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ettawritesnstudies · 1 year ago

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Hi Etta! Sorry if you already mentioned this, but where/how did you find your editors? (If you don't mind sharing)

Don't mind at all!

I know there are companies like Reedsy and the Writers Digest which have databases of editors, but that seemed really overwhelming. At the end of the day, the best way to get resources is to network (make friends, and hope their mutuals like you too).

Last year, I did an interview for Amanda Auler on Instagram and she boosted my account, so months later I ended up doing an interview for Addison Horner. He does editing for indie authors, so I asked him for a sample edit and liked it, but I wanted to get other points of comparison first, so I asked around and came up with a short list of editors. I contacted them, and when I had enough to compare, I ended up deciding I liked Addison best and drew up a contract with him. God moment that I found him so quickly.

But if I had to give this advice to someone else I'd recommend following these steps:

Read books in your genre. Read INDIE AUTHORS in your genre. Review their books. Follow them on social media. Be a friendly fan but don't make it weird.

Indie authors are one person publishing teams desperate for engagement and positive attention. They will thank you for your help and be willing to pay it forward when the time comes.

Once you have a handful of books you like that have similar vibes to your book, flip to the acknowledgements and find the editors name.

Google the editor, find their site, submit your inquiry, email works better than a form.

If you can't find the editor online, DM the indie author and ask "hey I really liked your book and it's a good comp title for my WIP. Who's your editor and what was your experience with them like? Do you mind pointing me their way?" Follow the author's advice. Repeat as needed.

(I've only ever received nice responses to this, don't be anxious. If they don't reply they're probably just busy, not annoyed).

When you contact editors, ask about their availability, rates, and be specific about what type of editing you need. Ask for a free sample edit. Mine were 250-2500 words.

Supply details about your WIP. Mine looked like this:

Title: Runaways

Genre: Middle Grade Portal Fantasy. I'm not labeling it as "Christian Fiction" as religion isn't a focus point of the story, but there are significant underlying Catholic themes.

Premise: When Cecelia goes missing one stormy Halloween night, her older sister, Hannah, must venture into the faerie courts to learn the truth about their past and bring her home. (Linked WIP Page with additional information)

Length: About 86,000 words, 180 pages (Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced, standard 1in margins formatting). 21 chapters with an epilogue

Style: 3rd person limited, present tense. 3 POV characters: primarily Hannah at first, and then Cecelia and the third added later, alternating.

Status/Timeline/Availability: Currently with a 2nd round of beta readers, and I'll be getting feedback by March 31st. After editing the draft to reflect their feedback and doing my own line edits, I'll be looking for a line/copy edit around April/May or early summer.

Types of edits needed: As I understand, every editor uses "line" and "copy" edit slightly differently, but I'm looking for a combination of both styles if possible: checking for internal consistency, logical choreography, adequate descriptions, minor plot or worldbuilding errors, as well as language concerns like cutting crutch words, making sentence structure more dynamic, choosing the right verbs, etc. Developmental editing not needed. Waiting to do proofreading at the moment

When perusing at the editors site, look for credentials/certifications, their backlog of works, and testimonials

If you don't have enough options following this method, join some discord servers! I'm in a local NaNoWriMo group and a Catholic Writers Guild called Inkwells and Anvils which were both useful. I think there might be some writeblr ones as well. Find the critiques channel and send the same information there^^

Compare sample edits. Who respects your voice? Who supplied the most insightful comments? Do you vibe over email? Are they willing to do a stylesheet? Do they like your book? Can you set up a 15 minute zoom call to see if you vibe and discuss details?

Look at prices. My rate is $.015 a word but that's pretty cheap for the industry. Most of the rates I saw publicly were between $.02-.03/word for line editing.

Pray/sleep on it

Once you pick your best option, set a date to send them the manuscript, sign contracts, and make payment.

Send a polite email to the other editors and say "I regret to say you're not quite the right fit for this book, but I appreciate all your time, help, and advice! I hope to work with you in the future" or something along those lines. Don't burn your bridges.

Celebrate!

This whole process took me a couple weeks, everyone was very punctual and professional and friendly. I ended up going with Addison not only because he was the cheapest but also because he made 3X the number of comments as any other writer, and his comments were specific and useful. He understood my characters immediately, I think in part because his writing style is similar to mine, based on his debut novel, Marrow and Soul. We're both Christians who like YA dark fantasy. It's a good match. He's still taking clients for later in the year if that's your vibes. I also worked with Amber Burdett and Sariah Solomon, who were both lovely.

I wish you the best of luck finding an editor who fits your story! I hope this was helpful and not overly long.

#etta rambles #writeblr #writeblr community #editing #professional editing

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irritablepoe · 1 year ago

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no but ive only read a tell tale heart from the real author but just from that,,,i dont think poe would be very normal abt relationships especially with ranpo......i didnt finish perfume by patrick suskind (got kinda bored not bc it's bad but bc i just found something i like more ) but the secretive and quiet but extreme obsession of the main character reminded me so much of poe??? and i think i read somewhere that the real ranpo chose edogawa rampo as a penname because it sounds so much like edgar allan poe and even rampo's book title is like poe’s right it only added japanese at the beginning before the ‘tales of mystery and imagination’ so it's not rlly far off that their bsd counterparts would totally be paranoid and intense w each other <333

dont be sorry abt loving this ship a lot!! in fact,,,if possible, could u share a lil bit more of ur headcanons abt them hehehheehehhe i dont see them portrayed in this light often (like u said v v rare)

i think telltale heart is a good example of poe's writing tbh, his works often revolve around obsession and delusion but also with grief if you look at "the raven" for example (especially his poems are about grief and death a lot so)

i've not read perfume but i know the general plot i think and yeah it probably fits well

AND YES edogawa rampo chose this pen name partly bc of edgar allan poe, he also references poe's works in his mysteries which is fun!! both of them also partly write horror, especially edogawa rampo's works shook me to the core, it's so well-written but also so disturbing, i wouldn't recommend them just like that bc of body horror and uhh fetish writing ig? but the cases of akechi kogoro are also so fun to read as well and you can actually try and solve the mystery yourself!!

ANYWAYS, this was a lot of praising lol, i just really really love both of their works :D and these works are also part of why i think they're both fucked up in the head lol

my biggest headcanon i'm saving for when my fanfic catches up to what i've already written lol, so i'm not spoilering that (but if you wanna know i can dm you :3)

other headcanons that i've curated during the past months:

poe has some sort of dissociative disorder, he dissociates when he's too overstimulated or sth triggers him, also he possibly struggles with intrusive thoughts

ranpo has autism and npd

poe has a brother in america, his parents died when he was young

he had a drug or alcohol problem after he lost to ranpo - the guild giving him an opportunity to get revenge motivated him enough to mostly recover though

poe has some really dark fantasies and sometimes he lets it slip during crime investigations - ranpo doesn't mind, he's even amused

ranpo also secretly loves it when poe brags

ranpo and poe started stalking each other (maybe even since the beginning) until one of them realised and send a very clear signal that the other couldn't miss and since then they've been flirting via sending secret messages in a language only they know to each other - basically consensual stalking (yes i'm completely normal)(also i haven't decided who realised first but it was probably ranpo - i love the thought of ranpo getting all flustered too tho)

poe didn't only lose to ranpo in that mystery game. he also lost his reputation, his friends, his admirers. there was more going on there, they probably met before the competition and they were intrigued by each other before it all went downhill

when poe isolated himself he only had contact to his brother who desperately tried to get him out of his headspace. but he himself isn't the best at having stable relationships + he's also an alcoholic (inspired by irl poe's brother henry)

they're both incredibly jealous and do anything to keep the others attention on them (ranpo giving candy to poe to get his attention back, poe being pretty dramatic and acting up a lot, also obeying every wish ranpo has)

ranpo must have told poe about fukuzawa and fukuchi for him to be able to write about their past for when they were drawn into his novel - so that means they actually sat together and talked about their past. which is insane to me

i do have another headcanon post but i couldn't find it ahhh, but it has to be buried somewhere in all the ranpoe postings lol

okay that was a lot, thank you if you read all that tho hehe :3 and thank you for asking, i love talking about them hsdkjfsdhjfs

#-johnny's asks #ranpoe #ranpoe hc #also these are my hcs they ofc aren't “correct” it's just my interpretation hehe :3

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cyberkevvideo · 6 months ago

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5e Monster to PC Race Conversion - Dryad

EDIT: Added a feat, which was also supposed to be part of the competition.

