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spectralscathath · 1 year ago

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What would each Antares character play as in a tabletop RPG like Dungeons and Dragons? What races, classes and builds? Why? What does it say about them as a character?

now this IS a fun one. I'm gonna go with standard D&D because I know it well enough, though there is actually an in-universe dungeon-crawler tabletop RPG called Grimmlings & Grottos. But anyway! Let's do some breakdowns. Let's just set it tentatively at the beginning of the story, because what the characters might play at the end would be very different. But lets just stick with early days for now. I'm also gonna stick to the people, so far, who might currently have played in Ruby's hypothetical D&D game, so thats mostly her family and friend group. Beacon Era, even. Or else this would be VERY long.

First of all: Ruby is the DM. No question. She wants to tell stories, make homebrew stuff, and gets to play all of the monsters and NPCs. done deal. If she had to be a player at all she'd probably want to be something she can do a lot of fun roleplaying in, and also probably be really rules-lawyering and try to swing it all in her favour. Which makes me think that her go to is a Stout Halfling Dhampir (its a lineage that goes on top of a base race) as an Arcane Trickster Rogue or something ("yeah DM sneak attack is once per turn"). But yeah Ruby is the DM. As for why? She likes storytelling, and she likes having a measure of control over things around her, she's not ever been a 'go-with-the-flow' person, she thinks and plans and even as leader her worries were 'what if things get out of control and I can't handle that' rather than 'i'm too young for this'. And, well, Ruby is all about fairytales and grand adventures, what suits her better than making that grand adventure?

Which is to say: when the players go off script she gets grumpy about it. She'll roll with it but she'll complain. "Yang I gave you eight seperate story threads and you picked PIRACY? that wasn't one of them do you know how many crew member NPCs I have to roll up now?"

I like to think that canonically the Xiao Long-Rose-Branwen household has played at least one session with Ruby DMing and Yang instantly picked the highest damage output possible and built an Orc Barbarian (Path of the Beast). Backstory? What's that? "Her name's Ember and she's killed twenty people, lets go kill monsters'. I think this should be quite self-explanatory to Yang's beginning characterisation. She wants to skip ahead to the cool fight scenes where she can describe how badass her character is.

Taiyang and Qrow (they're mostly here to support Ruby's interests and don't actually get what's going on but they have a great attitude and Ruby's patient with them) both individually saw 'Bard' and Taiyang saw 'well that looks fun, I can make up lil rhymes' and Qrow saw 'I can be a sex, drugs, rock-and-roll guy that's the epitome of cool' and drummed up a bard duo called where one is an aging punk rocker Tiefling based on all Qrow's fav emo bands as a twenty-year-old and Taiyang saw 'gold dragonborn' and blacked out. They both picked College of Eloquence because it looked easiest. Not much to say about why beyond 'parental support and really trying to understand their kid's interests' which is why Tai is the best parent in Antares and why Qrow- well, sometimes he hits the mark.

Weiss has no fuckin clue what any of this is aside from 'nerd stuff for plebians that I suppose I must join for team building'. Basic first options on the list, human fighter, basic stats, doesn't really get into it for a couple of sessions but once she twigs that the dice is like a numbers game it really catches her interest and she starts looking into it more. She snags Eldritch Knight as her path for access to spells and ends up having a good time. Its a microcosm of Weiss's 'defrosting ice queen' plotline. Once she gets into to she gets into it.

Blake actually read the players handbook for more than half a second and decided she wanted to be creative and have a bit of fun while also quickly making the connection that the party was very tanky, so she decided to create a Water Genasi Sorcerer with the path of Lunar Sorcery, since she thought the options it had were fun and she absolutely did extra reading to decide. Mostly this ties into Blake's early character of, though not looking like it, actually genuinely really wanting to get along with her friends while also rediscovering her interests. She also decides to play an optimist, just to try and have that bit of escapism she so desperately wants. Oh- play as a Tabaxi? No, why do you ask?

Onto JNPR, Jaune has the distinction of Acutally Having Knowledge of This, he strikes me as a 'oh I love D&D podcasts I've always wanted to play it'. His dicerolls are, obviously, fucking horrendous at all times, but he ends up playing as a dwarf paladin, I think, good ol Oath of Devotion. He just wants to do a bit of wish fulfilment as a hero, but he doesn't really push it to the point of being a pure 'must follow all the rules' type of paladin roleplay. He just wants to enjoy having friends and mostly tries to keep things chill at the table.

Pyrrha has no idea what she's doing either but she's trying really hard even though she can't wrap her head around any of it. She picked a Cleric because it seemed nice, she could be the party healer. Life domain, Ruby threw her a softball and said 'that's the healing one' and Pyrrha went 'yep'. She just wants to be a normal girl who plays games with a friend group and also be useful in a way that will keep them from ditching her. Gotta please everyone, and healing- it's nice. Useful. They'll invite her more to play.

Nora wants to be a barbarian too, specifically a Goliath with path of Wild Magic for the chaos because she wants to try derail the campaign like she heard about, but Ruby plays favourites with her sister and tells her to pick a new one so Nora goes sulking through the book again for something else, sees the words 'blood' and 'hunter' next to each other, and goes feral. Order of the Lycan is an instant follow-up. Race? Oh- yeah, still a Goliath. Nora just wants to fuck shit up and be with her friends, there's no underlying deeper character issues. Possibly height envy, maybe.

Ren, similarly to Blake, reads the handbook cover to cover, does his own research, and gets super into the idea of Roleplaying as well. However, he goes full 'how dark can I get away with' and creates a warlock, specifically with a Great Old One as patron. A haunted man, troubled by shadows and loss of the past long before being cursed with a treacherous deal that leads to the nightmares and madness of the present, desperately struggling to hold onto sanity as their patron eats a piece of their mind with every spell he casts. Yanno, standard Lovecraftian horror. Ren's really trying to be dramatic and hoping for a tragic end, where his character is twisted into the secret main villain, and Ruby thinks that would be really cool and is pushing for it if only the rest of the campaign wasn't trying to power of friendship this. Ren's just trying to lowkey work through some stuff, it's fine. It's totally fine. Oh- and he picked Pact of the Tome, he wants more cantrips.

Sun got invited along and was like 'gnome ranger lets fuckin go'. Epitome of 'holy shit I can have a pet dinosaur this game RULES' as a player. Mostly coasting on dice luck but can pull out one HELL of a bit of roleplay when he wants to. It's beautiful. He really wishes this campaign could go on forever, it's easier when the bad guys are just figurines on a table.

Penny is ready and waiting to play but she never gets the chance to join a session. Her schedule just doesn't line up, unfortunately. And she hasn't decided her class- she'll see what everyone else needs for an effective party balance first and then she'll pick one. So she doesn't get to pick a subclass. But she'd really like to give it a try if she could! She'd play a standard human character. No there's no other meaning in her wanting to be a human character when she could be something way more interesting, not at all.

Ruby offered to Sun to bring Emerald along for a session but Emerald said no. F in the chat for Emerald (one day).

#rwby #scorruby au #asks #i like critical role I can have critical role stuff as an option

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thenerdyindividual · 3 years ago

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Hi! I've been following your Barabarian King story on AO3, and I was wondering if you could give a non-DnD person a primer on the different classes all the characters are? (Also! I noticed on your blog description that you're ace, so hello from a fellow ace!)

Hello fellow ace! I am absolutely down to explain the classes. This is going to be kind of long though, so most of the information is going under the cut. Also none of this is necessary to read Barbarian King, but it is fun.

There are thirteen classes in D&D, and they are generally divided between martial classes (the classes that hit stuff with weapons), and magic caster classes. In Martial Class we have: Fighters, Barbarians, Monks, Paladins, Rangers, and Rogues. In Caster Class we have: Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, Wizards, Warlocks, Bards, and Artificers. Each of these classes also have various sub-classes that give you different abilities at higher levels, but I will only break down the character specific sub-classes. I also will break each of these general classes down, starting with the characters. Also keep in mind that characters can do something called multi-class, meaning someone can be a fighter and a sorcerer, or a druid and a warlock.

Barbarian

This is what Arthur is. Barbarians' whole thing is hitting really hard, and taking less damage. When a barbarian uses a special skill called Rage (what Arthur is using in chapter one and the most recent chapter), it fills them with uncontrollable anger and that anger acts as a sort of shield. It means that when they take damage from a weapon, they take half the amount a different class would.

Subclass: Spirit Totem, Bear. Arthur channels the spirit of a bear while he is in rage. This specific sub-class allows him to take half as much damage on all types of damage except for psychic while raging. Meaning that even if someone used a spell that would normally set him on fire for ten damage, he only takes five.

Sorcerer

This is one of the classes Merlin is. He is multi-classing into warlock which I will get into later. Sorcerers have innate magical abilities whereas other magic classes either get their powers from a magical being, or from learning it. Sorcerers can get theirs by birth, a weird arcane occurrence, or any other number of things. They can use things called sorcery points to manipulate the spells they cast which is something no other caster class can do.

Sub-Class: Shadow. Merlin is a shadow sorcerer. This means his magic has special connection to shadows. It allows him to do things like teleport between shadows, summon essentially a hell hound, and if his health drops to zero he can pop back up with one health.

Warlock

This is the other class that Merlin is. Warlocks get their magic from patrons (magical beings). They don’t get to cast as many spells as other classes, but they do get to cast spells with max damage a certain number of times.

Sub-class: Celestial. Warlocks with celestial patrons get healing spells and some other stuff, but I only gave Merlin one level of it so that he could cast healing magic like he does in canon. Sorcerers do not get healing spells, and other warlock sub-classes don’t either.

Wizard

This is Morgana. Wizard’s get their magic by studying super hard. They have spell books and can copy new spells they find into their spell books. Most caster classes either have the spells they have, or have access to all the spells available to their class. Wizards can pick up spells they find while adventuring and gain access to them by copying them into a spell book.

Sub-Class: Divination. I chose this one because of Morgana’s prophetic visions. How this works in game is that the wizard rolls two rolls at the beginning of the day, and can replace other rolls with the rolls they came up with earlier. So if someone rolls an 8 and it fails, a divination wizard who rolled a 16 can “see the future” and choose to replace the 8 with the 16.

Artificer

This is Gwen. Artificerers are essentially magical blacksmiths. They can infuse the items they create with magic.

Sub-Class: Armorer. I chose this for Gwen because of her history in canon of working at her father’s forge. She has experience with weapons. I gave her skills to enhance armor, weapons, and crossbows. That’s why the knights all bring her their armor for repair.

Fighter

What it says in the title. They use swords, and can hit with almost every weapon. They also have a limited ability to heal themselves to keep fighting. Very good at combat. A lot of the knights are multi-classed with this.

Subclass: Champion. This is our boy Lancelot. It lets him do more damage on high rolls, and take hits that were meant for other people.

Subclass: Battle Master. This is one of the classes Elyan is. This sub-class allows him to learn specific fighting tactics. In this case he has learned to disarm people, and maneuver people so his fellow knights can hit.

Rogue

Rogues are sneaky. That’s their whole thing. They do more damage when they sneak up on people, or have friends nearby distracting the person they are attacking. They can also runaway or hide after attacking without getting attacked in return.

Subclass: Scout. This is the other class Elyan is. It lets him move away from enemies coming at him without anyone getting an attack on him. It also gives him extra help when he is using skills that involve surviving in the wilderness, or when getting information about the natural world.

Subclass: Swashbuckler. This is our boy Gwaine. He isn’t so much super sneaky, as so self confident and rakish that it becomes distracting. His showiness can even direct attacks from his friends to himself (think the scene where he punches a guy in the ace when we first meet him).

Monk

Think kung-fu movie. Monks are fast, and they don’t hit hard but they hit a lot. They can spend things called ki points to hit more, and to enact special effects like temporarily stunning their opponent. Ki points can be used for other abilities based on the sub-class.

Sub-class: Drunken Way. Also our boy Gwaine. This was mostly a joke about how much he likes to drink, but it does let him pop back up much faster than other classes if he gets knocked down, and redirect attack. Both of these are things we see him do in the intro scene in canon.

Ranger

They are hunters with connections to the land. They tend to favor bow and arrows over swords. They are good at tracking, camping, and all things woods. Primarily they are martial classes, but they do gain some spell casting ability at later levels. Their spells either have to do with nature, or the skills involved in hunting.

Subclass: hunter. This is what I made Percival. This makes him extra good at tracking prey, and killing it. Also gives him extra protection against creatures attacking him.

Paladin

Magical Fighter. Paladins get their martial prowess from training, but they get their limited casting abilities from their connection to a god. Most of their spells involve doing more damage with their hits.

Sub-Class: Oath of Crown. This one just sounded the most bootlicker so that’s why I picked it for Leon. He can force people to fight him, and heal people around him.

For the classes no one in the fic is.

Cleric

Get their magic from a god much like paladins, but they are a full casting class. They tend to focus a lot on healing, but can also do some damn good damage. This is one of the classes that have access to all the spells available for the class, and switch out which ones they use each day.

Bard

Jaskier from the Witcher if he could use his performance to cast spells. They do a lot of damage, but also having access to minor healing spells unlike sorcerers or warlocks who have a similar casting style.

Druids

Get their arcane ability from nature. Can turn into any animal they have seen before. Most of their spells have a nature-y component to them if they are doing damage.

So there you go! Layman’s D&D. Keep in mind that I have only been playing for a little while so my descriptions may not be the best, but I hope this helped! And I hope you are enjoying Barbarian King.

#bbc merlin #dungeons and dragons

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denndrawings · 4 years ago

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Hi and welcome to Misha Mixes Unrelated Things. Todays episode is called: The Grishaverse Is A DnD Campaign That Got (VERY) Out Of Hand And Here’s Why

(There are going to be spoilers of. Pretty much everything. Except for King of Scars because I’m only like 3 chapters in so. No spoilers from KoS)

Let’s begin with the SOC duology because that’s the first thing I read and also I feel like it has a more “conventional” dnd-esque narrative (probably because of the multiple POVs and stuff idk).

