#this is mostly based on 5e

[dreaming-tonite]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Damian — half-elven(*) assassin rogue

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

[thepringlesofblood]

Ayda Aguefort character sheet!

I went through FHSY transcripts and wrote down every spell she used and figured out what level she was and made a full character sheet for my beautiful wife, Ayda Aguefort.

Actual character sheet and plaintext description below the cut: here's how I figured it out.

Ayda has one (1) 7th level spell slot, and presumably no 8th level spell slots, since she can only cast Teleport once per day. This puts her at either 13th or 14th level, the only difference being that at 14th level, Divination wizards get "Greater Portent", aka an extra Portent roll per long rest. Looking through the transcripts, she never uses more than 2 portent rolls per long rest, so we will assume she is 13th level.

In terms of background, "Sage" makes the most sense. Like, you roll to determine your “specialty” and one of the options is librarian. She’s gotta be a sage. This gives her proficiencies in arcana and history, two languages of choice, and the "Researcher" feat - “When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it." Extremely in character

Wizards pick 2 proficiencies from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion. I picked Investigation & Medicine, since she already gets Arcana and History from "Sage".

Spells are tricky - I included every spell she uses in the series, but wizard spellbooks are weird in that there's kind of no limit to the amount of spells you can know, the limit is just on how many you can prepare. You automatically learn two new spells per level, so I went through and added other spells (in italics) up to the minimum amount of spells she would know, and then made a list of other spells that seem likely for her to know, or that you could switch in if you like. she does fully live in a library so like. who knows what she could know?

Also, there's a spell she uses during the fight aboard the Goldenrod that sounds a lot like Steel Wind Strike, though it isn't 100% confirmed, so I put a question mark next to it. We also don't know what exact spell she was going to use to "flood hell" - I chose Tidal Wave because it seemed most likely, but it could also be a spell of her own invention.

Final product below the cut!

the reason these don't have image IDs is bc I'm putting the IDs after the images bc there's so much text. also sorry the resolution's shit i don't know why that happened it looks fine on my computer. also i don't know how passive wisdom works im sorry its probably just her normal wisdom (11)??

image/page 1:

Character Name: Ayda Aguefort

Class & level: Wizard (Divination) 13

Background: Sage

Player name: bleem

Race: half-phoenix

Alignment: Lawful neutral

Experience points: [blank]

Ability scores Str 18 (+4) Dex 15 (+2) Char 16 (+3) Int 20 (+5) Wis 11 (+0) Con 14 (+2)

AC 14

Proficiency bonus: +5

Inspiration: [blank]

Initiative: +2

Hit point total: 72

Hit dice: 13 d6 Speed 80

Saving throws:

Strength: +4

Dex: +2

Con: +2

Int: +10 (proficient)

Wis: +5 (proficient)

Cha: +3

Skills

Acrobatics: +2

Animal Handling: +0

Arcana: +10 (proficient)

Athletics: +4

Deception: +3

History: +10 (proficient)

Insight: +0

Intimidation: +3

Investigation: +10 (proficient)

Medicine: +5 (proficient)

Nature: +5

Perception: +0

Performance: +3

Persuasion: +3

Religion: +5

Sleight of Hand: +2

Stealth: +2

Survival: +0

Passive Wisdom: [blank]

Languages: Common, Phoenix, + two others of your choice from Sage background (I chose Infernal & Elvish)

Personality Traits: amazing

Ideals: [blank]

Bonds: Fig (paramour), Adaine (best friend), Kristen, Fabian, Riz, Gorgug (transitive best friends), Garthy (parental figure/guardian/adopted child of a previous incarnation of herself), Arthur Aguefort ("father")

Flaws: [blank]

Features & Traits:

Flight (see: Half-Phoenix)

Fly speed = 80

Fire Immunity (see: Half-Phoenix)

Ayda is immune to all fire damage

Portent (Div. lvl 2) - roll 2 d20 at the end of each long rest. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these rolls (once per turn)

Expert Divination (Div. lvl 6) - When you cast a divination spell of 2nd level or higher using a spell slot, you regain one expended spell slot. The slot you regain must be of a level lower than the spell you cast and can't be higher than 5th level

Third Eye (Div. lvl 10) - choose one of the following benefits, which lasts until you are incapacitated or you take a short or long rest. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

- Darkvision: You gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet

- Ethereal Sight: You can see into the Ethereal Plane within 60 feet of you.

- Greater Comprehension: You can read any language

See Invisibility: You can see invisible creatures and objects within 10 feet of you that are within line of sight.

Attacks & Spellcasting

[formatted like] Name, ATK Bonus, Damage/Type

Fireball, +10, 8d6 fire (+1d6 per lvl)

Steel Wind Strike, +10, 6d10 force

Tidal Wave, dex save DC 18, 4d8 bludgeoning & prone if fail

Equipment: so many books

image/page 2:

Spellcasting Class: Wizard (Div.) 13

Spellcasting Ability: INT

Spell Save DC: 18

Spell Attack Bonus: +10

Prepared Spells Limit: 18

(spells in italics are speculative, based on the min # of wizard spells she would have at this level. the rest are canon. feel free to add or subtract as desired!)

Cantrips (lvl 0)

Prestidigitation

Message

Mage Hand

Mending

Control Flames

other potential cantrips: Lightning Lure, Dancing lights, Minor Illusion

Spell Level 1

slots total: 4

Find Familiar

Synod

Protection from Evil and Good

Detect Magic

Shield

Ayda's Comprehend Subtext

Comprehend languages

Identify

Illusory script

Snare

Spell Level 2

slots total: 3

Invisibility

Enlarge/Reduce

Misty Step

Hold Person

Spell Level 3

slots total: 3

Sending (pirate)

Counterspell

Dispel Magic

Clairvoyance

Remove Curse

Fireball

Tongues

Tidal Wave

Spell Level 4

slots total: 3

Greater Invisibility

Banishment

Scry

Arcane Eye

Spell Level 5

slots total: 2

Steel Wind Strike (?)

