runawaychar

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Behold - the Rainbow Snails! I sculpted and painted these pests myself, cannot be happier!

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Piggy the second ^_^ Figuring stuff out!

Worked on a model this week - dipping my toe into glazing, still not really getting it right but I like how the shadows came out on this piggy

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Working on another conversion - used some warhammer knight bits and a fu dog miniature to make this goblin knight-commander, with some greenstuff sculpting for the visor, feet, and saddle.

To accompany him, I got some Asgard Rising goblins - the bases are hand-sculpted, the rest are 3d prints:

Going to be using them in my Labyrinth/Alice in Wonderland inspired megadungeon as a heraldic order of goblin knights. Have a ton of painting ahead of me!

[runawaychar]

Worked on a model this week - dipping my toe into glazing, still not really getting it right but I like how the shadows came out on this piggy

[runawaychar]

Made more snails!

I'm thinking these snails gorged themselves on a witch's vegetable garden, got way too big, and decided to start stealing teeth so they could eat even more things. Really horrible pests.

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Made an amulet of power ^_^

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Something to consider - how do people feel about using organic components (shell, bone, husks) in art/craft projects? I've seen a range within the realm of ttrpg and wargame terrain, some of it tame (bleached chicken bones), and some more extreme (...I don't want to get into it). I think using a snail shell like this is my own personal cutoff, even bone feels a bit much for me.

Another WIP - this time a hungry friendly snail. Can't wait to paint her up!

[runawaychar]

Another WIP - this time a hungry friendly snail. Can't wait to paint her up!

[runawaychar]

More WIP sculpts, primed and ready to paint. These are some mandrakes I made out of fimo+greenstuff, along with some fantasy bits.

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Made a friendly forest guide and incorporated a flickering LED for its lantern. Currently preparing to paint, but finished priming. They're here to help!

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WIP King in Yellow, using a Jack of Blades Dreamblade miniature as a base. Amazed that the crown worked.

[runawaychar]

Here's another Dreamblade conversion, this time an All-Seeing Mage. I replaced the hands (which were cool but not what I had in mind), and spruced him up with a new base. I have dubbed him Shimmerdome, and he will be leading my Frostgrave warband alongside his bookworm apprentice.

[runawaychar]

Love these guys! Amazing to see the concept art for these!

Lungthief Beetle © 2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC / Lungthief Beetle Redux - 9 x 12 - Pencil on paper - © 2015 Christopher Burdett

Revisited and redesigned a miniature I first created for Dreamblade 10 years ago recently. More about all this with lots of details over on my BLOG! RAWR!

[runawaychar]

Repainted and rebased some abyssal predators from Dreamblade miniatures (my beloved). I used UV resin to attach them to a flight stand, and decided to use flourescent paint for the eyes to give them a new dimension of creepiness under blacklight.

Planning on filling the second level of my megadungeon (The Ratway) with packs of these floating anglerfish!

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Hello! Sorry for the basic question (double sorry it’s a d&d 5E question), but what do you think are the key hallmarks of a dungeon that D&D mechanics want to interact with? Like what absolutely distinguishes a dungeon from an “encounter” (sorry for the d&d language) and makes one work whilst the other fails?

I want to get confident at GMing, and have only ever GM’d one thing for one session (it was 5E but we didn’t really use the mechanics at all…), but everyone at my nerd shop/in my friend group only wants to play 5E and I’ve basically only ever played d&d, and I feel like to get them to play anything else I’ll have to run 5E for them to get them to trust me first. (It’s also unfortunately the only rule set I have real mastery of bc reading the rules of games just doesn’t translate into understanding a game to me, I assume for mild learning disability reasons)

I really believe you (and other women) when they say that d&d wants to be doing dungeons, but I feel like I don’t really understand what is is *about* a Dungeon that D&D is suited for. (If anything? Maybe 5E isn’t actually suited for anything). Sorry if that doesn’t make much sense. The vast majority of the d&d I’ve played has been 5E modules that are not interested in dungeons, and I have felt the game fighting the module, but I don’t really understand what (if anything) the game wouldn’t be fighting against.

Oh, this is a really fun ask!

First of all, I don't think D&D is bad at "encounters." In fact D&D pretty much codified the term. What I am on about when I complain about "encounters" is a terminology issue: the term isn't neutral and carries a lot of implications specific to the genre of games that D&D is a part of.

I've also previously complained about the idea that encounters are something that is planned and constructed ahead of time: like, putting a bunch of guys in a room and then writing "this is the Combat Encounter with a Bunch of Guys Room" in your notes already creates an expectation in your mind about what should happen.

