#system resource

[wearysauce]

☆ How to play D&D together as a System ☆

Before you read on, here's some stuff to keep in mind:

⁎ This guide focuses on ways for you and your system to play D&D together ("solo"): not with any external players.

⁎ This might not work for you! Every system works differently, which means something like this might work differently for you personally. Feel free to read on for inspiration and ideas!

⁎ This guide assumes the reader understands the basics of D&D.

⁎ Please keep discourse/syscourse away from this post: this guide is for any system or collective to try if they're interested, regardless of origin.

⁎ Not every point in this post might apply to your situation!

⁎ No, we're not going to suggest using AI.

CWs: Touches on dissociation and switching in the context of how that might impact game sessions.

☆ Discussing ☆

Before you start running away with campaigns and character sheets, make sure you get a feel for how others in the system feel about playing D&D together.

Here are some questions that might help:

⁎ Is there an interest in the system to play together? Which members of the system are interested? How many players might there be?

⁎ Does everyone know the rules of the game? Are aspects of the game confusing or intimidating?

⁎ Are there any younger members of the system who might want to play, but find the rules confusing?

⁎ Will the game/campaign potentially deal with any triggering topics?

⁎ What kind of game does the system want to play? Serious? Laidback? Something in the middle?

If you can, try to deal with any concerns and questions early on.

In our experience, we've found that making a private discord server with PluralKit was incredibly useful for discussing the gameplay, character and plot ideas, role-play limits, etc.

You may also need to look into ways of simplifying the game: looking up D&D resources for new or young players may help! (I might make another guide for simplifying D&D/resources for that; let us know if that's something you'd like to see!)

☆ Campaign ☆

Your next step will be to either choose a prewritten campaign or write your own.

Out of the two, prewritten campaigns save the most time.

You can find loads of campaigns; some for free; on websites like this!

☆ Memory ☆

Another thing to keep in consideration is how dissociative amnesia might play into all this.

For example, we forget things often and use that to its advantage (which, as a bonus, helps us deal with the otherwise unpleasant part of dissociative amnesia). We're writing our own campaign and usually forget what we wrote, which makes playing through our campaign surprising! In cases where we do remember what the campaign notes are, we just view that as following a basic script: and we let dice rolls bring in the element of surprise instead, or go off-script and improvise!

If your system forgets things easily, you might also want to keep session notes: jot down which players were present, character actions, discoveries, etc.

For systems who have low amnesia barriers, then I'd highly suggest reading the next section:

☆ Random Events ☆

Rolling for random events, NPCs and loot can spice up an otherwise predictable game.

As an example: if the campaign you're running puts players in a dungeon, you could have the next room they go to feature a random enemy, rather than anything prewritten.

(Keep challenge ratings and player levels in mind; otherwise you might be sending some poor Level 1 adventurers to fight a CR 13 Beholder.)

I highly recommend donjon for all your random generation needs. You can also look into random tables for DMs, here's a huge masterlist of all sorts.

This can make the game feel a little disjointed and incoherent at times, but that's when you can: make up lore explanations, dismiss any completely unworkable rolls, retcon, or anything else you can think of.

☆ Playing the Game ☆

We play D&D exclusively on our PC, but you could feasibly do all this on mobile or with paper.

First, you'll need character sheets: if you're playing 5e on PC/Mobile, you can find a form-fillable PDF sheet here.

You'll also need dice, maps, and all your other standard D&D equipment (we use online dice, random gens, and move tokens around maps on paint.net).

We also use our private discord server and Tupperbox to role-play as our characters and document our campaign:

(Our campaign is very serious, as you can see 💀)

We take turns playing the GM/DM: sometimes they're also acting as a player, other times they're solely being the GM/DM.

The GM/DM usually also records if rolls have been a success or fail; we used to record what the dice roll result was (we have a separate channel for rolling with the dice maiden bot) but we've stopped doing that as much because our sessions take long enough as it is.

If you decide to play how we do, my biggest advice is: save, save everything, and save often.

Our method also creates many tabs and windows, but luckily, we micromanage all that fine: if you struggle, try grouping tabs if you use Firefox, as well as closing tabs once you no longer need them.

If using discord isn't your style, then experiment with different ways of playing: in a document, in your notes app, with paper, etc.