Legend Lore

Spell Level 6

slots total: 1

True Seeing

Spell Level 7

slots total: 1

Plane Shift

Teleport

Spell Level 8 [blank]

other good potential spells: Unseen servant, Thunder wave, Tasha's hideous laughter, Knock, Locate object, Scorching ray, Shatter, Web, Animate objects, Symbol, Bigby's hand, Storm sphere, Control Wind, Mordekainen's Private Sanctum, Conjure Elemental, Dimension Door

Spell Level 9 [blank]

Flood Hell [level & specifics unknown]

image/page 3:

Character name: Ayda Aguefort

Age: 17 (present), over 300 (total)

Height: 6-7 ft

Weight: [blank]

Eyes: fire

Skin: dark brown

Hair: fire

Character Appearance

“A Resplendent, Beautiful Woman”

Digitigrade ankles

bird feet

golden talons

orange runic tattoos

books in bandoliers like guns

undercut: fire

wings: fire

ear cuff (from Fig)

resembles Arthur Aguefort, her father

Character Backstory

perfect :)

Allies & Organizations

Compass Points Library

The Bad Kids

The Gold Gardens (Garthy)

Fig & The Sig Figs

[a screenshot of Ayda's official junior year character art (standing), taken from her wiki page]

Additional features & traits

“a resplendent beautiful woman who from the knees down has large talons, she also has digitigrade ankles, she has those ankles that kind of kick back like a lot of animal feet do. So from the knees on down become these almost like metallic golden talons. She bears a striking resemblance to Arthur Aguefort the moment you look at her”

“She looks kind of harpy-esque until you realize that she does have arms in addition to wings. So she has these incredibly, and as they spread, deep red wings that as they approach the tips of the feathers sort of change into orange, and by the time they get to yellow, flicker in a little edge of flame on the outside of the wings. She's dressed in sort of like white linen pants with a pirate's sash on them. No guns or anything you can see. Sort of vest, a lot of sort of orange runes tattooed on her arms, you see that she has a short shock of red hair, it seems to be not on the sides or back as much, almost like a plume of red fiery hair that comes off the top of her head. And her eyes have pupils in them but are otherwise clearly roiling balls of flame.”

“You see that she does have two scrolls at the side on her bandolier, and similarly to the guy downstairs, but sort of like she has it on those leather harnesses you would have for guns, but it's two small books strapped under each arm.”

Treasure: [blank]

[j-esbian]

(one of) the most frustrating parts about the portrayal of drow society is that it wants to create Reverse Sexism without uncoupling itself from some. pretty foundational patriarchal ideas. it ascribes to the (tired, essentialist) notion that men are inherently good at certain things, and women are inherently suited for different things

but rather than the basic subversion of “women are warriors and men are the homemakers” or even early feminist thought experiments like “traditionally ‘women’s priorities’ are given importance over ‘men’s’ (ie things are governed by council, importance is placed on childrearing, etc)”, menzoberranzan is “this society still holds to patriarchal values and women are not as good at these things which is why it’s demonstrably worse”.

the biggest tell is that they have to control the male population to maintain female dominance, the implication being that in a fair fight, men would easily overpower them. it assumes the misogynist ideas as fact that “women are inherently weaker” and also “women are duplicitous” so the drow fighting style is based on stealth and sabotage rather than “”honorable”” face- to-face combat (letting lie also the assumption that the only avenue for ambition is through military violence, and therefore still making it so that they are reliant on men, even as disposable shock troops, for their success).

the only things that keep women in charge are by stacking the numbers on a systematic level, and through sexual domination on the individual level (because clearly the only real power a woman can have over men is her sexuality).

it is a society where “men act like men” but women don’t act like women; it is evil because an act of god created an aberration against the “natural order” of things, and there is no one to tend the hearth (because if the women won’t do it, no one will)

[wtfforged]

my campaign hiatus has gone on for too long so to cope ive combined my interests at their maximum potency and had some dnd-strawhats thoughts

thoughts in depth under read more... :)!

this is SO self indulgent. their designs literally did not change. but i am a firm believer that dnd doesnt have to be european high fantasy. and also one piece literally IS fantasy. no changes are necessary to fit into dnd. ive already imagined plenty of campaign/oneshot ideas inspired by one piece. so this was basically just an exercise of trying to replicate their canon abilities in dnd 5e as much as possible without totally homebrewing everything. well. aside from luffy. you just cant take away or change his stretching.

LUFFY: (human monk. drunken master subclass. outlander)

the only plain human of the crew to balance out with the fact that he still has rubber powers. obviously a monk. but drunken master subclass specifically because i think the flavor(not the fact that its about being a drunkard) and abilities both fit him really well. this line in the subclass' flavortext especially fits him: "A drunken master often enjoys playing the fool to bring gladness to the despondent or to demonstrate humility to the arrogant, but when battle is joined, the drunken master can be a maddening, masterful foe."

ZORO: (tiefling fighter. samurai subclass. bounty hunter)

a fighter with the samurai subclass is so very incredibly obvious... but i actually had a lot of fun geeking out while comparing the abilities to what he can do in canon; Fighting Spirit, Rapid Strike, and Strength Before Death especially! tiefling is also pretty on the nose for his demon pirate hunter shtick and asura form, but i thought he'd be really human-passing for a tiefling and theorized about his tail getting cut off at some point or another before joining the strawhats. initially wasnt gonna give him a feat, but i gave sanji a feat so i thought itd be unfair to not give him one as well, so sentinel fits the bill pretty well i think!

NAMI: (tabaxi rogue. arcane trickster subclass. criminal)

cat burglar -> full grown literal humanoid cat. this one is INCREDIBLY self indulgent... i love... cats... theres nothing deeper to this and no other reasoning. i took cat burglar and ran with it. can you tell that i love izutsumi dungeon meshi? rogue for the aforementioned burglar-ing as well, and the arcane trickster subclass for when she picks up climatact! the mage hand will be very useful for her pickpocketing. in the future as she levels up with timeskip, i can totally see her multiclassing into wizard as well! weather wizard!

