#tiny gents ttrpg

[brodingles]

Confessions of a Rotten Girl (but I'm Not Catholic) A cover and video.

I just think the Black Church experience should be acknowledged, yknow?

[dru-reblogs-stuff]

15 Questions 15 Mutuals Tag

Thanks for the tag, @sync-eqm!

Tagging... Anyone that sees this? Still don't have a gen tag list...

Are you named after anyone? My parents say no; my brother likes to say I'm named after a girl he liked at school XD My middle name is hereditary though - my Mum and maternal grandmother have/had the same. I think I may be after another female relative back the chain, but I'm not sure.

When was the last time you cried? What level of tears here? Because I had a medium sprinkle on Wed... Work was a bitch, the blood tide rose, I was exhausted and couldn't cook. I asked the Gent for validation that I wasn't a terrible person, and his response made me cry in relief. Last time full out sobbing? I had a dream about my dad that messed me up to the point of waking the housemate up to sob on her shoulder.

Do you have kids? Not biologically.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? I try not to. I know a lot of people who have trouble picking it up, so it's unfair to use it around them.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their hair

What’s your eye colour? Not to sound *~❁special❁~*, but I'm told the colour is 'sea green' - nominally they're blue, but they hue shift towards green sometimes.

Scary movies or happy endings? Neither; bittersweet/ tragic endings

Any special talents? Pretty good sense of direction, pretty good sense of time, apparently I make an excellent cup of tea.

Where were you born? SW UK

What are your hobbies? Vidya games, TTRPG, writing, '''media consumption''', making graphics, travel

Have you any pets? Nope. Unless plants count? Fuck it, I'm telling you about my plants. * Bird of Paradise - I've had this since it was a wee babby. It's 17y/o now, sadly never flowered, but lives quite happily in its massive white pot and occasionally causes problems by being Huge and In The Bloody Way. * 'Alo Vera - I had a small Aloe and tried to pot it on but it died. So Sister In Law gave me one of hers. I water it when I remember and in the meantime it pretends to be a triffid. * Blueberry Bush - Mum got this for my birthday 2 years ago. It was brilliant the first year, but I went on holiday during the really hot weather last year and it didn't give many berries. Fresh bluebs for breakfast is amazing though. * Winter Heather - This came from someone my Mum works with. No one wanted the poor thing so I took it in. It's very pretty. * Strawbs - It was like 50p last year. I thought it wouldn't survive but I got a few berries off it. Last summer was not kind to it either. It's still got greenery so hopefully it'll fruit again this year. * Dianthus - Another one bought last summer, because I said Fuck It, I Want Flowers. The petunia didn't last, but surprisingly the dianthus is still growing well. * Sammy the Littlest Cactus III - A tiny cactus I bought 5 years ago for my office. It's doing really well, but it needs potting on and I'm a bit afraid to... because guess what happened to Sammy I and II? * Spiky mcWTF - A zebra plant I adopted when its person left our company. I'm surprised it survived because it got left in the office during lockdown and was over-watered by the Boss. Also needs potting out... * Amarilys - technically this one is the Housemate's but it lives on my desk and I look after it. Very pretty. Hopefully it flowers this year, it might need some plant feed though.

What sports do you play/have played? I used to swim competitively and I also use to kayak. I still enjoy sea swimming in the summer and medium hikes. But I never was and am not still very sporty.

How tall are you? Allegedly Average at 5'4" / 1.63m

Favourite subject in school? Geography.

Dream job? IDK. I used to say I wanted to be a librarian or a coder. Working as a H&S assistant was really fulfilling. Now... Travel writer?

[brodingles]

in your opinipn whos the prince/princess that stretches the limits of what counts as a prince/princss most attending the school the gents go to?

Will Smith.

Specifically the character from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, btw, not the actor.

Will Smith is canonical to the TTRPG. I had to play him as an NPC. I planned his appearance in the plot months plural in advance. He even helped move it for them. They played beach volleyball with him. I had to roll for him.

