#i mean i liked dming but i also want to just be a player

[dont-open-dead-inside-25]

assigned pronouns by DM

[nerdyqueerr]

even tho im technically a 5e perma-dm i havent been doing it for long enough to get truly fed up, especially since i still want to run the one big 5e fantasy game i never had the chance to do. Plus I have some engaged 5e players who help me keep the ones who dont even understand game rules on track. Having a second play group where i dont gm (hi owen!) also helps. My 5e players were down to try new systems and although they don't seem to share my excitment for finding new games, they're clearly down to follow me when I do - which raises the issue that I'd like some of them to gm stuff sometimes, mostly bc ive never been on the other side of the table with this specific group and I'd like to try.

[blujayonthewing]

melliwyk has pissed something off and pulled a retaliation attack that nearly kills her in, I think, every single boss fight we've ever done and I cannot emphasize enough how much I love that

I know I've already bitched about this but it's so frustrating that if it was just my glass cannon rogue, who was designed on purpose to get in over his head and be chewed up and spit out in combat, dying very badly over and over I'd be having fun

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am i the asshole for denying a dnd character request?

Info:

I'm a dm but im pretty new to the dming side of things. Up until recently i had been a player exclusively. One of my friends (who I'll call K) mentioned wanting to get into dnd and I said I could dm. A few other of our friends also joined the campaign and I set to work helping everyone develop characters and began writing the story

Im a pretty chill person when it comes to dnd rules, I'm not exactly free for all, but not book rigid either. Im fine with homebrew or critical role content if it can be adapted to be playable and not unfair. I don't want the other players to be left behind and I don't want monsters and the other PCs to look like chumps.

K came up to me and said they wanted their character to be an angel. I was like "sick, I'll help you write up an aasimar". But she showed me the picture she wanted, and it was one of those biblical angels that's just a ring of eyes with wings everywhere. And that was going to be a solid no.

I had a few reasons. One was backstory wise, why would an angel like that be traveling with a bunch of mortals, one of which, another PC, was a tiefling? Another was practicality, how would a creature with no arms and who flies around be able to reasonably adapt to the rules around carrying weight, one vs two handed weapons, and movement? And the third was the biggie, and it was that the big baddie at the end of the of the campaign was a beholder, for folks who don't know dnd, a beholder is a giant flying eyeball monster with a giant mouth and tentacles. And that was going to be an issue because I thought that K's angel drawing looked too similar to a beholder. And since that thing is the big baddie of the whole fuggin story, it would mean both NPCs and monsters would be like "oh fuck, a beholder," and it would mess up the intermediate battles and quests I had already written.

I told K no and she replied, paraphrased, "if you wrote and made up this whole story why can't you make up a reason why my character is here?"

I just told her I couldn't because her character would look too much like a beholder and it would scare off low level monsters and npcs and she got very huffy with me.

Another of the friends who was also playing said that maybe we should let the rules slide and just let K play as her drawing. I still said no, and that I was fine with her playing an aasimar, but if she wanted to play one, she'd have to be more reasonable to the game.

K said she was fine with it but still seems pissed off at me.

Am i the asshole for denying her request to play as her angel drawing?

[thechekhov]

Hello! Just wanted to say I love all your content but I wanted to ask if you had any advice/tips for running curse of strahd? I'm working on getting ready to run it with some friends/my partner and while I've run a fair amount of homebrew stuff this is my real first attempt at a legit module so I was curious if you could share anything since I believe you also are running/had run that module as well?

Thanks for asking! This is a very fun question!

I have indeed run Curse of Strahd. It was my first foray into long-term DMing and my team and I finished that campaign a little under a year ago. It was awesome, and I'm always excited to talk about it. Curse of Strahd had be a great game if everyone is on the same page!

First of all, I'm gonna say

Having Experience with Homebrew will be a huge boon

When I ran CoS, I followed the actual module about... 60% of the time. It was good... as a baseline/blueprint. But the reality is that I changed up a lot of the details. Either because I didn't like the vibes of the story, or because the plot points were antithetical to my team's goals. I changed up an entire floor of Ravenloft. I threw away a whole storyline for a major NPC because I felt it was too boring.

I think most people who run Curse of Strahd do this, actually. I've heard countless tales of how others Homebrewed their own meat onto the skeleton, and still came out of the campaign with an awesome, Strahd flavored experience. So don't worry about that part.

Here's my advice:

1. Everyone should vibe with what Strahd IS as a game.

Strahd can be a lot of things - you can Homebrew your own motivations into him, or make him a her, or change the history of his castle if need be. But if there's one thing Curse of Strahd is... it is DARK.

The Venn Diagram of Parties Who Understand That Suffering Can Be Fun To Roleplay and Parties Who Had A Good Time Doing CoS is probably a circle. You cannot do this adventure with a group of people who just want to hit monsters a whole bunch. It's an inherently 'oh my god this SUCKS' adventure. That's the main theme. Your players need to be able to enjoy that sort of game, otherwise they will just be miserable.

One of my players, upon arriving in Barovia, immediately said 'I hate it here' and then continued to say it for the rest of the campaign. That is kind of the catchphrase of CoS. Your players need to be comfortable with that sort of bleak horror and overall misery. It makes the end and the potential to finally end Strahd worth it.

That being said, Strahd can also just be... a lot. It has death and torture and psychological horror in there. KIDS DIE. Please discuss this stuff with your table, and remove elements if they guarantee a bad experience for everyone!

