#Longterm campaign

[coreplant]

Sometimes Cantrips are incredibly useful.

This is Ootah, my half-orc Wizard. Not a very conventional class/species mix, but I honestly loved the contrast, and that she was exceptionally tanky for what is normally a very glass cannon kind of class. I played her from level 10 to level 24, before RL interfered and my DM had to just flat out stop DMing. I miss playing her, so I want to share a story of something she did.

As part of the story, she and the rest of the party were working at the behest of Fate, through the medium of a saloon that existed on and connected to simultaneously on many planes of existence and many alternate timelines at near-random. As one of the marked of Fate, she'd get sent out with only a vague sentence or two and the faintest of hints as to what needed to happen. This time, it was an alternate history, and at least part of it was preventing the lynching murder of the local baron and his family - the local population were a few pitchforks away from mob mentality due to a lot of other things going on and that no-one had seen the baron's sister in over a year, and the house had been shut up tight right after they'd arrived in the area. The sort of thing that's pretty much gasoline on the fire of superstitious worry when the rest of the country's facing a war, something's been eating the livestock, and people keep turning up dead. Ootah was passing as a nun since this wasn't a high-magic world, and one of the party was Brother Enoch, a priest from yet another world that had been very much like this one they were in currently. Due to party shenanigans, we learn about how reclusive the baron has been, and between Brother Enoch and our charismatic paladin, the party manages to get inside the manor. It took some work, some sincerity, and some heavy leaning on magical skills, but we persuaded the baron to let us see if we can help his chronically ill sister. With the maid and the cook there, Ootah and Brother Enoch did a physical examination of the poor girl first - it was a very midwestern sort of world - and paused to discuss how to do a purification ritual, since there were signs the illness would just come back if they cleared her, trying to figure out what the root cause was. I put forth to my DM that since it had been established that those serving Fate see the Saloon as it is, Ootah had spent some of the time watching documentaries on the bar TVs. My DM agreed that was reasonable, and asked just what I was thinking. "I want to take a look at the room and see if anything pops out to Ootah as health hazards, since she's seen all those random documentaries." My DM laughed and nodded, asking me to make a few skill rolls to see what stood out to Ootah and Brother Enoch, and what they could remember to compare it to. Two eighteens and a crit later, we got a description of the room and how _splotchy_ and dark it was. Brother Enoch headed out of the bedroom to start setting up the purification ritual in the cleanest room of the manor. "Ootah's going to stand up, and wrap her cloak around the girl and hand her over to [the paladin] to take into another room. She's then wrapping a bandana over her nose and mouth and giving them to the cook and maid to do the same, and tell them to start getting all the furniture moved out and out into the yard to get cleaned thoroughly with soap and hot water." "The maid and cook look utterly confused, and start protesting the orders and the moving of their mistress, calling for the Baron." "Ootah doesn't wait for them to start talking before she starts thunderwaving the black mold off the walls, and she's going to blow out the outer wall if she has to, if it means getting this room clean as fast as possible." My DM was grinning from ear to ear describing how my character was utterly thorough in getting the infestation of black mold completely obliterated, and how much it scared the local crows to have the wall blown out. Turns out the poor girl was fighting off the side effects of black mold, and it was slowly killing her. Between Brother Enoch's ritual and Ootah terrifying the household into hardcore cleaning of the house, our paladin pitching in as a guard to help keep the town calm (as well as help the baron foster good-will by buying supplies there), we managed to avert the lynching.

[rexdosethings]

To the people who are like 'there are consequences for this campaign yada yada ya"

You realise that is probably what next campaign is going to explore right? We got to see like 5 minutes into this new age and brief glimpses of BHs future. The changes probably aren't immediately evident especially for a group of people who didn't have a lot to do with the gods normally.

And the Gods aren't gone there domains still exist so that system still exists without their overseers, so you can still draw on that power I'm guessing.

[flythesail]

If I was disney I would simply bring the acolyte back under a different name and say *wink wink* we never canceled it

[sammygender]

anyway from the tags on that post some of u guys seem to think the problem with radfems is the feminist part and not the transphobia part

[max-nolastname]

black sails characters and the dnd classes they would be:

flint: fighter/sorcerer (draconic bloodline) with high wisdom and charisma. able to pass as human in "civilized" society, but has latent magical powers from an ancient dragon ancestor that manifests in the strangest things...eyes that see through the dark...summoning storms...enchanting the minds of others to do his bidding...

