#dnd campaign; the vigilant

[in-maidjan]

finishing my prep for session 10 tomorrow like-

[thislifewasneverours]

“It doesn’t seem real.”

so laura bailey’s lean in was probably just her adjusting her chair but I like to imagine a world where it was a WILD acting choice, either way this episode killed me and I missed laudna so much, so I animated for the first time in a hot second. sorry it’s so short and not great looking but my god marisha and laura kill it every time with these characters and by it I mean me, help.

[standard-human]

So... what's this I hear of a DnD character with Hatchetfield lore...? (Still have to finish Nightmare Time and see NPMD, but I'm not too vigilant about avoiding spoilers either)

!!!

ok so first off, yeah this is probably gonna be incomprehensible bc you havent finished nightmare time lmao

but for the campaign im in, i wanted to make a vampire warlock. to be a warlock, i needed to pick a patron. sure, i couldve just gone with "the fiend" (the only one the dnd site lets me choose), but i wanted to have fun with it. so, whats an eldritch being i know?

ok, thats too vague. what eldritch being would make someone into a vampire? well, vampires are creatures of hunger, no? theyre known for being insatiable, always craving more. so what eldritch being is known for its hunger? maybe this being has a connection to livestock... particularly pigs. maybe this being has its worshippers sacrifice the greedy pigs of society to it. now, what lovecraftian horror do i know of that fits that criteria?

meet lyra ellingham. a vampire, and the most loyal and beloved servant of nibblenephim, the one who feasts in the dark. each town she goes to, she finds the most gluttonous pig she can and sacrifices them to nibbly. this kind of behavior has gotten her a lot of malicious attention, specifically from the monroe boys (sons of a woman she killed), the hatchetmen (a cult that despises nibblenephim and all who worship him), and the witch of the webs (the sole survivor of a town lyra razed on a particularly ravenous day).

i took a lot of inspiration from hatchetfield (obviously) and a production of dracula i was recently in. id talk more about her (i probably will at some point), but members of my party might see this, and theres some stuff i want to keep under wraps for now

(art by @littlemissatlas)

[romeofantome]

My first dnd campaign ended and i have my pc a Very Tragic ending where he roams the abyss as an undying vigil n comes back to shore every once every few years to cause biblical storms n visit his fwends

[dappersautismcreature]

annnyways qsmpblr and opqblr (do we have name now lol? or are we just part of ordemblr? do they have a name? ?? O_O idk whatever)

anyone wanna talk about rpgs? i only really have experience with dnd but id love to trade character stories back n forth and see what ideas people have for settings?

ill go first >:3 my first ever dnd character was a half-orc cleric named Fels who was mentally around 3 years old because he spent 100 years as a statue and was brought to life by a god. He got taken by a cult who wanted him to be the vessel for their twisted misunderstanding of a war god, got some trauma, and eventually escaped to a town where he learned to be a cleric under the healing god. They were my way of exploring freedom through the body, freedom of gender, of dress, of tattoos etc. Sadly our campaign was cut short but I still love my boy dearly he was so fun to play (naive but stubborn and very literal which helped him give solid advice to his often less than solid teammates) I wanted his teammates to give him a last name as he had none, but i suppose he never will have one.

rn im playing a Way of Shadow Monk owlin named Vigil Dullbeak who is a very very young adult (17 in human years) on the run from his community of owlin spies that value the gathering and keeping of intel from kingdoms all over. instead of being raised by parents, he was raised by his community and eventually given an apprenticship under a mentor where hed go train in the woods for about 5-8 years. during this training, his mentor was possesed, and attacked Vigil, trying to kill him. the 15 year old owlin had to hid in a series of cave tunnels, every second thinking he would be killed by his mentor in the dark. eventually he flew back to his community, but the possesed mentor was already there, and telling everyone that Vigil was the one who attacked him. they drove vigil out, and he's been wandering ever since. he has an affinity for cats and an intense fear of the dark. he carries a lantern that he keeps lit while he sleeps. he loves lying, absolutely loves it, and is a brash, violent kid. at heart. he likes to be daring, and doesnt care about social conventions as he was raised outside of 'proper' society. he will talk to kings while glaring, and commoners while smiling. hes size Small, and hates when people think he's a kid (he is technically, for an owlin, not a kid)

[rabbitgardens]

welcoem to my fuck house

Red | 20 | it/its | main blog

making this sideblog to meet people to play games with and justify my ffxiv subscription!