We had to stop session for 30 minutes because my players were laughing so hard we couldn't continue. And it was the whole 30 minutes. It wasn't a break.

They made friends with him. Almost a year later they still refer to him as "our friend Will Smith"

I need to reiterate that his existence on the plane was plot relevant.

He has the most limited credentials. He qualifies by age, title, and swagger.

I am obligated to say "Will Smith"

[brodingles]

I wanted to share these background stills from my Confessions of a Rotten Girl cover/video without the filters. I just think they're neat!

The Video (YT / TikTok / Bsky)

[brodingles]

Hard to schedule when you both gotta do your jobs (foreseeing a dire omen and taking care of the dire omen)

[brodingles]

Pagliacci & Pierrot Cirque-- Twin Princes of the Big Top

I scratched out the other character because I feel the characters should get their own dues

Pagliacci and Pierrot Cirque are NPCs in the Tiny Gents TTRPG that were born from player prompt. I don’t fully remember what that prompt was, but I ended up running with it and giving us these guys! The bottom art was for when they were initially introduced, at least 3 years ago.

Pi and Cci are in their final year of school (5th years, so Seniors) and are the heads of the Improv Club. In universe, this is a club about the theatrical aspects of thinking on your feet, going with the flow, and knowing how to shake things up. Mechanically, the club served as a way for a PC to heighten their “Mischief” Stat, which is described as “Adeptability in committing Juvenile Delinquency.”

For their Home Kingdom, it's implied that they're a set of acrobats who have a shining presence in their show. "Cirque" is of course a reference to the Big Top in general, but also to specifically Cirque du Soleil... and Cirque du Freak.

They seem like massive goofs, because they are, but they’re VERY passionate about their craft and also are very invested in keeping their underclassmen safe. They’re funny, but they’re responsible, and having that combo is very important.

Campaign and TTRPG specific info under the cut.

In the first and second campaign (which I ran with two groups in tandem-- same campaign but alternate timelines. The plot heavily involved the concept of parallel existences/timelines, which is actually relevant here) the players who weren’t already in the club were introduced to them because there was going to be a big Improv Show at the end of the week that they had the option to participate in.

Here’s the poster, I’m sharing it because I think it’s fun:

(One of the Players tried to strike an entertainment deal with the Improv Show to try and grow his school clout. He succeeded with flying colors, rolled extremely well)

The Improv Show provided two different functions between the groups; for the “Feral” group of players, the Improv Show was primarily JUST an Improv Show, where I spun a wheel and gave them prompts based on how it landed. Pi and Cci were the hosts. I’m gonna send their opening spiel, just because I like it. (This is the song I played for max ambience)

“Hello Hello Hello everyone, it is I, Pagliacci, you may also know me as Pierrot-- And me, Pierrot, who you may also know a Pagliacci--” “Heads of your local improv club!” [insert things here] “We are joined for our Big Midterm Show by this evening by the Arcane Alliance, headed by the lovely Empa Nada!” Empa: Sup (two finger salute) “A killer as always, Empa!” Well, we are happy to gather all of you here today for the show, and we will begin poste-haste, trust us, but first we wanted to thank you all for coming out-- it’s crazy  that the Mid-Term has come already! Cci and I are so, so distraught that this will be our last year with you and The Flush, but we’ll certainly miss all of you! Muah! Kisses! Without further ado, however, we have some faces old and new in the troupe, and they’ll definitely be adept at taking up that mantle! Introducing, The Flush of Royally Flushed! [The curtains open]  Now, how we’re gonna do things here is gonna be like a little game-- It’s the Wheel of Whims! We’re going to pick a name from a hat, and that player will spin the wheel-- the who, where and what! And THEN they will choose their partner! No one knows what they’re getting into! Improv! OK, Let’s go let’s go! First up is---” 

I then had them roll Initiative :D 

My Players are great at improv, some fantastic bits were had, we had Charming cast a spell that automatically bleeped out any swears or crassness (so the players could swear without fear of in game repercussion, and because Charming would know better that this is the easier solution) Played The Entertainer whenever they were on stage. 

