#roommate dnd oneshot

[ipatrichor]

OKAY SO. content warnings for near-drowning, injury, death, and eldritch horror stuff typical of a call of cthulu oneshot. (dw tho i promise no pets die)

in the back of the cabinet under the front counter, there's a tiny coraline door that leads nowhere- just a white wall. however, when you touch this wall you go right through it into an unknown space beyond. ronnie spots it first and decides to ignore it until the old man who works with us, van (yes we called him old man van) crawls through and disappears at which point we investigate.

the premise is that we all work at 7-11. no one schedules the shifts bc the manager doesn't fucking care, so we've all showed up today. our group is comprised of:

- ronnie, she/her, a herbo with a dog who shits on the floor of the 7-11

- morgs (short for morgan), she/they, a punk lesbian who used to date ronnie before things ended badly

- cody, they/them, an amateur ghost hunter who's always high and has more parkour skills than sense

- eide (pronounced eed), they/them, a mystery with a backpack they keep almost as close as they keep their secrets.

ronnie's dog, commander ozzy, goes through and eide ends up following to retrieve him. thankfully commander ozzy didn't go far, and all eide sees is a room with winding tunnels leading away from it and pipes along the walls. when they return they tell us not to go in, closing the cabinet and keeping watch. the group splits- cody and morgs smoke outside and discuss their curiosity, eide texts an unknown party, and ronnie waits behind the counter.

eide goes to the back to snack on inventory while leaving their phone behind. morgs and cody return while the coast is clear, and cody takes their backpack and sneaks inside. two men come looking for eide, but ronnie and morgs lie and say they don't know an eide so the men leave. eide comes back out, learns what happens, and goes out into the front parking lot but is too late to catch them.

around this time, the manager comes back and insists on going after old man van despite ronnie's protests. after sticking his head inside, though, his sanity is greatly damaged and he returns nearly catatonic, barely aware of the world around him. ronnie does her best to deal with this, but is left with no assistance.

meanwhile, cody records their trip and leaves a trail of pencils. they begin to explore the tunnels while morgs keeps watch back in the 7-11 with cody's beloved pet lizard, galcan (short for galactic cannibalism). morgs glances inside to take another look, and while she does ronnie returns from stuffing the manager in a closet and yanks her out despite her resistance.

they argue, bringing up their messy breakup. morgs reveals that cody is in the tunnels, and ronnie is horrified and insists on going to find them and bring them back. the two do so, following the pencil trail.

eide comes back inside, finds them gone, and frustratedly enters the tunnels to find them. ronnie and morgs argue again, and morgs ends up splitting off from the group while eide finds a sacrificial dagger and ronnie follows the pencil trail looking for cody, who is having just a lovely time filming things.

they all hear a loud banging noise and rush towards it, reconvening in a cafeteria-esque room. galcan is happily returned to cody’s pocket, and a child's ball bounces by itself from a hallway leading to a weird door with an old-fashioned padlock and a tray of food next to it. ronnie is desperate to leave, and morgs teases her for being scared while eide investigates the food and cody films the door.

morgs promises to leave if ronnie goes and touches the scary door, which she reluctantly does. on the way out, though, a curtain separating the cafeteria from the kitchen moves somewhat and morgs just has to investigate. she calls cody over and the two joke around about the meat grinder and the gross hair in the sink. cody pokes it with a pencil and it feels squishy, which grosses them out. the drain starts to bubble and flood, alarming the trio who quickly make up their minds to leave- much to ronnie’s relief.

meanwhile, eide has gone further down the hallway, past windows that reveal only flat blue, and finds the bridge of a submarine. there’s a radar with nothing showing up, and a parascope that reveals nothing but more blue. the other three follow, and are trying to all get their shit together and persuade everyone to leave when something shows up on the rader. it’s getting closer, and when ronnie looks through the parascope she sees huge, indescribable creatures heading toward the submarine at impossible speeds. they slam into the submarine, loud bangs sounding and pipes beginning to burst.

they start running, only to find that there are several inches of water and rising on the floor. the pencil trail has been washed away, but ronnie remembers the way back and runs that way, cody pulling morgs along after her while eide pauses to investigate the strange door that’s now unlocked. they find a book and some information in a car’s glove box, and then take off to try and catch up with the others.

the water is rising fast, and as they come to an intersection all three see something that gives them pause. off to the right, ronnie sees commander ozzy swimming and runs towards him. on the left, cody sees galcan swimming and checks their pocket, confused to find her still safely inside. directly ahead, morgs sees a horrifying disproportionate creature waiting for them.

when ronnie reaches commander ozzy, instead of her dog she finds a piece of broken off pipe floating in the water and takes it. further down the tunnel is a green sign that she hopes will lead to an exit, and she wades toward it. eide catches up as the others follow her, all panicked.

the sign says exeunt, but cody points out that they’re in a submarine- any exit here will likely lead to the ocean instead of to the 7-11. despairing and resigned to swimming back through the tunnels looking for the original passage, they turn back only to find space bending around them and the green sign in front of them again. out of options, ronnie opens the door next to it. water rushes out into the rooms beyond, and they follow and quickly work together to shut the heavy door behind them to trap the water out.

they find themselves in a room with a single table in the middle, and a pitch black doorway on the other end with a bloody handprint on the wall next to it. with nowhere else to go, the group ventures onward- ronnie in the lead with a phone flashlight and metal pipe, morgs next with two knives she doesn’t know how to use, eide following and keeping their backpack close, and cody bringing up the rear with galcan and a vape pen because there’s no way they’re dealing with any of this sober.

as they move, the walls around them become narrower. they move, remaining metal but rhythmically expanding and contracting as if breathing. this tunnel ends in another room, empty except for what looks like a person sitting in a chair with their back towards the entryway. they breathe oddly, in a way that moves their whole body, and it’s the same rhythm as the walls.

ronnie, pushed to her absolute limit, wastes no time attacking the figure. she gets in a few solid swings with the pipe, refusing to stop as the others stare. the creature rises and turns, revealing itself to be a twisted abomination, and roars- lashing out at ronnie, who ducks out of the way and hits it again. she keeps attacking it until it lashes out and grabs her with a massive hand, squeezing and doing a fair bit of damage.

cody is afraid enough that it turns to anger, shouting ‘hey! that’s my coworker!’ and lunging. they latch onto the wrist and stab it, causing pain but failing to make it let go of ronnie. she manages to struggle out of its grip, but its other hand lashes out and impales cody through the ribs- missing vital organs and galcan’s hoodie pocket, but now dangling them from its hand as it moves.

