#dnd thoughts

[ankh-morporkianpostalworker]

My favorite part of the online DnD community is that it's pretty consistently ahead of WotC and does things with 5e that blows the official releases out of the water.

Take the magic school setting, as seen in 2021's Strixhaven expansion. The idea had already been done, and better, in the original TAZ campaign (2014), Campaign 2 of C.R. (2018, which was so good that WotC published it as its own setting), D20: Fantasy High (2018) and the Mage Madness Arc of NADDPOD (2019).

The big names also consistently do things with 5e it was never meant to do, especially D20, which pushed the system to its limits with Tiny Heist and Starstruck Odyssey.

The smaller indy creators are also doing things the system hadn't before, whether that's the afro-centric content of shows like Three Black Halflings, Jocat's wildly successful Crap Guide, the Arcane Arcade, Tulok the Barbarian's How to Play or any number of other series I doubt this site's character limit would let me heap praise upon.

TL;DR, WotC is far behind the stuff that online creators have made.

[lunian]

did some litol research on Sorcerers in dnd/forgotten realms lore out of nothing and like

so Blackstaff Academy also has Sorcerer apprentices, alongside with Wizards, HUH. So they also have Sorcerer academics and teachers.

I suppose, they have different and separate kinds of training but I'm just remembering all beef these two classes have between each other so I'm having a very big serious question

How many times sorcerer students wanted to beat up Gale when he was a kid?

Because I can PRETTY MUCH TELL HE WAS INSUFFERABLE

"You are not versed in magic, are you" MISTER, YOU WAS TAUGHT IN MAGIC ALONGSIDE WITH OTHER SORCERERS *pushes him into the locker*

(c) this post was made by Gale enjoyer and doesn't support bullying

[primordialsneeze]

I can't find much on the timeline of Steeplechase other than Carmine built the first layer in 2030, but I have a theory? Was Montrose an Old Kidedelphia kid? Did he get left to grow up in a daycare and that's why he knows so much about the park? And has a strange attachment to animatronics? What if Dentonic raises the daycare kids as future employees? Did Montrose become obsessed with Ephemera bc he wanted to know what was so amazing that his parents would leave him in the care of animatronic daycare workers?

Also if Old Kidadelphia was closed off 4-7 years ago (Gooch was dropped off around 9 years old and is now 13), why weren't the daycare workers hardlight? They had hardlight at that point, so why have human workers that leave? Or even if they WERE hard light, why would Dentonic pull the hardlight workers out of the layer rather than just brick them up alongside the kids??

[dumbgayemo]

"Drow skin became darker because they lived underground for so long": lame, boring, unoriginal, makes literally no sense

"Drow skin became darker as a defense mechanism so they could camouflage better in the predator filled caverns of the Underdark": brilliant, amazing, genius, unquestionable, makes absolute sense

[madamrynodm]

Thinking big thoughts about The Hotel cast playing D&D together

The Manager is definitely the Dungeon Master. She gets to control everything and keep everything in order. The most straightforward narrator ever. Definitely bullies The Owner every chance she gets. Strictly adheres to the written rules

The Lobby Boy... oh boy he's a dice goblin. He's got dice pouring out of every hole in his uniform. With his bug motif, I'd say he's a druid player. The Manager only fudges rolls for him, everyone else can suck it up. Locathah druid

The Owner doesn't wanna be there but plays because Madam Hotel wants him to. Probably plays a basic fighter so he doesn't have to be very involved. Definitely plays a kenku for them crow aesthetics. Kenku fighter

The Bellhop is the murderiest murderhobo to ever roll the dice! A rogue that kills everything. NPCs, random animals, the other people at the table. People have to clean their dice after each session. She's probably got one of those sets where all the dice are weapons. Goblin rogue

The Concierge actually takes the game seriously, probably plays a paladin or graviturgy wizard. Min-maxed to the extreme. Never rolls below a 15, The Manager hates it. Human paladin or wizard

The Auditor definitely made some kind of warlock that totally isn't obsessed with Madam Hotel her patron. Psshh naw this totally isn't a self-insert fanfic. Kisses ass at the table and just fixated on Madam Hotel's character. Thri-kreen warlock

Madam Hotel is the bard. Mind flayer bard

[indiecrowarts]

Since I started playing dnd years ago I’ve started to enter the mentality of:

“How can I turn this failure into lore?”

