#this is very fun to play out in the dnd world and then go back to book world where celin is actively trying to stop a war before it starts

[atomatowriter]

Highlights from Prismatic Dawn battle (the Remire Village battle for those who know FE3H):

Celin got dropped to 9 HP because she was in the center of a big AOE spell (not fireball but idk what it was) an took a shit ton of fire damage, ran over to heal Dimitri and Dedue who also took a shit ton of fire damage, and she then took more damage at the end of her turn bc she wouldn't leave the big fire without them. Also at one point there was some action confusion and Dimitri got to run out of the big fire but Dedue didn't leave until Celin was out. They truly are both like that. 😭

I learned that Celin's horse has a higher wisdom score than she does.

We were so spread out across the battlefield that we all had pieces of what was going on and nobody had all of it. Celin did not actually do a lot of fighting, she mostly got some kids to safety, pulled some knights out of fires (we joked about modern AU firefighter Celin and I want this), and, as I put it "ran back and forth like a frantic collie just going 'EVERYBODY STAY IN ONE PLACE.'" Consequently, she has no idea that a) the Flame Emperor was there, b) Sven's dad (the main Slither guy in our game bc Cressida replaced Thales and Solon, etc. with other characters) was there fucking shit up again, c) the unconscious girl she healed and ran out of the battlefield was an Agarthan but also sort of Sven's half-sister? and d) the kids she got out of the fire at the start of the battle were Kyrie's resurrected siblings????????

Cressida on some of those points: "But does she have kind of an idea?" Me: "She has a wisdom of 9 so no."

At one point Dimitri went into a rage and ran off the map to go fight the Death Knight and half of us were like BITCH and followed him but my brain leapt from that to remembering how, historically in the Fire Emblem: Three Houses video game when Dimitri goes off map to charge after an enemy, it does not go well for him to realizing, "Yeah if Dimitri dies, Celin is gonna straight up tell Dedue about our Crest of Flames shit and also our access to resurrection rituals. I know we promised to keep it a secret but if he dies she's IMMEDIATELY gonna tell Dedue that she has a way to bring him back to life because she doesn't trust what he'll do if he thinks Dimitri is permadead." (We have, in the past, resurrected Mercedes.)

After the fight was over, Dimitri was super pissed, as...you know, is canon. Celin saw how there were so many more bodies of villagers than there were the people who actually caused this and in the mindlink to Sylvain was like "Yeah I get the anger though." Also on that point, she said "FUCK" or "GODDESS DAMNIT" in the mindlink in a panic like three times during the battle so I think she's fully embraced that she is now a person who swears. This is her life now. She lost her religion, she and her friends are in dangerous and emotionally wrought situations every five minutes, someone experimented on a bunch of innocent villagers, and she is a person who says fuck now.

Kyrie and Solstice had a talk with the Flame Emperor that was very tense where FE was basically like "Join me." And Kyrie and Solstice were like "Give us more information please." And FE was like "No information, only join me." However, they did say the whole "the world will be purged in flames and made anew."

I realized that while I would love to have a Golden Route, I don't know if CELIN is gonna be capable of it. Because she's very "reform not abolish" - and also feels like Slither is at the root of most of the bad shit, so while the Church has some things to answer for it's not...the big bad here??? - and she would respond to "the world will be purged in flames" with like " respectfully no?????????? we live in the world???????? a lot of people live in the world???????? people die when you purge them in flame." Also Edelgard's whole "Yeah I don't want children to suffer anymore...and so I'm going to start a war and kill thousands but after that when the world is exactly what I want it to me then they'll be fine" is not something I ever see her siding with. Our Black Eagles character, Sven, has like an A support with Edelgard and may have a shot at persuading her out of the war thing (but a long shot since Edelgard's main personality trait is being...unyielding), but has said that ultimately if he can't, he's already pledged himself to her and would side with her. So we might go into the post timeskip with some of the PCs, who all deeply love each other, on opposite sides of the war. 😬

[motsimages]

I really enjoyed Titan Takedown because they don't only work on TV, they basically roleplay for a living, on TV. While the Intrepid heroes are very familiar with the format of the program and also very much acquainted with TV/theater work (which is why it works so well), the righteous wrestlers have spent years playing out exagerated plots in front of a live audience and a non-live audience. They know how to work the camera, they know how to work the gestures and they know how to flow with whatever is going on in a way that not all improv actors can do, because it is a different medium with different rules.

Brennan could put both drama and a combat per episode because they follow him to wherever he leads. The only moment of doubt about it was on episode 1 for Bayley because she was still very confused as to how DnD works (which she solved superfast because by episode 2, she fucking knew her character sheet).

If you compare it with Dungeons and Drag Queens, who are also good performers in their own world and are also on a beginner side quest, you can see that they are not as comfortable with the TV (while still being comfortable), but also they get lost with NPCs or their own silly ideas and it takes a lot to get them back. Brennan had to skip to places with them because they didn't follow him as well, and I'm pretty sure that this is directly related to frequently working with narratives or not working with narratives.

It is true that Brennan simplified the world for the righteous wrestlers much more than he did for the questing queens, but again, Chelsea is the latest arrival to the wrestling world and she has been doing it for at least 10 years. That's 10 years of exagerated acting for a living.

I particularly loved Xavier because he was enjoying it like a child, while still giving the hell of a show, and Chelsea, who was on full performance mode since minute 1 with every single situation, character or conversation. Kofi and Bayley also gave a good show and had a lot of fun but it took them a bit longer to figure out how to mix it with the DnD mechanics.

Overall, I really liked it because I love to see people learning new things and having fun, and also because I just love it when people are skilled at performing.

[thydungeongal]

Hi, just wanted to ask if you have any advice for someone who grew up with DnD 3.5e and wants to branch out into other game systems. I would really like something that is more storyfocused but also has a space for more rules light combat.

(Sorry if this ask is too demanding, you can gladly delete it. I just have seen you answer other asks about recomendations and wanted to try my luck)

I can give it the ol' college try, but firstly: the ask that something be "story focused" is a bit too vague and broad and can mean any number of things depending on what the person means. Some people use it to mean "rules light instead of crunchy," while others use it to mean "a game focused on genre emulation," and yet others mean "you know, something that's not about dungeon-crawling and combat." I know this is one of those issues where it might be hard to articulate what it is you want exactly unless you already have been exposed to other games, but it's always worth trying to be a bit more specific.

Anyway with all of that out of the way, I'm going to keep these suggestions within the realm of fantasy. Even though you didn't specify that, I'm going to keep at least one angle consistent between these suggestions, because otherwise this'll be all over the place.

Quest is a game I've recommended a bunch of times for people looking for a game that is broadly in the same genre of D&D (fantasy adventure) but does away with some of the mechanics that the genre of "D&D as it's played on podcasts" does away with. It's a simple d20-based fantasy RPG with lots of room for player input and relatively light mechanics. The perfect type of game if you mostly want to chuck some d20s with your friends while playing a pretty straightforward adventure game with minimal logistics. It's also free!