☆ Scheduling ☆

Unless your system allows for voluntary switches/your D&D party are often co-con, you'll probably find some players will not be available to play when others are.

The way we handle this is by essentially splitting the party up, as well as playing for certain players when they're absent (with their permission).

So far, we haven't even left the starting zone (we're on Session 3), so we've yet to see how much trouble splitting the party might cause. Hopefully, we'll get back to you on that one.

In some cases, where there is only one of us fronting, we just get our character to explore an area alone whilst the rest of the party rests in-game.

Another way to play solo could be to play through a character backstory, or in a one-shot campaign.

☆ Warning + Our Experiences ☆

In our experience, we've found playing D&D together has been really fun, but the one downside is that it has caused a few crowded headspaces. We've got nine players total (not the system total, just nine of us are D&D nerds), and on one occasion six of us decided we wanted to play D&D. We had to step back because that made us incredibly dissociated and switchy.

If you're prone to that, then definitely consider that might happen.

Another problem might come from suddenly switching midway through playing solo, or you might switch out during a session: in that case, you can cut the session short/other players can either take your character with you, or your character can just go back to camp for the rest of the session.

(Or, like we do because we all find it funny: just leave the character where they were before the player switched out.)

For us, that is part of the appeal: we've played with others outside our headspace and have switched midway through playing, where we've then had to figure out what we're doing, what our character was just doing, and who we're in call with. That used to stress us out, whilst this way we can literally just step away/stop playing.

A less serious note is that, like any D&D session, they tend to drag for hours: keep that in mind and don't stay up too late like us! And always hydrate, eat, and take breaks every so often!

☆ Bonus Resources!! ☆

Simple D&D 5e Guide, including tips for DMing: https://easydnd.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/easy-dd-v0.0.pdf

The best generator and D&D websites ever: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ and https://rollforfantasy.com/

5e Wiki: https://dnd5e.wikidot.com/

Homebrew: https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_Homebrew

[engravedlives]

misc music stamps

[fawndollie]

HUGE music blinkie dump.. found some mayhem ones too which i was surprised about!!

[communistkenobi]

whenever right wing people talk about “parental rights” they are talking about property rights. they are arguing for further political and legal enshrinement of their children as their literal actual property

[kaleidoscopedrawsjpg]

Another silly Moshang comic, this time inspired by @disgracefulthings text post that started this latest brainrot idea.

I hate them so much (affectionate)

Original text post inspo under cut

[inbabylontheywept]

Soviet Birds.

The secret facility that I work in has holes in the ceiling. We don't know how to get them fixed.

We tried asking the government to fix it, once. We told them that the holes in the older parts of the facility had gotten large enough to fit birds through, and that birds were getting through, and that, perhaps, a Soviet Spy could fit through as well.

After all, it is well known that Soviet Spies and pigeons are approximately the same diameter.

Our hope was that that this vague and nonsensical threat would put a little fire under Uncle Sam's feet. If the fed couldn't be bothered to give a shit about the giant gaping holes in the roof of our facility, perhaps they could be persuaded to give a shit about... Soviet Spies.

This attempt at manipulation 100% blew up in our faces.

See, the government does not need to be persuaded to give a shit about Soviet Spies. It still wakes up most nights, drenched in cold sweat, terrified and confident that a Soviet Spy is hiding in their nightstand. If it sees a rock on the ground, it flips it over, pistol drawn, ready to shoot the Soviet Spy it fully expects to slither out from underneath. Which is to say: The government is crazy. So when we dropped those two words - inflitration risk - in the repair request, they came in guns-a-blazin'.

Does that mean that they fixed the roof? Of course not. Don't be stupid. No, instead of performing basic maintenance, they installed a state of the art alarm system throughout the facility - lasers, sonar, the works - and told us to always be on the guard. Because of the roof holes.

Then they left.

So now we had an extremely good alarm system... and birds. Which have combined in incredibly obvious and predictable ways to produce an unending fountain of problems.

For Example: About once a month, someone gets called in by the local airforce dispatch because AAAAAAAAAAA a Spy is in the Rad Lab! We're all gonna die! Except every time, it's a bird. And I get why we have to check, but every time, the dispatcher is panicked and the person going out has to be like listen, listen: It's a bird. It's always a bird. It's been a bird every month for the last fifteen years. It will be a bird next month. All this stress? Bad for your heart.

