#This Is Why I'm a Forever GM

[calextheneko]

So anyway... I enjoy Baldur's Gate, but as someone who is primarily a Pathfinder player who... is not a fan of 5e DnD, I find myself... At odds with the game at times when I feel like I should be able to do things I can't... And weirded out what the game considers big numbers. Like, I felt like it took every resource I had to break 30 AC on a character... And like I had to trick the game to get a character's strength stat up to 22.

Meanwhile, in the latest Pathfinder video game

Yeah.... Meet my Chaotic Neutral Trickster Barbarian and what I consider normal stats. My dump stat intelligence at 28.

And if you think this is hideous you should see the things I put together in actual pen and paper table top when I get to actually play. I'm normally a forever GM but every generation the stars eventually align and I get to be a player.

Anyway, I made a psychic in the Iron Gods adventure path. A catfolk named Tau. Psychics are basically a lot like wizards just instead of specialized school abilities they gain special abilities called Phrenic Amplifications. Anyway, that's not important the important takeaway is that Tau was a very VERY squishy caster.

His AC was 40. Or 46 when he decided to cast Form of the Alien Dragon. Yes, Form of the Alien Dragon, not normal dragon, because I can't be normal with anything. Also Form of the Alien Dragon is the only dragon transformation psychics can learn and even then they're limited on which ones they can turn into based on which ones fit the occult psionic power theme. Anyway, he routinely walked around in dragon form, but also invisible, but also with mirror image which somehow still works even when invisible, and mind blank on meaning that spells like see invisibility and true sight automatically fail on him so you have no way to force him to become visible.

But what was really fun, is the bizarre combination of feats and abilities he took to just do strange things. The party almost TPKed in the first dungeon. Until he used Charm Person on the Juju Zombie that was killing them. Now you may go, wait a second, undead are immune to all mind and compulsion effect. Yeah, Tau doesn't care. He had a spell called Will of the Dead that allowed all of mind affecting spells to work on undead as normal. This was taken to hilarious levels later when in book 3 we encountered a ghost who was supposed to be the arc villain and constantly sneak attack us with cloud kill by coming through the walls and leaving for the entire dungeon. Charmed him on his first appearance. And now that he was my best friend, agreed to get him to disable all his traps and get rid of all the monsters so he could give his new best buddy a tour of his lair.

Then I lured him into the basement where the rest of the party was all waiting with readied actions to bust out their best ghost killing abilities and just delete him from existence. And then after he was dead exercised his spirit from the tower so he couldn't come back and we're like. Wow, we have a fully stocked tower with robot guards programmed to see us as allies. Looks like we have a new home base!

Then later he charmed a hologram and pulled the exact same stunt. I'm going to be honest. Even I'm not 100% how that worked but the GM after reading through the rules several times eventually declared that sentient holograms per the rules had no natural protection against magical effects.

He also charmed a Plasma Ooze, kept it as a pet and made it his best friend and fed his enemies to it. Through another combination of feats I could now use mind effects on vermin and oozes. I also picked up a spell to dominate constructs. The only thing I couldn't charm or mind control by the end of the campaign were plant creatures. It was just... Kind of hilarious because... It's the GM is like.

"Wait, you made a psychic, a class that specializes in mind effect spells in a campaign about fighting robots which are immune to mind effects."

"Yeup."

"Well it's your choice."

If only he had known what was to come. Other highlights include a spell that lets me lift one enemy up with telekinetic power and throw them at another enemy. Mind Crush, I mean Mind Thrust, which dealt severe damage and left people with debilitating status effects even when they made their save. And Ego Whip, which gave them a -10 to Wisdom, Charisma, or Intelligence, Even if they made their save. Saving only made it temporary.

Oh you're a cleric, so you have a high will save and think you don't have to fear me. Well take a -10 to your wisdom stat. Your will save just went down by 5 as did the DC for all your spells. What now?

Then there was the time he trapped a dragon in a giant telekinetic hamster ball, pushed it over an edge into an endless voice and just caused the dragon to be deleted from existence.

... There's probably a reason I'm always a GM and never a player. XD

So anyway... The level of customization I get in Pathfinder and the ability to just pull these completely insane builds out that no one expects that are completely unique is why I love it so much. But anyway, as much as I prefer Pathfinder to 5e, I very rarely get to be a player, so kind of eat up table top video games to get my urges and crazy builds out. I have over 1000 hours of gametime in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and it's one of like only 4 games in existence I got every achievement for because you put that many hours in you eventually find and achieve everything. Though... Forgot the name of it... The secret boss in the Midnight Isles DLC. Screw that thing. That is the absolute worst achievement to get because it's entirely RNG on if you're going to get the items needed to unlock it or encounter the island types needed to unlock things and you could play for months nonstop and not get the first key needed after you get the pirate map and holy symbol because the right island/undertow effect never spawned. Or it did spawn but you finished a voyage so were forced to start with a new crew again and none of your casters were high enough levels to have the spell you need to activate the item that has a random chance on spawning on the correct item combination. Oh right you can get the right item combination and then the item you need to cast the right spell on might not even spawn. And you have to get three keys this way. Yeah, that was terrible and I totally cheated and force spawned the keys into my inventory because after several days of trying I was done.

Still, I'm having fun with Baldur's Gate 3... and what I've learned is that... 5e is... surprisingly fragile and easy to break. Aheh heh heh. Maybe I won't get a 62 AC anytime soon, but I have figured out how to build a tactical nuclear strike on Raphael's bedroom. That's my plan for how to beat him on my hard mode run. Sadly the plan will require the sacrifice of a party member to trigger cutscenes and activate the bomb but... bringing people back is only a level 3 spell or 200 gold so you know... Nuking the devil in his own home and ending a fight before it starts... I think I can spare a level 3 spell slot or 200 gold to make that happen.

