#Fabi plays ttrpgs

[dhwty-writes]

Tána of the Onyx Seers

Another finished artwork and another NPC of my Pathfinder campaign, this is Tána, the dead(?) necromancer lover of @parttime-creative's current PC Atánasya. She showed up in the last session dissecting a devil's corpse 🥰

ID under the cut

[Image Description: A portrait of a female dark elf from the hips up. She is wearing all-black clothes and has a chin-length silver bob. Her silver, pupil-less eyes stare straight ahead. The background consists of a multicolored magic circle and a starry sky. End ID.]

[dhwty-writes]

This is something I have struggled with a lot in the past. At the start of out Pathfinder campaign, the characters were so incoherent as a group that it was such a struggle to get my players to do anything and a lot of times when I was like "I need you guys to become a group with shared interests and motives for this entire premise to work" was met with "but according to my backstory my character wouldn't be in this group". This was so intensely frustrating since at times I felt my game falling apart around me and whenever I tried to raise the issue with my players I saw that THEY were frustrated too since we were struggling against the premise of the game. I've learned a lot since then and at this point am much quicker to say "if your character doesn't fit the game, play another"

Another thing that was hugely frustrating (and still is) to me is the whole "when do we get to my backstory" thing. Like,, idk maybe never! I'll try to give all of you paths to explore aspects of them but they might not be the aspects you want! Or you choose not to take them! I gave one player a lead on a lost loved one in like,,, session 3 and they chose to go in another direction instead. Ever since they have been asking when they would get to that part of the story and I'm just sitting here like "buddy you chose not to explore that!"

Don't get me wrong, there are many great things in my campaign that sprung from PC backstories. But survey says (literally) the most beloved NPCs? The most beloathed villains? Most memorable lore? All unconnected to PC backstories.

While I rail against the idea of GM prep being like "preparing a nice story for your players that their characters can be slotted into and also as a GM it's your duty to integrate the characters' backstories into your prep or else you're a bad GM" because it often results in linear narratives with very little room for player agency but also it's an unhealthy dynamic to expect a GM to weave together a coherent narrative out of the ideas provided by multiple people who might have completely different ideas about what the game should even look like. But there's also more to the practical angle than "it's hard to prep:"

If a player whose character is deeply integrated into the narrative of the campaign suddenly needs to leave the campaign you've left yourself with a narrative void and unlike in Hollywood you can't just go recasting that shit. No one's gonna buy into this new Goblin Steve, his new player can't even do his voice properly.

By prepping games like this you're really setting your whole campaign up for failure in most cases. How about: the story isn't something the players write for homework before the campaign, right? The NPCs that matter are not authored connections your players gave you as assigned reading before the game even started. The story is whatever happens during sessions and the connections that matter are those that characters build during play.

There is of course some nuance to this but like: we see so much talk about GMs being expected to integrate player character backstories into their prep (and then their players not being engaged anyway because they felt the GM did it "wrong") and about how GMs are burning out and it's a thankless job and like. Could there perhaps be a solution?

[dhwty-writes]

Lady Éloise of Penistone

I'll get to play Burning Wheel in August for the first time and am already incredibly excited. This is my PC's little sister that he absolutely hates.

Normally I don't really draw NPCs since I feel like that is more the GM's domain but my GM said medieval fantasy and when I asked how medieval said yes. So hennin and burgundian (inspired) gown it is and I asked if I could draw her.

Time permitting, I'll also draw portraits of the PCs, so look forward to that!

[dhwty-writes]

I'm currently prepping a dungeon crawl in 5th edition and i am once more blown away at how little support in the rules there is for DMs to do that. They don't even have ready-made stats for different doors! Or DCs for walls to climb!

[dhwty-writes]

New arc, new art!

I have had the absolute pleasure of drawing my awesome girlfriend @flowercrown-bard's character she is playing in my Pathfinder campaign for the new arc we are kicking off.

For more infos/close-ups look under the cut!

For a bit of context: this character's name is Nadya and she is an oracle on the run from her duties to her home country. While over the course of the last few months she has come to accept her oracular powers, she is now at odds with a lot of the gods that send her dreams. Mainly because they did not intervene as her crush (@parttime-creative's character) died in front of her. Instead she has chose to embrace four of her Banished Deities that are widely regarded as evil. So, a while ago I asked flower if she tought that warranted a costume change and this is what we cooked up as we are about to head into the Shadow Plane.

