#2 guys from a dnd campaign i wrote

[local-diavolo-anon]

woe oc doodle dump

[zevzevarainai]

your ask made me realize......i don't know any of your ocs (outside of RPG protags). tell me about them please? 👀

ok i'm putting this under a read more because it's slightly embarrassing but not enough for me to not post it. i am also insecure about my drawerings. i'm working on it.

Ok so the only actual original ocs i have are revamped versions of ocs i had based off of toys when i was like 11. yeah... i'm owning it.... quarantine was a time for all of us. i used to have dnd ocs as i wrote my own campaign but they've been abandoned as a result of a messy falling out.

anyway these were like a branch off of a game my sister and our friends used to play when i was like 6 like a 2nd generation type of deal though that's only relevant for one oc. the premise is basically i had toy dragons when i was a kid and i was like "yeah they can shapeshift into humans" because that's the coolest shit when your 12. And when you're in your twenties and mentally ill you make it Serious.

so now it's like a humans hunted dragons so they didn't really come out of hiding but society is a'changing... there aren't a lot of not-shapeshifting dragons left.

it's not very thought out but dragon hybrids as i call them until i think of a better name (i won't) are split into 3 groups of views -

1) coexistence (main guys are here) 2) resent humans, either cannot shift or are ashamed of their human form. They either hide from humans or, if they have the means to, attack humans. They value pureblood dragons and strength. Because of this, they abandon runts and outcast shifters with a human parent. 

3) believe in coexisting with humans, but believe their ability to command two forms puts them above non-shifters, so they should be ruling over them. Some humans agree and have devoted themselves to serving these shifters.

Also these guys go by 2nd names because humans can't pronounce the guttural dragon language sounds (this is my explanation for my less than creative naming system at 12). I also made like physical logistics for their human appearance but we don't need to get into that rn

this is Dramill [dray-mill] (he/him) which child Carly made up as a combination of Draco + Windmill (the toy had a tail that has a webbed bit, looks like a windmill thing, whatever). He is a water dragon (fresh water variant). His bio-family hates humans, he ran away as a teenager and accidentally became a leadership figure for coexistence after finding his found family during his run-away-teen-travels.

He discovered healing powers for water-elemental dragons, he is basically green Katara, except Dramill sacrifices his energy to heal the person. Minor injuries don’t take much out of him. The worse the injury, the harder it is on him. If rushed, it is harder on him.

The first two members of Dramill's found family are Flame (left, she/her) and Smokey (right, he/him). They are twins and both raging homosexuals. If you couldn't guess, they are fire elemental dragons. Dramill found them after their mother was killed by humans and they were attacked a few weeks later.

Flame: Cold exterior, aloof, nonchalant nature, but has a good heart underneath. Too cool for you. Has tattoo sleeves on both arms, nose stud on the right nostril to match her twin's, undercut on the right side.

Smokey: Sarcastic, covers feelings with humor. Has several piercings: multiple ear piercings, double eyebrow piercing on the right side, nose stud on left nostril, nipple piercings, and a stud tongue piercing. All gold colored.

Last two members of Dramill's found family are Frost (left, he/him) and Iceberg (right, any pronouns). Biological siblings and, you guessed it, ice dragons. Iceberg was abandoned by their parents for being a runt; Frost followed his father on a hunch and refused to abandon Iceberg, so he was also disowned. Frost took care of Iceberg on his own until Dramill, Flame, and Smokey found them.

Frost: somewhat introverted and slow to trust others. Fiercely loyal and protective.

Iceberg: Not very good at fighting, doesn't particularly enjoy doing it. Has a lot of confidence interacting with humans.

Okay our first human this is the one i was talking about who is the daughter of Baby's First OC and her preexisting character husband. If you can figure out who the preexisting character is I might have to delete my blog. This is Mary (she/her) she is the daughter of a big name CEO and is set to inherit the company. Mary is confident and smart, which she has to be as she's somewhat famous. She stumbled across Dramill squatting in the forest that technically belongs to her father and eventually befriends the whole squad. She uses her influence to promote coexistence between dragons and humans.

And yeah, Frost is her love interest, this ship has been canon for like 15 years and now it's actually thought out dynamic wise

Next is Chadsworth (right, he/him) who was made as a joke character for 12 year old me but now actually has character traits. Early on his whole deal was he had a massive one-sided crush on Mary and was like obsessed with her. That still kind of happened but he was like 13 and is ashamed about it.

He grew up very poor and later entered the foster program. It was Not Great and he ran away, briefly living on the streets until he befriended a girl who was taking culinary lessons from a woman with fairly-successful catering company. The woman let him stay and he was very helpful with cleaning and chores; when he got a little older she paid him so now he cleans for a living. Chadsworth met Mary when she and her mom were picking up and order. They became friends, but Chadsworth soon developed an unhealthy crush on her-- that was less a crush and more idolization and envy of her life, but he wouldn't unpack this for several years. Frost fuckin' hates him because of this. Chadsworth later apologized to her and Frost but it doesn't matter Frost despises him.

As the picture gives away his love interest is Smokey which is a more recent development (thanks, the sims)

Last one this is JunTae (they/them) who was not in the childhood toys and made semi-recently. I was messing around in the sims... They weren't made to be Dramill's love interest but stumbled into that role. They are a shadow dragon from the forests around Korea (hence the name) who was born into a clan that hates humans. They didn't know any other way until their clan was fighting Dramill and them and Frost beat them up almost real bad until Dramill stopped him; Dramill healed them and they saw their found family dynamic and was like ??? They're like you know if you want to leave like look us up we'll help you, think about it, and eventually they did. Iceberg picked out the name JunTae

JunTae used to be scared of humans and is now curious to learn but still cautious. Good friends with Dramill and Iceberg. Self-conscious and anxious but wants to help. Calls Dramill "Millie" and is the only one allowed to (because Dramill's got a big fat crush on them)

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

hi mac!!!! mentally i am sitting with u on the couch watchin youtube videos w u. i hope ur day was good :3 i had work 2day. did not stop me writing ghostknife!!! i wrote 2k more words in my tumblr drafts over my seven hour shift. im at 8.5k words total now. get my ass out the kitchen im cookin too hard!!!!! THAT ASIDE mac can u gimme some nhw thoughts. i wanna hear about nhw mark winters. tell me abt ur favourite gay depressed blond man!!!!!!!! i wanna hear abt him and what the winters family torment nexus is like in nhw!!!!!! holding out a microphone 2 u the floor is yours 🎤

OKAY . HI. I LOVE TORTURING THAT BLONDE MAN. im going to direct you to the mark winters essay just in case you havent read that one yet because its got context for a lot of what im gonna talk about hehe (beware for worm spoilers, ill make this answer easy 2 understand without context i promise) under the cut bc i tend to ramble about him. oops

god . okay. basis of the entire nhw mark winters character is that he is the most unlucky man in the entire world. like. literally. hes been targeted that way. universe's favorite punching bag. i could make a joke here about being god and such but ill save that for my dnd campaign.

literally. so much bad shit happens to him. and then keeps happening to him. and keeps happening. and he has to be so fucking. emotionally repressed and logical and analytic and focused or else he will go crazy. mark is one of those capes that got powers artificially (overlord forced them on him- parallel to forced experimentation in canon) but the dramatic irony of it all is that even if mark would have gotten his powers naturally through a trigger event... with the way worm powers work he probably wouldve ended up with the same powers anyway. man is a striker/tinker, which comes from "facing an immediate, in-your-face threat, usually a singular object or individual" (indirect danger from simurgh, immediate danger from ashe in his very unstable breaker form immediately after killing his mom) and "solutionless problems over long periods of time, culminating in a crisis moment" (faking his and ashe's deaths in order to escape the quarantine process of simurgh survivors, having to be on the run from any sort of scrutiny for nearly TEN YEARS, eventually resulting in being offered a job working for overlord (a notoriously cruel crime lord)) . i have a lot of feelings about that. mark goes through all of this and never has a trigger event, he gets through it all with his humanity mostly intact. and then he ends up getting powers anyway because hes forced into a corner by a fucking alligator man.

ANYWAYYYYY. the fic im writing rn is from tide's pov and its immediatly after overlords death, where tide finds mark (and a bunch of other people) unconscious in tubes after going through biological experimentation and getting. animal features. this is how mark gets the lizard stuff in this au. anyway since the fic is from tide's pov i want to take a second to talk about what it would be like from marks pov. mark disobeyed one of overlords orders because it would have meant fighting the wards (who ashe . recently joined as part of the team) . overlord does not take this well and punishes him by using him for unethical human experiments. so between that moment and overlords death, mark had been subjected to over a week of near-constant testing and surgery and he was probably awake for a lot of it and. thatll fuck a guy up!!!!! pretty fucking severely!!!!! but in the grand scheme of things a week isnt that much time. which is why his transformation is only minimal and he can still pretty much pass as human with some disguising (some of the other subjects were. not so lucky).

mark was unconscious for the entire overlord fight, so he has no idea what happens. because he was unmasked, the heroes dont recognize him as a villain so instead of going to jail he gets taken to a hospital with all of the other subjects and is basically just treated as a civilian victim. but because nobody knows who he is or his relation to ashe/auxiliary.... nobody. tells him about what happened to overlord. the wards arent as closely involved with mark in this au (and honestly they dont really like him enough to care, they really just know him as "ashe's shitty dad" and thats about it). um. well. the only person who knows his identity and knows his relation is. tide.

working for a supervillain and constantly surviving out of the public's eye for fear that someone might discover your past doesnt leave a lot of room for friends, and his only living family is currently being turned into a puppet by another supervillain (not that he knows this yet) so the only person who really visits him is tide. theyre not friends, theyre not anything to each other, really, but . they KNOW each other. they UNDERSTAND each other in a way that. nobody else in the world would. go read roswells nhw tidalwave post its everything to me . anyway im getting distracted. like i said, over a week of constant unethical experiments and body horror will fuck a guy up. three of his base biological senses/instincts have been SEVERELY messed with (eyesight is fundamentally changed by the heat sense, he cant really thermoregulate well anymore, his balance is completely thrown off by the Addition Of A New Limb) and so that makes it. really hard for him to recover into some sense of lucidity. the next handful of days after he ends up in the hospital are a complete blur of consciousness, any time he opens his eyes hes totally disoriented, hes getting these awful migraines from the strain, he cant control his body heat and it seems like hes always too cold, the scales are fucking itchy, etc etc etc. hes bedridden most of the time because he cant even stand up on his own without support bc he has to get used to the weight of a tail. for those days where he's basically stuck in bed, stuck in his room, etc. he is. bored out of his mind, hes angry, hes scared (ohhh god hes in a hospital did someone do a background check do they know who he is. he hasnt been to a real doctor in over ten years), he doesnt know how much time has passed.

tide happens to visit the first day mark is feeling lucid enough to ask about ashe. this is like. a week or so into his recovery. he overheard one of the staff talking about the date and it made him like. snap awake because he realized hes been away from home and had no way to contact ashe in like. half a month. he cant ask any of the hospital staff about what happened to his son because thats a surefire way of getting a billion questions about his identity. so when tide shows up its immediately like "where is he is someone taking care of him i hate you heroes and everything you stand for but i know hes part of that team now please tell me theyre keeping him safe" and. tide is really really good at keeping a straight face but he just has this Look in his eyes and mark Knows in that moment that every single one of his nighmares is coming true. he tries to leave, tide has to catch him because he still cant walk and hes behaving like a fucking wild animal, hes biting and clawing and just in this rage because why didnt anyone tell me sooner i couldve done something i couldve protected him ("mark, you were basically in a coma" "i dont care") . nobody knows what actually happened to ashe yet. he killed overlord and then just. went missing. nobody saw him leave. they have no lead whatsoever on where he could be (yet) and it drives mark CRAZY dude like. all mark winters knows is grief and rage. eventually the wards are given that hint about where to find him and see him with the trickster and now THEY know, but. again, they dont.. know mark as well. they dont have any reason to go tell him right away. i havent decided yet whether it would be more painful for tide to break this news to him too or if the first time mark sees his son again is . on tv unmasked using his powers in some gaudy outfit he knows ashe would never choose to wear with his hair pulled back out of his face in some intricate braid and. why are his eyes orange . what the fuck happened to him. his wholeeeeee. entire world entire existence just comes crashing down around him .

mark winters universe's most hated man

[chibigo-ma]

CHAPTER ONE of Freak [Stranger Things]

Notes: This has been in the drafts for a LONG TIME as I was an OG ST fan. There were a lot of changes and the last I wrote (a chapter of the entire S1 EP 1) has Eddie from Season 4. Pls don't hate me. There's a reason why this is still in the drafts (*ahem* I'm scared of the fandom) and I'm sharing it now bc why not. This OC, Rima, is the FIRST version of her until I changed them a bit for my SF FF. She's still the same but without the trauma. I never thought I would share this so I just reuse OCs :0

Filipino characters. 🇵🇭 This starts as a Gen FF with one established OCxCanon ship (I want to experiment with the MxM genre) and maybe or not there will be a love interest for the MC in this book. Depends on me. Although, it will take forever for that love to happen. Also depends on whether or not I give my character a love life, so far, staying single.