Aheheheheheheheheheh.

If I have any explosives left over when I'm done I'm gonna go visit dear old Auntie Ethel next. I feel her lair would look better if the entire thing was on fire.

But hey, sometimes I build elaborate nukes... Sometimes I do things the simple way. Those poor idiot guards patrolling the docks while wearing heavy armor. One shove and then I just stand on the shore and watch then drown.

Good thing I'm pretty sure 5e did away with the alignment. Not that I'm evil. I swear I'm good aligned. Just... Chaotic good.

Very... Very... Very... Very... VERY chaotic. But still good.

Side note, just had a thought after posting this, since I am a forever GM, maybe I should post a weekly session recap on Tumblr of my games. That a thing people would be interested in reading?

[askponyinuyasha]

Oh, sorry to hear that. It sounded like she was somepony important to you. Did you have a fight or something?

GM Scoots: Oh, sorry to hear that. It sounded like she was somepony important to you. Did you have a fight or something?

[Flashback] Kikyo: Die Inuyasha! [End Flashback]

Inuyasha: Yeah... Something like that.

(High-res transparent PNGs below the cut. Yes, I am just showing off my Kikyos at this point)

I know this is an old ask and wasn't technically about Kikyo, but shhhhh. It's better this way. I got to do horse drama. So thank you for the perfect setup, Scoots. IDK why I can't tag you though!

Also I hemmed and hawed about Kikyo's cutie mark and coat color for eons but I'm really happy with the way her design ultimately came out. Kikyo my beloathed. She did everything wrong and that makes her so interesting!

Hopefully I do not post this into the void for it to vanish forever. I'm posting in the middle of the day because I finished it and I have no personal restraint. I'm taking a sick day because I spent too much time outside yesterday and now my whole body feels like a sand bag, but I only had like a frame and a half to finish and I really wanted to finish this and get it posted. Now I am going to go eat some nachos and go back to bed.

[utilitycaster]

I've been seeing complaints that Spenser was 'trying too hard to kill the cast' this episode, which I have to say I wildly disagree with, but I will admit to be a little confused why the players sometimes took one or even two marks after rolling a six. Or I guess I'm not confused so much as I wonder if the mechanics for injury, success, failure, etc could be too vague atm? Candela doesn't really have anything like CR rating or DC which it doesn't NEED, but I guess could create some grey area?

Good question! Here's the secret: all TTRPGs I'd consider worth my time have a huge swathe of gray area, D&D very much included (indeed, I find a lot of the more baseless criticisms of D&D, especially from Game Based Heavily On D&D But Different fans (derogatory) to come from people mad at that gray area) and as long as the players and GM have agreed on it, it's fine. With that said I admit that paying attention to individual rolls is not what I am inclined, personally, to do, but if this is about Sean rolling a six and taking two body...that is because he was going to take four body off the bat and reduced it with a good roll that the GM permitted him. (It also might be about Marion taking in the rift, which was similarly stated beforehand to cost him a Bleed scar no matter what he rolled, the roll reflecting how successful he was.) Now, we can talk about the implications of taking four body seemingly out of nowhere, but do recall that is coming off an earlier 1 roll in his interaction with Duncan.

CR ratings generally are a poor understanding of difficulty, and the thing about DCs is you can set them arbitrarily high (or for that matter, secretly low). Like...to use D&D, you cannot make a persuasion check for someone who dislikes you to give you all their belongings and run away forever. The DM is going to set the persuasion check at 50 and it is going to be unreachable by any means. Even a nat 20 will give you a result of "they think you're joking and laugh it off instead of run after you with a sword." If you jump off a sufficiently high cliff in D&D and roll a nat 20 to land, you still might take enough damage to die during your three-point landing. And so on.

So: while we don't have all the rules of Candela Obscura, it is valid from my knowledge of the Forged in the Dark engine, which Illuminated Worlds was heavily influenced by, for Spenser to say "this action is unbelievably dangerous and there is no possible way you are escaping unscathed, and a full success means that you live to tell the tale with only a gunshot wound or bleed damage rather than outright death." That's the other thing: completely valid for the GM to come in planning to kill the players. That's the premise of EXU Calamity. I would assume the table discussed that this was going to be a much darker and more dangerous game than Chapter 1 and everyone shares those expectations, and is prepared to possibly lose these characters. Which is, frankly, another thing that comes up specifically in actual play: what the table knows and expects and is prepared to accept is often something much harsher than the audience is prepared to accept. I mentioned being irritated at the presumptive nature of a lot of safety tool discussion (and am feeling very validated by Spenser's tweet about how he handled the letters to Sean) but like...when the CR or D20 or Candela tables prepare for their games, they have talked about expectations of tone and whether the GM will be trying to gently usher new players to victory, flat out gunning for a potential TPK, or somewhere in between.

This was a long, pre-full dose of caffeine way to say that one of the biggest rules of GM-ing is that the GM sets the tone of which the danger and difficulty of the world is part, and also that, based on everything about how this chapter has been presented, if someone accuses Spenser of being very hard on the party my answer is "...yeah, no shit, did you fail to realize that from the tone and text of literally every trailer and interview?"

