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absolutepokemontrash · 3 years ago

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The Demon Bros Play DND!

Who’s ready for some Stupid Headcanons?

So, the Satanic Panic of the 1980s claimed that the tabletop RPG known as Dungeons and Dragons had the power to turn your children into satanists and devil worshippers. So of course, the brothers have totally played DND after hearing about all the human world nonsense.

Lucifer the Back-up Back-up DM

He’s too busy to play this game dammit, stop inviting him! What do you mean both Satan and Simeon can’t DM the one-shot? Ugh... fine.

Despite all his UUUUUUUUGGGGHHH, Lucifer is a damn good storyteller, prepare to be immersed as hell.

Also, sorry guys, he’s a rule whore. If something’s against the rules, YOU AREN’T DOING IT.

He’s also a complete sadist who will randomly get everyone to roll perception checks for NO REASON.

Lucifer has definitely stood up and slammed his hands on the table while giving a description for extra effect, Mammon screamed and nearly fell out of his seat which REALLY ruined the mood.

“Everyone, we’re rescheduling, I’m too busy.”

He’s been a player a few times, and he’s NOT good at it. All his characters end up being really generic and boring. He’s better at being the world and everything in it, not the dummy wandering around it.

Human/fighter lookin’ motherfucker

In conclusion, he’s a good DM, but he’s probably too busy to play.

Over-Powered Self Insert (Mammon)

This game is for nerds! He’s not playin’, Levi!

Fine, his character is great and amazin’ and is also him. MC! What do these numbers mean-

Mammon’s the type of player to make his character a self insert and not take it too seriously, then get really REALLY attached as the campaign progresses.

He’s the type not to make a backstory for his character either, so go wild DM MCs!

He also both purposefully and accidentally metagames a whole bunch. Like dude, YOU know this, YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT.

Shit he forgot his dice, can he borrow some?

“Okay MC, that’s five points of piercing damage.” “I RUN OVER AND HEAL THEM! I’LL SAVE YA MC!”

Mammon goes out of his way to save MC’s character long before it would make sense in-character to do so.

“Well, as your first man it’s my duty to save your character! You’ll probably be a blubberin’ mess if I didn’t...”

He’s not the best role player, but he’s also not the worst at it either. He tends to break character when things get too serious and he doesn’t know what to do.

Notes who? He came in here with one sheet of printer paper and it’s for doodling only.

He and Asmodeus start the tavern brawls. No question about that.

Theft is very common, he’s stealing from everyone, including but not limited to: the party, the royal guards, the dead enemies, the giant fuck-you dragon that Satan dropped in there to deter Mammon from stealing...

“I’m gonna steal that crown from the dragon.” “Roll stealth.” “Nat 20 BITCHES.” “Fuck you.”

If his character dies, may the Demon King have mercy on his greedy little soul because he’s going to mope about it for a damn long time.

Over-Powered Self Insert Again (Leviathan)

His character totally isn’t a self insert, shut up! He just looks and acts like an idealized version of himself!

He’s the one with twenty pages of character info and backstory AND the amazing commissioned art.

Levi has about 40 sets of expensive blue dice that he claims gives him the best rolls but an average session with him usually leads to roughly 10 crit fails.

While his luck with dice isn’t that good, he’s the player who will get as much out of their turn as possible, AKA break out the calculators and notes we’re doing some math.

His turn goes on for at least ten minutes because of all the shit he’s doing. When you finally think it’s over he goes “I still have my movement!”

Takes notes like a madman, every bit of lore and character info is being written down, meaning it’s a headache for everyone involved if there’s a continuity error because Levi WILL point it out.

“So you all head to the east, the great Valley of-” “Hang on, valley? In the second session you said there was a mountainous area to the east.” “Levi, shut up.”

Levi is the self appointed “guys come on let’s get back on track!” player, and whoever’s DMing is grateful to have him.

Levi is kind of the opposite of Mammon in terms of character seriousness, at first he’s taking everything super seriously and then as the campaign goes on he slowly loosens up and has some fun.

Out of curiosity one day he searches up a magical girl DND class and he’s ALL OVER IT. PLEASE LET HIM BE A MAGICAL GIRL NEXT CAMPAIGN-

Damn good at roleplaying, he’s carrying the entire in-character discussion until everyone else gets into it.

The Done With Your Bullshit DM (Satan)

So, this is the game that’s supposedly summoning him all the time despite the fact that he hadn’t been up to the human world since the 50s... what the fuck is everyone on up there?

It was the 80s, probably a lot of drugs.

When Satan DMs, you can only break the rules if it enhances the story... or if it fucks with Lucifer’s really boring character.

He will fudge dice rolls every once and a while, he also gets very attached to the characters everyone has made so he doesn’t want to perma-kill any of them unless they roll a DND quadruple natural 1 sin or something.

As attached as he gets, he isn’t above completely raging, killing everyone’s characters, and ending the session if everyone’s being annoying.

Don’t worry, your characters will be safe and sound next session once everything calms down... just don’t mention how Satan burned your character sheet right in front of you. It’s your fault if you didn’t make a second copy of your character sheet!

He’s pretty decent when it comes to improv when a player stumbles into something he didn’t plan out, but that’s not going to stop him from getting a little annoyed.

Though, if you somehow manage to get to the big bad too soon... yeah sorry, he’s got a way more dramatic fight scene planned, your player’s getting conveniently blasted out of there.

As a player, Satan is pretty decent at the game overall, but he tends to be a little aggressive if there’s an overarching mystery to be solved.

He needs to understand what’s going on! He doesn’t care if it upends the plot or it’s too early to find out! He needs to know!

His character is actually distinct and different from himself, Satan thinks it’s more interesting that way. All the books he’s read have made him a pretty awesome role player!

Satan’s notebook both as a DM and a player is filled to the brim, no detail is too insignificant to be put on the page.

Satan doesn’t fear dungeon puzzles... dungeon puzzles fear Satan.

“Are you all stupid?! This puzzle is so easy a four year old could solve it!”

I ROLL TO SEDUCE- (Asmodeus)

At first he didn’t want to play, he doesn’t play these kinds of games, sweetie. He’s too pretty.

When he’s finally convinced he puts a decent amount of effort into his character, but leaves the backstory pretty open.

Asmo would probably be the bard... right? No. He’s the warlock with the magic sugar daddy patron, and the warlock patron is spoken to as such.

“Hey baby... how’ve you been? Have I been good~?” “...”

Huh! Who woulda thought that all the bedroom roleplaying would transfer so well to DND!

Simeon is the only DM that doesn’t immediately shut this down, so Asmo will be extra inclined to play if Mr. Nice Shoulders is DMing.

When he gets really into it he buys a bunch of sparkly and very pretty dice, they bring him good luck in every roll!

Asmo has a fictional harem, no question about it. It gets to the point where Satan, Lucifer, and Simeon stop describing NPCs as attractive.

He’s rolling to seduce either way, he’s turned many an antagonist into a lover. To be fair, Asmo’s horniness has gotten everyone out of a lot of jail cells... so they can’t complain.

His notes consist of really random comments about the plot and the other players. It’s also COATED with doodles.

‘Wow, this character is such an asshole, I hope Belphie kills them.’ ‘Shit.’ ‘MC looks so cute when they play their character!!!!!!!! :D’

Poor bab forgets the rules a lot... it’s just too much to remember, okay?! How was he supposed to know that he ran out of spell slots an hour ago?!

Please help him, MC...

*Dice Cronch* (Beel)

Homeboy has been given edible dice, no question. He has also eaten the non-edible dice...

Beel goes to Satan for help with making his character, and he ends up really loving the character! :D

Problem is, he’s not that good at roleplaying... D:

“Can my character eat that person?” “Beel, no- you know what? Let me check what you’d need to roll to do that.”

I’ll save you MC part 2 electric boogaloo, but when it comes to Beel, the entire party is getting protected, no matter how little it makes sense in-character.

While Beel does take notes, a lot of them don’t end up being very important for later events. For example, he’ll jot down stuff about the layout in one room, but it turns out he didn’t take notes for the room that was actually going to be used for a boss fight.

He’s always nice to the NPCs, shame Belphie doesn’t show them the same courtesy.

Murder Hobo (Belphie)

Chaotic evil.

“Belphie, your character’s alignment is neutral good, remember?” “Fuck that, this guy’s annoying me.”

If Belphie doesn’t like an NPC, it’s up to the rest of the party to stop him from derailing the campaign and killing them.

He has space themed dice because cow-man likes space and thought they were pretty.

Notes? NOTES? You think Belphegor, the Avatar of SLOTH, takes notes? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-

He’s drooling all over the notebook... ew. Someone wake him up and tell him it’s his turn.

He puts about 35% effort forth to make a halfway decent character, and approximately 4% effort to actually roleplay.

Belphie sleeps through important plot details so he’s almost always really confused. He’ll turn to MC and ask them to explain what he missed before not learning his lesson and going back to sleep.

Wake him up for the dungeon puzzles though, he and Satan love those.

“Okay, we can’t see what’s in the room because none of the conscious party members have dark vision?” “Nope, what do you do?” “...I shove Mammon inside and shut the door.” “WHAT?!”

Bonus! The Best DM (Simeon)

Our favourite angel has homebrewed this entire campaign and boy fricken howdy are these players going to enjoy it.

Simeon fudges the dice rolls to avoid anything too irreversibly bad happening, buuuuuuut he’s still a total asshole who does the random perception rolls to keep everyone on their toes.

Everyone gets a character arc god dammit, even if they don’t have a backstory, one will be provided!

He’s got a map, he’s got miniatures, he’s got dice and backup dice for the backup dice, he’s got DM notes for days!

Simeon could be a voice actor with the amount of character voices he can do, no one ever gets confused with who’s talking.

Did someone just uncover a massive bit of plot that was meant to be found out later? Good job! No harm done! Simeon’s DM improv is second to none, and the plot will adjust accordingly!

#Obey me #Obey me!#Obey me Headcanons #obey me! headcanons #Obey me Lucifer #Obey me Mammon #Obey me Simeon #Obey me Leviathan #obey me beelzebub #Obey me Belphegor #Obey me Satan #Obey me Asmodeus #Obey me MC #obey me shall we date #obey me! shall we date?

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mybg3notebook · 3 years ago

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Lore: The Netherese in 1492 DR

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were written up to the game version v4.1.104.3536 (Early access). As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information. Written in June 2021. Detail: BG3 takes place in 1492 DR.

To understand what's the context around "Netherese magic" and, let's hope, its nature, I think it's of vital importance to know a bit about Netheril and what happened in recent years.

The game does a good job in showing us what happened with their fall at Karsus' hands. I explained in the post of "Well-known Characters" a good amount of information about him. His desire for godhood was a bit more complex than just wanting to be a god, even though the game shows it as blind arrogance and ambition: so far we know, it was Mystra who commanded her priests to spread this version of Karsus' Folly, as if he only wanted power alone.

After Karsus' folly, all the floating cities of Netheril fell to the ground, destroying their population with them. However, only three cities were saved since they were too high in the air: their fall gave enough time for Mystra to be reborn in minutes and saved them. A fourth enclave, ruled by Telamont Tanthul—also called Lord Shadow—was teleported to the Shadow Plane (now called Shadowfell) days before the catastrophe. This was possible because Shadow Lord had been experimenting with the Shadow plane energies for a while. When he returned to Faerûn to see the aftermath of Karsus' folly, he recognised the need to stay in the other plane and gather strength to rebuild Netheril. After 1700 years, he started his plan for the return of his Civilisation in 1372 DR.

This is the context in which the trilogy of The Return of the Archwizards is set. This also belongs to 4e, which is one of the concepts that have annoyed more players, since this return made the Shadovars the Big Bad Evil everywhere. Maybe WotC wants to clean this aspect in the game. Maybe not. We don't know for sure. But we may suspect that Netherese people are returning in BG3: many details ingame keep giving context about them: Gale's explanation about Karsus' Folly, Excavation of the Enclave of Nhalloth (book), The Approachable East: Vol5 (book), and then the presence of Netherese magic not only in Gale's "orb" but in the tadpoles.

I think it's worth checking the ingame book called “Excavation of the Enclave of Nhalloth”. Nhalloth was a Netherese city floating above the Sea of Fallen Stars in Faerûn. After Karsus' folly, it sank into the sea, claiming for some underwater creatures. As a consequence of the Spellplague, the geography changed, the waters lowered, and allowed a bit of exploration. Little was found, and explorers reported odd feelings and ghosts around it.

What do we know about the Return of Netheril in 1372?

These new Netherese people started to spread their influence in Faerûn, looking for Netherese old artefacts and spying on people and places that could possibly hinder their ultimate goal of creating a new Netheril in their image. But, were these people truly Netherese? The question comes from the fact that living creatures can't stay in the Plane of Shadow (currently merged with the Plane of negative energy which transformed it into the Shadowfell) without being affected by it. So, in an attempt to be short but still provide important facts I will numerate vital details of them that may become handy in BG3:

This floating city used to be called Thultanthar, and after its return, it's more commonly referred as the City of Shade.

Somehow, the Netherese people survived, and became more united and secretive.

Over 1700 years, each generation of these netherese people become more and more attuned to the shadow plane, some of them even turning into Shades: twisted, dark, humanoid creatures with longer lifespan than humans. Lord Shadow was still the main ruler of the City of Shade because he is now a Shade.

A big percentage of their population are worshippers of Shar.

The archwizards (ruling class) in the highest ranks are called Shadovars. Not every Netherese or Shade person is a Shadovar. Despite this, most folk refer to all Netherese as Shadovar nonetheless.

Most Shadovars are followers of Shar.

Shadovars are masters of Shadow Magic. It's a common mistake to think that Shadow magic is the same as Shadow Weave magic. Shadow Magic is magic using the energies of the Plane of Shadow. This can be done using Weave or Shadow Weave. Since most shadow casters are evil-aligned, Shar tried to offer them the Shadow Weave as a means to cast their magic without using the Weave (an element of a neutral-good aligned deity). This is related to the effect of worshipping without consent: Using the Weave is always a way to worship Mystra even if the caster wants it or not. This always gives power to Mystra. Shar created the Shadow Weave as a way to divert all those evil-aligned casters into her own worshipping. More details in the post of "Mystra and her Chosen ones"

With the return of the Shadovars, they tried to corrupt the recently recovered Weave and turn it into Shadow Weave.

In 1487DR, Lord Shadow tried to gain the power of the Mythal of Myth Drannor, but Elminster killed him and the City of Shade fell upon Myth Drannor, destroying both cities.

However, this was not the end of the Shadovar. We may have some information about how they are in 1490s DR (let's remember BG3 is during 1492 DR):

Lord Shadow may be part of the Weave now (I have no idea why Ed said this. Lord Shadow was not a Chosen of Mystra, why would he be a weaveghost now?)

Two of his daughters and a Netherese arcanist survived: The sisters Lelavdra and Manarlume and the arcanist Gwelt have been calling themselves "The Three".

The Three have been collecting Netherese and others loyal to the Shade Empire from the ruins of the Citadel of the Raven in the western Moonsea region since late 1487 DR. They had collected at least 60 low level arcanists and 20 low born Netherese within a short period of time.

