#edit: DND and D&D are two very different things!

[nagalias-mindscape]

Somehow... Someway... we got four people together to play Wildermyth.

Right after our D&D session. This is amazing.

This is going to be chaotic.

[thehomelybrewster]

How Much Do Systems Matter?

This post is directly inspired by the video "You shouldn't use DnD for narrative campaigns." by Questing Beast (aka Ben Milton) about the Polygon article "Worlds Beyond Number is teaching me things that no D&D book can" by Charlie Hall.

The video and article basically posit the following:

TTRPGs can use concretely designed procedures for certain types of challenges and scenarios while having much looser procedures for other types of challenges or scenarios

Just because a TTPRG has less thorough rules on a type of challenge or scenario than a different RPG tackling the same subject matter doesn't automatically make the former worse at being used for these scenarios than the latter

Depending on the preferences of the table, having a robust mechanical framework for one element of gameplay while lacking that for other types of gameplay may be preferrable than having robust mechanical frameworks for both

Having distinct game mechanics for narrative progression and character interactions is uncommon in D&D and derived games, but is very common in story games, e.g. most Powered by the Apocalypse games.

The Polygon article includes this quote by Worlds Beyond Number's Brennan Lee Mulligan: "[People say that] because D&D has so many combat mechanics, you are destined to tell combat stories. I fundamentally disagree. Combat is the part I’m the least interested in simulating through improvisational storytelling. So I need a game to do that for me, while I take care of emotions, relationships, character progression, because that shit is intuitive and I understand it well. I don’t intuitively understand how an arrow moves through a fictional airspace."

This intuitive knowledge on handling emotional beats, narrative, and characters of course stems from years of experience Brennan has as a writer, actor, improv teacher, comedian, camp counsellor, and professional TTRPG GM and player.

Using Ron Edwards design language (s. his 1999 essay "System Does Matter"), Brennan wants to run primarily narrativist games, while 5e would fit Edwards' idea of a Gamist system, i.e. one which involves the pursuit of "winning" against NPCs.

Now let's look at 5e: it's generally agreed upon that 5e is opinionated on combat, while also being vocal that exploration and social encounters, while less fleshed-out, are still part of its pillars alongside combat, meaning the game is still encouraging you to pursue these types of play.

Combat is a very fleshed-out series of systems. The action system is centered on combat, both in terms of time and types. Spellcasting is very distinct and allows for casting mostly offensive or defensive spells. Class progression usually focuses on improving one's combat capabilities.

Exploration and social interactions are much more bare-bones.

On the social side, a few more recent supplements have reintroduced the classic Attitude table present in earlier editions and which are a mainstay of the OSR community. Additionally the DMG spends merely three pages on how to run NPCs, mostly using fairly general advice instead of concrete game mechanics. Interaction between player characters is also barely discussed in 5e rules.

Exploration is similarly simple, mostly related to the omnipresent but simple skill system, as well as some relatively simple rules on weather, hazards, overland travel speed, and tracking rations.

5e's shift towards simplified rules for these two pillars, including simplifying the skill system into a mostly binary failure-success affair is a shift away from earlier D&D editions and some of its direct competitors, e.g. Pathfinder, Rolemaster, GURPS, and The Dark Eye, which often would involve subsystems for various aspects of social or exploratory encounters, s. Edwards' "System does Matter" essay and his point on simulationist games.

So if Brennan wants to run a narrative game where we can realiably use his knowledge of narratives and character writing to create a compelling story while having a set system as his backup to run situations where violence becomes a factor... Using a game like 5e is a decent choice.

Of course other systems might be even better for that. Shadowdark for example may just be the perfect fit for someone wanting to run a narrative game with occasional combat. The combat rules are thorough enough to cover the fundamentals. Sure, you may just need to get rid of real-time torches, the key mechanic which sets Shadowdark apart from other OSR games, but subtracting a mechanic, instead of modifying it, is a relatively uninvasive procedure.

Personally I too like it when my TTRPG, especially stuff intended for medium- or long-term play, doesn't touch social and narrative elements much mechanically.

Meanwhile games like Ironsworn and Heart - The City Below, which are much more narrative-focused, do have issues where their resolution mechanics clash with the fiction in ways that would pull be out of the story we're trying to tell. Heart has the issue with the Supplies resistance not being shared within the group, and Ironsworn's fulfillment of vows can be glacially slow (s. A. A. Voigt's "Ironsworn: A Narrative Dilemma" video essay).

Ultimately, it all comes down to preference. Personally, if I wanted to run a fantasy game with magic and a strong narrative (like Worlds Beyond Number), with the clear goal of not getting bogged down in combat or minis, I'd legit use Shadowdark as described above. If I knew I wanted to tell a specific type of story and knew of a game that was designed for these types of stories, I'd definitely give it a read and talk about it with my players before we adopt it.

However, I do implore folks to not Ship of Theseus a game with tons of homebrew and houserules so that it's no longer recognizable as its original game. If you ever feel compelled to do that, ask other players what systems might be a better fit for your needs.

[balanceoflightanddark]

I had a fun idea, an ATLA and DnD crossover where Azula becomes an adopted gremlin child of a DnD party

I'm just going to go ahead and combine these two asks into one since they touch on the same subject.

I just want to emphasize before we begin that I have very little knowledge in the ways of Dungeons and Dragons. Don't get me wrong, I am familiar with some of the works derived from the game. I've watched Honor Among Thieves in theaters, I've seen a few play sessions online, I've read the At The Spine of the World comic set in Icewind Dale (shakes fist at Runa for being a huge, fur-wearing, female barbarian), and I have watched a few parody videos on YouTube (the old "I attack the Darkness short, the 4th edition vids where the presenters always gets killed and/or eaten, the exploits of Fargrim the Great). That being said, I've never actually played a session (I played by myself, but that's not a proper D&D experience) and I'm not familiar with every rule/monster/setting ever put out. At least not to the same extent as some other series.

So if I get something wrong with this, somebody feel free to let me know.

I do know that one of the appeals of D&D is that dungeonmasters and players are encouraged to get pretty creative with the setting. You can either play in an established setting, or just set off on your own setting from what I've heard. Really, the various monsters, gods, and races are there as pieces for you to play around with. So you can do a lot with an ATLA/D&D crossover.

As how I'd write one, I'd perhaps go for a multiverse shenanigans where the Gaang ends up in one of the settings that plays around with that sort of thing. You really don't have to work all that hard to make them a typical D&D party, so the fun would be seeing their reactions to all the various races and some of the shenanigans they might run into whilst dungeon crawling or encountering various monsters. You couldn't convince me otherwise that Aang wouldn't try to befriend every single monster they came across (ESPECIALLY the Owlbears).

I wager Zuko doesn't make it past the first room of the Tomb of Horrors.

It's here where I wouldn't adhere the various races to the morality alignment chart. You know how there are certain races that adhere to a single morality like Always Chaotic Evil or Always Lawful Good? I'd try to avoid that here, or at least give some explanation as to why they are like that instead of "born that way". ATLA does have "nobody is born evil" as one of the core themes, so I figure that would be a good fit here.

As for Azula being adopted by a party, I could see her being weirded out by the various different races. Made even make some snide racist remarks because...well the Fire Nation WAS an imperialistic racist society after all. Though once she actually spends time with them and sees they're NOT some barbarious monsters, she could warm up to them. And if we're going to have a plot involving Azula, I would have to have it involve Chromatic Dragons somehow. First off, they're dragons which Azula is associated with. Second, they're the "evil" dragons compared to the "good" Metallic Dragons. Like how Azula is the "evil" blue dragon to Zuko's "good" red dragon. I'd like to explore the morality of the Chromatics (what makes them evil and the potential for good) and see how that relates to Azula.

All in all, there would be a few things I'd like to explore with a D&D crossover. But, I'd need to do a bit more research since I'd like to know what I'm dealing with first before taking the plunge. Thanks for asking either way.

[basiliskonline]

I just finished a Court of Fey and Flowers by @dimension20official, it was absolutely amazing, hands down the best AP I have ever seen, or imagine I might see.

You can find it here.

As someone that is strongly anti-D&D 5E and Anti Wizards of the Coast, it took me a long time to give dimension 20 a chance, and I will strongly suggest that anyone in that same position give it a shot.

I am gonna talk about it below the cut here, cause this will likely be long, this will be things I both liked and didn't like.

So i'm gonna talk abit about my feelings and experience with games and APs, because we're all different, we all like different things in a TV Show and by extension those variable preferences would also expand to APs. So I want to give you a little bit of information about where I stand as I explain my thoughts. Sorry if this gets very SEO Recipe lmao.

If you don't care about all that, skip to the next bold line, however if you are gonna comment or argue or whatever, at least read the context first and then probably don't do that.

I've been gaming for 30+ years, I started very early, and i've played definately dozens, probably hundreds of different games. D&D doesnt even rank in that list, I didn't like it much as a kid, when i grew up and it was 3/3,5 I hated both it and pathfinder with a passion. I played 5E for a bit but its lackluster and very poor design led to a game of boring mechanical options and choices that quickly grew old. And if I was gonna play a narrative game, i wouldn't be playing D&D in the first place. 4E is the only edition of D&D I've actively enjoyed.

I was an immense Critter during Campaign 1 and partway through Campaign 2. Like... "my wife and I have Critical Role quotes engraved on our wedding bands" critters.

But I quickly fell away from both Critters and Critical Role, by and large Critters is the worst fandom ive been apart of (and I was a SuperWhoLock back in the day) and the CR cast talks a lot of nice ideals and backs them up with absolutely nothing but lip service. I am now, tbh, somewhat uncomfortable when I see any of them on my timeline.