[bleongambetta]

Moves That Make Promises In Pasión de las Pasiones

One of the tricks I like to use for writing effective, interesting custom moves in Pasión de las Pasiones (my Ennie 2023 Best Game nominated game of telenovela drama) is to build it around a promise.

I'm a sucker for a payoff in a piece of media, I love to be promised I'll be shown something and then be shown exactly that. I think it's innate to want exactly that, we love foreshadowing and getting that payoff. That's the entire basis of telenovelas honestly, through all of the twists and turns and questions, we have a promise (sometimes direct, sometimes implied) of how it will end.

Bonus points to those who get my gif choice.

Im going to give the quickest background I can before showing the move.

Briefly Custom Moves

Moves, for those uninitiated to Powered by the Apocalypse, are little bits of rules with a trigger, a mechanic (often rolling plus a stat), and a result.

When you MAKE A TUMBLR POST, tell us what it is then ROLL PLUS SHARP. On a hit EVERYONE REBLOGS IT.

These little mini bits of rules let's games really focus on specific genre conventions of the stories they are telling. When they do a good job, they focus play.

Custom moves are invented by the GM either before or during the session. They are for a scenario that the game didn't see coming or that normally wouldn't necessarily be a focus of the game. They follow the same structure and can be a little tricky to master, because often you're doing them quickly!

Briefly Pasión de las Pasiones Moves

Pasión de las Pasiones is a variant on PbtA which instead of stats uses questions. Simplistically, for each "Yes" answer to two questions on a move, the player adds +1. Those questions usually have to do with fictional positioning (what is happening in a scene or what advantages/scenarios a character has).

The Move

When you race across the jagged cliffs, trying to claim the prize that will forever change your life, roll with the questions:

* Are you willing to die to win?

*Are you willing to kill to win?

On a hit, you make it to the end, neck and neck with your greatest rival. On a 10+, pick 1. 7-9, pick 2.

*You chicken out at the last minute and lose, mark 1 conditions

*You make it over the line, but you're busted up to the point that you're not walking away from this. Face Certain Death.

*You drove someone off the cliffs. If they're a PC, they Face Certain Death. If they aren't, they are dead, dying, or missing.

On a miss, you screw it all up. You lose control of your vehicle. If you were willing to give your life, Face Certain Death. If you weren't, watch as someone else takes your place at the podium.

So why does this custom move work?

It asks the player, what are you willing to give for this and the player makes a promise. For promising to give their life, they get a +1. For promising to kill, they get a +1. That's a great little moment, of all of the players listening to the racer say that.

Then, if they roll poorly, we get that payoff. They promised they'd give their life, let's see it happen.

If they roll well, we also get that payoff! You said you would give your life, will you now? You said you'd kill, will you now?

This design basically makes a mirror around the objective, you tell me what it's worth to you and then I ask you if you'll pay it.

For the record, our roll had the racer falling off the cliff, but being saved at the last minute by a mysterious racer who turned out to be the missing heir to the fortune and identical triplet to two of the players.

[valtharr]

Honestly, one of the weirdest arguments for me when it comes to the whole "play something that isn't D&D"-discussion is when people say "I'm the forever-GM of the group, and I would love to try other games, but my players don't want to!" because, like... if you're the Forever GM, you're in control here! The group needs you more than you need them. If you have 6 players, and 3 refused to play with you, you could still have a game. If they want you to run something, and you don't want to, they're out of luck.

And I'm not saying "be stubborn and refuse to run D&D for them." I'm saying you have a bargaining chip. Why don't you just go to your group and say "Listen guys, I know you love D&D, but I found this new game called Rubber Beasts & Cardboard Cities (currently in playtesting) that I really want to play, so from now on, we're gonna play three weeks of D&D, and then the last week of the month, we're gonna play Rubber Beasts & Cardboard Cities (currently in playtesting)"

Like... it's called compromising? Something people do all the time in all sorts of life situations? And I have to assume that most of you play with your friends, and, I dunno, I'd expect friends to compromise once in a while to make their friend happy?

[bakurasilver]

hello I am so curious about all of the WIPs but I'd love to hear more about Wout and About - being bratty on the bus <3

Sooooo way back when I was the world's most devoted shipper of Julian Alaphilippe/Tim Declercq (which I still am, even though they're on different teams now. There are like ten or so pictures of them where neither of them Julian is making a face.) but this was obviously not going to be a pairing which Took Off 😭. Reading other people's work (back when we had at most one fic a month) got me vaguely into the possibility of Wout/Mathieu, and I had a tentative go at writing them as the B Couple in a Julian/Tim fic (one of the others on the list), but then I saw them actually racing, and how could anyone not love Wout!! And despite how much this season is affecting their rivalry (also the media being constantly all, Wout Is So Useless), he and Mathieu will be linked forever in rl, let alone in fanfiction land. And whilst I think real Mathieu is way more 'no thoughts head empty' than my version of him, he's just so narratively honed that it's almost unrealistic he actually exists. He's just the perfect shape to project almost anything onto.

Then I had a just super pornographic dream about them, and thought, well, I don't even have to edit this, beyond removing Guillaume Martin (who was wandering around entirely bored by sub!Wout kissing dom!Mathieu's feet... I keep writing GM into the corners of things I shall never publish, knowing this will make no one laugh but me, but whatever shenanigans are going on with the main couple, he'll just be around and so wearily disinterested in their love life.)

But in this random bit of porn they were using hand gestures to continuously convey consent, and I couldn't help but wonder why. So I started a prequel to answer a question no one but me had, which is what Feeling bratty on the bus is.