The session ended with the good times being ruined by a stage light mysteriously falling and cutting a player on the cheek. He went to the nurse who asked “so what species are you” This player had established themselves as human.

“...ah. Then. Why is your blood made of gold?”

So that was a mystery!

For the “Chill” group, however, the relationship to the Improv Show was MUCH different--

For starters, the player that was already enrolled in Improv, before the campaign, had established he was one of the few people who could consistently tell the twins apart. They tend to purposefully obscure which is which, and you could be talking to either at any time. This PC, however, had firmly established in some pre-campaign roleplay that he was ALWAYS correct-- but when the campaign started, I was sure to make it so he was always WRONG. This was one of the indicators that the timeline was weird.

The Improv Show for this group also, however, came much later in the campaign, and was actually a planned attack on the student body by an underground cult (this is actually around where Funky Dude comes in. I will address the nuances of that in his post) In order to stop this plan, one PC went on stage with the troupe to lure the plan out, and the others kept watch. The Cirque Twins were lightly made aware but not with much detail, but they’re good actors so they pretended to run none the wiser while also keeping eyes out.

Played No Healing in Wonderland while they were on stage This session was super pivotal to the overall plot. Still spun the wheel, but a lot more tense.

Pi and Cci’s major role in the campaign, aside from being phenomenon that tipped off that things were weird, was to be touchstones and people the party could go to that were relatively trustworthy. They’re Seniors, they care, and they have a bit more info than an underclassman would. This ended up being more TTRPG story than on Pi and Cci specifically, but I thought it was important to mention what they did and what they witnessed! @mooncake-t

[brodingles]

I am a little busy today, but I did these sketches yesterday of the OG3 next to the RAs, now that it's more cemented that I need to distinguish them since I'm using both! And a bonus Kristoff.

I should be running a session of the TTRPG tonight, so wish me luck! They've been on my mind.

[brodingles]

I did... a buncha animatics I didn't post this year

Here's a GIF from one I liked

Can't talk too much, art review later (gonna take a lot of prep to do) Happy New Year!

[brodingles]

I never posted these, but for Reasons have this little corvid gremlin.

His name is Funky Dude. Big mad-scientist-but-it's-magic vibes. F-cked around and found out, but thriving for it.

Used him to terrorize my players in campaign! Inspo and collab(?) with one @churrobird

Full design cuz I think it's neat

[brodingles]

Had to let some complicated emotions out. Have some doodles.

[brodingles]

I have been wrestling with this for years and finally decided to throw it out into the stars.

Thank you Todrick Hall for a song that has followed me almost a decade.

[brodingles]

Animatic Year in Review (2023)

I actually did a ton of thumbnailing and storyboarding exercises this year, so I compiled the most notable ones into one video!

Check the description for timestamps and links to finished videos, since I included in this video the sketch stages of these things.

I'll post a regular artist summary as well, but I'm proud to have at least attempted so much this year!

[brodingles]

This song finally hit 1k on YouTube, and I realized I never posted the art here!

I did the drawing, lines and composition, and it was rendered by the lovely @stelyos

I think about the Cinderella story a lot and I focus a lot on the time they spent together before getting separated at midnight. It's just really beautiful to me, so I wrote a song and made some art about it!

It was a blessing to have Ashe and Chi-Chi do vocals on the track, they sound super magical and it's really what they needed ;v;. Also big ups to Cami and Jordan for doing so much in the instrumentation.

[brodingles]

Hey so do you ever work on a project for over a decade that takes place at a school and do a bunch of worldbuilding surrounding the school that the project takes place in and heavily base the character dynamics and lots and lots of plot around the idea of the school the project takes place in and create an entire TTRPG system around the idea of the school the project takes place in and run several oneshots and two and a half campaigns in this setting that is the school that the project takes place in while working on another set of games in the setting that is the school that the project takes place in but somehow, some way, you never publicly stated directly (a few text posts you didn't really expect anyone to read implying this information pretty heavily but they are text posts you don't expect people to read and never stated directly) to your original and for long time primary audience that the project you have been making takes place at a school? And it's been over a decade? ...