Anyway, onto the subject: D&D as a game, regardless of edition, cares about a few things: first of all, it's ultimately a game of resource management and attrition. During the course of an adventure there is a clear arc where characters will slowly lose resources and in general won't be able to recover to full until they return to a place of rest. (Note: my phone wanted to say "return to Islam" and like hell yeah, I think D&D characters should return to Islam.)

Secondly, D&D, all editions, is ultimately a challenge game. It's not a game that cares about exploring a character's emotions or morals (although those can give the game some added spice!) but a game about characters going into Situations and Overcoming those Situations. A lot of the time this translates to combat, but not all the time. Characters have, at their disposal, a lot of tools that can potentially turn a potential combat encounter into a different type of encounter or even allow them to avoid encounters altogether.

And finally it is a game that cares about space. A lot of RPGs, especially of the trad variety, care about space in the sense that distance and position are usually at least somewhat important to them, but sort of built into D&D's DNA is the idea that the space of the dungeon or the battlefield or the world map itself is valuable.

Anyway so dungeons are pretty much a good microcosm of that. First of all, the very act of going into a dungeon builds a barrier between the "safe" world where characters can rest and recover and the dangerous world where there's random encounters and monsters, so the moment the characters leave the safety of their town the resource management mode is on. Second of all, there are a lot of Situations characters can get in both on the way to dungeons and therein. And finally the space of the dungeon itself is important and meaningful since it contains Situations but also the very act of exploring the dungeon figures meaningfully into the resource management minigame (if the characters push further will they still have enough resources for a return to safety?).

Now, a D&D game doesn't really need much more than a dungeon to be satisfying provided:

The dungeon is a place in the world that ties into the setting and has some context beyond just being a place with monsters and treasures in it.

The space of the dungeon is built in such a way that characters can make meaningful, informed decisions about which route to follow, how far they are willing to push, etc.

The characters have a reason to go into the dungeon.

That last bullet point is pretty much moot in older editions, because in those editions the act of going into the dungeon really is its own reward: that's where the gameplay is and where the rewards are. But since modern editions tend to de-emphasize the need to just loot treasure and grow in strength you might want to give the characters an extrinsic goal for exploring a dungeon. While I personally prefer the intrinsic reward of just exploring a dungeon as its own satisfying gameplay, I think it's entirely valid to give characters other objectives to pursue within the dungeon. Heck, if you can tie them into character motivations, that owns.

Anyway, I hope this wasn't too rambling. I am kind of having a tired and depressing day, but this ask was fun to answer so thanks for that. And if you have any further questions or you'd like me to elaborate on something, don't hesitate to get in touch again! :)

[runawaychar]

I would definitely recommend question asker (and any new GM) to try out Keep on the Borderlands, one of the original adventure modules and a teaching tool for new GMs. It is the most Situation for the least Plot, and intentionally leaves a lot up to the GM, encouraging them to come up with their motivations for the different cave factions and townsfolk. It has its share of issues, essentially coming down to simple dungeons full of goblins, orc, kobolds, etc. but as someone who got stuck in a rut GMing sequences of leveled encounters, it really was an eye opener.

While I've run dungeons full of disposable pawns before, I never did it within the classic overlying structure of the Town->Wilderness->Dungeon->Town loop, choosing to forgo strict timekeeping and wandering encounters. Instead, dungeons were typically included as linear obstacles to overcome in a larger overarching plot. They were never persistent spaces. Never visited more than once, and typically cleared in a few sessions.

It was so refreshing to place PCs in a situation, load them up with rumors, prepare a couple of competing factions in zones of varying difficulty, and just start the clock. No precipitating event, no planned series of staged fights, everything left up to the players.

The change in engagement was something else. Even the most cliche plot, the kidnapped innkeeper's son, hit different without guaranteed leveled encounters. Up against an enemy they weren't strong enough yet to beat and the clock ticking down, they were hiring mercenaries, making deals with the minor factions of the dungeon, and making several trips to map out the different entrances and identify weaknesses in their defenses. Every time they came back to town bloody and empty handed and had to face the worried innkeeper was like a gut punch. Its some of the best gaming I've had, and the whole time I was thinking "I could do better". The module encourages you to imagine what this style of play could be like with *your* factions, *your* dungeon design. It is more like a GM worksheet with a ton of space left blank, but the structure it provides is priceless.

I think one of the big challenges people have trying to run D&D as a heroic fantasy adventure *also* driven by player agency (beyond the core design issues) is that there is no offered structure of play (such as a dungeon crawl or hex crawl) in the rules, so many GMs tend to default toward encounter play. In fact, it is downright difficult, if not impossible, to prepare a situation instead of a plot if you don't have some initial limitations on space and scenario. That is where the persistent dungeon shines: it is a finite, reactive space that, if well-designed, requires player planning and initiative to explore.

