#//excited to write with you! some plots are towards the end but i'm very flexible i promise

[backtotheo]

(joe keery, he/him/his, cismale) who is theo clark anyways? ew. you don’t know about him, we’ll bet you want to. they’re feeling thirty and singing karaoke feels like a perfect night to them. rumor has it they’re indecisive and have low self-esteem because they care, but they’re also intelligent and adaptable in the best way. he works to make a little money as an employee at the animal shelter (...but he also walks dogs on rover on the side). they’ve rented on a place on cornelia street in the form of an an apartment. back to december and long live are the song they could dance to the beat of forevermore. (tw: cancer, about 3/4's of the way into the "backstory" section here!)

basics.

full name: theodore james clark. nicknames: honestly? most people just call him theo, though teddy is a family nickname he'd probably still respond to. gender/pronouns: cismale/he/him/his. sexual orientation: extremely bisexual. birthday: july 22nd. star sign: cancer. cancers are known to be highly intuitive, sensitive...and insecure. occupation: proud employee of the animal care center of new york...and he walks dogs for rover on the side.

personality.

positive traits: intelligent, adaptable, caring, honest, empathetic. negative traits: realistic pessimistic, indecisive, blunt, sensitive…but like not talking about those feelings ever?,  low self esteem while being self-centered. hogwarts house: i know jrk sucks and we do not claim her but the man is a hufflepuff…but a burned one. alignment: chaotic neutral. ennegram: 4w5. personality type: infj. 

backstory.

his childhood was normal. happy, even. except for the part where his parents never let him have a dog because they were 'too busy' for one.

because his parents both had pretty demanding jobs, he was put in a ton of after school activities, but he kind of sucked at sports. so he joined boy scouts and took a bunch of different music lessons. he's pretty decent at guitar and piano and can fake his way through some accordion in a pinch.

theo is the oldest of three and was the child his parents placed their hopes on. his mother is a well-known pediatric oncologist at pittsburgh children's hospital and his father teaches biology at carnegie mellon. everyone assumed that theo would follow in their footsteps. and he did...sort of

he studied biology even though it wasn't really his thing because he wasn't paying for college, his parents were...and he minored in both music theory and psychology, which he liked more.

he met one of he most important people in his life while attending duquesne university in caroline davis.

...they didn't hit it off right away. in fact, at first, she was a bit of a thorn in his side. but a little bonding over a mutual love of music (and the food trucks on campus...) and they clicked. he asked her out around homecoming that first year and the rest is history.

they dated for years. it was very serious. he was two weeks away from buying a ring, honestly. but they spent a really big chunk of their relationship long-distance and it was just...hard. he really fucking loves loved her. but you know what they say...if you love it, let it go. or whatever.

during college, he made spending money at a work study job at the school library, but he made more walking dogs so he quit the work study job and started pet-sitting and dog walking most evenings.

this is where his love of animals began and only started to grow the more he spent times with classmates' and neighbors' pets. he decided to apply to vet school instead of med school, much to his mom's chagrin.

he got in!

...and he dropped out 2 semesters in because he hated it.

theo kept up a pretty big lie for the better part of a year, working odd jobs around pittsburgh and maintaining his off-campus apartment and dodging his parents' questions...until his dad was a guest lecturer to one of his vet school classes and he was nowhere to be found.

his parents gave him two choices: go back to vet school or go back to college and get a degree he would use.

theo chose neither. he packed up his shit, hopped on a bus, and moved to new york city with a collection of cassette tapes, a duffel bag of clothes, and whatever was left in his bank account to his name.

his parents didn't exactly disown him during this period, but they didn't reach out. he found out his mom was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer about 2 months after his move...and she'd been diagnosed a month prior. he heard it from one of his siblings and tried to reach out, but didn't get a response.

she passed away eight months after her diagnosis. he never got a chance to make amends and it's one of his biggest regrets.

