#crazy how d20 is a good show

[hellishfig]

in preparation for fantasy high: junior year(!!!!!!!!!), i am finally watching pirates of leviathan

i tried a few months ago, but i couldn’t get through the first episode

resumed from where i left off a couple of days ago, and i’m so glad i did

the characters are captivating, the story is interesting and fun (and brennan is in his top anticapitalist form, we stan an icon), and the cameos and mentions of characters we met in sophomore year are exciting but don’t pull attention away from our incredible buccaneer buddies!

all in all an awesome season, i only have a couple of episodes left and i can’t wait!

[threetrenchcoatsinatrenchcoat]

one path in fiction (and reality) to help a character with a problem address it is to force them to interact with an exaggerated, funhouse mirror version of themselves and let them come to their own conclusion how they don't wanna be that.

my guess is Aabria had no specific personality plan for Tabby, but that Tabby was going to funhouse mirror whatever the gang had going on. and everyone had beautiful communal motives but also like desperation to be a part of things and help everyone else, and that but squared equals the Tabby we got.

[headful-of-worms]

Being a fan of dropout means being in love and deeply impressed with like 20 different people

[aroace-rizgukgak]

I don't even want to call myself an Ally "defender", because I shouldn't need to defend them at all! There should be enough FAIRNESS to know that you CANNOT get mad at a comedian for being silly on a comedy show!!!! There should be enough common sense to understand that EVERY PC ON D20 DOES CRAZY BITS. There should be celebration of how amazingly Ally has done as Kristen this season. Ally in half a season skyrocketed Kristen in my view from "I like her, she's funny and interesting" to "oh my god I love Kristen Applebees so much I'll CRY I LOVE HER". They're so good at showing humanity and flaws and the silliness of being a teenager. They're so entertaining everywhere they show up and I SHOULD NOT have to defend that they are. It should be obvious.

[hendrik-ten-napel]

Hendrik Biweekly: What's so funny about a coin flip? Comedy in Going for Broke

When I read Avery Alder's new game, I was reminded of a blog by Sam Dunnewold from a couple of years ago. You see, Alder designed a comedy game called Going for Broke, about a cast of housemates trying to scramble together some cash after they’re surprised by an unforeseen expense. (It's funding on Backerkit at time of writing.)

What took me back was the literal coin flip her game uses to determine the success of the cast’s plans, because a swingy resolution mechanic is a key ingredient of Dunnewold’s argument about what makes Dungeons & Dragons so suitable for comedy.

Rolling a d20

‘Few other games make it so easy to completely check out of how any of these stupid rules work and let you focus entirely on your Gardetto’s and memes,’ writes Dunnewold in Dungeons & Dragons is a Comedy Game, taking care to mention that all the rules business is delegated to D&D’s Dungeon Master role. The game’s load-bearing diceroll, though, is a different story:

What people do remember is the core mechanic, the d20 roll, and that roll is laden with comedy. Tradition dictates that you have a 5% chance on any given roll of a WILD AND CRAZY SUCCESS, like stopping a war with a single rousing speech. And also, on every single roll, a 5% chance of a FAILURE SO EMBARRASSING AND HORRIFIC that you, a veteran of hundreds of battles, may very well trip and fall straight onto your own sword.

I might go one step further: even without critical intensifiers, the binary results of this mechanic already introduce a chance at comedy. The contrast is just so big already. Both trivial pursuits and moments that should spotlight a character’s key competency, can take a sharp turn—a 180 in fact. You slip and land on your ass, or the king dismisses your heartfelt speech, bored of rhetoric, and asks his jester for advice instead.

Situational comedy

Playing with contrast, and also anticipation, is key to creating situational comedy, advises Alder. ‘Don’t try to be funny,’ she writes. This game is not going for quippy canned laughter, like say, Two Broke Girls. Alder wants the characters of her game to play off of each other. Thus, she advises players to play it straight, to create patterns, to play with repetition, and to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

This way, Alder writes, you 'offer another player the perfect setup' to show who their character is in contrast—how weird, foolish, neurotic, aggressive, naive, or even funny they are, 'even if they’re just saying the next obvious thing.' Comedy, here, is not in coming up with a one-liner on your own. In Going for Broke, comedy emerges from the characters encountering each other's ideosyncracies. It emerges, to put it bluntly, from the situations the characters get into.

When I first read the game's advice, I wondered if it was compensating for something. Shouldn’t the game itself guide me towards playing with contrast and anticipation? Preparing this newsletter I first of all realized that Going for Broke does support and guide players towards situational comedy. Second of all, I’ve connected the thought itself to a kind of dogma I seem to hold about role-playing, namely that a good game should, purely mechanicaly, compel its players to play it well. But that's something to unpack another time.

Heads or tails

So how does a coin flip guide play towards anticipation and contrast? Well, first you’ll have to get the coin. To do that, you’ll play towards the ‘classic question’ of your character. Each of the game’s twelve characters comes with their own. Hush is a hip-hop artist and details custom cars. Their question is: ‘Are you Baddie, or Baby?’ Beth is a pro thrifter and an amateur mycologist. Their question is: ‘Are you Sophisticated, or a Scuzzy Goblin?’ Once you play a scene that confirms which way the character skews this episode, you can grab a coin from the pile. Mushrooms are a great opportunity for comedy, especially if you don’t really know what you’re doing.

