#dnd discussions

[wileycap]

Go see the new Dungeons and Dragons movie. Just run. Don't finish reading this post.

That was SO REFRESHING. GOD.

Some minor spoilers ahead, but frankly nothing that would spoil your enjoyment of the plot:

A man and a woman who are friends and co-parents, who don't constantly belittle and snark at each other and who aren't falling in love? Mwah! Fucking finally. A genuine friendship where they BOTH respect each other! FUCKING WHEN IS THE LAST TIME

And the humor doesn't get in the way of the characters! It's funny, but in a funny-for-real way, not in a research-shows-1-joke-per-48-seconds-is-optimal way.

Like: the barbarian woman goes to visit her halfling ex. Oh boy, here we go, right? WRONG. They have a mature, respectful, heartfelt and open conversation about where their relationship went wrong, and wish each other well.

Afterwards, the barbarian walks out to the bard, who gives her a Look. Oh boy, THIS is it. This is where the dumb jokes happen. WRONG AGAIN. The bard sees that his friend is clearly hurting, and just starts singing Their Song until she joins in. Like. An actual friendship moment. No jokes. It's cheesy but in the way that actual people are cheesy.

It doesn't depend on you being some ultranerd for DnD, either: it's not like Marvel's obsession with pointing out that yes, Steve the Intern WAS forced at gunpoint to comb through the entire run of Waffle Ass Man from the 80s in order to find you a Reference. It's just place names and some tropes that all stand on their own while showing that yes, they are adapting DnD and they are earnest about it. (I've played like 3 times, I didn't know shit going in.)

Earnest is actually a great word. The whole movie feels so earnest.

Fucking finally, a fun adventure movie. I could watch like 20 of these. Just give me, in alternating years, one Benoit Blanc mystery and one DnD movie, and I'll be happy.

[dreaming-tonite]

Opening the discussion on what class members of the batfamily would be if they are dnd pcs because in true nerd fashion, all my current hyperfixations must have intersection points even if it means creating one myself:

Bruce — battle master fighter (ngl superiority dice confuses me sometimes but imo it is such a versatile and tactile class to play)

Dick — college of swords bard or hexblade warlock (not as focused on the charisma/performance aspect of things but still makes attacks using charisma stats over strength stats)

Barbara — I’m torn between school of divination wizard or knowledge domain cleric subclass because the former seems a bit too on the nose but it does make sense?? Tho i also think cleric honors her role as support (also clerics are so underrated, spirit guardian is literally one of my top spells)

Jason — path of the berserker barbarian OR oathbreaker paladin (im not a big fan of the black-and-white alignment styles of like “oathbreakers are innately evil” but the fact that this is the common idea makes for great plot potential)

Tim — bladesinging wizard (ngl im not sure about this one but i picked wizard for the int stats)

Cass — gloom stalker ranger (literal definition of you wont know what hit you until you are hit)

Damian — half-elven(*) assassin rogue

(*under personal preference, everyone is human unless specified because the charm of batfam to me is always that theyre not “meant to be” heroes but consciously become one. HOWEVER, elven al ghuls just seems like such a cool concept)

[schneiderenjoyer]

This part has provided and honestly confirmed an insight that's been implied occasionally, but never openly stated as much as this moment.

Arcanists are less durable.

It's mentioned a handful of times how it's important for combat between arcanists to be quick and efficient. While they can be physically strong even beyond human standards, their limits are far shorter in comparison. They're far more prone to taking physical and mental damage quicker with their quick healing/recovery to make up for it, but not change just how fragile they are.

This is very insightful too as to why arcanists would be more inclined to fight using arcanum instead of physically as much as possible. Their arcanum gives them an upper hand where their physical stamina is lacking.

[spiderwarden]

When ill is your muse a complete baby or are they stoic until death.

[blujaydoodles]

you wanna talk about stress YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT STRESS? I've stumbled onto a MAJOR conspiracy how bout THAT for STRESS

[pixel-cherry-pie]

Speculative evolution side of tumblr I’m in need of your constructive criticism! I tried to speculate some dragons based on synapsids instead of more “regular” reptiles. But do they make any sense???? Pls halp! They’re loosly based on gorgonopsyds but I gave them wings in convergent evolution with the pterosaurs. I guess they shouldn’t be able to fly without air sacs in their body and hollow bones so I’m also guessing they conveniently evolved those as well.