USOPP: (lightfoot halfling artificer. artillerist subclass. urchin)

I HAD SO MUCH FUN THINKING ABOUT HIS CHARACTER SHEET. halfling's Naturally Stealthy ability lets him hide behind his crewmates since theyre (almost) all bigger than him, so its perfect for hiding behind zoro or sanji all the time. Lucky is also perfect for him, and I think Brave fits pretty well too when he puts on the sogeking mask. artillerist artificer is also very fun! tinkering and making magic items for his crew, and i think Eldritch Canon or Arcane Firearm could both be easily reflavored as kabuto or any of his inventions. for emphasizing his sniper-ness, the spell sniper feat was also necessary. i think hes my favorite of all the concepts. big ears and long nose combo is so cute to me.

SANJI: (half-elf monk. drunken master subclass. guild artisan (cook!))

race was mostly based on vibes i wont lie. squints. and that vinsmoke balogna or whatever too ig. but mostly vibes. along with the idea that i think a dwarf zeff raising him would be really funny and cute. monk is also obvious, and same subclass as luffy for mostly the same reasons. though the flavor fits him much less, i think the abilities still fit him perfectly, and this blurb specifically; "Your martial arts technique mixes combat training with the precision of a dancer." i really wanted to give him a different subclass from luffy, but i dislike all the other monk subclasses a lot and i found none of them fit him as well anyways, so to try and give them SOME differences, i gave him the crusher feat.

CHOPPER: (awakened deer(shifter statblock) cleric. life subclass. hermit)

this ones definitely a mouthful im sorry. awakened deer for obvious reasons, but due to magic instead of devil fruit stuff. when i was struggling with his race, i looked a lot at shifter because of his forms, but it occurred to me that itd be super cool if he could shift between all of the different shifter options instead of being stuck with just one to replicate his rumble balls. something like heavy point/guard point=beasthide, horn point/arm point(?maybe?)=longtooth, walk point/jumping point=swiftstride, and brain point=wildhunt. hed definitely need some kind of nerf though to balance out that homebrew... and cleric for class. duh.

ROBIN: (high elf wizard. order of scribes subclass. criminal)

robin is definitely the one i struggled the most with just because of her class. elf came pretty easily- shes very elegant and i think shed look cute with super long ears- and i landed on high elf instead of wood elf for the int-based abilities. i was really on the fence between sorcerer and wizard for her because i knew shed be a full spellcaster, but i didnt feel that any of the subclasses really fit her. i ended up going with wizard for order of the scribes since it focuses on texts and knowing everything. but also because robin with a flying talking sentient book would be crazy cool. it could also be similar to how she spawns mouths and eyes places to talk to or watch people. my "fuck it, why not. this would be rad. its my house" mindset kicked in with her i will admit. also the One with the Word ability made me cackle out loud when i read it. thats the funniest ability ever. anyways, i cant really think of a way to replicate her powers, but maybe we could just reflavor a bunch of spells to be her limbs or clutch; hold person, maximillian's earthen grasp, or evard's black tentacles. thatd probably work okay, and theres a handful of spells to replicate her ability to spawn eyes or mouths. unrelated, but i imagine nico olvia to be a drow. why? her hair is white. i am a simple man!

[transgenderastarion]

I spent last night and this morning clearing enough space on my computer for baldur's gate 3 so sorry if i disappear for a few days and then immediately become insufferable

[thydungeongal]

Thank you for awnser my ask about games to try out, that was fantastic! Can I ask, what did you mean by "Vampire: the Masquerade the System had a completely different idea of what kind of story it wanted to tell than the text implied."? The only ttrpgs I've tried out so far are dnd 5e, call of cthulhu, and vampire the masquerade v5, so maybe I'm just missing the context, but it felt like the mechanics of vampire were pretty good at making you feel like a vampire?

Oh right, gotcha! So, I can't speak of newer editions of Vampire (although I do think V5 actually does a better job at this due to being much more focused in its design, at least based on my reading), but one issue with the original Vampire: the Masquerade was that it very much set itself up as a game that was supposed to be about the melodrama and politicking and angst of being a vampire, but what it as a system ended up being mostly about was combat and action. It also had an unfortunate tendency to patch over the fact that many of its actual systems were kind of haphazardly designed by going "remember, if the rules don't work you can ignore and change them," which is just asking the Storyteller to do design work for the designers.

And yeah that's pretty much it: Vampire: the Masquerade was set up as a game of gothic vampire melodrama; what it ended up being was a game where most of the rules weight was put towards playing The Avengers, but everyone is Blade.

Now a lot of that critique isn't of course unique to Vampire, because even these days pretty major RPG releases get away with telling their players "if you don't like these rules don't use them and actually good GMs know when not to use them, you're a good GM right? :)" and that sort of attitude was very much the norm at the time of the game's release, but it was also one of the critiques people at the Forge had for the game: if the game's rules need to be changed on the fly to get it to output the kind of story it's supposed to output, then the rules are bad at producing that type of story.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Why I Dislike PbtA Games, and How Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is Their Opposite

@tender-curiosities

It is no secret that I hate PbtA games.

Though due to a recent misunderstanding regarding another post, I’m going to preface this post by saying that this is going to be a very opinionated post and

I do not seriously think that PbtA games are inherently bad, though I may sometimes joke about this.

While I do often question the taste of people who make and play PbtA hacks, I do not think poorly of their moral character.

While I am going to call for PbtA to be used less as a base for games in the future, I’m not saying that the whole system and all games based on it should be destructified. It’s good for what it’s good for, but unless you’re doing that, I really think you should use something else.

Now that that is out of the way, here’s what I have to say about it.

My first experiences with PbtA games were pretty rough. Monster of the Week was not the first, but it was one of the first ‘indie’ TTRPGs I played after having previously played mostly only D&D3.5e and 5e. I really appreciated that the use of 2D6 over a D20 meant that the dice results would be more predictable, and I really liked the various “classes” I was seeing. (At this time, I didn’t really understand that they weren’t really “classes” at all, though I think I can be forgiven for this because many people, even people who like PbtA games, still talk like “classes” and “playbooks” are interchangeable.)

I was very enthusiastic to play, until it came time to start actually “making” a character, and found that I couldn’t “make” a character. I wanted to make a nuanced, three-dimensional PC who was simultaneously stereotype-affirming and stereotype-defying, with a unique backstory and dynamic with the other characters—but when I went to actually fill out the character sheet for basically any “class”, I found that most of the backstory and most of the personality for my character was being set for me by the playbook. It felt like the only thing about the character I really had a say in was their name, and that two PCs of the same playbook would actually turn out to be almost identical characters. At the time, I thought this was very restrictive and very bad design.