Dimension 20 is the first AP my wife and I have tried to watch since CR (we find most APs to be unwatchtable in most situations, just our own preference), My wife was curious about seeing Brendan as a DM after watching him on Game Changer, so we watched Mice and Murder (it was fun, and good, but has NOTHING on aCoFaF), and then on a suggestion moved to watch aCoFaF).

Last piece of the puzzle, WotC is a fucking nightmare company that has harbored some of the worst pieces of trash imaginable (though tbf that is not unique to them, its a major "large/old ttrpg company issue". And I quite frankly would love to never have to hear or see about anything wotc ever does ever again, preferably because they burned down and everything they ever made goes with them (this sadly means I would lose 4E but sacrifices must be made).

Things I like about a Court of Fey and Flowers

The first thing I love about it, is its a very role play heavy AP, and it centers on matters of Political fey intrigue, and that is done so masterfully by every single player and by the GM. (I absolutely avoided D20 because of the DnD/WOTC connection, but I in retrospect absolutely understand the whole "Season of Aabria" that was going around now).

The characters were thrilling, dramatic, sneaky, nuanced and hilarious, and the storyline was gorgeous and beautifully made, allowing the players to make their own messes and their own relationships and romances. So much romances.

I absolutely loved that I didn't have to see dnd 5e be played most of the time. This is something, and one of the only somethings, you'll see me talk about in the "don't like" section, so it is strangely enough both. The system was changed and mostly ignored that I almost never had to see dnd played, the AP is so heavily social and rp and during the state of the AP only had two very very short combats that were more priority on the social implications of the combats than the combat itself. Overall it could have used any system and done what they did, but mostly I didn't have to see 5E played and that made it pretty solid, despite "being 5E".

I also love Brennan Lee Mulligan's Captain KP Hob, a very good bab and the first and only Bugbear PC ive seen in an AP (and I love me some Bugbear)

Thing's I didn't like about a Court of Fey and Flowers

This is gonna stay light, because really there wasn't much. The only thing really is that the system, while ostensibly "5E" the system was so lightly applied, used or stuck to that the game could have used almost literally any other system to better affect and I absolutely hate that they still gave 5E and WOTC some sort of props/bandwidth by barely using the system but still selling it as DnD.

[howtofightwrite]

My character learned to fight with staves and spears, what would it be better for her to take to a “DnD style” dungeon? (The world is similar to DnD world, although the spear is seriously underpowered in the rules)

So, I'm going to start with a couple nitpicks.

As someone with tabletop RPG experience, labeling it as, “D&D world,” is a really weird thing to read. D&D is primarily three distinct things. The rule systems themselves, and at this point we're up to the sixth or seventh major rules iteration. D&D as settings, except you'll almost never hear this one phrased that way. Finally, D&D as branding, which is extraordinarily nebulous, and tends to pick iconography out of the rules or settings. Simply identifying something as D&D could refer to any of these.

Officially, D&D has roughly 20 campaign settings. Any one of those could be categorized broadly as, “a D&D world.” Depending on the edition, the default setting is either Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. These are entirely different worlds. Greyhawk is more of the conventional medieval fantasy world, while Forgotten Realms is a setting with mountains (in some cases, literally) of fallen empires, and the world is filled with ancient ruins, in addition to the current civilizations. Both of these are extremely detailed settings with thousands of pages of background lore.

Beyond that, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape, Ravnica, Eberron, Spelljammer, and Urban Arcana, all come to mind as official TSR/Wizards of the Coast settings. And it's extremely likely that even players with an extensive familiarity with the ruleset missed at least one of the above names. This isn't even counting a lot of minor settings, or the fact that Planescape and Spelljammer are both multi-world settings, and the fact that a lot of these settings technically cross over. There are Spelljammer ports on Faerun (the main continent of Forgotten Realms), and races native to Planescape (in particular the Tieflings) have become a mainstay of the games, as they wander across the planes, to the point that Planescape's Tieflings and Aasimar exist in Pathfinder.

So, “The D&D world,” doesn't really say much.

With a lot of tabletop RPGs, the setting is analogous to the ruleset. When you're talking about running a Shadowrun campaign, or a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle, those are specific worlds. The biggest ambiguity is which edition. However, when you say you're participating in a D&D campaign, that doesn't tell you much on its own.

If you're asking from a rules perspective, that's going to depend on the edition, and this is where stuff gets a little complicated.

If you're working with the idea of a D&D style dungeon, it's probably best to consider what era of game design you're looking at. There are a couple ways you can approach dungeons.

So, basic thoughts on dungeons.

Small dungeons are designed to be finished in a single session or two. You're probably looking at a few combat encounters. But, the main arc is that your characters travel to a dungeon, they do whatever they were planning to, and get out. You might have as many as four rooms, but generally these are pretty compact spaces.

Large dungeons can either be designed around the adventurers spending multiple days in the dungeon itself, or they may be traveling in and out and resting somewhere outside. (In some cases, you'll even have towns or inns set up over the dungeon. So your adventurers are all in one compact space.)

Additionally, large dungeons can be designed around the idea that the players will penetrate a few levels at a time, gradually working their way deeper over time (as they deal with other events and problems), or it can be a very long excursions, with adventures scavenging and hunting in the dungeon for days or weeks as they progress.

In the case of truly monstrous dungeons, they might even be bringing enough personnel and resources to set up various base camps and have a full supply lines running back to the outside world, as they gradually expand their control over the dungeon.

Sort of in parallel to this, it's worth thinking about what the dungeon is. The basic concept is often, as the name implies, some kind of semi-ruined castle prison. But, you'll also frequently see crypts, and caves as dungeons. Especially as small ones. At the same time, it's worth considering expanding your concept of a dungeon a bit. Ancient ruins, old fortresses, necropolises, abandoned mines, and sewers are common. (Sewers are a little unrealistic, as real ones don't tend to be massive underground pipes you can walk in.) What's less common are massive shipwrecks, overrun cities, entire islands with dangerous flora and fauna (or just pirates), fallen cities (where entire city districts collapsed during an earthquake and now exist below ground), plague ridden city districts (plagues can actually be a lot of fun, because it will let you transform familiar territories into hostile ones as the campaign progresses. Pathologic does this extraordinarily well.) In a rather famous D&D adventure (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks), one of the dungeons is a downed spacecraft. This is before we consider dungeons with impossible geometry, such as ones that leak over into another dimension (possibly as a result of magical experiments gone wrong, or ones that exist in the dreams or psyche of an individual. (For the record, I'm not a huge fan of psychic dungeons as a play experience, but they can be done well. I've simply had some bad experiences with the concept.) Shadowrun had a related concept, with cyberspace (called, “the matrix”), as a parallel space where hackers would engage in combat parallel to the events happening out in the real world. It's weird concept, but one that you might get some millage out of, and having a parallel battle on the astral plane wouldn't be that weird for D&D.

Moving beyond that, there are some semi-common dungeon settings that you don't often see in D&D, for obvious reasons, but might fit if your setting accommodates them. Abandoned research labs, abandoned industrial areas, abandoned villages or suburban areas at the edge of a city. Bonus points if the reason it's abandoned is related to why your players are wandering into it now. City districts under lockdown, usually this will either cater to a stealth focus, and might work if you have a group of thieves or something similar, (though, at that point, Blades in the Darkmight be a better RPG pick), this setting also works when the group enforcing the lockdown are acceptable targets, such as gangs or cultists, and for bonus points you can organize these setups with multiple factions and your characters may even be able to play groups against one another, all of this also works for feral cities (which also work as large area dungeons.)

With any dungeon, you probably want to consider how it fit into the world before it became a dungeon, and how long it existed as a dungeon before your players wandered in and started ripping the place apart.

So, ultimately, the question is about the spear and staff in the rules, as you're probably looking to approximate the rules to some extent. The problem is the rules have changed a bit over the years. One problem is that the default spear is not a reach weapon, meaning you can't use it to hit targets more than a space away from you. D&D splits that into the longspear, which is a reach weapon, and you can hit targets two spaces away from you, though you do need to use a 5ft step to back away from someone in an adjacent space before you can attack them. Both spears and staves are simple proficiency weapons though some editions do let you use the staff as a double weapon (meaning you can effectively treat it as dual wielding, if you have the feats.) If you do have a second attack with the staff, or you expect to be dealing with enemies that resist non-blunt damage (like skeletons) the staff starts to become a lot more attractive.

If you're using a different ruleset from standard D&D, there may be other considerations. I'm thinking of Total War's Anti-Large rules in particular, which do make spears very attractive against larger foes as they'll deal additional damage, similarly if you have some kind of homebrew piercing damage bonus against armor, that could make the spear conditionally more appealing. And, if your character is expecting to face down minotaurs or giants, then a longspear would be a much better choice with those modified rules. Though, this comes with another consideration, back in 3.5e the longspear was a simple proficiency weapon (just like the staff and spear), but was upgraded to martial proficiency in 4e, and seems to be missing in 5e (or it was replaced with the pike, which is also a martial weapon.) The longspear (and pike) do have special rules which allow them to be braced against a charging foe dealing increased damage. So, that might be worth considering for your choices. But, again, unless you're getting proficiency for the entire spear family, this might not be a practical option.

Usually, when you're arming characters for D&D, the primary consideration is going to be the overall thematic style of the character. Sometimes you do need to go out of your way to ensure a character gets the relevant proficiency (such as a rapier wielding wizard), but generally speaking, that theme is going to inform whether a character gets a spear or staff. If you've got a druid, then the spear might make more sense. If you have a wizard or sorcerer then maybe the staff is preferable (particularly if you can use it as an arcane focus.) (Though, wizards and sorcerers don't get spear proficiency in 5e, so, that's a factor.)