And I think that says something about ttrpgs teaching you new ways of thinking

[thetealhummingbird]

Just a thought.... What if the more warlocks a patron has, the stronger they become, raising them to eventual god-like status.

[lericekrispie]

// pd spoilers s2 ep 20

I said this on twitter but I wanted to say it more eloquently on here, I think the prime defenders get special treatment not because WATCH think they are going to be the next best thing, but bc they are the current biggest threat to becoming supervillains and they are trying to step in before that happens.

William Wisp-

we know that the boys are good people, but looking at their powers and how they received their powers in just how they sound on paper, it makes sense as to why WATCH would be... watching these kids.

William wisp is an abomination. He is supposed to be dead, he is very much so barely even half alive, and we have no clue how he got his powers, nevertheless being a Deadwood resident. I would be surprised if Deadwood wasn't on the radar of superhero's or some type of authority for strange things happening there. I would also like to point out that the wisps were in Ashe's demon book??? If you were WATCH and you got handed a case about a kid who came back to life and now had demon powers you probably wouldn't put him with all the other kids, yeah? But you can't leave him alone, he's got powers, he's dangerous, and you might need to call an exorcist. Also, does the prime force know about Mallard Conway? If so, it would also explain why prime force would swoop in instead of letting William potentially be influenced by that man.

Virion Sol-

We know that WATCH is familiar with dimensions, at least from WATCH HQ. That shouldn't be that unfamiliar. However, Vync killed a man. Straight up. It's alluded to for self defense or no other choice/ that's how he was raised, kill or be killed, but still. With the power of all the greats inside of him and a murder on his hands but overall not evil intentions what is the prime force supposed to do? They have to look after him, but can they really put him with the training academy (that has also been alluded to) when he's so unstable? No.

Dakota Cole-

Dakota isn't even supposed to have super-powers. From the rolled, we know that super-powers are supposed to be not uncommon but mostly harmless, things people can do but don't always use, like a talent like being double jointed or have sensitive hearing but like with powers. But Dakota didn't even have that. A theory (that could be debunked with coming episodes) is that the surgery he went through wasn't legal, wasn't sanctioned, and nobody has been able to re-create. If not, then why haven't more people been receiving super powers after accident like Dakotas? It would make sense that even if Dakota has pretty generic (albeit powerful and useful) powers, but if the Prime Force didn't know how he got these powers, who gave him these powers, it wouldn't be a far stretch to thing that the giver of these powers had ill intentions, in the likes of creating a super soldier. I think the mystery behind it can have huge implications as to why Dakota isn't at a super school, a place I feel he would thrive, but with the prime defenders.

These three teens are unhinged, on paper have scary powers from unreliable sources, and are young and impressionable. It would be irresponsible to let them go unWATCHed, but also I believe the formation of the prime defenders was for them, because of them. Because they needed extra eyes, more hands on, a little bit more control to make sure they weren't what WATCH feared, a paranormal demon, a psycho from a different dimension with insane power, and a super soldier.

This also brings up Tide.

Why is Tide watching these kids? Sure, he's supposed to be a mentor and those around him as well as himself see Tide as a clone to carry out his duty, but Tide is powerful. We see this time and time again. He could be out heroing. But to have these kids be in an environment where they could be watched but not only trained and led in the right direction, by the embodiment of a good on the surface level caricatures of a hero, with no life, no backstory, nothing to actually do? It makes Tide seem like the perfect person to assign to these kids, instead of a hero or a person who cannot keep up with them/ not powerful enough to, cannot keep a constant eye on them, who has a life outside of the Prime Defenders.

(Reminder that William and Dakota had family and a place they were living they left to go live with Tide and Vync, something they sacrificed to be apart of the Prime Defenders.)