Later, now that I understand the design intent behind it, I still think of it as very restrictive, but I think of it as very bad design for me, not inherently bad.

When I play a TTRPG, I want more freedom in who my PC is. That doesn’t mean I want less rules, in fact having more rules can often increase freedom, but that’s a different post. I want to create original, unique characters, that I won’t see anywhere else. If it’s a class-based system, I want that class to barely touch the details of my character’s backstory or personality, so that I can come up with something original and engaging for why and how this “Fighter” fights. This means that two level-1 Fighters, despite having almost the same mechanical abilities, will potentially be very different people.

PbtA games don’t let you do that. In a lot of PbtA games, you’re not playing your own original character, you’re playing someone else’s character, that every other player that has picked up the same playbook before you has played. It’s more like “character select” than “character creation.” I think I could liken it to playing Mass Effect or The Witcher. Every player may pick a few different dialogue choices in those games that change the story, but we’re still all playing Shepherd or Geralt. No one is going to experience a new never-before-seen story in Mass Effect or The Witcher, which is very much a factor of them being video games and not TTRPGs, and therefore limited to the amount of code, writing, and voice-acting that can go into them.

This anonymous asker who sent a message to @thydungeongal seems to feel pretty similarly to me about PbtA games, and @thydungeongal's response is a very good response about how people find this appealing.

I have more respect for PbtA now than I did, but I still don't like it because to me it seems to play so much against what I consider to be the strengths of TTRPGs as a medium, much like how video games like The Last of Us and David Cage games play against the strengths of the medium of video games, and I will never like it. But other people clearly do, so to each their own.

Then another reason I don’t like it is because I think it’s oversaturating the TTRPG space. I’ve referred to PbtA before as “indie D&D5e”, and i do think that’s a reasonable comparison, because in much the same way that you always hear “D&D5e is a system that can do everything”, I think a lot of people seem to be under the impression that the PbtA system is a system that can do anything. It’s kinda the système du jour for indie TTRPGs right now, and many iterations of it make it clear that many designers do not consider how PbtA differs from more traditional TTRPGs, and how it is specialized for different types of TTRPG gameplay. Just like how I feel PbtA isn’t playing to certain important strengths of TTRPGs, I think that many—maybe even most—PbtA hacks don’t play to the strengths of PbtA. But this isn’t really PbtA’s fault, that comes down to any individual indie TTRPG developer on a case-by-case basis. And the cure for that is something I’m always saying: If you are going to be a writer, you have got to read lots of books. If you are going to be a director, you have got to watch lots of movies. If you are going to be a video game developer, you have got to play lots of video games. And if you are going to be a TTRPG designer, you have got to read and play lots of TTRPGs. That and you have to understand that TTRPGs are specialized. Even "agnostic" systems like PbtA are somewhat specialized, and therefore might really not be a great fit for the game you’re trying to make.

That and, to get more subjective again, there’s like an ocean of them, and I don’t even like the ones that are actually good.

Now that I’ve talked about how I don’t like PbtA games, I’m gonna talk about a game I do like: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. Obviously, I like it because I’m the lead writer for it, but I would also like it even if I wasn’t the lead writer for it, because it’s just my kinda game. Eureka is the opposite of a PbtA game. I wrote it to play to what I feel are the strengths of the TTRPG medium.

Eureka’s character creation uses personality traits as a mechanical element of the character, but it does so in a deliberately freeform way. You build your character’s personality out of a list of traits, so who your character is is very much linked to what your character can do, but we aren’t just handing you a pre-made character.

Eureka is designed to incentivize organic decision-making by the PCs, most often by the mechanics of the game mirroring the world they live in. Every mechanic aims to create situations wherein “what will the PC do next?” is a question whose answer can be predicted - it doesn’t need to be ordained by a playbook.

One of my favorite examples of this is, rather than a “Fear Check” forcing the PC to run away if they fail, or “Run Away from Danger” being a “Move” on their character sheet, Eureka opts for the Composure mechanic. The really short version is that one of the main things that lowers a PC’s Composure is encountering scary stuff, and the lower a PC’s Composure, the more likely they are to fail skill checks, and the more likely they are to fail skill checks, well, the less brave they and their player probably feel about them standing up to this scary monster. So if the PC has low Composure, they are more likely to choose to run away. The lower their Composure, the better idea that will seem.

This system really really shines when it comes to monster PCs in Eureka. Most monsters benefit a lot more from having high Composure, but have fewer ways to restore Composure than mundane PCs. Their main way to restore their Composure is by eating people. The rulebook never says “your monster PC has to eat people”, but more likely than not, they’re going to be organically steered towards that by the game and world itself. Sure, they could decide to be “one of the good ones”, and just never eat people, just like you reading this could decide to stop eating food. You technically could, but when your body starts to fail, how long would you? (This is a big part of the themes of Eureka and what it has to say about crime, disability, mental illness, and evil. People don’t just arbitrarily do bad things, it is often their circumstances that leads them down that path until they see little choice for themselves in that matter, and “harmful” people are still just as deserving of life as people who “aren’t harmful”, but that really deserves its own post.)

It has been said that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually arrives at much the same end as the PbtA game Monsterhearts, and I actually don’t disagree, but it gets there from an entirely different starting point and direction. The monster PCs in Eureka are very likely to eat people and cause drama, but it won’t be because they have “Eat People and Cause Drama” as a “Move” on their character sheet.

Monsters in Eureka have a lot of abilities, which they can use to solve (and create) problems as the emergent story emerges organically.

(Oh and Eureka is about adult investigators investigating mysteries, and sometimes those investigators are monsters, not about monster kids in high school, to be clear. The same “end” that Eureka and Monsterhearts reach is that of the monsters being prone to cause problems and drama due to the fact that they are monsters, though this isn’t the sole point of Eureka, just one element of it.)

You can pick up the free shareware version of this game from the download link on our website, or the full version for $5 from our Patreon.

And don’t forget, Eureka is fundraising on Kickstarter starting on April 10th, 2024! We need your support there most of all, to make sure we hit our goals and can afford to make the best version of Eureka we can make!

