#I master more than I play especially for dnd so I’m excited to try my new character!

[pillow-boi]

I present you Brutalis, or just Brutus for friends (obviously not her real name), my dnd chaotic warrior obsessed with the idea of becoming famous.

[obeymematches]

Hi! I hope you don’t mind if I ask for a matchup. Just don’t push yourself, okay? You seem to have a lot to handle. I’ll try not to overload you with too much, but I apologize ahead of time if I write a whole book or get too personal. I just wanted to make sure I added a good chunk for a good comparison! I’ll try not to get too into it, though. Sorry again if I put too much!

Basics : I’m a 5’6, 19 y/o, chubby/curvy female who is a bit of an anti-social shut-in. I come across as very shy, quiet to the point of how I usually never say a word otherwise unless I’m asked a question, though can also be seen as ‘lazy’ and someone who is too addicted to technology. I’m also rarely affectionate, though not against being given affection as long as I’m asked. I’m not a touchy feely person.

Layer 1 (Flaws, problems, etc) : My behavior stems from social anxiety and from bullying experiences that have traumatized me growing up, as I had to deal with it up until maybe a year ago. Some of it was from my own family, and some from the school. I ended up with a fear of expressing myself to strangers, especially around boys. I found my way of coping was to dive into video games and anime, alongside art. Outside of this, I’m a mess. I usually suffer from many health problems (that I don’t feel comfortable sharing, but can mention it makes my efforts to find a way to get comfortable in my body with a new Workout routine very difficult) due to my body being extremely weak. It has been ever since conditions related to my birth, and my medications Needed to keep me around cause me to be big boned. I’m physically strong enough to fight for myself if I needed to, but when it comes to illness and the like, I’m the loser here. I also have a hard time keeping eye contact. I also tend to apologize a lot for everything. I can’t handle crowds, or I’ll likely pass out after a while. My body is hard to take care of despite my best efforts. However, I do have sensitive ears and tend to be jumpy when someone raises their voice. It’s not too difficult to scare me, which in the past is what usually managed to convince me to go along with things like the bullying. To this day I still can’t handle being yelled at, since I also tend to yell at myself later for messing up for whatever caused someone to yell at me. I’m extremely hard on myself. I also tend to take things to heart. My ‘laziness’ also is because I have my own fight with depression to deal with that adds a factor into this too. Consider it a double edged sword, but despite that I tend to destroy myself trying to put others first before me.

Layer 2 (Opening up) : if I do open up to someone, I’m more prone to have my ‘quirks’ show, such as bouncing in place when I’m excited. I occasionally ramble about my interests (and apologize after). I may not be the best at showing how I care, but I try to do the best I can with what little skills I have. But I do become a bit more social with a person the more I know them. However, it doesn’t change that one might have to message/approach me first, since at times it takes me ages to send a message for fear I’m bothering someone. I’ll be more willing to head out with someone if I’m closer to them, though I’m still insecure about my appearance.

Layer 3 (Pro’s?) : I’m not against trying new things, within reason. I’m not difficult to please. I would be fine sitting in a room watching critical role for the next 10 hours with someone just being quiet and consider that a bonding moment. I don’t mind over the top, but I don’t usually favor it due to my insecurities telling me that this wasn’t deserved. (Not that it isn’t appreciated, but it’s hard to fight ones inner demons, ya know what I mean?) From what my few friends say, however, they would trust me to be a leader to my friend group should the need arise, and I’m usually serious, mature, calm and collected. That doesn’t mean I don’t have my own sense of humor (usually dark humor, with the occasional laugh from a joke I didn’t expect to hear). Due to a bit of my background, I know a lot on self defense due to being in a former military family (All retired) who thought I should know how to fight due to how the world can be. This is also why I’m usually trusted to make decisions for my friend group, even if it’s in games where survival is key. I’m usually the last one standing, while being cautious enough. I also can be a hard worker when I can put my mind to it- reading a whole manga series in one day or finishing an anime? Finishing art? You name it. Though a double edged sword trait I know I have (Since it can be both a blessing and a curse) is my perfectionism. Everything has to be perfect. The decorations? Yes. Everything has to match? Yes. I have to make the most detailed building in Minecraft? On it. My fashion sense also plays a part in this too, as I try to make it work with my task too. (I can tend to overdo it and sometimes don’t give myself breaks when I’m in this mood though.) I’m usually good on saving money, and I try to see the best in people despite my experiences. I’m not easily persuaded by looks, as I usually don’t care for them much. I am a creative person as someone who strives to be good at art, but also as someone related to a medic, I also have been learning what to do when the need arises for someone to need a medic. I can be motherly at points, considering some of my other friends to be like my kids. I fret over them constantly. There are times where the tables end up turned. I love acquiring new knowledge that’s something I’m not used to. Oh, you’re a witch? Cool I’m a (religion I’m not sharing due to it being a touchy subject to most). Can you tell me all about it? I’m really curious.

Layer 4 (Hobbies and everything else?) : I do like swimming, drawing, creating characters for my own stories (as a dungeon master in dnd), reading (mostly manga), collecting gemstones and anime merch, playing video games, and cooking on occasion. I also love my pets (currently a rabbit and a puppy) and enjoy cuddling with them. Despite finding cats to be cute, I happen to be allergic to them (as in my skin will break out mostly- it’s not severe but annoying nonetheless). I also have a fear of bugs. Despite only losing myself maybe 3 times in my whole life, I do have a nasty temper if someone gets on my nerves too much. I usually end up punished for it, hence my bottling up of emotions. So otherwise, it’s hard to get me truly angry to the point of where I’m raising my voice unless someone crosses a line. I’m slowly learning to speak up for myself more.

Alright, that’s the end! Again, I’m so sorry if this is too much information! I have never done one of these before. ^w^’

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Hi!!!!

I put a keep reading button because it’s a long text and sometimes it gets very personal, so yeah

Sorry for the wait, and I hope you like the result!

Tbh I was thinking and I had several ideas while reading it, for example I can see you with Levi and maybe Belphie. I decided to go with Levi. Your sense of humour is a good match with Belphie but he can be so sassy and can have such an attitude that I think Levi works better, as you said you tend to take things to heart. I know you said it’s hard to actually upset you but I think Levi occassionally calling you a normie is so much less stressing than Belphie and I think you really deserve someone who doesn’t give you a hard time. (No offense to Belphie hes cool and as a friends thats alright but yeah)

So I think Levi is good with someone who’s not too affectionate, like he can get so flustered, it’s easier for him with someone like you!

He also has a quite severe social anxiety so he really gets you when you say you’d rather stay at home than go to a convention or party.

My hyphothesis is that he has online classes because of that. Like I don’t think he was bullied, he really just can’t stand being around people that much

He is also accepted in his family, like everybody is chill with him being an otaku. (I guess sometimes he gets teased but it’s mostly just him talking down on himself) So the point is that at home he can be himself! I think he would reassure you that liking what you like is totally fine.

At first he will 100% call you a normie until you prove yourself otherwise but that shouldn’t really be an issue - especially if you open up to him about it. I think he is the best candidate to understand your feelings. Not just “oh that sucks babe, iloveyou” but like really get you, you know what I mean. Even if he is not always great at expressing himself, you’d just know he means well.

I think he would also accept you the way you are. Of course your well-being is going to concern him sometimes but he knows you can take care of yourelf. Although if you need help he will do whatever you need. He can be pretty determined when it comes to something/someone he loves

I think he would be very surprised by the fact that you are physically strong in a good way! Like wow babe you can really do that...🥺

He would definitely see a part of himself in you and he would make sure to remind you that you don’t have to apologize for everything you do. Even if he does so himself, that doesn’t mean that you have to be insecure like him! 😠

He’s not really the one to shout at you since you can probably accept him, and he can accept you even if at first he thinks you a boring normie

I think after you two actually spend time together and open up and really get to know the other he will see that you are soo hard on yourself because of your past and he will definitely try his best to cheer you up and have you loosen a bit.

Or if you’re not into that then he can just listen. If you don’t want to talk he can play multiplayer games with you or watch anime, etc, anything to make you feel better!!!!

I think he is also more likely to get into DnD than Belphie, thats also a reason why I decided that Levi is better. I’m personally not into it so I don’t know for sure but if you have an anime/Japan related game/story then you don’t have to say no more, he’s in a 100%!!!

After that he will probably try like...less otaku-friendly DnD games/stories! Just be patient with him. He will learn all the rules and read all the books to a T but actually speaking in front of a group of people he doesn’t know won’t be so easy!!!! 🥺  

After that he will probably convince his brothers to play too and now you have DnD night with the bros, yay! (i let you imagine how the details go!!)

I think he would approach you first with his anime-related topics and I think you could probably answer him! And that would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

He can also ramble about the things he likes and he would make sure that after a while you don’t apologize for talking about things you like! He probably likes something similar too, so he could suggest some things!

He said he prefers someone who he can be in the same room with and not really interact that much actually? so like you watching critical role while he watches anime is a good way to spend time!! stay at home dates are dates too!

Hmmmm i think he would definitely like to play a survival multiplayer with you, so be prepared!!!!!!

Hm I think he would take your fashion related suggestions for him, even if he himself isn’t a perfectionist. But I mean if you look at his room he is pretty organized and not too messy, so that’s a bonus I think.

I think he is a good match because you can balance out his reckless money spending tendencies! Not sure if it’s possible to change that completely about him, but at least one of you is responsible with money, so thats a good enough!

Hm I think he could talk a lot about being a demon with you, so thats really nice that you’re interested in his culture! I don’t think he has ever considered that as anything special, but now is the time!

It’s good that you can’t have a kitty because he has a fish and that wouldn’t really be a good combination now, would it?

I think he relly appreciated a responsible and caring partner like you, because he really needs all the extra care he can get to boost his confidence! He is usually rather child-like, so that is also probably a bonus!

Conclusion; definitely he is the one to initiate first interaction, but it’s probably just looking at the other for a while until he gains enough confidence to actually talk to you. This is a very accepting relationship with lots of caring and confidence boosting involved on both sides! Theres also this deeper understanding due to insecurities and social anxiety. I think after a couple years in the relationship both of you change in a good way as you are very mindful of the other’s insecurities. Definitely not a lot of arguing going on, he is a very loyal and caring partner once you earn his trust, so zero lines crossed! Dates are mostly at home, but thats cool! You are the more responsible one while he can be kind of reckless with his impulses, but that just leads to a good balance and he knows he should respect your advice regarding impule buyig stuff for example.

[hybbat]

Okay, I know this may come off weird. I do not play DnD or anything like it, but I saw some of your characters and I fell in love with them. If you do not mind answering me, I enjoy writing, and I am curious as to how you design your characters.

Not at all, besides D&D I also write in my spare time as well and make comics. I find they all have slightly different processes at least for me.

Since digital art is my main medium of expression, I tend to first draw characters before anything. Characters like Mikeitaa my druid tiefling I went into a blank page and just drew out and pieced it together along the way.

Others are inspired by things that make me excited; the most blatant is my aasimar barbarian, Ashar, who I drew after the KDA music video was dropped.

Its usually less blatant than that though, such as a general aesthetic, a colour palette, a design concept, sometimes its as little as a line I drew that just catches my attention. The important part is that inspiration.