meanwhile, the sound of the roar reverberating through her head and now cursed with the knowledge that the submarine itself is alive and the creature is just part of it, morgs examines the walls and pipes and starts turning nozzles, hoping to hurt the entity in some way.

catching on to her plan, ronnie hefts her pipe and starts smashing the pipes on the walls. these attacks cause steam to fill the room and hallway, gradually reducing visibility but also seeming to hurt the creature as the submarine itself screams.

kept functioning by adrenaline, cody starts sawing at the three fingers impaling them, trying to cut themself loose without removing the objects to minimize blood loss. it’s slow going, however, because all they have to work with is their pocket knife.

with the hand not wearing cody as a decoration, the creature swings at ronnie and morgs. morgs manages to dodge, rolling and coming up with knives ready and a wildness in her eyes, but ronnie is less nimble and gets slammed into a wall. behind them, eide finally pulls the secret from their backpack- a double barrel shotgun- and fires, staggering the creature. they then move to help cut cody lose, using the sacrificial knife they found earlier.

ronnie continues to attack the pipes, more steam spilling out and greatly impacting visibility. morgs tries to escape but gets turned around, running into the creature and getting grabbed. it knocks her unconscious and tosses her aside as eide gets cody loose, dragging them away to relative safety and reloading their shotgun.

ronnie, meanwhile, can hear the cries and yelling of her coworkers. she has a moment, remembering their frequently shit interactions and all the things she calls them assholes for, and decides- fuck it, if she’s going to die for her shitty coworkers, then so be it. she keeps breaking the pipes, even as the steam spilling out keeps burning her, until she’s gone.

ronnie is dead. morgs lies on the floor unconscious. cody still has three giant fingers impaling their stomach, likely bleeding out. eide stands functionally alone, their shotgun and their determination against the creature. they stand their ground, take aim, fire-

and everything goes black.

when they’re aware again, they’re sitting in a chair next to two hospital beds. in one lies cody, asleep but on the road to healing. in the other is morgs, who still has yet to awaken. her heart moniter flatlines, and all eide can do is watch, barely aware of the world around them, as the hospital fights to keep her alive and manages to restart her heart. whether she’ll ever wake up again or not, there’s no way to know.

[sprintingowl]

Sprinting Owl Selects - Finest Indie TTRPGs

Yes, I am also running a kickstarter. But I'm also also hosting this bundle.

Sprinting Owl Selects is a giant pack of 61 TTRPGs at 94% off.

It's got titles from all across the indie, with a mix of oneshots, full core systems, weird titles, and stuff you could run for your average dnd group.

It includes my feature length they were roommates golf TTRPG, which I wrote as a spiritual sequel to my dudes being pals skateboard TTRPG.

[sio-writes]

hello!! i just recently discovered your writing and i am really, really enjoying reading through it! ❤️ i have oodles of questions, but mostly i'm curious about: do you have unpublished/unwritten stories that you've been dying to talk/vent about? and what kinds of media do you take the most inspiration from?

Oooh I have so many things I wanna talk about!!

Firstly, I've been leaving tags and I have an excerpt that I've shared for my latest project Blood and Bourbon (working title) about the relationship between our MC Elliot who's a vampire, and his love interest Mathias, an immortal. Originally it was meant to be a oneshot, but 6k words turned into 10k, and then turned into almost 14k, and that's when I had a talk with my brain like, "Okay!! New project, you win!" Except now, when I try to dig for a plot within the chopped up remains of this oneshot, I look to my characters and they just. Shrug. I have the threads of a conflict in the works, but that's about it? The oneshot had a very specific, very contained, A-to-B storyline that was character specific, so now, trying to stretch out towards external motivations has been. Work. I don't have any plans to post it soon, maybe early 2024? I want to write a good buffer for once so we don't go another *checks notes* ugh, six months without a serial update. I also made a promise that I won't start any new serials without finishing at least one current one, so I'm going to finish up Into the Woods before anything else.

Next WIP has been in the background for nearly six months now, and it's the DND-based romantasy with mine and my roommate's characters. My temp title is Of Course, Darling but I'm not sold on it. It doesn't roll off the tongue. This is one I've been chipping away at whenever I have the free time, and...it's a beast. I love worldbuilding, I really do, but starting from the ground up (to avoid copyright issues with WotC as I plan to sell this) is very time-consuming and energy-draining, but I'm so excited for it. This is also an m/m novel between Nyx, a shapeshifter with a bounty on his head and a dead sister to avenge, and Kaivus, a tiefling* who joins Nyx to help, but his services have never come free, and he's strangely without his magic. It's an annoyance-to-lovers with a dash of romantic history, magic lessons, and found family as they pick up more adventurers their journey. I really like this one, I'm so excited to have this one going because it hits all the romantasy buttons that I personally haven't found in mldern novels.

*in name only, I've been calling them Fiends, but that still feels too close? I don't want to just call them demons

As far as inspiration, I adore the way tumblr user/not-poignant characterizes and slow burns and pretty much everything skfjsj. Their smut and BDSM is top tier as well. Heavy trigger warning for their content, though, it gets intense!

My next biggest inspiration is probably movies in general, horror in specific. I love the stories that can be told across the board and I love the different ways they can be told, even by the same person! Horror, for me, is a big mash of every movie that could be considered such. I love Blumhouse and A24 alike, I find joy both in the splattergore of the Saw series (it's a personal favorite tbh) and the slow psychological burn of Midsommar. But I love the different ways the genre as a whole can address the same issue in different ways. I like the catharsis that comes with a good, well thought out story.

I also used to watch a lot of youtube channels like Jenny Nicholson, Lidndsay Ellis, Folding Ideas, Nerdwriter1, LftS, basically any kind of academic-leaning analysis of media, particularly visual media and movies in specific. I used to consume how different movies did things effectively/not so much, and how to make it better, I even wanted to write my own story boards for an animatic at one point! I think a lot of that taught me to analyze media a little more critically and also in how I structure stories.

There's probably dozens more little things I'm missing, books I've read I want to emulate, other writers that haven't popped up in my mind, there's probably hundreds.