Grimwild is another one I've found quite charming. It's an interesting one: clearly inspired by D&D 5e (like, the character options are straight from 5e), but approaching that genre from a completely different direction. It clearly takes cues from some more modern indie RPGs like Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark, but still has its own unique twists on many ideas. Worth taking a look if you're into the broad genre of fantasy adventure but want something that approaches that genre via something a bit more generative. Also has a free version available, with the paid version mainly adding some essays about the designer's rationale for some of the choices in the game as well as advice on how to hack the game to different subgenres of fantasy.

Third I'm going to suggest QuestWorlds. QuestWorlds is technically setting neutral, but specifically meant for pulp adventures where the heroes are larger than life. It's a game with a history going as far back as the early 2000s and has gone through a few names, with QuestWorlds being the latest, and at the time of release it was one of the first examples of a roleplaying game that did not try to simulate its fictional reality via specific procedures but very specifically applied its rules towards emulating story convention. The main issue with QuestWorlds with regards to this ask is that it's very much a toolkit and also it doesn't really have a combat system. It has systems for resolving conflict, and those systems can in fact be used for resolving combat, but it's probably not what you're looking for if you want an actual combat system. Regardless, a very interesting game, but sadly no free version of this one.

Hopefully at least one of those will scratch and itch. If not, do let me know if there's something more specific you're looking for! :)

[sprintingowl]

Candela Obscura

I'm very late to the party, but I finally read Candela Obscura. It's a weird TTRPG---but in a lot of soft ways. It's a bad fit for 50% of DnD players, and a really good fit for 25% of DnD players. It's easy to use if you're good at ignoring the rules, and quite difficult if you need rules structure to feel comfortable.

Anyway, here's a quick review.

Candela Obscura is an Edwardian supernatural TTRPG built out of bits from several popular story-forward systems. The dice are d6s. You roll a couple and count the highest one. If you want, you can spend your meter to add more dice. And if you keep a specific fancy die (even if its roll was bad,) you get some of the meter back.

There is damage and combat and equipment and classes, but the system doesn't feel like it actually wants these things at all, and their role is overall kind of minimal. You don't hit level seven and unlock a new power that completely transforms play. You shuffle some points between your stats occasionally---either after a few sessions or when you die.

Dying doesn't kill you in Candela Obscura. You just take some lasting trauma and rejoin the group the next time they rest. This is going to feel like the destruction of reality itself to folks who are very deep into the DnD ruleset, but what this does is prioritize the story in Candela. You're not going to get your character killed off by a stray crit. You don't have to optimize to do board game combat in order to tell a complete story. You play your blorbo as long as you want to.

Simply put, I think this is a game for former theater kids (said as a former theater kid.) The game's mechanics are there if you want to invoke them, but if what you want to actually do is gloom around parlors, poke around dusty curio shops, write gothic poetry for your phantasmal beloved, and lounge louchely out of the back of a stagecoach on the way to the count's manor, this is a pretty good system for that.

When you rely on Candela's mechanics to give it substance, they don't do that at all. So Candela's substance has to come from atmosphere, acting, the fun of performing the game vs the fun of winning it.

In fact, I'd argue that if you downscaled the rules into something you could run as a larp, it'd be a better system (and a decent larp.)

Lore-wise, Candela isn't breaking any new ground, so I'm not going to go into super deep detail here. If you've got some Gail Carriger books on your shelf, you're already in the right ballpark. Magic is dangerous. You're part of a group that investigates it. Other secret societies want different things from magic, and sometimes a big monster comes galumphing through the veil between worlds and everyone has to deal with that.

Candela does take care to establish that its world is one in which prejudice does not exist, and I think this is a well-intentioned fumble. Giving groups tools to remove or downplay prejudice as an element from their game (Lines & Veils, X Card, etc,) that's good. Not everyone wants to confront the miseries of the world during their leisure activity. But saying "there's no prejudice in this empire." I dunno. Sorta misses some key things about empires.

Overall, though, the lore is easy to work with and there's quite a lot of it. You get a very good sense of what the setting is like, even just flipping through, and this is aided by the lovely art and layout. It's a nice looking book.

So, would I recommend Candela Obscura? Kinda™

If you've already played a bunch of indie games and you want something Edwardian supernatural, it's a solid pick. If you've only played DnD but you ignore the rules more than you use them, this is also good for that style of play! If you want a game specifically about combat, that you can strategize and win, this is absolutely not that and you'll have a bad time trying to make it do those things.

I do hope Candela Obscura grows more of an audience, as I'd love to see the kinds of indie games that its hyper-presence in the scene would inspire. It's also something I feel like I could run comfortably, and would be happy to play in---even if it's not a top five system for me.

If you've played it, or if I've gotten anything wrong in my review, please feel free to let me know. And if you haven't played it, but I've inspired you to, heck yeah. It's available at the link below.

[fafodill]

So I think Snape would have been a killer at DnD.

Had it been something back then when he was in Hogwarts, he'd have played with the Slytherins ('come on Severus, we're lacking a player'). He'd have felt so awkward at first (for everyone involved) but he'd have played a Rogue (fun trivia: in the french version of HP, they translated Snape to Rogue), and would have been quite good at it. Strangely good even. All these hours trying to outsmart James and Sirius finally paying off.

Since the game would go okay and he'd even got praised a few times he might have wanted to be better at it. He would have read the entire rule book and memorized it after a few weeks. He'd make notes in it. It would be so useful to have it on your team because you could ask him anything. Of course he'd even have found holes in the rules and contradictions (maybe he'd even have written to the author to complain about it).

And he is smart. He'd have great ideas, the DM would take notes. Other nerd students liking DnD would start to talk to him. He'd make friends.

And maybe, just maybe, because he's a control freak with a big brain, he'd finally decide to become a DM himself and it'd be great but strict because he's not here to let people chat forever and be buffoons. No, with him you're going forward with the story. It'f become a game for his players to stall him (but not too much or he'll get super mad and toss you out of the party) or surprise him with their stupid ideas ('what do you mean you touch the cursed Hyppogriff skull?! I told you it would unleash impossible horrors upon the world and rip your bollocks off- STOP LAUGHING'). He'd become vulgar too, his upbringing showing sometimes and it'd be so fucking funny to everyone. That little scrawny nerd who was bossing everyone around and coming up with good stories. One of his secretd: during summer he went to the library and read some Lovecraft and mystery novels.

And I can't see how this would happen but I just imagine him trying to play with Lucius and it just cracks me up because for some reason I'm convinced Lucius would have the WORST LUCK EVER and fail most of his dice rolls. He'd even ask Cissy to blow on his dice to give him luck (it would kinda work but no, she's not going to stay here for 4 hours, thank you very much husband).