So, first things first: characters. While I think all of the crows are equally important to the plot of the book I also think that not all of them are players’ characters. I don’t think Kaz is, for instance, and probably Wylan isn’t either. But let me explain the rest first and then I’ll elaborate on this.

Inej is a classic rogue with her amazing skills and tragic backstory and everything. I think the person that plays her would probably be a beginner because Inej’s backstory is so intertwined with the plot and so well fitted to the city where the story begins and she has such a clear role and stuff that it can only be because the DM had a say on this. From my experience at least and I’ve been DMing for like 5 years now so maybe I know a thing or two. I may be wrong tho.

Matthias is an oathbreaker paladin. The drüskelle sounds like the kind of half military/half religious organization able to provide paladins in a dnd game. They would be Oath of Devotion paladins. Or like a twisted version of those but yes. Oath of Devotion to Djel or whatever I don’t really like fjerdans let me be. I also think Matthias’ player and Nina’s knew each other/had player with each other before and that’s why they made a backstory together and made sure their characters were… a thing from the beginning. I think they wouldn’t be as committed to the DM as Inej’s character so they probably chose a far off place to set their backstory so they didn’t have to learn all of the kerch politics and stuff and join gangs and shit (even thought Nina’s player kind of ended up doing it but I think I remember it was Kaz who found her and not the other way around so).

Nina is a cleric but like. Either a Death or a War Domain cleric. Not a cleric suited for healing but for killing. Cool shit, I personally love clerics. I think the player would have the curse of being the only “““healer””” of the group without even being a real healer. It happens to the best of us ;_; (not to me tho I never play I’m a forever DM XDD)

I think Jesper is a fighter. I have considered making him an artificer but yeah, no because he didn’t build his guns or anything he’s just really fucking good at shooting stuff. That’s a fighter to me. And he later double-classes and stuff when they arrive to the Ice Court to be able to do his thing. I think this player is this type of player the DM invites to the table because they have played together before and they are fun as shit and they kinda help them direct the party where they need to go. I personally love that kind of player but I mean, who wouldn’t?

So yes, now on why Kaz and Wylan aren’t players’ characters. Maybe this is gut feeling of mine and I’m wrong but they are like. Too well intertwined with the plot like. Wylan is definitely this npc the DM brought randomly to like maybe kill him at some point and make Loving Father Van Eck want to mess with the Crows and then the party just fell in love with him and so the DM couldn’t kill him and made an incredibly tragic backstory for him instead where Bad Guy Van Eck became the man we know and he just was a terrible man stupid enough to mess with them.

And Kaz… he is just /too/ in control to not be an npc. Literally nobody but the DM would know so much about the city and the npcs and everything. That’s just Not A Thing. It would almost be meta-rol. For me it makes sense that at the beginning Kaz was only going to be like the Crows’ hirer like, the contact between Van Eck and the players’ characters. And this time I don’t think it was the players’ idea that he stayed, it was probably the DM’s. Having a character that knows pretty much everything is just So Useful to a DM. And then the DM fell in love with him, gave him an amazing backstory and issues and everything. And the final miracle of bringing Inej’s parents to Ketterdam is something only a DM can do like. The man is a disaster but I think he totally has the signature of the DM of a chaotic AF party that realized that their party needed a compass to remind them all the time what their mission was.

About the plot per se…man I don’t know what to say. That looks like the DM pitching a simple robbery and everybody getting nat20s in super weird situations and getting away with stuff. But I mean, that’s DnD in a nutshell so.

My headcanon for Matthias’ ending is that the player had to leave the group for some reason. They probably had this super cool redemption arc planned for him that he totally deserved (listen I Don’t Like Matthias like. At all. But the man worked for it ok? I think I could have get to maybe like him if he had a little more time to grow but whatever) but then they had to leave and the group didn’t want to like get rid of him right away or for him to become an npc so the DM and Nina’s player took turns playing him until well. The thing. You know. It was kind of a sudden death like, players’ characters usually have death saves and stuff and they don’t get killed that easily and that’s why I think Matthias wasn’t a player character anymore even though he began the campaign as one.

And because y’all have been good and have read my bullshit until this point, here you have my headcanon for the trilogy:

The Grisha trilogy is an overly complicated off-roading some of the players made up during the campaign like imagine the discord server where they usually play. Well in most DnD discord servers there is a channel where you can roleplay through text as your character. I think the Grisha trilogy was born there from the DM telling kind of the backstory of the world and Sankta Alina and the war and stuff and the players made up characters or maybe just took side characters from that story and made them into Proper Characters to roleplay following that but also kind of ended up developing more aspects about it (I imagine the DM probably had a few details on that, like an outline or something and the players just kinda took it to a whole new level. Players often do that kind of magic). And they were all hyped AF when their DnD characters met their Other Dnd Characters, obviously.

I don’t know which player would play each character, though. Maybe Jesper’s was Nikolai just because they both are /like that/ and Nina’s was Zoya and maybe Inej’s was Genya. Or the other way around, idk. I feel like the whole monologue Nina has at some point of Zoya Is To The Drüskelle Like Jarl Brun Is To The Grisha sounds like Nina’s player is also Zoya’s player but idk.

So yes I can probably elaborate on everything if someone’s interested but this is what I have so far.

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leapyearkisses · 3 years ago

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For the director’s cut: Orbs Are Bad News, please? Part 2 (or both, if you’re willing!) It’s one of my favorites 💗

One of my favorites, too! Thanks for the ask! :D I'll do both parts, with Part 2 to follow this a bit later.

Director's cut comments in bold below the cut! MESS, m/m, holding a handkerchief, etc.

This story came from a prompt on a writing meme about a character losing the use of their hands while having to deal with snz. I can't remember at the moment if the prompt was D&D-flavored or if I just picked that setting myself because I was really into playing the game at the time (still am!). Also I'm incredibly sleep-deprived, so I hope these comments don't ramble overmuch.

"Okay, we don't know what we're dealing with here, so let's be careful." Gerrit pushed open the heavy wooden door and lifted his torch to illuminate the room inside. The firelight played over several tables covered in intriguing objects and glinted teasingly off of more than one hint of gold. Gerrit himself spotted a stolid wooden chest in the corner and his heart rate quickened.

When I was a kid, my mom gave me the Dragonlance books and I fell in love with them, although it was a long time before I was able to play D&D myself. I attribute my love of the very traditional fantasy realm to these books and my enduring love of sickly mages to Raistlin (Soulforge was like an EXPERIENCE for me). Gerrit has his origins in Tanis Half-Elven - he's a good guy, kind of a normal/default fighter build. "Jackpot," breathed Remembrance, the party's resident ne'er-do-well. She rubbed her hands together, sharp nails clicking. Gerrit was sure she was assigning price tags to the lot of it, except for whatever she hid in her bags for herself, of course. "I know a guy in the capitol who'll pay through the nose for that pervy little statue there." "That is a religious object," chastised Cordes with a haughty tsk. "It's used in rituals of worship for the goddess Fortuna." "Oh, I'm sure he'll be worshipping," cackled Remembrance, and she slipped past Gerrit into the vault. "Few hundred gold and he'll be rubbing out a grand ol' prayer." Her pointed tail waved with greedy delight. "Hey! The proper course of action would be to bring it back to a temple!" Cordes went after her, pushing Gerrit aside.

Remembrance and Cordes are here to be the beta couple and provide background color. Their development was based on a few factors: A) a D&D party should have ~4 people with different abilities (fighter, sorcerer, cleric, rogue), B) a priest and a devil is never not a fun/ny dynamic, C) I'm not into F snz but I feel bad that most of my OCs are not women, and D) given that Gerrit is a "default" archetype, there needed to be differing characters to contrast his personality with (or he would seem to have none). Also I like dirty jokes, so Remembrance can be my humorous id for this purpose lol The half-elf grumbled but wasn't surprised. "At least TRY not to touch anything cursed," he called. He'd been the one to organize this little band, but although he was the one who reported to their patron, he had precious little influence over what they did. They were happy to point to him when some upstart had a problem with the party, though. Ingrates. He turned to the last member of the group. "What about you, Llewellyn? I thought I saw some books on the far table." "Lead the way," replied the sorcerer, and his usually mellifluous voice sounded strained. Purple shadowed the hollows under his faintly luminous silver eyes, and he had his nose tucked into his handkerchief again. Gerrit hadn't spent much time around full elves, but he'd always believed they couldn't get sick, at least not like a human or dwarf. Llewellyn had been dragging since Saints' Day, though, and seemed to have come down with a flu. His skin, where visible under his fitted robes, was wan.

Fuck up that slender, haughty elf man is an endlessly running subroutine in my head. "Sure," said Gerrit, and he stepped into the room, holding the door out so that Llewellyn could join him. "You, uh, you don't look like you're feeling any better." "Oh," said the sorcerer, "I'm not. I ran out of tonics." He entered the vault and walked over to one of the tables, investigating a strangely shaped glass bowl. "But as we were already down here, I'm not sure what you want me to say. There's no inn at which I might rest my weary bones." "Cordes could make you an herbal remedy," Gerrit grumped. He went over to the chest he'd seen earlier and smashed the lock off with the pommel of his dagger. He didn't need any fancy lockpicking tools like Remembrance's. And hitting something felt good when his companions were all intent to be annoying, acerbic, or both. "I suppose," Llewellyn replied, sounding uncertain as his voice wavered. Gerrit tried to ignore the way his ears heated at that. That was the tone that overtook the elf when he was preparing to sneeze. It wasn't any of Gerrit's concern. His occasional roll in the hay (literal and figurative) with Llewellyn did not make it easier or more appropriate to acknowledge his odd attractions, especially since they were currently ransacking a dungeon with a priest and a psychopath. He focused his attention on searching the chest, and he was rewarded with a heavy coin purse, a stack of calfskin-bound journals, and a ruby the size of a robin's egg. He whistled.

Gerrit and Llewellyn are the dynamic opposite of Eliseo and Padgett. Gerrit is the less-privileged, more personable, "low class" character and Llewellyn is the high-born, fussier, sarcastic noble; however, in this story Gerrit is the voyeur character with the fetish and the POV window while Llewellyn is tortured for everyone's amusement. Narratively it's more fun and easier for me to describe the non-fetish-having character because I also like the power of the narrator to be that voyeuristic eye. Llewellyn gasped. "Hah- hahttsch-ow!"

I made myself laugh while writing this hahah "'Ow'?" Cordes appeared from behind a bookshelf, one arm wrapped tightly around a thick rug, the other reaching for his pack of salves. "What is it? Cut? Burn?" When Gerrit looked, their sorcerer was rubbing his nose with his left hand. "Bruise," Llewellyn said. He lifted his right hand, in which he held a blue crystal orb that was knotted inside a thin lattice of gold chain. "I got my hand caught." He'd apparently run the thing into his nose when trying to cover his sneeze. Llewellyn's thin face was already dusted pink from the embarrassment. Gerrit couldn't help but laugh. "Very graceful," he chuckled. "I will thank you for keeping it to yourself," Llewellyn replied, and that was elvish dialect for "fuck you." Gerrit laughed again.

Embarrassment is a huge part of my enjoyment of this kink because of the ensuing power dynamics. The victim is thrown into disequilibrium by something (snz) that is inherently seen as socially inappropriate, disgusting, or at least uncomfortable. Almost always their reaction is outsized to what it would probably be outside of a fet context (most people can sneeze in public without feeling shame - which is the typical mode, lol. It's a normal bodily function). However, then the other character, motivated by their BF's anxiety and potential humiliation is prompted to caretake and comfort them, "approve" of the "shameful" act, and deepen the intimacy of the couple. They can also enjoy the embarrassment and the act voyeuristically while feeling their own discomfort about watching, then deal with either having to divulge the kink or be found out by their partner later (because consent is the sexiest thing, really). But I love my characters and I'm not into hardcore stuff so much, so there are almost never any consequences of the "humiliation" - the characters do not get caught out, they do not get shamed by society, they do not actually lose face or have to explain their sexual preferences to anyone who should not know them.

Now you know way too much about my psychology but also the basic formula for any kink story I have written or will write in my entire life. Yay! Cordes had leaned over to see the orb better in the firelight. He was the only one among them whose vision was hindered by the dim light. "What kind of artifact is this?" he asked. "It doesn't resemble anything I've studied."

Lol humans don't have darkvision. "I'm not sure." Llewellyn held it up to the torch. The orb lit up like a lamp, but otherwise nothing happened. "Whatever this chain is, though, it's very prone to tangling." He tried to shake it off his wrist and failed. This was a task for both hands, and he set to freeing himself. And kept trying. And trying. Gerrit frowned. "What are you doing? Cordes, would you get that off of him?" "Sure." The priest reached out to help, but Llewellyn suddenly backed away out of reach. "Uh... I'm not trying to steal it, elf." "Oh, I would let you take it," Llewellyn said, scowling. "But I have a feeling we would be in for some trouble if you touch it now." He held up both hands. His palms were wrapped around the crystal and bound with the ball in that thin gold chain. "I am... I'm stuck."

---

"STUCK," hooted Remembrance again. She was crouched at the entrance to the dungeon - a root-cellar-like set of doors they'd found in a small bandit settlement - and hauling out a heavy pack stuffed with loot. In the daylight, she looked menacing and out of place, her horns, dusky maroon skin tone, and black eyes setting her apart from this land's primarily human residents. "And you even said not to touch any curses!"

Jump cuts are funny! I love this kind of thing, honestly. It's some of my favorite humor - that and dramatic irony, which is also often depicted in visual media with a funny jump cut. "I recall you said so as well," said Cordes, who looked exactly like a run-of-the-mill human resident except for the star-like scar on his left temple. He reached down and grabbed Gerrit's hand, steadying the half-elf as he climbed out of the hole. Llewellyn was hanging uncomfortably on Gerrit's back, arms looped around the other man's neck. They'd tried to find a more dignified way to get him out of the dungeon, but he couldn't manage the ladder well enough without the use of his hands. "The artifact didn't react to my detection spell," sniffed Llewellyn disdainfully, and Gerrit was quick to set him down before that sniffing could become another sneeze. He didn't want to blush in front of the others.