Interested in branching out but can’t get your group to play anything but D&D5e? Join us at the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club, where we nominate, vote on, and play indie TTRPGs, all organized by our team with no strict schedule requirement! Here's the invite link! See you there!

We also have merchandise.

[reilemon]

Hey-o, Rei's boyfriend here hijacking her page with an updated D&D analysis of lads. Honestly I've probably been thinking about this a bit too much and figured I'd post my final opinion on what each one of them would be, class-wise, in a D&D 5e universe. So for anyone interested in a random guy's opinion on the topic, here goes:

Rafayel - I am keeping my original opinion for a Bard: College of Whispers. I did think about the potential of multiclassing into a Rogue: Assassin for a more stealthy approach, but that may be more suited for his myth card. Straight Whispers Bard seems right to me.

Xavier - Also mostly keeping this one to my original opinion, which is a Paladin: Oath of Devotion. Main reason I like this one is the Channel Divinity it gets, really matching the light-sword vibe. Maybe ignore the first tenet of the oath for this one though ("Don't lie or cheat." - yeah sure...). Alternatively, he could fit as an Oath of the Watchers due to him being a hunter, but sadly no light-sword then.

Zayne - Originally I was sure he is some kind of cleric, with Astra and all. One bit of a problem though - clerics get absolutely no cold-based spells. Now, generally, of the three classic elemental types in 5e (fire, cold, lightning) cold is the forgotten middle child. Fire is the absolute family favorite and found everywhere, while lightning is found less often but still has some features dedicated to it specifically (Storm Sorcerer and Tempest Cleric for example). Cold has basically nothing, so it's not unusual that clerics wouldn't get cold-based spells, but I refuse to make a Zayne build without cold damage in there. Therefore, I think this is a better alternative: Sorcerer: Divine Soul. This changes him from being a follower of a god to having actual divine blood within him, which is more in line with his myth but meh. The main reason for this choice is the ability to get spells from both the Cleric and Sorcerer spell lists, which allows for both healing/support spells (Cleric) and cold-based spells (Sorcerer) to be chosen giving him the same combat feel while keeping the divine aspect.

Sylus - The original idea was a Shadow Monk, but after thinking about it for a bit, I think he is better suited as a Ranger: Gloom Stalker Conclave. Not your usual ranger though, this one we would build as a Strength Ranger with the Unarmed Fighting Style. I think this gives the closest Sylus vibe I can think of in 5e - a beefy unarmed fighter with shadow abilities. What sold me on this idea was the fact that Sylus has a soft spot for animals and nature, and his tracking abilities as well. Not your usual Ranger, but I think the vibe is much better this way than the original Monk idea. Caleb - Now this guy gave me some trouble initially, because firearms are not often found in 5e - or any futuristic stuff really. But then I remembered something about a specific feature, and I was immediately sold, so here goes - Artificer: Armorer. Now, I thought about Artillerist as well due to the drones, but I think Armorer fits him better for one reason alone. The Arcane Armor feature says so: "The armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to a body part it is replacing." which is just perfect. Going the Infiltrator armor model route gives him an energy blast to shoot as well, but Artificers have an optional rule that gives them Firearm Proficiency, which would be in line. As far as I know Caleb is a smart-ass who likes tinkering with stuff, fitting an Artificer very nicely.

Man that took a while to type out... Feel free to comment your own opinions, I love doing things like this - I've been playing D&D and other TTRPGs for like 10 years now. Have a good day y'all!

-Rei's boyfriend

[back-on-my-autistic-bullshit]

Hi chat I'm going INSANE right now thinking about thunderbolts as dnd 5e classes and races I've been yapping about it with my sibling and I just need to shareee what I have so far oughhhhh this is so fun

Bob is a wild magic sorcerer and an aasamir. Possibly the fallen aasamir subrace because, yknow, void and all that. Void is also why I picked wild magic sorcerer tbh

Bucky has a lot going on mainly because my sibling is a giant bucky fan. He's a half elf (but didn't know this, cause he was like possibly abandoned at an orphanage or smth). Hydra in this dnd type universe would be an organisation of bloodhunters and a cult who serves literally like an eldritch hydra and works for it. So when Bucky ends up with them he becomes a bloodhunter and warlock multiclass (because he has a pact with the hydra) and after he escapes and what not he becomes a plain old bloodhunter cause he broke the pact. For subclass we were thinking order of the mutant bloodhunter it just makes sense I think.

I need to sit with Yelena a bit more really BUT a human rogue is what we're going for so far. Subclass ehhhhh assassin. Yeah. Yeah

Ava was HARD trying to figure out some way to get her like, teleport stuff factored in. We settled on fey wanderer ranger mainly because of the teleportation spells you get at 5th and 13th level (misty step and dimension door). Kind of unsure on race atp but probably like elf, half elf or human

Walker is. Okay. Walkers human first off he is human. Second, captain america gives BIG paladin vibes (oath of the crown, specifically) and this factors in to the reasoning of an oathbreaker paladin fighter multiclass with literally like one or two levels in oathbreaker before he decided this shit wasn't working out and he just invested in being a fighter. Is this like an optimised build or whatever? No probably not but this is vibes based and it fits The Vibes okay

Now, finally we have Alexei. A barbarian for SUREE and literally mostly because it amuses me he's a red dragonborn (because he's. Yknow. The Red Guardian.) Oh subclass RIGHT uhhhh thinking path of the giant or berserker really, not super sure yet

ANYWAY yeah thats all I have for now uh. There will probably be more thoughts at some point pleaseeee yap to me about this if you're interested I have brainworms

[imsobadatnicknames2]

I gave b/x a look because of your posts and you are right that most mechanics are simpler than 5e but I don't think I can get into it because of the weird armor mechanics. I don't understand why armor reduces your AC? And having to compare the enemy's AC with a table for every attack roll seems just really clunky and compplicated

Okay fair. The Attack Matrix and descending AC are one of those things that can look really clunky and create culture shock when you're used to modern D&D's mechanics.

They're not really that complicated tho, I'll try to explain.