he has since reconciled with his dad, but that's something that just..you don't just get over that. he's struggled with it mightily and with the help of a good therapist, he's starting to forgive himself. some.

he intended on reconnecting with caroline when he got there but...well, that didn't turn out so well.

so he couch surfed for a while until he could accept the first non-sketchy craigslist roommate ad he could find and moved into his cornelia street apartment.

he's not sure what he wants to do, really, so he's worked a lot of odd jobs since moving to the city. he's worked at almost every starbucks in an eight block radius of his apartment, bartended for a while, tried his hand working a food truck...but nothing seemed to stick. he paid rent by ubereats-ing most months, until he started walking neighbors' dogs and found something he kind-of-doesn't-hate.

during this in-between time is when he sort of got back into music. one job, he played piano in a restaurant's main dining room. another was a bar where he sweet talked his way into a few gigs. probably ended up meeting the rest of the electric touch crew during this period!

now he's working at the animal shelter, walking dogs using rover, and playing some gigs on the side. thank god for dogs and music.

plots n' stuff.

a roommate. or a few? i could see him having a few to keep costs low and i didn't snag any of the premade skellies for this so if you're down i'm down

found family/besties. i love those vibes especially given he's essentially upped and move away from home knowing like 2 people in the entire city.

people with dogs. either people whose dogs he walks or neighbors who happen to have them. he's like a dog whisperer so if you need a pet sitter he's your guy.

or! shelter volunteers!!!

people from any and all odd job he used to have. like a regular at the coffee shop who can't get their order right now because he left or a co-worker who helped him create a sandwich that's still on a menu at a local restaurant?

random hookups would be an option tbh. he came to new york intending to, like, win back his ex in some kind of rom-com bullshit way, but...well, it hasn't worked out so far.

someone who thought their hookup was more serious than it was would be kind of funny too. we live for miscommunications.

would love some kind of enemies/animosity plot. we'd have to talk it through. could've started with something little and spiraled or maybe they're just besties with caroline and are on her side. or maybe he accidentally ran over your muse's dog's tail on his bike :/

i'm dani. 32. friendly, promise! and i'm open to plotting pretty much anything, honestly! DM's here or on discord are always open to figure some stuff out. i'm danisaurus. over on discord and i'm really looking forward to writing with you all!

[utilitycaster]

Daggerheart Character Build thoughts!

I am actually out at work and haven't checked the version that's since come out, but I did participate in the character build beta, and the NDA is officially lifted, so here's my thoughts from that! It's definitely limited since I just made a L1 character and didn't go through gameplay, though I surmise about some aspects of gameplay.

Overall, it clearly seems to be made by people who love a lot of things about D&D 5e but wanted both more flexibility and more simplicity, which is difficult. I think they succeed.

To that end, it takes away some of the crunchier aspects (precise positioning, exact amounts of gold) and I think for some people that will be a problem, and that's valid, but ultimately this game wants to both allow for interesting mechanics in and out of combat while also not being terribly math/map/resource management heavy. It is a hard line to walk; most systems either go hard crunch or go entirely gooey.

The dice mechanic (2d12, Hope and Fear system) is fantastic; look it up but I think it handles mixed successes more gracefully and interestingly than a lot of games.

The playtest was not super clear on armor and evasion choices (or indeed what evasion means; it seems to be sort of initiative but sort of dex save, or maybe more like the Pathfinder/old school D&D varying ACs by scenario?). It was much, MUCH clearer than D&D on weapon choices (part of why I play casters? Weapon rules in D&D are annoying and poorly explained and many people rightfully ignore them) so I'm hoping this becomes clear when there's a full guide rather than just the character creation info.

The character creation questions by class were fantastic and in general, and this is a theme, this feels like it guides people towards collaboration. FWIW I feel like D&D has that information, but the way it's presented is very much as flavor text rather than a thing you should be doing. Daggerheart makes this a much more core part of creation. The Experience mechanic is particularly clear: you better be working with your GM and really thinking about background, rather than slapping it on as a mechanic.

