#GM is scared D:

[thepleasuregoblin]

Objective Ranking of types of XP systems in ttrpgs

XP is a discreet resource spent on character improvements of the player's choice. Examples: Numenera/Cypher System, Warhammer RPGs, World of Darkness, Shadowrun (even though it's called karma in that one)

XP is primarily used to measure progress to next level, the threshold for next level can be different depending on the character, and can be reduced by the player spending it or by certain events taking it from the player character. XP value is not decreased by gaining a level. Examples: AD&D, Pathfinder 1e

XP is used exclusively to measure progress to next level, is assigned based on relative challenge, and has consistent thresholds to next level between characters. XP value is reset to 0 after gaining a level. Examples: Pathfinder 2e, Dungeon Crawl Classics (and some other OSRs)

XP is used exclusively to measure progress to next level, is based on an arbitrary measurement of the challenges (monsters) that award it, and XP thresholds are consistent between characters. XP values do not decrease after gaining a level. All of the flaws of method #2 (huge numbers, easily confused math) in service of nothing, using method #3 would make more sense in every conceivable way, but you, the designer, are convinced that the trappings of older games will satisfy grognards and the big numbers won't scare new players (wrong on both counts), because your game has to appeal to everyone simultaneously. Also you offer a hand-wavy alternative that puts all the work on the GM so if people don't want to use your shitty XP system the group can just offload the work on the GM like everything else in your game. Examples: d&d 5e pretty much exclusively

[openstorygames]

Kids Play TTRPGs

There are plenty of people who started playing D&D or other TTRPGs as kids. Heck, imaginative play (which all kids engage in on some level and in some manner) is central to what TTRPGs do. Roleplaying is a critical part of developing your child self as a person!

So what's the benefit of giving kids a rule-bound system like D&D, Quest, or Kids on Bikes? Why should kids play TTRPGs and not just make-believe?

TTRPGs teach boundaries.

Some of this depends on how a particular group runs, but a healthy TTRPG group teaches kids where boundaries are and how to respect them.

This can show up in lots of ways.

letting dice determine success

working within the limitations of a class, feature, or spell description

avoiding upsetting or scary topics, as requested by a player

offering trigger warnings and safety tools

accepting when a GM says no

respecting when another player says no

Some of those things are organic to telling a story together. Some of them are brought in to keep the game fun for everyone, like safety tools. All of these examples—and more!—help kids practice boundaries one step removed from real life, where things are a bit harder.

TTRPGS provide escape.

As adults, we think of TTRPGs as escape from the crushing reality we live in. We can free ourselves from the news cycle or our social media feeds for a few hours and pretend we live in a world where our actions are world-changing (and I'm talking saving-the-world-from-evil-powers world-changing).

Kids need escape too! Not so that they're living outside of the world, but so they can practice the skills they need to live within it.

It's way easier to advocate for your PC who's scared of creepy crawlies than it is to admit your skin crawls around your buddy's pet snake.

Kids can practice all sorts of social skills in the freedom of TTRPGs because those games provide escape and distance from the world they actually inhabit. For example:

admitting fears

facing conflict

handling disagreement

learning about themselves

experimenting with consequences (from stealing a loaf of bread to going full murderhobo at times)

setting goals and making plans

Games are low stakes ways for all of us to practice tough conversations or new social skills. Why not let kids get a leg up by teaching them to role play?

TTRPGs build confidence.

Practice makes perfect, and TTRPGs are a great place to practice your sense of self (while inhabiting a character).

As kids get more confident roleplaying their PC, they learn gain confidence in who they are and speaking from that place.

This doesn't look like adults might expect though. We think of the bard suddenly offering a grand speech, or the shy loner forging bonds with the rest of the party.

Kids gaining confidence might not look like what you expect (more on that another time), but TTRPGs help clear the path for confident, empowered kids. And that's something worth making space for!

[skye707]

I barely talk on Tumblr and almost never send asks so I'm mildly terrified rn but I love your blog too much not to-- I dont know if this has been asked before but do the lads play D&D? :0 I feel like a group game of D&D with the riddlers would be pure chaos.

oh my gosh dude do not be scared of me. I’m literally just a little gal. But I’m so glad you like the blog that much and sent this ask in!

Okay, so, I think they’d be really into DnD, but there are definitely some troublemakers among them. And what I really wanted to get to:

Their Classes

Unburied - he’s a Bard. Fight me. This guy is going to inspire the group with his quick wit, songs, and lovable personality

ZY - Fighter, his character is just him but again. Like literally the only exception is that he gave himself a huge sword.

Dano - Paladin on a noble quest to restore the balance of justice

YJ - Actually, I think he'd make a perfect GM. He's got the attention to detail, dedication to worldbuilding, and the desire to make the game fun for everyone. But if he's playing, he plays a sorcerer. He likes magic.

Gotham -Druid, this dude is one with nature and all the world’s woodland creatures

BTAA - y’all already know, he’s a rogue! Artists of crime! Sleight of hand! Being smarter than the common masses

Arkham - C'mon dude. Do I even need to tell you he's an artificer? Constantly building shit that shouldn't exist.

BTAS - He guesses he’ll just be a wizard? He at least knows what that is?? Honestly he just wanted to be a part of the game, but now he’s invested in his level upgrades.

Telltale - the dad in the other room wondering what the hell is wrong with his kids

[ellimisms]

Concept: D&D homebrew oneshot based off Animorphs where you each play as one of the main characters of the Animorphs series.

The morphing system would be a modified Wild Shape mechanic, altered to two ends: first, to better fit the book's lore, and second, to make class factor into it more so each character is more unique. Probably each character would be able to use some of their class actions (just for an example, Action Surge for fighters or Rage for barbarians) while in morph, and morphing would restore hit points to 100%.