I find this process is quite successful for me when creating PCs that I like enough to play. I usually develope their personality and character along the way while drawing, filling in the blanks here and there once I'm done to flesh them out. A good example of this I think is Reqei

His inspiration was his style of horns, specifically the thought of "what if their "eyebrows" were just hair tufts sticking out from the bottom of their horns?" I ended up drawing a tilted and kind of sad face and as the rest came out I developed the idea of this emotionally numb slave soldier. Talking to my DM about his setting placed him as a slave of the dwarves, his nicer attire and weapon due to being sold as a personal guard after not dying, and informed many other aspects of his psychology and personality. I filled in smaller things with the details that caught my attention and some creative thinking: he wouldn't use a gun and the starting gear doesn't allow for it but his master would certainly have his life threatened with one, so its a broken gun that serves as a memory. His claws don't quite match his colour palette though it compliments his gear's metal buttons and halberd.

Reqei is already someone who goes into instinctual survival mode and would use anything as a weapon, what if he saved his master clawing someone's face off with a cheap metal prosthetic claw and he had all of them replaced for his sake so Reqei had more weapons? Of course dueing this all the characters related to Reqei are also being fleshed out, such as his master and his master's wife.

I think the most important thing is that these things are not irrelevant. They inform/shape not only his character but the characters involved with him. I always ask "what does this tell me about the character?" Especially durring this process of fleshing out the little things. With this even simple characters become interesting and without it big characters might wring hollow, I've had both happen to me.

Its important that you are personaly interested in the character regardless of the medium, even if its just and npc or side character, something like "I would really like to see more of that character and see their story unfold." Thats how I usually make NPCs for my players, and its easy to control if you know what appeals to certain people and you can make it obvious that certain characters clearly have more going on to draw the eye even while making everyone interesting looking.

Some of that can translate to written and other mediums but I think for more structured storytelling like comics and especially writing you have to take a different approach. I find for comics its important for me to draw characters first still because the characters i come up with in my head I might not be able to draw to my satisfaction, but for writing you can go hogwild with your imagination as long as you can describe it, the character isn't as limited by your personal skill as in visual mediums.

The most important difference between them and D&D though is that you already know the story you're putting them in, they're often developed alongside the story as a part of it, not inserted into it. Because of that you have to think a little more utilitarian. "Does this serve a purpose to the narrative/themes/aesop?" In D&D its part of the DM's job to build a narritive AROUND the PCs and its developing live. In a written story this is usually a bad idea because it ends up with plot holes and such so its important characters be fitted into the story and not just created separately and inserted.

For zombiegirl we wanted to make a gag 4koma so we created characters that could clash and create comedic moments, made their personalities a little ridiculous and over the top, and most importantly created characters who while quirky in their own right, could play straightmen to the comedy. The genre really shaped the characters we made and many of the side characters were made to fill comedic niches that fit the aesthetic and themes.

They're also all visually distinct, with visual media people usually go by the rule of "every character has an identifiable sillouette". In writing I find a decent equivelant to be speech patterns and unique identifiable features that can be refered to quickly. This character has red hair, this character is the shortest, this one has no eyebrows; Something that could easily be used as an identifying nickname in a situation where their name isn't known.

In general I tend to write very eccentric and somewhat extreme characters. The most important thing to me is their point of interest. Something makes me want to play/draw/write more about them, something to explore. I tend to end up with "main character NPCs" because of this, where they're too interesting for their role in the story and never get explored to a satisfactory extent. In D&D thats okay because you never really know who your players will want to talk to and have a story with, but in structured writing it can just leave you unsatisfied if their interestingness isnt properly scaled.

I guess the most important thing is it feels natural. While people say "don't judge a book by its cover" people do express themselves consciously or not. Their appearance should serve a purpose. Whether you should create the appearance first or the personality first depends on what they're being made for. I always remind myself that in the end, characters are tools of their story and vice versa and to varying amounts create them with that in mind.

My last note is that I draw from things that interest me. I like plants and flower language and bugs and animals, nature in general. Sometimes I make characters with similar interests but more often I use that knowledge to create characters; characters themed after animals, motifs, drawing from animal behaviours and exploring them in a more self aware humanoid. I end up with a lot of wild child types and alien psychology because of this.

My most recent example of this is the harvester god who holds fatherhood as the most important relationship and opposes the eat or be eaten matriarchal drow spider goddess, inspired by how male harvestmen protect their eggs from egg eating females. I have to remind myself sometimes that when it comes to inspiration its more important that you like the resulting concept than accuracy to the inspiration unless accuracy is the point.

Some people get caught up trying to make one to one allegories but if you're writing fantasy then I think those are pointless. I like fantasy's ability to explore situations and characters that can't exist in real life, beyond just magical abilities and such. I end up creating very alien characters because of that. I tend to frame characters more biologically than philosophically which informs how they themselves think, which is often very animalistic.

I dont know if any of that satisfies your curiosity I think I got off track a lot, sorry. I hope I answered your question somewhere in there.

[50-points-for-ravenclaw]

Sheith playing monsters and mana with the gang

Disclaimer: Idk like anything about DnD so most of this is wikipedia and guessing with a little creative license thrown in

“So I just make stuff up and you guys react to it?”

“Sort of. We all play off each other, and Coran controls the rules and our level of skill for each activity,” Pidge explains.

They’re seated in a wide circle on pillows and beanbag chairs that they’d dragged to the roof of the Garrison, all wrapped tightly in blankets and comfy pajamas. Allura and Coran seem to have fully adopted the tradition of brightly colored fuzzy socks from the Holts, and Krolia has thrown on a pair of Garrison issued sweatpants only reaching mid-shin borrowed from Keith’s collection. The night is luckily not cold enough to drive them away, but the slight chill in the air calls for the comfort of thick cotton and the small fire they created in a makeshift fire pit in the middle of their circle.

Keith remembers the last time he’d been on this roof, back when he wasn’t allowed, when he was still just a student at the Garrison, when Shiro’s loss was still fresh. He liked to come up here to stare up at the stars and remind himself why he was there. Sharing it now with his extensive family felt better than anything he ever could have imagined. 

Keith glances at Krolia, who looks equally as confused as he, as Coran finishes explaining the rules and then Shiro, who gives him a small encouraging smile.

“It’s actually pretty fun,” Shiro says shrugging. Keith thinks he believes him, especially when Shiro looks at him like that.

“Yeah, but remember you’ve been banned from being a paladin,” Lance says with a hostile squint. Shiro’s resulting pout is so adorable that Keith forgets to ask why the ban had been placed.

“Oh, I’m so excited!” Romelle says with a clap of her hands. The mice sway dangerously on her shoulders with the movement though they seem content to stay where they are. “I haven’t played Monsters and Mana since I was young. It was one of my favorite games growing up.”

Hunk gives her a shoulder nudge along with a grin, which she returns.

“Okay it’s time to choose your character class everyone. Due to the number of players and to keep it easier for the newcomers, everyone will keep their actual names for their characters. Now remember to be as creative as possible here! Think outside the prism, as you humans say,” Coran says with a quick twist of his mustache.

Keith thinks to correct him but decides to stay silent on that one, noticing the rest of the humans present do the same. He and Shiro make eye contact and stifle chuckles behind their hands. 

“Alright, Number 1! You go first.”

“Okay,” Shiro says. He rubs at his chin like he’s thinking really hard on the topic. Keith enjoys the small flutter in his chest at the action. His fondness for Shiro’s idiosyncrasies seems to grow everyday. “I’m going to be a Monk who is the last surviving member of his monastery. Ever since the day my people were slain, I’ve vowed to protect others from the evils of the world, and my goal is to one day close the portal that leads to the Dark Ruins of Hades and prevent anything like what happened to him from happening again.”

“What is Hades?” Shay asks, raising her hand into the air a little.

“It’s an old Earth version of Hell,” Hunk explains.

“Oh, I see.” She pauses long enough for Coran to take a breath and then says, “What is Hell?”

“Um, let’s just call it the Dark Ruins of Evil,” Shiro says quickly. 

“Your character is basically the same as always,” Lance said.

“He’s technically not a paladin,” Pidge says. though she sounds resigned.

“Number 5! You’re next,” Coran says.

“I’m a rogue,” she says immediately. “I used to be an inventor until one day I was cheated of all my blueprints by a rich lord who sold them as his own. Now I spend my time screwing over the rich by stealing their most precious items and hoarding them simply just to annoy them and make their lives difficult. I sell stuff when I need money. I hope to eventually run all the rich freeloaders out of my village.”

Everyone absorbs that in quiet for a moment. “Geez, Pidge. You sound like you have a real grudge,” Keith mutters.

“She’s been watching a lot of documentaries to catch up on recent events on Earth, and her latest one was about the detrimental gaps in income between the economic classes,” Matt explains.

“It’s totally ridiculous! Haven’t they learned their lessons from back during the two-party era? Trickle down never works! People are suffering because our political leaders can’t get their heads out of their asses,” Pidge fumes. 

“I don’t know what most of that means, but moving on,” Coran says. Shiro gives Pidge’s shoulder a comforting pat. “Krolia, it’s your turn.”

“I think I will pass on this round,” she says. “I would like to observe first to better understand how the game is played.”

“Suit yourself,” Coran chirps. “Onward then. Lance!”

Lance smirks. “I’m an assassin.”

“You were an assassin last time,” Pidge complains.

“No, I was an assassin thief last time,” Lance corrects. Hunk snorts. “This time I’m a killer for hire, one of the best, if not the best in the business, going by the code name Dark Shadow.” He accentuates his words with broad gestures, and Krolia has to duck more than once to avoid being smacked in the face. “I’m known for getting the job done quickly without any witnesses. Nobody has ever seen me and made it out alive. Except for my latest job. I was sent into a trap by my last employer and barely made it out. The one I was supposed to kill saw my face, so now I’m trying to hunt them down and get rid of them before they can reveal anything about my identity to the world. But they are highly trained and difficult to catch.”

He spreads his hands and wiggles his fingers, slowly gazing around the circle. Keith lifts a brow at the action and takes note of Allura’s quiet giggle from his left.

“That’s actually pretty cool, dude,” Hunk says approvingly and offers a fist bump across Romelle’s lap that Lance gladly accepts.

“Alright, Romelle,” Coran says. “You’re up.”

“Oh, yay!” Keith can’t really figure out just exactly how her eyes seem to actually sparkle. Then suddenly they turn dangerous. “I am a barbarian known in my village as one with unparalleled strength. I’m the protector of my people, chosen through a long, strenuous set of trials. Any who have challenged me have been swiftly defeated. I specialize in brute force fighting and can use my strength to create trenches and break stone. I’ve been known to take out whole armies with just a few blows. Most run away scared as they know the stories of my power.”

“So, you’re just like really strong?” Pidge says.

“Well, yes.”

“Are you an orc or something?”

“I suppose I could be.”

“Do you have an objective?”

“Oh,” Romelle says frowning. “Well…I am…looking for love. Most fear me and it makes finding love quite difficult. I wish to find someone who will not be afraid, who respects my power and loves me for it without wanting to change me.”

“Awww,” Hunk coos. “She’s just lonely. Being the top of the food chain can be really tough.”