I'm so glad you're liking everything, though! Your comments make me smile every time I look at them :D

[transjarlaxle]

tagged by @bg3 for truly the most classic tumblr tag game possible so here i go

i shan't tag anyone directly but if u r my mutual and u want to share consider urself tagged

favorite color: luv shades of gray. theres a specific sort of medium blue-toned gray like the sky turns before it storms that makes me crazy. you know how it is. when i was in high school i told my therapist my favorite color was gray and she made a face like i admitted to a murder

last song: snakeskin by rina sawayama....... listen to the kaine playlist btw

last movie: tbh i cant remember dsjkdsnjksd the last one that comes to mind is near dark (1987) ..... severen my boyfriend severen<33

currently watching: argghhhh man i dont REMEMBER..... i havent watched a lot recently :( me and my roommate are in the middle of crystal methyd's season of drag race and i'm planning a stranger things rewatch but i have to make room in my brain first

currently reading: rereading six crimson cranes by elizabeth lim! i got my hands on its sequel, the dragon's promise, so that's in the works. it makes me so crazy i love it so much. also constantly rereading the inkworld trilogy

current obsession: have you heard about gale my husband gale of waterdeep he's a wizard he's from waterdeep he's very powerful and he has beautiful brown eyes and he's friends with a tressym named tara and he's my most favoritest guy. in all seriousness though as much as i'm critical of it i have to thank bg3 for giving me something new to do with kaine, who is my oldest oc and my very dear friend. they're a major catalyst of the everything in my home dnd game, and having another lens to examine them through has been very helpful in writing them for our campaign. i could talk about them at length but i'll spare you (for now)

sweet, savory, or spicy?: my instinct says spicyyyy but tbh it varies. shoutout gochujang tho i put that shit in everything

currently working on: i constantly have about three to six canvasses rotating in clip studio that are always my ocs - usually sketch pages, but sometimes big stuff. rn i have a page for etienne, one for the warhawk, one for kaine, a larger kaine piece that i may or may not render later, and one surprise tool thatll help us later (it's kainegale, to no one's surprise). i'm ALSO finally finally working on the continuations of kainefic. first up is a collection of drabbles/oneshots/whatever you wanna call them to tie the larger parts of the main story together, and then i'm gonna work on a bit of a multichapter epilogue piece :) they have two separate weddings and kaine gets to go back to their home country (which has been conveniently missing its sovereign heir for quite some time)

ty for tagging me fray i love to talk about myself

oh also

[pinespittinink]

Hi! I understand the needing distractions. That was me last week. Anyways, here I am to ramble about nonsense:

I stayed up until 1:45 this morning finishing a book, which was amazing and very worth it, even if I didn't actually fall asleep until after 4:30am. (I was then woken up 2 minutes before my alarm, which was set to go off at 9:30.) (The book in question was Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch, and it's the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora. I am utterly obsessed.)

In a related vein, reading those two books in quick succession has made me really, really want to write a heist story, or at the very least DM a heist-based DnD campaign/oneshot. And so with that in mind, I also got another idea from TLoLL: Bloodsucker Rose Garden.

It's a rose garden that drinks blood by stabbing you with its thorns, using them more or less like a vampire's fangs. Also, from the exterior it just looks like an expansive rose garden or series of rosebushes, but in reality it's all one large creature, connected under the ground. (A bit like those massive networks of fungi!)

I'm not sure how much you know about DnD, but I spent about an hour this evening making the stat block for the rose garden, so that I could actually use it in a DnD game someday, which was a lot of fun.

I also have an idea for a oneshot that I could DM involving said rosegarden, which is very fun. Basically, the players would be tasked with entering a Wizard's tower which is surrounded at the base by the Rose Garden. Then they have to make it up through the various floors of traps and guardians to find an artifact at the top of the tower.

It would be a great oneshot, but I would also be interested to use it as part of a larger campaign, and work the mystery of the artifact in question and who hired the party into a larger plot. But that would mean having to wait until the party is at a high enough level to take on that thing, and also actually being organized and plotting something out for once, which I never do. But I do really want to DM a game someday.

Okay, sorry for literally writing a novel in your inbox, but hey, at least it's a decent distraction, right???? Anyways, I hope your day gets better from here!

~Morri🗡 (@memento-morri-writes)

Hello hello, Lies of Locke Lamora has been recommended to me so many times by my roommate, I really do need to check it out some time. I’m loving the idea of a killer vampiric rose garden—predatory/carnivorous plants are one of my favorite things in fantasy biology, I think you’ve got so many cool options. Also the aesthetic is on point 🌹🥀🩸it’s the kind of thing I’d love to come across in a book.

Speaking of DnD, it’s been ages since I’ve played 😩 I have a tiefling criminal named Ripley I’m waiting to bust out when I get the chance eventually, but finding a group is so,,,so,,,difficult. Best of luck that you’re able to pull a party together, I think the encounters sound like a blast!

[bearholdingashark]

WIP Meme

Tagged by: @angstythumbs and @goatsandgangsters

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Before we start, yes I realize this list is ridiculously long thanks ADHD brain XD (All of these are Darklina unless otherwise stated) Italicized titles are ones I’m attempting to finish in time for the Ben & Jessie Birthday Week celebrations.

Partially posted

Regency MOC (Ch 11)

Botkin Letters (Ch 2)

Cupcake video meet cute (Ch 2)

Dimension travel sequel (Ch 2)

Luda Resurrection (Ch 2)

Nothing hurts prank fic (Ch 2)

Prefold Darklina ft. time travel (Ch 3)

Malarkling Enemies to Lovers (Ch 2)

Can’t lie to your soulmate (Ch 4)

Girl dad!Sasha (Ch 3)

Unwanted DMs (Ch 2)

Casablanca Regency AU (Ch 8) (Knives Out)

Oneshots (Not the whole list of ideas)

Swan Princess

Ludarklina soulmates 

Instagram filter marriage neighbors AU

Alina corruption arc toxic couple

Poly Darklina spending time apart

Darklina Post Malarkling

Baghra Mrs. Bennet Parenting

Like I’m Gonna Lose You

Assassin Ivan raising Alina

Thumbelina AU

Secret dating group chat

Let Me Love The Lonely other Alina follow up

Darklina puppy siblings

Ron Swanson!Sasha

Nothing hurts DnD

Professor!Alina/Single dad!Sasha

Demon!Alina & witch!Aleksander shared custody of Ivan

Unposted Multichapter fics (Not the whole list of ideas)

And they were roommates

Tattoo Artist Alina verse

House husband kidnapping

Mob boss/police chief going public

Phantom of the Opera (attempting to finish ch 1 for bday week)

Vera Matilda

I’m not going to tag however many people that would be to do the same number as WIPs, so I’ll tag @ditaliaa (I know I still owe you answers from the questions you sent!), @truthisademurelady, @maplesyrupao3, @nothingeverlost, and @ammarantas (but only if you want to!) and anyone else who wants to join in!

[ratherthepoint]

New dice! New dice!!

[talesfromatabletop]

Am I behind on posting campaign summaries? Yes. So have something totally new instead of those!

I ran a oneshot.