One thought that I had was that every one of the Banished Gods should be reflected in the outfit somehow. The first is the Prince of Chains with the chain pattern on the bodysuit. The second is the Iron Maiden, represented by the sword earring and the chain connecting it to the cuff. Thirdly, the corset represents the Flowerbringer with the black thorns and orange (burning) and blue (frozen) roses. Last is Fools' Mirror with little pieces of mirror on the jacket as well as the button in the form of an owl's head.

I also tried to show each of her magic items. The staff is the Staff of Radiance (very useful in the Shadow Plane). The two necklaces are an Amulet of Natural Armor (the scaly one) and a Necklace of Fireballs with one charge left. Lastly, the green shawl is a Shawl of Lifekeeping, courtesy of partttime-creative's late character Kira. The only items missing are rings you wouldn't see as well as gloves I was too lazy to draw.

[dhwty-writes]

In Germany, the Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) is still pretty prevalent, apparently. Besides that, also DnD, Call of Cthulhu and Shadowrun.

I think the internet is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. I don't have numbers for that, but judging from the people I know a lot of them began playing online during Covid, many even started that way. That led to international groups, which promotes English systems over ones in other languages.

You also begin to see a generational divide, if you will, where a lot of the people that have been in the hobby for longer stick to things they know, or even publishers they know, which tend to align more with national markets. Ulisses Spiele is THE juggernaut in the room; they are the retailers for DSA, but also the German translation of 5e, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and many more but they also run the German version of DriveThroughRPG where you can also find smaller (German) indie stuff. So that is where people that have been in the hobby for longer (that I know) get their stuff, while newer people get their info on the internet and stick to the English sites

tl;dr Anglophone games are becoming more and more common in the German-speaking TTRPG community, but there still is a strong backbone that prefers German games

So here's a thing I'm curious about: What's the TTRPG situation like in non English speaking counties? I've only heard a few tidbits here and there like Call of Cthulhu being the biggest thing in Japan or China not really having much of a market for collaborative storytelling games, but that's all secondhand information.

Anyone want to share their experience?

[dhwty-writes]

Tumblr, i heard you like your women strong, fucked up, and covered in blood.

Look at what they did to my girl!

My satyr paladin got turned into a werewolf, so here she is mid transformation while losing all her (religious) jewellery.

Lineart and closeups under the cut

[dhwty-writes]

Tesuthu, the Skywarden

I did something that I normally don't do and that was paint!

This is Tesuthu, another of the Gods of my Pathfinder World Bacreia. He is the god of the sun, surprises and time, but also a god of agriculture, healing, and the creator of halflings. He is known to be the defender of the horizon. He's a,so morphed I to some kind if surfer dude.

I had a bunch of fun drawing him, it was completely different than what I normally do and also than the gory drawings I did lately. Maybe I'll get around to drawing more Gods, but we'll see!

ID under the cut

[Image Description: a digital painting of a halfling looming over a countryside. He has golden skin, short blond hair and is wearing a white chiton trailing behind him in the wind. He is holding one pistol in each hand. Behind his head and within his eyes the sun shines brightly.]

[dhwty-writes]

help there is shipping discourse in my dnd campaign

[dhwty-writes]

While i do see your point I don't necessarily agree. I think that "can I make x check" can serve as shorthand for a certain action in TTRPGs, especially if a group has been playing a certain system or with each other for a while. E.g. I my group asks to make a perception check, it is assumed that that means bc they generally want to look around. If they want something more specific,, they'll have to clarify. Mostly what my players say is something like "can I make x check to y", which I find perfectly acceptable and if they don't I generally ask to what purpose. But I'm still not convinced that a player asking for a check is a bad thing per se.

Where I do agree with you is the "don't roll until the GM prompts you to" part, that is something that absolutely grates on my nerves

Genuinely curious: what's the issue with players asking to make a check?

Imagine this: you're in a dark and dank dungeon with your stalwart adventuring companions, traversing a tunnel leading down into the depths of the earth. You come to a strange door covered in runes, and your friend the wizard does an Arcana check.

Okay so what exactly happened there at the end? What action did the character take? What happens in the fiction of the game?