There’s a little more to these characters, but not too much. The classic question makes sure you keep playing to type—or directly against it. In Alder’s words: ‘if you’re playing as Hush, every situation is an opportunity to demonstrate that you’re either a fierce, flawless baddie or a lovable, vulnerable baby.’ Either way, you’ll be a distinct presence the others can contrast with to try and get their own coin.

And once someone has a coin, they can attempt to resolve the plot. That’s the A or B plot, of course. After the episode’s central problem is introduced—Brittany skipped town before paying rent, a plumbing issue floods the basement—the cast breaks up into two groups, each with their own plan to score some cash.

Flipping to find out

When you play out an action that could conceivably make your plan succeed, you flip your coin. It’s up in the air, and your foolish scheme or brilliant idea can only go two ways. It’s killing or bombing, victory or fiasco, success or failure. And it’s not just your plot that’s on the line. Once one plot succeeds, the fate of the other is sealed as well—it’s cooked. True to serialized television, ‘the two plots cancel out so that at the end of the episode, the roommates are right back where they started: barely getting by.’

On heads, the episode is resolved in one big swing. On tails your plot twists. You lose your coin and an unexpected development throws the plan off course. You don’t have to squint to see how this resembles a critical failure, right? Plus, this is exactly what delaying the inevitable means. Now, the other team has a chance to flip for their success. And if their plot twists too, you’re only one flip away from the end. Flipping tails a second time dooms your plan, and hands the win to team B.

The fun thing is, I think, that you really could go either way. Even if you’re flipping to win—there is a comradely competition to these split plots—doesn’t that make it even more fun to lose? You just got invested into a 50/50 coin flip! But more realistically, I think you’re flipping to find out. How does this mess resolve? Why can’t these people catch a break? What contrast will this episode end on?

Read more of my newsletter and subscribe to get Hendrik Biweekly delivered to your inbox biweekly.

[baldrickwhethers]

hi so. i know i should probably move past the 13 min mark in the ep but i just need to rant real quick about fucking up in character making a character good while still being flawed. spoilers for mismag s2 ep 2 and ep 3 under the cut

i love. LOVE. that erika fully committed to having k fuck up. he didnt back down when aabria did the 'are you SURE' and they didnt back back down when she said the dc. erika knew the odds were close to none and he STILL went through with it, resulting in the most dramatic and incredible character death and roleplay moments i've ever seen from d20. and what drives me more insane was that it was completely in character for who k is.

k's job as itsy is the guide. their whole thing is helping people new to magic get their foot through the door and work on their magical abilities. and she's GREAT at it. however, it also seems to have put her in the mindset that she can just 'fix' things. even when they arent already broken.

evan was fine. his bone had been healed wrong, sure, but his arm worked. he was fine. he didnt need to be helped in that moment and he never asked for it either. but k saw a poor, scarred man, ('he's so SAD') and decided to help him.

not realizing how royally they were going to fuck it up.

and it's beautiful it drives me CRAZY because it's a perfect encapsulation of how to show a character flaw even as someone 'good-aligned.' k asserted their will over evan and he suffered the consequences. it was, to be blunt, selfish. in their craving to assist, to be helpful, they've done something that's irreversibly changed evan's life. he didn't even know what was coming.

i commend EVERYONE at the table for taking k's mistake and just running with it. i may only be 13 minutes into the episode but the emotional toll is so bad i've had to pause twice and take a break so i dont start weeping.

[ewwww-what]

rank the bad kids in order of preference i dare you

You showed up and casually told me to do my favorite thing in the entire world ever as if I didn’t already have 23 google documents doing this exact thing.

I’m doing this seasonally, based on STORY preference and how often I think about each of their character arcs per season, to ask me to rank their personalities based on my honest love for them would be a cruel and impossible task. Also I’m hiding it so people don’t actually have to see this whole post because I refuse to be short about list making!!!

Freshman year:

1) Riz Gukgak

2) Gorgug Thistlespring

3) Kristen Applebees

4) Adaine Abernant

5) Fabian Seacaster

6) Fig Faeth

Riz gets to be the first on my FY list because I think about his entire battle with friend making and connection so much in that season it’s crazy, Fig is last cause I feel like the later seasons address her identity issues in so much more depth than season one gets the chance to, it doesn’t majorly resonate with me on its own so much as a doorway for future development.

-

Sophomore year

1) Kristen Applebees

2) Fabian Seacaster

3) Riz Gukgak

4) Adaine Abernant

5) Fig Faeth

6) Gorgug Thistlespring

This one is an immensely close call because SY is my favorite D20 season of all time. Kristen’s arc of Rejecting the god who created her to be his beacon? Fabian’s arc of learning himself outside of the shadow of his fathers legacy??? All devastating. The only reason Gorgug is at the bottom is because the moments where i resonated with him the most were mostly very short and sweet up until the final few episodes, whereas I was pretty much on the floor dying about everything else the whole time. Do not take this to mean I didn’t like them, “sometimes I’m not good at saying the right thing / and I’m just a little bit of a mess on top of that” kills me dead every time I think about it.

-

Junior year

1) Fabian Seacaster

2) Kristen Applebees

3) Gorgug Thistlespring

4) Fig Faeth

5) Riz Gukgak

6) Adaine Abernant

Another amazingly close call for this one, I’m super stuck between Fabian’s whole situation of becoming an adult and realizing how entirely lonely he feels despite being surrounded by people, and Kristen’s desperation to bring back the only god she truly believes in. Gorgug having just realized that he’s smarter than people give him credit for, and then immediately having that understanding unfairly challenged by an authority figure had me rolling every. Single. Episode. Adaine trying to grow up while also coming to terms with the fact that she never got to be a child in the first place???? Honestly I have never cried more. Devastatingly she is in last place only because I watched Riz go through his entire academic pressure arc while it was finals season for me and I was holding on by a thread, and also because she had a wider array of things happening rather than one single driving event.