That said, you're not wrong, D&D has not done a good job with the spear. Part of that is because the default D&D spear is remarkably short. In 5e, the weapons are mostly interchangeable aside from the damage type, but the staff has more potential utility (specifically the ability to get staves crafted as arcane focuses, and a wider range of enchantments for staves.) Both are 1d6 with 1d8 versatile (if wielded with 2h the damage die is increased.) This is in contrast to 3.5 where the staff was 1d6, but was a double weapon, while the spear was 1d8, had the ready against charging characters action baked into the item (without the reach keyword), and had an increased crit multiplier (x3, meaning the weapon did triple damage on a crit, though it shared this with most axes), but it was a two-handed weapon.

I suppose if your character is a spellcaster, the staff is a better choice, as it gives you more options. But, when you're talking about someone who spends a lot of time out in the wilds, a spear might be a better thematic choice. If you're working within some version of 3rdedition, then the spear does look more valuable, but in 5e it is an underwhelming choice.

-Starke

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[xaloncat]

Made This For Friends But I'll Post It Here To Because I Think Its helpful For Ppl To Have These Resources ^^

MASTERLIST OF SITES YOU CAN USE TO KEEP OC INFO AND WORLD BUILDING LORE Main Sites Toyhouse! (https://toyhou.se/) This Is One Of If Not The Most Popular Site For Characters. You Can Make Custom Folders, Characters, Worlds And Advertisements Very Easily. It's A Great Place To Sell Characters And Trade Them, But Even Better For Keeping Track Of Your Characters! There's Some Little Specific Features That Are Less Known (Like How You Can Toggle OOC/IC For Roleplaying When Commenting And Such) But You've Probably Heard Most Of The Info I Care To Compile About The Site Already. I Do Feel An Obligation To Address Something Though, That Being The Fact That Toyhouse Is Not Free To Use/Sign Up For. Toyhouse Can Currently Only Be Accessed Via Having A Join Code, Which You Can Get From A Person Who Has Toyhouse Premium (Which Allows You To Produce Codes) But If You Are In Servers Like Artfight Or Just General Art Servers, Its Not To Hard To Find People Giving Out Freebies Or Trading Them Off (I Can Probably Find Someone You Can Contact If You Were Interested) Now, The Thing About Toyhouse Is That It Utilizes An HTML Code Format, Allowing You To Fully Customize A Characters Page. And The Community For This Site (Being Very Cool) Often Post These HTML's On Forums!

Here's A Few Links That Might Interest You ! https://toyhou.se/5564121.ftu-html-hero-s-journey - https://pastebin.com/NjnNZ7sU A Very In Depth Worldbuilding Html, Allowing For Pages on The Progression Of The Story, Roles Of Each Character And More ! Very Visually Interesting As Well. https://toyhou.se/27969594.purifiers-code-html-f2u A Decently Simply Character Info Page With Two Tabs (One For Info And One For Relations) Other Character Info Pages By This Creator - https://toyhou.se/27749456.project-moon-code-html-f2u https://toyhou.se/27946874.jackpot-html-f2u - https://pastebin.com/F2Uuf2Uf A Jackpot Themed Character Page, Which Includes A Basic Info Tab, Trivia/Notes Tab, A Relationship Tab And A Story Tab https://toyhou.se/27894933.html-affinity - https://pastebin.com/2dpGHeY5 Another Worldbuilding HTML, This One Including A Button To Play A Song Of Your Choice On It https://toyhou.se/27871561.unravel-htmlf2u A DND Character Themed Page, Including A Scroll That You Click On To Open The Oc's Info And A Lot Of The Basic Info Needed For A DND Character https://toyhou.se/27969906.washing-machine-oc-profile -https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CpgHf0TGG8t9A1jtXNSZamJRzK2Zm6xcCyPq3ebhAHM/edit Last But Not Least For Toyhouse, Goofy Washing Machine Profile For Your Oc's ! Self Explanatory, Put Your Oc In A Washing Machine

Unvale (https://unvale.io/)

A Decently Popular Site For Storing Your Characters ! It Includes A Gallery Tab, A Writing Tab, A Social Tab And A Traits Tab On Each Character. You Can Also Integrate A Song On The Character Pages If You Like. The Pages Are Decently Customizable Even Without Being HTML And It's Still Updating And Adding More Features Every Day! They Have Many Community Events As Well, Which Are Always Fun :3 I'm A Huge Ad For This Site (I Have Gotten 6 People To Sign Up For It-) So I'm Biased But It Is One Of If Not The Best Site For This Stuff IMO.

Character Hub (https://characterhub.com/home) (*NOT Chara Hub)

I Haven't Seen Many People Talk About This Site But It Is Decently Popular (Though It Is The Least Popular Of These All) And Recently Just Became Completely Free To Use (No More Waiting List For It :P) It's Pretty Customizable With Around 20 Different Extra Info Things You Can Add To Your Page, Plus You Can Upload Art There, Sell Commissions, Sell/Trade Ocs And Roleplay With People On The Site !

Artfight (https://artfight.net/)

I Know What You Might Be Thinking, "Xalon That Doesn't Really Fit Here" And I Agree, But I Put It On Here Anyway Because I Can. Now, Artfight If You Don't Know- Is An Art Trading Game Hosted Every Year For The Entire Month Of July Where You Earn Points By Drawing Other Peoples Oc's. So Of Course, It Has Character Info Pages. Though It May Not Be What You Typically Think Of When I Say "Oc Info Storing Site", It Does Allow You To Store OC Info And Therefor Gets To Go On The List. Now, Similar To Toyhouse Artfight Uses Html (and BBCode)!! So Its Super Customizable, Both For Your Page And Your Oc's Pages, So Here's Some Links For That :) https://toyhou.se/27961292.artfight-character-profile#84166978 A Decently Simply Character Profile Page, Containing Info About Them That People Might Need When Drawing Your OC https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gYcUPr7eNk55ZX_B-lpICRYcVqhA81MDu9K93XC4uMU/edit?pli=1#heading=h.ky1wi7ab18y6 Another Oc Profile Template ! I Personally Use This One For All My Characters https://toyhou.se/11685585.code-art-fight A User Profile For Yourself, Including Many Variants (2 Of Which Are Themed After This Years Teams) https://toyhou.se/27884262.af-css-mangos-stardust-code - https://pastebin.com/PEgYMWJP A Stardust Themed Template For Your Profile On Artfight https://toyhou.se/27870517.f2u-art-fight-profile - https://pastebin.com/9BcxWRry Another User Profile (For Yourself), Themed To Be Seafoam By Default https://toyhou.se/27856750.af-cssneon-voxel-theme - https://eidolonentropy.art/random/artfight/AF%20Neon%20Voxel%20Theme.css Green Neon Themed User Profile (FOR AF PREMIUM USERS ONLY) https://toyhou.se/16738271.artfight-card-c-html A User Profile Card https://toyhou.se/27857096.af-css2024-team-themes 2024 Team Themed User Profile (FOR AF PREMIUM USERS ONLY) https://toyhou.se/27887437.f2u-artfight-permissions - Permissions Badges For Your Page In The 2024 Themes (I Adore The Stardust Ones For This)

Ref Sheet (https://refsheet.net/)

I Hadn't Actually Heard About This Site Before Making This List So I Don't Know Much About It. But From What I've Seen, It's A Pretty Simple Website Where You Can Keep Characters! It Has The Ability To Upload Images And Such And You Can Post Ads On The Site For Commissions And Such. It Seems To Be Relatively New And Only Run By A Few People

Other Links

Please Note That This Is For Sites I Do Not Know Much About And I'm Only Adding For You To Research While I Add Basic Info. https://lorekeeper.me/ - A Site For Keeping Character And World Info, Primarily For Devianart RPGS But Likely Can Be Used For Other Stuff https://wavemaker.co.uk/ - A Program Used For Writing And Stories On PC/Laptop (REQUIRES DOWNLOAD) https://plottr.com/ - A Program To Keep All Info About Your Story, Characters And Such Ect Where You Can Also Write Stories :) (REQUIRES DOWNLOAD) https://milanote.com/ - For People Who Like To Visually Organize Their Stories With Collaborative Brainstorming Boards https://www.weebly.com/ - Free Website Maker, Can Prob Store Stuff About OC's Here If You Want Your Own Site https://www.notebook.ai/ - For Writers/Roleplayers, Free To Use And Online. https://www.worldanvil.com/ - For Dnd Characters And Worldbuilding. And Thats Everything ! If You Want Anything Added, Please Contact me And I Will Update The List To Include It If I See That It Fits :)

[sparrow-orion-writes]

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays buddy! How are you, how's things going and how's writing going?

Hi! Happy holidays/Merry Christmas to you too :D

Well, I'm a little stressed out, very tired, but overall I'm actually doing alright! As far as writing goes, I'm actually writing serious chronological first drafts at the moment for both Released and The Poison Complex - and I'm about halfway through for both.

I've also got a secret santa writing due in two days, which I have not finished writing or editing, but will be a short fantasy-romance story. It's basic plot is a girl wakes up in a mushroom circle with vague and troubling memories of what happened before then, and a friendly - if not troublesome - fairy escorts her to a place of safety, and the girl is introduced to the realm of the fey, the different creatures and architectures, before ultimately having to decide what to do next. The fairy is very enraptured by the human woman and yeah, it's very cute and gay. It's also a premise that I'll be elaborating on in a worse way when I finally pick up writing Golden Dandelions again.

(I'm also working on a dnd one shot which is un-re-lay-ted but also very fun).