The plot, such as it is, is Wout is grumbling on the team bus that sometimes he wants to push back against what Mathieu tells him to do for a while but does still ultimately want to be obedient, only Mathieu always halts procedings because he doesn't want to do anything Wout's not enthusiastically consenting to. Sepp Kuss (That's me, putting the dom into domestique! which I still think is one of the funniest lines I have ever written) then gives him a lecture about how it's okay to be a bratty sub, but Wout needs to explain this to Mathieu, as clearly neither of them have done any research. He attempts to give some examples from his own entirely offscreen relationship with Brandon McNulty (I'm still convinced this is a ship which has potential, but I do Not know enough about either of them to write it), but Wout is Inspired, and runs off to message Mathieu.

Mathieu does some research before the bus gets to the hotel (why is he there? Reasons! Why is he suddenly such a fast reader? Well he can read, he just doesn't!) and they go up to the hotel room, where Wout freaks out at being emotionally vulnerable. Mathieu tells him it'll be fine, even if Wout doesn't know how to say any of the above out loud, and that all Wout needs to do is find a way to let him know he's still super into what they're doing. Hence, the hand gestures. They then cuddle, and Wout takes a nap, exhausted by Having Had Feelings.

It's basically done, but also probably the least sexy BDSM-adjacent fic ever written (I don't think they even talk about sex, apart from in the vaguest terms). So I'm just not sure the world has any need for it, but sometimes I have an urgent need to read, Wout Was Having A Difficult Moment But Then Cuddles, hence why it's still sat there <3

[mr-system-of-a-downer]

Forever-GM's perspective on things, I think anyone who doesn't actually bother to learn the rules is wasting the time of everyone at the table. If I'm specifically introducing someone to the game, sure, I'll sit and teach and hold their hand no problem - I even find that fun! But if you're stepping in and just want to play, especially if it's a group of people you mostly don't know, the then please just take a couple hours to learn the basics at the bare minimum. Ask for in help at the table if need be, I guess, but like. Man. It's not much to ask. I've taught someone with zero experience and dyscalculia how to play D&D 3.5 and they get it just fine, so I sure as fuck know the 5e podcast fans could bear to learn what Initiative and Armor Class are before trying to play.

yeah I don’t understand why people think mainstream modern ttrpgs are hard. 5e is literally designed to be baby’s first ttrpg (and I only mean that slightly disparaging but it was mine too…). Roll to see if you hit, and if you did roll for damage. Add positive and negative modifiers as needed. Most games just work like this.

if you just want to rp go join a forum or server.

[acheronist]

hello!!!! thank you so much for your tarot analysis of our beloved captain dylan ♥️🤍 i am here to say that i will be a devoted audience to any and all drw tarot content (for the next forever) but also specifically to ask about hank being the empress and sergei as the chariot, if you have time 😭 you can’t just “btw” that in the tags and expect us to be NORMAL about it??

omg please.... i am not the oracle of detroit for no reason. i have been pulling season overview tarot spreads + cards for every wings game since 2019. if i'm qualified for ONE thing on this earth it's talking about card associations to players ✋🏻

empress - 40

i know you can find a lot of shit about how the empress is supposed to be about embracing this ~feminine energy~ but i think that's kind of bullshit. i see it more as like.. tending the hearth? and being gentle and loving but still a protector and a teacher? guarding what is beloved and dear to you and carrying yourself with a sense of grace and confidence. which is very much the way hank's captaincy panned out, dont u think?

in the halls of drw captaincy, his was interesting because he wasn't a leader for years and years and years like nick or steve, but he was really crucial to the team in a transitional sort of time. the championship team legends were retiring, new guys were coming in, there was sort of a new identity getting built in the lockerroom? on top of the um *cough* questionable choices kenny holland made as gm? hank's presence on the team as a touchstone through dramatic changes is what always struck me the most about his nhl career. he was a security that fans (new and old!) had absolute faith in. that steadiness is not something you see in every random nhler yknow.

which leads me into the fact that the empress also is a card of creativity. the empress sits with a crown of stars above her head, which ALSO suits hank a lot i think. he was a rookie when nick was captain. he was captain when dylan was a rookie. that's quite a long stretch of time if you stop to think about it. he spent his whole career being surrounded by stars and players with insane levels of creativity and ability to play the game. AND HE HAD THAT ABILITY HIMSELF TOO which is why he lead the forefront of it all. the red wings weren't the red wings without the eurotwins leading them to victories for a long time.

and i think there's a very loving quality to the empress as well, which of course extended to the younger guys in the room, but really shone most bright in the way that hank took dylan under his wing immediately & still is there, post retirement and off the ice, in the way that he still mentors dylan through hard times in the rebuild. i think the passing of that torch was obvious from dylan's first game, and hank did a really beautiful job teaching dylan how to act and grow up and be the kind of captain that's worthwhile, and truly means something in this city. and that devotion / mentor / compassion ties back into the meaning of the empress in a really special way I THINK!!!!!!!!!!!

chariot - 91

oh boy where do i start... even going all the way back to his initial defection from russia, there's always been such a furious independence streak in sergei that i just know it's impossible to tell him to do anything. there's a direction and confidence and borderline audacious(!?) attitude / motivation that's been in his freaky little Sagittarius heart since he was 18. and i think when u boil him down to his barest essential traits, that's one of the more foundational ones!?? and there really is not a card better suited to that attitude than the chariot

there's also something to be said about the chariot card imagery where the driver is being pulled along by the black and white sphinxes.

yeah uh huh. yup.

