#chel talks dnd

[romijuli]

I can’t quite run dnd (so many numbers. variable success thresholds. does not compute well with chel brain) and I’m not entirely sure what other systems I could run this idea with, but I have this campaign idea in my head of like. Characters whose stories never got to finish getting catapulted into a new adventure of some sort.

[quaxorascal]

my D&D character carries a log that she carves updates on her adventures and discoveries in. She calls it her 'Adventurer's Log'.

What the hell, that’s hilarious

While neither of my kids are really into writing about their adventures, Fyf loves telling stories about shit they and their party have gotten up to!! “Puzal’s wings fell off”, “chests can eat people”, such like that

[metalandmagi]

August Media Madness

Well, August may have sucked for me personally, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t keep track of all the media I consumed this month! And spoiler alert, I watched a lot of movies involving adorable talking bears. Although, I have a feeling that as soon as the fall television premieres start, I’ll be watching a lot less movies.

July’s media

Movies!

Dear Evan Hansen

Thank you bootlegs. This isn’t a movie, but I didn’t want to make a separate category for plays when I’ve only seen one this month. Anyway, if you haven’t heard of it, Dear Evan Hansen involves an incredibly anxious teenage boy who is tasked by his therapist to write motivational letters to himself. Unfortunately, Connor Murphy, an angsty boy who goes to Evan’s school sees one of the letters, takes it, and promptly decides to kill himself, with the letter still on his person. Everyone ends up thinking he and Evan were friends and that this letter was a suicide note that Connor wrote to Evan...and a beautiful fake gay relationship friendship was born. Call me basic as hell, but I’ve watched this show twice now, and listened to the soundtrack more times than I can count, and it’s turning into my favorite musical. There are so many important messages in it, and it takes you on a roller coaster of emotions. Every character does good and bad things, and no one is blameless or innocent...except maybe Zoe Murphy. If anything just listen to the soundtrack. 10/10

Night on the Galactic Railroad

Cats...on a mystical train...This seems like the kind of movie they would show you in film school. Very dull plot and characters with the themes being the main takeaway. What even is the plot of this movie? Darker, grittier, furry version of the Polar Express? Incredibly boring slightly more religious version of Over the Garden Wall? I just kept watching it because the main character looks like a cat version of Kagayama Tobio in middle school...cat-gayama. 4/10

Paddington

An adorable bear from South America travels to London and gets into all sorts of trouble with an English family. It’s very charming and sweet, and the aesthetic in this movie is on point, like Wes Anderson directed a children’s movie. This is one of those movies you hear about where everyone loves it, and you think it can’t possibly be that good, but then you watch it and you were wrong! So wrong! 10/10

Paddington 2

Naturally. This time an adorable South American bear goes to prison, and his family tries to clear his name. Again, A+ aesthetic and imagery, but I think I preferred the plot of the first movie a little more because everyone was all together. 9/10

Christopher Robin

Do you like Winnie the Pooh? Do you like jaded adults finding happiness in their lives again? Do you think the movie Hook had a good premise but was extremely long and kinda boring and could have been a better movie with a little tweaking? Well this is the movie for you! Christopher Robin has grown into an overworked adult, and his old friend Winnie the Pooh inadvertently helps him reconnect with his wife and daughter (and also his inner child) just by being the sweet, clumsy, dry humored bear we all know and love. I was so skeptical of this movie at first, and I was absolutely blown away by how funny and meaningful it was. 100/10

The Road to El Dorado

Two lovable Spanish con men named Miguel and Tulio are accidentally swept away on a journey to the fabled city of El Dorado, where everything is made of gold. Once they reach the city, the locals believe they’re gods due to an (un)fortunate series of coincidences, and the con men try to keep up the charade with the help of the best character in the movie, Chel (who I’m pretty sure caused an entire generation of lesbians’ sexual awakening). This is one of my favorite animated movies of all time and one of the reasons I wish Dreamworks would go back to their 2D animation days, where the visuals and music were just as stunning as 3D movies are now. This movie is a classic, and I desperately want a sequel! 10/10