The first time I said it took place at a boarding school was LESS THAN a week ago and I said it as a throwaway. I've been operating with this info but apparently literally never said it outright I-- Hello everyone, Tiny Gents takes place at a school. And it has worldbuilding. And lore. And a plot. And it has for ten years. The only defense I have is that I lost my lorebook while moving and dropped working on it until I revived it for the TTRPG which I only really talked about extensively on Discord. My intent back then was to talk about it, I genuinely just wanted to make it more presentable/run it like a webcomic but then just stopped posting about it. Gladly I remember all of it to such a high degree that I wrote it out in a Google Doc off the dome a few days ago (impressive because my memory is notoriously terrible and since I never posted any of it here there was no existing record of All That until that document was made) I WILL TRY AND AT LEAST SHARE BASICS THIS TIME I SWEAR!!

[brodingles]

@tempreblog

When I told people I was gonna respond to these tags, the phrase "UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENE" came up. I'll try to be succinct. I have to, because the original draft of this response got eaten and if I have to try and re-do all that by memory I’ll die. (I’m [not] fine)

The inciting incident for the Tiny Gents Cartoon (which is what I've been calling it to distinguish it from the TTRPG) is Kristoff being found on Fairfolk Academy school grounds by the RA's (They studied under the OG3 Princes, who are higher in administration). This is notable to the original topic because Kristoff is an anomaly. Anyone who can enter school grounds usually has to be invited, it's magically hidden and has a barrier over it. By all rights and accounts he shouldn't be able to be here.

The Fairfolk student body is made up of royalty of every shape and size. The requirements for being royalty are pretty lax-- in the TTRPG one player character was Prince of the Pirates, one of the main antagonists of the first campaign got into the school by being the local 'Prince of the Playground' by just having stupid good charisma that made him neighbourhood royalty, the second campaign included Will Smith from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air etc etc-- but that is a requirement. You have to be able to be considered royalty in SOME capacity, most likely by gaining a level of authority. Kristoff does not fit this requirement. So the first big mystery of TG is why and how he is here. Eugene is the other anomaly in the main four, but Eugene is aware of that and Kristoff's appearance is why he comes out of the hiding he's been in for a while. Kristoff was found and became a student. Eugene has been here a little longer and has been observing the school's going's ons. He is not officially enrolled and would like to keep it that way. He does NOT want his cover blown. He's willing to reveal this about himself once he confirms Kris is cool. Something Something Eleanor and Jason from The Good Place.

Neither one of them can get out of the barrier to go home, so they're stuck on campus. This has gotten longer than I'm comfortable not putting a read-more on, so continued under the cut an a lil more general school talk;

"But what about Princes like Aladdin?" Aladdin actually already graduated, and eventually is intended to be brought up as a potential solution to the "how did they get here" problem-- Aladdin was confirmed a "legal" Prince in the King of Thieves film, so the RA's are looking into whether or not Kristoff (they don't know about Eugene) is somehow secretly royalty. It would be the easiest, most simple solution. "I didn't know I was royalty" isn't exactly an unheard of occurrence, but it's very uncommon. I've populated Fairfolk with mainly Royals not owned by Disney (simply put there just aren't enough for a whole school, and I just think adding new characters is fun!), so there's a lot of diversity in the pool on what counts as royalty (As you can see from previous examples it is intended to be stretched and very silly.). The student body is overall cool with Kristoff (some of them are a lil confused but got the spirit.), in fact at some point there's a lot of buzz about the weird new kid who shouldn't be here and does cool things occasionally, but you always have your jerks, so there's that.