I dont have very much experience with mmos, and my histories with both gw2 and ffxiv are Falling Madly In Love With It Before Ive Even Beaten The Tutorial and Buying All The Expansions and immediately falling off because of some kerfuffle or another game catching my attention. But i wanna get back into them now!

this blog is a big fat work in progress so mind the dust, I’ll make a proper character list with art/pictures and shit Later

(current list under readmore!)

GUILD WARS 2 CHARACTERS

Revylin- it/any sylvari, cycle of dusk,mesmer. Just call it Revyl! My current main im using to relearn the game! Got converted to the nightmare court as a sapling for its higher than usual magical aptitude, had an Awful Time and was rescued by the Wardens before it could become a knight. Now travels around tyria pursuing a wyld hunt he cant remember (itll be fine!! itll come back to him itll be fiiiiiine) working as a dancer/storyteller before getting tangled up in the Plot

Irysel- she/they sylvari elementalist. max level commander from my original 2019 playthrough! idk if i’ll ever play her again but i remember having such a blast with elementalist i’ll probably try her again eventually

Rika Sunstalker- he/they ash legion charr thief. old dnd character made gw character! the campaign he was in stopped so now he only exists here! a gladium, formerly rika sunblaze, who got his warband killed?? Somehow??? and took the stalker name/joins a pirate crew of other disgraced charr to travel and see the world (still working his details out adldjd)

(I havent made these next few characters ingame yet, but plan to once im farther along!)

Irene- he/she sylvari, cycle of noon, guardian. Warden turned adventurer turned revyl's travelling partner (and eventual co-commander and lover!) Very devout dreamer with a strong sense of justice and desire (read: overwhelming uncompromising need) to be the pale tree's most devout, prized, heroic son. Travels around tyria working up the ranks of the vigil, trying very very Vewy hard to fuffil a wyld hunt she cant remember (all he knows is that it Must be tied to revyl. thats why she feels that way whenever revyl looks at her, right?)

Toymaker Tazzi- she/it/they asura, college of dynamics, necromancer. toymaker who wants to Optimize fun. wants to algorithmically derive the perfect way to Have The Most Fun. do not let her get in contact with revyl shenanigans will ensue

Captain Ashlynn Wednesday- she/any blood legion charr elementalist. another old dnd character hit with the Youre A Charr Now beam! gladium, originally a warrior who nearly drowned during a mission and made a pact with a (dead god?? sea spirit?? sea demon??) to get her elementalist magic, potentially terrifying amounts of magical power held back by the fact that shes a Little Stupid and more likely to blow herself up than anyone else-

-------------

FFXIV CHARACTERS

Ciel D’luxe- he/they viera summoner/archer hes my little meow meow so full of problems. hes a drag queen. he has trust issues. hes trying to find love even though he thinks hes the wettest most miserable man in eorzea. his ex is hunting him for sport. the only reason he became a summoner was because he saw a carbuncle for the first time and Lost It. hes a bitch hes a lover hes my little booboo bear

(havent made these characters ingame yet but plan to!)

alta haragin- she/it au'ra pugilist/lancer (or pugilist/gladiator? i know i can technically have all three but shes gotta have two Mains yknow), Rapscallion Criminal turned pit fighter turned adventurer turned ciels girlfriend and co-captain of ciels adventuring party

drakaz verkach-he/him hroth hhhhheavy armor class of some sort. maybe he'll be the gladiator. the beavis to altas butthead. just here for a good time! please pay no attention to my myriad mental health issues/simultaneous identity crises

(this last guy is a joke character but i honestly cant gey him out of my head maybe ill make him a retainer like i wanna do with kaz)

nagayuki ittetsu-any pronouns au'ra(?) spellcaster who wants to ammase enough power to Become A Primal. he is always and forever getting tricked by ascians/beast clans/random fucking guys and gets Almost Murdered several times-

[childofthetrees]

Worldbuilding Journal

Project Alora Update #1

Origin

Solar system

Continents

It seems fitting to begin our journey at the very beginning when the worlds came into being. I wanted to establish a blend of science and magic very early on, as this will be used in a D&D campaign(s), so I began piecing together a creation story based on a magic version of the Big Bang and more science based cosmos.

The Great Abyss - In the beginning, the first Eternal being beyond time and matter was the Mother Nov’ya. She suffered millennia alone until she carved into the inky darkness with her sickle and pulled matter from the abyss she created. From this matter, beings similar to her began to emerge and shape the cosmos into being.

Essentially this creates a trickle down of celestial beings and bodies filling the cosmos with life and magic. It also sets up an original “pantheon” that goes further than the specific world this campaign will be working out of while also allowing other DMs to use the setting for more than just your standard fantasy dnd campaign.