madi: paladin with an oath of devotion, but she doesn't answer to a higher power, or a crown or some nebulous greater good. she answers to a chorus of voices...multitudes...of men, women and children bound by chains across the world....she is devoted to them she answers to them

anne: barbarian. when she channels her rage into fights, she deals serious critical damage to her ops. able to take an insane amount of damage to protect the ones she loves and still be up standing and fighting.

jack: bard (college of valor), through and through. hoards the stories of legendary pirates. obsessed with putting himself up there among the greats. loves to Perform. silvery barbs. iykyk

max: mastermind rogue. the tenants of a rogue is to evade and hide, remain unseen, gather information on enemies and allies in order to figure out how they tick and exploit their weaknesses. she is not fighting on the frontlines she is the shadows she is in the walls of your house waiting to strike

charles: human fighter

billy: human fighter

silver: an npc with no special powers or talents or backstory, his name randomly generated using an NPC fantasy name table. He was created by the DM for no other purpose than to bring the party together and deliver the Inciting Incident/Call to Adventure in the form of a complicated treasure map. quite literally sidelined (see: shackled to a chair) in the first couple sessions, and is only brought back by the DM to add mischief and complications to the plot. but there is something so charming and endearing about this npc that the party can't help but have him tag along on their adventures. John Silver soon becomes integral to the campaign because the player characters want him to be. John Silver the NPC is a reflection of what different players want him to be. He is a trusted partner, co-conspirator, love interest, damsel in distress...a Pirate King to inspire their allies and strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. He is fleshed out and made real by the real human players around him. The players are extremely fearful of john silver dying, but what they don't know is that the DM has no plans on killing off John Silver! The DM has already written john silver into the finale of the campaign, and the story doesn't work without him, so.....

Ty @bloodyentrails for letting me bounce ideas off u

[keplercryptids]

yet again i am having to hack 5e to make something that pathfinder provides rules for

[reading-writing-dying]

Wish I could just join an online dnd group as a player but I anxious and any group larger than 4 means I will never talk ever

[blujayonthewing]

a nice thing about Elyss having built A Lot of her ideas about how to live and behave out of spending a ton of time alone in the woods observing nature is that she's always been really bad at socializing with other people, much less Making Friends, but as soon as she got brought into a small team of people all working towards the same specific goal she went 'oh I see, I guess I'm a pack animal now' and immediately committed 110% to Working With And For The Pack

[qqueenofhades]

I feel like it's important to point out that in the last few days alone, in the middle of the ongoing flap about How Old He Is, Biden has announced two MAJOR pieces of progressive legislation/priorities for his second term: a) major SCOTUS reform, term limits for SCOTUS justices, a constitutional amendment nullifying the "president god-king" ruling, and b) legislation to cap/stabilize rent costs nationwide and financially punish landlords who raise their tenant's rent by more than a certain percentage (the news I saw had it as no more than 5%) in a year.

It is important to note that aside from these both being necessary and needed (the SCOTUS reform alone, holy shit) Biden's response to challenges to his candidacy is to go MORE left, not LESS. The conventional wisdom for 800 years has always been that Democrats Need To Go More Centrist, a mainstream and longterm Democrat like Biden has absolutely heard it over and over, and we have heard so much about how we need to court Republicans who are tired of Trump by being more conservative. Biden is not doing that. He is making the electoral gamble that the way to win is by going even more left, which would also have implications for his policy agenda in a second term, especially when he was freed of re-election concerns and could just go "fuck it."

Now we, and I cannot emphasize this enough, need to reward him for the move leftward and incentivize him to do it more. When you shout endlessly at politicians to be more left and then just bitch at them for not being even more left even when they move in that direction, you discourage them from doing so and make the hoary old Move To The Center narrative come back yet again. So:

[nardacci-does-art]

I only had 10 panels but here's some more fun exciting delightful articles about how republicans think public schools should make kids say christian prayers & teach students that slavery had no longterm affect on black communities, how trump makes fun of disabled people, & just a big categorized list of both republican & democrats' stances on various issues. Oh right the republicans are also lying & saying that the democrats gave all of FEMA's money to illegal immigrants even tho they're the ones who voted against FEMA funding. Not to mention that one time trump refused to fund California's wildfire relief until he was told there's people there who vote for him. Did all the anti-voters just conveniently forget how fucking bad it was when he was president last time.

Either you vote Harris-Wals or you let a bunch of hateful bigots run the US again. Stop using the horrible plight of the Palestinians to justify your voter apathy. It's really hard to help other people when you're fighting to survive. Put on your own oxygen mask first.

Any anti-voter morons will be blocked.