Also, pls be nice with the DND part. I'm so unknowledgeable with it and idk if what I wrote is fine in the DND sense.

TW. Bullying, Racist Remarks, Missing Child (Will Byers)

𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟼𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟹 ��𝚊𝚠𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚜, 𝙸𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚊 𝙳𝚎𝚕𝚊 𝙲𝚛𝚞𝚣 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚍��

Late at night, a couple of teens played in the basement as a DnD campaign was going on. The aura was so thick and intense, that the members of the party were quiet as the dungeon master continued the campaign. "After your party settled for the night, one of you wasn't feeling too good at all," a younger Eddie Munson spoke as the others waited for him to continue. 

"That someone was none other than our Cleric herself," he pointed over to the only female and the youngest in the group, Rima Dela Cruz. 

"What the necromancer said to her before they died was bothering her a lot. 'A robot is amongst you.' What did that necromancer mean? But suddenly, she heard robot statics and looked over to the now awoken Tom to see that he had sharp teeth and a robotic body!" Eddie announced and the party groaned. 

"See! I told you we shouldn't let him come with us!" Sean exclaimed in anger. "Yeah, but he was THE perfect male wife as Eddie mentioned," Gareth had his hands up. "Let's not forget, he's rich," Jeff commented. "And he can make gourmet food," Rima pointed out and another one of their friends agreed with her. Sean groans in frustration as Eddie continues. 

"The others woke up and stood beside Rima as Tom stood up from his bed and went to attack Rima. Sean, what will you do?" Eddie asked. "Fireball!" Jeff exclaimed. "No, it's too risky, what if he hurts somebody that isn't Tom?" Gareth commented. "I'm about to throw this fireball at you two and shove it up your ass," Sean threatened the two. 

"What is the dexterity saving throw of the animatronic?" Rima asked Eddie, ignoring the bickering. "We're replacing them as Zombies so -2 Dex saves and remember DC is at thirteen," Eddie verifies. "Okay," she snaps at the bickering guys with her.

"We should use teleportation considering that it's Sean's turn, who knows, it could also be a distraction, and then we'll try to do Sacred Flame as it's my turn next. We simply have to hope our throw isn't lower than thirteen so we can deal damage and my spell damage is higher," Rima negotiated and everyone seemed to agree. 

Sean rolled a D100 and it rolled to 70. "To the field! To the field!" Everyone chanted and Eddie allowed it. "It would seem that the teleport distracted him," Eddie mentioned. "I cast Sacred Flame!" Rima exclaimed and was given a D20. "Please!" Sean exclaimed and everyone else pleaded as they watched Rima roll in anticipation. 

She let go of the die and it rolled to eighteen. "Yes!" Everyone exclaimed. "Minus 2 damage—leading to sixteen damage, it succeeds and Tom dealt so much damage!" Eddie shouts. "Aba! (Oh!)" Rima smirked as she felt satisfied. "Rima, Sean!" Everyone looked up the stairs to see Mrs. Dela Cruz standing by the door. 

"Ilang beses ko na kayong tinatawag! (I've been calling you two so many times!) It's a school night," Mrs. Dela Cruz, also known as Anna, scolds the siblings. 

"Opo, opo, ma! Mag-aayos na kami! (Okay, okay, ma! We'll fix up now!)," Sean stood up from his chair and the others sighed as they were getting to the good stuff. Rima stood up from her chair as the other guys grabbed trash and empty pizza boxes to throw out later. "Awesome that you made Fredbear's Family Diner inspire this campaign," Rima mentioned to Eddie as he helped Sean fix the D&D set. 

"Hey, you're the one who mentioned it. The poor kid though," Eddie sadly remembers that detail she told him. "Yeah, I hope the family is doing alright," Rima comments, and she grabs a wet rag to clean up the table. "We're gonna go ahead," Gareth points up the stairs. 

"See you in school!" Their other friend waved goodbye as the three left the basement, leaving Sean, Rima, and Eddie. 

"Finally," Eddie exclaims as he kisses Sean on the lips. Sean smiles in the kiss and kisses his boyfriend back as Rima looks at them in disgust. "You do know I'm still here, right? At least do it in Sean's room," Rima sassed them as she grabbed her walkie-talkie. 

"No bitches?" Sean teases as Eddie kisses his cheek. "I get bitches, but I don't want them," she countered back with a smirk. 

"You're lucky I'm not a snitch," she waved them off as she left the basement. Rima turns on her walkie-talkie and starts to change the frequencies. "Jonathan, do you copy? This is Rima speaking, come in, Jonathan," she calls out, and static comes on her end. "This is Jonathan speaking, how was your DnD session? Over," Jonathan Byers spoke on his walkie-talkie. 

"It was great. I dealt so much damage to our last boss before we got interrupted by my mom," she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and took a drink. "Good night, anak (child)," Anna greets her goodnight. "G'night ma, night pa," she kissed her parents on the cheek and proceeded to go upstairs. 

"Besides that, I think I'm scarred for life. Just saw Sean kissing my best friend again for the tenth time today," she gagged as she got to her room. "You should get used to that by now. They've been together since, what? They were fifteen?" Jonathan chuckled. 

"True, but like ever since they came out to mom and dad, and they told the two that they were ok with it—as long as they do it in private, 'cuz you know, lots of close-minded people," she mentioned as she lay down on her bed. 

"They've been at it with one another for a year now! Probably some pent-up sexual feelings they have for one another. I still don't get it. At this point, I should tell them to use protection," she joked. "Your lack of sexual desire is showing," Jonathan chuckled. 

"And how was your day? You got home safely, right?" she asked and he went quiet. "Well, I'm at... work," Jonathan replied and Rima's eyes widened. "Dude, you know Joyce doesn't like you taking shifts when she's working. You also got to know if Will came home safely," she quietly exclaimed as she lay on her side. 

"Yes, yes. I know, but Eric asked if I could cover and I agreed. I thought we could use the extra cash," he told her and she sat on her bed. 

"Just stay safe and tell Will I said hi in the morning. He's probably on his way home now or is asleep already," she mentioned worriedly. "Alright, sweet dreams, Rim," he said softly. "Sweet dreams to you too, Jon," they turned their walkie-talkie off and turned off the lights.

👾🚲🛹🌗

"Aalis na kami! (We're going now!)" Rima and Sean shout by the front door. "Baon niyo?! (Your packed lunch?!)" Anna called out. "Nandito na! (It's here!)" They shout and Eddie looks over at Anna and smiles at her. "Thanks for the breakfast again, Anna. I'll look after these idiots for you," Eddie said the same thing every day as she laughed. 

"You'll always look after my babies. Have fun and don't get in trouble!" Anna exclaims as Eddie joins the siblings. "Love you, ma!" The siblings exclaimed once more as they closed the door behind them. "See ya!" Rima salutes the boys as she drops her skateboard and rides to school. She checks her watch to see that she has a lot of time left before her first class starts. 

She decides to check up on the Party since she knows that they get bullied a lot as well. As she walks over to the middle school, she spots the boys but rolls her eyes when she sees their bullies in front of them again. "I told you a million times, my teeth are coming in. It's called cleidocranial dysplasia," she heard Dustin say from afar as she got closer. 

"I told you a million times," one of their bullies imitated Dustin. Rima jogged over to them as she heard one of them say "Do it, freak!" "Oi!" Rima placed her hands on their shoulders as Lucas, Mike, and Dustin smiled after seeing their older friend. "What did I tell you about bullying them?" Rima glared at the bullies and they stayed quiet. 

"On the count of three, I want you two to get inside the school, out of my sight. Do I make myself," she pressed her fingers onto their collarbones lightly and they instantly wince despite how lightly she gripped them. "... clear?" She continued. She said that menacingly, the Party could notice their bullies shaking in fear. 

"Yes, ma'am!" They exclaimed as she let go of them. "One," she began to count and they quickly sprinted to the school's entrance. "Two," she stopped counting as they got inside in a panic. Rima sighed as she ruffled her hair but soon gasped as she felt arms wrapping around her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Rim!" Dustin exclaimed as that alone made Rima chuckle. 

"No problem," she patted his back and turned to the others but noticed someone missing. "Where's Will? He's always with you guys, it's practically weird not to see him with you three," they commented. "His mom said that he went to class early again and I think she's right," Lucas answered and Rima shrugged it off as a valid reason. 

"Alright, you boys take it easy now, alright? I don't want any of my little brothers getting hurt. Because remember," the Party began to smirk, "Freaks stick together," they finished her sentence. Rima ruffled Mike's and Lucas' hair and gave Dustin a huge hug before going back to Hawkins High School. "See you, Rim!" Dustin shouted and she held a hand up to acknowledge him. 

She dropped her skateboard and road down the slope. By the time she got to the entrance doors, she kicked off her skateboard and carried it as she walked the hallways of her school. She got to her locker to see the word ❝freak❞ written on her locker door. She huffs as they unlock her locker, grabs a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol and another old rug, and proceeds to remove it. 

"G'morning, Rima!" They looked behind them to see Barbara waving at her with Nancy to which she smiled. "Morning, girls," she greeted the two as she finished up cleaning. "To continue," Nancy began to speak. "We just," she proceeds to unlock her locker, "made out a couple of times." 

"We just... made out a couple of times," Barbara mimicked her and Rima giggled. "Nance, seriously?" Rima chuckled, but at the time same time felt worried for her friend. "You're gonna be so cool now, it's ridiculous," Barbara commented. "No, I'm not," Nance disagrees with her. 

"You better still hang out with us, that's all we're saying," Rima added to which Barbara nodded. "If you become friends with Tommy H. or Carol—" 

"Oh, that's gross!" "That's disgusting!" Both Nancy and Rima reacted negatively as Nancy opened her locker.  "Okay, I'm telling you, it was a one-time—" Nancy stopped talking as she watched her friends raise an eyebrow at her. "Two-time thing," she adds, and the other two chuckle as Nancy spots a note inside her locker. 

She opens it and it reads, "Meet me. Bathroom -Steve." "You were saying?" Barbara asked and Nancy bites her lips as she looks at her best friends. "Just go," Rima nudged her shoulder to encourage her friend and they watched her smile as she speed-walked to the bathroom. 

"She sure is in love with him," Barbara commented as the two watched Nancy and Steve meet with smiles and walk to the bathroom. "I don't get the whole... whatever they're having. Why is Nancy denying whatever her relationship is with Steve? Everyone can tell that they like each other," Rima mentions as she grabs her books. 

"If I got to be honest," the two looked at each other. "I'm not sure," Barbara continued and Rima shrugs. "Maybe it's because he had so many exes and possibly had sex with them. I think she's worried about it," 

"Well, I have to go to English class," Rima groans as she closes her locker and locks it. The two walked down the hallway as they spoke to one another. "I still don't get why you have to take that class. You're good at English. Better than me and Nancy," Barbara commented. 

"I don't know. It's just the whole system with immigrants needing to learn American English. The good part is I'm bilingual and I'll probably have my head explode if I learn another language," Rima placed both her hands near her forehead. "Pftshhh," she opened her fingers and moved her hands away in a "mind-blown" motion—Barbara giggled as they separated their ways. 

During school hours, she hasn't seen Jonathan or him going up to her. It was like he wasn't in school. Could something have happened at home? Rima thought about it as the bell rang for lunch. Rima stood up from her desk and grabbed her bag as she left the classroom. 

She was minding her business while walking to the cafeteria until she got pushed into a wall. 

"Hello, Ching-chong," Tommy Hagan smirked as Carole Perkins giggled. "Wrong type of Asian. We talked about this. Get it right next time," Rima sassed, and people who heard laughed. Tommy got pissed and slammed Rima again to the wall. "Don't you think this is getting old? Is this going to be our routine?" Rima asked and it was just making Tommy more frustrated. 