There would be a skill check associated with morphing--it'd be a Wisdom-based skill that you could gain proficiency in. Roll at advantage when using a familiar morph or becoming another human, disadvantage for things you're scared of or morphing while badly injured. Do a morphing check whenever you're in a new morph for the first time to see if you can get control of it; the actual number to beat is up to the GM based on what the animal is.

Also there would have to be some sort of mechanic to prevent TPKs--the main crew has a LOT of plot armor in the books because they can't die (until the end), so there'd need to be something to keep the PCs alive. Maybe if you "die" you don't actually perish, but instead something very bad happens to the party (you get infested, maybe?)

Infestation would be another new mechanic, though a pretty simple one; if a PC gets infested, the GM just starts controlling that character as the yeerk. The player can try to interrupt what the yeerk's doing, but has to roll a nat 20 with disadvantage (no bonuses from skill proficiencies)--it's supposed to be nearly impossible in the books so that's fairly lore-consistent.

In terms of the actual characters you can play:

Jake: Fighter, probably Battle Master subclass as that's more strategically focused. Not much else to say to be honest--I think he'd be proficient in persuasion, since he's supposed to be a good leader.

Marco: Rogue, maybe? Frankly his strengths don't match up with a specific class--maybe multiclass rogue/bard or fighter/bard because I know for a FACT he can and does cast vicious mockery.

Rachel: Barbarian for SURE, probably the Berserker subclass though I find the idea of her being a Wildheart pretty funny and thematically accurate.

Cassie: Probably a Druid or Beast Master ranger--I'm not sure where I stand on allowing caster classes since that doesn't exist in the real world but neither does morphing. Which one she is just depends on that.

Tobias: Who even KNOWS with this guy. Since he's stuck in morph it matters less, but I'd actually go with warlock--his patron is the Ellimist, since he's the one who seems to be able to argue with the Ellimist the most. It's either that or sorcerer, but he doesn't really gain any powers from his andalite bloodline so that seems less accurate.

Ax: Fighter, but it'd be different because he is an andalite. Just off the top of my head I'd make him be able to deal slashing damage on an unarmed attack (maybe just make his unarmed attack count as a sword attack) and increase his movement speed.

A group could also choose to discard these characters and play as a bunch of original characters if they so chose.

Anyways I'm probably the only person in the world that cares enough about both Animorphs and D&D to create this but oh well have fun.

[tadfools]

I’m thinking about how much Matthew Mercer means to me (not only as a voice actor but as a gm) I’m thinking about the joy I get when I play video game/watch a show and I hear his voice (Minsc, Faribanks, MacCready, Majima, Yamato, Leon Kennedy, that bitch from Thunder Cats and so many more) like that’s my friend! That’s someone who’s voice i’ve heard for roughly 4 hours every Thursday for the last 9 years!

I remember watching critical role with the cracking audio and fuzzy cameras on geek and sundry and being absolutely enamored with the D&D world he created. I remember watching CR grow and how excited the gang got when milestones that now seem so trivial were reached. More than anything else I remember how I felt the first time I watched Matt play D&D with his friends and how extraordinary of a storyteller he is. Not only has he inspired me to become a GM but also a writer and a game dev

Each Thursday at the end of a session when I wave back to him through a screen automatically like I was actually at the table and he smiles and asks ‘is it Thursday yet?’ I think back to when I was 16 and my persistent depression was starting to spearhead my life how I used that as an excuse not to kill myself. And I understand how that can seem really silly to someone who’s never had to cope with depression, but being able to find something to use as an anchor point to say ‘no I can’t kill myself because I gotta feed my cat, I gotta water the plants, I gotta watch critical role next week’ is a phenomenal steppingstone on the path to normality

Matt was and is such a great help with that because he’s also coping with depression and anxiety and every time I get scared or really sad I think about all the wonderful things he’s done in spite of the chemical imbalances that we both share and that if he can thrive so can I. I truly believe he is one of the kindest people in the world, he cares so much for his friends and his family and all of these strangers he’ll never meet

I guess where I’m going with this is to say that if by any chance Matt does see this (because I know he’s a Tumblr lurker) Thank you. Thank you for being my friend and someone I look up to quite a lot. Thank you for sharing the world you’ve created with all of us and thank you for still being here

[masterqwertster]

For the spell hurt/comfort prompts, might I veer a bit off the given list and request some Dunamancy Shit with Reality Break (or any other fitting Dunamancy spell) for Ashton and any other character(s) you feel like?

(Also, sorry to hear about your D&D group ghosting you and hope you get to play soon!)

God. I hope so too. Because I’m about one more week of this uncommunicative bullshit away from saying “Peace! Good luck finding a way to play without me (the person who’s been organizing this group and hosting sessions at my house despite not being the GM)” Like, I understand life is full of surprises and can get in the way, but if I can’t get a simple “yes, no, maybe” out of these people in a timely manner about whether or not we’re playing (at my house!) any given week, I’m just done at this point. (Sorry about the rant, but this is a frustratingly on-going problem) Anyways, I did invite any spell, so let's go! Looking at this spell, it looks like the “Find Out” half of “Fuck Around” in the depths of Ashton’s half-beacon brain. Or from sending Ashton off the deep end as they draw from their dunamis chaos void of a brain.

Reality Break

(8th Level Conjuration/Chronourgy Dunamancy)

You shatter the barriers between realities and timelines, thrusting a creature within 60 feet into turmoil and madness. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, or it can't take reactions until the spell ends (Concentration 1 minute). The affected target must also roll a d10 at the start of each of its turns; the number rolled determines what happens to the target as shown on the Reality Break Effects table.

At the end of each of its turns, the affected target can repeat the Wisdom saving throw, ending the spell on itself on a success

Reality Break Effects:

1-2: Vision of the Far Realm. The target takes 6d12 psychic damage, and it is stunned until the end of the turn

3-5: Rending Rift. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 8d12 force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful save.

6-8: Wormhole. The target is teleported, along with everything it is wearing and carrying, up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see. The target also takes 10d12 force damage and is knocked prone.