[keplercryptids]

dnd ama: what would you say is the most important thing for group cohesion? players, i mean. what kinda things would you look for if you were to try and find another group with a similar level of connection as your current one?

not sure if you're asking how i would personally go about finding a good group for myself, or how one should do that generally. because they're slightly different, i think! but in general:

1.) having similar play styles is very important. someone who wants to play in a hack-and-slash campaign isn't going to have fun in a low-combat, heavy RP one. someone who wants a goofy meme-filled low-stakes romp isn't gonna have fun in a high-stakes, serious, angsty game. players (and dms!) have to wanna play the same kind of game. 2.) having a strong, open line communication is just as important. you GOTTA be able to talk to one another as players and talk to your dm if/when issues arise.

^ there's an element of trial and error for both of those things, btw. you're not gonna know if you play well together or if you communicate well before you...try to do those things lol.

in addition, for me personally, the following things are necessities of my players: genuine investment in the game (pay attention as we play, take the world seriously, interact readily with the world and npcs and each other, etc), be communicative (answer my messages, talk out any issues with me, etc), and be committed to the game (show up to most/all sessions unless something unavoidable happens, show up on time, level up characters in a timely fashion, know how your characters work, etc).

as a dm, you gotta be ready and willing to kick players out if they aren't a good fit with the group. and i say this as someone who's had to kick out two players! (once very early on so it wasn't a big deal, and once more recently which was. significantly harder.) sometimes a player just doesn't fit. it's unavoidable sometimes. you just gotta be willing to forge a group based on trial and error!

AMA - d&d edition!

[officialauthorofanotherworld]

random name origin fun time discussion:

Also pronunciations :D (I’ll edit this later and add those) (added as of 5:45 PM 6-12-24)

some new stuff added as of 6-26-24 cuz @jev-urisk tagged me :p

(my god, this post is such a poorly formatted mess. help me)

Taka (originally Aka, red, inspired by Karma Akabane)

edit 6/20/24: um wth was i talking about here? When I played Taka for the first time 5 years ago in my first dnd campaign ever (which was a very bad campaign btw, for reasons i might talk about in another note) I had "Aka" down for like 5 seconds (yes, it was based on Karma, tho) before i was like "if i add a T it sounds good" not knowing that Taka was an actual name. (or maybe subconsciously i did, but iirc it was just a "that sounds neat" decision that ended up being actually integral to him as a person, as all names should be :'D)

Pronounced: tah-kuh

low "a" like "aww"

so no, its not "TACKA" like some english speakers would probably mispronounce it. Tahkuh. Tawkuh. Taaaahhhhhkaaaaaaa

ok im sorry

idk, go watch a japanese person say "taka" thats how you say it, idk how to write pronounciations ok???

Fun fact: Taka is the Japanese word for Falcon/Hawk. Fits perfectly with his personality, his obsession with the sky, and his sheer wanderlust/desire to be “free”

Obligatory: no not Eren Jaeger “free”

Beriyl (Beryl)

pronounced: Barrel

He was my friends mage. He was very racist and a bastard person. (old, old beriyl). Beriyl and Arthur and Taka now are so very different from when I first learned about them, their original inceptions (being, well, dnd in a bad campaign) were just very different.

Ecirr (random dnd aarakocra name generator, I think I merged two names to get his full one, and changed the spelling a bit. Ecirr Roarark/Rorrark)

I played Ecirr when Qlul died in a campaign I played in like, 2020(?) I cant really remember when I added him and Qlul but they've been integral parts of my book for so long now I can't recall when I first started writing them in.

Qlul died fighting a nothic, and so I played Ecirr in an attempt to save him. I wanted to save Qlul because I felt bad for him, and my party members wanted to just leave his corpse to rot. I hated that, so I decided to play Ecirr, his childhood friend he'd been "roommates" with at the university. (I say roommates as a joke, they weren't, though they did attend a prestigious school together. The roommates joke is the "they were just roommates" gay sex joke. cuz they're dating)

Pronounced: e-sear (hard e, like eek)

Qlul Klilaark (same as Ecirr)

Pronounced: Qlol Klil ark

like, lull + q, qlull, so qlol?

"aark" is just "arc"

Klil, like "quill" with a k, and no u.

if you say it fast, kind of sounds like "qlul kalark" or "qlul klark" or "qlul quill-ark" idfk ok im bad with explaining these things

"qlul kluhark" i guess kinda another way to try and explain it XD

Ecirr was originally a DnD character who I liked alot and ended up putting into my book. He, like all of them-- both the members of Lucky Seven and Twin Feathers, have come really far.

Eirairr Eirainn

Pronounced: yer rair, yer rain

Same as Ecirr and Qlul.

I’d do my BBEGs but their names feel like spoilers to me despite them being the most interesting to me :c

(Ok fine, click if you don’t mind the villains names being revealed. One of them is probably obvious since he’s mentioned really early but the other two aren’t for a while)

Eirairr was a ranger I played in DnD. He, Qlul, and Ecirr's names were from random name generators. Specifically, the dnd random name generator. I mixed some of the names around to give it my own flair, changed a few letters, and bam.

Like Sargantas was the Sargatanas server in FFXIV, but I always misread it as Sargantas.

Pronounced: Sar-gawn-tiss

sar: like "sardines"

gawn - like gown but with an A, kind of like "dawn" with a G i guess

tiss - like "badum-tiss" for lack of a better example

Zersetsung is a German word for “power” (or was it “control”), and he’s a immortal vampire.

pronounced: (as far as i am aware...)

zur-zet-sung

with a "low" e,

uh..

ok, hold on.

Zur: like "Dur" but with a Z

Zet like "Jet" but with a Z

Sung - obvious, like how you say the word "sung" when talking about the past-tense of singing

Vitsmunir is Russian (I’m pretty sure) but I can’t remember for what

pronounced:

vits (veets)

mu (hard u, like the one at the end of the word "you")

near (like how nier is pronounced, or y'know... near from death note XD)

Fun fact: Sargantas’ soul is sheer black, Vitsmunir’s pure white, and Zersetsung golden!

[papercherries]

I've not really had the motivation to write anything for the past couple days. Hence the photos. I'm just floating at the moment, waiting for something to happen. It's been getting hotter which has been awful for me but I got paid from work finally so I bought myself a banjo. It sounds pretty and I looked a bit mad on the bus because I got it used and the guy didn't have a case so I had to carry it bare. My fault for not thinking ahead. Though some of the chords don't sound right to my little brain and learning fingerpicking has been interesting because my fingerpicking is mediocre at best on guitar.

It's a bit dirty, I'll clean it this week. Though it smells like the guys. It's a very typical house smell but I could never understand why some houses smell different from others. The amount of cleaning is obviously a factor but I imagine it's also affected by other random little things like what's cooked there or where their water comes from. Maybe it just smells because it was played at heated live events and it's just the culmination of those sweaty rooms. I'd rather not think about that. It falls out of tune quite quickly but I suspect the strings are quite new. The stringing is very neat and it stands out from my other stringed instruments as the strings are wound (or cut) so there is no loose strings. I haven't got a strap for it (I only have two in total, one for my acoustic guitars and one for my electric) so I stole some rope from my friend who works at the boatyard. I am very aware I've fastened it wrong by tying the string under the string just above the fretboard and having it's usual place at the bottom. But it's become a small signature of mine, as I also commit this sin on my acoustics.

Some songs just sound so much better, or they fit me better. AJJ songs are really fun to play, Back when I was 4 by Jeffery Lewis was a fun surprise, a lot of Anti-Folk stuff feels quite nice. Though it's mostly because I've only had it for 2 days and I still don't know all the "basic" chords (I've learnt all the "base" chords (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) but not all their minor/sharp counterparts, let alone all the variations). I'll probably try learning Defiance, Ohio songs, I just haven't got to it yet. OH though I have been playing "I wanna boi" by Sister Wife Sex Strike. As much as I'd love to play it live, the original band who made the song are problematic, but I suppose in a way it could be reclamation? Does that really work in this case? Not my place to say currently. I just think Sister Wife Sex Strike's version is pretty awesome.

I'm picking up my cat tomorrow. I am very excited. Though, I'm not sure how she will feel about the banjo.

All the actors who have applied for my film, who I have then got in touch with have ghosted me. It is causing an awful lot of scheduling issues as I can't find actors for my film. This needs to be fixed within a week, god help me.

Emotionally, I can feel the impending stress from the shoot, edit and sound design all falling on me very slowly. I also need to start my production file. Perhaps I'll do that whilst I'm picking up my cat. I need to get a good grade. I'll get a 2:1 at least but I'd rather get a first as I've already said to some masters courses that I will. Whoops.

I'm trying to find more things to write about as my washing is still in the dryer for another 20 minutes.

I've been playing through Fallout 1. I think I was encouraged by all the fallout content that has been on my youtube feed for the past 4 weeks. I am not immune to propaganda. I'd never been able to get through the game before but I am the furthest I've ever been and I'm really enjoying it. I think Baldur's Gate 3 gave me a much better understanding of the genre which then allowed me to better understand how to undertake Fallout 1, as I didn't really understand Fallout 1 as a Dnd-esque rpg but more like Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4.

The fallout show however did piss me off at first. But the longer I've left it, the less frustrated I've been with the show. I still think Besthesda's "everything should still be a wasteland" take is a little dumb but I'm interested where they'll take the show now. However, the end still annoys me. Mostly because that "place" didn't seem like it would fall, honestly the area seemed too populated for that to even occur. The only option I can think of is Nuke's or (skip this park if you don't want to figure out what I am talking about) the Sierra Madre. But, the show as a whole is pretty entertaining, whilst it doesn't explore the political aspects I enjoy from Fallout, it does capture a lot of the series charm and what makes Fallout, Fallout. I am also quite surprised they refrained from showing a deathclaw or a radscorpion. Though, the missing family member thing was an immediate red flag for me. Just screamed "I AM BETHESDA FALLOUT". Not to say that's a bad thing.