Gwelt was leading the hunt for others calling their group "The Court of the Three."

Their goals were supposedly to collect other Netherese, make allies, identify foes, take command of the remaining floating Netherese cities, and find a remote location to regroup and plan their re-emergence. It is unknown how far they have come.

Why all of this may be important?

Because part of this canon material may or may not be part of the story of BG3.

It's true that Larian has already changed some very consistent canon facts, such as the spell of the Hag eye (Ethel justifies her spell as a very personal customised one) or—the most impressive change—the Ceremorphosis process: Gale explains that the normal process removes the personality of the person in the sixth day after the infection, when in Forgotten Realms canon it should happen few hours after the infection. So my expectations for them to follow all canon material are not blind. They will change canon concepts as they think suitable, which is how DnD works. Still yet, it seems reasonable to read about all this in order to have a better context of what we will see, since the canon context is undeniably there.

Personally I always saw the presence of Netherese/Shadow Magic in the tadpoles as the intervention of Shar, but I never could find a group of mortals who would do that work and have such specific knowledge. We know that, with the exception of Mystra, contact with mortals is forbidden to all gods; therefore, Shar could not be the one to have approached these Mind Flayers. Now, the presence of the Court of the Three, working alongside or co-opting The Three Dead's plan seems a more reasonable possibility for me.

So far, what we know is that

Shadow Magic is equivalent to Netherese Magic ( EA, Ethel's words)

Shadow Magic is magic related to the plane of Shadows. This plane was altered by Shar when she merged the negative energy plane with it, causing the Shadowfell. The Shadowfell was Shar's realm for a while.

Shar was a great loser in the last edition. She could not change the Weave into Shadow Weave and become the greatest deity of magic as she planned. So she may want to counter-attack now.

Shadovars—who tried to help Shar in turning her into the Goddess of Magic—are masters of Shadow Magic and Shadow Weave magic.

The Shadow Weave was not destroyed, it's recovering at a similar pace to the Weave.

The tadpole can't turn the host into a mind flayer because Netherese magic (the dream person) attached to it works as a stasis process. ( EA)

The Netherese magic—aka dream person—seems to restrain the Mind Flayer transformation while having strong connotations of Bhaalspawn essence. ( EA)

These small details may suggest that maybe the Shadovar are returning, or the three dead are using Shadovar's knowledge or vice versa. The possibilities are many and it seems hard to decide which ones are more likely since EA gives little information for such estimation.

Sources:

2e: Sea of Fallen Stars 3e: Lost Empires of Faerûn 4e: The Return of the Archwizards, The Herald, Grand History of the Realms Article: After the Fall by Ed. Greenwood: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/after-fall

Ed Greenwood Twitter

This post was written in June 2021. → For more Gale: Analysis Series Index

#bg3 meta #bg3 lore #lore #shadovar #netherese magic #bg3 early access #FR lore

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kindofwriter · 3 years ago

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Hey there! My group of friends have been hardcore considering turning a passion project of ours into a real podcast, and I was wondering if you had any advice for newbies putting together a show. We’re a small, young team, but we have a lot of passion for our concept and some writing/sound experience under our belts. Do you have any tips regarding finding actors, the process of plotting, sensitivity readers, or anything else you’ve had experience with in your projects? Thanks for reading!

Ok, finally ready with this! Thank you so much for the question, I will try to share my ~wisdom~ in the following post, but feel free to ask any further questions!

How to start a podcast: 1. when you’re new and/or 2. when you have money!

1. It’s easier than you think! My first advice is to just go for it! Even if it doesn’t quite go as planned you’ll have fun, and it’ll give you great experience for whatever you want to work on next!

Casting:

I’m going to assume this is an unpaid project (hence the former part of this advice being for free podcasting!) but if that’s not the case please skip to section two!

When I can’t offer any form of payment for a project I like to use friends as a cast. Not because my friends deserve any less payment! But because I can pay them in free chips and credentials for their portfolios, and it makes me feel slightly less bad!

Ways to go about deciding which friends to cast: I was lucky enough to do a lot of theatre work in my first year of uni, so I already knew a lot of people who were interested in both acting and production work. You’ll probably come across several actors who think voice acting is beneath them, but who wants to be friends with those people? What I’m trying to say is: if you have friends who are interested in theatre they’ll probably be interested in this! Especially given the past year.

I also poached people from my DnD group, because I could already gauge their acting specialities from that, and I knew what kinds of things they were interested in based on which DnD campaigns they enjoyed best.

If you know anyone who is interested in public speaking, whatever you all those reading awards where you read aloud dramatically, or something like radio and TV presenting then they’ll probably also be interested and do a great job! The great thing about podcasts is that all you really need is someone with a good voice - they’re free to do whatever they like with the rest of their face as long as they’re reading the lines!

You can, of course, also put out a casting call. It’s very important that you make it clear that it would be unpaid work. Even if you plan to set up a kofi, patreon, or kickstarter (info in the money section!), if you don’t have the money to begin with you shouldn’t promise it to people.

There are up and downsides to both. Casting people you know means you’re more likely to be comfortable working with them, there’s less pressure to offer payment, and your cast are more likely to have free time specifically for this project. However, you won’t have the draw of casting known industry voices, and (like I found!) your cast may not have any social media engagement whatsoever!

If you put out a casting call you’re more likely to get a pool of diverse voices, it will likely be people invested (even if not plugged in) to the industry, and you can request that they have their own equipment! However, you then have to work with people you don’t know, a level of professionalism that isn’t usually present on first time projects may be expected, and unpaid casting calls are not wildly well received.

Personally, for your first show, I’d try to use as many friends, or even friends-of-friends as possible. That being said, if you want advice on putting together an audition pack let me know!

Plotting:

It depends on what kind of show you’re aiming to write, but in general plotting a podcast is kind of like plotting a TV show. First of all you should plot out what’s going to happen in a season. Then plot out what’s going to happen in each episode. Ideally each episode will have its own arc, but things don’t always work out like that.

I like to plan things out in a fair amount of detail beforehand (this is especially helpful if you’re writing collaboratively.) Start with what’s going to happen in each episode. Once I know that, I then like to write how it starts and finishes, then the content in bullet points. If you ever can’t think of anything then don’t worry! A lot of things really come together when you’re actually writing.

The most important thing is to not worry at all about the first draft. Just get it down, editing is much easier and more fun once you have something to work with!

There are definitely much more qualified people than me out there giving advice about writing and plotting though; even if it’s directed at prose and script writers it’s still more than applicable!

Sensitivity readers:

If you have the option of sensitivity readers they’re always a great idea! But asking someone to read your work (usually for free) is both time consuming and potentially risky if you don’t know and trust them.

Tumblr, the writeblr community specifically, is a good place to find a sensitivity reader. A lot of people want the practise and are willing to do it for free if you put a call out.

One of the best ways to get feedback on your work is to cast/find people who are appropriate for the roles and then ask for feedback. Obviously they don’t have to, but you’ll find that usually they want to. You can aid in this by giving them some way to give feedback anonymously - maybe a google form - as no matter how chill and friendly you are as the prod team you will always be seen as In Charge.

If you don’t feel right asking someone, especially from a marginalised group, to read and comment on your work for free, you can always just ask general questions in forums or on social media. This isn’t as reliable, as people can lie online, but if you find the right communities and explain you just want to portray characters as accurately as possible there will always be people willing to offer some help. Reddit, for all its flaws, builds great communities, though remember to check the rules to make sure people outside of whatever group they’re aiming to support are allowed to post.

Of course, the first step to writing anything outside of your own experience is a tonne of research. The sensitivity reader should be picking up on small things, not telling you the basics of their experiences. And everyone’s experiences are different, which makes this even tougher! You can get things so spot on for a handful of people whilst inadvertently offending others. Be prepared to be adaptable and take on criticism, but also remember that you don’t have to bend to everyone’s whim; one person saying ‘but this wasn’t my experience!!�� doesn’t mean you’ve done a bad job.

Equipment:

I know you didn’t ask, but this was what I found scariest when I was Brand New.

If you have the money and you’re very serious about this I haven’t encountered a single person who wouldn’t recommend a Blue Yeti mic. However when you’re just starting out, and especially if you’re not planning to have all of your cast together record together/separately but with the same mic, blowing over $100 on a mic is huge, scary, and not always feasible.

I have three small desk mics that I loan out to my cast when needed. They cost ~£30 ($40) from (ew, I know) Amazon. You don’t need a mic for each cast member - you don’t even need a mic for the max number of character speaking in a scene at once. You could probably do it all with one mic, but the time that would take and the affect it would have on scenes may be worth the extra cost! These obviously don’t produce the crisp quality a professional recording mic would, but they have a pop filter and a windscreen and seem to do a good job at reducing background static.

Further noise reduction: Mr Alexander Jalexander Newall, when starting his podcast empire half a decade ago, got it in one: blanket forts.

If you can build a little fabric den for your cast to record in: perfect! If not, tell them just to stick a duvet over their head. This increases the risk of moving duvet sounds, but reduces everything else! And if they shift under the blanket you can always ask them to get comfortable then read the lines again.

And, info courtesy of the McElroys: you can also record in a wardrobe or a room with plenty of bookshelves if you don’t want to build the world’s most bangin’ blanket fort.

The most important advice you will ever receive:

Don’t be scared to ask for help! Join Facebook groups and ask questions! Join discord servers! Message people on Twitter and ask for advice (certain ppl are much more amenable to this than others, but this is pretty clear from their Vibe)! Heck, you can message me on Twitter (or here. Or send another anon. And if I don’t know the answer I’ll ask someone who does!) Everyone just wants to help everyone else, and if they don’t they’re probably not the kind of people you want to associate with. Good luck! And let me know once you socials are up, so I can follow and get excited!

Now, onto 2. Money stuff!

A lot of the info stays the same, but money kind of raises the stakes. Once money’s involved, especially once money and people you don’t know so well are involved, suddenly you have to operate like a business.

Casting:

If you’re planning to pay actors proper wages from the get-go you probably want to put out a casting call. Paid work will attract professionals, and professionals will not only do a great job, but will also help you gain an audience (and have their own equipment!)

You get to decide what the hourly rate is, but usually, depending on where you’re from, there is an average hourly rate voice actors get paid, and if you’re nowhere close to that people will be put off.

You should also make clear what the hourly rate includes: whether it is just recorded audio hours, or includes table reads and directorial time. A lot of people just have every actor record their lines separately, sometimes without direction, then edit them all together. This certainly saves on cost, and makes for a quick turnaround, but it’s no fun, and sometimes makes the show kind of soulless.

Kickstarters:

You can run a kickstarter on an unpaid project, in the hopes of eventually paying the cast and maybe funding future seasons. But I’m going to assume this is advice for ‘I can pay the cast, but what is a kickstarter for?’

Well, that’s up to you! It can be for equipment, for better editing, for podcast music, for podcast art, for a pay rise for the team, for bonus content. Depending on how many stretch goals you have, it can be for all of these things!

In short: backers give money, and get things in return, for example $5 might get you a pin badge, while $100 might get you a signed poster. When the kickstarter reaches a certain goal, maybe $5,000, then the team may then have enough money to produce a holiday special, for example. At $10,000 everyone on the team may get a 10% pay rise.

This is a great way to get people invested in the show, and a great way to make money! But if you want a really great kickstarter you’ll probably want to hire someone with experience in this area.

Contracts:

Money means contracts! Usually two will suffice, they just need edited for each individual team member:

An NDA, to prevent people from discussing the show in any inappropriate situations.

And a literal workplace contract.

You’ll be able to search how to draft these online, but it’s useful to have the help of a lawyer. There are people who do this specifically for podcasts who’ll be able to help you out, but again: you have to pay them!

Equipment:

As I said, actors will probably have their own equipment, but if you want them all recording together: you can rent a studio! They’ll already have all the equipment for you, which is The Dream!

Or you can convert a room into your own studio! Get some soundproof panelling on the walls and invest in a good mixer. I’m afraid I don’t have much advice on this, as I cannot afford anything close to a good mixer! But there are plenty of articles online with helpful information.

I wouldn’t recommend making a paid podcast as your first project, as it’s a lot of pressure, and would almost definitely mean bringing new people onto even the production side of things. There’s always the option to work on another project first, something smaller-scale, to work out any roadblocks you may run into during the paid show. But I’m not telling anyone what to do: if you’re ready, go for it!

Anyway, this was very long and quite rambly, and is probably filled with things you don't actually need to know! But I hope at least some of it was useful! Please feel free to ask any other questions - now or in future, PM or anon - and again: best of luck! I'm so excited for you!

#audio drama #writing advice #writeblr #podcast #anon

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theriverpersonshadow · 3 years ago

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Lamia Drama Part 8

WELL THAT GOT LONGER THAN I INTENDED. But I guess that’s what happens when you have a majority of the people in one place XD

I hope this chapter went well... It felt kinda rambly, but it was fun seeing people play off each other. It was hard to get the same level of depth with characters as previous chapters with so many, but hey, interactions are fun too! Hope you guys enjoy.

As always, the species of lamia in this fic belong to @vex-bittys

< PREV | BEGINNING | NEXT >

Keith and the rest found Alex pretty easily. And a few other lamia that were either allowed free roam or had just slipped out. She didn’t seem to notice the onlookers, more caught up in petting Oozy… who wasn’t technically in his hammock. Maybe it’s best he didn’t make that bet with Hux earlier. Sure, Oozy’s close to the hammock, but Hux would absolutely rules lawyer him and demand snacks because he’s not in the hammock. Hux was a rule stickler… when and only when it helped him in some way. Eh, Keith could roll with it though (even if his dice sometimes couldn’t, but that’s what a DM screen is for).

Keith was hesitant to break up the cute moment between the two – Oozy was apparently having the time of his life, and Alex seemed pretty wrapped up in it herself, humming some tune or another while stroking him. Keith listened, trying to place it, but…

She was repeating it, huh? Was that the only part of the song she knew? Then again, it seemed like the good part, whatever it was. Easy enough to pick up too. Keith started humming along.

Hux rolled his eyes, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like “great, two of them” and slithered over, “Yo. Girl person. Ya coming or what?”

Alex looked up, “I mean, yeah, I think? Coming where?”

“nooooooooo…” Oozy said, taking her hand and putting it back on his head. “Sorry guys. I’m stealing her. She’s my personal petter now. That’s the rules.”

“Since when?!” Hux said.

Oozy looked a moment, then licked her hand. “I licked her, she’s mine.”

Keith stared at him in shock, not sure whether to laugh or slap him. “Dude.”

Nikolai gave a heavy sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “Don’t lick party members. Or people in general.”

“How does that work anyways? You’re a skeleton,” Alex said.

“Maaaagic,” Keith said, wiggling his fingers in emphasis. “In other words, uh… Monster biology is weird. Or half monster biology. Whatever the fuck we are.”

Nikolai nodded, “More or less, yes. I can explain it in more detail later, if you’d prefer.” He started coming forward and Alex inched away. Keith hissed before he could catch himself, but Nikolai didn’t seem offended. Instead, he lowered himself in a bow, “And I’d like to apologize for how I acted earlier… I’ll admit I, erm… Overreacted. But we’ve had issues in the past of people coming in to steal babies or eggs, one of the fools tried to snag a mamba egg and got himself killed. I just get a bit jumpy about strangers around them.”