but also essentially the chariot is about overcoming obstacles, having the willpower and the determination to keep moving forward, the self discipline to get better, etc WHICH ALL I CAN PULL UP QUOTES FOR PRECISELY HOW THESE IDEAS CONNECT BACK TO SERGEI.

defecting from 1990s russia and his whole family and his entire life to go to a country where he didn't speak the language because he had enough confidence in himself to become a star.

growing up learning to skate on frozen rivers until he was a child and able to outskate and outplay adults.

the toughness it took in his heart to go back to the rink every day after his best friend was in critical condition and win something that'll always be bigger and more important than his whole life as an act of devotion.

the way he didn't let getting exiled ruin his career, but instead used it as a doorway to the next great joy of his career.

the way he's only just stopped skating and yet he still is winning back to back cups and achieving records and making history in his own way.

there's a stubborn need to always one-up his own achievements that haunts him soooo bad & you dont have that drive without completely embodying everything that the chariot stands for.

[talesyettold]

Welcome to the Sublime🍁

You haven't listened to Strangers in the Wood yet??? Well, you're only missing out on one of the best actual play series that has ever hit your podcatchers. We've got the awards to prove it.

Illustration by @spookynest

“But what is it?” You ask.

Strangers in the Wood is the first season of our show, Tales Yet Told, which premiered on September 2021. The whole season is only 33 episodes, each sitting around an average of an 1hr 30min per episode. It’s weirdly fun, surprisingly vulnerable, and horrifically evocative.

Strangers in the Wood is possible because we’re playing Babes in the Wood 1e by World Champ Game co., a ttrpg heavily inspired by Over the Garden Wall. It’s a narrative focused game using the Powered by the Apocalypse engine to help facilitate a story of tense and intimate horror and it serves as the backbone of everything Strangers in the Wood is.

Strangers in the Wood follows the story of two foster siblings, Dorothy and Dakota, as they wander a mysterious forest ruled by a shadowy entity known as The Stranger. Thankfully they have their friend Walter, the talking weasel to be their guide. If this sounds like Over the Garden Wall…that’s on purpose

“But who is it?” You shout from the windows.

Kendo (They/He) as The Game Master Hi, that's me. I'm our narrative facilitator and arbiter of consequences. I've been playing ttrpgs as a semi-forever GM for about a decade now. I started in D&D 4e and have since fallen in love with the indie ttrpg scene. I have a love for character-driven stories and exploring ourselves and the world around us through collaborative storytelling.

Dr. Hilda (She/Her) as Dorothy Margaret Reed - (She/Her) Dorothy Reed is a shy yet stubborn 7-year-old with dark hair and blue eyes. She idolizes her foster-sibling Dakota as well as her bio-sister Hazel from whom she was separated when she entered the foster system due to their large age gap and Hazel aging out of the system quickly. She enters the sublime dressed as a pepper shaker for Halloween and also wears a hand-me-down blue coat and red shoes that she got to pick out herself. She is incredibly happy with her life at the Abbott's home and wants desperately to return to the only place she’s felt safe. Her biggest fears include spiders, dogs, and the dark.

Marcie (She/They) as Dakota Wallace - pre episode 21(She/Her), post episode 21 (He/They) Dakota Wallace is a fiery and hardheaded 15 y/o boy with short black hair and green eyes. He grew up with an only father who live a hard and fast life with Dakota being there for the worst of it. As he got older he learned that if he wanted his place in life he has to fight for everything. After his father had a particularly bad incident, Dakota was thrust into the foster care system where he began to feel like an outcast. He enters the sublime dressed as Ferris Bueller for Halloween. He is afraid of returning home to the Abbott's and that he will always cause destruction wherever he goes.

Gus (He/Him) as Walter Brookstone - (He/Him) Walter is a clever and snarky young man currently in the body of a small brown weasel. He entered the Sublime after running away from home, feeling like an outcast and a loner. Here, after some time, his transformation would take place. He is determined to return Dakota and Dorothy home, hopefully sparing them his fate, and maybe cause a little mischief along the way. Walter has no love for the Sublime and would see it in shambles if he had his way. His biggest fears include being a bad person, staying a weasel forever, and owls. And yeah…that’s all of the Player Characters. Of course, there are plenty of NPCs to latch on to as well, but you’re gonna have to listen to find them. 

“But where is it?” You scrawl into a dusty tome.

Lucky for you it’s everywhere you can get your podcasts! We have new episodes every other Wednesday! Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Goodpods | Stitcher | Podchaser

“But why is it (something I should listen to)?” You whimper.

Because you love good stories. Because you love ttrpgs. Because you love Over the Garedn Wall. Because you love autumnal aesthetics. Because you love talking animals. Because you love your siblings. Because you love a crisp breeze through the trees. Because you love wandering blindly into the woods. Because you love cars driving through school hallways. Because you love selling your secrets. Because you love long road trips. Because you love the feeling after the tears have fallen. Because you love the isolating horror of recognizing your body is becoming something you don’t recognize and despite the fact that your true self is struggling to make itself known and free society will continue to treat you based on the malignant skin sack that buries your soul beneath its unrecognizable meat and despite all that you can still be firm in the fact that you are the only person who can define yourself.

All of that is Strangers in the Woods. Are you ready?

[dumb-hat]

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

"Yeah, okay."

Evander actually started off in a Pathfinder game that @luck-and-larceny ran years and years and years ago¹. So, the initial inspiration for him was just, uh... "Wow, Archaeologist Bard sure looks neat. Can't wait to know all the things and have stupid high luck bonuses on everything I do forever!" Originally, I was playing over on Gilgamesh, but eventually Mal convinced me to make a little dude on Balmung, and that little dude ended up being an FFXIV-ized Evander.