I’m not entirely sure about the horns in general, because I don’t know wether or not they would make sense (I thought maybe could be an adaptation to protect the nose from cold winds and grew to be a communication display? Idk idk anything!). Should they actually be more scaly? More horned? I already know I’ll try with manes, cuz they might look nice in them!

Another thing that looks weird to me are the Feets. I can’t place myself where they look wrong. Please feel free to give me a heads up! I tried with a semi-plantigrade stance and took inspo from thylacines but clearly it ain’t it. (is it even a thing actually?) For the marine dragon I went with sturdier constitution and small wings, for water propelling (should they be even smaller???) and big, hollow horns for (possible?) echolocation. Strong limbs to climb cliffsides and find nice safe spots to nest and from where to dive for food. (on this note... would these dragons lay eggs or... what???)

Let me know what you think about it, I’ll be more than happy to discuss these very incomplete stages of speculation!

[merciawintersageposting]

Me googling “has anyone else had their game crash with no save at Lady Jannath’s estate due to a spooky encounter”: a visual poem.

[the-knight-of-destiny]

On Fantasy High, Redemption, and Agency (General Spoilers for Junior Year, sort of?) Also this post about FHJY is long as fuck, as all of mine are getting. In short it's my understanding of how Brennan Lee Mulligan sets up the teenage villains of Fantasy High.

Fair warning, this is LOOOONG below the cut.

Y'know when I said I wasn't going to talk about Ratgrinder discourse? I lied.

So Brennan as a DM has a very specific narrative language for how a villain is 'redeemable' and it primarily has to do with the level of agency a villain has in their actions. This isn't particularly hard to notice when you look at our very own (and fan favorite) reformed villain squad.

Starting with Ragh, while he was in his right mind for most of his villainy in Freshman Year, he really didn't do too much other than beat people up and be a bully? While he worked with Daybreak on some level, he wasn't anything more than muscle and not very in on most of the plans. There was also some implication of grooming and manipulation from Daybreak to Ragh.

Zayn as an example also helps build this thesis, while he also hasn't done a TON evil he's generally a bit more discerning than Ragh. However he builds the understanding of how Fantasy High looks at it's redeemed teenage villains, when Zayn is found as a ghost he explicitly calls out Daybreak as being the only reason he's still housed, were he not to go along with the Freshman Year scheme he'd have been sent back to his abusive parents, the foster system, or homeless as like, a fifteen year old boy.

But the actual silver bullet to understanding this is Aelwyn, to preface. Aelwyn fucking sucks in freshman year, way worse than Ragh or Zayn. She's also responsible for way worse than any other teenage villain in the series. She's arguably committed worse than Dayne Blayde or Penelope Everpetal, but there's an important component to her redemption in Sophmore Year, something Brennan has her stay conscious despite making death saves to explain.

In tears Aelwyn notes that Kalina was actively threatening to kill her had she not complied with the Kalvaxus plan.

So there's a running theme here, Ragh didn't seem to have much of an idea of what the wider plan even was and was just muscle, Zayn was under significant threat to his personal safety (and unbeknownst to him, also under threat of death, a threat that actually gets carried out), and Aelwyn was literally convinced she'd be murdered for not complying.

This tracks with the teen villains who DON'T get redeemed by the way, Dayne had no qualms about casually murdering his classmates with a great sword, Penelope didn't seem to mind the idea of throwing her best friend Kalvaxus for a power play. They both get killed because they don't seem to really care what happened, were fully complicit, and had no form of remorse at all.

This leaves us with our code to cracking if Brennan sees the Ratgrinders as possibly worthy of redemption (IMO, signs point to yes, but it's complicated.) We know the Ratgrinders are being manipulated heavily by Porter (I have so many more thoughts about Jace's place in this but that's for a whole other post,) however they don't have Ragh's excuse of being mostly in the dark.

Kipperlilly and Oisin for sure know exactly what's going on, and the rest (sans Buddy) probably do too. The actual question is how much does Ankarna rage affect one's reasoning, and the thing that's interesting about how the Ratgrinders have been set up is that question is sincerely ambiguous.