"Stop that!" Tommy demanded. "Hey!" The two looked over to the side to see Steve "the hair" Harrington and upon seeing him made Rima's eyes roll. "Hey, lover boy," this got Steve's attention, "can you tell your idiots to let go of me? At this point, I'm starting to think that these two are in love with me," after she said that, Tommy lets go of her and looks at her in disgust. 

"We are not in love with you," Carol answered. "Then why bother me every day? You can clearly see that I'm uninterested in whatever you guys are saying," Rima kicked Tommy in the crotch and he heaved as he dropped to the floor. She quickly got away from them and ran to the cafeteria. "Rim!" She looked over to see Eddie waving at her with Sean beside him.

She quickly went over to them and sat across from the two. "Were they holding you back again?" Sean asked to which Rima rolled her eyes. "They keep on bothering me when they can see that I'm uninterested in whatever they say about me," she pulled out her packed lunch and smiled to see that lumpia was her lunch for the day.

"They're quite annoying, not going to lie," Eddie answered but raised an eyebrow when he watched Rima looking around. "Who are you looking for?" Eddie asked and Rima looked more confused. "Jonathan didn't come to school today," she pointed out and the two boys raised an eyebrow. "Really?" Sean asked. 

"She's just sad that she isn't with her boyfriend, at the moment," Eddie joked and laughed.

"For the thousandth time, he's not and will not be my boyfriend. We see each other as siblings," she pointed out. "Walkie-talkie him later after school. Maybe something happened at home," Sean pointed out and Rima nodded. "Yeah, I'll do that later. I just hope those nasty lovebirds don't bother me again. It's getting so annoying," Rima mentioned and ate her lunch.

👾🚲🛹🌗

It was finally after school, and Rima quickly got on her skateboard with her walkie-talkie in hand. She turned it on and stopped riding her skateboard when she was far from her school. "Jonathan, do you copy? Jonathan Byers, do you copy?" She called for him and waited for a response. "Hey, Rima," she heard Jonathan sniff. 

"Hey, you doing alright? I was wondering why you weren't in school," she answered as she rode the way to her house. "Will's missing," Jonathan tells her, and she stands still as her skateboard keeps going. "What...?" Rima felt frozen and didn't realize a dip in the curb and fell off her board. She groaned in pain as she held her arm. 

"He... He's missing," Jonathan sobbed softly, "I should've been there for him," his voice broke. "Shit," she rolled slowly and looked to where her walkie was. As she tried to get her walkie, she was hit with her skateboard, and her walkie was taken. "Aww, little ching fell," Carol mocked her, Boo hoo!" Rima groaned more as Tommy was beside Carol and Steve was behind Rima. 

"Can you shut the fuck up? I've just been hit with bad news," Rima said as she stood up slowly, staggering back with Tommy pushing her. "What? Your boyfriend broke up with you?" Tommy smirked. "No, my little brother is missing," she glared and the two were stunned. They looked at one another and wondered what they would do next.

Steve sighed as he grabbed Rima's skateboard and took her walkie out of Carol's hand. "Here," Steve handed her her stuff. Rima looked between her stuff and at Steve as she didn't trust what he would do next. "I'm not going to do anything. Just get home safe," Steve stated and she slowly grabbed her stuff. "Get yourself patched as well," he told her and he watched her nod slowly.

She sped-walked away from them as she quickly turned the corner out of their sight. She inspected her walkie for damages before pushing the button. "Jonny, I can go to your house and help you and Joyce out. Sorry, I didn't reply quicker, I had some trouble kanina (a while ago)," she said on the walkie. "Hey, it's okay," he sniffed, "is it ok if you sleep over?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll ask my mom. She deeply cares for you two and Joyce. We'll be with you guys every step of the way," she reassured him as she finally got home. "I'll update you soon. Over and out!" She turned off her walkie and got inside. 

"I'm home! Mama, nasan ka po? (Where are you?)" Rima called out to her home. "Nasa kitchen po ako! (I'm in the kitchen!)" Anna shouts and Rima goes over there. "Ma, may emergency tayo (We have an emergency.)," she tells her. "Ano nangyari? (What happened?)," Anna stopped what she was doing. "Will is missing," Rima states, and Anna's eyes widen. 

"Really?!" Anna looked heartbroken. "I contacted Jonny kanina and he told me the news. He also asked if it was ok for me to sleep over," Rima shared. 

"Oh, we will cook them dinner and eat with them. I'll call your father about it and tell Jon about it. Tell him that he'll sleep over with you two as well," Anna told her. "Noted," Rima saluted and went to fix her stuff while using her walkie to contact the two boys.

Night came and Anna finished cooking dinner. Sean Sr. was informed about the plan and is willing to go with the plan. Sean Jr. was also fine with the plan as he took Eddie home. "Are your bags ready? Papa is coming home soon na (now)," Anna informed her children as Rima watched TV with Sean going down the stairs. "Yup," he replied and sat beside Rima.

"I can't believe Will is missing. This feels surreal,"  he mentioned with a frown. "It is. Let's take note to be with someone when it's nighttime," Rima concluded as a car horn was heard. "That must be Papa," Anna quickly grabbed a few of the food as the two opened the door to leave their bags inside the car. "Hey, you two alright?" Sean Sr. asked as he popped the trunk.

"Yup! Mama made a lot of food so we have to try to fit them all in the back," Rima informed him. "I'll go help," he quickly got inside as the siblings fit their bags in the trunk. "Poor Jon," Sean sighed as he leaned on the car. "Let's try our best to help him, yeah?" Rima reassured him. "Let's help with the food for now," he said as they got inside after their parents came out.

After all the food was secured and safe, Sean Sr. backed up and drove to the Byers Abode. As they got there, Joyce quickly got out the front door and ran to her best friend. "Anna!" Joyce pounced on her friend as soon as Anna opened her door. "Will, he's there! It-It—" "It's ok. It's ok," Anna comforted Joyce as the remaining three took out the food.

"We got some goods!" Rima tried to get the mood up as she lifted two servings of food. "Rima Joy Dela Cruz, if you drop those," Anna threatened with a glare as Rima ran inside. "Rim," Jonathan helped her with the food. "Hey," she patted his back as they brought it to the table. 

"It's gonna be okay. I'll be right here. No matter what," she reassured as she still had her hand on his back. Jonathan looked like he wanted to say more, but kept it in. "This is all so very nice. Thank you so much, Anna," Joyce said as the two friends let go.

"I'll be with you throughout this investigation, no worries; I am a retired policewoman," Anna smiled. Anna Dela Cruz worked as a policewoman for years before she retired. It was only recently that she retired due to a case where it got her injured. It was issued to the doctor that exerting more than she usually has would earn her some permanent damages in the long run.

She reluctantly left her job, but it ended on a good note. "What is the update with everything?" Anna asked Joyce as the mothers stayed outside while the rest went inside to prepare the food and leave their bags inside. "He's close. I feel it in my heart," Joyce sniffled. "There was a call and...and it was his breathing," she broke down again as she held onto Anna.

It hurt Anna to see Joyce like this. She was like that when Ronnie was being an ass to her. "Don't worry. I'm here, I'm here," Anna reassured her friend as she felt a drizzle. "Shit, I think it's about to rain," Anna, who still held Joyce in her arms, ushered her inside before they got wet. 

"It's raining hard tonight," Sean Jr. mentions as plates and utensils are placed on the table. "Hey," Rima whispered to Jonathan as she got his attention. "Let's watch a movie later. I've brought tons of CDs," she tells him to try and cheer him up. "Alright," Jonathan smiled and felt his heart skipped a beat for the girl beside him. 

She has always been with him through the ups and downs of his life. He's grateful that she doesn't push him to express himself, which makes him more open to her than with anyone else, sometimes his mother. They've eaten their dinner and Rima went to change as soon as she finished her dinner. 

"Thank you Anna and Sean for letting Jon and Rima stay over," Jonathan thanked the two. "It's no problem. You and Joyce need support right now," Sean Sr. held Jonathan's shoulder. "Thank you, Sean," Jonathan smiled and nodded.

Finally, late at night, the parents decided to stay at the Byers to be there for their friend as the teens stayed in the living room. Sean Jr. had passed out earlier as the remaining two watched their fifth movie. Rima was invested in the movie while Jonathan was half listening and looking at the girl.

They had talked about Will before the movie marathon and Rima smiled at the picture he and his mom picked for the missing person poster. He had been reassured by his mother that it wasn't his fault, but the guilt still sinks in him. He's thankful that Rima doesn't push him to open up, but it makes him weirdly nervous to share on his own without her acknowledging it. 

Was it due to liking the girl for the past few years? Maybe, but he doesn't want to think about it. It still hurts to hear that she sees him as another brother and it makes him feel restricted to share the majority of his feelings with the girl. He sat still as he continued to watch the movie and his thoughts stayed put in his mind. 

:]

Translations & Pronunciations: Aba! (Ah-bah) - Oh! To express surprise, admiration, and proud expression.

Ilang beses ko na kayong tinatawag! School night pati. - I've been calling you two so many times! It's a school night.

Opo, opo, ma! Mag-aayos na kami! - Okay, okay, ma! We'll fix up now! Adding "po" and/or "opo" makes the sentence more polite and respectful. "Po" doesn't have any equivalent word in the English Language, but "Opo" usually means "Yes, Okay, etc." in a more formal and polite term. 

Anak (Ah-nak) -Son/Daughter/Child There are no specifics. "Anak" literally means "child" of any age and gender.  

Aalis na kami! (Ah-ah-lis nah kah-me) -We're going now!

Baon niyo?! (Bah-on knee-yo) -Your packed lunch/pocket money?! Depends on the context if it's either packed lunch or pocket money. In this case, it's a packed lunch.

Nandito na! (Nan-dee-toh) -It's here!

Kanina (Kah-knee-na) - A while ago.

Nasan ka po? (Nah-san kah poh) - Where are you?  "Nasan" is a shortened word from "Nasaan", which still means "Where is/are." Either "Nasan" or "Asan" works.

[enbywithabee]

Daily Recap | 12 • 10 • 23

I'm alive!! I haven't been able to write much because I have either been busy or sick. Finals season has been kicking my ass but I will survive!!

This past weekend was pretty eventful! I had to make some last-minute exam accommodation requests for the politics exam I mentioned in my last diary entry, but they all got approved! I literally cried when I found out because I was physically sick from stressing over it. Now I can stop stressing about if I'll even be able to finish my exams and start stressing about what all I need to study for them.

My a cappella group also hosted our final performance of the semester and it ended up being super fun, though a bit sad since two of our members will be studying abroad/away next semester and we won't see them for a bit. But hey, no more rehearsals 3 days a week for a month and a half!

Outside of school, I've been working on an application for a summer fellowship I'm interested in, studying for finals, and playing Baldur's Gate 3. My dnd campaign also met this weekend for the last time this semester (we're gonna meet virtually once or twice over break), and now I'm in dnd brainrot mode. I'm normal about this guys, I promise (lie)

Day rating: 8/10

Productivity highlights:

Put together quizlet for politics final

Looked over politics final exam prompts

Wrote 1 1/2 pages for my religion essay + reread the readings I wanna use for it

Updated my resume, picked a sample writing, and started my personal statement for the fellowship

Put away all of the laundry I've been avoiding for the past 2 weeks (oops)

Boo of the day: ADHD paralysis did it's thing and forced me to start on chores and hw WAY later than planned

Yay of the day: Got to stay in all day and listen to the rain outside while I worked <3

[k4g3hika]

WHO THE HELL?! ━ imagine!

eddie munson x fem! reader

summary: when eddie munson doesn't find the need to tell the dungeons and dragons club members about his new girlfriend. so imagine dustin's surprise when he visits eddie's trailer and sees it looking impeccably clean.

wc: 956

hi guys! forgot to mention i kind of wrote a part 2 to this so: “love, y/n:)”

“Okay, Eddie! I hear you! So it’s just in your living room? On the table beside the sofa? Okay!” Dustin stops his bike beside the Munson trailer, dropping it down onto the dirt as he rushes to the door. “Wait- how the hell am I supposed to get inside?!”

“Did I not give you my keys?”

“No!”

“Damn!”

“Wait! I see someone inside! I’m just gonna knock on the door till they answer. Talk to you later, over and out!” Amidst Eddie’s protests, Dustin turns off the walkie-talkie and strides over to the door. He secretly hopes to himself that it’s not Eddie’s uncle. But shit, who else is going to be in the Munson residence if it wasn’t Eddie or his scary-looking uncle?

He breathes in and out, raising his fist to knock on the door. However, right after his fists land on the door, it falls open as if it wasn’t locked in the first place. 