(Yes, you can trim down some of the viscera if you need to, that's fine. But keep in mind it will still be tragic. It SHOULD still be tragic. I set some boundaries for myself, but I also killed a whole town in an avalanche. It happened to be the only town my players had grown to like. It was a dick move. It was exactly what you would expect to happen.)

2. Read ahead - A LOT AHEAD.

For a self-contained world, Barovia isn't actually that big. It's a very small map, compared to some that span continents. That means you have the ability to flesh it out, as it were.

To add to that... some areas are... severely underdeveloped plot-wise. Sometimes there are places your players will go where it FEELS like it should link up to another point in the game but it just... doesn't. There is room to expand there. Use your Homebrew skills to connect the dots that the module doesn't!

I greatly recommend taking the time to either read through the whole adventure OR listen through some video-essays. There IS some cool stuff that comes in in the later game that you can grab and put down breadcrumbs for from day one. Or add to your own story twists.

My recommended resource for this is the Curse of Strahd DM's Guide video series.

...and to that end...

3. Start living in Ravenloft Castle WAY before your players get there.

Listen..........listen. look.

Look at this, and suffer as all GMs have suffered.

Castle Ravenloft is unarguably the biggest, stupidest, most architecturally ludicrous hurdle when it comes to GMing CoS. And I am here to tell you - IT IS DOABLE.

You can understand the castle, you can grow comfortable with it. But you need to start early. Hell, I think I began to set up Ravenloft maps before my players even knew it existed. Then I stopped, because I was scared.. but then I went back, and I.... roleplayed SOLO on my off-days! I set up little scenes between Strahd and others and imagined him setting traps, and doing other things. It helped me understand which staircase led to where, and what floors were accessible from which angles.

A part of me actually thinks that there should be a mini GMs-only class where a more experienced Strahd GM takes some time with other GMs to guide them through a map of the castle. A CoS Learning Oneshot, if you will.

There's also a LOT of talented mapmakers that create beautiful, digital CoS maps! Here's one:

Even if you are playing analogue, at a physical table, I greatly encourage you to check it out for reference. The official CoS maps are bleak and a little bit more... rustic? Than they are gothic.

Anyway, in order to avoid talking your ear off, I will end it here.

My last bit of advice is... to have fun!

Yes I know I just said that Strahd is an inherently bad-vibes game. But it's actually GOOD to let your players goof off now and then. Don't be afraid to let them do shenanigans. It builds character, and allows them to regain the energy they need to role-play properly heavy elements later.

My group did a whole bunch of funny stuff. They felt so bad about losing Ireena that when they saw Ismark, instead of explaining themselves to him they cast Darkness and tried to scramble away. There was a running joke that the cleric was too good to know about sex, so they used the euphemism 'play cards' around her, much to everyone's amusement. They got kicked by a walking house once and never forgot nor forgave. And finally, they defeated some Flame Skulls by putting them into a bag of holding.

Anyway, the point is... have fun! I wish you and your party the best of luck. :)

[wardensantoineandevka]

What classes do you think the mighty nein would play, were they to play dnd? Bonus round would they be good at dnd.

I had a post about this like back in 2020 or something that I cannot find, so I don't know if my opinions have changed since then. I don't have anyone down as DMing because I assume that even their forever DM has a preferred class.

Fjord - Cleric I don't think Fjord would like tanking that much because getting attacked makes him nervous, but he doesn't want to be a glass cannon either. I think that he would initially go for cleric because he simply wants to be useful and helpful, but he didn't necessarily realize how big of a job being the cleric is. He starts out as a just Cure Wounds dispenser, but quickly flourishes into a Holy Terror Wrath Of The Righteous Divine cleric. He loves doing that. His mechanics are solid and efficient and he's tactically astute, but he's a timid roleplayer who struggles to initiate scenes. He's solid if drawn into scenes and forgets to be self-conscious because he's got a better character sense than he thinks. Literally do not ask him what the overall plot of the campaign is because he cannot remember no matter how hard he tries; he remembers individual PC arcs though. I think he'd also like paladins, bards, and druids, and I do think he'd be willing to play some of the more involved fighters like the Knights subclasses and the cooler rangers.

Beau - Wizard She wants to be the person in the game who gets all the information, and that's usually a wizard. She wants to put her little hands all over all the lore, and also she loves having a spell list that's a billion miles long. She does not want you to know that she feels so smugly satisfied playing a character who can do the research and have the connections and know the information. She absolutely hates that this means she's made of tissue paper, so she tends toward Con wizard. Her mechanics and exploration work are really good, and she is stellar at engaging in the world in a way that's highly informed by her character class. She struggles with the roleplaying part of things a lot. She has a decent grasp of character, it's the actual RPing part that she has trouble with. If you can convince her to play a charisma caster, which she is afraid of doing, she'd also enjoy bard a lot. Also monks and artificers.

Caleb - Wizard This is self-explanatory. Caleb is a guy who plays a wizard or the full damage caster in every single game. This is who he is. He is great mechanically until you gotta discuss non-spell stuff. He did, in fact, read that portion of the rules, but it was never relevant to him, so he deleted it from his head. His spell choices and use are phenomenal though. He min-maxes but specifically for the weirdest, most niche element that is useful one time, but it is extremely clutch that one time it's relevant. He is also great at the storytelling portion, though his roleplaying can be a little dense or dry. If you can make him play something that's not a wizard, druid or bard. He will not play a healer druid or bard though.