Though, I did see a really interesting crackpot theory on R/Fallout (or I may have seen it somewhere else) that suggested this "chapter" of the Brotherhood was an extension of the legion. As they seem to be less "BOS like" and share a lot of qualities with the legion, the branding, the more latin names. The brutality, that just wasn't present with the rest of the brotherhood stories. Though, I will say I am not very well versed in the Brotherhood of Steel lore. But this would be a super interesting place to take the brotherhood and I would really respect that creativity.

7 minutes left on the timer. I think, I am out of ideas. I am really tired and I just want to go to sleep but I need to pack, the only reason I am awake is because my flatmate took forever to take his stuff out the washer because he was playing Rainbow Six.

I think that's all I got.

[periapsystems]

TTRPG System Thoughts #1

Dungeons and Dragons has a lot of issues and baggage. But acknowledging this there is stuff about it that I like that many alternatives just don't pull off or draw on. So before I even begin to put a metaphorical pen to digital page I will put down some of my thoughts on it and get them in order a little.

One of the things that I like about D&D is that it has a clear level progression. While three of my earliest video gaming experiences were Civilization 2, Magic Carpet and Sim City the last one that had a big impact on me was Pokémon Blue Version. From there two decades of playing Western and Japanese RPG video games engendered an appreciation of that cycle of beat the enemy, get experience, level-up and gain new powers. Many TTRPG systems try to break away from the mechanics of level progression and sometimes I like that. Often times I miss that feeling of getting new abilities and getting more powerful.

To look at two systems that have some of these elements in different ways, Dungeon World (DW) and New World of Darkness (WoD) (and specifically 1st edition will be what I refer to as I have the most experience playing it) both diverge from the level up and gain power formula and iterate on it differently. WoD does not have a level progression but retains a power curve. Your character gains experience which can then be spent on improving certain aspects of their abilities and powers. DW in contrast retains a level progression but abilities are not gated so strictly, you cannot normally pick up advanced moves at character creation or very early but the mechanical numbers for both players and challenges do not scale in the same way.

Of these two I prefer WoD more because it has a better feeling of power progression. Similarly systems which let create a mostly complete character at the start, for example Traveller (Mongoose or 5th edition don't significantly change my gut feelings on this) and Mutants and Masterminds (the nuances between editions do not matter largely for this) leave me floundering a little unless my group is able to collaborate for a strong narrative. While this is certainly something I can enjoy it is also not something I have often been able to enjoy. Many of the friends who I play TTRPGs with struggle without clear progression and mechanics underpinning battles or challenges.

Then there are other systems whose design paradigm is closer to DnD. For example here I can look at Shadow of the Demon Lord (SotD) and 13th Age (13A) which both have level progression, a power curve progression for the maths behind challenge resolution. For SotD I struggle a little with some of the setting and narrative conceit, as well as the mechanical aesthetic. SotD has a very grim aesthetic, with the titular Demon Lord growing in strength as the party races against the clock to the climactic encounter. 13A by contrast has a more standard Western fantasy aesthetic but compresses the level curve to 10. Numbers are squished similar to DnD 5e when compared to DnD 3e but there is also narrative flavour built into the system. Which is good for a single game but frustrating if I want to adapt it to a different setting. There are probably methods and guides on how to do that with 13A but the Icon system feels a little too intrinsically linked to the narrative structure or setting to port the game and be able to explain it simply to new players.

So what did I like about Dungeons and Dragons then?

Well it has a clear level progression and it doesn't feel too rushed, an entirely subjective taste. I think for my personal tastes 10 levels is too quick. 20-30 feels a lot more satisfying. The numbers scale either with newer spells being more powerful or new equipment being more powerful as well.

DnD hardly gets all of this right. There are things I liked and disliked about 4E, and 5E as well. That is also ignoring a lot of issues like cultural appropriation, troubling cultural and ethical views built into mechanics and settings, trap choices in character progression and of course the issue that many of its asymmetrical class designs end up with one side being weaker on average than the other if not having less options to engage with challenges.

But this post is already pretty long and talking about what Dungeons and Dragons does wrong is a topic for another post.

[upsideoutinsidedown]

Season one he’s referred to as a wizard, season two he’s referred to as a cleric. Wizards existed but they weren’t called wizards but rather “magic users” in the first edition, which is what they would’ve been playing in 1983, and it’s entirely possible “wizard” was just used for the audiences sake. Magic users and clerics were two different classes though, so it doesn’t solve the different class issue.

There’s a couple of options. Will the Wise is the one referred to as a wizard whereas Will himself is referred to as a cleric, so it could be a “Will himself plays one role while his character plays a different role”. Another possibility is that in the first season, Will the Wise died—I don’t think his character is ever referred to as “Will the Wise” again? It could be symbolic—Will’s character died to the demogorgon because he failed his role, just like he was taken by the creature that night. I don’t think if that was the case that Mike would’ve made him retire the character, but it could’ve also been Will choosing to retire the character as a show of him evolving?

Lastly, multiclassing is a thing. He could very well be both. Maybe he started as a wizard and as the game went on decided to level as a cleric instead of increase his wizard level? That would be an interesting take—whereas Dustin and Lucas and Mike may have continued as “pure” character classes, Will may have mixed and likely eventually overcame his wizard level with his cleric level. For example, if the characters were say level 12 for Dustin, Mike and Lucas, Will’s character might have been a level 5 wizard/level 7 cleric. Mike may also focus more on the cleric side of things because Magic Users were mages, so, mage and wizard would’ve been the same thing, and El has that role, so, Will gets the cleric.

Don’t know if any of this helps, but feel free to ask any DND questions, I love the game :D

ok can someone pls answer this properly for me . in the show they refer to will as cleric alll the time but ive also seen so much info pointing to will classifying his character as a wizard ? so um . which one is it

[heniareth]

I was really curious about what your opinions on the DAO companions are :) I know we have talked about some, but I'd love to hear more and about the others as well :D I hope it's ok to pose this as an ask :)

Sure! That sounds like a ton of fun. This might be a long one tho. Mind you, this is not the finished version of the answer. I'd like to link stuff and add a cut, but rn that's not possible. I'll update it when I can.

Edit: I have updated it ^^

Let's go alphabetically bc why not.

Alistair:

Sweet guy. So sweet. There was a moment when I was hard pressed chosing between him and Zevran (alas, Zevran won). Also, he's weirdly tall according to the wiki? How did I not notice that before?

Let's get a bit more serious now, Alistair is a great guy. The only reason he's not the hero of the story is because he doesn't want to. He has all the qualities of a leader: he's good at dealing with conflict (as evident with the conversation with the mage at the beginning. He gets where he wants to get without antagonizing the mage, but without allowing him to trample all over him). He's a solid tactitian and knows how to make allies (he suggests to use the Grey Warden treaties, after all). I bet if he was in the leadership position, he'd even not bicker with Morrigan. His moral code is pretty tight; some might say too tight, but I think it's less about the moral code and more about learning to judge people by their actions, not by the labels they fit into (Morrigan is a proud apostate and therefore bad. Wynne is a humble circle mage and therefore good). He also has a bit of a black-and-white way of seeing the world. I empathize a lot with Alistair, especially with his experience with the Chantry and his subsequent reluctance to deal with it. I really wish I had gotten to know more about concrete experiences he had during his training as templar, but he seems reluctant to talk about it (gee, I wonder why).

Since I've only played the game once, I haven't really picked up on Arl Eamon's abuse towards him, which apparently exists (Isolde, however... I mean, even if he were Eamon's illegitimate son, he's a kid, ma'am, he didn't exactly get to chose his parents. So that's so not okay). Alistair's way of speaking about them both, however, is either sign that he has not come within a hundred miles of acknowledging how much it hurt him, or that he's already gone through the whole process and has decided to forgive them. The latter shows a very strong character; yes, he relies on the approval and leadership of others, he has his issues, but he's already started working on them.

That being said, irl Alistair would be like a little brother to me. I'd tease him relentlessly (all in good fun and I promise to stop if it makes him uncomfortable, but he's just so teasable). I still wish the videogame gave him the chance to take important decisions for himself. But that, of course, would somewhat defeat the point of the game.

Leliana:

Another sweet, sweet person. Her singing voice is amazing. Her belief in the Maker inspires me (I'm a religious person and seeing religious characters represented in a positive light is Very Cool. It's also sometimes a source of discomfort, because the Church has done a lot of very messed up stuff and positive representation can sometimes veer into apologetics for things that should not be excused, but that's a whole other can of worms. The bottom line is that religious characters sometimes work for me and other times don't and Leliana works for me very much bc she's an outsider inside the Chantry).

Leliana is best friend material, tbh. I'd love to get to know her irl, discuss theology and philosophy and maybe even politics? She makes mistakes and has prejudices, but, tbh, so do I. And I do get the feeling that she tries her best to learn. From the times she intervenes in a conversation between the Warden and an NPC, she shows herself to be compassionate and open to the needs of others. What I get from her character is that she genuinely wants to help, which is something that I adore of her. I suspect that she sometimes has a hard time deciding wether she's a good person or not. She has killed and seduced and worked for a morally dubious person, and she doesn't show the same nonchalance about it as Zevran (though they both do discuss their line of work in very... professional terms). This is, however, more of a headcanon than actual factual canon.