The other side of character creation questions is that it really encourages engagement with the class, which is something I've talked about. I think either subversion for the sake of subversion, or picking a class for the mechanics and aesthetic but not the fundamental concept, will be much harder to justify in Daggerheart, and I think that's a good thing because when people do that, their characters tend to be weaker.

The downtime is designed for you to write hurt/comfort fanfic about and this is a compliment. There are a number of mechanics that reward RP, particularly one of the healing mechanics under the Splendor track. I feel like a weakness of D&D is that when you try to reward RP it's really nebulous because there's not actually a ton of space to put that - you can give inspiration, but, for example, the empathy domain Matt homebrewed actually feels kind of off because it's based on such fuzzy concepts amid mechanics that are usually more rigid. Daggerheart comes off as much cleaner yet still RP-focused, and I'm excited to see it in action.

A judgement of Candela and I suppose Daggerheart might be that it's designed for actual play. I've mentioned before that I know people who are super into the crunch and combat and numbers of TTRPGs and are less story-oriented, and again, that's valid, but actual play is just storytelling using a ttrpg and so yes, a game that encourages RP while also having mechanics to support that and influence it is an extremely good goal. I am not an actual player, but I do like D&D games with a good plot and not just Go Kill Monsters, and I want to play this. (I also have some real salty thoughts about how if you modify an existing game for AP purposes that's staggering genius apparently, but if you make your own game how dare you but that's another post).

And now, the classes/subclasses. I am going to sort of use D&D language to describe them because that's a point of reference most people reading this will understand, but they are not one-to-one. A couple notes: everyone can use weapons and armor. HP is not totally clear to me but it seems to be threshold based - everyone has the same HP to start but people have different thresholds and armor, so the tank classes have the same amount of HP but are much harder to actually do damage to.

All classes are built on a combination of a subclass and two domains. There are 9 classes and 9 domains. This technically means that if you wanted to fuck around and homebrew you could make up to 36 classes (27 additional) by just grabbing two domains that weren't otherwise combined, which is fun to consider for the potential. Anyway I cover the classes and briefly describe domains within them. You can take any domain card within your domain, regardless of subclass.

There are six stats. Presence, Instinct, Knowledge, and Strength map roughly to Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Strength. Dex is split into Agility and Finesse; Agility covers gross motor skills (jumping, most ranged weapons, "maneuvering") and Finesse finer ones (lockpicking and tinkering, though also it does cover hiding). The really big wins are first, no CON score, so you don't need to sink stat points into something that grants no skills but keeps you alive. The second one is that the "hybrid" classes spellcast from their physical stat. This is fucking fantastic. The thing about ranger or paladin or the spellcasting subclasses of rogue and fighter in D&D is that if you don't roll pretty well you're locked into the core stats and CON and nothing else. (This also doesn't have rolling for stats: you assign +2 to one stat, presumably your main, and then distribute two +1s, two 0s, and one -1.)

Your HP, Evasion, and Thresholds are set by class, and there's a core ability; the rest is all from the cards you take for subclass and domain.

Leveling up is very much based on taking more domain cards (abilities) but has a certain degree of flexibility. It's by chunks: in leveling up anywhere levels 2-4, you can, for example, increase your proficiency by +1 once, so if you wanted to do that at level 2 but your fellow player wanted to wait until level 4 and take something else at level 2 instead, they could. It allows for more min-maxing, but also everyone has the same level up rules and differs only in the abilities on the cards, which is very cool.

Bard: Grace (enchantment spells) and Codex (learned spellcaster stuff; the spells available are definitely arcane in vibes) based, Presence is your main stat. The two subclasses map roughly to lore-style stuff and eloquence. Core class ability is sort of like inspiration but not entirely. It's a bard; I like bards a lot, and this is very similar vibes-wise to your D&D bards. If you like D&D bards you will like this.