Our usual Wednesday DM was under the weather and knew he wouldn't be able to handle running a session one week. All of us respected that, of course, and were discussing the possibility of "meeting up" (online campaign, but you know how it be) anyway to play some Gartic Phone or something.

A suggestion came up that someone runs a oneshot, and I volunteered. I've never DM'd before but I had this great prewritten adventure that would fit our time slot perfectly and decided to dip my toes into mastering the dungeon. The oneshot was based in the Feywild and had a Brothers Grimm inspiration so I figured we'd have fun - plus our DM could be a player and just chill without stressing!

I had commented to my roommate earlier that day that there was only one way to just totally derail the whole adventure, and that it probably would be fine.

As soon as I introduced the hook - a secret BBEG that was also the questgiver - our usual DM ate it.

Obviously I mean his character, and obviously he didn't REALIZE it was the hook/BBEG. I wasn't going to actively stop him, either. It was a oneshot being purely held to give us some shots and goggles and I was fucking dying that they actually were derailing the session. In LITERALLY three minutes.

Everyone rolled initiative and between the DM's barbarian, a monk, a sorcerer, a wizard, and an additional barbarian to just round it out, they actually did enough damage to absolutely destroy this BBEG despite it's resistances and immunities.

Once it was dead, the group was even nice enough to follow some really shitty directions I nudged them in so the session wouldn't end in under half an hour. These led the party to another NPC that I figured they'd talk to, or beat up and interrogate.

... obviously, not what happened. Instead they knocked her old lady hag ass to the ground SO HARD that she must have broken a hip, because she was grappled or prone from the start of combat to her death.

Overall they completed nothing, but had a wacky time doing it. My DM skills need a lot of work but I think we all had fun and we filled most of the time with DnD...the rest was still done in Gartic lol!

[lovelylogans]

Do you have any tips on how to write a female character that's majoring in journalism?

oh boy!!!!!! generally, character-wise, people will of course approach things in different ways, so i’m gonna like mention you know said character and the decisions that she’d make better than anyone else, but i’m gonna write about 1. some “character archetypes,” as it were, that comprise a lot of female members of my journalism school, 2. some general advice on personality traits that would likely be useful/realistic for a female journalism character, and 3. what not to aspire to when it comes to writing women in journalism (ie, this section is just gonna be my biggest gripes about how female journalists tend to be portrayed in media.)

let’s get into it!

section one: “character archetypes,” aka the average personality a lot of female members of my journalism school.

a lot of my really great friends are in the journalism school, and their personality types vary greatly. there are so many awesome women in journalism and this isn’t exactly, like, “BE EXACTLY LIKE THIS OR SHE ISN’T A REALISTIC JOURNALIST,” these are just some character traits/personality things that i’ve noticed when it comes to a lot of aspiring female journalists.

curious. always write them as curious. that’s the backbone of being a journalist is being curious and going after the story. they want to know more about the world, they want to know more about their communities, and they want to provide the perspectives for you, or the reader, or the community, so that you can be better informed/make decisions/be aware. journalists, above all, have that curiosity down; journalism majors can rarely stand not knowing things.

(this also means that female journalists, and journalists in general, really, are very tuned into gossip. not even necessarily “he said she said” gossip, though that can be interesting sometimes too, but things like who got what good grades, which professor said this, what internship accepted who? journalists are basically trained to be investigative and dig deep for things; when it comes to, say, two editors being snappy at each other at a meeting, well, you want to know why, in case whatever is affecting them will affect you. again, not necessarily gossipy in a malicious way that can be portrayed sometimes! gossipy in the sense that they’re usually very in tune with their social circle and immediate community, as well as community at large.)

they are also researchers!!! many journalists are prone to the whole “wikipedia rabbit hole” research thing. they dive deep on a lot of subjects, both broad and narrow, and they like discussing these topics with each other, which again, can vary greatly! the biggest mbmbam/taz Stan i know is a female journalism major, and from there she has a very vested interest in dnd, all because it started with a few funny mbmbam clips (okay, guilty, i was one of the two people who mentioned that it would seem like her thing and now she’s way more into it than i am) and on the flip side of that, there are MANY female journalists who have made careers off their interests—film journalists, video gaming journalists, and social media/pop culture reporters all exist for a reason, and it’s likely because they marketed their interest and therefore “expertise” in these subjects and managed to spin a job out of it!

ambitious. so many kids in the j school strive for really great things, which is super crazy awesome, and they work really hard to achieve it. i know people who have netted amazing internship opportunities while they’re in the j school (we’re talking washington post, new york times, cnn, associated press, like, big organization names) and it’s because they have the ambition to achieve it. they dream big, a lot of the time, and tend to have detailed career goals to go with it.

inclined to ethical/moral discussions. there are a lot of ethical questions when it comes to covering news (there’s actually a wyliwf oneshot in the draft talking about one of my least favorite days of the semester that always comes up in class, which focuses on ethical decisions in times of death, major tragedy, or injury, look up “the breakfast test” if you want to learn more about that particular aspect of being a journalism major) but even when it doesn’t come to major disaster coverage, there are still a lot of little ethical questions to analyze in each area of journalism; journalistic ethics is a whole branch of conversation that i (and a lot of my fellow journalism majors!) fall into discussing. it can be things from the disclosing of anonymous sources to what is and isn’t right to photograph and the inclusion of certain sensitive information or ostracizing it and the importance of fact-checking. i think journalistic ethics is a really interesting topic and it’s usually one of my favorite things to discuss; this wikipedia page just scratches the surface, and here is the spj code of etihcs, widely regarded as a base code of principles for most american journalists to follow, but i encourage you to go out and seek other instances of journalistic ethics, because a lot of the time, what is legal for journalists to do isn’t necessarily right.

organized (even if it doesn’t look like it from the outside) or complete disaster

let’s take my friend, who i’ll call a.c. ac has a color-coded planner, frequently works ahead of schedule, plans out her entire day. she is very tidy, very organized, and seems generally put together. we were roommates in the fall semester and she had a tidy room, a set routine when it came to dinners and organizing her stuff, she’s very On Top Of It

and then there is me. ac once looked at me in horror when i was just starting to write a paper the morning it was due and informed me that the way i approach most deadlines is “her worst nightmare on drugs.” i forget assignments a lot and tend to scramble to do things at the last minute, i am a CHRONIC procrastinator, and yet i still make sure i get things done in time. in essence, i know my limits, and the pressure of a deadline tends to be what kickstarts me into starting those limits.

what i’m saying here is that it’s a vast spectrum, but what tends to drive most journalists is deadlines. journalism people are VERY deadline oriented and their approaches definitely vary, but that tends to be what they stick to most. journalists also tend to have perfectionist tendencies, as a sidenote.

