#and I think that's something I want to really make possible with orcs rpg. there's still very much a story

[orcboxer]

Did I just spend 3 hours putting restaurants into orcs rpg? Yes. Was it worth it? More than you could even imagine.

[quirkwizard]

So recently I have been on a huge tabletop RPG kick so I thought it would be fun to talk about Class 1-A playing their own tabletop game, both the characters they'd play and how they'd be as players. For the sake of this, I will be writing in the context of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition since that's the system myself and others would be the most familiar with.

Rikido Sato: Half Orc Life Cleric Doesn't really get the game too much. Tends to forget the rules a lot and his own abilities. Just kind of picked a class at random. Is the king of bringing snacks and the like, all of which are homemade.

Mashirao Ojiro: Wood Elf Open Hand Monk Pretty average in all respects as a player. Not too remarkable in all respects. Doesn't realized how bad the monk is until they started playing, but is too attached to the character and their concept.

Koji Koda: Firbolg Shepard Druid Is only really here to hang out with his friends. Too shy to really do any roleplay with the rest of the gang, mostly doing small moments with his animals friends. Accidently made an overpowered build.

Minoru Mineta: Dhampir Phantom Rogue Knows the rules, but is a power gamer. Uses the game more as a power fantasy to look as cool as possible at all times, even if it is dumb, though will quickly panic if anything goes slightly wrong.

Hanta Sero: Gith Horizon Walker Ranger Really interested in all the lore and history of whatever the dungeon master came up with. The kind that dungeon masters either love or dread. Is the one constantly asking question and cracking the odd joke about it.

Toru Hagakure: Changeling Arcane Trickster Rogue Super big into the roleplay of it all and is always excited. Mostly took Changeling so she'd have the excess to play as many roles as possible. Probably makes little masks to remind people who she currently is.

Yuga Aoyama: Aasimar Glory Paladin Is insanely devoted to the role of the noble paladin, much to the detriment of everyone else. Likely says the line "But it's what my character would do more then any other player. Constantly hints at a backstory that nobody is biting on.

Mezo Shoji: Hobgoblin Gloomstalker Ranger Not the biggest into roleplay, does fairly well with the actual gameplay. Plays the typically reserved ranged. Tried to tie his and Koda's backstory together to try and take some of the stress off of him in terms of roleplaying.

Kyoka Jiro: Half Elf Whispers Bard Wasn't really sure about all of this before play and went with a bard because she liked the idea of playing music. It was a rocky start, but quickly got into it and started having fun. Will make custom songs and playlists for the party, as well ambient tracks and battle music.

Denki Kaminari: Air Genesi Storm Sorcerer Wanted to try it out because it was popular. Went with something he thought was cool and did not expect it to be so complicated. Needs to be constantly handed the book and remined of the rules in order to make sure he gets it. The amount of math hurts his head. Eijiro Kirishima: Goliath Giant Barbarian Like Denki, wanted to get into because it was popular. Bakugou helped a lot with building the character. Has a lot of fun smashing stuff. Plays his role pretty well, even if his character doesn't go beyond the nice brute whose name is very close to Kirishima's own.

Mina Ashido: Satyr Glamour Bard One of the students the most into the roleplaying. Is very light hearted and goofy about the whole thing. Can play a lot in bard stereotypes because she thinks it's funny. Another instigator, though mostly from her getting too into character at the worst of times. Fumikage Tokoyami: Tiefling Fiend Warlock Has been playing the game the longest and super familiar with all of it. Always makes characters he thinks are "cool", which means are super gothic and depress, both in class and in race. Does occasionally have Dark Shadow dress up and roleplay as his patron. Ochako Uraraka: Fairy Zealot Barbarian Ochako just wants to smash stuff. She has a lot of fun rolling dice and doing cool stuff with her friends, both good and bad. Likes playing the typically pixie before going nuts. Can be an instigator, but tends to backtrack when she realizes just how badly it goes wrong. Tsuyu Asui: Halfling Moon Druid Like Koda, is mostly here to have fun with friends. Often plays mediator both in and out of character. Does a good job with roleplaying thanks to how much she had to play pretend with her simplies. Always causes a riot whenever she becomes a dinosaur. Shoto Todoroki: Hill Dwarf Fighter Champion One of the worst players both in game and in roleplay. Played a character Izuku basically made for him. Is somehow still one of the best because he is constantly getting amazing rolls at the most critical moments, much to the frustration of Bakugou.

Katsuki Bakugo: Custom Lineage Chronurgy Wizard Powergamer, no question. He knows the rules back and forth to make the most broken build possible. Acts like D&D is a game you can win, even when it comes to roleplaying. Not a full on murder hobo, but by far the biggest instigator in the group.

Tenya Iida: Warforged Devotion Paladin Very much devoted to the rules, both in and out of the game. Gets confused when people say that he's doing a good job at playing a robot. Collects a lot of dice. One of the best Dungeon Masters of any of the students, though can be rather controlling at times. Momo Yaoyorozu: High Elf Forge Cleric A really good player with the rules though can be pretty awkward with the roleplay with how much she tries to get into it. One of the best DMs in the class. Makes custom miniatures for everyone in the party. Puts a lot of money to make the ultimate game room. Izuku Midoriya: Variant Human Bladesinging Wizard The perfect player. Knows the roles, but focuses more on making characters. Takes the most notes, pay attention, and makes sure everyone is having fun and feels included. Likely gets roped into the role of dungeon master more then anyone else because of these reasons.

[spectralscathath]

What would each Antares character play as in a tabletop RPG like Dungeons and Dragons? What races, classes and builds? Why? What does it say about them as a character?

now this IS a fun one. I'm gonna go with standard D&D because I know it well enough, though there is actually an in-universe dungeon-crawler tabletop RPG called Grimmlings & Grottos. But anyway! Let's do some breakdowns. Let's just set it tentatively at the beginning of the story, because what the characters might play at the end would be very different. But lets just stick with early days for now. I'm also gonna stick to the people, so far, who might currently have played in Ruby's hypothetical D&D game, so thats mostly her family and friend group. Beacon Era, even. Or else this would be VERY long.

First of all: Ruby is the DM. No question. She wants to tell stories, make homebrew stuff, and gets to play all of the monsters and NPCs. done deal. If she had to be a player at all she'd probably want to be something she can do a lot of fun roleplaying in, and also probably be really rules-lawyering and try to swing it all in her favour. Which makes me think that her go to is a Stout Halfling Dhampir (its a lineage that goes on top of a base race) as an Arcane Trickster Rogue or something ("yeah DM sneak attack is once per turn"). But yeah Ruby is the DM. As for why? She likes storytelling, and she likes having a measure of control over things around her, she's not ever been a 'go-with-the-flow' person, she thinks and plans and even as leader her worries were 'what if things get out of control and I can't handle that' rather than 'i'm too young for this'. And, well, Ruby is all about fairytales and grand adventures, what suits her better than making that grand adventure?

Which is to say: when the players go off script she gets grumpy about it. She'll roll with it but she'll complain. "Yang I gave you eight seperate story threads and you picked PIRACY? that wasn't one of them do you know how many crew member NPCs I have to roll up now?"

I like to think that canonically the Xiao Long-Rose-Branwen household has played at least one session with Ruby DMing and Yang instantly picked the highest damage output possible and built an Orc Barbarian (Path of the Beast). Backstory? What's that? "Her name's Ember and she's killed twenty people, lets go kill monsters'. I think this should be quite self-explanatory to Yang's beginning characterisation. She wants to skip ahead to the cool fight scenes where she can describe how badass her character is.

Taiyang and Qrow (they're mostly here to support Ruby's interests and don't actually get what's going on but they have a great attitude and Ruby's patient with them) both individually saw 'Bard' and Taiyang saw 'well that looks fun, I can make up lil rhymes' and Qrow saw 'I can be a sex, drugs, rock-and-roll guy that's the epitome of cool' and drummed up a bard duo called where one is an aging punk rocker Tiefling based on all Qrow's fav emo bands as a twenty-year-old and Taiyang saw 'gold dragonborn' and blacked out. They both picked College of Eloquence because it looked easiest. Not much to say about why beyond 'parental support and really trying to understand their kid's interests' which is why Tai is the best parent in Antares and why Qrow- well, sometimes he hits the mark.

Weiss has no fuckin clue what any of this is aside from 'nerd stuff for plebians that I suppose I must join for team building'. Basic first options on the list, human fighter, basic stats, doesn't really get into it for a couple of sessions but once she twigs that the dice is like a numbers game it really catches her interest and she starts looking into it more. She snags Eldritch Knight as her path for access to spells and ends up having a good time. Its a microcosm of Weiss's 'defrosting ice queen' plotline. Once she gets into to she gets into it.

Blake actually read the players handbook for more than half a second and decided she wanted to be creative and have a bit of fun while also quickly making the connection that the party was very tanky, so she decided to create a Water Genasi Sorcerer with the path of Lunar Sorcery, since she thought the options it had were fun and she absolutely did extra reading to decide. Mostly this ties into Blake's early character of, though not looking like it, actually genuinely really wanting to get along with her friends while also rediscovering her interests. She also decides to play an optimist, just to try and have that bit of escapism she so desperately wants. Oh- play as a Tabaxi? No, why do you ask?

Onto JNPR, Jaune has the distinction of Acutally Having Knowledge of This, he strikes me as a 'oh I love D&D podcasts I've always wanted to play it'. His dicerolls are, obviously, fucking horrendous at all times, but he ends up playing as a dwarf paladin, I think, good ol Oath of Devotion. He just wants to do a bit of wish fulfilment as a hero, but he doesn't really push it to the point of being a pure 'must follow all the rules' type of paladin roleplay. He just wants to enjoy having friends and mostly tries to keep things chill at the table.

Pyrrha has no idea what she's doing either but she's trying really hard even though she can't wrap her head around any of it. She picked a Cleric because it seemed nice, she could be the party healer. Life domain, Ruby threw her a softball and said 'that's the healing one' and Pyrrha went 'yep'. She just wants to be a normal girl who plays games with a friend group and also be useful in a way that will keep them from ditching her. Gotta please everyone, and healing- it's nice. Useful. They'll invite her more to play.

Nora wants to be a barbarian too, specifically a Goliath with path of Wild Magic for the chaos because she wants to try derail the campaign like she heard about, but Ruby plays favourites with her sister and tells her to pick a new one so Nora goes sulking through the book again for something else, sees the words 'blood' and 'hunter' next to each other, and goes feral. Order of the Lycan is an instant follow-up. Race? Oh- yeah, still a Goliath. Nora just wants to fuck shit up and be with her friends, there's no underlying deeper character issues. Possibly height envy, maybe.

Ren, similarly to Blake, reads the handbook cover to cover, does his own research, and gets super into the idea of Roleplaying as well. However, he goes full 'how dark can I get away with' and creates a warlock, specifically with a Great Old One as patron. A haunted man, troubled by shadows and loss of the past long before being cursed with a treacherous deal that leads to the nightmares and madness of the present, desperately struggling to hold onto sanity as their patron eats a piece of their mind with every spell he casts. Yanno, standard Lovecraftian horror. Ren's really trying to be dramatic and hoping for a tragic end, where his character is twisted into the secret main villain, and Ruby thinks that would be really cool and is pushing for it if only the rest of the campaign wasn't trying to power of friendship this. Ren's just trying to lowkey work through some stuff, it's fine. It's totally fine. Oh- and he picked Pact of the Tome, he wants more cantrips.

Sun got invited along and was like 'gnome ranger lets fuckin go'. Epitome of 'holy shit I can have a pet dinosaur this game RULES' as a player. Mostly coasting on dice luck but can pull out one HELL of a bit of roleplay when he wants to. It's beautiful. He really wishes this campaign could go on forever, it's easier when the bad guys are just figurines on a table.

Penny is ready and waiting to play but she never gets the chance to join a session. Her schedule just doesn't line up, unfortunately. And she hasn't decided her class- she'll see what everyone else needs for an effective party balance first and then she'll pick one. So she doesn't get to pick a subclass. But she'd really like to give it a try if she could! She'd play a standard human character. No there's no other meaning in her wanting to be a human character when she could be something way more interesting, not at all.

Ruby offered to Sun to bring Emerald along for a session but Emerald said no. F in the chat for Emerald (one day).

[sigmasupreme]

On removing character Limitations in OD&D and other OSR Games

I intend to try and run either OD&D or an OSR game in the future (probably OSE).

One thing I will discuss with my players is how we feel about difference races being restricted to certain classes.

One of the things you see in OD&D is stuff like this:

Where Dwarves, Elves and Halflings can’t pick from the same class list as humans can. OD&D doesn’t really do a good job of telling you why. There are reasons, both mechanical and embedded in the lore.

