#if you enjoy the homebrew stuff that I make and want to support this is the best way to do so

[dartagnantt]

It's Time to Choose | Spells with choices

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

Mayhaps you would want the spell to do this? Yeah, that's the gimmick :P

Alter Appearance

A simple spell. Change your face or other cosmetic (or less than cosmetic) options. This has fun world building implications as well as other interesting choices. Don't ask me why only temporarily changing yourself is harder than permanently doing so.

Elemental Mantle

Flame Shield is cool and all, but I want to cause more types of pain.

Flesh to Stone/Stone to Flesh

Did it bother anyone else that stone to flesh didn't make it to 5e? Admittedly, having it be its own spell is oddly wasteful, but there are a lot of these slash spells (okay, three, but still!) so why not?

Haste/Slow

So, I thought, if enlarge/reduce, antipathy/sympathy and flame shield could all be spells with opposite effects, why not the only remaining reverse spells? Also thought I would change the save while I was at it. I don't know why slow and polymorph both have a Wisdom save. Also also, thought I would get rid of the weird exploit where you could (as written) haste an enemy and then instantly drop concentration to get a free dropped turn from the target.

Metamorphic Rebirth

Alter Appearance but race! Or is it living reincarnation? Speaking of…

Predestined Reincarnation

Reincarnation, but not random. And forced if you want to curse someone to come back to life as a goblin for some contrived reason.

Redirect Gravity

I enjoy gravity fuckery, and I am horribly disappointed that the only spell that lets you 'usefully' change gravity is reverse gravity. Sure, there are a few gravity spells in the wildmount book, but eh. Wee!

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Channel Infinity (and Beyond!)

Prior Connections

Circle of the Sands

To Shreds, You Say?

I also have four classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

[pshattuck]

Hello everyone so this is going to be a pretty big blog about the upcoming future of my life as a artist. So to try to shave off some time I will be copying and pasting the Twitter thread I made to here.

Startiiiing now:

“Hey everyone I got another update for you and it’s probably gonna sound like “she’s changing shit again” but I feel like a lot has been going on in my life and a lot of it is changing too and I think I discovered something about me and my artwork that I feel like is important.

The reason I started pumping out content before this new job I got was well after I lost my old caregiving job YouTube and commissions were my only source of income for the last 6 month and I honestly was making enough for bills at that point it was my family keeping me afloat.

So yeah, life was not kind to me and I got.. well extremely depressed. I kept applying and no one was accepted them the one job I wanted I did not get and I was lucky to just get by. My brain all the time for the past few months kept saying I was a failure Until I got lucky.

I just got done with shadowing and orientation and I’m now officially working at a job that yeah can be stressful but I fully enjoy. I’m feeling happy and I’m finally healing from this dark cloud that’s following me. And with this month coming to an end I realized something.

Growing up my art was the one thing that kept me happy it was my happiness from real life issues and it got me to meet the love of my life along with great people in online community’s. However, the more it became a stressor to live off my art… the less it made me happy.

Not to mention the reason I shared my art to begin with because even if it was cringe or my art was not the best in the past … I always loved to see people enjoy it. It killed me to ask people to give me money to draw for them. It’s just not me.

I allowed a online algorithm, and a few words from a small handful of people to make me second guess what I loved to do, I allowed money to make me decide what I should work on…I realized I secretly hated myself for it.

This new opportunity in my life is why I’m writing what I am today and it’s my own choices and it’s one I’m actually happy with.

Everything I draw will be free to view I’m going to build it up on Tapas and Tumblr just for the multiple image support plus they have better age restriction on there platforms because I’m a adult and do want to dabble in NSFW stuff.

The one animation I have on sale in my store I will be making it free to view. For the amazing person who did buy the pack I will be dming them so once my paycheck comes, they will be refunded.

And now for the big thing.

The next few months I will be saving my own money and working on Concept Art for the next few months along with working on comics because by next year I want to work and pay people to help me bring my comics to life as animated projects.

The first project will more then likely be Jackie’s Everyday Adventure because it has the least amount of characters and backgrounds and will dabble in the form of 3D animation. This will be a strictly animated series with some rewrites from the original comic version.

Homebrew… is honestly the biggest project since there is over 30 chapters and I’m not even halfway done writing scripts. I won’t Even considering working on animating that until at least chapter 10 is out.

Everything else will be explained over on Tumblr that will be where I blog about my projects since there’s not as tiny of a character limit on there. Thank you all for reading this and I will link the full update on Tumblr and I will share a link to it on here.”

And now here we are on Tumblr!

The only thing I will be keeping for any financial support will be Ko-fi but that’s only if people want to, I’m not going to have anything locked behind a pay wall.

Commissions will no longer be open because I will just be doing art trades or request. Since my new job is full time I don’t need to worry about the stress of not finishing something quickly.

Physical print books are still gonna be a thing however not for a long while. Since my old client liked my original books ill be printing a small handful of copies of them so I can give them to her to read at the nursing home. And leftover copies will be for contest prizes.

YouTube on the other hand… I’m going to be honest I’m not sure if I truly will bring back Pshattuckproductions. The most fun I have had with YouTube was building up lunar comics. I will honestly be focusing on that channel in terms of any uploads.

So far this is all for now. So see you soon everyone.

