#testing things in dnd can lead to some realizations that's for sure

[onlythebravest]

recently read: january 2023 🪐

I did say I was going to try and make a list of what I’ve read each month. First month done! I decided not to include rereads (which I do a lot), because then the list would never end.

If you decide to check any of these fics out, make sure to show the author some love. Leave kudos, a comment and, if possible, reblog (or retweet) the fic post! and a big thank you to all these amazing authors! thank you for sharing your writing with us!

Little Taste by @wabadabadaba​ (G, 1.2k, domestic fluff, age regression) A morning with little Harry and caregiver Louis.

I loved As It Was and was so happy to see that the strawbaby universe had gotten another fic! I had missed those two.

yeah, he's a looker (but i really think it's guts that matter most) by @thedevilinmybrain (E, 40k, non-au, established, friendships) Five times Oli was asked to do something that was outside of his job description, and the one time he didn't have to be asked.

amazing characterization! Jennifer never fails with writing amazing characters, but this was just something else.

Can I Watch? by @larrysballetslippers (E, 4.9k, poly, established, smut, voyeurism) Harry never thought a horrible encounter would lead to some hot loving from his boyfriends.

Chicago by @hellolovers13 (G, 3.5k, exes to lovers, famous/non-famous) They hadn't seen each other in four years, why was Louis still writing songs about Harry?

London by @hellolovers13 (M, 2k, fluff, established, famous/non-famous) A lazy morning in bed. Finally home.

Bless You! by @neondiamond (G, 2k, kid, established, fluff) Harry and Louis’ young daughter, Ava, really enjoys when Harry says ‘bless you’ after she sneezes.

you can always expect amazing fluff from Jess, so you know you’re gonna leave the fic with a warm feeling in your chest

Tender Hearted by @polaroidlouis (E, 3.3k, established, mpreg, smut, service top L) It hadn’t taken long then for Harry to clue in the fact that Louis was enthralled with his newly bloomed breasts.

Just To See That Smile by @homosociallyyours (NR, 6.7k, uni au, fake relationship, pining) A fic where a hastily faked relationship and a lot of miscommunication almost ruins a perfectly good dance.

One for the Books by @neondiamond (M, 25k, advent fic, strangers, winter, fluff) Or the one where there’s a bookshop, a cat, OT5 friendship, a budding romance, and all the festive vibes.

Hike Up Your Skirt (And Show Your World To Me) by @twopoppies (E, 17k, CEO/employee, dom/sub, smut) Louis has a very hands on approach to training his new secretary. How else can he make sure Harry realizes his full potential?

I really enjoyed reading a character that isn’t really a good character and now I want more of these morally gray characters.

It's Thursday. Let's Get (un)Dressed. by @bananaheathen (E, 9k, genderfluid H, pining) When Louis is peer-pressured into downloading TikTok over the holidays, he fully expects to hate it. And he does hate it. All of it. Well... except for aspiring OOTD influencer, @ harrystyles.

edible stars by @forthetherapyy (E, 10k, uni, friends with benefits, dom/sub) They take a test and the results change things for Harry and Louis.

Fellowship of Eroda by @sadaveniren (E, 5.3k, enemies to lovers, dom/sub) aka Louis may have had a four night stand with Harry and now he's stuck in a DND campaign with him.

Fun Time Candles by @sadaveniren (T, 1k, kid fic) Harry makes candles shaped like dicks. Harry also has a five year old learning to read. These two things should never interact.

The animals play by @sadaveniren (M, 1.2k, kid fic, dom/sub) Harry and Louis play a game of cat and mouse.

I love this parenting while actively in the bdsm community series! all of them are amazing

Counterculture by @sadaveniren (E, 6k, a/b/o, pack dynamics, scenting) It all culminated to this: Harry in the middle of a crowded basement, music blasting from the live show on the far side, shirtless amongst alphas and omegas who all weren’t covering their scents. He took a deep breath of the heavy air and he felt alive.

(yes, I had a little sadaveniren marathon and I’m not sorry)

A Bright and Blazing Flame by @greenfeelings (E, 23k, a/b/o, established, famous/famous, all the good omegaverse stuff) Bonded, engaged, and moved in together — there’s nothing to daunt Louis and Harry’s happiness. Until the past catches up to them and everything comes crashing down when they least expect it.

I have so much good to say about this series and not enough words to express myself. it’s got everything you can want from an a/b/o fic, and more

Late for Flying Practice by @jaerie​ (E, 2.5k, elf/reindeer, smut) Louis is a hybrid reindeer gearing up for his first year as navigator for Santa. Harry is one of Santa's elves in the middle of his 99th season as head cookie designer. They've been having an affair for years. This time it doesn't exactly go well. Or does it?

Secrets, Santa? by @indiaalphawhiskey (E, 19k, boss/employee, christmas themed, awkward H, dirty talk) Right, okay, so Harry had confessed his deepest, darkest, dirtiest secrets to a stranger who turned out to be his boss. No big deal. This was probably just the beginning of Harry’s own hilariously heartwarming, wildly romantic Hallmark Christmas movie, come to life, right?… Right?

this was hilarious and found myself having to stop myself from laughing while reading it

Wanna play you like a game, boy (what's the thrill of the same toy?) by @thebreadvansstuff (E, 10k, boss/employee, dom/sub, humiliation) Louis is Harry's boss, and Harry has a humiliation kink.

He's Got the Money, Baby Honey by @larry-hiatus (E. 10k, dom/sub, financial domination) Finsub Harry forgets his dom’s weekly gift. Louis makes him pay for the mistake with a shopping spree.

I loved reading about this kink and way of domination that was completely new to me

On the naughty list tonight by @lunarheslwt (E, 6k, established, dom/sub, Christmas) Harry has a little bad habit- he peeks at gifts early because he is too impatient to wait to open them. Louis is determined to catch him this time, and show him that actions have consequences.

enough to make a girl blush by @disgruntledkittenface (E, 22k, a/b/o, girl direction, childhood friends, self discovery) When Louis moves from her small hometown to the city, she runs into her childhood friend Niall. Despite her surprise at learning that Niall presented as an alpha, she’s immediately drawn to her. As their relationship progresses and Louis settles into life in the city, she learns that love, sex and identity aren’t always as simple as she’d been taught growing up. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

I loved learning about girl alphas in this! I know I’ve said it every time I talk about this fic, but I can’t help it. it was so fun learning about it

Unholy by @wicked-archer​ (E, 11k, religios kink, priest/demon, smut) When Harry Styles started acting different after his 26th birthday, Father Louis Tomlinson is the only one that may be able to save his soul. He has successfully performed exorcisms before. This should be easy. Until it isn't. Harry is more than he seems. The battle of wills test every bit of faith Louis has. And Harry? Well, he's just getting started.

positive feedback by @sun-lt (T, 4k, a/b/o, established, nesting) Louis pretends he isn’t insecure about his nest, Harry pretends he isn’t inconveniently horny, and they both see right through each other.

you know you’re gonna have a great time when you’ve get a notification about a new Essie fic, and this one was no different!

Control by @zourry-a (E, 1.7k, smut, public sex) "M'gonna finger you," he said softly. "Right here in front of everyone, like you want. Do you want it, Louis?"

I Built This Bed For Two (I Built This Bed For Me and You) by @yafookinlousah (E, 8.9k, exes to lovers, cuddling) Harry and Louis broke up after uni and haven't seen each other since—until they're roped into doing a Buzzfeed video together. Featuring awkward cuddling and a reunion that just needed a kick in the arse, gleefully provided by Niall.

One Touch Is Never Enough by @kingsofeverything​ (E, 3.8k, werewolves, funny) It’s been a rough year for Louis. First, he was turned into a werewolf, which hasn't been so bad, except that he didn't anticipate how it would affect his love life. Maybe it’d be easier to ignore if he wasn’t constantly bombarded by the sound of his two werewolf best friends getting it on in the next room. At least they were nice enough to give him a gift certificate for a massage.

I'm Sure It Happens To All Alphas by @jaerie​ (E, 3.7k, a/b/o, awkward sex) Louis has trouble popping a knot.