From there, I worked out the base idea of how this planet world come to be using a couple different resources. Generating a map using Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator, I got a general starting point for how this world was going to shape up. From there, I input some planetary data to get realistic data to base the planet Alora on. (Linked below) This gave me the data I needed to work out the habitability of the planet, biomes, water composition, number of suns and moons, etc.

Planet Alora of the Silarius Spiral Galaxy is the closest of 4 planetary bodies nestled around the 2 Suns: Faebon (yellow/white) and Kua (yellow/orange). Alora’s companion planets are Vigil (Gas Giant), Frygd (Ice Terrestrial), and Solus (Ice Gas Dwarf). She also has 2 moons orbiting her, Siva (grey/white) and Azra (blue).

Now that the number bit was out of the way, I moved on to tectonic plates to solidify the shape of the continents. This was more like piecing together a puzzle than anything. Having the generated map to work off of, I simply overlayed some shapes with the idea of how they would react to each other. This helped me flesh out which areas would have mountains or valleys and have a story to how the continents moved from a Pangea formation to what it would be like in the campaigns current day, setting the foundation for cultures, flora, and fauna.

Alora has 2 main continents and a island group. The 2 continents are separated by a divergent boundary on one side and a convergent noun on the other, slowly driving the two further apart. The islands sit on a series of smaller plates slowly converging with the smaller continent on the left.

I'll have the next update tagged under #projectalora! Up next is Cultures, Religions, and Countries ~

Resources:

[geekinthelowlands]

Day 4 - 100 Warm-Up Roleplaying Questions

The idea here is that every day, I take an RNG and use that to pick one of the questions from this page and answer it for my DND characters (if applicable XD).

Today's number 46

46 What opinion does your character have on [CERTAIN ESTABLISHED GROUPS/AUTHORITIES IN THE GAME WORLD]? (Dragonmarked Houses, royal crown, etc.)

Hanne is fairly trusting. She likes the inter-connected group of traders that is prominent in her homebrew campaign. She trusts them probably more than she should. Civic leaders, generally? She's indifferent.

Gat dislikes just about anyone in authority. He lived through a revolution and doesn't see the difference. Every person in government is just as likely to be corrupt.

Cogwynn balances her lawful good paladin heart with a recognition that sometimes people fail. It doesn't mean they are irredeemable but it does mean that one must be vigilant against corruption and the sneaking darkness of greed.

Shadow of a Star Not really applicable yet. This one requires a little more familiarity with the world than I have yet, considering we haven't started yet. XD

[ursiidae]

werewolf? they're right here! rowan vigil, my most recently made dnd character! they're a nonbinary elf, and an order of the lycan bloodhunter. i dont currently have a campaign to play them in as im the forever dm, but i cant wait for when i can. that or i'll die but yknow. [background credit; google]

[little-leaf-man]

🖊🖊🖊🖊 for Hosea and Mozzarella UwU

Did u know. I have a dnd version of Hosea I have in my campaign. He's a Tiefling Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline) and is one of the highest-ranking members in this organisation I made called The Guard (Think a cross between Witchers + The vigil + educators) and there. He's called Marshal Hosea Slei. Loves his fire magic. Has 8 acrobatics and 9 intimidation. This is the only doodle I have of this version

Mozzerela believes that Rata Sum and Asuran society has too many toxic elements, and that workshops should be held to promote a healthy working environment! If we get rid of that asuran supremacy, hierachy of 'genius' and actual help each other. We could get so much further if we all worked together and respected each other! She tried taking this notion to the councilors. It didn't work out. She got laughed at and called a naive optimist, but she's STILL going to try her best.

[fandomhop]

Okay, so I tried to send an ask 5-ish minutes ago but i don't think it worked? So, let's try again LOL. Firstly, sorry it's been so long since my last ask! Second, I would love to hear about your Grasco D&D campaign!

- 🦈

[Oh 🦈! Good to read from you again! I got worried giving you an infodump directory was the wrong move somehow!]

[Anyways; Grasco!]

[Uh, the first point was that the world was actually called Gryth, but I remember having mentally renamed it to Grasco since I had developed it as the name of the world as a whole, but Gryth was the section it was focused on. It's actually connected to another game I haven't mentioned, But yeah. I meant to say Gryth as the world. But it is part of Gryth, so I'll use the two interchangeably.]

[Second. This is the one game world I mentioned having tried to run, and it may have turned into me talking about the things I learned as a newbie DM. Maybe slightly vent-ish, whoops!]

