#mage handbook | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

y-rhywbeth2 · 10 months

Text

Lore Compilations (+ this blog's tagging/filter list at the end)

A WIP of a pinned post table of contents to tidy up the blog while I empty my fixations onto it plus a lore accuracy disclaimer (so I don't have to keep typing one), because why not. I like tables of content.

Disclaimer regarding lore accuracy: If you combine 50 years, 5 editions, 10+ settings, god knows how many novels, and then all the writers who all retcon and contradict each other's work then what you get is a clusterfuck. The lore I show here is compiled from all five editions of the game. You will likely see stuff out there that contradicts some things I say, or stuff I didn't mention/know. That's the lore for you. If you were the Dungeon Master making your own story, your job would be to pick and chose and build your own take on the setting out of it. I, personally, heavily favour older lore. Larian absolutely did this with Baldurs Gate 3 - frankly, I don't think they even know half this lore even exists, and Bioware took some liberties in the original games too. Wizards of the Coast themselves trample D&D into the ground all the time! All D&D is near enough fanfiction built on fanfiction. Therefore, if you find any information useful you may take it, leave it or tweak it to your desire for your own story, because it's D&D lore, and that's how it works.

Disclaimer regarding Larian's canon (and Bioware, and Obsidian): The setting shown in BG3 does not really match up to the setting as presented in sourcebooks (and sometimes novels, previous games, and 'word of god). I'm always talking about the latter and reframing the story and characters within the latter.

Disclaimer regarding asking me for my opinions on how [x] works in canon: I can make an educated guess based on the sourcebooks, but there are many gaps in many places and however educated the guess, unless it comes from a sourcebook, novel, or writer, it's just my own headcanon.

---

TABLE OF CONTENTS [WIP] (I make no promises as to the speed or order at which any of this is produced - and some of these need updating)

Abeir-Toril Why it's called the "Forgotten" Realms

Baldurs Gate: The City #1 | Demographics | Law & Legal System | Aministration & Government | ???

Human Names | Clothes and Fashion | Music | Dating, Sex, Marriage etc [part 1] [part 2] |

Religion How religion works in the Realms, the different pantheons in the world and then individual posts dedicated to the gods as individuals, how and why to worship them and how their churches function

Religion | Priesthoods and Temples | Deities

Death and the Afterlife Dying | Judgement | Afterlives

Arcane Magic

Vampires Feeding | "Biology" | Hierarchy & Powers | Weaknesses & Cures | Psychology

Elves The Complete Book of Elves once said ‘The elves of Toril do not follow the standards of most other worlds,’ which yeah, pretty much. The Player’s Handbook is not necessarily going to be accurate when talking about the Tel’Quessir.

Drow Culture | Other Drow Cultures

Planars & Planetouched Tieflings | Githyanki | Bhaalspawn | Devils

Orcs

Hin - That's "halfling", if you're over 3'4" Overview | Names | Culture | Homelands | Religion

Gnomes Culture | Names | Homelands | History | Religion

---

Tagging system:

Various lore things that don't go in the larger compilations are tagged lore stuff. Things that aren't lore will get tagged babbling.

For sensitive material, such as if I feel like poking at the various delightful topics presented in the game:

I'll use edgelord hours as the generic "reader discretion advised"

The tag villainous nonsense means Dead Dove Do Not Eat.

the family circle is an extra warning for discussing the themes and subtexts such as those present with Bhaal's cult and the Bhaalspawn: including reproductive horror and sexual abuse, including the incest.

If I feel like posting anything I scribbled ("art"), the tag will be the scribbles

When I'm making posts and being negative or complaining about video games and trivial stuff, it will be filed as: griping

Whenever I find or consider something new about the Dead Three and/or want to rant and scream insults at Bane again, my tag is the idiot three

When I babble about my characters, I tag it OCs, and the ocs are also tagged by name. So far I've only mentioned Vel

If I don't want to put my babbling about certain characters into the tags, I'll just put the / in front. /astarion, /orin, /gortash, /durge, etc

When I want to babble about stuff happening in my game as I play it, they're tagged playthrough shenanigans. The original games are bg2 playthrough shenanigans.

When I start talking about my oc's romance with Astarion I'll tag it petty murder boyfriends

#lore stuff

140 notes · View notes

theoutcastrogue · 2 months

Text

The New D&D 5.5 Rogue

For people who got an advance copy of the 2024 PHB, the NDA was lifted on August 1st. This is a summary from RPG Bot's 2024 DnD 5e Transition Guide and Change Log: Everything That’s Different in the new Player’s Handbook. See also here for more commentary on previously released details. I would like to note that:

The new Weapon Mastery rules (from the playtests) give martials lovely options they didn't have before.

There are some iffy flat DCs all over the book: the actions Hide (stealth), Influence (social skills), and Thieves' Tools (to disarm traps and pick locks) are all a flat DC 15. So this is either a completely stupid change (not all locks or all Persuasion checks were made equal!), OR the DMG will include rules and guidelines to adjust these DCs for different conditions.

Which (if that's the case) would mean that now Players and DMs know different rules about fundamental aspects of the game. I hate this, I hate that skills are now even less well-defined in the PHB, and I will rant more about this at a later time.

But anyway, here's RPGBot's summary:

Rogue

1. Expertise. No longer allows you to select Thieves’ Tools.

1. Thieves’ Cant. Also grants you an extra language proficiency.

1. Weapon Mastery. New.

3. Steady Aim. Identical to the Optional Class Feature.

5. Cunning Strike. Allows you to reduce your Sneak Attack damage in exchange for powerful rider effects like knocking the target prone or applying the Poisoned condition.