Signs point to the corruption needing some sort of genuine anger or frustration to latch onto, but this is my first hot take here. This isn't really that damning? Pre-Rage Kipperlilly said some concerning things, in private confidential counseling. She (at the time) understood her fixation on Riz was a problem and perhaps not fair. Oisin probably was mildly frustrated or saddened a girl he had a crush on didn't notice him, but to cast Pre-Rage Oisin as a full on Biz Glitterdew incel is, in my opinion, unlikely. Ruben was already seeking attention but wasn't anything worse than a mildly annoying teenage boy, etc.

These aren't exactly 'good' feelings but they are pretty normal for 14-15 year olds. Pre-Rage Ratgrinders really aren't that much worse than Pre-Character Development Bad Kids, let's not forget that they too definitely act out in really mean, unfair ways at around the same time as Pre-Rage Ratgrinders (Fig and Fabian, most notably.)

As for agency though, they clearly have a bit more of it than previous teenage villains, and are a bit more aware of their actions. They're not under direct threat of violence like Aelwyn or Zayn (though the way Porter and Jace act around them may make that threat implicit.) and they don't have Ragh's excuse of being seemingly largely in the dark.

The Ratgrinders I feel are an intentional test for the Bad Kids (and the Intrepid Heroes as players) because they're significantly more antagonistic than previous teenage villains. Heck, even ones that turned out totally evil. Dayne's kinda chill to the Bad Kids initially, Penelope is a bit backhanded but she isn't outright mean. If you count him, even Johnny Spells humors Riz and is relatively lax to him. Ragh's honestly way more harsh for most of the first half of Freshman Year, Zayn's initially more rude and confrontational to them too.

That said they're both being influenced by a much worse adult (Like everyone in the Reformed Villain Squad) and have a rage god clouding their judgement to an unknown degree. If we follow previously established patterns, they're salvageable by the story's own logic.

The test is for the party, it's easy to forgive Zayn when he openly cries and apologizes immediately when finally confronted about his place in the villain plot, it's easier to forgive Aelwyn when she openly puts herself in harm's way and almost dies to save Adaine.

It's going to be harder, emotionally, for both the player characters and the players themselves to forgive the Ratgrinders and recognize they're also victims in some sense when the Ratgrinders have been actively fucking with the Bad Kids for the whole season, and taking an obvious amount of satisfaction in it.

The challenge Brennan has set up for the party, I feel, is a test of their character. Fighting a possibly ascended god Porter is gonna be a lot easier without a whole other party of enemies in the fight (and even much easier if you can convince some to fight alongside you as a part of heroes.)

[toxycodone]

Awesome to find a fellow Laios fan! Anyway, idk if you've heard of this YouTube channel called Storied (it's associated with PBS) and one of the series they have is called Monstrum. As the name implies, it's about monster stuff like the origins, how it evolved through time, and what fears they're meant to symbolize. I just thought that Laios would absolutely adore that series, among other horror documentary-like related media!

okay thank you for putting me on because. im now going to BINGE this oh my god. Laios would absolutely love this!!!

in my mind he’s like. a zoologist (but a cryptozoologist in his spare time) so he binges those videos and when a new one uploads he’s like “y/n!!! look!!!”

he counts chilling in his room and watching these as dates and he either is going “oh wooow” or lowkey criticizes them throughout the vid.

then it’s off to the cryptozoology subreddit to discuss these with his fellow “scholars” 💀 or dnd/mtg fans if it’s not like. cryptozoology monsters.

[morrigan-sims]

broken vows, broken horns

"Leave, and never come back. If you ever set foot in this city again, you're dead, you hear me?" He spits in Val's direction before turning away, muttering under his breath, "Traitorous little devil."

This is a little glimpse into Val's past, back when they were 17.

When I made Val's tattoos, one of the other players said that the snake motif reminded them of gang tattoos where the symbol of the gang is repeated across the body. That planted the seed for Val's backstory in my head. And even more perfectly, I had already decided weeks ago that the reason Val is never seen without their captain's hat is that their horns had been broken many years ago.

But why would breaking of horns matter? Oh, of course. It's an all-tiefling gang! And broken horns is a sign to anyone who knows the gang/criminal underworld that "this person is not to be trusted, do not let them join your crew".