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

When Lara Jean thinks it’s a good idea to write 5 secret love letters to 5 boys that she’s had crushes on over the years, everything is fine until her little sister mails the letters to all the boys (because even a 6th grader knows Lara Jean is lonely and emotionally stunted as fuck). This is a Netflix original movie that was adapted from the book by Jenny Han...which I haven’t read, but now I really want to. Overall, this was super cute, but I wasn’t really crazy about the boys. They weren’t horrible people or anything, and they never pressured Lara Jean or made fun of her for being “innocent”, but they were just kind of bland. I’m much more interested in the other boys we didn’t see in the movie! But the family relationships were so heartfelt, Lara Jean’s fashion sense is AMAZING, and the acting/casting was awesome. 8/10

Summer Wars

I...don’t even know how to describe the plot of this one. A teenage boy named Kenji goes on a country holiday and pretends to date an acquaintance of his in order to impress her enormous family...but it’s really about an AI that becomes sentient and wants to mess up the world through this universal internet program called OZ that’s kind of like a mashup of Facebook and Second Life...but actually no it’s about family sticking together and using a Japanese card game to save the world…but apparently it’s got the same plot as the Digimon movie because they’re both directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Yeah...

Guys, I have a confession to make...this has always been my favorite Mamoru Hosoda movie. Everyone falls all over themselves saying Wolf Children is the best Mamoru Hosoda movie, and that’s great for them but it doesn’t even come in second for me. Summer Wars means a lot more to me personally because I come from a big extended family, and when I first saw this movie, I was blown away by how accurate the family dynamic was. There are so many characters, but everyone has their own personality. Not to mention the music makes the summer atmosphere so on point. And I’m not going to lie...I bawled like a fucking baby the first time I saw this movie. So anyway, I like Summer Wars more than Wolf Children, thanks for coming to my TED talk. 10/10

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Unappreciated researcher Milo Thatch goes on an expedition to find the lost city of Atlantis.

Okay, there are two kinds of Disney fans in this world: Treasure Planet fans, and Atlantis fans. And I will support Treasure Planet as the best underrated vaguely steampunk inspired Disney movie until you can pry my 15 year old dvd copy away from my cold dead hands. But Atlantis is pretty good too. I could write essays comparing the two and why both of them should be successful but weren’t. My main problem with it is that the characters are great, but I feel like we don’t see enough of them, and as a kid a lot of the humor went by so fast that I completely missed it. Also the glowing eyes and spirits taking over the Atlantian princess’s body freaked me the fuck out as a child. NEVERTHELESS! This really is a great movie, with extremely well developed lore and well designed characters that chills me to this day. 8/10

Deadpool 2

The merc with a mouth is back, and man there’s so much going on in this movie I won’t even try to explain the plot. I literally had to go back and add this in because I was so into this movie when I was watching it that I forgot to write it down! Even though I really liked this sequel, I think I liked the first one better, just based on how much I laughed. There was so much going on plot wise, but it really seemed to work for this movie. There were also a lot of great new characters (Domino is my favorite character of the franchise now), but since there was so much stuff going on, a lot of jokes and plot lines were sort of hit and miss. Anyway, I’m sure everyone’s seen this one by now but just in case, I highly recommend it. 9/10

Books!

The Adventure Zone Graphic Novel: Here There be Gerblins by Clint McElroy (technically all the McElboys) and Carey Pietsch

Yeah yeah, for anyone who doesn’t know I’m Adventure Zone trash okay. TAZ is a DnD podcast where 3 brothers and their father create one of the most famous campaigns in history involving three idiot adventurers going on a quest to find a missing person and getting sucked into a much larger grand plan to protect the world. This graphic novel is a visualization of the first arc. I don’t even really like Here There be Gerblins all that much, and yet here I am. Oh well, the art was amazing, and of course I already knew the story. But it was kind of hilarious to see the name changes they had to make to some of the characters and places. I was a little disappointed that the ending was so rushed, and we don’t really spend time around the moon base before The Director is in our face changing the Lunar Interlude parts but whatever. 10 dead gerblins/10

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

When a disease that only affects children kills off nearly all the kids on the planet, the survivors are left with supernatural powers and are taken away to concentration camps in order to “protect” the public. I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time, and since the movie just came out I thought it was the perfect time. This is one of those books that some people adore and some people hate. I thought it was just okay. For everything that I didn’t like, there was something to make up for it. Personally, I felt that Bracken focused on the wrong part of the story. Everything takes place years after this disease has come, and I think it would have been more interesting to see everything from the children’s points of view when this disease was first starting. I would focus on each different character as a child and how they wound up in their respective camps. Oh well, there’s way too many pros and cons  that I could delve into, but you like the YA dystopian genre then I say go for it. I didn’t like it enough to read the other two books (not yet anyway). 7/10

TV Shows!