B/X, like all old-school editions of D&D, uses descending AC, which means that lower AC values are better. Lower AC makes you harder to hit, higher AC makes you easier to hit (as opposed to modern D&D's ascending AC, where higher values are better) That's why armor makes your AC lower rather than higher.

The Attack matrix mechanic is kinda clunky, but the only value from it you actually need to know is the roll needed to hit AC 0. As long as you know that value, you can find the attack roll needed to hit any AC by subtracting the enemy AC from the To-hit-AC-0 value.

Let's see an example.

Let's say you have a level 4 fighter. According to the attack matrix, to hit an enemy with AC 0 you need 17 or more on your attack roll. That's the only value you need to know. When fighting an enemy with any other AC, you can subtract their AC from 17 to find out how high you need to roll. So for example, if you're trying to hit an enemy with AC 4, then 17-4 = 13, you need an attack roll of 13 or more to hit them. If you're fighting an enemy with AC 6, then 17-6 = 11, you need to roll 11 or more to hit them.

That's why both AD&D editions opted to do away with the attack matrix and instead just give you the value of your THAC0 (To Hit AC 0), since all other to-hit rolls can be calculated from it.

Now, of course, if you're used to the way ascending AC works in modern D&D, that might still seem a little unintuitive for you. Luckily there are several B/X-based retroclones that do away with the mechanic entirely and make it work like in modern D&D instead, so you might want to check those out.

Old-School Essentials is extremely faithful to most of B/X's mechanics, but it has ascending AC as an optional mechanic.

Basic Fantasy is mostly B/X-based but it modernizes a few mechanics, including doing away with descending AC entirely and using ascending AC instead.

[dartagnantt]

Assassin: Rehired | What if the assassin didn't focus on dress-up?

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

This week, as part of a theme most foul, I decided to go upon a foul task and revise our hired killer.

The assassin archetype never really appealed to me as a player, and not as a theme either. First off, just over half of its features are based on disguise. Which is fine, but one of them is literally the charlatan background feature for a price. But also, you may have realised this about me, the guy that keeps making playable monsters, I don't play humans and human-likes very often, so being the only gnoll in this city of mostly humans, there is no disguise in hell that will conceal my identity without magic. So while the disguise kit has its uses, the more exotic a creature you play, the less they are outside of the arts.

Secondly, it's primary feature is very strong, auto crit on any creature that has yet to act in combat. Great vibes, see what they're going for. Because that window is variable (and not always there) and at most a round, you don't actually get that feature most of the time. So, I opted to go for a different approach.

Poisoner

The assassin, in addition to disguise, has poisoner's kit proficiency, why not expand on that instead? In this instance I discard disguise as a proficiency you can go out of your way for. Instead, give the assassin a limited use set of debilitating poisons. Ones that impart vulnerability to weapons (what I intend to get the most use), knock out a target (for sneaky sneaks) and one that inflicts sneak attack damage (for convoluted assassination plots).

Death's Shroud

Bringing more general versatility to the previous poisons, but not quite wanting to ape the cloudkill spell, just gaseous poison. Sneak attacking a whole room at once sounds pretty sweet to me.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Possibly the least exciting option, but kind of how I intend to get around the lack of disguise issue for getting close to a target. Do it the old fashioned way! Not being seen.

Marked for Death

I suspect that this feature name exists somewhere in the D&D's history for something similar, but I didn't really check. This is based on the old capstone feature of the rogue, where you just straight up murder people with a single con save. I mean, you're playing an assassin, of course the capstone was going to be the murder button

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Scout Roguish Archetype

Poisons: Reapplied

Finding the Trail

Skill Challenges

I also have four classes, and two splatbooks over on DriveThruRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

d'Artagnan's Lycanthrope Survival Guide. A book of lore, stats, and werebeast subclasses for lycanthropes.

[amethystfairy1]

Update on the TtSBC RPG game! (Putting this in asks and on my account because…I can I guess? (I want to get the word out & update you))

So it’ll most likely be based on the DnD 5e system. However it might differ when I get farther and have to put more of the story, characters, etc together.

This has also made me realize I improvise more than I thought when DMing-

The overall story WILL end with hybrids being free, it will mostly rely on the players to reach this goal though…BUT with that being said, it will NOT be completely story compliant after a certain point just because of the story coming out at the same time, I can’t predict the way the story will come out, I also am not about to ask you/Amethyst how the story is going to end for this to be cannon compliant because I don’t want to be spoiled either.

LASTLY! I have decided that this game will actually be public! (Hoping to open it up end of May…which is a little soon and might not work we’ll see). So I will be giving out the base of the game, but I will also be hosting a version over discord or what not! The only rules will be that you have to be 13-14+ and nothing romantic between adults and minors (if anything of that standard ever even comes up)…because…yeah..

As always, I love your works Amethyst. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us <3

AHHHHHHHHH

THAT'S SOOOO COOL!!!

I'm so excited to see what you do with it! Thank you for sharing YOUR creativity!!!!!

[catgirlforeskin]

"even the most gentle suggestions that trying out other games could be good." ^ .... ?? "We should round up everyone who still likes DnD 5e and hold their faces down into hot coals until the smell of charred melting flesh suffocates our noses! Who’s with me!" "an rpg so alien to the design philosophy of DnD that hearing it makes cr fans’ heads explode into tf2 gore giblets" & you keep saying that you'd give people a list of other ttrpg's to play... and you don't. you just shit on stuff and whine. i don't even like dnd anymore because all the manuals are "big" but insubstantial and wizards of the coast are greedy and making the game worse.. but it doesn't mean you have to be rude to the people who still enjoy it.

You’re right, we don’t have to be rude to people who still enjoy 5e. We have to kill them

I’ve had several posts about other systems to play, usually as answers to asks I’ve gotten, if tumblr search worked better you could look on my blog quite easily. But for posterity’s sake…

Crunchier games:

-most similar to DnD 5e: Pathfinder 2e. All rules free online, extremely popular

-faster, high stakes cinematic combat with more flexibility in setting: Mythras

-apocalyptic survival exploration with good gun-based combat: Twilight 2000 4e. Easily reskinned for other settings that keep the same thematic core

-people will get mad if I don’t mention Lancer, it’s a mech game, I just think it’s okay personally.