So I ended up with a tiefling gang called the Horned Serpents, and decided to place them in the port city of Xen, where Val will be taking the party after rescuing Rook. This would explain why Val hadn't been there in years (15 to be precise), and thus allow the DM to surprise me with whatever is going on there.

Unbeknownst to me, Xen and the surrounding area has a... complicated history with the Hells, and already is wary of tieflings. So it makes perfect sense that the tieflings there would band together, especially if they were already ostracized. (Yay for accidental mind-reading!)

Val was basically raised by the Serpents, but they are too kind, too good a person to be complicit in gang violence for long. So when they were offered the chance, they became an informer, leading to the gang's dismantling and downfall. But some of the surviving/escaped members discovered Val's treachery and came after them, beating them and breaking off their horns. And, of course, delivering the warning to never return to Xen.

Val fled and never looked back. For 15 years they've sailed all around the continent, but never docked in Xen. But if returning there is what it takes to save the life of one of their passengers, they'll do it.

[cinnamonfairyfluff]

Gale and Cinna, a few days after channeling the weave together in act 1:

Cinna: Gale?

Gale: I do enjoy our conversations. What do you need?

Cinna: I've been thinking a lot about what you said...

Gale: About?...

Cinna: About Mystra! I was always taught that she is the guardian of the weave we wield, and nothing more. Yet you claim she is all magic, correct?

Gale: Undoubtebly. Mystra is the very embodiment of the weave.

Cinna: Can I ask you something?

Gale: You may.

Cinna: If Mystra is indeed the weave itself, as you say, then why are her followers and chosen almost exclusively wizards and not sorcerers?

Gale: Whatever do you mean?

Cinna: I mean... if Mystra was all magic, then why would she not have the ability to, at least, choose who is born with the weave? Wouldn't she want her worshippers to be sorcerers like me, and have the gift from within? Evidently, she does not have the capability to choose, as seen by the many sorcerers who do not hold faith in her, including me.

Gale: *silent pondering*

Cinna: So I figured you may know the answer. If Mystra is the weave, then why was I, somebody without faith, gifted with the weave, and why did you, a loyal follower of Mystra, have to learn it?

Gale: *more silent pondering*

Cinna: *tilting her head, awaiting an answer or explanation*

Gale: *questioning his faith*

[wylanzahn]

How do you keep from Copy/Pasting existing Cultures into your Worlds?

Basically just as the title says, and I'm sure there's been pleeeeenty of discussion on the topic, but I'm genuinely curious what makes your cultures unique and original (especially when the modern aura of writing is "everything's been done"). Furthermore, is having a copy/paste culture a bad thing? For context, I'm primarily a Game Master (GM) who also on occasion writes as well as works in the TTRPG actualplay space. When you have an audience (whether friends or fans) is it necessarily a bad thing to have familiar locations, themes, and even characters that mimic real life? Can it be easier for an audience to just assume we're in "Ancient Rome" or "Habsburg controlled Austria"?

For me I do like creating totally original locations with their own weird political systems influenced by magic, gods, monsters, and anything else fantastical--BUT sometimes I find a setting is more interesting of just "what if Romans could directly interact with their deities?". For me I just find the idea of almost "alternate history" but in my uniquely fantastical setting interesting. However, I also understand that some people like genuinely different worlds with no trace of the real world left behind.

When creating unique cultures I try to combine elements to create something more unique. For example I'm currently working on the ancient periods of my current homebrew world, and specifically in a portion I haven't particularly worked on before. In Evrosea, a sort of "ancients world" where Greco-Roman culture lives on well into the medieval 15th Century (of course technology has changed and evolved) I find myself studying more ancient histories. I knew from before I fully began working on worldbuilding Erosea that there was some sort of "Roman Empire" which spread its tongue as a sort of lingua franca across the continent of Dulgren (aka why Common exists in my D&D world). Also originating from the region of Evrosea was the sorta monolithic pantheon of "new gods" (aka Catholicism). So I have the ideas of imperialism and religious importance in this region. So the very clear start was Rome itself, but how could I make this Rome unique? Well here's what I found from my research on Ancient Rome:

Many pre-settlers, and even contemporaries of Ancient Rome, in Italy were nomadic grazers and herders.