This one was tough. I love this evil horrible (so so so good) show.

[cloudmancy]

sorry i know you probably get a lot of asks but I've been reading all your replies and they've made me think a lot about how the show could've gone <3. I've still really enjoyed it but I do agree that some plot beats were kinda skipped/overlooked. I think what they really needed was a couple extra episodes after the last stand exam to get more downtime investigation/relationship rolls going. Like, imagine how much more they couldve found out when they all had the opportunity to do mystery rolls rather than just 1 person at a time. (Tho I think brennan shot himself in the foot a little bit when he said the ratgrinders went completely off the grid after that 😭😭😭😭Like duuude that was the perfect opportunity for them to interact moreee...) Also one last little thing... I think part of the reason why they've pointed out that Jace had been coerced and not the rgs could be cause of that initial reveal that the ratgrinders have hated them since day one. I think none of them ever got over that and have been looking at all the new information through those lenses. Anyway I really love your art <3 this d20 discourse getting crazy

I feel like this was the issue with porter and jace as twist villains... we spend the whole season hating kipperlilly & co, of course even though we know porter is the big bad behind all of it we don't have the emotional connection to him so we go after the rat grinders in the battle instead! I also wonder what would've happened if any of the bad kids actually had to take a rage token during downtime this semester. I feel like having your character go through that would've done a good amount for empathizing with the npcs under perma rage...

[captainsophiestark]

So something crazy happened this week - I hit 1.5k followers! 🥳

Genuinely thank you all so much for following me and supporting my writing. When I first joined Tumblr, I truly never could've dreamed how wonderful the community, friends, and fandom I've found would be. I love you all so much!

I've never done a follower celebration before, but I really wanted to do one for this milestone, so here we are! It's D&D themed, but no knowledge of D&D is required to join in the fun.

Our 1.5k follower campaign is going to be running from today, May 29th, to Wednesday, June 6th. During that time, feel free to send me as many things off the list below as you like! Interacting with people on here is one of my absolute favorite parts of Tumblr, so feel free to come into my ask box as many times as you like 😄

I'll be tagging all posts for this celebration as #Sophie's 1.5k Follower Campaign. You don't have to follow me to participate, but it would be greatly appreciated. Without further ado, here are the actions you can take during this campaign:

Zone of Truth - Send me an ask with a game, like KMK/FMK, Would You Rather, or anything else you can think of!

Roll Initiative - Roll some dice and send me a character from the list at the bottom of this post, along with the numbers you rolled! I have prompt lists left over from my Year of Fic planning, and I'll put your character and your dice rolls togeter to write a corresponding headcanon (or possibly longer fic, if the inspiration really strikes!). Roll one of the following, some of the following, or all of the following: 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, and 1d20. You can roll with real dice or by typing "roll dice" into google! Please specificy if you have a strong preference between a romantic or platonic fic.

Nat 20 (2 left) - Send me a character I write for and a request, and I'll write you a oneshot! My time's a little limited right now, so I'm capping these at 3 total requests. In the immortal words of Brian Murphy, "Roll three Nat 20s in a row!". If you want to also roll a d20 and send me the result, I'll add a dialogue prompt corresponding with the number you rolled to the request. Please specificy if you have a strong preference between romanitc and platonic fic.

Perception Check - I have a good amount of writing queued up for my Year of Fic and a few other projects, so send me this for a sneak peek of works to come! If you want to include a few fandoms or characters you'd most like to see included in the sneak peek, feel free to do that! Just no promises that I'll have something including them to show you

Behind the DM Screen - Send me the title of an existing fic of mine, along with specific questions if you have them, and I'll give you a little info on the process of creating the fic!

Free Action - Come into my ask box and chat with me! About fandoms, cute pet pitcures, or whatever else! Anons are welcome as usual, and if you feel like you want to be recognized without coming off anon, then you can claim an emoji and use it as a signature on your asks, so I know who you are! As of now, 🥰 emoji is the only one taken

Thank you again to every single one of you who's here with me now, from the beginning of this blog or from earlier today! I'm so happy to have you here and as a part of the party!

Writing Request Character Options:

Bridgerton: Anthony Bridgerton, Benedict Bridgerton, Colin Bridgerton, Eloise Bridgerton

Crescent City: Tristan Flynn, Ithan Holstrom, Lidia Cervos

DC: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd

Marvel: Grant Ward, Jack Thompson, Daniel Sousa, Angie Martinelli, Harley Keener, Pietro Maximoff

*Riordanverse: Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Jason Grace

Star Trek: Jim Kirk

Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala

Top Gun: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Natasha "Phoenix" Trace

The Vampire Diaries: Mason Lockwood, Klaus Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Damon Salvatore, Enzo St. John, Kai Parker, Caroline Forbes, Matt Donovan

*All characters in the Riordanverse are going to be book-based, since that's what I know best, and will be written as their ages at the end of Heroes of Olympus or older for requests involving romance

****************

Tagging a few mutuals who I've absolutely loved getting to this point with 🥰 thank you guys for being such a wonderful part of my experience in this place!