‘Red flag. Red flag.’ Dustin knew better than to go into a complete stranger’s house. But, this was Eddie’s trailer. The worst thing that can happen is that he can stumble on some disgusting shit, or God bless him, his uncle holding a knife to his chest ready to pop off and kill him. ‘God, please guide me.’

As he walked inside, it seemed empty. There was absolutely no sign of life, but something did scare the living shit out of Dustin. 

The Munson trailer was clean. Clean as fuck. 

Dustin only knew Eddie from the beginning of the school year. But, regardless of the short time, Dustin knew that Eddie hardly took care of himself and would rather focus on anything else other than cleanliness. Shit, he remembers that one time he went inside Eddie’s room and it was laundry day. The stains on that mattress were traumatizing. 

After going through a state of shock, Dustin remembered the reason why he was even in Eddie’s trailer. He began his search for the paper his leader needed, but it was far more difficult to find compared to the simplicity Eddie emphasized. Dustin cursed him under his breath, opening up every drawer on every table by the one sofa in the entire living room. 

However, Dustin was so focused on his search, that he completely went deaf to the sounds of movement behind him. 

“Hey! Who the fuck are you?!” Dustin almost fell back at the sheer terror he just felt surge through his heart. His breaths began to get erratic. Seeing a really, really pretty woman standing with only a shirt and…shorts? Or were they panties? He didn’t know. But it was fucking scary. Or hot? He didn’t know. “Hello?!? You better say who you are before I call the cops!”

“Wait! Wait! Eddie sent me here! He sent me to get something for the campaign! My name is Dustin! Dustin Henderson!” Dustin raised his hands up in defence, not seeing the woman’s shoulders deflate in relief. She chuckles, prompting Dustin to lower his hands. “W-Wha-”

“God, I’m sorry. Did I forget to lock the door again? Shit. I’m gonna get myself killed one day. Anyway, the paper he forgot is actually on the kitchen counter. I put it there figuring out he was gonna come back.” She walks past him. 

‘Oh jeeze.’ Dustin tries not to look at them, only looking forward to where the paper was. 

“Here you go, sorry about earlier. I just got scared is all. Did he drive you here?”

“No…I biked here.” He blinks twice at you, becoming nervous at your gaze staring him down. 

“Oh my god! Really? Do you want some water? What about a cookie? Oh wait! I baked some cookies earlier, I was really bored. Can you bring some to the DnD club, please? Eds loves them…” As you ramble on about cookies and water, Dustin can’t help but gaze at your beautiful features. Your voice was also soothing, and shit, you look like you give the best hugs. “Shit, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Y/N, Eddie’s girlfriend. Nice to finally meet you, Dustin!”

‘Now I know why Eddie hides you.’

–

“Fuck! Look who finally decides to turn up! Henderson, what took you so long?” Eddie walks up to Dustin, eyebrows furrowing in search of the paper he asked him to get. “Did you get the paper-”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Excuse me?”

“I should be saying ‘excuse me’! I get sent, for a paper, and y’know what I find? Hm?” Dustin looks around the room past Eddie, trying to show them validation for his anger. “The most beautiful and shit, best baker, I have ever met in my life!” After his last statement, Dustin shoves the container of cookies at his (now ex) idol’s chest. 

Eddie, though initially confused at Dustin’s anger, finally understands why when he sees your signature chocolate chip cookies. You always add M&Ms, saying that they ‘add a pop of colour’ to them. Not that he minded. He loved it. 

“I don’t get why you’re angry-”

“Bitch?! You have to show them off! Sell these cookies for God’s sakes! Bring her to meetings! Shit! Do I have to teach you how to be a good boyfriend?!?” Dustin drops his bag, groaning at Eddie’s ‘stupidity’. “Let’s get on with the game!”

Eddie looks at Dustin, then at the container in his hands. 

It wasn’t like he was hiding you. Eddie smiles to himself, propping open the lid and eating one cookie. 

Eddie just thinks that you’re his little secret. Only he gets to eat your cookies. Dustin just happened to stumble upon them. Never again though.

“Hey, Eddie, can we try some of those cookies-”

“Fuck off Gareth.”

[gremlin-armand]

Theory Time

I am saying this now because I haven't heard anyone else put two theories together and it just makes so much sense to me.

We all know the theory of Mike keeping a letter to Will in his jacket pocket. There isn't really evidence so much as there is foreshadowing of the fact. I will link a more in depth analysis here (by @bylercloud )

"Letter to Willy" - The song that plays in Dear Billy.

Joyce finding Hopper's letter in a shirt pocket while packing for California. It's a meaningful heart to heart type letter. Which, after reading, El folds and place in her own shirt pocket.

Jonathon keeping his community college letter in his shirt pocket as well. Much of his storyline in S4 revolves around him hiding the existence of this letter from everyone but Argyle. Even Joyce.

The cryptic post on from the Stranger Writers twitter.

The letters aren't kept in the pockets of their jeans or anywhere else. They are kept close to their hearts. Possibly signifying their emotion significance as well as the fact that the characters what to keep them guarded, protected, where no one else can see or get to them them.

We also know the theory that the Duffer Brother's did not actually forget Will's birthday. See these two posts by @chirpsythismorning for more in depth evidence. But the gist is:

The Duffer's claiming they haven't rewatched season 2 in ages, which is clearly not true going by the parallels. They are sticklers for their timelines and dates, mentioning mutiple times the different ways they made specific choices in order to make things work and that they have calculated Vecna's age and so on. NOt to mention that Will has always been a central part of the ST story, do we really think the creators would forget one of their main character's birthdays? As well as them saying they would edit the S2 episode that mentions his birthday, but also saying they wouldn't and haven't edited any past seasons.

Birthdays being referenced mutliple times throughout S4, most notably Suzie knowing Dustin's birthday down to the hour.

The simple fact that they even decided to add a guy with a camera to the scene, purposefully showing a segment through the lense in order to give us this time stamp in the first place. March 22nd being specifically chosen as the date.

So my thoughts? What if it's not just a letter in Mike's pocket, what if it's a birthday card? What if no one actually forgot Will's birthday?

Mike writes a letter/birthday card for Will. Possibly even making him something -- my thoughts being he wrote a DnD campaign, something he's been known to do as dungeon master of their friend group as well as the the pic from the Stanger Writers twitter reading "I think you'll--" [like it] "sorry I couldn't get it done--" [in time for your birthday] "but you mean--" [so much to me] and it's been [so long since we played]. "Hope this is--" [good enough to] "last until--" [ 1) next time? or: 2) I finish the campaign.] "Love--" [Mike].

I like to point out the fact that in one of the ST comics Mike actually tries writing a DnD campaign for just Will, wanting to make it so that Will, and only Will, would be able to save them and eventually win the campaign. Link

I could even go as far as to say that it's a possibility that Joyce ad Johnathon didn't forget Will's birthday. Make come's to see them on that day specifically. Perhaps the Byer's were the one's to make this happen, maybe paid for the ticket, as a birthday present for Will?

There isn't much evidence either way, but I do think it's curious how Jonathon stops Will at Rink-o-Mania and tells him to have fun. He doesn't say this to anyone else. It gives off the vibes that maybe this was supposed supposed to be more of Will's day, but that Mike was ruining it with his stand-offish behavior.

Then, with everything that ends up happening -- El assaulting Angela, the cops being called, Mike being in a mood, Jonathon getting high, the Russian doll and Murray showing up -- it's very possible that his birthday was swept under the rug, put on the back burner, or forgotten about because there was so much drama going on.

Lastly, they return to Hawkins around the end of March and Mike's birthday is April 7th. It would be a perfect opportunity to bring up the secret letter/card Mike has for Will when Will inevitably gives/says/does something for Mike's birthday.

This all being said, when it comes to Will's birthday and how it was handled vs how it will play out in the next season, I believe the Duffers know what they are doing, and they might be the only ones who know the significance of it. They may have kept the actors in the dark on this.

All of this, of course is just speculation! Some parts could be right, others completely wrong, but I think it's a compelling theory, or at least a sensible way to marry these two theories together. If you made it this far, thank you for staying with me and I would love to hear your thoughts/opinions on this!

[chibigaia-art]

Sorry for not following up immediately on the DND question. The one recently drawn by rerenah and with a flourish in the hat.

oh, Arcadia!! OKAY SO she's my first DND character that actually went through a whole campaign from start to finish, so I had the time to flesh her out a bit more

also this got super long so, under the cut

She's an half-elf, chaotic good bard with really bad luck when rolling for stealth actions (literally the first fight we had I managed to roll a 1 and ruined the stealth attack for everyone and immediately after I got a nat20 and critted an enemy to death)

She was raised by her human dad in a port city and has almost no memory of her mom who basically just left for no reason; she does use her mom's lyre tho, because musical instruments are expensive and elfic ones are hard to come by in a mostly-human city. She left her hometown to become the apprentice of a gnome mage along with what becomes the rest of the party for the story

Main fighting tactics during the campaign were 1) lie to the government 2) if you can't talk to the enemies, put them to sleep and let the orc and paladin of the party decapitate the monsters 3) if that doesnt work, pull out the sword or bow and disregard your personal safety

though some notable fighting moments were when she enchanted the captain of what was basically the royal army and made him laugh so hard he stopped beating one of her teammates to death / when she almost convinced the final boss dragon to fly to the opposite side of the country so the party would be able to finish the quest without getting turnt into french fries - this was before the half-orc teammate freaked out about how dangerously close she was to the dragon and snatched her up like a potato sack and ran away to safety (leaving the rest of the party behind to fight a whole ass dragon) (tho to be fair, we had to go and rescue a princess so)

there was like,,, a trend at the start of the campaign where she almost died twice so the entire party started looking out for her, especially the ranger, he'd send his wolf after Arcadia to make sure she was okay or had some help, so at the end of the campaign the wolf Churro and Arcadia had a really strong friendship :]

during the campaign she also got adopted by a powerful elf witch that lives in a swamp filled with illusions - basically Arcadia was lured to her house by an illusion that looked like her mom, and wanting to ask a thousand question she ignored the party and disappeared in the mist just to end up with this strange lady (along with the wolf that was sent to track her down but left the ENTIRE party behind so fsnds that was fun)

anyway, they spent alone a lot of time and Arcadia was really interested in her because she was also the same witch of a legend - bard insticts prevailed and she wanted to know EVERYTHING; once the entire party reunited and the witch Cassandra helped them out and gave them some more info for the quest, Arcadia gifted her a short poem she wrote during the night and in exchange the witch gave her a necklace; it was all really sweet and touching because Arcadia promised to visit her again and that she'd bring stories about the outside world and stuff, Cassandra referred to her as the daughter she never had, and then the rest of the party was like 👀 we want gifts/food too and it was ruinedhfdn

oh also it's noteworthy to mention that she didn't flirt with anyone -LITERALLY ANYONE- in the whole campaign, except for the tall, dark elf that was also the captain of the paladins/royal guards I mentioned earlier - and the moment he said a racist thing about her teammates she was ready to throw down; so basically the only moment the bard of the party tried to flirt with someone she managed to find The Asshole; that didn't stop the party from trying to convince her to flirt with the guy tho

anyway the second time they met him the dude had basically stalked them to the location of one of the quest items, one of his men had killed the butler of one of the party member's family and he STILL tried to reason with Arcadia before the party collectively lost their shit and started attacking the paladins - and that's how Captain Charming got hit by a laughter spell, tied up and left in a crypt with the rest of his beaten up/sleeping friends

we never really cleared up on what happened after the campaign was over but imo Arcadia kept her promise to Cassandra (the witch) and went back to visit her while also traveling with her party members whenever they were up to do something wacky or just traveling by her lonesome because that's what celebrity bards to babey

[sw4tch]

u should info dump about smth, anything

(ali my friend my beloved my good time gamer and bestie HIIII!!!! 💕💕💕)

it's not like i don't have topics to infodump about, but the truth is that i feel like you've handed me a mic in the middle of karaoke and now it's my turn (oh god it's my TURN)

also 👉👈 um um i'm not sure if the info i'd be dumping would be NEW or interesting to anyone. why am i overthinking this. "I have no mouth but I must Rant" kinda situation over here.