Second Example: Sometimes, birds get in while we're actually working. And when it's in the morning, you know, it's a nuisance, and it stops testing (we are not going to risk irradiating a bird) but it's not an all-hands-on-deck situation because it doesn't take ten hours to get a bird out. But surprisingly often, the bird gets in riiiiight at closing time, and in that situation, everyone goes feral because nobody can leave until the alarm is set, and we cannot set the alarm while the bird is there, because the bird would immediately trigger it and then we'd have to stay another 4 hours to confirm that it was not a Soviet Bird.

So in order to go home, everyone's top priority is Get That Bird. And we have a system for it.

Step 1: The test stands tend to be located in rooms with 30+ foot ceilings. We can't catch birds in places like that - so we have to lure the bird into the relatively low ceilinged (8 feet only) upper offices.

We do this by turning all the lights off in the test rooms, then putting floodlights by the exits. I don't know why this works - some kind of evolutionary brain fragment shared by both Bugs and Birds - but work it does. The birds almost always follow after the lights. From there, it’s just two guys moving the floodlight and a third guy to turn off the lights.

Step 2: Everyone else has been waiting for this step. There is this long stairway up from the basement level into the offices, and in the final stage, the floodlights are brought to the base of the stairwell to bring the bird up. At the top of the steps there will be a group of tennish people, waiting for the signal. The light guys will set up the final transfer, everyone will tense, and then, swish...a bird will flit up the stairs and into the offices.

It's like watching werewolves on a full moon. Before the bird cometh, we are engineers. Nerds. Pale and skinny things, trembling under the fluorescent lights. After the bird, we are beasts. Feral, gnawing things, glowing under the orange sunrise of the 70's halogen floodlights.

And like all beasts, we cannot help but give chase.

Step 3: The were-engineers begin the hunt. The goal at the start is not really to catch the bird - just exhaust it. So the pack simply does not relent. Because the stakes are going home on time, the group is basically given free reign to go anywhere in the building. If someone's door is open, and the bird goes inside, they're going to have to deal with ten sweaty panting maniacs leaping around their office. They don't get to say that they're busy, or remark on how all this movement is a terrible distraction. They are allowed to sit in silence during the chaos, and perhaps thank the war party for chasing the bird while they sat comfortably on their ass. This has been explained several times, and it will continue to be explained until cooperation is achieved.

Anyway.

The chase can go on for quite some time. Sometimes, the bird will get tired and find a crevice to hide in, where it can then be reached through standard cornered-bird catching techniques.

Other times, it will slow down enough that someone can actually yoink it out of the air. But this will go on until someone catches the bird and triggers Step 4.

Step 4: The Finale. This is the get-the-bird-out-of-the-building stage, and it requires someone to adopt a specific role: To Become the Sacrificial Vessel of Bird Removal.

This job is both coveted and feared. It's coveted, because holding a wild bird in one's hands is a precious thing. To feel how small, and fragile, and scared it is, only to free it from the building? That is what it's like to be a benevolent God. But the cost! Oh, the cost. The entire time the Vessel is in motion, the bird will be biting the hell out of their fingers. And I cannot emphasize enough just how painful bird bites are. Their entire face is a set of needle posed pliers, and they know tricks the even the cartels haven't figured out yet. So there's always a little hubbub about who shall be The Vessel while onlookers, stranded outside The Office of Bird Capture, can only look on. Quiet arguments and pleas are heard, little fragments of fear and pride and glory trickling out of room like the silver dust left behind in a bag of well shook quarters. The sound of concensus is silence, and the argument will go on until that's all that's left. And then, from the darkness of the final office, the chosen sacrifice will step forward: Hands gently cupped, tears streaming down their face, fingers trembling from the pain of the ongoing bird chomps.

And this scene is what organizes people. Not leadership, not truly. No one can think and coordinate a crowd while their fingers are being attacked with a combination nutcracker/ear piercer. But the crowd sees the suffering of their annointed, and it is driven to do everything poossible to make the process flow. People instinctively flair out, finding the fastest path outside. Doors are held open. Paths are cleared. Someone, somehow, always knows the way forward and can describe it to the sufferer. Left, left, forward. Corner closet. Yep, there's a hall in there. Forward. Two-hundred more feet man, you're doing great. Just hold it together a little longer. You're killing it.