9-10: Chill of the Dark Void. The target takes 10d12 cold damage, and it is blinded until the end of the turn.

Ashton can feel it, beneath the furious quaking earth of their being, curled under and around and through their mind: the void that is everything and nothing.

He's used to feeling it spit sparks with a battle rage. A barrage of fireworks firing from his head to bend and twist the world around him. The chaotic, fundamental building blocks of reality swayed by this power that is somehow his. Familiar and directable once it starts.

But this is different.

Deeper, stronger. A clinging net of power welling up to be cast. It's not meant to bend reality in their favor, to help and support. It is the void set to rend and destroy. This is the end of everything.

And it is at Ashton's command.

He casts, letting the void tear its way up the mental connection to rend Liliana, who is trying to fucking punish him for the fact that Bells Hells was caught, that Imogen is in danger and under the eyes of fucking Ludinus himself and the Weave Mind. As if Ashton isn't fucking pissed (scared out of their fucking mind) and looking to get Imogen out along with all of Bells Hells.

Liliana reels back, screeching in pain, ice crystals forming across her eyelids and extremities as Ashton's dunamis destroys the warmth within her body.

A face so like yet unlike their friend's bares teeth in their direction, not quite locking-on to them through the frosty obscurement, and an angry dagger of thought pierces their mind.

It hurts, but what doesn't fucking hurt in Ashton? They just give her an unseen toothy grin in turn, flexing their chaotic magic against her once more, causing the ice crystals to thicken as they destroy more of her vital warmth.

This time, as Liliana uncurls from the pain, electricity unfurls from her body as well to dance across Ashton's enchained form. It's unpleasant as fuck, especially with the way it clings to the gold embedded in their left side, making their muscles convulse.

Though as the ice crackles away from Liliana's eyes, they widen in some sort of shock or horror. Liliana's body locks in tension, arrested by whatever Ashton's chaos magic is showing her (he thinks he can glimpse it, and it's fucking horrifying and mind-breaking). He gives a testing yank to his chains, but they're not giving.

Ashton watches as Liliana's body loosens, only to gather frost once more as his magic surges once again.

"I've had enough of you," she growls, lightning crackling around her hands.

It's strong, this Lightning Bolt, screaming through their body, bouncing along the golden veins. Ashton's vision goes white with the brightness and the pain. They keep their grip on the dunamancy writhing around Liliana as their body judders under the electrical pulses.

They're left panting a hanging from their chains in the aftermath.

"Had enough?" Liliana pants herself, blood dripping down her face from a nosebleed, from skin chapped and split by the cold of the void.

His heavy head lifts to meet her gaze, a manic grin pulling at his lips. "Have you? 'Cause I can keep going."

And they push on the power surrounding her, making it surge once more, vague visions of horror flicking at the back of their mind and obviously at the forefront of hers, stunning her once more.

Another yank on the chains, another failure to get free.

Ashton's powers twist against her, a portal sucking Liliana up from her position at the door to spit her back out within Ashton's reach with enough force to leave her winded on the ground, an arm grotesquely bent out of shape.

"Looking pretty rough there," Ashton taunts, testing their chains and finding enough just enough slack in them.

Liliana growls in response as she struggles to her feet, and psychic force bursts through Ashton's mind, clouding it, but they manage to shake it off with a snarl. And they can see fear gathering in her eyes as she realizes that it didn't blank their mind and break their concentration on the chaotic magic ravaging her.

Ashton grins, bloody and feral as he digs into that well of power and gets his brain sparking. Time stirs, blurring red and blue around him. And Ashton surges forward against his chains, causing them to break, so he can clock Liliana in her stupid fucking face.

It's so fucking satisfying to watch her drop to the ground. Ashton has wanted to punch a parent for so fucking long, and this one time he's gotten to do it, he knocked her right the fuck out.

There's a temptation with that body lying on the ground to end her. Liliana Temult is in way too fucking deep to rely on. She's a danger to him and all of Bells Hells.

...But Imogen would be sad if they did. And she could still be useful as an inside source of information.

So he rolls her unconscious form, happily pocketing some healing potions and magical items, before setting off to find and rescue the rest of his people.

I did roll for this. That's part of the fun! I gave the Liliana a +1 on her Wisdom and 300 health to scale with Otohan's roughly 500 (Fighter d10 to Sorcerer d6) and a spell DC of 20. Original Save: 8+1=Fail. 9 on the Table. 79 cold damage and blinded for the round. 15+1=Fail. Mind Sliver on Ashton Save: 4+1=Fail. 14 psychic damage. Nat 20 on the Concentration check. (Liliana is allowed to use the spell since she was already poking into Ashton's head so she kind of knew where he is/didn't need line-of-sight) 2nd Round: 10 on the Table. 52 cold damage and blinded for the round. 2+1=Fail. Shock Flare (4th Level) on Ashton Save: 12+9-2=Fail. 19 lightning damage and can't take a reaction until the next turn. 14+6-3=Success on Concentration. 3rd Round: 1 on the Table. 31 halved to 15 psychic damage because Aberrant Mind Sorcerers are resistant at Level 6 and stunned for the round. 9+1=Fail. Ashton vs Chains: Looking for a Nat 20, got 7. 4th Round: 10 on the Table. 64 cold damage and blind for the round. 6+1=Fail. Lightning Bolt (7th Level) on Ashton Save: (allowed a regular because he's Restrained but she's Blinded) 17+3=Save. 51 halved to 25 lightning damage. 18=9+Success on Concentration. 5th Round: 1 on the Table. 36 halved to 18 psychic damage and stunned for the round. 2+1=Fail. Ashton vs Chains: 5 6th Round: 8 on the Table. 52 force damage and knocked prone. 7+1=Fail. Synaptic Static on Ashton: Nat 20 on the save. 17 halved to 8 psychic damage. 5+9=Success on Concentration. Raging Punch: Nat 20 to hit. 1+4Str+5Prof+3Rage=13 doubled to 26 bludgeoning.