Articles referenced in screenshots under the cut:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-israel-gaza-finish-problem-rcna141905

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/project-2025-what-is-it-who-is-behind-it-how-is-it-connected-trump-2024-07-12/

https://www.newsweek.com/hate-crimes-under-trump-surged-nearly-20-percent-says-fbi-report-1547870

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-by-supreme-court-ending-federal-abortion-rights.html

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-anti-immigrant-rant-rally-response_n_66de9a43e4b01b464f3dee5e

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/trumps-chinese-virus-tweet-helped-lead-rise-racist/story?id=76530148

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4892401-trump-proposes-sanctuary-cities-legislation/

https://ballotpedia.org/2024_presidential_candidates_on_transgender_healthcare

https://www.piie.com/publications/working-papers/2024/international-economic-implications-second-trump-presidency

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-refugee-crisis-gop-ban-terrorism-85afcf677743b8f8c82fe814ffe61161

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/11/unrwa-gaza-humanitarian-aid-congress/

[utilitycaster]

Hi! I just wanted to add to what you said about Laudna that her motivation from the beginning of the campaign did not change at all, in that she was ok and totally moved on from her trauma, and was just helping Imogen find out about her powers. I don't recall that Delilah was much of a problem outside of talking in her head sometimes, so getting Delilah out wasn't a character motivation.

There were times were it looked like her character was going somewhere when Marisha talked about Laudna being mentally stunted and Delilah's influence being akin to an addiction, and thought maybe they can address some of that in the campaign, but we had a lot of "woe is me Delilah is making me do things" which is BAD if you address the addiction allegory (still taking into account that Marisha may have misspoken during 4sD about it)

They didn't even deal with Delilah properly, she is still there and can talk with Laudna, and I don't think by the end of the campaign Laudna is in any way more capable of ignoring her as she did the first time they defeated Delilah and she was just a faint wisp, she wasn't in any way actively influencing Laudna back then until Laudna tried to bargain with her for power (i may be paraphrasing or misremembering though it's been a bit)

Saying that Laudna's character feels very fic-y is surprisingly accurate, she feels like someone who would have been sold to One Direction

Sorry for the long ask

OK first off YELLING at the being sold to One Direction but yeah, that's the thing, she feels like this passive self insert who people give things to and like without her like, doing anything other than putting her messy brown hair in a bun on the top of her head.

I think with a lot of my frustrations with various characters, there is frustration on both sides, with Matt and the cast, and Matt bears a LOT of responsibility to be clear because I think in his focus on the core plot above all it shut down player attempts to the point that even stronger players with stronger concepts kind of gave up in the end. But for Laudna, here is the throughline.

Early on she floated the idea of getting rid of Delilah when Imogen was trying to get into the Starpoint Conservatory. This was good! It was introduced as a potential longterm goal of Laudna's! It's just...that never happened. The research was always very moon focused, and when it became clear this wasn't really an academically-inclined group the research took the form of Grim Verity lore dumps, which naturally didn't allow for side research. The gnarlrock fight famously went nowhere because she and Imogen apologized right away, but then, notably, Laudna didn't do anything to get back at Delilah nor did Delilah keep doing anything. Imogen's attempts to work with Delilah failed (this feels like part of the 'No Consequences' rule; Imogen binding herself to Delilah as well or having Delilah take on more of Laudna, something Laura as Imogen actually made steps to pursue, could have been something! I mean I'm team Jiana would have been more interesting, but this could have worked!) and so then the whole probably was kind of put on ice by the Vox Machina-helmed resurrection, and Delilah faded to a nonentity that Laudna didn't have to care about. So she didn't! Until she came back, and then she sort of cared for a bit but Delilah didn't make her do anything and then she came back to Jrusar and instead of leaning into her anger she kissed Imogen and forgot all about it until they went to Whitestone 12 episodes later (still no real consequences of Delilah coming back), she reiterated a connection to Delilah back there and had some scenes with her due to the shard but again, she wasn't really inconvenienced or changed, and then there was one last flare up with the sword and then Essek fixed everything.

Like, this would have been very easy to make compelling by having Delilah actually be a threat. Part of why I don't feel much about Laudna living out her life is that like, Delilah is just sealed away again (and fwiw we gotta at some point talk about how there was a whole setpiece about how Leaving Things Sealed Just Perpetuates A Cycle and then there's at least two sealed evils and one fully unsealed if mortal evil guy hanging out, like, thematic coherence whomst?) and throughout the story Delilah mostly just serves as an intrusive thought who broke something once and hit a couple of dudes. Chetney getting caught by the red moon and attacking people felt more real and he took more responsibility for it. If Delilah had constantly been trying to take over? that would have been interesting. If she hadn't but Laudna was furious that the woman who killed her was using her body and at all times was fighting against it? that would have been interesting. But it was just this vague blurry meh. Delilah is her warlock patron and the reason she's alive, but she can be diminished to basically nothing without any drawbacks, and Laudna sometimes hates her and sometimes wishes to wield her, but that all fizzles out every time. Again: if you wished one of these things were true and mourn the character Laudna could have been - either someone using Delilah's power at the cost of her own will, or someone fighting desperately to reclaim her own body and mind - then I'm right there with you. But as she was in the story? I wish One Direction had taken her away and we'd gotten someone better.