“Yes, it can,” Romelle says solemnly, slowly nodding.

“Number 2!” Coran exclaims. “It’s your turn.”

“Oh, okay. Let’s see… I’ll be a ranger,” Hunk says.

“What’s up!” Lance says with a grin. 

“I’m the apprentice of a master archer, but my master mysteriously disappeared before my teachings could be finished. Now I rely on the research he left behind to teach myself while I search for him in hopes of finding out what happened. Most signs seem to point to an evil force, but I don’t have a lot to go on. I’ve mostly been traveling around to try and find clues and learn all I can from other rangers and fighters to better my skills with archery and in knife handling.”

“Oh, that’s quite interesting, Hunk,” Allura says. “I’m curious to know what happened to your master.”

“Way to step away from your branches, Number 2!” Coran says.

Keith sighs but once again refrains from saying anything. He can hear Shiro snickering again, feels the soft shaking of his shoulders from where he’s pressed against Keith’s right arm.

“You’re up, Shay!” 

“I…” She hums quietly for a long moment. “I am a cook at the King’s palace! I work there to keep my family fed, but one day there is a fire at the castle and I am separated from them during the panic. Unsure where to go, I travel in hopes of finding where they’ve gone. Along the way I learn new recipes and make lots of friends with my meals!”

“Well, usually you want to choose one of the traditional classes,” Coran says uncertainly.

“I don’t know. That one sounded pretty good to me,” Hunk says. Shay beams at him.

“You could choose one of the magic-based classes, something a little less based in fighting ability,” Pidge suggests. “Maybe a cleric with healing abilities or a druid with nature magic.”

“A cleric! I can heal people with my special recipes,” Shay says with a satisfied smile. 

Hunk gives her a thumbs up of approval. 

“Well, that will be quite useful,” Allura compliments. Keith is inclined to agree. A healer seems a good idea for any group quest.

“And onto Matt,” Coran says.

“I’ll be a warlock,” Matt says. “I made a pact with a reaper demon to gain power, but only so I can get revenge against the sorcerer who killed my parents. The power has twisted me so sometimes I am consumed by dark urges though I fight against them. My powers are of the undead and necromancy.”

“That’s pretty dark,” Pidge says approvingly. 

“If you can bring the dead back to life, why not just revive your parents?” Krolia asks.

Matt sputters a moment. “It’s different,” he argues. “I can awaken the dead but not permanently. And the souls tend to be warped and darker than they were when they were alive. I would never put my parents through that!”

“If they are twisted and only half-there, then I would imagine they don’t feel much of anything,” Krolia says.

Matt narrows his eyes. “It makes sense,” is all he says.

“Alright, moving on,” Coran interrupts. “Let’s see, my turn. I will be the trusty in-keeper again, here to advise and guide you as you embark on your quest.”

“You’re not going to be evil again are you?” Lance asks, pointing a finger across the circle.

Keith grunts in surprise. He hadn’t heard about that part. He can see Shiro frown from his peripheral and almost laughs at his genuine displeasure.

“Yeah, that was totally uncalled for,” Hunk jumps in.

“It is all part of the game,” Allura tries, though she doesn’t sound like she agrees much with her own words.

“That was pretty harsh for our first time playing, though,” Pidge says.

“At least you guys didn’t die multiple times,” Shiro mumbles. 

Keith actually has to hold back a snort at that and runs a soothing thumb over Shiro’s knuckles where his hand is pressed to the floor behind them. Shiro interlocks their pinky fingers before he can pull away.

“You will just have to wait and see,” Coran says cryptically and the paladins all groan. “Allura, I believe it’s your turn.”

“I will be an assassin of Fae descent. I am Dark Shadow’s nemesis.” Lance gasps, face lighting up. “We’ve been hunting each other ever since he first attempted to kill me and failed. I was also sent into a trap, set to kill him, but he got to me first. There is a larger conspiracy going on which I will soon discover, one led by dark magic. I have only just discovered some of the true nature of the situation and now wish to team up with Dark Shadow though I must figure out a way to do so without him killing me first.” Lance looks on the verge of tears now, and Keith wonders how they have yet to simply confess to one another yet. “Oh and I go by the code name Blue Dragon.”

“Yeeeeesssss,” Lance whispers. 

“Nice, Princess,” Coran says. “And lastly it is your turn, Number 4…oh well I guess you’re Number 3 now aren’t you. You’ve grown a bit.”

“Wait, what?!” Lance exclaims. “No, I’m number 3! The numbers have already been decided. It doesn’t matter if he grew. Besides he got 2 free years. I bet I’ll end up taller anyways.”

He crosses his arms, glaring at Keith heatedly. Keith doesn’t much care who’s taller, but he can never resist riling Lance up.

“The numbers can change, Lance, and I’m taller now. Deal with it,” he says with a shrug.

He can practically see the steam roll off Lance’s head. Shiro interrupts before a full argument can start.

“I don’t think the number system was ever going to work long-term. Maybe we can think of something different, Coran?” he says with pleading eyes.

“Oh, of course! I love coming up with nicknames,” Coran says. “I’ll have to think on it a bit though. They’ve got to be really good. Besides we have more members on Team Voltron now. It’ll probably take a tick or two.”

“That’s fine,” Shiro breathes, shoulders relaxing as everyone in the circle visibly warms at the reminder, though Krolia turns a little green at the idea. He shoots Keith a chiding look who simply shrugs in return, though he gives Shiro’s fingers a squeeze.

“So what’ll it be, Keith?” Allura asks.

He can see his mom watching him with curiosity and knows she’s taking mental notes for the next round. 

“I’ll be a fighter who is half…elf,” Keith says slowly. “I am a master sword fighter with special skill in dual blade welding.” Krolia nods along. “I am searching to learn more about my human side since I grew up among my mother’s people in the…mountains. Mountain elves.” He looks at Shiro for confirmation and gets an approving nod. Keith maintains eye contact with him as he continues. “Along my travels I met Shiro. I immediately admired his goal to protect and decide to follow him. I travel with him and help him protect the weak and investigate the…Portal of Evil?” Shiro shrugs in a dismissive gesture, though he’s smiling softly. “In return, he helps me research my father’s family and learn more about humans. He’s the first human I trust.”

“Ugh!” Lance groans loudly.

Keith snaps out of whatever fog he’d fallen into. He snaps his gaze away from Shiro, trying to push away the heat he can feel crawling up his cheekbones.

“Can we just establish that they’re married already or something so they don’t spend the entire game trying to get in each other’s pants?” Lance continues.

Now Shiro’s cheeks light up, color blooming evenly across smooth skin and camouflaging the scar across his nose. Keith coughs awkwardly, attempting to think of a retort.

“Somehow I doubt that will stop them,” Pidge says dryly. 

“I second that idea,” Hunk says raising his hand with a finger pointed to the sky. “It’s better than letting them run completely wild.”

Shiro exhales forcefully.

“I think I have to agree,” Allura says with a wince.

“All those in favor of establishing a union between Shiro and Keith, raise your hand,” Coran commands.

Every hand in the circle goes up. Keith looks at Krolia in betrayal though she only gives him a knowingly raised brow. 

“Okay. Sorry Shiro, Keith. It looks like you’ve been voted into marriage,” Coran says shrugging.

Keith sighs but accepts it. He can’t say the idea doesn’t please him anyway. 

“I guess that means we’re married, then,” Shiro says.

Keith tries valiantly to ignore the way his stomach flips at that. He feels a little better when he notices the slightly constipated look on Shiro’s face that suggests he’s feeling the same way. That’s a conversation for much later with a lot more privacy though. 

“I guess so,” Keith says weakly.

“Time to roll for first play!” Coran says. 

Keith bites his lip and focuses back in on the moment. He and Shiro have all the time in the world now to think about that stuff. Right now, he wants to take advantage of this rare free time with his friends, even if he has to stumble along for the first hour of the game. 

[quillyfied]

playing catchup, here’s some thoughts about DCA episode 120, with 121 coming here in a bit.

- I love these fireside episodes, and Satine Phoenix is an excellent person to mediate their discussions; she’s very warm and empathetic and these losers need that desperately

- Strix’s timeline is screwy, as I believe I have discussed on this blog before, but…uh…there’s a particular piece of Strix backstory Holly wrote that if it happened before she went to Baba Yaga…yikes. I don’t want to discuss it in too much detail but Strix would still have been so, so young for this particular piece of trauma, that’s gut-wrenching to think about. All of their childhoods included some form of trauma at a heartbreakingly young age and all of it is hard to think about but wooow.

- Paladin training is no joke, but I wonder how much younger than the others Evelyn was, to have advanced to full paladin status at 22 (probably younger). Given her leg, that’s really hella impressive.

- Relissa and Kagan are TERRIBLE and I can’t wait until we meet them, I am hoping for bloodshed on Diath’s behalf. But now Diath’s question to Paultin during the therapy episode makes more sense—“Was she nice to you?” KILL ME

- Diath’s fond smile and his tone of voice when he says her name after Strix says “so we CAN kill them!”, I’m drowning in my feelings pls help

- Yeah, trying to parse the conversation better, it does sound like Diath was dating both of them. So polyamorous Diath is most likely canon, which is…huge, honestly.

- Just going off of the body language and his facial expressions…that is not Diath’s root fear of cages and enclosed spaces. He probably had that long before Relissa and Kagan got to him. If anything, being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit would probably crystalize that fear into a full-on psychosis, if it wasn’t there already

- okay imagining little bitty Evelyn zipping around in her boots makes me SO HAPPY, what a cutie patootie she must’ve been. Her expressed desire to be helpful is also very telling of an active child who felt useless bc she couldn’t get around as well, and I’m sure Father Sunbright capitalized on that desire to be useful to turn her into the self-sacrificing paladin she is (I’m sure to make her self-sacrificing and indebted to him personally, not just Lathander, but I’m bitter about him and hope either he doesn’t get raised or if Telastin tries, he just doesn’t come back…sidenote, I wonder if Chris is worried about too many plot threads out there waving in the wind that he has to braid back together, I’m sure he can do it, but this season is so complex compared to others)

- MORE ABOUT PAULTIN’S CHILDHOOD PLS. NATE. NATE PLS. I know that alcohol-induced amnesia is a huge part of Paultin’s character as an in-game expression of Nate not having much of a backstory for him, but come on, it’s been years XD He probably wouldn’t spill about it just yet, anyway, Diath hasn’t. I’m just grumpy and impatient.

- Aww yeee plot pie

- I feel like Paultin and Sandra having a rental is an important detail in this particular case; it feels like a setup, if this crime family was making a habit out of going into noble houses and Paultin and Sandra’s house was close to one. Maybe Sandra was mixed up in something she shouldn’t have been and Paultin didn’t know about it bc he’d been busy with work before she died, but the face-mangling in particular is suspicious to me. The whole death scenario in general is just brutal, suggesting extreme emotion or senseless bestial mauling (leaning towards the second), but making the face unrecognizable…there’s usually a reason why that happens, and that reason is usually either trying to cover their tracks or body-planting. So what I’m saying is, I’m reserving a shred of suspicion that Sandra might not be dead (actually evil, off doing other things, not sure what the motive would be, we just don’t know enough about her for me to make a clear judgement, but I’ve got my eye on you, Chris). I do not want that to happen at all in the least, for many reasons, but still…hmm.