Veth - Warlock She wants to make bad decisions in her games, and she loves that a warlock comes prepackaged with bad decisions. She has a solid grasp of her spellcasting mechanics, but also finds full casting intimidating. She loves the concept of being a wizard in theory but actually playing one stresses her out. She is a very loud and excitable player, which can be a lot of fun if, uh, loud. She fucking supports you and is into whatever it is you're doing, especially if it's so dumb to do. She is inventing the weirdest and most ambiguously intense patron relationship of all time. She also would enjoy paladins, rangers, artificers, and the fancier fighters (again, the Knights subclasses). She could be eased into cleric if a niche in the party is clear and her mechanical role is structured. She can totally handle full casting, including wizards, she just psyches / stresses herself out.

Jester - Bard I feel like people are going to be like "what about barbarian," but I think that Jester tried it once and the comparative lack of options made her really frustrated. She loves the idea of hitting things, but she hates it when 80% of her options is just hitting it. She is attracted to the charisma casters though, because she really likes the charisma skillset, and she really wants to cast a lot of spells. Out of the charisma caster options, she likes bards best because she loves being a little good at everything. She tends to be a little over-competitive about it and gets sulky when she doesn't feel useful enough. She is actually iffy on mechanical nitty-gritty, but her basics and groundwork is solid so it's fine, but she's a really great if melodramatic roleplayer and her social encounter work is great. She is deeply engaged in the narrative and is intensely invested in every NPC. Buys so fucking hard into the suspension of disbelief. She would like the fancier fighters and paladins better than a barbarian.

Molly - Bard He is playing the stereotype bard of everyone's nightmares. I will not further elaborate.

Caduceus - Ranger He does like to ask the plants and animals question in-game as well, and rangers let him do that and have a bit of magic too without being overwhelming as a class. He isn't super interested in doing complex characters; this is not being bad at D&D, to be clear, it's just a preference. He's your friend who is here to play a simple character because he just wants to hang out with you, which I think is always very sweet. That said, he is not very good mechanically. It's a lot of stuff to keep track of even with 5e being a little simpler. I think he would also like playing paladins or the straightforward fighters, or a cleric if he can decide what his niche is and stick to that specifically. He doesn't vibe with barbarians.

Yasha - Druid She is initially drawn to the class for the vibes (always a valid reason to be drawn to a class), but I think she enjoys having spellcasting options and options that aren't "hit it". She is a timid and awkward roleplayer who has a lot of trouble there, even though she has a lot of fun making up backstory and engaging with the lore and story. Her spellcasting is creative and experimental because she loves weird. She is one of the button pushers of the table and is giggling when she does it. (She and Veth are menaces, lmao, it's great.) I think she'd also enjoy bards, maybe clerics and warlocks, and the fancier fighters and rangers.

[rottenzombrainz]

Tokyo Debunker; Ghouls + DnD (Headcanons)

I just wanted to procrastinate in peace, but inspiration struck me like a... inspiration....

Anyways, I bring you Allister's Headcanons for What I Think the Ghouls are like When Playing DnD™

This is mainly just what kind of characters I think they'd build with a little extra here and there.

also! I'm not the most knowledgeable on DnD, I just recently got into it so please bear with me 🙏

Frostheim

Jin Kamurai - He'd definitely play as a drow, but I don't know if he'd choose to be a fighter or sorcerer though. I feel like he'd also do his "tch" thing whenever the DM is setting the scene or adding in flavor text.

Tohma Ishibashi - Tohma would probably play as a warlock . I bet he plays DnD extremely logically too, focusing everything on strategy. He'd get really into trying finding outs in tough situations.

Lucas Errant - Lawful good human fighter. Next question?

Kaito Fuji - Kaito would have a bunch of different characters he switches between, but he always has insanely bad rolls and begs the DM for a reroll. Even if the situation didn't require a skill check, I have a feeling it'd still end in the DM saying "roll for initiative"

Vagastorm

Alan Mido - Alan would play a half-orc barbarian- because it sounds strong. Except he doesn't know how to rage. Or that barbarians do better with lighter armor. Or that he has to roll a dice to do things. Or-

Shohei Haizono - Sho would play as a warlock or cleric, but his patron/deity is literally just Leo /hj .I feel like he'd keep a good track of what items the party has and any little hints the DM throws in.

Leo Kurosagi - chaotic neutral tabaxi rouge...

Jabberwock

Haru Sagara - It'd be criminal if he played anything other than a druid. Though I could also see him playing as a ranger. Haru would try to appeal to the NPCs instead of stealthing, lying, or fighting. He'd also probably insist that he has to drink if his character does cus it's "more realistic"

Towa Otonashi - I would say druid if it wasn't for the fact that wild magic sorcerers are a thing. Towa would destroy everything and anything if he has the spell slots for it. In a small room with a special artifact? Fireball. Fighting an enemy with good loot near a pit? Thunder wave. An NPC welcoming his character to the town? Acid spray.

Ren Shiranami - Ren would be the most experienced out of all the ghouls. He'd probably get annoyed at all the other ghoul's lack of experience. He has the fanciest dice, the highest quality mini figs, and all of the player handbooks. Part of me also feels like he'd DM just because of how much experience he has. He'd be very unforgiving though...

Sinostra

Taiga Hoshibami - Taiga... Taiga is the player that attempts to fight everything. He attempts rolls that don't work for his character too. He'd also be the reason the party gets wiped out.