Like I'd LOVE to infodump about my very, very personal deltarunesona au shenanigans I've been working on for like, a YEAR now- but that feels too PERSONAL to TALK about on my PERSONAL blog, gods forbid I show any kind of Intense Passion i have which might be deemed """""weird"""""

Same goes for my 4 DnD characters (DID U KNOW I RECENTLY FINISHED A WHOLE CAMPAIGN?!?!?! MY FIRST CAMPAIGN and my tiefling paladin got the happiest most lesbian ending possible, hell yeah) bcus i have LOTS of lore for them but i always end up. Not sharing it? Not even with my fellow players on the table bcus man i know they don't really care lol. Like, did u know i have Powerpoints of various lengths talking about them?!?!?!? For at least 2 of them. Eshuu (my most favorite warlock, my goat boy whomst i love deeply) got the 5 star treatment and his powerpoint has 40 slides of content. I JUST LOVE ALL OF MY CHARACTERS and i have been CURSED, cursed I TELL YA to play on tables that don't really. Have that same passion for roleplaying characters (acting wise, u know) or creating OCs. Like cmon guys i thought we all agreed dnd was for repressed theater kids (JOKE)

hmm hmm I MEAN my on rotation rants currently are:

Moon Knight (and why i love it, and why it's one of the best things the mcu has done lately, and WHY I NEVER WANT IT TO CROSS OVER WITH THE REST OF THE MCU with ONE one ONE TINY EXCEPTION. BONUS: THE 2021 RUN RANT BCUS MY GODDDDD!!!! MR JED MACKAY HAS ME ON A FUCKING TIGHT GRIP!!!!!! THAT MAN TRULY IS FEEDING US WITH HIS RUN WHICH IS MARVELOUS AND SO GOOD AND AAAAA IM SO GLAD HE IS WRITING MOON KNIGHT)

Deltarune (just. listen this is MY BEHEMOTH talk about deltarune with me and i will just not shut up. mostly i like to talk about speculation of what will happen on the next chapters and my god. my god, toby fox when will ur brainworms end (never apparently)).

Star wars (THIS IS A SPECIAL ONE. OKAY??? BCUS I BECOME A FUCKING HATER WHEN SOMEONE EVEN BRINGS IT UP. Not because I don't like star wars per se, BUT I HAVE FUCKING BEEF WITH IT AS A FRANCHISE. This all started on the day i was born ON THE DAY they released that last trilogy movie and my life fucking ended. "somehow palpatine returned" I WILL NEVER LET THAT GO, THEY MADE MY BEAUTIFUL MAN OSCAR ISAAC SAY THAT LINE AND NOW HE'S THE FACE OF STAR WARS' SECOND GREATEST NARRATIVE SIN- HOW COULD THEY DO THAT!!!!! WHO WROTE THAT!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I MEAN. I MEAN. I'm always ready to list all of the reasons why i fuckin love Mob Psycho 100 but i don't think that's revolutionary. Everyone is doing it these days. Anyway I am in love with Reigen Arataka and my hot take is that HOW could you not love him. Also the Reigen spinoff is GENIUS bcus it's not even ABOUT him.

This is also a special case but it's not a rant im always ready to make but. Homestuck 2. The epilogues. Krusty from the Simpsons going "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT".gif As I'm sure you'd suspect I have STRONG emotions and OPINIONS about All that mess. What a trainwreck. They did ONE thing right but it did not justify the Clown Show it all was. My god. my god.

The legion of super heroes (and by extension, the CW and Michael fuckin' Bendis): Do you wanna know my complicated relationship with DC comics, my love-hate relationship with it, my love for supergirl, my love for the supergirl series which ENDED UP BADLY and also my deep deep love for one of the most BEATEN AND BRUISED hero teams in modern runs???? My god this rant is for YOU. But all u have to know is that I love Brainiac 5, he's my beloved, and i think my love cursed him to be the most DONE DIRTY character of all time. It is my cross, my burden to bear.

I'd add the magnus archives to that list BUT admittedly I still haven't finished the podcast and I have still a very loose grasp on the concepts they just introduced on s3. BUT. B U T. JUST KNOW. I love Elias Bouchard he's evil and he sucks and he made me listen to the brutal pipe murder of a man and i went "wow :) what the hell is his deal <3"

Well. Well I think that's my infodump about MY possible infodumps. Now that I think about it, i'm not sure if this is the answer u wanted. As in, was ur ask made in response to something else? Literally i dont know why i am once more overthinking about it. ANYWAY ALI ILU AND I'M ALWAYS GLAD TO HEAR FROM U!!!!!!! SORRY I DONT TEXT MORE LIFE IS HECTIC AND WHEN TOO MUCH TIME PASSES I START TO THINK I MIGHT BE BOTHERING PEOPLE, BUT ILU FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[just-your-dnd-things]

So, you want to make a powerful BBEG. What kind of power?

So I study leadership styles and theory for my career. Like every DnD player, I will forever circle my experiences back into how I can use them to write for my fantasy roleplaying games.

Your BBEG cannot operate by himself. Your Evil Guy needs people. He needs resources. He needs a chain of command. He needs power. And that's why I wrote this post exploring the 7 types of power, what those types of powers are, their pros and cons, and how you can use those to make the biggest, baddest, most powerful Evil Guy your players have ever seen. Skip to type 6 and 7 if you want the good stuff.

(For simplicity, I'll refer to your antagonist / ruler / BBEG / evil person as Evil Guy and use he/him pronouns.)

1. Legitimate power

The leader with legitimate power is one of a dictatorship, rank, or high position. Legitimate power has a genuine and measurable influence on how you behave simply because someone has a role, rank, position, or uniform. You listen to your manager for no reason other than that they are above you in rank. You wouldn't care what they said off the clock.

Legitimate power is flexible for your campaign because it is a power given simply because the position SAYS it has power. People listen to legitimate power because culture SAYS it has power.

However, legitimate power has its limits and flaws. Your Evil Guy is NOT powerful, his POSITION is powerful. If your Evil Guy is a king, he is no longer powerful when dethroned. If your Evil Guy is a warlord, he is no longer powerful without his army to direct. This type of power, however, is useful to use for your Evil Guy's minions. Your Evil Guy's minions simply have power because they are your Evil Guy's minions.

2. Information power

Information power comes from the possession of knowledge that others want to know. For example, "I know what the MacGuffin item is / where the key to your cell is / who is the true murderer / have prophesized the day of the apocalypse."

Information power is useful when information is exchanged mutually between your Evil Guy and your players. Additionally, your Evil Guy could also simply lie that he knows information if he wants something from the players. If your Evil Guy suddenly claims that he knows the one thing that they need, they become very compelled to listen to him rather than just drive a longsword directly through him the second he appears.

Not terribly impressive, because the power is removed once the information is known or found by other means.

3. Expert power

Not to be confused with information power, expert power is the power given genuine expertise within a given field. A great wizard, noble scholar, or cultist prophet who speaks to a dead god has expert power. People look to the expert leader for guidance and knowledge. Minions look to, respect, and follow expert leaders, because if they are the most knowledgeable at what they do, how could they be wrong?

This type of power is strong because it can be closely connected to and associated with information power or charismatic power. This Evil Guy is calculated, planned, experienced, and capable within his field. He is right just because he is the expert. Minions believe him because he is the expert. This Evil Guy isn't questioned by his minions a lot, making him strong in this way, and guarantees loyalty.

Expert power becomes weak when the Evil Guy is teaching outside his field of specialty. The great wizard isn't versed in evil magics, the noble scholar only studies within his country or never leaves comfortable palace walls, and the cultist prophet is nothing without his connection to his source of knowledge, the dead god. To take an expert's power, remove them from their field or shine a light on their incorrectness or false claims.

4. Power of Reward

The power of reward is exactly that; power over people because people are given rewards. Rewards can be position, power, fame, items, and anything that the people might want. However, most commonly money does the trick.

This kind of power is the easiest to obtain yet equally one of the weakest sorts of power. Money and fame are pretty surface-level, and it easy to outmatch with fear. I recommend doubling reward power with another type of power to strengthen your Evil Guy's influence and his options.

Reward power becomes weak when the rewards run out or the rewards start to mean nothing. No one will follow the Evil Guy if the Evil Guy runs out of riches. No one will follow the Evil guy if money won't matter when the player party just kills the minion anyways, and getting paid doesn't matter when you're dead.

5. Charismatic power

Charismatic power comes from the ability to woo, persuade, convince, and simply sound believable and trustworthy. Charismatic power can be flirtatious, playful, genuinely persuasive, clever, and smart. This type of power is acquired simply because your Evil Guy is a good speaker and a smooth talker. Charismatic power also includes the power of contact or "I know a guy" claims.

This power is pretty unique in a DnD setting. If you want your Evil Guy to have strong charismatic power, you have to bring out his sly, clever, and genuinely persuasive nature out through his action and his dialogue. You can't roll charisma or persuasion on player characters, so to make a charismatic Evil Guy, you have to actually convince and woo the characters.

An Evil guy with charismatic power is only as powerful as his connections and his convincings go. If he has nothing to offer, no claims to stand upon, or a long history of lying or betrayal, your Evil Guy's charismatic power is very limited.

6. Coercive power

Coercive power is the opposite of reward power; it is based on punishment and threat. A coercive leader can take money, position, benefits, fame, access to family, or the right to live. Coercive power is based on fear, control, and force.

This type of power is the second strongest. If minions act and behave to protect themselves, their livelihoods, families, or securities, they would likely rather die than oppose their ruler. They are incredibly afraid of stepping out of line for fear of losing what the Evil Guy threatens to take. They might not believe in the evil cause, but they would do anything to protect what can be taken from them. Additionally, your Evil Guy doesn't even need to take things in order to flex his coercive power. He simply needs to remind people that he can. He simply reminds people of what they can lose. I highly recommend coercive power for your Evil Guy, because it's incredibly hard for the players to combat at minion-level. It is likely that the players can't protect or save what the Evil Guy threatens to take, nor are they nearly as scary as the Evil Guy himself.

However, coercive power has a single fatal flaw. It only works for a certain amount of time or if the Evil Guy exhausts it. The Evil Guy will eventually run out of family members to kill, positions to threaten, or security to take. When the Evil Guy exhausts all of his coercive power, he becomes vulnerable. Quite literally, the Evil Guy has only so much to take and so much fear to impose. There's nothing more dangerous to an Evil Guy than their own minions who are tired, jaded, and vengeful. When the minions have nothing left to lose, there is no more power to hold over them.

7. Referent Power / Servant Leadership Power

Referent power is regarded as the most infallible power of every type because its singular flaw is that it takes time to develop referent power over people. Referent power is belief, trust, followership, and dedication to a leader simply because you believe in that leader. You trust that person's leadership, their judgment, experiences, and that person as who they are. Minions follow referent leaders because they care about their referent leaders and vice versa. A true referent leader puts their follower and their needs first, thus this type's second name; servant leadership.

Think about people in your life you follow, believe in, and care about just because that person does the same for you. This at its core is what a referent leader is. Therefore, an Evil Guy who genuinely, truly, and fully believes in his cause must use referent power. When your Evil Guy's cause aligns with minion beliefs, the minions will follow your Evil Guy just because they believe in the cause, truly and fully. Minions under referent power are difficult to break, because only a change in belief or perspective can waver them. Additionally, referent power can begin from nothing! Your Evil Guy could just be some dude with a belief and high charisma and he has referent power! Also, your Evil Guy can just LIE about his intentions and make himself seem he cares about belief and cause.

(A/N. Your Evil Guy using propaganda to push his beliefs / agenda is your best friend!)

As mentioned, referent power is based on personal connection and dedication, and thus takes a LOT of time to develop. It takes years to develop referent power over people because it likely takes time to make a minion's beliefs align with the Evil Guy's, especially if the Evil Guy's plan is outlandish or uncommon. It takes years to put your trust in a person. It takes years to maintain reputation and trust. Additionally, referent power can be removed if the minions suddenly see that the Evil Guy truly doesn't care about them, the cause, or the belief.

[ninbinary]

DnD Character Backstory Datapoints - Example 1: Human Orphan Lives Dangerously

Hey, thank you to @kursed-curtain (who tumblr will not let me "@", good application u got here) for reblogging my DnD Character Backstory Datapoints suggestion :) (It goes without saying you could ideas like this for non-RPG character or story generation too, and could add more dice representing different things!)

In thanks, I decided to type up an example of me using it to create a (reallly overly-in-depth -- this is gonna be a long post!) character backstory idea from thin air.

(Let me know if you guys out there like this, and I'll do it again sometime! Also let me know if you use this datapoints-system to create a chararacter (or feel free to use this character backstory), and let me know how it goes!)

A) Human character, Younger (d2 + 1 periods)

(I'll refer to the character as "Character", and I'm not doing anything to bake Character Class in to the story (though I'll talk about that at the end), to try to make this as "generic" as possible!)