Last month, I did a post about how there was an experimental challenge where people took monsters from 5e and converted them to be a race/species for players. To compensate for the lack of its overall power compared to their monsters versions, you were to make feats to add in some of the missing powers (spellcasting "levels" didn't count and had to be taken with actual class levels). The timing of people doing it more now than when it first started a few years ago, appeared to be because of Roll for Combat's BattleZoo Ancestries: Titans Kickstarter that has about a day left at the time of me writing this.

At the time, I was going to share what I already had done, but doing the research, and looking into what people actually wanted to see converted, both on BZA: Titans and WotC officially releasing a book on playable monsters for players, I was both surprised and not surprised at what people wanted to see. Gnolls were easily the highest on the list, but mostly people just want to see a playable dog (my favourite argument was we have two playable cat races and three bird-like races, but no dogs). The lupin was a playable hound race back in AD&D and 3rd, but we've never seen it adapted beyond that. And in AD&D, you even had "subraces" that were different dog breeds. Gnolls I'm not surprised by at all, but Kobold Press has that handled quite readily, as does Keith Baker with his own Eberron books found on DM's Guild.

Other monsters to playable races that I saw were mindflayers/illithids (not surprising given how popular Baldur's Gate III is), dryads (that surprised me, but I had also forgotten that their distance limitation to their tree had been removed), beholders, treants or any other kind of plant creature like a myconid, undead (ghost was at the top of the list), kua-toa, ratfolk, ogres and half-ogres, gargoyle, succubus/incubus/cambion, bullywug, rakshasa, trolls, hags (beyond the hexblood, and have the different hags be different subraces), medusa (Purple Duck Games has PF1e version of that and a half-medusa that maybe I'll convert some day), oni, ettins, aboleths (which, wouldn't really work considering they need water for their abilities to be effective), and dinosaurs (which the saurial would cover if they were converted over).

There were others, but people quite quickly pointed out that if you reflavoured what we already had, you could easily say you were X when you were actually playing Y. The aarakocra being reflavoured into a harpy would be really easy. Just change the appearance description and say you're using claws instead of talons. After that, if you could get the DM's permission, create a homebrew feat for the Luring Song.

There were even a few suggestions that, while it likely wouldn't work for a playable race, a few could work pretty well with the new lineage system from Van Richten's, and the one the majority of people agreed on was mindflayer/illithid. Have it be an incomplete ceremorphosis, and leave it at that. One person took that and homebrewed the Failing, with different subraces like elf, while others said to use the 3.5 flayerspawn psychic prestige class, and take inspiration from that.

Today, however, I'm going to go with the dryad, which was incredibly high up on the list.

As always, if you like what I do, whether it’s monster conversions, adventure path add-ons, or race builds, I have a Ko-Fi page (linked) for those who would like to support me monetarily. There is no pressure or obligation to do so. A like and/or a share would also be appreciated just as much. It lets people know I exist out there.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Now, let’s talk stats.

As before with my entries, there’s no real “official” way to judge how powerful a creature is. There are definitely a lot of 3PP supplements and homebrew out there, which I tend to have to use as a guide. For this, I used the updated Detect Balance Plus, which did both 5e and 5.24 breakdowns on the same spreadsheet. This worked out to be around 38-39 points, which is around where the aasimar, eladrin, gem dragonborn, reborn lineage, autognome, thri-kreen, and revised yuan-ti sit. I'll preface that it seems powerful, but it's a matter of what you get out of the deal. The dryad's spells aren't going to break the game in any way, and are strictly utility.

Dryad Species/Race 5e As a dryad, you gain the following traits. Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. Age. Dryads reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, and reach adulthood around the age of 35. They can often live to be 750 years old. Alignment. Typically good aligned, but like most fey, dryads enjoy the chaotic side of things. Creature Type. You are a Fey. Size. Your size is Medium. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Magic Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells. Woodland Blessing. You know the druidcraft cantrip. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the speak with animals spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the speak with plants spell with it. Once you cast either of these spells with this trait, you can't cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast these using spell slots you have of the appropriate level. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race). Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elven, and Sylvan.

Dryad Racial Feat

Charms of the Dryad Prerequisite: Dryad Your innate charms flourish. You gain the following benefits:

Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20.

You learn the animal friendship spell and charm person spell. You can cast each of these spells without requiring a material component, and without expending a spell slot. Once you cast either of these spells in this way, you can't cast that spell in this way again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast these spells using spell slots you have of the appropriate level. The spells' spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.

When you cast the charm person spell, you can choose to extend the spell's duration to 2 hours. You can use this feature three times, and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.

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tisiphonewolfe · 2 years ago

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Made With Crown And Claw: WIP Intro

Original fiction - The Tectomany Saga Book One

Pitch: A Princess ends up locked in a tower, but the dragon is a girl she used to fancy.

Genre: High Fantasy

Word Count: 130k

Staus: Fourth draft complete

Releine Sholt is a soldier who can't find a purpose for her life beyond putting it on the line. She is hand-picked to be the new guard captain for the capricious Princess Almyra Tectus, with one key stipulation - she must never speak to her, on threat of dire punishment.

The Tectus family was blessed by the goddess Ialme with divine magic that can alter the forms of creatures and objects - something Almyra consistently fails at. Her father is determined to find his daughter a worthy spouse to continue that lineage.

Releine and Almyra find themselves embroiled in the scemes of goddesses, immortal witches, assassins, and treacherous nobles while dealing with their burgeoning attraction to one another.

Features:

🐲 DRAGONS!

🐲 Sapphic romance and non-cis characters

🐲 There was only one bed: Hard Mode

🐲 A heist

🐲 World-bending divine magic

🐲 The trans elf anti-pope

🐲 Intrigue, schemes, and mysteries

Content Warnings (CW): Body horror, gore, lifechanging injury, violence.

Character Intros

Releine || Almyra || Jessa || Tenacity || More to come . . .

Setting

The Tectomancy Saga takes place in a bowl-shaped world, with nothing below the rim but swirling mists, and a vast, deep forest spanning the middle.

Hundreds of years ago, the peoples of the world were each blessed by their goddess (or witch, or genius as some like to argue) with a divine magic that has shaped their culture. Now the world is decaying, and a struggle for control over the magics has begun.

Taglist (DM to be added or removed): @indy-gray @sam-glade

First chapter below the cut

For centuries, scientists and philosophers in the Academic Ring of Leirsham vastly agreed that the world was round. The bright lights that decorate our skies at night must be the glimmering lights of far-off cities - the sun lazily circles the interior of this sphere, loyally followed by its lunar companion.

This was the accepted notion until one brave explorer found the edge of the world; high in the mountains to the east, beyond dead and decaying lands into which humans rarely dared to venture, she saw the truth - the world is a vast bowl.

Blue mists boiled and churned far below, creeping around the sheer cliff edge as the brave explorer dangled her legs off the edge, frozen in wonder and fear, sure that any moment she’d tumble down into their greedy embrace and be forever forgotten, left to the mysteries below.

Not far from where the explorer had sat, nestled away in the mountains, a stream bubbles up from under the ground. It bumbles its way through the valleys where snow Alfar purportedly made their home, and through the rocky tundra that hosted sturdy mountain Droichs. From there, it rages and rumbles through the plains - a fork of it taking a detour to trundle through deep forests in the middle of the bowl, past the territory of the elusive forest Alfar and into the dense, tangled, and gloomy places where Beastfolk roam. The first branch becomes the River Ilt; it thunders once more, through hills and farmland, before depositing itself into Lake Simul, where humans chose to build their capital city.

Across the bridge, to the hill-island in the centre of the lake. Up the cliff, through the great stone rings of the city; the guard outposts; the residential district; the merchants’ and artificers’ marketplace; the Guilds’ and the Academic Rings; the military barracks; the homes of the rich and the noble; and lastly, the palace.

In one courtyard, in a corner of the palace walls, in a line of steely soldiers and mercenaries, Releine Sholt was staring at a slightly smug statue and trying very hard not to move.

❖

The previous night, she had slammed her fists into the commander’s desk and growled; “This is a ridiculous idea, Sir. I didn’t join up to hold umbrellas and open doors for the King’s brat.”