As far as I know, the lore reasons for why a dwarf can’t become a cleric are explained in the AD&D monsteer manual. Under the entry for Dwarf.

Right there.

Dwarven clerics are 2 in 200 according to the default “world” you get in AD&D. 1% of 200 dwarves. They’re really rare, which is meant to tell you that the characters you play as are not the 1% of all characters, but the 99%, just average people.

There’s also a mechanical reason, but it’s not really what’s stated as what is not stated.

Humans get no apparent bonus in all editions of D&D prior to 3e.

Except they do.

The human bonus is the ability to choose from all the different classes available without level limits.

So as soon as you enable a dwarf cleric, you make the human cleric a little worse.

Who cares though?

This is an RPG, of course we can work around that. These limits can be completely lifted and I think all groups should discuss the removal of these limitations.

You only have to do one thing to make it possible, and we see examples of this in OSE and BFRPG.

OSE simply gives the human character an optional bonus.

BFRPG gives humans a 10% bonus to all earned XP.

(Note: BFRPG has this rule even while restricting dwarves and halflings from being magic-users so perhaps an additional bonus could be added on top of this)

I still think that simply offering any small bonus such as extra HP or XP is enough to then open the gates for a character of any race to be of any class.

Optionally, you might also extend the rules in AD&D where level limits for certain races were extended based on the attributes.

For example, you might only allow dwarves with a high intelligence to be magic-users (they’re probably going to need it anyway).

There’s many ways for this to be done and I think any way is better than telling a player who comes to your table that “sorry you can’t play a half-orc magic-user”.

Lifting the requirements is also a blessing for GMs because you can actually start making a world with different elements than the default that has been provided to you.

That said, some players may be fine with these limitations, but it’s up to the group, and it’s something I would always want to discuss in a session 0 environment. Every group will have a different idea of how to give humans a small bonus or to abide by those limitations.

[jeff-from-marketing]

Wow so uh, some shit has been going down in the TTRPG space lately. I didn’t exactly intend for this to become a TTRPG blog, but oh well that’s what brain has decided and I’m not one to argue against it. Wouldn’t go well anyway.

I do however want to talk about “holy shit Paizo are absolute fucking mad lads and I respect the shit out of them.”

Let me get one thing clear: I trust any company about as far as I can throw them. Often times, if given the chance and the choice, most companies will gladly stab you in the back if it means a few extra coins in their pocket. Hell, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro have shown that perfectly fine this month and a bit. But I would also be lying if I said I didn’t have trust in Paizo, because as far as I have seen and as far as I can tell, they do basically everything right and everything I could ever hope for in the TTRPG space.

Everything a player needs to play the game is available for free by Paizo on sources like Archives of Nethys, which reduces the barrier of entry to basically nothing and heavily encourages the “try before you buy” mentality that more of every industry needs to adopt more of. They have really solid and respectful representation of so many people across so many different walks of life, as well as do a lot to actually look after their players and ensure that everyone has a good time. Hell they even became a union without a fight. And this is to say nothing of their community outreach, how well they encourage third party creators to make stuff, the actual quality of their works, etc. etc. If anything my biggest complaint is that it’s hard to find their books in local game stores, which isn’t really much of a complaint.

But the announcement of the ORC? Holy shit. I was not expecting that. 

I was absolutely expecting Paizo to have something in their back pocket. A “break glass in case of Wizards of the Coast” plan if you will. Something to ensure that they can stay afloat, and maybe even fight WotC in court or something. Comments they’ve made in the past have suggested such things anyway. Paizo did that and so much more. Seriously I cannot do the whole thing enough justice, I really recommend reading it for yourself. The fact that Paizo have effectively said “we waited for your response Wizards, we were there when the original OGL was forged, we have not forgotten. So we’re making our own OGL, with blackjack and hookers” and came out with the Open RPG Creative License (or ORC License, which I just find is a delightful name). Then in that same post, openly and publicly stating that they are ready to legally fight Wizards of the Coast is one hell of a move. Not to mention the not insignificant number of other sizeable members that are behind the creation of this new ORC, and Paizo’s plan to not own the license so there’s no chance of history repeating itself. It’s as if Paizo saw everything that’s happening now, and was like “right, make this even more watertight and so that none of this can ever happen to it.” 

I gotta say, I respect the fuck out of Paizo for that. The absolute audacity to slap down Wizards, come out with their own license with blackjack and hookers, and futurerpoof to ensure this can’t happen again. 

The question now is simply: where does this leave Wizards of the Coast? 

Now I’ll admit, I’m no legal or marketing expert... ignore the Tumblr handle real quick. But I can’t see this possibly ending well for them, at least not with the D&D division. This whole situation has caused the biggest backlash I think I have ever seen to something like this. Such is the case that several major news outlets and even non-TTRPG based content creators such as Linus Tech Tips or Moist Critical are covering this and going “my dude, what are you doing?” Coupled with the backlash being such that they’ve had to completely cancel announcements relating to the OGL, and now the campaign to mass unsubscribe from services like D&D Beyond...

Thing is, even if they do in fact perform a 180 and cancel all OGL 1.1 plans, that’s still a net loss for Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. They’ve shown their hand now, they’ve shown that they are a bad faith actor that cannot be trusted, so why would anyone willingly enter any deal with them? Why would anyone trust that they won’t continue trying to undermine the OGL? And now with the ORC, why would anyone not go for that instead? Even if this somehow does result in some short term monetary gain for Wizards, they’ve lost the one resource that is incredibly difficult to renew: good will. A resource that Paizo and other companies are now drowning in. That can only do harm to D&D in the long term. Leaks show that they’re banking on the community just simply forgetting and moving on. Were this the gaming industry, I’d say that’s a safe bet. This isn’t the gaming industry. I’ve found that people in the TTRPG space have long memories and harbour deep grudges. This is certainly something that’s going in The Book.

Personally? I’m excited for the whole thing. I’ve been saying for a while that D&D’s soft monopoly is hard to beat; that the brand name of Dungeons & Dragons is incredibly powerful and often analogous with TTRPGs themselves. But they may have just undone that monopoly themselves. I don’t expect D&D to just shrivel up and die, it’s still a very big name after all. I do, however, expect other systems to gain a surge of popularity following recent events, and that much is even already starting to happen. I do hope that other systems will get the light of day they deserve, and that it’ll now be easier to convince those new to the hobby to try other systems. 

With this latest announcement, I think the future is starting to look quite bright for TTRPGs. 

[mylordshesacactus]

Goals Only Matter In Soccer

A recurring theme I hear from people struggling to “figure out” roleplaying is that they feel their characters are flat, uninteresting, or that they’re otherwise bad at character creation because their characters don’t have “goals.” Or, as the flip side of that coin, that they themselves are bad roleplayers because they either can’t remember their characters’ goals, or can’t/don’t enjoy actually roleplaying those goals.

(A short break for shameless self-promotion: If you want some one-on-one assistance with character creation or are struggling to roleplay, I do one-hour consult sessions to give you specific help in tapping into your RPG character. You get tailored guidance with no attempts to tell you what you “should” do, and I get to ethically keep my therapeutic interviewing skills from getting rusty while in grad school limbo. Everyone wins!)

This is getting a bit esoteric. Let’s use some concrete examples.

Some common “goals” might be: A wizard whose goal is to become more powerful or gain a certain form of knowledge, a noble-born character whose goal is to restore their family’s name or wealth, or the evergreen goal of avenging a great wrong like the death of a loved one.

These are all great character goals! There is nothing wrong with having a character with a clear goal they work toward over the course of the game, and making a character with a clear goal is a great way to get started with roleplaying! 

But it is only one method. And it’s not always appropriate.

I’m about to blow your damn mind: Characters don’t need goals. 

The idea that a well-rounded character should always have a “goal” is pervasive, and honestly harmful to good character creation and roleplaying! And it’s even more difficult to overcome because if you look for roleplaying or character-building advice, “give them a goal” is generally one of the first bullet points. This is well-meaning, and it’s not bad advice. But if it leaves you feeling like your character is incomplete because they don’t have A Goal—or worse, feeling obligated to tack on a “goal” and struggle to prioritize it in roleplay—then it’s not helpful.

Characters do not need “goals”.

But all characters need motivations.

As usual, I’m going to use my own characters as an example so you don’t feel like I’m lecturing you. I think I only have one major D&D character who could be stated to have a “goal”--my halfling druid/fighter, who wants to repay her debt to the Circle so that she can make a clean and respectful break and live her own life without guilt. 

But the others? Benny (Benevolence, but only her mom calls her that), my tiefling bard, doesn’t have a “goal” she works toward; in all honesty, her goal was her pre-campaign life. She likes being a travelling musician, she wants to perform and meet people across the continent! Rinda, my dwarven paladin, has five kids at home--her nieces and nephews, who she adopted after her sister’s tragic death in a mine collapse. She’s got no career ambition because she feels that chasing rank or prestige is inappropriate in a paladin, whose priority should be ordinary people and who needs to be accessible and grounded in the reality of the common folk. Her “goal” is to just keep being an honorable, mid-rank paladin and providing for her family.

That’s not remotely helpful in a tabletop RPG! Those are terrible “goals” for a character in a team-based game! If I followed general beginner RP advice and leaned into those goals, I’d end up that dreaded monstrosity, the player who says things like “but why would my character get involved? She would just let the town guard handle it”.

However, these characters’ motivations are a different story.

Benny doesn’t set out with the goal of becoming a hero; it’s not something she consciously works toward or considers a major aspiration. But she is responsible for what she allows, and at her core, Benevolence was well-named. She was raised by loving parents who taught her how to raise working animals and livestock ethically and with compassion, and who taught her the regret that comes of making selfish decisions. Helping others and minimizing suffering isn’t her life goal. She didn’t set out from home with a dream of being better than her parents, of putting good into the world instead of just mitigating the bad...but sometimes people really do just help others because it’s the right thing to do. 

Rinda? Her driving purpose will always be her family. Caring for them is her goal, the thing she intentionally prioritizes, the thing she actively works for. But her motivations are not the same thing. Yes, she wants to stay close to take care of her kids...but her responsibilities as a paladin are important to. She’s a protector who swore an oath, and her children are not more important than children in the next city over who will suffer without her intervention. Her motivation is to make people feel safe, but that’s not really a traditional “goal”. And she’s a stronger character for that!

So: Motivations > Goals. 

Which does NOT mean that your character shouldn’t have a concrete goal! That’s not what I’m saying at all. Rather...if your character has a concrete goal, arising naturally from their backstory, and you struggle to roleplay that goal, it may be because you’re not tapping into why your character has that goal in the first place. Are they seeking power because they’re terrified of a specific enemy? To prove a detractor or an abuser wrong? In order to accomplish a specific task--and in that case, who or what made them believe that task was important? Why is your rogue trying to avenge the death of his sister--and you can’t say “love” or “grief”. Many people have lose loved ones; what made this specific person decide that the only way forward was murder, and that his target(s) were responsible, and that he personally had to dedicate his life to killing them?

(This course of questioning may lead you to realize that you don’t have an answer. If that happens, ask yourself--is this a realization that your CHARACTER might have? That they don’t know why they’re doing this? Follow that thread! If not, it’s possible that you’ve tacked on an artificial “goal” for the sake of having one, and your character would be stronger without that anchor weighing them down.)

Sedge, that druid/fighter from earlier--her goal is to repay a massive debt so that she can be free of the Circle’s influence and live her own life. But her motivation? A mixture of shame and honor. The Circle saved her from a lot of predatory loans from bad people, rescued her, saved her life. She’s embarrassed at ending up so deep in debt and too proud to not repay that kind of kindness, but also feels a genuine gratitude for their kindness toward a total stranger. She wants to do right by them--but hates being a druid--but has always wanted to be the kind of hero who helps others exactly as selflessly as they did. 

It creates a lot of in-depth roleplay possibilities that wouldn’t exist if I’d just left that goal as simple as “acquire X amount of gold to pay off her student loans” and proceeded to play Sedge as simply money-obsessed.

Even if your character does have a clear goal, their motivations can change and come into conflict with it! A heroic character with debts to repay might easily refuse a huge payday if it requires them to do something shady...but they might not. How desperate are they? A wizard whose goal is to unlock the power to cast Wish might see a path to that goal...but pursuing it would mean abandoning a helpless village in the path of an orc army, and if she stays to defend that village, she loses her opportunity.

What wins out, in the end? And what effect will that choice have on her psyche?

Suddenly it really, really matters why she’s so dead-set on learning Wish. Whether it’s out of pride or fear (which might be easier for her to set aside in the face of innocent lives) or out of a deep-rooted belief that something absolutely essential rests on her learning this spell—something a lot harder to turn her back on.