A0) number of time periods:

d6 roll of 4 = d2 roll of 2; +1 = 3 time periods.

A1) First Time Period:

d12 = 10 [10/12 Danger]

d10 = 6 [6/10 City]

d8 = 1 [1/10 Species Diversity]

That's an Extremely dangerous time, in a Relatively Urbanized area, with only 1 kind of species. Given that its the First time period for a started-adventuring-younger character, I think my overall summary would be:

"Abandoned Orphan in a Medium-Sized Exclusively-Human City"; they spend their early years with a few slightly-older orphans living in alleys and stealing food.

(Alternatively, other interesting ways you could interpret this: if your gameworld has "bad guy countries / city-states" near your "generally friendly demihuman species", you could do these dice as "orphan human in a [bad guy species] city")

A2) Second Time Period:

d12 = 11 [11/12 Danger]

d10 = 3 [3/10 City]

d8 = 3 [3/10 Species Diversity]

Wow, it's somehow gotten MORE dangerous for poor Human Character; but its also only half as Urban, and they're finally around a few more species of Demihuman. How would moving OUT of the city be MORE dangerous? Well, 'city invaded' is always an option, but because of the other two dice, here's how I'd turn these dice into a story point:

"Character's youth life of petty crime / cutpurse-ing for basic necessities finally ends in trouble so serious that they flee the city / their orphan-gang / the only home and family they've known, and join up with a travelling caravan." Depending on how "dark" you want the character to be, you could take it any number of ways; but let's say you want a Shit-Life-but-Charitable character and go with: one of their pickpocketting sorties goes bad, and as the pack scatters, Character and a close friend get caught in a blind alley by a city guardsman. Character is at the top of a ladder while Friend is scrambling up, but the guardsman is closing in, sword drawn, so Character throws a brick and kills the guardsman. Friend gets away, but before Character escapes, the next wave of guard sees their dead comrade and gets a good look at Character.

Character makes arrangements ASAP to sign on as a caravan guard, calling in favors to get semi-respectable looking leathers (and maybe the dead guards' sword) and a forged letter-of-reference from their gang's fence. Within a nervewracking 24 hours of lying low, Character's friends have managed to sign them on to a caravan, and one last sprint through the city's allies and undermaintained warehouses later, Character is all set. The next morning they're marching out the city gate with a 4-wagon, 15-individual caravan, run by a halfling merchant, taking fancier fabricks and fashionable metalworked jewelry to the more rural human/halfling backcountry outside of the city.

(So, here all the Danger is about the transition TO this period of Less-City, More-Species-Diversity time period). Let's see how it wraps up with Third Time Period:

A3) Third Time Period:

d12 = 10 [10/12 Danger]

d10 = 9 [9/10 City]

d8 = 2 [2/8 Species Diversity]

Oh dear; danger DOES seem to follow poor Character around! We're back to a Lot of danger, in an EVEN BIGGER CITY, around only a Few different species. How should this conclude Character's pre-Adventure story?

Well, since its so dramatic (STILL Danger, BIGGER City!), its going to end with such a bang, you'd probably want to think about where Campaign's going to begin.

(One way to read the Danger is by saying, "the caravan was raided and the survivors were taken prisoner", but how does that result in such a high City number (while the Species Diversity stays pretty low)? For example, if City stayed low, you could have Character be prisoner of a small bandit camp operating out of a wooded area.)

Well (and if this fits with the campaign setting), we could read it this way:

"the Caravan was raided by marauders from Underground-living [Species X], which hasn't been active in this area for decades..." The survivors were taken back through Species X's New Outpost in this region, and then a select few (including Character) were sent to the capital for one of the following unsavory ends (Ritual Sacrifice, or Gladitorial Combat, or Being Eaten at a Feast Celebrating the New Outpost, etc).

Fortunately for Character, one of the Species X jailors becomes sympathetic because.. they take pity on Characters' youth; or because of the Character's brazen tenacity defending a fellow prisoner from the head jailor's abuse [hey, tying back to their killed-a-guardsman moment], or something; and arranges for Character to be smuggled out of Species X City into the surrounding countryside.

(Another Alternative Idea, had One Dice Gone a Different Way: maybe if Species Diversity was higher, the Species X City could have enough different kinds of folks walking around that you could think about letting Sympathetic Jailor take on Character as a servant, apprentice or even adopted child -- albeit temporarily, or else they'd never be a player-character meeting up with the party. But it would definitely be interesting to see what a Human Orphan from the Mean Streets of [Medium-Sized Human City] would be like after spending their formative years as Adoptive Mindflayer Dad's protege).

Anyway, Wrapup:

Now a long way away from their 'home' city and probably home country (remember, they were captured by Species X nearby, but then moved days (or weeks) travel underground to Species X Huge City), Character finds their way to [wherever the Party starts], and will hopefully have a much less dangerous life just killing monsters and collecting treasure.

Character would definitely have a lot of street-smarts, might have a "I will survive no matter what" mentality, a healthy disrespect for law-and-order, probably standoffish about friendships but a deep loyalty to those they get close to (many of these being Great traits for an adventuring party!).

There's a lot of ways to tweak this outline to make them more "dark and moody" or give them different responses to their travails (if you wanted to make them more of a "mad dog", or utterly ruthless), and there's also room for plot hooks (who were their parents? What happened to their Orphan Gang back home? Does [their original city] have enough intra-city communication that their guardsman-killing will haunt them (for example, make the guardsman they killed someone with connections or seniority, so there's someone with a big axe to grind about eventually getting the guardsman's killer)? Did they grow close to some of their fellow Caravan people and did any of them survive the attack?)

Also if you have a specific character class in mind you can tweak bits of this -- Rogue or Warrior types fit perfectly, but a more Wizard-y character class could certainly fit too: you could play up their burgeoning powers, and have power flare-ups central to Character's 2 dramatic acts -- when they killed the Guardsman in Second Time Period, and have it be the reason that Sympathetic Jailor helped them in Third Time Period.

Thanks for reading all this, anyone who made it all the way through, and let me know what you think! (And no thanks to Tumblr, whose Text Popup stopped letting me type certain letters -- I wrote the actual Character Creation thing in a textfile cuz it was so long, but I then had to compose the incidental comments / intro in a textfile too then copy-paste-format it into this tumblr window >:P)

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E71 (SDCC Edition!)

Tonight’s guests? EVERYONE. This is a recording of the SDCC panel from this past weekend!

There’s a table read of the first three pages of Vox Machina: Origins Volume 2, to be released August 14!

Ashley gets asked about the fate of an NPC from the first campaign. Ashley: “Uh. They all died.” Matt: “That’s your fault now.”

Lessons learned through the journey of CR? Liam: “It’s all about the people you travel with.” Matt: “If you can stick to making friendship a priority in your life, good things will come.” Their friendship has been the most important thing to maintain and check in with. Sam highlights how amazing it’s been to watch the community grow year after year.

Favorite RP moment that didn’t involve their own characters? Sam: “Well, that takes me out.” Travis: “I was such a fan of Vex popping out of the water in the bathtub.” Sam: “Anything Matt Mercer does is a pretty fantastic roleplaying moment.” Liam: “I think a certain pirate woman reaching the end of her line.” Laura: “I think Scanlan’s whole... (gestures) as much as I hated it personally.” Marisha: “There were some Percy-Vax standoffs that were pretty great.” Matt: “Percival and Grog having the fight underneath the Keep shortly after the Chroma fall.” Liam: “I really liked Percy and Vex in Syngorn.” Taliesin to Marisha: “I liked you at the Pirate King, busting out all that Cobalt Soul stuff. I wasn’t prepared.” Marisha: “Neither was I!”

Matt talks about how adapting the show to the animated series involves some creative truncation, but also involves holding his ground about what’s too important to change even if it doesn’t tie a perfect narrative bow. “This isn’t mainstream media, this is Critical Role! Some things should be messy. Some things are their own threads.” He’s enjoyed watching new people come up with new takes, and he’s excited to cast some of the NPCs.

The idea is floated of a full-day Sam Riegel DnD Beyond telethon. Sam: “Marisha, can we--” Marisha, glaring: “Uh-huh.”

What has Marisha taken away from Keyleth’s and Beau’s different experiences with leadership, in her leadership role IRL in the company? "I feel like Beau helps me be more assertive in my opinions.” Travis: “We don’t argue with Marisha very much, because she punches people in the face more now.”

Liam’s spell choices are a balancing act between trying to accomplish his own goals and trying to optimize the group’s performance. He’s taken Seeming for the party, but the opportunity to use it hasn’t arisen yet.

Taliesin gets asked “Is there X number of character deaths that would keep you from playing in this campaign?” Taliesin: “There’s really only one way to find out.” Matt: “Is it double digits?” Taliesin: “I at least have two more undeveloped ideas that hopefully will be used in the next campaign.” Liam: “Let’s get to that fourth character!” Taliesin: “I hate you all.”

Missed opportunities and plot threads? Matt can’t go much into it, because for both campaigns 1 and 2, there’s a chance they’ll wind up going back there. There’s a facet of campaign one’s story they got to continue with a one-shot that will be airing soon. He’d hoped there would be more delving into Thordak’s history, and there is another Horn of Orcus out there. Also the Clasp’s relationship with Emon. Ashley is still haunted by “that gosh-dang box”. Matt: “I answered that already.” Ashley: “I DON’T BELIEVE YOU. I DON’T BELIEVE YOUR ANSWER.”

Was Nott seriously considering leaving with her family? Sam, as Laura slowly reaches for his throat: “Yes, absolutely.” He’d been going back and forth with that for a while now. “Nott loves traveling with this gang, but she really wants to be home.” He called Matt about it to warn him that Nott might not be in the campaign anymore. “But I think what happened on Thursday was right for the moment, and we’ll see how it plays out.”

Matt gets asked about how to avoid min-maxing as an experienced DM when he gets the chance to play in someone else’s game. Matt notes that there’s nothing wrong with min-maxing if everyone’s on board with it, but that, the more that you play, the more you might enjoy trying something off-the-wall. There’s also the importance of respect when playing at the tables of less-experienced DMs, where you remind yourself that it is their table. Taliesin: “Part of the fun of the meta-game of D&D is that it’s changing all the time.” He points out that the Magnificent Mansion used to be considered a dump spell until Sam really showed what it could do. Taliesin highlights the challenge of experimenting in these less explored areas.

Sam gave Nott a kid in her backstory because he loves his own kids so much and wanted some of that feeling in the game.

Matt’s favorite Sorrowsworn? The Lonely, which is why he wanted to use them in the game the first chance he got.

Taliesin and Matt are asked if they might release Molly’s whole backstory at the end of the campaign. Matt: “When this campaign’s over, we’ll definitely do that.”

Caduceus is hoping some of his family’s at the Kiln, and potentially some of the other families. “He’s built of expectations. We’ll see how it plays out if those expectations aren’t met.”

“I feel that Yasha is obviously in the best hands with Matt. I, personally, I love the storyline. It’s so much to play with, and it goes with a lot of the backstory that I wrote, and a lot of what Matt prepared, and stuff that I don’t even know, and stuff I do know. I love it! I feel really good about it, but I can’t wait to come home and see what’s going to happen if Yasha comes back.” Matt: “Depending on when you come back, there’s a good chance you’ll have to make a new character.” (The general tone here is that it would be an in-the-meantime thing.)

Matt gets asked how he makes sure everyone in the party gets their time in the spotlight. “It doesn’t always work out, but trying to consider what aspects of the story can play to their individual strengths. You can offer opportunities for each of them to shine, hopefully.” He also highlights that a lot of it is the players respecting each other at the table and being comfortable with the expectation of equal time to shine. “Communication is the key to a good, healthy game group.” Laura also highlights that you as a player can engage other players’ characters if you notice they’re fading into the background a bit.

There’s a brief foray into Evanescence. As you do.

What advice would Matt give himself if he could go back to the first campaign? “Don’t stress so much about what people on the internet think about you. Guard this wonderful little lightning-in-a-bottle family and you’ll be fine.”

If Beau were a druid, what would her go-to wildshape be? Marisha: “I shouldn’t curse. A DAMN OWL. Take that, Thaddeus.”

Marisha: “I feel like the Mighty Nein has turned into fighting for the everyman.” Laura: “I feel like Vox Machina, though, we felt we knew who the good guys were. As the Mighty Nein, I feel like everything’s so gray, and it’s harder to make that choice, and therefore what steps up is everything around us and needing to protect the people who are victims of the bigger picture.”