Anyway, much nerdiness. I think it would suit him. Feel free to elaborate I'd love to read it.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi :) Perhaps an odd one, but I was wondering if you had any recommendations of games to play out events that have already happened? The end game has been predetermined, but the events that lead to it are more mutable? I'm running a dnd game with a group that has been very open to trying out different systems and I was thinking it could be very fun to put the player characters back in time into the shoes of other characters during the campaign's inciting event. Thanks!

Theme: Recalling Events

Hello friend, so there are definitely games that allow you to do something similar to what you’re looking for. There are games that go back in time, games that flashback to previous events, and games that take place at moments in our real-world history that have already happened. I don’t know if any of those games exactly work for what you’re looking for, but they might be interesting to look at in order to ask yourself how you want to run something in a timeline that you’ve established for a specific setting.

Ten Candles, by Calvary Games.

Ten Candles is a zero-prep tabletop storytelling game designed for one-shot 2-4 hour sessions of tragic horror. It is best played with one GM and 3-5 players, by the light of ten tea light candles which provide atmosphere, act as a countdown timer for the game, and allow you to literally burn your character sheet away as you play. 

Ten Candles is described as a "tragic horror" game rather than survival horror for one main reason: in Ten Candles there are no survivors. In the final scene of the game, when only one candle remains, all of the characters will die. In this, Ten Candles is not a game about "winning" or beating the monsters. Instead, it is a game about what happens in the dark, and about those who try to survive within it. It is a game about being pushed to the brink of madness and despair, searching for hope in a hopeless world, and trying to do something meaningful with your final few hours left.  

There is only a few facts pre-determined at the beginning of this game, but those facts are important: all of your characters will die. Over the course of the game, you will slowly blow out ten candles as your characters grow closer and closer too their doom.

However, the nature of that doom can be altered. I’ve seen it done for the Locked Tomb, for example, and you can set it in a modern world, a futuristic world, or a fantasy world if you like. If you want to hack this game for your group, I’d recommend playing out a scenario that involves characters that you don’t mind saying goodbye too - perhaps a catastrophe your party heard about, and you can role-play the last moments of some people they failed to save.

Firebrands Games

Mobile Zero Firebrands is a game about mech pilots getting into fights and falling in love, but more importantly, it’s a game that guides the group through mini-game-like scenes that are common tropes in various stories. The beginning scene and the end scene are usually pre-determined, but all of the other scenes happen in whatever order you prefer.

The original system has been hacked a number of times, so you might find a game or genre that works for you - perhaps you’d like to play pirates in One Particular Harbour, or gods and heroes in Divine || Mundane. You could play members of a religious order looking for a new leader in Hierophants, or look into the complicated lives of mages in Hearts of Magic. If you don’t find anything that works for your specific tastes that already exists, you could also hack the system to make it fit for your specific group.

Eat the Reich, by Rowan, Rook & Decard.

Eat the Reich is a tabletop roleplaying game in which you, a vampire commando, are coffin-dropped into occupied Paris and must cut a bloody swathe through nazi forces en route to your ultimate goal: drinking all of Adolf Hitler’s blood.

This over-the-top, ultra-violent game is designed to be played from beginning to end in one to three sessions of carnage, blood magic, meaningful flashbacks and hundreds upon hundreds of extremely dead fascists. It tells one story, it tells it loud, and it tells it brilliantly. Think Wolfenstein crossed with Danger 5 and you’re not far off the mark.

Eat the Reich both happens at a very specific point in time - WWII - and also has a mechanic that allows characters to flash-back to various points in their shared backstories in order to play through a high-action sequence while still getting to know the characters. Your vampires have been working together for a long time, and while Eat the Reich is meant to be rather fast, these flashbacks allow you to speed up that relationship-building by letting you fill the details in backwards.

Eat the Reich started out as a hack of Havoc Brigade, if I remember correctly, so the system is definitely hack-able: perhaps you can think of a big event that happened in your party’s past or even in another part of the world, and then design characters that represent folks who were behind the big event. I think this kind of game would work best for heists or high-stakes assassination - anything that expects your players to put their lives on the line for a big, sweet payoff.

Retrocausality, by Weird Age Games.

Retrocausality is a tabletop RPG about time travel adventures, in the vein of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure or Back to the Future.

It uses a rules-light, card-based system that lets you decide how time travel works. Whether you have a specific movie you want to emulate, you have Opinions on the Novikov self-consistency principle, or you prefer not to ask too many questions, Retrocausality can make it happen. Even better, the rules are so light you can use Retrocausality to run a time travel adventure in a different game. That's twice as much game.

Many of the examples shown in Retrocausality indicate that the time travellers you play will be messing with a timeline, and since the rules can be ported into a different game, that tells me that you could use this for any genre you like. This of course, means that you’re not just telling a story about your characters’ pasts - your characters are actually going back in time to a specific part of history.

I suppose you could use this to either bring your characters back to a time period before they were born, or maybe instead you’re interested in taking new heroes back to a point in time when your characters were doing something significant off-camera.

Houses of the Sun By Night, by Emily Zhu.

These are 13 houses of the underworld that the sun passes through at night.

These are 13 minigames you can play in specific situations, during your other games or on their own.

This is how the dead come back to life.

This series of games is explicitly designed to be hackable, with a setting that can be ripped apart if you like. The original setting is a nod to the underworld of Egyptian mythology, but the moments themselves can be zoomed in on a small moment or used to navigate a special event that may have big effects on the larger story. I think you can use some of the games in here to re-visit moments of your characters’ pasts, or reference events that may have happened to NPCs that the characters were not necessarily witness to.

If you want to learn more about this set of games, you can watch Aaron Voight’s review of the game on Youtube!

Other Games To Check Out

Feng Shui 2, by Atlas Games.

Time Travel Recommendation Post

[bareee]

(Don’t read this with a dark tone, read it with a light tone please I’m asking.) So why is your boy sassing Neve for being concerned she was possessed by a demon when it’s a real danger in dragon age? She’s a mage, the most vulnerable to possessions, she’s allowed to be ask after it. In fact everyone is cautious because of it.

You suffer joke to get answers XD I couldn’t help it

NOW BAM

1. He’s always sassy or has an attitude when he’s comfortable, Neve (and eventually Lucanis)makes him very comfortable.

2. And most important, short answer:Mark is not from here, he’s from Faerun(BG3/DND). He know nothin’.

Longer answer(with some spoilers):

In Mark’s whole canon, he’s from there, he made it here on accident, so HE KNOW SHIT bout anythin goin on. Antoine and Evka will explain more in a comic sense when we get to em cause they dealt with the ol’ man the most in the beginnin cause I chose the Warden route (Cause boy is tank and extra health is important and I go by mechanics in video games when I know no lore), turned out lore wise it was a very fun choice for who Mark is anyway but still. He took out the tower in the warden backstory, With his own body falling through it after teleport in here in my story, and Mark not knowin anythin, not bein able to DO anythin he was suppose to be able to do, and at a ripe ol 68 yr old is the standard story of a dense ol man takin his new lesson on learnin and changin with whats around him. He aint happy, and Antoine, Evka,Harding,Varric, and the most recent Neve and soon Lucanis are the ones stuck with this ol man stuck in a mind set that makes no sense cause their world makes no sense to the ol man. NOT TO MENTION him bein told and find out ether now or later when Emmrich joins that in Dragon age, what we’d split in different race groups completely in dnd as Fey, fiend, and undead, are actually all in same category here just different stages or whatever also is somethin he will not be able to comprehend well. Which I will continue why this is VERY bad down at the bottom cause spoiler.