Hidrim Grant had levelled a tired gaze over his reading spectacles and put his quill back in the ink-pot with his meaty, scarred hand. “Careful, Sholt. You’re talking about the Princess of our realm, heir apparent. And all that. Shouldn’t talk about her disrespectfully, I suppose. Besides, she’s older than you.”

“No, sir”, Releine had complained through clenched teeth. “But everyone knows she’s a brat.”

“Hmm. Well, don’t look at it like that. This is an honour, soldier - most people would kill for this opportunity.” Grant had blown the ink dry on the hastily-scribbled missive in front of him and dropped it into a grimy ‘out’ tray. “It’s easy work for an officer’s pay.”

Releine had clenched her fists as her mouth flapped open and closed a couple of times. “Officer’s pay . . . ?”

“Yup.”

“You’re taking pity on me.”

Grant had rubbed the wrinkles of exhaustion from his brow. “I won’t lie. I know your family situation, yeah. That’s not all there is to it though.” He had gotten up and moved closer to her, perching on the edge of his desk companionably. “You are the best this company has. You��ve excelled in your training, you’re a smart lass, you’ve seen combat - well, some combat. Enough. Most importantly though, you exercise discretion and you know how to keep your mouth shut.”

Releine had said nothing. Grant had studied her expression - cold, deep eyes peered out over an arched nose. A scar graced her freckled cheeks from the corner of an eye down to her heavy jawline. Her thin lips were pursed, and her forehead creased between her dark eyebrows. Grant had known the kid since she was knee-height and knew that this look meant: “I’m trying to appear defiant in a poor attempt to hide the fact that I’m considering it.” In many ways, she hadn’t changed much.

“Look,” Grant had pressed, “It’s only a selection anyway. There will be at least a dozen other soldiers there from the other companies. Probably some from the mercenary guild too. It’s not like you’re signing on the dotted line just by going to the thing.”

The forehead-creases had deepened.

“It’s worth a shot, no? Just see how it is.”

Muscled arms had folded over her chest.

“Don’t make me order you.”

Grant had breathed an internal sigh of relief as the girl’s tall, awkward frame collapsed backwards onto a creaking wooden chair. Maybe this would work out after all. “Fine”, she had sighed with resignation, “I’ll do it.” Hastily she had added “Sir”, after a moment’s pause.

Lamplight had flickered over the pocked oak panels of Grant’s office. “Good. Well. That’s settled then. So let’s go over the rules.” Releine had raised an eyebrow as Grant continued. “The King is very particular about the conduct of the Royal Guards, so listen closely . . . ”

❖

With the commander’s advice circling in her head, Releine had arrived at the palace this crisp late-spring morning. Vouched for by commanders and guild leaders, the soldiers were ushered through the lush grounds by hushed staff, leaves crunching under heavy leather boots and clanking sabatons.

Releine craned her neck at the palace; this was the first time she’d seen it up close. It rose from the crest of the hill like a great patch of mushrooms, seeming not built, but grown. A statue in front of her was similarly hewn out of the ground, not atop the flagstones, or embedded in them, but part of them. The stonework betrayed not the impact of a chisel, but the touch of a fingertip. New styles of magnificence had been added over the centuries according to the occupants’ tastes, creating a grandiose hodge-podge of clashing columns, balconies, arches, and windows, all fighting to dictate the overall style - which ultimately was that this was the residence of a group of people with far too much time and money on their hands. Releine enjoyed thinking that all that investment hadn’t stopped the place from being ugly.

A tense silence had fallen over the lines of soldiers - she assumed that they had all had similar lectures from their superiors to what Commander Grant had given her last night. With this knowledge, there wasn’t even an uneasy shuffling. Nobody muttered. Nobody twitched. Barely anybody even dared to chance a breath.

The rule of utmost import that Releine held steady in her head right now was this: “Do not speak in the presence of the Princess, not even if you’re spoken to. Don’t react to her in any way other than to follow her commands. For all other purposes, you are a plank of wood. You got that, Sholt? She’s going to try it on with you, you know. She wants that reaction. Don’t give it to her. You don’t want to end up like the last one.”

Grant had not specified what had happened to the last one.

Whatever the reason for this arcane rule, it would apply to Releine throughout her service here, should she be lucky enough to receive job of personal guard to Her Highness Princess Almyra Tectus, heir to the throne, darling of the city, beloved of the people, and spoiled royal extraordinaire. It made sense to Releine, quite suddenly, why she was only ever seen waving from a distance, stood behind her daddy on some balcony, or trapped behind a carriage door; for whatever reason, the King would not allow his daughter to be sullied by hearing common voices. The money, she thought, had bloody better be worth it.

Almyra Tectus flounced into the courtyard on the stately heels of her father, His Majesty King Ifys Tectus, the thirty-second king of Humankind. Releine barely acknowledged King Ifys Tectus and his many titles being smoothly announced by an unassuming herald. Her response to the man himself was purely automatic - ankles together, back straight, salute held at a perfect angle, entirely at attention - the muscular mercenary-looking woman next to her didn’t do quite so well, taking a moment to react and awkwardly toss a salute into the air. Releine’s eyes flickered briefly over the King - to be fair, he didn’t seem like the kind of man who intended to hold anyone’s attention for long. For all purposes, he looked more like a guild money-keeper than royalty. He wore a stuffy grey suit, a shirt with ruffled sleeves, and a blue cravat - for that splash of colour to show he could be fun, she supposed. His thick ceremonial cloak was draped messily over his shoulders and very much looked like it didn’t want to be there either, but we have to make this work, Your Majesty. No crown was atop his graying hair - an understated silver circlet hid above his furrowed brow. An awkward half-smile peeked through his goatee as he scanned the courtyard of people before him. If he’d offered them a cheeky wink, Releine wouldn’t have been surprised.

But Releine’s fleeting glance at the King was eclipsed by her. Almyra Tectus was a woman of about her age, though the way she skipped through the courtyard was reminiscent of a child at play. She had a wave of ginger hair and bright, round green eyes that sparkled below a jewelled tiara and above full pink cheeks. A purple shawl was tied in a pretty bow over the puffiest, most ruffly periwinkle dress she had ever seen, with the hint of some very impractical shoes going on somewhere in the explosion of petticoats below. And she was short - Releine decided that whoever had sculpted, painted, or otherwise portrayed her royal visage had been carefully instructed to add a few inches to her height and just that bit more classical goddess-archetypal beauty, thank you. Her scan of the courtyard differed from her father’s - she blew hair out of her face and fiddled with her necklace as her eyes flickered from person to person. Her father’s half-smile said “absent-minded”. Almyra’s said “This is the most interesting thing that has happened to me all week and I’m ready to get into some mischief.” Releine stared at her, probably for far too long, as those green eyes flicked over to her. Snapping back to reality, she quickly turned her gaze directly ahead and pretended she had always been looking at absolutely nothing, not even the stones in the wall ahead of her, a technique known and practised by most soldiers for exactly such ceremonial occasions as these. Hopefully, she thought, it hadn’t been too late. This occasion was already stressful enough without any mischief. The King cleared his throat generously and spoke in a plummy voice. “Ahem. Hem. Good of you all to be here on such short notice, my compliments to your commanding officers. Unfortunately, my daughter’s previous personal guard was quite suddenly lost - a fine young warrior such as yourselves - and the position is quite essential to fill. We shan’t take too much of your time.” He turned to his daughter. “Any one you like, Myra, my dear.”

The Princess began to pace between the rows, hands clasped behind her back, a carefully-chosen mock scowl with one raised eyebrow on her face. The heavy silence was broken only by the sound of the King fumbling through his robes for a rolled cigarette and the hiss of a match being struck. The hair on the back of Releine’s neck prickled as Almyra passed behind her, the clack of her heels stopping briefly as she said to the men behind her, “Hmm. No, not you. Or you. You . . . Maybe. Oh, this one won’t do at all.”

Almyra made her way back to Releine’s row and she mentally recoiled, expecting any second to hear the Princess arbitrarily dismiss her too. It wasn’t that she even particularly wanted this job. Her plan had always been to support her mother and younger siblings either through her military wage, or from the payout that her death in service would afford them. Grant had been right that her family situation was dire and that the higher pay afforded to the relatively peaceful life of a royal guard would be an enormous boon to them. It just didn’t feel particularly right to Releine - she felt that she belonged on the battlefield, where her life would at least be of use to someone. Still, to her frustration, she wasn’t quite ready to feel the sting of rejection from her royal highness. Fortunately, the Princess passed right on by and stopped at the mercenary to her left who had struggled with her salute earlier.