Matt gets asked how to manage his DM-life balance in terms of parceling out prep time. “It can vary. Whenever I’m driving somewhere, if I have more than 20 minutes of a drive, that’s usually my brainstorming period.” He also tries to keep weekends free with no prep and instead reserves a couple evenings a week to prep, although it sometimes bleeds through to early Thursday morning. “I prepare more than I used to,” largely because of the Internet’s watchful eye in terms of continuity.

[123abcdrawwithme]

all spg albums poorly described by me bc i can

album one: steam man band: michael reed voice: GUYS HOLY HECK LOOKIT MY ROBOT FRIEMDS THEIR SO COOL OHMA G AD clockwork vaudeville: now when you say you bought yourself a pickle- sound of tomorrow: the jons audible lenny face as he says “in the nude” on top of the universe 2009 ver.: RABBIT FUCKED A TOASTER AND UPGRADE KILLED THE SPINE THE GIRLS ARE OFF THE SHITS on top of the universe 2011 ver.: alternate timeline where the jon and rabbit kill the spine and deny him ice cream i am not alone: poor one out for upgrades 1 (one) song, shes trying her best ice cream parade: i don’t even know where to begin with this one brass goggles: LOCAL ROBOS ARE FEELING EMO SO THEY HAVE A SING ALONG out in the rain: splish splash they was havin’ a bash electricity is in my soul: okay but whomst the hell is that electronic voice who sings the “la la’s”? serious question who tf is it???? steam man band reprise: michael reed voice: GUYS MY COOL ROBO FRIENDS ARE GETTING AN ENCORE HOLY HECKIE blind minstrel’s ballad: ominous captain albert alexander: listen,,,, he beat spider hulk in an arm wrestling match,,,, hes really cool,,,,,, the 2¢ show: steamboat shenanigans: some say they sang so hard they really did make it to the moon and across the stars ;) one-way ticket: CHU CHU I LOVE U ju ju magic: jonathan giraffe what tHE FUCK ARE YOU SINGING ABOUT HONEY? ARE YOU OKAY? me and my baby (saturday night): the spines a hopeless romantic and he loves to treat his girl and his siblings support him little birdie: jon makes friends with a bird or some shit idfk rex marksley: the spines a hopeless romantic and sings about his cowboy crush and his siblings support him automatonic electronic harmonics: they want to feel cool,, let them feel cool,, prelude to a dream: hey michael i thought you were supposed to be the human friend whats all this about not being a human being?? mike? m-mike?? make believe: FUCK SOCIETY, TRANS RIGHTS BITCHES *EPIC KAZOO SOLO* honeybee: ah yes that one song we won’t ever let them forget bc were all emo scary world: the morse code says spoopy the suspender man: rabbit voice: yeah theres this guys who sold his soul or whatever how fucked up was that, anyway i want to wear a dress :3c that’ll be the way home: THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL THAT’LL the ballad of lily: oh boi we about to have another character song on this album airheart: character song 2 electric boogaloo circuitry: y’all good? mk iii: curtain raiser: beebop voice: STEVETHY SOMEONES TRYING TO PLAY THE ALBUM   steve voice: oh fuck steam powered giraffe: HEHE NAME DROP mecto amore: this is some rabbits in love again shit but with WHAMST hatch fever: hatchy is here and the album version does not capture how feral hatchworth performed this on stage a way into your heart: spg as a whole @ their fans: we love you all so much thank you for the support over the years :) <3 me through tears: bitch,,,,, <3 ghost grinder: rabbit and the boys on their way to the graveyard at 3 am to party with rabbits dead gf please explain: i stg everytime i hear hatchy sing “gum in my gears” i think he’s saying something else and i’m sure you can fill in the blank, but the thing that gets me is thats so on brand for him to say dsfdfg she said maybe: rabbit is just young old dumb and full of love these days isn’t she? go spine go: almost 6 minutes of hatchworth and rabbit being two year olds and poking fun at spine roller skate king: everyone sleeps on how good this song is wtf i’ll rust with you: me knowing full well this song is about rabbit outliving her gfs throughout the decades bc shes a robot: oh,, so thats why theres so many love songs by rabbit on this album,,, rabbit you good?? wired wrong: the spine you good?? fancy shoes: hATCHWORTH YOU GOOD??? steam powered giraffe reprise: we interrupt your regularly scheduled robot angst hours with that good weeb shit™ turn back the clock: okay back the robot angst bleak horizon: our lovelys saying goodbye saying they’ll be back to bring smiles on our faces soon as we close out to some ominous as fuck shit teasing vice quadrant the vice quadrant: the vice does tight: okay so the vice quadrants fucked up and the robots are very concerned by this on a crescendo: ominous foreshadowing thats so ominous i had to look up what this song meant lore wise bc i just thought it was the robots just dancing and having fun steamjunk: my dear sweet honey darling is traveling through space and I’M WORRIED ABOUT HIM starburner: low-key robo angst bc their worried about their souls being damned or some shit but its cute  progress and technology: david YOUR RANGE wink the satellite: wink voice: YOU WAS MY BABY MY FUCKIN CINNAMON APPLE burning in the stratosphere: oh fire fire: this is the most haunting shit i have no joke for this sky sharks: hoo boi the sky sharks certainly won’t be killing us all today, but climate change sure will daughter of space: PREBBY SPACE GODDESS HNNNGNNGNG star valley night: honeys you know you can just wait for it to be night time right? then you can go play in the star valley at night- commander cosmo: BITCH YOU GOOD? where is everyone?: THERE SHE IS MY BABY gg the giraffe: MY DARLIIIIINNGGG SING IT HONEY  the pulls: wink my darling y’all ok? soliton: corpse man and space goddess sing a really nerdy analogy about love and its gorgeous where i left you: wink seriously are you okay? over the moon: rabbits just done but shes gotta sing it and go all out with how done she is bc shes extra it’s cosmic: is the “alright!” rav?? also is this love song supposed to represent them causing more fuckshit and destroying the universe and just not realizing it bc their in love?? idfk man it bops hold me: whether from the perspective of holly or rabbit i weep openly at this song the speed of light: david: this is where the astronaut turns evil won’t tell you why tho ;) literally every lore buff: *listens to this song and tries to theorize wtf happened* rav to the rescue: local green space twink rescues his space bf more at 11 starlight starshine: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the space giant: three steampunk robots fight a giant starbaby in guitar hero to save a satellites crush; a planet thats a huge apple i have zero jokes for this is already too absurd  oh no: oh OH OH? O H. OOOH OH??????????? o  h... oh no.... necrostar: evil pissrock possessed evil dead guy and is ready to cause fuckshit while the robots sing about how scared they are at the end super space blaster centi-asteroid invaderpedes 2: cute interactions with the robots! i hate this title tho whale song: wholesome shit to distract you from all the lore and foreshadowing at the end Music from steamworld heist:  automatonic electronic harmonics, on top of the universe, electricity is is my soul, honeybee, and brass goggles: me minding my own business playing steamworld heist: *walks into a bar where spine rabbit and hatchworth are performing one of these songs* me: HOOOOOGH heist ho!: yeah thats piper for ya starscrap: hi i’m in love for rabbit? prepare for boarding: GET IN BITCHES WE’RE GONNA OVER THROW THE PATRIARCHY  the red queen: capitalism? demolished. what we need are some heros: the spine projecting his love for cowboys onto the player characters the vast frontier: hatchworth: I’M A BAD BITCH YOU CAN’T KILL ME the stars: they made it lads they made it over the moon and across the stars.... also how’d they keep singing for that long aren’t they tired? quintessential: malfunction: wow i can’t believe spg ended transphobia i don’t have a name for it: love? i guess??gd fgdsghfdg blue portals: the idea of hatchworth going through the blue portals when i know they’re made out of blue matter is terrifying  overdrive: they want to seem cool please play along and pretend their green screen work is cool the ballad of delilah morreo: this came right the fuck out of nowhere but fuck its here now and its fantastic love world of love: wonder what other balboa park songs they’ll bring back, like never gonna give you up :) only human: i’d die for you hatchy salgexicon: they deadass wrote a song about their dnd campaign  sleep evil sleep: i guess we’re all evil BC WE KEEPING SLEEPING ON HOW GOOD THIS SONG IS TOO photographic memories: walter worker chelsea? come get ur mans- leopold expeditus: hatchworth: hey guys checkout my fursona dream machine: this song keeps me up at night with the endING I JUST WANT RABBIT TO BE HAPPY AND ARTSY BUT THE WAY IT ENDED WITH THE VICE QUADRANT RELATED TEASER MAKES ME THINK RABBIT PICKED UP A SATELLITE FREQUENCY FROM WINK ABOUT HOW NECROSTAR WILL KILL RAV IN THE FUTURE DEADASS I’M NERVOUS WHAT HAPPENED

[serenewrites]

Tips on Character Development

(AKA the convoluted way I do things)

Ok, so, wow. This ended up being like super ridiculously long. Sorry about that. I just got done adding "a thing or two" and it ended up being longer than what I originally wrote.

So, a while ago I responded to a post on Reddit asking for help developing a character. My comment seemed to help a few people, so I figured I'd add a thing or two and post it for anyone else who may find it helpful!

TL;DR: I think Personality tests —Myers Briggs and Enneagram — used in tandem make a pretty complete, rounded character. Add in some Pinterest Character Inspiration boards to that and you've got some preeettyyy developed characters. Also, OneNote rocks my world.

If you wanna read my entire process, keep reading. If not, just read the first few paragraphs and you'll get the idea. If you don’t care, ignore me and scroll on, friend.

The Personality Tests

When I started getting my MCs together, I took a Myers Briggs personality test for each of them! 16 Personalities is a really great resource because you just answer how your character would and it gives you so much information on what type of person they'd be. If you go to that second link, it goes deeper into their theory and what each aspect of the test results actually mean. If you're looking for that, scroll down to the Five Personality Aspects part of the second link. I think the entire thing is neat, so I recommend the read. Anyways, I've done this for my protagonists, as well as my main BBEGs, and some minor characters that I was kind of struggling with.

From there, I also looked up what Enneagram types they'd line up with according to their Myers Briggs type. That site talks a lot about what the Enneagram personality stuff is all about. It's worth a read. The whole concept is pretty neat. Your personality type is similar to the personality types that are near you, but also reflects to the types across from you. Or something... I'm explaining this poorly, I know haha.

There are a few ways I went about relating the two personality tests. I didn't want to take two different tests. I really like the Myers Briggs because it's all about decisions, but I like that the Enneagram talks a lot about how they interact with each other and the world. It kind of gave me a more rounded vision of who they are. Instead of taking two tests, I used this site to find a correlation between the Myers Briggs type and the Enneagram type.

There are 9 Enneagram types. Russell Rowe (not Crowe, I know, I thought it too) does an AWESOME job of breaking them down... into 15-20 page PDFs.

Enneagram Type 1

Enneagram Type 2

Enneagram Type 3

Enneagram Type 4

Enneagram Type 5

Enneagram Type 6

Enneagram Type 7

Enneagram Type 8

Enneagram Type 9

You can easily find any of those by Googling "Enneagram Type x Russell Rowe" and it'll pop up as literally the first thing. But I linked each of them to the above list. I have each of those PDFs saved into my OneNote folder for each major character, good or evil. I highlighted things that really stuck out to me for each character.

After reading through all those, I was able to figure out if that was truly who I wanted my character to be. Is that personality type and Enneagram type truly who I envisioned my character? If yes, move forward. If not, retake the tests. I retook my one MC's Myers Briggs test 3 times, I think, and once I rounded it out with the Enneagram type, I really got her how I wanted her, so don't get discouraged if you read the results and don't feel like it fits your characters!

This is the point where I kind of venture off into more of how I do things, so I won't feel bad if you don't want to read my word vomit from here on out. I kind of just talk about the benefits of questionnaires vs the personality test method, how I use OneNote to keep track of my character development, and visual inspiration using Pinterest.

If you decide to keep reading, thanks! Also, buckle up, because it's a lot...

Personality Tests vs Character Questionnaires

So, I use Scrivener, but I also have used Bibisco (free!) in the past. Bibisco has a really, really detailed questionnaire that asks questions I hadn't even thought about. How does this character eat? What are they usually dressed like? What's their favorite type of music? Are they a pessimist or an optimist? A realist? Are they book smart or street smart? There's like... literally HUNDREDS of questions on there. It also asks about family members, relationships, sexuality (I think, but it's worth adding), past events that occurred before the book.