I also very much enjoy her girly side, like her interest in shoes and dresses. She's one badass woman who also looses her cool about the latest fashions in Val Royeaux. I like that. Between her and Alistair, a non human noble Warden has as good a help to navigate the Fereldan court as they're going to get. Leliana is also, I can't forget that, clever and insightful. It'd be easy to write her off as the innocent chantry girl, but she's so much more than that. Her kindness is paired with foresight, I think. She knows that taking on the trouble to help now can go a long way in the future. I just have a lot of respect for her.

Loghain:

This one's gonna be short bc I didn't recruit him. He's an amazing villain and would probably be a great Warden as well. He reminds me of Denerhor from LOTR; once a hero/stewart of his people, ambition and desperation have driven them both down a terrible path. I have also only little idea about his past. People say he lost a lot, and I believe it wholeheartedly; it doesn't excuse the fact that he plunged the country into a civil war in the middle of a Blight. I don't have a lot of sympathy for short-sighted politicians. I wish he hadn't made himself regent. That's what I take away from his character.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention that really impressed me was his death. I had Alistair duel him (that was a rough duel), and then it kinda just jumped to a cutscene of my Warden nodding and Alistair executing him. That didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to kill Loghain, and less so in front of Anora. But what impressed me was that Loghain just accepted it. That takes a whole lot of guts. Compare that to Howe's death, and how he screams out that he deserved (more, probably, or anything but death) and it's crystal clear who the more noble of the two is. Loghain strikes me as very lawful neutral, and any neutral alignment has the particularity that it can be dragged towards good or bad, sometimes without the characters noticing it (which is interesting from a DnD perspective; neutral is often concieved of as just as stable as good or evil, but that may not be true. But that's a different post). Anyway, Loghain's death was impactful.

Morrigan:

I could kick myself for not maxing out her approval in the first play-through. I got to enjoy a bit of her friendship by the end of it and boy was even that little bit worth it. Friendship with Morrigan is something that is hard-won. It's all the more precious because of that.

Morrigan is full of paradoxes, I think. She's incredibly wise in some ways, yet also very short-sighted (”just kill them, don't solve their problems”. Morrigan, dear, I'm not going to gain a lot of allies if I kill everybody who poses a problem to me). She is so intelligent, but emotionally... not so. She knows so much about some things, and very little about the next. She's incredibly wilful and knows what she wants, but follows Flemeth's orders all the time through. She hungers for power and independence, yet craves closeness, but won't allow herself to have it. She asks you to prove yourself to her and is extremely critical of your actions, I think, because she's afraid. She bites the hand that feeds her because it might hit her next.

Like with Eamon, I haven't managed to catch the undercurrent of abuse that seems to permeate Flemeth's relationship with Morrigan. Except there are signs, because there must be something Morrigan is scared of and who has instilled all that rage in her, and that's Flemeth. Also, she clearly hates/does not care about her and wants her dead (unless killing Flemeth was part of Flemeth's plan as well? Hm.)

Morrigan is that one person who you are nice to, continuously, because nobody else is. And suddenly she becomes less cold. And then friendly. And suddenly you're asking yourself why everybody hates her, because she's a really good friend! I just wish the other companions came to a similar conclusion, especially Alistair and Wynne.

Oghren:

They did this man dirty. He has such great lines and I'm convinced he was a great person before Branka disappeared. He has that dwarven warrior spirit, and while he looks like Gimli, some of his most impactful lines remind me of Dwalin or even Thorin Oakenshield himself. He could be so noble had he gotten some character development, damnit!

Oghren as he is written is somewhat disgusting. I hate the lechering comments and the drunkenness. And still, I don't hate him because of those amazing lines he has when he's actually sober. It's frustrating and I'll give him that character development myself if the game won't. I strongly associate the song Whiskey Lullaby with him, bc that's how he would have ended up if the Warden hadn't taken him along (warning: the song talks about suicide and alcoholism). Like I said, they could have done such cool things with his character. As he is written now... it's just sad. Moments of lucidity drowned in alcohol and creepy jokes. As you can see, I don't blame the character for either. The alcoholism happens all too often irl. The creepy jokes... I put that one on the writers' tab.

I actually think Oghren could have been a great mentor figure (I know, I shock myself as well sometimes). Next to the Grey Wardens, the ones who know most about fighting darkspawn are the dwarves because they have to deal with them constantly. Especially a warrior caste dwarf like Oghren could have brought a lot of that invaluable knowledge to the team, especially since there are no Grey Wardens in Ferelden but two extremely green recruits. Next, you get the chance to give Oghren the command of the teammates you leave behind in the battle of Denerim with the reason that he has lead men into battle before. Where did that suddenly come from? Oghren should have been right up there telling my Warden that they were doing this wrong, that they needed more food (and booze) and a confident leader to keep the armies they've called together going. Oghren should have been able to tell my civilian city elf who got recruited into the Grey Wardens a six months ago how one leads an army. How one presents oneself to inspire confidence, how one doesn't crack under the pressure, how one gets the leaders of said armies (some who hate each others guts i.e. Dalish elves and humans) to work together. And, last but not least, Oghren could have had a great story about grief. This is a man who has lost most of what made him (and what he hasn't lost he's spilling down the drain with every mug of ale). This is a man who, if you take him into the Deep Roads, has to see what his wife did to his family, how his wife got absolutely obsessed, and can be forced to kill said wife or watch her die. All Wardens loose their home and families at the start of the story. It would really have rounded the whole narrative out if the Warden and Oghren could have recognised their grief in each other and hashed it out somehow. Such as it is, Oghren is a depressed drunkard and there is nothing we can do about that. I find that frustrating.

Rascal (a.k.a. Dog):

Best boy. 100/10. I wish we had gotten to see the reaction of the different origins to the mabari (because elves probably have a whole different experience with them from mages or humans. And dwarves just... I think they straight up have none? XD). Other than that, no complaints. The name Rascal was the one I gave my dog because you have to be a right rascal to survive what he did and play the pranks he plays. Smartest breed in the world indeed.

Shale:

Shale is one of those characters that I recruited rather late in the game, so I haven't had the chance to explore their personality and worldview, really. I didn't even get to take them to the Deep Roads (this will be ammended in playthrough nr. 2). As such, I don't have particularly strong opinions on them (or her? The wiki refers to Shale as 'it', but that sounds weird). But, because I know so little about Shale, I have a lot of questions. First, what were they like before they were a golem? Shayle, as she was called then, was the best warrior of her time if I remember correctly. Why did she become a golem? Was it to be able to eternally protect her people? Was the sarcasm the golem Shale exhibits also part of the dwarven warrior Shayle or did that come later (if for thirty years you have nobody to talk to but yourself, you better be entertaining. And I can imagine how it could make somebody terribly jaded as well).

Next, how attached is Shale to their golem form, exactly? According to the banter, they infinitely prefer it to a squishy fleshy form. If that is the case, however, why go to Tevinter to try and become a squishy dwarf again? It's not like that process could be reversed if they wanted to become a golem again; if Shale survives to the end of the game, the Anvil of the Void is destroyed and Caridin is dead. Was the whole spiel about their indestructible form a façade? It might have been, but not because Shale actually disliked their form. I think it would have more to do with the loss of their memories and with the very invasive experiments and alterations of Shale's body made by the mage Wilhelm. The loss of memories means that Shale is unable to remember life as a fleshy creature. They might be deflecting by pretending that they didn't care for that experience anyway because of the superiority of their golem form. The modifications made to their form by Wilhelm would have alienated them from their body. In light of this, it's significant that Shale asks the Warden to decorate their form with crystals.

All of this is, of course, pure speculation. I may have easily missed or forgotten details that would disprove the above thoughts. All in all, I like Shale and I hope we meet them again in DA4 (given that it's mostly set in Tevinter). It's a liking from a respectful distance, because Shale is tall and made out of rock and also way more experienced than I will ever be (they are literally the oldest member of the Warden's little Blight fighting squad).

Sten:

Sten is another person I'd keep a respectful distance from physically. That seems to be the what he would prefer, at least. I've enjoyed his character a lot, especially because he seems pretty clear-cut at first, but slowly lets the nuance of his person show (gruff and stoic, but then he has an eye for art, a sweet tooth and he likes cute animals). It's also very interesting that there's no moment when you learn "the truth" about him the way you do with Zevran or Leliana. There's no big reveal about his life under the Qun before coming to Ferelden. He says he was sent to monitor the Blight, but honestly? If neither Ferelden nor Orlais knew there was a Blight, how could the Qunari know? I think he's lying, and he takes his secrets back with him when he leaves Ferelden. And yet I think I know him enough to say that a Warden who has become friends with him has nothing to fear from Sten.

One thing I find very interesting about Sten is how he thinks. His conversation about how women can't be soldiers has been analysed a lot on this page I think. He seems to be arguing based on a different paradigma than the one the Warden has. He also seems to have a very clear-cut view of the world. What is fascinating to me is that, when arguing with the Warden and learning about their culture, he is not necessarily becoming more lax about his worldview. I think it's more likely that he is expanding his paradigma, the structure of thought through which he understands the world. I don't think that he is now convinced that women can be warriors as well. I think he rather understands that, in Ferelden, the relationship between occupation and gender is different than under the Qun. Which of the two he thinks is more right or more agreeable, I have no idea. I'm also not very interested in that. But I find it fascinating how he always seems to be looking on quietly, gathering data, classifying it and trying to fit it into his understanding of how the world works. I wouldn't be surprised at all if his original party was a scouting party to see how vulnerable Ferelden was at that moment to outside forces. One thing I don't understand with all of this is why he urges the Warden to meet the Blight head on. No smart soldier would suggest that, except if they are foolishly proud (and Sten doesn't seem like that kind of guy tbh). I get that the Warden takes way longer to gather allies than expected because they first have to solve all of their allies' problems. But surely Sten sees the need to have allies? Is he just that impatient? Does he have a death wish (à la, I lost my sword and am without honour, better to die sooner than later and in glorious battle)? Was he his group's previous commander and is he now having trouble following somebody else's orders? Or maybe it's his way to make sure the Warden knows what they are doing? To push them into becoming the self-assured commander their allies will need once they're all gathered? I really don't know. I like the last option best, however.