At this point I feel a little insane, but I feel as if this theory isn't a far reach to say that the Prime Defenders weren't supposed to exist, but was a program set in place specifically to control our three protagonists.

TLDR: the prime defenders aren't getting special treatment because people have high hopes in them but because they're afraid of what will happen if they don't intervein or treat this situation seriously like a ticking time bomb.

[dcotommy]

So my main dnd character is canonically adopted by a level 26 magic idk my DM refuses to drop more lore about powerful wizard dude

Anyways in the lore my dnd character also has a mom, there is no broken relationship or hurt

Just a completely loving family

The larger art of the mom was the last time my character saw his mom

She’s a Fey

This is in progress lore. Now my character is currently trying free his dad from purgatory after the unknown amount of war crimes against the gods? Dm said he tried deleting the weave god

One of moms goals is they wanted to be an archery but didn’t get to that point

[cassiartblog]

Also uhhh I’m the anon who spoke about Graz’zt, Belial and who doesn’t shut up about Neverwinter Nights. My brain’s like super mega fixed on Baator , devils and archfiends atm (less so the Abyss even though I find Graz’zt interesting with his relationship with Tasha)

Hi :D

I love it so much that I'm not the only one who is super fixated on the nine hells atm! And I'm always happy to see another question in my ask box :D

Baator is so an interesting place, I try to learn everything interesting about it. And your questions really got me thinking. Atm I am working on my own interpretation of Belial and draw it, I hope i will finish it soon (as long as I don't draw Mephi instead again lmao)

I'm also working on Asmo, Levistus and soon Dispater.

Oh and the tip with neverwinter nights was awesome! I have the game now (but I'm still at the beginning, still didn't finish Bg3) and I listen to the Mephistopheles lines on YouTube often. His voice is very good and how he developers in the game and with the choices you make is awesome. Some lines really got me laughing. Poor Mephi.

And Graz'zt... Tbh the only demon I find interesting atm but I'm not deep into abyss lore, is a very interesting character as well. And Abyssal Tieflings are fascinating too. I love their design.

So don't hesitate to ask me whenever you have a new thought, you really gave me a few good ideas :D

Thank you for your questions so far and I wish you a hellish good day and rest-weekend, greetings from Cania XD

[ankh-morporkianpostalworker]

The online DnD actual play community is a great lesson in what happens when talented creators are allowed to make what they want without the restrictions brought about by network interference - creativity and innovation brought about by a desire for self-improvement by passionate voices.

The two big examples that I'll use to prove this point are Matthew Mercer's Critical Role and Brennan Lee Mulligan's Dimension 20, as they're the big names in the community. When Dimension20 Fantasy High was released in September of 2018, Critical Role was relatively early in The Mighty Nein, and there was a definite improvement in the storytelling of CR as D20 continued, and this improvement drove an improvement in Brennan's storytelling, which drove Matt Mercer etc., etc. until as of now they're releasing their best content to date (Starstruck Odyssey/Neverafter for D20 and Bells Hells for CR). I doubt that this would have happened if the pair had been constrained by trend-chasing corporate execs.

There's also the fact that the stories told are so far outside of the network TV/streaming service norm that they have completely unique feelings to them, especially the anthology-driven storytelling of D20. Stories that take hundreds upon hundreds of hours to experience and short, genre anthology series are, especially after the failure of GoT, almost unheard of, but the freedom that the pair have allows them to pursue these kinds of stories.

The best part of this, though, is that there aren't any hard feelings between CR and D20, and the casts of the two have crossed over so many times that it's essentially one big community, and they actively engage with voices that aren't as well known to foster a sense of diversity and inclusivity with others in the space.

One last thing - both Brennan and Matt have gone out of their way to combat the effects that their shows have had, making it abundantly clear that, as people who essentially make DnD content for a living, their product is far outside what anyone should expect of the DMs at their home games, and as someone who DMs, I really appreciate that fact.