These conflicts can occur with or without a “goal”. But, whether a character has a “goal” or not, these conflicts and intimate, pivotal character moments absolutely cannot exist in a character without motivations.

[quasitsqueeries]

Yngvild and using game mechanics to tell a character's story

This is Yngvild. She’s my barbarian who I play in a Storm King’s Thunder Campaign and I love her. She’s Uthgardt, which is to say I used the Uthgardt Tribe Member background from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s guide. That’s had some interesting consequences in this campaign, because the Uthgardt feature pretty heavily in Storm King’s Thunder, and not always in positive ways. She’s had to face some difficult questions about how to be a “good” Uthgardt. At first I just really enjoyed playing a character who embodied raw physicality but she’s slowly become someone who’s a bit more considered about what the Uthgardt religion demands of her and, well, what is best in life.

She’s not Conan.

I’m really interested in the idea of using game mechanics to tell your character’s story. The Dungeon Master’s Guide has this list of types of players that sort of differentiates between people who like instigating, acting and storytelling on the one hand, and people who like fighting and optimising on the other (also people who like exploring and problem solving). I think in 5e Wizards of the Coast have been trying to get D&D away from being as combat heavy and as rules heavy as it has been, but those elements are still really strong. I think most players are still going to spend a lot of time in combat and optimising their characters, no matter their prefered style, but here’s the thing, you’re still storytelling when you’re in combat. How your character approaches a fight, whether they throw themselves in harm’s way or stay away from the action, whether they focus on hurting the enemy or healing their allies or manipulating the flow of battle, all says something about their personality. Your character’s abilities communicate things about their personalities as well. Someone who does a lot of psychic damage or necrotic damage feels very different to someone who does a lot of radiant damage.

I grew up playing wargames, mostly the Warhammers and a bit of Malifaux. I wasn’t very good at them, despite having, I think, a pretty good understanding of the rules. I think my problem was that I was trying to build armies and crews to tell a story, which is a bad idea in a game where you’re competing against people who optimise. I probably should have started with role-playing, but here we are. I don’t think optimising in RPGs necessarily needs to be for combat effectiveness, I think it’s also possible to optimise for storytelling. It does take a particular willingness to get into the minutiae of the rules, you don’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the feats, sub-classes, weapons and backgrounds, but it can help to go through these and plan out character progression.

Anyway, back to Yngvild. I went with variant human because the Uthgardt are mostly humans (you might say all but there’s a half-orc Uthgardt in Neverwinter Nights, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). Variant human means I get a feat, I love feats! So I’m aware that great weapon master is very good, and is probably a must for someone who uses great weapons as often as Yngvild does. If I’d wanted to optimise for combat I should have taken the great weapon master feat. I took Athletic. The story that great weapon master tells is that this person is really good at hitting people with great weapons, maybe through rigorous training I guess? The story that athletic tells is that this person is so familiar with the environment, so comfortable moving around, that they’re basically unstoppable in any terrain. Yngvild dashes up cliffs and over obstacles without breaking her stride, she makes huge leaps without taking a run-up, and she jumps back to her feet after being knocked down, she feels much more like someone who grew up in the wild than great weapon master ever would have, and all of this gets played out in combat. Later I took tavern brawler, not because she spends a lot of time fighting in bars, but because I wanted her to be the kind of person who’s never unarmed and can turn anything into a weapon. This one rarely gets used except this one time she beat the crap out of a werewolf using silver coins jammed between her knuckles. So, what I mean by optimising for storytelling is that while taking great weapon master followed by +2 strength would probably have been more effective in combat, athletic and tavern brawler do a better job of conveying the image of someone who’s completely unstoppable, and that’s much more in keeping with Yngvild’s character. Great weapon master would be a really good feat to take for a character who has had lots of formal training with great weapons, but that’s not Yngvild.

I took the storm herald subclass because I liked the idea that she embodied the tempest, and it really felt like there was something elemental about her when lightning bolts started shooting out of her when she raged. Lately though, the encounters with other Uthgardt have been getting to her, she’s feeling the need to get right with her community, traditions and ancestors. Because my DM is awesome and is okay with me changing subclass, Yngvild is now being tested by the Uthgardt ancestors, if she passes she can change to the path of the ancestral guardian, but if she fails, then maybe it’s the path of the zealot. Whatever happens, we’ll get storytelling through mechanics.

See, it’s not just crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations. Communities are important too. Maybe Conan only says that because Thulsa Doom killed his family.

Building the most powerful and effective characters you can is a perfectly good way to play something like D&D, but if you instead want to focus on the storytelling then I recommend avoiding choosing subclasses and feats based on which ones make your character more powerful. Instead, when you choose a subclass, read ahead, see how the abilities you gain in future will contribute to the story you want to tell, read through all the feats, and the eldritch invocations if you’re playing a warlock, or the maneuvers if you’re playing a battle master, make a list of the ones that make your character feel more like the story you want to tell and take them in the order that they appeal to you. It might be that the story you want to tell is about someone who’s really effective at hitting things, and in that case, maybe the abilities that make your character more effective are the way to go. You might worry that if you want to tell a different story the other people at the table will feel like you’re not pulling your weight in combat, but I think mostly people come to role playing because they want a good story, not because they want to beat the enemies in the absolute minimum number of rounds.

[deck16]

False Dilemmas in RPGs

Overall I’m really enjoying Pathfinder: Kingmaker. I plan to write about that later.

But recently something happened in-game that annoyed me. And it’s a sin that many RPGs commit: the false dilemma.

(Mild spoilers for the game below.)

Trolls are causing trouble in the region, so my hearty band of adventurers sets out to investigate and stop the threat. As we draw near to the troll home, one of them approaches. The game narrates:

The troll makes a strange growl. You’re about to draw your weapons when it becomes evident that he was simply clearing his throat. “I meet borba and tell them: King Hargulka and King Tartuk ask that borba stay away from Trobold. It filthy, not pretty, and dangerous. We invite borba later. When kings allow.”

“Borba” meaning humans, dwarves, elves, etc.

On questioning, the troll claims his leaders are trying to stop the trolls from causing trouble. No more killing, no more eating people.

Okay. Now, these trolls can’t exactly be trusted, because so-called “King Tartuk” is a known trouble-maker. With that in mind, what’re the options?

Those are the dialogue options that aren’t just conversational. So: we can attack, or say we just want to investigate. That’s my trilemma (whittled down to a dilemma because I can’t choose the Lawful option).

I chose to “look around”. And my party members hated it.

Now on one hand this is good writing. It shows that even the upstanding so-called “good” characters harbour prejudices, in some cases from bitter past experiences. It makes you wonder if they’re the arseholes for outright rejecting a chance at peace, or if you’re the arsehole for being stupid enough to believe a troll. It’s adding some moral complexities while telling us a bit about the party members and the world at large.

What can my character say in response? Nothing. That’s the end of the conversation.

She’s either a psycho who murdered a peaceful troll, or a naive fool who trusted a monster. No middle ground. There’s no option to say, “Hey, I get what you’re all saying, but let’s find out more first.”

That in and of itself wouldn’t be so bad, but the game then backs that up with ushering you down the route of trespassing. The quest doesn’t change to say “find a way to sneak into Trobold” or “keep an eye on the area to see if the trolls stop acting violently”. The main quest continues to point unerringly into Trobold.

And when you do that, it’s considered trespassing. And just like the troll warned, you are attacked. You fight back and kill many trolls.

I get that developers can’t work in every possible option. But I’m actually happy with paying only lip-service to sensibility. Something like this lets me follow the plot without making me feel like I was too stupid to consider other options:

I hate to throw the trolls’ offer of peace back in their face. But we know their so-called “King Tartuk” too well. He is assuredly up to something. We have to go in there to stop him, even if the trolls are likely to fight us.

(Which is a hair’s breadth away from saying, “I think the trolls have WMDs”. But it’s better than nothing!)

I’ve not entered Trobold proper, yet, Just killed a small army at the gates. So I don’t know how this ultimately plays out. I’m certainly going to keep playing: this one annoyance is mild compared to the fun overall.

Tangent

All this, actually, ties in with a trend in RPGs where so-called “monstrous” races are tending to be treated more like actual people rather than unswervingly evil. Tolkien’s orcs were evil incarnate, deserving only of a swift death. Matt Mercer’s orcs are friendly members of the community. (Personally I don’t mind either approach, and would hate to see either one made verboten.)

A 1980′s gamer wouldn’t sweat killing trolls. But a 1980′s game probably wouldn’t have them try to talk peace (genuine or not).

[eljackinton]

Jack's End of Year Video Game Round-up.

There were many things I couldn't do this year, being in lockdown and all, which in turn meant I played a hell of a lot more video games than I normally do. Here's a quick rundown of what I thought of them.

Hitman 2

IO have sort of perfected the Hitman formula now, so future entries in the series simply have to ask the question of what new directions you can take that formula. In that regard Hitman 2 is a resounding success, setting sneaking and assassination in scenarios around the world from race tracks to holiday resorts, and thus making it the best entry yet. It's possible one day the Hitman conceit will wear thin, but today is not that day.

Thronebreaker

Most people will go into Thronebreaker just wanting a stand-alone version of the Gwent we played during Witcher 3. Thronebreaker is not that. Indeed, even beyond the changes to the mechanics brought in by the online version, Thronebreaker is more of a puzzle game which uses the mechanics of Gwent to concoct unique scenarios. Still, the story is pretty good and it is fun overall, even if it didn't end up scratching the itch left by Gwent.

Black Mesa (Xen)

I returned to Black Mesa after Xen was finally added, eager to see what the team had come up with. My feelings are complicated. The Xen portions of the game are really well designed, great to play and visually beautiful. However the levels hew so far from the Half-Life originals that it kind of stops feeling like Half-Life. I would have like to have seen a more faithful recreation to be honest.

Neon Struct

If you've been wanting a spiritual sequel to Thief that actually used the mechanics of Thief, here you go. Though low budget, and therefore having somewhat uninspiring visuals based on reused assets, it's still a really impressive game from what the team had to work with, and it's short enough that it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Acid Spy

I'm generally usually okay at stealth games but this one was well beyond my skill level. Got through the tutorial but just got frustrated and quit on the first mission.

Salting the Earth

A wonderfully put together visual novel about the legacy of war and the nature of national identities. Also you date buff orc women. One of the best VNs I've played, but it does have some pretty bleak potential endings that clash somewhat with the rest of the story's tone.

Hedon

Speaking of buff orc women, Hedon is a vivid, perfectly designed retro-shooter that really uses the most of it's engine to bring it's world to life, with shades of Thief and Strife thrown in there. Wears its hornieness on it's sleeve, but if you can roll with that you'll have nothing but a good time.

The Painscreek Killings

I really really loved this immersive narrative game, where you explore an abandoned town to piece together a series of suspicious deaths. My only gripes are the town looks very British despite being set in the US, and the final confrontation adding a chase scene felt a little over dramatic.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided

There are many problems with Mankind Divided. Trying to find another story to do with Adam Jensen. Making the game more of an open world by taking away the usual Deus Ex globe-trotting. The clumsy use of racial metaphor being applied to cyborgs. All in all the game just didn't really come together, which is a shame, because the DLC showed such promise, and hinted at the real Deus Ex game we could have had.

Warhammer Armageddon DLC

I managed to complete the Salamanders DLC and got stuck near the end of the Blood Angels one. All in all it's simply 'more' of what the base game offered, and I'm not sure it really needed it.

Unavowed

Easily one of the most interesting games I played this year. So good It inspired me to write a cheesy fanfic. Sure the mechanics of applying squad mechanics to a point and click are interesting, but it's the world, the art and the characters themselves that really make this game. Highly recommended.

Devil Daggers

The ultimate distillation of classic shooter mechanics. One platform, one weapon, endless enemies. I didn't get all that far into it and I think most people won't, but I'm not going to complain for the price. Overdue a revisit.

Dream Daddy

A fun and fluffy dating game that actually does a good job of putting you into the mindset of a recently bereaved bisexual dad. Come for the hunks, stay for the really affecting story of a strained relationship between father and daughter.

Greedfall

Greedfall falls short of the mark in most aspects, but I have to give it credit for being one of the few games to give us a Bioware companion-centric adventure during this drought of Bioware games. It lacks the zing of something like Dragon Age, and handles the subject of colonialism really problematically, but if you can get past those issues, it's a fun ride, and a world I'd like to revisit.

Endless Legend

I've been wanting a game to scratch the Alpha Centauri itch for decades now and Endless Legend finally did it. There is a risk of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of unique factions to play, and I know I still haven't really scratched the surface even after 4 full campaigns. Is that a criticism? I suppose it depends if you think you can have too much of a good thing.