I said a little while ago that there aren’t enough fics where the sex isn’t perfect, and then I stumble upon this. I was so happy!

pink like the paradise found by @disgruntledkittenface​ (M, 18k, girl direction, uni, bartender L, coming out) Harry's friends take her out to the local lesbian bar to celebrate after she comes out. They joke about getting her laid, but the way the hot bartender is looking at her makes her think it might actually happen.

[morningstar-warriors]

Game Eleven

Thoughts and Development

I started recording the sessions, we all play online so I figured, why not! It'd be easy to show folks what they missed if they couldn't make it, or look back on mechanical moments that felt flawed. Plus it's very easy to now find direct quotes from players which is cool!

Aside from this another large development is a new player, Button. He is playing a cat called Ashwind, and plans on making occasional appearances here and there. Button is helping me develop a new kind of Stoneteller, he's into playing Warlocks in D&D so he got me to thinking on how we could make a cat warlock that would make sense in the Warriors world. Right now we're going with a necromancer vibe for his cat, and I'm excited to update the Stoneteller post with our more fleshed out concept.

Present issues that I plan on tackling --

Ability Scores

These guys are kinda... Just there. I honestly don't know what to do with them, they feel irrelevant to how the game works at this time. I may go about adding them to dice rolls for skill checks, or scrapping them all together. In the original game, ability scores were actually meant to represent how much chips you had, but Bug and I didn't like this, it didn't feel very customizable when it came to knacks.

Skills and Dice

So there are 5 points you can have in each skill. I've been playing this in a way where, you add that to your dice roll. Which the standard role in my game is, a 2d6. So if you have 4 points in a skill, it's 2d6+4. Another test player group recommended to me that this could instead be a die pool, so it physically feels like you have more. Visual progression. Aside from dice, I realize game wise, I need to have a better grasp of the skills. Sometimes I feel like some things are... Missing from them? I still can't quite place it though. Like there are some things my dnd brain wishes there were rolls for, but I feel like if I keep refreshing my understanding of the skills that part of me would melt away. I don't think it's necessary to have a million skills, and its important in a cat game to feel like... A cat. An animal. So I think these skills are very important as is for now.

The Knack Problem

There are so so so many knacks. I'm not even sure if knacks are the route I'd like to go anymore. Or at the very least they need a lot of restructuring. I was suggested knacks that cost more chips should be higher level. Since at level 1, you dont have many chips to spare. I think thats wise. Alternatively I could give knacks the "At higher level" treatment, and state that certain actions you could take through the knack cost more/are more effective with the use of more chips. For now I don't know, I can also see the concept of knacks disappearing and becoming something else. I like the physicality of the chips though.

Misc Chips... BOOOOO

So these are dead to me. Way too confusing HAHA! I'm thinking so far everything starts off as a point buy. So you just get 5 chips, put them anywhere its up to you. but no holding onto empty chips, I feel like that just confuses people. My second test player group didnt get it at all and my first one is struggling with it as well. Third group I chose to ignore the idea aaaand that went way smoother lol.

Damage and Health

So I'm debating switching from a number based HP to concepts like Apocalypse or Monster of the Week, where you just have points of "Hurt" rather than a number that slowly dwindles. This would lead to a large restructure of many things I think, so I'm kinda nervous to tackle this right now, but considering my issues around ability scores and knacks, I think this is a necessary path to take. I'll start researching these games further and probably start making the changes once I feel satisfied with the remaining parts of V. 1 that need finishing. Which is Leveling, and the Leader Code.

Beginner and Child Friendliness

So a few times in here I mentioned some math. Adding the ability scores, dice pooling. These things were fun suggestions, but my test player groups also mentioned that the less math, the more player friendly. I know as a kid the idea of a game like D&D sounded fun, but making a character was a dreadfully boring behemoth. I know not all children are opposed to complex ideas and some adding and subtraction, but I do know that most people play role-playing games for the role-play. That's something I want to prioritize in my development. I will say I'm proud of how easy it seems for my test groups to make characters, and learn how to play. I'm glad my writing and guidance is competent.

[radnewworld]

I will say, off-loading last week to victims other than myself has been a delightful respite. Monday still sucks like a drunken roomba, though! This week, you get one word: Check. However, you have to use as many of its possible meanings as you can.

"... Can I have a garden hoe +1?" The albino's face radiated barely contained glee. He was very clearly working an angle with this character concept and genuinely believed it was novel, but like most newbies, didn't realize he was digging into an established trope. He's played some old Baldur's Gate, so he's not totally in the dark; an easy hook.

"I suppose so," you reply with all the false concern you can muster. Let 'im think that we're only slowly catching on to his scheme. "Let me check to see how that would work-" it's a two handed, 1d8 weapon, the +1 is well within acceptable range. Easy peasy. "- yeah, I think I remember something about improvised weapons." You flip open the book to a random section and skim some text while you mentally preload some hoe jokes. After a moment or two, you find the entry and give Albino the stats on his new toy. He's excited, he's engaged.

Shift focus to check in on Girlfriend; she's not shaking off the first time jitters quite like her pasty boyfriend is. She's trying, but this is all new and she needs something to build the foundation on. Since her fascination with murder mysteries was announced early on, you've built the one-shot to swerve hard into that territory. DnD's utter lack of good mechanics in that regard will actually work in your favor: you can keep everything limited to basic skill checks her character will be good at. You ask some leading questions, make some idle suggestions, and before long she's got her detective character's bones built. You check that mental box and make sure to leave a note to keep alternating between Humorous and Scandanavian Crime Drama Dark.

You've scribbled some notes about a mountain outpost with a limited cast of NPCs and locations: very newbie friendly, very quaint. You check the time and call for a Perception check and start sprinkling clues. You had a plot ready about a devil summoner being the murderer, but it quickly turns into a narrative shoggoth when Albino introduces a thread about a halfling farm cult as part of his backstory and Girlfriend starts pulling on those more than the murder. It takes a bit for Wife to check that aspect and get them back to the easier thread. Hell, she does such a good job, Albino and Girlfriend think it was their idea to put the conspiracy aside in the first place! Wife's a good sport about all this... She's taking on a supporting role and leaving the lion's share of the screen time to the first timers.

When it starts to get real late, you nudge things a bit here and there to let the players put the villain into check... And they only split the party once! The primary threat is neutralized and you end things on a cliffhanger in the hopes of seating the hook in their proverbial fish's mouth. Laughs were had and smiles were aplenty. Overall, you think, a successful first run. They'll almost certainly be down to play again.

Once they're firmly landed in the boat, and have a few more games under their belt, they'll be ready for the harder stuff. You'll be able to put the 5e books away and test the waters for something more complex. Will they become new playtesters for RAD New World? Time will tell.

[hillbillyoracle]

Divination with DnD Dice

There seemed to be enough interest in the DnD Dice Divination system that I decided to go ahead and write it up. I couldn’t fit it all on here though so I might be making more posts in the future about it. I’ve included the most important stuff here to get started. 

I’ve included a zine to download and print off if you want to take it with you. I actually recommend the zine, it’s a better format than what tumblr would let me put together. 

Please consider tipping me and definitely credit me where you can. 

I know there are other systems out there and I don’t have a monopoly on dice divination but this guide did take a lot of time to put together and is built on my own collection of frameworks, meanings. 

Dice sets can be picked up for cheaper than most basic tarot decks making the barrier to entry lower. My goal was to create a system that could get a similar level of complexity of information to tarot and oracle cards. I found in test readings, I could get roughly the same as I would get from a four card reading. So it’s a good start! 

It’s my mission to make divination more accessible, tipping me helps me devote more time to this.

Zine: https://www.scribd.com/document/380692727/Divination-With-DnD-Dice

If Scribd gives you trouble try here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/21613135

Read description for printing directions or it might not come out right. 

If you can’t print it off, the same information is included below the cut.  

Hope someone finds this useful! 