Alex nodded, relaxing a little, but still staring off at a clock instead of Nikolai. Her hand continued to run across Oozy as she said, “I get it. They’re just little dudes, too freaking small. And some are venomous. Not like you knew me.”

“Still, I should’ve given you more of a chance or at least asked you politely to leave before turning to threat displays,” Nikolai said.

“Eh… It was my fault,” Keith said. “I should’ve warned ya I was bringing someone in. Anyways, let’s try this again. Alex, this is Nikolai. He could probably fuck you up, but he’s everyone’s mom.”

Nikolai made no move to deny it.

“Hux here is the grumpy snake. He’ll warm up to ya.”

“No I won’t.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “He’s just a grump.”

Hux mumbled to himself.

“I think you’ve met Oozy pretty well by now.”

“Sup,” Oozy said, making absolutely zero movement.

“And, erm… Nikolai, you’ve got Trousle, right.”

“Hello human! I’m Trousle! Please let me say hi.” Said Trousle’s little speaker. He was poking out from Nikolai’s sleeve, apparently wrapped around his arm.

“He’s mute, but he’s pretty fast at typing. Got his own phone and everything,” Keith said, watching this girl intently. Apparent soulmate or not, if she was dick about Trousle, she was out of here. She might’ve earned Oozy’s enthusiastic (well… enthusiastic by his standards, dude looked like a kid in a candy store, but the world’s laziest kid) approval, but he wasn’t going to let an asshole mess with the little dude. Hux would warm up, that was more him being a bit of an ass than her, but he’d get over it… probably.

“Oh that’s cool! Do you have a phone number? Honestly I think my fingers work better than my mouth sometimes, but I guess talking out loud doesn’t really have a backspace key? But yeah! C’mere… Wait, I can hold him, right? Snakes are just, like, noodle puppies.” She paused, looking at everyone in the room. “I’d offer to hold you guys, but I am literally the second smallest person in here. I mean, guess we can try, but I don’t think it’ll go well?”

Keith snorted. Gosh, she was something, huh? A little awkward, but who wouldn’t be super awkward in this situation?

Nikolai brought Trousle over and she draped him around her neck. He nuzzled her cheek, giving her little scratches behind the ear.

… should someone tell him that she’s not a dog?

…

Naaaaaaaaaah. She didn’t seem to mind anyways,

Hux made a fake-gagging gesture at the two and Keith rolled his eyes, whispering at them, “Oh let’em have this. It’s cute.”

“I’m getting diabetes. Like, right now. They’re just beaming diabetes across the room.”

“Be nice,” Nikolai said, “It’s not going to kill you to have to actually smile at a human once in a while.”

“Yes it will. It’s, like, a terminal thing. If I smile at a human, I will instantly turn to dust.”

No such condition had ever existed and likely never would.

Keith’s first instinct was to back up Nikolai, but it was almost an in-joke that he’d at least try to defend Hux no matter how clearly in the wrong the guy was. Admittedly, it was as often as not either due to boredom or just feeling bad for the guy…

It’s not like Hux didn’t have a point – a point that he had iterated in frustrated, sometimes tear-filled tirades at least a few dozen times. He didn’t want to be treated like a pet, he’s allowed to not want to be a pet. Sure, not every adopter is like that. Some might’ve been looking for pets, yeah, but just as many want a kid or a friend, especially with full sized lamia. It could be more or less just like adopting any other monster, save for needing a good deal more raw meat. But Hux didn’t see it that way… Not that Keith ever blamed him. There wasn’t a huge market for full-sized Corals, their reputation as being stubborn, a bit lazy, and tsundere as hell was cute in something you could pick up and snuggle as it chirped indignantly and secretly enjoyed it – like an extra intelligent, reptilian cat – but less so when it was just as big as you and probably stronger. Everyone wanted a housecat, no one wanted a mountain lion. Or those that did need something to growl and hiss would probably pick Kings or Mambas.

Nikolai gave a long-suffering sigh, “You will not turn to dust if you’re forced to be nice every now and then.”

“Yeah I will. It’ll, like, strangle my soul or some shit. Keith, back me up here. Tell ‘im.”

Nikolai had the distinct impression of a haggard mom trying to reason with an unruly kid. He just looked so done. Dude could handle customers, angry mamba moms, being a jungle gym for babies, and training employees who may or may not have believed he knew he what he was doing, but Hux was his breaking point.

Keith stifled a chuckle, stuffing his hands in his pockets as his mind worked over what to do… He didn’t want to just abandon Hux – Nikolai would know it was just him being a loyal bro – but Alex wouldn’t. She might not’ve been looking at them, but he caught the way she kept glancing over…

“Welp, ya heard him. He’s sick. I prescribe ten CC’s of coffee with extra sugar and bribery with shiny objects.”

Hux’s head popped up, body at attention. “I’m listening… How many shiny objects are we talking.”

“… we’re not bribing him.”

“I’ve got extra dice?” Alex said hesitantly. Trousle was looking at her in concern, patting her face. She said, “I mean, I kinda like having all my dice, but I guess I don’t need seven sets… I’m keeping the black ones though, they’re good for fight scenes. And the orange ones, they were my first set ever and are not for sale. Also, the green and purple ones are just a fae vibe, I’m keeping them. They’re just average, but I like them.” Pause. “And the lesbian dice are mine. They won’t like you anyways, you’re a boy.”

All of them nodded understandingly. You could only play DnD so long and not get irrationally attached to the colorful little click clack rocks of fate.

“That counts as one shiny object,” Hux said.

“There are seven in each set!” Pause. “Well, more or less. I’ve lost some over the years.”

“You’ve got a point… More dice for the dice dragon! Mwahahahah!” Hux said, hamming it up.

Keith’s mouth twitched into a grin as he shook his head at the goof. How was he this cute? Just… goober. His friend is a total goof sometimes.

“Can I try the lesbian dice?” Trousle asked, holding himself at an awkward position to type.

“I… I guess? Just give them back after…” Alex said. She ran a finger across Trousle’s head, smiling as he let out little breathy attempts to “Nyeh.”

“Why are they lesbians anyways? Do they only work for girls?” Nikolai said.

“Here, lemme show you.” She unzipped one of the pouches on her bag and brought out a baggy full of dice that were lesbian flag colored. “My friend got them for me for Christmas.”

“That’s amazing. I want twelve,” Keith said.

“You’re not a lesbian… or a girl! I think… I mean, if there’s something you want to tell us, that’s fine, but I was under the impression you weren’t even interested in relationships,” Nikolai said.

“Maybe I could get, like… Dice that are for people who are just no.”

“Ace and aro. Probably,” Alex said.

“Oh cool. Words for it. Nice!”

“Give me words for friends with everyone! I want a flag too!”

“I… I don’t know if there’s a flag for that? Maybe we could put a dog on a flag? It’d be hard to make dice with dogs on them though,” Alex said.

“Ya could put a little dog face on every side and interpret the roll based on how much they’re a Good Boy,” Keith said.

“That would only roll Nat 20’s,” Alex said, deadpan.

“… good point. It could be the luckiest dice,” Keith said, grinning.

“I AM THE GOODEST BOY. Give me dog dice.” Trousle said, tucking the phone away to throw his little fists in the air, a gleam in his eye as he sat on Alex’s head.

Keith laughed. “Oh my gosh. I mean, that sounds adorable, but, uh… I think that miiiiight be a little too game breaking, even for me.”

“Give me dog dice.” He slithered back down to around Alex’s neck, holding himself out towards Keith the best he could and giving some mix between a glare and a pout.

“Trousle no.”

“Trousle YES,” Alex said.

Troulse nodded enthusiastically, bouncing in place so hard that he fell off and Alex yelped as she caught him.

“Are you alright?!”

Trousle gave a thumbs up, coiling around her arm.

Oozy had apparently fallen asleep on the floor, so Hux poked him with a stick, making Oozy whine. “Soooooo… Are we gonna get Glitterass, or are we just shadow banning him from this? I mean, I wouldn’t say no if we are…”

“We should probably go get him, yeah,” Keith said. “Ya ready Alex? Liam’s a mamba, and one of his eyes don’t work. Try to stay on his good side, literally. Metaphorically too if you want, but he doesn’t like having people where he can’t see or hear them well.” Not that anyone would like that, just courtesy really, but maybe not something you’d think of immediately.

Alex nodded, “Alright, let’s go!”

#Lamia Drama #Lamia Drama Part 8 #Keith #Hux #Nikolai #Oozy #Trousle #Keith the Chain #Hux the Coral #Nikolai the King #Oozy the Corny #Trousle the Papython #Bittybones #Lamia Bitties #Vex-Bitties #Longass chapter #I meant to have liam here too but guess not #Kinda rambly

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macklives · 5 years ago

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session 92 end (bye 413...)

this session was so long but so fucking hectic what the fuck

im going to try and slim it down to its bare essentials rather than go on a full rant because im pretty sure i want to make a post later on about vriska’s characterisation (not anything about me liking her/disliking her, just an analyse on her life really, so it wont be too bias because thats not the point of an analysis. i also want to do one on aradia, been meaning to for a while... hmm... damn i havent done much analogies lately, and i THINK the last long post on a character i made was about davesprite??? so its been a fucking while. that being said, ill leave a lot of details out for this end of session notes so i dont just repeat myself later on. rather will keep to plot points here and then make character points in another)

alright

first we had a page or two where aradia confided in nepeta about her being dead which means nepeta is the only one to know this revelation. im pretty sure aradia confided because there was no other way around it, since nepeta was her server player, so it was inevitable. either way, aradia still put her trust in nep, which means, if you think about it, nobody else knows and nobody else ever will. and considering aradia asked nep to keep it a secret, it probably wont get explored by others until MAYBE later on, whenever its plot relevant, so everyone will be in the dark about it for a while which ill have to remember for future dialogue and scenes with aradia in them

then we met vriska

which, yes, is a meme. i may not have been on a lot of fandom platforms, but you cant escape some of the stuff that goes around the internet. even if you dont know undertale, im pretty sure you know of sans. or komaeda if you have/havent seen danganronpa. its just.. the memes, ya know? ive heard from many sources of the “vriska did nothing wrong” quote (even through mbmbam which??? WHAT) but since i didnt even know what it meant, i never explored it so then i never knew it was a homestuck thing. imagine my surprise...... i think even at the time, i wouldnt have known what homestuck was either honestly so it wouldnt even matter. i only recently learned about the fandom.... uhh, maybe half a year ago??? yeah, august, so my knowledge was slim but vriska is a thing ive heard before, which still shocks me

goddammit

anyways back to her

so her intro was something, we pretty much found out she likes DnD (a FANATIC in fact) and feeds her lusus the flesh of living trolls. which is fucked up. but i wont get too much into detail about that until i make a post about her life on alternia and the consequences of such. or maybe just alternia in general...?? or *both* heheheh but i feel i need more information before i go off on a tangent about that

then we met??? white text dude?? who is a major asshole but an asshole with insults that hURted, to think i felt bad for VRISKA when that happened. woah.

i said before, but... karkat, he cant really hit deep because his insults are just HIM and his way to express himself. like some people find it natural to just go “FUCK YOU” to show emphasis on a point, and thats just karkats way. he may do it so aggressively that it takes you a second to realize what he said, but usually i dont take anything to heart whenever he spurts out some insults. ive progressed to the point where whatever he says, is just “karkat” and not him trying to be actively mean. rather, its now funny whenever he does say anything SOMEWHAT creative, dude has an imagination that goes on for miles

but vriska?? she IS trying to be a bully, you can tell. but i feel theres something much more to that. like shes trying to prove herself and her “blueblooded” demeanours or whatever the hierarchy is. she doesnt want to show emotions so she makes herself a barrier by being mean is what i can gather from her conversation with kanaya. im pretty sure youre not supposed to understand her until its pointed out and rather see her as an “antagonist” at first, but yeah, her insults are more pitiful than anything and i also cant take her too seriously. i may not like her as a person but her character is interesting because you cant always have the goodie two shoes as the protags. it doesnt diversify the characterisation so i like vriska as someone who makes the plot work and it becomes more interesting since you have someone that makes it harder for the main crew to progress. a happy-go-lucky adventure with no trouble and no turnabouts would be boring in a way. so having a character like vriska, or like this new white text guy, it makes you stop for a second and realize oh shit okay, here’s where shit CAN go wrong and WHY. and i do especially like it when these bastards of characters somehow have more depth than being the “bastard characters”. kinda humanizes them in a way. doesnt mean you have to LIKE them continuously, but theyre humans (trolls whatever) in the end and every person has their own story whether its for better or for worse

for example, i like her being placed into the story, along with white text, by how its all leading to this “accident” and is slowly showing us hints on what happened, but in the end, it wont be until later that we know the full story. even if it was in the past, it apparently is very vital to the plot and shapes how the characters act in the future, so important aspects like that are to look out for. and usually they only occur when theres been some trouble within friend dynamics. so without these bastard of characters, plot wouldnt grow AS strong and i often keep that in mind when i explore a story.

anyways, I HAD A POINT TO THIS: so vriska and karkat are characters who are yes, mean, but it seems to be their personality, and the way they either show emotions and convey feelings (karkat) or make a barrier so they DONT show emotions to produce vulnerability (vriska), white text guy seems to mostly be out to be an asshole. he told vriska she was useless to sum it up but im not too sure if this is one of those “first dialogue” to mould out a bias opinion before we even get to the character themselves, but judging by how vriska and karkat played out, he surely means something bad and i dont know how to explain it. but i cannot base anything off from one piece of dialogue. i dont even know what else to call him other than white text guy so...... ill just leave that out for now, until we finally get his introduction

though, i do wish to mention, and will expand on, im not wrong when i say karkat and vriska are similar but in different context. sorry if youre favourite is karkat and you dont like vriska, or vice versa, but uhhhh their introductions are so similar its uncanny and the way they’re portrayed is the same except one is more on crack about the meddling, while the other is angry about the meddling. similar to how it was with karkat, we were introduced to vriska talking with someone we knew (tavros) whom she obviously didnt like, so obviously, from her point of view, she wanted to be menacing. like how karkat was menacing to jade because she wouldnt listen to his point... he got angry, so he lashed out. but us, the readers, didnt know that. we thought “oh god its this asshole” until we made it further in the story and started to warm up to karkat. it may not be the same with vriska, she may be a bully regardless, but you cannot tell me we moulded a bias towards her character as we did when we first read karkat. theyre both truly mean to other people, maybe both for different reasons, but i do want to point out the similarities and not leave that out. im pretty sure andrew basically gave us a conversation that formed our opinion of a character right off the bat rather than go into depth of WHY they did it, and how they are naturally without the conditions of the game. which, you can also see with vriska when she conversed with kanaya. andrew started off with a character who only appears to speak once, and makes you judge them from first appearance alone, without any explanation as to why they said what they said and how they are with other characters, let says. so you assume they were simply a rude character. now look how karkat turned out. so im guessing in homestuck, the first impression should never be the opinion you stick with until MAYBE 5 more conversations with that character (each one different)