Space Hulk Deathwing Enhanced Edition

A valiant effort was put in to make a faithful FPS of the Space Hulk experience, but ultimately it falls far too short. The visuals look great and the game-feel of stomping around as a Space Marine really works, but the game lacks charm and character. Up against Vermintide, there's no comparison.

Sunless Sea

This is a game that feels like a bottomless abyss of secrets and mysteries tied up in a very brutal one-life-only system. I really enjoyed my time with Sunless Seas, with the music calling me like a wailing siren every now and again, yet in many ways I did find it a bit too unforgiving, and it could have benefited from having a bit more of a progression between lives than the almost solid reset it leaves you with.

Age of Empires / 2 / 3 Definitive Editions

The first Age of Empires has an important place in history, but is borderline unplayable by today's standards. Almost every aspect was improved in 2 and going back now feels like trading a car for a horse and cart. It's clear that the game was intending your slow crawl out of the stone age through hunting and gathering to be part of the game in its own right, but today it's just tedious, and the rest of the game is just so slow.

There isn't much to say about Age of Empire 2 that I haven't already said, but I will point out that multiplayer AOE2 has kept me sane over the course of the lockdown, and I'm glad the Definitive Edition enhanced that experience.

Age of Empire 3 tried too hard to reinvent the wheel. Instead of taking 2 and building on it, it instead contorted it around a colonisation theme, and it didn't really work. On top of that, the mechanics really felt they were built more for single-player story missions. The maps are too small, and the expansion factions clash with the rules badly. Still, there is fun to be had, and I'll be checking out the campaigns next year.

Hand of Fate 2

This game takes the original Hand of Fate and adds way, way too much into it. While I appreciate the addition of companions, a longer story mode, and optional side missions, the game is far too experimental with it's formula, and leaves me struggling with complex missions around being lost in a desert or evading barbarian hordes, when all I wanted was a straight forward dungeon crawl. I tapped out two thirds of the way through the campaign.

Wild Guns Reloaded

I love the style and aesthetic, but I just don't have the reflexes (or the gamepad) for these fast paced arcade games.

Vermintide 2 Drakenfels

Fatshark gave us an entire Vermintide campaign for free this year, at the cost of having to be subjected to obnoxious cosmetic micro-tranactions. Hard to say it was worth the price, but Fatshark really do continue to improve, bringing new scope and ideas to every new mission. As good as it gets.

Pendula Swing

A fun little game that apes the visuals of a Baldur's Gate style RPG but the mechanics of a point and click adventure game set in a fantasy version of the roaring twenties. A strong introduction to it's setting but definitely needs building on if we're to see a continuation. A lot of the world-building feels too simple and half-baked at times, and the gameplay feels like too much is going on too fast. Still, a charming story though.

The Shiva / The Blackwell Series

At first I had no idea that Unavowed was connected to a host of other Wadget Eye adventure games, so naturally I had to check them out. I'd known about The Shiva and the Blackwell games for years, but never actually thought about picking them up. Playing them all back to back was a great experience, and almost felt like a prototype to the episodic storytelling many games do today.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light/Temple of Osiris

Guardian of Light is a fun, inventive co-op game for killing some time with a friend. The puzzles are often unique and interesting and get you thinking, and the story, while nothing fantastic, is fun enough to keep you interested and have a laugh about with your co-op partner in a B-Movie kind of way. Temple of Osiris adds way too much to the formula, with more characters, mechanics and more open exploration and it absolutely loses the charm of the first game, and even then it's buggy as hell. Skip the second one.

Command and Conquer Remastered

Big chunks of my childhood are taken up with memories of playing Command and Conquer and Red Alert, so it's difficult to really gauge my thoughts on the remaster. On the one hand the art direction looks great and preserves the feel of the original, and the quality of life improvements to the gameplay help make it more playable. The nostalgia hit is also palpable. That being said, the mechanics have not aged all that well, with much of the game being far, far too hard. Probably the best way to experience the genesis of the RTS genre but just know what you're getting in for.

Superhot Mind Control Delete

I wrote a lot at length about how unsure I was about Mind Control Delete at the time, and that's because it does feel a little unsure about itself. Is it a continuation of the first game? A fun bonus mode? A mediation on the nature of addiction? A critique of video game content? A joke on the player? I don't know, but I do know one thing, and that is that Superhot is still as addictive as hell.

Opus Magnum

Zachtronic's steampunk alchemy game requires far too much maths brain than I am capable of , and so I had to rely on guides a lot of the time, but that being said, it's still amazingly put together and vividly presented. Really feels like a game that could be used in schools.

Necromunda Underhive Wars (Story Mode)

I'll be checking out Underhive's Campaign mode in the new year, but for now I just want to talk about the story mode. Much like Mordheim, this is a game that's not going to work for everyone, but I really dug it and like it's unique take on a squad based TBS. However, in many respects the game does feel like a missed opportunity. The storyline is fun enough, and the arsenal robust, but much of the character of the tabletop game, the weird, chaotic, and sometimes comical things that can happen over the course of a battle seems to have been lost in translation, as has the quirky character to a lot of the gangs.  

Outer Wilds

There is little I can say about Outer Wilds that hasn't already been said by others, particularly that one should go into the game as blind as possible. A beautiful piece of interactive art, words would fail me in describing it anyway.

Life is Strange 2

Fantastically written, amazingly animated, wonderfully acted, and grim and depressing as all hell. I really love Life is Strange 2, but it it a tough game to bare witness to, especially in 2020. It treats it's subject matter with great maturity, but is so dark it's hard to motivate yourself to continue each gruelling episode. Also, I really think it would have fared better if it had not named itself Life is Strange 2, as not following Max and Chloe turned a lot of people away from a game I think they'd have otherwise enjoyed if they'd named it Wolf Brothers or something.

Half Life 2 / Episodes / Portal / 2/ Mel

After playing Black Mesa earlier this year I decided to revisit the entire Half Life 2 and Portal series. What I concluded is that Half Life 2 is not really all that good. A well told story wrapped around weak combat and average encounter design. This much improves across the episodes of course, but in the end I rather feel Half Life 2 is pretty overrated.

Portal, on the other hand, still feels fresh, though I was surprised I'd forgotten just how much was added in Portal 2, to the point Portal feels more like a game demo. That being said, I think the slowly growing mystery and menace of Portal has aged a lot better than the gagfest the series became with 2. Mel, a stand-alone mod that feels like could be a Portal 3 in it's own right, returns to a more serious tone, and feels all the stronger because of it.

Control

Control has gone from a game I didn't really care about all that much to one of my favourites of the year, if not the decade. Sure there are criticisms I could make, but the world has so much depth, the characters so much potential, and the gameplay such perfectly designed chaos, that it wouldn't really matter. A great time was had.

Icewind Dale 2

Finishing Icewind Dale 2 was the final banishing of the old ghosts of Infinity Engine games I never finished as a kid. Sure there was the nostalgia, but Icewind Dale 2 also feels prefect for the Baldurs Gate era's swan song. Beautiful environments, a well written story and great interface and design, only pulled down due to some overly long busywork at various points and the plot being dragged on a little too long. Still, sad to know I have no further Infinity Engine games left to conquer.

Elsinore

The first half of Elsinore is an absolutely great time-loop mystery, which seems to be an interesting interrogation of Shakespearian tropes and asks the question of how much of a Shakespearian tragedy remains the more you change it. The second half, however, quickly devolves into a cosmic horror story that feels a poor fit for the genre and far too grim for the art style, and that's even before it basically devolves into trying to do the same thing Undertale did but worse. A well put together game whose ending did not sit well with me.

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game

Since Thronebreaker didn't sate my appetite I started playing competitive Gwent. It is a wholly different game than the one that appears in The Wither 3, but is certainly fascinating in it's own right. After 200 hours I am officially addicted, somebody please send help.

And that's that. Not doing a top 5 games of the year because I played too many this year and I've spent too much time thinking about them already. Here's hoping I play less in 2021 and can get back to a more normal life.

[monabela]

ha! here I am for the last day of @aphrarepairweek2020, magic, with another pairing I think is very interesting but had never written before. this was a lot of fun, and I really like this little au, tbh. I feel like there could be more stories in here. I guess I alluded to a bunch of pairings, but they’re really not important and can be Ignored :)

~~~

the bard’s song

pairings/characters: Iceland (Egill)/New Zealand (Riley), Liechtenstein (Erika), Hong Kong (Leon), Taiwan (Mei), Seychelles (Angélique), Latvia (Raivis) + mentioned Moldova (Luca), Australia (David) & Norway (Einar)

word count: 3182

summary:

Egill really wishes Riley’s stupid D&D character would stop trying to seduce his own character. Mostly, he wishes Riley would try to seduce him instead.

~~~

“Well, Riley, if you insist…”

Egill can feel his eye twitch while Erika gestures wearily across the table at Riley, who looks poised and ready and far too pleased with themself.

“I guess you can roll to seduce the Owlbear. You know what to do,” Erika finishes. Riley is already throwing the twenty-sided die. On Egill’s other side, Leon is shaking with suppressed laughter, like he wasn’t the one who brought the menace of Riley Greenwood and their weirdly seductive halfling bard into their D&D group.

Riley actually pretends not to know what exactly they’re rolling for or what to add, as if they don’t try to seduce literally every NPC Erika throws at them, and then triumphantly declares it’s a seventeen. Egill pushes his hands into his hair, groaning. Erika just gives a resigned sigh, planting her elbows on the Monster Manual behind her little wall of books.

“It’s going to attack you anyway, I hope you know.”

“Can’t hurt to try,” Riley replies cheerfully.

“It literally can!” Egill says, and then he has to bite his lip and look away when Riley grins one of those mischievous grins of theirs, one that makes their eyes crinkle up and pulls at one corner of their mouth. Leon, who had just managed to calm himself, starts giggling again, and Egill elbows him.

“Egill, it’s your turn,” Erika says. He consults his character sheet.

“I could see Riley’s dumb bard being stupid, right?”

“Don’t talk about Minto like that!” Riley interjects, crossing their arms. “He’s wonderful and everyone loves him.”

“His wisdom modifier is minus two,” says Mei, who somehow always remembers everyone’s stats. Well, not that that particular tidbit is hard to remember. “I didn’t know you could get minus two.”

“Minto is special and I bet Yawen is jealous.” They raise their eyebrows at Egill. He sighs again.

“Well, I guess Dûrion is going to try and get Minto out of harm’s way.”

Riley beams from across the table, and it somehow makes Egill’s skin tingle. 

It’s very likely that everyone in their casual little D&D party is aware that it isn’t an accident, at least on his part, that Minto and Dûrion, Egill’s high elf artificer character, are so often off on their own or just helping each other out in their sessions. It’s embarrassing as fuck, of course, but Egill has long since given up on trying to do anything about it. Soon enough, Leon or Raivis or another one of their friends will do something dumb, and Egill’s crush on Riley will be completely forgotten. Maybe even by Egill himself, although that seems unlikely to him at this point.

Riley might be aware of it as well, or they might not. They’re notoriously difficult to get a read on. Even Angélique, who has known them the longest, seems to have trouble with it. Egill thinks Riley enjoys it that way. 

“Right, that’s fine,” Erika is saying, pushing her short hair behind her ears. “Tell me what Dûrion’s going to do, then.”

Egill manages to save Riley—well, Dûrion saves Minto from being eaten—and the rest of the party make quick work of the monster guarding the cave that contains whatever horrors Erika has in mind for them. For such an innocent-looking woman, she sure has a twisted imagination.

“Now that we’re out of combat,” Riley says, once Angélique’s druid has distributed some healing spells, “can I roll to seduce Dûrion?”

“Yes!” Angélique shouts, adding, “That’s in-character. Rovanon’s very keen on love.”

“Aryax hates love, and also Rovanon,” Leon puts in.

“Aryax hates everything, he’s just an excuse for you not to help.”

He finger-guns at her, and she shakes her head, smiling. 

“So,” Riley says, “can we get back to Minto seducing Dûrion?”

“Maybe Dûrion isn’t interested in being seduced,” Egill replies, raising his eyebrows and hoping he isn’t blushing.

“Does Dûrion want a long-term relationship?”

“Aryax vomits in disgust,” Leon says.

“No!” Raivis yells. “Daina immediately hides. Last time Aryax vomited, he barfed lightning everywhere and nearly killed her.”

“Not my fault Daina’s human.”

Erika, as per usual when they go off on tangents like this—which is most of the time—looks both pained and amused.