- Diath’s reticence makes so much more sense now but I’m still a little heartbroken that he doesn’t feel comfortable enough with Strix, at least, to divulge a bit of his childhood to her. Yes I am upset as a viewer that there’s still so much we don’t know (upset AND excited), but after everything the Waffle Crew has been through together, it’s still baffling to me that they have mistrust and uncertainty. But them’s people, I guess, they all have their trauma that they’re carrying around.

- “Please don’t call me Hokage” OMGF JARED

- For real, though, after the clusterbumble Plurio tried to pull with saying Paultin owed him, seeing the real legit 100% authentic Diath express yet more of his devotion to his friend by tracking down people who hurt him deeply in the past has me absolutely sobbing, these stupid boys care about each other so much. Also vengeance!Paultin is kinda terrifying to watch but it’s been a while, it will be interesting to see where his rage takes him this time.

- (Esepcially given the talk he gave Alisanda about rage and revenge and how that hatred never goes away and changes a person for the worse, hoo boy, I hope for their sake that Relissa and Kagan really didn’t kill Sandra)

- EVELYN NO THAT’S NOT HOW YOU CHILDREN. My inner daycare teacher is screaming.

- Nat’s devotion to Diath is a+++++ and I think she in particular is very good for Diath’s development as a person and a leader. Also Anna and Jared using sign language onstage was great, I don’t know if all if it was legit since I don’t know much, but it was still cool to watch.

- Diath needs to go bond with Simon next…especially once next episode finally sinks into him :P (I am pretty sure they let slip to Diath what happened with Simon and the kid during the therapy episode, but the players forgetting details is okay, they’re all human beings with busy lives and insane schedules)

- Paultin acknowledging Evelyn as Simon’s mom is the BEST, I’m just waiting for Simon to call them Mom and Dad out loud now :P

- THROW THAT SHADE, PAULTIN, YOUR SON HAS LEARNED FROM THE BEST. YES DIATH, LET’S DISCUSS HIDING THINGS.

- AGREED, VLAHNYA, THEY SHOULD ABSOLUTELY TALK MORE.

- Squiddly’s mode of breaking the fourth wall without actually breaking the fourth wall is amazing, I’m not sure what to call his in-universe fluidity with the rules of reality but it’s delightful, I’m so upset it is a little weird for Nate to hold entire conversations with himself in a dnd setting

- They need to learn to take care of the kids…and themselves…AND EACH OTHER…I think I feel a whump fic coming on

- All of these poor broken adults need a mental health day where they just do things for themselves, where’s that special episode, Chris Perkins

- little lesson about love~ (once again getting SO CLOSE to someone explaining to Strix about feelings and giving her context for romantic emotions, WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP CHICKENING OUT ON HER, SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS BEFORE I DIE)

- Paultin’s face-touch to Diath is a masterful little touch of comedy, combining Paultin’s two favorite pastimes: 1. Messing with Diath, and 2. Bringing back random plot elements and using them to greatest effect. I am 99% sure that part of Paultin’s motivation for doing that was planting the idea in Diath to touch someone ELSE’S face :P Or at least, the part of me that knows Paultin ships his friends as much as we do wants to believe that. Jared’s face through the whole thing was killing me.

- Parenting, you guys. PARENTING. BEING RESPONSIBLE ADULTS. Oh gosh they’re going to have to leave Waterdeep at some point (bc I have a suspicion that Dungeon of the Mad Mage is going to be, if not THE last, then one of the last arcs DCA has, IDK how much longer fifth edition is gonna last and how many adventures they can turn out for it?? How often do they update DnD???), which means leaving the kids, which means there’s going to be a goodbye episode and I’m NOT READY.

- Elements of this are bleeding pretty flawlessly into the next episode, whether Chris actually watched the fireside as of streaming 121 or not, so once that post goes up, I’ll be glad to explore more about Simon and why I’m screaming in terror and delight.

[savrenim]

I'm so jealous of your gay elf murder bachelorette campaign that I now desperately want my own. Any recommendations on how to find people to play D&D with? I have several friends who are interested, but none of us have any questions experience (between my secondhand experience of reading about your adventures) so we don't know how to get started

oh gods so apparently I have A Lot Of Opinions and it got really long, so under the cut, also thank you for reminding me that I should probably properly type up the finale of Gay Murder Elf Bachelorette Campaign Book 1 because it was freaking epic and this is the one campaign that I can properly rant about on tumblr without worrying about spoilers

(I’m in three campaigns right now) (by complete accident) (on the one hand it’s a bad life decision in that I have zero free time anyways with grad school, but on the other hand it has become my sole social interaction with anyone ever and also coping mechanism for the stress and one good thing I do for me and, like, they’re not all weekly campaigns, so hours-per-week I’m devoting isn’t ridiculous) (and I miss my friends and it’s re-connected me with them and also has introduced me to upperclassmen in the department) (but sometimes there are character secrets and people who potentially follow me on tumblr so I can’t post the super long dramatic things about a character that I really want to)

OKAY SO HOW TO GET INTO PLAYING

I will be real, the three campaigns that I am in right now are the first time I’ve played DnD for anything that lasted longer than a week and a half at a summer camp type deal, like, arguably, this is my real first time playing DnD….ever. That being said, I’ve worked at gay theater camp for….six years now? And they do super intense super in-character LARPing that is far more roleplaying-heavy than mechanics heavy and has trained me to both have very good story instincts of, like, “this is how you make decisions that both fit with your character and support the narrative instead of oppose it, and either do not tear the party apart, or tear the party apart but for a very good and fitting narrative reason (i.e. if there’s going to be strife, make it mean something)” and in my opinion it is when you bring those sorts of instincts to a DnD game that you get the most satisfying story out of it. Character creation, team cohesion, and story and world development are all things that I do feel super comfortable speaking about because that is my literal jam outside of my math jam which is paying for me to be alive and stuff. So here we go.

There are a couple of questions that you need to immediately answer, the first being, “do you want to play Dungeons and Dragons, or do you want to start with a mechanically less complicated system?” Because there are a lot of pretty good systems out there that are high fantasy even (i.e. Dungeon World) that are a lot more streamlined in terms of “you don’t need to be as familiar with a set of rules in order to play.” That being said, Dungeons and Dragons is classic and is fantastic and I freaking adore it. (I will be completely honest, the only other two systems I know right now are Dungeon World, which is fantasy, and Mech Noir, which holy shit you are playing noir style detectives except in a SCI FI SETTING WHERE YOU PILOT MECHAS and the entire game system is around applying “adjectives” to people like, if you successfully roll against an enemy, you get to pick any adjective you can think of ever from “grappled” to “trusting” to “confused” to “located” and it just makes for such interesting storytelling)

which vaguely brings me to my first piece of real advice: you learn how to play best by witnessing playing happening. if you are a podcast person, I highly recommend either The Adventure Zone or Friends At The Table (or, honestly, if you have the time, both). The Adventure Zone plays DnD, 5th Edition, and it is a super quality family who are goofing off and having fun together and then the plot that arises is like “oh shit I am crying about a wizard named Taako, pronounced taco, how did this happen to me” and it’s great. The Adventure Zone is 100% the reason why I reached out to friends and was like “yoooo is anyone starting a campaign because TAZ has made me want to play again.” Friends at the Table starts with Dungeon World and it is some of the best storytelling and worldbuilding I’ve ever heard? And you will learn so much about how to set things up and go with the flow and the DM talks a lot about his process as offhand comments and you will learn so much. I’ve heard good things about Critical Role, but haven’t listened myself. But get out there, listen, and then don’t be afraid of copying things that you admire. Best way to learn.

If you’re going with Dungeons and Dragons, start with 5th Edition. 0th, 1st, and 2nd are all ridiculously unbalanced, 3 is “actually everyone uses 3.5,” or a combo 3.5/Pathfinder. While 3.5/Pathfinder is a great system and is what we’re playing both in gay murder elf bachelorette campaign and in the math grad departmental campaign, and was the game that I learned on, 5e is a lot more streamlined and they’re aren’t super picky exact rules for every tiny thing you could think of doing, which means you don’t need to be familiar with a vast system full of loopholes and counters and counter-counters to know how to effectively play the game. we don’t talk about 4th edition

Decide who is going to be the DM. There are sometimes comic stores that’ll run weekly or biweekly or monthly games of DnD, but those are almost definitely going to be less story-based and usually are one-shots? And if you’ve got a good group of friends, I recommend just playing with them and not trying to find an external group that you don’t know. I’m vaguely assuming that you’re volunteering to be DM because you’re asking? But if there’s someone in your group of friends who likes writing things or likes managing things or is interested, or if people want to take turns trying stuff out, go for that. The department group rotates DMs (and rotates games) just based on who has something written that they’re excited to try out.

You also might want to ask around to see if there are any people that you vaguely know, or that are friends of friends, who play. You’d be surprised how many people do. I’ve also seen blogs on tumblr sometimes going “hey, I’m running a Skype campaign and I need two or three more players, if people are interested fill out this survey and then depending mostly on times people are free but also what you say about what you’re looking for from a game I’ll pick the players?” or if y’all are in college there is almost always a DnD club somewhere, hidden semi-secret on campus, on the register to get club funding but under the radar because nerds. But you and your friends who are semi-interested will work just fine, as long as semi-interested means they’re actually willing to commit for a bit. So how do you get started?

Get the Player’s Handbook, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and read them cover to cover. If you’re playing and not DMing, eh, skip this step, and have the DM do it instead, but the Dungeon Master’s Guide especially will walk you through how to set up things mechanically very well and if you’re going in blind it will be good to have gone through and read it all once. I’ve read the 3.5 DMG cover to cover several times, haven’t read 5e yet, I know that I didn’t like their storytelling tips, but read through it once to get an idea of what mechanics might look like, it gives very good starting mechanical advice.

1. Speed and smoothness of playing are important, which means that sometimes, if you don’t know a rule, you want to make something up on the fly and deliver it with a completely straight face. Everybody does homebrew. Rules are great because they keep things from devolving into chaos and they can settle disputes, but also, sometimes you’ve just got to make a call, and if you make it while looking like you know what you’re doing, everyone will believe you. Similarly, don’t make the same rolls, or the same number of rolls, for NPC characters as you would for PCs. For example, in gay murder elf bachelorette campaign, when Iria was both directing a full assault on a hobgoblin fortress as well as had put herself on the special strike team that was going to sneak in and open the portcullis, the DM made ~one or two rolls~ to see how successful the Caedic units were at each of the points of Iria’s plan, instead of rolling a full battle between ~40 hobgoblins and ~80 elves. screentime is important; if you’re spending too much time on not-the-players, it gets boring for the players, so roll enough dice to decide what’s going on with a tad bit of luck and so it seems like other characters have rules that they have to follow, but you don’t have to let the rules dictate every single thing that happens in-world. you dictate that.