OKAY done with the vriska introduction, now to slutquius

yes, hes kinda weird, i have stated that many times. i have no idea what to say about him other than he likes porn, he likes centaur dick which just so happens to be his lusus as well and if that isnt a red flag idk what is

he also likes his lusus milk, right from the udders of his guardian

fun times, fun times

my opinion of equius kinda.. differs. which i should really put in place the “dont judge by first impression” rule, because at first i thought he was rude with, then i thought he was hhh okay, because i understood why he was being so protective over nepeta and her team placement, since the people she was going to play with WERE dangerous. but if you think about it, both sides will probably put you in danger. it just depends on which ones you confide in more to protect your back rather than those which would cause trouble on purpose, in my HONEST opinion. so equius was a little overdramatic on that part, but i got what he meant. he was on the blue team and he didnt want to leave nepeta alone without him on the red. but then this session happened. and he went back to being weird again because of the whole porn thing, especially being so open about it like dude chill youre 13. but the thing is, then i felt bad for him because hes basically touch starved. to say that he could break anything he touches, i doubt people would go up to him for hugs. in fear they would be crushed to death by a simple hug. so im guessing hes rather lonely and doesnt really know how to interact because of this. so i felt sad that he had to live a life where he needs to be careful of everything he touches so it doesnt break randomly. see? poor dude. but then things got weird. and im pretty sure hes a masochist. so my opinion on equius is a fucking cosine graph

which brings us to the final point:

gamzee and equius’ conversation

i dont even know.....like.........gamzee was unaware that equius was using him for his own power play roleplay, right? gamzee knew it was a roleplay but it had had some.. idk.... obvious sexual implications? and i bet gamzee didnt really know that? he thought they were only venting out through a simple roleplay and trying to get closer because he originally thought equius hated him, considering equius flat out said “i hate you” and gamzee went “you tell me everyday and im okay with that” so.. gamzee probably wanted only to get closer to equius so he helped out his little problem which.. thats so sweet but i feel bad he was coerced into something he didnt get, especially since he was innocent enough to go along without knowing equius’ true gain

anyways, equius was getting off with the hierarchy thing. considering he’s “lower” than gamzee, and gamzee is surprisingly ...high on the spectrum??? so equius wanted gamzee to boss him around, because it felt only natural to him since he’s the “inferior one” and gamzee is The Big Man. like i get that, but it was written in a way that was so uncomfortable, that i wish i didnt. equius is just a weird character... hes not BAD per say, but hes... hes something alright

but im really liking gamzee. the two things which struck me in that one conversation, was the “i dont get why we should dictate people by the colour of their blood, i just see people as people” piece of dialogue and “i cant go around pleasing just everything so its alright if you hate me”

thats... so good, idk. i really liked that. i also really liked when kanaya said “youre dangerous but dangerous people are needed and are important because it shapes you” like <33 my fucking heart

god homestuck may be a tad on the weird side with some of its characters but it surely knows how to create great lines of dialogue

and that concludes the long 4 hour session i did, hope you all enjoyed it

with that, i rest

#homestuck #homestuck liveblog #hs92 #hs92 end #i wrote more than i should have but i had a lot to say #just you wait for those analogy/analysis posts

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dannyphantogram · 5 years ago

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hot TaZ Graduation opinion cuz i haven’t seen anyone talk about it at all:

preface: I play a fair amount of DnD. Like once a week most weeks, maybe even twice a week (if I’m running one of the games and playing in the other) so i know a fair amount about DnD and rules and standard gameplay.

And I know that TaZ isn’t a standard DND game and they’re not too worried about the rules and they focus more on the story (I like it this way, and it’s what got me into DnD in the first place)

But is anyone still reeling over the difference between Travis and Griffin as DMs? I haven’t found anyone mention it. Don’t get me wrong I love Travis. I love the boy, he’s a good boy and he’s new and he’s trying. I’m gonna DND spew about the struggles of DMing and what I worry about for TaZ Graduation.

I like 1x1 scenes as much as the next person but I feel like after 3 eps are boys have barely had any time together, and it doesn’t really feel like the plot is going...anywhere specific?

And you might say “Travis is letting them decide where the story goes, that’s how DnD works!”

But in order for characters to decide where the story goes, there needs to be things for them to pursue. It kind of feels like they’ve just been carted from one thing to the next, not really given any options.

Hell, this last ep opened with Travis stating “you’re all dreaming, what are you dreaming about?” And then refused his father’s short, simple answer because I guess he wanted something plotty out of it? Out of a dream that the boyz didn’t know they were having until he opened the ep with it? He hasn’t given the boys much to work with in terms of anything truly interesting, and while I love all the characters, it’s hard to patch together what is happening.

It’s been 3 eps and they haven’t had ANY kind of real combat? At all? He had that homebrew dodgeball game thing but that doesn’t count, and he got frustrated when his family didn’t know how to play the rules because he didn’t really explain them or explain the scene or the space at all. If Travis hadn’t ran combat before, how could he expect himself to run that game?

That’s another thing (that i noticed in the first two eps) is the lack of narration when it came to characters entering / exiting. I got really confused when a new character would start talking and I’d only know because of how it worked conversationally. Aside from Rainer, we didn’t get a detailed character description for anyone else. Or a lack of description when there really should have been, like when the characters entered the study of the vice principle and then halfway through the conversation there’s suddenly a dog.

The first two eps had me reeling and confused at certain parts, not sure where I was or who the boyz were speaking to (obviously there were good parts too, don’t get me wrong. All the scenes people have been making animatics about and whatnot, you get the drift) And if Travis wants to do all these 1x1 scenes because he feels more comfortable in them, I mean I guess that’s fine, it just doesn’t feel as much like a game that they are all playing together to me.

And is it just me? But I can feel it when it seems like Griffin, Justin, and Clint are a little frustrated at certain parts. Like obvs they are still having fun with the game and their family. I can feel it most in Griffin for sure. Being given an extra spell his class shouldn’t have, he even mentioned it in the 3rd Episode “I thought I would have been given help with my current awful and crazy powers before being given a new one” (not a perfect quote but you know what part I’m talking about)

And I know everyone seems to LOVE TaZ Graduation (at least from what I’ve seen on tumblr) and I’m not saying its BAD I’m just saying I’m concerned from a DM standpoint and I’m struggling from a listener standpoint at certain scenes. I know Travis is a good boy and he’s worked really hard on the setting and stuff but I think he needs to give the boys more to work with and give them more options and agency in the story as well as provide more detail for characters and their surroundings. How can you interact with an object if you don’t know its there, right? How can you know a character is suspicious if you don’t know what they look like? I love Travis’ new voices but you can’t go off of voice alone.

Sorry for the rant it’s just none of my DnD friends are caught up on Adventure Zone and I have no one to talk to about it and I needed to let it out.

#taz graduation #unpopular opinion #dnd critique #plz dont hate me I'm just a nerd thinking about gameplay and storytelling

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ren-c-leyn · 2 years ago

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Glad it’s Dreams approved ^^

It is powerful, particularly with everything I have in my head about the subtext. The meeting with a guild master named Nor, the wood elf holiday Wyndulin spends with the Time Keeper, the conversation with Myria, the flashes of what the Mad War was like, these are things you’ll see in The Guild Masters’ Meeting arc and they all build upon that scene from chapter 4 and drive it in hard.

Then, there’s the subtext I haven’t finished threading into the story, yet. Those cards I still have up my sleeve that really make my head spin when I reflect back on that scene. It’s not just the scene itself, Dreams, it’s everything that led to that moment, everything that broken mask represents, everything that broke the legendary Time Keeper, everything that is still breaking the Time Keeper.... And it does resonate with me, it resonates with me in a way I don’t really have the words to explain. It’s bittersweet, and I do love it <3

I’d like to turn the question around on you, if you don’t mind. Something about your phrasing has led me to believe your answer is different, and now I’m super curious: What scene of the chapters you’ve read did you find the most meaningful to you?

That is the idea behind it ^^ It was actually one of my players’ (our normal DM) idea. He knew that I was trying to encourage less ‘kill them all’ solutions and more role playing and cinematic moments with my table rules. So, he brought up this idea from something he had seen or read somewhere from a DM who didn’t like the alignment system since it doesn’t really encompass the fact that good people do bad things and bad people do good things aspect of humanity. So, instead of a normal alignment, he made up moral quandaries and had his players answer them in character as a sort of guideline for how their character would act. In the spirit of this, I varied my answers. I have 10 questions that challenge character loyalties, mercy, honor, reputation, and the like. I’m going to have them answer during character creation and both the player and I will keep copies of their answers for references during the game.

It’s come a long way since the start, huh? ^^ Thanks for being the awesome enabler that you are from the start. You, my writing partner, and @hannahs-ramblings were all a huge help in getting me to actually sit down and start this project, and your amazing multi-paragraph reviews have never failed to make me grin like an idiot for the rest of the day after reading them. And now here I am, planning to start a new word document for the rough drafts after the current arc is completed because the current one is getting too long to find the details I need quickly in.

Hopefully it’ll be as fun for all of you as it has been for my writing partner and housemates. I can understand that. <3 I hope you enjoy your summer to the fullest.

You may be waiting until I actually start writing it XD I have a very, very bad habit of putting off naming my characters, kingdoms, creatures, and other things that need to be named until the very last minute. I’m pretty sure my dnd players are going to encounter NPCs with names like George and Bob because I forgot to name an epic wizard or elf warrior and panicked XD

I should probably make an effort to do better, but names are hard T-T

Happy STS, Ren^^ First I would like to ask for writing update on your projects, esp Dark princess wip, your dnd campaign, Forgotten gods and Shackles. :D

Second I would like to know what scene from the currently published Shackles of time chapters was the most meaningful to you?

@writingonesdreams

Happy STS to you too, Dreams ^^ I hope you're having a good one.

I'll be answering in reverse order, hope you don't mind @writingonesdreams ^^ The second answer was just the shorter and more coherent one, as my updates are a bunch of incoherent screaming at the moment lol.

Here is your read more, as is tradition.

The most meaningful to me is a toss up among the 15 chapters that are up.

Something about The Time Keeper's office scene in chapter 4 is still sticking with me, and it's gotten even more meaningful as I've continued writing the story. The symbols of the long career that was torn away, the stories behind those objects of adventurers taken with people who are no longer with them, the beautiful impression mixed with the unspoken sadness. Then there was the mask. I believe that line was 'it was not the only thing to be broken that day, just the symbol of it all.' That, that slaps way, way harder now that I've written The Guild Masters' Meeting arc. It hit hard when I wrote it the first time, but rereading it after that arc hard felt like past me kicked current me in the gut. It was a perfect, unintended set up. Like I knew the history of it when I wrote it, but I didn't know what the future would hold and it just... yeah. Yeah that scene makes me feel proud and happy and sad all at once. It resonates with me in the way that holding the stuffed unicorn my late grandmother gave me when I was a kid does now. That sense of loss and comfort all in one.

The contender is from the end of part 2 of The Guild Masters' Meeting arc, when Wyndulin is talking to his old friend, Myria. And it hits similar notes, but is much heavier on the melancholic tone as these two legends both show just how closely they mirror each other and Wyndulin is slowly coming to the conclusion that he's watching the end. The end of a legend, the end of an era, perhaps the end of everything, and Myria is not the same as she was then. She's older, more fragile, exhausted, but she still won't stop. Won't step down. He admires her and grieves her in the same breath, just as she appreciates and is frustrated with him and The Time Keeper. It's... it's hard to explain, but if you want to understand I recommend reading it when you get the chance. And when you finish with that scene, go back and reread that scene from chapter 4. But I recommend doing it on a day when you can handle some heavy angst ^^'

Your weekly updates:

There's no new updates on Forgotten Gods or The Dark Princess of Aconitum this week. I paused the rewrite in favor of working on The Shackles of Time's anniversary event since it's taking most of my creativity, and I'm letting the magic system for dark princess stew for awhile in the back of my mind. Sometimes I come up with better ways to handle things or see drawbacks that I hadn't originally expected when I give a concept some time to marinate.

I think the next thing I'm going to consider one Dark Princess while I'm finishing up solidifying the magic system is how the assassination of the elf prince was done. I've already gotten the political ramifications of it done and out of the way, as well as whose behind it, but I never did decide how he was killed ^^' a bit of an oversight on my part, I suppose, but there's a lot of things I'm juggling. So, I'm playing around with a few ideas. Some practical, some inspired by history, and some that are totally over the top and dramatic.

I may get really ambitious and actually name the characters, as not even the MC has a proper name yet ^^;

In my DnD campaign I've finished setting up the big bad's goals and what they need to do to achieve them. These things will be happening in the background, and the players have the potential to mess up those plans, speed them up, or ignore them. I'll be keeping track as the game progresses. It turned into a big undertaking. I need to finish designing some things for it, but for the most part that end of things is solidified.

I've also started marking down important locations on the world map and drawing kingdom/country boarders as well as the migration paths of the floating islands. (Yes, I have yet another world with floating islands lol)

I've also written down 10 moral quandaries for the players to answer in character to go along with their alignments as a sort of guidelines for how their characters would react. Among them is a version of the Trolley problem, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they respond to those. Though, I admit I nearly gave myself an existential crisis while looking up example moral quandaries to base the questions off of. Some of them were... yeah. Tough calls, to say the least, tough calls.

We also set up some homebrew and table rules. I also finished my 20+ god pantheon (which took forever but I survived) for the world and the players have picked their patron gods, which is great since since two of the three characters are going into levels of cleric, and you kinda need a patron god for cleric. So, we're inching closer to being able to play. I have everyone's backstories and am thinking of fun and evil ways I can bring them into play throughout the game.

Unfortunately, everyone's work schedules have changed, again, so our session 0 and character building sessions are going to be postponed and the game is getting pushed back. But it just gives me more time to fiddle with things in the world, look up more Dming tips, name things. Naming things is so hard, and scheduling people for a dnd game is even harder >.<

As far as The Shackles of Time goes, I have enough chapters banked up to get through October, even with the posted chapters doubling to 4 for that month, I just need to finish rewriting and scheduling them :D I'm not quite finished with the Stormy Road ahead arc, but I am getting there. It'll probably make up all of October and probably November's 2 posts. There's also a chance it'll continue into December. It's much longer than I originally planned for, but a lot of heavy stuff came to light and demanded my attention lol. I've also thought up a good starting point for the next mini arc, right down to the character introductions, so once I get there it should be smooth sailing.

Also, my rough drafts document is over 60,000 words long, which means the published versions are probably somewhere around 70,000 words long, if not longer. There's a full book worth of content available to be read, and I can. not. believe. it. I can't! This is so wild that I am shocked and dazed. The impulse project I spent exactly 3 days planning ahead of time has not only survived a year, but thrived! :D I'm so proud of The Shackles of Time and myself. My adorable, little adventure trio and all of their weird friends makes my heart happy and the words flow <3 Though my favorite chapter is still chapter 4, I think The Guild Masters' Meeting is my favorite arc. So much sad Wyndulin and a group of badasses sitting in dead silence out of shock and terror, I love it <3

Speaking of, I am currently working on more content for the big Anniversary event. My housemates and my writing partner have all demanded I keep them updated with my progress, they love the bonus content that much, so I am confident that I'm doing something right with the cool stuff I'm cooking up here >:D Progress is slow, as I expected, since these are very involved... and also I recently got Stardew Valley and have a hard time putting it down. That game is scary addicting, but so much fun.