[Third is the fact that Gryth/Grasco is a bit peak/pinnacle fantasy game. To the West are the Elvan Woods, where a variety of elves feel seperated after their beloved ruler was lost and overtaken by a dark assassin, there's the Dragon Penisula (Turned into the Dragon Lands in a different dimension after being banished in one iteration.) There's a land of Dal'litarr, a mix of jungles and deserts, home to a variety of animal folk, and there's always a bit of land that's considered No Man's Laws Land, that is as peaceful and chaotic as the folks who live there.]

[And sometimes, on a map, you'll find an odd little six sided shape in black. Wonder what it means. (I know what it means, but the game never gets far enough for me to share it)]

[Grasco was actually my first foray into being a DM (along with my attempted 2nd and 3rd, but I'll get to that.) I had joined a dnd group several years ago, and after the person that had started it wasn't the dm yet, and I had mention character ideas, I kinda just. Became the DM? so I decided that I would develop a world and plot within like 2 weeks.]

[So I started with a map:]

[So I'd kinda made a map based on the mental shape of what I thought was a good idea and as I'd gone through it, I'd developed pieces of lore for each region. Like Smallfellow Sanctuary is a floating island where lots of the small folk races live, and there's a good few entrance to underground cities and regions, like in Entor (that lil island with a star on it)]

[The main plot of the game was like this: the players had been captured and woken up in a cells in a cave, and they had to figure out who was the guy behind it, since the boss in charge of that cave was revealed to be someone lower on the chain of command.]

[I had this whole thing planned about how the ruler of a different region/country was so loyal to his own country that he'd been paying for folks to kill strangers from other countries to turn their corpses into the their nerco-arcane soldiers that could keep constant vigilance over their people, but-]

[Then what I'd call the campaign killer hit (even though we had plenty of sessions left): basically, like everyone but 1 of the OG players left or dropped out of the game within a few weeks of each other, and I, as a literal first time DM, did not know how to get the replacement players to care about the intended plot.]

[So when the new players came in, and since it wasn't focused on the mystery I was planning out, it kinda became everyone going on a road trip to get their character backstories resolved. At some point, I kinda got frustrated on some stuff that was done by players but honestly I probably would have curtailed if I had more experience.]

[So then I tried again.]

[I took in two of the players from the 1st game and also my sister, and I had revamped the world of Gryth (Grasco). There was still a lot of ideas that I hadn't been able to use, plus some new ones, like magic schools in certain places. It was about to be about the crossing of universe, bc of a big cool enemy I'd set against them, anddd I goofed up.]

[Two of the things that killed this game was me railroading the players into a death cut scene, and then me NOT railroading them into a specific job. The NPC that'd revived their asses had decided to hire him into one of his businesses (I'd developed him as a patron to the party, but he wasn't the best person to know.) and. Two of the jobs offered were worldbuilding/joke options, one of them being a courier. And they'd taken that one, meaning I had to develop that.]

[The other issue was session scheduling, because one person I did bring into the game was my sister, and while she does like the game too (we've played a few 1-on-1 games), she. Also, two of the players had character swap/possession gimmick that was a little too ambitious of me at the time (one of the players wanted to play 2 bros that got fused together who were a fighter and cleric that swapped depending on the day, and another player had a haunted lute that would occasionally possess them). Honestly, I think I could do that better now, but I was newer then and had not talked details out with the players at the time on how things would work.]

[I should have recordings of those sessions somewhere, though.]

[So. I tried again!]

[This time, because the other group didn't have time, I'd invited a different group (mostly my friends from a different game I was in at the time) and I'd felt like I had to better plan this out. I'd learned about the player characters, considered stories for them, had developed more of the world. I had a solid idea and-]

[I. may have not run a single session in 2 years because I didn't know how to actively start it, and I developed a whole ran campaign. Whoops!]

[At this point, I accidentally psyched myself out of the game, since I both did not approach nor receive a time for us to start playing. In retrospect, it may have not worked anyhow: most of us were already struggling to fit in a session with the one game we were in together.]

[I do want to say, I'm not 100% done with Gryth and Grasco: there's a lot of ideas that, while I didn't get to explore, I still do love, and honestly, I feel like the failed games taught me things: It taught me to help get the players on the same level in consideration for what our goal is (yes I say our, the players may be the ones doing the quests, but I'm the one who has to run them.) It helped teach me that if there's an ambitious idea, we need to talk it out and hash it out together (and also leave the ambition for. NOT the first 5 sessions.) And it ABSOLUTELY has taught me to check in and reinforce session scheduling (I've made a channel for session planning and I've been using Discord's event thing to make sure we all have the date and time in mind.)]