[emsprovisions]

Telling them they deserve better for the GM prompts :D

friends to lovers prompts

Part 2: Gus's Boyfriend (Link to part one)

A few months had passed by now and Gus was still dating that stupid Leviathan guy. Matt tried not to think about it too much, because he stewed every time he did and he didn't want to push Gus away just because he hated his boyfriend.

The issue was that Leviathan was hanging around more and more with their group of friends. He was showing up to move nights, dinner after games, even the library for study groups.

He always asked Matt how he was doing and how his classes were going. He took an interest when he saw the Blademage sticker on the front of Matt's binder. He said it was one of his favorite series growing up. This only made Matt hate him more.

Blademage was his thing. He couldn't stand the thought of Leviathan prattling off to Gus any Blademage lore. Actually, he couldn't stand the thought of this guy prattling anything off to Gus.

Like seriously, the guy was so amicable that it was like impossible to actually know anything about him. What made him tick? What foods did he hate? Has he ever fought with his siblings? Did he even have any siblings??

Matt seriously could not imagine what sort of conversations Gus and Leviathan had together on dates. It just seemed like small talk was inescapable with the guy. Other than a pretty face, what did Gus see in him???

Matt couldn’t hold his tongue anymore. They’d been in the Graveyard all day and Matt had been trying to think over how to say it, if he even should say it. But if he didn’t get it off his chest it was gonna eat him alive.

“So,” he began. “How are things going with Leviathan?”

Gus glanced up from his perch on a rock. He’d been working on homework. He looked a little surprised that Matt had asked.

“Things are good, I guess? Why are you asking?”

“No reason…” Matt looked back down at the ground and the constructions he’d been practicing for his test on Monday.

Gus put down his homework and got up, stretching his legs and moving closer to Matt.

“You don’t like talking about him. Why did you ask?” He raised a suspicious eyebrow to stare Matt down.

Matt met his gaze, those dark, stormy grey eyes that always seemed to pin him where he stood. Gus’s eyes were like looking into a storm. Only, they had a softness to them too. Gus was soft and sweet. He was the perfect guy. He was funny. He was smart. He was everything.

“You deserve better,” he blurted out. Realizing what he said, his eyes widened and he clapped a hand over his mouth.

Gus just stared at him. His eyebrows furrowed inwards.

"What do you mean?"

Matt shook his head, refusing to speak, looking intently down at his feet.

"Matty," Gus breathed, stepping closer. "You can talk to me."

Deft fingers lifted Matt's chin, forcing him to once again meet Gus's stormy gaze. Matt swallowed hard. It all became so clear then. He didn't think Gus should be with Leviathan because he wanted Gus.

He was in love with Augustus Porter.

And it was maddening.

It's not like he really deserved Gus either. In hindsight, Gus probably did deserve someone as nice as Leviathan. But he'd been so jealous–even now jealousy gripped his heart with its awful tentacles–he hadn't realized that's what it was. He just thought he'd had Gus's best interest in heart.

Only now, staring at Gus's lips, he realized he'd only ever had his own interest at heart.

He licked his lips, parting them as if to speak, but no words would come out.

Gus tried again, "Is that why you don't like Leviathan? You think I don't deserve him."

Matt nodded, cautioning a look into his eyes.

"Do you want to know something?" Gus asked.

"What?" Matt croaked.

"I only started going out with Leviathan to try and get over someone else. It's dumb, I know. But this other guy I had a crush on, he's my best friend. And I was too scared to tell him how I felt, because I was scared maybe he didn't feel the same, or maybe it would ruin our friendship if I did."

Matt stared at Gus, now his turn to be confused. "Who–?"

"But what's worse," Gus continued, holding up a hand to cut Matt off. "My feelings for him never went away. In fact, I think they've gotten kinda stronger and it's kinda awful because I just feel like maybe I'm leading Leviathan on, and maybe I should end things and just be honest with how I feel..."

He took a deep breath and met Matt's eyes. "...How I feel about you."

Matt stared dumbly at Gus. He was so close he could feel Gus's breath on his cheek.

"You-you like...me?" Matt choked on the words. What he'd been hearing felt impossible.

Gus nodded and let out a humorless laugh. "Terrible isn't it?"

Matt surged forward in that instant, grabbing Gus's face between his hands to crash his mouth against Gus's. He pulled back just as quickly as he realized he'd just kissed a guy that technically still had a boyfriend.

"Oh, fuck. Gus I'm so sorry–"

Gus grabbed his hands. "I'm gonna go break up with Leviathan right now. Can we meet up tonight?"

Matt nodded. "Y-yeah," he said breathlessly.

He was certain he didn't deserve Augustus Porter either, but by Titan did he want to try. Gus stared at him a little longer, a smile on his face, Matt's hands still cupped in his.

[badass-at-fandoming]

I got this idea from a post by nightingaletrash: in 1954 Glasgow hundreds of schoolchildren armed themselves with knives, axes, crucifixes and wooden stakes and stormed graveyards to hunt for a vampire, having heard rumors of a "seven foot tall vampire with iron teeth" who had killed two children.

If Beckett had visited Glasgow during this time to search for an artifact or talk with a contact, what would he think of this phenomenon, and what would happen if he found himself being pursued by hundreds of these angry kids? Would he be able to escape without breaking the masquerade?

Hi hi hi! I couldn't find the post you're referring to, so tagging @nightingaletrash to see if she remembers. Mental Floss did an article on the Gorbals vampire here.

A graveyard housing a quarter million corpses sounds like an excellent place to earthmeld. I wouldn't be surprised if Beckett chose to sleep the day away there. He'd definitely be surprised to wake up to a mob of murderous children! I think he'd be startled, but ultimately okay—by 1953 he'd have plenty of options to escape the raving teenage horde. Mist, Protean doggo, Celerity etc. If you want a narrative story about it, hit up @beckettluvr42 I've been enjoying their art!