stubborn. holy god. like, just look at the way journalists consistently send foia quests alone, for example, this story about journalists using foia to track hospital bed and ventilator availability in illinous (a dive into sunshine laws, aka releasing public records, which is a whole other thing that people very rarely tend to notice as an aspect of journalism but also lead to really big stories, especially if leaked (pentagon papers, anyone?) and just, yeah. check up on the state’s sunshine laws that you’re writing your story in, i think it could provide a real interesting subplot for you.) journalists. are. STUBBORN. i know people who have sat in offices waiting for public officials to come out for the better part of a work day; i know journalists who have sent hundreds of emails to get one interview; i know journalists who have staged stakeout sessions to see how public officials were using their time when they said they were in the office (hey, including me! i stood in a parking garage for three hours in the middle of winter for this exact purpose once.) what i’m saying here is they are stubborn. if there’s a story, they’re gonna dig. it took woodward and bernstein two years from the time of the watergate breakin to nixon’s resignation. most of the time, that stubbornness pays off.

competitive. yeah, remember that whole ambitious thing i mentioned earlier, coupled with the stubbornness above? journalists are competitive. it’s a competitive job market, so that means that many journalism majors tend to strive for those same big name journalism internships. this is definitely part of my j school culture, so i’m not sure if it’s the same at others, but a lot of people tend to examine what internships or job opportunities or professor favoritism or whatever and see what everyone’s doing, because everyone compares everyone to everyone else. this also tends to feed into other things: getting a story, getting good grades, so on. there’s a definite competitive sense to things, i’m not quite sure how to best explain it, but... yeah. journalists are competitive, sometimes. when it comes to women journalists, it can also be interpreted in other ways (”bitchy” is one) but a lot of journalism majors strive for the best.

supportive. 

section two: some general advice on personality traits that would likely be useful/realistic for a female journalism character

a lot of these were touched on above, but i’d also just like to add: they probably have an interest in some aspect of “social justice,” as it were. feminism, ecological issues, economical issues, racial issues—most of the time, a lot of journalists see these real world issues and it’s what leads them into the career. 

there’s also the whole... ugh... fake news media thing, which i feel like i have to touch on just because: i will say fake news is a meme amongst journalism majors, in that we mutter fake news to each other when our professors are like “this class average is so low y’all need to study more” when it’s their fault for not teaching us i won’t go on that tangent, however, i will also say that this whole idea has contributed to spiking rates of mistreatment and violence against journalists. i’ve been fortunate in that the most tense i’ve ever felt in that situation is taking an uber to a journalism assignment in a white guy’s truck littered with american flags and blaring alex jones on the radio, which i was able to lie and say that i was doing something else and concealing the whole journalism aspect, for my own personal safety, but a lot of other journalism majors i know aren’t so fortunate. i know women who have been yelled at, insulted, and there was a girl who worked around the same time as me who got spit on.

female journalists are usually treated more roughly regardless (when i went out for my first story, my editor sat me down and looked me in the eyes and said “someone might laugh at you because you’re young, and you’re a woman in print journalism, and you know what? fuck ‘em.” which was the first time i’d ever heard her swear and also one of the only times i’d ever heard her swear) so they tend to have to double down and really make sure they know their stuff in case they’re ever quizzed on it in a way that male journalists never really are. this is of course not to say that we’re all mistreated, all the time; it’s just something that female journalists are aware of, the way most women are aware of sexism in general.

section three: realism, and also, hey, maybe don’t do this? just because it’s both unrealistic and like. kinda sexist undertones imo

hoo boy. i’m just gonna take it down the list of some popularized media portrayals of journalists that you might be familiar with and outline why each one is, well..... Not My Favorite?

camille preaker, sharp objects

i do really like gillian flynn’s work, especially gone girl, but camille preaker just rubs me the wrong way? it primarily comes from the ethics involved in her whole situation, and i know they did it for ~drama, but it just... okay, here we go. for starters, you would probably not go out drinking with a source, unless it’s at an event, and you definitely don’t get drunk. you try not to interview people you have personal ties to, because the bias can infiltrate through your work. you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT sleep with your source, especially if he is a member of the police force and a primary source on the murder investigation you’re looking into. just...yeah, those two are the main things?

rita skeeter, harry potter

ugh, the way that rowling painted the daily prophet rubs me the wrong way. like, i understand, and i know that it’s probably more a mention of tabloid culture than like News, but it still just?? it’s the primary news source of the wizarding world?? really?? but yeah, sneaking into places (hospitals especially) to get a story is a massive no-no that would immediately get you arrested.

joan calmezzo, parks and rec

look, i know it’s a comedy, and i know that it’s not realistic, and i know that there is definite semblance for the “alcoholic journalist” thing (an editor i worked for once talked about how her old boss hid a flask in the water fountain in city hall so that he’d be able to get it and drink on the job) and statistically, it does show that journalists turn to sugar/alcohol/caffeine, but i just?? journalists wouldn’t show up to work absolutely blacked out, and if they did they’d definitely get fired.

rory gilmore, gilmore girls

the way rory approaches job hunting makes me cringe down to my very soul. in the original series, from what i’ve seen, she approaches it relatively well (applies everywhere she can, networks, ends up accepting a relatively small job that still provides a massive opportunity to report on a major political figure) but in the revival. who DID that. rory sleeps with a source (WHAT IS IT WITH FEMALE JOURNALISTS ALWAYS SLEEPING WITH SOURCES IN TV SHOWS AND MOVIES?!??!?!!? NO!!!!!!!!!) and falls asleep in the middle of an interview (N O !!!!!) and seems to not understand the concept of freelancing at all (really????? you aren’t working on multiple stories at once??? really????) and also just??? completely disrespects the basic semblance of a job interview??? no matter how impressive your resume is, you still come prepared with ideas and answer questions and no job is OWED to you, especially not with journalism being as competitive as it is, just????

the movie “absence of malice”

i know this one is probably less common, as it’s a movie from the ‘80s, but i still wanna talk about it anyway. sometimes, yes, you write about suspects of murder on the front page of the paper, but federal prosecutor’s don’t usually leak info like That (though rosen is obviously corrupt) and you just?? okay, anyway, carter not revealing her source is good, that’s what a journalist would do, however, teresa perrone disclosing personal information and pleading for her not to include it definitely falls under the realm of an anonymous source. the primary aspect of journalism is “do no harm,” and since disclosing what perrone told her would have harmed her livelihood, carter absolutely either shouldn’t have put it in or made perrone an anonymous source. then we get back to the whole dating sources thing (YOU DON’T DO IT!!!!!!) and then you don’t REVEAL THE SOURCE THAT HURT THIS MAN, OH MY GOD, you still have an obligation to protect your sources!!!! also just generally just!!! this movie does explore a lot of ethical journalistic issues but the sloppy reporting in it just puts me On Edge, ya know?