[mauricemylittlemeowmeow]

dnd thoughts under read more again bc the only time my brain works is for dnd

im considering DMing??? and the prep work is a lot and there's big anxiety around it but also ????? im recognizing it and realising i feel the same way as a player anyways???? 😭😭😭

it's kind of wild bc in theory i love dnd. but the anticipation of a session, not knowing what's going to happen, and the personal standard i set to perform well just compounds into anxiety lol. because i love the game so much, i want to give out my best for everyone to have an enjoyable game, whether as a player or a dm (on the former, i want to make sure the dm enjoys too!!) it's a huge point of pride when someone feels my character's emotions deeply to the point of them being moved to tears!!

currently, i got invited by a friend into a group of mostly newbies with little to no experience. the one who was supposed to DM came in late so I ended up volunteering since they were MIA, i was the only one w/ hefty experience, and fuck it i REALLY want to play CoS since I've never gotten to.

Originally, of course, the CoS longing was as a player but I cracked open the book and holy shit!!! I can't imagine playing this as anything but a DM. It's so fun!!! And also I already spoiled myself because I read the module so there's that 😭

mia DM finally showed up and i asked if hed be chill if i tried dming instead. yet to answer but we shall see. i can still back out ig bc being a good player is lightyears from being a good DM (god the prep work involved man) but !!! i wanna try!!! and also i havent played a proper campaign that's up to my standards in YEARS so i should probably just take the reins into my own hands at this point.

++ i was the one who brought up the idea of playing dnd to my friend anyways and he was the one who gathered the ppl. and i rlly want him to have a good first time experience of the game i love so much bc that's what my first DM/friend did for me!!!

[ladymayflower]

Sometimes a really cool character might just not be suited for a specific campaign setting.

Story time: After 10 hrs of gameplay I realised that my DnD character, the way she was, was making me miserable.

For context, this is a sort of prison slavery kind of setting, where PCs have to serve a prison sentence as a Suicide Squad, going on missions for the Church. I was not aware of this beforehand, and created Devia - a free traveler air genasi, completely unsuitable for being chill in captivity. This was not a healthy headspace to be in. Plus, my stats were bad, and I wasn't vibing with ranger class.

After some emotional agony, I admitted this to the DM. I was very prepared - I created an entirely new character, with a biography based on what I knew now about the world.

Ultimately, this might not go anywhere, and Devia herself might be hijacked to become a dhampir monk, in that case, some of this design might be reused.

[ink-flavoured-tea]

(Just in case you’re not caught up/are new, this has some Critical Role Campaign 1 & 3 spoilers)

Not sure if this has already been talked about or not, but I’m fairly certain that Sam’s inspiration for FCG’s design was Doty version 4. Although it’s not canon as Sam preferred Matt’s version of Taryon’s ending, Sam disclosed in a letter from Tary that Doty 4 was “…Merely one eye and an arm, on top of a tricycle.”

So…FGC has one detachable hand, a wheel instead of legs and Ashton noted that when they found FCG after he had attacked Dancer and the other robots, he only had one working eye as the other was damaged.

Could just be overthinking it…but we’ve already had three characters that were inspired by previous campaigns/one shots, so maybe there’s a little something here? Either way, fun to think about :)

[quasar-concept]

I'm perfectly aware that I am the DnD newbie stereotype by making my first character like... a serious character

but I'm not going to let other people being like "lmao of course you did" stop me from having fun with my character because Koshira is COOL and I don't care if in this case that makes me the odd one out lmao

[pixthefuckup]

a dynamic that needs to be in more "organization fighting against certain thing" media: fighter who constantly thanks the analyst for giving them good fights and sending them to places that get their adrenaline rushing during missions x analyst who's never gotten a compliment for any of their tactics, especially how they divvy things up

pls pls pls i need a fighter who's just clueless about how much their words mean to people but super happy to tell the analyst how much fun they've made their life (barbarian core for realsies) and an analyst who has no idea how to accept it. i neeeeeeeed the whole agency to stare at them like they're the little freaks they are as they have their crazy abnormal dynamic.