Blushing is very appealing to me, so everyone blushes all of the time. "There must be someone in Veigh who can help you," Gerrit said. "We'll just swing by on our way to the capitol." The city was three days out of their way, but they couldn't have Llewellyn stuck this way for the two week trip back to their patron. With his hands bound, he couldn't cast any spells that required him to gesture, and that was almost all of them. He'd effectively rendered himself completely useless in combat. Veigh had a chapter of the Mages Guild in residence, though, and if no one there could help, they might at least be able to send Llewellyn on ahead via a transportation spell.

Let's go on a short tangent about names. Usually I name my characters using Babynames.com or similar sites and I pick based on the look, sound, and meaning of the names. For this little group, things were slightly more haphazard. Llewellyn is a Welsh name meaning "leader." I just happen to like this name already, but it also has a visual beauty and difficulty to pronounce on sight that lent it well to an elf character without me having to look up specifically elven names. When I make elf characters in D&D, I tend to give them a nickname or alias that is easy to remember and pronounce so that the name isn't a hindrance while playing the game.

Gerrit's name was picked based on sound. It is similar to the Welsh name Gareth ("spear ruler"), which is on purpose, but it was altered to make it a bit more fantastical/removed. It's appropriate for a fighter in meaning but also suits his more familiar/pedestrian half-elven experience vs. that of a noble elf.

Cordes was given a short name because he is a no-nonsense human, but I chose it to resemble that of conquistador Hernan Cortes because of the "holy invasion" and "treasure hunter" associations. Remembrance is named using the PHB's suggestion that tieflings often pick "ideal" names for themselves, and she has a complicated past (like most tieflings). "I will hope there is." Llewellyn looked pale and worn, though his fine features still exuded the otherworldly beauty of the high elves. His hair was a silky black, although mostly covered by his hood, and the contrast made his silver eyes look even more curious. He fumbled for a minute at his waist before scowling heavily. "I can't get into any of my bags, of course..." "What do you need?" asked Gerrit. Remembrance had started off through the trees, humming, her bulging pack swaying with her sinuous movements. Gerrit really didn't want to let her get too far ahead, not least because she was scary good at concealing herself in the foliage and might slip the party completely. However, Cordes was with her, and Llewellyn couldn't exactly fend for himself right now. "My handkerchief..." The elf's voice had gone wavery again, and Gerrit watched as his nostrils flared. Fuck.

Oho! Here is the plot and the kink conceit. Gerrit hurriedly patted his pockets until he produced his own handkerchief, or what he bothered with when necessary. It was a large square of flannel, rough around the edges. It wasn't embroidered or monogrammed like Llewellyn's, but he figured by now the flannel was a hell of a lot cleaner, and it was soft for an irritated nose. "Here, take mine."

Characters' belongings are also a good way to contrast their situations and personalities. I don't consider handkerchiefs particularly vital to my enjoyment of this kink, but they are a useful visual and I like to describe things. Small details like this are how you can worldbuild without having to do too much extra research. Llewellyn held out his hands plus the orb for it, breath hitching, but no matter how Gerrit tried to drape the cloth, it kept slipping off of the artifact. He supposed he could try to tie it around the-

This is just so funny to me XD Llewellyn made a desperate sound and tipped his head back, exposing the long line of his throat. His breath was coming in soft pants now. And he was raising the orb reflexively. Gerrit couldn't let him whack himself in the face again, so he did the only other thing he could think of. With one hand he reached out and took Llewellyn by the shoulder. With the other, he lifted the handkerchief and pressed it over the elf's nose. His fingers settled firmly on either side of Llewellyn's nostrils, and none too soon. After another half-hitch, Llewellyn ducked forward again with a quiet but insistent sneeze. "Happtsch!

One of the most pleasing sneeze sounds, tbh. Gerrit was sure he was beet red. “Bless you,” he mumbled. Through the cloth, Llewelyn’s nose felt hot, and any gentle pressure resulted in a bit of a squish. “Let me just…” "Whh- wait-" Llewellyn leaned into the handkerchief. "I'm nh- I'm not done hhH-" His eyes slipped shut and he gasped again. Gerrit swallowed and tried to ignore the tenting of his breeches. "R-roger that." He could feel Llewellyn's nostrils twitching against his fingers. "Hh...Haah- Hapttschuh! Snrk... Aptschiu!" His body rocked, and he took a half-step forward. Gerrit could hear the thick sound of congestion in the elf's nose as he tried to stave off another sneeze.

The desperation, talking through the sneezing, and congestion are all vital parts of this scenario. Unavoidable embarrassment + disgust factor + need for caretaking/mitigation. "Blow your nose," he said. "It will help." Llewellyn hesitated, but in the end, he had to comply. There was nowhere for the mucus to go except out. He started to blow with a gurgle.

I used to be really against mess, but the taboo/disgust part of the brain turns off psychologically a LOT during arousal and now I really do not find snz interesting without it. Snz without mess isn't embarrassing enough or visually exciting. Gerrit moved the hand from his shoulder to start rubbing Llewellyn's back. The handkerchief and his fingers were rapidly growing damp, but he really didn't mind. "There you go." He held the handkerchief to Llewellyn's nose until the elf moved back on his own. His nose was red and tender looking, and his cheeks were flushed rosy. He didn't seem to want to meet Gerrit's eyes. Gerrit didn't mention it. He didn't really want to look at Llewellyn either right now. It had been a while since the elf had looked so very fuckable.

Potentially due to my propensity to write fanfic about established ships, all of my OCs apparently have a history or mutual attraction out of the gate. On one hand, it's difficult just mechanically to write a scenario about a romantic or sexual encounter without there being chemistry and an excuse for them to already want to rub bits (obviously), especially in short stories, but I also cannot stand the thin veneer of situational causality that underlies porn (to borrow from Cards Against Humanity). If I can't care about my characters' lives outside of the one random fetish scenario, I can't care enough to write about them at all. He put the handkerchief in an easily-accessible outside pocket of his vest. "Ready to go?" Llewellyn coughed lightly. "Yes." "Excellent." Gerrit gestured for Llewellyn to precede him, and the two of them headed out through the trees, following the sounds of Cordes negotiating the underbrush and swearing about it. --- Travel proved easy enough once they made it to the road. They were fortunate not to meet anyone else along the way. The party could handle a group of bandits without their sorcerer, but they had their treasure to worry about, and Remembrance always drew stares, and sometimes aggression, even from normal travelers. Gerrit thought her skills more than made up for the extra negative attention they drew. And anyway, Remembrance was crazy but she wasn't evil. She did better out on the road than in town, but that was probably true of all of them. Llewellyn kept up with her pace, but it was clearly a struggle. He was usually fairly quiet, but he didn't speak at all as they walked, focusing on breathing and not devolving into coughing or more sneezing. There were a few times when Gerrit hastily reached into his pocket, at the ready, but Llewellyn fought back the itch with admirable determination. He kept his nose from running by sniffling heavily, which sounded somewhere between awful and revolting. Cordes commented on it multiple times with disgust, but nothing could be done. Llewellyn held his tongue, and Gerrit was reluctant in this case to offer the handkerchief without being asked.

Cordes is here providing the societal reaction and voice of reason lol, but there still aren't any consequences or shaming from them. I just imagine how fricking uncomfortable it would be if people acknowledged this porn scenario happening in-world and so that is never part of the story development. They found a place to camp about half an hour outside the small village of Tewks. Remembrance cleared out some brush to make a flat area for the bedrolls and then promptly decided she'd rather sleep in a tree with everything she owned. She found a good, solid oak a few yards from the camp and ensconced herself in the crux of its branches. She had a good view of the road in either direction and volunteered to take the second watch in the middle of the night, which was her favorite time. Gerrit agreed to take the first watch as Cordes started to set up his tent. The priest refused to sleep on the ground and always took an extra fifteen minutes to erect a curious one-person canvas canopy. It wasn't even large enough to sit up inside, but whatever. The priest never asked anyone else to haul it along, so Gerrit wouldn't complain.

Remembrance and Cordes are thus handwaved away from the sexual center of the plot and they will neither see nor hear anything they aren't invited to. These arrangements left him and Llewellyn alone together on one side of the fire, and he supposed that was preferable during the orb situation anyway. Llewellyn couldn't handle his own bedroll, help with the fire, or unpack any of their supplies. Gerrit realized he would probably have to help the elf eat, too. And... Well, when he noticed Llewellyn fidgeting uncomfortably, Gerrit took him out into a thicker copse to see to his other needs. They didn't talk about it... Llewellyn could hardly undo his own buttons, though, and it wasn't the first time Gerrit had taken over.

I am very into watersports, so it creeps in, although I don't think there's a friendly community out there for that like there is for snz, so I haven't developed any kind of presence for it. It appeals to me for pretty much all of the same reasons as described above. Maybe someday I will start writing those kinds of stories on this account as well, but I don't know if they would find an audience, so maybe not. By the time the fire was hot enough to cook over, Llewellyn had tucked himself up to sit on a tree stump, exuding an aura of furious self-reproach. Cordes took some jerky into his tiny tent with him - for some reason. Gerrit made up two bowls of pottage and sat himself on the ground at the roots of the stump. He put one bowl on the ground for himself and then held up the other. "Hungry?" "Not particularly," Llewellyn replied, voice blunted with congestion. He coughed. "But you're going to make me eat something, aren't you." "I'd prefer you do it willingly." Gerrit tapped the spoon on the side of the bowl. "Come on. It's hot. You'll feel better." Llewellyn growled in a manner more suited to orcs than elves. "I feel like an invalid." Gerrit sighed. "Well, if it makes you feel better, we can pretend you lost your arms in an owlbear attack very tragically." He could feel Llewellyn's fiery glare on him and smiled a little. "Look, we've all done stupid things while adventuring. I'm sure you remember when I tripped and knocked myself out on that knight's shield during the tournament." "I remember," replied the elf, begrudgingly. "Besides, you're sick on top of the whole orb thing. Maybe your detection spell wasn't sensitive enough. Maybe the thing's not even cursed! Maybe it's supposed to do this, and we just don't know why." "I have a hard time believing that. What possible purpose could this serve?"

Porn! Gerrit shrugged. "Don't ask me. Dad says my mother was a druid, but I haven't got a magical bone in my body." He tilted his head. "We could always try smashing it?" Llewellyn's rejection was forceful. "Do you want to explode?!" Gerrit chuckled. "Not really." Llewellyn sighed. Gerrit held out a spoonful of pottage. Feeding both Llewellyn and himself was a bit difficult, but Gerrit did well enough when he could alternate. It would be better if he could use both hands equally like Cordes, but he couldn't, and so he didn't. He just thought about it wistfully as he worked. Llewellyn ended up eating most of his bowl, then went back to sitting quietly and sniffling. Gerrit finished the rest and put the utensils aside to deal with later. And... Even though Llewellyn hadn't asked, he drew out his handkerchief again.

More caretaking, more intimacy. Gerrit is a kind and loving person even though he's a fighter by trade. "Hey," he began, trying not to sound awkward. "You wanna blow your nose?" No one else was paying attention and Llewellyn didn't need to inhale any more of that crap. The elf gave him a shitty side-eye. "Come on," said Gerrit. "Don't be like this." He patted the ground in front of him encouragingly as if Llewellyn was a recalcitrant cat. "I'm fine," said Llewellyn, and then betrayed himself with a quick breath. "Hah--" "Come on," Gerrit repeated, "before you make a mess."

He is also pretty comfortable talking about a lot of things that people with the fetish have generally admitted difficulty acknowledging. This is because even though he's the one with the fetish in this, he is also the "Padgett" character and practical and not caught up in the anxiety prison. Llewellyn came down off the stump to sit in front of him, legs tucked underneath, and rested the orb on Gerrit's thigh to balance himself. His eyes were pinched with reluctance, but Gerrit could see that the elf's nostrils were already damp. "Hah- hh- hurry," Llewellyn gasped.

People should sit in each other's laps. It's good. Again, Gerrit reached out with the handkerchief, enfolding his companion's nose. He could feel Llewellyn's breath fluttering against his hand through the fabric and hear quite clearly how it kept catching on congestion. "Hah-hngk- Hahgkttscht!" Llewellyn ducked forward with the force of it and Gerrit steadied him with a hand on his hip. "Ngkttsch! Hnggktxch!!"

The sneezes now involve nasal consonants because of congestion. Sometimes people tend to have a certain way their sneezes always sound, and I try to maintain that, but these details are important to show a change in the severity of the cold (and evidence of sniffling for hours). Gerrit bit his lip sharply to keep from saying anything, but his body was singing with arousal. Llewellyn hiccupped a short gasp and Gerrit pulled the handkerchief away to present a clean corner. The current spot had become soaked and silvery. "Bless," he managed after a moment, and he carefully readjusted the cloth. "Are you going to sneeze again?"

Hiccupping is also sexy and cute. Also I spelled that wrong in the original, gdi... Llewellyn nodded, eyes teary with the effort of the first bunch. Gerrit wasn't surprised; the elf had been holding back since they left the dungeon. He couldn't imagine it had been comfortable, but Llewellyn had his pride. He never would let Gerrit give him love bites either. Annnd Gerrit was going to have to stop thinking about that. "Haptsch!" Easier said than done. Really. But Llewellyn's comfort came first.

Voyeur with a heart of gold. "Hahkptsch!" The sorcerer groaned softly. "Hah- hh- Hgnaptscxhx!" Gerrit did his best to assist Llewellyn through the fit. He kept the handkerchief secure, moving it when necessary to keep it dry enough. He steadied the elf when the sneezes bent his body or when he felt faint from lack of breath. He even massaged Llewellyn's nose for him when he was trying to blow it and the congestion was stubbornly refusing to move. By the time he felt finished enough to lean back, Llewellyn was flushed and light-headed, swaying where he sat. Gerrit was sweating and needed a towel. "........Thanks," murmured Llewellyn, eventually.