[handsmotif]

ive been feeling so much love for my very many ocs lately so im gonna write some blurbs about them and the diff stories they are/were involved in under the cut PLEASE feel free to ask questions about any of them i love infodumping abt them

Aquapolypse basically years into the future humans mutated into fish people (and various other creatures but this primarily focuses on the fish people) Zak and Zenna - twinsies! based off betta fish! very pretty, very fashionable, very fighty. strong familial bond. i adore them Solv - based off piranhas! Baby’s First Nonbinary OC, they have a crush on Zenna, and very stereotypically Emo. listens to mcr and cries that they were born in the wrong generation Xavier - swordfish! VERY punk. he has a crush on Solv, who, as we know, has a crush on Zenna. 10th grade me wouldve played this up as a love triangle but i am so much wiser now and resolving it with polyamory

Untitled a the last unicorn-esque story, but with a wood elf! she’s the last of her kind but has no idea. she’s just been vibing in the woods for a while until modern times comes along and builds a housing plan right next to her woods. she gets lonely at night and sings sometimes, causing rumors to spread that the woods are haunted. 2 young people (i picture them to be about 20???) decide to check it out, find her, and immediately think shes adorable and bring her home as a wacky 3rd roommate. Rhathel - the elf in question! shes very strong and very smart and capable, but her lack of knowledge when it comes to modern human culture causes many to think she’s an idiot. NOT the case. she will beat you up V - disaster punk nb lesbian! falls in love with Rhathel almost instantly  Carlos - distinguished gay(tm). V’s best friend and voice of reason. bit of a nerd and a techie. always got the Latest Gadgets. listens to carly rae jepsen and cries Untitled 2 But Superheroes a group of teens hanging out in places they shouldnt be leads to them getting involved in a freak accident that bestows them all with super powers! however, unlike a lot of superhero stories, they dont have any sort of mentor whatsoever to tell them how to be a hero, and well. when you leave these idiots to their own devices they are truly idiots! Lola/Lolita Light - the self proclaimed leader of the team. consumes a lot of superhero media and magical girl anime, thus reasons that she knows exactly what to do in these situations, but usually ends up getting them into worse places than they started. she gained the ability to manipulate light molecules and decided her alter ego should be a magical girl Ness/Frostbite - sarcastic and cold, but is actually the mom friend of the group. she loves her friends deeply but won’t say it. i very clearly picture her with blonde to blue ombre hair. she, as you may have guessed, can control ice and snow Brandon and Brendon - Those Assholes(tm). we all knew them in high school and probably got bullied by them a few times. i do love their character development though where they realize they’re assholes and start making up for it. anyway their powers work in conjunction and i havent *quite* figured out the mechanics of it yet, but they have to be in close proximity to each other in order to do anything. this effectively starts to rid them of their “no homo bro” attitude when they realize they literally have to hug every time they want to power up. i forgot what their alter egos were but i THINK it had something to do with storms and electricity?? i dont remember Dante/Inferno - the antagonist who eventually comes around and joins the team. he was initially part of the friend group but got so fed up with constantly being excluded and bullied by them that he literally formed a whole ass supervillain ego when he realized he had fire powers. the team does realize how shitty they were to him and they BOTH have redemption arcs.

Various scatterings of different ocs that dont necessarily come from any stories but i love them a lot Coronam - a spn demon oc i made in like 10th grade. goes by Corey for short. i still love him so much. he’s definitely an edgelord and i put him through the “would your oc be a tumblr sexyman” quiz and the result was he would be on par with the onceler Blaze - a dnd character i made for a oneshot! they’re a tabaxi warlock and basically if you took meg from hercules’s backstory and mixed it with the song woman by kesha you would understand her.

[dapper-nahrwhale]

Guys I’m gonna do it

I’m gonna write a fanfic for s o m e t h i n g but first I have to figure out what cuz I’m super motivated to write but idk which fandom

Current contenders are:

Mha- hawks character study- i really love him and I’ve already written so many snippets with him so I could just organize it all into vaguely connected oneshots

Mha- modern music au without quirks- mostly about hawks and fame and the league of villains as a weird disfunctional band

Mha- high school pro hero swap au- this ones a bit complicated so the pro hero’s and students switch places like miydoria would be the no 1 hero and all might would be a student and stuff but the most confusin thing about it is the ages of the hero’s cuz most of them are pretty spread out so idk and the villains, would they be the same age as the pro hero’s or students? Idk but I have some planned out for it, again mostly about hawks but still includes other student and pro heros

Mha- hawks goes undercover at UA to discover the traitor there- this one would be when hawks is a kid cuz it wouldn’t make sense otherwise, the timeline would be weird but basically hawks would be sent to UA on the mission of finding out the traitor there telling the leauge stuff and it’s todoroki touya whose Dabi and then his fake attempts to befriend him goes a bit too far and now he wants to help save him

Mha- dnd league of villains- a party of rouges- all for one tells Kurogiri to work on team building so he tries out dnd to help the team to get along well and it goes about a horrible as you’d expect- honestly this ones kinda ridiculous but it’s really funny especially since literally everyone in the party are rouges so it’s a disaster

Cowboy bebop- five times Faye got kicked out of fancy parties and the one time she didn’t- idk honestly I thought of this one in a dream???

Cowboy bebop- five times spike screwed everything up and the one time he didn’t- also from the same dream?????

Cowboy bebop- spike survives the end of the series and somehow has a long talk with VT about everything- eh I know that the whole ‘spike survives’ trope is beaten to a pulp but this is kinda different and I already have most of the dialogue written out

Camp camp- Gwen being the mom to all the campers- I’ve seen a lot of dadvid fics and only a couple Gwen mom ones so this would be adorable, basically a chapter per camper and maybe one with David

Camp camp- coffee shop au- mostly focusing on Harrison, Nerris, and Preston because the performance trio is the best and I’ve got a lot for this one so they’re all in 20s and camp never happened so they know each other thru other things and Harrison works at the coffee shop and wants to be a street performer and Nerris doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life other than dnd and larping and Preston just wants his inane musical to be on broadway already, Harrison and Preston are roommates and Nerris absolutely hates that one barista who always gets her order wrong and never spells her name right, and Preston wants to set two of his friends up but doesn’t know that they already know and despise each other

Haikyuu!!- road trip sorta based on this one ep of we bare bears- the Karasuno first years are now third years and go on a road trip before the end of the year and it’s about life and change and growing up not too much to do with volleyball tho

Haikyuu!!- yamaguchi and the team- just yams being friends with the team one chapters per character with yams cuz he’s my favorite and needs more love

Haikyuu!!- yachi centric college fic that doesn’t have to do with volleyball- yachi didn’t get into the college of her dreams but that’s ok she’s got a back up plan and then that falls through when her holiday retail job really sucks and her moms on her case about everything and her best friend bailed on her halfway through the semester but at least her yoga instructor is really pretty

Critical role- modern magic mighty nein criminal au- it’s the heist of the century or at least it would be if this messed up team could get its act together- basically they’re all criminals called in for a job for Matt Mercer aka the dungeon master and it’ll either be their big break or their downfall- don’t have anything planned but the summery sounds neat tho

I have even more ideas but those are the main ones right now, if you have any suggestions on which ones I should start on, I would be eternally grateful!