2. Character creation is how you set yourself up for success. Do not underestimate the importance of party dynamics. You don’t all have to be playing best friends or even people who get along–in Spelljammer, Marian and Djin had the character backstory of “ten years ago we were captain and co-captain of a vessel and for Reasons got into a huge fight over nothing and split and Marian took half the ship with her and she thought she’d never see him again but now oops they’ve both ended up jobless on the same station and Marian was already pooling as many resources as she could to try to put together a new ship and Djin arrived a couple months into this and needed the work so joined this ragtag democratic crew, but there’s a shit ton of tension.” This worked because we were snippy to each other in dialogue, when push came to shove, Marian is professional enough such that her whole deal is putting personal feelings aside always no matter what, and Djin takes the passive in passive-aggressive super seriously, so it never meant that the party was sitting around arguing for hours or refusing to cooperate. Meanwhile, I’ve seen and heard of campaigns falling apart because “there are two thieves and one really wants to get to do all the sneaking so they argue all the time over who gets to do cool stuff” or “the evil fighter literally just wants to murder everyone which means everyone else can’t get stuff done.” You can have intra-party strife and have it be interesting, but only if players are doing it cooperatively instead of being at each other’s throats irl. Rule of thumb: if the party dynamics are frustrating the other players, you are doing something wrong.

2.5 That being said, if a party starts to develop into bad dynamics, it is fixable without betraying character! For example, in the department campaign, I’ve been playing a super sheltered youngest child elf wizard from a super established Elvin wizard family (of, like, oh the arcanic postlines that let mail be sent around the continent? Grandpa came up with that theory. Schools of magic identified and classified originally? That was the Maewels) so Seraph is a tad bit privileged and a tad bit sheltered and is uppity sometimes. There was a fighter in the party who liked his alcohol, once missed a huge battle that the rest of us had to cover for him because he’d seduced two women at the inn we were hanging out at before the town was attacked, and typically did things like walk around in the morning with no pants on. And he proceeded to interpret Seraph’s increasing shock and disdain for him (or rather specifically, how upset she was the first time she saw him pantless) as “yeah all women go for me.” The party was vaguely splitting into “Seraph’s side and Silas’s side” so I decided to aggressively interpret one of the battles we went through together as a bonding experience and lo and behold Seraph’s feelings started to change over the next couple of weeks to “you might be an inconsiderate asshole but you’re OUR inconsiderate asshole so only we are allowed to rag on you” and she became one of his biggest supporters esp when they got to his hometown. All you really need is one super solid, proactive player in a party to make sure that things are resolved in a solid manner, so if you’re not the one DMing? Be that player.

2.75 Okay but if you’re DMing, have the conversation with your players as they’re designing their characters about point (2) because good party dynamics are easiest when you get it from the start.

3. Design encounters around the party. You don’t need a traditional setup of “a tank, a mage, a healer, and a thief” to have an effective and fun party. Maybe everyone wants to play a thief, great, design the scenario to be “you have all been contracted by the thieves’ guild to sneak into this party and assassinate this noble, you have three days to prepare and these resources, make a plan” instead of “this is a traditional dungeon crawl where you are fighting big scary monsters despite the fact that none of you are melee fighters.” Similarly, figure out what sort of stories and settings and aesthetics your players are interested in, and then play that game.

4. Make it personal. Ask people about their backstory and then incorporate stuff in. Notice what they become invested in and adjust your plans to include more of that. Give characters individual arcs that fit vaguely into the overall story, but also that they are the semi-protagonist of. Right now in Spelljammer, we’re all dealing with “so there are weird tears in the universe that Password, this Extinct AI we found and befriended, says are reminiscent of literally the entire universe ripping apart at the seams and are possibly why the Extinct went extinct, oh and some random lady gave us this artifact called the Eye and told us to hide it from the Blind King? And now his servants are hunting us? We are literally scav elves this is so above our pay grade.” Except going on as subplots, Algol is being hunted down by this evil overseer of whatever place in Echoside he originally escaped from, Leif got a stone that gives her prophetic dreams, Kimi has been super close to Password and Leif dreamed about them stitching the universe together, and Marian is dealing with an "oh shit I’ve accidentally adopted these three kids even though I don’t do personal” along with “oh god have I literally become the captain of this ship because I AM THE ONLY ADULT LEFT” along with some old friends from her past trying to reconnect just after we got a prophecy about how the last thing the Blind King would send to steal the Eye was someone we loved turned against us. So yeah, sure, there are big Adventure Plotlines going down that involve the entire party, but we’re not doing things just to do them, everyone is personally invested in this for their own reasons. So when you plan a big adventure, both plan places where individual party members get to start both for who they are and what they can do, as well as along the way keep an eye out for things that you can tie in for them.

5. Consequences matter. And not just stuff like “Iria got stabbed really bad first session and nearly died, now every time she goes into rage at the end needs to roll a fortitude save to not fall unconscious, and whenever she rolls a one same deal.” But also consequences like “you were really rude to this person and now they don’t like you and they are friends with the owner of the apothecary, who now also doesn’t like you and marks up prices behind your back” or "you let one of the patrol escape and now the whole army knows that you’re coming” or “you saved this kid’s life even though you were in enemy territory and now five years later he recognizes you even though you’ve been captured and is making sure that the party is taken prisoner instead of killed.” Make NPCs (non-player characters, ie characters the DM controls) recurring characters instead of people that you meet once, and have the way that the NPCs feel and then interact with the players change based on how prior interactions go. Have them care about things and have them remember. It makes the world feel a lot more real.

6. Preparing for a session goes petty much "how much do you like improv”. If you’re chill improvising, you want written down the stats of the monsters/enemies your players are potentially going to encounter, and probably a vague idea of goals, and then just play it by ear. Jeremy (the person running gay murder elf bachelorette and spelljammer) has I think at this point 13 “Books” written for gay murder elf bachelorette campaign, will write long descriptions of characters, settings, has maps drawn, has customized his own random encounter tables, has made his own homebrew system for how spaceship mechanics works specifically so that we could better piece together our spaceship with fantasy duct tape during the Death Races, and overplans every last detail all the way down to “has different musical themes that he’ll swap out and play at different times.” like, Iria has a Trauma theme that is played every time her wound starts acting up. He has collected music for books in advance. He has multiple different theme songs for each of the players in spelljammer. He writes notes about what NPCs are thinking so that he can reference it later. But that’s because he knows that he prefers the things he comes up with when he has time to plan things out, instead of when he’s surprised. He knows his own storytelling style. “eh, an outline and some monster stats” would not work for him the same way that I’ve seen it work for other people. You don’t have to put a ridiculous amount of prep work and writing time into being a DM, you need to figure out how much prepared material you need to run something comfortably, and then prepare that much.

6.5 Understand no matter what you plan, bits and pieces will probably be derailed, and be okay with that. Nothing is more upsetting than when a DM does not respect player autonomy and invalidates the clever things they think of, because it goes against their own plans. I think being a DM/running a story is sort of halfway “you’re writing a novel” and halfway “oh shit except this time the characters ACTUALLY have minds of their own” and striking a balance instead of dominating the narrative makes it fun. Also, it means you can throw in problems that you have no solutions for. During the Death Races in spelljammer, our battery started running out of plasma, which meant that the pressurization was getting all wonky, Leif immediately goes over and says “I have a spell called Reduce Object, can I cast it on the internal casing to try to up the pressure of what little plasma we have left” and Jeremy goes “uummmm sure if Kimi is over there to help you rewire the rest of the battery on the fly because you are SHRINKING HALF OF ITS PARTS” and then that held for three minutes until oh shit it was still low on plasma and Marian ran over and went “wait a second guys I have a Flaming Sphere spell except Jeremy, Jeeeeremy, I’m technically a plasma variety of Light Cleric, my ~god~ that ~gives me my divine magic~ is the collective of star dryads which live in balls of plasma, we’ve established prior in this setting that some of my fire spells are actually plasma spells, not fire, Jeeeeeremly can shove my hand into the empty battery casing and cast a flaming, 10-foot in diameter ball of plasma to try to give us a fuel boost” and Jeremy went “okay fuck it, stick your hand in the battery and cast a flaming sphere of plasma to give the ship a fuel boost, Leif, make another concentration check to hold the pressure.” and it did and we won the race the end we’re the coolest space elves ever. moral of the story: your players will come up with clever things. Sometimes clever things that mess up your plans. Let it happen, it’s more fun that way.

(Iris has come up with a truly heinous but potentially really effective military tactic that gay murder elf bachelorette campaign is actually a bit more delicate because it’s set in a larger world that Jeremy is running multiple other campaigns in and I’m still not sure if Iria is legit going to be a villain that I face off as a good PC one day, or if she’s a historical figure, or even whether or not this campaign is set in the past, but either way the history of this world matters? and the idea that I came up with has the potential to re-shape history? and I told it to Jeremy and he was quiet for a very long time and then thanked me for telling him and so Iria told Talvus in-character and we’re going to see whether or not in a couple of books this ends up changing the entire history of the world that he runs multiple campaigns in or something drastic like that, but hey, player wants to do something you haven’t thought of, “I didn’t think of that” is not a good enough reason to not let them do it.)

7. Decide if you want to write your own adventure, buy/find online a pre-written one, or vaguely do something in the middle. If you’re going for something pre-written, edits bits and pieces as you go to personalize it to your characters. I have a friend who just wrote and published something for DnD 2nd Edition? And it looks great? http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/229248/War-Wizards-of-the-Wasteland Even if you don’t play a pre-written adventure, reading a bunch of them will give you an idea of what preparing for sessions is like and what sort of information you should have on hand.

8. Don’t be afraid to make up home-brew mechanics, either for the whole party or for an individual player. Jeremy ran a vignette session called “Flight of the Kalla Tukal” in which we were playing a trio of orcs that had fallen through a tear in space and had just managed to get back and were searching for our tribe, which left without us. Except in his setting, orcs are a super psionic almost hivemind race? You meet orcs outside of radiation space sometimes, but they’re usually Not Coping Very Well with the fact that they’ve been cut off from their community. But the Kalla Tukal were still all linked together so we weren’t all going mad. then the other part of being psychic orcs meant that we could at any point attempt to do telekinesis or mind-control something, and the way that it was determined whether or not that worked is roll a d20, except we’re not trying to get 20, we’re trying to roll as close to each other in number as possible. There was one dramatic moment when two of us rolled 4’s or something and it was a critical success. but it was so cool to have that weird drift-comparability mechanic, and, like, the more people in our group that wanted to contribute, the more likely two people were to roll the same number. it was just?????? so cool??????? so if you want your party to all be psychically connected and be able to throw stuff with their minds I totally recommend that.

on a more personal/one-player level, in the department campaign, it has developed that Seraph really wants to be a research wizard like her family before her, and so the DM and I had a long conversation about the topics that she would want to research and a particular narrative impetus for her to start researching, and he came up with five or six new spells that Seraph will be able to invent over the course of the campaign, except because it’s experimental magic it’s going to start out with a 40% partial-to-total failure rate that will go down the more she tries to cast the spells, because hey, she’s working out the kinks. to me, it’s more than “oh this is a cool new mechanic,” it’s the DM cared enough to take the time to work with me and put what I thought was interesting into the campaign. and you have a lot of room to do that by adding your own rules and conventions and what-not. don’t be afraid to experiment, see what works, and then keep those mechanics around.