Sometimes kink authors tend to just write out like twenty sneezes in a row and I hate that, honestly. (No shade - I don't even have an example in mind because I don't read a lot of stories anymore and everyone has their preferences.) I just think that the kink should support the storyline and not the other way around. The story should be enjoyable and sexy but have a narrative structure and coherent rising and falling action. Even if a fit is a sexy scenario (it is), trying to make your eyeballs power through a repetitive series of nonsense syllables is counterproductive and takes the reader out of the story and into the realm of annoyance, which disrupts arousal as well. "Yeah," said Gerrit. "Sure." He swallowed. "Let's wash up." He helped Llewellyn to his feet and they went a little way to a creek (generously; it was little more than a ditch through the woods). Gerrit gently washed Llewellyn's face, careful of his tender eyes and nose, and sent him back to camp to lay down for the night. He lingered at the water's edge to wash the handkerchief and, well, to take other matters in hand.

If ya know what I mean. Llewellyn was completely out when he returned, and Gerrit was grateful. He smoothed the elf's bangs back and then settled beside the fire to take watch. The woods in the dark were full of the sounds of insects and small animals moving in the undergrowth. And Llewellyn snoring and sniffling in his sleep. Safe sounds. Gerrit rested his chin on his hand and looked toward the road. Damn orb. It was going to be a long way to Veigh.

And this was getting long, so this is where I cut it to make part 2, which I will also commentate in a bit (hopefully after a nap =___=). Thanks!

#lyk writes #snz #llewellyn mistwalker #gerrit truestride #gerwellyn #director's cut commentary exercise

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utilitycaster · 4 years ago

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I think less viable multiclasses can sometimes be helped along by a good dm. Like I love some of the magic items Brennan comes up with. The sword he gave to Fabian (which allowed him to boost damage on an attack by expending a spell slot iirc) was a smart thing to give someone who went from being a level 9 fighter to 6 Fighter 3 Bard. (This is not to say that that’s an unviable multiclass, just an example of smart magic item gifting that came to mind.)

Oh definitely, and I think it came from a place of the adjustment (Fabian having been a full fighter and deliberately lowering that level for story reasons) and the fact that the party already had a bard which makes it a little harder to feel special (I’m in the endgame of NADDPod and Murph has talked a bit about how having a small party that’s high level has meant he can give people items that normally would be seen as weird for their class because they don’t have an arcane caster, for example, so it’s okay that the druid gets an item that makes her proficient in arcana, whereas in a game that did have a wizard it would be frustrating to the wizard; basically this item let Fabian get a paladin mechanic - smiting - without being a paladin and since the party doesn’t have a paladin it’s a cool way to enhance his hybrid build and let him still be a powerful martial class).

More generally in the spirit of that post about how min-maxing doesn’t need to be about combat prowess, ‘less viable’ multiclasses are optimized for story reasons. Gorgug taking a level in artificer is absolutely not the best combat idea (although honestly? not the worst either) and until the stats adjustment happened, he was actively unsuited for it, but it’s completely in line with who he is as a person, it makes a great character study and story, and a good DM would find a way to adjust the stats to help this happen.

I also think “suboptimal”/unviable multiclasses can be better than people give them credit for between the subclasses and magic items; it’s just that some of these builds end up being so specific to the campaign and their subclasses and items that it’s not something you can casually recommend in general. Like, Vax’s Rogue/Paladin build in Critical Role campaign 1 works out quite well but there are a couple reasons, notably that he has the objectively OP boots of haste, he has stats that most people can only dream of (dude had 14 or above in literally every stat except constitution), vow of enmity as a vengeance paladin plays very well with rogue, and he was as a house rule permitted to smite on thrown attacks. I still would call rogue/paladin suboptimal on a general level, but it happened to work really well here. Or Ruby’s build on a Crown of Candy includes a level of shadow sorcerer which makes way more sense given the low-magic, all-human-variant setting where darkvision is a massive advantage as opposed to something that half the characters have; otherwise the obvious choice for an arcane trickster would have been wizard.

All of this is to say if someone asks for multiclasses I tend to recommend a select few combinations, but that doesn’t mean those are the only routes, just that I can confidently say a wizard taking a couple levels of fighter will generally benefit in combat, whereas a rogue taking a couple levels of sorcerer may or may not.

#d&d #dungeons & dragons #dimension 20 #critical role #Anonymous

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cantfoolajoker · 5 years ago

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the phantom thieves as dnd classes

ok as a dnd nerd who likes using class assignments as character study opportunities, im here to assign the thieves to some 5e classes and subclasses.

im putting it under a read more bc it got lengthy when i explained why i picked certain things.

so for starters, akira/ren is def a mastermind rogue imo. mastermind rogues flavor wise focus a lot on the concept of manipulating higher powers like rulers or high ranking members of society for your own cause. in akiren’s case, this falls right into what joker does as a phantom thief. the mastermind subclass over all also gives a lot of tools in order to just plainly not be yourself, which is something akiren also does a lot with how he presents himself.

morgana definitely leans on the side of the more radiant subclasses since he’s the manifestation of the hope of the people, so i pinned him as a divine soul sorcerer because of the innate divine energy resting in someones soul being a fitting description for him. this suits the fact that divine soul is actually a more healing based subclass ala a stereotypical cleric, giving morgana access to healing spells like he does in game, and at that, divine souls actually get an alternate form called the angelic form, which suits morgana having his cat form and his monster cat form. this subclass also references a lot of the people belonging to it are servants of the gods, which morgana is also referred to as.

i feel like saying ryuji is a barbarian is like the small brain of this, and then i was like maybe a paladin? they do damage and stuff, but then i realized that tempest domain cleric is like right there, and that’s like his bread and butter. now i know what you’re thinking, dont clerics heal?, and let me just tell you cleric is such a versatile class you could have an entire team of clerics and so long as theyre different domains they could all functionally be different. tempest domain clerics focus on outputting dps in the form of lightning based attacks and also are one of the tanky cleric classes with getting martial weapons and heavy armor, so theyre expected to be super dps heavy, which is what ryuji does. usually gods of the tempest domain are patron sea gods that sailors pray to, which fits in with captain kidd and all that. these gods usually represent things like courage too, which is something ryuji has a lot of. also he def uses bludgeoning weapons just saying.

i threw around a bit what ann would be since her weapon doesn’t give much direction other than ranger, but i feel that a light domain cleric would fit her well. like i said in ryuji’s, clerics don’t have to heal constantly, but this gives ann the option of being able to like she does in game. light clerics basically automatically get most of the fire and light based spells in their domain spell list, covering ann’s biased toward fire based attacks as well with spells such as faerie fire, scorching ray, and everyone’s favorite spell fireball. gods representing the light domain promote ideas of renewel/rebirth, truth, and beauty which describe ann and her story pretty well. also it’s a fun contrast against ryuji as they’re the first two human party members.

okay so like i Know samurai fighter is a thing, but i also think yusuke would fit super well as a moon circle druid. druids overall focus a lot on old gods and magic- they’re described as being priests of old faith, which i feel fits yusuke’s traditional theme. moon circles mainly focus on using wildshape and can be very good at both melee dps and at tanking, both of which yusuke does combat wise. plus he’s called inari (the patron god of foxes) by futaba, he’s called fox as a thief nickname, and he wears the kitsune mask as a thief- if anything him Not wildshifting into a fox at this point would just be... well wild.

makoto gave me a headache since like, her fighting style does not translate well between melee punching and having a mount. i threw the idea back and forth with a friend and we agreed that a dex-based paladin multiclassed with a monk would be a good fit for her, since paladins get summon steed as a spell and also focus on the concept of being a justice holy servant while monk gives her the ability to throw actually good punches with a hit die. as for her paladin oath, two fit her very well between oath of the crown and oath of vengeance, with one focusing on upholding justice and society and the other focusing on punishing wrongdoers who step out of line with an iron fist, as both fit different aspects of makoto’s character and her goals. plus the religious undertones of the paladin class regardless mirrors the religious undertones she has as the priestess card and johanna.

so i had the choice of either leaning into being a navigator or letting her do her own thing, and i think futaba would probably be an alchemist artificer- which yes i’m counting since it’s going to be official soon. they’re all intelligence tinkerers with a knack for item analysis and can even create a construct for a companion, which futaba would probably adore if how much she loves cat morgana doesn’t speak its own volumes. they get things like infuse magic and can pull out combinations of concoctions from their alchemy satchel to do random things that range from damage dealing magic attacks like alchemical fire to creating field hazards like smoke stick.

since a lot of haru’s personal story focuses on her family, specifically her grandfather and her father, i feel that ancestral guardian barbarian is a good fit for her. for one she gets her big battle axe, but also it highlights a lot of the cold rage she has that isn’t touched upon, since raging as a barbarian doesn’t always have to be loud and yelling but can be silent and bone chilling too, which fits haru’s anger quite well. ancestral guardians focus a lot on heritage and using that heritage to buff yourself in battle, which falls in line with haru’s connection to her family.

finally nobody can tell me akechi isn’t an archfey warlock, especially one that’s pact of the blade. warlocks make connections with higher powers to get what they want, which whether you look at his relationship with shido or the fact yaldabaoth gave him his powers, he’s a warlock regardless. i picked archfey specifically because i feel akechi embodies a lot of the trickster fey elements over all, but also feylocks are buffers generally, which is a role akechi slots into quite easily. blade wise, a fey blade probably would resemble a toy saber with it being all mystical, which is why i can see him as pact of the blade. also, whether you want to argue he’s a charisma based warlock or an intelligence based one, he has both anyway. i also completely forgot to mention too that archfey’s given spells includes the calm emotions spell, which is just entirely ironic given what loki can do.

bonus: mishima is a valor bard, no i do not take constructive criticism. literally watch the final battle again and tell me he isn’t one. singing about heroes in order to inspire others and literally is the bard with the feat to give inspiration die mid battle? mishima.

#dnd #persona 5 #p5 #phantom thieves #akira kurusu #morgana #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #makoto niijima #haru okumura #futaba sakura #goro akechi #yuuki mishima #text tag #i thought about this for a long time so yall are gonna get it

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garrettauthor · 5 years ago

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New D&D Campaign

Today we played the first Game Zero of the new D&D Campaign I’m starting with a group of adult friends. This is the first campaign I’m DMing since my family campaign petered out last year.

Other than my wife, no one in the group has played D&D before, except for maybe a few half-games when they were teenagers. We’re all adults, we all have kids, except for one couple. At present there’s seven players total.

To introduce the players to the game in a less chaotic environment, I’m grabbing them by twos and threes, and playing a Game Zero with each of them.

(You might recognize this as what Matt Mercer did with the cast of Critical Role before Campaign 2—that’s where I got the idea).

It lets new players learn the rules without dealing with a table of seven people, and with as few distractions as possible.

These are called “Game Zeroes,” i.e. the game you play before the REAL game starts. And today, we did our first Game Zero.

At the table was my wife, @underrealmgal, playing her Half-Orc bard, Shielda.

A quick aside about Shielda:

My wife has played in two campaigns and a one-shot so far. She enjoys the game a lot. And so far, she’s played rather “typical” race/class combinations. First, a human fighter. Second, an elf cleric. In the one-shot, a goliath fighter.

When I started putting this campaign together, she said, immediately, “I want to play a half-orc bard.” She wanted to do something completely off the wall.

Shielda is an absolute shit-mixer. She literally plays punk rock on her lute. She’s been touring local towns since she was a teenager.

I love her.

And, OF COURSE, we're designing a custom mini on Hero Forge. Here's the work in progress:

Shielda heard a legend of a guitar out there in the world, made of diamond and strung with silk. The elf who told her of the guitar said it was gone from the world, “Never to be seen again until the platinum dragon returns.” Then he vanished.

Shielda set out from her sleepy little town to search for whatever “the platinum dragon” is, in hopes of finding the guitar of legend.

The other player in this Game Zero was a new friend named Cameron, playing a drow rogue named Zelren.

Cameron has been a dream player during the setup process. Came up with his own backstory, dove into character creation, super excited. I’m so happy to DM for him.

Zelren was raised by loving parents. His father was a member of an elite fighting unit called the King’s Fist, who were in the employ of a duregar king named Gargrond.

But jealous members of Gargrond’s court convinced him the drow were plotting to overthrow him. Gargrond had them all killed. Zelren’s mother barely got him out of the kingdom, but she herself was killed in the escape.

Zelren was caught by a slaver and sold to a smith who had criminal contacts. Zelren picked up a few tricks from them, and after some decades, he was able to escape. Now he’s set out for revenge on Gargrond.

Cameron was super stoked to find out about Hero Forge, and he’s designing Zelren now. He should have him by our first real session. Here’s the work in progress:

Okay, this post is getting a little long, so I’m sticking the rest under the cut.

As Game Zero opened up, Shielda was being dragged into a jail cell by the city guard of Tirisfell. She’d met a man who said he’d heard of the platinum dragon, but couldn’t remember any details. But he had the address of a dragonborn named Marlasar Klexxad who would know more.

The stranger bet the address in a game of cards against Shielda, who’d been wiping the floor with him all night. But with such important information on the line, Shielda didn’t want to leave things to chance. She cheated, and the stranger caught her at it.

Unfortunately for her, the guard captain Corbrik Strongarm happened to be in the room. He’d had a few run-ins with Shielda, and he didn’t like her much, so he scooped her up and took her in.

As the cell settled to silence, Shielda went to look out the window of her cell. (This was a local drunk tank, not supermax). And who should happen to be passing by the jail, but a drow dressed in black with his cowl pulled up.

Shielda got his attention, and the drow introduced himself as Zelren. He’d had his own run-ins with Captain Strongarm, and was easily persuaded to help break Shielda out of the jail cell.

Zelren’s thieves’ tools made short work of the jail window, and he lowered it to the ground. But then a whispered argument broke out.

Shielda wanted Zelren to come into the jail to help her retrieve the rest of her stuff. Zelren wasn’t much of a fan of jail cells, and he wanted her to come out. They could circle back around and figure out another way to reclaim her possessions.