D4 - Element

1 - Air - Mental, Academic, Communication, Anxiety

2 - Fire - Spirituality, Passion, Ideals, Anger

3 - Water - Emotional, Romantic, Connection, Depression/Sadness

4 - Earth - Physical, Material, Home, Emotional Block

I use the Element dice to give an indication for the area of life the reading pertains the most too. I look for indications with other dice as to what the element dice might be speaking to more specifically, but it gives me a place to start.

 D6 - Problem

1 - Plot - drama, conflict, things outside of your control, change

2 - Character - another person is blocking/causing problems, fixation on a person, possibly even loss of a person

3 - Thought - paradigms getting in the way, not in touch with reality, judgmental, fear/anxiety, getting stuck in your head

4 - Diction - how a person talks is causing problems, speaking too much/too little, passive aggression, divisive or hateful language

5 - Song - Harmony with another, being out of sync with oneself or another, learning to join the choir/group, teamwork

6 - Spectacle - Things seem worse than they actually are, petty fights, aesthetic/surface level changes, playing with how things are perceived to achieve an outcome

The Problem dice is based on Aristotle's Six Elements of Tragedy, a dramatic and literary analytical framework. I use this to see what might be the at the crux of the problem in the area the Element dice indicated. The Action Needed dice can also refine the Problem.

 D8 - Action Needed

1 - Right View - seeing the situation for what it truly is, actions have consequences, material reality, paradigm shift

2 - Right Resolve - being intentional, recommitting, choosing what is right, dedication and ambition

3 - Right Speech - be honest/don't lie, don't be passive aggressive/be forthright, speak compassionately and for the benefit of others.

4 - Right Action -  don't harm others, act compassionately and for the benefit of others, take positive action

5 - Right Livelihood - don't profit from harming others, long term commitment to benefiting others, take only what you need and give what you do not, ethical employment

6 - Right Effort - Exert influence on your environment to cultivate a better internal world, set strong boundaries, avoid negative influences and seek out positive ones, "just do the thing"

7 - Right Mindfulness - Don't make things out to be more than they are, see them for what they are, know life is in transition, don't define the self by these external transitory states

8 - Right Concentration - unification of the mind/body, unlocking higher levels of thinking and feeling and operating, don't let desire for what might be get in the way of what is, healthy detachment

The Action Needed dice is based on the Eightfold Path of Buddhism. While the particulars of the path vary by the different schools/traditions, these seem to be the most common English translations. This dice is usually pretty straight forward, especially when taken in consideration with the rest of the dice.

 2D10 - Difficulty

Pretty self-explanatory. The higher the difficulty, the longer the process will take. Gives an indication about how important or long term the reading will be.

 D12 - Time

The number can refer to a month of the year which you may have your own associations you can pull from or classify into a season and pull meanings from that. I use the seasonal method most often.

Winter - focus on the self, rest, restore yourself, weather the storm, be the light the world isn't giving you, inner strength

Spring - new beginnings, plant seeds, the rain and the storms lead to new growth

Summer -  wait to harvest, find shade, relax

Fall - harvest, make preparations for winter, celebrate accomplishments.

You can also think of what sabbat is in that month and the lessons inherent in that holiday. It can also be time of day.

9-5 - Work related, stress, out of your control

5-12 -  Free time, friends and family, hobbies

12-9 - rest, dream, restore yourself

AM if there are more even than odd numbers and PM if there more odd than even. You can also take the month and the time to be literal if the reading calls for it.

 D20 - Lesson

1 - The Magician - jack of all trades, master of none, experiment, unfocused, learning, skilled but unrefined, beginning

2 - The High Priestess - balance, intuition, insight, between worlds, lessons learned while solitary

3 - The Empress - growing, flowering, creativity, taking what you have and making it thrive, thriving where you're planted

4 - The Emperor - expand, leader, confidence, step up and create the life you want/need, protect what/who you have

5 - The Hierophant - balance between material and spiritual, lessons learned from teachers, benevolence, structure

6 - The Lovers - connection, union, positive outlook, nostalgia, romanticism, love given freely

7 - The Chariot - power, confidence, leadership through passion/emotional intelligence, decisive action

8 - Strength - rely on internal direction/sense of self, internal strength and peace, resilience

9 - The Hermit - internal knowledge and discovery, minimalism, truth is inside you, you are capable on your own

10 - The Wheel of Fortune - things are outside of your control, this too shall pass, ebb and flow of fortune, reversal of luck

11 - Justice - objective truth, standing by/doing what is right, lawful good, cutting ties with deceivers, protect the community

12 - The Hanged Man - Insight, understanding impermanence, sudden realization, enlightenment, major paradigm shift

13 - Death - the old makes way for the new, the cycle of life, we all die in the end, reinvention

14 - Temperance - spiritual balance, abstaining from negative influences, taking responsibility for one's internal well being

15 - The Devil - materialism as bondage, enjoy pleasure without becoming victim to it, pleasure seeking as escapism

16 - The Tower - being shaken to the core, foundations pulled up, self of self overturned, ego shaken

17 - The Star - uneasy hope, possibilities, leaving and traveling, opportunities somewhere else, dare to dream

18 - The Moon - deception, things aren't always what they appear, intentions and actions do not line up, reflect, see the true nature of things

19 - The Sun - relax and enjoy your accomplishments, celebrate with friends and family, share your abundance, revel in joy

20 - Judgment - shine a light on everything, be honest, be critical and fair, lay firm boundaries, take up the old and make it new

The lesson dice is there to indicate what can be learned from the situation. Every situation is an opportunity to grow and evolve. It's based on the framework of the Major Arcana as teachers and posits that every situation can likewise be a teacher to us all. This dice can help refine the problem dice as well. It can be hard to keep this dice from getting preachy so make sure to be honest about what this dice is saying but temper it so as not to be patronizing.

 Putting the Reading Together

Like all divination, the goal is to look for patterns and craft those patterns into coherent themes. Like reading a novel, you’re reading between the lines to make the reading more useable than the raw info the dice turn up. An example of my notes for a reading are:

D4 - Element: 2 - Fire

D6 - Problem: 3 - Thought

D8 - Action Needed: 3 - Right Speech

D10 - Importance: 51 - Middle

D12 - Time: Evening/Summer

D20 - Lesson: 8 – Strength

This is the reading I gave:

“The reading suggests there’s some conflict stemming from letting passion overtake reason in your interactions with others. You believe very passionately in your ideals, but how you talk about them to others looks like it’s causing tension. This seems like it will be of moderate difficulty to grapple with, not easy but by far not the hardest thing you’ve dealt with. The reading suggests being mindful of your words and advises to concentrate on your inner power rather than seeking validation for your ideas from others. “

When pulling together a reading you want to look for conflict, strengths, and resolution.

There was a lot of fire (passion) and air (communication) in this reading, while they work great in harmony, they can really hurt the user when out of balance so that was the conflict. Passion is a beautiful thing even when it’s not in alignment and I didn’t want the reader to think their ideals were the problem since the rest of the reading pointed out their words so their passion was their strength. The resolution lay in relying on their own internal strength for validation rather than others, that that would lead to better communication and less conflict overall.

I’m still learning myself. It takes practice so don’t give up!

--

I hope this was helpful! Please let me know how this works for you. I’m totally open to people changing it to fit them better but I wanted to provide a model for how this could be done. I also got some really solid readings out of it. So it definitely has potential. 