@ghostofskywalker @bandshirts-andbooks @trekkingaroundasgard @arttheclown-coveredinblood @flowers-and-fichte @everyhazyday @dawn-petrichor-world @space-helen @ro-is-struggling @writeroutoftime @shadowdaddies @hawaiianpizzaenjoyer

[cyanvalour]

Update (1/12/24): updated mostly the hollows with a more accurate version of the au rn, will come back in the future to update the AvM sticks

Hi folks I'm back with another weird au, because I have no self control. What au is it this time?

A "swap" au.

It's really weird because half of them came from me rolling a d20 and praying i can make them make sense so please bare with me.

With that, let's start with -

torment (Originally The Chosen One):

- This version is basically fanon Dark who ate a Victim and Mango sundae. Trust me it'll make sense

- torment was made first, and was tormented (hah) for a long time by Alan.

- Alan made another stickman (FREEDOM MENTION) as his friend. They became close (almost canon Chodark/p close) before Alan deleted Freedom since he was trying to help torment escape.

- this was the last straw for them as torment proceeded to trick Alan into unlocking his chains and then broke the computer, allowing him to escape.

-he was still pissed and kinda depressed over Freedom's death so he continued his rampage across the web, slowly trying to find a way to take revenge against all cursors permanently

- At some point he meets this version of Dark, adopts him and set off to become the greatest terrorists the outernet has ever seen

- HE NEARLY ACCOMPLISH HIS GOAL TOO, DESPITE FIGHTING ALAN, TSF, CG+TPC+TCA. THIS CRAZY MAN-

Some fun facts about torment!:

- after everything is said and done, he decides to go by another nick of mento. SF thinks it's cute

- at some point he manages to find a way to go into Minecraft and he uses it as a stress reliever. What kind is up to you :3

- he's so chaotic I wasn't even kidding about the fanon Dark comparison. He will see a happy family chilling and will just divebomb on them

- he's well aware of the fact that Alan messed up his name when creating him, he was supposed to have an "-ed" at the end but Alan pressed enter too early

- a couple pre-escape things I mentioned in my fic but yea torment didn't think of himself as a stick for a while and stole Freedom's pronouns when he died. He also has a bad ankle for being dragged around so much.

- He's mentally ill 20 but physically 18. Freedom was like physically 1 years old before dying but he was mentally around the same age as torment back then (so like, 12?)

I haven't fully figured out how torment plans to carry out their plan but there will be a "King sees Purple as his son" moment for them, except this time it's Dark. Speaking of Dark-

The Second Fool (Originally The Dark Lord):

- TSF "swapped" with Purple but borrows a couple of traits from Victim (I'm sobbing why did the dice and I decide this)

- Alan made him next, meaning to replace torment with a more cunning but weaker version of him (so no powers rip)

- He gave TSF a mission code (still deciding on the exact one) which basically gaslights him into thinking his only purpose in life is to fight Alan

- So when Alan deletes the poor dude, he feels unworthy and shit like that

- he kinda stays in there for a good year, just floating around

- At some point, he manages to escape the Void and ends up in the outer net, where torment finds him and picks him up

- torment convinced TSF to join him, and TSF, thinking this would show Alan that he would be worthy enough again, agrees

- during their terrorism arc, TSF slowly realises that terrorising people probably isn't the right thing to do and that this wouldn't get Alan's attention back to him so he tries to stop torment. tor, the revengeful dumbass, doesn't listen.

- at some point during this au's version of showdown, TSF tried stopping tor themself, but got punted away before eventually getting blasted by tor's fire (I'm still figuring out the exact details bare with me)

- He got saved by one of the TSCs after torment found his unconscious body

Now some fun facts! Not a lot since I'm waiting till I write more of them but for now:

- being in the void really fucks you up, and SF isn't any different. He doesn't really know how to interact with people, often coming off a tinge insane and scary sometimes

- they're really blunt too. Which makes interactions with Arrival and Current kinda awkward.

- he's a sweetheart under... everything. Yea, he's really nice, especially to Arrival! Wonder if there's any reason for that?

- doesn't know what to think of torment after everything. They still believe 'ment thinks of them as a servant, and he doesn't feel like breaking his heart again

- can see the code of everyone around them, which makes bringing someone to the Void awfully easy since he still has some of his own code edited from the Void. Pretty easy to adjust someone else's to match theirs.

Now onto the 2 TSCs (why do I do this to myself), starting with-

Meet, The Chosen Arrival! (Originally The Second Coming):

- simultaneously Second, Dark and Freedom/Chosen. I'm sorry myself

- an accident (IM SO SORRY I DID NOT KNOW HOW ELSE TO PHRASE IT)

- it kinda follows canon, Alan doodled this little guy, left them alone for a while and when he came back Arrival n co. was messing around on Facebook.

- however, this time, when Alan deletes CG and then Arrival, Arrival went fucking ballistic and unleashed his powers on the pc, nearly destroying it in the process

- in a panic, Alan drew his last stick on accident again, this time being:

The Peaceful Current!! (Originally victim):

- Current is swapped with Second!!

- Current has this really calming effect to them for some reason. To this day no one can figure out how she manages to calm Arrival down.

- when they were created, the tab she was in had the wall between it and Arrival's broken down, and Arrival crashed in, planning to destroy everything in the computer.

- but when they saw Current, they kinda just froze. Like they were buffering. Current, for whatever reason, decided to hug Arrival. Arrival then crashed, breaking out into sobs as the two kinda just stood there.

- Alan tried deleting Arrival at that moment of vulnerability, but Current, seeing his cursor move, started speaking and pleading for Alan to hear them out. Alan, shocked to find out that the sticks were actually sentient and not just little desktop creatures he could fight against, heard them out.