In the end, the decision was made for them. Shielda raised her voice just a bit too loud, and a guard down the hall heard her. He started coming towards the cell, and Shielda told Zelren to put the window back in place.

Zelren tried...and dropped the window on his foot instead (Natural 1).

He screamed a very undignified "FUCK!" just as the guard stepped into view and saw him.

The jig was up, so Shielda dove through the window—but with her own Natural 1, she tripped, faceplanting on the street outside (and taking 1 point of bludgeoning damage).

The chase was on. Two guards pelted out of the jail after them. But early on, Zelren and Shielda managed to dodge around a crowd of drunken revelers that the guards slammed into headfirst. Soon after, the adventurers lost themselves in the crowds packing a large town square with a massive statue of a drow knight at its center.

With her flawless knowledge of the city streets (and a Natural 20 on an Intelligence check) Shielda led them back to the jail. They surveyed the front door from 40 feet away, discussing what to do.

Zelren decided to sneak up to the window and see what was going on inside. But before he did, Shielda hummed him a little tune he’d never heard before. (Someone from our world might have recognized it as the Rocky theme song.)

Suitably inspired, Zelren crept up to the window, silent as a mouse, and peeked inside. Two guards sat inside—one by the jail’s front door, and one by the door leading to the cells.

But far more importantly, there was Captain Strongarm. He was sitting at his desk, studying a slip of paper by the light of a lamp. He had a deep frown on his face, like he’d received some disturbing news.

Zelren returned to Shielda and told her what he’d seen.

And Shielda had an idea.

Together they returned to the jail. Zelren took up position by the front door, waiting for a signal. Shielda promised he’d know it when he heard it. Meanwhile, Shielda poised herself just beside the window Zelren had peeked through.

When all was ready, Shielda leaped into view in the window and sang a song her mother had sung to her every night before bed—albeit with a bit more of a punk twist.

Tendrils of magic wove into the room, and both of Corbrik’s guards passed into a magical slumber. Corbrik blinked hard, gripping the edge of his table ...

... and then the spell passed, and he stood, seeing Shielda framed in the window. His face twisted into a mask of fury.

He went to rouse his men, but Zelren was faster. The drow darted into the room and slashed with sword and dagger. Corbrik reeled back under the blows. But such a burly man couldn’t be brought low so easily.

Corbrik struck back, his blade biting into Zelren’s side. Shielda saw her new friend injured, and she unleashed a string of vitriolic insults from her place at the window.

Zelren hadn’t thought so much profanity could fit into a sentence in any sort of grammatically sound way.

Unfortunately, her insults fell flat, and Corbrik was unaffected. Shielda decided to do things the punk rock way and climbed through the window, ready to slam Corbrik’s head into the wall instead.

She never got the chance. Zelren struck again, and the pommels of both his weapons crashed into Corbrik’s temples. The guard captain fell senseless to the floor.

Zelren heard footsteps coming from the door leading to the cells. They didn’t have much time. He barked an order to Shielda to hold the door while he opened the confiscation locker to get her things.

Shielda threw the lock on the door, locking the rest of the guards inside the building, and throwing her shoulder against it for good measure. Zelren turned to the locker—but as he did, he spotted the key to it poking out of Corbrik’s pocket.

And when he went to retrieve it, he also found the slip of paper Corbrik had been studying earlier. It contained the address Shielda had “won” in her card game. The address of Marlasar Klexxad.

Zelren froze.

Dim through the years since his childhood, he remembered the name. Marlasar was a dragonborn sorceress, and she had been one of his father’s close friends. Zelren hadn’t thought of her in years, and hadn’t seen her in decades.

But there was no time to wonder at it now. He went to the locker, which opened easily with the key he’d lifted from the captain. Inside, he found Shielda’s rapier, her lute, and the coins she’d won from her games that night—100 gold in all.

He also found a pair of supple grey leather boots, and a small grey leather bag of the same material, as well as a small glass bottle holding a red liquid.

“Zelren!” said Shielda, as the pounding on the other side of the door grew more insistent. “We’ve got to go!” Zelren scooped up everything in the locker, and they beat a hasty retreat.

Possibly against their better judgment, they returned to the tavern where Shielda had been arrested that evening, hoping Captain Strongarm was in no condition to pursue them that evening. The barkeep, Marlan, a red-haired dwarf with Einstein hair, greeted Shielda with a laugh. “I knew they wouldn’t hold you for long, girl.” (Though he did demand an extra gold piece to pay for the disturbance she’d caused earlier).

Shielda gave Zelren 50gp of what she’d earned earlier that night as thanks for his help. Then they sorted out the treasure. Marlan recognized the potion as a healing potion. Shielda tried on the boots, which magically expanded to fit her massive feet. When she stood up, they realized her footsteps no longer made any sound. She handed the boots over to Zelren, figuring they were quite a handy thing for a sneaky drow like him to have.

The real surprise came when they opened the grey bag. Inside, they found three small furry balls. Shielda took one out and dropped it on the tavern’s table.

A full-grown panther sprang into existence before their astonished eyes.

Marlan nearly choked in astonishment. “Get that damn thing off my table!” he roared. “Where did it even come from?”

After taking a moment to reassure herself that the panther wasn’t going to eat her, Shielda motioned to it. “Hey, get down from there.” The panther instantly obeyed, sitting docilely by her side. Shielda scratched it under the chin, and soon its rumbling purrs were shaking the floor.

“You want to try?” said Shielda, proferring the bag.

“Are ... is this what we’re doing?” said Zelren, utterly bewildered.

Shielda only responded by shaking the bag.

Sighing, Zelren took out a second fuzzy ball and dropped it on the table. The poor, abused table groaned anew as a massive direwolf appeared on top of it.

“SHIELDA!” bellowed Marlan.

Zelren hastily ordered the dire wolf to sit beside him. It did, looking across at the panther with what seemed to be a cool haughtiness.

With the treasure sorted, it only remained to figure out what they were doing next.

Now that she had the address, Shielda was determined to seek out this Marlasar and see what she knew about the platinum dragon.

Zelren, too, was interested in finding the sorceress. He confessed to Shielda that Marlasar had been a friend of his parents when he was younger. Neither of them were quite sure why the two of them, from such different lives, would happen to be drawn together by something so strange as a name on a slip of paper.

But for Zelren, it was a matter of pragmatism as much as anything else. He only wanted one thing: to kill King Gargrond. But he wasn’t even vaguely ready for such a feat. To accomplish it, he’d need a lot more training, and powerful allies. And what better ally than a sorceress?

And if the plucky, hulking half-orc before him happened to be traveling in the same direction, why not travel together, even if only for a while?

So, almost against his better judgment, Zelren found himself with a new friend. And Shielda found herself with a traveling companion who was somewhat more stealthy and skilled at fighting than she was. A win-win situation.

Shielda paid for their rooms, and they settled in for a night’s rest. When they woke in the morning, they were somewhat disappointed to learn that their animal companions had vanished during the night—but there were two new furry balls in the grey bag, so that was something.

* * *

And that was the first Game Zero!

I’d like to keep a log of this campaign here and on Tumblr. So every once in a while I'm going to dump what happened in the last game. It won’t be polished, of course. But I love these characters so far, and I love the idea of following them as they grow.

It feels good to be playing D&D again.

#D&D #dungeons and dragons #rogue #bard

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roxannarambles · 5 years ago

Text

WIP: Mystic Messenger Game Night

MC has entered the chat

Yoosung: Oh, good, <MC> is here!

Zen: Hey, <MC>. How are you?

Seven: Hey, hey! Good to see you, <MC.>

Jumin Han: I'm still very unclear as to what it is we're doing.

Yoosung: I was just about to explain it.

Jaehee: Mr. Han, are you certain it's necessary for me to be here? It seems highly . . . irregular to require me to participate in this.

Jumin Han: I didn't require it, Assistant Kang, I suggested it to you.

Jaehee: Yes, well . . . you suggested it rather strongly.

Seven: Aww, Jaehee, don't you want to play with us?

Jaehee: Not particularly . . .

Jumin Han: I thought it would be a wonderful bonding opportunity. Recreational activities are supposed to build mutual trust and comeraderie. Don't you want to bond with your fellow RFA members?

Jaehee: Ah . . . I . . . suppose?

Zen: I can't believe you, trust fund kid. You're ordering Jaehee around even during what little free time she has? She can spend it however she likes!!

Jumin Han: As I already stated, I gave no such orders.

Jaehee: It's all right, Zen. I chose to be here.

Zen: Hmmph . . . doesn't sound like it to me.

Yoosung: Umm . . . is everyone ready then? Should I . . . get started?

Seven: Yeah! Let's get this show on the road!!

Yoosung: Ok. So, uh, welcome, everyone! This is a game called 'Castles and Creatures!' It's a very fun role-playing adventure game. Normally it's done in person, and everybody rolls dice to determine their moves and how much damage they do and everything, but we can play it online in this chat room too!

Yoosung: Now, let's see . . . oh! Did everyone get the character sheets I e-mailed out?

Seven: Roger that, captain.

Zen: Yeah, although I don't really understand it.

Jumin Han: Yes.

Jaehee: One moment.

Jaehee: Is it the attachment you sent to me an hour ago?

Yoosung: Yeah, that's it.

Jaehee: I have it. It was in my spam folder.

Seven: lol do all of yoosung's emails end up there?

Yoosung: Hey!

Yoosung: . . . do they?

Jaehee: Of course not. It was probably in there because of the file attachment.

Yoosung: Oh, ok.

Yoosung: Well, anyway, you're all new to the game I think, besides Seven, so I filled out your character sheets for you ahead of time. I hope you don't mind.

Jaehee: These are very detailed.

Yoosung: Yeah, I know it can look a little intimidating, but try not to worry about all the numbers. I'll explain stuff to you as the need comes up. For now, can everyone find their class and race? It should be at the top of your sheets.

Jumin Han: It says Human Wizard.

Zen: Mine is a Elf Fighter?

Yoosung: Ok, great!

Jaehee: "Tiefling Cleric."

Seven: I'm a rogue, the master of darkness, of course.

Yoosung: Right. So, your class basically is your role in the game. Jumin, you're a wizard, so you have a lot of magic spells for stuff. Zen, you're a fighter, so you're good with a lot of different kinds of melee fighting. Jaehee, clerics are really important to the party for healing and support. And rogues are sneaky and good at picking locks, disarming traps, stuff like that.

Seven: We also are great at coming up with really good insults to damage the enemy's self-esteem.

Yoosung: Erm . . . sure.

Jumin Han: I have a question.

Yoosung: Go ahead!

Jumin Han: You said that I possess magic spells for "stuff"." What, exactly, is this "stuff"?

Yoosung: Oh, well, if you look further down on your character sheet you can see a list of your current spells. It's for different purposes-- for attacking, for buffing your allies, putting enemies to sleep, things like that. You can learn more spells as you level up.

Jumin Han: I see. So we will be entering combat in this game?

Yoosung: Yes, we'll sometimes fight monsters and other bad guys.

Jumin Han: So the objective of the game is to destroy 'monsters'? Interesting. It sounds as though my character can do that very well, then?

Yoosung: Oh, uh, yeah! Wizards are great. Especially with AoE spells, they can be crazy powerful. One well-aimed fireball can take out an entire room of enemies.

Zen: Hold on, what about me? Is my character any good?

Yoosung: Yours is really good too, Zen!

Jumin Han: Can he cast fireballs?

Yoosung: Er, no.

Jumin Han: Doesn't sound very good to me then.

Zen: You little . . . ! Yoosung! This isn't fair!

Yoosung: Ah!! No, it's . . . Fighters are great too, Zen, really! Mages are more for distance combat, they don't have great defenses. Fighters are heoric and strong and very well balanced and are great in direct combat. Plus you can use pretty much any weapon you want-- axes, swords, bows, all that. Fighters are crucial!

Zen: Oh. So I'm the hero?

Yoosung: Uhhh, well we're all heroes!

Jumin Han: Couldn't I win if I simply cast a fireball before Zen approaches me?

Yoosung: What?

Zen: Not if I shot you with an arrow first, Mr. Crappy Defenses!

Yoosung: Wait, no! We don't fight each other! We're all on the same team!

Zen: The same team? That doesn't sound right.

Yoosung: We're all supposed to work together and travel as a group. That's the whole point.

Seven: Unless Yoosung decides to allow friendly fire.

Yoosung: No!! Why would I do that?!

Seven: The battle between Wizard Han and Hero Zen could be pretty epic.

Yoosung: Seven, this isn't helping.

Jaehee: Yoosung, may I ask a question?

Yoosung: Yes, Jaehee, of course.

Jaehee: You gave roles for everyone else, but what is your role? And what about <MC>'s role?

Yoosung: That's a very good question, Jaehee! I was going to explain that next. My role is very different because I'm the CM, or the Castle Master. I'm in charge of running the game. I tell everyone what's happening, control all the NPCs and enemies, stuff like that.

Yoosung: This is, um. Actually my very first time CMing a game.

Yoosung: I'm a little nervous.

Seven: You're doing just fine, my young padawan.

Yoosung: Seven's CMed games a few times before, so he's been helping me out.

Seven: Soon the Castle Student will become the Castle Master.

Jaehee: And what about <MC>?

Yoosung: Ah, right! I was just finishing up <player>'s character sheet when everyone got here. Since I haven't filled it out yet, I thought it would be nice to let [her] choose the class.

Yoosung: So how about it, <MC>? Which class interests you? Pick anything you want!

Seven: . . . as long as it's one of three things.

Player: [Bard] [Barbarian] [Ranger]

#mystuff #mysme #mystic messenger #fanfic #707 #jumin han #yoosung kim #jaehee kang #zen #mc

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annakie · 5 years ago

Photo

So this past weekend I went to GenCon for the second time.

GenCon is the largest gaming convention in the world with about 70k individual attendees every year, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The first time I went was in 2009, with a friend from the internet, and it was a blast. This time I went with a bunch of my everyday friends, some of my favoritest people in the world, and it was even more fun.