The Gorbals Vampire might be a fun plot hook, don't you think? Maybe a Presence-user lured the children to the graveyard? As a power move, or a Pied Piper style threat? To scare Beckett specifically? IDK, I'm texting the Mental Floss article to our GM so he can horrify us with it. :D

Thank you for the ask! Historical musings are fun! And even more fun to insert Beckett into, hahaha :D

[open-hearth-rpg]

The Worst Thing: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics Week One

“Imagine the worst thing possible, assume it's true, and go from there.”

— Theodora Crain, The Haunting of Hill House, Season 1: Open Casket

Strong collaboration in play has changed my gaming in the last two decades. I come from the tradest of traddy backgrounds, learning D&D at a wee babe in the late 1970s. I grew up in a gaming community split between roleplayers, miniatures grognards, and classical wargamers. Given how young I was, I almost always played with GMs older than me, in a position of narrative and rule authority. You might get to define your character’s backstory a little, but you had little wiggle room before they’d say, “that’s not how X is.” That became my model and I kept hold of that for years.

The cracks came when, while complaining about prep and the need to revise the campaign gazetteer, my wife pointed out I didn’t need to do that work. She asked me how much of that material meaningfully impacted the table vs. how much I made up on the fly. That was the first break in the dam. The second was Dogs in the Vineyard. That swept everything away with the idea that you could just not prep at all beyond a basic framing concept.

And once you’ve allowed yourself to improv– and trust your own instincts– you can begin to trust others. You can start to respect and even seek out their input. For me it starts with a basic writer’s characterization technique: having the players describe where their characters live. Then once they’ve painted that kind of scene, giving them the space to develop other meaningful features of characters and play.

Like the horrors which await them.

There’s a great admonition in horror that the thing you imagine behind the door is much scarier than what lies behind the door. We have to embrace that moment between the introduction of the horrific and the revelation of the truth. That’s where you get dread, the real horror feeling you can create via games, books, and movies.

Bluebeard’s Bride does this with a simple collaborative concept. The Shiver from Fear move sets this: name the thing you are most afraid will happen, the groundskeeper will tell you how it’s worse than you feared. It engages you, and everyone else, with this imaginative process. You get to set some of the stakes for the moment. And you begin a light, meta-competition with others. How bad can I make it? What can I handle? What would really spook me out?

Jesse Ross’ Trophy Dark takes and builds on this concept, making the whole table complicit in the building of the horror. Rather than a single move, the whole thing game stands atop this: When you attempt a risky task, say what you hope will happen, and ask the GM and the other players what could possibly go wrong. Then gather dice.

There’s a phase of the whole table digging into this question: what’s the worst thing which could happen? Now when you roll, you have a panoply of possible fates to dread. You know what fates could be in store for you. Now we have that dread. You will get to pick your fate, but that’s even worse, because of course you want to make it interesting– and you know what scares you.

[autistic-autumn]

Does this count as music for the exchange? https://youtu.be/VHrUfj6s2R0

okay now I'm no longer either drunk or hungover I can finally get to this.

I think you might however be forgetting I do a lot of contemporary music and microtones and additive time signatures don't scare me. I can also tell this is a really dodgy musescore rendering as all the percussion has odd amounts of reverb and I'm 90% sure that bass flute is just the regular flute soundfont. I couldn't tell you if it was musescore 3 or 4 though. I can also look at the score and spot about 100 errors because it hasn't been nicely typed but if I was to go into every one of them this post would be about 2000 words long. Dynamics and articulation are a bit shoddy though, particularly for woodwind, and the sheer number of percussion staves is quite ambitious.

That being said 11/8 is a lot of fun and there are a lot of fun ways you can do it. This is the standard cut the last beat out of the bar technique that leaves you with 3+3+3+2/8 (or more of a 6/8 + 6/8 depending). The microtones don't particularly stand out to me but they are a nice coloristic effect. The fact the microtones are used only on certain notes makes me think it's more tuning system thing. That being said the notes that are detuned are interesting as they appear to the the 3rds of chords but not exactly the direction I would expect them for a tuning system such as just intonation.

Now I haven't' checked the entire score but here is an example:

What is notable here is that this is a Am7/E that moves to a Dadd11. The piece isn't in G major, but the effect remains the same. Normally however minor thirds are tuned about 16 cents flat, so if you want to make it line up perfectly with the harmonic series you would want it to be slightly sharp. Here's it's a quartertone flat which is a very neat effect. The same thing happens with a number if F quarter sharps. It still mostly sounds like an alternate tuning system or something similar but in such a way that isn't causing a huge layer of dissonance.

Now I know the music exchange is only meant to be one but this did get my classical musician senses tingling so you can get multiple with a brief analysis of the piece after. I've tried to find stuff that do interesting this with dissonance, microtones and rhythm specifically.

First one here is Béla Bartók - Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm No.6 Been recently learning this one on the piano and it's a fair bit of fun. As the title suggests, it's a Bulgarian rhythm that is directly notated as 3+3+2/8.

This part here in the score is particularly fascinating I think (about 0:28 seconds into the video). If you actually study what's happening it's a fairly basic call and response in the two parts, both moving down in 5ths each time. However the first phrase in the right hand sounds as Gm while the left hand plays the counterphrase at the tritone in C#m. And this is repeated downwards a 5th each time. There is also the fact the rhythm doesn't quite like line up as you would expect as both are playing 3+3+2 but offset from each other (hence the stems going over the bar). it finishes by repeating in unison two octaves apart, which is a classic of the early 20th century. This is genuinely one of the most difficult passages in the entire piece just because of how fiddly it is to get those rhythms to stand out at the tritone while playing at speed.