Then the final door swings open, and the bird flees out into what remains of daylight. And yet, even here, the deed is not yet done. I cannot explain it in words, but the crowd that helped is never content until they can see and speak on the Bird Vessel's wounds. They all have to pull the fingers back and see what was given. Estimate the price: One day to get better - No, three - No, a week! Are you blind? Do you see that blood blister? -Yeah, that's not going away anytime soon - Damn, can you believe how feisty those things are? Like wolves without teeth.

(They cannot help but touch as they go. It has always been this way. Even Thomas was not content until he felt the wounds in Christ's hands.)

Only when the last of the helpers has seen, and commented, and commended, will the engineers scatter. It is their return from the underworld that announces to the sun living surface dwellers that they too can go home. (@somerunner tolja it needed to be a post.)

[mokeonn]

"But if college was free, then people would abuse that and get useless degrees" hell yeah I would! If I could go to college without debt I would make it my job to get a degree in every little thing that interested me. I'd get a doctorate in film studies. I'd have a bachelor's degree for every science I like. I'd try to learn at least 5 languages with varying results. I would learn something "useful" like coding and then follow it up with a ""useless"" degree like art history. I'd be the world record speed run holder for getting every degree possible.

But I can't afford college without going into massive debt, so instead I spent the last 5 years trying to figure out what I am passionate enough about to consider going into debt over, because unfortunately being passionate about everything is extremely expensive to pursue.

[willtheweaver]

Ways to solve the Why Can’t They Use Magic To Fix Everything problem:

•Magic has a cost. The more powerful the spell, the more it drains the caster’s life.

•’We tried that ages ago.The gods grew angry at our arrogance and stripped most of our powers away.’

•Magic is tied to the stars and planets. Its full potential can only manifest on certain astrological events.(And these are once-in-a-millennia type events)

•Only one will a pure heart and selfless intentions can use their full power.

•All magic users are descendants of a (god/spirit). As the years have gone by, the blood has become more diluted, and magic has grown weaker as a result.

•Spell casters can only cast (finite number of spells). They end up using their gift on trivial matters.

•’After the war, we realized the dangers that magic presented. And so we sealed it away, lest it destroy the world.’

•Everyone has magic. Trying to solve one problem is futile as it can be easily undone(often violently and with much destruction)

•inverse of the above: everyone has magic, but their powers are limited and (mostly) harmless.

•Individual, company, or nation has a monopoly on the only substance that can negate magic. As they rule the world, they have installed anti-magic devices everywhere.

•Individual, group, company, or nation has a monopoly on magic. To insure their grip on power, all magic users that do not submit to them are killed.

•An act of good will spawn one of evil. The use of fire will cause somewhere to grow cold and dark. And to save a life, one must sacrifice another.

•The only magic people have access to is Chaos Magic. No one uses it, for obvious reasons.

—••• •• ——• ——• • ••• —•• •• —•—• —•— ••— •••

[emo-freakxx]

[lavendergalactic]

☆ 　plural shiny buttons !

self indulgent, made them myself credit 4 putting on resource rentrys / blogs / etc f2u, feel free to resize / recolour!

this took me so long to make y'all.. i hope you like them tho!

[samuraiko]

A short thread on how to get a health insurance claim denial reversed (UPDATED)

Originally found on Bluesky here, I am reposting here on Tumblr hoping that this gains some traction coz I know a LOT of folks who could benefit from it here in the US healthcare system.

Please, please, please reblog this and TAG it (if you have additional ideas for tags, go for it).

UPDATE: And then ProPublica added a godsdamned FORM you can use!

[coining-system-terms]

This [website] is being worked on and should not be considered finished

Like or reblog if using please. Free to use without credit but credit is appreciated. Want a userbox, term or flag? Request one!

[engravedlives]

misc band/music blinkies

[crimsoncrowcollective]

Custom Front Status Inspo!

I saw other people adding theirs so I thought I might as well add mine! :D

[plusie]

🐾 - white tiger stuffies