melonbear51 - Tumblr blog

[melonbear51]

Update on the Tzimisce lore sheet that I polled everyone about: It’s happening! The writing itself is done, I’m just waiting for art I commissioned (which, by the way, am super excited about the artist) and some formatting. I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated and post when the sheet is live!

[melonbear51]

What do y’all mean by you can open orange with hands that thing is unbreakable what the hell

[melonbear51]

Question for you all:

[melonbear51]

why do people in dnd each occupy a 5ft by 5ft square, how far apart do you think people need to be? why are dnd minis afraid of touching

[melonbear51]

Reblog In 5 seconds for good luck

[melonbear51]

VTM character concepts that I am compelled to share: 2024 edition!

Happy New Year, all! With the turning of the clock I’ve had a rush of creativity, and that means new kindred concepts! Per usual, please feel free to use any of these ideas in your VTM chronicles as NPCs or PCs, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to talk about The World of Darkness! With that said, let’s get rolling:

1. A real-life “Final Girl” ( I use the term in a gender-neutral sense here) who survived a masked serial killer. They managed to get past the experience and even published a bestselling book talking about their experience. Unfortunately, they also attracted the attention of their sire in the process. I’m thinking Gangrel, Banu Haquim, or Lasombra here due to the whole survival and justice aspects, but any clan could easily be slotted in.

2. A Ravnos travel influencer who uses their bane as an excuse to explore the world and make money. Hey, if unlife gives you lemons, right?

3. A member of an underground boxing ring who was embraced by the Tremere to help train some younger members of the clan in hand-to-hand combat. They could already kick your ass six ways to Sunday before, but now they have blood magic! Well, if they can just manage to learn Latin, Ancient Greek, Arabic, Romanian…

4. Someone who got drunk (in more ways than one) and woke up with a wedding ring on their finger, a fresh set of fangs, and no idea who their partner and sire is or where they went.

5. A Salubri with a strong talent for healing both medically and with their disciplines. Due to their usefulness, the Prince has made it so they are not to be harmed. However, they are heavily monitored, have been subjected to a blood bond, and often feel more like a treasured pet than a person.

6. A Malkavian with a cherished locket that plays music when opened. They believe that it must be opened every hour each evening at the same time or something awful will happen.

[melonbear51]

VTM Character Concepts I am Compelled to Share: Malkavian Edition

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Sorry I kinda disappeared off the face of the earth (work has been wild because tis the season I guess), but a bouquet of Mlakavian ideas have bloomed from my brain and I am eager to share them with you all. As always, feel free to use any of these ideas in your campaigns, art, etc. and please do message me about what your characters are up to! Also, PLEASE be mindful that VTM is a dark game so I'd advise against engaging with some of the concepts if you are aren't in a good headspace. VTM is a game, but your mental health isn't. Please take care of yourselves ❤️ With that said, let's get into some concepts for a clan I hold very near and dear to my heart! 1. A Malkavian with severe agoraphobia, but not for the reasons you might think. You see, they are keeping themselves isolated and sticking to one place because every time they go outside, it seems like disaster strikes. Others may say its a coincidence, but this Malkavian is convinced they are a walking herald of disaster, and wants to protect those they love. 2. A Malkavian computer scientist and programmer who scoffs at those who believe in a higher power. Why? Because they are building a God via AI who will shepherd humanity and kindred into a new era . 3. A Malkavian who wakes up every night with no memory of the previous one. To combat this, they obsessively journal, take notes and photographs, and record audio diaries. So far the rest of the coterie hasn't caught on yet, but with every night things become more difficult. 4. A Malkavian who developed an incredibly intense fear of silence after encountering a complete absence of sound during their embrace. To avoid it, they always have headphones to play music on their person, and tend to do things like drum their fingers against tables to produce noise. Though this helps, it can be irritating to other kindred, and a big hindrance during espionage and infiltration missions. 5. A Malkavian who, desperate to cure their derangement, has begun hunting down and diablerizing Salubri, believing the clan of healers’s blood is the solution to all their problems.

6. A Malkavian who is nonverbal due to a fear that some of their Dominate abilities, which have been erratic and uncontrollable in the past, act up. In life they felt helpless over the fact that many things were out of their control and wished they could have things their way, but now they regret their wish with all their heart.

7. A photographer Malkavian who strongly believes in the idea that when you take someone’s picture, you capture a piece of their soul. Fascinated by the fact that the Lasombra don’t show up on cameras correctly, they are obsessed with the idea of getting a proper snapshot of one and analyzing it.

Hope you all enjoy!

[melonbear51]

Mental Crop Rotation

When farmers grow the same crop too many years in a row, it can leave their soil depleted of minerals and other nutrients that are vital to the health of their fields.