Staring up at the statuesque woman with her hands on her hips and feet set apart, Almyra cocked her head, inspecting her face-paint, the polished battle-nicked spear, and the somewhat battered leather armour. A beat of time went by, before the Princess smartly rose a foot and brought her heel down on a sandal-clad foot, hard. The mercenary yelped what was quite clearly the first vowel of a curse, before stemming it down to a pained growl. She flashed a thunderous glance of rage down at the Princess with gritted teeth. Almyra herself was squealing with laughter, which terminated in a short snort. Wiping a tear from her eye, and still speaking through giggles, she said to the mercenary, “Oh no, I’m afraid that’s too much. Papa wouldn’t approve of that.” The King’s cigarette shifted from one side of his mouth to the other as he shook his head gently. Releine wished that she’d told Grant more firmly that she didn’t want to be here.

The merc’s shoulders sagged. Almyra continued down the rows for her second lap, this time occasionally stopping in front of someone and pulling some similar prank. The Princess had no concept of personal space and absolutely no boundaries. Releine could feel the mood of her fellow soldiers sour as the Princess was displeased with either the overreaction, or lack of reaction from each one. Faces were pulled, cheeks were pinched, armour plates were unclasped. One waifish young man from another company was beckoned to put his ear down towards her. Whatever she whispered had the boy gasping for air between stitches of laughter. The King rolled his eyes.

It was on the Princess’s fourth lap of eliminations that she finally stopped in front of Releine. Almyra reached a finger up, under her chin. “Well, look at you.” Almyra murmured softly, guiding her face to turn this way and that. “Where did such a handsome face get a scar like that?” Soft fingers traced down the reddish-white line that ran from the corner of her eye to her jaw. Releine maintained her nervous silence, though her heart jumped into her throat. Her eyes turned down towards the other girl’s and she reluctantly realised that she badly wanted the Princess to pick her.

In front of her, Almyra’s attitude, playful and somewhat mean, had melted away. She had asked with genuine curiosity; the warmth of Almyra’s hand on her cheek, a glint behind her eyes, the way her lips had pursed out of their menacing little grin - Releine understood what she’d been trying to achieve. Nobody beyond her father and select individuals had ever spoken to her, and nobody ever could without feeling the force of the King’s wrath. She pictured the King’s steely eyes and shaking head as Almyra had sparked too much of a reaction out of each one. She needed to speak without speaking, let her know there was someone else in here who she could connect to. Seized by an urge to reach out to the girl, Releine waited. The moment seemed to last forever as Almyra’s hand left her cheek and the King took a long, lingering drag on his cigarette. As the Princess looked set to turn away, he slowly let a column of smoke spiral into the crisp morning air, and Releine rapidly blinked twice.

The flutter of her eyelashes turned the Princess’s head back towards her, eyebrows raised. She staggered back, off-balance on her heels, and set herself in front of Releine once again.

“Papa! I’ve chosen. I want this one.”

The King casually put out his cigarette and tossed the smouldering butt to the floor. He sauntered through the ranks towards his daughter, and put his hand upon her shoulder, looking Releine up and down. “Hmm. Decent enough choice. Good muscle on her. Name, soldier?” Releine’s mouth parted slightly before slamming closed again as she remembered the rule. Not even when spoken to. Not even by the King. The stark moment was followed by the King muttering, “Very good, very good. Well done.” He turned to his daughter. “Alright. Would you like to do the honours, my darling?”

Almyra shook her head, her cheeks flushing even pinker with embarrassment. “Oh, no. I’m still not quite - no, not yet.”

“No matter.” The King reassured her “We’re working on it, aren’t we my girl? You’ll get there. Step forward, soldier.”

Releine stepped forward and witnessed Tectomancy for the first time - the divine, royal magic that could reshape the world, held secret by the royal family for a millennium.

The King’s hand drifted to her company insignia where it was pinned to the left strap of her leather breastplate. Taking it between his thumb and forefinger, he gently stroked the metal, tracing its engravings and shape. An ethereal blue-and-white glow spread across its surface, accompanied by a low melodic hum, like wind whistling through a tunnel. The metal began to bend and deform, folding over itself, churning, until it settled into a new shape. Fresh engravings scored themselves into the surface as she found herself wearing the badge of a captain of the royal guard.

The King straightened up. “Take the day. Go and see your family or friends, and bid farewell to your company. It may be a while before you next see them. Arrangements will be made for you - present the badge at the palace gates at seven sharp tomorrow morning. Until then, Captain.”

The King ambled back towards the courtyard’s exit. Almyra regarded Releine’s face one moment more before she too turned away and caught up to her father, the cheeky grin having returned to her face. Soldiers and mercenaries filed out, casting dark glances her way and grumbling to one another in low tones. As the final one wandered past, Releine’s frozen, flabbergasted form finally jolted into motion and she marched stiffly out of the courtyard and away from her new home.

#Writeblr #WIP intro #The Tectomancy Saga #Made with Crown and Claw #MWC&C

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athelind · 9 months ago

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Oh, man, this brings back memories.

My first excursion into D&D was when I got one of the early printings of the "Blue Book Basic" boxed set for my birthday -- the one before Keep on the Borderlands came out. Instead of a pregenerated dungeon module, it came with a set of Dungeon Geomorphs.

I should note that this, combined with joining the hobby just a few years after it emerged from the chrysalis of historical wargaming, gave me a disdain of dungeon modules that lasted for DECADES. The only one I ever ran myself was White Plume Mountain.

(Paradoxically, I found myself reading ads for Judges Guild's City-State of the Invincible Overlord and related items and, well, coveting. That might be because I recognized the sandbox nature of those massive settings , and that they offered enough scope that a DM could set any number of original adventures there, or just let the PCs wander around and let "plot" manifest as an emergent property.)

As dungeon geomorphs are my absolute favorite mapmaking tool for TTRPGs, I decided to dip my toes into hosting a small game jam to celebrate this dungeon-making technique.

(If you don't know what geomorphs are or how they're used, check out this post)

The goal of this jam (which will run from September 9th to September 16th) is to create a full dungeon for any tabletop roleplaying game in a week using geomorphs as a mapmaking tool.

For more details you can check out the jam page, and if you decide to join i hope to see youc reate some awesome stuff :)

#old dragon is old #grognards #basements & lizards #dungeon geomorphs #nostalgia #I am old; I am allowed to ramble #I am practically REQUIRED to

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paperanddice · 2 years ago

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So, I haven't wanted to talk publicly about an updated OGL, because until this point it seemed pointless. While there were a few people claiming to have leaked copies, no one was sharing any information in a useful or coherent way and it all read as doomsaying and speculation. This is the first thorough, detailed and trustworthy source I've seen, and it bodes extremely poorly.

To summarize, publishing D&D content right now is done in two major ways: through the Open Gaming License, or through the DM's Guild.

If published through the OGL, you can only use specific material that has been placed in the System Reference Document. Any material published that has not been added to that document cannot be referenced in your work, and this includes functionally all proper names of characters, places, settings, and the books themselves, as well as certain intellectual property such as beholders and mind flayers. So long as you don't touch any intellectual property and put the proper legal writing in your document, you can produce (nearly) anything you like under the OGL and maintain full control and ownership over your product. I have released a few premade adventures under it, and have other projects and ideas that have been slowly building up that would be best placed in a similar situation.

If you publish through the DMG, you have far fewer restrictions on intellectual property. You can make use of anything published for 5e (outside of a few things like the Acquisitions Incorporated book), you can publish within certain settings such as Eberron and the Forgotten Realms, you can have a mind flayer as your big boss. But you give up a large cut of any profits, and you give up your right to publish your work anywhere else. This includes preventing you from giving away free copies through Patreon or Kickstarter, putting it for sale on sites like itch.io, anything. The DMG gains exclusive publishing rights.

Which of these you use is your choice (I avoided the DMG), but according to the leaked text of the updated OGL this will be going away. The big changes include not allowing the creation of any material except for print and electronic books under the OGL, revenue splitting over a certain threshold, requiring you to send Wizards a copy of everything you publish and a description of it, allowing Wizards to use any material you publish under the OGL without attribution or compensation, and, very importantly, rendering the previous version of the OGL unauthorized. This prevents anyone from continuing to publish under the old rules, forcing anyone who wants to make D&D content (aside from free fan content) to use the new version.