Part one of my long recap, including lots of pictures, below.

SOME PRE-GENCON NOTES

Our group does love boardgames, but we do RPGs (like D&D) together even more. D&D actually doesn't have a very big presence at GenCon. There was some D&D going on, but it isn't a main focus of the con and my friends aren't super into 5e anyway. (We're actually doing a 4e game right now since it's one friend's favorite system.)

So when we signed up for events, we were trying hard to get into a bunch of Pathfinder stuff, especially Pathfinder 2, which was releasing the first day of GenCon. We got into two events, but ended up filling more slots with Starfinder. None of us were particularly interested in Starfinder, which is a Sci-Fi setting also put out by Paizio... it was always like "Eh, we might check Starfinder out sometime maybe." but we weren't that excited about it. But since we had gotten into two games to fill up some timeslots, we decided to go ahead and at least learn the system ahead of time for those of us who'd be playing in the SF games.

That would be Marcus, who is our DM most of the time when we play RPGs, Jeremy, and Brian, who is Marcus' oldest daughter's fiancee. We created characters the week before GenCon and got together twice to knock out some beginning level adventures.

What we didn't expect, at all, was to fall head over heels into Starfinder. Three of us ended up picking the same race (Lashunta, who are basically Mantis from GotG) and decided our characters were siblings, then decided so was Brian's character, even though he was a Vesk... a lizard-man race. Jeremy's Operative (Space Rogue/Pilot/smuggler)Zafo is the oldest, my Envoy (space bard/doctor/xenobiologist/archeologist) Vikiri, and Marcus' Technomancer (Space Wizard/Computer whiz/K-pop rockstar) Alissia are twin sisters, and Brian's Soldier Kronk (Space Meatshield/Master Chef) is our baby brother.

We fucking LOVE these characters and the whole world of Starfinder, and also our dear Father and Mother, who we always strive to make proud of us. Starfinder is really so much fun and we're running official modules as we're a part of the Organized Play Starfinder Society and they're... so good? Anyway, here we are, playing Starfinder for like six hours the Thursday night before Gencon because that's the only day we could physically be in the same room. (the other time we played via Discord.)

WEDNESDAY

So anyway, then we actually went to Gencon! Jeremy and I got flights together and rooms (separate) at the same hotel to make travel more convenient. Everyone else, which was Marcus, wife Laura, daughters Gwen and Kirstyn and Kirstyn friend Ally, and Gwen's fiancee Brian, drove. 14 hours from Dallas to Indy... Jeremy and I have talked about it for next year, we'll see.

I took Wednesday off to finish packing and relax, and then just before Jeremy came to pick me up, our flight got delayed two hours. We decided we'd then have time for a leisurely lunch instead of fast food, and so we went to one of my favorite places to eat, a Canadian cafe. The service was slower than expected, but we were still tracking to be at the airport about an hour before our original takeoff time, three before our “new” takeoff time.

And then... while we were driving to the airport... our flight got UN-DELAYED. What. The. Fuck.

Our leisurely afternoon turned hectic as we got to the airport as fast as possible then, I checked in our bags while Jeremy parked the car, got in line in Security, and oh nooo the line was long. I started to get nervous about making the flight. Apparently, we weren't the only people who had done the same thing.

We hoofed it through the airport, though and made it to the gate with like 5 minutes to spare until boarding, just enough time to take a bathroom break and get a bottle of water. We got on the flight though! And sat there. And sat there. And... sat there. And then got kicked off the plane for an electrical issue. Then sat in the gate for an hour or so until another airplane arrived. Turns out, our flight ended up being delayed... about two hours.

ANYWAY. We made it, de-planed at Indy, collected our bags, taxied to the hotel. We were staying at a Red Roof Inn outside of the airport area, we were trying to do this cheap and with each of us paying for a hotel room, staying near downtown wasn't an option. $65/night for a hotel is a lot better than $200+/night for being closer, especially when you can split Lyft fares. (Could have rented a car but we did the math... especially factoring in parking at $20-30 a day plus the hotel charging for parking... much cheaper to Lyft everywhere.)

After settling into the hotel we had to go to the convention center and get our tickets. I had my badge mailed to me, but all events require tickets and Marcus had ordered all our tickets... and you have to pick up your tickets yourself. The Will Call line at 10pm on Wednesday night was... an hour and fifteen minutes long. So we waited in that. Nothing particularly cool or terrible happened, but it's just one of those GenCon experiences. This year apparently 15% of the events had electronic tickets. Next year that's supposed to go up to 75%. Let's hope so. The GenCon provided Wifi was actually pretty good.

We headed back to the hotel afterwards and were both hungry again at this point, so we ate at the only available option... Waffle House... at like 12:30 at night. Seemed like a good way to end our first night, as long as we didn't get food poisoning.

...which we did not. :p

THURSDAY

So another fun thing about GenCon this year that we found out a day or two earlier is that the entire freeway from the Airport to downtown was going to be closed all weekend. Adding lots of time to our commute (and thus $ to our Lyft fares, but we still saved money.) So we got up extra early, discovered how terrible our hotel's free breakfast was (very... most days I had a cold bagel with a scraping of cream cheese and if I was lucky, a banana) and got a Lyft into town. Except it took 30 minutes to get a Lyft. From then on, we scheduled them ahead of time.

But HEY! Eventually, we were there! We found the room for our first game and met Brian and eventually Marcus outside. Our first scheduled game was Star Wars, the Fantasy Flight Games system (which is now known as Genesys). This is a system that Marcus ran Jeremy and I and other friends a 2+ year campaign in, so the three of us were very familiar with the rules. Kirstyn and Ally also joined us, and Kirstyn had played it once before.

So I've mentioned before that Jeremy, Marcus and I go to a local con called GamerNation Con every year. Two years ago the guest of honor was a guy named Sterling Hershey who is a well-known loremaster for Star Wars and helped write the SWFFG system. We played in a game he ran that year. Hilariously, Sterling was our GM for this game, as well. It was a good way to kick off the weekend.

Jeremy played a Jedi and I was his Padawan, Ally and Brian played Clone soldiers ( the game took place in the Clone Wars era) Kirstyn played a shark-race diplomat and Marcus was her "get it done" operative type.

Ally, Marcus and Brian.

The Table setup

Brian, Jeremy and Kirstyn

And of course, our DM.

Our next game was a 13th Age, with Marcus, Jeremy, Brian and I, plus two "new friends" and a DM who was very good at and familiar with the system. We've been doing a 13th Age game as our "Main Game" for about a year, since our SWFFG game ended and like Starfinder, it's a system that we were all very skeptical about at first and have found ourselves LOVING.

I really enjoyed this DM. He did a lot to challenge us to roleplay, I think the only time we spend game time making up backgrounds for our characters and making any character creation choices. (They were basically premades but he had us choose names and do some history stuff which only makes sense if you know 13th Age.)

He did some really cool mechanics as well, like one that made travel interesting... one person would say something bad that happened in our journey and the next would say "But it was all okay, because..." and use that as a way to bring depth to the adventure. Like one person said "It was bad when the owlbears attacked us..." and then I answered, "But it was all okay, because our supplies had been running low, and now we had plenty of meat to eat on the journey!" Then I said "It was bad when we came across a village that had been wiped out by disease." and the next person said "But it was okay, because we learned a vital clue, and kept the disease from spreading!" and the DM gave us a clue about what was coming up.

I played a Bard in this game.... okay the thing is, I love playing bards. Support classes in general, but I always have to pull myself away from the urge to play a bard. But there were only a couple of character sheets left when they came around and Marcus wanted to play a wizard so I did bard. Apparently, Bard is one of most complex classes in the game, and the DM said I did great. We were 5th level (out of 10) so they were already pretty in-depth characters. We're only level 3 in our campaign at home, so it was fun to see how powerful we'd become.

Also what I love about 13th Age is that the world is just... weird. You think that Anything Can Happen in D&D but honestly, the world of 13th Age is just so much broader and weirder and it was fun to see this DM's interpretation of it. One of my favorite games of the con.

Our fighter, Jeremy the Monk and Brian the Barbarian.

Marcus, our rogue, and the DM.

So that night, we had had a 3-hour break scheduled then were supposed to go to Lucas Oil to play the Call of Cthulu board game that night. But then Jeremy and I had been talking the night before and were thinking... maybe we could play more Starfinder.

We'd been planning on going to the Nerd Night (which is a thing where you go and play games plus support a charity with donations) to fill in those hours, so we asked Marcus if he'd mind skipping the board game so we could spend those hours doing Starfinder at NN instead. He gave in.

So we stopped and got some dinner at a food truck (had a pretty good burger and fries, we were starving since we'd just had whatever snacks we had brought with us for lunch) and then it took a little bit of time but we found Nerd Night, which was held in a hotel that had turned an old train station into a ballroom. It was very cool. After eating, resting, drinking lots of water, and doing some Starfinder Society paperwork, we got to work on Starfinder, finding a quiet table in the corner away from everyone to play at. And the module was SO FUN, our characters were on a reality-competition game show in order to bring glory to the Starfinder Society (and our family). And then a loud group of people decided to pick the table RIGHT NEXT TO US in an empty side- room to play their loud game at (seriously... wtf? THERE WERE AT LEAST A DOZEN OTHER TAbLES NOT NEXT TO US TO PICK!) so we packed up and moved to another corner, that was actually quieter and not as cold.

Then they kicked us out of Nerd Night at around 12:30, after it had closed. So we walked back to the ICC (Indiana Convention Center) and found a near-empty food court, pushed some tables together... and kept gaming. Until like, after 2AM.

We didn't officially finish the module yet but we were kicking so much ass that we had basically won it already anyway.

So yeah... back to the hotel... asleep by um... three?

The actual quiet corner table.

The Empty Food Court setup

FRIDAY, PART ONE

So the next morning everyone but me did True Dungeon, meeting at 10am. I bowed out because my back was too fucked up to stand for that long. It was a hard decision, but the right one for me. Instead, I spent a little bit of time shopping in the dealer hall, taking sit-down breaks against the wall when needed, and decided on what I'd want to buy later. Mostly I just went to three booths and peeked at a few more.

After a short hangout break, I went to a lecture I'd had my eye on anyway, all about Eberron (one of the "official" D&D worlds) by the actual creator of Eberron, Keith Baker. This was definitely my hidden gem of the weekend. He took a bunch of questions BEFORE the panel started that he jotted down and answered in his talk, which I thought was a great way of doing it, and still had time for more questions at the end. All the questions were also great, I thought, in contrast to a lot of con panels. I really enjoyed what he had to say, not only about Eberron, which is probably my favorite of all the official D&D worlds, but about worldbuilding in general. It was only an hour, but it was an hour well spent. There were only about 100 people there but I hope he enjoyed the panel as much as I enjoyed attending.

Afterwards, it was time to meet back up with the guys for my first of four games in the Paizo room. First up: STARFINDER!

We'd tried valiantly, but had only barely made it to level two with our SFS characters, so we each picked a premade "iconic" character who was the same class as our own, and re-skinned them to just say they were our characters. The module was pretty cool, dealing with a world that was a simulation that the inhabitants believed was real. I was a little frustrated with the DM at one point but otherwise had a very fun game.

This is the only pic I took of that game, damnit. And this was because my mom texted and said to tell the guys hi, so I sent this back to her.

And after that game... I parted ways with my friends once again. Because I had tickets... to Critical Role.

Okay this post is already really long, I'll finish up in a second post! Which I've already gotten a good chunk of written, so look for that later tonight or tomorrow night!

#gencon #gencon 2019 #starfinder #star wars rpg #13th age #keith baker #tabletop games #annakie's misc stuff

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fel-fisk · 5 years ago

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10, 31, 32, 41? 🖤

10. What is your favorite class to play?

i haven’t played as a lot, but i’ve got two warlock characters and i think i really like their dynamic :0 the relationship-with-the-patron aspect is fun for rp and story stuff, and the lack of spell slots makes spellcasting a little easier to keep track/less stressful of bc you just don’t have as many options :p my other main character is a bard & in comparison i feel a lot Less Pressure playing a warlock

31. Tell me about your current party!

i’m in 3 currently so!! brief summaries of all of em booyah

PARTY 1 [the bandwagon of fun! party for a homebrew game], currently composed of:

”Wren” Firenze Jasperdune, a brass dragonborn bard [college of glamour]

“Sunny” Soluminaris Codexia, a high (sun) elf evocation wizard [+1 lvl knowledge cleric]

Basil Smalltown, a lightfoot halfling rogue [thief]

Blank, a warforged eldritch knight fighter [of mysterious origin, name comes from him saying “entry blank” when we asked what his name was]

“Nova” Novella Dante, a half orc sorcerer [dragon soul, gold]

We also have Clove, a high (moon) elf druid [circle of the moon] who was kidnapped :’) but will probs be returning soon bc her player, who is currently playing nova, misses her a Lot and kinda gave her away impulsively.

PARTY 2 [still unnamed, depite the campaign running for almost a year now. Playing Storm King’s Thunder,, but with plenty of added stuff], currently composed of:

Luka Oarback Um’Qatha, a goliath explorer [homebrew class bay-bee; he’s the survivalist subclass, which has some ranger-y flavour to it]

“Gnat” Nathan Gruffson, a [kinda babboon-esque] goblin druid [circle of the shepherd]

Teddy Greenbottle, a lightfoot halfling sorcerer [cloud giant soul]

Lightstick Octopodes, a chicken-obsessed high elf barbarian who was raised by orcs [is a homebrewed caster subclass that i cant remember the name of :’v]

Hector West, a (???race unknown) warlock of Sseth [homebrewed pact; he’s nicknamed “snektor” as we suspect he’s a yuan-ti but his yuan-ti traits might be bc of his pact??? we have No Clue.]