While I am a perfectionist, I started with the Bibisco stuff and then ended up falling off the wagon with it because it took so excruciatingly long to complete one for each character. I already had a pretty good idea of how each of them would act and I didn't really want to put myself in a box creatively. Sometimes my characters just grow organically as I write and I make discoveries about them that way!

The Bibisco questions, and questionnaires overall, are so helpful, but again, they can be so so time consuming. If you have the time (and that's your jam) I totes recommend it. Bibisco so in-depth and has so many questions that I honestly hadn't even thought about. But I have 4 main characters, and 2 major minor characters, and 1 BBEG in my first book alone. I just could not handle like hundreds of questions per person. And tbh, the Myers Briggs and Enneagram was enough for me!

All of that to say, the way Bibisco breaks down their information and some questions it asks are really cool and helpful. While I don't answer each question it has, I do like to think of just in general, how does Kein act? How does she carry herself, talk, laugh, cry? Does she belly laugh or is it more of a quiet giggle. When she cries, does she try to hide it and push everyone away (spoiler alert, yes), or does she cry openly and ask for help?

OneNote is your super organized best friend forever

I compile all of this information into OneNote, which... is honestly a post in and of itself (something I would be more than happy to do if people were interested). OneNote is just the most amazing way to keep track of everything in my world (venturing past char dev here, for a tiny second).

I first discovered how useful it was when I started my homebrew campaign for dnd and it has been so invaluable ever since. Especially for the worldbuilding I am currently doing for my fictional world. I'm also pretty sure anyone who has Windows and the Microsoft Office Suite, has it for free. So if you do have Microsoft Office, I HIGHLY recommend checking out OneNote for book/character organization.

In OneNote, I have different collections set up for worldbuilding, chapter notes, a to-do list, a timeline, and most importantly (or relevantly) for characters. I have a section for the protagonists, the villains, the good guys, bad guys, and then misc neutral people. Though, usually, people in my book fall into the good or bad sections. I have neutral people for things that have happened historically, but that's neither here nor there.

Within each section, say, the Heroes, I have a "page" for each of my main characters. Their title page is just a bunch of random notes that I hastily added on the go, but the subpages are where it's at. Each subpage is based off the Bibisco (see above) sections. Personal Data, Physical Features, Behaviors/Attitude, Psych, Ideas/Passions, Interpersonal, Life Before the Story, Conflict, Evolution, and Visual Inspiration.

The psych section of Bibisco is a very in depth 64 questions on their psychological profile. In my OneNote, this is more or less where I put my personality test results and I highlight important information. Instead of answering 64 questions that answer whether or not Kein is outgoing or shy, the personality profiles answer those for you, quite easily.

For example, Kein tested as ISTP-T. She is an Introvert, Observant, Thinking, Prospecting, and Turbulent. Even just looking at that last sentence, it tells me more about my character than any 64 questions about how hardworking, free-spirited, or vain (all Bibisco questions) she is.

I really like how Bibisco broke down the information, but how it goes about char dev doesn't work for me personally. So I modified it to work for me! Instead of answering all those questions, I read through the questions and the personality profiles I have in the Psych section. In the other sections, I just type a blurb or two about how Kein behaves, her passions, and her interpersonal skills (or lack thereof). Instead of reading through a numbered list of questions and answers, I can just read the blurb or highlighted sections in the personality section and be reminded of her overall personality instead of how she acts in one rigid sense.

I think that's why I like the personality tests the most— they give you a more generalized sense of your character instead of how they act in a linear or flat scenario. How do they walk, for instance, is one of the questions, but that really hinges on a lot, right? What's the scenario?

Is Kein coming home from a successful scavenging mission, standing tall and proud, but letting someone else take the spotlight of success? (Introvert vs Extrovert). Or is she folding into herself, thinking about all the things she could have done differently, while she’s being scolded? (Thinking vs Feeling).

How a character, walks, talks, laughs, and generally holds themselves really depends on... you guessed it! Their personalities! Which is why I really like the personality test route.

One extra bit, OneNote lets you do 3 tiers of folders, so I can have Kein>Physical Features and then one more set of subpages under Physical Features. I find this useful for character development that happens over the course of your writing. For example, my MCs fight a pack of wolves at one point (this first book of mine is very Man v Nature). They all walk away with injuries. Under my Physical Features page, I have a subpage for Developments. I either just have notes there, or a table set up by chapter. It'll say, Ch# in the left column, and then it'll have a set of bullet points for things that changed in that chapter.

Ch# - Kein attacked by a wolf - sustained a bite to shoulder and claw slash across her stomach. (A note: for wounds, I'll sometimes add pics, but as long as you can visualize it, it's whatevs).

It goes for other aspects of character development too though! If a romance is blossoming, I'll add notes chapter by chapter using the table system I noted above. If an injury causes someone to move/walk differently I make a note of it. Especially for injuries that I need to remember like, ok, she has fractured ribs. She ain't climbing that cliff side— they're going to have to find a different way or they're going to have to figure out how to get her up it.

Side note for the injury and time keeping — I made an entire post about how I do this, so check that out if you’re interested.

A small bit on visual inspiration

When coming up with a visual of my characters, I turn to Pinterest. Pinterest is the bee's knees for visual character inspiration. If you have a general idea of what you want your character to look like, just search "character inspiration" and then adding any descriptors. Sometimes I don't find what I'm looking for, so instead I'll search "model" and then the descriptors. My MC has red hair and freckles. I searched "character inspiration red hair female" and "model freckles female" and tons of pics popped up.

I created a board named "Character Inspo_NAME" on Pinterest for each main character. A nice spring board for visualizing my characters. It ranges from boots and ripped jeans, to faces of models/people, hairstyles and accessories.

I mass pin things and then I comb through and look for stuff that really resonates with a character— a few pics of models, some outfits, particular accessories or items, shoes, clothes, hair styles!! With those few, more narrowed down pics, I place them into my Visual Inspiration folder in OneNote. I can reference it if I need to remember what someone is wearing or what a particular item someone has looks like. Or just in general if I need a bit of a boost, it helps to write a character's description if I'm looking at the character inspiration.

I’m certainly not, like, the best person to go to for visual inspo stuff. There are so many other people out there who do these amazing aesthetic and mood boards and all kinds’a stuff like that and it’s so so so amazing. So, don’t take my word for it in this area, because I’m certainly not the authority here. I’m just givin yinz an idea of how I do things.

I hope this helps! Maybe I should have added memes or something.

Anyways, that’s all folks. Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them! Also, I'd love to hear comments on my process, or how anyone else does their character development!

i also feel like this entire post is a mess so thanks for reading if you made it to the end. also let me know if any links don’t work or anything like that.

[pixel-pumpkins]

6 games this year alone - post mortem

At the beginning of this year I made a plan to make 6 games in 2019, one being released every two months. My initial idea was that I use the first month to plan everything, and then use the second month to make everything, with the release happening on the last day of the second month.

I released two games this year under varying levels of success of hitting those deadlines: Saltwater Shells and Reach Out (and grab a hold of your goals). I was beginning to work on a Yume Nikki fangame for YNFG Jam, but I never finished it beyond a few early areas and messing with the tile design and minor animations.

The goal of this plan was to release more games than I had released in 2018, which was a grand ol total of 3. I was hoping, with giving myself deadlines that were not just like a week long jam, having 2 months would let me create something that was a little bit more thought out and well articulated.

Such is the nature of game design that I don’t think I really hit my goals all that much. I’m still happy with what I made to a certain extent, but the extraneous issues with the games and their release are what I think I need to work on.

Going chronologically, Saltwater Shells really tested my metal in the best of ways, and I’m pretty happy with a lot of it. I think I was overly ambitious but almost everything I set out to do is in that game. The only things that got cut was additional NPCs that you would’ve been able to interact with and give a little bit more narrative to the action of collecting sea shells. I think the game works without it, but that’s mostly everything I cut out from that game.

The release of Saltwater Shells was delayed by 10 days. A large bulk of the asset work for Saltwater Shells was done before then actually, it was just the final code that I was working on that needed to be in place so, you know, the game was actually playable. Also around that time was when I left my previous job and started at my new one. I had initially planned to be done with the game earlier since I was going to have a week off between jobs, but then it turned into just a weekend between jobs. I had to travel to Wisconsin, got a really terrible cold the day I traveled, and then travel back over the course of 3 days. I was still sick at my new job when I started it too and it was a lot of things to juggle really quickly and I still wasn’t done with the game.

Saltwater Shells still released though. I’m really happy about that. But the deadlines ended up being something that I kept having problems with. This ends up being a recurring issue, if you could believe it.

The second game was Reach Out (and grab ahold of your goals). I planned it from the start to be a crane game style game, and maybe a little bit more depressing in terms of your inability to accomplish life necessary things due to executive dysfunction or what have you. I also tried using Construct3 for the first time. So it was a learning curve of getting used to a new engine, as well as trying to pull off my plan. I used Construct3 because I really hate coding guys. Like I really hate it. I will code because I have to and I have the skills to do it, but if there’s one thing I would love to not do for the rest of my life, it would be coding. I experimented with trying to use a couple of other engines for this game, but what appeals to me about Construct was it’s pretty painless 2D physics, something that really trips me up in Unity constantly.

Being able to make a crane game was really rewarding, but really difficult turns out. This game ended up being delayed by 10 days from its original April 30th planned release date. I was really hoping to be able to get the game out on time this time, but I got sick again, and the physics method I was using was literally breaking everything or made the game unplayable.

The way Reach Out looks now is cut down significantly from where it originally stood. There was going to be at least 5 more levels and different goals per level of the crane game. There was also going to be a better method of gamifying your energy score vs. what it exists as now. I just ran out of time again.

I didn’t make any other games after that. My Yume Nikki fangame was going somewhere, but I got occupied with playing a lot of dungeons and dragons, and even wrote my own campaign. I didn’t get very far, but I liked what I had made but my energy to make games was waning after Reach Out.

I don’t like Reach Out as a game. I like the crane game part of it, because I love crane games. But it just serves as a grim reminder of my own inability to take care of myself, ironically, something the game tries to promote. My mental health went to hell before Reach Out came out and I don’t know if I’ve really recovered from the headspace I put myself in trying to finish that game. I really hurt myself mentally and physically trying to produce something that I knew was the antithesis of the product I was creating. I hate lying and dishonesty more than anything and I was being entirely dishonest with myself and my audience putting it out there under the conditions it was created in.

Promises and deadlines are the enemy to my success I think in a lot of ways. I really hate putting deadlines on things, for some reason time sensitive activities have always driven my anxiety up a wall that paralyze me. “How did you survive school?” a lot of procrastination and likewise bad mental health places. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I think self-imposed deadlines hurt me much more than those others assign to me.

Knowing myself and my limits, I don’t want to think that this project was some kind of self flagellation, trying to push myself into a bad crunch corner that games so often perpetuate just to meet a deadline. I did QA for games, and crunch fucking sucks. I do QA for a photography company now, and crunch still fucking sucks.

The worst part about all of this is that I've been trying to write more scripts for games, I’ve been trying to learn how to use ren’py and some other game engines I’ve come across. I want to make games because I still really love them, but there’s like some kind of negative spike in the back of my head that doesn’t want me to make another game right now.

I’ve been taking a break the past couple of months from feeling pressured to create something, I have been chilling, drawing stuff for dnd, reading sherlock holmes stories, and watching a lot of youtube videos. I’m trying not to think about it and let myself recover from… some kind of hell I created for myself.

This post-mortem kind of sucks because all it really shows is that I learned I can’t beat myself and should try to work within my limits. I think that’s valuable but I really want to make a game right now. Anyway, I’m writing it also as a way to explain what’s been going on in my head lately surrounding making games. Games are fun and I’m glad you guys all like the weird ones I’ve made. I hope when I post a new one you all will enjoy it.

thanks for being here. I’ll be back when I’m ready.

[kleiner-ghost]

A Metro 2033 inspired dnd campaign

Hey guys, so I'm planning on writing a dnd campaign inspired by the Metro books.

And I kinda need advice cuz I never wrote a campaign before.

So what I want to do is change the setting to fantasy but keep all the core themes of Metro.

I thought of having the PC's being "magically transported" on an island (yes I know it's cliche, but what do you want from me ?). Each station would become a town/city and the tunnels would become roads.

I plan on having Metro 2 accessible through bearly visible pathways (you'd have to roll 17 on a perception check). However, could it be better to have metro 2 underground ?

The campaign would have 3 quests to chose from, those quests being the main plotlines of each book.

What do you guys think and do you have any advice ?