I hope that this is wrong. Either because Wizards saw the response and walked back the demands, or the person who leaked the draft just invented it for drama. If this OGL goes through as written, it is not an Open Gaming License. It is highly restrictive and puts everything that third party publishers ever make under intense scrutiny, as well as giving away all of their products to Wizards. While very little in this is likely to affect me, as everything I release on here is covered under Fan Content and not subject to these rules, I am still disgusted by this incredibly poor faith move.

There's already a great deal of discussion on whether Wizards has the legal authority to void the original OGL in this way. The only way to determine this for certain is most likely a major legal battle between Wizards and whoever thinks they have a strong enough case to win it. Of the major companies likely to be affected by this, only Paizo, and maybe a few others like Kobold Press and Green Ronin have the money to commit to that. And even then, it may not be worth it for them. If this OGL goes through, it will kill the majority of third party publishing, damage Wizard's reputation greatly, and end my relationship with D&D permanently. If the OGL 1.0 is killed, I will never play or write material for D&D ever again.

What happens to Pathfinder and 13th Age, as well as the many other games that used the OGL in their publication, can't be determined now. They're not talking about it, and have likely been involved in negotiations for weeks over this. Depending on how it plays out, they might be forced to convert to the new OGL, they might shut down, they might heavily rework their games to be independent of the OGL. I have no idea.

What happens to Paper and Dice is even more up in the air. I don't intend to stop playing TTRPGs, and if I play them I will almost definitely be making content for them. But most of the games I'm interested in are OGL based, so what I'll play is uncertain. I'm not asking for recommendations, I've tried a number of other games and so far haven't found anything greatly to my interest. Until we get an official announcement from Wizards of the Coast, I'll continue to be making content as normal, and we'll see what happens when they speak up.

#D&D #dnd #dungeons and dragons #long post #I'm very stressed out

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ashen-crest · 3 years ago

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[ID: a digitally drawn banner. On the left, a man with light brown skin and dark curly hair holds a lute. A glowy red rose grows out of the lute’s sound hole. On the right, the text reads “The Spirit Well.” End ID]

WIP Intro: The Spirit Well (sequel to The Stray Spirit)

[spoilers for The Stray Spirit below]

🌸 Logline

A bard and a forest spirit form a band (badly) and get into politics (badly).

🌸 Blurb

The Auric Guild is not what it seems.

After saving the province from a magical apocalypse, Emry and Aspen move into the city as Guild members, hoping to live life as simple bards.

But when spirits begin to wake up all over the country, the Guild reveals its true mission: uphold peace between the provinces. Its old guard of musicians once doubled as spies, ambassadors, and propaganda artists, hiding their actions behind song and smiles. And as the world struggles to adapt to the existence of spirits, Emry and Aspen must take on the mantle.

They quickly pull together a rag-tag musical troupe and accompany Council aide Cal on a political negotiation across the border. Here, province leaders eye spirits as fresh pawns, spirit cultists claw for power, and a familiar scientist tempts both with a dangerous discovery about the source of the apocalypse.

And while this scientific revelation threatens to tear the provinces apart, Emry and Aspen come together with a dangerous experiment of their own: how far can the limits of spirit possession be stretched?

🌸 The Basics

This is the sequel to The Stray Spirit, making it book #2 in the Lutesong Chronicles! Expect more music, more spirit magic, and of course, more Emry, Cal, and Aspen.

🌸 New Characters

A Guild member is nothing without his troupe. Here are the three new musicians, hand-picked from the Vornik music scene.

Let’s hope they get along eventually.

Sage: she/they, singer & fiddler. Words flow out of her mouth as easily as breath- for better and for worse. Adores pastels, tea, and smiling.

Everett: she/her, drummer. Life of the party both on stage and off it. Life’s not much without booze and pretty ladies, amirite?

Ivan: he/him, bagpiper. Old, wrinkled widower, only happy when playing music and reading. Just leave him alone and you’ll get along just fine.

🌸 Themes & Tropes

Rivals to friends, magical science, imposter syndrome, sibling dynamics, & trust!

🌸 More Info

My pinned post will have links to the WIP intro page. I also have a taglist! If you want to get notifs for artwork, snippets, and writing updates, please ask/DM/reply to join.

Adding the TSS taglist here- will probably just turn into the series taglist, if folks are okay with it:

@crystallized-ink, @little-boats-on-a-lake, @semblanche, @theramwrites, @wordsbycreed, @pretend-im-normal-blog, @mel-writes-with-her-dragons, @wildswrites, @ladywithalamp, @ettawritesnstudies, @mj-is-writing, @cecilsstorycorner, @write-your-own-stories, @chayscribbles, @storytracks, @lightningmastertrilogy, @magic-is-something-we-create, @authortango, @thegoldenseries, @lunewell, @vellichor-virgo, @writeblrfantasy, @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables, @bronwennjames, @akindofmagictoo, @pheita, @talesfromaurea, @a-wild-bloog, @starryeve88, @the-finch-address, @alexwritesfiction, @47crayons, @jadeywrites, @writing-with-l, @the-titular-bird, @sagasofazeria, @thelaughingstag, @dragon-swords-prophecies, @drabbleitout, @houndmouthed, @inksandpoisons, @drowsy-quill, @jaimistoryteller, @zmlorenz, @pe-ersona, @booksnotbookies, @the-orangeauthor

#the spirit well #writeblr #writblr #fantasy novel #indie author #my wip #the stray spirit #emry karic #cal breslin #aspen the spirit

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parallel-2-anywhere · 2 years ago

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Hi folks! So I have been working on Piranesi's Guide to Sigil for the DMs Guild to come out with the release of Planescape on the 17th! The final book will have 12 new species, 4 new lineages and alternate features, and 8 new subclasses meant to make the players have more things in line with multiversal nonsense and strange kinds of magic! All revolving around a very strange library in Sigil and the enigmatic librarian who seems able to retain endless lost knowledge.

Here is a preview page of the kinds of things that will be in there with art on this page done by the amazing @anatthema-art and layout done by @sunevial who are just helping out so much with this project!

This is my way of adding a lot of the things I have made with friends over the years into the D&D multiverse by using the central point of all of it as a gateway!

#p2a #dmsguild #homebrew book #parallel2anywhere #dnd #dungeons and dragons #DMsGuild #DnD homebrew #dnd book #Piranesi #Aasimar #Kobold #Species #DND species #The Sybillic Aasimar have been in the back of my brain for years #The Wild Magic Kobold is just a fun loving callback to something I made for another TTRPG!

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syrips · 2 years ago

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hi!! these are things i did but you dont have to do all of them, i just wanted to throw the things i did! also, nothings wrong with how close or far you choose to stick to the CoS module; it's pretty solid so, don't feel bad for 'doing it wrong'! replayability for CoS is so high and you can't really DM CoS wrong cuz of how flexible/versatile it is. biggest rule is that you as the DM are having fun! make sure not to overwhelm yourself, sometimes less is more. feel free to also add your own twists/flavors to stuff, even if it wasnt done before

list of things i did or see other CoS/ravenloft DMs do:

definitely fixing the vistani stereotype stuff

aging everyone the pcs/strahd romances into adults (or alternatively, making sure you have everyones consent/comfort levels in check)

in addition to above, having a trigger/consent form. or session 0 where u all discuss and note what everyone is or isnt comfortable with. alternatives for disturbing scenes, or adjustments to scenes

added stuff from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, like creatures/lore into it based on the PC's backstory/background (this stuff is available free/archived, message me if needed)

alternatively from the above, community modded stuff are good, either DMs guild stuff or on the DM-only r/curseofstrahd subreddit

made a campaign version of the actual ravenloft books i strahd 1 and 2, into the tome of strahd

made the spouses/consorts of strahd as actual bbeg/mini bosses

had the party enter/roam most of the 'suitable' strahd-approved floors/rooms of the castle at least once before the potential 'end game'

had strahd's disguise be a different named NPC because of a metagamer but, a moment of shock of strahd being a disguised npc near the party in some way is always an enjoyable reveal

had ismark/ireena's stats level up partially with the party, so they weren't entirely squishy/useless, but not enough to steal the show

in addition, roleplayed ireena based on the players'/PCs' preferred/enjoyable personalities

a dinner or wedding event with strahd and/or his spouses/consorts

also, my favorite - added this unsent letter into the tome of strahd collection for the players to read when they retrieved the tome. cannot get over how good this is in the reveal of how strahd is

also also, use this for inspiration if you need to give an npc a name/personality/etc on the fly!

hi dnd tumblr 😎 i'm beginning to plan my curse of strahd campaign for my group, and here i am wondering. pondering. considering, even.

dms, is there something in strahd you would have changed/removed/did end up changing?

tips? tricks?

i myself have never played (which is so sad) but i'm determined to run it

#syrips DM stuff #cos spoilers #ask syrips anything #ty for reading!!