Romeo Lucci - Romeo would have an extremely charisma-based play style. It doesn't matter what class or race he is, he'll talk his way through any encounter.

Ritsu Shinjo - Ritsu's character would be a lawful good aasamir paladin that he spent 6 hours making a backstory for. And he would definitely try to give the DM suggestions after the session. I could also see him DMing himself and getting really into it with all the reference sheets and notes and such.

Hotarubi

Subaru Kagami - I feel like Subaru would only ever DM. DMing would give him a sense of control that he otherwise wouldn't have if he was a player. He'd put a lot of work into his campaigns and try to make everything as fun as possible for his players.

Haku Kusanagi - Haku would play as a bard, thinking it means he has to do the least amount of fighting. He'd take his chances on bad rolls and would keep himself well-stocked up on items.

Zenji Kotodama - I can't see Zenji playing any class but a bard. And you know he'd insist on playing an instrument every time he casts "bardic inspiration". I think he'd also get really into the roleplay aspect. He'd love doing side quests too.

Obscuary

Edward Hart - Ed would play a character completely different from himself. He'd have a lot of fun with the roleplay too. I could see him making chaotic decisions just to mess with the rest of the party. Like telling a fae his companion's names or making a deal with a devil.

Rui Mizuki - He would definitely play as a Druid, but in the way I do where I just max out my charisma and pray I never need to fight. Fighting would be his last resort in any situation because he's so unprepared in combat. The party could be halfway through a boss fight and he'd still be trying to roll persuasion.

Lyca Colt - Lyca would have a hard time getting a hang of the game and he'd try to follow the rules despite wanting to just go with the flow. He'd base his character off of himself and name them "Lyca 2" or something like that.

Mortkranken

Yuri Isami - Yuri would play as a wizard. He is so absolutely wizard-coded. He'd also max out his intelligence and wisdom with strength as his dump stat.

Jiro Kirisaki - I think Jiro is like Subaru and would only ever DM. I also feel like he'd be surprisingly good at it? The roleplay aspect, the descriptive language, improv when the players do stupid shit. His campaigns wouldn't be very creative, but they'd be super fleshed-out.

woohoo I'm finally done!!! I've been working on this batch of hcs for days, so I hope you all enjoy!!

[venusmage]

do you run your d&d game from a prewritten book? or did you write your own plot? i want to get in to GMing but i'm not sure where to start. i also want to know about the story of your game!

My very first campaign was a heavily modified version of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist! Though in reality I used it more for a guide on the city's lore rather than the plot of the campaign itself (as I think it's...bad. I think lots of WotC's stuff is bad. I only have experience with 5e's books though. RIP that I really like the settings and their potential a lot)

I basically told my players what I was running and let them make PCs that would have interesting ties to the city. Then I modified the main campaign to revolve more around their backstories. I don't think you CAN'T do a plot where the PCs are completely divorced from the storyline, I just happen to like making them integral to it! I think it helps avoid the dreaded instance where the story becomes a "why didn't the DM just write a book?" situation. If I write it with the players in mind at the center of it, it means they always take precedence.

Seven Asunder / Waterdeep 2.0 is a plot I wrote myself now that I'm a little more confident with DMing and comfortable with my group! It revolves around the seven apprentices of Halaster Blackcloak and their bloody history. After a century+ of their whereabouts being unknown, they start becoming a problem once again and it's up to the PCs to put a stop to whatever they're planning. They're the major antagonists of the game and since their influence reached across the planes (and even the multiverse), it's not impossible to imagine they could have ties to the PCs backstories. I came up with it just because I love evil wizard bullshit and I also love "groups" of villains, as well as The Seven/Halaster/Undermountain being some of my favorite lore in the FR setting!

If you're writing your own plot for the first time and it's in an established setting, I think it'd be smart to gauge what your players are interested in as well as figure out what parts of that universe you're most drawn to and go from there!

[malt-rants-and-stuff]

Having some Tashiro (and prev pres) Thoughts

mostly just re-hashing things my fellow tashiro fans have said but I just felt like making my own post about it. be warned i wrote this while on a 4 hour drive on paper so im not sure how the length translates into a post, this will be a long one haha. also beware of inconsistent caps lock usage.

OBLIGATORY WARNING FOR SASAMIYA FIRST AND SECOND YEAR NOVEL SPOILERS

This whole thing was mainly brought on by two things, one is my non-ssmyverse friend dming me a twt screenshot with the most bland and uninspired description of tashiro's character ive ever read, signaling to me that tumblr has really spoiled me with the good tashiro takes. the other thing was that i got inspired to bring the first and second years novels with me on my previously mentioned long drive, which means that i got the pleasure of rereading both and, most importantly, rereading Tashiro Love & Passion. safe to say i had a lot to think about afterwards.

The whole thing really reminded me of the aspect of tashiro that i've always found interesting: his observant nature. And i dont just mean how he views others, but also how he views himself. How this perspective breaks the most of what we'd expect from a character like him, something Harusono loves to do with their characters.

From the first couple of pages in L&P alone, we get a lot of insight on how tashiro sees himself and how he bases much of that on how others view him.

He mentions a lot of clubs that he was a part of in the past or helped out with, describing his tendency not to stick around one club.

"The all-rounder." A "pinch player" anyone could call on.

I feel like this is an important place to start because just from this we see a bit of how Tashiro breaks from the mold of what an unassuming reader may expect him to be.