- from here it continues from canon, Alan letting the gang chill on his pc, Current found out that she was a great artist, and Arrival decided to start learning how to make tools and stuff for CG to defend themselves.

Some fun facts about these two:

- Arrival fucking hates torment lmao, it's actually really funny how hard they hate him. Current on the other hand doesn't mind torment, as she can see him trying to change

- Arrival does not like going by Chosen, so they prefer to be called by their last name. Peaceful doesn't mind being called either of them, but they're mostly referred to as Current because she likes to copy her brother

- both of them actually have powers, the problem is that Current doesn't know about them, while Arrival refuses to use them. This makes Ava S3 very fun for me :3

Now you might be wondering, who could be the victim in this story. Now bare with me,

Purple.

- little shit got orphaned so hard she became spiteful and decided to start a company just to prove her dad wrong.

- company got way too successful and she let the power go to her head.

- one day she saw a video of Chosen and decided she needed him to be in her team. So she decided to kidnap Dark.

(Idk what else to add I'm still figuring stuff out)

Alright, you might reply, but if purple is busy being victim, then who's taking their place in AvM?

You see, this is where the "swap" part of this au kinda starts veering away. Because, haha,

It's Gold.

- Basically what happened was when Gold got stuck in Minecraft, he kinda became a Minecraft entity like Herobrine. So he just wandered around the world aimlessly before coming across a village.

- AvM 9&10 happened and Purple betrayal happens but this time it's Gold and he didn't go for the egg because he wanted to prove it to his dad, but because he heard rumours around the egg and wanted to test it out.

Now you're thinking, alright, if Gold's purple, then King has to be someone else, right?

To that I show you an image of President Haltmann and Susie from Planet Robobot. Iykyk. (Yes King is still King, he just has amnesia and tbh Gold doesn't really look the same after the fair.)

I'm still deciding on whether I want to swap CG and Mercs personalities but that's all I got for now!!

[loving-jack-kelly]

Yo!! Hello!!! I am like 90% sure I've seen you post about dimension 20 before!!

I just got a dropout subscription and I'm thriving but I am looking for advice for where to start/go with the dnd-verse on it? I'm assuming that the separate campaigns are relatively stand-alone but I would love an opinion (or just input on what the actual chronology is lmao)

hehe sleeper phrase discovered i'm honored you came to me :)

so the first thing to know which you probably already do is that there is a main returning cast for some seasons, and then some campaigns are a different group with an occasional different dm. the Intrepid Heroes are Lou Wilson, Zac Oyama, Brian Murphy, Ally Beardsley, Siobhan Thompson, and Emily Axford with Brennan Lee Mulligan dming, so they play as that exact group multiple times. There's usually one or two of them in a non-main-cast campaign, too, including Brennan sometimes as a player when somebody else is dming.

So! In terms of watch order! I recommend starting with Fantasy High because it's the original campaign and also fantastic. There are currently two seasons, Fantasy High and Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, and they are both masterpieces. We're also getting Junior Year this winter which is extremely exciting for me personally because I Love Fantasy High lol. Fantasy High is a great starting point especially if you're new to dnd/dnd actual play shows (which you may not be so feel free to disregard this bit of advice lol) because multiple players are learning how to play in the first season, so there's plenty of opportunity to learn with them. It's also generally pretty light-hearted and funny, though it doesn't sacrifice story for comedy which I love. If you don't know, the concept of Fantasy High is that these young teenagers live in a world where everywhere else is a stereotypical fantasy world but their country is like. Classic high school Americana. It's silly, the characters are great, the storylines are great and only get better in Sophomore Year, it's an all around great time and great intro to D20!

I went right from Fantasy High to Unsleeping City, which is also fantastic (you'll notice a recurring theme here, I love every campaign I've watched so far lol). If you like the lighter parts of Fantasy High but want a little bit more tension, Unsleeping City is perfect. It's set in modern-day New York with a twist: there's a magical underside to the city. Lots of fantastic commentary on modern life in the storytelling that slaps, I won't spoil but it slaps, and also really wonderful characters! Unsleeping City also has two seasons, so you get to see the characters grow and change a lot over two full plotlines which is very fun!

If you like the more serious side of things, my personal favorite D20 campaign is A Crown of Candy. I watched this third and it made me cry hard enough at work that my boss asked if I was okay lol. The set-up is simple: fantasy world made of food, but make it Game of Thrones. It's intense, the stakes are high from episode one, it's incredibly character driven and everybody plays really, really interesting characters, and because of how high-stakes it is, every payoff is just insane. We all talk about Ally's poetic nat 20s and believe me, they exist, but Mr. Lou Wilson (love of my life) has a nat 20 near the end of A Crown of Candy that genuinely made me feel so crazy when it happened that I had to take a walk lol. Cannot recommend it enough, it's devastating and perfect.

A Starstruck Odyssey is really good again if you like the lighter end of thing but still want stakes and tension! The world is based of comics that Brenna's mom wrote which is really sweet, and it's a very different vibe because is sci-fi instead of pure fantasy, which is honestly really fun. Some of the characters are up there on my favorites list, shoutout to Skipper and Sundry Sydney!