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two-red-lungs · 3 years ago

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Player of Games

Eddie Munson Drabble

Content: Implied reader/Eddie, DnD shenanigans, fluff

Summary: Sitting nearby and spectating one of the Hellfire games can almost be as fun as playing them. Especially when you know exactly how the combat encounter is going to end.

Word Count: 1157

“Why isn’t your girlfriend playing with us this time, dude? College make her too cool for us?” One of the newer Hellfire club faces asked, looking at Eddie, who was perched up on his seat behind the DM screen.

Without even looking up, Eddie waved a hand in my direction, focused on his notes. “The good lady has sided with the foul Beholder. She knows too much.”

I dropped my copy of Startide Rising from my eyes, reclined on one of the Hawkins High play set pieces in our nook behind the stage. “He’s saying I helped him prep the combat for this encounter. Can’t play if you’re a co-conspirator.”

Over his screen, Eddie winked at me. Like a grand maestro directing an orchestra, he slowly lit the candles on the table, tension rising… and then he began the session right where they had left off. Backstage lights dimmed. All attention on him.

Munson was a performer for sure. It shone even when he was off the stage: he was always at 110 percent, twenty-four seven. His lips wove seas of sound and story, gestures sending candle flames aflutter, spinning rapt illusory webs of high fantasy that ensnared his players. It was enchanting to watch from the outside.

Incredibly geeky, but enchanting.

“...King Terevin gives a wave of his hand, and the massive iron gate begins to slowly lift with a click, click, click.” He punctuated every onomatopoeia with knuckles against the wooden table. He spread his fingers. “The gaping maw of darkness stretches wide in front of you, our brave guild recruits. You hear the thunk, thunk, thunk of heavy, wet flesh, scraping across the stone. And then,” Eddie rose in his seat, holding clasped hands out over the board, “lumbering out into the light of the fighting pit, the crowd roaring in your ears—” He dropped the hulking miniature onto the graph paper map, “—Is a titanic, club-weilding, undead flesh atronach!”

The table exploded into cries, Dustin grabbing Mike’s sleeve and shaking it vigorously. The players protested in fear and Eddie gleefully rolled out the enemy’s stats: twenty feet tall, level ten, boasting 220 hit points. He spat the facts over the cacophony.

“A creature of infamy and legend!” Eddie crowed. “Known throughout the king’s lands, older than the stones that built the very fortress it’s imprisoned in! Your most dangerous foe yet.” He rubbed his hands together and pointed at the players. “Alright. Roll for initiative.”

I made steady headway in my science fiction novel as the table thrummed with action nearby, voices echoing off the high theater ceiling. Spells were cast, blows were struck. Poor Mike’s new elven sorcerer got his shit rocked, down to two hit points and barely avoiding getting reduced to a smear of blood on the cobblestones.

“I click my Sidon’s boots of speed, doubling my speed, and use my full movement to get…” One of Eddie’s players said, counting on his player sheet. He was pretty new. Only sat through three sessions, with three wins under his belt. It made him cocky. “Fifty feet to the side. Then I use my fast movement feat—” The other players groaned, protesting him leaving the formation, “—to take a dash as a bonus action, adding fifteen feet.”

Eddie slowly moved the player’s mini across the board. As he did, he looked out under his fringe of hair at me. “Congrats, man.” His eyes never left mine. “You’re now flanking the atronach.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling, hiding my face in my book. Remembering the conversation we had had last night. My grin would be a sure-fire giveaway to the players.

Ten-thirty PM, pouring over the monster manual, trying to come up with some contingency plans to throw roadblocks in the group’s way. Eddie bit at his nail, looking at the stats sheet. “I don’t wanna pad the atronach’s health any more than we already have. I mean, I’m known for my epic TPKs, but that’s just cruel.”

“You’ve basically custom-built a killing machine NPC, Ed.” I reminded him, painting the last finishing touch stitch on the miniature. I set the tiny brush down on Eddie’s crowded desk. “You gotta use it. They’re leveled enough. But maybe you can put some, like, secret rules in place.”

He rested his hands on his hips, looking over at me. “Like what?”

I shrugged, blowing on the mini. It was perfect. Ugly, undulating waves of flesh. “Like, uh… the party’s rogue. The new-ish guy? He always thinks he’s a solo act, right? If he breaks away from the safety of the party, punish him for it. Hold the atronach’s legendary actions until he does.”

A slow, broad grin began to crawl across Eddie’s face. “Oh. Wow. You’re kinda evil. I like it.”

He was giving me the same look now, a night later, fingers moving away from the rogue’s miniature. Did I feel good about basically sentencing the cocky player’s favorite genasi player character to death? Yes. No.

Maybe a little.

“I use my secondary action to throw my poisoned daggers at the flesh atronach, using my cloak of shadows to get stealth damage.” The player dropped a die onto the table. “That’s an eighteen, plus a mod two. Dirty twenty to hit.” He sat back in his seat, arms folded, smug. Far too confident for a rogue with his actions all burned up.

“That’s a hit.” Eddie smiled back just as smugly. He paused, dragging the silence out. Everyone was waiting for him to describe the crippling damage. “...But. Your genasi releases the dagger, and they spin into nothing, clattering to the floor.” He snatched the mini off the table, and the chorus of protests started to rise. “The atronach’s glowing jewel embedded in its chest flares, and suddenly it’s gone. It uses a legendary action—” The chorus became a myriad of shocked shrieks, “—and teleports right next to Sir Endon the Rogue.”

The player’s face dropped.

“He raises his twisted, mighty club, and brings it down…” Eddie paused to roll dice in his tray behind his screen, resin clattering against felt, “... for thirty-eight damage—”

“Dustin, your spare the dying spell!” The player shrieked in dismay. “Use spare the dying!”

“You’re not in range!” Dustin poineded wildly at the board, spittle flying “You moved way outta range!”

“—plus ten prone damage. That’s fifteen negative, right? You know what that means.” Eddie continued on. He dropped his face into the flickering candlelight shadows, and with a flick of his fingers, knocked the player’s mini over. “You…” he murmured darkly, “are dead. Reduced to a soup of blood and viscera, splattering the arena.”

The player was flabberghast. The other players ooohed at the sight, hooting. The rogue’s player face twisted, and he stood up, chair screeching. “Man. Seriously? Really?”

Eddie bowed his head. “The school of defeat in brutal, but a swift teacher.”

“Shouldn’t have broken formation, man.” Mike said.

“Whatever. God, ugh. Whatever. I’m going to the vending machine. Gonna clear my head.” With that the hellfire club member stormed off into the shadows, a beam of hallway light cutting across the theater as he pushed open the theatre door in a huff.

“I want a root beer!” I called to his retreating form as he left.

“Dos root beers, por favor!” Eddie tacked on. He shot me a secretive grin, lips all quirked up on one side, and I shook my head, smiling down at my book. He took far too much pleasure in this.

Teamwork makes the dream work, right?

“Now.” Eddie turned back to his remaining mid-combat with a devious, dark smile on his face. “Where were we?”

#rules lawyers dont come for me I've fudged half the stats for story purposes #stranger things #eddie munson #mike wheeler #hellfire club #my writing

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dungeonmalcontent · 2 years ago

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Hi! I really want to get Grimdark and Dangerous, but with recent events would rather not give WotC any money. Does DMs Guild give them a cut of the transaction, and if so do you have any other options to pay you for your book? Thanks!

Thank you for this ask. Because it's something I've been wanting to talk about.

To answer you question, I can really only sell Grimdark & Dangerous on DMsGuild. All sales through them also get updates and expansions (because I can't stop people that buy it from sharing it).