Camp Camp

You know how there are summer camps that specialize in science, or acting, or space, or whatever? Yeah Camp Camp is about a summer camp that throws literally everything you can think of into one summer camp. If you don’t believe me, just listen to the theme song. Seriously though this is one of the best shows I’ve watched all year, but boy howdy this is not one for young children. It’s like Gravity Falls and Rick and Morty had a baby! Anyway, the characters are both surprising and hilarious. David the camp counselor (voiced by Miles Luna) is genuinely likable when you think he’d be the most annoying person on the planet, and the kids are so accurate it’s scary. Also Yuri Lowenthal is in it. And Griffin McElroy has a recurring role where he plays A GHOST! I’ve never been into Rooster Teeth stuff, but they have a winner with this one. 10/10

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

After her husband leaves her, Midge Maisel gets super drunk, goes on stage, and gives a hilarious rant about her relationship at a small comedy/talent club and somehow gets sucked into becoming a rising comedian as a woman in the 1950s. It’s good. Great acting pretty funny, but Midge and her agent/manager Susie are the only likable characters. Everyone else just kind of...sucks 8/10

Voltron Season 7 (spoilers)

Okay, I know everyone had mixed feelings about this season, but I did come out liking a lot of it. It had a lot of flaws (I really thought it would be Shiro’s season, and man was I wrong), but this is the sort of thing we can’t really judge until the last episode of the series is finished. I like to think of the positives: the action was amazing as usual, HUNK IS GETTING MORE AND MORE DEVELOPMENT EVERY SEASON, I refuse to believe the team introduced Adam just to have him killed off immediately so he’s still alive in my mind, we get to see everyone’s reunions with their families, the lost in space episode was cool, and say what you want about the game show episode, but I loved it! There were a lot of good things so it was easier for me to look past the...not so great aspects of the season. 7/10

Galavant

A musical comedy mini series involving a renowned medieval hero named Galavant on a quest to rescue his ex girlfriend from her “evil” husband King Richard. But maybe she doesn’t want to be rescued. Well, that’s just the first season. It’s best to go in knowing as little as possible. I remember liking it when it first came out, and it’s still pretty cute...but sometimes I feel like it’s trying too hard. A lot of the music isn’t really...memorable, but the characters are likable so it’s still worth the watch. 8/10

Disenchantment

Speaking of medieval comedies...Princess Bean doesn’t want to get married, mystical elf Elfo doesn’t want to live in an enchanted forest where everyone is happy all the time, and Bean’s personal demon Luci just wants to watch people suffer. Honestly, I wasn’t very into this show at first, but something compelled me to just keep watching, and by the end I was totally into it! This is one of those shows where you think there isn’t going to be a plot, but then the last few episodes come up and smack you in the face! 7.5/10

Round Planet

A documentary parody...mockumentary...satire...That’s really not a great way to describe it. It’s a nature documentary with funny commentary. I like nature shots and animals so I liked it, but there’s a lot of tangents and running jokes and British references that sometimes don’t land. Oh well, if you like unconventional documentaries, just watch it. 8/10

Honorable Mentions

DnDnD: I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this podcast before, but there’s a DnD podcast made by Practical Folks (aka the Drunk Disney youtube channel). It’s pretty good! I want an Adventure Zone crossover now!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Every time I think I’m out, it pulls me back in. I finally got the DLC and spent most of this month playing this freaking game AGAIN!

The Heathers soundtrack: I finally listened to the Heathers musical soundtrack...and I didn’t love it. There are some good songs in it, but overall I’m unimpressed. And I never could really get into the plot, I’ve always thought it was really weird and over dramatic.

Legendary by Stephanie Garber: I’m about halfway through this book, which is the second in the Caraval series. And it’s pretty good! More on that next month.