I couldn’t find a place to put this organically, but when you’re enrolled into Fairfolk you are given an “ID”-- it’s an object that belongs to the student that either is or represents something that is very important to them. It’s impressed with their magical footprint, and essentially works as a key. This is how they get in and out of buildings, reserve rooms, and how they get into their dorm room (they have roommates). Kristoff is given one upon his unorthodox enrollment. Eugene does not have one, which has totally never inconvenienced him ever. The school sends letters out to prospects, and there's an option whether or not the child is to attend. The school itself exists in between various worlds (it is not a physical place someone can just enter, bringing home the whole "you have to be invited" thing), and is considered politically neutral ground. There's a holiday that celebrates the school's founding, with emphasis on it being a peaceful place to do that kind of mingling.

The reason they pull from various worlds/dimensions/planes/whatever you wanna call it is to avoid historical and worldbuilding discrepancies, as well as justify multiple time periods. (Enhanced int he TTRPG because it lends to the system to go crazy with character creation!). The reason Kristoff is paired with Hans as roommates is not onl;y because Hans recently lost his, but because they’re from the same world and time period!

The general age range for students is between “13” yo and “17” yo, or the equivalent of whatever place the Prince is from, with some wiggle room for birthdates. The school is split up into 5 years of classes, with 3 RAs split up amongst them.

The 1-2 years are looked over by RA Prince Theo (studied under Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty)

Years 3-4 are looked over by RA Prince Charming (studied under Prince “Charming” from Cinderella)

Year 5 is looked over by RA Prince Francis (studied under The Prince from Snow White) Originally I used the actual OG3 as the RAs, but I ended up changing that recently for logistical (and some nonlogistical) reasons;

The idea of the OG3 as these (seemingly) untouchable beacons to aspire to really feels like it fits thematically in the current iteration. Having them represent a standard is important to some of the implications I want.

Them being some kind of Mysterious lends well to the fact that we don’t actually know that much about them! We get some glimpses into them in their films (primarily Philip, and this is reflected in how he acts when we do see him and how he's taught Theo), but ultimately they really are some level of enigma. And I think that’s neat!

The RAs are de-oncelerized versions of the OG3 I made for the TTRPG and I got super attached to them and would’ve felt awful not being able to include them, so Life Found A Way (I am Life in this scenario)

The RAs are meant to reflect (or be attempting to reflect) their Head’s ideals, so that's what leads them. I can get into the RAs in another post, I am feral about them.

When it comes to other staff they’re in a boat that also involves a mixture of canon characters and expys. When the concept was originally being thought of, I had some more minor Disney characters cast as staff (ie I had a pre-story Hook be the fencing teacher, which is the actual context from the first official TG post, and Mrs. Potts being a head of etiquette, though due to Plot I couldn’t keep Mrs. Potts even if I wanted to. Adam’s whole deal and all). Because I did a lot of having to make characters based off other characters or their tropes for the game, a lot of the current professors are heavily based on more minor Disney characters, but are not those characters themselves. Honestly, with the current lore of everything, it actually doesn’t make sense to have the staff be too many official IP characters. Very Twisted Wonderland of me.

The replacement staff is very fun to work with either way! I care about them, they have their own charm (again, different post worthy).

A lot of this is home-made, partially due to lack of content to go off of. I double checked this, but there weren't really any Princess movies in the 2000s, and even then every official Princess movie doesn’t have a corresponding Prince, which means that there’s almost 20 years before the era of princes I’ve grabbed and the last prince.

I have recently been playing with this concept in the worldbuilding and plot, maybe something to do with taking a higher step after graduating. I have to cook on that a little bit more, but I have an idea swimming that I think would be really cool and lead to some heavy character development (both positive and negative!).

The throughline question for TG is “what does it mean to be ‘good’ “, so I tried to make a world that would explore that question and what the answer could be.

I am very passionate about this, this is very long, this will not be my only post. If I forgot anything I can do it in another post.

Thank you for your tags, I like talking about Tiny Gents!

[brodingles]

The parties in the Tiny Gents TTRPG I'm running are absolutely wild.

Frames from HERE