9. Start small. Don’t try to start with a whole huge epic campaign, you want to start by running a bunch of mini-arcs in different settings so that you get a feel for how to play and how to run things. This also gives you a chance to figure out how your group of friends plays, who is going to be the person that gives you the most scheduling problems, some of them might like the fighting parts more than the “come up with clever plans” or “interact with NPCs” parts, and this will give you an idea of who you actually want in a long-term campaign. Because long-term campaigns go on for years. Like, gay murder elf bachelorette is probably going to be a year and a half if Jeremy and I keep going at this pace? and that’s vaguely on the short side for something that Jeremy runs. A proper full epic campaign can be a huge time commitment, so start out with mini-arcs just to have fun and get used to stuff and because that is something that people will actually be able to commit time to.

I interrupt this long list of advice for another list of advice of potential ideas for miniature campaigns you could run for your friends. or one of your friends could run, if they’re interested in DMing:

COOL IDEAS FOR ONE-TO-FOUR SESSION MINI-CAMPAIGNS THAT I CAME UP WITH RIGHT NOW OR STOLE FROM FRIENDS WHO CAME UP WITH SUPER COOL THINGS

  —as mentioned in a previous bullet point, “you’re a group of thieves planning an assassination. this is how much money you have. each of your characters has one character connection in the city who can help you get items or forge a document etc etc. this is what the castle looks like. this is what you’ve figured out about guard shifts and security for the party. you have a week to plan. go” and then, like. somebody wants to try to pretend to be a noble to get in? fantastic. someone wants to try to seduce a guard? fantastic. sneaking in the traditional way? fantastic. all three at the same time. faaaantastic. it’s fun, it’s short, the way that you would prepare this is you would think about guards, defenses, patrols, maybe some of the nobles at the party are trained in magic or have weird special teams of guards and maybe have agendas of their own, and then what the actual ball itself would look like and maybe make a castle map, but the fun part of this scenario is the players get to be as creative as possible and I guarantee they will think of the coolest things and then you get to figure out how to react to those things in interesting ways to figure out whether or not they work.

  —okay this is a one-shot I have only heard legends about but everyone was playing a rock band of monsters who were about to give a super huge concert in monster city and I think someone had stolen a drum set or a guitar or something and they were trying to dodge paparazzi and get their instruments back but it was also ridiculous sex drugs rock & roll culture and a comedy one-shot that apparently was the coolest thing in the world, but you can’t go wrong if you start with “crazy monster rock band superstars”. during the sequel they went on tour to the human lands and I think wrecked a couple of cities.

�� —this one is stolen from TAZ but fantasy WWE, the intro plot setup that is exposition in the first 10 minutes was “a friend of yours who is a famous wrestler just had her partner assassinated before the biggest match of the year, one of you has been asked to fill in for the match, another as the manager, and then the rest of you are trying to solve this murder mystery super quick because your friend is worried she’s the next target”

   —honestly any sort of “huge gladiator/fighting tournament but there’s drama and foul play going down behind the scenes” makes for a really good short arc. there’s a game that actually Jeremy invented that is played irl at gay theater camp called “bloodrush” which is such a ridiculous game, it’s….vaguely fantasy football except everyone also has daggers and swords and stuff and you are allowed to stab members of the other team but only when they’re holding the ball, although cheating is basically a requirement when the refs’ backs are turned, oh, by the way, the refs are vampires. there have been cases at camp where teams waiting in the bleachers for the next match enemy teams have crept up behind them and slit all their throats with foam daggers while the refs were watching the game, or poisonings, or just. anything you can think of, it’s gone down. my little brother once jumped on the biggest baddest counselor’s back, stabbed him in the shoulder, snatched the ball from him, did a front roll, and ran off, and scored a goal and that is one of his proudest moments of his life to this day, basically what I’m saying is you can’t go wrong with “bloodrush tournament” or whatever your own crazy fantasy sportsball game you want to make up and play.

   —“we are a bunch of archeologists who have a little bit of combat or magic training but not too much because mostly we’re archeologists and someone poked a button in a pyramid and oh god we’ve accidentally summoned an ancient race on monsters that feed on human souls, which also apparently there’s a secret military conspiracy that has been watching this site to try to stop these monsters and have come here to contain them but oops also are ready to murder ALL OF US because WE have human souls, now we’re trying to run and hide from both groups and figure out if we can find anything to banish the monsters again” (this is 100% stolen from a LARP written by a friend of mine) (I’m pretty sure same one who wrote the monster band one-shot, actually) (they’re a really good writer, okay)

   —PRISON ESCAPE. Think Guardians of the Galaxy 1. You can’t go wrong with a prison break game. character design will be so fun. I swear I thought of stuff like this separate from Jeremy. Jeremy’s writing a prison break game and has promised that I get to play Captain Jennijack, a genderfluid space pirate who totally woke up in this prison a week or so ago and doesn’t for the life of them know why they are here, there are, like, eight or ten possible things they could think of but they’re not sure which one they’ve technically been convicted of, and I am holding him to that.

   —Honestly, you have a book that you like? A movie? A TV show? One that you haven’t convinced your friends to watch yet? (or one that you have and they will recognize halfway through.) STEAL THAT, write and run a fanfiction game, it’ll be fun.

ADVICE PART 2: PREPARING FOR A LONGER CAMPAIGN ONCE YOU’RE COMFORTABLE DMING AND HAVE FIGURED OUT THE GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE GOOD CHEMISTRY AND DYNAMICS AND WANT TO STICK AROUND. I’m assuming you want advice for getting something vaguely like gay murder elf bachelorette to run, so I’m going to talk about broad story-based things that I think are important for setting up good stories?

10. Scheduling is key and what is most likely to mess you up. Pick your players carefully, pick people who are invested and who will turn up. If there are people who didn’t get along during your mini arcs, or who just had very different expectations of what the game should be like re fighting/mechanics and roleplaying balance, don’t put them in the same party. Picking a party isn’t about picking your friends, it’s about picking people who work well together as players, and whose playing style matches your storytelling style. You’re better off with less people but who are super quality players and share a vision with you and get along, than letting someone into the game that’s going to mess stuff up for everyone because of outside-of-game social politics. It’s just not worth it. Not when this might go on for years.

11. There’s something really powerful about a story that isn’t about the Chosen Ones, but instead you’re just a group of people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and now oh shit it’s on you to save the world. Epic campaigns generally become epic, like, you invest that much time and energy into something and by the finale you usually are saving the universe, but be willing to start out not special. Let specialness develop.

11.5 There is also something really powerful about there sometimes being problems that magic can’t fix. Or that just aren’t fixable. If you haven’t read the Young Wizards series go read it and cry.

12. Write in arcs. This goes along very well with starting small, but have there be different parts of the campaign that are semi self-contained as you slowly build up to something bigger, this is also where you start dropping in personal arcs. Arcs also allow you to change up the feel of the game and keep things interesting and keep people on their toes. The Adventure Zone does maybe the best example of how to have self-contained plot-driven arcs that build to something eventually cohesive, all arcs with their own unique setup and flavor. (The Adventure Zone: Balance is a really great game and I really do advise you listen to it, it’s ~70 episodes but it will get you used to the mechanics of 5e, and holy fuck is it a story.)

13. Don’t be afraid to steal plot points from your favorite things. Hell, don’t be afraid to steal the entire plots of your favorite things. Especially if you’re worried about your own writing skills or creativity or whatever? Fanfiction is freaking great, and it’s fun; some of the best games I’ve ever played have been fanfiction of super obscure things that the writer has afterwards told me what it was fanfiction of and it was so freaking fun to go read/watch the original after I’d already played an even cooler version???? It’s also pretty easy to start out fanfiction and then through developing personal arcs and following party interest, ending up with a story by the end that is entirely original and you. So write fanfiction if you don’t have any ideas, or honestly, if your fanfiction ideas excite you more than when you sit down and try to write with a blank slate.

14. You’re not limited to a high fantasy setting. Honestly, standard high fantasy/dungeon crawl stuff has gotten pretty boring for me? (although the department campaign is pretty cool, but that’s only because it’s high fantasy but we slip in jokes like “Seraph marches downstairs in her pajamas and channels her mother to start yelling at the innkeeper about the utterly terrible customer service of getting poisoned, non-consensually, and that she would like to speak to the manager of the local thieves’ guild to lodge a complaint” because even though it’s high fantasy, it’s funny. TAZ does really good high fantasy too because of how they weave a whole bunch of other stuff in.) but, like, YOU CAN DO DND IN SPACE. you can do modern urban fantasy. you can go post-apocalypse. you can go post-high-fantasy-apocalypse. you can play a supernatural style game. it’s your world, make it whatever you want.

14.5 It is possible to play things that are mechanically the class in the book, but have a different interpretation in the setting. Or just to works differently in the setting. in spelljammer, elves don’t have gods, and I vaguely developed over the course of a couple of months an old belief system that was pretty old even when Marian was a kid that she just pseudo-learned and didn’t quite believe but is now revisiting, and the difference between divine casters and arcane casters is actually just “magic is vaguely a part of physics and most arcane casters are tinkerers who are doing it via weird cool gadgets or are pseudo-scientists/engineers in their training and approach to magic, while for divine casters it’s more of an internal, feelings-based thing.” I’m also very very excited because I have developed a super intense and specific lore that is canonically what elves used to believe and what Marian believes, but might not actually be how the world and death specifically works at all, so I’m bouncing up and down on my feet waiting to discover what’s going down behind the scenes with gods in that campaign, instead of it just being “oh yeah choose your gods from the gods in the book.” in the department campaign, Seraph is from a family of wizards and thinks that she is a wizard even though she is actually an arcanist, because the world doesn’t have words different types of casters esp niche types of casters yet. the DM and I are planning for it to be a huuuuge surprise now that she’s leveled up enough to have access to “arcanic exploits” which are at-will abilities that wizards don’t have, and it is going to be an in-character process of her discovering that she can do something that according to the known laws of magic she shouldn’t be able to do, and now oh shit she has to research it. even though mechanically, we’re going pretty much entirely by the book, the book doesn’t exist in the world! characters don’t know what players know! make it interesting to discover things that you as a player might otherwise take for granted!

14.75 make magic and fighting sound cool, and design how you describe it to be specific to the setting or the culture. in gay murder elf bachelorette campaign, the way that Caedic casting works is you first have to draw a rune in the air that then hovers there all glowy, and then you “thread the needle” which is projecting power through it in a very specific manner, I’m pretty sure that Surrians cast differently, magic works different in different parts of the world. having a melee fight scene? describe how people exchange blows back and forth or let them choose how their killing blows will look or just make them feel like badasses whenever they try to do a cool thing because it’s cool. I am used to playing magic/caster characters just because I generally am more familiar with magical mechanics than fighting mechanics and magic has always been more interesting to me but holy crud I have never had a fight scene so fun as the one when Iria had led a researcher from the Black Lotus Labs to a fae font that she’d found scouting in the woods and this seaweed creature eventually attacked them and she did a badass holding it off with her scimitar an then Vennikus, the researcher, tried to throw a cold iron knife at it but missed, and so Iria, who had been training in two-weapon fighting, saw the knife, did a front roll underneath the monster’s next swing, picked up the knife, exchanged a flurry of blows with the thing now two-handed fighting which eventually ended with her doing this super badass throwing both weapons in the air and catching them to switch hands, leaping on the things back, slashing so deep with her scimitar that it finally got through all of the seaweed and cleared it before it could get back to a weird, pulsating green heart, which then she drove the cold iron blade into all the way up to its hilt. which was so much cooler than “oh shit I rolled a crit on my scimitar hand and confirmed it and I guess that deals enough damage for this thing to die,” nah, I drove a cold iron knife into that thing’s pulsating heart and so that’ll be a scene that I never forget. Even when I miss Jeremy makes me sound cool because then when the enemies miss he talks about how good my footwork is or how well I’ve drilled to block these exact kinds of blows so the Surrian had no chance because my training kicked in type deal. it makes fight scenes more than just rolling dice, and thus easier to get engaged in.