Pf2e and Lancer are combat as sport while mythras and t2000 are more combat as war (explainer here)

Lighter Games:

-OSR: Old School Renaissance, this is a school of RPGs based on original DnD and adventuring with fragile characters defined by gear instead of abilities who should always fight dirty and creatively, trying to outwit opponents instead of engaging head-on. Mausritter and Dragonbane are my current favs, but there’s hundreds of games in this genre of all different kinds of themes. Favors GM rulings over written rules⭐️Great for people who already play 5e in a much more freeform style⭐️

-PbtA: Powered by the Apocalypse, a school of RPGs based on Apocalypse World. Strong mechanical support for collaboratively making your story at the table. ⭐️Great for people who prefer roleplay and narrative⭐️. People often recommend Dungeon World because it’s similar to old dnd, personally I just think it’s okay. Current fav is The Sword, the Crown, and the Unspeakable Power for Game of Thrones feeling stories, Fellowship is good for LotR style fantasy. Hundreds of games in this genre and the subgenre Forged in the Dark (FitD) for games based on Blades in the Dark. Current fav is Rebel Crown.

Closing thoughts:

-Umm suck me off :)

-Free League Publishing makes a ton of rpgs and pretty much all of them are good, I highly recommend anything they do. FIST is a fun osr and pbta hybrid. Riddle of Steel and its successors are cool rpgs trying to simulate real sword fights unfortunately mostly made by reactionary dipshits. There’s tons of unique rules light stuff outside of OSR or PbtA design space as well, go on the various rpg subreddits, go to rpg blogs, go to itch.io and explore. r/rpg is a great resource and I’ve learned about so many good systems from it.

-I hope this one shows up when searching my blog for rpg posts in the future so silly people don’t go “you never recommend games you’re just a HATER!” I love to hate but it’s slightly more fun to play good rpgs with friends than it is to be a hater online. Oh my god I didn’t even mention GMless games, good lord uhhh check out Quiet Year and The Zone okay love you all bye bye I want 100 5e player scalps xoxo

[quirkwizard]

So between the popularity of the last D&D post I did and the upcoming revisions to D&D 5E, I thought it'd be fun to talk about Class 1-A and D&D again. This time, instead of playing D&D, this will be students in D&D. For this, I will be picking out classes and races that I believe fit them the most based on the descriptions and lore presented in the books. Official material only, so no Blood Hunter Tokoyami. However, characters and their "stats" will take precedent over Quirks. The Gravity Wizard is a thing, but I don't think that Uraraka would fit as a Wizard.

Sato-Half Orc Berserker Barbarian: A perfect encapsulation of Sato. A big ole beefcake that runs up, hits stuff as hard as possible, and then immediately burns himself out because that's all he can do.

Mineta-Kender Rogue Thief: The classic "jerk thief" archetype with a set of quick hands and mobility options to replace his orbs with. And like Mineta, Kender are also a small race that everyone despises, so it's fitting.

Aoyama-Eldarin Warlock Celestial: A natural fit for Warlocks. He only shoots out beams, gets tired after a few big attacks, and owes all his power to a patron. Eldarin are just extra Elves, so that works out as well.

Mina-Satyr Bard Dance: The class is a pretty obvious choice given Mina's natural charisma and acrobatic abilities. I was tempted to pick Yuan Ti for the poison abilities, but I figured that Satyr would fit her look and character better.

Denki: Dragon Sorcerer Dragonborn: Just going all in on the lightning damage here. Denki is someone coasting entirely on talent, fitting with a Sorcerer, and everything else is letting him gave off as much electricity as possible.

Ojiro-Harengon Open Hand Monk: Open Hand Monk is a pretty obvious fit given Ojiro's martial abilities. As for the race… Look, there isn't any race that uses a tail. Harengon was about as close as I was going to get with it's other abilities.

Hagakure-Fairy Arcane Trickster: Rogues are good at sneaking and Arcane Tricksters can reliably become invisible. Fairies fit well into the sneaky part of it and their generally cheery disposition fits even better with Hagakure's chipper personality.

Kirishima: Goliath Battlerager Barbarian: A race that is made out of resilient rocks, a class that's all about getting and taking hits, and subclass that is all about being covered in sharp armor. It's great. You can even have the Rage be his Red Riot: Unbreakable move.

Koda-Firbolg Shepard Druid: I know I did this before, but it's too perfect with his role as the friend to all animals. Firbolgs are the soft, gentle giants of the forest and the Shepard Druid fits nicely with his tendency of overwhelming foes with countless animals.

Jiro-Tiefling Glamour Bard: No surprise with the class and the subclass fits with her role as punk rocker. Tiefling may seem like an odd pick, but I think that her generally closed off disposition can fits well with how Tieflings tend to be characterized.

Sero-Tabaxi Fey Wanderer Ranger: Hands down the hardest person to pick out for this. His abilities and personality don't fit a lot of races or classes that much. I just went with this set up for his pension for movement and trapping as well how personable he can be.

Momo-High Elf Artillerist Artificer : A natural builder that can create whatever she wants, especially her powerful canons. The elf part was mostly for personality given how distant Momo tends to be from other in terms of wealth and overall intelligence.

Tokoyami-Owlin Fiend Warlock: I know the Kenku is right there, but I believe that Owlin fits Tokoyami better. And with how his power comes entirely from a monster and how much it protects him, the defensive abilities of the Warlock Fiend fit well.

Tsuyu-Grung Cleric Peace: Grung is obvious since it's literally a frog, but her class may be confusing for some. I did consider Monk, but none of the subclasses fit her that well. I just thought that having her be a Peace Cleric fits with her wise and supportive nature.

Uraraka-Halfling War Cleric: I honestly went with Cleric because fit her general disposition. That kind of support centric person with a few fighting options that come with the War Cleric. The Halfling was mostly because she's very brave and focused on her family.

Shoto-Half Elf Lunar Sorcerer: Sorcerer is an obvious pick with how much of his story is tied to his ancestry and divided nature, complimented further by the Half Elf race. I went with Lunar Sorcery since it multitude of options works with his multifaceted power.

Tenya-Wizard War Magic Warforged: I was tempted to go with Paladin for him, but I believed that Wizard fit better with his natural intellect. Having him be a War Magic Wizard seemed like a good comprise. And of course Warforged fits him nicely.