[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

[orchiddshop]

Life Is Like A Boxing Match It's Not About How You Get Knocked Down But What You Do When You Get Up T-Shirt

And you heard one of the last things he mentioned was border security Washington always plays it now is sorted after three years or so and got her fence was against you without borders is not a Life Is Like A Boxing Match It's Not About How You Get Knocked Down But What You Do When You Get Up T-Shirt nation Donald Trump is into restoring the borders of the snake hearing Trump laid out a series of priorities it doesn’t end with border security and begins at border security and and after we secure the border not only build a wall but beneath the ground and and in the air we do internal enforcement but he said the focus has to be on criminal aliens would just we just had a conversation about law enforcement just had a conversation about the violence that the setting are cities that the reality is that there’s heartbreak and tragedy that has struck American families because people came into this country illegally are now involved in criminal enterprise and activity and we don’t have the resources or the will to deport them systematically Donald Trump is set were going to move those people out people of overstayed their. Com citizen man and you’ll find the lot piece out I back to you to back to you to share this IgG next thing on but our guy let me post this shit thing is posted and I can go to YouTube and I can pull up to chat so if you guys remember in the earlier streams I was talking about I was talking about how these lab the faking the test and how the masks the oxygen nature blood they lower your oxygen saturation and it was a Tweet from a from a lab tech that that a lot of the blood that the getting is thick and it’s dark colored almost like tar and I said that that is a hallmark of deoxygenated blood four times as it is the many channel needs to be mandatory listening I wish it was. IT THAT WE SHOULD WORK THE OPPOSITE PREMISE AND SIT AND BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT WE DO HAVE AND THAT IS HOW WE EXPERIENCE MORE JOY HAPPINESS LOVE AND ABUNDANCE LAST WE HAVE TO KEEP A DAILY JOURNAL I THINK IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT FOR EVERYBODY TO UNDERSTAND THIS JOURNAL REALLY HELPS YOU EXPRESS YOURSELF HELPS YOU GET THINGS OUT IT HELPS THEM FOR YOU TO REVEAL AND MAYBE SOME TRUTHS THAT YOU ARE AWARE OF THE SPECIALLY GOING ON INSIDE OF YOU SO WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND AND THE SIX INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO ON BASICALLY HOW TO KEEP A DAILY JOURNAL AT THE END OF THIS WEEK’S REPORT AND CAROL AND THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH FOR OBVIOUSLY PUTTING THE FRONT END OF THIS TOGETHER AND REVIEWING OUR HOT TOPICS AND THERE ARE LEAD ARTICLES AND ALSO I’M BASICALLY HELPING US I DON’T KNOW IF EVERYBODY KNOWS BUT CAROL DOES A LOT OF THE EDITING FOR US IN THE FINISHED PRODUCT OF WHAT WE DO HERE SO WERE VERY GRATEFUL TO HAVE HER IN OBVIOUSLY HAVE HER WORK NEXT IS A LOT OF INFORMATION GOING FORWARD THAT WE WILL CONTINUE TO EXPLORE BUT IT’S REALLY

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[garnettfox]

Ninjago: Rewind Way of the Ninja

*Looks at piles of fanfics, original ideas and other things that need finishing*...Sure I’ve got time to do this! XD

I’m a Ninjago Nerd, I love it and I ain’t ashamed….Well I’m a little ashamed at the dip in quality it’s been experiencing over the years but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the little lego Ninja what can I say?

So In preparation for the Ninjago movie coming in September I’m going to try and review every episode of Ninja from the Pilot to Hands of time hopefully finishing before the movie comes out in September. I’m probably going to fail but hey I can at least try! For now let’s start with part one of the Pilot Way of the Ninja:

With Way of the Ninja came what would be Ninjago’s Theme and technically still is it’s theme Weekend Whip. I say that it’s technically still the theme as since Rebooted the theme has gotten remixes themed around what the season would be based on and with added lyrics pertaining to the season. I won’t get into details till we reach those seasons but for what it’s worth Weekend whip was an...Ok song, memorable enough but it doesn’t really…..Go with the show. Ok it’s a modern re-imagining of Ninja as elemental masters but other then chorus having Ninja! Go! And ‘Jump up, kick back flip around and spin’ it doesn’t really relate to the show. But it’s still an ok song.

As for the episode itself it focuses on Kai who will be our protagonist, it’s quickly established that he is a blacksmith (and not a very good one it seems) he has a sister called Nya, they have lost their father somewhat recently but not recently enough that their still grieving for him and finally that he has a bit of a temper. Enough that when a old guy complains that they have nothing suitable for a Ninja to use he tells him in a surprisingly polite tone to peddle his insults somewhere else.

We are then introduced to what will be the villain mooks for the pilot the Skulkin skeleton warriors lead by the four armed warrior Samukai...and his two right hand men Kruncha and Nuckal semi recurring comedy relief characters, though after the pilot they’ll pretty much be relegated to a between season short, a cameo and a couple of background appearances.

The Skulkin attack and we get a nice little character moment with Kai telling Nya to stay back so he can protect her, only for Nya to turn right around and protect him from Skulkin coming up behind him and help him fight off the Skulkin warriors. Kai ends up in a one on one match with Samukai and ends up being no match for him, just before the Skulkin can kill him the old man now revealed to called Sensei Wu swoops in and saves Kai. Twice actually once from Samukai cutting him up and again with him destroying a water towers support making Wu have to pull Kai out of the way.

With them distracted we find out that the Skulkin are working for a mysterious Lord Garmadon and that they have orders to ‘Take the girl’....this raises the question of why Garmadon wanted Nya and how he knew she existed...But moving on, this reveals to us Nya’s purpose in the Pilot the damsel in distress!

...Don’t worry Nya your time will come….then go...

Kai is understandably upset that his sister has been kidnapped snapping at Wu saying he should have done something. It doesn’t help that Wu’s first thing to comment on what that he was right and Kai’s armor was useless. He quickly talks Kai out of going after the Skulkin pointing out that mortals can’t enter the underworld...At least not without outside help otherwise why would the Skulkin take Nya if they couldn’t take her back to the underworld with them?

We then get a nice stylised flashback/story about how the land of Ninjago was made by the First Spinjizu master with help from four golden elemental weapons that he passed down to his two sons. As these stories often go one brother became consumed by evil and it fell to the other to stop them, after banishing the eldest brother the younger hid the weapons away placing a guardian to watch over each of them and gave the only map to a honest man to hide.

…..

I’m probably going to come back to the ‘Honest man’ thing in a couple of seasons….Hell I’m gonna come back to the background story in one season as Wu seems content to word it as his brother voluntarily falling to the dark side.

Kai understandably isn’t interested in the least, he just wants to save his sister and not get involved in the conflict between brothers. He tries to leave only for Wu to knock him to the ground and tell him bluntly unless he can learn to control the fire that burns within him he’ll never be able to face Garmadon. Reluctantly Kai agrees to Spinjizu training.

Kai upon arriving at the monastery after climbing a mountain is quite perturbed at learning how to fight in a place of peace, apparently the guys never heard of warrior monks, or DnD monks. Kai ends up falling flat on his face and Wu declares he’s failed his one attempt at the course for the day and he can try again tomorrow. Kai rightfully points out their kinda on a time crunch but Wu just shrugs him off and leaves him to train alone.

What follows is a quick montage of Kai failing then finally completing the course in the time it takes Wu to drink a cup of tea. It just took him knocking the tea out of Wu’s hand so he had to restart the timelimit. Also going by how many times he failed he and Wu have been up there training for at least a week judging by how many times we hear Wu say ‘Fail’....Hello? Kidnapped sister? Bad guys have map to magic weapons that can grant them ultimate power? Anyone?

Anyway Kai asks when he’s going to learn Spinjizu only to get mentor cliche #563 ‘You already know it’ Wu then walks off telling Kai his final test is tomorrow and he should get some sleep. We jump cut to nighttime and see three Ninja sneaking into the monastery, Kai is getting ready for bed and he starts jumping around his room imagining what his test will turn out to be only to come face to face with one Ninja and realise the other two are surrounding him.

He manages to fend them off with his electric toothbrush and makes a break for it heading outside to the training course. After using the training course to beat them up a bit they end up in a brawl only broken up by Wu coming out and yelling at them. We then find out that these guys are also students of Wu’s.

….