Which all is kinda good for me cause I know nothin other then veilguard myself. I have inquisition but haven’t played it at all for the years I’ve had it downloaded…. And in my veilguard only experience i can see and understand what everyone bitched bout how laxed it is. I KNOW NOTHIN that is bad bad in the world because the game has no agency what so ever hardly. Some context a little sometimes like thanks to Harding’s and Davrin’s attitude towards Lucanis You know somethin’ up and bad juju…. But its so mild in a world perspective I had a hard time judgin on s scale whats more dangerous then other things… I have heard plenty that this is not a great step into the dragon age world, I fully know it and am happy the character I chose to play represents how clueless I’m gonna be bout everythin in this.

NOW SPOILER ALERT cause at this time we’re still like 2 or 3 comics away in my bg3 one from this info bout Mark bein fully known knowledge out there, AND I do hint at things to happen in the DAV storyline sooooo Imma put a cut here if ya dont wanna read it yet and can come back after those are out if liked. I have been diligent on keepin this damn thing a secret and drippin hints so its your fault of ya spoil it for yourself now~~~

Mark bein FEY in dnd and even worse an ARCH FEY makes it where not in any way, shape, or form is he possible here doesnt make it better for him to process things. Here he makes no sense and in fact the closest thing Ive been able to find that represents what Mark is the Evanuris. Solas, Elgar’nan, Ghilan’nain, these are the people he’s closes to representin here, and he HATES that. (Includin the others he dealt with in this game that I forgot the name of) And even to them he’s broken and not correct. He doesn’t belong here at all,and the world will be breakin him in the process of fittin him in till he figures out ether how get back home or how to once again break himself to fit a mold.

[bookishjules]

any thoughts on how Simon and Isabelle will be around their in laws, I know we got to see a bit of it in the later books but would love to hear your thoughts

anon i will take any chance to talk about rebecca lewis <33 yes, i know there are more inlaws in question, and i will get to them, but i have been dying to talk about becky hehe plus there really is so much more to explore on the lewis side--naturally, since neither elaine nor rebecca have interacted with izzy in canon (insane btw).

sidenote: i kinda love how izzy only ever grew up with brothers, but gained a sister through simon (or two really, since we really must count clary, but you know, we're talking technicalities here), and that for simon, it's the opposite.

anyway, speaking of sisters hehe i genuinely think izzy and rebecca would get along well. i think iz would be a good source of.. fun i guess? for becky. like a good reminder to let loose. and i think becky would be a good resource for izzy, someone with a bit more age and wisdom that she can go to, someone who isn't maryse. and it's not like becky would be the only one offering advice. i think izzy would remind her to put herself first sometimes, to chase what she wants and to be kinda.. undeniable i guess. and i think they would laugh together and i think they would go shopping together, despite their very different fashion senses, and i think becky would maybe make some clothes for izzy and i think they would bond over the matching simon-shaped swell in their hearts.

i think becky is a common presence at the sizzy household. movie nights or game nights, or becky-cooked dinners (she might also try train some better cooking instincts into izzy while she's at it hehe), at least for a while until life things happen etc. i also think, and i know this is thinking a decent way further down the line, but i also think she'll be one of their go-to babysitters, since i don't think she'll get settled with her own family until she's in her 30s, and because i just know she'll want to be part of every second of that.

okay okay i think i need to stop talking about rebecca now or i will end up writing a novel..

i think their relationship with elaine is a lot more.. delicate. they don't see her nearly as often. because they can't be honest about the shadow world, for one, but also because i think she still has a little bit of.. not exactly loose canon, but something akin to that, in her. i think she wishes she got to see her son and daughter in law more, but i think there's this underlying anger for izzy any time they go to elaine's place, because even though it was years ago, izzy's first introduction to her personality was still through the lens of her condemning her son and kicking him out of the house at 16. and i also think izzy's seen how that reaction has affected simon, both in the direct aftermath, and in the years after he got his memories back.

i know levi is dead and wouldn't have any sort of relationship with izzy, but i do think simon would have taken her to levi's grave at some point to introduce them anyway. maybe around their wedding?

i really don't feel like there's much to say about the lightwoods that we haven't already seen, or that can't be easily extrapolated, but in spirit of fairness..

jace and simon are very much jace and simon. it's kinda hard to imagine their relationship changing much more than it already has. the comfortability and familiarity between them, the playful jabs, etc. i do think jace has probably begrudgingly gone to simon for a second (or third after clary, ig) opinion on some plans or strategies etc. he's having to make as an institute head. and i definitely think simon has tried to teach jace dnd, and had him over to play video games more than once.

i think simon and alec's relationship goes through more change than what we've been privy to. i think they have their bonding time doing target practice or over coffee after putting the kids to bed. they talk about politics and work and the sda. they also definitely talk about jace being an idiot lol

when it comes to maryse.. bro maryse is so hard for me. their relationship with her would be much closer than that they have with elaine, of course. and i think in maryse's effort to be more present with her family, she also makes a point to have a personal relationship with simon. they don't really have all that much in common, but simon has always seemed like something of a mom charmer to me. he's funny and smart and knows how to be polite. plus he really really cares about izzy. and i think it means a lot to maryse to see that. call it projection or mother's love or a little of both, but it's nice to have that reassurance that her daughter won't have to go through what she did.

[ramshacklefey]

No but serious. Dungeons & Dragons is one of the least flexible systems out there. So whenever I hear someone asking, "Why can't I do X in DnD?" or "How would I do (thing that the system is totally ill-suited for)?" my first response is just "GURPS."

For those of you who aren't familiar, GURPS stands for "Generic Universal Role Playing System." I always say it's like the Linux of ttrpgs, in the sense that it's less a system and more a framework that you can use to do whatever you want with.

And I really do mean whatever you want. You want high fantasy? Done. You want gritty realism in a dystopian world? Got it. You want superheroes? Good to go. Super tech space opera? Oh boy we got you there. You want magic systems that aren't based on spell lists? Go for it. Horror games where character death is a constant and very real threat? Sure thing.

You can set up your game to be anything from a complex data driven grinder to a cinematic rules basically optional flight of fancy.

You can play characters who are anywhere from realistically squishy humans to god-like super beings.

Characters personal flaws and strengths can have a direct impact on mechanics. Character species can have a direct and serious impact on mechanics.

