place, you can use this every day to keep them there

Nine of Swords - your chest opens up and nine hands reach out to grab a target and pull them in

Ten of Swords - you can fly, as the spell

The downfall of having any amount of swords is that others will try to kill you. The more you have the more likely it is for people to know where you are.

THE COURT

Under Damocles is the tomb of a giant. Her name is lost and all that remains is her blade, but that will come later. Hers was the first and this was her court. And this is where she was killed. Now. Her bones and brains and organs have created catacombs and in it crawls many rats and bugs and shit. But also there lives a Queen. The Queen of Swords.

Twelve blades stab through her guts. Her body has grown large from sitting in these tunnels and hollows, but she always wears her large smile on her face. Madness courses through her limbs. Insomnia plagues her mind. Her eyes tear up from the agony inside her. But she is so close to becoming a Dread Lord. Just. One. More. Sword.

Use the Lich statblock in the mm.

GIANTS BLADE

The giant who held court here long before history had a beautiful bastard blade. It hangs over the center of town where a cathedral stands. Seven other giant’s blades accompany it, with cathedrals of their own beneath. They were all built in worship of the spirit of their respective blade. Warriors and dreamers gather in these cathedrals each day to pray that the spirits choose them to join the Court.

SCHOOL OF CHIMERISTS

School of strange magics. Chimeric magic. When three become one. They run and look after the seven cathedrals, practicing during the day and working new creations beneath them at night. The Dolems that lead each cathedral have three heads and constantly shifting flesh. Their penultimate creations, the seven Chimera, rest on the rooftops and protect the Dolems at all cost. At night they can be seen flying around, breathing fire, and hunting those foolish enough to wander in the moonlight.

A note on chimeric magic: the school is ancient and yet still so new. Their knowledge is limited as many experiments have failed. Reading the ancient language inscribed in the tombs is their only way of discovering this magic. A magic that speaks of mythic beasts of seven heads, savage third eyes, and the blending of souls into one body.

Dolem - use the cleric stat blocks in the mm, plus they always have 2d6 acolytes around

Chimera - use the stat block in the mm, but max health, max damage

THE STAINGLASS

Assassin’s guild. They live in the attics of the seven cathedrals and are hired by the Dolem to carry out executions, gather treasure, and secure special chimera ingredients all across the region. They carry shields of stained glass and swords made of mirrors.

Assassin stat block but +2ac from the shield and

SWORD - additional 2d6 in the sunlight as it is heated and blinding

SHIELD - when the light is shined through it onto you, your soul is prismed into various mulit-colored shadows, leaving you immobilized.

GATETOWN

A district of town named after the Giant Gate that rings it. Giant Gates are oval shapes of steel, glass, and stone which are rumored to be how Giants traveled beyond the stars. The Academy of Doors in Entrance seek them out and try to activate them. They don’t care if it’s a horrible idea (which it is), they just want to see where they all go. There are pilgrims from Entrance here studying at all hours of the year. Homunculi and ghosts live here.

INKWELL’S SCHOOL OF JOKERS

Anarchists. This is a school of chosen Court members who refused to hunt each other and have pulled the swords from their bodies. They must grasp them to stay alive and they gather in the hopes of slaying the Queen, taking the catacombs, and ending the city with its own magic. The answer is down there somewhere...

OLD GATETOWN RUINS

Previously active Giant Gate. Still powering down. The first settlers didn’t realize it because the effects are so slow. But now that the years have passed, everyone knows that things in Old Gatetown spiral. The ground vortexes around the center point of the gate, warping the earth and the buildings clockwise. The entire area looks like a melted painting of a crumbling village. The people that still live here only do so because they too are warped and are forced to stay there by the Dolem.

Adventures in the Court of Thrones

If you're using the map of the Cage, this is located near the Ender Mountain, on the east side, kind of cut off from the rest of the land by the mountains themselves.

This place is a great resource for players. The knowledge of each king is indisputable. Plus, any spellcaster worth their salt will want some King Berries and Time Vines. So there are college that will send you their just to gather things, which can get the party embroiled in so much more.

The city itself has a mage school located in it that is doubling as a religion. Plus the ties to another mage college far away that wants to restart the Giant Gates. So there's a lot of knowledge here for players to come and steal. Knowledge that can lead them to power. Knowledge that they'll have to pay a price for. Either hunting the Purple Lions, slaying Chimera, cleaning the ghost out of Gatetown, or hunting the Queen of Swords beneath the city.

There's always a price.

[wowawesome117]

DnD 53

I don't like the Forgotten Realms.

I like 5e's rules but I don't like how Forgotten Realms uses them. I don't like Elves, or Dwarves, or Gnomes or how they handle dragons. I don't like the gold standard. I don't like Waterdeep. I don't like feeling like I'm in Lord of the Rings. I don't like being European and I don't like people thinking everything is taking place in the past.

I don't like the Forgotten Realms.

So instead I use this.