7. Reliable Talent. Moved from 11th level.

11. Improved Cunning Strike. New. Use up to 2 Cunning Strike effects on the same attack.

14. Blindsense. Gone.

14. Devious Strikes. New. Adds more Cunning Strike options.

15. Slippery Mind. Now adds proficiency in both Wisdom and Charisma saves instead of just Wisdom.

20. Stroke of Luck. Turn any d20 test into a 20. This means at least one guaranteed critical hit between each rest.

Arcane Trickster

3. Spellcasting. Now allows you to retrain a cantrip when you gain a level.

3. Mage Hand Legerdemain. Most of the 2014 feature’s capabilities were added to Mage Hand, with the exception of the ability to use Sleight of Hand and Thieves’ Tools. Now you can use Mage Hand for Sleight of Hand.

9. Magical Ambush. Now requires you to have the Invisible condition, which at a glance sounds like a huge problem, but the 2024 Hide action gives you the Invisible condition if you successfully hide.

13. Versatile Trickster. Now allows you to trip a target with your Mage Hand, but only when you use the Trip option from Cunning Strike.

Assassin

Much more reliable and less focus on disguises and infiltration. Much more stabby.

3. Assassinate. Reworked completely. Now much easier to use and much more consistently effective, but there’s no automatic critical hits.

3. Assassin’s Tools. Renamed from “Bonus Proficiencies”. Now also gives you one of each kit for free.

9. Infiltration Expertise. Reworked completely. No more false identity. Now you can perfectly mimic speech and handwriting, and Steady Aim doesn’t reduce your speed to 0.

13. Imposter. Gone.

13. Envenom Weapons. Extra poison damage when you use the Poison option of Cunning Strike. The damage applies whenever the target fails the save, which includes the additional saves at the end of each of their turns.

Soulknife

Very few changes.

3. Psionic Power. Like the Psi Warrior, the Soulknife’s Psionic Power feature now explicitly states that these dice are only for Soulknife features, the progression is tied to your Rogue level rather than your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain one die on a Short Rest.

3. Psychic Blades. The blades have the Vex Weapon Mastery, and can now be used for Opportunity Attacks.

Thief

3. Fast Hands.

Sleight of Hand. The wording here is a mess, but the Thief Rogue and only the Thief Rogue can use Sleight of Hand in conjunction with Thieves’ Tools to pick locks and disarm traps.

Now allows you to use magic items which normally take an Action to activate due to the new “Utilize” action. Existing item use case remain awesome.

3. Second-Story Work. Now much simpler, but functionally similar. A Climb speed and you use Dexterity for Athletics checks to jump.

9. Supreme Sneak. Reworked completely. Now a Cunning Strike option that allows you to attack without giving away your position.

13. Use Magic Device. Reworked completely. You no longer ignore restrictions on items, such as class requirements. Instead, you get an extra attunement slot, you have a chance to not spend charges when using a magic item, and you can use spell scrolls.

Picking Locks, Disarming Traps, Thieves' Tools, Sleight of Hand

Take a deep breath, because this one is confusing.

In the 2014 rules, you used proficiency in Thieves' Tools to disarm traps and pick locks. Sleight of Hand was used almost exclusively for picking pockets. Baldur's Gate 3 changed that when adapting the 5e rules for a video game.

In the 2024 rules, there is some confusion. Page 221 of the Player's Handbook details tools and their uses. Thieves' Tools list "Pick a Lock' and "Disarm a Trap" as two uses for the tool, which means that you apply proficiency with Thieves' Tools when performing those actions. This is the same as the 2014 rules.

The confusion sneaks in with the Thief Rogue's Fast Hands feature's Sleight of Hand option.

"Make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to pick a lock or disarm a trap with Thieves' Tools or to pick a pocket"

The lack of commas or formatting makes this text somewhat confusing. If it was intended to be three bullets, there would be commas. "Pick a lock comma disarm a trap with Thieves' Tools comma or pick a pocket". Instead, we can split your options with Fast Hands (Sleight of Hand) into two bullet points to clarify it:

Make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to pick a lock or disarm a trap with Thieves' Tools

Pick a pocket

This means that the Thief Rogue and only the Thief Rogue can use Sleight of Hand to pick locks and disarm traps while using Thieve's Tools. In fact, to do this as a Bonus Action, they're required to use Sleight of Hand. As per the rules for tools on Page 220 of the Player's Handbook, if you're also proficient with Thieves' Tools, you get Advantage on this check. All fantastic for the Thief Rogue and their ability to pick locks and disarm traps, especially since you can no longer get Expertise with tools, but you can get Expertise with Sleight of Hand.

If you are not a Thief Rogue, nothing has changed. Thieves' Tools are used for picking locks and disarming traps.

[source]

#d&d #5.5 #how to rogue #crunch #rogue #trs

48 notes · View notes

k-looking-glass-house · 1 year

Text

Sam Fairy Gala~ Flower and moonlight

Gah I'm a bit shy to share my "crazy" lore" about twisted wonderland, but you already know that I love making outfits.... Kinda the reason my mascot/"oc" can sew and create outfit.... I also have an obsession with the NRC staff.....hnnnnnnnn *help them*

Anyway in my lore Sam was an NRC student for only his 3rd years (around 17/18 y.o), getting his mage certificate and taking shortly after the shop! He already has his familiar K and tried all sort of way to get very rare items during his scholarship!