In the Sasamiya manga/anime, we dont really have too many chances to really view tashiro for who he is as an individual. with our limited perspective of him, we get to know miyano's friend tashiro, a bright, fun, and earnest character who says whats on his mind and is apparently on the ping pong team with hanzawa which is neat.

and if you werent a bit unhinged like myself and some others, this would be a fair assessment of his character. but ohhh boy once Love & Passion hit the towers there was no turning back.

there have been some posts getting into the themes of this chapter that i feel analyze it better than i ever could, so i wont do that, but i do want to talk about how tashiro's character is portrayed throughout the chapter.

And by far the main part that i want to focus on is how hardworking he is, and his and other's perspectives of him are effected by this.

Because tashiro is someone who wants very very badly to win, as he says numerous times throughout the chapter. Even under the guise of someday getting to quit the ping pong club, he pushes himself to get better; even going as far as practicing against the grannies and grandpas at the bath house that totally didnt adopt him.

For all his complaints, it would be easy to push off his actions as comedic. maybe, and im just making stuff up as i go, saying that he is only behaving as a stereotypical fun-loving slacker would. that his only motive truly is just to leave the club and drift through the rest of his high school days.

But then, that just isnt true is it? what kind of slacker would put so much time and effort into a club that he never even wanted to stick with in the first place?

This my dear friends, is how the Tashiro brainworms Fucking Get You.

Because why indeed, why is tashiro, who drifts through life wondering if he'll ever find his purpose, his Passion if you would, so impressive to the Previous Ping Pong Club President (prev pres) that he finds himself in line for future president?

While tashiro never really seems to figure this mystery out himself, we can take a few guesses.

While we will probably never see prev pres' thought process here (unless we get those 10k words of hanzawa lore that he'd probably be a part of) his actions speak for themselves in a way.

Afterall, this is the same president that got him stuck in this club to begin with, the same one who watched him complain, the same one who'd help drag him back whenever he would try to skip.

He's also the same president who watched him keep to their deal instead of just trying to find a way around it and quitting anyways. the same one who played against him at every practice, watching him learn and grow as a player. who saw him work hard, determined to not bring the team down, even if he wasnt as into it as the others. who saw him stick around.

in his perspective, tashiro takes multiple chances to not how he feels different from the people around him, that he has never known their "love" and never felt their "passion".

He finds himself surrounded by the Passion of others each day. His teammates, his friends, his bath house grandparents, just about everyone in the whole world. but what about him?

i mean, its not as if he's not interested in anything, he has things he likes. hobbies he enjoys. he just... never got that burning Passion, that unabashed Love for something like everyone else seems to have.

I think prev pres understood this part of him. that he saw what tashiro, for all his insightfulness, couldnt see for himself.

because for all tashiro believes that he doesnt have Passion, he sure does love to watch others indulge in theirs.

he takes note of what little he can catch while kuresawa and miyano talk BL, just so he can ask questions later. he gets to know the people at the bath house, listening as they talk about their lives and interests. and while he may not be "super into" in the ping pong club in general, he still wants to see his teammates succeed. he may never have stuck with a club for very long, but he still made himself reliable enough that he's seen as someone they can call to step in when needed.

in my mind i think that is what prev pres saw in him, how tashiro's dedication to see the Passions of others flourish assured him that the club would be safe in his hands.

and, while i cant say tashiro's passion is one specific thing right now, i can say that it encompasses every dream he wants to see grow. every love he curiously watches bloom. every ping pong match he fights to win.

[xaeydnquartz]

Part of me kinda wants to stop DMing my first and current campaign? IDK just need to vent

So, brief expo. like many, got into CR during the pandemic (mainly due to "The Legend of Vox Machina" which lead to me actually bingeing the all 3 campaigns) During which time a friend (who was in my immediate friend group but like the rest of my friend group, i didnt really feel close to) told me that he was really into CR as well. As a fresh new critter, i was stoked. Was able to share my blossoming love of CR with someone (FINALLY!) during which we both mentioned how D&D looked so much fun and that it would be really great to be able to play and ooo what if we got our friends together and played.

After which we discussed, if we did, who would be DM? Seeing as how none of our friends really played D&D our talk lead to either my friend or me and after asking the question "Which do you think you would prefer more?" It was clear i would try my hand at DMing (i like lore in games, and i like storytelling, and im a tad bit of a control freak at times, lol)

Anyway, we eventually got in touch with our close knit of friends, and though i intended to be a standard 6 we suddenly had an 8 party party (and that was with me having to tell even less close friends there wasnt room).

Feeling it would still be manageable (as there was precedent that i could pull inspo from, CR) i began planning a rough idea of a campaign and working with my friends to create their characters and running a session 0 so we were all on the same page. You know standard stuff.

-Fast Forward to current date and time-

It has its stressful moments, but i still am able to enjoy the time with my friends for the most part (though theres a lot of times were ive never felt lonelier) Which brings me to the whole point of the post, my need to vent to the void about this loneliness. Nobody really gets in touch or interacts with me at all. Not to talk about the campaign or even collab on their characters. The most i get are occasional critiques about how i could have done something better couple sessions prior and request to add another person to the 8 person party. When we have sessions, people show up late quite often, leave early quite often, have to cancel as they have other things they are doing (even though we planned and scheduled weeks prior) and even when people are there they somtimes feel like they arent always present. i already feel extremely distant from all of them as they all live closer to each other while i live on the totally opposite side of the state and theyve known each other way longer than i have, but the minimal interactions they have with me, the DM/GM of all people, just continues to add to all of it I know we all are busy with our lives, and that compared to those things D&D is really not that big of a deal or important. And i get that, it is just a game afterall, but it still manages to hit pretty hard

I've communicated my feelings through our time of this campaign, if im being honest, maybe not this indepth. I mean, its partially because i barely see or talk to them (again life gets in the way) but also because i feel extremely guilty for putting this kind of tension to something we are all supposed to be enjoying and relaxing to. Its especially painful as most recently 2 players, who said they would get in touch with me about changes possibly being being made to their characters, never got in touch in anyway shape or form, and its been about a month now? And session is in a week...i didnt even get much as a reply back. Idk, its been almost about a year now and i felt i just needed to get this out somewhere other than debating myself.

