#alli plays dnd

[operationslipperypuppet]

ttrpgs and similar games are interesting because you’re telling an elaborate story with a small group of people. you’re putting in effort and having all these ideas that sometimes 3 other people in the entire world will see come true. you think about aspects of the story that you sometimes never get the chance to share. and that makes things lightly tragic sometimes, but hell if it isn’t the most fun you could possibly have sometimes, just telling silly stories with your friends.

[lovevalley45]

#fictober24 - day twelve

"Did you hear that?"

original fiction (dungeons and dragons)

word count: 802

“Come in, come in.” Raife pulled Suvi into his studio from the snowstorm. “By Palter’s grace, you look rough.”

“I’m just cold,” she said, teeth chattering. Even under her cloak, she was shivering. Winter was - not harder this year, since this was still last year’s winter. It was just hard. 

Suvi let him remove her coat and shucked off her boots, before she headed for the hearth. The small studio contained the heat much better than the high ceilings of the temple of Palter where she had hailed from. But the fire didn’t warm her as much as she’d hoped. 

“I can’t believe you braved this storm,” he said, hanging her cloak. “I’ll make us some tea.”

“Thank you.” Suvi sunk further into her chair. “That would be great.” 

She always liked escaping - though it wasn’t like she was being held prisoner - to Raife’s place. It was nice to chat and enjoy tea, to admire his paintings and his handsome face as he showed them off to her. 

The storm was rough, yes. It might foolish to leave her quarters in the rectory to see him. But the trip had not been that bad. Just a little longer and more treacherous than usual. 

Raife brought his pot to the fire and sat in the chair besides hers, grabbing her hand. “My gods. You really need to remember to wear your gloves. Your little fingers are going to freeze off, my dear.” 

Suvi chuckled. “Did I forget them again?” 

He leaned over to brush her cheek. “Yes, you did.” Raife frowned. “You’re awfully warm for someone who’s been out in the snow.” 

“I must’ve worked myself up coming over,” she said. 

“Are you feeling ill?” 

She shut her eyes and shook her head. “No. I’m fine.” 

It was true that the long winter had left her feeling frailer than usual. The cold hit her smaller frame harder than the taller races like the humans and elven folk of Fallegur. Not to mention that she had been prepping hard for the storm with the congregants who needed shelter or warmth in the bad weather. 

The last thing she needed was Raife worrying over her. 

He didn’t seem that convinced as he settled back in his own seat. But he merely sighed and crossed his legs. 

“How has the studio been? No visitors today, I assume?” 

“No,” he said. “I assume that any travelers from the other clans can’t dock in this weather, and those who could would rather hunker down in their own ships or the taverns.” However, Raife seemed as skeptical of his own words as hers. 

“Well, when the weather lightens up, I’m sure people will be flocking to see your paintings. And buy them. Maybe being inside will make them think they need some landscapes of the Isle of Splendor’s meadows to remind them of summer in this dreadful snow.”

“Hopefully.” 

The kettle whistled, warm enough for tea and he carefully filled her cup. It warmed her fingers, just a tad frostbitten. The steam was so nice in her face. Suvi took a long sip, the floral scent reminding her of spring days that felt so faraway. She closed her eyes, sinking further into the chair. 

As she drank her tea, Raife stood up. “Perhaps it’s best you stay here for the night.” 

“But the other priests-” she said. 

“They’ll hardly notice,” he said. “And you can just say you were checking up on one of your congregants who scarcely allowed you to go back out there.” He took a quilt, the reds and yellows reminding her of the clan banners that flew the few times she had gone on a raid as support, and laid it over her. “Rest.” 

Suvi finished her tea and set the cup on the table between their chairs, before she settled in fully. The rate at which she sank into sleep surprised her. 

Her sleep was dreamless, comforting darkness. But then she heard a voice - not Raife’s, a voice much more deep and mirthful. 

“Suvi. Suviii.” 

She startled awake. Raife was perched in his chair, a sketchpad in his lap. 

“Did you hear that?” she asked him, eyes wide. 

“What?” 

“Palter. He was calling my name,” Suvi said. Her heart was racing now. 

“Palter? Dear, whatever do you mean?” he asked. 

“I have to go.” She stood up, making sure the quilt was out of reach of the hearth. 

Raife set his sketchpad to the side. “Wait, the storm’s only gotten worse.” 

“I’ll be fine.” Suvi grabbed her cloak. “He’s calling me.” 

“Let me walk you-” 

“No.” She turned back to face Raife, ready to grab his own cloak and follow her. “They won’t be happy to know where I’lve been.” Suvi nodded, eyes wild. “I have to tell them I’ve been sent a sign.”

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka Rules Breakdown! Episode 1 of an Actual Play of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by the Tiny Table Podcast!

Episode 1 is out now, and you can listen to it right here!

This is the first ever Actual Play of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, so we’re super excited, especially since Tiny Table really puts the “Actual” in “Actual Play.” They may edit out a stutter or bad mic read here and there, but you won’t find any prescripting of character arcs or setpiece events, just them, the rulebook, and the module.

This first episode is only about 15 minutes or so and introduces you to a brief rundown of Eureka’s rules and concepts. If you have been wondering what all the fuss is about with Eureka, but don’t feel like you have the time to download the free beta version and give it a read, then this fifteen-minute rules breakdown might be a great place to start!