(It also helps to play a ruleset that encourages this style of play - 5e tends to be very abstract or forgiving with player resources to the point that some of these systems fall flat.)

Hello! Sorry for the basic question (double sorry it’s a d&d 5E question), but what do you think are the key hallmarks of a dungeon that D&D mechanics want to interact with? Like what absolutely distinguishes a dungeon from an “encounter” (sorry for the d&d language) and makes one work whilst the other fails?

I want to get confident at GMing, and have only ever GM’d one thing for one session (it was 5E but we didn’t really use the mechanics at all…), but everyone at my nerd shop/in my friend group only wants to play 5E and I’ve basically only ever played d&d, and I feel like to get them to play anything else I’ll have to run 5E for them to get them to trust me first. (It’s also unfortunately the only rule set I have real mastery of bc reading the rules of games just doesn’t translate into understanding a game to me, I assume for mild learning disability reasons)

I really believe you (and other women) when they say that d&d wants to be doing dungeons, but I feel like I don’t really understand what is is *about* a Dungeon that D&D is suited for. (If anything? Maybe 5E isn’t actually suited for anything). Sorry if that doesn’t make much sense. The vast majority of the d&d I’ve played has been 5E modules that are not interested in dungeons, and I have felt the game fighting the module, but I don’t really understand what (if anything) the game wouldn’t be fighting against.

Oh, this is a really fun ask!

First of all, I don't think D&D is bad at "encounters." In fact D&D pretty much codified the term. What I am on about when I complain about "encounters" is a terminology issue: the term isn't neutral and carries a lot of implications specific to the genre of games that D&D is a part of.

I've also previously complained about the idea that encounters are something that is planned and constructed ahead of time: like, putting a bunch of guys in a room and then writing "this is the Combat Encounter with a Bunch of Guys Room" in your notes already creates an expectation in your mind about what should happen.

Anyway, onto the subject: D&D as a game, regardless of edition, cares about a few things: first of all, it's ultimately a game of resource management and attrition. During the course of an adventure there is a clear arc where characters will slowly lose resources and in general won't be able to recover to full until they return to a place of rest. (Note: my phone wanted to say "return to Islam" and like hell yeah, I think D&D characters should return to Islam.)

Secondly, D&D, all editions, is ultimately a challenge game. It's not a game that cares about exploring a character's emotions or morals (although those can give the game some added spice!) but a game about characters going into Situations and Overcoming those Situations. A lot of the time this translates to combat, but not all the time. Characters have, at their disposal, a lot of tools that can potentially turn a potential combat encounter into a different type of encounter or even allow them to avoid encounters altogether.

And finally it is a game that cares about space. A lot of RPGs, especially of the trad variety, care about space in the sense that distance and position are usually at least somewhat important to them, but sort of built into D&D's DNA is the idea that the space of the dungeon or the battlefield or the world map itself is valuable.

Anyway so dungeons are pretty much a good microcosm of that. First of all, the very act of going into a dungeon builds a barrier between the "safe" world where characters can rest and recover and the dangerous world where there's random encounters and monsters, so the moment the characters leave the safety of their town the resource management mode is on. Second of all, there are a lot of Situations characters can get in both on the way to dungeons and therein. And finally the space of the dungeon itself is important and meaningful since it contains Situations but also the very act of exploring the dungeon figures meaningfully into the resource management minigame (if the characters push further will they still have enough resources for a return to safety?).

Now, a D&D game doesn't really need much more than a dungeon to be satisfying provided:

The dungeon is a place in the world that ties into the setting and has some context beyond just being a place with monsters and treasures in it.

The space of the dungeon is built in such a way that characters can make meaningful, informed decisions about which route to follow, how far they are willing to push, etc.

The characters have a reason to go into the dungeon.

That last bullet point is pretty much moot in older editions, because in those editions the act of going into the dungeon really is its own reward: that's where the gameplay is and where the rewards are. But since modern editions tend to de-emphasize the need to just loot treasure and grow in strength you might want to give the characters an extrinsic goal for exploring a dungeon. While I personally prefer the intrinsic reward of just exploring a dungeon as its own satisfying gameplay, I think it's entirely valid to give characters other objectives to pursue within the dungeon. Heck, if you can tie them into character motivations, that owns.

Anyway, I hope this wasn't too rambling. I am kind of having a tired and depressing day, but this ask was fun to answer so thanks for that. And if you have any further questions or you'd like me to elaborate on something, don't hesitate to get in touch again! :)

[runawaychar]

𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖆𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖇 𝕳𝖊𝖑𝖒𝖊𝖙