Mister Crewel was the almost futur NRC alchemy teacher, he tried an only girls school before thinking it would be only cutie, soft stuff and talk.... While it was only cat fight to panthers/lioness fight and love letters, with some crybabies moments (that's what he said!). He returned to his former school making Trein already tired about the situation! He tried each time to put every puppies in good stylish outfit!

Mister Crewel took a soft spot about Sam (knowing since his teenage days about Sam's grandfather and the shop) and vice versa. They help each other to get items they want (actually they kept from spilling:blackmailing the fact that they both smoke behind Mystery S shop, catching the other by surprise from time to time)~ And so Mister Crewel helped Sam getting some fairy powder, while K would help with sewing the fairies's dresses and they would both promote his fashion collection during the next Fairy Gala~

In the end the fairy gala is a success, K is revealed to eat blot (canon to her disney counterpart), Mister Crewel has fairy blood and can't stand alcohol and Sam believe in fairy tale and has one of the pure heart a fairy could sense (the Fairy Queen said so).

You can see more of it ....somewhere on my tumblr ah ah

Sam (NRC student)~ SR Moonlight De Vil suit

Summon Line: "Even shadows appear under the moon light, gnee hihihi" Groooovy!!: ....Finally....FINALLY HA HA HA!! I got the fairy powder! Home: I am ready, so are my friends on the other side gnee hihi~ Home Idle 1: I must say that when Mister Crewel told me that he could help....I didn't believe it at first! Looks like everyone has their secret! Home Idle 2: Fairies are truly something, my sisters* were right about them, back in our childhood stories! Home Idle 3: This night is truly something, between Mister Crewel "STAY!" and K making him berseck....*sigh* I must stay strong and not get eaten by shadows~ Home Idle - Login: Glitters! Jewel! Silk!! IN STOCK NOW! That's what I would say if I was a seller! Home Idle - Groovy: Thank you Ko-yousei-chan! Yes I'll give you Mister Crewel personal jewel designer contact~ Gnee hihi! Home Tap 1: Mister Crewel is part of the De Vil fashion's house, that's truly something, no wonder he has such style! Home Tap 2: If you want to attract fairies, be kind, be nice, be polite and pour a lot of glittery things! ....Also being handsome help! Home Tap 3: I don't need a bell to talk to fairies, we learned it with grandma it's important to talk to any kind of friends gnee hihi!! How? It's a secret, I'm not going to tell you! Home Tap 4: Arwwghhrr K please stop eating the flower, we'll get scold again by "KURUELLA"! Also stop eating the remain blot TOO!! Home Tap 5: I'll be sure to make good use of that fairy powder! Home Tap - Groovy: Ha ha ha! Somehow it was a good night! We had a lot of fun! Right everyone?!

.....we don't even see the lotus pattern huh....

-Credit-

Sam fairy gala (young version) concept done by me

The lanther bell was ref from "Handbook of ornament; a grammar of art, industrial and architectural designing in all its branches, for practical as well as theoretical use" (1900)

#twisted wonderland #twst #sam twisted wonderland #twst sam #k imeart

224 notes · View notes

soupthecoolest · 10 months

Text

CnD!

alright! so CnD, or "Creation and Destruction" is my homebrew "dnd" campaign!! i have dnd in quotes just cause. well my autism got too strong and i made an entire handbook with my own mechanics LMAO so it's really it's own Thing at this point. which is super cool n fun. after everything's been wrapped up i might publish that handbook but WE SHALL SEE.

anyway CnD is my own personal excuse to make my friends rp with me and my crazy ocs. SO.

it all started when the 11 party members crashed on the beach in a town they'd never seen before. looked totally normal until at the end of the first session they found a portal!

jumping in, that just... kept happening. small adventure, portal, repeat. with no end in sight. as the party began questioning why all this was happening, they met these two little FREAKS named mayhem and maelstrom. (i'll add all refs i have below!!)

anyway mae n may mentioned an elusive “She” that they’re working for, which led my players down an insane conspiracy rabbit hole in which they guessed 90% of hullabaloo’s vibe based on a PRONOUN. ONE PRONOUN I DROPPED I CAN’T TELL THESE MFS ANYTHING

next, they met pandemonium, (@weedsmokingbfs's oc!!! owe you my life muppy) who told them that: these portals aren't taking them place to place, it's transporting them around purgatory. and they've all died.

since then it's been up to the party to navigate their purpose, how to escape, all of it.

then they met bedlam, who explained to them this crazy prophecy and the reason they're all trapped there, which connects to a decision he made 800 years earlier.

enter callie.

my god this is so much to explain IM CRAZY ok. so callie and dee (@percexe) had been meeting in the void for centuries. he'd see callie there when he died and never knew why. 2 idiots had an unspoken pact to not talk about their pasts, but boy they should've!

it would've revealed that callie is actually named chaos, and directly related to all the other crazy clowns they'd meet across the campaign.

they're called the Story, the main 6 pantheon of gods i've set up in this universe! so we've got (in order of like. "hierarchy")

mayhem and maelstrom: gods of war and balance (he/they)

pandemonium: trickster god of illusion (he/it)

bedlam: god of magic and prophecy (he/him)

hullabaloo: goddess of joy, day, and spontaneity (she/her)

chaos: goddess of narration, night, and tradition (she/he)

the Story are basically the worlds most fucked up family, all considering each other brother and sister. in the beginning they were fine, but as time went on things just naturally got more and more messed, and now everything is just a nightmare

chaos and hullabaloo are kinda a tier above the rest of the story, part of their own subset called the Storytellers.