I'm calling it DnD 53 for now, but it's my setting and also a way to just...get away from the Forgotten Realms.

[wowawesome117]

How I Make NPCs

I've gotten some questions about my NPC system.

I figured I'd explain and expand on it. Maybe it'll help you make and understand your NPCs with easier to digest chunks of information.

So, if you've read my posts, you've seen this idea. An NPC is:

What they say

What they don't say

What they actively hide

What they say

This is what is on the surface. It can be somethin they literally say, but it's more about what their personality says.

What they don't say

This is what they are just beneath their mask. This is what they think to themselves and seldom share. It's something they might not even be aware.

What they actively hide

This is a secret, sometimes even to the NPC. This is something that they keep hidden on purpose. Whether it's a guilty pleasure, an evil deed, something opposite their character and thus proves some underlying truth about them, whatever.

What do these three things do?

They create depth, even if it's just an artificial depth. The appearance of depth is all you need as a DM to act these characters out. To me, giving me a Quirk is nice and can make for a fun character to act, but the quirks don't mean anything. Looking at these three things lets me imagine what kind of person this is. Are they nervous? Are they hiding a secret? Are they naive?

It also creates Story. Each character now has a Beginning, Middle, and End. When you meet them, you will know the surface. Through any amount of care, you will learn what they don't say. And with closeness and drama you will find what they hide. This lets players get close to characters in a tangible way.

More than both of those, it's very easy to read. I'm working on a town right now and I've done this with all 24 of the inhabitants/shopkeepers. Doing it has breathed life into the town and has created relationships, future plot hooks. But now I can just glance at a list of the NPCs and I'm ready to run them. No blocks of text, no paragraphs, just a clean series of bullet points.

Your NPCs Tell a Greater Story

I'm a firm believer in World Building with purpose. We're not writing novels (at least not for our players). The things we create for the game need to be gameable. It's always bugged me when people make things for their games that have no mechanical use for a game. Fluff is great, but fluff is only called fluff because it's nothing beyond word art.

When you make something you're saying something about your world. Random encounter tables, plot hooks, towns, classes, backgrounds. Each thing is like a note in the story of your world. NPCs are no different. The NPCs of a region/town/village tell the story of that area. They are products of that area. If you want to portray a savage land, your NPCs will tell that story through who they are.

So instead of just having a block of text, you can use this list to tell your story. You can use it to generate story that is natural to this region of the world. A region of politics and backstabbing will have characters with secrets and a phony surface level. While a region of warriors will have blunt surface levels and might actively hide scars from previous battles, both mental and physical ones.

These will generate story in your world because anything your players interacts with, anything they are interested in, will create story. If they notice this politician they might want to take him down, and the more they learn about him the more desperate their plans grow. If they run into one of these warriors, maybe they grow really fond of them and will take up any quest to ease their pain.

NPC + NPC interactions

Most characters will talk to each other on just the surface level. But if characters know each other, there will be subtext to the conversation. It will sound like the surface level, but they'll actually be talking about the second tier. And if they bring up what the other is actively hiding, or are going after it like it's treasure, that creates tension, conflict.

To make these conflicts/relationships stronger, put secrets that relate to other NPCs. These can be good secrets, secret lovers, a shared history, something dark, a traumatic experience, or whatever. I believe this will naturally come when building a village or an organization, or even just a rival adventuring party. It will bring a depth to the group and these secrets can be used as plot hooks in adventures.

Further Expansion

This idea can be used to describe more than NPCs. Organizations, locales, or even cities themselves will follow those three ideals. What the city outwardly presents (what it says), what it doesn't say (what the city is really about), and what it actively hides (either its history, secret government, a tragedy, etc.). Even if it doesn't flesh it out to a point where you feel comfortable running this location, it is a good starting point for further ideas.

How do you do it?

There's no singular formula to follow. Each NPC will have something different. But you can use the Ideals and Bonds from the 5e Player's Handbook, in the Background's sections, to create the first tier, what the NPC's say. These ideals can be something they outwardly represent, and phrasing them as an actual sentence that can be said can give you ideas as to how this person talks.

For the "what they don't say" bit, you can look at the Flaws from the Backgrounds, or you can pick a quirk and work backwords. Someone's second tier could simpley be "doesn't say they have a stutter". The act alone of hiding a tick or a quirk creates some mystery. It creates character. They have this thing about them, and they try not to draw attention to it OR they don't even know they have it. Either option is interesting and can be explored with a character.

Then when it comes to creating what they actively hide, I think you should look towards the Theme of the region they're from. Look to that and think about what's been mentioned above (secrets, history, trauma, madness, love, dreams, hopes, fears).

Using this an Example NPC could be

Jacob

Says he's always going to fight for his friends

Doesn't say that he can't read common

Actively hides that he dreams of writing a novel

This is a character I could see the party being really fond of. He fights on the battlefield, squints blankly at signs and other forms of writing, getting himself tangeled into comedic situations at times, and at night he takes last watch so he can sit by the fire and try to write the alphabet.