If that's all you wanted to know, you don't have to read the rest of this. Everything below here will probably get its own post but I'm putting it here while I have the time and right mindset.

I'm not particularly thrilled about only being able to sell on DMsGuild either, because they take a hefty 50% of the net sale and I get the rest in royalties (which also gets split with my editor who has been a major contributor; but I'm not complaining about her cut, she's more than earned it). DMsGuild has a special version of the OGL that they are under which allows more specific details of licensed content to be used, such as references to official settings like Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, and more. And for this, I would have to double check but I'm fairly certain, they also pay a fee to WotC to have access to this license. They also operate as a relatively easily navigated marketplace where I can share my work, and they allow me to update and expand on works for future and past purchasers.

And that last part is important, because every now and then I find a small error as I'm rereading Grimdark & Dangerous, and they build up, and then I add a new update with corrections to the purchase bundle. This is also how I plan on adding the bonus class for the 50 sales stretch goal, the monster compendium at the 200 (I think) stretch goal, and DMsGuild also prints physical copies for gold and better best sellers (which is another stretch goal I have).

But there's also the matter of the upcoming VTT market and the new OGL1.1.

Because of the move forward with the Roll20 merger and the OGL1.1 already being sent to Kickstarter, we can assume that Roll20 and DMsGuild are already on board for OGL1.1.

I am very much against the proposed OGL updates, and the potential legal ramifications it can have on the rest of the creator space (including me; even though I definitely don't make enough to pay the % cut, afaik I still lose control over my published work). That being the case, I'd still like to have my work up for as long as I can before that happens. And the more sales I generate, and everyone else of the same mindset as me generates, the more influence we have the negotiate a better OGL as a creator community. Because, if the OGL1.1 goes through, I am removing everything I've published from DMsGuild and working exclusively on different systems (most likely my own).

Now, my negotiating power is pretty low because I don't have any best seller titles and I don't have as much of a social media following as most other "published" homebrew creators. But we can also ask creators where they stand on the new OGL and respond with dollar voting against those who are not willing to refute the changes.

I hope this helps explain where I stand as a content creator who makes money from their content under a variant of the OGL, and what my plans are moving forward with new developments on the OGL.

#d&d #homebrew #ogl 1.1 #dmsguild #grimdark & dangerous #dungeons and dragons #dnd #dnd 5e

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taylorannnx · 3 years ago

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Writing Your First D&D Supplement

My bread and butter for almost 2 years now has been editing supplements for fifth edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (aka D&D 5e). As I move on to the next chapter in my career, I wanted to share three things I've learned as an editor and a writer starting out in D&D design.

1. There is no course to teach you how to write for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

While there are some amazing and helpful classes from the Storytelling Collective about writing your first encounter, adventure, or designing dungeons, the courses give you elements that you need to include in your designs, pointers on layout and resources you can use, but there's no instructions on the wording for skill checks or advice on how to write concisely.

These are all things you have to learn for yourself, whether that's through finding helpful professionals on the internet or blog posts on D&D Beyond or third party websites such as Kobold Press or Ghostfire Gaming. I highly recommend reading officially released content to learn the phrasing of certain rules and to see what you can learn about the types of things to include in your first supplement.

2. You don't need to drag official content down to make your thing look good.

Being dissatisfied with the rules as written or lack of options is a great motivator for making new content! If you're looking for something that isn't there in the core texts, chances are that someone else out there is looking for the same thing! The issue comes when writing introductions or summaries or marketing/advertising text; a lot of people get anecdotal or criticize the core content before saying how their product "fixes" that.

Don't. Do. That.

Why? Well, if you want to get hired as a freelancer or as a game designer for Wizards of the Coast [WotC], I doubt they'll take kindly to your words (words that they own if you publish through the Dungeon Master's Guild [DM's Guild]). Read introductions from WotC content or from best-selling DM's Guild titles to figure out what your introduction should say if you're stuck, but a good rule of thumb is to talk about the merits of your work outside of its relation to the official stuff.

Bad writing:

"As there are only limited tracking spells in D&D which shuts off a lot of the possibilities and tropes of the fantasy genre, this book of spells fixes that by adding 12 new location spells to D&D 5e."

Good writing:

"This catalogue of spells expands your abilities to magically track and locate people, places, and objects in your fifth edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game! Live out your favourite fantasy tropes by incorporating 12 new spells at your table."

3. Publish something you're proud of, not something that is perfect.

Humans are prone to error all the time. Ninety-nine people can read the same book and not notice the one spelling error caught by person 100 and that's okay. You are going to improve as you go along. Adhere to the style guide as best you can. Read every sentence out loud to make sure it sounds right and correct it where necessary. But don't spend hours late at night the day before launch fixing loads of tiny things because you've decided it could be better. That's not good for your mental health and honestly, you'll make mistakes whether you obsess the night before release or not. Do your best but if you mess up, you can always fix it and republish at a later time if someone calls it out, or know better for next time if it goes unnoticed.

Proud of. Not perfect.

I hope these lessons were helpful! If you're interested in my work (and my own journey of getting better with each subsequent release), check out my portfolio or follow me on Twitter (while the website is still alive!)

#dungeons and dragons #ttrpg design #taytrpglessons #first time game design #writing your first d&d supplement #ttrpg community #ttrpg industry #dnd5e

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flailsnails · 3 years ago

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A Spelljammer Buyer's Guide

"Spelljammer's confirmed! Great! But," you say, "what does that mean, exactly? What is Spelljammer?" Here is a list of the core TTRPG products in the Spelljammer line, so you can get in some reading ahead of the slipcased set dropping in August.

All of these boxed sets and books were written for 2nd Edition AD&D, so they come with the caveat that most of their rules are outdated, and a lot of the material hasn't aged well.

Where can you get these things? The DM's Guild is having a Spelljammer sale until May 30 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. The boxed sets look like they're priced at $6, and the saddlebound softcovers at $3 each, with the exception of the core set ($10) and the War Captain's Companion ($8). If you're looking to lay out quite a bit more money for an original print, you could check eBay or Amazon, or trot down to your Friendly Local Game Store. If you don't want to spend any money at all, I am sure you can find pirated copies on the Web with a little effort, but I'm sure I don't know where.

The list below is organized in original print order.

Without further ado, I Have Opinions!

Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space is the core box set. I consider it essential for the chapters on creating planets and star systems. It also outlines a wide variety of spelljamming engines, describes many ships, and introduces a few core monsters such as the arcane and the neogi. The character rules are obsolete and both the spells and the monsters are going to need revision.

SJA1: Wildspace is an introductory adventure. Groundling adventurers sign on to a ship to find and destroy a superweapon developed by the beholders. Twists and turns and swarms of beholders await. Fun, but not essential. Adaptation could be tricky because beholders are way more powerful these days.

SJR1: Lost Ships contains a chapter clarifying rules for adventures in space, including drifting, messing about with ropes, and tethering items to you. It also includes some new equipment and a few proficiencies. The bulk of the book is a few loosely-connected adventures which can be easily adapted. The new ships and monsters were reprinted in later products. I recommend picking this up for the expanded rules, equipment and adventures.

SJA2: Skull & Crossbows is a collection of a few adventures. You may find the quality is irregular. Not essential.

MC7: Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix (I) is the first of two monster books. This is where the giant space hamster is found. It also contains a lot of beholder-kin and more asteroids with giant jaws than I can shake a stick at. I would recommend this book, but it's not essential.

SJA3: Crystal Spheres details four new crystal spheres. The heir to the throne of Thesalys hires the PCs to foil the plot of the vampire T'Laan to snuff out Thesalys' sun. Metal.

SJR2: Realmspace details Toril's sister planets. The best part of this book is the Batship, illustrated on the cover, which can swing its hind parts forward to ram other ships. It's probably of interest to Realms campaigns, not so much to others.

MC9: Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix (II) is the second book of monsters. It reprints a few monsters from the books above, and adds a lot more. The business-oriented penguin creatures called dohwar appear here, together with the scro and their megaweapons, the witchlight marauders. The aperusa are pretty stereotypical Travellers, telling fortunes and picking pockets, so they haven't aged well. Like the first volume, generally very useful but not essential.

SJA4: Under the Dark Fist is the first real effort to write a Spelljammer setting without any prior settings getting involved. The Vodoni, a group of interstellar wolfmen, are getting set to expand their empire. Useful for the lore, but perhaps a bit derivative.