Do we ever get an explanation as to what they’ve been doing for the past week? It’s never brought up in the show to my knowledge and I don’t remember it ever being mentioned in the books, and if you have to consult outside sources for that kind of info it kinda takes you out of the moment…

Anyway we get little character introductions for them, we already know Kai the red Ninja master of Fire, but we’re introduced to Jay Blue Ninja and Lightning master, he’s the technerd most of the time in the show and comic relief the rest of the time. The Black Ninja Cole Earth Master and….the show kinda goes back and forth on him being the leader of the group, he tends to be the one in the beginning to give the others orders but later in the show leadership is given over to another character but Cole still comes off as the leader even after that trade off, He’s the serious one. And finally we have the Ice Master Zane the ‘Seer with sixth sense’...which doesn’t make much sense considering what we learn about him in the next season. Something else that’s always bugged me is the vanishing trick he does with his shuriken in this scene, I know they have a hammer space of some kind to explain how they pull things out of thin air but there’s a weird sound effect and sparkles when he does it, and it is never mentioned nor does it ever happen again. Zane is a bit of cucoolander and takes things very literally.

Wu declares that they are the chosen ones who will protect the four weapons. Kai is rather pissed off about this pointing out that he’s only in this because Wu promised that he’d be able to save his sister and again, wants nothing to do with the fight between Wu and Garmadon. This isn’t helped by Jay being a horn dog asking if his sisters cute and if she likes blue.

We jump cut to the Ninja pulling Wu in a carriage on the way to the first weapon and we get a little more about their characters, we find out that Cole was testing himself by free climbing a mountain before Wu found him. Jay was in the city (We can assume Ninjago city) testing out a glider he made, and Zane was testing his self by meditating at the bottom of a frozen pond….Come to think of it Jay’s a bit of an odd duck here. Cole was mountain climbing (Earth) Zane was in a frozen pond(Ice) and Jay was just...Dicking around on top of a building….if there was a storm it’d fit a bit more, or if the invention was more to do with electricity…

We stop at the Caves of Despair Wu noting that Samukai has to be close to getting the Scythe of Quakes….Well maybe he wouldn’t be so close if you had helped Kai train and not left him to do it himself for a week?! Cole starts making a plan after Wu warns them not to use the Scythe only to find Kai’s jumped the gun and is heading towards the caves ahead of them. They follow after having to abandon the plan.

They get to Samukai’s tower with little trouble and a comedy bit from Kruncha and Nuckal and manage to steal the map from him realizing the Skulkin are bigging in the wrong spot as they have been reading the map wrong….Uhrm….If the map was upside down shouldn’t they be on the other side of Ninjago instead of digging in the right area just a little off target?

Kai races off hearing this and goes to the right spot trying to open it up, the others catch up and tell him that their a team with Kai pretty much brushing them off. It’s understandable but it’s getting annoying how Kai’s treating the others, I empathise that he wants to find Nya but he’s not helping himself here.

They open the cave and find the scythe in the jaws of a ‘Stone’ dragon. Gee I wonder what the guardian is? Jay causes an echo revealing to the Skulkin where they are and the Ninja start to leave as the dragon's jaws start opening.

The Skulkin show up to stop their escape and the Ninja start playing keepaway with the scythe while fighting them. Their losing to superior numbers when Jay realizes it’s like the training course and while visualizing the training course unlocks his Spinjizu. With the revelation that they literally already know Spinjizu they use it to beat back and force the Skulkin into a retreat.

…

Well either that or it was the pissed off Earth Dragon behind them that wanted the Scythe back.

The dragon attacks them blocking off the exit with it’s earth breath and turns on them probably looking forward to it’s snack. Seeing no other option Kai takes out the Scythe of Quakes and uses it dazing the dragon a moment and opening up a crack in the ceiling to let them escape.

And now follows a scene that pisses me the hell off. Wu is angry that Kai used the Scythe and when Kai explains that it was his only option Wu accuses him of putting himself before the team, Kai get’s angry pointing out again that he’s only in this for his sister and Wu brushes him off saying maybe he and the others can get the next three weapons correctly.

….

USING THE SCYTHE LITERALLY WAS THE ONLY OPTION! Zane said that they couldn’t use Spinjizu to defeat the dragon as it was to strong, it’d be nice if that was shown not told but what can you do? The only exit was blocked off with no hope of opening it before the dragon eats them and the only place they could reasonably go is deeper into the caves, the caves that the dragon probably knows like the back of it’s claws and the dragon was blocking off anyway. The only way they managed to escape with their lives was because Kai used the Scythe. Was he being selfish and only thinking of himself and his sister, yes. But if he hadn’t THEN THEY WOULD HAVE DIED!

Where would Wu have been with his only four hopes to beat Garmadon dissolving in a dragon’s belly?

We end on a pretty good scene of Samukai telling Garmadon he’s failed, that Wu has taught students Spinjizu and they have the Scythe. Garmadon assures him everything is going to plan and to let them think their winning.

So what do I think of Way of the Ninja, it’s an OK episode. Not spectacular but we got the basic premise established neatly, we have a sympathetic character in Kai, he has an understandable motivation. The other Ninja are a bit one note but did only get introduced in the second half so they didn’t have a lot of time but what they had they used rather effectively. All in all a solid foundation for the show

Way of the Ninja: C

I’m sorry but Wu’s last scene just drags it down for me, not to much but I honestly can’t give it a score any better then a C, it was an Ok start to the show and showed room for improvement. We’ll see how King of Shadows build upon what Way of the Ninja lay down next time on Ninjago: Rewind.

[duckandrollblog]

Changing systems

Continuing on with this month's theme of change, today we'll be talking about changing systems. I've known a great many gaming groups and one of the first things that gets asked upon meeting is "What do you play". And then the battle lines are usually drawn, and the edition wars begin, and everyone hoists the banners of their favourite systems. Sometimes though I'm lucky enough to see players speak frankly and honestly about the games they play and why they play them. This can often lead to a lot of excitement and curiosity. There are a lot of gaming systems out there and I always find it energizing to tell or show someone something new. That all being said; a different system is by definition, different and there's a lot to consider about a new system. So let's take a look at how a group can deal with a change in system.

 A new setting: Many games have vastly different campaign settings from each other, often by necessity. Even if the rules were the same, going from a fantasy setting to a modern one can be very jarring for some players. Let alone moving from something like a world of darkness game into say a Starfinder game. Even smaller changes to a setting like going from Greyhawk to Eberron can be very hard to get used to. For a game master, the most important thing is to be gentle with your players. It can be very easy to read or write a lot of setting information only to forget that these things aren't common knowledge. It's also important to consider player dedication. Only the most devout players  will put as much attention into learning about your setting as you. Think like an exam writer, every question and test should be based on things that you have personally had the players deal with and address. For players new to a setting, think about some of the important basic aspects of the setting and how they apply to your character. If your character is a "Asteroid miner" think about what sort of life they lead. Most importantly, ask questions of your storyteller. If you think the job is basically low class dangerous grunt work akin to a coal miner, double check the case. It may be more like an ice road trucker, doing just a little bit of extremely dangerous work and getting paid enough to need only a few such jobs a year.  Remember, when it comes to an entire world different from our own, it's going to be impossible to explain, think of, or remember everything in one night. Take your time, allow for mistakes and do over's, and be patient with each other as you explore a new world together.

 New rules: This is going to be one of the major things to get used to when switching systems. When people talk about a new system, most often they're talking about the rules and all their differences. The most important thing to realize is that no system will be your old system. Everything else you play will be different, which can mean better, or worse, but usually it means both. Different systems will be designed for different things. A call of Cthulu game is not likely to have the best rules for computer hacking for example. Likewise a gritty world of darkness game might not have as much detail in say the intricacies of sword combat. If you judge a game based on how well it does something that it's not trying to do, you're gonna have a bad time. Instead look at what the system is designed to do really well, where it puts the most attention and focus. Go into a new system with an open mind. It can be easy to find 1 or 2 weird rules and pick them apart and hold them up as sign of a flawed system, but nobody has ever made or played a perfect game. It's also really important to highlight what you like and why. Even if I'm running a pathfinder game, I might still grab the house and army management rules from the song of ice and fire rpg. I'd use those rules because, imagine that, the system is really good at house management and war. Even a bad system has a few good things to offer, and a great system might be full of ideas you can incorporate into other games. Just like getting used to a new setting, the most important thing is to be patient and to give your best effort to learning the new setting and understanding that mistakes will happen. And that applies to players and GM's alike. Sometimes a rule is misunderstood, sometimes the errata contains something vital, and some rules are just not for every group. My recommendation is to see if you can find videos of someone explaining the rules, including examples and the like. Five minutes of example can make more sense than five hours of just reading. Maybe a rule you thought was stupid actually had a really good reason that only makes sense when you view the game as a whole. Or it could just be bad rule, every game has them, and learning which rules to ignore is as much a part of a tabletop game as learning which rules to follow.