The existence of so many options can make GURPS seem overwhelming at first glance, but if you are willing to put in a bit of effort, it's actually a very simple system to play. Most of the hard work is front-loaded into setting and character creation. Once play starts it runs as smooth as can be.

It's totally possible to play it with just the two core books, BUT there are dozens of books that are nothing but tips and advice for how to build a particular type of world or a particular flavor of campaign.

And the books, while not nearly as pretty as DnD books, are laid out in a way that makes it incredibly easy to find exactly the information you want.

Some more mechanical things that I particularly like about it (under the cut):

Characters are created on a point-buy system, but you don't just buy your basic stats, you also buy your skills, advantages, and secondary stats. And you can gain points back by dropping stats below average or taking disadvantages.

The advantage/disadvantage system. This is sorta the core of the character building, and it is *so* much fun. See, rather than pick out a class or species, you have a list (selected by your GM from a much larger list) of things you can buy that will have mechanical impacts on you in the game. Basically, an advantage is anything that opens up more possibilities for you in-game, and a disadvantage is anything that closes off possibilities. They can be superpowers, species traits, cinematic plot armor, personality traits, or things like chronic illness, bad temper, physical or mental disabilities, or being doomed by the narrative.

Simple dice system. To play a GURPS campaign you need three d6. That's it. All checks and saves are done by rolling 3d6 (low rolls are better than high). This has an additional advantage over the d20 system in that there is a probability curve. You're more likely to roll numbers in the mid-range, which makes both critical successes and critical failures rarer, and therefore more satisfying.

Your target roll is adjusted, rather than adding/subtracting from the roll itself. Say you're trying to, idk, hack a computer. Your skill level doesn't affect your dice roll, it affects the number you need to roll in order to succeed. This makes things a lot simpler on the player's end, imo, because there's less they need to keep track of. (You're trying to roll under the skill check, so whatever the base difficulty is, the GM just adds or subtracts your skill level from that).

The basic stats are on a much tighter scale, and they make a lot more sense. Human average is a 10 in everything. When you make your character you can buy higher stats or take lower ones and get more points to spend on other things. All stats cap out at 18, because that's the highest number you can roll. At a 10 strength you are a normal person. At 18 you're basically Superman. You'd have to roll a critical failure not to succeed in a strength check, and remember: critical failures are far less common than in a d20 system.

I could keep going ad infitum here, but instead I'll just close with:

Come with me boy, play my games! We'll have cowboy times in space!

[littjara-mirrorlake]

Hey I’m thinking of making a Bllomburrow dnd campaign. I was wondering if you had any tips or suggestions!

Back from the MagicCon crunch so it's finally time to start answering old asks! Yay!

First, it's really awesome that you're doing this! I've been wanting to play in a Bloomburrow game, the setting is so incredibly cool and I am JEALOUS of your players, lol.

Have fun homebrewing materials for your game (if that's the route you decide to go down)! I like referencing iconic setting mechanics when I homebrew for a given MtG world. For example, this is my Mox Opal with affinity (not metalcraft, but close enough).

Think about Bloomburrow's most standout mechanical features, particularly as they pertain to each "faction" of critters, and how you can translate those to D&D. Rabbits that give their allies advantage? Bats that use HP payment and healing as core mechanics? Squirrel bards that raise the dead? It's all up to you! Giving each faction a unique mechanical identity is a nice way to elevate worldbuilding to the next level.

Especially if your players also play MtG, it can be fun to incorporate the cards themselves into your gameplay in small ways. For example, drawing cards from the set for random encounters, or getting each player to represent their character with a card and drawing those when you need to pick a PC for something. I'm sure MtG-loving players will particularly appreciate homebrewed references to iconic characters and artifacts from the set.

Regarding combat, there's this post I reblogged that talks about handling CR and making nonviolent solutions to combat more available. I call it "Undertale-ing" your way out of situations, and I think that for Bloomburrow in particular it would be very meaningful to offer alternate forms of conflict resolution that could lead into new connections, plot threads, or friendships. By all means include epic combats and high-stakes action (the Calamity Beasts sound like incredible D&D boss fights), but remember that ultimately, community-building in Bloomburrow is the way to win! It's not that combat is unimportant, but roleplay and exploration should be especially emphasized.

Bloomburrow, in general, lends itself extremely well to high fantasy RPG and D&D tropes, and it's a perfect choice for a campaign setting. I have no doubt that you will have a lot of fun with it. Embrace it, lean in hard, and show off your love for everything the setting has to offer.

I love talking about converting Magic to D&D, and this makes me want to write a dedicated article to it sometime!

[wardensantoineandevka]

What classes do you think the mighty nein would play, were they to play dnd? Bonus round would they be good at dnd.

I had a post about this like back in 2020 or something that I cannot find, so I don't know if my opinions have changed since then. I don't have anyone down as DMing because I assume that even their forever DM has a preferred class.

Fjord - Cleric I don't think Fjord would like tanking that much because getting attacked makes him nervous, but he doesn't want to be a glass cannon either. I think that he would initially go for cleric because he simply wants to be useful and helpful, but he didn't necessarily realize how big of a job being the cleric is. He starts out as a just Cure Wounds dispenser, but quickly flourishes into a Holy Terror Wrath Of The Righteous Divine cleric. He loves doing that. His mechanics are solid and efficient and he's tactically astute, but he's a timid roleplayer who struggles to initiate scenes. He's solid if drawn into scenes and forgets to be self-conscious because he's got a better character sense than he thinks. Literally do not ask him what the overall plot of the campaign is because he cannot remember no matter how hard he tries; he remembers individual PC arcs though. I think he'd also like paladins, bards, and druids, and I do think he'd be willing to play some of the more involved fighters like the Knights subclasses and the cooler rangers.

Beau - Wizard She wants to be the person in the game who gets all the information, and that's usually a wizard. She wants to put her little hands all over all the lore, and also she loves having a spell list that's a billion miles long. She does not want you to know that she feels so smugly satisfied playing a character who can do the research and have the connections and know the information. She absolutely hates that this means she's made of tissue paper, so she tends toward Con wizard. Her mechanics and exploration work are really good, and she is stellar at engaging in the world in a way that's highly informed by her character class. She struggles with the roleplaying part of things a lot. She has a decent grasp of character, it's the actual RPing part that she has trouble with. If you can convince her to play a charisma caster, which she is afraid of doing, she'd also enjoy bard a lot. Also monks and artificers.

Caleb - Wizard This is self-explanatory. Caleb is a guy who plays a wizard or the full damage caster in every single game. This is who he is. He is great mechanically until you gotta discuss non-spell stuff. He did, in fact, read that portion of the rules, but it was never relevant to him, so he deleted it from his head. His spell choices and use are phenomenal though. He min-maxes but specifically for the weirdest, most niche element that is useful one time, but it is extremely clutch that one time it's relevant. He is also great at the storytelling portion, though his roleplaying can be a little dense or dry. If you can make him play something that's not a wizard, druid or bard. He will not play a healer druid or bard though.