[thebreakfastgenie]

While back you said we need a functional rightwing party in the US, elaborate on that?

I said we need a functional conservative party. It's not technically incorrect to use right wing in this context, but colloquially right wing often implies farther right/more extreme, so I want to be clear that's not what I mean.

Unfortunately, half of this country (give or take) is conservative. They need a party to vote for. They're not going to just vote for Democrats anyway, we have ample evidence of that. I would like them to vote for a conservative party that is not comprised of insane wannabe fascists as the Republican Party currently is. I know in partisan politics people love to call their opponents evil, but that's not an exaggeration with the Republican Party at this point. I think that can be hard to see because we used hyperbole against Republicans in the past before it was literally true, and also because the far right capture of the Republican Party has been a longterm project, but they used to be normal. Bad, but normal. Nixon resigned before articles of impeachment were brought against him because Republican Senators told him they had the votes to convict in the Senate. That was a mere 50 years ago. And Nixon era Republicans weren't exactly cute and fluffy, a lot of their policies were very right. They still rejected their president when he got caught committing crimes.

We need two parties. The US system makes it pretty much impossible to have more than two at the national level, and it's really not that big a deal--with primaries and state-level parties we can have parties like the modern Democratic Party that are effectively large coalition parties. Having one party isn't good. Philosophically I'm against one-party rule and just in terms of functionality, there's a reason everyone complains about New York Democrats. In states that are so non-competitive they effectively have one party rule, the government tends to become dysfunctional. You see a lot of corruption and cronyism too. Elections are decided in the party primaries, which means you have to registered with that party. Even in open primary states, you can pick which primary you vote in but you can only vote in one. So you have to choose between building opposition or getting any say at all over who your governor, mayor, etc. is. Sometimes people who would, for example, be Republicans in any other state, run as Democrats in deep blue states because it's the only way to get elected. That's also not helpful.

Even if it wasn't a terrible idea, one party rule at the national level is not really viable. Enough of our voters are fickle and perpetually dissatisfied. "Democrats win every election for the foreseeable future" is not a viable election strategy. As we've seen, we can't count on that. People complain that liberals say every election is life or death, but we say that because every election since 2016 has been life or death. That's not normal. Losing elections is supposed to be disappointing, not apocalyptic.

As a left-leaning person, of course I think it would be great to have a center-left party and a left party, but that's not the reality of the electorate. Most of this country is further right than me. I'm not going to give up on persuasion, but in the meantime they need a party to vote for that isn't attempting to implement fascism and blowing up our relationships with our allies. People who don't agree with me have a right to political representation too. I would never vote for this hypothetical functional conservative party, I would campaign against it every time, but for the health of democracy it needs to exist.

[flythesail]

Everything about the Acolyte cancelation just feels so off. I want to be hopeful when seeing the strength of the renewal campaign or even the number of big news sources writing about it, that something like a wrap up movie could be possible, yet nothing about this situation says "normal."

There were reports from so many places (with no evidence) that Acolyte merch was intentionally taken offline. (For the record, nothing came up when you searched "Andor" either.) Then soon after, the merch is back. (Presumably because it was out of stock.) What I find surprising is that the news spread like wildfire. Why? When for most of its existence, the Acolyte has been thrown under the bus - from review bombing to racist attacks from so called "fans" - why was everyone suddenly jumping on the cancelation news when doing little to defend or support the show from the start? Merch seems like such a minor thing within the grand picture.

Many, okay most, shows are canceled after one season nowadays. But this is a first just by default of falling under an IP as large as Star Wars. Shows that are not renewed go "quietly." Kenobi was written as a single season. Tbobf might have been up for a second, but after the way it was used as a bridge for Mando seasons 2 and 3, a lack of renewal is not a shock.

There's so much proof the Acolyte was on course to be renewed and the cancelation was not planned. As recently as last month they were looking for directors for season 2. I believe there were reports of a writers room in February.