Beyond that, a lot of the details between these two versions of him are pretty similar: He was an orphan in an exploited orphan-gang, his brother died in the process of trying to get him out of these circumstances into better ones, and he carries that guilt with him. His personality is largely the same; he was just as much a hedonist and adrenaline junkie, though he was perhaps a bit more happy-go-lucky at the table than he is here.

He's a lot more weighed down, here. His grief and his ADHD come to the forefront, partially because there's more room to explore that in writing than there is at a gaming table with 3 other people who also need to figure out what spell they're casting and a GM that has to manage all the goblins, and partially because... I mean, those are the things I deal with, I guess. They're shaped very different, and you've got to dig at it a bit in the RP, but in the writing, it's there.

I don't know that it's the first thing I decided on, but one of the earliest was—and I'm sure this isn't a surprise—the titular dumb hat. Pathfinder Evander had a hat too, but that was more just because, like... He was an archaeologist. Gotta have the Indy hat, right? There wasn't a history to it; it wasn't a tie back to his dead brother or anything. When I made him in FFXIV, nothing was really clicking glam-wise until I went to the marketboard and found the anemos hat. I don't know why, but the thought of that being like, the hat made me cackle and I quickly decided it was going to be the one thing that he just always wore. Of course, then I needed a reason and all that, and... Well, I mean... That's come up a lot in writing, I guess. ¹Fun bonus fact: Malika actually started out as a character in a 13th Age game that I ran. Wanna ask me stuff? OC Emoji Asks!

[kit-williams]

Black Crusade

I made a Forsaken Space Marine

So we made some black crusade characters last night (Friday night)

I would like to share what is being called...

Night Lord Borzoi

for right now here are results before buying stuff so after I picked my pride/disgrace/and etc (parenthesis are after spending xp)

Weapon Skill: 45 (50) Ballistic Skill: 43 (53) Strength: 40 Toughness: 42 Agility: 33 Intelligence: 28 Perception: 45 (50) Willpower: 51 Fellowship: 38 (43) Infamy: 51

So we're starting at a midlevel power game so like our gm gave us 6000 xp on top of the starting xp. We all get mutations.

So I pick dark soul which gives me a fear rating which is like "neat that will be useful"

MY SECOND MUTATION IS THE BEST

CENTAUROID

I chose to be a centaur! Cuz eye stalks was another choice and I was like no. So I'm like okay I'll be a funny little night lord (because I went in wanting to be a night lord) ((This is my forever gm and he HATES black crusade with a passion but this is him testing the waters))

I asked him "Hey... can I pick to be a centaur of anything?"

His reply, "Sure."

I looked at that fucking intelligence and I chose DOGTAUR

I AM A FUCKING NIGHT LORD DOGTAUR WITH AN INTELLIGENCE OF 28 AND AN ANCIENT WARRIOR

I am a dumb old mother fucker who rolled max willpower and is a dogtaur. Why is he a borzoi? Because slavs

[macgyvertape]

D2 Season of the Deep thoughts

Gameplay:

The seasonal bonuses seem to be the start of the pivot to weekly challenges and no pinnacle grind. I'm glad the power cap wasn’t raised this season and won’t be again next season.

What’s the point with creating a hidden mechanic that requires the whole team to initiate it in a matchmade activity?! I never ended up doing a Tier 7 pressure trial, because matchmade with random people it never worked out and doing it with LFG or friends we never got past tier 5. 

Deep dives with ingame matchmade were toxic af after the release of the exotic quest and a waste of time, because there was often someone trying to do the exotic mission then leaving when no one else joins them. It really bad design to have the matchmaking mode set like this when people are trying to do it 3 different ways, and I don’t know why it was designed to not have backfill from the beginning. 

I like specific exotic armor focusing, new fun form of gambling and the stats are very generous. At the same time getting new seasonal exotics still feels like you waste a lot of time.

Being able to buy past season Iron banner armor makes me actually want to grind Iron Banner more in the future. 

Should be easier to get focused fishing, I never ended up finishing all the fishing challenges. Overall I thought fishing was fun at the beginning of the season when I could do it and chill with my friends, but I found the lack of obvious audio cues meant it wasn’t fun to grind out by myself when watching a show.

Deeply appreciate how you could skip so many seasonal challenges this season, that way I’m not grinding out hours spent in playlist activities and then burning out on the game. At this point I’m one of the people burned out on the seasonal model, the less I have to play things I don’t want to do to get my pile of bright dust. the more I like Destiny.

Speaking of not spending time in playlist activities, I didn’t reset any vendor rank twice and Vanguard I only reset once because I farmed Sepiks GM during double loot week. Deeply ironic that Gambit is officially not a dev priority considering that I find it the least aggravating playlist to grind. 

I knew I didn’t play as much this season but wow “27 minutes underwater” 

Story:

Opening mission: Fun to watch Saint lose his shit when Xivu-Arath mocked Sagira’s death. Her line about being the hand around my throat, I hope all those who are into the Hive enjoyed this season

I’ll really be upset if Sloane dies this season, I never really cared that much about her until Arrivals and when she stayed behind so I’m enjoying she gets to be the focus of a season (glad she didn’t die making it 3/3 focus characters dying)

Really appreciate Zavala, Drifter, Sloane, and Saint as a cast of characters who haven’t really interacted much onscreen but who have history getting to interact.