 New  styles: This kind of ties into the previous two things, but many games have dramatically different approaches. Imagine playing a world of darkness game like a DND adventure, kicking in the door, killing with impunity, stealing the loot and moving to the next enemy. You would get killed or arrested very quickly because it's a modern mostly realistic setting. Similarly, a call of Cthulu game where you try to negotiate with or politically outmaneuver cultists is likely to end with you kneeling at the altar of a great old one or being force-fed a sacrificial knife. A game tends to have a sort of unspoken way it's generally meant to be played. How severe the consequences of your actions are, how dangerous the world is, how powerful your character is, and more can vary a lot. It can take time to feel out how a game should be played, what the atmosphere should be like, and what sorts of things are acceptable and not. Luckily everyone at the table is there to help each other out and come together to find the real fun of a game. Make sure to be open minded about a new game style. If you're used to hack and slash adventure and your group wants to put on some sombre roleplaying, give it your best try even though it's different. You never know, you might actually really enjoy it.

 If you keep these things in mind when changing rules systems, you're sure to have a more fun, open, and educational experience. Seeing a new game with eyes wide open and an accepting attitude can improve not just your new campaign, but all the games to follow as you pick up bits and pieces of great gaming philosophy.

[brimmsedge]

Dream: Nilaye Moonblade

The dream starts me as like a camera. I’m not in the POV of my friend Nilaye, but I’m around her. Watching. She’s wearing medieval armor. Shiny green glass made armor from Morrowind it seemed. Others had elaborate Orchish, Bonemold, steel, and leather armors. Variety of polished battle vestments. Everyone had satchels or bags of sorts carrying up a sharp-rocked, grey, cold mountain. There were two squires that didn’t have armor and carried an even bigger pack. Looked like a nerdfest playing DnD. There was even a battlemage with no weapon and spells ready. When she arrived at the top. It was a volcano, not a mountain. In the center was a floating castle. It carried bits of land attached to the base and a small stone bridge connecting the edge of the pit to the structure. They rest a bit and gather their strength before entering. A boost of moral and restatement of the plan. Saucy exposition. “We’re here for the Apple of Eden. Let us not forget. Many have come and fallen before us. There will be monsters and tricks to fail us even here. Do not despair. Leave anything you’re not taking in. Any rations, gear. The squires’ job is to run in and collect things from the dead. Maps-anything that we can use to help us. These are legends. But we made it and this place is real. So let’s collect more if we can. Even if we don’t get the Apple. The legend we have is of the man Kyber who survived this place. He was able to tell us so much up until the Apple. All he was able to say was it was in the library and proceeded to say nothing more than one word. Eden. Eden. Eden. Over and over until the day he died. The Apple must have cursed him into not telling us more. But once we have the Apple we can use it to fuel our crops, grow our walls, and use its power to protect our town. Even now, as you all know, our town is dying. Crops are withering and this is our last hope. We have no room for failure.” As the man continued Nilaye’s eye’s wandered to a seemingly pair of glowing blue eyes in the distant tower. At first she just watched and waited to make sure it was a person. It moved with the bobbing of a head. There’s definitely someone there! “Look! Up there. There are eyes!” she pointed up to the tower. But when the other’s looked the eyes were gone. They ignored her cries and continued on entering the castle. The first rooms shook everyone. Paintings came to life, spirits materialized, and walls closed in. Splitting the group up, chaos ensued. Most of the warriors fought off the demons as they tried to remain calm. But the frenzy was harder to fight. A madness swept over them. And a shadowy figure with red eyes laughed a demonic chuckle.

The leader, Baelog, searches the remains of the last group to enter and they compare maps of what they have down so far.

“This place changes. Look our entrance here only had 2 tunnels to come from and the tree burning picture and 3 sisters. Theirs had the dragon and graveyard pictures.”

“We have no hope of surviving.” Another’s voice echoed into the room.

Panic arose and the red eyes appeared again. Everyone ran. Dust swelled up making it impossible to see the others. Nilaye gets separated of course. My POV follows her. Using her blade to cut through demonic hell hounds, using flame grenades against swarms of flesh-hungry rats, and a salt filled whip to dissipate angry spirits. She winded down corridors until she braced herself behind two tall wooden doors. She looked around and noticed this room wasn’t like all the others. There was no threat, no darkness in this room. 

Everything was still a gloomy green-brown. Shadows seem to thicken in this place. Objects were shades of black, grey, and brown. But this room, had a few lit candles of blue flame. Where, elsewhere, had been orange flames. Even red when the demon appeared. She saw some green flames too leading to the basement levels. This room was quiet. No echoing winds. No growling of nearby monsters. No cries of demonic children, or wails of banshees. Once on the other side of the doors all noises seemed to stop. The dogs trying to eat her face seemed to vanish. But after wandering the darkened halls of this room she did hear something. Faint. Distant. It was humming. Or murmurs. She followed the sound until she found the source. A person at the far end waiting by a blue flame wax candle. The person was chained to a slab. The chains were barbed and dug deeply into his skin. Nilaye couldn’t tell if there was blood coming out or some other dark liquid. In his mouth there was an indigo light coming from within his mouth. “Hello? Are you alive?” she spoke softly into the void. “Yes? How can I help you dear?” he spoke as if nothing wrong. When he spoke his opens flickered to life. Both eyes and mouth beamed a blue light. She would have gotten excited of the person she saw before but he’s been chained up for weeks, even months. It couldn’t have been him. Plus the light wasn’t the same color exactly. “Oh. Are you okay? What are you doing here?” she asked, startled. “I’m a Keeper here to help you find your way. I’m quite fine, thank you.” “But you’re… chained up?” “Ah yes. That’s the way they left me. For my own good, they said. So I wait until I can be of service.” “What do you keep here?” she finally asked. “Take a look for yourself dear.” He head bobbed toward a now lit lantern on the table next to the candle. The lantern’s flame was blue matching the room theme. She took it and wandered back the way she came. This time using the light to guide her. The light seemed to affect the room. Because as she worked her way down the aisles more groans and moans were heard. She stopped and looked to her left when she heard chains clink. Above her head was another person. Chained to a slab. She lifted the light to the air. Its beam seemed to scatter to the atmosphere lighting unlit candles around the room. She could see hundreds, thousands of bodies on the walls now. The room was a tower nearly. It went several stories up. She couldn’t count how many, after three or four her vision gave way to darkness. Nilaye couldn’t believe her eyes. She climbed a nearby ladder that was leaning against the aisle she was in. Getting a closer look at the nearest body. “Hello?” she called out. Like before, the body activated. Eyes open mouth open. Blue light pouring out. “Dorjin the Third: Tales of the Last Wind.” He spoke. “What?” she tried to ask but the man didn’t stop talking. Nonsense. She thought. He’s lost his mind. She tried the next body. “Dorjin the Second: Lost at Sea.”

Great. He’s lost it too. She looked at the body more closely. He had faintly glowing symbols on his arm. It was an ancient language. “What does your arm say?” The mouth stopped, closed, and then opened again. “Dorjin, volume two” Unknowingly, Nilaye stepped back and fell off the ladder. Books. These people are books! She wandered the aisles more. Asking each person to say their title. Then she remembered. The Apple of Eden was in the Library. She went back to the Keeper.