None of them are really cut out for Dungeons & Dragons, Egill thinks, at least not in any serious way. The whole thing started as a joke in his first year of university, with just him, Leon and Erika, because the three of them were procrastinating on assignments and wanted to have something to do. Egill had been the DM, because it was his idea and his brother did tabletop RPGs, so it was assumed he’d know how it worked. He did not.

His brother, Einar, was the one who pointed out how crap he was at it and that Erika would probably enjoy being the DM more. Leon keeps trying to convince Einar to join a session, and Egill spends much of his time trying not to think about his best friend’s weird crush on his brother.

In the four years since then, the three of them have accumulated the rest of the party. Raivis dated Erika for a while, and took over her character, Daina. He stayed after they broke up, having become a good friend to Egill over that time. Mei was Leon’s roommate for a hot minute, and Angélique was her friend. Riley, in turn, was Angélique’s friend, but Leon is the one who convinced them to join after they came to watch one day. Their last party member, Luca, is studying abroad at the moment, so his character has been captured and they’re technically always on a quest to free him, but Egill thinks it seems likely Luca won’t return to be Raivis’s roommate ever again, so their wizard will probably die.

It’s a shame. Luca was the only useful person. Certainly more than fucking Minto.

“Don’t take off your clothes!” Mei is yelling at Riley. Egill blinks dazedly.

To his disappointment, Riley isn’t actually taking off their clothes, just crossing their arms petulantly, only the edge of the intricate tattoo on one of their forearms visible.

“You’re on a mountain,” Erika reminds everyone. “If Minto takes his clothes off, I will need a saving throw to see if he freezes.”

“It’s fine,” Riley says, “he’ll bask in Dûrion’s hotness.”

Dûrion only knows ice spells because Egill thought that would be a cool theme to have, but he doesn’t point that out.

“Aryax vomits lightning,” Leon says, reaching for his dice.

“No!” Mei yells.

“At Minto,” he adds.

“I can’t believe Minto died,” Angélique says drily. “Can Rovanon have his bagpipes?”

“No one can have Minto’s bagpipes because Minto isn’t dead yet,” Erika interrupts before they descend into chaos again. “Leon, is Aryax actually attacking him?”

Leon nods, in response to which Riley throws Egill an imploring look, which is just unfair. He tries to frown back, but Riley just smiles in a surprisingly soft way he’s never seen before, pushing their brown curls out of their face, as if they know Egill will help anyway, and not just because Dûrion has a good alignment.

Leon elbows him, and he snaps back.

“What?”

“Aryax missed,” he says sadly.

“Oh!” He turns to Erika. “Is anything on fire?”

She considers this for a moment.

“Yes. Minto’s bagpipes are on fire.”

“Nice.” Leon grins, and even Riley has to laugh at that. Egill decides Dûrion definitely won’t use a spell to douse those flames, and hopes Riley doesn’t remember anytime soon that Minto has more bagpipes. He exchanges an anxious look with Mei, who obviously does remember.

“Are we ever going into this cave?” Raivis asks.

“Daina is hidden, no one can hear her,”  Erika reminds him.

“Guys, where’s Daina?” Angélique says, pretending to be distressed. “She must have gone into the cave! We have to help her! Rovanon charges into the cave.”

“I can’t believe Rovanon died,” Riley says. “He will be remembered. Minto composes a song for him on his… Flute, I guess.”

“Make… Make a performance roll for how good the song is,” Erika says, probably just to annoy everyone by making Riley look at their character sheet and remember they have no flute, because Minto traded it for more bagpipes.

Riley rolls the die, and starts to giggle. Angélique and Raivis peer over, and groan in unison.

“Erika, I’m delighted to tell you… It’s a thirty-three on how good the song is. Does everyone cry?” They lift the die to show off the twenty they got.

“Everyone weeps and your bagpipes are magically restored,” Erika confirms, much to everyone else’s horror. And, while Riley holds both hands up for high-fives that go unanswered, “And I think we’ll have to end it there, because I have to go.”

“Boo,” Mei says, winking. Erika ducks her head, cheeks turning rosy, and Raivis raises his eyebrows, looking between them. That’s pretty interesting.

“Sorry. Everyone, remember where you are.” She makes some notes behind her book partition before starting to dismantle it.

“Well, Rovanon is apparently in heaven,” Angélique says. “Mei, can Yawen come and get him? She can fly.”

“Possibly,” Mei muses. “We’ll see what Erika thinks.”

“I think Rovanon is in a cave and can see in the dark because he’s a half-orc, so he’s probably not dead,” she says, putting her bag on her lap and starting to stuff her books into it.

“Aw, I never get to fly,” Mei says, sadly. Angélique pats her hand. “Thanks.”

“I’ll find a way to make you fly,” Erika tells her, pushing herself backwards. Mei makes a face at the whole table. That sounds ominous.

Everyone puts away their dice and character sheets. Leon sweeps the blueberries he was eating into his bag wholesale, as he usually does. Egill is afraid to find out what the inside of his bag looks like.

Mei pushes the door open for Erika, who smiles gratefully up at her and wheels herself into the front room of her brother’s bakery. They’ve been meeting here for a while now, but he still won’t give them any free pastries. Luca had been getting through to him, but, well…

“Hey, Riley,” Angélique is saying, walking backwards to the door while looking at her phone, “do you want a ride? Me and David are going to the beach, we could drop you off. Or you can come along, if you want.”

“Ah, sure, because my middle name is Third Wheel,” they joke. “I’m good, thanks. Tell Dave he’s an idiot for me.”

“Will do. Bye, everyone!” She flits off, almost tripping over Erika’s wheelchair as she somehow always manages to do. “Sorry!”

Raivis just waves, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and picking up his longboard. He hurries through the bakery, apparently still convinced Erika’s brother hates him for breaking up with her. Riley chuckles next to Egill, hands in the pockets of their maroon pants. They rock back on their heels when Egill looks down at them and smile at him while Leon exits as well, crunching on something he unearthed from his bag on the way.

“Well,” Egill says, absently pushing his tongue against his lip piercing, “guess I should go.”

“Yes. No.” Riley blinks and takes a deep breath. They smooth an errant curl off their forehead. It bounces right back. “Actually, I wanted to ask…”

“Do… You need a ride with me?” Egill asks. “It’s no problem, I’ve got a spare helmet.”

“No. Well, I mean, hell yeah, that sounds amazing,” they reply, hazel eyes lighting up. “But no, that’s not it.”

“Okay.” Egill watches curiously while Riley fidgets with their belt buckle. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Riley fidget before; they always seem to know what they’re doing, even when what they’re doing is pretending to be unaware what’s going on when they most likely caused it.

“I wanted to know… Well, I know Dûrion isn’t interested in being seduced and all, but I kind of hope you are.” They gesture helplessly as Egill’s breath hitches. “I’ve got a feeling you are, and I’d like to try, eh? I’d like to—I like you, is what I’m trying to say. And I’d like to take you on a date?”

“Okay,” is all Egill can say, dumbstruck. And then, “Really?”

That, thankfully, gets him one of those smiles that pulls at Riley’s eyes and makes them twinkle.

“Yeah, Egill, really. You’re interesting, and I like that.”

He pushes his tongue against his piercing again.

“And also, that’s ridiculously hot and I don’t think you’re aware,” Riley blurts, eyes wide. 

Egill stills, biting his lip, and just blinks down at them.

“It’s offensive.”

“Sorry?”

“Minto almost died because of that, you know? It’s distracting as fuck.”

“You’re, hm… You’re better at hiding it than I am,” Egill stutters. Laughing, Riley grasps his forearm, thumb stroking the pale skin as if on instinct.

“You do realize I’ve tried to seduce you and no other party members during every session for the past six months?”

“I—Riley, it doesn’t work like that!”

“Yeah, I get that now.” They shrug apologetically. “I thought it was fairly obvious. Everyone else seemed to know. I thought maybe you weren’t interested, but then it seemed like you were so I thought, you know, take a page out of Minto’s book and try it.”

Looking back, sure, it’s perfectly Riley to go about—about flirting so completely backwards, because just flirting like normal people do seems to be how Riley communicates with almost everyone. They can’t seem to help it. Egill thinks it’s charming. Mostly.

“That’s fair,” he says.

“I guess it works better for me than Minto, eh?”

“Unsurprisingly, yeah.” He wants to say something about Riley being much more attractive than fucking Minto, but doesn’t quite know how without embarrassing himself to death, so he just bites his lip again and smiles. Luckily, Riley seems a little unsure of themself as well, for once. It’s strangely bolstering. Egill leans a little towards them, catching the hazel gaze.

“Woo!” Mei suddenly says, from by the door, and Egill jerks up. “Sorry! I left my hair tie.”

Flushing, Egill just stands there awkwardly, with Riley still holding his arm, while she grabs the accessory and then pauses by the door on her way back out.

“Good for you guys,” she says, then flashes a peace sign and disappears back into the bakery. Riley clears their throat. Egill huffs.

“Well, that saves us the trouble of having to tell everyone,” Riley says, chuckling. 

The idea of this being something that’s serious enough to tell their friends about is exciting. Mei is a notorious gossip, so Egill thinks Riley might have a point. He leans back over again, cautiously touching their shoulder, and they grin up at him, hair brushing his hand. It’s as soft as he always imagined it would be, and the curls bounce as they move their head. 

By the quirk of Riley’s mouth, they can read the desire to run his hands through their hair on his face, which is probably still red too. Riley’s tan skin is only slightly flushed.

He bites his lip. Watches Riley’s eyes widen again, lips parting. Some eyeliner has smudged on their eyelid, and this is the first time he notices just how many faint freckles there are scattered across the bridge of their nose. It’s exhilarating to be able to look.

“So, you said something about a spare helmet?” Riley asks, a little breathier than usual, their eyes still fixated on his mouth.

“I did.” He takes a step back, then a step forward, back into Riley’s space. A wayward curl brushes against his nose, where the top of their head is, as they look up. “Where do you wanna go?”

“Well… I’m hungry. We could go eat something.”

Egill pulls out his phone to check the time. It’s going on five in the afternoon. He nearly drops his phone when Riley touches his hip, but smiles when they aim a questioning look at him. He isn’t very used to dating, hasn’t done so in a while, but this is good. And, really, he didn’t know if Riley dated at all; he’s never heard anything about it.

Evidently, they do.

“We could go for dinner, then?” He thinks about it. “We should take something out to the boulevard, it’ll be nice.”

Riley nods, grinning. 

When they both start towards the door, Egill bites his lip and reaches for their hand, knocking their fingers together. Grinning even more, so much it almost looks painful but is very flattering at the same time, Riley grasps his hand and swings it between the two of them as they leave through the bakery.

Outside, they wave merrily at Erika and Mei, who are chatting on the sidewalk. Mei grins. Erika raises her eyebrows, resting her elbow on her bag and her chin in her hand. Egill blushes again, and Riley squeezes his fingers.

“Have fun,” Erika says, sketching a little wave. Just then, Raivis flies past on his longboard. He slows down and grins an uncharacteristically vibrant grin before speeding off down the winding street. Egill blinks after him.

“Hey, Erika!” Angélique calls from the passenger seat of a Jeep reversing out of the parking lot next to the bakery, poking her head out of the window. “I have—”

She hits her head on the top of the car when she spots him and Riley, and swears loudly, which is rare. Riley snorts, knocking their shoulder into Egill.

“Yeah, me too!” Erika calls back to Angélique, laughing.

“I regret this already,” Egill says, turning his head just enough that Riley’s hair blows into his face again. Riley just grasps his arm with their free hand and leans even more into him, so it isn’t all bad, really.

From the Jeep’s driver’s seat, Riley’s best friend, David, shouts something as he drives by, and they flip him off in response, letting go of Egill for a second. Angélique laughs, and David honks as they drive off.

“Come on,” Egill says, pulling Riley with him to the parking lot, where his motorcycle is. It used to be Einar’s, but he finally painted over the emblems his brother put on it, and it really feels like it’s his now. Riley gets an excited spring in their step as they near.

Of course, Leon is there, because why wouldn’t he be, sitting on his bicycle and looking at his phone. He glances up, thick eyebrows twitching.

“Oh, nice,” he just comments, and looks back down.

“Text Luca while we’re at it,” Riley says, dry as bone. Leon smiles.

“Maybe. Hey, I could text Einar.”

“Fuck off,” Egill tells him. He winks, puts his phone away, and bikes off.

So they finally leave, Riley hanging on to Egill and whooping excitedly at every turn and bump on the way to the boulevard, and the evening is wonderfully sun-soaked and bright, and Riley tastes like cheap wine at the end of it, so all in all… Maybe that dumb bard is good for something, after all.