Lee Jung-jae says in an interview he's surprised about the cancelation, and right after there's "coincidentally" news that Keanu Reeves would have been Master Sol if not for scheduling conflicts. Lesley Headland has ALWAYS said JJ was her first choice. Which says what? That Lucasfilm wanted to punish JJ for showing support for the show that they canceled. This is on top of doing absolutely nothing to protect Amandla from all the disgusting racists on Instagram. This is on top of them announcing Manny for SW Celebration, which isn't until NEXT year. Wtf is he going to talk about?? Thanks for canceling my show last year! I sure would have loved to continue it! The cancelation news was even publicized on his birthday. This comes after recent news for tie-in novels, an art book, and a visual guide.

My best guess would be that plans for season 2 were underway, and a higher up got scared. Of what? Taking creative risks. Or maybe scared of the people who claim to be "fans" and have done nothing but trash the show from the start with no basis.

I'll play advocate, what if it was just for viewership and budgetary reasons? It does cost a lot to make. But then why not adjust the budget? Why not adjust the marketing strategy for season 2? The success of something like Star Wars cannot even be entirely measured by viewership or Disney+ subscriptions, less so a month after the finale. What about merchandise sales or growth over time, as the Acolyte perfectly slots into a space in canon that quite frankly, is unexplored but adds so much to the overall narrative longterm!

Even if the show is expensive, you will never convince me Disney of all companies doesn't have the money for it. Something happened and it happened fast. Whatever did happen, to cancel the Acolyte is a cowardly move. I want to hope it can come back and that this "scrambling" to change the narrative in the media is a sign of regret, yet it's most likely a poor attempt to control the narrative in their favor and push the blame to everyone who actually cares about the show.

At the very least, I hope the response is a wake up call. That Star Wars fans will not stick around no matter what. That you cannot treat your creators, actors, and fans, primarily women and poc, as lesser time and time again and expect them to continue to support your product. This decision is telling in more ways than one. It's unfair and if nothing changes, Star Wars will only get worse from here. Which is disappointing, because I love it and have been a fan on and off since I was 11 years old. But I cannot deny that everything about the way the cancelation is happening feels like a betrayal.

The Acolyte dared to be inventive. It dared to be diverse. Whether that be the cast or those behind the camera, this story was made by and made for people Star Wars has continually neglected, and it still felt like true Star Wars that anyone could enjoy. It was a step in the right direction. If given a chance, it would have only become bigger. When is the last time a Star Wars project brought in new fans like this? You can only retell the same stories so many times before they lose what made them special in the first place. As a true fan, Lesley brought fresh perspective. From Amandla's performance as Mae and Osha, to JJ's performance as Master Sol, which he learned English for. Or Manny as the Stranger, a mystery turned sith turned lead love interest. The Acolyte explored the grey era between good and evil, the decisions that define us, what it means to feel, and the power of that. The Acolyte dared to exist and a cancelation can't erase the fact that it matters.

If you're still reading, please do sign and share the petition. It might not bring the show back, but it is a show of support for the cast, crew, and fans it stood for.

[max1461]

I already had my basic life philosophy and sense of how the world works (in general terms) at age 5 or so. I made significant refinements around age 16, and had the implementation largely worked out by age 21. Everything since then is, uh, it's getting into the meat, it's understanding the proof of this theorem or the grammar of that language, the basic framework is firm. I'm not at risk of joining a cult or going on an internet hate campaign or really be influenced by any sort of "big idea" one way or another, because I already think what I think about most everything. Sometimes I feel like I'm moving towards a really new position, and when I get there I realize it's just a minorly different guise of one I already held. I'm nothing if not consistent. Really, truly. I'm the most consistent person you will ever meet, in this sort of life way. There is a basically straight line, marked by consistent elaboration but relatively little change in direction, from my earliest memories to my present self (pending how the current brain damage works out; hopefully the longterm effect is minor). I think this is a good thing to be able to say about yourself and I think few people can say it. Other people are like leaves in the wind to me I'm like a fucking. Asteroid. You'd need to do some Armageddon 1998 film shit to me to change my direction.

[kimchitime]

my beloved first longterm pc. her dnd campaign lasted about a year and a half! whilst she didn't get a completely satisfying ending, at least she got one LMAOOO

[keplercryptids]

i get that most people aren't playing in/running longterm ttrpg campaigns but i find that to be the most frustrating part of looking into systems that aren't d&d/d&d adjacent: trying to find one that's designed for long campaigns and won't fall apart or be extremely stale after 5-20 sessions. and yes, i know in many of these shorter-form systems you can technically keep playing; you can do whatever you want forever. but i want a system that actually supports longterm play which is surprisingly difficult to find.