In terms of the campaigns that aren't Intrepid Heroes, the first one I listened to was Misfits and Magic, which is a Harry Potter spoof dmed by Abria Ayangar, who's fantastic, and featuring Brennan as an utterly unhinged in the best way player. There's also Mice and Murder, which is a super great mystery with anthropomorphic animals that was shot on zoom over the first lockdown (a few seasons were so don't be shocked by that lol). I'm a bit more than halfway through A Court of Fey and Flowers which has been great so far, and I'm super looking forward to getting to The Ravening War, which is a prequel to A Crown of Candy, and Mentoplis, as well as the current season, Burrow's End. I have to watch Neverafter first though, which is the most recent Intrepid Heroes campaign.

Anyway! To summarize!

My advice is to start with Fantasy High and Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, and then pick which elements you liked best to decide what you want next! All of the campaigns that aren't explicitly linked are completely standalone, like I'm not missing anything important from the one's I've watched by not having watched some of the others, so don't worry too much about chronology or anything like that! The only ones that need to be watched in a specific order are the two with two seasons already, which are Fantasy High and Unsleeping City, but those are labelled quite clearly with season titles! Also if it's easier to keep track of, Dropout has the campaigns sorted into their own shows on the site so you don't have to choose seasons of D20, you can just choose A Crown of Candy.

PLEASE update me as you watch! I love love love talking D20 lol it's one of my favorite shows like ever!!

[hidingfromsav]

slowly but surely figuring out how to use tumblr, so here's an updated introduction:

hello! i'm savannah, still trying to distance myself from stinky twitter (shameful twitter plug @ hidingfromsav_) i'm a huge dropout and d20 nerd, i also love the sims, books, and hozier

here to ramble about my silly little shows and interests, and im honestly very happy to have a space where i feel like i can do that lol it's crazy to me that i just never touched this account for over 3 years because honestly i kinda love it here, though i'm still pretty bad at being consistently active on literally every social media account i own (maybe that's a good thing tbh)

here's some more of my interests if you're interested! <3

[halfgap]

.

gonna be a wee parasocial for a hot sec but one thing that really soothes me about d20 IH seasons is how they all visibly are having even more fun as the seasons go on. i think it's really good that d20 started off already as very much a Production (with firmer clearer boundaries, in contrast to a lot of other actual play stuff that evolved from home games etc). As time passes and the show finds its groove and the production value goes way up, instead of losing authenticity it kinda honestly starts feeling more fun & authentic? bc they figure out the format and get a lot more comfortable & confident and also the group becomes much more cohesive. idk i think it's why it's incomprehensible to me that people could dislike fhjy compared to prior seasons bc like man. They are clearly having such a blast (even with the very visible exhaustion of the crazy shooting schedule caused by the looming strikes) and making each other laugh more than ever. I know this is obviously a job and a product for them but the sad parasocial reality is that with this kind of content once they stop having as much fun and stop liking each other the product suffers for it whether or not the audience is consciously aware of this. Idk what I'm saying but basically part of what I like abt d20 and the mindset of its inception is it's leaning more "Let's have fun at work making this marketable product" rather than "let's turn our fun hobby into a marketable product"

[cringefaecompilation]

hi, hello, op here. this is astrid becke, upcoming subject of the Complicated Women podcast as run by wanda childa. she is an antagonist npc tied into the backstory of a player character in the second campaign of critical role (aka d20’s cousin)

astrid becke was a teenage girl that was allowed into a magic school that trained its students to be evil wizard cops. she was beaten, tortured, starved and isolated from the outside world for years with only her two other friends (another npc and the pc) to keep her company. she and her friends graduated by slaughtering their own parents. the pc however snapped and attacked her in the process, leaving her with a massive scar to remember him by as he was framed and locked in an asylum, blamed for being a crazy serial killer who murdered everyone’s parents to keep both her and the other pc from getting caught.

astid is now fully an adult evil wizard cop in the present day of the campaign, but is still deeply rattled by what happened to her. she’s a threat, sure, but the pc talks about her with such reverence and kindness you forget that. and even when we see her threaten him one-on-one at a party, the dm describes her leaving the party and then immediately sobbing because she’s overwhelmed with emotions from seeing him again. even when she works directly with the bbeg to try and murder the party they never once treat her as just as bad as the bbeg and the worst they act is being mildly sassy at a dinner party that the beg invites them to. astrid even fights alongside him in the final battle, but she changes her mind and helps the party imprison him.

but then what? is she murdered in cold blood after that because how dare she work with him? no, she’s comforted. the other party members pull her aside and while she does get punished by having to clean up the mess they’d made of a sacred temple (long story) they have empathy and extend kindness towards her. one of them even says she’s a good person and they believe in her.

and when another party (played by the same cast sans one) stumbles across her hiding from the law, be it either the fact that the players have zero ill-will towards her and understand where she’s coming from or the fact all of their new characters have no clue who she is, the only reason they’re opposed to her is that they were told she might have information on the current villain they’re facing. they aren’t trying to kill her or punish her, and once they get the info they need, they leave her in peace.

astrid becke was in 9 episodes of critical role, and in those 9 episodes had been given more grace than i think all the ratgrinders had combined. but fandom fucking hated her ass because she worked for the bad guy and gets in the way of shipping the pc with another unrelated male npc who arguably did waaaaaay worse shit and apologized/made up for exactly zero of it. but hey, at least the people that made the show acknowledge that both of them kind of suck in the exact same way!

it’s times like this i’m reminded of a tag i saw on a post that read "every time matthew mercer/critical role screws up people forget brennan isn’t white" and oh boy did it show in a lot of the meta posts i saw floating about. dude’s not perfect and he can fumble a story just as much as anybody else. obviously it doesn’t make him an awful person for making a dissatisfying story, but it doesn’t mean you can say he’s a decolonial philosopher just to defend the story because you liked it.

she's so crazzzzzzzy! love her!!!