Thanks for listening tumblr.

[comicaurora]

Hey I'm getting into DnD, do you have any podcast or series of a DnD campaign to recommend? I know there is critical role, but wich one of those should i start with? Is there a better beginning than critical role? I am lost here, please help

This is gonna very much depend on your personal preferences and attention span! I recommend sampling a range of DnD podcasts to find your personal tolerances and what parts appeal to you. I'm not the most widely-read person in this space because frankly most DnD podcasts are on too slow a boil for my attention span, but I've got a few you could check out-

Critical Role is the biggest and most well-known one for sure, but pacing wise I personally can't get through it. I love it in concept, but it's slow enough and huge enough that my brain zones out in the downtime and I lose track of important details when things speed up again. I think my first successful exposure to it was a brisk two-hour video that's just a Best Moments Of Grog compilation. That's also why I've been really liking The Legend Of Vox Machina, which keeps all the biggest and best moments but paces them like an actual story instead of a game. It's not representative of the experience of playing a TTRPG, but it is a lot of fun.

I personally enjoy limited-run miniseries a lot more, because they work better for my limited attention span, and on the critical role front that means I recommend EXU Calamity, a Doomed Heroes far-distant prequel to the modern setting of CR. Only four four-hour episodes and it's on a bit of a slow boil for the first three, but because everybody involved knows how the story's going to end, there's an endless drip of dramatic tension along the way. The DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, is going to show up a lot more on this list.

On the subject of short miniseries DM'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Escape From The Bloodkeep is my personal favorite and the one I revisit the most. Six two-hour episodes, deeply unhinged and intrinsically comedic as it's a full-series parody of Lord of the Rings. I recommend it for a lot of reasons, not least of which being that Matt Mercer, who is an excellent DM, gets to play, and his playstyle is a great example of how to roll with the punches and the dice, since his extremely menacing nazghul captain is afflicted by a string of hilarious failures and he kind of just owns it, to the point where his character arc becomes accepting his worth as an individual with the power of friendship. It's a great example of not taking yourself or your character too seriously, which is a vital skill for players to learn in order to handle the whims of the dice sometimes (or often) not cooperating with your narrative wishes. If CR isn't working for you but you're interested in what you can pick up from this extremely talented DM, this is a good way to get that!

Dimension 20 (Collegehumor's DnD branch) has several series I really like, most of them DM'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan again. His DMing style really works for me, and he takes an approach to pacing that I quite like, so they're generally a safe bet for me. One I categorically recommend is The Unsleeping City, an urban fantasy DnD game set in New York City. This one is 19 two-hour episodes, so longer than the other miniseries but still much shorter than CR, and it can give you a bit of a sampler for (a) the genrebending you can do with DnD and (b) a longer-form story with a less rigidly determined finale than the previous examples. Brennan's DM style is very cool, and he puts an unusual amount of focus on characters getting solo vignettes, which is sometimes considered a bit gauche in DM circles because it means the other players don't have a whole lot to do during those solo conversations, but it works for him and his players and the effect is very cinematic!

But if you want to see a different DM's style in the same space, A Court Of Fey And Flowers is run by Aabria Iyengar, one of the EXU Calamity players, and she has a very different but also cinematic DMing style! The game is also a hybridization of DnD and a different system for facilitating Jane Austen romances, which is dope. Only the first episode is up on Youtube, but that should probably be enough to let you determine if you want to check out more.

I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention the two DnD Actual-Plays I'm in, Rolling With Difficulty and Heart of Elynthi. Rolling with Difficulty is subdivided into three seasons of 8-10 four-hour episodes each, with each season having one overarching plot or threat but mostly being composed of episodic adventures - it's a Planescape series, meaning most episodes take us to a completely new plane of existence to deal with its unique geometry, fun denizens and wacky threats. It's also a lot more edited than some actual-play podcasts, with an effort to avoid the slow parts and the dice-rolling, mental math, "what am I gonna do this round," etc. Heart of Elynthi is an ongoing series that's only about five or six episodes in, with an overarching mystery in the background and a "collect the things to save the world" plotline in the foreground. It also streams new episodes on Twitch on (some) Wednesday afternoons, so if you'd benefit from a live chat to hang out and talk with during games, that might be worth checking out to see if you like it! Elynthi also has had some pretty cool behind-the-curtain stuff about how the players can handle in-character disagreements without them turning into IRL fights, which is something I don't think I've ever seen another DnD actual-play explicitly unpack but is also extremely important for players to consider, so that's fun.

[dear-space-cadet]

YOU MET DARIO?!?

or should i say DARIO MET U?!??!