[theviolentlesbian]

I have such a hard time telling people I've know for ages that I'm nonbinary. Like my best friend from high school knows I'm pan (even tho that was only recently, she thought i was bi lol). Other friends from high school it's the same thing. I can gush about my girlfriend all night but idk how to talk about my pronouns or even open that discussion.

But with new people I've met? Like, wham. Right of the bat. New dnd group? "Yeah I'm nonbinary! They/them or she/her works!"

Reuniting with old internet friends? Friend comes out as nonbinary? Me too bud! Holy shit!!

And new people I've met online I'm just like hey yeah! It's me, ur nonbinary pal Chel!!

Coworkers r different but like..... Why is it so hard telling my old friends about this facet of myself? I just don't know how to broach this. It's not bad, cause like.... I don't mind she/her being used for me. It's more sharing the knowledge of who i am. And it's more difficult than i imagined

[romijuli]

All the things you reblog about dnd make it seem so cool and fun! But,, I don't have anyone I could play with and have no idea where to start

Have any tips on how to start? And if there's a way to play without meeting up in person?

Hi anon!!! Honestly, finding people to play with is possibly the hardest part of dnd, hehe. That and getting schedules to line up. (I got really lucky with my current campaigns; my bf is always ready for dnd, and some idle discussion about dnd on a discord server led to my other campaign!)

So, uh, I guess these are Chel’s (not-so) Hot Tips For Dnd! Or any ttrpg really cause like. There are SO MANY out there that deserve some love :3 (apologies for potential lack of coherence it is like 11pm where I’m at so I’m SLEEPY)

Okay so for starters we’re answering out of order but: I’ve actually been in only one campaign that met up in person! Most of my dnd experience has been virtual, whether over discord voice chat (several old campaigns) or zoom (my paladin’s campaign) or just a regular old text channel (my bard’s campaign). There are plenty of options for it if you can’t meet in person or just would prefer not to; actually, doing it virtually makes things a LOT easier in terms of getting a party together. Hell, you could even trash the whole “schedules lining up” part of it and just make it a play-by-post situation a la regular old RP. I’ve had a few campaigns that did that! (Rip telecodnd which I think is TECHNICALLY just on a really long hiatus but)

Dnd is becoming semi-cool nowadays—thank you actual play podcasts!—so odds are that any nerd-adjacent community you’re involved with has at least one person with dnd experience and a couple others who would be interested. Other than that, I believe there are discord servers and the like dedicated to helping people find folks interested in a campaign, but I don’t personally have experience with those so I can’t really speak to that.

Hardest or second-hardest aspect of getting a campaign together: figuring out who’s running it, honestly. DMing is hard; I have a little bit of experience with it in dnd and there are so many things to keep track of, but if someone in your potential group has some Cool Story Ideas in mind and the patience to herd three to six players, it might be for them! And if you’re lacking in Cool Story Ideas, god knows there are plenty of adventure modules online that you can run.

Speaking of which, you can find pretty much everything you need online without having to buy a single book. PIRATING IS YOUR FRIEND, REALLY. Wizards of the Coast is owned by hasbro they earn enough.

Talk about expectations and things before you start playing!!!! Stuff like topics you don’t want addressed, preferred roleplay-versus-just-monster-hunting, etc etc. it’ll save you a LOT of problems in the long run.

If you wanna get a feel for how dnd works ahead of time, there are plenty of podcasts available featuring people playing it! Critical Role is pretty well known and has plenty of material to work with, The Adventure Zone is generally sillier but shows off how Fucking Weird you can get with it (note; this is specifically about the Balance arc, I haven’t listened to the rest yet and I know that the second season actually isn’t dnd at all!), and Dimension 20 uses dnd to get REALLY neat with settings and concepts. And there are plenty more out there that I’m not familiar with!

Honestly just mucking around with character concepts ahead of time. Get weird with it!

Anyone who says you’re ‘playing wrong’ is a jerk.

[romijuli]

A3! WIP list

Considering I have more than one bigger project planned for this fandom I should probably….do this…

My policy with the dq one states I only put longer wips down—chaptered fic and/or series, specifically—so that is also the case here, though I will put one shitposty au that I may or may not get around to writing.

