tabbyclaw - Tumblr blog

[tabbyclaw]

A storm at sea can dredge up some surprising things. Tonight, they won't all come from the water.

And at long last, the Pub Crawl trilogy is complete! I don't know why this one took me so long (well, I know a bit, because medical journey and exchanges and burnout, but still), but I am so glad that it's finally out in the world.

[tabbyclaw]

I made a batch of jam last night and I swear I could feel someone indignantly breathing down my neck when I left the pot to soak. But I only soaked it for about fifteen minutes while I did the rest of the dishes and then scrubbed it up, and it did make it easier to wash, because not everything is black and white and relationships require compromise, Dob.

[tabbyclaw]

I am confident that the orphans were at the forefront of Luke's mind when he made that spell choice. Dob's entire start down the necromantic path was taking Speak With Dead in the hopes of someday being able to apologize to them, and he's reminded of them again every time he pulls out the hammer and the skeletons threaten him with some terrible price for their assistance. And now he's spent an entire arc hanging out with his sister in her job as a necromancer's assistant, the perfect place both to be haunted by his defining failure and to really spend some time thinking about necromancy and how he can apply it to his own life. You know, prodding at the edges of what he's witnessing and trying to tease out the threads of exactly how the magic works and how he can adapt it into something he can use. Sure, it didn't work out great for Hammerdahl, but when have seeing the consequences of someone else's actions ever stopped Dob from doing anything? He doesn't even want to reanimate anything that big!

As for the broader question of how characters level up and learn new spells, I can at least tell you how I do it with my College of Lore bard. Under the cut because I'm aware that there's only so interested you can expect other people to be in your D&D character.

Tira (yes, the one who thinks of children as slightly more complicated livestock) has absolutely no formal magical training. She's a shepherd who was drafted as an infantry soldier, and magic came to her suddenly as a means to escape a battle she doesn't remember much about. The person who found her afterwards was really only able to confirm that it was bardic magic and teach her one or two simple things because that's all he knew, and since then she's been on her own and picking up new bits of magic where and when she can. Every time she learns a new spell she has to piece it together for herself, and there are three sources I've decided she can pull from:

Instinctive self defense. Her first spell was cast when she was hemmed in on all sides and afraid, so she has an inherent knack now for finding new ways to push her opponents away from her or project her own fear into their heads (psychic damage).  (Thunderwave, Dissonant Whispers) (She's getting better at the friendly fire incidents with Thunderwave, really.)

Innate personality traits. She's almost six feet tall and solid muscle, and she spent her early life wrangling both animals and her younger siblings. Gentle soul though she is behind the scars and the resting bitch face, she's used to throwing her weight around when her patience runs out, and cultists and vampires would test anyone's patience. Lately that's been manifesting as her throwing her magical weight around, as well. (Hold Person, Command, the +11 to Intimidation she doesn't know she has)

Reverse engineering. This is where most of her spells come from, and it's especially where pinching spells from other classes becomes relevant. Anything that Tira can't mold out of her natural abilities, like the previous two categories, she molds out of what she can work out from the magic around her. Sometimes it's directly from another caster, like learning Message by having it cast on her so often by the sorcerer, or watching the cleric until she can throw out her own Guiding Bolt. Sometimes it's from observing a magical effect on an object and working out how to do it herself, like living for a week in a magically-protected tavern and digging her hands into the enchantments around it and shaping them into Leomund's Tiny Hut (or Tira's Tiny Tent, as I like to call it). And sometimes she gets creative and says things like, "All right, all these fire spells the sorcerer and some of our enemies have been casting are interesting (our first adventure was very arson-forward), but I bet I can refine it down further and also figure out something with more range," and come up with Heat Metal and Fire Bolt even though she's never seen those specific spells before. I'm more than willing to reach a little to get to some of those justifications when a particular spell would be really useful/fun for someone in the party to have, but it always comes down to one of those three categories.

All of this is a fairly longwinded and self-indulgent way to say that there's a method to my madness, and even if it's only one method and one I'm sure Luke isn't using himself, I can see the logic he's following in most of Dob's spells. And that, for this one anyway, he's well within his rights to point an accusing finger at Suzette and say "From you, okay! I learned it from watching you!"

I want to know how people imagine DnD characters leveling up. How do spellcasters pick up new spells? How does a bard learn how to cast a spell from other class' playbook? Is there a training montage? Do they just wake up with a new ability?

All of this is just because I find it *extremely* thematically relevant for Dob from Oxventure picking up Animate Dead as a new spell. Your DM traumatizes your character at level 1 with his actions leading to a death of a bunch of orphans and then six years later your bard is dabbling with necromancy. I just. I want to know how this half-orc bard learned how to animate dead.

[tabbyclaw]

"If you want to secure a research grant, just show the scientific community your child-slash-deeply unethical human experiment!"

Andy. Andy. Be honest. Are you Shou Tucker? You have to tell us if you are.

[tabbyclaw]

Finally, just hours before the beginning of the end, I have... a completed rough draft of the final part of the Pub Crawl trilogy. Expect it to actually get posted... soonish. This is the most accurately I can promise.

[tabbyclaw]

"Fetch Quest in the 1950s, what would that sound like?"

I know this one! It's called Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw and it defined a very large chunk of my childhood.