hullabaloo wanted more power and betrayed chaos, trapping her in the void for eternity, as she wanted to rule the universe herself. which all circles back to how callie met dee.

in the void, chaos didn't feel like himself and took on the name calypso, which is how she introduced herself to dee once they met.

and nobody found out anything out of a series of insane miscommunications and lack of info! what fun!

but now in the campaign timeline, everyone's basically caught up. we've finished the first season and are heading into the second in a couple weeks!!! also excuse if this feels rushed at all it's because it is <3 LMFAO there's just so much with CnD, this barely scratches the surface.

there's so much i couldn't cover here like the prophecy binding the party to purgatory, bedlam's entire role in that, the mages, etc. we're like 25 sessions in and so far i've planned 40 more. i am SO normal!!!!

PLEASEEE ask about it if you're curious!! im so insane about my campaign it is my pride and joy :]]

in order there: hullabaloo, chaos, bedlam, pandemonium, and mayhem and maelstrom! ART CREDS for pandemonium and may&mae refs @weedsmokingbfs !!! once more muppy i owe u all my beans

#cnd #dnd #dnd campaign #ASK ME ABOUT MY CAMPAIGN IM CRAZY #clowncore #circuscore #oc #oc art #homebrew #dnd homebrew

45 notes · View notes

gaydragontournament · 7 months

Text

List of battles, as chosen by wheel spin. Each round will last about a week, Starting next Monday.

Round 1, Part 1:

King Valerius (Dragon's Reign by Raythe Reign/X. Aratare) vs Nel (Fire Emblem)

Yang Xiao Long (RWBY) vs Falin Touden/Red Dragon (Dungeon Meshi)

Qibli (Wings of Fire) vs Dan Heng/Dan Feng (Honkai Star Rail)

Evaristo (The Las Leyendas movie franchise) vs Paarthurnax (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Prismatic dragon (Dungeons & Dragons (Epic Level Handbook, Dragons of Dragons of Faerûn) vs Imperialdramon (Digimon)

Whiptail lizard (Real Life) vs Shi An (After The Abyss Dragon Woke Up (深渊巨龙苏醒以后))

Sundew (Wings of Fire) vs Rex Igneous (The Dragon Prince)

Uncle Iroh (Avatar: The Last Airbender) vs Azhdaha/Retuo Longwang (Genshin Impact)

Round 1, Part 2:

Rei (Vainglorious Webcomic) vs Remy (Angels with Scaly Wings)

Soren (Fire Emblem:Path of Radiance + Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn) vs Wrathion (Warcraft Series)

Valax (Blades of Light and Shadow) vs Fiona (Flight Rising)

Kaido (One Piece) vs Velverosa (Mage & Demon Queen)

Lord Arum (The Penumbra Podcast: Second Citadel) vs Midgardsormr (Dragalia Lost)

Nimona (Nimona) vs Mateo (Poised in Either Eye by B. Pigeon and Fell A. Marsh)

Corrin (Fire Emblem: Fates) vs The Void Dragon (Aurora)

Anemone (Wings of Fire) vs Tillius the Paladin/Tilly Evans (She Kills Monsters)

Round 1, Part 3:

Unnamed Young Dragon (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles) vs Caden Bryce (Dragon's Reign by Raythe Reign/X. Aratare)

Veldora Tempest (That time I got reincarnated as a slime) vs Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Draco quinquefasciatus (Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia) vs Umber (Wings of Fire)

Rhea (Fire Emblem) vs Xue Xian (Copper Coins (Tong Qian Kan Shi) (铜钱龛世))

Tamarin (Wings of Fire) vs Samol (Friends at the Table: Seasons of Hieron)

Robin (Fire Emblem: Awakening) vs Ansur (Baldur's Gate 3)

Moondragon/Heather Douglas (Marvel Comics: Guardians of the Galaxy) vs Chromie/Chronormu (Warcraft Series)

Smaug (Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit) vs Burnet (Wings of Fire)

Round 1, Part 4:

Rong Minh Thanh Thuan/Thuan (Dominion of the Fallen series by Aliette de Bodard) vs Ventuswill (Rune Factory 4)

J'mon Sa Ord/Devo'ssa (Critical Role) vs Zinnia (Super Lesbian Animal RPG)

Tohru (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid) vs Alear ( Fire Emblem: Engage)

Alduin (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) vs Jae-ha (Yona of the Dawn)

Dragona Joestar (Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: The Jojolands) vs Zhongli (Genshin Impact)

Ayame (Fruits Basket) vs Alba-Lenatus the Abyss Dragon (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Zephyr (Poised in Either Eye by B. Pigeon and Fell A. Marsh) vs Terezi Pyrope (Homestuck)

Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza Series) vs Malleus Draconia (Twisted Wonderland)

#gaydragontournament #polls #tournament poll #dragons #dragon #tourney contestants #if you notice anything wrong feel free to point it out

22 notes · View notes

c-is-for-circinate · 2 years

Text

Background AD&D info for Stranger Things Fans

I'm doing it, I'm writing an overly-long post A WHOLE SERIES of overly-long posts about how the Stranger Things kids play D&D, and what exactly first edition and AD&D were for.

Source: I've been playing since 3rd ed/3.5 era, NOT AD&D, but I've had a lot of friends who've been in the game for much longer and I'm kind of a nerd for rulesets so I watch D&D bros go off on youtube sometimes for fun. Also, I've actually read the AD&D player's handbook, which is an experience let me tell you. If anyone who's played older editions wants to chip in, go for it!