SJR4: Practical Planetology is a collection of planets and new monsters to live there. They're intended to be placed into a Spelljammer game as the DM desires. Pretty useful, pick it up if you can.

The Legend of Spelljammer is the second boxed set, and finally details the giant ship, the Spelljammer, which is teased in the core set with a few paragraphs and a large-scale map. Perhaps nothing they could have written would have lived up to the hype, but the actual content still feels like a let-down. Get it for the new maps, but consider rejecting its reality and substituting your own.

SJS1: Goblin's Return details the Unhuman War and establishes that it took place centuries ago, and ended when the elven Imperial Navy nearly wiped out the goblins. It reprints some monsters from MC9, above. Get it for the Unhuman War meta-plot lore, but your mileage may vary on the rest of it, although the adventure is essentially an espionage mission, which feels like a change of pace.

SJQ1: Heart of the Enemy follows on from SJS1, above, and is a whopping 96 pages long. The scro are preparing to unleash a second Unhuman War, and they have their own planet-destroying superweapon... yep. They only lack the key that turns it on, which the party has to race to find while trying to ferret out a spy in their midst. This one's up to you. I could do without it.

War Captain's Companion is the third box set. It includes new spelljamming rules, including a set of proficiencies that contradicts those that came before, 64 pages reprinting every spelljamming vessel from the products above and adding a few new ones, and a tactical combat game. I would get it for the ships.

SJR5: Rock of Bral is essential, in my opinion. It details a city in the stars, which can serve as a home base for the party and a site to play politics in, as Prince Andru is suspected of doing in his family to seize the throne. Some parts of it have not aged well, because it includes a neighborhood of Shou, from the Forgotten Realms, and they have a branch of Yakuza that vies with the other thieves' guilds in the city for dominance. But they can be omitted without harm to the overall book, I think.

CGR1: The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook is also essential for its advice on the day-to-day running of a spelljamming vessel and on developing a Spelljammer campaign. Its character rules are obsolete, and its set of proficiencies again contradicts what has come before.

SJR6: Greyspace is Greyhawk's turn in the spotlight. Greyspace is notable because it is geocentric; Oerth is stationary and everything orbits around it. Useful for a Greyhawk campaign, not so much besides.

SJR7: Krynnspace is the system book for Krynn and Ansalon. It is much like Realmspace and Greyspace.

SJR8: Space Lairs is cooking with propane, again. It has a large number of useful locations, each with a small adventure attached, which the DM can drop onto their map as they see fit. I strongly urge you to consider picking this up.

The Astromundi Cluster is the fourth and final box set for Spelljammer. It uses three booklets to detail an entire crystal sphere, in a level of detail not seen before. I was disappointed that the booklet Adventures in the Shattered Sphere did not reveal that the crystal sphere itself was broken, a thing long established as impossible but which would have been so awesome. I would pick this up, especially if you skipped Under the Dark Fist and/or Goblin's Return/Heart of the Enemy, because it has some great lore.

And that's it! Go forth and have fun!

#spelljammer #dungeons & dragons #my opinions

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the-after-eight · 2 years ago

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Game status

I talked about the games I played, but I'd like to clarify them a little more, so here we go! I added colors depending on the GM, and the crossed one is a former GM that definitively left the group, and the black one is not someone from our regular one. We're still playing together with all the colored ones!

Hazegela

Greta's group : this game doesn't really have a name. Status : stopped ; Character : Greta (@greta-wiljhem)

Thullia : in this one, our characters started building an alliance. It's settled in the same reality then the other group, but many years before. Status : stopped ; Character : Noria (@noria-martinus-bittus)

Warhammer FRP

Peasants group : I struggled to remember the setting but it turns out it was Warhammer with the Hazegela rules. Basically, we were a group of peasants going for adventure. Status : stopped ; Character : Cyano (@cyano-bacterie)

Chaotic party : this group is composed of chaotic characters. Status : stopped ; Character : Nagh (@naghharath)

Loyal party : there wasn't really a party to this one, I just had a character and we played twice. Nothing crazy here. The DM back then never mentioned if it was the same reality or time period then for the chaotic party. Basically, the game was stopped. However, I decided to try GMing WFRP, so I took a few decisions. Hence, I chose to put both games in the same time and place, they are just two different groups of people. Also, there are going to be two realities, because I had many people to play, so I made two teams (Geheimnisnacht Discordia and Old World Dissonances). I decided to relaunch this because I wanted to play my character again. Status : stopped, ongoing/to come ; Character : Adélaïde (@adelaide-lanshasaa)

The Ennemi Within : An official campaign of the Warhammer Fantasy RP, in 5 books. Sounds really interesting, I'm glad I had the opportunity to try it as a player, with a different group then the usual one (I already used all the colors available on tumblr but our DM here is yet another one) ! Status : Ongoing; Character : Sister Lorelei (@lorelei-versengold)

Maléfices

Here, we only played two one-shots, I don't remember much, not even the name of my characters. Status : finished ; Characters : The first one was a man and the second one a woman

Néphilim

It's generally the same campaign; we finished our campaign but will still play with our characters. Status : ongoing ; Character : Lil' Louis (@ptit-louis)

Agents of Shield

To be honest... There has been only two scenarios right now. But the second one began between Infinity War and Endgame and I'm super excited! Status : paused ; Character : Miranda (@miranda-sts)

Chroniques Oubliées

Anatazérïn : this is the actual name of the campaign we are playing. Status : ongoing ; Character : Hellwen (@hellwen-ward)

The guild : this is a game where we all have different characters that are all part of an important guild. We get to pick which character we want to play at the beginning of the scenario! We didn't really settle if this is the same reality then Anatazérïn or not. Status : ongoing, occasional playing ; Characters : Sal'aäd and Nikita (@salaad-dronnoc, @nikita-deimos)

Clairval prequel : That's a game we played a few times, it's a prequel from Anatazérïn! Status : paused ; Character : Lalwen (she doesn't have a page since we played only two scenarios with them, and so far the GM has no plans with them)

Champions

Champions main : we didn't really named this one, we just call it "Champions". This game is still ongoing, and we are about to start a big campaign for it, with two parallel teams (A and B probably). The GM decided to split the players because there are too many of us now, but since I'm drawing the comics and have two characters, I'll get to be in both! Status : ongoing ; Characters : Captain Glucose and Rubisco Boy, After Eight (@captain-glucose, @captain-glucose-sidekick, @the-after-eight)

Young Justice : here, we play young students learning heroism, a bit like in "My Hero Academia" (well that's what they told me). Compared to the regular game, it's a different reality in the future, where Captain Glucose became the principal of the school (for exemple). Status : ongoing ; Character : Propaganda (@propaganda-hero)

Borderline : one of our player wanted to try GMing a darker version of Champions, where the heroes are more borderline and break laws, even kill ennemies, unlike the regular version. We consider it like a third reality of Champions. Status : paused ; Character : Crimson Columbine (she doesn't have a blog because the GM stopped and stopped most TTRPGs so I doubt that I'll play her again, and we only had two scenarios)

Alea : this is actually the version of Champions GMed by a different guy, I created After Eight for this game to be honest. This is not "Z-Heroes canon" at all, but it's worth mentionning, I had a lot of fun ! We played with an association, and always had different players trying the game ! Status : stopped ; Character : After Eight (@the-after-eight)

Dofus

We were playing a bunch of kids here, we play occasionally, but recently started a campaign. Status : ongoing ; Character : Tony (@tony-redrum)

Würm

We were playing a group of prehistoric people, online. Status : stopped ; Character : Beihd-Aig (no blog)

Harry Potter

A group of new students arrive in Hogwarts, five years after the books' setting... Status : to come ; Character : Noria M. Helveticus (@noria-helveticus)

Demon Slayer

Before the events of the manga, we are playing young slayers that just did their exam in the mountain (that was the first scenario). Status : ongoing ; character : Morri (@morrigan-sahar)

Final Fantasy XIV

Can't wait to start this game ! We don't know much about it yet, but with @lapatatecosmique-ttrpg we planned something cool for our characters that are going to be pirates ! Status : upcoming ; character : E'Calix Nunh (@e-calix)

#ttrpg #jdr #wfrp #homebrew #champions #maléfices #harry potter #demon slayer #ffXIV #dofus #würm #roliste

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