I think that's about it? Nothing else is jumping to mind. If you have more specific questions about any of it, ask any time. You know how I like to ramble ;p

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you have a lovely day/evening.

#writing discussion

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ernmark · 7 years ago

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I've always wanted to play DnD but I don't know how to play or know anyone who plays.

This gets long, so it goes under the cut

There’s a lot of stuff on how to get started, and they can explain the game better than I could (I’m not exactly an expert myself.

So some quick resources:

This has multiple youtube videos that explain DnD in different ways

This has some resources

Here’s a reddit thread on the subject

But the most important thing you really need is some kind of group. Comic book and gaming shops and similarly geeky places tend to have regular meetups that host tabletop games like DnD-- if they don’t, they’re bound to know of some place that does. They’re also a neat way to meet people.

In my community, the gaming groups are amazingly friendly and welcoming. I’ve heard enough people complain about gatekeeping and the like to acknowledge that it exists, so I’ll just add here: if somebody’s being an asshole, they’re not worth your time. You can always find another group that’s kinder to newbies.

You can also play over things like Skype-- my DM played several of her games through the internet, and so do the McElroys of The Adventure Zone. I don’t know what social circles you use online, but there are facebook groups, reddit threads, tumblrs, etc, all dedicated to this sort of thing. A quick search should find you a few.

Personally, I tend to prefer playing in person, but mostly because I very much appreciate people keeping an eye on me and helping me out when I get lost (this fic right here? Yeah, I was Juno for a while.) You’re gonna have trouble keeping all the details and rules straight at first, and that’s okay. Nobody worth hanging out with will give you shit about it.

Who you play with will probably decide what game you play, because there are a lot.

I play Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 (and Pathfinder, which is pretty much an off-brand of the same thing). For a while, it was the most common version of the game.

Playing Dungeons and Dragons 1.0 or 2.0 (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) is one of those things that people talk about to demonstrate either that they’re old or that they have retro nerd credentials. I have never once met somebody who's played it within the last decade.

There’s Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, which I’ve only ever heard people say good things about as a caveat-- as in “well, it’s awful at X, Y, and Z, but it’s kinda nice doing this one thing”. I can’t speak from experience, because I’ve never found anyone willing to play it.

The latest version (and the one the McElroys play) is Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, which from what I understand streamlines some of the extraneous details a bit and makes it easier to learn. It’s a bit harder for me, because I’ve got experience with a different version and I have to keep two sets of rules straight in my head.

There are actually a lot of other gaming systems. Vampire: The Masquerade is a common one, as is White Wolf (same basic thing, but with werewolves instead of vampires). It’s more based on roleplay than mechanics.

Shadowrun is another that shows up a lot in my community-- it’s cyberpunk but with elves, dwarves, wizards, etc.

You can also find a lot of indie games, roleplaying games set in various worlds like Star Trek and the Dresden Files, etc.

I’ve mentioned the McElroys a lot, but I do want to add a note on them: They have pointed out that their game is designed to be entertaining radio, so they do a lot of things that aren’t necessarily normal (or smiled upon?) in an actual game. Just be aware of that.

Also: it’ll take you a while to be able to tell a good DM from a bad one, but here’s a tip: a good DM's goal isn’t to beat the players or even necessarily to tell an amazing story, but to make sure everybody has fun.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #onegirlintheback

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doing-that · 8 years ago

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Can you expand on why nights is so bad? I'm not trying to be defensive about it, I haven't heard it and I'm just curious since the main taz product is generally pretty good

it’s entirely because travis is not a good dm. his methods stifle player inventiveness and just roleplaying in general. im judging him on a super unfair level but i live with a gamedev and am a storyteller for a living, this is how my mind works now. more in detail under the cut

its definitely super unfair to judge travis like this since 1. its his first time properly dming and 2. in this instance he’s being compared to griffin whos a video game journalist for a fucking living and therefore knows a buttload of stuff about what makes good games and mechanics and what makes good story on top of that because it’s his JOB, not to mention he makes up game shit for coolgames inc on the weekly too so he’s got the biggest leg up for being a dm in the world but like....

before i listened to nights id see people online talking about how hes such an amazing dm and w/e but heres the thing... hes... not...? a good dm... everything is tedious puzzles and maps and mazes which can be good and fun if theyre executed well, but he has to spend the whole time explaining it all so much that he straight up gives away the answers or makes the answers something the characters could never find out on their own or have to get by sheer luck. having an npc guide you while giving you literal answers through a whole dungeon? not fun. making your players blast boxes until they hit a random correct one? not fun. these things could have been made good if he knew how to execute them properly but he doesn’t. he keeps making puzzles that his players can’t solve, or that he won’t let his players solve.

also through npcs or just straight up talking too much hes constantly telling the others what to do. like people criticized griffin of railroading?? yeesh! practically every turn in nights is travis telling the others exactly what they need to do. in the newest episode he gave a major character role to a guest player who knew nothing about dnd (a horrible mistake!) and had to tell the boys out of character in excruciating detail exactly what to do and exactly what the plot was rather than let everyone roleplay and find it out organically.

his storytelling is also very poor. his worldbuilding? excellent! so much detail, such intricacy! i love the world hes created for all of this! if only i could see it at all whatsoever! he describes nothing in any detail beyond what is bare minimum necessary and most of the time he opts to just tell everyone exactly what’s happening rather than let them do it. classic case of something in desperate need of “show don’t tell”.

it’s very interesting, at first I thought that the reason I didnt enjoy nights like i enjoyed taz classic was because he adhered too much to the rules of dnd, since classic goes so wet and wild, but as this has gone on and i’ve talked to my friend who develops games and mechanics for like... a living... it’s become pretty clear to me that the rules are being adhered to pretty equally. it’s just the way the story is executed that stifles the players

and it’s all so upsetting to me! i love trav and I was very hopeful for this thing. I love all of the boys characters and i was really into trav’s npcs (tara especially!) but there’s really no heart in any of this. i know they all care a lot but it doesn’t feel like it. my job is to take stories and concepts and envision them in my mind so i can bring them to visual life and this...? i can’t see anything, there’s just nothing to imagine in it. it’s not good to listen to.

#m.ask #thank god i got an ask about this midway through writing it!#now my unsolicited thoughts are perfectly solicited!#hoorah!!#now i have a class in 6 hours so i really oughta go #do i have enought buffer tags on this yet?#taz nights #onlydashes

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theladypirate · 8 years ago

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OC interview thingy @jahaliel did. She's always doing fun OC things, and I wanted to do this one too :D RULES 1. PICK ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS 2. FILL IN THE QUESTIONS/STATEMENTS AS IF YOU ARE BEING INTERVIEWED FOR AN ARTICLE AND YOU WERE THE MUSE. 3. TAG PEOPLE TO DO THIS MEME: No - unless you see this and want to. I choose my half-orc cleric Arusha, from one of my dnd campaigns. 1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Arusha Lewette. Why are you yelling? 2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME? Uhhhh..... Still- it's still Arusha. Am I supposed to have more names? 3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU WERE CALLED THAT? Oh well you know my surname is my family's and I guess... uh... because my parents liked the name Arusha? I've never really- I mean it's my name it's just... Just shut up. About my name. 4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN? There's only one of me. And taken whoere? 5. HAVE ANY ABILITIES OR POWERS? Well I'm a cleric of Yuban so I can heal, and I can hit things pretty good, and um. I guess I'm a decent cook? 6. STOP BEING A MARY SUE. ...I'm- I'm not married? I don't even know anyone named Sue. Was this a question? 7. WHAT’S YOUR EYE COLOR? *About a minute goes by with Arusha frowning. It's kind of awkward. She picks up her shield, polishes some of the grime off, and squints at her blurry reflection* ...green. 8. HOW ABOUT YOUR HAIR COLOR? I dunno it's just kinda... brown. Like dirt. 9. HAVE YOU ANY FAMILY MEMBERS? Yeah. 10. OH? WHAT ABOUT PETS? Well see i travel a lot and thats not really a good environment for keeping a pet and... *Arusha lectures the interviewer for about 10 minutes on responsible pet ownership* 11. NOW TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE. *Another long pause, wherein Arusha frowns and crosses her arms, looking both very serious and kind of scary* When my friends get hurt. That's bad, I don't like that. I can fix it but it's still not fun. Also whenever I see someone doing something unsafe, like lifting heavy objects without stretching first, or running head first towards an enchanted ghost drum, or *Arusha lists off 17 progressively more dangerous things* *another moment goes by, and she nods decisively* Also yams. They're gross. 12. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES/ACTIVITIES YOU LIKE DOING? I like...healing. And drinking. And studying. Also organizing, that's very calming. 13. EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE? Okay well y'see I'm a cleric, right? So like, my job is to do... sort of the opposite... of that. *Arusha scratches her nose and looks kind of grumpy* But I'll still stab someone if they're an asshole. 14. EVER…KILLED ANYONE BEFORE? *Arusha glowers at the interviewer, who swallows nervously and grins with what they hope is reassurance and not terror. She puffs out her cheeks like a pouting child and cracks her knuckles absently* Like I said. Stabbing. Assholes. 15. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU? I'm a half-orc. We're people. *glowering intensifies* You got a problem with orcs, buddy? 16. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS. *A pause, followed by a contrite look. Arusha fiddles with the holy symbol she wears around her neck* Uh... my temper, maybe. Probably. And... Y'know... sometimes I don't think stuff through. 17. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE AT ALL? Uh, well, I'm taller than most of my friends. My mom's taller than me though. And Solarys, she's taller than me. 18. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL? *Arusha blinks owlishly and seems to be at a complete loss. A blush spreads across her cheeks and down her neck. It's kind of endearing. Then she blurts out the dictionary definition of all these terms, as well as demographic statistics relevant to the subject. She won't make eye contact and drinks an entire cup of tea before continuing* 19. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL? *She seems much more comfortable with this subject, and smiles broadly* I did! The main temple of Yuban has a... well it's not a university because you gotta be an initiate so it's not really open to the public but they teach you all about the holy word of Yuban, and about healing, and like... some art stuff and math, and *Arusha rambles happily about the courses she took, going into detail about the cadaver lab with a cheerfulness that unsettles the interviewer* 20. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS ONE DAY? Uh... well... I uh... gosh I wouldn't be a really good mom. And I don't- I mean why would anyone- I'm kind of- Who would put up- ...no. Just. No. 21. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANBOYS/FANGIRLS? *Arusha stares blankly at the interviewer for 5 full minutes. They move on* 22. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF? *Arusha grasps her holy symbol and stares off into a middle distance, looking unhappy* ...not being enough. Not -doing- enough. 23. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR? Eh... *glances down at her scale mail armor* 24. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE? Well yeah. I love a lot of people. My family, my friends, my Beautiful Golden Dragon God Yuban... 25. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WET YOURSELF? *squints suspiciously* ...is this one of those kink things? Izzy told me about those. She had to explain it didn't mean the same thing as like... a kink in your shoulder. She and Wine were blushing the whole time. I gather it's an embarrassing topic for some people and that there's something called kinkshaming. The world is a very strange place sometimes. 26. WELL, IT’S NOT OVER YET! What? 27. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU? (HIGH CLASS, MIDDLE CLASS, LOW CLASS) I'm a cleric. 28. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE? *Spends the next hour happily talking about her traveling companions, who are, apparently, her only friends* 29. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE? Uh... it's tasty and versatile. 30. FAVORITE DRINK? I like Wine. *A moment passes, Arusha snorts and then giggles* Wine! Ahahahaha it's a pun! I made a pun! 31. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE? I liked the peace of the temple back home. It was kinda small and homely but, y'know you could really feel it was a place of healing. But I also really like being on the road, because my friends are there. 32. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE? ...like... investigating... them? 33. WHAT’S YOUR BRA CUP SIZE AND/OR HOW BIG IS YOUR WILLY? Uh... *she seems baffled* Who's Willy? 34. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN? *Arusha spends the next 5 minutes going over swimming safety and how to protect yourself from heatstroke* 35. WHAT’S YOUR TYPE? I'm- I'm a half-orc. I already- I said that. At the- in the beginning. 36. ANY FETISHES? ...yeah okay this one is definitely about those kink things. 37. SEME OR UKE? TOP OR BOTTOM? DOMINANT OR SUBMISSIVE? *a range of emotions cross her face; confusion, annoyance, mild anger, and finally she settles on a stern authoritative look* If you keep asking me these weird questions I'm going to shame your kink. 38. CAMPING OR INDOORS? *She shrugs noncommittaly* I do both on a fairly regular basis. It is kind of nice to have a bed. And running water that isn't a stream. 39. ARE YOU WANTING THIS QUIZ TO END? Well it IS almost dinner time and to be quite honest I'm not sure where my friends got to so I need to go find them. Good luck with your... blog. *Arusha stands and grabs her pack, then stops, frowning, and looks back at the interviewer, who smiles nervously* ...you're sure that's not a disease? *the interviewer assures her, for probably the 6th time, that a blog was not a disease, it was a publication* ...maybe I should give you a once over just to be sure, it sounds like some kind of horrible cold. *The interviewer thanks her profusely for her time and flees. Arusha blinks, then shrugs*

#lol this was long #But fun #plz enjoy my grumpy heals child #she's hopeless but I love her

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swipestream · 6 years ago

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Teaching Tabletop Role Playing Games

In 2011 I offered to DM a 4-hour session of DnD as part of a silent auction for NAMI. My friend Toni bid on it, totally not out of pity. On the successful note of raising a whopping $20, Toni told me she wanted to play with her wife and two friends except… none of them had ever played DnD or any other TTRPGs before. Without thinking it through, I said yes. Then when I started to plan the session, I stared at a blank page for what seemed like hours realizing I had no idea how to teach someone else how to role play.

It’s easy to overwhelm someone new in any hobby especially if it’s something you love and understand. Often we unintentionally miscommunicate for a very simple reason–the newbies don’t speak our language yet. Did you glaze past the terms “DM,” “DnD,” and “TTRPG” in the paragraph above? That’s probably because you know those abbreviations mean Dungeon Master, the one who plans and leads a tabletop role playing game specifically Dungeons and Dragons; Dungeons and Dragons, the flagship game of the role playing industry; and tabletop role playing game, the more generic term for the entire hobby. On the other hand, did you know what NAMI is? From context you know it’s a charity, but unless I spell out the full name as the National Alliance on Mental Illness you may not know what they focus on.

Before You Teach…

If you’re fluent in RPGs, there’s a step I recommend before planning a session for newbies. Play a game you’ve never played before. Preferably something radically different from what you normally play. If you’ve played from levels 1-20 in the same DnD 3.5 edition campaign for the past five years, try picking up something story-forward like Protocol or Fiasco. If you normally play the serious Dark Heresy, try the hilarious Crash Pandas. If you have local conventions, you can look for someone new there. If you don’t, ask your normal group to take a session off and try something different. Or, ask online or find a community like the Gauntlet where you can sign up for online games. If you have no idea what game to play, I recommend John Harper’s Lasers & Feelings or one of its hacks like Love & Justice by my copodner (co-host podcast partner) Senda Linaugh. Handily, you can listen to an adventure of Love & Justice on my podcast She’s A Super Geek BUT don’t just listen–you need to actually play something new.