That's the issue, just doing a check means absolutely nothing in the fictional setting the game takes place in, the action does not exist. The rules of the game are such that you should describe what your character does, and then the DM asks you to make some sort of check. Or maybe they don't, maybe you can just do the thing without even rolling, or maybe it's just impossible. It's especially bad when players roll the check unprompted and then expect it to be respected. Yeah I don't care if you rolled a natural 20, that was just warm-up for your d20 as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, you wanted to decipher the runes on the door? Make an Intelligence (Arcana) check.

[dhwty-writes]

i just finished running kind of a crazy thing: a while back one of my players' characters (Kira, @parttime-creative's character) died and we had the plan to bring her back as a valkyrie. We finally did the session where that happened and they ran through a gauntlet of 5 different challenges they had to overcome to ascend. The twist: this was a game with 5 GMs and one player. To prevent my players from getting bored I had each of them (plus a friend) hop into the hot seat and run our sole player through it. It took six and a half hours but we did it and next session we're finally gonna have our full party again!

[dhwty-writes]

The Lady Fear, Goddess of Gods.

My players are currently exploring an ancient devils' abbey that is, among others, dedicated to this goddess who may or may not be more ancient and powerful than all the other gods.

I had a blast thinking about how to include all of her subdomains (fur, moon, caves, smoke, ash, greed, ice).

Below the cut are lineart, closeups, and a poem by @flowercrown-bard that inspired me to try and draw her in the first place.

Who is she, that lady fair, Sweet company in my dispair? How can i give a name to her, who we all know so well? Whose absence isn't heaven, but whose presence nothing but hell.

I cannot speak the name of her, who takes away my voice. In mercy she's who takes my choice and guides me when my body fails When i am naught but moans and wails When trembles put my hands in shackles And all my hackles rise Then she is there, controlling me Leading me through demise.

No, no name i have for her, Yet words i have to spare

She is the changing of the moon, That light withdrawn slow at first, then all too soon Gone.

She is the cave of ribs and flesh In which your breath is caught The echo of your racing heart Escape would be for Naught

She is the smoke that herolds all Destruction yet to come The growing dread that starts so small Till it's blaze can't be undone

She is the ash that's left behind When you have pushed away The ones you burned so brightly for Now shr is all that Stays

She is the greed, the wanting all The joy you need to live. And in return, so mercyfull, More pain is what she gives

She is the blood that turns to ice Inside your body now Would it be better if you thawed or cracked in terror's Maw?

You might have guess the name of her, My cruel lady fair, And recognized her sweet embrace As your own latest fear.

[dhwty-writes]

Burning wheel has a cool life path system, although I'd open it up a little bit. Ot is in part pretty restrictive as to which paths you can choose

Know any games with in depth lifepath systems (and/or many random tables)? I know the obvious ones like Traveller, Cyberpunk, and Central Casting but there's gotta be more, right?

If you want random tables, I hear Rolemaster is good ( hi @thydungeongal )

For others, I call upon this community for answers

[dhwty-writes]

Another thing I forgot to upload: this is Noraya, my current DnD character and the first drawing I made with my new tablet!

She is a satyr and a bardadin (5 levels oath of the crown paladin, 3 levels college of swords bard) and she is the last true believer of Xexilia, goddess of vanity, beauty, and self-confidence. Xexilia was actually struck from the heavens due to the plots of her twin and has since been traveling with Nora to prevent the apocalypse (they failed). She's also the daughter of jewellers which might explain her appearance (coupled with the goddess of vanity thing). She's the sweetest and totally not a little bit in love with her goddess.

So far we've only played 3 sessions and I am itching for more!

[dhwty-writes]

Same character, same pose, 3 years of difference.

I'm normally not one for redraws but I decided to try my hand at one if only to really have a comparison to how much I improved. The character in question is Sarrarac, or Sarra, my second ever Pathfinder character who was a bard/rogue multiclass.

In the intervening time I've learned how to do colors and clothing folds, kinda learned how to render metal and hair and am still struggling with hands. Still, incredible to see them side by side!

[dhwty-writes]

My girlfriend @flowercrown-bard and I tried out Ex Novo today and had a lot of fun! It's great but I fear our City has very limited survival chances.

Regardless, great game, highly recommend!