14.8725 I swear I didn’t start out this essay as an “I’m going to sing the praises of Jeremy for several thousand words”

15. It’s always interesting when you have mechanical reasons for players leveling up. Or for what their classes are. That’s always a tricky one to balance, and it’s one that I’ve been doing aggressively as a player? And to be fair, if your players start out with young and fairly inexperienced characters, “I am gaining experience at doing a thing” is a perfectly good narrative reason to level up. You want to play an older character? One of my friends is playing a 150-year-old orc who was a Great Adventurer back in the day and retired to take care of great-great grandkids and is back in an adventuring party now but wheeee is starting at level 1 because they’re out of practice oh, and they have bad knees. There’s also always the option of “I hurt myself real bad and I’ve been recovering,” leveling up isn’t ~gaining new experience~, it’s slowly getting better through whatever your injury is. or just you can write this off as an unavoidable mechanical aspect of the game, eh, not that important, I just love it when tiny details match up. This isn’t actually an important point, I’ve kind of moved on to the “picky details that I care about” second of this advice rant.

16. Make the unexpected important. JEREMY GAVE ME THE MOST ADORABLE PET SPACE OCTOPUS AS A FAMILIAR AND I HAVE BEEN ASSUMING THAT VELO IS JUST VELO AND THEN JEREMY MADE SOME SORT OF A SIDE COMMENT ABOUT “YEAH VELO IS NOTHING LIKE YOU’D EVER HEARD OF BEFORE” AND YEAH DUH BECAUSE THE LIL’ BUDDY WAS SUMMONED THROUGH A MYSTERY SPELL IN A MYSTERY PIECE OF EXTINCT TECH BUT NOW I’M FREAKING PARANOID OUT OF CHARACTER THAT VELO IS SECRETLY AN EMISSARY OF RAT JESUS OR SOMETHING. but also just, like, nothing is cooler than “oh that tiny thing that happened when you were level 1 that you didn’t really think much of and it’s just been vaguely a thing you’ve carried with you for the adventure? turns out it was the most important thing in the world!!!!!” just. good foreshadowing. unexpected foreshadowing. it’s great.

17. Your players will invent stuff, either as a part of their backstory or as something that they’re interested in. Let them, especially if you don’t have a previously established canon opinion on the thing. This is 100% a self-serving thing of what I wants DMs to do when I’m a player of, like. I really love getting to write stuff into the setting, but also it’s because good improv means go with the flow. Someone says something? Work it in, oops, it’s canon now. This can be both on-purpose or accident; in the department campaign, I wanted to write in-character letters to an NPC in my backstory from the beginning, except goddamnit I didn’t want to have to deal with “and it’ll take a couple of months for the mail to travel across the country to get to them,” so I made an offhand reference in the email that I was sending the DM the letters of “can we say I just threw them in the arcanic postlines,” which then, like. After doing this about five times I sat down and wrote out the exact magical theory about how arcanic postlines should work considering how we’d said that they function in-game and the DM went “okay, sounds great, that’s consistent with how we’ve been dealing with these letters for the last two months” and that is why the fantasy world of the departmental campaign has a highly functional postage system. On the improv end of things, there is a beautiful moment in The Adventure Zone where the wizard just, in-character, teases another wizard about “ooooh, don’t want to burn your spell slots,” and the DM just went with it and suddenly it became canon that instead of spell slots being a behind-the-scenes mechanical thing that doesn’t exist in-world, it was a legitimate way that wizards referred to how much magic they could cast a day. Which I love so much, that’s so interesting for a high fantasy setting. Letting players add to the setting will bring in cool new things that you didn’t think of, and you should be open to it.

18. First priority is everyone should be having fun, and communication is key for that to work. Debrief sometimes after sessions. Ask people what their favorite parts are. listen to them chat about their theories. follow up on actively developing framework for the things that people think are fun. ultimately DnD is as much about friends getting together and having a good time as it is about telling a huge, epic, intricate, interconnected story, and the huge epic stories are a lot more fun if you’ve been having fun the whole way along.

All that all being said.

Don’t expect your campaign to look like gay elf murder bachelorette campaign, the way that I am playing in gay murder elf campaign is…..a bad way to play in a party? Being a conscientious player means being aware that the overall story arc isn’t just about you, it’s weaving together about everyone and there is always a part of me that is thinking about “is everyone getting equal screentime” and going “I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS NPC JEREMY SHE’S SO GOOD AT FIGHTING OH MY GODS THAT MURDEROUS LOOK SHE GETS WHEN SHE’S FACING OFF AGAINST SURRIANS AND SHE DOESN’T THINK ANYONE IS WATCHING JEREMY I AM IN LOVE” and, like, actively going over to try to talk with her any time I had the chance to ever and insisting on sparring with her any time we had free time and insisting on having a bunch of scenes with Talvus of “oh my god Talvus help she said three whole words to me what does it mean” which made all this the gay mess that it was would have been something that I wouldn’t have done if there were other people in the party with other agendas; gay elf murder bachelorette campaign gets to be gay elf murder bachelorette campaign specifically because Jeremy and I realized “….wait, there are only the two of us, we can get as ridiculous with this as we want” and have decided to commit. Fully. But that’s not the sort of shit you want to pull if there’s a whole other group of people who just kind of have to sit and watch every time you want to go over and flirt with your murder-rival-who-will-maybe-one-day-be-your-murder-girlfriend before they can do the stuff they want to do.

(As a secondary warning note if you’re doing any sort of roleplaying and are playing a fictional character in love with another fictional character being played by a friend of yours, you better be on the same page as your friend as, like, one of you not having a secret crush on the other in real life because shit gets messy and then real life and character stuff starts to blend and it’s just. I have been there and done that when I was a 17-year-old Gay Mess and I feel like it is my responsibility as a 22-year-old Slightly More Responsible Gay Mess to warn you against that. Jeremy and I know each other very well and have for years and know each other’s boundaries and talked about triggers and boundaries before starting this campaign, which to be fair was more because as a villain campaign dark stuff is probs going to happen but we have talked about fictional romance too , but I would not play this intimately with someone I didn’t trust intimately. So keep that in mind when designing things?)

ALSO THAT BEING SAID

if you want a gay elf murder bachelorette campaign, there is a game called Monsterhearts that I have never played but heard about friends playing and they all freaking love it and there are a lot of undertones about dealing with mental illness and being queer and in the closet and the entire setup of the game is y’all are monsters in high school having love life drama and everything I have heard about this game is how remarkable it is combined with stories about the most ridiculous teenage drama, sooooo possibly after I have ranted for 8000 words about how to set up a functional Dungeons and Dragons campaign which the party and DMing advice still I think applies to any game Monsterhearts might be the game that you want to start with.

BONUS: ADVICE FROM JEREMY.

[burmecianblackmage]

Just for the sake of getting my thoughts out, I figured I’d make a list of potential muses I have considered  roleplaying, plus some pros and cons to them. Dunno if any of them will ever be made, but still fun to consider them sometimes. If you like any of them, feel free to say so!

Hurdy (FF Tactics Advance 2)

I have been considering the little moogle bard for a long time. He would certainly be quite fun to play, and I could let my love of music flow into his depiction in all its glory - a tempting thought. Plus, from what I see, there aren’t exactly many moogle muses around these days, so he could be a welcome change of pace for many interested partners. And other than Sceada, he would be generally perceived as cute!

As for cons, well, there is on one hand that he could quickly feel a bit one-dimensional, especially if I let my love of music run rampant with him. Of course, I could flesh him out more, but on what do I base it? There is not that much on him besides the usual stuff we see in most TA2 chars. Sticking with your friends, trusting them - and playing the Victory Fanfare. Could be cool, but could also run it’s course quickly if things don’t take off as hoped.

Noraxias Rhogar (DnD 5e Dragonborn Paladin)

Blame the sudden influx of DnD muses on my dash for this one. Rhogar is the white (because ice ice baby!) dragonborn I play in my DnD group, which sadly does not get to meet all that often. Thus he is not really all that fleshed out from the rp side, but maybe playing him here could help me with that?

A Lawful Good character could prove a challenge as I’m more used to ones willing to break a law if it can be justified, but at least he’s not a complete killjoy like other Paladins I’ve heard about. Seeing how he prays to Bahamut and swore the Oath of the Ancients he’s a bit more lenient in what he will allow his group to do - something my group btw tends to push to it’s limits quite often...

Tsuzurao/Ninetales (Okami)

I’ve long since been pondering an Okami muse and had many on my list: Waka, Issun, Oki... - all great choices, so who to pick? It’s difficult to name a muse out of these three, so I felt conflicted. Then I thought about Rao - and realized something:

If I played her, then I essentially got three muses for the price of one.

I can play her as the true Rao, the devoted, humble priestess, I can play her as the Rao we get to know, Tsuzurao with her sometimes unintentional sex appeal and sinister scheming, and I can play her as Ninetales, who was imo the most interesting of the bosses - Quite a nice package if I say so!

I’d probably need to get back deeper into the game again for that to work out though, and then there’s also the question whether I could do all three of them justice - I don’t exactly have a stellar rep sheet when it comes to female muses I’m afraid...

Louisoix Leveilleur (FF XIV)

I’ve always been fascinated by him and his wisdom, as well as his prophecies, and truth be told he is a big part of the reason I regret not having played in Legacy where we could really interact with him and learn about him. I feel he’s an interesting muse, even more so now following his fate after Carteneau, and I’m sure there’d be people interested in him.

But do I really know enough about him to play him well? Would I be able to amass that knowledge needed to fill his shoes? And how would he fit in with other XIV muses, given his status in the game’s current story? All questions I’d need to find answers to...

Ryudo (Grandia 2)

The sassy swordsman running from his past but with a heart of gold deep down somewhere is an interesting one. He could be fun to toss at muses who are a bit on the naive side, just as much as he could be fun to throw against the more fighty muses. And he certainly can hold his own in battle, no doubt.

At the same time, his fandom is small and all but forgotten. Tell me: How many of you even know who he is and what he looks like without looking him up? Grandia 2 was a big thing in 2000 but then got gradually forgotten - a pity, for it’s an interesting game. But yeah, might be hard to find people interested in him.

Master Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts series)

If there ever was a big bad with a convoluted plan, it’s him. And still, he manages to have so much style in his original incarnation! Maybe it’s Leonard Nimoy’s voice that sells him. Either way, he is an interesting character. Always a step ahead of the others, using them as puppets for his schemes... - would be quite the interesting change.