Play a game you’ve never played before. Preferably something radically different from what you normally play.

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I get to play new games all the time because of She’s A Super Geek which does one-shots of different games focusing on women as GMs (that’s Game Master, similar to the term DM but considered more generic). When we started SASGeek almost 4 years ago, Senda and I were learning and running all the games. We’ve gotten to a place where a lot of creators, writers, or someone who has run the game a lot come onto the show to run those games for us. It’s amazing, and it means I’m constantly learning new games from the point of view of a player. It can be hard to break out of our fluent understanding of RPGs, so forcing yourself back into that newbie space can break you out of your fluency and give you some insight into what newbies at your own table might be experiencing.

But I didn’t have that experience back in 2011 when I sat down with Toni, her wife, and her two friends. I’m actually not sure of how good of a job I did teaching DnD to them. I remember that we told a good story, and they all had fun. The bard embarrassed herself in front of her crush. The rogue got to back stab their rival (emotionally and literally). The cleric In the end, that’s what we want newbies to experience. We want them to understand why we spend time in this hobby, what draws us deeper into it, and why it’s worth continuing to learn. We don’t want to bog them down in rules, hard math, or (Cthulhu forbid) table lawyering. We want them to walk away with a hilarious story they want to tell others. So here are a few tips for you as the GM to ensure that happens.

GM Tips

Make the characters–there’s nothing worse than wanting to learn a role play game only to get bogged down in details you don’t understand with the promise of ‘it gets more fun later.’ Create character sheets before hand with gentle role play prompts. If your newbie runs with another idea, that’s ok; but try to give them somewhere to go since they haven’t had experience building a character’s personality. Feel free to use pre-made characters from your system if they’re available.

Plan a straightforward adventure–we all love red herrings, but we’re focusing on teaching the game. Make sure there’s an obvious thing they’re supposed to do. Don’t be afraid to use simple ideas like stealing a magical item from that castle, protecting a caravan as it travels to another city, or rescuing a kidnapped prince. Having a clear goal makes it easier to think of ideas about how to get there. Asking players to think of classic tropes from movies and tv shows can give them a reference point if they become a deer in headlights. A newbie may not know how their character would get into an exclusive club, but they may know what Buffy, Luke Skywalker, or Steven Universe would do.

Have an experienced player at the table–newbies will look to an experienced player to set the tone and show them what’s possible. Just don’t let the experienced player take over the spotlight. Have a talk with them before the game and make sure they’re ok playing with newbies and either holding back or pushing forward depending on how the newbies react.

Don’t overwhelm them with rules–don’t try to explain all the rules in the game up front. Assure the newbies you will teach them the rules as they come up in game. Let them choose their character’s name and go over the basics of reading the character sheet.

Don’t overwhelm them with jargon–don’t use acronyms if you can help it. Try to explain things when the newbies are confused. Ask them if they’re confused. Encourage them to call out when you’re using a term they don’t understand.

Create an inviting first scene–Give the players a reason to interact with each other. Are they all stuck in the same jail? Do they all know a retired adventurer who’s called them together for an unknown reason? This doesn’t have to be a traditional go-around-the-table-and-introduce-your-character-scene, but there’s nothing wrong with that!

Create a skill challenge or small combat as the second scene–It doesn’t have to be an all-out battle. It could be a patron asking the characters to prove that they can handle a task or a simple go kill that low-level monster over there. They’ve stretched role play legs in the first scene. Now they get to work those mechanics a little. If it gets overwhelming, cut it short and move on. You just want to give the new players a chance to get a feel for the mechanics so that they know what’s possible within the game.

Make sure every character gets the spotlight–since you’ve made the characters, you know what they’re good at. Make sure everyone gets some spotlight time to do what they’re good at. If you’ve got a hacker, make sure there are computer locked doors in the way. If you’ve got a wizard, make sure there’s a book that only they can read. If possible you want the light to shine on each character for something both mechanical and role play-focused.

Laissez les bons temps rouler*–It’s ok if your straightforward plot goes off the rails. If they’re not having fun, do something different. A bad guy kicks in the door. A distress cry is heard from the next street over. Someone’s sword leaps out of their hands and starts singing. Just keep the game moving and make sure people are having fun!

Giving someone a window into our hobby can be amazing. Don’t be afraid to ask new people to play. You can teach them. After all, we were all newbies at some point. Someone else helped us learn how to play, probably multiple someones else. Being that person for someone else allows us to pay our experience forward, and hopefully they will do the same when the time comes.

What games have you found the easiest or most difficult to teach? What did someone teach you badly or goodly when you started gaming?

*Let the good times roll

Teaching Tabletop Role Playing Games published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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marktheweaver-blog · 7 years ago

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Update after a long absence!

Hey everybody! I’m not dead!

It’s been -way- too long since Ive posted an update. Figured I should explain why. Its been mostly a silence due to shame over lack of productivity. For the last 6 months or so it’s be so difficult to get the writing i want to do done. I’d have weeks where I couldn’t get into a grove, and when I did manage to get something written it was way shorter than i wanted to. I would sometimes spend days thinking of how i wanted to write that next bit of text. I’m not the first person to struggle with writers block, nor will i be the last. Hell, this is a long project so i expect it will strike again sometimes. I haven’t posted because I didn’t want an endless stream of posts of “oh i didn’t write much this past week”. But I’m here now so that must mean something has changed, right! Yes actually! I’ve recovered my Mojo so it seems. I figured it would be appropriate to share some of the things that i feel have helped me get back on track. The holidays were really bad for getting creative work done for me. There was just too much chaos on top of already annoying writers block issues. I don’t liek being interrupted, so having my week thrown off by having to plan around family events really sucked. In January i started making some changes. The first thing i did, and i think one of the biggest changes i made was to create a google spreadsheet. On that spreadsheet I put a bunch of tasks that I wanted to aim to get done every day. One of those(and the most relevant one) is to get at least 1 page or 500 words written every day. That’s into a difficult goal. It’s a small one that’s easy to achieve so that hopefully once I’m in the groove, I can get much more than that amount written. The keeping track is mostly so I can see trends where productivity is suffering and actually try to adjust for them rather than sweep them under the rug. The numbers here hurt, but don’t lie. In January I completed my 1 page/500 words goal on 9 days out of 31. Ouch. That hurt me to count. That’s hardly inspiring. Whats worse is that often that was barely meeting that goal. But... BUT, lets look at February so far. it’s 2/13/2018 (well, technically it’s the 14th, but for writing purposes, since i haven’t gone to bed yet, it’s still the 13th.). There have been 13 days so far and of those 13 days Ive completed my writing goal on 9 of those days. That. Is. So. Much. Better. AND having that streak inspires me and tells me that I can keep writing even more. Whats even better is that many of those days I wrote well over the minimum goals (like 1000 words or 6 pages). This past week I had a day where I wrote 1700 words, and another where I wrote 1500. Today, including the words in this post I wrote over 2200 words(only 1000 without this post, haha). The chart has helped me so much. It’s given me encouragement when Ive been doing well, and through shame it’s exposed what i knew but wasn't giving proper respect to. A long stretch of red colored “No”s has been a really powerful motivator. That’s not the only thing that I think has helped. At the beginning of this month I had kind of a realization. The stuff I was struggling to write was basically filler. Sure, I had intended it to have character building and plot points in it but ultimately it was filler. I had put it in the outline because my brain said “oh these needs to be a time gape here, so something needs to happen.” I may have been right still, but sitting down and trying to write something just to kill time in the story isn’t good fro meeting my writing goals. So i started skipping those parts and getting to the stuff that is most important to the story. One of the big hurdles for writing those scenes is that they’ll require extensive rewrite because i already know so many things i want to change for draft 3. So it becomes this balancing act “okay so i write it like this, but write it with this new plot point in mind because you going to change it”. It may be that i have to write these sections anyway later, but I’ll have the benefit of the larger story being complete and those plot points I want to add being built. It will take so much less mental effort on my part once that is done. The past week Ive been writing some of the most powerful emotional moments in the book and it has been so... Refreshing to write the scenes again. To feel the impact. They need work but i think Ive given it a good base. Being able to write the important scenes that Ive seen in my head for the past year and a half has been great. One thing that has been great for my writing, but maybe not so much great for my sleep cycle is changing my writing time to be after 10PM. Like I said I don’t like being interrupted, so picking a time where the only people calling or texting me while I’m writing are either drunk or in an emergency is really liberating. I’ve heard that a lot of other writers do similar things (writing either really late, or really early.). Maybe it will work for you. Dungeons and Dragons has been a super important activity for me. When i completed Nanowrimo last November i had just come off of running a year long story oriented campaign. I think that’s what allowed me to finish the 50k words in a month. After that I haven't run a campaign since then. I didn’t want to split my creative energies. i didn’t want to “waste time” preparing for DnD when I should be writing my book. I was playing in a friends game for the past year but not running one. Then i made the realization at the beginning of the year that I wasn’t getting the creative stuff done and I wasn’t doing something that I really enjoy doing. It was then that some friends bugged me about starting a game for them. I caved and set a start date for February 3rd. The first session went amazing and the next one is this Saturday. I’m running them Bi-weekly trading off every other week with my friend. The chart helped me get onto a schedule, but i think running and planning for DnD again has given me a huge boost to my creativity and creative endurance. When you’re running DnD you don’t get to slack off and say “I’ll finish that scene tomorrow”. You’re players are right there and need a description, or ruling *right now*. this is a great skill to have when writing. The ability to just decide on a detail or event right now is invaluable. I’m a story teller at heart. That why I want to write this book: Because I have a story I think is worth telling.

There are some other smaller things (but important) of a more personal nature, but I don’t want to put them out into the wide public but if you’re curious feel free to message me.

If you made it this far, then thank you so much for reading!

#writers block #update #blog #Gift of forever #marktheweaver #weaver of stories #amwriting #writing #Dungeons and Dragons #late writing #wordcount

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mistralrunner · 7 years ago

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Running Reads Oathbringer: Part III.II

So many awesome things going on as well as terribly concerning things I love this book so much.

Spoilers for pages 606-685 below.

Aaaaa there's a map!

A map

Sure The Stormlight Archive has had plenty of excellent maps but I think this is the first time they've had a detailed city map like this?

I'm so excited

I’m just going to stare at this map with joy for a while don’t mind me

Hmm what was Szeth's route through the palace during the prologue now that we have an actual map

Ooh they have a theater square

I feel like I should remember who Lanacin is given there's a monument

I'm intrigued by the Impossible Falls. Do they fall upward?

Well someone's being snarky about the gem time capsule

Huh the burdening the city with refugees strategy helps with sneaking in at least

Ah Unmade is a pretty good explanation for the wrongness

Wonder which one we'll get this time

Shallan's drawings are an Unmade detector?

So Shallan made Elhokar look somewhat reminiscent to his sister

Have we ever seen Jasnah and Elhokar interact cause they are siblings

How much do they interact?

Again Tarah is mentioned, when will we get this backstory

Well I suspected they'd spend time gathering intelligence. Can't waste that beautiful city map

Yes let Adolin and Kaladin be friends

Ah of course it would have been too easy to walk into the city

Yeah, there really isn’t a command structure it's this weird awkward place between a strike team and a DnD party

Heh Kaladin empathizing with the guard dealing with Elhokar

Ah Voidbringers of course we need yet another complication in getting through the door or rather a way to get in

Aaaa the conflict between staying incognito and wanting to protect

Battlefield tactics versus war tactics and Kaladin's knowledge vs Adolin's is kind of nice

This city is unsettling to say the least

Eerie spren parade and the spren are wrong

Pfft the person Adolin trusts with his life or more is his tailor that is perfect

Also is this why Sanderson said Adolin is going to wear something other than his uniform this book

Why did the Radiants abandon Urithiru? Was this before or part of the Recreance?

Shallan are you okay there. I mean I know you're not in general but punching oneself in the face doesn't feel like a healthy reaction

Oh she's trying to experiment with attracting spren

Elhokar I'm pretty sure it didn't take a dark spren for Aesudan to execute an ardent who insulted her

Shallan no not the scissors self harm isn't good even for scholarship

I wonder where the other Unmade were deposited

I'm guessing Purelake which has a plague, Horneater Peaks cause Song mentioned there was something wrong there, and maybe Shinovar just cause that'd be interesting. And maybe one’s chilling on Aimia.

Yeah I'd say something's wrong if you don't notice your own city is rioting

Oh Elhokar you sweet summer child your wife is a horrible person

Shallan don't you dare do something embarrassing to your party members.

The palace is going to be fun with all these people not returning classic

Like I'm amused at Shallan's dedication to science but also really concerned for her

The Cult of Moments? Oh lovely we have cultists too

Well that alarm spren explains the lack of communication and is more interesting than just Voidbringers magically block the signal.

Yikes though fabrials in general not working anymore

I'm really scared about anyone going into the palace

Pattern I agree Shallan telling her group about Veil is progress and frankly saves a lot of trouble since the illusions already would have hinted at it

I'm glad these records are candid. Also Aimia has hidden undersea caverns too I want to know more of that place as

What is it that makes fabrials different enough that they both have side effects in the case of soulcasters and attract these yellow spren. For the latter is it because of the spren captive since it seems the city's spren are wrong

Shallan's demonstrating increasing Identity concerns as her disguise is wearing a disguise

I feel mildly offended at Shallan taking Lyn's appearance

Oh lovely the cult is guarding the palace of course they are

Oh no a love triangle complicated by multiple personalities whyyy

Hey that is a bad line of thinking too Adolin isn't bland and it isn't right to tease Kaladin like she does

Well two pairs of eyes who pay attention to different things is useful

Those soldiers also creepy

Yeah you definitely needed to set a plot arc like this after the world had been firmly introduced so this unusualness would be jarring and disturbing

Shallan you and Veil are the same person

So much for Kaladin joining you

...That escalated quickly

Taking a leaf from Jasnah's book I see

Oh lovely eerie mirror with shadow that probably is now aware of Shallan's presence

Ah Pattern I love you getting excited over discoveries of human nature at a time like this

Yeah that was rather traumatizing

Oh god the puns

Shallan your denial isn't great long term

Not surprised the Windrunners and Skybreakers were in opposition

Binder of Gods though that is a concerning title

Which Herald is Kelek again and why would he be associated with the storms sometimes

Ishar founded the orders? And is the Herald of luck and mysteries and priests and possibly more mad than the rest I am concerned

So Dalinar has a permanent mental compass because of his Stormfather/Origin sense? That’s cool.

"Stormfather!" Yes? "Oh. Uh, that was a curse." Ah, the downsides of being bonded to the Stormfather

Heh I suspected that god priest of Tukar a moment before Dalinar mentioned him

Oh Ishar is the Bondsmith Herald that's concerning.