[chinmaster]

An examination of RPG player behavior

How do the rules of a system encourage certain behavior? It's a massive topic and I'm only going into a surface level exploration- the following ideas each deserves its own lengthy examination but as of right now I don’t think I’m the person to do that examination. Additionally I'm sure that there are other areas that I will not have thought to cover that are at least as important as the ones I have. I would be happy to learn what others have found to affect player behavior that I haven't covered here.

I also want to be clear: I’m going to be using Dungeons and Dragons as a comparison system for a lot of this essay, but this is not a complaint piece about Dungeons and Dragons. The game is well known enough that I think it’s useful as a metric and, to me, it seems consistent enough in what it wants players to do that it seems useful as a 'control' game. It tells the sorts of stories it wants to tell very well, and if that’s the sort of experience you want then I would recommend using it. I should also clarify that none of these points are mind-control- playing a game that spends a lot of time detailing its investigative aspects doesn’t mean that a player is automatically going to engage the way the game is encouraging them to. But, just like advertising, I don’t think anyone is immune to being swayed to a certain extent by various factors.

Individual taste

Obviously, different people are interested in different things. For example, I really like delving into the way magic works in a setting (lore-wise more than mechanically, though the two generally have an effect on one another) and I frequently have an impulse to make characters that would interrogate it. So even if you’re in a system that doesn’t encourage certain behavior you’re going to have players that want to explore things that interest them. But I also believe that the game you play has an effect on player behavior as well.

Depth of which it delves into a topic

There is an inherent implication, to me at least, that the more time and energy that are devoted to explaining something, the more important it is. If someone spends 10 minutes trying to explain one concept to me and two minutes trying to explain another I’m going to come away with more of a focus on the first. Dungeons and Dragons devotes a vast amount of time to statistics, abilities, and strategies for combat situations. It has whole books detailing the combat capabilities of potential foes and the chapters in its core rulebook concerning what sorts of actions one can take in combat is much more granular than most of its other systems. Other things that a character could do in the game are less detailed/specific. To contrast, Blades in the Dark spends much of its time detailing ways characters can increase their chance of succeeding in tasks and how to avoid consequences when the dice don’t go their way. There is much less focus on detailed combat rules. Hence, at least to me, Blades encourages players to focus on their skills and ways to use them while D&D encourages thinking about ways to apply things to combat.

Amount of time it takes to deal with different kinds of problems

How does a character in Dungeons & Dragons locate something that is hidden from them? A single Investigation roll can do that, and we can just kind of elide the time that it takes to do so, so we can get to the interesting bit- how it affects the story. A combat though, even with an enemy that poses no real danger and has no significance to the ongoing narrative, requires a more in-depth scene to deal with. The game itself gives brutalizing a hapless goblin more ‘screen time’ than a potentially plot-defining revelation. Now, much of this focus is obviously up to the GM and the players, as player focus on a thing can extend its screen time a huge amount. But this discussion isn’t about how GMs and players focus on things- it’s about how a system in and of itself focuses on things. D&D’s rules played as written pushes more to the combat side of things. Ars Magica devotes a hell of a lot of time to magical research and innovating ways to learn and cast spells. It is likely that a lot screen time in a session is going to be spent in a wizard’s laboratory and how things are going with their experiments. So, to me, that time spent in the wizard’s lab is going to be more impactful on the game than what is comparatively little time spent blowing up orcs. The fact that certain things in a game receive more of this screen time is naturally going to cause players to focus more on those things.

Reward system

It might be pretty obvious but I still think it’s worth mentioning a game’s reward system. What does a game explicitly give to players that might encourage them to do things and for what reasons does it do so? Character growth is a pretty common one, but there is also narrative control, success in goals, and special considerations. Once again going back to Dungeons and Dragons, the only thing that is explicitly rewarded in concrete terms is combat. There is also advice for awarding experience points for social or exploration challenges, but they are much looser and mostly up to the GM’s discretion- advice rather than actual rules. As a game in and of itself D&D is only mechanically rewarding killing monsters. In Apocalypse World experience is rewarded for using certain skills selected by the GM (or MC if you prefer) and other players. In my experience, this leads to players angling to use skills that the other players and the GM/MC find interesting. Character success is another reward that can be mechanized to encourage player behavior. In 7th edition Call of Cthulhu, if a roll is a failure then the player may choose to ‘push’ the roll- that is, reroll the dice but with the threat of a worse outcome if they fail again than if they had just left the original roll. This encourages players to be a little riskier with their characters and to tell stories more in line with the source material of individuals getting in over their heads in pursuit of a goal. It rewards this risky behavior with the possibility of turning a defeat into a victory.

Punishment

On the flip side of rewards, a game can also punish behavior that it doesn’t want. Punishments can vary as much as rewards, though they are perhaps not as direct.  To be clear, when I talk about punishment for unwanted behavior I am not referring to real life behavior or even intentional antagonistic in-game behavior. What I mean is that the systems of a game try to lead players to act a certain way and, whether intentional or not, may punish players if they deviate from that course. First edition Pathfinder, for example, tends to assume that players are going to optimize their characters for combat and if they don’t they can pretty easily become overwhelmed by the creatures they face as they advance through the game (this is, of course, assuming that character death would come as a punishment as Pathfinder does. Many other systems view it as less of a punishment and more of an interesting narrative turn). The second edition of 7th Sea, meanwhile, indirectly discourages the powergaming that can be found in something like Pathfinder by ‘flattening’ the combat. Pretty much anyone can excel in it and there’s not a lot of point to trying to optimize it. These diminishing returns are a sort of ‘punishment’ for focusing too much one one thing.

Player character abilities

What a character is able to do in the game is naturally going to affect the sorts of things they are going to do in that game. Dungeons and Dragons focuses a lot on how many hits a character can take, abilities that grant more damage against their enemies, spells to control a battlefield and blow things up, and things of that nature. There are certainly options that enhance a character’s ability to do other things as well, but there are far fewer of them than those that focus on death dealing and mayhem making. If your only tool is a hammer etc. The fifth edition of Legend of the Five Rings does have combat, even somewhat of a focus on it, but the characters also have other techniques to employ to a much greater degree than in D&D. There are courtly graces, among other things, that a character can master without ever interacting with the combat mechanics.

GM limitations/advice

I maintain that the GM is just as much a player in a TTRPG scenario as those that are traditionally referred to as ‘players’ though the distinction still tends to be useful and as coming up with even more terminology would be confusing to the point I’ll just refer to the normally held definitions of the two. The limitations and advice given to the GM in a given game is an important factor in player behavior. I have to admit that I’m not overly familiar with the advice/limitations given to a 5E GM as I have not run it, but I do remember back in the 3rd edition days (as well as in 1st edition Pathfinder) there weren’t really any limitations placed upon the GM’s authority and most of the advice centered around the pacing of a session, combat, and how to reward player actions in a ‘balanced’ way. Much of the GMing section was devoted to designing challenging but beatable combat encounters and exactly what kinds of treasure to award for completing the combat encounter successfully. This is naturally going to lead to an increased GM focus on combat and, thus, player decisions that focus on the same. In Apocalypse World and the games that followed the GM is limited in what they can introduce into the narrative and when they are allowed to do so. This opens up space for players to take control of the narrative, generally meaning bending it toward where they want to explore their individual stories. In Paranoia meanwhile, the GM is encouraged to act like a somewhat sadistic dictator which is going to result in player choices that uphold the eternal superiority of Alpha Complex and their good friend the Computer.

Setting

The setting a game takes place in is going to affect a lot of what players are going to feel like they are able/supposed to do. In a game like Good Society, a Jane Austen-style relationship drama, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to try to introduce a quest to seek a magical macguffin being guarded by a violent dragon. Similarly, the setting of D&D is not particularly well suited to exploring a love/hate regency era romance and maneuvering within its rigid social structures. But if you need a dragon fuckin slewn? You’re covered.

The hobby as a whole

This is sort of a meta category but I think it nonetheless deserves some amount of time. Dungeons & Dragons and its contemporaries have a huge influence on the hobby as a whole which I believe does affect how players behave in other games. They place an emphasis on combat oriented exploration with a strong guiding voice from the GM. Games that focus on other things or have different play styles can struggle to land with players that would otherwise enjoy them if D&D didn't set the standard for what a role playing game is 'supposed' to be. The fact that learning other systems can seem daunting can also lead to attempting to just use the D&D ruleset to try to get the experience of those other systems no matter how ill-suited it is to tell those stories.

So what was the point of all this? Honestly, like many of the posts I've written recently, a lot of it is writing down my own ideas for future design reference.  But I think it also may be useful for examining how role playing games affect our thinking and how that can be used consciously by both players and GMs to make a more enjoyable experience. It's important for the game you're playing to match with what people want to do with their characters and disconnect between the two can suck the life out of an otherwise fun experience.

[soerdinan]

Character Interview: Katy Thorne

My GF uses the open-to-all invite from @mapplestrudel​ , thank you! ^_^

Katy Thorne is a character she has had in an rpg in our own fantasy setting, and also is writing some stories about.

~~~~~

name ➔ “Katy Thorne. I know I know, my parents are renown for their roses, but I don't care about fame. To be honest, they wanted me to eventually take over the farm, but nope, magic is my passion."

are you single ➔ “I'm not. I... think. There's this one dark elf I met during travels, but I'm not completely sure I understand their customs.”

are you happy ➔ “I just started studying at the Mage Guild of Water, got some coppers in my pocket and roof over my head. So yes, I'd say I'm happy.”

are you angry ➔ “Why would I be angry?”

are your parents still married ➔  “Why wouldn't they be? I've been gone only half a year, surely nothing like that could have happened in such a short time.”

~~~~~

NINE FACTS

birth place ➔ “Roselake, west from Kingsholm, in northern kingdoms.”

hair colour ➔  “White, like the snow elves have, or so I have heard."

eye colour ➔ ���Blue.”

birthday ➔ “Early spring.”

mood ➔ “Excited. You know, my mom tried to talk me out of studying magic. She said it's unnecessary and dangerous. Bah! I'll show her how useful it can be, even in farming!”

gender ➔ “Woman.”

summer or winter ➔ “Tough one. I'd still say summer. There were more trade caravans and such in my home village during summer. I loved seeing wares and candies from faraway lands.”

morning or afternoon ➔ “Morning of course. Born in a farm so days began early.”

~~~~~

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

are you in love ➔ “Yup.”

do you believe in love at first sight ➔ “Maybe. Not sure if it's love, but I believe in something at first sight at least.”

who ended your last relationship ➔ “My brother. ...I suppose this needs explanation. He saw me and neighbouring farmer's oldest son sitting and talking on a road fence one day. The jerk decided to tell about it to mom, who forbid me to talk to him! Yeah, sure he knew a little bit of fire magic but so what?”

have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ “Possibly. When I left home, I stopped in Kingsholm to look for a teacher. I enlisted in fire brigade and while there, I... might have gotten mixed in a love triangle.”

are you afraid of commitments ➔ “Of course not.”

have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ “Yes. Zarathoruzan, the dark elf I mentioned earlier. Oh, and the ship's lookout, Mefandanom.”

have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ “Possibly. If I'd know about it, would it be secret then?”

have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ “Weird question, but no, I don't think so.”

~~~~~

SIX CHOICES

love or lust ➔ “Love of course. Love is long term, lust is just a fleeting moment.”

lemonade or iced tea ➔ “Tea. We had a small field for all kinds of herbs, so there was a specific tea for any situation.”

cats or dogs ➔ “Cats. I like dogs too, but we have an old farm cat Nelle and she is the best. She fears nothing and no one, well except my youngest sister Rose. She wanted to dress Nelle once too many times in doll clothes I quess."

a few best friends or many regular friends ➔ “I like to have many friends from all over the world, instead of just one best friend.”

wild night out or romantic night in ➔ “Romantic.”

day or night ➔ “Day.”

~~~~~

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS

been caught sneaking out ➔ “Not really. From a farm it's a long way to sneak to town and back. While here in the Big City, I can come and go as I want to.”

fallen down/up the stairs ➔ “ Nope.”

wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ “To learn water magic. For years my parents, mom especially, kept talking me out of it, but no more. I will learn it well and show how useful magic is.”

wanted to disappear ➔ “I don't recall any that bad situation.”

~~~~~

FOUR PREFERENCES

smile or eyes ➔ “Eyes. No wait, smile. World needs more smile.”

shorter or taller ➔ “Taller.”

intelligence or attraction ➔ “My brain would say intelligence, but I'm not sure which one has more control, brain or heart.”

hook-up or relationship ➔ “Relationship.”

~~~~~

FAMILY

do you and your family get along ➔  “I'd say so. Even if me and my mom have disagreements about magic, or my brother Gavin tends to be jerk occasionally being the only boy amongst four siblings, we are a close family. Everyone has rights for their own opinions, even though my mom could have tried to dictate my life a little less.

would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ “Well, I'm a self-trained magic user from a small town. Wouldn't say messed up life, but different maybe?”

have you ever ran away from home ➔ “Nope. Mom agreed eventually about me leaving to study.

have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ “No.”