For me, Sten is my fellow, more experienced soldier. Like Alistair, he can potentially be the Warden's brother in arms, but he's definitely the older brother here. He probably doesn't take kindly to tearful confessions of how hard everything is, but I feel like he's otherwise a solid rock to lean on. I feel like the Warden can trust him to do what is necessary and count on him no matter what, especially after they get his sword back. His devotion from that point on is honestly so powerful.

Wynne:

Wynne was such a support for my Warden (except with the whole conversation about love vs. duty and that she may have to choose between Zevran and ending the Blight and that she should therefore break up with him. Wynne had a point. Astala was so not willing to sacrifice her relationship with Zevran. But the whole conversation came at a point where she was already so disillusioned that she blew up in Wynne's face (”can i please just have one (1) nice thing????”)). But all in all, Wynne is great.

She has a lot of flaws. She was very marked by her life in the Cricle and, for all her age, she has little experience living outside of it. She is also a conformist despite her strong moral core. In a way, her ability to find peace with her lot in life impresses me deeply because it speaks to a lot of strength of character. Sadly, however, strength can be ill applied and used to suppress. I think she has convinced herself that the Chantry is right under (almost) all circumstances to be able to rationalize the life that mages live. She's had her son taken away from her as a baby and an apprentice killed. Her reaction seems to have been to convince herself that this was right, or for the greater good (and now I'm thinking about the Guardian's question at the temple of Andraste's Ashes; are you wise or do you just repeat what others have told you? The answer is not as clear-cut as it might be). This is why she is so irritated by Zevran and Morrigan. By aligning herself with the Chantry, she is, in her eyes, good. Zevran and Morrigan are not; they do not conform to Chantry morality and they defend themselves tooth and nails against somebody who would try and convert them. This is something Wynne never allowed herself to do; she always did the "right" thing and it has cost her so much. I'm not saying she was right (it would probably have done her some good to rebel from time to time, and to trust her own gut instinct more), but in light of this, it hardly surprises me that she's so judgamental. She has to be, or she would be forced to confront all the evil she has not fought against all those years and all the hurt that has been caused to her by the very institution she protects (and thank God she only tries to argue and can appreciate it when people have found a good life outside of her comfort zone. If she tried to convince by force or, for example, drag her former apprentice back to the Circle... boy oh boy that would get ugly). If you think about it, Wynne really is a good example for what happens if you live by a philosophy of always choosing the lesser evil.

Something that I keep forgetting over her grandmotherly and dignified character is how damn powerful she is. She has escaped the carnage at Ostagar; HOW!? She protected those mage apprentices in the Circle tower for God knows how long. In the battle of Denerim, she wades through an army and comes out alive on the other side. The wiki lists her age at 40, I think, but that doesn't make a lick of sense unless 75 years of age are the Fereldan equivalent to 100. This lady, about whom people make grandmother jokes, did all that. It's impressive.

Zevran:

You know, I would really love to know what Wynne thinks about the events at Kirkwall in DA2. It might be a disaster for her, or it might pave the way for one last bit of character development. She certainly didn't want to return to the Circle after fighting the Blight. That may be an indicator of some change in her stance on the Circle of Magi.

Edit: I forgot that she is what the Circle considers a literal abomination! Holy cow, how could I forget that?? Anyway, her conversation about what being an abomination means is so... heartbreaking, actually. It's so tentative. So careful. "Am I an abomination? Am I the same thing that has killed my students? The same thing as Uldred? Am I lost and damned? Did I invite this spirit in? Is this my fault?" Like wow, Wynne is going through something huge right there. I love it. I have to continue playing the game to see what it ends up as, but it's fascinating and such a huge thing that she allows the Warden in on that.

Ah, Zevran, my beloved (he has stolen my heart so much it's not even funny anymore). He's funny, he's charming, he's so so loyal and it breaks my heart. Zevran is the one about whom I've read most meta: these three wonderful posts for instance, as well as this one about his possible lack of scars, and this one about his lack of freedom. All of these have influenced my opinion of him and they are great reads.

I have talked about Zevran with you before, so I'll just skip to the new stuff. I have come to conclusion that Zevran is an artist at heart. This is totally not biased by the fact that I also do art, but hear me out. One of his preferred gifts are bars of silver and gold. While those have the obvious utility of basically functioning as money (they can be sold to any silversmith or goldsmith and their value is pretty stable through time and in different countries), there's also this from his codex: "Zevran shows an affinity for the finer things in life—hardly surprising for an Antivan Crow—but his appreciation can be more poetic than he lets on. A simple bar of refined silver or gold, uncomplicated by a craftsman's hammer, is elegantly valuable." Tell me that is not an artist's eye that sees that gold and sees the beauty in it. Then, there's also the meta about Zevran the Seducer which I linked above and link here again. It talks specifically about how he lets himself enjoy the target and be seen in his enjoyment. Tell me that is not an artist's eye that beholds the beauty of something he is set out to destroy. Even his talk about his assassinations show this. He talks about it as an art, the way somebody would talk about the brutal intervention in stone that produces a sculpture. Yes, it's a rationalization of the act of killing and yes killing is still wrong. But he doesn't go on about it on a moral tangent the way Alistair or Wynne would (”this person was bad, killing them was necessary”) or even through the argument of survival like Morrigan would (”it was either them or me and it sure as Hell wasn't going to be me”). He talks about the pleasure of a job well done, of the satisfaction of striking the precise point and executing a plan to the perfection so as to minimize chances of discovery and to make a clean death possible. And pleasure in seeing and in doing, this I firmly believe, is absolutely fundamental for an artist.

My favourite part about my Warden and Zevran as a pairing is that Zevran precisely brings out that ability to take your pleasures as they come and to really savour them. Fighting the Blight is tough; it's so important to find good things amidst the chaos to stay sane. If Astala saves Zevran from himself by offering him a place to stay and a purpose, Zevran saves Astala from herself by keeping her from running herself into the ground trying to save the world.

There are some things I don't like about Zev. The incessant flirting, for example, sometimes makes me uncomfortable (it becomes enjoyable for me once the Warden and him are in a relationship, but before that? Nah, no thanks). I wish he would also leave the other female characters alone (and there's so many more shameless comments of his aimed at Morrigan, Leliana or Wynne than at Alistair or maybe even Sten).

---

And that's my take on the Origins companions (this was rather long. Whew ^^' I hope it was still readable and that you enjoyed it!!) Thank you so much for the ask!! It's been a joy thinking about this. I was worrying at first that the less prominent companions like Sten or Shale wouldn't get as much content but... well XD

[cherrymangos]

tell us about your dnd characters!!! >:00

omg wait i wasn't actually expecting an ask 😭 Oh man i have so many idk who to even start with?? @arukana is making a new world for us to play a few one-shots in since we're wrapping up another campaign, so I suppose I'll start with that one since we're streaming it! (No clue when we're starting it though, we got a few players who still need to make their characters <3)

Also, if you are a fellow player in this campaign you may not look for there be character spoils ahead >:T (And Aru if you ARE reading this I have spoilers for what’s up with Fog after I talk about Newt so stop reading after I finish her <3)

I'm playing a Siren Bard in the College of Creation :0

Her name is Newt, and though I completely forgot to add it to the pic (I was just happy to finally finish the dang thing. the feathers alone took forever 😭) she has a MASSIVE scar from the base of her throat all the way to her navel that makes it look like she was nearly ripped in two.

BECAUSE SHE WAS! It's not going to be terribly important in the one-shots cause I have a bad habit of giving my characters intricate backstories even when we're technically supposed to keep them simple for one-shots n shit.

But if I remember correctly, after we get through the few one-shots we're playing, we might be going into a longer campaign set in the same world where our character backstories become a little more prominent, and I'm very excited! I've made use of 2 different dragons in Newt's backstory, one of which gave her the scar that nearly killed her and the other one is a type of dragon that actually hasn't been in D&D since 3rd edition! That dragon is the reason she has a few of her powers. There are a lot of cool dragon related feats and shit now :}

I've also slowly been working on a playlist for Newt, cause I do it with every D&D character of mine, but it's a bit hard when the campaign hasn't even started and i've yet to explore any character growth/really gotten to know Newt :0

(Aru if youre reading this you STOP HERE!!! there will be spoilers for what the fuck's up with Fog ahead <3)

And I feel bad talking about my D&D characters without mentioning my boy Fog 😭 He's a water genasi shadow sorcerer, though as far as my fellow players know he's a triton :)

He's a little fucked up! I play him in a survival based campaign where the school we were all at was attacked by dragons and to save us, a wizard teleported the section of school we were in but the teleport fucked up and we were sent to a completely unknown part of the planet! We don't know any of the species of flora or fauna here, and it's been fun trying to figure out what can kill us! I have a whole section in my notes for this campaign based on the shit we come across so we can remember what's safe to eat and all xd

Fog here used to live underneath the school in a massive underground reservoir where the school got it's water :0 He'd made secret friends with a professor who discovered him one day while testing the water and they developed this sort of student-mentor relationship :)

It's ALSO been a bit of a challenge cause Fog can't speak or understand common, and no one else in the party speaks any of the languages that Fog DOES know. But one of my party members does have a small single party telepathic ability that we've been using to communicate with Fog, and my friend's character Root has taken to teaching Fog common even if it's been a bit rough cause Fog... well i dumped his wisdom and intelligence xd

Root has also taken it upon herself to unofficially adopt Fog, and so we have this really cute dynamic in the party where Fog is the sort of child figure :]

I also have a very short story written for Fog! It's a bit rough around the edges cause I didn't edit it, nor have I really written anything significant in like years, so bear that in mind. xd

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35697724

And I'll wrap it up with Fog's playlist :}

[rumbringer]

So, first of all, it's going to take quite some time to learn the rules to this game. And that's OK. Nobody can expect you to learn all of it in a few days. Since your friends have persuaded you to join on such short notice, they must be ready for you to not know what to do. They need to help you, because there's quite a lot to jump into.