We also had another guy, a tiefling invoker [homebrew class] named Hektor Greyfell,,, but he just got petrified into a jade statue and whisked away to some demon lord’s collection so!! yeah :’) his player’s going to be rejoining as a dragonborn forge cleric i think

[[theres also,, my dead character Kacharias Akti- a sea-elf/sahuagin warlock of Sekolah (homebrew pact o the deep one).. he got killed by a vamp and if my current character dies or gets whisked away, Kari will b back as a modified vampire spawn >:3c courtesy of his patron]]]

PARTY 3 [unnamed group o’ heroes. Homebrew campaign set in the “booma mountains’, a v australian setting :v]

“Bug” Birgitta Cobblersen, a (3! year! old!) goblin warlock of Y’dizel [great old one ;0 Y’dizel, or “mr fizzy” is the monster under her bed/her imaginary friend]

Qassiel, a cambion accursed [homebrew class based on the 7 deadly sins- her subclass is wrath]

Meri Calypso, a mermaid cleric of Trishina the Joyswimmer [tempest domain]

–and my dad’s just playing Shiro from voltron :’p who is an oath of devotion paladin that rides around on his summoned steed, who is a giant black lion.

[[The DM also has a sorta player character NPC in the party called Kettle, who’s an ochre dragonborn druid [circle of the lifesinger, a homebrew subclass] ]]

32. Most memorable NPC you’ve encountered in a game you played in.

i think my favourite NPC/the most memorable would have to be Scrungus;; who lives up to his name in every way possible. He’s a shopkeep that lives in this giant junkheap who is effectively just the scrungus meme;; he looks like a humanoid version of This.

stinky, grungy, scrungy shopkeep who weilds a stanley knife as a weapon that can stretch out to sephiroth type lengths and Beyond. He sells such goods as “eeling potions” [throw it on the ground to make some giant eels appear], “bullet sweaters” [it sweats bullets], “frying carpet” [a flying carpet that heats up the longer you fly on it until it eventually is just On Fire], scrungus fungus [which grafts onto your body and gives you a chance of doing wildmagic– my goblin urchin’s pet vole has one on her head now and, among other things, has accidentally set of chain lightning with it that nearly killed my familiar],,, there’s so much more but essentially? he’s a wild ride and Im Love Him.

There are so many other great NPC’s in all the campaigns im in tho, especially shop keeps and some of the villains we get pit up against.

41. Give an out of context quote from one of your games!

..“S̭̭̣͎̼̪͊́̔̌͛̅͑̓̆͘T̥̣̘͍̙̰̝̄̂̆̂͌̎O͓̗̠̩͊͆̌̎̈́͟͠ͅP̨͕̮͚̭̿̄͌́̉̽ Y̶̢̡̨̻̠̗̳͍͌̅͌̏̂̓͊͆́̏͢͢Ö̙͖̥̜̮̭́̾̂͌̅Ŭ̡̧͖̖̪̜́̈́͂̋̔̊Ŗ̵̱͔̪̭̟̀̑̍̓̅̉̓͞ I̷̢̯͇̰̬͍̱͖͂̍͋̈̾͛̔̀̇́͜N̷̢̰̯̻̮̗̱̮̘̒̿͗̊̇̽̊̚͟F̧̲͖̺̝̟̖̻͔͆̀̒͒͠Ę̜̤͍̼͚̳̣͌̽͐͐̃̀͗͠͡R̸̢̜̗͔̗̣̝͆̐̈̾͆̀̑̀͢Ñ̴̢̝̮̘͓̜̊̀̓͝͠͝͠Ą͔̬̻̝̝͈̟̮̝͆̌͛̇̀L̶̢̧̪̣̹̻͎͗͒̋͌̚͜ J̷̨̻̣̼͚͓͋͂̊̔͌̕̚ͅU̵̯̭͓̗̮̬̲̝̻̹͆̃̅̐͠M̴̢̟̙̻͖͔̥̙͐͗̊̔̌̂̍̓̕͟ͅP̴̦̟̠̫͉̜͖͎̿̾̇̏̽̈́I̷̝͔̳͎̗̎̽̀̓͗͗͆̅͝N̨̨̘̟̬̹͒̇̀͌͂͂͋̎̄̿͢G̵̟͙̙̘͎͙̼̝̒͑̑͒̀̄̀̉̚͢ͅ A̢̯͕̲̙͆́̿̽̃̍͘͟͟͠͠B̗͍̣̹̙̹͈̙̘͖̓̾͂͗͊̉̾̚O̡̪̟̣̜͓͎͆̅̍̾̉̏̑́́͢Ṵ̵̡͇̻̠͙̻̃̀̎͋̋́T̴̢̹͖͇̰̯̒̉̎͗̄͑ͅ” ..

#dnd asks #dnd

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imagine-a-killingharmony · 6 years ago

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MMO Games + Kokichi, Shuichi, Miu, Maki, Kaede and Tsumugi

mod shumai you're precious and i love your writing!! can i (please) get uh... Kokichi, Shuichi, Miu, Maki, Tsumugi and Kaede playing an online game together with their s/o? I'm an mmo nerd myself and this request was def. inspired by playing too much path of exile lately but whatever kind of game you're familiar with is fine!

First of all... thank you very much for the compliment!!! Y’all are gonna be the death of me hearing positivity makes me feel just... haaaawaaa...???? Y’know??? Yeah ya know but really thank you!!

Also, I don’t really play MMO games so I’ll stick by the usual rpg roles I know about. Like Fighter, Mage, Bomber/Grenadier, Bard, Rogue/Thief, and Ranger/Archer/Gunman.

(Honestly, I remember seeing one post from @ministarfruit with an mmo au, it was adorable if you wanna check that out!!!)

-Mod Shuichi

Shuichi Saihara

Shuichi had been very excited to try out an MMO game with you, he promised that he would try his best considering this was his first time playing an MMO.

He just asked you try to keep up with him considering you had been playing for a while, an already considerably moderately leveled character, you promised you would stay at a pace he was comfortable with.

When making the character he... had picked the largest hat there possibly was, which belonged to the ‘Mage’ class, he made it quite similar to his own appearance. He hadn’t expected for there to be any need to be like anyone else, besides most of the outfits didn’t seem pleasing so he chose the solution he enjoyed the most.

... He made his eyelashes considerably longer too which had been the only difference between him and his character, when he was brought into the world you tried his best to steer him in the gameplay mechanic, he had been wobbly at first but when he got ahold of it he had made an amazing player besides some slip-ups.

Shuichi was great at strategizing, it was fun to plan ways to beat your opponents with him, it was fun to see his reactions when he was sneaked up upon too, usually just loud: “EUAAhHHSs” before you heard him click the attack button as fast as he possibly could. Only to let out a long sigh of anger out afterward, you always knew he had died when that was the case.

It was even more of a fun time playing with someone, than playing alone!

Kaede Akamatsu

Kaede had heard of MMO games, she even dabbled in one with her classmates a few years back in middle school, she remembers being awful at the games... aha, but you had wanted to try out this newly released one with her, how could she refuse?

You both swore you would never leave each other’s side, much more considering you were both new to the MMO scene but Kaede was certain you both learn quickly!

Kaede made her character as cute and over-the-top as she possibly could, she, of course, picked the ‘Bard’ class, she was more of a supporter than a fighter and she wouldn’t mind the thought of using magical music to assist you.

She wished there was a portable piano, an utter shame there wasn’t but it wasn’t the end of the world, it WAS just a video game after all.

Kaede... wasn’t the best player, she had accidentally run into the wall a couple of times, died a few times, she hadn’t expected it to be quite this... difficult, she was swift with her defensive reactions but she hadn’t quite stopped charging into the enemies despite being a supporter.

She made fun dialogue the entire way through, making plenty of playful remarks throughout the entire battle, sure you weren’t good at winning the battle, but you had plenty of fun just speaking to each other as you worked to pass these endeavors barely making it through with each other, it only affirmed your love when you made it out of a tight situation.

Tsumugi Shirogane

Tsumugi has begged you to try out this incredibly detailed MMO game with spot-on character creations as well as many classes as well as roles, she said she wished to get into the gameplay to learn more about the non-playable characters so she could cosplay them.

It is a shame to not have a fun time with you as she did so right? So she invited you in onto the fun, you heartily agreed.

Tsumugi has already delved into these games, many times within her past, she dared called herself a master of the genre of video games. She said she would: “be your shining knight and protect you!”

She chose the Fighter Class, she made her character the most bishounen she possibly could, the most heart-wrenchingly amazing she could have made him looked. She’s really committed into getting into the: “Knight” role isn’t she?

She had made many sly remarks about you being the one she was sworn to protect...! Just... cliche lines left and right, with some fangirling here and there.

She had destroyed any enemies that crossed your path, it was a terrible idea to underestimate Tsumugi Shirogane, she was a master of any skills that involved bringing her characters to life to the extreme. That was the case for the knight that she had created as well.

You didn’t need to help Tsumugi in her quest to vanquish any foe that had come across your way, but she still appreciated he help here and there, she said playing this with you had been way more fun to play than her being all by her lonesome, that was plain to say.

Miu Iruma

Miu had been confident within her abilities to do anything that had technology within it, even MMOs! Sure she never played before, but she had to be amazing at it! She WAS Miu Iruma, the genius! N’... she had you to help her, you promised to help her.

She obviously chose the class involving bombs, because what the fuck? Bombs are waaaaay stronger than prissy-ass swords, guns, or magic! IT’S FUCKIN’ BOMBS! BOOOOMBS!!! BOOM BOOM BABY!

She had made her character with as much resemblance to her beauty as possible, from the... chest size to her golden hair that glistened perfectly in the sun’s rays, from her impossible to describe good-looks, heh, hell any nerd playin’ should want a piece of her. Then she gets to tell em’ she was taken, that be a riiiiot!

Miu was flabbergasted at how hard the game had actually turned out to be, she let out a loud “eep!” whenever anyone had attacked her, usually running towards your side and asking for backup, which usually ended up in the both of you barely surviving.

She was prone to raging or sulking whenever she had died, but you were there to calm her down! It’s just a game after all, isn’t i- “Miu what are you doing.”

“I’m building an invention to play for me, so I can fuck whoever killed us up! Obviously?”

“Miu... we’re supposed to play together...?”

“... But... the taste of sweet fuckin’ revenge...?” ... Actually, she was right, the taste of revenge was quite satisfying, really filling too, but was it filling enough...

“Can we at least play together again when we get the sweet satisfying taste of revenge filled?”

“Duh.”

“Oh of course then.”

Kokichi Ouma

It was frightening, your boyfriend had discovered you're hidden away MMO game, then teased you for being a “dork” at first before asking if he could be your “Player 2”.

Or if he could play with you, in “non-dork” language. Least you could do, since you had hidden suuuuch an important fact from him.

.... You had hesitantly agreed, then helped him with creating his character, you were surprised for him to pick the “Cleric” class, then made them a girl, a really cute one at that.

You had asked why the only response you got was: “catfishing” and you decided that was a problem you didn’t need to get into yourself that can of worms...

... He... was surprisingly good at healing you, almost like he had played the game before, but you just thought he was good at adapting quickly, only wish you didn’t have your boyfriend flirting with some other players.

... there was only one thing about all of it, whenever your health got low, the stakes had gotten harsh, your boyfriend... became monstrous, suddenly turning to you when you had started asking for healing so you can continue forward.

One line had escaped his lips, every time you were in the middle of a boss fight, every time you really needed that healing with those spells which he had the correct amount of MP for...

“Kokichi! Please! HELP ME! All of them are going to kill me if you don’t restore my HP right now!” You said as you were barely dodging any enemies that had attacked you, Kokichi was watching from the sidelines from a safe distance.

“... Oh, then perish.” That was all he responded with, your hands ached too much to move anymore, you succumbed to your fate and perished, Kokichi snickering to himself.

...

Then he revived you, just like that.

“Neeheeheehee... It’s always fun to see you fighting so hard like that~!”

“I don’t wanna play anymore...”

Maki Harukawa

How did the two of you end up like this, you holding your girlfriend by the waist with all the power your arms had in them, as your girlfriend, on the verge of throwing her computer out the window looked down at you with that harsh glare of hers, quietly telling you to: “let go”.

This is how it happened, Maki had recently seen you huddled towards your computer, one day she questioned what you were doing and you responded with telling her it was an MMO game you were recently getting into!

Maki... had asked if you could introduce her to it, she had found it... interesting how you had put so much attention into some video game, Maki Harukawa? Asking you for anything?

Of course, you introduce her to it, first was the customization of your character...! Maki... had chosen the ranger much to your surprise, she said she just didn’t want to get a confrontation with her enemies, let you do most of the work which you weren’t sure how to take that as...

Maki made her character look... edgy, she had chosen most of the customization options that gave a slight bit of... backbite to it, you told her you thought it looked: “cute”.

Maki fumbled with her hair trembling with a flushed face as you both continued forward, it looked peaceful then, little did you know what’s as to come...

...

Maki wasn’t used to technology, she didn’t grow up looking forward to fiddling with a computer every day, all of this was foreign to her from the attack button to moving so... Maki had accidentally... backtracked into the enemy, you told her mistakes are bound to happen, but then it came to her fifteenth time of dying.

...

She walked off a cliff, she was already boiling with rage by that point so when you had asked if you wanted to take a break she had picked up the computer, before taking slow steps towards the window, you tried stopping her!

So here you are now, pleading with your girlfriend so she doesn’t throw the computer out the window.

“... Hahn... Fiiine... just stop pulling at my waist, I’ll put it back...”

...

Oh thank god, you let go.

You try to comfort her, she was obviously still sulking after dying so many times.

It’s decided you to teach Maki how to use computer’s better before even dating to thrust her into another MMO game, never again, never again.

#maki harukawa #mod shuichi #mod shumai #kokichi ouma #shuichi saihara #miu iruma #kaede akamatsu #tsumugi shirogane

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rose-red-ink · 6 years ago

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Shadows and Thrones, Chapter One

Hey everyone, thanks for showing interest in my book! I’ll be adding a link to this and subsequent chapters on my masterlist page. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 1

Everything began to fade away; the bed beneath me, the press of the metal headset in front of my eyes, the quiet birdsong outside my window. The world faded to black as my mind was teleported to somewhere far away and nowhere all at once.