~~~~~

FRIENDS

do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ “Of course not.”

do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔ “I think so. Either they are good friend of mine or just a acquaintance of mine.”

who is your best friend ➔ “I haven't had time to make many friends yet, but I'd have to say Azarhita. I had never seen an orc when I lived in Roselake, only heard stories about them. But she's impressive. And she knows water magic too! Well, she can't control it that well, but I'm sure she'll be great in it eventually.“

who knows everything about you ➔ “To be honest, I don't think anyone does. Sure my family knows me before I left, but then, my friends here know me after I came here.”

[purplefairywriter]

Maknae Line BTS as RPG Classes

And I’m back! If you’re starting here, here’s the gist: This idea has been wandering around in my head for a while so I finally decided to release it into the wild world. This is based on D&D for the most part but I opted not to go into details about their races, so this is just going to be a run down of their classes and alignments. If you don’t know what classes are alignments are, I’ll explain it as I go through the members of BTS. Alignments are only meant to be kind of a guide to your characters and not a blanket statement for how characters will act. SPOILER ALERT: most of them are on the good spectrum alignment wise. Hyung Line

JIMIN

Blurb Jimin sat on the bridge, with his legs dangling over the steady river below. He heard the footsteps of many other adventurers and wanderers cross the bridge. He was at peace until he heard crying. Not just any crying, but a crying he had come to recognize. The crying of heartbreak. He slowly stood up and turned around to see a rather attractive woman standing at the bridge, crying her eyes out. He walked over and greeted her. When she looked up at him, he recognized her as an old acquaintance of his that he always had liked in a romantic way. But he realized she viewed him as nothing more than a friend long ago, as many women had. They saw him as a "cute, fluffy puppy" as one woman had put it. It never bothered him, the only thing that mattered to him was that he made people smile. Other people's smiles were the only thing keeping his inner darkness at bay. Jimin knew he had the power to make women swoon over him but he rarely used it. Now was not one of those times. He took the instrument off his back, and with a smile asked: "Would you like me to play a song for you?" The woman stopped crying and nodded. After hearing him sing, she knew all she needed to do was think of Jimin and smile if she ever got sad again... Class “The bard is a master of song, speech, and the magic they contain... Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long... Bards thrive on stories, whether those stories are true or not.” This is BTS’s 2nd full on bard. Unlike the stereotypical bard, he's not gung-ho, flirting 24/7. He may tell a dirty joke here and there, but he most comes off as shy. Which works great as an advantage. With your average bard, you can spot them a mile away with their general swagger. Jimin, however... he can be sitting there, in the tavern, gaining someone’s trust by making them think how cute or how much of a non-threat he is only for them to be astonished by how he can actually hold his own, fight, and be sexy as anything while doing it. Which makes him a whole other kind of threat! I have a feeling that if Bard!Jin and Bard!Jimin ever met the two of them would get into a fight over who was the best bard. Alignment Neutral Good (he would work to do the best good he can without disregarding or upholding every law).

V

TW: implied attempted assault (not described - not V’s doing), swearing (not V’s doing), violence (I think most of us would agree really deserved violence but I’ll let you decide that) Blurb V sat on what used to be a great oak tree. Now all that remained was a stump, worn away by time. His bow and arrows were close by. As they always were. He held a piece of wood in his hand as he whittled a slight heart shape out of it with his knife. He knew these woods like the back of his hand. He could walk through the forest blindfolded, he had bragged once. Back when he had friends. Life was far more comfortable for him now that he had separated himself from nearly everything. All he needed was the forest. Or so he reminded himself nightly as he slept under the stars. A loud scream from the distance made him jump to his feet. He grabbed his weapon and wandered towards the source of the noise. He had expected it to be some poor idiot who managed to get themselves mauled by a bear. Instead, it was a young woman who had run into a lone bandit. "Let go of her." V demanded. "Why should I, ranger? Fuck off." The bandit said as he pulled the young woman closer to him. She was crying, crying in a way that made V's skin crawl. He could tell from the way she was dressed that she was nothing more than an innocent villager who had either gotten lost or had wandered into the woods. "Last chance. Let her go or we'll have a problem." V said, not wanting to distress the woman further. "Fuck you!" The bandit said. That was the last thing the bandit ever got to say as he found himself with an arrow lodged right between his eyes. The bandit dropped dead, releasing his hold on the woman in the process. "You okay?" V asked as he approached her. She nodded, still a little distressed. "I'll show you how to get back to your village if you need me to. Don't wander in the woods like that, not unless you're properly prepared." V said, accidentally showing a little care as he spoke. He turned around to lead the way. When she said something that made him stop in his tracks. "But... but my father's been taken by a fae!" Class “Warriors of the wilderness, rangers specialize in hunting the monsters that threaten the edges of civilization—humanoid raiders, rampaging beasts and monstrosities, terrible giants, and deadly dragons... Many rangers, though, are independent almost to a fault, knowing that, when a dragon or a band of orcs attacks, a ranger might be the first—and possibly the last—line of defense.” Ranger. I don’t know why, I can just see V wanting to sleep under the stars each and every night (as if that isn’t true for other members of BTS...) Also, with his IRL family being farmers, I’d think that in an RPG setting, V would naturally end up becoming a ranger somehow. Why not a rogue, like Suga? Unlike Suga, I feel like V would want to feel truly alone. Suga would want to share his music if he ever got the chance, he would want to be around people to watch and talk to. Suga would thrive off the metropolitan lifestyle of cities. V would like to at least think he’s alone every once in a while which would be harder to do in a city. Alignment Chaotic Neutral. He’d follow his whims most of the time, wanting to just be left alone so he can do whatever he feels is right. However, I do feel like he’d lean towards the ‘Good’ side with most things, so like Suga, he’d start off as more Neutral before becoming more Good. However, if he felt like he was doing something for the ‘right person’, he would probably do it, regardless of the alignment that action is assigned to.

JUNGKOOK

Blurb

Jungkook stood at the bar of the tavern, pondering over what to drink. He heard a group of rowdy men behind him, boasting of their adventures around the world. That perked his interest. He picked up his weapon and wandered over to the group. He listened in for a moment before finally entering the conversation. "I fought a bear once!" The men glared at him, seeing his unscarred face and body (the parts of his body they could see anyways), and said nothing. Until their leader scoffed. "You're nothing but a boy! You'd best save your tall tales for your mother, shouldn't ya?" Jungkook was taken aback by the response, as he had fought a bear. He beat it fair and square too, unlike half of those men who relied on magic or trickery. "I'm telling the truth, I did fight a bear. I've beaten an orc, too, once. He was drunk, and I made the mistake of calling his tusks small-" Jungkook began, excited that he could finally tell his stories as well. "Go tell your mother, boy. Leave us men to talk business." The leader said. Jungkook frowned. "Fine. You're the leader of this warrior guild, right?" "Right." The leader replied. "Then fight me. If I beat you, I get to join you guys on a real adventure!" "And if I lose?" "Then I'll go home and never bother you guys again." Jungkook said that in a way that made the leader roll his eyes. "Awful cocky for one so young... fine, it'll serve a good lesson to you when I grind you into dust, boy." The leader said as they headed outside to duel. The leader got his ass handed to him in a tough but fair fight that Jungkook won by relying on his pure strength alone. From that day forward, Jungkook became like a son to the warrior guild, who raised him to be strong and brave. Although they never quite got him to stop being so cocky... Class “Fighters learn the basics of all combat styles... Some fighters feel drawn to use their training as adventurers. The dungeon delving, monster slaying, and other dangerous work common among adventurers is second nature for a fighter, not all that different from the life he or she left behind. There are greater risks, perhaps, but also much greater rewards...” Fighter. I don’t think Jungkook would be much of a Barbarian, he’d have to have order and reason. I think Jungkook would have a bit of a higher charisma score compared to other fighters, which gives him an edge over other fighters. Alignment For Jungkook, a lot of that is up to the party he’s in imo. His ‘natural’ (if you can call an alignment that, I’m not sure) alignment would be somewhere on the good spectrum, probably neutral good to start out. I could see Jungkook ‘breaking alignment’ for a friend in need. That’s it for now! I may do some actual character sheets (as in a full-on character build with races, stats, the whole 9 yards maybe) or even write the whole situation regarding the blurbs!

[secretgamergirl]

RPG Campaign Setting Thoughts - The Actual, You Know, Setting

Continuing along from here and here, I suppose I should take a moment and get my head out of the clouds with all this structure of the planes and metaphysics malarkey and put down a few words about, you know, the actual world people are going to be going on adventures in... but I don’t wanna!

I’m actually kinda serious with that. I’m still not sure to what degree this whole thing is something I’m really going to sit down and do something with vs. a total pipe dream vs. just some general thoughts on what changes I’d push towards if in a relevant position at a big company and all, but one really big issue I’d want to seriously address if I end up actually publishing anything here is the fact that everything about fantasy RPGs is entirely too white, and unfortunately, I myself am also entirely too white.

As previously mentioned, I 100% want to have orcs coded really heavily as colonialist European types as a major setting antagonist, to push back against decades of appallingly racist coding, and by extension I’d like to have humans who are visually and culturally representative of, you know, the rest of humanity. Some having to deal with orcs raiding and planting their flags everywhere, others totally not dealing with that and having their own much more interesting things going on. Get away from the stock imagery of castles and knights in a barely repainted England, get some cool stuff inspired the rest of the world in there as some basic imagery and all.

And... yeah I’m just not really qualified to do that. More importantly though, I know a ton of people who ARE, and they’re all super cool, and don’t get enough chances to do this sort of world-building. I don’t want to make my ignorant stab at a setting heavily informed by Indian history and folklore when I know someone who’s both an experienced game developer and a Hindu Pandit. I don’t want to play around with fantasy-Jerusalem when thinking about that is basically the life’s work of one of my favorite people in the world. I could keep going with this. I have a lot of really amazing contacts I would absolutely love to just give blank checks to to collaborate on a campaign setting full of all their personal passions and drawing on their heavy historical and cultural knowledge bases.

But... I’m also unemployed, barely able to keep a roof over my head, and fully aware how generally doomed any sort of project like this is and I doubt most of the people I’d be inclined to tap would want to commit to something like this even if I could pay them what they’re worth. Really, I’m the worst person to try to put together some sort of cool overqualified world-building all-stars team and make a setting together, and if someone else wants to take the initiative on that I am all for it, but, if they are nobody’s telling me. So... for now I’d just kinda like to keep the details really sketchy about specific nations and all that and stay focused on my weird non-culturally specific fantasy weirdness. Keep the real meat and potatos stuff in the dark until I get committed enough to kickstart a book and try to sign on cool writer friends as stretch goals or something.

Races for instance! I think I’ve mentioned before how much I just don’t like them, and I’m used to not really caing about them having done a lot of Pathfinder writing, but like Pathfinder, I kinda want to keep all this as backwards compatible with Pathfinder and 3.X as I can, which means I don’t want to drop them entirely, and I already have orcs. So... OK.What can I do with everything else that’s not just borrowing some real-world culture?

First off, we have dwarves. I.... really don’t particularly have any strong feelings about dwarves. The one big problem coming in the unfortunateness of “dwarf” referring to, among other things, the fantasy race, something a bit different in Norse mythology, and actual human beings with a rare condition that leads to a lot of discrimination. I’ve yet to meet anyone who actually has a vocal problem with that, so, please give me feedback there if you have any. Otherwise... I think dwarves kinda fall under “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Dwarves are exactly the same in every game that has dwarves. Nobody’s had cause to put a new spin on them, which over the years has made them into this really big fantasy touchstone. Something to be said for that stability.

Next up we have elves... and OK, here’s my spin. Elves actually mature and age at the same rate as humans, BUT, every 30-70 years or so, they... basically have a Doctor Who regeneration. Big metamorphising event, they end up with a radically altered appearance, possibly some significant changes to their personality, possibly some memory loss. We keep the staple of elves being functionally immortal, and the sort of physical mutability present through the whole history of fantasy RPGs to one degree or another, but we get a nice out for the whole Immortal Blues issue you usually get with elves, where they outlive everyone they meet. If you’re a teenage elf, you can go hang out with a bunch of teenage humans, grow up together, have a lot of adventures, and then when everyone else is getting old and dying and it’s just depressing, you do your whole elven ritual of renewal thing, and tada. You’re young again, maybe a redhead this time out, maybe a different gender even. All that kinda fades from immediacy, like your old life is just a story you’ve heard a lot, and you’re free to go make new connections with new peers. I think there’s a lot to that as a foundation for cultural stuff, and an interesting setup for telling stories. Needs to be a proper racial power of course, with some restriction on how often it can be done, but hey. This also keeps them from becoming stuffy traditionalists with ancient cities. On a long enough timescale they’re kind of all nomadic drifters.