Drifter’s radio message about The Nine and Gambit felt more like pre-WQ Drifter, I have a lot of thoughts about this has been some of my favorite onscreen Drifter writing since Arrivals & Beyond Light and feels like the missing arc he should have gotten in Beyond Light to reconcile his views in Arrivals vs Plunder 

Week 2: Saladin and Saint arguing about who is being overbearing to Sloane was great; a sense of how do these characters get along, how do they react to a circumstances, both voice actors seemed to be having fun with it

Week 3: I feel very much like a floating camera but the cutscene with Drifter and Saladin was fun and is the pinnacle of what I’m enjoying about this season in terms of “these two people are some of the oldest guardians and have kept crossing paths in lore” so we finally see them in a scenario in game

Week 3 Drifter: enjoying the heavy implication that Drifter’s ears are doing the Hive are whispering at me bleeding thing.

Week 4 Drifter: “they didn’t go so quite not until I shut them up” … “I did what it took to get offworld now I’m here” …”somethings you carry with you forever” DAMN where was this writing for Drifter in Season 18 vs wacky woohoo gambit man

This season really cements that while I might not have the plot around why Saladin became Valus Forge, I really like him being in the story with fresh things to do other than rehashing the Iron Lords Legacy yet again

As Immaru’s #1 fan excited to see Saladin mention him by name, hope next season is Immauru vs Saladin as rival tacticians

[the-after-eight]

Happy New Year !

I didn't show the watercolored verison yet, it took me a few more hours. I'm hapy about how it turned out ! All these characters that I played this year did a few things that are worth detailing, although I did mention it quickly on the uncolored version.

I added their names for those who aren't familiar with them yet ! They all have a dedicated blog with info about them, other artworks and their story !

P'tit Louis' shirt is a reference to the last scenario of his campaign, and the writting in the green pin is a phrase that Paul (one of his companions) said at a very important moment and it was hilarious. The pink pin is a joke from the last scenario we played in Nephilim this year (a French pun). I will also explain why he has a gold ring. I added his fangs, a new metamorphosis he gained at the end of the campaign. @ptit-louis

Tony is very happy, he's holding a lemur's tail, a reference to Keric le Zemmur, an ennemy he killed (and probably traumatized, Keric is certainly in hell, haunted forever by the Sram's grim smile, the last vision he had in his life, and the phrase "I told you that your soul would never have peace"). He is proud ! Also, the villain's name is a pun regarding a French politician. @tony-redrum

Noria is just chilling with her pet frog, Sergent Uc!, she started Hogwards school this year and is delighted to discover that magicx is real, she has so many things to discover ! @noria-helveticus

Lorelei looks chill here, I actually created her design for this drawing, so I'm happy. She started her campaign, the Ennemi Within, and due to her cult, she must keep herself serious. But open your eyes, the short priestress of Morr holds her flail, a weapon that has already proven her skill as a warrior. @lorelei-versengold

Morrigan is just happy, she's just naturally optimistic ! He played 3 scenarios this year already, although he suffered a lot already. She has a good heart, and fighting demon isn't always easy. @morrigan-sahar

Sal'aäd is on vacation. He finally got out of a dungeon, and honestly, it didn't go well for him. Just look in his eyes... He's dead inside. He did get a souvenir from the dungeon though. @salaad-dronnoc

Adélaïde finally began her campaign with my main group... As an NPC, since I'm the DM. SHe put her deer skull down, it's a bit heavy after all ! Although she still wears other smaller skulls in her hair, weird fetish. She's summonning small bbutterfly illusions, they are quite pretty after all. @adelaide-lanshasaa

As for Captain Glucose and his sidekick... They played two one-shots, one where they acquired their new costumes for Scarlet Scarf (Oh, spoiler... Sorry), and the second one where they finally took care of a very sus dude from scenario 3, MLP (Mother Lifting Po*n... Yes, that was his nickname. You see the sus part now ?). They did well on both, although they were quite easy... Our GM is preparing a capaign for them called "No More Heores" and I'm terrifyed. @captain-glucose @captain-glucose-sidekick

[arceneades]

Burrrffoooooot!

I'm on this discord server with like 20 other people who all play DnD with the same GM. Dude runs at least 3 campaigns at all times, he's a beast of a GM, but that isn't the point.

Point is, it's also a fun little community of DnD nerds but we do have a couple of people who occasionally comment that they hate Kender and Tasselhoff Burrfoot in particular.

If you don't know what a kender is, and you don't know Tas, I have no idea why you would be reading this but I will fill you in. If you do, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

Kender are a humanoid race in the "Dragonlance" fantasy novels. They are shorter than humans (or elves or dwarves) but typically slightly built. They are a lot like hobbits, except that kender don't feel fear and have no sense of property rights. They just steal stuff, not because they're greedy, but almost as a compulsion. They don't think about it, they just absentmindedly pick pockets or shoplift or whatever. Tasslefhoff Burrfoot is a character in the Dragonlance books. He's a kender, so he tends to "find" a lot of items that other people "lost."

So the typical complaint is that Tasslehoff is a joke character, that kender are an annoying race, and that the whole thing should have been dropped kicked out of the franchise and thrown into the sun. Because people see the "you must have dropped that" part of Tas and they don't see anything else.

This is an extraordinarily shallow reading of the character, of course. I would argue that in the original series, no character goes through as many changes as Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Here's an example quote of how his worldview changes:

Something had changed inside Tas. He would never again be like other kender. Through grief, he had come to know fear; fear not for himself but for others. He decided right now that he would rather die himself than lose anyone else he loved.