Veth - Warlock She wants to make bad decisions in her games, and she loves that a warlock comes prepackaged with bad decisions. She has a solid grasp of her spellcasting mechanics, but also finds full casting intimidating. She loves the concept of being a wizard in theory but actually playing one stresses her out. She is a very loud and excitable player, which can be a lot of fun if, uh, loud. She fucking supports you and is into whatever it is you're doing, especially if it's so dumb to do. She is inventing the weirdest and most ambiguously intense patron relationship of all time. She also would enjoy paladins, rangers, artificers, and the fancier fighters (again, the Knights subclasses). She could be eased into cleric if a niche in the party is clear and her mechanical role is structured. She can totally handle full casting, including wizards, she just psyches / stresses herself out.

Jester - Bard I feel like people are going to be like "what about barbarian," but I think that Jester tried it once and the comparative lack of options made her really frustrated. She loves the idea of hitting things, but she hates it when 80% of her options is just hitting it. She is attracted to the charisma casters though, because she really likes the charisma skillset, and she really wants to cast a lot of spells. Out of the charisma caster options, she likes bards best because she loves being a little good at everything. She tends to be a little over-competitive about it and gets sulky when she doesn't feel useful enough. She is actually iffy on mechanical nitty-gritty, but her basics and groundwork is solid so it's fine, but she's a really great if melodramatic roleplayer and her social encounter work is great. She is deeply engaged in the narrative and is intensely invested in every NPC. Buys so fucking hard into the suspension of disbelief. She would like the fancier fighters and paladins better than a barbarian.

Molly - Bard He is playing the stereotype bard of everyone's nightmares. I will not further elaborate.

Caduceus - Ranger He does like to ask the plants and animals question in-game as well, and rangers let him do that and have a bit of magic too without being overwhelming as a class. He isn't super interested in doing complex characters; this is not being bad at D&D, to be clear, it's just a preference. He's your friend who is here to play a simple character because he just wants to hang out with you, which I think is always very sweet. That said, he is not very good mechanically. It's a lot of stuff to keep track of even with 5e being a little simpler. I think he would also like playing paladins or the straightforward fighters, or a cleric if he can decide what his niche is and stick to that specifically. He doesn't vibe with barbarians.

Yasha - Druid She is initially drawn to the class for the vibes (always a valid reason to be drawn to a class), but I think she enjoys having spellcasting options and options that aren't "hit it". She is a timid and awkward roleplayer who has a lot of trouble there, even though she has a lot of fun making up backstory and engaging with the lore and story. Her spellcasting is creative and experimental because she loves weird. She is one of the button pushers of the table and is giggling when she does it. (She and Veth are menaces, lmao, it's great.) I think she'd also enjoy bards, maybe clerics and warlocks, and the fancier fighters and rangers.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for not inviting a friend of mine into my dnd campaign?

so i (18nb) have a friend (18nb, Martin) who i play in a main dnd campaign with with all our other friends (Ill name them Dan, Virgil, Mark, and Ray). Dan is our DM after we kicked out the old one bc she was horrible. We're a pretty close group of friends, but lately we've all been really busy with respective school & work, ect. so we didnt play dnd for a solid, like,, 4 months. I DMed a one shot for everyone besides Ray cause she was flaky anyway, and added in my boyfriend Zeke for it.

Everyone had a really fun time w it and I loved everyones characters, especially Dan's. I watch a lot of dnd shows, so i just keep getting more ideas- but while the one shot was fun it was messy as hell. Ive been wanting to write a campaign for a smaller group for a while, (because when i tried making a campaign with the whole group the character creations were... disappointing to say the least. this sounds mean but i created a fairy world that was very magical & told everyone to go crazy on character creation in a world with few/no humans, and like 5/6 people opted to be a human with a fighting class :/ )

ive been writing a campaign that im really proud of and have a good vision for, and decided to include Mark (because we're best friends) Zeke (because he wants to play dnd more and has no opportunities) Dan (bc he never gets to be a player) and then another close friend of mine outside the group named Gabe (who i love but never get to see) I love their characters & we're all super excited.

Thing is. I was briefly talking with Dan, Zeke and Mark about it at school bc I'd sent everyone a little intro message for the world and they were all super excited and wanted to talk to me about their classes. Virgil had no problem with this and was excitedly asking abt the world + characters along with some other friends from school, but Martin got quiet and went and sat by himself. I could tell they were off, but Martin is generally a quiet person anyway and is often sad + doesnt want to talk for like a hundred different reasons, so i left her alone. Later that day in a different class I have with Virgil he showed me his phone where Martin had sent him a message saying she was really disappointed & felt left out that i hadnt invited them to my campaign.

i instantly felt bad and started to text him, but,,,, to be honest, i dont think im at all responsible for this.

i have reasons for leaving Martin out, the main one being that they just..... arent a very active player. Hes soft spoken and doesnt actually like rping their characters- her character in our main campaign is/was literally mute bc they said they didnt want to have to speak as him. (theyve since taken this back and went through with a curse breaking thing to be able to speak, but her character,,, still doesnt talk much.) he writes really good, sad backstories but doesnt actually play or do anything with them and gets uncomfortable acting. Their characters are not only emotional, but like. crazy. they play a bunch of cool tieflings with insane magic classes & features and then, again,,,, dont roleplay them. I didnt want the group to be big and had a good reason for including everyone that i did, and our other friends that arent in it (Virgil, Ray who is Martins sister btw, all our other d&d interested friends at school) literally dont mind at all. i just wrote a campaign that theyre not in. Martin also has their feelings hurt very easily, so to be honest i just find her being sad about not being in it just... stupid. id never say that to his face & i get that he feels bad, but like....cmon.

im aware im a very very incredibly low empathy person- to be honest i struggle with depression and bpd very heavily and am often mean to my friends & loved ones without really processing why or how much it affects them. i told Virgil that i thought Martins reaction was stupid, and he said that that wasnt fair bc Martin had always been in my campaigns before (which is, yknow, one. Martin and I were even in a campaign with a completely different group a while back and Martin willingly left it very early because the group was loud & their character wasnt doing anything (yeah)). Every time Martins expressed (or i guess not expressed) sorrow for not being invited to it ive just sort of ignored them. this again isnt that uncommon cuz when shes sad he doesnt like to talk about it, and also they havent directly confronted me with this at all.

ive been talking about the campaign a lot because it occupies frankly a lot of my brain because i have so much to write, and i especially talk to the people that arent in it bc theres no risk of slipping up and telling them something they arent supposed to know. The other friend, Gabe, is friends with Zeke and Mark and I, and Dan is good around new people,, but Martins really quiet around people he doesnt know well, so if i invited her anyway they'd probably play the game even less than they already do.

again, im really bad at having an actual perspecitve on this. Virgil said he feels bad for Martin but not for himself, as far as i know Dan doesnt know about the situation, and i literally just dont wanna involve Mark and Zeke (Zeke HATES conflict and when people fight so he really doesnt have to be involved.) Mark Martin and I have all been really close friends since literally 7th grade and I guess Martin especially feels left out that I involved Mark and not them but Marks both really good at character creation and also talking in character, and like, hes my best friend who i do everything with.