[tabbyclaw]

We've only got a couple more days to speculate wildly about what new threat to Geth is so dangerous that Liliana is willing to go to the Guild for help, so everyone hop on board and add your own!

The seeds of what will eventually cause the ghost calamity and create the Blades in the Dark setting.

The vengeful revenant of M. Channail.

The Consequences of Prudence swallowing the coin.

Egbert clone kaiju that got out of her control.

Something she found in the basement of Necropolis-On-Sea.

The hideous and horrible Coraswan.

Katie.

A god-killer, because why should Critical Role have all the fun.

The Wizard Binbag has gone rogue.

There is no threat; this is all a plot to seduce Corazon.

[tabbyclaw]

I'm going to be away from Tumblr for most of the day and unable to do as much clicking as I would like to, but know that in my heart I am spam-booping all of you.

[tabbyclaw]

As much as I dearly don't want Corazon to die, with as many times as Andy has talked about wanting him to go out in a noble sacrifice to buy the rest of the party time to escape I'm bracing to accept it. And I have developed a very strong mental image of him barricading a door with his body and realizing that he has one last chance to make his mark, and turning back to his friends to say what they never thought he'd say.

"I've always loved you, Merilwen."

And off he goes with a smile into The Awfully Big Adventure, knowing that, for the rest of her long, elven life, the person he loved messing with the most will always have a little voice in the back of her head going "No, seriously, what the hell was that?!"

[tabbyclaw]

The Insert Coin Clothing ad that started with Andy smashing all of Luke's bones in wrestling practice wanted to be a ZocDoc ad in the same way that Going to the Mat wanted to be a movie about jazz.

[tabbyclaw]

Welp. New "get this damned fic finished in a timely manner" motivation, I guess.

[tabbyclaw]

ASK ME MY “TOP 5/TOP 10” ANYTHING!

[tabbyclaw]

Tom Scott doing a NordVPN ad: Here's a long list of totally legit reasons you might want to tell a website you're in a different county, like if you travel a lot and need to bargain hunt or do research on blocked sites. Also you can use it for streaming services, but check their terms and services first to make sure they allow that.

Luke and Andy doing a NordVPN ad: YO WHAT'S UP WE ARE LYING TO DISNEY+ AND YOU CAN TOO

[tabbyclaw]

9 and 22 for the writers ask game

9. Thoughts on cliffhangers.

Mmm, I like a mild cliffhanger, maybe? I don't like the kind where there's a sudden escalation of peril or even just emotional stakes right at the end and it cuts in the middle of the action to leave you hanging; it's a rare one of those that doesn't feel cheap. What I really like to put in is a hook, a little bit that resolves (or just concludes) what this chapter was about and flows into a tease of what the next one has in store. "I accidentally learned your tragic backstory and I won't tell anyone about it and I am pretty sure that's a dragon circling the library we should probably go see what that's about." Or "This was genuinely a good talk, thanks, but surprise; it was never going to be good enough to keep this fight from happening." ("It was always going to end this way"/"That's my girl" is my favorite of all the chapter endings I've written.) Less "Ooh, how are they going to get out of this one?" and more "Ooh, where is this going now?"

22. What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

The joy of seeing how many ways they can get it wrong before they finally get it right. When it feels like any little shift could finally push them together, you want to see just how many places you can put the lever.

[tabbyclaw]

Yet another writing ask

Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?

How would you describe your writing style?

Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

What's your ratio for rating your works?

Your favourite ao3 tag.

How slow is a slow burn?

Thoughts on cliffhangers.

Top three favourite fic tropes.

Three tropes that are fine but overrated.

If you write in more than one language, what's the difference?

Rate your worldbuilding skills from 1 to 10.

Write and share the first sentence of a new fic. Just that.

What's your favourite plotless fic you have written?

Are one-shots really underrated?

Past or present tense? Why?

First, second, or third person?

Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?

Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?

What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

Dialogue or description? Why is the other one so hard?

Thoughts on flashbacks/flashforwards.

Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go?

What would you describe as OOC?

Do you agree that one shouldn't start a story with a piece of dialogue?

Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

What's the hardest thing about writing?

Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

What was the most difficult fic for you to write (but in the end you made it)?

Do you have a word/expression that you always use in your writing?

Give your writing a compliment.

Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you?

Thoughts on writing challenges/contests.

How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?

Do you research before writing or while you write? Is it fun or boring for you?

"This never happened" fix-it fics or "this happened but" fix-it fics?

Wildest AU scenario you have written?

Write a 9-word fic.

[tabbyclaw]

Recurring frustration with Extra Helpings: Luke and Andy hearing some classic bit of supernatural stupidity and thinking So Weird invented it.

[tabbyclaw]

“Taste” for the WIP word ask game

Ooh, you get two for one on this one, anon! Two different WIPs, two very different contexts.

He tried not to look too directly at either of them. There was no shame in nudity, obviously, and of course he'd painted both of them on more than one occasion, but there was 'tastefully, artistically, and/or casually nude,' and then there was 'naked and it was clearly none of his business.'

-

"I mean it, Shego. I don't know what's going to happen next now that we have this whole hero thing hanging over us." The word tasted strange and sour in his mouth, but it was a taste he thought he might get used to eventually.