“Hello again.” She chirped politely. “Welcome back. Did you find the answers you seek?” Kind of. Do you have an Apple of Eden here?” “I haven’t heard of anything like that. No Apple. But we do have Eden.” “Where can I find it?” “Oh, he’s on the 12th floor.” “He?” “I don’t understand the question.” “Never mind. I’ll be back.” She walked over to one of the ladders in the corner of the room that raised to the next floor. She tugged on it to make sure it was stable then proceeded to head up. However after she climbed to the first floor she looked around and things weren’t quite as they seemed. She looked over the edge and was much higher up than she once thought. She climbed 2 floors instead of one. She found the next ladder up and took it. Again, up 2 floors. She did it until she got to the 10th floor. But there were no more ladders going up. But she could still see two floors above her.

Not feeling defeated she started to take a ladder down. This one dropped her 4 floors. Then she tried a different ladder up. Which brought her up 1 instead of 2. She realized that each of the ladders worked differently. She had to test each ladder to figure out how much each one went up or down. Then finally figured out that she needed to get to the second floor because all the floors went up even amounts after 6 but needed to get to floor 11 or 12. Because at 10 it stops. And floor 9 has a 3 floor jump to 12. But can’t get to 9 without an odd number from 6 to 7 but from 7 there are no ways up only down again.

After a long while, Nilaye mapped out the whole scheme of things. She figured out how to get to the 12th floor. One by one she climbed each ladder moving to the top of the tower. Watching each time as she raised a level passing through the strange rift between floors that changes where you actually are in the library. Each time she noticed it more and more now that she was looking for it. When she reached the top, it opened up into a large oval-like room like an observatory and there was a single exit arch that lead out to a catwalk and another small building. That’s the bridge I must have seen the person on. I must be close. The room shrouded in darkness and two giant glowing red eyes appeared before me. Even the exist was cloaked by the mist. It was as if she was in someplace entirely different. The red eyes began to speak to her. “Tell me dear child, what is it you want most in this world? Power? Wealth?” “I don’t want anything.” “No one wants nothing, dear. Why else have you come?”

“My village is looking for the Apple. They want it, not me.”

“You desire love…”

“No…” she tried to say but for some reason, whether she felt compelled or the forces of the mist wouldn’t allow her to, she couldn’t lie. “I’m not here for love, but I am searching for it. I’m not going to find it here.”

“I could give you what you want, my child. All you have to do is ask.”

She began seeing the catwalk again and started toward it. “No, I think I’ll find my own way.” She said ignoring the mist.

She walked onto the platform and stared out at the entrance bridge. “This is definitely the spot. But where is he.” She said aloud.

“Hey did you ignore me?” a calm, deep voice said behind her. She turned around to see what looked like a normal person, exempt from the matching eyes from the books downstairs. “How did you resist my temptations?” he continued.

“I just don’t need anything. Or want.”

“Except love. But yet, wouldn’t take it when I offered.”

“You’re the demon mist thing?” she asked.

“No. I can just conjure illusions to keep the weak minded ones out.”

“Well, I didn’t take your love because it’s not for me. I just accept whatever the world has to offer. I don’t ever chase things. What’s meant for me will always be.”

“I see.” He said looking over my shoulder to the horizon. It was sunset when we arrived and it was almost as if the sky hadn’t moved at all. The blaze orange sun sailing across the sky. The green tree-line meshing against the amber skies. Even the sun seemed uncertain of what was to come. While she was watching him, and the horizon she noticed something she didn’t think she would. His arm had a tattoo. Eden isn’t an apple. Eden isn’t a person.

He’s a book.

“The writing on your arm. What does it say?” she asked. He looked down for a moment as if he had forgotten it was there.

“Echoes of Eden.” “You’re a book… aren’t you?”

“Yes.” He said, defeated almost. Lowering his head in shame.

Before she could think of anything to break the silence there was a loud kick opening the doors down the tower in the entrance of the library. Nilaye ran over to the railing overlooking the floors below and peered down. A familiar voice called out.

“Nilaye, are you here?!”

“I’m up here!”

“Good! We have to get going. We found the Apple.” He called up.

“Apple? No, Eden is a person!” she replied

“What? You’re not making sense Nilaye. Come down here. They are close behind us!”

“Nilaye.” Eden said in his cold voice. She turned to him almost startled at her name coming from his lips. “The monsters are following the Apple. It’s cursed. It’s the reason no one leaves this place alive. Once they have the Apple the monsters are able to track them. Everyone comes looking for Eden but are told it’s an apple. You can’t leave that way.”

“Come up here, Baelog. Quickly!” then turning to Eden she said, “Can you float us down to the ground? You used illusion magic. That means you’re a child of Magnus. You can manipulate magicka, right?”

“Well, yes.” Eden replied. “But I’ve never learned those spells.”

“We’re in a library Eden. I’m sure we can think of something.” She said smiling. He returned her kindness with a smile of his own. “Do you know where the magic books are?”

“Actually I do.”

“Let’s get going! Besides, I don’t think they will know how to get up.”

“Fair enough.” Eden said, nodding.

They made their way down. Showing them the ways of the puzzle library. On the way up commanding the slabs to float to the top Observatory. Once they all safely made it to the top, Nilaye realized there were only a fraction of the members left. Then she waited for Eden to read the slab. However, he just grabbed the tattoo’ed arm of the book with his and they both seemed to synergize and the lights from their eyes grew brighter for a moment while they seemed to exchange information.

Eden looks to the group, then Nilaye confidently. “I’m ready.” Everyone moves to the catwalk and Eden casts his spell. White flowing energy strands flow from his hands and fingers as he moves his hands to the incantation of the spell. Once his hands filled, glowing from the magic, he shoots a bolt of energy to a person and it flows over them in a thin layer of dust. Like two fireflies flying around them in opposite directions but symmetrical. Beautiful.

The first person steps on the ledge, unsure if he should trust the spell, but takes the leap. As planned he slowly falls to the ground but able to glide away from the castle. One by one the company fled the castle. When Baelog stepped up with the Apple, Eden stopped.

“I can’t let you take it.” Eden stated.

“Why not? I didn’t come this way for nothing.”

“Baelog, this is Eden. Eden isn’t an Apple, it’s a person. Or a book. Just like the people back there. Those were books. Eden’s power comes from within. You have to believe me. Those monsters knew where you were because you carried the apple. If anything we can drop it here and come back for it later.”

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

“Why would he help everyone to safety? Why didn’t he kill us all?”

“Fine.” Baelog said, letting the apple drop off the edge into the lava. “Let’s get going then.”

Monsters broke through the doors below and screamed a blood curling scream. Eden’s eyes widened in fear.

“MOVE NOW!” he screamed. Casting the last two spells on them and turned around. Just in time for a strange tentacle mouthed creature to break through the floor. Eden cast a spell that wrapped the creature in the dark shadow mist. But even Nilaye knew it wouldn’t hold.

“Go!” he cried.

“You’re coming with us. I’m not leaving you. And I’m not arguing.” She said with a stern look on her face.

“Fair enough.” He walked to the edge and said, “On three.”

“Do you think I was born yesterday? You’ll just count to three and I’ll jump and you’ll stay. No.” she stepped close to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Now, go.” She smiled up at him. His unshaved scruff lightly brushed against her face as he looked back into the room with the monster. He sighed and leapt off the edge.

When they landed the group gathered their things and went off. Eden turned back one more time and using one more spell, like a telekinetic shove, knocked the earth from the bottom of the castle and it crumbled into the lava.

The next parts when by fast. Like a montage of pictures and videos. Memories. My memories. Nilaye’s point-of-view. We got back to the town and didn’t abuse Eden. Just used what we needed. His magic to heal the crops and the land. And every so often his knowledge to train others to defend the land. Eden and I grew close. Eating under the shade of a pink and white leafed tree. Worrying about him when we got invaded once. Our city walls’ breached. When I found him again, realizing he wasn’t dead or hurt, I wrapped my arms around him. The first moment I realized how much I needed him. We had a saying, “I’m right here with you.” When he was away with war or even when I was in his arms we’d say it to each other. I’m right here with you.

We pronounced our love. Everything went fine until one day I got too curious. I (Nilaye) remembered Eden’s book. I asked him to read it to me. The story that lies beneath him. But something terrible happened.

