#coast tag

[ashwings-woah]

Golden and brightly colored scales are a symbol of good luck and abundance in the coast, given their rarity and association with the deity of food and bountiful plentitude, Merluta (name subject to change). They're depicted as a golden dragon with shimmering scales and long, flowing fins, and simplified as a golden carp in art. As such, dragons with chimerism or shiny, warm toned scales are chosen the most for the dinemaster rank, mostly due to superstition and them being seen as blessed by Merluta.

Coast strikers keep calendars on slabs of slate with registers of major events during the year, and a small drawing of a carp atop the slate serves the purpose of judging the year: if it's drawn fat and plump, it was a good year, but a withered and skinny fish denotes a bad year.

[itsjaywalkers]

you may like coast barty but i like him in a better, deeper, and more meaningful way

[spacenintendogs]

hiccup: my dad after he said "keep the damn dragon off the bed"

[filibusterfrog]

east coast woes (one day apart)

[animeglitch]

[ishizylonnn]

Hopping on the bandwagon Teeheehee

[chickenscribbles]

[wingbuffet]

The 'Smoldering Corpse', a bar in the planar city of Sigil from D&D's upcoming 'Sigil and the Outlands' book (and originally from Planescape Torment)

Never have I painted so many NPCs in such a big scene, with so many little stories going on :D

[essektheylyss]

A funny thing that was said in the episode was, in his description of the house, Liam specifying that Caleb "teaches from time to time" at Soltryce Academy, which raises so many questions about both how academic appointments work here and also Caleb's financial situation.

For instance, is Caleb just a guest lecturer at Astrid's behest? What's happening with that now that she (and, from what it sounds like, most of the Assembly) is in the wind? Do they have adjunct positions? Does he piss off the administration often enough that his classes get cut every other semester? Does he travel so frequently that a full time position isn't feasible? In that case, how much is he tutoring? And what is he doing besides snooping on Ludinus's activities? (Also who is taking care of the garden while the house is empty?)

In that vein, what's his primary line of income? It's clearly stable enough to have maintained the same house for several years—does he own it outright? Is he cobbling enough together from his various teaching gigs plus whatever he's making from adventuring? Is he technically employed by the Cobalt Soul? Being a wizard is expensive even when you're camping in the woods most nights; it's probably a lot worse when you've got costs for house maintenance to worry about.

Personally I think the funniest option is the Cobalt Soul keeping him on retainer for very high profile investigations that are of interest to him (so, you know, primarily the Ludinus situation, but considering there's at least one other wizard on Beau and Caleb's kill list, probably anything involving high level mages). Specifically because it implies that the Empire has a strong stance against the concept of Non-Compete clauses.

[weevmo]

Hihi, could you maybe accept some more lore to your after home wally as request for art? Have a good day!!

More under cut! Decided to go WAY back to do some preliminary explaining for it; explore Home and Wally's relationship and "responsibilities" .

[ashwings-woah]

Leviathans are, by large, completely unknown. At a surface level, they may seem like bigger versions of the vicious sea serpents that plague the waters in the Roaring Coast. However if one is to study them further, they would soon realize this isn't the case. Leviathans are rarely seen, and barely understood. Gargantuan underwater behemoths that live out in deep and open waters, many are almost dragon-like in appearance, though some speak of beasts that look like no known animal in land or water.

Few encounters are known about, and ever fewer come out unscathed. Many go missing only to turn up dead at shore a few days later with no visible external wounds, while others go completely mad. Those who had the rare inoffensive sightings report strange feelings and a warped sense of time and reality, and advice to never look at them directly in the eyes.

As such, it's no surprise they are seen as gods or demons, and that it's strictly prohibited to venture out far to sea. Some things in the abyss are better off staying in the deep.

[itsjaywalkers]

and what if i kiss you laurie what THEN

(i too want to put that man in a jar and shake him around a bit good god)

I WILL KISS YOU BACK??? OBVIOUSLY???