The Aeneid, which tells one of the many origin stories of Ancient Rome, ties in the ancient Greek tale of the Trojan War, and makes Rome the successors of Troy.

That many of their religious practices were tied up with the Senate (especially after the abolishment of the crown).

Finally, while perhaps never directly ruled by the Etruscans, their neighbors were much more confederate like and were similar in culture rather than being a unified people or kingdom.

Taking the information I found I twisted and jumbled much of this random history and constructed a group of nomads who controlled the fertile valleys of Uvemos (home region of the ancient Carinaens, my replacement for the Romans).

Many of these nomads worshipped similar sounding gods (if not outright the same gods), and most of them lived off the lands of Uvemos. Only a select few of whom ever settled into cities. However, long after the first nomads of Uvemos walked the hilly countryside arrived a band of pirates and raiders, terrors of the ancient world, many knew not their names, but they quickly accrued a nickname, "The Sea People" (see Sea Peoples on Wikipedia for more, TL;DR a bunch of random marauders who attacked or even helped cause the collapse of some Bronze Age Civilizations). One such pirate was said to be the Prince Laogonus, an exile from Apeiros, who was said to be a direct descendant of the God King Ulios himself. Laogonus settled down on the banks of Janian Sea in a small dirt settlement near to the roaming tribes of Uvemos. Many years later the small city of Carina was established as a blossoming trade hub by the many different tribes of Uvemians. Of these tribes was born a Chieftain's daughter, Aurora. Aurora was said to be descended from the god blood of Ulios, and when she prayed to her great grandsire on the eve of battle she was enveloped in holy light-- thus becoming the world's first cleric. Of her legacy were many rituals formed and practices established, and the civitas mille clericorum* was born.

*(civitas mille clericorum) meaning "city of a thousand clerics," named after the heavy religious undertones established by the first cleric Aurora, at least according to legend.

Super cool right?? I combined some other ideas than the ones I established such as the Sea People from the Collapse of the Bronze Age, as well as these kind of Shinto-like-beliefs in the Carinaen religion, which, to me at least, seems the most like what Ancient Roman beliefs would look like to us today (though I didn't really get to talk about in my blurb). I like taking existing pillars of cultures and extending them, now rather than just being a complete Roman rip-off there's more of this nomadic or tribal culture, at least to early Carinaen history, there's more of a nautical legacy (unlike Rome, who didn't establish a truly working navy up until the Punic Wars), and finally the city of Carina is a beacon for holy warriors and classes like Paladins and Clerics (again this is D&D so that's oriented towards that).

But tell me what you think, and how best do you come up with your fictional cultures/countries? Do you merely copy off of pre-existing cultures or do you fully work from the ground up? I'm super curious to hear what you all have to say!

I'm also tagging a couple friends since I'm curious of your responses @hessdalen-globe, @northernthiefcranberry, @kerghoulen, and the ever wonderful @somethingclevermahogony.

Also guys I need you to pull me out, I'm this close to dropping out of the arts and trying to get into Harvard to do Ancient Studies. Send Help.

[we-are-siege-engineer]

Question for the crowd!: Sieges in Tabletop

I actually played recently in a module where we had a siege encounter with some rounds of enemy waves and actions we could take after a certain event passed. There was also bonuses for if we were able to get the factions within the walls to work together rather than fight separately.

So in light of that: how do you run siege encounters? Or what questions do you have for how any of those would work? Any favorite siege encounter stories?

[avielex]

We made a DnD AU...

So naturally, Jordan's subject to even more angsty symbolism for their arc of self-exploration :p

In the DnD world, Jordan is a changeling rogue! This is currently my most mischievous rendition of Jordy, using their transformation powers for trickery and espionage.

[blujaydoodles]

I have no particular explanation as their player for why they view sexuality more or less the same way but have different labels except 'vibes, idk', but I do imagine it'd be less ambiguous in Gnomish

[sprintingowl]

Knight Damsel Jester

I am not an illustrator.

Anyway here is a TTRPG I illustrated.

Five pages, floating GM role, GMing recovers your HP, players narrate the complications for your failures, non-zero chance a goblin might steal your underwear.