Phrases like this are also interesting because it's fascinating harmony. It's Bb/d - G - Eb/Bb - C/G (in the following bar on the next system). This particularly fascinating to me because the Bb - G are effectively done as chromatic transposition, as is the Eb - C are. But the relationship between the G- Eb is what's known as a chord rotation. I can't easily explain it in a tumblr post but it's a fascinating post-tonal technique used on fair standard chords, and it's used a number of times throughout the piece. Basically the relationship between the chords and the phrasing isn't entirely random.

Bartok was also living in the early 20th century and so his enharmonic notation isn't quite there sometimes. Here is the worst spelt C major and F major chords I've seen in a while (treble and bass clef respectively.

I think you would get killed for trying to write enharmonics like that these days but it was like 1930 and they hadn't figured out how to write harmony like this yet.

SECOND PIECE: Joshua Mallard — State Machine 90% sure I've put this in one of my music ramble posts but it is pretty neat. The youtube channel that uploaded it is a great place to find huge amounts of contemporary music but the three movements are genuinely a really neat example of a lot of contemporary styles. You'll notice the first movement sounds fairly dissonant and jaggard, despite the fact it's time signatures aren't particularly complex and there are no microtones (not including the gliss at the end). The second movement is full of weird ways of playing with microtones and has a really neat way of notating it. The third movement is anyone's guess but I'm sure you can figure it out enough if you want the score. As odd as the score looks it's genuinely a lot easier to parse on a first glance than the Bartok's is, so a full rant isn't really necessary.

Third piece is my own because I'm a freak. I did amazingly forget to get the one recording I have of it (not the best recording but still far better than musescore). This means you're stuck with the extra crunchy musescore rendering that barely gets half the notation in. I've got the rendering below and you can find the score here. The notation still needs some tidying but it's not entirely terrible.

The piece is about the great abyssal plain at the bottom of the ocean. It's the name for the great black expanse of mud and rocks 1000's of meters deep. Part of a suite I'm writing on sinking deeper into the ocean for piano quintet.

You might also notice some funny things in the score:

Musescore hates this. That's a cluster chord on both black and white notes on the piano. You literally get your arm and place it ontop of a bunch of notes. The strange notes in the cello are artificial harmonics, which I don't have time to explain but musescore hates it. Like the piece you sent in there are a few places where I've adjusted the time signature to something additive to throw it a bit, although the bigger rhythmic interest is the fact that the 3/4 sections are effectively a lot of polymeter. I had almost the entire piece in 6/4 because it's the lowest common denominator but I had to try conduct it at the tempo it's in the it just fell apart with how long each bar was. Some of the parts are effectively playing 4/2 (or 2/2 I guess?), some 12/8 (6/8?) and some 3/3 so just had to find something I can squeeze everything into to make it work.

There is also the fun part with the sost pedal that musescore cannot do. When you hold a bunch of notes down with the sost pedal they remain as part of the piano's resonance as they don't have dampers on them. What I've done is tell the player to do a cluster chord on all the low white notes and then leave it in the pedal while playing a C# in the middle of it. The C# clashes really nicely against the low diatonic notes that resonate behind it without the full and kind of washy sound of the full pedal. This only really works on grand pianos or any piano with a sost pedal, but if you have a real piano you can try this technique by just holding down the white notes with your arm and playing a black note in the middle of it all.

Anyways huge post over. You hit my music autism mode in exactly the right specific way so you get this. Feel free to send in more stuff.

[uncle-cucky]

Red apple and Mango for ruby? (for that recent ask game)

[RED APPLE] Who does your OC value above all else?

While it's more from her ttrpg canon; I def have to say Mr.Pubby! Mr.Pubby was one of the main bad guys in our campaign! He was a henchmen for the big bad! A 'men in black' group of masked people who'd take people who'd cause trouble in the town and reset them!

(art by @/kotablickie on twitter, the gm!)

We first met into him when he and panda where kidnapping an NPC who remembered too much. :) And sense that moment I knew ruby was gonna want to pet that dog!!!

We ran into him again in a chase scene where half the team had to drop bookshelves on him to stop him.

Later Ruby is able to befriend him after giving him a squeaky toy bone in order to apologize for allowing him to get hurt.

(art by @/kotablickie)

They ended up becoming friends in a cute little mini dating sim scene while the team was hiding like 'wtf!'

BUT THEN THE DM (KOTA) STABBED HIM WITH PANDA...

(art by @/kotablickie)

And boy did I CRY FRFR... half of the team hadda fight panda as the other half tried to resuscitate Mr.Pubby! And they were even able to drag him out of the town and beating the campaign! He did lose an arm but it's okay It'll grow back :D! Now they're together, and getting to experience being each other's first friend.

(^ ART: @/kotablickie)

(^ ART: @/CometCatt on twitter)

[MANGO] What colours best represent them and why? Does this differ from their favourites?

Might be a bit easy to guess but it's red hehe. It's a bright, passionate color and good for making her stand out in a crowd. Also! A big creative inspiration for her is the idea of 'the red scare' of the cold war. As it was a big era of worrying of spies and not trusting your neighbors. And well- she is spyware so! And yes, it is her favorite :]

[callilouv]

gm :D pls wish me luck for my test today huhuhu i’m so scared bro

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

i have finally found the time to watch through the entirety of a court of fey and flowers and it has left me clawing the walls

a few thoughts, here and below the cut:

aabria is honestly one of my favorite gms to watch work. like, literally watch, i am 95% podcasts for my actual play media, but the visual elements of her games (esp. her npc facial expressions & acting choices) are so compelling. every damn time wuvvy looked at rue i died.

never not gonna be impressed with how smoothly this team integrated dnd combat & magic & skill checks with the good society framework to make a compelling, weighty, primarily social game. the unique tokens! (the significance to burning them!) the many pvp insight/deception checks over sighs and glances!!

brennan being an eternal gm is a crime, hob is The Most Character

like, picture me taking that character art of hob, printing it out, folding it up, and eating it. love him.

he’s a self-loathing emotionally obtuse plothound who claims to be bad with words but gives The Most Austen-style heart-wrenchingly vulnerable speeches. who else is doing it like him.