I dont wanna blow off Martins emotions but but i truly dont give a shit that they feel betrayed by my not inviting him. especially because they havent bothered actually telling me this. objectively i dont think its my fault even a little, and Martin is really horrible at handling their emotions anyway (this isnt an insult, just a fact. i am too). aita for not inviting him + not caring that shes upset by it and acting like they arent?

sorry this is so long i really like providing context

What are these acronyms?

[ghoulgeists]

3, 4, 5 and 6 for willow !

WILLOW MY BELILLOWWW gods favouritest widower to torture ♥

Questions with answers are below the cut! THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME RAMBLE ABOUT MY BABYGIRL!!

3. What was the first thing you decided on, the character's name, appearance, personality or their role in the story?

His role in the story was the first thing I decided! I made Flint first for a dnd oneshot. After it concluded, I liked the character so much that I wanted to build a world around them; since Flint is a character who frequently makes reckless decisions and has no sense of self preservation, I wanted to make a character to contrast that attitude. A cowboy and an undertaker seemed like a really fun dynamic, so I made Willow as a way to constantly remind Flint of their mortality. Willow started as more of a sleezy coffin salesman waiting for Flint to drop dead, but that quickly changed when I realized I could add romantic tension by making him sad and old and desperate for connection instead ♥

4. And reverse, which one of the four things did you struggle with the most?

HAHA Probably his name! I'm just terrible with naming ocs in general, it takes me forever to decide on anything! Although I also went very back and forth on what kind of personality I wanted him to have, between being slimy and out for a quick buck or kind and tortured. I love it when my characters are broken and beaten down so I went with the latter! (Unsurprising)

5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

It was mostly vibes based! I ended up tying it into his story (or vis versa) after the fact. His full name is Willow Everelm, he's very... Tree, lol. I leaned on the fantasy trope of elves being nature-loving because I had SUCH a hard time coming up with a name for him, but it sounded kind of elegant and pretty so I grew on it fast. Willow comes mostly from his long hair, and Everelm is a portmanteau of "evergreen" to play on his longevity and his desire to keep people's memories alive, and "elm" for the pastoral association with tranquility and peace, which I thought was fitting for someone whose whole business was in death. I like stories where death isn't feared or harmful but is rather treated as natural and peaceful, and I wanted to make Willow representative of that too!

6. What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?

Oooh, I actually put a lot of thought into what he looked like and what he wore, since I was aiming for function and form with him. His appearance is mostly just a quirky take on classic undertaker garb from various westerns, with extra inspiration taken from other historic figures associated with death, medicine, and disease. Plague doctors, for instance, were the inspiration for his clothes! His skirt isn't waxed but it is meant to act as an apron of sorts to keep his clothing clean when working, the white wraps on his wrists are stuffed with herbs and perfumed to prevent that creeping smell of death from sticking to him, etc. I also tried to incorporate a lot of "as above, so below" symbolism with him like with the brim of his hat (that I never draw lmao), the tassels off his belt, etc. to sort of drive in that "this guy is associated with unstoppable macrocosms" vibe he's got. As for why he wears all black in an arid western desert setting... um, he doesn't feel the heat for weird biology reasons. And I need him to be emo. I'm making new wild weast gang refs for artfight this year so I do have a rough sketch of his outfit(s)... aheehee

[darianias]

AroAce Options/Inclusivity In Games

(Idea/Concept/tangent)

It's pride month and while I amnewly hyperfixating on Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, my demisexual & demiromantic desire for strong platonic options instead of romance kinda came up again with a vengence.

⚠️ Very Mild and Brief/Vague Spoilers for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (who all is romanceable really and pretty small details) & Baldur's Gate 3 (mentions of an event in game that allows players to have a potentially spicy encounter with other characters) ⚠️

I WOULD KILL for games to have a platonic or romantic option ontop of same sex and/or gender romance for romanceable characters (+ other inclusive features.) Not like a Crobus situation in Stardew Valley, but a yes/no prompt when you get close enough to a character.

It'd be awesome in general as someone who is aroace spec or just be able to play games with the same level of bonding but a different type of it if nothing romantic sparks for me, unless its literally a game like FF7 where it's more of a shipping the character with Cloud type of thing than a "I am romancing this character" type of thing.

I think it'd also be nice for anyone who like just isn't interested in any romanceable characters in a game (in or wants to be closer to one & go thru their story more but isn't attracted them in THAT way.

Yes, youtube and the internet exists, but it still has some level of uncomfortable feeling to it still for me.

Like it could be as simple as having a version with the romantic bits, romantic context and romantic subtext and one that's just... without all of that.

Yes, I understand it would be more expensive, require more coding and more labor, but it'd be so worth it within any game with romanceable npcs and at least some modicum of plot/story and character development- especially when it doesnt fully finish up without romancing the character(s).

As a DnD fan/player, I CAN'T play Baldur's Gate 3 due to how vague/subtle the romance decisions are- or even how mean they can be! I felt like I was walking on eggshells to avoid an adult scene during the thiefling party. I alsp want to be able to care for, support and bond with the party without having to be mean, rude or break hearts just to avoid an unwanted romance. 💀

I want the inclusivity for all people who are within the asexual or aromantic specturms or even just those who love a good story or some good/fun character development.

Back to Guardians of Azuma, I am currently with the second? Major story arc and I am so attached to pretty much all of the characters! (I developed feelings for Subaru & Murasame so far.) I decided to romance Suburu this save and realized some closure for him was locked behind romancing him! Him/Kaguya depening on who you play as are major parts of the story and character development of the character you play as! There's NO reason why the one part when you start dating has to be fully romantic only.

This game like Rune Factory 4 (My first rf game) really hit it out of the ball park with the characters, lore, world building and bonds again. I am very attached to almost all of the romanceable npcs (one is a major part of the story arc I'm in and thus isnt available as a regular villager atm) and many of the non-romanceable characters too! I want to see the full extent of their character, backstories and development, I plan on getting them all to 6 hearts!

But I would KILL to get 10 platonic hearts with full events- just a romance free version. I'd love to have af least a romantic partner and one person who is a platonic partner/best friend. You don't need to have them both move in and live with you in these types of games. Maybe just limit that to one person. (And let the modders do the rest if people want that.)

I do love what little they do have tho in the platonic hang out interactions, I can gush for hours how nice and fulfilling it felt to take Matsuri to the caves for an adventure, Kanata to tell me "Whenever I'm with you, I can be myself," the maternal attachment I have to Hina because of her being a literal small child in RF5, having Kai talk to me about his concerns for his people, how much I want to bother Kurama like a younger sibling just bc he calls the player a pest and so much more. They feel like friends and/or family in the game, strumming up some nostalgic feelings even.