Druid: Sage (nature spells) and Arcana (raw magical power spellcaster stuff), Instinct is your spellcasting/main stat. The two subclasses are elemental but frankly cooler than circle of the moon, and a more healing/tranquility of nature focused one. I really think Marisha probably gave feedback on this one, because the elemental version is really strong. You do get beastform; it is quite similar to a D&D druid under a different system, as the bard, but the beastform options are, frankly, better and easier to understand.

Guardian: Valor (melee tank/damager) and Blade (damage). Strength based for the most part (Valor mechanics assume strength) though you could go for like, +2 Agility +1 Strength to start. This is barbarian but like. 20 times better. It is, fundamentally, a tank class, and it is very good at it, with one even more tank-focused subclass and one that is more about retaliatory damage. You do have a damage-halving ability once per day, but really guardian's questions are incredible. I think Travis and Ashley likely gave feedback. Also rage doesn't render you incapable of concentration as that doesn't seem to be a thing, so multiclassing seems way more possible (you are, I think, only allowed to do one multiclass, and not until you reach level 5 minimum, which I am in favor of). Yes, you can be a Bardian.

Ranger: This is what I built! It is based on Sage and Bone (movement around the field/dodging stuff) and it is Agility-based, including for spellcasting, which is a MASSIVE help (as is, again, the fact that CON isn't a thing.) The subclasses are basically being really good at navigation, or animal companion. Most importantly to me you can be a ranger with a longsword and you are not penalized; Bone works with either ranged weapons or melee.

Rogue: Midnight (stealth/disguise/assassination spells and skills) and Grace-based. Yes, rogue is by default a spellcaster, which does help a LOT with the vibes for me. One subclass is basically about having lots of connections (as a spy or criminal might) and the other is about magical slinking about. Hiding/sneak attack are also streamlined. I will admit I'm still more interested in…almost everything else, but I think it evened out a lot of rogue weaknesses.

Seraph: Splendor (healing/divine magic) and Valor. This is your Paladin equivalent. It is strength-based for casting, again making hybrid classes way less stressful. Questions for this area also incredible; you do have something not unlike a lay on hands pool as well. Your subclasses are being able to fly and do extra damage; or being able to make your melee weapon do ranged attacks and also some extra healing stuff, the latter of which is my favorite. Yasha vibes from this, honestly. Single downside is this is the only class where they recommend you dump Knowledge. I will not, and I never will. Now that I don't have to make sure CON is high? I am for REAL never giving myself less than a +1 Knowledge in this game.

Sorcerer: Arcana (raw nature of magic/elemental vibes) and Midnight based. Yes, sorcerers and rogues now share a vibe, for your convenient….less enthused feelings. Instinct-based, which intrigues me, and the core features are in fact really good. The two subclasses are either one that focuses on metamagic abilities, or one that is elemental based. I would play this for a long-running game, though it's not my favorite, and I can't say that for D&D sorcerer (except divine soul).

Warrior: Blade and Bone, and the recommended build is Agility but you could do a strength build. Fighter! One subclass is about doing damage and one is about the hope/fear mechanics core to the game that I have NOT talked much about. I will admit, the hybrid martials and Guardian are more interesting to me but you do have good battle knowledge.

Wizard: Codex and Splendor. Wizards can heal in this system; farewell, I will be doing nothing else (jk). Knowledge-based, and you can either go hardcore expertise in knowledge, or be a battle wizard.

Other scattered thoughts: healing is not as big a deal here; there is no pure cleric class! There is also no monk, warlock, or artificer. There is not a way to do monk as a weaponless class really though you might be able to flavor the glowing rings as a monk weapon and play a warrior. Wizard, meanwhile, with the right experiences and high finesse, would allow for some artificer flavor. Cleric and Warlock are the two tough ones and I will admit those are tricky; I feel like you'd have to multiclass (which you cannot do until level 5) between perhaps seraph and a caster class and you're still going to come off very paladin.