You probably saw something similar but entirely your own, rooted in your world instead of mine.

Tumblr

You know what also helps me? And I think so far I'm alone in this, but I browse image boards constantly. I'm always saving images of people and places and things. I keep them on my computer so I can look at them when I'm stumped. This is how I make most of my NPCs. I see an image of a person that intrigues me and I make a story about them.

There's nothing wrong with taking images and making NPCs from them. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? With one image and the three tiers filled out, you should be able to run that NPC without any questions.

Okay, I've talked too much. My head hurts and I need to actually pay attention to my work before my boss realizes I'm just on reddit.

MAKE NPCS! Each and every one of you can contribute. Right now. Takes a minute. Write it, link a picture if you want, and that way other people can steal them and use them in their game.

Go on then.

[wowawesome117]

The Handsome Rogue

Inspired by this awesome/cute comic You can do EVERYTHING a normal rogue can do. But you can also do these things: Steal Someone's Heart - literally steal a heart and you can make any one person fall in love with another (doesn’t need to be reciprocated) Steal the Show - all attention is placed onto you, but later you can give all the attention to someone else Steal the Spotlight - you are seen by all, but later you can make it so you can't be seen by anyone Steal a Glance - roll d6 to see what you learn about your target,  you must then give someone that information about you

Fear

Hope

Nightmare

Dream

Weakness

Strength

BEFORE you can steal ANYTHING ELSE, you must give back what you have stolen. 

[wowawesome117]

Relationships get so bananas when you start deciphering the other person’s love language.

Like I thought I was just acquaintances with this person because they never told me details about themselves and we just talked movies and writing . But then they made time to have coffee with me and they showed up out of breath because they ran. Like. RAN to be on time for coffee with me?

And I was like “i don’t mind waiting” cause I never want to run

But they said they wanted every minute they could get because I’m so busy usually

Which is when it clicked that I didn’t get how much they considered me a friend because I just straight away didn’t see MY signs of affection in them and went “cool! Casual buds it is.” But now that I’m seeing their signs of affection, I feel a little silly for dismissing them like that even though I felt like we could be best bros.

Anyway, some people show affection through time or intensity or commitment and not vocally. I really have to remember that!

[wowawesome117]

sept. 9, 2018

IMPATIENCE OF LIONS, an old dragon with eyes for scales

[wowawesome117]

D8 NPCs and What They Want From Your Party

Lamplight

Says she's a dragon slayer.

Doesn't say she is hunting a specific dragon

Actively hides that she needs a dragon heart to save her little brother

When encountered, Lamplight will drop a dragon head in front of the PCs, wait a moment, then pour 1,000gp on it. "You in?"

Part IV

Says he is looking for freedom

Doesn't say he feels purposeless

Actively hides that he is dying

When encountered, Part IV will crawl out from under a PC's bed, crying. "Please help me," he says, his voice like grinding gears. "My master is going to kill us all."

Lansing

Say's he's a detective looking for justice against a cleric order

Doesn't say that his eyes are orbs of suggestion

Actively hides that he's a fallen paladin, and will kill anyone to bring down the church

When encountered, Lansing will be moving to stab a cleric in the back in broad daylight. The move is clear to any rogue in the party.

Mogwai

Says...well, not much. He's taken a vow of silence.

Doesn't say that inside his head plays the images of all his dying friends, over and over again, their souls spinning endlessly in the void owned by a great, grey demon...

Actively hides that is blade is made from Dumb Metal Angel, making it strong against fae, demons, and dragons.

When encountered, Mogwai is surrounded by 17 shadow warriors. He will not be victorious without you.

Gas

Says he's a lost child trying to find his way home

Doesn't say that he's got a metric ton of gold in a vault somewhere

Actively hides that there's a creature living in his head

When encountered, Gas will collapses clutching his head, screaming about a migraine. At the same time, a man will be ripped apart by a telekinetic hand.

Iona

Says she's not a fan of bows and arrows. "They're for cowards."

Doesn't say that she's part of the local thieves guild

Actively hides that she's an undercover "cop"

When encountered, Iona will mock a party member's use of ranged weaponry and try to get the rest of the party to gang up on them. It's a ruse to steal all of their gold.

Glassings

Say's he's even tempered. No issues here.

Doesn't say that he's a fire construct, hiding behind sunglasses

Actively hides that some extra-dimensional law agency is hunting him for surviving past his "expiration date"

When encountered, Glassing's head will errupt in flame and they will shout, "I am not a thief!" Moments later a portal will open and seven law agents will leap through firing ice spells.

Vanta Black

Says she's wrongly imprisoned

Doesn't say that her eyes are gateways into another dimension that she can not control

Actively hides that she's responsible for several disappearances in the kingdom

When encountered, Vanta Black will be led in chains past the party. She will plead to them, and anyone else that looks capable, to free her. She did nothing wrong and she can prove it!