(seriously, if you’ve got regency media recs with hob-alike MCs I Want Them)

i am imagining some bonkers child creation magic — like, cabbage patch If You Want One It Will Grow stuff, genetics and gametes need not be involved stuff — that gives hob and rue an enormous passel of kids to love on and Treat Right, including at least one Owl With Bug Wings and two or three Literal Bears.

also picturing atla level confusion when the first one of those bears comes along. “just a bear?” “not a bugbear, not an owlbear, not a bugowlbear. just a bear.” “…this kid is weird.” “yeah, but we’re gonna love them like mad anyway right?” “oh yeah, of course, i’m just saying!”

deeply shocked andhera was able to sit through that detect thoughts at the tailor shop scene without blurting out SOMETHING, given his tendencies towards blurting out everything in other moments.

but like. imagine.

hob: the k stands for knickolas!!

rue: i love him.

andhera: oh shit, for real?! you love him for real??

disastrous. andhera fails to keep his mouth shut, four wounded two dead. (rip buddy, you were a real one)

otoh. now i’m imagining a fun little trivia game at rue’s nearlywed shower with questions like “where did they meet” and “who asked whom” that give them an excuse to retell all of these cute stories about their relationship, and one question is “when did rue first realize they loved hob?”

the answer is supposed to be after they danced all night at the masquerade, because rue thinks it’s fine to lie a little for the Romance of it all, but andhera’s like “oh, i remember that! it was when hob told them what the k in k.p. stands for!”

and he’s very :D satisfied with himself for winning his team a point! not noticing rue and hob’s very complex face journeys as they silently have a Conversation about this.

most shocking moment for me, a person who saw a fair number of acofaf gifs on my dash last fall: chirp marriage & child reveal, no question. the cast around her reacting is also very good, but the twist in itself was honestly so unexpected! and it works fantastically to give the lords of the wing motivation to join the larger plot on Our Heroes’ Side, i thought that was very smartly done.

and last but not least, a fun fact!

I did not realize this until the ap episode where omar confirmed ace andhera, but my first dnd character was basically a mash-up of andhera and rue.

like. they were an ace paladin poorly faking charm and coolness, using a normative appearance (“imagine a combination of chris hemsworth and chris evans”) as a facade a scared, nonnormative creature hid behind— unfortunately my BINX-alike PC friend died early in the campaign, and the plot took priority over character exploration. but still: same hat!

also: me now, looking back at that character: [miranda cosgrove ‘interesting’ meme with the nonbinary flag superimposed]

[spaceofentropy]

I've rewatched season 4 of Stranger Things not that long ago and it still drives me up a wall how the Duffers and their writers' room managed to write Eddie as (almost) the perfect prototype of a shitty, toxic DM. I've been roleplaying and occasionally GameMastering for the past 22 years (give or take). I've played with good GMs, mediocre GMs, terrible GMs, stellar GMs. And Eddie Munson, for how he's written in the show, is a shitty GM, holy fuck, folks!

1 He scares his younger players into doing what he wants. The first time I saw season 4, my brain went "Feels like they're setting him up as the new human baddie of the season, feels like they're gonna pull a Billy-with-switched-plates on us..." because Eddie is introduced as seen through Dustin and Mike's eyes, and those are scared eyes. Not scared as in "he's gonna hurt me", but scared as in "he's volatile, unpredictable, and he's gonna make my life literal hell". Like a bully. Like he's not a hero or a good presence for those two kids. And then...

2 Eddie refuses to move that fucking D&D session. Which... WTF, man, what the fuck! You don't want to know the number of times my groups and I had to postpone a session because too many people couldn't be there because life! The way we played with one or two players less, knowing that M. would use his brother's character for combat, that while E. was away his character would conveniently get bonked in the head and pass out for the duration of that session! But it's an important day, I hear you say. It's the end of the campagin, you say. Then... dude! Since you've built to that session for months, it's the culmination of your whole campaign, you want YOUR PLAYERS to be there! It's a big day for the whole group, not just for the DM! What's the fun in having one of the main characters in the story being absent?! Which leads us to the fact...

3 Eddie demands that Dustin and Mike find him a replacement player. On your big fucking day when your campaign ends you DON'T want a random player to sit at the table and risk to have to decide the fate of the whole story (which, coincidentally, is exactly what ends up happening, how fun...)! You want YOUR players to be there for the grand finale! How can a rando appreciate the way you bring all the storylines to their conclusion? How can a rando know why that tiny detail that ties back to the second or third session is important? A rando can't! Bringing in a rando is just bringing in an arm to swing dice, at this point in a campaign. You've built to this session for months, then it won't kill you to wait for a week or two longer to play it! (And this ever-important session happens just before spring break, there are weeks and weeks left before school ends. They can fucking wait for Mike to come back from California and Lucas to not have basketball games! Which, oh, look at that...)

4 Eddie knows he's forcing two of his younger players to ditch their friend's big game, and he doesn't give a single fuck. D&D is clearly the best, superior past time ever, in Eddie's eyes, and fuck anyone who thinks differently. Fuck anyone who dares put anything above D&D. Sadly, Dustin and Mike are not old enough or emotionally strong enough to ditch a bad GM, not when he has painted himself in their eyes as their saviour from being high school loners and pariahs, so fuck their great friend Lucas, I guess?

5 Eddie's an elitist piece of crap to Erica. Saying "Oh, you play D&D? What level is your character?" is not only inherently stupid in D&D terms (you can create a 17th level character from scratch, tailored to the sole purpose of playing with a high level group, it's... it's a ttrpg, not a fucking videogame where you have to grind all the levels! Ghaaaaaaaaa!), but also the equivalent of going "You're wearing a Metallica t-shirt? List 5 of their songs!" on her. The kind of thing where you look at the tool in front of you, flip him the bird, and leave with a "Go get fucked by balrog, dickwad!"