That's why Taln called Shallan one of Ishar's Knights cause it didn’t feel like he was the Lightweaver Herald

And he founded the Oathpact

Oh dear Connection is powerful and dangerous although at least there's the tradeoff of little battle application

Binder of Gods is just such a concerning name

I wonder if we'll get the other two Bondsmiths

Three-one for each Shard? Or other powerful Honor spren?

Aaaa answers about Stormlight?

Power piercing united across all three Realms spiritual energy got it

"The Stormfather hated to be misquoted" and will correct Dalinar's recollection of explanations that's great

I mean training with an Honorblade is a way to practice skills but I'm concerned cause there might be other risks attached cause we might not know all that they do

So if you held different Honorblades would your eyes bleed different colors

The clock fabrial dings now that's great

Ooh Azir we might finally see Lift in person

Everyone wants to drink the Stormlight XP

But yeah mentality is key not staring at Stormlight and wanting to chug it

Oh hey conflict looks like Bondsmith time

Heh Adhesion-induced time out

Yay Jasnah I missed you

"Odd how natural it looked to see Jasnah with a sword"

Yes Lift and Jasnah two of my favorite ladies unlocking an Oathgate

Wow a lot of people got sick of Urithiru. What were the rules?

Heh I forgot the Azish Oathgate was in a shopping district

Incovenient Oathgate locations are fun

The Blackthorn enters your city with some magical pens and a bagged lunch

Ooh Spiritual Adhesion and languages

What did Lift do with the street urchin dialect then is it an Edgedancer or a being partially in the Cognitive Realm thing

Are there Physical Cognitive and Spiritual levels of all the Surges

Magical diplomacy powers activate

I feel like Dalinar’s thought processes feel different with Connection activated

I love the Azish where an essay is the weapon of choice

And a backup essay with valuable schematics

Applause to Navani and Fen

I swear if there's a third essay by Jasnah

YES THERE IS

I love them nerding out over Jasnah's writing it's delightful

and also just the fact that Jasnah is using her awesome scholarly prowess

Oh right the fact that there are things on the platforms makes movement tricky

Well Dalinar the Alethi do have slaves and deny some darkeyes the right of travel and treat darkeyes in general like garbage so this logic protest is pretty sweet

Ah yes the economic disaster

That’s cool that the Azish Parshmen immediately started acting super logical and petitioning. Shame they got dragged into the Voidbringer army cause successful negotiations and redress would have been cool

Where are the Worldsingers for understanding

I hope Lift shows up

The pen is mightier than the sword Dalinar

I do feel like this is yet another downside of Alethi not allowing half the population to read or engage in arts that would help with diplomacy. Of course war is going to seem more appealing.

Yes Lift stole Dalinar's lunch excellent

"And your order?"

"More food."

Did I mention how much I love Lift

Hey they’re Nightwatcher buddies

Although She leaves a trace that can be sensed? Or sensed by Lift at least

I'm proud of both Jasnah and Navani for their essays

It's happening we're going to have a council yessss

Oooh big tragic flashback time

Shame that it ruined the moment of telling Navani her essay saved the day

Aww little Adolin

It's nice to see the character growth with Dalinar, still bloodthirsty, but planning, strategizing, thinking, explaining

But where is Renarin

It is lame that giving one’s parent a hug in public isn’t Alethi

Dalinar why must you neglect Renarin cause he's "unfit for battle"

Evi. Deserves. Better.

Also Renarin.

Helplessss

Obligatory Hamilton reference there

Yeah the whole contest mentality of the Alethi is messed up

Evi you don't need the Old Magic you're a wonderful person

You go Evi

Even if she's not a game of wits person she thinks and is right

Wonder if Toh is still in Herdaz

Sunken forests? Those sound cool

Seriously Dalinar remember you have a second son

Thank you Evi for defending Renarin

Evi deserves better

Evi. Deserves. Better.

Okay that Fused does have an aesthetic with the absurdly sized tassels and polearm

Mishim I know that name ugh why am I forgetting

"I believe that Honor himself is changing" I am concerned

Elhokar can draw. Further evidence that the shadows once lurking around him were Cryptics

Wait Elhokar makes the awesome city map?

Aww Elhokar making a decent plan and getting praise and glory spren just for that small thing

Thank you Adolin for addressing the elephant in the room of the ardent’s Theses

Shallan's infiltrating yet another sketchy group great

Ugh they're not letting the poor and children get grain and it's just going to lighteyes

I don't know how to feel about Shallan/Veil going "Storming lighteyes" she is one of them and hasn't done any self reflection so it just feels like putting on a mask than anything actually genuine

Odium trying to replace all spren with his own?

WIT

But the chapter header doesn’t include that jester guy. Will I ever understand the pattern.

He's wearing Sadeas colors really

Ha it's the story Sigzil tried to tell

Storytime with Wit!

Two storytelling scenes in a book I feel blessed

Huh smoke storytelling somewhat like what he did in Warbreaker?

Always interesting when Wit noticeably starts. He did that once before because of Shallan. What is it about her.

Heh well at least one person can see through Lightweaving. Of course it's Wit.

Oh is Tsa using Mishim's tactic against her

Oh Tsa was the trickster all along nice

Wonder how much is true and what is also a metaphor

Seriously Kaladin why did you lose the flute

Ohhh he can sandbend. Sand master. Whatever. Cause that's Taldain sand

Ah now we have the proper Wit header

Full Wit on the header

Hey Shallan and Wit are finally getting a talk this could be good for Shallan

Wait Hoid's lingering for a chapter rather than just jumping in for a story or cryptic lines what

"The Sibling has withdrawn from men"?

Chouta is everywhere

It's okay Shallan don't feel embarrassed at getting pickpocketed by an ancient trickster

Of course Wit would give tips on disguises

Looking back at the chapter the Veil persona did flee although it was the moment she heard Wit's voice

Good job Wit

Dalinar: Are you a Radiant?

Wit: Nope

Shallan: Are you a Herald?

Wit: Nope

"I'm not stupid enough to get mixed up in religion again. The last seven times I tried it were all disasters. I believe there's at least one god still worshipping me by accident."

Do tell

...

That's the most we've ever gotten of Wit

I'm reeling

Just even that thin sliver

I mean it makes sense, he’s more engaged in this world and thus showing he is more than he seems and thus author has to make clear that he’s not a Radiant or Herald but still

Heh me too re: applauding Sadeas being offed. I just fear the consequences for people I care about

“Aim for the sun” is a fun variant on shoot for the moon

Are we getting a Wit character moment he's actually be disparaging about himself

So many good lines in this chapter

"Be wary of anyone who claims to be able to see the future, Shallan."

*looks to Renarin with concern*

Ooh what group does the cult remind Wit of

The Heart of the Revel. Quite a name

I like that take on hedonism not being actual enjoyment

Yay Wit is going to get Shallan in

Why is Wit here then cause pep talking Shallan seems rather important

Pattern: He feels like...mmm...one of us

hmmmmm

#running liveblogs #oathbringer spoilers #running reads oathbringer

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onlyonemister · 8 years ago

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Making a Game: The Basics of Battle

Hoo boy it’s time. This article got a bit delayed because of GDC. My apologies. If it is any consolation, I had a great time, and I will be posting another article later this week. So, we’ve spent about two weeks laying out the basic ground rules for the game. We have some overall thematic, conceptual ideas that we want the game to use, and we have a set of more concrete rules that we would like our dice rolling mechanic to follow. Let’s take just a moment to lay them out here.

General Guidelines

Make an Action Game

Make a ROLE Playing Game

No Combat Swoosh

Active and Reactive Combat and Conflict

Freeform Magic

Simple and Quick Dice Rolls

Strong Lore Framework

Remember these from article one {link}? These general guidelines are just that: general. They are thematic ideas to keep in mind while I work. Obviously definitions of an Action Game might differ, or I might create Lore that some people don’t like. That’s okay. These guidelines are not hard and fast rules. This is some Pirate’s Code business: more like guidelines than rules. I will keep these ideas in mind so that as I work on the game, I can check back in with my guidelines to see if my decisions are falling in line.

As an aside, I just noticed that my second rule might cause some confusion. The role playing community likes to use the slogan, “role play, don’t roll play”, which means that the players should play their characters, not the dice. It is a bit vague, and absolutely not what I mean. Players must use the numbers they have and an understanding of the probability of the dice in order to make decisions. These are the laws of the universe in a tabletop game. Just like I would decide if it was safe to jump over a gap based on my understanding of my physical strength and the laws of physics, so too can a DnD player decide based on their character’s Acrobatics skill and the DC of the check. Refer to [this Angry GM article] if you want a better breakdown of why it is important for players to have an understanding of their chances. What I mean by ROLE play is that I want players to play their character, and only their character. I do not want them to have to make poor decisions based on character quirks or to decide things about the scenery and the game world. That is the GM’s job. Players play their characters, the GM manages the game world and presents situations. I want the GM to have plenty of hooks to give players hard decisions, but I do not want a FATE style compel mechanic to make players act outside the interests of their character. Got it? Good.

Dice Rules

The Valkyrie Must Be Able to Pass Dice to Empower Rolls

Binary Success and Failure On Most Rolls

Only One Dice Mechanic

Encourage Diversity of Strategy

Enough Dice to Power Runic Magic

And these rules are from [the last article]. These are more specific, and lay out some concrete things that I want to be able to do with my dice. Checking in with these will be a bit easier. If my dice system is not Binary success or failure, I can tell that right away. Easy. So I will be keeping these rules in mind when making the game. I might even make a separate post to hold all of these rules as we go through the project.

Learning from History Part Uno

Hold up. I thought we were talking about battle systems today. Well, we are! But first I need to get a bit historical on you. I know, I know. This is a fantasy game about a mythologized Scandinavia, but how can I properly build a mythological world without some grounding in reality? Besides, history is cool. All my best ideas come from history. So, while I have been writing these articles, I have begun doing research. Nothing too crazy. Right now I am just listening to a podcast on the history of the viking age. It’s called The Viking Age Podcast [link to podcast], conveniently enough, and it is definitely worth checking out. In twenty or thirty minute episodes, Lee runs through all of the history leading up to the viking age, why it might have happened, and how it influenced both Scandinavia and the greater European continent. It rules. I studied mostly Japanese, Wild West American, and Jewish history in college, so it is great to get some exposure to a culture I spent little time reading about. And, I have already learned something that will be hugely important for our project: not all of the Norse were Vikings.

I know! It’s crazy right? Okay, maybe that doesn’t seem crazy to you, but it felt like big news to me. Here was this word that I used so very wrong for my whole life. It’s not a slur or anything, it is actually a word used to describe the people who went to raid outside of Scandinavia. Vikingar: the people that went Viking. This may not seem like a huge deal. After all, it is just a terminology change, but facts like these can paint our project in a whole new light. I do not intend to be authentic every step of the way. Again, we are talking about a world in which Ragnarok has happened and the Valkyries are left to run the show. But, the best fantasy takes inspiration from reality. Knowing that the Vikings referred to a specific group of raiders changes how I might write this world. Why not, if I can, use a more authentic representation of Scandinavian culture during the viking age in order to create a world that is both more authentic and more unique.

So, what does this new information do for our battle system? Well, not a lot if I’m being honest. I know that this is the battle article, but I started listening to this podcast while writing the last one, and got excited about some of the new information I was learning. So, this kind of aside might become more of a regular thing. Every now and again, if I have learned something particularly cool, I might pop up at the beginning of an article to share it. And, while this information might not pertain to the topic of the article, I can promise you that learning about this period of history will get my wheels turning for other aspects of the game. Finally, you never know when inspiration will come to you. I talked in the first article about inspiration as a seed, something that you must tend to for it to grow into something useable. Well, I am going to need a lot of inspiration for a project like this, and historical facts are going to be the manure for my inspiration field. Yes, sometimes it will be kind of gross, and sometimes it will be tedious to get all that manure spread, but at the end of the day, the inspiration planted there will grow all the stronger. See, I brought that metaphor around.

Now Can We Talk About Fighting?

No! Actually, I’m just messing with you. Yes. Now we can talk about fighting. I have thought a lot about the combat system in Vikings and Valkyries. I have planned whole imaginary fights in my head, detailed mechanic after mechanic, and worn a hole in my apartment floor pacing back and forth for so long thinking about it all. This article is my chance to codify some of those ideas. I need to make the basics of this combat system material so that I can stop jumbling it around in my head. It’s picked up some good ideas in there, but the system needs to get some fresh air. A lot of things need to get decided in this article, and when I went through the fist draft it got really long, so I am shortening it down to just regular long by making these sections a bit more efficient. That might mean that some of the decisions I make are not as well explained as others, and that is okay. I am going to be testing this game as soon as possible, and it is entirely possible that the quick ideas I have here will get revisited. So, if I seem a touch cavalier about this combat system, that is because I am.

Here there be Dragons. And Over Here are Some Kobolds.

The first thing any combat system needs to know is will it use maps and minis, or be a “theater of the mind” kind of affair. How the players are expected to visualize a fight will affect how complex and deep things like positioning and terrain can be. First off, the combat in VnV will not be “theater of the mind” by default. I voiced my complaints about those systems in the first article, and I stand by those issues. I can create a much better tactical combat experience if I have some kind of battle map. What does that battle map need to look like though? Dungeons and Dragons uses a set of 1 inch by 1 inch squares that each represent 5 feet of space. Savage Worlds throws the mat away altogether and just tells you to use a ruler. Most characters can move about 6 inches on a turn, and 1 inch is equal to 1 meter of distance. FATE even has a battle mat. Instead of granular inches or squares, FATE uses Zones. Zones are kind of cool. When laying out a conflict area, the GM (called the Judge in FATE, which is kind of dope) writes the zones on a handful of index cards or post its or something. Then, the GM lays them out to create a simple map. Characters can move from one Zone to another on their turn. Some Zones might have a tricky challenge in the way to cross them, others might provide cover, others might have some hazard that makes fighting in them perilous. I kind of like Zones, they are a neat way to abstract out the tactical movement of combat and create compelling maps quickly.

Too bad we aren’t going to use Zones in VnV. They might be quick and easy and elegant, but they abstract combat too much for my tastes. It works fine in a game like FATE where combat is not the main driving factor, but combat will be important in VnV, so we are going to want a more granular system. That granularity will add some complexity to the game. After all, we talked about not having too tight a distinction between combat and non-combat conflict in VnV, but now GMs will have to break out a battle map and pens in order to transition to combat encounters. What gives? Well, what gives is that despite wanting to avoid the combat swoosh, I want deep tactical combat more. Movement and positioning is incredibly important for that kind of combat. Games like FATE and Edge of the Empire do a solid job of creating a semblance of that depth, but the systems they use to replace maps feel just as complicated. This is a bad trade in my opinion. I want players and GMs to be able to see exactly what is going on in a battle so that they can make the best tactical decisions possible. I do not want to limit them to simple imagined scenes. Say what you will about the complexity required in setting up a map, it allows GMs to create much more engaging encounter spaces. Trying to run complex encounters with multiple moving parts in a game like EotE takes way too much brain power, and leads to arguments about where characters and objects are positioned more often that not. I want my players to be able to know right away where things are.