I think I'm going to have to write a separate post (or posts...god hopefully not posts) about the kids' individual classes. So stay tuned for that. I'll link it from this one when it's done.

First, some history: The earliest editions of D&D are a little confused, numbering-wise, because they didn't know there were going to be numbered editions yet. Dungeons and Dragons debuted in 1974 as an offshoot of mini-based tabletop wargames that already existed at the time. These were mostly big games, where players controlled whole armies rather than creating individual characters, and set their forces against one another. (Not unlike very complicated games of chess, if you really think about it.) D&D was not, to my knowledge, the first individual-character-based ttrpg, but it became the biggest pretty readily.

Advanced Dungeons and dragons, or AD&D, came out in '77 or '78 (Wiki says '77, the publication date on the copy I've been using says '78), although they were still publishing Basic D&D as an alternate option, more or less until the mid-nineties. AD&D was a lot more rules-heavy and had a lot more intricacy going on (relatively speaking), and it's the game the ST kids play.

Compared to modern D&D, AD&D's basic rules feel both more and less. The mechanics themselves are often way more complex, and navigating your way through all of those percentage tables as a DM implies a pretty high level of math skill, worth noting for both an 11-year-old or a guy who failed senior year twice. The character options, on the other hand, feel slim. On first glance.

AD&D only has five classes -- ten if you count subclasses, which you probably should for AD&D. There's fighters, with special fighter subclasses ranger (Lucas's class) or paladin (Mike's class); clerics (Will's class, supposedly), with special cleric subclass druid; magic-users (or mages, theoretically El's class), with special mage subclass illusionist; thieves (NOT rogues! but this is definitely Lady Applejack's actual class, with some caveats), with special thief subclass assassin; and monks. You will note I did not mention bards. We will get to bards. (Probably in the character post, when I talk about Dustin. Bards are...special.)

AD&D had no barbarians, no warlocks, no sorcerers. No special, prescribed forked paths for a character to venture down. Subclasses functioned mostly like classes do nowadays -- you'd roll up a character and be a paladin from day one, simply lumped under fighter because many of the core mechanics were the same. And a significant percentage of text given to describing these classes seems full of really restrictive orders and conditions. Clerics are never allowed to use a bladed weapon? Druids refuse to touch metal? Assassins must engage the local guildmaster in a duel to the death in order to progress to level 14? Where's the creativity, asks the modern 5e D&D player? Where's the freedom?

And this highlights a really core, central thing about how AD&D works and what it was for, that I think modern audiences can very easily miss:

1st edition AD&D is a game about archetypes.

Modern D&D is a game played in a sandbox that's been dug up and worked over for the past fifty years, in a cultural landscape that values individuality and originality and sometimes pretends that daring to share a trope with anything that came before is somewhere between boring and a straight-up crime. Original D&D came with very different baggage, and while it was still very much a game about storytelling, the KINDS of stories being told were a little different.

Characters weren't intended to be highly specialized, granular creations with intricate backstories and complex individualized skill sets. This wasn't even because those kinds of character-driven games or narratives were seen as bad, necessarily -- it's simply not what the game was written for!

First edition D&D was designed for big, epic adventures, where players could embody their own personal instance of a specific stock character trope. It was written for "I want to be a knight!" and "I want to be the magician!". It was about getting to be YOUR VERSION of a very particular, already-existing idea that would have been familiar from fantasy fiction at the time.

So, when the AD&D rules say that druids hold oak and ash trees sacred, that they will never destroy woodland or crops under any circumstances, that they cannot and will not use metal weapons or armor, that there only exist nine Level 12 druids in the world and they form a council with students below them -- this isn't an attempt to micromanage players, to be arbitrarily pedantic or controlling. This is Gary Gygax attempting to present the archetype that 'druid' is meant to encompass. This is what a druid is, according to this ruleset: a priest of nature, part of an order with rules and loyalties, with these priorities and these ideals. Mechanics and personality are not divorced in AD&D as they are in 5e; they are written together, to outline a specific character concept, and that is what's presented for the players to get to play.

If this sounds like it leads to boring, formulaic stories -- well, it could. But archetype-based stories, particularly adventure stories, are by no means necessarily bad. A story about a mysterious and knowledgeable old wizard; a naive-but-determined farmboy full of destiny and potential; a reckless rogue, slick but sometimes bumbling, selfish but secretly loyal; a beautiful princess, charming and clever and sharp-tongued when she wishes to be -- it's a pulp novel full of stock characters and tropes. It's Star Wars. What makes Star Wars special is NOT that its characters are specific, convoluted, or entirely original. What makes it special is that the specific instantiation of these characters, the little things that make Luke Skywalker be Luke Skywalker and not any other callow farmboy. Star Wars uses these archetypes well, and that makes them deeply satisfying. THAT'S the kind of story ethic behind AD&D.

First edition D&D has a reputation of being all about combat, and not about story at all. And on the surface, it's somewhat true: AD&D's rules are also highly combat-based. This isn't because players were expected to only do combat and dungeon crawls, and never roleplay -- but it WAS expected that, by signing on to play D&D, players were most interested in a campaign of exploration and fighting towards some fanciful goal. There was an element of buy-in from the start. The game was (and still very much is), at its core, about going on a quest.

The thing to remember, though, is that a quest IS a story. It's not the psychological trauma-unburdening character-driven narrative that pop culture might tell you to expect in modern D&D, but AD&D was every inch as story-based as the game's ever been. The stories being told were a little different, but with a very similar root.