The next episode, releasing on Tuesday, August 20th, will be the start of the actual Actual Play. Stay tuned for the Tiny Table crew to tackle FORIVA: The Angel Game, an adventure module for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

FORIVA: The Angel Game is a 1990's investigation that sinks deep into a pit of dread and intrigue as the investigators step forward into a bizarre psychological horror mystery - one which may leave them unable to recognize themselves on the other side. To seek out the truth, an investigator must use all their wits and all the resources at their disposal - but only they know if they are ready to fall into the unthinkable rabbit hole that awaits. Stranger and stranger the story shall grow - and stranger still, what will grow in those who follow it.

Somewhere, a mother stares wordlessly at her hospitalized son who doesn’t recognize her, and wonders why this is happening to her family. Somewhere, a private detective smiles as his client offers a generous reward for someone–anyone–to blame for what was done to his children. Somewhere, a young girl tears down the advertisements that were covering up the missing poster of her friend. 

The year is 1999, and society is equal parts optimistic and apprehensive about the new millennium. Fears of the Y2K bug are circulating, Bill Clinton is still in office, and the popularity of video arcades is on the decline.

A rash of hospitalizations and disappearances has struck in Shreveport, Louisiana, with all of the victims so far being teenagers and children. Each case might at first seem unconnected, save for their close proximity in time to one another sending ripples throughout the community. Local news has been covering the story for days now, capitalizing on the fear and uncertainty of concerned parents, something that might seem like a distant problem to each investigator, until it strikes someone they know….

Having already listened to the whole thing ourselves, we can assure you that listeners who stick with it are in for a real great time! Episodes will be coming out each Tuesday, ending with a post-adventure discussion, and then an interview between the Tiny Table team and the A.N.I.M. team!

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[beachytablecloth]

the moment when brennan introduces garthy and is describing them, specifically mentioning their top surgery scars, and ally has such a sweet smile on their face, knowing that brennan did this for them.. and like brennan saying all he ever really wants to do is make stories for his friends that make them feel things and just like. the power of storytelling and being seen and friendship just. yeah

[orionchildofhades]

watching people play ttrpg is so funny because it's like reading, sometimes I see wondrous images of wild fantasy lands and epic battles and sometimes, by brain catches up and I'm either seing lines of text or just six guys around a table trying very hard not let the tears fall because a guy is monologuing poorly after rolling a nat 1

the whiplash

[maybebi47]

one thing about ally beardsley is that 9 times out of 10 they're going to choose to play a protector and they're gonna play tf out of them

[moeblob]

So uh. Eventually I'll stop drawing these guys so obsessively but not today I guess.

(DND AU where it's just these two, Brent, and Paul on a life mission to annoy Chris the GM by having the pact of "we're only here for Karen's benefit")

Karen is a warlock, Right is a cleric, Paul is a paladin, and Brent is a bard (so he can use bardic inspiration on Karen).

[twinstxrs]

thinking about how gorgug + kristen perceive both their own deaths & each other’s, and how that impacts their relationship. bc i feel like freshman year kristen was too caught up in her newfound knowledge of the nature of her own god to truly clock & process gorgug’s internal revulsion of where he went after he died, & freshman year gorgug wasn’t familiar enough with the complexities of other people to truly lock onto the sorrow buried within the chaos of kristen’s upward/downward/sideways spiral until she was seemingly on the other side of it. & i wonder if they’ve ever really talked about it (unlikely), or if they’ve just cracked very few jokes that didn’t land and decided to never quite do the work & dig through that part of their relationship. but there’s a kinship there; kristen specifically singles out gorgug to tell him she died again, and gorgug apologizes that he wasn’t there with her this time. gorgug takes one of the finger bones off kristen’s newly/long-time decayed corpse to have an anchor to something in the world. despite the fact that they were in different places after death, having been together during it means everything.

anyways what i’m trying to say is i think they should talk about it.

[transfemmes4murph]

This is Incredible I need Everyone to se this!

Credit to u/quantumpenguins on reddit!

[spookymans]

@lgbtqcreators event 08 — new years idols 

ally beardsley & their many characters on d20.  @lgbtqcreators creator bingo - [color]

[operationslipperypuppet]

who runs a one-shot at first level? it’s a one-shot. let me do more than one thing before needing to take a nap. and don’t send options for cool subclasses in the setting you’re choosing if some people won’t even have access to that because they’d get it at level 3!

[lovevalley45]

that dungeons n dragons feeling when something bad happens to ur character so for the next 2-3 days after the session you’re like. be gentle with me im fragile rn

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka Mention!

A small article on Eureka's early kickstarter success by The Gaming Gang!

This kickstarter is still going until May 10th, and we have plenty of stretch goals to meet! You can back it and get yourself a copy! We are also doing physical copies now!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[wizardelf]

anyone else refuse to play bards in any context bc the idea of some guy pulling out a lute to play a ditty during life or death combat the most lame thing ever for them or am i alone on this

[thefandomentals]

Rowan got a chance to talk to Ally Beardsley about the new season of @dimension20official 's Fantasy High, including gender on the tabletop and their approach to capturing chaotic lesbian energy.

[zaolat]

DON'T YOU CAST TENTACLES AT ME YOU SON OF A BITCH