As for what type of battle map, I am going to go with a standard mat. The squares will be 1 inch by 1 inch, and players can use either the square side or the hex side. My reason? Well I want granularity, as I said above, and I don’t feel any need to reinvent the wheel on this one. Most tabletop players will have access to a battlemat for DnD, and so I am going to go with that format. Measuring things with a ruler and finding terrain is kind of a pain in the butt. Usually when I play Savage Worlds I would end up using the hex grid side of my battlemat anyways. So, 1 inch squares it will be. For now, I don’t feel any need to define the distances on the squares. DnD calls them 5 feet by 5 feet, and that seems pretty reasonable. I have some ideas about weapon ranges that we will get to in a later article, and that might necessitate smaller distances on the squares. For now though, it does not matter. I will define ranges and player movement in squares, and leave the distances until later.

Taking Turns

Now that we know we want a mat, let’s talk about initiative. This, I promise, will be a bit different than the standard initiative of DnD and Savage Worlds. The reason for this? Reactions. See, I want players to be able to make decisions both on and off turn. When attacked, I want the players to be able to decide if and how to defend themselves. This means that the concept of a player turn is a bit more nebulous. For a great example of this kind of nebulous Initiative, look at Dungeon World and other Apocalypse Engine games. The Apocalypse Engine has no concept of structured combat time. Instead, the GM presents scenarios to the players, and the players decide how to react. Now, in a DnD game, this would be massively unfair. See, DnD runs on what I call an Opportunity Action Economy. Basically, the players get a finite amount of opportunities to do stuff during structured time. If I am playing DnD and attack a goblin, the only thing that I am risking is my turn. If I fail, I simply deal no damage, losing my opportunity to act. Apocalypse Engine games run on a Risk Action Economy. If I attack a goblin in Dungeon World, I will make what is called a Hack and Slash roll. In a Hack and Slash roll, I might damage the goblin, but the goblin may also damage me. I am taking a risk by taking the action. This also applies when the goblin is the one directing the pace of the scene. In DnD, I would simply hope the goblin would miss me. In Dungeon World, if a goblin attacks, I can decide to try and avoid all damage, which would lead to a Defy Danger roll where I have no chance of hurting the goblin and less chance of being hurt myself, or I could fight back for a risky Hack and Slash roll. This means that structured time is less important in Dungeon World, because any time my character is acted upon, I get to make a choice about how to act and might gain the upper hand because of the risks associated with rolling.

In VnV, Reactions will not be equivalent to Actions, but the fact that the player will be able to make decisions and take unique actions when it is not their turn changes the power of Initiative. Going later in a round might be beneficial for players who are opting for a more defensive strategy. So, what does that mean for our Initiative system? Well, it means that Initiative is going to be a choice. Reactions are not like armor class in DnD. The player will not just be picking which defensive option they have the highest numbers in. Reactions are going to be strategic moves, moves that can only be done off turn, and that will have their own value depending on the character’s strengths, and on the situation at hand. So, I want my players to be able to influence when in the turn they will be able to act. Maybe they cannot decide it exactly, but it must be a decision. How will that work, you ask? Well, first I need to find my dice system, so for now we are just going to say that Initiative will be influenced by player choice combined with a roll of the dice, and figure out the specifics when we have our dice.

Still with the Dice System?

I know I warned you about this, but I want to reiterate: the goal of this article is to design the pieces of the combat system separately from the dice system, so that I can change the dice if need be down the road without having to rebuild the game from scratch. That means that I will need to make ambiguous statements about the specifics of mechanics until that dice system gets nailed down. The good news though, is that by working on the initiative system for this article, I have started to see the dice system in my head. It isn’t fully ready yet, and I don’t want to distract too much from the combat right now, but know that by thinking about initiative as a decision, and about the mechanics of Actions and Reactions, a dice system idea is coalescing. This was my idea all along, if you can believe it. I mentioned that I wanted to be able to go back and change the dice if need be, but I also needed an idea in the first place. I knew what I wanted some of the systems to feel like, but had no idea how to resolve those systems with dice. That is partially why I started working, so that the systems could show me the dice that I needed. Now, I can push forward through the rest of this article, and get the rest of my systems down. Who knows, maybe I will get some more good ideas.

He Does this, So I do That

Reactions are going to be moves that the characters can perform when attacked. The first thing I want to do is to figure out what kind of reactions I might want to have in the game. In a sword fight, the defender has myriad options when deciding how not to get hit, but we want some more limited options to present our players. For inspiration on this, I am going to look to the Infinity Tabletop Miniatures Game. Infinity is the game I mentioned in an earlier article that inspired the idea of Actions and Reactions. When a unit is fired upon in Infinity, its controlling player can decide to Counterattack or Dodge. Counterattacking is risky, but if the unit succeeds, it can damage the attacker. Dodging is less risky, and allows the unit to move a bit, but does not allow the unit to do anything else. There are some other options for reaction in Infinity, but let’s focus on these two for now.

Counterattacking is an aggressive defense, or not really a defense at all. A unit that decides to counterattack opens itself up for damage in the hopes that it can damage the attacking unit. I like the idea of exchanging safety for damage as a reaction. So, in VnV, a counterattack is a reaction where the defending character sacrifices all defense for the chance to hit the opponent. To accomplish this, the players involved in the attack-counterattack exchange must roll off or compare scores in some way. The winner will hit first, resolving all damage, and if the loser of the roll is still alive, they will hit. On a tie, damage is resolved at the same time. Notice that this means guaranteed damage for both sides so long as the first attack does not kill. This will be a high risk high reward move where the counterattacker is hoping that the attacker will die from one hit.

Dodging seems like a move we will want to have in the game as well. When attacked, a defender can decide to dodge. The attacker and defender roll off, and if the defender wins, they move out of the way of the attack. They can then decide to take a follow up action by spending some resources. Notice how this reaction still allows the player to do something to advance their cause, but at the cost of more resources. While a counterattack allows the player to hit back right away at the possible cost of health, a Dodge will allow the player to follow up by spending some other kind of resource. Again, right now we don’t know what that resource is. It might be action dice, stamina, magic, whatever. All we care about is that resources will be spent. I also want characters to be able to use their weapons or shields to parry. After all, that is a huge part of sword fighting. So, what if Dodging and Parrying are basically equivalent, but require different stats and allow for different follow up actions? Both of these defensive moves will be less risky than a counterattack, but will require extra resources to be followed up on. So, to update the rule above: When attacked, a defender can decide to dodge or parry. The attacker and defender roll off, and if the defender wins, they move out of the way of the attack or deflect it with a held weapon. They can then decide to take a follow up action by spending some resources.

Now, this seems like a solid reaction system. All we need to do now is decide on the actions a player can take after a Dodge or a Parry, right? Wrong, me! I want to include one extra type of defensive option. See, both counterattacking and the parry/dodge actions allow the defender to take a follow up action with some risk involved. What if a player does not want to follow up, but instead wants to hunker down completely in order to avoid damage at all costs? This is partially inspired by the video games For Honor, and Dark Souls as well as my time spent fencing. In those games, parrying and dodging are risky actions that allow for follow ups, but the player can also simply block incoming attacks, or dodge away from them, disengaging from the fight. So, let’s add a Full Defense option. Full Defense allows the player to block or avoid incoming attacks. If the player does a Full Block, they stay in place, but ward off damage. If the player does a Full Dodge, they disengage from the fight. These actions cannot be followed up. These moves will be less risky than a Parry or Dodge, but provide less reward. Also, the Full Defense options still have some risk associated with them. The player can still be hit if they lose the roll. This is just the best way to avoid damage entirely.

Notice that this format has created a divide between blocking an attack, and moving out of the way of the attack. This is useful to note because we can use it to help create focused character builds and strategies in the game. Some characters might be better at dodging, others at blocking. Maybe different weapons will be easier to dodge or block. We won’t be getting to character creation until after the first playtest, but for now, keep that idea in mind.

Responses

So what can a character do after a successful Parry or Dodge? After a Parry a character can: Riposte: the character makes an immediate attack roll against the attacker, Cast a Spell: do that, Shove: the character can make an opposed check to push or pull the attacker into another square, Disarm: the character can make an opposed check to knock the attacker’s weapon out of his hands. Sunder: the character can attempt to damage or destroy the weapon used to attack her. Let’s call that good for now. Some of these actions might require specific abilities to use, but for now let’s say that all characters can do this.

After a Dodge, a character can Riposte: see above, Cast a Spell: also above, Adjust: the character can move up to half her movement (rounded down) in any direction without invoking another attack from the attacker, Sweep: the character can attempt to trip her attacker. And that will be all for Dodging for now. Notice that Riposte and Cast a Spell can be done from both a Parry and a Dodge. Also, Dodging has one less action, that is honestly because I cannot think of another good one. If anyone has ideas, let me know. Otherwise, Adjusting seems pretty powerful, and that might be good enough.

Action!

Now we know what characters can do when it is not their turn, but what can they do on their turn? Well, this is going to be a bit more standard. As much as I like the idea of shaking things up with the action economy in a tabletop, some things just work, and are worth sticking to. On a player’s turn, they can take 1 Action, and as many Free Actions as they like. Free actions will include moving up to that character’s move speed, talking, dropping something, taking something from a willing target, and giving something to a willing target. I might add more later, but those are it for now. In terms of how far characters can move, I am leaning towards 5 squares. It works for DnD, and I don’t see a reason to shake it up until a playtest tells me otherwise. So, 5 squares. As for talking, most games limit talking to a short sentence on the player’s turn. I like a little in combat banter, and I want players to be able to move a conflict out of combat dynamically, so I am going to be more lenient than that. If a player wants to talk to another character, that character can respond with one sentence of their own. If all participants in the combat stop to talk, move out of structured time until hostilities resume.

Now, as for the Actions a player can take: attacking with a weapon, throwing something, running more distance than the character’s movement speed, drawing a weapon, sheathing a weapon, casting a spell. These are all going to fall into pretty standard tabletop territory, so I won’t spend any time on each action.

Damage

Getting hit by a sword will probably kill you. I hate to break it to you, realism buffs, but if we want to go full realistic, characters would most likely die in one hit and that sucks. Most games include some kind of system to mitigate damage coming in or to allow characters to survive some hits with little or no consequence. After all, no matter how well our players play the tactical game, whether they get hit or not comes down to a roll of the dice, and a single die roll killing your character isn’t any fun. So we want to have a resource that can be spent to keep characters alive. Savage Worlds uses the Shaken state and Wounds, and while that is my preferred system most of the time, for this game we are going to use Hit Points.

Now, a lot of you might be lamenting right now. Hit Points lead to drawn out fights! Hit Points don’t make any narrative sense! Hit Points ate my parents! Is that last one just me? Okay. As much maligned as they are on the internet, Hit Points serve a useful purpose: they provide a consequence free damage mitigation resource. In Savage Worlds, the Shaken state prevents players from acting until they make a roll to remove the state. Wounds are even more devastating, causing a bane to all rolls and movement distance. Hit Points don’t have that problem. Hit Points provide a small amount of consequence free damage for each character. Notice the phrase “small amount”. While DnD HP increases work well for a game about characters gaining massive leaps in strength, this is going to be a lower powered game. The protagonists will be skilled, but ultimately human warriors.

What happens after a character loses all of his HP? Does he just die? Well, in other games, that might be fine, but this is a game about Vikings, and what are Vikings known for? Berserking. Well, not every Viking is known for that, but toughing it out through grievous injuries is a huge part of the Viking narrative. So when Hit Points are reduced to 0, the character will receive 1 wound, and make some kind of endurance roll to see if they can fight through the pain. If they succeed, do not roll on the wound chart. Instead, simply mark down the existence of the wound, and continue fighting. If they fail, roll on the chart adding up extra wounds as a modifier, and lay the character prone until combat ends. After combat ends, roll on the wound chart for any character that has 1 or more wound and is still standing. Right now, I am figuring wounds will be rolled on a chart, and cause long term effects. For inspiration, I am looking at the EotE wound chart. This chart does something brilliant, which is it increases the severity of the wounds the more wounds that a character already has. A character cannot be killed the first time they get reduced below 0 hit points. The worst that can happen is that they start to bleed out. I want to copy that idea. Characters will not be in risk of dying right away, instead, they will be able to decide how far they want to push themselves in order to prove their Viking strength. Dropping out of a fight early will help ensure that they do not die, but might cause the party to lose, and lose confidence in their ally’s bravery.

Gear

After stealing liberally from EotE in the last section, I am going to do it again now. I want to avoid having a damage roll in this game. In EotE, there is no damage roll. Instead, each weapon has a fixed amount of damage, that is improved based on how well the player rolls on the attack. I like this idea, and now I am going to steal it. All weapons in the game will have a fixed damage number that is improved based on how well the attacker succeeds. Notice, that this does break the Binary Success and Failure rule. Also notice that when I established that rule, I said I might break it at some point. Here it is. I have broken it. For now, I am going to have variable damage. Why? Mainly because it is fun. Hitting an opponent well and taking them out early feels good, and rolling low and plinking an enemy, while it feels bad, can add drama to the fight. Besides, if I balance the numbers out well, I could always go back to fixed damage and not have the balance change much at all. If I use the average damage dealt by each weapon as its fixed damage, then it will be roughly the same as if the damage varied.

To go along with my damage rule: Armor will grant Damage Reduction to any hit that strikes the armor. So much of the combat in VnV is about using tactics to avoid damage, and taking risks where applicable. I want armor to provide some DR so that heavier armored characters can take more risks, potentially at the cost of movement speed, but I don’t want it to add to a character’s chance to avoid a hit like in DnD. Honestly, it just makes the concept of hitting and missing confusing when the armor would need to be struck to help, but if you don’t hit hard enough it is called a miss and yes this is incredibly nit picky, but it’s my game so there. Besides, acting as DR means that it will act as a second layer to avoiding damage. If the character wears heavy enough armor, they have a chance to avoid damage against weak hits entirely.

In terms of hits that strike the armor, I do need to make an aside here about Called Shots. These are a huge problem in a lot of tabletop games, because sometimes the designers do not seem to consider them. Called Shots are when players pick a specific target on an enemy to attack. Usually, rules make the attack roll harder, but allow for secondary effects or increased damage. Savage Worlds has a great Called Shot system, where it is assumed that all attacks are aimed at the torso and will be hitting the torso armor unless otherwise specified. I am going to take that rule. If players want to make a Called Shot, they can reduce their chance to hit, in exchange for striking a specific body part. Otherwise, all hits hit the torso. I do not want to bother with complicated hit location rules unless I think it will be very funny. The only other stipulation I have for my gear system is that gear will be of varying quality, and better weapons and armor might do or absorb more damage, along with having other effects. I like finding new and exciting weapons. This does not mean every sword will need to be enchanted, instead, think of it like a classic JRPG where you can buy better made swords in each town. Sometimes the players will find a haul of well made steel weapons that can outperform their current equipment.

In Conclusion

You are probably exhausted by now, and I do not blame you. That was a very long article to read through and not get all the specifics of the system. The great thing is, this document can now provide the basis of any combat decisions going forward. Unless my playtest goes disastrously, I now have a combat system that I can adapt to any numbers that I need. Join us later this week for a hopefully much briefer article on viking raids and how they will helo structure the game.

#making a game #rpg #vikings and valkyries #tabletop

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