But would I even be able to play a bad guy like him? I mean, even as someone who played all parts multiple times I find it hard at times to follow his schemes, how am I supposed to be the one scheming them? And I have a feeling he might not be that popular a muse to interact with, simply because he’s an old grumpy evil mastermind...

Tamiyo (Magic: The Gathering)

I’ve been a fan of Magic for a long time. I have a deck from the first german printed run still, that my math teacher gifted me before I left her class for gymnasium, I like to follow the story and read up on what happened before I really got into it, and I am excited for the upcoming stuff. Amonkhet looks so sweet!

But the one plane that always stuck with me is councidntally also the first one I really got invested in: Kamigawa. I just loved the flavor of it, how it felt, the mythology it created - ah, I wish we would return there one day! And maybe get a Nazumi planeswalker? No? Aww... was worth the try.

Anyhow, Tamiyo as the Planeswalker from Kamigawa always fascinated me. As a scholar and researcher she fits in with what I am familiar with from Sceada, and the way her magic works is simply amazing. Using stories you collected as the catalysts for your spells? You just became the most amazing storyteller of the Multiverse, hands down.

Question is just, would I do her justice? And would a MTG muse even find people interested in her? Also, how’d I handle all these stories best?

Count Cidolfus Orlandeau (FF Tactics)

Again one that you can blame on the number of FFT muses suddenly on my dash, but really... Where have you all been? xD I always loved Tactics, and daresay it’s in my Top 5 FFs, and there were just so many impressive and interesting characters in it.

I’d probably go with Thunder God Cid should I pick a Tactics muse up, in part because I’m already used to playing badass swordsman that are practically unrivaled in their game (Hi Kamiizumi, how’ve you been?), so it seems fitting.

I’d definitely need to replay the game and read it’s lore though - Tactics can get quite complex after all. And opposed to us who learn things from Ramza’s perspective, I’d have to think about how much Cid could have known at any given point in the story... - but it’d definitely be interesting. I just hope I wouldn’t be perceived as being too overpowered...

Altenatively, I have also considered adding a One Piece verse to Sceada. He could easily be a rat mink who dresses a bit oddly, knows electro and is a capable physical fighter as opposed to a mage. And who knows? Maybe he could just stumble across the reborn Yuki-Yuki no Mi...

Question is just, if any One Piece muses would even be open to playing with him... Hrmmm...

[yi-dashi-a]

//P-P-P-P-Post DnD drabbles? I suppose it is also a public transport drabble by extension. Yi parents fluff, the ‘it took me a long time to write this while i wrote all the events that came after instead’ edition.The incident that basically is lowkey responsible for Wuju’s death is entailed next time though! I am excite to post it, since it’s literally already written.

  For now, this. If you lack some context, as always check out the hobby project tag pft

Her roof had never felt so mottled with noticeable detail, but she figured that’s what happened when you stared at something for so long. She’d long gotten past the point of replaying the situation in her mind. Now she was just staring, hoping that sense would come if she just thought on it hard enough.

“Idiot…” the Mage found herself mumbling to the fixtures that lay over her head, “Idiot, idiot, idiot…”

Was she talking about him, or herself? It must have been her, because after all this consideration she didn’t have it in her heart to think of him poorly. Even if he’d near been unfaithful, though under other circumstances she might not have cared if he’d spirited off with another woman. He could have handled it all better, yet she knew him to be just a sad, human man with a weight tied to the scars of his back.

“He’d die before anything else…” She said to the wooden struts, “Why? There are other ways.”

The thought of someone being so low, so without hope, was almost something that started her tears up again. She couldn’t picture him in her mind like that. He was happy here. She was happy when he was here. Was it all a lie, then? Was she not as good at reading his features as she thought? She rolled over into her bedding, growing tired of the roof judging her. It all went around and around in circles in her mind, because she knew she was merely avoiding the questions that mattered.

He’s asking me to go with him. Are his ideas even sound?

But then she frowned. It wasn’t about him; the sad, stupid man. It was about her. She reconsidered the question.

Do I want to go with him, or do I not? Do I trust him when he tells me this is a cause worth dying for, or don’t I?

Of course it was still centered around the man, but it at least gave her some pause in her headache to rephrase things. Was it worth it for her? Was it worth it to pack up for a week or so and run off with the man? That then, almost in a way that surprised her, rephrased the question again.

How much is he worth to me? How much would my life suffer if he wasn’t here? if I did not disrupt my life for just a week or so?

She was so selfish and naive, or so she screamed at herself in that moment, but it was almost as if she had to be to get through this. The roof’s critical stare was back upon her once more, chastising her for her glassy eyes and pained expression. To think this was all but a consideration of worth, beyond all these emotions that boiled under her skin. He had asked for her arm and her leg.

Was it worth it to give it to him?

“He… is worth… everything.” She choked out the words, the woman who had left him just hours before now also in protest to her conclusions, “He is… just human, and I would suffer. I’d suffer more than now. I can scream at him when he’s safe.”

But as simply as answers came, so simply did the implications compound. The word everything was as intense as it was all encompassing, and she believed it without a doubt. Everything. She’d only barely tasted the woe that would wrack her form at the thought of him being stolen from her, and it was more bitter than she could stomach. She’d taken for granted everything, or so she’d tell herself as she flew about her quarters, almost tripping against wobbly legs.

It was a frenzy of different goals at play in her mind, and she was hardly present to complete them. But she’d made her mind up. She was changing clothes, wearing layers to transport them on her person. She was penning a letter without even realizing what she was scribbling to parchment. Something about the direness of the situation, how people would die without action, and how someone should investigate if she wasn’t back after a week or two.

Perhaps something about keeping her position as a mystic too, though it was but a postscript note. No one here had ever made an attempt to make the questions she’d answered difficult anyway. Not at least in a way she respected. Perhaps there were children to consider, but they weren’t exactly her friends. Truly she had made up her mind.

“And if he is not worth… everything.” She hissed through her strain to stay her weeping, “… I’ll know it after this ordeal. I’ll learn something of me. This is about me.”

She’d say it, though she wondered how much of it she’d believe. It wasn’t to matter though. She was already flying away from the school, not thinking to even pay it one last look or care.

As her adrenaline from her epiphany wore off however, she almost felt embarrassed for her previous night’s self as she approached the place the Wuju Master was staying. The lodging was clearly much more… derelict in the light of the day than it was under moonlight. And she’d spent the night crying, making love, and screaming within its overly rustic logs? She made an effort not to dwell on that too long, especially when she noted a familiar tanned arm hanging out a window with broken slats. In his hand was a long sort of pipe, and a puff of smoke exited from an unseen mouth.

“… I didn’t know you smoked, Chao.” She said, trying to offer it like a joke. She had to at least make it a joke to her. Suddenly she was thinking about all the millions of things she didn’t know about the man. To her surprise there was no jolt or reaction from his part though. He just seemed to poke his eyes out of the broken window, and on his sigh another puff exited his lips.

“Only when I need to calm down.” He replied softly, “Or when I feel like I have nothing to lose.”

“Nothing mind altering, I hope?”

“Oh no.” He managed to huff a laugh, “I am certainly not my great grandfather. My mind does not stomach the likes of poppies well. People report ghostly activities if I indulge. Never again after the first time. I make the effort to invest in things that are worse for me from across the sea. Tobacco, they call it. It’s the one comfort I am tolerated…”

“Well…” She all but bit through her lip, “I’m coming inside, regardless of what you are smoking.”

So she bustled along, past the keeper of the house who grumbled something at her about missing gemstones. She cared so little for his easily exploitable ways, and beyond a thick curtain she found the one who had stained permanent rashes down her cheeks. He’d made an effort to don undergarments at least, but his robes were still strewn upon the floor. The only source of light was through the window he basically hung out of, which made for an interesting effect when the embers of his pipe would catch any dimly lit part of his bare chest.

“… How are you, Chao?” Was the only thing she could conjure to open with, “Are you feeling any better?”

“How are you is the question that should be asked…” He mumbled out the window, “How I am isn’t the issue. I assume you don’t smoke, but…” So offhandedly did he offer her his pipe, though she immediately rose a hand and shook her head, “… Yes. I thought so. This is expensive, anyway. Not that I’m not of a mind to share.”

“… I think I’m okay though, thank you.” She replied, cocking her head to one side, “Though… please answer my questions too.”

“I don’t know, Huan.” He let out his latest breath of poison in the room as he turned to her, almost exclusively exhaling through his nose, “I’m not sure what happens after you tell your beloved you are to kill yourself without their help. That was a wholly unfair pronouncement on my part, not even considering all the other things I’ve said and done...”

“It’s only unfair if it wasn’t true, Chao.” She inched closer to him, as if she expected him to bite her from the other side of the room, “Though I would take that unfairness so long as it meant a soul wasn’t going to leave for the Stars.”

“It…” He paused, and she almost wanted to snap that dumb pipe in two for the amount of time he spent focused on it, “… It’s only true when I talk about it, if that makes sense. Only true when it enters my mind. I’d like to think I’m better than that… but I haven’t lied. I’m scared, confused, and you’ve heard my only idea.”

“I have, and…”

“And..?”

Was it spiteful that she left him hanging on a breath? That she waited to splutter on his pipe after he held it in for too long? Maybe it was doubt, despite all the thoughts she’d put into all this? No. It had to be just nerves.

I am scared and confused too.

“If you expect me to go anywhere with you as you are...” She began, bringing herself to his side, “... I will not be the kidnapped bride of a man with no robes.”

“Huan—” He wanted to jump into her embrace, but she made herself inaccessible to him with a firm hand on his chest. This time he was at least quick to take the gesture to heart, and his muscles notably laxed under her palm, “… Thank you. Thank you for even hearing me on this stupid idea.”

“If it’s a stupid idea, then I want no part in it.”

“W-Wait! No. I—”

“—Just collect yourself, Chao. Do so before I change my mind.”

“Okay.” Another quick puff, for good measure it seemed, “… By rite, this should work. Wuju Masters are old people. My Master is over three-hundred years old. If anyone respects old rites, then it will be he and those around him he has fostered in a village stuck in time. All I need to do is present you rightly, as if I’d kidnapped you from your home, and then… I am saved, and you can go home.”

“It surely cannot be this easy.” Though as if to comfort him against her assertions, she began to preen him again. She bundled up his hair as he spoke, combing it through her fingers and twisting it up into a self sustaining bun,

“It would not be under normal circumstances. It is not as if I have had to defeat an enemy army in order to spirit you away. That is why it’s perfect, and… and I respect your right to not keep to this plan once it’s through.”

“Put your clothes on, Chao.”

“Right!” Though the dumb man was just as absent from his mind as she was it seemed. He tried to thread his various limbs through cloth while still grasping his pipe, and it was only when she snatched it away from him did he even seem to notice, “… My horse is stabled not far from here. Do you need time to prepare?”

“Just take me now, Chao.” She said with a hint of ire, “No delays. I feel my mind could switch at any moment.”

“I love you, Huan…”

She didn’t respond, merely coddling the world in the warmth of her heart to ensure it wouldn’t lose its effect just yet.