The 1979 Dungeon Master's Guide is actually full of information about how to set up a world and stock it with people, political factions, and socioeconomic logistics. There are extensive rules about how high-level adventurers become part of the political fabric of the realm, building forts and amassing followers and making names for themselves. (Here, again, we see echoes of AD&D's forebearers in war games, and certain elements of the game that are all but gone from modern D&D.)

What there AREN'T a lot of rules about, on the other hand, are things like skill checks. There's no "persuasion" or "investigation" in AD&D, no list of specific things players can do and how good they are at them. Aside from combat and a small handful of specific non-combat activities, discretion over the success or failure of just about anything was left up to the DM. A DM was always free to call for a dice roll, and could set an arbitrary target number for success at any activity, but the rules also don't say they have to. To see if the characters persuade the barmaid to give them a hand, the players would have to be persuasive. To find the hidden clue in the cluttered chamber, the players might have to describe themselves looking in the right place.

In other words, there are relatively few rules for activities outside of combat, not because those activities were expected to be absent, but because they were expected to be unpredictable. How much exploration, and what players had to explore; what NPCs to interact with, and how they might react to being spoken to; what factions might exist, what moral quandaries could unfold, even the goal and big bad guy of the whole campaign -- the original sourcebooks for AD&D offer at best some very general advice, and NO hard and fast rules. That was for players and DMs to decide.

Many players and DMs, I know, fell on the side of engaging in relatively little worldbuilding complexity outside of the very mechanically-crunchy dungeon crawl. What little we see from the campaigns in ST is certainly mostly combat-oriented. And yet there are also hints of storylines happening off camera. Season 1's one-day eight-hour adventure was probably mostly dungeon crawl. Season 4's campaign takes most of a school year, until the players recognize the members of the cult they've been chasing for months, and know Vecna lore that would only have been published in one or two places anywhere by then, which means they probably learned it in-game. We don't see a lot of evidence of specific character plotlines -- in fact, repeatedly we're shown that the Party's characters share names with their players, making the whole thing even more clearly a big kids' game of let's-pretend. But that doesn't mean there's not a story.

So in short, the original game of D&D is built for epic quests, founded in very specific archetypes, but with the space for just about infinite in variation within that framework. That's what the Stranger Things kids are playing.

(And with this posted, I can start writing about the individual classes these kids are playing and what that says about each of them.)

#stranger things #D&D #driveby meta attack #seriously if an old-school AD&D player wants to tell me I'm way off here #I'd LOVE to learn more #I have more history and knowledge than many (certainly many on tumblr)#but far less than some #mostly it just felt like I needed to write THIS part down before I went off about rangers and bards #and y'all fanfic writers DEFINITELY need a lesson in what “paladin” meant Back In The Day #it's ok we'll get there don't worry #I just think this stuff is NEAT #LONG POST

149 notes · View notes

khunppi · 1 year

Text

eunyung lives in a loop in which someone with good intentions tries to help him > eunyung tries to change suddenly > he doesn't succeed > that person realizes that life is not a novel and you can't change someone overnight > they get mad at him for making all their attempts to help him go to waste > "you haven't changed at all" > repeat

#no home #eunyung baek #mage handbook

144 notes · View notes

konfizry · 11 months

Text

Barring a few exceptions, all of Rinwell's books show the same two pages when she opens them. One such exception is Oblivion Ring, which if you look closely, you might notice has the two pages, but upside down. Below is a closeup on it with heightened contrast for your convenience. Feel free to compare it to the other books at you leisure. (notice the winged seal at the bottom of the right-hand page? you'll find it at the top of the left-hand pages of the other books, with the larger wings pointing up instead of down)

Interestingly enough, the details of Oblivion Ring featured in the art book show its pages depicted the same as the other books, suggesting that this might be an actual error where the texture for this one book got flipped in mysterious circumstances. (either that or Rinwell is holding it upside down, not that I would blame her given how all over the place Oblivion Ring is)

Oblivion Ring in the bottom right corner, along with the textures from a couple other books for comparison, as shown in the artbook. Now for the books that actually display something different. There's 3 sets of 2, corresponding to the six books that can be obtained via beating challenges that were included in the free Special Training Grounds DLC.

First are the Avian Tomes A and B, meant to accompany Rinwell's Demonic Stole costumes (not pictured), with the vertical text and stylized owls and trees.

Then you have Waterproof Notebooks A and B which go great with her Rapscallion Swimsuits (not pictured) and give off a cutesy bullet journal vibe once opened.

Finally, Birds of Dahna Handbook A and Creatures of Dahna B that harmonize perfectly with Rinwell's Owl Uniforms (pictured: Owl Unifor B with Pigtail Beret C (does not include a beret)). Blocks of text along with an illustration of either a bird or a rappig can be seen, as well as a map that takes up most of the left-hand page and (assumedly) informs the reader about the distribution of Dahnan animals. The map itself corresponds to Dahna's western continent, as seen in the beginning intro of the game. Compare:

One last thing of interest (to me) is that it seems most of the books are meant to be read from left to right, but there are a couple exceptions:

(graphic design is my passion) Indeed, when viewed open and from the back, the vast majority of her books have what seems to be the front cover on the right, meaning the spine would be on the left if one were to look at them closed, with the front cover on top. The only two books I could find that had the front cover on the left when viewed from the back were Birds of Dahna Handbook and Creatures of Dahna. This configuration seems to imply that the "modern AU" (so to speak) books read from right to left. Finally, there seems to be three books with perfectly symmetrical covers: Secret of the Stars, Artes of the Cosmos (not picutred; is a palette swap of Secret of the Stars) and Book of Owl Wisdom. Interestingly enough, Secret of the Stars and Book of Owl wisdom are respectively implied and stated to be heirlooms of Rinwell's mage clan, in their description. The symmetrical look may thus be intentional, leaving the question of whether Rinwell's clan read from left to right or right to left unanswered on purpose, for extra mystery. NB: 1. You could argue that Oblivion Ring's cover is ambiguous as well, but if you look real hard, I think you'll find that that the right part has more going on than the left part, so I think it belongs in left-to-right like the others. 2. Not all of Rinwell's books are included on the pictures of this post but I think I got a sample that was representative enough. (i know, i know, Records of the Fallen should have been in there, it has black pages with white ink, it looks so cool yadi yadi yada well if you really wanna see it just open your own Tales of Arise go look at it im not stopping you) 3. There is no Birds of Dahna Handbook B, just like there is not Creatures of Dahna A. A and B make sense with the other sets since they're books with identical titles, but since these two have different titles, they should hace ditched the A and B to avoid any confusion, idk what happened here.

#Tales of Arise #Rinwell #long post #undescribed #no read more break YOU WILL LOOK AT THE BOOKS #arise resources #image heavy #i hope im making sense lmao

32 notes · View notes

cagemasterfantasy · 2 months

Text

(Almost) every single canon adventure for dnd 5e in order for @doodl3 and any other adventure that happens to stumble upon these

Lost Mine of Phandelver (the adventure the book The Shattered Obelisk is based off of and is the starter set for 5e) Hoard of the Dragon Queen (The first official adventure for 5e) Rise of Tiamat(The Sequel to Hoard of the Dragon Queen) Princes of the Apocalypse Out of the Abyss (for Undertale fans this is going to be the closest you'll get to Undertale Dnd or at the very least Deltarune) Curse of Strahd Storm King's Thunder Tales From The Yawning Portal (this is the first dnd book to feature multiple dnd adventures from the past modified for 5e with the adventures in order being (The Sunless Citadel, The Forge of Fury, The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, White Plume Mountain, Dead in Thay, Against the Giants and The original Tomb of Horrors) Tomb of Annihilation (this one is a bit like Legend of Zelda sorry for the quality this was the best one I could find) Waterdeep Dragon Heist Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (like Rise of Tiamat this is the sequel to Dragon Heist) Ghosts of Saltmarsh (for those fans of Pirates of the Caribbean this one is for you like Yawning Portal this is yet another mashup of past dnd adventures modified for 5e those adventures being: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, Salvage Operation, Isle of the Abbey, The Final Enemy, Tammeraut's Fate and The Styes) Dragon of Icespire Peak (the second of the 3 starter sets) Baldur's Gate - Descent into Avernus Icewind Dale - Rime of the Frostmaiden Candlekeep Mysteries (this is a set of mini adventures :D) The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (if you love Satyrs you'll love this one) Journeys through the Radiant Citadel (Another set of mini adventures :D) Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (the final starter set for 5e) Keys From The Golden Vault (yet again another set of mini adventures :D) Chains of Asmodeus (Here's a little fun fact about this adventure even though it's centered around the Nine Hells this book was used for charity where half of the proceeds made by this book were donated to charity :D)

Sorry I couldn't find The Shattered Obelisk, Vecna: Eve of Ruin or Quests from the Infinite Staircase (the final set of past dnd adventures reformated for 5e)

In these books you will also find maps, stories, monsters and unique magic items that aren't in any of the other books (Don't worry they give descriptions on what the magic items do and they even provide monster stat blocks)

To @doodl3 and any other adventurer who stumbles upon these please enjoy these books. 5e has been almost my entire life and these books have always made me so happy. I am sad to see 5e go next month (as of me typing this). But with these pdfs you can now view the adventures I've been on and replay them as you wish. To any who see this may these stories inspire you to write epic stories and as I always say: May your dice roles be legendary. Whoever reads this and reads all of these books 1 you are awesome VIRTUAL FIST BUMP FROM ME. 2 please tell me which of these books you enjoyed :D.

Oh ps you'll need the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual to read these books.

#dnd books

7 notes · View notes

vixensdungeon · 2 months

Text

What the heck is a splatbook?

You might have heard this term in roleplaying game circles. You probably know it refers to a book of some sort, and that it isn't the main rulebook. But what on Earth is it, and where does it get its silly name? The answer may surprise you.

That's a splat. Or an asterisk if you want to be formal. But for our purposes we'll call it a splat. You might know that the humble splat is often used to indicate some sort of variable, right? Well that's how it entered our hobby.

Back in the day a company named White Wolf published a bunch of roleplaying games collectively called Storyteller games, most famous among them the World of Darkness games such as Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension. These all had various types of characters you could be. Vampire had different Clans, Werewolf had Tribes, and Mage had Traditions. And they all received sourcebooks of their own. Vampire had Clanbooks, Werewolf had Tribebooks, and Mage had Traditionbooks.

As previously established, the splat is used as a variable. So all of these books were collectively known as *books, or splatbooks.

So in general splatbook means a sourcebook dedicated to one of the basic types your character can be. The Complete Fighter's Handbook for AD&D, for example, would be a classbook, and thus fall under the category of splatbook. "Splat" on its own has also come to be a generic term for whatever discrete character types a game might have, such as classes or playbooks.