I know most series only added even a modicum of inclusivity for LGBTQ+ people in games very recently, but I can dream of a feature like this. 🥰😍

[harrowedknight]

OC info and lore m’lord? Brave knight… please they’re both so handsome… I’d take Hancock in a knife fight for just one date fr…. Bleeding on the concrete outside kle0s shop rn….

Omg,,, thank u for the ask, I’ll take this as an opportunity to introduce all of my fellas since i have multiple saves/ocs for fallout 4. Right now they’re all in separate aus but I wanna connect them, I just haven’t decided who I want to be the sosu yet, if i even want one at all.

Starting with Ranger, my newest character. He’s the charismatic leader of the Minutemen. He likes making light of every situation, but he knows when to take things seriously. He just puts on a laidback attitude so he appears less intimidating. He’s trying very hard to make the commonwealth safer, but he has some doubts and insecurities about his position, which he bottles up and keeps to himself. He wants to be the person that everyone can rely on and look up to, even if that means putting his own problems aside to appear put-together and strong. He’s the one I draw Edward Deegan with, and I wanna do more with the two of them since I love me some eldritch horror vibes. I imagine Ranger and Edward go on relic hunts for Jack Cabot after their questline, getting into hijinks and fun spooky, horrifyingly traumatic adventures. Maybe kissing along the way. Who knows.

Knight on the other hand, is an anxious, paranoid little glorbo; and I say this while he stands at like 6’4”, he’s BIG, the tallest of all of my guys. He’s got severe PTSD and he really doesn’t like living in the apocalypse. He had a wife! They were in a queer platonic relationship; they got married for the benefits but they’re both gay. He’s devastated after losing her, since she was his best friend. He has a very hard time adjusting to the new commonwealth, he barely scrapes by, has to force himself to function because everything reminds him of war and suffering. He eventually stumbles into Goodneighbor, gets hooked on chems to distract himself from bad memories, meets Hancock one bad night and ends up getting drunk/rambling to the poor ghoul. They end up hitting it off despite the ridiculous introduction. Hancock manages to ground Knight, gives him a purpose again; helping good people, and hurting bad people. Knight travels the commonwealth doing odd jobs, trying to do what he can, even joins up with the Railroad to help out the Synths. Just trying to make up for all the time he’d lost, doing what he thinks would’ve made his best friend proud.

Now for Paladin. Yes, he is named Paladin, and yes, he WAS Paladin Paladin before being promoted to Sentinel. It’s probably obvious by now that I have a Dnd/medieval theme for my character’s names. Anyway, Paladin here is— of course— a part of the Brotherhood of Steel. I made him to be a big dickhead because I don’t play mean characters in video games enough. Unlike my other sosus he’s actually thriving in the apocalypse. Before being frozen he was very dissatisfied/disconnected with the ordinary life he was trying to live, he felt like a husk of himself and he couldn’t understand why. After waking up and being met with a destroyed world, his soldier mentality immediately kicked in again. He adapted fast, and when he learns about the Brotherhood and its US military-esc operations he quickly latches onto it. It’s familiar to him, and he excels at his duties. He rises through the ranks quickly, earning his place as Sentinel and developing a massive ego along the way. The Brotherhood makes him feel powerful, and that sort of becomes an addiction of sorts. He just wants more and more power, he wants to be respected; and if not respected, feared.

And as a bonus unrelated to fallout 4,

This is Monty, aka Montague. He’s a prewar ghoul living in the Canadian territories, or Little America as it’s referred to in the Fallout universe. He was a proud mountie back before Canada was annexed, kept his uniform in a locked safe for years. When the bombs fell and he was ghoulified, he pulled it out and dedicated himself to helping those who get lost in the nuclear winter. I’m still learning things about Fallout lore so idk how Canada is depicted after the bombs in canon, but the idea I had is that Monty lives in a massive, snowy wasteland which he’s learned to navigate with a lot of hard work and dedication. He earns caps by guiding people through the tundra, since few know how to avoid all the dangers it poses.

[nothingwithdignity]

I don't feel like I have anything new to say about the end of Campaign 3 that hasn't already been said better by someone else but that doesn't mean that writing it out is any less cathartic. Character and story analysis have been a large part of my fandom since the beginning and I miss writing meta but there just hasn't been much of anything this campaign for me to sink my teeth into. I also don't want to be overly critical because at the end of the day, there are things about this show that I enjoy and there's a reason I have persevered through a three year campaign that I knew a couple weeks in would never be my favorite. That being said, even with a bit of distance many of my overall thoughts are negative ones. There are plenty of wonderful moments from this campaign and these characters but this post is meant to be about broad strokes.

From the very beginning it felt like there was a disconnect between the characters the players chose and the premise of the campaign. If any of the characters had been able to grow, this is something that might have been largely overcome by the end of the campaign. However, every character in this campaign remained almost entirely stagnant. Almost every character is at the end, almost indistinguishable from who they were at the beginning. This isn't an inherently bad thing, every campaign has one or two characters like this and it doesn't detract from it. The problem arises when most or all of the characters fall into this pattern.

Part of this happened because certain players are incredibly uncomfortable with making the big choices. They are happy to lean into them if someone else makes the first move, but they are never going to take that step on their own unless there is a clear, black and white, objectively correct answer. Again, not an inherently bad thing, every game needs a balance of player types but this campaign was built to be shades of gray and those black and white players were put at the forefront while our traditional risk takers took a step back. It was a doomed combination.

This campaign also struggled from its over-reliance on previous iterations. It's always fun to see where our heroes end up, and to see the long term effects they have on the world, but having them be so directly involved is a disservice to those whose story it was supposed to be. I'll probably write an entire post on this alone but the short version boils down to two points. 1. Previous characters are so loved that it puts extreme limits on the choices current characters are going to be able or allowed to make and 2. It made it very difficult to maintain story momentum in the way they needed to for a long form campaign.

The last point I'm going to make for now is that the lack of consequences for the characters that were supposed to be central to this campaign was extremely frustrating throughout but especially so when it came to the finale. I've already talked about this, I will continue to talk about this, this is fundamental to my interactions with this campaign. Part of why this show has been my go to for actual play is because it has historically allowed for consequences to play out and stick. That didn't happen this campaign and worse than that, the lack of consequences messed with the story telling that make other campaigns so strong. I get that because this is their DnD game first and foremost there is going to be some level of "happy ending" prioritized but if you are going to build an entertainment behemoth off of your DnD game there needs to be some level of commitment to the fundamentals of story telling that made your stories successful in the first place.

I'm just going to wrap up by saying, I think it is important to be able to criticize the stories and the media that you love so please don't take this as me hating everything that CR has done for the last several years. I am still a fan, I am still very much looking forward to what comes next and I will continue to revisit and enjoy the first two campaigns. I know they have the ability to make something beautiful so I'm hoping that whatever comes next is given the space to be everything it can be.