Shoji-Simic Hybrid Astral Self Monk: Shoji fits in well with the reserved and disciplined types that often make up Monks, especially with how many times he can punch, but the real flavor comes from the Simic Hybrd. A terrifying monster of a man with gliders and tendrils? It's perfect.

Bakugou-Fire Genasi Eldritch Knight Fighter: I believe that Fighter fits best with Bakugou's upfront and aggressive way of fighting as well as his immense physical resilience, with the subclass fitting with his intelligence. And the Fire Gensai was just made to be Bakugou with it's firepower and hyper aggression.

Izuku: Variant Human Devotion Paladin: I was tempted to go with Wizard here, but I think that Izuku's unwavering devotion to a cause and heroic spirit fits too well with a paladin. Plus, you could easily reflavor all of his smites as smashes. Because I don't care what they say, you can smite with your fists.

[that-house]

I wanna host a ttrpg where a bunch of mostly ordinary folks are sent into a strange haunted house of madness dungeon type thing to kill a stupidly powerful vampire/magic user person.

What system would you recommend? DnD feels like a bad thing for this...

And what is your go to ttrpg anyway?

Given your second ask, where you mentioned wanting them to get stronger over time and such while in the dungeon, honestly? Dungeon crawls are basically the only thing D&D 5e does well. The sole good use case of Dungeons and Dragons (unless you’re a freak like me) is as a grindy resource management simulator. Very few people actually run their D&D games like this because they got it in their heads that it’s about the importance of queer found family as opposed to desperately rationing spell slots and torches.

There’s definitely going to be some initial tonal mismatch but as resources run low your players will need to actually consider when to fight and when to run. As long as running is always theoretically possible, I think you could give them a pretty nightmarish experience. Heavily restrict their access to long rests (hell, maybe even *never* give them a long rest and just have them gain new resources on leveling up but not refresh lost resources), and eventually even encounters that should be easy wind up seriously dangerous just because a spell cast here isn’t available elsewhere.

If you’re looking for a more Horror-related experience that still ends in a crazy fight, I might recommend a reflavor of CAIN. The PCs are all psychics but you could always just cut into how many powers they start with and pass out more as the game progresses. CAIN is meant for a structure more based around doing a bunch of missions, but I imagine you could hack together some solid approximation of a one mission structure, or run each section of the house like its own mission.

Beyond CAIN, i can’t think of much in the way of horror systems that encourage dungeon crawling, where the expectation is that you eventually get stronger and kick a load of ass. Mind you i have like 600 rpg rulebooks saved and haven’t read anywhere close to all of em, so, I’m sure there’s something out there. You might consider asking @/theresattrpgforthat, a blog much more dedicated to answering these sorts of questions.

As for your second question: I think D&D 5e is a terrible system that makes unreasonable demands of the DM and encourages a style of play that I personally don’t find very enjoyable.

That being said, I’m very very good at running D&D 5e the way I want it run, to the point that I’ve had a player say he’s never going to touch the system again unless I’m running it. I just give my players Kill Six Billion Demons-tier bullshit like the Universe Slash and set them loose in a sandbox full of powerful assholes.

D&D statblocks are designed with the intent that you’re fighting 4 level-appropriate encounters per day. I design my statblocks to hold up against a party of level 16 PCs (that could probably each individually wipe the floor with a non-homebrew party their same level) going nova in their only fight of the day, and I find that when the enemies are well designed and the players have fun abilities that force them to actually make meaningful decisions, D&D combat is actually pretty fun! It is not, however, really worth playing D&D like this unless you’re a freak like me who gets off on game design

[artofshinga]

A bit ago I did a whole-ass set of warlocks based on D&D 5e subclasses - mostly for fun and also because my RP group was planning a warlock game. I didn't HAVE to draw one of each but doing so DID help me decide which one I wanted to play (this is, to note, why the characters are all pretty fem-coded - because that's my favorite to RP) Anyway, after I drew them all, folks asked if I'd do other classes too. And I was like, maybe? But, sorcerer did sound fun to do this with so over the last few months I've been working on them kinda on the side while I put most my energy in, like, the commissions I need to finish lol. But here, a bunch of theoretical sorcerers I'd personally play in a game:

Let's start us off with Iris, a half-elf who'd be living a pretty normal life in a normal job (I was thinking she was probably a waitress or somethin) until she finds something weird - a piece of a meteor or something, you know how it goes. Suddenly she has powers, and that's where her adventure would begin More sorcerers under the cut!

Tally I struggled with because, as it turns out, little mechanical fairy wings are complicated to draw. BUT also fun - I liked the idea of a fairy who's lost her wings and while she's trapped in the material plane she befriends a clockmaker who builds her little wings for her and eventually her magic ends up kind of syncing up with the mechanical way he teaches her about the world

Elysia was actually the last one I drew, since I have a DIFFERENT Divine Soul sorcerer I've already designed and want to play as a priority, but then I happened to see something about Greek gods while watching TV one day and thought, oh hey, that'd be a fun way to play with a divinity-themed sorcerer - maybe a musician that caught the affections of a god who blessed her with magic

Cherish is a cheerful tiefling working at an inn with her former-adventurer mother. We can guess what sort of things her mother got up to in her adventure since she ended up raising a child with some mysteriously draconic features

NGL Aine was just a way for me to play with some of the inspirations I used to cling to as a kid. Sailor Moon and other various bits of anime and JRPGs and such that I loved in my youth and used a LOT to inspire art. I wanted to remember that - and a catgirl wearing too many belts sounded perfect for that

Leila is probably my weirdest - she's SPECIFIC, like if there's a campaign set in the Shadowfell or something, I imagined a maid working in a mansion that gets magicked away to this realm and her gaining that shadow power when it happens

One of my first 5e characters was a storm sorcerer - more focused on rain and lightning and thunder. I used the same hair color and close to the same skin color to make this new storm sorcerer as a bit of a nod to that character, and wanted this one more focused on winter storms (including making her a winter eladrin elf)

and last but certainly not least, Gemma the halfling cursed with wild magic. I think she started off her adventuring life with a thieves' group before they found the wrong magic artifact. You know how it goes