In all of that, the problem is the shitty writing. I know that thematically and symbolically it's so juicy to have Lucas, who's been torn between the jocks and the nerd, stay with the jocks while he his nerd friends LITERALLY replace him with his sister. Oh, it's so tasty to have the Sinclair siblings throw the deciding ball/die in their respective games and win everything for their teams. I can almost hear the Duffers orgasm (sorry for the horrid image!) at the idea of it all, typing it down and then going to their editor asking for the alternating cuts, the parallels, and then, oh, the stark difference between Lucas' face falling because none of his friends is present on his big day and Erica being cheered on by these older guys she just met! And that shot when the basketball team leaves the gym and Lucas sees Erica so seamlessly incorporated in his other group of friends, so angsty, right? Right? You get it, audience, right? He's sad! So sad! *nudge nudge wink wink*

It's such lazy writing. It feels like paint by number and also unfaithful to the characters, and to Erica in particular. She may not love her brother to pieces, may not have been enthusiastic at the idea of watching a boring basketball game, but I can't see her having a single reason to go play one D&D session to close a campagin she knows nothing about with a group of older strangers (who treat her like crap), when up until this point she's been a closeted nerd.

And we all know that the D&D session must be there because we can build up Lucas' dilemma and introduce an audience who knows nothing about D&D to the concept of Vecna. (As one of my friends said when Vecna came up in the show, "Vecna? Again!? Haven't we already killed that squirrelly third-rate spellcaster at least once a decade for the past 40 years?!")

And you know what? It's double shitty writing. Because if it weren't for Joseph Quinn good performance, I probably would have ended hating Eddie all the way to the end of the series and not given much of a fuck about his death! Because, as I said, I actually disliked him for a good chunk of episode one. My first gut reaction to Eddie Munson was "Nope! Stay away! Bad guy! Shoo, shoo!"

You've written this guy as an asshole who can't be arsed to postpone a fucking D&D session; who thinks he's better than everyone else; who walks on the tables where other people are eating (EWWW!); who scares his youngest minions and forces them to do his biddings; who doesn't give a fuck if he's forcing said minions into ditching their friend; who treats a middle schooler like pure crap... And no, I don't think it's a matter of "oh, the guy has so many nuances", just... Fuck that guy! The guy the Duffers wrote is a shitty GM that I wouldn't want to play a single session with. I don't give a single fuck about the fate of the guy who leads the Hellfire Club. He's selfish and crappy to everyone. The guy who interacted with Chrissy, on the other hand? Yeah, I give many fucks about him. Just... keep him away from young, impressionable players that might learn from him how to become toxic GMs in the future! 😬

[baladric]

any blades in the dark tips? i've had a session zero for a game (but we haven't started playing just yet) and made a character, but I'm a pretty basic bitch when it comes to ttrpgs (5e, one MOTW one-shot, skull wizards three times, warriors cat ttrpg once).

oh Hell yeah, my main one is don't be scared of failing rolls!! d&d trains us to view failures as, you know. failures—but in games like blades, and with a good gm, a failure is honestly the most interesting and compelling part of a session! so roll them bones and cackle about your threes and your twos and watch the shit break bad.

also: the flashback mechanic in blades is a huge huge gift, so use the hell out of it!! this being, like, you roll up to do your crime of the day and realize you want to be able to say that you know, like. idk the exact layout of the Red Sash Academy. so you say i want a flashback and you flashback to two days ago, when you failed to break into the city planner's office to look at blueprints, only to then manage to sway the guard on duty with a well-timed wink or something—and boom, you've got the layout to do the job, and you got a silly little scene to get you there!! it's such a fun and engaging way to get resources, full ocean's eleven bullshit while also being rife with fun character moments.

thirdly, you don't need to be super precious about taking stress, but do weigh your decisions about it! when you get nine stress, you gain a Trauma that permanently alters (read: worsens) how you roll in specific situations, and it's very fun narratively, but it's also very much the hindrance it wants to be!

and as with all games, it gets easier and snappier the more you play, so if things feel slow or dull, it'll definitely definitely pick up! be patient with yourself and your table and it's just like the best and funnest game!!!!!!!

[charms-of-earth]

I can’t recommend this prewritten adventure for 5e enough, its so good. I’ve been running it for some friends and everyone always has a great time, me included (and that’s important!) It’s for 15th level, so players get to enjoy playing their characters at the peak of their abilities, and it’s got cosmic, body, and folk horror elements. Without giving any spoilers, my players just finished business at the phenological pharmacy where they found out some disturbing truths about Elysium and it’s inhabitants. 

There’s also Cicero’s bar, where you can order drinks of many kinds, but careful what you order. One of my players learned that the hard way. There are mechanics for spicing up battles if things are too easy or slogging on too long, and it’s the city of eyes so you better watch yourself. Get it? 

As one GM to another, if you like horror and feel it can’t be done well in d&d, give this module a shot. I will warn you though, if you’re looking for something with jump scares or something that will traumatize your players, this isn’t what city of eyes is about. It’s the kind of game that will disturb your players and make them laugh at the absurdity at the same time. 

The art in the book is suitably creepy, and the writing is really good too, with little jokes put in for the GM here and there. I bought the pdf on a whim, and I'm really impressed with it. It uses the stress mechanic from Van Richten’s guide to Ravenloft (the sanity rules in the DMG were too insensitive for modern views of mental health), which means that every attack, skill check, or ability check is made with a negative equal to your stress score. But wait, that’s not even the coolest part. There’s a mechanic in the game called the sight, which allows characters with stress to see past the way things appear to be, into what things actually are. I hope my players don’t see this section because they haven’t figured that part out yet and are finding ways to get rid of stress however they can. 

The game also has a time limit, but that time can be as stretched out as much as you need it to be because it relies on events, not real world time. For example, if the characters kill an especially tough monster the bells might toll, marking the next hour and putting more things into motion in the background. It’s very complex and has a lot of layers to it, but it’s really easy to read and fun.