If there's something in my description here that you don't understand, just ask your friends. If they get annoyed that you don't know the basics, that's on them, not on you.

Most things in this game are determined by a 20-sided dice(also called a d20) that you roll and add the appropriate modifier to. If this number is above the target number, it's a success.

There's 6 ability scores, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (these are often called stats). They normally only go from 6 to 20. These are not used very much by themselves, so you need to find your ability score modifiers.

Ability score on top, modifier below that:

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

-2 -2 -1 -1 0 0 +1 +1 +2 +2 +3 +3 +4 +4 +5

Quick rundown of dnd:

It's a role-playing game, and most of the rules are about fighting. But there's plenty more you can do.

In this game, characters can get powers from many different things. And in your case, paladins get their power from their belief in the oath they take. This is mostly for role play reasons, so you can just think of your abilities as things you can activate on your turn.

Dnd works on a turn system. When you get in a fight, you'll roll for initiative. This determines when each player and enemy goes in the turn.

Quick description of combat:

When it's your turn, you can do a few things:

You have one Action that you can use to attack or use most of your abilities. When you attack, you roll the 20-sided dice, add your strength modifier, and your proficiency bonus. I know these terms doesn't make much sense right now, but you only need to calculate it when starting, and if one of those two changes.

You have one Bonus Action that you can use for faster things, for example, some abilities if they say so.

You have one Object Interaction that you can use to draw a weapon or pull a lever or something like that.

Outside of your turn, you have one Reaction that you can use to attack an enemy walking away from you. You can do this once, until your next turn starts.

I'm going to drop my favorite link for a quick reference. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense yet, but it's a good short guide to what things mean.

https://crobi.github.io/dnd5e-quickref/preview/quickref.html

This quick reference page gives a more thorough overview of the types of things you can do.

The Paladin class has some subclasses, called oaths, that you can choose between when you become level 3. The first repost on here gives a decent overview of the standard options.

Outside of combat:

This part is mostly made up of role-playing, with some skills to check how good your character is at specific things.

Your character can be proficient in some skills. That means you add your proficiency bonus to the sum of the dice roll, plus the ability score that's in the parenthesis. For example, if your GM asks you to roll a perception check, you roll a d20, add your wisdom modifier, and your proficiency bonus(if you are proficient in that skill).

Of course, there's much more to all of this, but I hope this wall of text can help you find your way around just a little better.

I found this link, and it looks like a good place to start. So good luck, and please don't be discouraged by all the rules, role-playing is amazing once you get into it.

calling all dnd players

quick I’ve only got 12 hours

I’ve been persuaded into joining a dnd group with a few other people I know despite never having played dnd. They needed a paladin so I agreed to that, but apart from that paladin sounds somewhat like padawan I have no clue what it is. Someone tried to describe it to me saying I had to take an oath or something.

So yeah, tumblr do your thing I need some good ideas for this.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Real World Inspiration

for additional physical features you can add to dragons! (previous post was an edit of the D&D black dragon. Next post will be some examples of dragon designs I made.)

The classic european dragon design used in a lot of mainstream fantasy is already kind of a mashup of many different animal features. Bat wings, long swan-like neck, lizard scales and tail, feet that look like reptilian lion feet or bird of prey talons, heads that are partway between a horse and a crocodile, horns like a goat or ram. They’re chimeric and that’s fun to work with. But they do often end up being mostly just big scales, a pair of horns, and then a lot of random spikes. And that’s fine, but there are so many weird physical structures that exist on real world animals which could easily be used on dragons. Let’s look at them in a series of specific categories.

(Under a cut cuz it got so very very long sorry)

(Description: a collage titled "spikes", showing real world animals with lots of spiky structures on their bodies. Photos of an iguana and a crocodile are labeled "osteoderms". A photo of an echidna is labeled "modified hair". And a photo of an inflated porcupine fish is labeled "modified scales". End description.)

Since dragons are usually depicted as reptilians, osteoderms and modified scales would be the most common way to add lots of spikes in a realistic manner. Iguanas have a whole crest of tall osteoderms on their spines, and the bumps all along a crocodile's back are also osteoderms.

Osteoderm means "bone skin" and they're basically just calcified skin deposits. Boney, but lightweight, not as sturdy as bones, and not at all connected to the skeleton. Armadillo armor is also a form of osteoderm.

Scales are made of a similar material to fingernails, hair, and feathers, and sometimes they get really spiky without necessarily including osteoderm structures. I used a porcupine fish for that but it turns out science is uncertain what their spines actually are. The thorny devil lizard is a good example though, that thing is nothing but spiky scales (even its big facial horns have no bone underneath)

And of course things like echidna, porcupines, and hedgehogs are covered in spikes that are just really thick sturdy hairs. Evolution is bizarre.

And those are all very effective ways to put lots of spikes on a dragon without adding extra weight from bone spikes that emerge from the skeleton.

(Description: a photo collage titled "dangly bits" showing several animals that have extra flesh hanging from parts of their bodies. Photos of a turkey, rooster, and long wattled umbrella bird are labeled "wattles". A photo of an anole lizard showing its throat display and a photo of a moose are labeled "dewlaps". And a drawing of a catfish is labeled "barbels". End description.)

Wattles are pretty common in many bird species. Extra neck flesh that usually starts by the jaw and may be connected further along the neck but doesnt have to be. The umbrella bird here has a retractable wattle covered in feathers which it can move to make it look like it has a very long pinecone hanging off its neck. I love how weird it is.

A similar structure is the dewlap, which can be found on lizards like anoles and iguanas, but can also be found in birds and even mammals. It's a fleshy protrusion from the neck which can be small and dangly or rather large. Sometimes it's ts flat, but sometimes it's chubby, like on some rabbits.]

And of course we have catfish barbels, which are like thick fleshy whiskers. Lots of asian dragon depictions include barbels because they take inspiration from carp, like the koi fish.

(Description: a collage titled "frills" showing animals which have various flaring body parts. Photos of a frilled lizard, a chameleon, and a photo collection of birds I couldn't identify, are labeled "crests". Photos of a betta fish, a black bass, and a lionfish, are labeled "fins". End description.)

I'm not sure the frilled lizard counts as having a crest but I had to include it somewhere. I did not look hard enough to learn exactly how it raises its frill, but I did find that the frill only has two very thin bones in it, right by the jaw. The rest is just really precise musculature I guess.

Chameleon crests are built on bone structures, like the ceratopsian dinosaurs bony neck frills. And of course, there are countless bird species that have feathery crests of all forms.

I know I said on my posts correcting official dnd dragons that I disliked the neck fins on those, but fins can look like that with sturdy points and scalloped edges. I just dont like the way they're usually drawn on dragons, with a singular lonely neck fin that has thick bones in it. It would be much more fun if it was accompanied by other fin structures to create a more cohesive creature. May as well go all the way if you're going to add any frill, right?

(Description: a collage titled "bizarre extras" showing animals that have really weird and unique physical features. Photos of a bat, a star nosed mole, and a mandril, are labeled "noses". Photos of a sage rouse's mating display and a frog's vocal sac are labeled "ballooning". And a photo of the spider tailed viper is labeled "lures". End description.)

This is the section for the weird miscellaneous stuff I basically never see in dragon art. Which is a shame because the real world is full of the weirdest creatures. Weird noses serve purposes by interacting with scent in complex ways, or in the mandril's case, being a point of display. Noses with weird structures can also create different noises for communication.

Lots of creatures have ballooning display structures. Usually for the purposes of attracting a mate and competing for territory. Sage grouses, prairie chickens, frigate birds, and of course frogs, all have weird throat structures they can inflate for communication, attraction, and intimidation. Dragons could even use it as part of their breath weapons. Why not have an extra sac in the throat to carry a special gas or something?

And lures! Angler fish, snapping turtles with tongues that look like worms, and this absolutely bizarre snake that has evolved modified scales on the tip of its tail to resemble a spider. Many animals use specially adapted body parts to lure prey, which then allows them to hunt without expending too much energy. Being a predator is hard work, and most predators will back away from a fight because they do not want to spend the energy or risk injury when they can find an easier target.

Dragons are huge! They must need so much meat to maintain their energy stores. I think it's sensible for some dragons to live quietly, spending as little energy as possible while they use adapted body parts to lure prey. A dragon in a cave with a modified tail that resembles treasure? A green dragon disguised as a small hill in a field with a long tongue that resembles a delectable plant to lure in cattle? Dragons in dark environments with bioluminescent lures? I know big dramatic dragon battles are fun, but this is just such a good concept I'm sad I don't really see it used.

Anyway theres a lot of real world physical features that I think could be used on dragons more. My method of finding interesting and unique ideas for dragons is usually to just google "weird/cool (insert animal here)".