[gothammite]

hey friends and sports fans if anyone is bored my roommates and i are streaming a dnd oneshot written in only six hours! it’s gonna be weird and fun and it’s star wars themed and i’m excited 

[vividlywriting]

Dbh and DND you say....( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Alright, let's try this on for size: the main cast of Detroit: Become Human plays DND? Who plays what class? I imagine Millenial on a Mission Hank DMs but I'd be open to any of them writing a campaign and forcing the others to play

So my partner and I are pretty into DnD, and as he partook in my play through of DBH and listens to all my fanning out I asked his opinion on this prompt.  So I will put his additions or contradictions in here as well.  This is gonna be a bit long

Let’s start this off right!

DnDBH

Hank Anderson, millennial.

Has played DnD at least once in his life.  

It probably wasn’t his forte at the time, likely something his roommate pulled him into, and the campaign was probably a bust as it was.  

Has most likely played video games like Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate and liked them.  

He’s also played WoW and Guild Wars 2 at different times and for different reasons in his life

neither of which lasted super long, but he did enjoy them at the time

He honest to god hasn’t thought about DnD or anything even similar to it for a couple of decades until Connor found an old set of dice in the spare room (now Connor’s room) at Hank’s place

Now Hank is running a campaign and he has no gods damned idea how he got roped into this

He thinks it’s hilarious when he throws moral quandaries at his players, which all happen to be androids

He once had his players break into a government building to locate a prisoner for information, they were forced to choose between freeing the prisoner and escaping or leaving them behind.  

All of their information on the prisoner was shaky at best and they had no way of knowing if the character would turn on them later because they all failed their sense motive checks

He was dumbfounded when they managed to befriend the character, completely ruining the arc that had the character as the big bad

Hank is well over the “I roll to seduce” aspect of the game, and is thankful none of his players tried to do that more than once

The only time an NPC flirts with a player character is when Hank is trying to throw a player off/fuck with them and derives a lot of pleasure from seeing his players stumble and try to get out of it

Except for the time when it backfired on him

He finished two glasses of whiskey after that

Hank will not admit that he enjoys DMing, he often complains it’s a pain in his ass and he can’t wait until the whole thing is over

Hank agreed to test Markus’s homebrew oneshot…once

Hank Anderson, millennial, by Zeke

No bad guy at first but increasingly intricate moral quandaries

Before moral quandaries he forgets he can’t just throw puzzles at the players cause fuckin androids

General DMing

Almost everyone has DMed at one time or another based on their interest

Connor as a DM

Connor’s DMing style is very straight forward

He usually goes with premade campaigns, luckily there are a lot out there

He’s not the best at improv when his players go off the beaten path

But he’s very good at playing NPCs

Probably thanks to his programming as a detective, because he can play the NPCs’ emotions to a T

As a DM he is a little bit of a hardass though

Connor as a Player

Connor style of character play is much different than how he is in real life

He seems to enjoy the fact that he doesn’t have to “complete his mission” 

In fact he seems to enjoy causing as much chaos as he can, while still somehow doing what he needs to, and often by accident (or design, no one really knows)

He started with a classic rogue character build

Now he takes characters not often in the rogue class and building them in ways that end to his chaotic play style

Connor is the main reason Hank has had to set off random events or traps, e.g. rocks fall sort of situation, just for annoying him

Connor takes incredible care to keep his characters alive, somehow in spite of the trouble they get into

His character’s tend to have a much higher charisma stat that Connor portrays in real life, he takes it as a challenge for himself more so than his characters

Connor as a Player by Zeke

Likes to play Dex based characters

Likes the concept of spells and often leans towards characters that can do both sneaky stuff and magic

Tried playing evil alignment character once, went balls to the walls and then got banned from playing characters like that because even North was like “wtf”

Markus as a DM

Markus usually starts with a premade campaign

By the time the party gets through the first “dungeon” he’s tossed the script out off the window and is rolling dice and making it up as he goes along

His NPCs often sound a little the same

And when he digs into the homebrew style of DMing he likes to bring in scenarios that either play for or against his players personally

Markus as a Player

Markus avoids leadership character roles like the fucking plague

He actually leans towards the utility characters, buffing and healing the rest of the party

That does not stop the other players from looking to him to be the deciding factor in major decisions of the game

Sometimes he literally just rolls a dice to determine his character’s answer out of frustration

When anyone but Hank DMs he enjoys flirting with most NPCs to try and mess with the DM

He has flirted with enemies before

He has bedded enemies before

It is ridiculous how his lowkey background character playstyle manages to have that much charisma

He is usually the reason Connor doesn’t die in game, and he never lets him live it down

Markus as a Player by Zeke

Every once in a while Markus likes just playing a barbarian and raging

After the first campaign of him ending up as a leader character he just wants to play something simpler

Simon as a DM

Simon is a very thorough DM

He’s very keen on everyone enjoying themselves

But he’s also a very fair DM and if you roll a Nat 1 you’re gonna have to deal with the consequences

He actually really enjoys building homebrews, but he also has a handful of backup plans depending how the players move forward and how much time they have to play

His NPCs have a decent amount of variety, and they often come back into play later whether or not the players realize it at the time

Simon as a Player

Simon is probably the most diplomatic character player you’ve ever seen

His characters are usually quiet, and startlingly efficient

He plays arcane casters usually, and uses it about as equally against enemies as he does against the party to quell the in party bickering that tends to happen

He likes being useful, but more importantly he enjoys the fact that there are many times the party would have been screwed over if he hadn’t stepped up

It took about three sessions before the other players stopped underestimating him and his characters, they tend to be quite lethal 

Simon’s characters usually try to solve things without violence, or without deaths

Someone, either player or DM usually makes that impossible 

While Simon usually just sighs and says “ok then”, he often laughs at the resulting destruction

He has incredible luck with his dice rolls

Simon as a Player by Zeke

Tries making things with high charisma scores but usually ends up defaulting to Markus’s leadership who just tries to put back to simon

Really good in the cleric/healing character classes

North as a Player

Prefers playing, not DMing, the one time she tried to take over for someone to run a oneshot everyone died. 