You have to make them remember Syn!

He started. But the words trembled my world. I thought I was going to pass out. The world shook. But the look on Eden’s face made it seem like it was only my world. I fell into darkness. My vision my sound surrendering to nothing.

When I awoke I was on the floor of the entrance of the Castle. My party, different members who had survived before rushed toward me.

“Nilaye! Wake up we have to go. We got it. We got the Apple! Let’s go!” behind them was the same terrible scream of the tentacle thing. I couldn’t see it but I knew it was close. I barely stood on my feet. Something felt strange. I had years added to my life thrown back into my younger self.

“Baelog, listen –“

“There’s no time!” he interrupted and the monster came around the corner. We ran and escaped. The monster didn’t step foot outside. It bowed it head and retreated the way it came. Almost letting us go. I didn’t like it.

We made our way to the city. My mind pondering the flashbacks. Were they memories or was I dreaming? Did Eden even actually exist?

When we arrived the apple shook from the bag it was held in. There was a demonic cry and storm clouds rolled over the world it seemed. There was another dark mist, darker than the clouds the one being the entity with the red eyes. Rose up and laughed. Raining down infernal rocks that broke into beasts of demonic power holding together stone.

The town was being attacked. Lightning stuck the ground before me and I saw a glimpse of Eden.

Eden. Adam.

The words spoke into my head. Both names. Eden’s spoken by his voice and Adam’s must have been his voice too. It was unrecognizable. Unfamiliar. But I knew that my dream was true. I ran to the stables and grabbed myself a horse this time. Riding it to the mountain.

Once there making my way to the tower was easy. I knew the castle changes but most was familiar and the order of ladders hadn’t changed. I asked the books I thought we’d need to move to the top platform in about 30 seconds. Then made it to the top and Eden tried his trick on me again. I pushed past his illusion.

“Eden. It’s me. We need your help.” Alarmed the red eyed demon froze.

“Wh-what are you talking about, my child?”

“Eden. I’m right here with you. Okay. I’m here baby.” The mist form dropped immediately and the glowing blue eyed man stood desolate.

“What did you say? Why? Why would you say that?”

“I can’t explain. I need you to trust me. We need your help at the village. My people came here and took the apple back.”

“Adam.” He said blatantly. “We have to move quickly.”

“Way ahead of you.” I said as the pillars of bodies ascended into the room.

“You’ve done this before it seems.” Eden smiled. He read the books. I walked over to him and grabbed him. Startled, he tried to stand back but for me this was familiar. Not so much for him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Aren’t we going to fly down now?”

“I’ve got something faster.” He stepped back from me and conjured a black-violet portal. Once it opened I could see my village on fire on the other side.

“Fair enough.” I said, turning to him and winking. He looked at me again surprised. I stole his line and even he knew that. I couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. But my happiness was replaced with the realism of what was happening to my village.

We stepped through. He held my hand the whole time. I didn’t notice that I didn’t let go until he was obviously pulling away. Oops. Eden began to cast enchantments of blue light toward the giant dark mist. The mist fought back but was no match for a master of magic. Eden helped put out the fires and return things to normal. I explained everything that happened.

That we were lovers and that a few years passed and I woke up when he tried to tell me his story. As ignorant as I was, I asked him to tell me and see what happens. This time it happened much quicker. You have to- This time no blackout. No darkness. Just spinning colors and my already open eyes of laying on the floor on the entrance.

“Good you’re awake, Nilaye!”

I ran through everything again. This time a little faster. Instead of listening to Baelog and walking back to the village I went straight to Eden. Walking the halls were second nature now. I was becoming a better swordsman with all this practice. I was having years thrown back to me. All the knowledge stayed. I went to the top again. I’m right here with you. Explained everything. This time was different because Baelog came with me to Eden. Fascinated. He left the apple behind again this time. Believing my story that Eden was the apple. But unlike the first time, Eden still learned all the schools of magic. He opened a portal to the village.

“Your book Eden, how do we access it?” Baelog asked.

“Well it’s originally written in Caelic. So not sure if you can access it.”

“We’ll have a scribe translate it. We need your maximum powers.”

Something is wrong. This time Baelog is power crazy. I tried to push through the months of power abuse but things went horribly dark. The Apple must have affected Baelog anyways. The only way I know I could end this would be to ask Eden about his story. The one deep within him. So I did.

“Tell me the story Eden.”

“It’s written in Caelic. So you won’t understand.”

“I’ll take my chances.” I said closing my eyes.

Aef Laewn Dia-

Back on the floor. This time would be different. I let them take the apple. I let Eden fix everything I told him everything like the second time. He had the powers to fix everything like a living demi-god. This time I left his story alone. The one he’d never tell. Another montage of pictures and memories flew by. Starting out slowly. Our first kiss. Cold nights in winter, with warm beds. Waking up and drinking tea wrapped in our animal fur blankets, sitting by the fire. Naked, other than the covers. The first time I felt vulnerable. But it was safe at the same time.

The memories went faster and faster. Piecing together the years of the tapestry of life. The laughter, the tears both sad and happy ones, the warmth of his heart, his kind soul always helping out. He always gave, never took. But being a prisoner inside the castle for so long left him broken. There was the day he fell in love with me. He asked me to marry him and his glowing blue eyes went out. He became human again. I saw his eyes for the first time. So dark but filled with sorrow. He was afraid of everything. Even though in the face of others he had courage. But deep down, maybe it was being with me, he was afraid he’d lose everything he worked so hard to build.

Eventually, it was nearing the end. I had grown an old wrinkled mess. Eden, the divine book-being he was, hadn’t aged. We went back to the hill where we first kissed. The place we went every Thursday and ate our picnic. He held my weak body in his arms. A small tear fled my eye.

“Eden?” I called to him.

“Yes dear?”

“I’m going to miss you.”

“Don’t talk like that, okay? I’m right here with you.”

“I know.” I tried to say but the tears kept coming. I closed my eyes and pressed my head to his chest. “I’m right here with you. Always.” A poison that always came back. My memory. I had to do it. Before I died. Try one last time.

“Eden, can you tell me your story.”

“If I do, you’ll just wake up again.”

“You don’t know that for sure. It’s been so long. I feel it calling to me even now. I just need to know.”

He sighed. When his mouth opened … darkness came.

“Nilaye! Wake up!” a voice called out. I didn’t have to lift my head to recognize the ceiling. Back at the castle. My head was spinning. So many memories being shoved into me. I could even feel some fleeing. I couldn’t help but cry.

“Are you okay Nilaye? We really should get going.”

I got up and let them bring the apple back so that we could fix everything. Because either way Baelog would be hurt. We needed to get Eden. Like all the other times. This time I had to let him go. I couldn’t get close to him. When I reached the top I didn’t tell him about our past lives. I didn’t say, I’m right here with you. I just played the part of an innocent girl again. Knowing the right answers into getting him to help us.

It was so strange knowing all the flaws, perfections, favorite foods of someone, and the person looking back at you was an empty shell of a man to come. This time, I’d have to do it alone.

We got back to save the town again. This time a knight of the local militia his name was Rory. He was a simple man. Adorable. Kind. Shy. Nothing like Eden. But I made it work. I lived my whole life with him. We got married had kids. I’d see Eden wandering the market or walking with the king, or the militia. I tried not to stare too long. Sometimes I would think he remembered me and our past life and that I was cheating. It hurt sometimes to think about him. Rory was great but my heart belonged to Eden. Nothing could change that.

I had to let him know somehow. Because my age was wearing thin again. I wrote a note that said, I’m right here with you. I signed it my name and hearts. I walked up to Eden and gave it to him. Confused he accepted it. I told him to only open after I’m dead.

The POV changed again and there was a sky time-lapse of all the days to pass before Nilaye died. When she died Eden felt something in him break. It had been months since he received her letter. He remembered once she was gone. Opening it, he cried out. Letting it drop to the floor, he covered his mouth with his hand. Crying silently he remembered everything.

That life. I had to let him go. I couldn’t discover that story he held deep inside him. I had to do this journey without him.