Half-Elves, which again, are their own race here, probably get a weakened version of that. Maybe they change a little less when they try that renewal ritual. Maybe it doesn’t always work, or it’s really unpredictable. Definitely they have a cap on how often they can do it, so you still have the long-lived but mortal thing going.

Half-Orcs... I need to think about some. The whole “they’re their own race” thing gets all the gross rape crap sweeped nicely away, but they still have to resemble orcs enough to face discrimination to a degree, since, that’s what you have half-orcs for. I might break my rule about no real world cultural models and have them largely stand in for vikings? There’s enough similarity to how I’m doing orcs for confusion’s sake (nautical raiders and explorers and all), an association with violence and generally being all big and tough, but pretty clear We’re Not With Them vibes?

Halflings, I am sticking with my earlier pitch about essentially being humans just created at a different scale. Honestly I’ve always kinda resented D&D even having them, because I mean, everything else has some basis in someone’s folklore, but halflings are just a race swiped directly out of a book series that was super popular at the time, then forced to change the name for copyright reasons. And they clearly just exist to make Bilbo expies, with the stealth bonuses and all. I would totally give them the boot if I could get away with it, but, yeah, tiny humans essentially.

That still leaves gnomes, where I’m still stymied. Again, I really love Pathfinder’s take on them to death, and kinda just want to keep that.

I think that’s a decent spread of new ideas and old ideas that won’t clash with properly varied human culture, right? Next update I’m probably going back to gods and magic. Have some very very nerdy thoughts about the spread of religion based on bored wizards working out astral projection to flesh out.

As always, feedback on any of this is appreciated.

[necroarchy]

So, the Culling of Stratholme. Boring question, but there's something that interests me from a writer's perspective. Many see it as the fall of Arthas's humanity and the start of darkness, would you agree with that? Was there really no choice? How do you think would the general populace react to that (aside for what we're presented), what is the direct aftermath?

The thought came, brief and bright and sharp: Was she right?

No. No, she couldn’t be. Because if she was right, then he was about to become a mass murderer, and he knew that wasn’t who he was. He knew it.

                              - Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

     I do, yeah, because this is the precise moment in which we see Arthas consciously, deliberately choose to commit an atrocity. Prior to this scenario, he:

fought against orcs who were kidnapping townsfolk and sacrificing them to demons

hunted down a black dragon who was terrorizing the countryside

killed zombies and necromancers

     Nothing bad so far! Standard RPG thwarting of evil! We do worse in Northshire. ( those poor, poor wolves. ) It leaves him tired, stressed, snappy, and in a Very Bad Way, but he’s still reachable. Much as I absolutely hate his position in the narrative of Warcraft III, Medivh came to Arthas at a good point. He hadn’t done anything by this point, he had no real sins to his name and nothing which may toe the edge of the moral event horizon. He could still be reached, because he hadn’t actually gone anywhere yet.

     And then he looks down upon the city of Stratholme. And he kills them all.

     The beauty of Stratholme is in how monstrously ugly a situation it is. What do you do here? How do you save a population which has been infected with a sickness that will not stop at simply destroying their physical selves, but go so far as to warp and ruin their actual souls? Can you cure them of the illness? Ha. It’s been something in the ballpark of fifteen years in-game since the Scourge entered the scene, and there is still no viable cure AT ALL for the Plague of Undeath. Quarantine them? There appear to be no symptoms to look out for, and the transformation for this strain takes place within hours. 

     Fifteen years in-game, seventeen years in the real world, and I still have no idea what a better choice would have been. I don’t know what else Arthas could have done with the knowledge and experience he had at that moment with the undead. I don’t know what else he could have done with the knowledge and experience we have now! I don’t think any other avenue would have led to a different outcome. The city would always be destroyed and all its people are killed and defiled.

     That absolutely does not mean Arthas was right, though.

     Makani explained it well here. He didn’t make the decision to purge the city due to cold analytical logic, he did it because he was exhausted and traumatized and he was faced with the most nightmarish manifestation of all his insecurities to ever exist. Arthas, the prince who constantly feared that he would fail everyone whom he was responsible for ( like he failed Invincible ), was now faced with Raccoon City. He was in full-blown panic mode, and rather than step back and calm down as a better leader ought to have, rather than pay heed to the advice of those around him who were not so compromised physiologically and psychologically, he allowed himself to be swept up in his terror and immediately pick this shotgun blast of an option rather than even considering a more surgical, compassionate response.

     Look at the other heroes present. Uther never suggests a solution to Stratholme which fits his character so well because Uther SUCKS and in this essay I will -. Jaina worries about what the lethal dose of tainted grain is, whether the grain can affect children, and wants to go speak with Antonidas and get his advice. She wants time to think of magic that could combat this problem, because she’s been taught that “magic can combat magic.” She’s trying to find the solution that minimizes collateral damage as much as possible. I don’t think her idea was practically any better than Arthas’ ( in the sense that she would not have been able to reduce the casualties or destruction to any significant degree ) but that’s not actually all that relevant. 

     The solution to Stratholme isn’t really the point. There is no solution. There are only different ways to fail. The point of Stratholme is how you respond to it. The avenue of failure you choose to travel down. How you try to save everyone determines who you ultimately are. Uther’s lack of ideas revealed him to utterly useless in any situation where even the slightest moral grayness was involved. ( UTHER SUCKS AND IN THIS ESSAY I WILL — ) Jaina’s suggestions of seeking aid from Dalaran and her desire to take time to figure out a magical counterattack in order to reduce casualties as much as possible showcase her intelligence and her compassion, while also displaying her utter lack of understanding of the situation, of the magnitude of the horror. Arthas’ suggestion of killing them all tells us that he gets it, he understands the ugly, ugly situation they’re faced with, he understands that they have little time to contain an enormous problem. It also broadcasts precisely how unhinged he is at the moment, how ill-fitting he is for command, because he is so exhausted and scared and unable to take himself out of the moment long enough to even truly consider another avenue than the one he takes. And the one he takes is the cheapest, ugliest, most brutish avenue of them all.

     That’s how the rest of his journey goes, into the dark. Cheap, ugly, brutish. He lies to his men. Betrays the mercenaries that fought for him. Leaves Muradin to die in the snow. Claims Frostmourne. Kills his father. 

     And Stratholme burns, burns, burns.

[garrus-vakkarian]

I'd honestly love to hear you talk about why Morrowind is so good. I've heard stuff about the ambiguity compared to the most recent games.

This turned out way longer than I intended, but I have a lot of reasons for why I love Morrowind. 

Note: I’m assuming that you know the base villain and plot of the game, or else these reasons might not make sense. 

TL;DR: Morrowind is good because I get to 1 hit kill a god and do drugs. 

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a timeless RPG that has managed to infect nearly all its players with the worst strain of Nostalgia ever conceived, so, as a disclaimer, I will attempt to state my reasons without those Rose-Tinted Nostalgia Glasses™ that Bethesda initially released in the box. 

That said, Morrowind is an absolutely broken game - broken to the point of hilarity and frustration. It’s playable, but only barely, because if incessant crashing doesn’t turn you off (without convenient autosaves being a thing), the combat will.

Combat in Morrowind forces you to forget any modern notion of what combat with swords should be. You can get within an inch of your enemy and still miss your swing. In fact, it’s quite likely that you will die to a rat at level 1; a rat who you couldn’t hit even if you had a gun. 

The game makes you find and exploit whatever cheap tactic you find because your enemies will employ the same bullshit. For example, it is possible to be indefinitely paralyzed by some prick-ass bandit with an enchanted dagger, forcing you to watch helplessly as your health slowly fizzles away. 

More than that though, a lot of the base mechanics of the game are against you. Archery and Stealth barely work, running requires stamina (if you don’t have stamina, you miss your opponents, so get ready to walk everywhere), and magic doesn’t regenerate unless you sleep. 

Enemies are incapable of disengaging from you, nearly all crimes are noticeable by obscenely psychic guards, and entire factions will be locked off from you because you haven’t grinded your skills hard enough to match their “On A Scale from 1 to 100, You Must Be a 40 in Sneak Skill to reach the next rank.” 

The game makes you adapt to its ridiculous, bullshitery or else you’ll die horribly over and over again to the same idiotic nonsense that is rightly dated. 

But therein, between all those aggravated quick loads and nonsensical deaths, lies the true beauty of Morrowind. It does what few games do- forces you to bask in it’s alien, bizarre world whether you like it or not. 

You’re literally dropped into a world where the main method of transport is bugs, where there is a legally sanctioned murder guild, where racism and slavery are the norm, and you’re just expected to, well, get with it. 

It’s the uniqueness of its world that Morrowind strides the most at, and what it’s most famous for. The game, in its entirety, presents something new - whereas most elves are pictured as peaceful tree huggers, the dunmer are portrayed as a violent, hateful, xenophobic people who won’t hesitate to tell you off. 

And you will be told off. A lot. You arrive to Vvardenfell as an outsider, and the majority of people will hate you simply for being you, and it is up to you alone to amend that; to improve your own standing. That can be done either by joining guilds or performing quests.

Those themselves are where you’re really get into the nitty-gritty of the game, and it’s from there where you’ll meet the multitude of the game’s citizens and lore. 

Missions in the game are different from Skyrim’s, and to an extent, Oblivion’s. You will be forced to talk to people who hate you, just as you’ll be forced to read lines of scripture to answer riddles and puzzles. 

You’ll learn that by joining the Great House Telvanni, you can legally kill your rivals to gain their rank. (Telvanni law stipulates that if you kill someone and take their rank and holdings, the original owner wasn’t strong enough to hold them.) By joining the Tribunal Temple, you’ll confront a Dremora who wants to do -ahem- unspeakable things to your corpse. There’s even a quest where you transport a slave back to her masters, only to watch said slave be cut opened because her body is carrying drugs. 

On your questing and adventuring, you’ll meet a wizard who made female clones of himself so they could act as his daughters and concubines (at the same time), an orc who thinks he’s a khajiit, a nord who gives you the location of long lost treasure if you simply share a drink with him, a scamp who sells goods, an insane magister who hates men, and a whole host of other unique and fascinating people. 

To drive the in the point- the first major character you run into has a crippling crack skooma addiction. 

And throughout it all, as you wander and learn more about this world, you become the hero. You, who arrived as a shunned outsider, who died to a tiny rat at the beginning of the game, becomes the chosen champion of a Daedric god and a reincarnation of a hero, whose sole duty is to kill a false god and bring peace of Morrowind. 

Or so you’re told, because the real beauty in Morrowind, as you said, is its ambiguity. 

In Skyrim, you’re born into greatness. You’re the hero because you’re the dragonborn. Why are you the dragoborn? Because prophecy told said so. Why did prophecy say so? Because you’re the dragonborn, et cetera, et cetera. 

In Morrowind, you can easily say that you were chosen at birth to fulfill a prophecy stated by Azura (see; “an uncertain hero born to uncertain parents”), but evidence in the game allows you to argue to the opposite. 

While Azura’s prophecy was real (in the fact that a hero would end Dagoth and the Tribunal,) the who and why are arbitrary. It’s more likely that Azura kept throwing people at the proverbial wall until one stuck; she kept trying to find more and more heroes until one proved themselves strong enough to fulfill her own prophecy. 

You, through your actions, make yourself the hero. You employ the mantle of the Neravarine because your own trials and tribulations made you worthy enough to emulate Nerevar. 

But the ambiguity goes even farther than just the player character; ambiguity is in the world itself. The Dunmer and their Tribunal are the epitome of this; the Dunmer are as kind and warm as they are racist and aggressive. The Tribunal is as benevolent and generous as they are self-serving and ego-maniacal. 

You can argue that the main villain of the game is Azura for forcing political upheaval and change in a peaceful state, just as you could argue that the tribunal are the true culprits; who’s actions lead to the rise of Dagoth Ur and eventual normalization of a autocratic theocracy which violently subdued the unfaithful. Hell, I’ve even see people argue that the Dwemer are the real initial culprits. 

These conclusions are yours to make, just as it was always truly your choice to become the hero Morrowind needed. 

Or at least that’s how I see it. In any event, those are the reasons I like Morrowind. If you read this far, I love u, bc it’s hard to deal with my morrowind rambling lol