(understandable he's just . fascinating . and like i want him but in a i need to open him up and study him way u know?? anyways this acc is a coast barty fan club atp and i regret nothing)

[huanted-dennys]

My warm ups for the last few days

This time it’s mermaid au themed

siren?

idk take em

I love the idea of bored out of his mind Jazz

also thalassophobic Jazz

[leidensygdom]

Hasbro's CEO is, once again, expressing interest in using AI at WOTC

Not surprising, but I think his own chit-chat about it (directed at shareholders, of course) is quite the read (derogatory):

"Inside of development, we've already been using AI. It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid. I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI. If you look at a typical D&D player....I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, we need to make sure we pay creators for their work, and we need to make sure we're clear when something is AI-generated. But the themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling, I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands."

This directly fights against WOTC's already very weak claims about not wanting to use AI (after massive backslash from players anytime they had tried to get away with it), and does paint quite the bleak future for DnD and Magic the Gathering. AI usage doesn't really benefit the consumer in any way- It's like a company known for nice homemade cakes trying to tell you that factory made cakes are actually also good and you should be buying them too. The cakes aren't better. You can get those cakes elsewhere. The only person benefiting from factory made cakes is the one selling them, because they're the one saving time and money by making them that way.

But short-term benefits (through firing large portions of their artists and replacing them with AI made slop) outweighs any attempt to maybe get some trust from their already alienated consumers back. I also find it kind of incredibly funny and pathetic how this man claims to play DnD with about 30 to 40 people and "how every single one of them uses AI". I'm not entirely sure this guy is even aware of how DnD groups are usually sized, and how you would not have any physical time to do anything if you somehow played with 40 players on the regular (that'd be about 10 games!)

Anyways, as always, there's nice TTRPGs out there that don't absolutely despise their customer base nor are obsessed with cutting any remains of humanity out of their product to save a few cents. Play Lancer, play Blades in the Dark, play Pathfinder or Starfinder 2e if you want the DnD experience without the bullshit. Plenty of options out there that deserve your money far more than DnD.

[thiinka]

[keplercryptids]

if you've never considered playing anything other than D&D 5e, now might be the time to start.

as you may have heard, Wizards of the Coast wrote up a new Open Game License that was leaked and it's really, really bad. (i linked to the article about it yesterday but here's a twitter thread of the author of that article summarizing it.)

i'll attempt my own breakdown of what this means here:

the new OGL revokes the previous OGL. this is bad for so many reasons, and will affect all kinds of TTRPGs like Pathfinder, and third-party publishers like Kobold's Press.

it also means that character sheets wouldn't be able to be used in unauthorized virtual table tops anymore, including Roll20, Foundry, etc.

the new OGL grants WotC a perpetual, irrevocable license to all third-party content produced and published under the old OGL, as well as future content. for example, if WotC hypothetically liked Dimension 20's Unsleeping City setting enough, it could sell products related to that setting, without needing D20's permission.

the new OGL can be updated, changed or revoked with only 30 days' notice. truly wild.

anybody who makes more than $750k revenue (not profit, but revenue) has to pay 20-25% over that amount in royalties to WotC. this will affect so many kickstarters raising funds for indie TTRPG systems that used to fall under the original OGL. $750k sounds like a lot but keep in mind publishing books is expensive.

this is really, really bad. WotC will probably go back on some of this based on public response, and a lawsuit may make them go back on even more. (some of what they're trying to do here is illegal? i think?) but they'll likely still push forward with some of it.

it seems WotC's goal is to 1) appease shareholders (which in late-stage capitalism means "exponential growth forever") and 2) create a closed ecosystem for d&d that's completely under WotC's financial control. think: D&D Beyond being the only place you can access any D&D content, character sheets, etc. and i mean, in general, they've shown a pattern of greed and weighing corporate interests more heavily than their customers or employees.

now would be a great time to move away from d&d if you've ever considered doing so, or to consider it if you haven't.

if you want something similar to d&d 5e mechanically but a bit crunchier, try pathfinder 2e. if you want narrative-focused storytelling games, try Powered by the Apocalypse or FATE systems. if you want a mechanics-forward episodic style of play, try Forged in the Dark systems. if you want a cross-genre game with freeform character creation, try Savage Worlds. and this is an extreme short list of the great TTRPGs out there! a lot of systems that, IMO, people would have more fun playing than d&d, just based on preferred style of play. try them out and please don't give WotC anymore money lol.