To avoid this, farmers will often alternate the crops that they grow because some plants will use up different minerals (such as nitrogen) while other plants replenish those minerals. This process is known as “crop rotation.”

So the next time you find that you need to step away from a project to work on something else for a while, don’t beat yourself up for “quitting” that project. Give yourself permission to practice “mental crop rotation” to maintain a healthy brain field.

Because I’ve found that when that unnecessary guilt and pressure are removed from the process, a good mental crop rotation can help you feel more energized and invigorated than ever once you’re ready to rotate back to that project.

[melonbear51]

ok but if bruce wayne somehow came upon zuko fresh out of banishment he would lose his mind.

black hair? check. bad parent(s)? check. trauma? double check.

bruce: how’d you get your scar?

zuko: my dad got mad at me for saying that killing people is wrong so he lit my face on fire and banished me.

bruce, vibrating with excitement, already pulling adoption papers from his utilility: that’s terrible. how do you feel about capes.

[melonbear51]

This is pure comedic genius! Love this comic so much!

Anyone have a near panic attack after realizing they accidentally brought every companion with a Big Baddy Agenda to the Big Baddy get-together? BECAUSE I SURE DID.

Sure-maybe the game made it look like they were all level-headed and making rational decisions, but offscreen? Preeetty sure Greygold was the only person keeping those knuckleheads from blowing their cover.

And one last tribute to the mechanically useless rope GreyGold carried around, you know, Just In Case.

[melonbear51]

can you tell us about your own vtm characters? :3

Ooh, this is an exciting opportunity! So I only recently started playing as a PC. My past experiences with VTM had been as a storyteller for V20 (my friend thought we should start with that instead of V5 with…mixed results 😅) and of course playing the video game and choose-you-own-adventure games. I actually thought I’d never get to play as a PC and kinda resigned myself to just having ideas, but thanks to a friend I now can tell you about my first character!

So my first character happens to be one of the concepts I wrote in my very first VTM post. His name is Ben Thatchwood, and he’s a Lasombra antiquarian book dealer in Chicago specializing in occult volumes. He’s earned a bit of a reputation as “the book guy” in Camarilla circles, as if you want it, he probably has it. As such he’s on relatively good terms with the Tremere, though price negotiations can be tough and he often questions the competency of some of the clan’s younger members. He also fucking HATES the Tzimisce based on the fact that the only interactions he’s had with them are Sabbat-aligned assholes leaving effed-up ghoul creatures running amok near his coterie’s territory. Speaking of coterie, his consisted of a Ventrue and a Hecata. I say “consisted of” because the Ventrue PC murdered the Hecata last session while Ben was recovering from a nasty werewolf attack, but that’s another story 😅.

So Ben is…troubled. Not Malkavian-level troubled, but he’s got some issues. Despite being a pretty calm dude, his beast likes to come out quite a bit, leading to some awkward moments. Luckily nothing TOO bad, though a Tremere ghoul’s nose was broken and a hiker MIGHT have suffered from an “animal attack” if you know what I mean. He’s also got quite a bit of trauma. As the younger, less-favored sibling out of a set of fraternal twins, Ben always felt he had to be useful and prove himself. He always wished he would be the one the family picked, at least once. Well, years down the line, after starting a successful business and finally beginning to get over his self-worth issues, a family member did pick him. Just not in the way he wanted.

See, part of the reason Ben’s family treated him coldly was (unconsciously) Ben reminded them of another family member. A long-dead one who popped in every now and then to see if anyone in his bloodline was “worth the investment.”

Introducing…Benedict Thatchwood, Ben’s sire and 4x great grandfather (approximately)! Benedict, much like Ben, was an occult book nerd who developed a reputation in interested circles. He was happily married and had just had his first child with his wife Clara. Then WWI hit, Benedict went to war, and was presumed killed in action. In reality, he was embraced by a Lasombra and spent a good amount of time doing Sabbat stuff before jumping ship and joining the Cam. As he saw generations of his family come and go, he cared less and less about them. That is, until he saw Ben (who resembles his grandad quite a bit in more ways than one) and took an interest. Following the tradition of the Lasombra, he then proceeded to fucking ruin his future childe’s life by:

1. Making it seem like Ben was selling faked versions of 1st-edition books, tanking his credibility.

2. Letting word get back to Ben’s “old fashioned” family about his bisexuality, which did nothing to help the relationship.

3. Drowning Ben’s friend and romantic interest Layla while the two were drinking by the beach, leaving him with survivor’s guilt and making his friends turn against him as they believed his negligence led to her death.