[foreverindreamlandd]

I'm Forever Yours

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

WC: 1.5k

Summary: Eddie thought it would be easier to break things off when you went to college. You deserved better than some loser who can't even graduate from high school. But now you're back for the summer, and if there's one thing you've learned this year, it's how much you need him.

A/n: This is my contribution for the lovely aphrogeneias 's Power Ballads Writing Challenge! I literally have not been able to stop thinking about this since seeing the prompt from Journey's Faithfully. We got a good ole exes to lovers with a lil bit of DnD thrown in because me lol. Be sure to go to Luiza's page to check out the other participants of the challenge!!

"two strangers learn to fall in love again"

Eddie’s knees were restless under the table.

His fingers tapped menacingly against the wood surface, eyes mindlessly scanning over the notes on the DM screen.

“Uh…you okay, Eddie?” Mike asked, his face contorted in confusion.

Eddie nodded, responding without even looking at him. “Yep. Yeah. Totally fine. Why?”

“You look like you’re about to shit your pants, dude,” Dustin said, pulling out his dice.

“That’s because his soulmate is joining us tonight,” Gareth mused, bumping elbows with Jeff as they shared a knowing smile.

The Dungeon Master of the Hellfire Club froze, eyes darting to his friends with a glare so deadly their smiles immediately dropped.

“Watch it, or disadvantage on all rolls tonight.” They muttered a sorry and Eddie grabbed his favorite d20 - the one you gave him two years ago - and fiddled with it in his hand. “She might not even show,” he said sadly.

“Bro, she’s gonna come,” Gareth replied. “She knows what night it is.”

“Unless being at college has made her too smart to remember a dumb nerd game,” Jeff murmured, and this time Gareth punched his arm. “OW!”

“Can someone please explain to us who this mystery girl is?” Dustin asked, arms crossed in front of him. 

“She’s just an old member,” Eddie said, running his fingers through his hair.

“Dude,” Gareth complained, then turned to Dustin and Mike. “Her name is Y/n. She’s the coolest girl there is, and when I say she’s Munson’s soulmate, you have no idea. Those two have been inseparable for years.”

“Used to be inseparable,” Eddie corrected, an ache forming in his chest.

“Right, well, she graduated last year and went to some fancy school in Canada. Hasn’t been back since, and now she’s home for the summer.”

“Are you two still together? I bet I can give you great advice on long distance relationships,” Dustin suggested with a smug expression.

Eddie’s eyebrows furrowed in discomfort before shaking his head. “We tried to make it work, but things got too crazy and I guess we just kind of lost touch.”

That was a lie. Eddie stopped answering your calls until you eventually got the hint and stopped trying to get in touch. He thought it would be easier for you to move on and realize that there was a much better life for you when you weren’t tied down by the loser of Hawkins High, whose legacy would only be the Hellfire Club and Corroded Coffin.

He hoped it would hurt less to cut the cord before having to look in your perfect eyes and see the realization of how much better you could do than him.

“That sucks man,” Mike said, giving him a sympathetic side smile.

Eddie nodded. “Happens.” He checked his watch one last time with a sigh. “Alright, you adventurers ready to get started? Quick recap from last session. The party had just returned a group of kids  to their families after being stolen by a Beholder, where-”

“Where they ran into a fierce cleric, Lyvia,” Eddie’s heart stilled at the familiar voice as you emerged from behind the curtain. “Daughter of the High Priestess of Lathander.”

He sat there, staring at your smiling face, wondering for a moment if he was dreaming.

But there you were, donned in your favorite denim jacket covered in pins, a Journey t-shirt, ripped jeans, and the black converse you bought with him last summer. His eyes flickered down, chest swelling at the sight of the heart shaped pendant around your neck.

Your eyes met his, and suddenly everything else in the room disappeared, as if there were a spotlight shining just on you.

Though no amount of time could make him forget how beautiful you were, seeing you in the flesh was almost too much for him. 

You were perfect. Radiant. Just as he remembered.

He wanted to run up and wrap you in his arms. To cradle your face in his hands and kiss you a million and one times. To tell you he was a bigger idiot than he could have imagined and he was sure this was the biggest mistake he’d ever made in his life.

He stayed sitting though, glued to his chair as Jeff and Gareth shouted your name and ran to tackle you into a hug.

You giggled as they collided into you, hugging them back.

Finally, Eddie managed to stand, his hands interlacing together behind his back.

His body bent forward into a bow. “M’lady Lyvia. ‘Tis good to see you have done well during your travels across the continent.”

You grinned, chin bowing down. “I have learned many things and have had many fun adventures, but I gotta say, DM, nothing feels as good as being with your party.”

Eddie took a sharp intake of breath, eyes widening slightly and your smile grew.

“Besides,” you continued, “something tells me this party is in desperate need of a lady to make sure y’all don’t fuck everything up.”

His brows rose in amusement, and the guys laughed as they escorted you to the table, shuffling their seats around to make room for you.

“Hey guys,” you said to Dustin and Mike with a wave. “I’m-”

“Y/n,” they said in unison and Eddie nearly decided to kill their characters in the first fight. “We know,” Mike finished with a smile. 

You nodded slowly. “Right. Okay…” You looked to Eddie.

He clapped his hands together, ready to be in any other situation than this.