I DID!!!!! He was so incredibly kind and sweet!!!!!!! I knew he was going to be but I was a little worried he wasn’t going to like me. I think he did

I got to give him the friendship bracelets I made for him too! I think he was a little caught off guard bc I think when you’re a role player you’re so used to signing things for people and no one rly appreciating you. Like this random kiddo next to me (FULL ON NUGGETS FAN, LITERALLY WEARING A JOKIC JERSEY MIND YOU) literally asked who he was. I told said kiddo that Dario was a very good nba player and he should stan 😭😭😭

Anyway I think Dario was caught off guard that I was giving him something and not expecting anything in return. He was so sweet

Also I am convinced he’s the same type of neurodivergent I am bc I’m really shy but like the way we communicated was so similar to how I talk w my nd friends. Like he didn’t just take the bracelets and walk away, he like held them in his hand and let me pick them up and explain them. Like he trusted me to touch his hands without asking. Idk. I’m probably overthinking it but I just found that specific detail so sweet. This is why I’m a poet

And he was smiling sooooo big the whole time dude he was genuinely so nice and I think he was just really happy to know he still had someone rooting for him in particular. Like that someone was at the game specifically for him

Also I told him I had the jersey made that day at the NBA store and he laughed 😭😭 he was so fcking sweet

Idk if he recognized me. I’ve been thinking about DMing on insta to let him know it was meeee (we have DMed before but it’s all been on my spam insta since that’s where I’m in the gc with him; it’s private and the pfp isn’t my face) but idk if that’s crossing a line. I don’t think it is but I am rly cautious about being parasocial or creepy, and I don’t want to scare him either

(He had his best performance of the season thus far that night and that means something TO ME)

They often say never meet your blorbos but I met mine and he was awesome. He is a sweetheart. Love that guy even more now

[centaurianthropology]

Okay, that was a GOOD episode.  The first episode definitely had some pilot difficulties, but it seriously feels like they’re hitting their stride with this one.  I am totally in love with what Laura’s doing with Arlo, and Ashley is a delight as Auggie.  Anjali’s performance as Charlotte gets more and more nuanced and tragic, and I can’t wait to see where she’s going with it.  They were all so compelling this time around, and taking some major hits and poor roles meant that they all got shaken up a lot worse this time around.

Matt’s DMing also felt a lot more tuned into the horror side of things this episode, with the monster being intensely Soulsborne-y (the mass of bodies glommed together is such a Dark Souls thing, but I love it!), and had a lot stronger of an eldritch horror vibe, with some Hunger Beyond Time coming after everyone because of an artifact.  I really, REALLY hope they get sent to Oldfaire next episode, as it’s their last for this Circle, and I really want to see that part of the city, given how much it’s been hyped up, and how likely it is to intersect at least with Arlo’s backstory, and possibly also Charlotte’s (and maybe Howard’s too??).

But there was one stand-out tonight, in an episode in which everyone was on top of their game, and that was Robbie Daymond.  Holy shit, no one heard “you are in a horror game” and took it to heart quite like he did.  He’s going full Reanimator, and I love his choices.  His self-trepanning scar was horrific in the best possible way, and then there’s whatever happened at the end with him.  Who is Dean?  Was that his reason to get into Candela?  And what the hell does it mean that the phantasmal force just dove straight into his head??  He is getting more and more unhinged as we get into this story, and I am so here for it.  I get the feeling he’s the most likely character to die in the next episode, with Charlotte very close behind (”You have to give everything” has a very ominous ring to it), and I think Arlo and Auggie might make it out to make later reappearances, but who knows?  They rolled like ass tonight, so hopefully they saved a lot of sixes for next time.  I’m honestly only sad that we only get one more episode with this Circle, but then again it makes sense.  Horror campaigns generally have to run short, because they lose the scares the longer they go on.  And I can really hope that next episode is downright terrifying.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the level up for the next game.  The more I see this system play, the more I really want to pick it up once the Core Book drops.  The flavor of Newfaire is great, and I think it would be great for short campaigns with friends who really want to dig into some gnarly horror material.  

Man, that was a fun episode.  I am seriously going to miss these characters, as they’re all so delightful and vivid.  The players are great, and they’re a fantastic intro to a system I now really want to buy once it comes out.

[jegulily-stuff]

Girls DnD night headcanons:

Peter DMs for them, he has a campaign planned already from when the boys were going to play before they (Sirius and James) realised they didn't have the patience for it. DMing's kinda like chess if you think about it.

Dorcas - Paladin. Oath of Devotion and she takes the guidelines very seriously. Has to put 'doing the right thing' before strategy because of her commitment to the roleplay. Dies a lot because of that. Picks goliath, and when that character dies replaces them with a gnome also artificer with the same name. 'Oh yeah im their cousin.' <- cheating character death to avoid being sad.

Marlene - Fighter. They made her run it with high charisma so someone could get them through persuasion checks but she wouldnt main bard cuz she wanted a cool sword. Sometimes forgets her character cant just do magic cuz its her default irl. "What do you mean the door's locked and I don't have Knock?" Superstitious about dice. Would be so sad if her character died (plays recklessly anyway).

Lily - Wizard (or maybe druid?), she loves all that nerdy stuff, and always knows her spells. Dice love her. Animates their figurines so its like wizards chess. Uses her character abilities so well Pete has to constantly adjust his plans to keep the campaign from being too easy. Befriends npcs the most, never lets Pete's narration convince her their suspicious behaviour makes them evil without real evidence.