The world of Shadows and Thrones, the newest VR game on the market. The darkness around me started to swirl with muted color, consolidating into a generic female avatar standing a few feet in front of me.

Dozens of menus popped up, offering height, weight, hair color, race, skin color, fighter class, and more things to choose from than my overly-excited brain could settle on. A grin on my face, I set to work.

My boots touched down with a soft crunch in a beautiful pine forest. The trees stretched tall and green above my head, swaying gently in the breeze. The sharp scent of pine needles touched my nose, and I couldn’t contain a tiny gasp. Full-dive virtual reality really was amazing. A thrill rushed in my chest, a familiar ache to run and climb and explore every inch of this new world.

‘And then what?’ a little voice whispered in my head. ‘You’ll explore this world, it’ll be all fun and exciting for a few months. It won’t make you happy.’

I shook my head. “Shut up.”

I was here, the sun shining in a dappled pattern over my avatar’s skin, a whole new world stretching out before me. I didn’t have to be thinking about all that, I shouldn’t.

I took a deep breath through my nose, taking in the scents of pine and damp earth and freshly baked bread, somewhere off in the distance. Probably a town, one with a tavern.

I could find some other players, try to join a guild, or even just a party for a few days as I got used to things. Maybe people might want me in their guild, if I didn’t mess up too much.

Squaring my shoulders, I walked towards the direction of the smell. As the trees thinned out, I could see a village across the fields of grass, chimney smoke rising into the clear blue sky. Perfect.

The tavern was filled with players of all races crowded around tables. An NPC barmaid pushed past me, delivering mugs of mead to a drow and some kind of water spirit race, before bustling back to the bar.

Everyone seemed to know everyone else, groups of friends and old guilds meeting up. A girl in low-cut armor lounged in the corner, hitting on whoever walked by, and acting super friendly to any girl players who wandered past.

I steered clear. I’d played enough video games to know who those kinds of players were.

But as the tavern filled with more players, my hesitation grew. My eyes drifted to the notice board. I could put up a sign, saying I needed a guild to join, but that could yield...uncomfortable results.

So I sat on a bar stool, picking at my long fingernails, for what seemed like forever.

After nearly an hour, I sighed and resigned myself to just making a notice board post and hoping whoever picked me up wasn’t too creepy.

Looking for guild!

My name’s Risty Blackburn, I’m a level one shadow rogue, leaning towards a DPS role.. Looking for a guild to join. No spam or roleplaying guilds, please!

ID contact number: 78349375841

‘You really think anyone’s going to be interested with that? Just log out and stop wasting your time.’

I winced, tearing down the notice. I mentally called up the menu screen, reaching for the logout button.

I tapped it. Nothing happened.

I frowned. Tapped again.

The tavern still bustled around me.

Maybe the headgear took a couple minutes to shut down? The instruction manual said it was supposed to be instantaneous, but this was a new game. They probably had to work out a few bugs.

I waited five minutes. Ten. Fifteen.

Then, my stomach flipped. An elf player stood, reaching for his menu, and disappeared in a flash of light.

He was logged out instantly. Was something wrong with my VR gear? Or the game?

I hurried over to the table he had just left. A dwarf man and some sort of cat woman looked up at me expectantly.

My stomach dropped. “H-hello.” I managed. “I, uh, have either of you had a problem logging out? I saw your friend did, but mine isn’t working.”

The dwarf rolled his eyes. “It’s not that hard, noob.”

He pulled up his menu, pointing to the logout button. “See? Right here.”

Frustration boiled inside me. “I know.” I snapped, pulling it up. “But it doesn’t work.”

I demonstrated, the button still yielding no results.

The cat-woman frowned, looking at my screen. “That’s weird…”

The dwarf sneered. “Go figure it out yourself.”

The cat-woman smacked his arm with a disapproving glare, before looking back to me. “I’d go to the city hall. There are some friendly NPCs who can help with any glitches.”

I nodded, thanking her.

So I just needed to get bug sorted out. That was all. Everything would be fine. But I couldn’t shove aside the sinking feeling in my chest as I left the tavern and into the coming sunset.

Something was off.

“What the hell do you mean?!”

The enraged roar was what greeted me as I walked into the city hall. An elf man was yelling at an NPC with a politely blank expression.

“You do not meet the requirements to log out right now.” the computer-generated man said calmly.

“If you say that one more time--”

“You can’t log out?” I interrupted. Which I immediately regretted as he whirled on me, green eyes blazing with anger.

“Figure that out all by yourself?” he snarled. “The stupid logout button doesn’t work.”

I shrank back. “Mine doesn’t work either.” I managed. “That’s why...why I’m here.”

He looked at me with narrowed eyes, before moving aside.

“Talk to him,” he ordered.

I hesitated, before walking quickly past him, in front of the NPC.

“Hello,” I said quietly.

He smiled politely, his settings reset to talk to me. “Good evening, adventurer. How may I help you?”

“I can’t log out.” I explained.

He smiled. “Alright! I’ll pull up your profile and see what I can do. Please stay patient.”

His expression went blank again.

“This takes a while.” the elf explained. He kept fidgeting, picking the sleeves of his long cloak. From his clothes and the starter’s bow slung over his shoulder…

“You’re a ranger, right?” I asked.

He looked down. “Oh...yeah.”

I nodded. “It looks...nice.” His avatar did look good, it was clear he had spent lots of time on it. His skin was light brown, with long black hair loose around his shoulders. His eyes were dark green, like the pine forest I had spawned in. But his eyes kept darting around impatiently, never settling on anything for too long.

“Did you need to log out for something?” I asked.

He grimaced. “I...yeah. I just got a message from my sister a few minutes ago, she went into labor. I’m gonna miss the birth of my new niece or nephew if this bug doesn’t clear up.”

I winced. “Ugh, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault.” he scratched the back of his head. “Sorry I was yelling.”

I smiled. “It’s alright, I understand. You’re probably freaking out a bit for your sister, right?”

He gave a tight, stressed laugh. “Yeah. But I mean, her husband’s taking her to the hospital, and my mom is with her...she’ll be okay. It’s just irritating.”

He shook his head, as if trying to clear out his intruding thoughts, and held out his hand. “Anyway...I’m Lorson Clearwater”

I shook it. “Risty Blackburn.”

He grinned. “Okay, that’s a cool name. And a neat avatar.”

I couldn’t help my smile. “Yeah, it took me an hour,” I admitted.

My avatar had long, dark red hair, turning to golden blonde as it reached the tips. Her skin was dappled with freckles, and she wore simple black leather armor under a reddish-brown cloak. A couple simple daggers were strapped to her belt. But the best parts were the ears and tail. They were those of a fox, and the same red-brown as the cloak, tipped in white.

“Kitsune is a pretty cool race. I figured I’d go classic, though,” he admitted, looking down at his avatar.

“Nothing wrong with classics.” I reminded him cheerfully.

He smiled, some of the tension seeming to leave his face. “Right? Elves are awesome.”

“Ms. Blackburn, I’ve finished your scan.” the NPC interrupted.

I turned, heart pounding. “Thank you. What did you find? Can I log out?”

The NPC smiled. “You do not meet the requirements to log out. Thank you.”

Four hours later, Lorson got a message from his mother that his sister had given birth to a healthy baby boy. She was annoyed he hadn’t been there. He told her something had come up, that there was an accident, but he was okay.

Lorson and I couldn’t get any more answers out of the NPC, so the two of us had gone out of the hall, and sat on the marble steps. He’d halfheartedly suggested we go try out the combat system, but I’d just shrugged. The excitement I’d felt for the game’s release had been replaced by a cold, leeching dread.

What if I tried dying?

“You can’t log out either, can you?”

A voice made him look up. Two more players stood in front of him. A girl with short, dark purple hair plopped down on the steps, visibly fuming. Her long staff and dark blue robes meant she was a mage or some kind of spellcaster.

“This is BS.” she snapped.

The other player with her smiled apologetically at Lorson and I, before sitting down next to her.

“We’ll figure it out, Kaia,” he said gently. His heavy armor, golden hair, and broadsword marked him as some sort of tank, probably a paladin. “We’ve already sent a troubleshoot request, we just need to wait.”

He sat down next to the girl in the blue robes, giving them an apologetic smile.

I glanced above his head, the name there was “Edun”.

“I was supposed to video chat with some friends tonight, but the stupid NPCs say I can’t log out!” Kaia snapped. “What the hell are the “qualifications for logging out”? What does that even mean?!”

“I’d be happy to explain, miss.”

We all looked up to see a generic human player standing a few feet away. I frowned. His player name and HP bar weren’t visible, which I didn’t even think was possible.

“And who the hell are you?” Kaia sneered.

The man smiled. He had a kind, if not generic face. “My name is Adrius. I’m the reason you’ll all be staying in this game, for the foreseeable future.”

#Shadows and Thrones #Risty #Edun #Kaia #Lorson #VR #Writeblr #WIP #Thanks for reading!#Please like and reblog #If you enjoyed

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lavellenchanted · 6 years ago

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25 Dragon Age Questions

Tagged by @denerim, thank you Sophia!!!! ✨✨ Tagging: @whiskasgirl, @lotsofthinkythoughts and any other Dragon Age fans who want to answer these!

01) Favourite game of the series? Inquisition. In terms of writing and narrative I think Origins in the best, but I enjoy playing Inquistion the most and it has more of my favourite characters.

02) How did you discover Dragon Age? My dad! He got Origins when it came out and told me he thought I’d enjoy it, so I gave it a go and never looked back!

03) How many times you’ve played the games? I’ve lost count, tbh, although I’ve probably spent more time starting new playthroughs and spending hours in the CC than actually finishing the games.

04) Favourite race to play as? ELVES. It’s gotten to the point where whenever my dad sees me booting one of the games up now he asks which of my many elves I’ll be playing.

05) Favourite class? Dual-wield rogue. I like being able to pick locks.

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? I’ve created lots of different characters deliberately to roleplay different choices (and romance different characters), but there are certain choices/dialogue options I tend to favour because I feel bad if I choose meaner options . . .

07) Go-to adventuring group? Origins: Alistair, Wynne, Leliana 2: Fenris, Anders, Aveline Inquisition: Cassandra, Dorian, Iron Bull/Varric (I interchange them a lot depending on whether I want another tank or ranged)

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into? Liadan, my Warden, and Eilidh, my Inquisitor, are probably my most fleshed out and the ones I’ve thought the most about as my canon heroes.

09) Favourite romance? Cullen! I loved his romance so much and I have spent so many hours thinking about his and Eilidh’s relationship.

10) Have you read any of the comics/books? I’ve not read them, but I’ve read summaries.

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book? N/A, I guess!

12) Favourite DLCs? The Stone Prisoner is a fave because I adore Shale, but I also loved all the possibilities that were opened up with Trespasser and the fact that I got to watch Cullen and Eilidh canonically get married.

13) Things that annoy you? Yeah, gotta agree with Sophia, the fandom’s pretty awful. Also the horrific vanilla options for hair and eyebrows in the CC.

14) Orlais or Ferelden? FERELDAN.

15) Templars or mages? In terms of the choices as offered in the game: mages. In a general context: both. I would reform the system that positions them as the mages’ gaolers and makes the mages prisoners, and I would want to address the use of lyrium that controls Templars by turning them into addicts, but I wouldn’t get rid of the Templar order entirely - in a world where not everyone has magical abilities, I think it makes sense to have an order of fighters who are capable of dispelling and combating magic.

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? The same one! I’ve created characters for pretty much every origin in both Origins and Inquistion and worked out how they all survive and fit into the wider context in which Liadan and Eilidh are the Hero of Fereldan and Inquisitor respectively.

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc) Liadan’s mabari was called Fenrir (this was before DA2 came out and Fenris was introduced) and Marian’s is called Cerberus. Cullen and Eilidh’s mabari is called Cavall, and Eilidh’s hart is called Llamrei (yes, there was a theme in how I named them).

18) Have you installed any mods? Now that I have a PC capable of playing them instead of just a PS4, YES.

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden? No, not really - certainly not if she had had another option. But her survival instinct is strong and given choices were a terrible, painful death from the taint or the possibility of life as a Warden (one that might have more resources for finding Tamlen), she went with Duncan willingly.

20) Hawke’s personality? Mostly diplomatic, with some sarcasm thrown in now and then. Marian won’t hesitate to fight if provoked or backed into a corner, but she’s of the opinion that she will generally benefit more if she’s not the one doing the provoking.

21) Did you make matching armour for your companions in Inquisition? Uh, no, I just focused on making Eilidh’s armour pretty and let the companions’ armour do its own thing.

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? If she could, Liadan would want to change things so that Tamlen lived - but she’d try to find a way to do so without then condemning the rest of Thedas if she wasn’t recruited. Marian would want to try and save Carver and her mother.

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? Mmm that they’re all in the same universe and most end up with the Inquistion? Ysabel romancing Krem is technically against canon, I guess, but idc, they’re in love, end of story.

Also I headcanon that Ninaeve does move on from Solas - as much as she loved him, she feels that his choosing his not to give up his plans, even knowing it might mean the destruction of everyone and everything she cares about, is kind of a point of no return for the relationship and that she deserves more than that. She wants to save/stop him for his own sake, but she can’t be with him after everything that’s happened. Instead, she finds the true, reciprocal love she deserves in Zevran, who becomes the Inquistion’s spymaster after Leliana becomes Divine.

Also that Marian gets out of the Fade and gets back to Fenris, I guess?

24) Who did you leave in the Fade? Hawke. It felt like the right character choice for her - she holds herself responsible for not killing Corypheus, so she would make that sacrifice to ensure the others got out. But also she has a habit of surviving things most people wouldn’t, so I like to think she kills the Fear Demon and finds a way out of the Fade eventually.

25) Favourite mount? I tended to use the Brecilian Sure-Foot hart for Eilidh, because the harts look super cool.

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