It did not go well

Most of North’s characters fall somewhere between chaotic neutral to chaotic evil

The others have fallen in the Lawful side of the chart, lawful evil to be exact, and it is terrifying

Her characters change alignment the most as she plays based on how she feels towards other characters and NPCs

Despite that she has yet to fall into the Good column of the chart

Her characters are also either highly destructive or just plain really good at violence/fighting

She doesn’t have a preferred class type, she just likes doing as much damage as possible

North does like playing races that are often less liked in the campaign world

She also likes to retaliate to in game racism and has before collected a small gathering of NPCs she’s helped in someway because of this

As a character player she can be quite cold

She has yet to play a game where the DM included any sort of brothel, unless it is there for the sole purpose of being infiltrated and the workers being saved

Yes that was a game Markus ran

North as a Player by Zeke

Fighter, Ranger, Swashbuckler/Pirate Characters

Josh as a Player

He is just happy being a player

LOOT

This boy will find the loot and you may or may not know about it

He has killed the least number of people than anyone in his party

He prefers to not kill anyone if he can

Leave them out cold, or tied up, he’s even fine with dismemberment so long as they still have their life

When he does have to kill its in either one of two ways

Either he poisons them and they or most characters have no idea he did it

OR he makes it quick and clean

He plays the assassin class very very well, or he would if he actually did his job as an assassin

Josh as a Player by Zeke

Uses the loot for a good cause

Chaotic good or neutral good

Always good and opposite of north, by accident

Monk or brawler and always specifies he is doing non lethal damage

Stealthy monk - josh becomes one punch man

Kara as a Player

Kara is a healer

She’s learned the best builds to give you the best buffs all day long

Her characters are often pretty fragile though so the other players usually have to strategize around her to make sure she lives so she can make sure they deal the most and take the least damage

Her characters have all ended up rescuing someone or something at some point 

This has lead to her almost always having a companion animal or favors she can call in from NPCs later in the game 

It’s been pretty handy

Kara Player by Zeke

Witch, Druid, Shaman classes

Alice as a player NPC by Both of Us

Was allowed to join to play as an NPC, reprising similar roles, because the first one went over so well

She learned to make stuffed animals just to slam them on the board

They are always too big

It was a dragon

It only happened because she found Hank’s old copy of The Hobbit

When she plays as her NPC she jumped up on her chair and holds up a stuffed animal of a dragon and screamed “I am fire! I am death!” slammed the toy onto the board and yelled “ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!”

Hank’s response was to look at his confused players and say “Well, go on, do it.” because they didn’t think it was serious

Almost no one has it in them to actually kill her characters, even tho they only exist to be fought

So Hank has to come up with “an out” for the NPC baddie to get away

Because of this Alice gets really into high fantasy books and movies

Hank doesn’t mind babysitting her as much now

Luther as a Player by Both of Us

He only plays occasionally

Mostly oneshots not full campaigns

Plays the smallest characters he can

He knows what it’s like to be big, he wants to be smol

He made one min/maxed orc that was too broken to be used more than the one time

He’s a really soft spoken player, he doesn’t say much but he enjoys playing

The Jerry Gaming Collective

Is a thing

Find them on twitch

[thestuckylibrary]

are there any fics with Steve and Bucky playing Dungeons and Dragons or something similar?

only one i found is this one

Dungeons and Avengers by wordsaplenty (WIP | 6,010 | T ) 

Steve has newly transferred to a four year university after doing two years at a community college. Too anxious to make friends and too nerdy to believe that anyone will actually have the same interests, it takes some cajoling from his Aunt Peggy to get him to put himself out there and meet people. He decides to put up a flyer in a coffee shop advertising that he’s looking for people to play some Dungeons and Dragons with him thinking that this will appease Peggy and allow him to continue on with life by himself. But cute barista Bucky has a different plan.

Basically my excuse to create a story where Bucky, Steve, Nat, and Sam all play DnD together.

EDIT: Anon wrote in with:

the rhythm in rush by magneticwave (oneshot |6,194 | T)

Steve Rogers: anthropology major, president of Americans for Informed Democracy, in love with his roommate, exasperated dungeon master.

andfarkenshnoffingottom wrote in with:

Roll for Initiative by QueenoftheRandomWord42 (complete |30,252 | T)

What happens when you mix D&D, The Avengers, with a dash of Identity Porn, a dash of fun, and put into the blender and press frappe? Hopefully this fic!Bucky Barnes has been trying to juggle his final term in his undergrad while trying to find a thesis project for grad school by day, by night he plays table top games. His characters have a habit of dying before the end of the campaign, and all he can do afterwards is talk to his friend Nomad1974 about the games.Steve Rogers has been trying to get though art school while his mother is sick with cancer, and circumstances have required that he move in with his mother and uncle until his mother is better or he graduates from college, which ever comes first. The best escape he has is playing table top games online with his friend Not_Yur_Side_Kick17.Both players have started developing feelings for each other online, but when they meet in real life, they are unaware they know each other, and begin pining. When well these two figure out that they know each other in real life?

[rakket]

Roommate is planning a new dnd campaign. I'm bringing back my Kobold Wizard from an old oneshot as my PC.

[foxaes]

Hey fox! I'm thinking of maybe becoming a DM for a group of my friends and was thinking it would be best to start small. So do you have any tips on how to do a One-Shot?

HI!! When I received this ask I'd actually never gotten to play DND for real before, let alone DM, but last night my roommate's boyfriend surprised us with a oneshot DND game he made up on the fly, so I officially have like, .2 experience with this. 

Keep it short and simple; npcs don’t need to be super fleshed out and it can be fun to make stuff up as you go. Like, improvisation is SO fun. Maybe have a few key points laid out, like having set goals (ie, ‘obtain this item’, ‘get this stuff’).

Having a linear path also helps- like you just are in one town and have to solve a small mystery or defend it, find and fight a boss, etc. 

Also- games can EASILY become way longer than you thought, so a one shot might turn into 2 or 3 games. We had to cut our story short with some DM intervention bc it got to midnight and we had to go to bed soon. 

I don’t have much advice other than that, but I hope yall have a lot of fun playing- I was nervous about makign something up on the fly but it turns out its just as fun as I hoped it would be, if not more, and that improvisation is REALLY fun.