Mary - Ranger, you wouldnt get it, this is the best choice, you'll all be crying when there's difficult terrain. Paranoid player, always doing random perception checks. Never gets caught in a trap. Only one to not get attached to an npc because she doesnt trust any of them. She was supposed to pick Cleric because the party needed a healer but decided not to. (Pete plays an npc Cleric to fill the gap). She's got proficiency in survival checks ;)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for ignoring my friend's hobby?

So context. My (20 NB) best friend I'll call him Moth, (cis male 20) is my BEST friend. I platonically love him so so so much. We've been friends since high school when he was a freshman and I was a sophomore (he's actually older than me he was 15 and I was 14 when we met)

Well over time our interests changed. We're still good friends and we indulge in both our hobbies together (such as we both love board games, I play games with him, he listens to my Language ramblings). Its not like we don't have any shared interests and we do play games and everything together.

But Moth's main hobby is table top games. He has wanted to do an in person table top campaign for years. And as one of his only IRL friends I am the one he goes first to talk about this plan.

I have indulged this hobby (or addiction according to a mutual friend) since it started. I have tried getting into table top games, I really have. We made a Harry Potter campaign about an alternate universe were Harry is replaced by a Gyaru (a japanese fashion/attitude subculture I am a fan of) did an hour of it and I stopped caring, He's shown me a sailor moon table top, he tries REALLY REALLY hard to get me into it.

But Moth specifically wants to be the one to play. He has been DMing a campaign for 4-5 years now. He wants to play irl, which means I have to be the one to DM. I don't even want to play to begin with let alone DM

and I tried to get into TTRPGS! I just can't like role playing. But I suck at confrontation. I feel bad if I just said "I can't get into this please stop asking me". He's an IRL friend and also one of my only friends. I love hearing about his campaigns! But I don't want to be a part of them.

So lately whenever he starts talking about TTRPGS and asking me to join I say half answers like "well I don't know..." and "I'm just not feeling it". Mostly I'm just dodging and changing the subject. I feel like a bad friend because this is his MAIN hobby. And I do like TTRPGs as an observer, not as a player. But its the only thing he talks about and I just can't get into it.

Am I the asshole for dodging my friend whenever he brings up table top role playing games?

What are these acronyms?

[pleaseburger]

Are you like, fr about recommending trrpg systems? Cause BOY I'm in the market for one. I've only tried Dnd (too rules, too expensive, too genre locked) and Fate which I'm still feeling out but I'm getting the feeling it's too freeform for the players I'm DMing for. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it, I guess.

Anyway, if none of that made a system spring to mind, just tell me about your favorite/go-to system and why it's that one!

of course I was!! this is my purpose as a micro influencer!!!

you have basically asked me the equivalent of "I have tried pizza, which is popular but I did not like, and tofu, which is too open to all the possibilities in the world (fate is good and cool, like tofu). what should I try eating next". so hopefully you see why this is hard to answer

I have been playing Starforged as my main game for the last year or so. it's the sci-fi fork of Ironsworn (which is free btw :3). ironsworn is lovely cause you can play it as a GM with a table full of players, or co-op with other players and NO GM, or even just by yourself!! the rules are split up into mini rules packages called "moves", which trigger whenever you do something in the game and then have their own varying outcomes that can suddenly change the game in ways no one expected.

characters in ironsworn are defined by Assets instead of a class or a big list of skills; each asset is like a superjuiced D&D feat, empowering you to do really cool stuff or even *giving you completely new moves that are unique to your character*. whenever you're feeling stuck, the Oracle tables are there to jump-start your imagination. my playgroup loves asking the Oracle for her opinion on stuff all the time. you can run a game of Ironsworn/Starforged as a GM with absolutely zero prepwork and be okay because the moves and oracles are there to support play.

my absolute favourite RPG is HEART: The City Beneath. it's gorgeous, haunting, evocative, and tragic. the core of the game's engine, the Resistance system, is a tension builder and drama generating engine, because as the players Do Stuff, they build up stress to their resistances, and then after building up too much stress, the dam breaks and it all comes crumbling down in a juicy dramatic consequence, which the book has like a hundred options for you to choose from if you cant think of anything interesting right away.

your character's background comes with a bucket list of things you could do (like eating something you really shouldnt, or getting a landmark named after you), called Beats, and then you pick 2 of those Beats every session. if you do either of them, you get a new ability from your class! it's very cool because it inherently tells the players what kind of cool stuff they can do, encourages them to do it by rewarding them for taking action, and it makes prepwork *very* easy for the GM because the players have to tell you exactly what they want to do the next session.

the classes in HEART are also some of my favourite archetypes out of any game I've read. the deep apiarist, who has hollowed out their body to be a host for a hive of psychic bees, can do things like get through tiny gaps by letting their hive chew up their body and rebuild them on the other side. the vermissian knights are basically an order of cursed paladins that are obsessed with creating a failed train network that was planned hundreds of years ago but never came to be. there's a gun wizard class. and all of them have a dozen abilities that are all enticing; no features that boil down to being a +2 bonus to attack rolls, you want to collect as many of these things as you can.

but the best part of game is the setting itself, the Heart. it's a red wet heaven under the surface of the earth, a rip in reality where a strange otherspace has crawled in. whenever someone enters it, it tries to build itself in the image of their desires, but it does this slowly and badly. everyone has a different theory on what it is. what this means for your game is that even though the heart has a very strong identity and hits a specific feel, it shapes to the style of GM you are and the desires of your players as the game unfolds. every table's Heart is just a little bit different.