Okay. You see that, right? This character changes so much that a part of him will be forever separated from his home, from the culture he grew up it. These are young adult books, coming of age stories. Tas is the one who comes of age.

So if people think the character is shallow or one-dimensional, it's because they just can't see past that one dimension. They are stuck seeing kender the way that most people in the world of the books see kender: as lazy, thieving pests.

Some strong feelings towards fantasy races is pretty common. For example, I'm pretty annoyed by JRR Tolkien's elves. They're just so... perfect. They live forever, they're smarter than everyone else, better looking than everyone else, and they know it. They think they are better than other people because they are better than other people. Gross.

But, you know, give me a specific elf and I'll judge that elf on the basis of their behavior, not on the shape of their ears. Legolas is a great character and I would happily buy the man a beer at The Prancing Pony.

We have a word in the real world for people who can't see people as themselves, but can only see them as stereotypes based on their origin.

When it comes to kender, and especially to Tasslehoff Burrfoot. This really, really bother me. Much more than it should. I mean, what do I care if other people like or don't like a character I like or don't like? I'm not the character.

Except I sort of am, in the case of Tas. Because to me, his kleptomania is a standin for my neurodiversity. His trouble was my trouble.

Because remember, Tas doesn't steal because he's greedy. Kender don't have much of a property sense. They really only own what they're wearing and their sling-staffs. Kender don't lock their doors, they consider it impolite to be protective about mere things. He doesn't consciously lift things, he just does it. Most of the time, he doesn't know what he took or who he took it from. He never tries to keep anything that someone asks for.

Tasselhoff tries. He tries to follow these rules but he can't internalize them, they never become second nature. So if he isn't constantly vigilant over his behavior, he'll act normally (for a kender) and that will cause trouble and then someone will yell at him.

If you're neurodivergent, this probably sounds a little familiar.

What's even harder is that sometimes his friends want him to pick a lock or a pocket and while he's happy to do so, it's pretty clear that there are times when it is okay to be a kender, and times when it is not okay to be a kender... and he has trouble knowing what the difference is.

Again, if you're neurodivergent, this probably sounds a little familiar.

And I guess that's the thing that really bothers me about all the hate toward kender in general and Tasslehoff in particular. It feels personal. They're saying it isn't okay to be a kender, but I feel like they're saying it isn't okay to be neurodivergent. They say it isn't okay to be Tas, and I feel like they're saying it isn't okay to be me.

[silverspleen]

So Artoria died again, possibly permanently.

Basically we had to get an NPC (Zathrian) to talk to another NPC (The Lady of the Wood/Witherfang) about curing the werewolf curse in the forest, we were uh, trying to be a little sketchy and sus on the DL about it and he caught on and as a show of power basically blasted our assess with a level 8 meteor shower, and well… Art did not have great health at this time. And the meteor shower just charred her to oblivion in one shot. Insta-kill. Varand went ballistic and charged him as a werewolf and mauled him so strongly that he was at death's door, but still weirdly unfazed. Sethlos and Bhalkam negotiated with him on better terms (I'm not sure how, I know Sethlos must have been hurting), including Sethlos grilling him at weaponpoint about if he could bring Art back.

We pressed on and Sethlos did some incredibly intense negotiating between the two NPCs and managed to get Zathrian to feel a little tiny bit of remorse due to the fact that more dalish were being harmed from the curse (from one dalish to another, from one person who has lost a loved one to another), and they got together and removed the curse.

Except Witherfang asked Varand if he wanted to stay a werewolf, and he sort of reflexively said yes (he was still a werewolf at the time, just in case). She was like "it is a curse, you can control it but remember, everyone will vilify you" and whatever and Varand was like "ah yeah no one likes me anyway" (untrue! but his life already megasucks, so also being a werewolf is no big deal).

She also asked Sethlos if he wanted to revive Art, and asked him if she would really want to come back, or if she was resting with their gods. And Sethlos basically said that he couldn't forgive himself if he didn't try. It was a luck roll. The gm publicly rolled and failed. Sethlos' player activated one of his insane abilities that lets him rewind time and reroll any roll (at a "third time's the charm" risk of summoning something if he does it three times between long rests, it's his sentient magic book's thing, don't ask) and the GM failed the roll again. He did not summon any demons or spirits though. But still. Art is still dead. :(

I was wondering why Varand would choose to stay a werewolf, but I realized that being a werewolf probably reminds him of Art, since it was the last thing they experienced together and now every time he turns he'll think of her and I made myself sad. He managed not to go crazy the entire time he was traveling with her and Morrigan (only afterwards when Sethlos and Bhalkam showed up), and he probably credits that to their friendship, and now that he's completely lucid it's like, his way of permanently remembering her even if she can't get revived a second time. He'll carry that curse forever and he'll use it to help people if he can, for her. (and also like it does feel a little good to go nuts, to just maul a guy)

We're going to try to revive Art, our GM will give us options, but it'll also be harder since this is a more grounded setting, being Dragon Age and all. Meanwhile Art's player is going to roll a new character and hop in after next session (which he will have to miss anyway).

The last thing she did with her brother was have a genuine, heartfelt moment where she laughed at a song that Sethlos sang (in character, Sethlos' player actually sang a song with a kazoo horn and had us sign a very silly, not legally binding document that gave us all fancy titles) and it's very narratively impactful that she would die again at this moment but oough I am still gonna be sad about this for days.

Sethlos has Art's charred corpse, which he wrapped in spare clothing and vines and will carry with him probably forever.