#ttrpg

12 notes · View notes

honourablejester · 1 year

Text

5e Homebrew Spelljammer Background

While I’m talking about strange and terrifying god corpses in the Astral Sea, have a homebrew background for the Luminous Order, a homebrew organisation of mine, an almost paladin-like order of lighthouse keepers who set up lighthouses and lightbuoys in the Astral Sea to warn ships away from dangers like, well, mind-warping god corpses and sundry other dangers.

LIGHTKEEPER OF THE LUMINOUS ORDER

The Astral Sea is vast and dangerous, full of unexpected peril, and no one knows that better than the Lightkeepers of the Luminous Order, those brave and resilient souls who man the lightbuoys and lighthouses that the Order erects to warn those nearing the deadliest of those perils. You’ve spent untold years out in the silver, perhaps manning the tiniest and most isolated of tiny lightbuoys, perhaps more secure in one of the larger installations of the Order. Either way you have developed a sense for danger, a keen eye and a watchful mind. The Sea is vast and treacherous, and so the Lights of the Luminous Order keep watch, not only for their own sakes, but for the sakes of all who sail the Silver Sea. For whatever reason, perhaps simple loneliness, you have left the Order, but you will carry their lessons and the things you experienced out on the lights with you always.

Skill Proficiencies: Perception, and your choice of one of the following: Arcana, History, Religion

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: a set of common clothes, a spyglass, a belt-pouch with 10gp, and an enamelled pin of the tower-and-light which the Luminous Order gives to all who have served with them. These pins, worn honestly, invite respect from travellers and voyagers across the Astral Sea.

FEATURE: EVER WATCHFUL

The Luminous Order trains its keepers to be ever alert, and to always maintain the light. As a result of this training, you gain the Alert feat from the Player’s Handbook, and you learn the light cantrip. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it (choose when you select this background).

PERILOUS STATION

All members of the Luminous Order, no matter their station or function, serve time out on the lights, manning one of the Order’s lighthouses or lightbuoys. Some of these are tiny rickety buoys, two or three-roomed stations floating in the void of the Astral Sea, while others are more well-established, perhaps full towers and lighthouses built on firm asteroids or even gardened mini-worlds, courtesy of some of the Order’s druids and mages.

Where did you serve? Did you man a tiny buoy in some poorly-mapped region of the Sea that barely saw traffic (or resupply), or one of the larger lighthouses near well-known and well-trafficked dangers, or something in between? The table below suggests some locations your character might have served at, or you can work with your DM to come with one more suited to your character and campaign:

d6 Station

Buoy Nine Zero Azimuth (‘Last Stop’), a tiny, recently-established buoy guarding the edge of a newly-discovered (by the Order) section of the Sea that no vessel has yet successfully returned from. And there have been no shortage of attempts. Far flung as it is, the Order has had some difficulty in getting supplies and shift changes out to B90-A in timely fashion.

Sector Eight Great Light (‘Greengarden’), one of the Order’s larger regional hub-lights, standing guard over a well-travelled section of the Sea known for strange eddies and sudden colour pools, often to the Feywild or Limbo. An order of druids who pass often through the area have put their efforts into growing a small habitat and air envelope on Greengarden’s asteroid base.

Installation Five Four One Nadir (‘Station Dark’). One of the least desired posts in the Order, I541-N keeps watch over the approach to a dark mass of strangely-glistening rock that drifts erratically, and perhaps purposely, through the Sea, the remnants of a dead dark god that seeds madness into those who stray too close. The lightkeepers are not immune to the rock’s effects, despite many efforts to shield the station, and so keepers are rotated off the station considerably more often than at other posts, in an effort to keep the long-term effects to a minimum.

Light Four Two Helix (‘Wreckship’), an ancient lighthouse that warns vessels away from the Stargasst Eddy, a well-known yet still utterly unexplained mass of wrecked spelljammers and astral vessels that no one knows the cause of. Ships who enter the Eddy hoping to salvage their predecessors all-too-often follow in their footsteps, but the prospect of so much salvage still lures ships in. There has been a longstanding debate within the Luminous Order on whether they have any further responsibility to ward off or even forcibly stop ships from entering, but the Order exists to warn, not to quarantine, and so ships venture into the Eddy even still. A different question, and perhaps one that comes down to individual lightkeepers, is whether the crew of L42-H have any responsibility to try and rescue anyone who makes it most of the way out again …

Buoy One Six Intersect (‘Rickety Town’), a buoy in a very turbulent area of the Sea where several nearby Wildspace systems weirdly overlap onto more or less the same area, leading to a disturbed section of the Sea where one can traverse unexpectedly and without warning into Wildspace. Or where Wildspace can traverse unexpectedly and without warning onto you. Rickety Town, proudly named by some of its long-term keepers, is manned exclusively by autognomes and warforged, in case of sudden intrusions of vacuum and the passage of time.

Sector Thirty One Watch Light (‘Sentinel 31’). Some areas of the Astral Sea contain more colour pools, links to the other planes, than others, and some contain darker pools than others, links to more dangerous planes. Sector 31 is one of those. For whatever reason, colour pools to the Abyss and the Far Realms are common in this area of the Sea, and those who man the watch light, Sentinel 31, have hair-raising stories of things they have seen traversing the Sea beyond the reach of the light’s great beam.

#d&d #spelljammer #homebrew #homebrew background #worldbuilding #lighthouses #lightkeepers of the luminous order

53 notes · View notes