Definitely being written:

untitled problem children fic: (longfic) if I had a nickel for every time I gave Tsuzuru a semi-major crisis over a dramatic misunderstanding of the concept of fate, I would have two (2) nickels, which isn’t a lot but— (I have had this story idea since 2015 and I am ASTOUNDED that I could make this work for these three with minimal effort. How. HOW.)

untitled college theater au: (longfic + series?) or, “chel got a degree in this shit so they are using it to come up with cool situations for their fictional character dollhouse”. Basically all the y2 college kids are theater majors and the adults are their teachers (and the middle-to-high-schoolers somehow got drafted into the Juza Hyodo Fanclub). The longfic is some kinda juban slow burn onesided-rivals-to-lovers hell and the series part is because I just know it’s gonna spiral out of control send help

company cryptid Tsuzuru AU: currently untitled wholeass “situation swap” series where most characters have the same backstory, just a different time of entry into Mankai, (usually) a different troupe, and a slightly-tweaked issue. affectionately called “company cryptid tsuzuru AU” because tsuzuru starts off secretly living in the dorms so he doesn’t have to pay rent. this is a serious series.

Beyond the Sea (waiting for me): (wholeass au series) Main fic (Anchors): Prince Citron of the underwater kingdom of Zafra is transformed into a human to escape would-be assassins, but to stay he must find something to “tether” him to the surface; he sets his sights on Itaru, one of the four princes of the kingdom of Mankai. Meanwhile, his attendant Guy meets a poet in the royal court and kickstarts a search for his own origins. (Or; a Citoita little mermaid au with some background Homare/guy that spiraled wildly out of control). Other entries: just other stuff in that universe, or what happens when chel thinks too hard about an AU.

Finished:

A3! Rarepair Week 2021: (collection/self-imposed challenge) Set of seven eight (oops) fics following the guidelines set out here, with the added self-imposed caveat that I can only use one ship per character. Gotta figure out how to write ‘em all somehow.

they’re idiots, your honor: theoretically complete currently tsuzukazu-centric theoretically canon-compliant series where they are just. So dumb. (I say “currently” tsuzukazu-centric because a) there are other dumbasses at Mankai and b) it might not stay just tsuzukazu? No promises though.)

God only knows about this category:

Mankai TTRPG AU: mostly a bunch of shitposty stuff about autumn starting a dnd game and the rest of Mankai getting caught up in ttrpg hell. Is this an excuse to talk about non-dnd ttrpgs? Yeah.

Right Blooms, Wrong Season: (series) A roleswap of sorts in which Izumi and Matsukawa stumble upon Juza and the canonical Autumn Troupe first, effectively swapping them with Spring Troupe. Juza and Taichi in particular are living their best lives. Tsuzuru accidentally acquired a fanclub in Mankai before even joining and he is Suffering. (in this section because of the other roleswap)

[romijuli]

🖊 it's Goswin lovin' hours

It’s ALWAYS Goswin loving hours here at thechavanator dot tumblr dot com, because this child has claimed ownership of my heart. (Have I mentioned that he’s on the shortlist of replacement PCs in my biweekly dnd group? (Not shards, Terra will die over my dead body))

Hell doc has been EXTREMELY educational in writing Goswin, it seems; despite being incredibly nervous at most times (unless he is very comfortable around whoever he’s talking to), he’s actually surprisingly rational when it comes to romantic stuff?

Speaking personally, I always tended to assume “oh well no one would EVER be interested in me” until mister Chel’s very obvious interest in me clocked me in the face, but Goswin is really observant (researcher) and is a lot more able to pick up on stuff like that:

1-bun: WAIT HANG ON no oh-he-can’t-like-me-back spiral????

gos-lose: i have eyes, dear, and I’ve learned enough from dating you and erik to know when its reciprocated

gos-lose: also i love you dearly but it is very easy to be less oblivious than you

[quaxorascal]

Who do you think would have done that whole 'oh hey I'm bleeding' or 'best not let them know about that little scrape' thing out of all your OC's?

(In reference to this post)

‘Oh hey I’m bleeding’: I feel like Fyf actually did do this once? Aside from them, Smiley and Õe are both likely to do this

‘Best not to let them know’: W i l v e r, and honestly Alex and Callie too