Still, when you smiled at him again, he felt butterflies in his stomach. “Right. Let’s continue. You encounter the luminous, stunning, beefy dwarf cleric Lyvia…”

~~~~~~

“Y/n, you are a fucking legend,” Dustin praised as you all packed up your things. “I can’t believe you took out three direwolves in one hit!”

You shrugged. “Listen, Sacred Weapon is no joke. I’ve taken out larger packs than this with that baby many, many times.”

Eddie smiled to himself, slowly folding the DM screen.

“Hell yeah,” Henderson continued. “Are you going to play with us through the summer?”

You looked over at Eddie, a questioning look on your face. “That depends on what our mighty Dungeon Master says.”

Eddie beamed, giving you a grand nod and waving a hand in the air. “You know Lyvia will always have a home at our table.”

A smile spread across your face as the two of you held eye contact and Dustin grinned. “I guess I’ll catch you guys later,” he murmured as he followed the rest of the guys down the dark hallway.

Silence.

More staring.

You bit the inside of your cheek. “Hi, Eddie.”

He stood up, hands snaking inside his pockets. “Hey, Y/n.”

Your smile slowly fell. “You stopped answering my calls.” Your voice cracked at the last word, along with Eddie’s heart.

“I thought…I thought it would make things easier.”

Your head flinched back, face contorting. “Easier how? By not having my favorite person there for me?”

Ouch.

“I didn’t want you to feel tied down.”

You shook your head, taking a few steps forward. “Tied down by what? You?” His silence was answer enough and you scoffed. “Eds, you’re the one who has spent years teaching me how to live. How to laugh, how to fuck up and learn from my mistakes, how to never stop pursuing your dreams. I never would have gotten where I am today if I didn’t have you there.”

Tears welled in his eyes. “But what if you find out that there’s someone better for you? Someone who managed to fucking graduate from high school and isn’t trapped in Hawkins.”

His eyes went to the floor, and suddenly he saw your shoes inches from his. 

Your hands gently moved to his face, slowly lifting his gaze until they were on your perfect, mesmerizing, tear-filled eyes once more.

“Eds.” Your thumb stroked along the apple of his cheek and his eyes closed from the intoxicating feel of it. When he opened his eyes, you were smiling again. “I did my year, I met new people, did new things, left Hawkins, and you know what I learned?”

He swallowed, eyes flickering down to your lips as your face drew nearer. His hand reached up to hold the heart-shaped pendant between his fingers. “What?” he whispered.

“None of it matters if I don’t have you in my life. You make it all better. All I could ever really need is you.”

Eddie breathed out a small whimper, smile threatening to split his face in two and he inched closer.

“I’m forever yours, baby.” His lips ghosted over yours. “Faithfully.”

You groaned, pulling back and rolling your eyes with a smile. “Really? You’re gonna quote the fuckin’ Journey ballad?”

He scoffed. “Are you serious? You’re the one wearing the damn shirt!”

You looked down. “Oh shit, you’re right.”

Just as you started giggling, Eddie tucked his ring-adorned finger under your chin, pulling you closer until his lips found their way home to you, rediscovering your kiss with newfound joy and gratitude. 

Even if the world fell apart and completely turned on its axis, he knew he would never let you go again.

He was yours.

And you were his.

Faithfully.

[naazaif327]

I think so much about like the first five or six episodes of A Starstruck Odyssey when they were like “we’re not the heroes of the galaxy, we’re just people trying to scrape by and here are all the messy decisions that come with that” and just exploring how the desperation to turn a profit for some level of financial stability so easily slides into problems with addiction, gambling, and wealth hoarding. 

It hit this exact perfect sweet spot of being zany and wacky and fun but still being deeply grounded in the exhaustion and desperation of living week-to-week in a system meant to grind you down, and how “tearing down the system” feels impossible on a macro scale.

And there’s all these little nudges towards a better path, joining a union, creating worker solidarity through trust and human decency to your fellow labourers, fighting for the rights of workers and robots, small bits of common good they could achieve without having to take on galaxy-wide megacorporations as 6 individuals. Its an enormous univers of trillions of lives and maybe it feels impossible to “save the world” in a classic sense, but there’s so much good that can be done both locally and generally.

But then here comes clippy and suddenly they ARE saving the galaxy but from a big slug instead of the corporations, right back to a classic “superheroes saving the galaxy from a great fantasy evil” storyline that ends up really undermining the bigger themes in (imo) an effort to remain within the safe bounds of happy lighthearted comedy heroes saving the day. I don’t think the season is bad or morally wrong in any way, but I really feel like the first third of Starstruck felt so amazingly revolutionary and fresh in a way that the end of the show isn’t really able to fully deliver on.

And this isn’t to say that they absolutely should’ve pulled back on the high fantasy scifi epic nature of the story with slug parasites and space battles either, just that the way they end up going about it could’ve more effectively run with the themes of the season more. Compare it to, say, the Ezri arc of Campaign 3 of Naddpod where the PCs end up also having a crazy scifi battle with a godlike AI and a corporation seeking to harness its power. By the end of that arc, the rebels quite literally seize the means of production of Ezri and overthrow the fascist propaganda-spewing government holding them down. The PCs are a small cog in a much larger community of common people fighting for the good of everyone, while still feeling epic and heroic, instead of being rugged individualists who save the world without changing much of anything.

All this to say, I’m tentatively very excited to see what the D20 crew can do with NeverAfter, specifically because with us all going in knowing that it is a full-on horror season, it gives them the wiggle room to actually go in on the themes and tropes of horror fiction without having to pull it all back to make sure that it ends with our plucky yet comedic heroes saving the day and living happily ever after exactly as previous seasons.