And 4. Setting the bookstore on fire with Ben in it, resulting in Ben badly burning his hands while saving incredibly rare tomes. Still, in spite of these challenges and the toll they took on him, Ben persisted. And then started doubting his sanity because he kept seeing a guy who looked just like him out of the corner if his eye, or hiding in the shadows. got bit. Things culminated one night with Ben going to the bathroom to wash his face, only to turn on the light and find Benedict standing in front of the mirror with a distorted reflection flickering behind. The last words Ben heard were “You have Clara’s eyes,” before the darkness claimed him.

So yeah. Ben’s been through a lot, and having just been given independence from his sire rather recently, he’s been trying to navigate what it means to be a Lasombra in the modern nights, as well as rebuild and reclaim his own identity after all that’s happened. I know this was long, but I couldn’t resist gushing about my boy! I hope you enjoy him as much as I do!

TL;DR: My only PC character I’ve played and have been playing so far is Ben Thatchwood , a Lasombra antiquarian book dealer with MAJOR trauma and grandpa issues 😂

[melonbear51]

someone explain the jewish holidays to me like i'm 5 years old

[melonbear51]

So a good chunk of you might know me for my VTM content, but I’m also a huge fan of D&D 5E. As a creative writer whose ideas tend to multiply like rabbits, I’ve always wanted to write an adventure for it.

Well…

I DID IT!!!

I’m proud to present to you Funeral Flowers at The Festival, a 5e adventure for players of 8th level. If you love mysteries, horticulture, and horror, this one’s for you! Trigger warnings are included on the first page or so of the PDF preview. Granted, this is my first attempt at creating one of these, so it’s not perfect, but I’m happy with it nonetheless. If you do decide to pick up a copy, I’d love it if you could review so I could hear your thoughts. Feel free to shoot me a message on here as well! Here’s the link.

Many thanks to the folks over at TTRPG University for their amazing course, and my amazing classmates who also created their own wonderful projects!

To all my fellow VTM fans, I hope to write for the World of Darkness in the future, so don’t you fret. And as always, thank you for sticking by me 🥰

[melonbear51]

VTM Character Concepts I am Compelled to Share Because My Brain Won’t Stop

Hey all! I’m back in my VTM bullshit with more character concepts. Apologies if this is a bit more curt/shorter than usual; I’m cranking this out on my work break 😅. But anyway, here ya go! TW for Thalassophobia and implied animal death.

1. A Lasombra saturation diver. If you don’t know what that is, just know that it involves going to the very deepest and pitch dark parts of the ocean. Probably the closest to the abyss on earth. And for Cain’s sake PLEASE don’t look into the Byford Dolphin Accident (which will probably come up if you look up saturation diving) if you are squeamish!

2. A Banu Haquim erotic dancer who uses their unnatural grace to their advantage. The Toreador aren’t the only ones with celerity or sex appeal, and the club serves as a wonderful place to mete out justice to handsy assholes while gathering intel.

3. A Malkavian with synesthesia so intense it’s borderline overwhelming. Oddly enough, the colors, sights and sounds they receive actually tend to be useful as they hint at the true nature of things.

4. A guide of a ghost tour that is known for producing paranormal encounters. Of course, since the guide is a Hecata, ghostly happenings are par for the course.

5. A Gangrel pet groomer who’s had to skip multiple towns after feeding on Fido a LITTLE too enthusiastically.

Hope you enjoy!

[melonbear51]

Source

Video of Tama

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

[melonbear51]

kill the shift manager in your brain

[melonbear51]

My hometown flooded Monday night.

Vermont has flooded.

My family and home are fine because the 7.8 inches of rain that fell in a day didn’t cause our house to slide of the ridge it sits on, but less than a thousand feet away roads have been washed out and homes are being condemned. Yesterday, our congressional delegation, the governor, and a FEMA representative, toured the town - focusing on the non-profit cat cafe turned hazardous waste site thanks to a basement full of red diesel fuel and the neighborhood that includes a ten story, low income, senior and disabled apartment building where the blacktop of the road lifted and peeled away in huge sheets. There is still only one route out of town to the interstate due to landslides and flooding. In every direction I can point to there are towns going through similar things. Our capitol, Montpelier, flooded causing most of the state government to shut down and move essential operations to a nearby airport. Many farms were in the path of flood waters and lost most of their crops. Vermont has the second largest population of unhoused people per capita, second to California, with many of them camping in the woods along our rivers. They have lost everything.

In short, we need help.

I gathered some resources if you need an updated news source or are able to donate.

It’s raining again.

I’ve also collected some photos of the flooding and it’s aftermath

It’s started raining again. We may get another two inches.

Please donate if you are able and share this post to help our brave little state.