[Grasco is my first world 3 times over, and I'll wait for the day she'll show up in my games again. I already have ideas on how.]

[in-maidjan]

two sessions of the vigilant game ending in back to back murders of unarmed people (who have revealed themselves to be fucked up and cruel) like

[neonjawbone]

Do you play dnd?

I've actually never played DnD properly, outside of like half a one shot like... 7 years ago??

I play tabletops pretty regularly!! Some of the longer running campaigns I've been in were in games of:

Monster of the Week (i've only ever run thisss and played exactly one one shot of. i'd KILL to play in a longer game of it)

Masks: The New Generation

Blades in the Dark

Homebrews based on World of Darkness's Hunter the Vigil

And I've played several one shots/shorter games in these games:

Exalted 3E

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Delta Green

Geist the Sin Eaters

Kingdom

Anomaly

Pathfinder 2E

And I'm.... very slowly working on a Pirate themed PBTA game.

BUT... I'VE NEVER REALLY PLAYED A FULL SESSION OF DND....

[omniscientwreck]

Hello! Please tell us about your dnd characters! Do you have a favourite? What's your favourite thing about all of them?

Hi! Thank you for allowing me to tell you about my sweet boys some more! I gave descriptions about them here:

But I think right now Xaryl is my favourite, he's just... He's so sweet. My favourite thing about him is his heart, he's gone through a LOT and instead of hardening him it made him very caring and open and kind and I love playing him taking care of the other party members. He's a very good cleric and I just adore him!

My favourite thing about Rix is that despite his incredible anxiety he continues to push through and stand by his friends in the best way he can. He's very brave in the face of massive conflict much bigger than him.

My favourite thing about Ennui is just... His attitude. He takes shit from nobody, he always has a quip for anyone trying to be a dick to him and he is always true to himself even if that means being a total piece of trash. He has been hardened by trauma and he puts up these big walls to keep himself safe and I just hope I get to play him in a campaign one day to see what happens when those walls come down.

My favourite thing about Vigil (aside from his aesthetic because he's definitely my hottest character LOL) is his commitment to those around him. He feels he has a lot to atone for and he also feels very responsible to the people he cares about. His conviction is incredible and I'm so excited to play him soon!

Thank you for asking 💕💖💕

[mimbing]

freebie dnd one-shot campaign ideas

crew of knights doing the silence ceremony at their initiation vigil when a surprise coup ousts the queen from their castle

fantasy outpost lockdown with ghosts coaxing party members outside to kill them; one player is already possessed

party wakes up in a graveyard, covered in dirt with no memories or identities; townspeople fear them (build character sheet as you go)

we are all cats in a cat cafe trying desperately to be adopted

[disabledfabian]

5,8,9,19,20!

5. What was the first time you really connected to this character, if ever? Why do you think this moment made the character special to you?

probably just building him. i wanted to make him different than prior dnd characters ive played and i just rly love him :( 

8. What’s one weird personal headcanon you have for the character that’s not addressed or that you haven’t found a way to share yet?

winter tai doesnt like walking so he will like. lean on someone til he gets carted around somehow alskdfj

9. What are your character’s relationships like with every member of their party? Bonus, if you want to write a short blurb on your character’s opinion of them.

aelia- filled the void leaving his sisters gave him. trusts her wholeheartedly and is closest to her out of anyone. spring tai would call her family, summer considers her a confidant. 

alunda- incredibly smart. both of them are very interested in books and research and the arcane, so he can easily relate to her. enjoys when they both get hooked on a thread and unravel the mystery together.

cerise- another fill the little sister void. thinks of her as a little sister. wants to help her and protect her but hasn’t figured out how or if he even can/should. 

sylreth- mysterious, but another islander. wants to know the mystery, but trusts him. spring tai is very friendly with him but summer is a little more suspicious

vigil- mysterious. wants to trust them but doesn’t know if he should. in the meantime, they’re good conversation, smart, and skilled.

19. What bit of character development are you proudest of? What bit do you wish hasn’t happened? Is there any development you’re still waiting for?

hmmm its kinda hard to get traditional character development with tai bc of eladrin nature. i guess the sitting down and talking about stuff part would be it. development im waiting for would be re his warlock patron.

20. How did you think your character would die when you started the campaign? How do you think they’ll die now? If they’re already dead, substitute that in for the second answer.

uh at the beginning with only playing spring tai probably something stupid alskdfj 

now that party development has happened i think he’ll die either

a) very easily (that health)

b) very tragically (because of his hp, members of his party including the fuckin. wizard. have had to protect him so if he dies that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the party)