[gwynbleiddyn]

all the cool kids have pinned posts and i’m at least a year late so let’s go

about

aeron

he/him

raging homo and i will simply Not tolerate masc negativity here y’all went too far with that

dw i’n gymro, a dw i’n dysgu cymraeg 

old enough to have a full time job with office besties so make of that what you will

i cosplay sometimes, i rarely share photos but if i do it’s #aj cosplays

i play dnd sometimes

blog content

bg3 / i said i wasnt going to get involved and then i did. i rotate astarion around my brain like a microwave meal and i think we should be allowed to kiss raphael actually. dyn is my main tav who is in a mlm (monster loving monster) relationship with astarion and sometimes halsin. the rituals are complex and unknowable.

lotro | rop | lotr / my dragon age/mass effect braincells are nuclear resistant. my lotr braincell is what one might call a tardigrade. she’s eternal infinite forever enduring the ages of this world alone etc. etc. i play lotro on arkenstone and i think rings of power is great. that’s all. 

critrole / im a c3 ho and im not interested in reading your meta on why caleb is autistic actually bc ive decided he is anyway and that’s enough for me thank u

destiny / dont get it twisted i play this game for saint-14 only

ac origins -  valhalla / bayek and eivor have me in a chokehold and i spent about 6 months writing frenzied alexios / thaletas content in between those two protags so you could say i enjoyed this trilogy more than anything else ac has ever given me

dragon age - mass effect / they get to share a category like a get-along t-shirt bc these are the only two braincells in my head that will survive a nuclear winter and this is the only way i can control them. i have many ocs. i always want to talk about them. i sent shepard to andromeda, and i rewrote thedas to cope with the harrowing ordeal of facing an egg as my villain. bioware will not let me rest.

ocs - dnd / i play in 2 campaigns, i dm one of my own. blorbo from my dnd is usually referring to maahes, he is an acquired taste so your mileage may vary in how far u can go before u simply want to block his tag. the good news is i wholly support curated dashboard experiences. the bad news is all of my ocs are equally hot messes of morality.

worldbuilding / you may see mentions of myridos; this is my homebrew world and eventual setting for some novels that i’d like to publish one day.

im not above shitposts or random stuff that makes me go hehe (fruity) and i generally do not engage in tumblr activism as a rule. you’re unlikely to find Real World Stuff˜ here unless it involves cymru or annibynaeth i gymru. i tag fandoms and art, i do not tag specific characters with enough consistency to make it safe for blocked tags. i’m open to dms/asks if you want a specific tag blocked - i can’t guarantee i’ll say yes, but i’m v nice about it i promise.

mini tag + link directory 

my doodle tag / my writing tag 

archive of our own

cosplay instagram

[mymorbidcuri0sity]

as someone who grew up with no personal money, i think there's one important thing to mention regarding this demographic:

for any kid/teen, there is no "low price" for your game. it's either free ($0) or completely inaccessible.

if you are lucky enough to get pocket money as a kid, it's usually limited to IRL money, with no way to use it online. you only really get to have your own online debit card when you turn 13, and even then it's managed by your parents so very often you just don't really use it that much, and that's assuming that your parents do make you one.

kids/teens are often the brokest of all audiences, because they very often *have no access to money at all*. at best they have to convince their parents to buy something for them, and it's not always likely that a parent will agree to buy a game (you have better things to spend your money on, etc.). you really only get two occasions to ask for something: your birthday and christmas (as the wise homebrew rap once said, "it ain't christmas, no one's gonna buy it for me").

this generally leads to kids/teens trying to find stuff that is not just cheap, but *free*. so if your product is paid, that gives them two options:

1. *play a demo*. sometimes, even just a limited demo is enough to deliver the experience a kid is looking for. and i think it's just good practice to have a demo in general - someone who's interested in your game can see if it's a worthwhile purchase before buying it, which helps alleviate some of the "buyer's discomfort" you get when getting something untested. i can think of plenty of game demos i got on my PS3 as a kid that i enjoyed and then got my parents to buy me full versions later.

2. *pirate it*. most game developers will not offer a demo. or sometimes you want to enjoy a game without paying for it. for young people, piracy is very often *the only way* to enjoy paid media. there's nothing you can do about it, pirates *will* find a way. the worst thing you can do is deliberately add hard-to-crack DRM, this pretty much locks you out of a sizeable audience. also, people who pirate games when young *often go back to purchase the full game when they're older*. i've heard plenty of stories of folks who played undertale when they were young, and bought the full version in appreciation of the game later on in their lives. my sibling (who's much more of a gamer than i am) has a huge collection of games that they had previously pirated, but later bought on steam either to get updates/support or just as a sign of gratitude to the devs.

can i be so honest for a second. with the initial disclaimer of 'undertale is also just a really good game', i cant take anyone seriously who asks why undertale got more popular than like, any triple A game or game that requires a console/beefy computer. undertale was 10$ and could be played easily on my 6 year old apple laptop that used to emit sparks. it was accessible to the most powerful audiences: broke people and teenagers

[words-from-the-coast]

audly’s favourite (free) d&d resources

d&d books are really expensive. for beginners, that can be daunting if trying to get into playing. some people are under the impression that you have to have all the books (or at least one or two) to be a good dm or player. 

so i’m here to compile my favourite resources! 

5etools

literally my favourite. it has sections divided by what you’re looking for, and a super easy filtering system. it’s got stuff from most books (except the critical roll ones) and dm screen resources! also has the ua (unearthed arcana) playtest materials. 

D&D wiki

also has pretty much everything! not really divided by books (as far as i can find), which may make it a bit tricky. but if you know what you’re doing, you’re set. especially helpful for spells. 

Fantasy Name Generators

in my opinion, naming things is one of the hardest things to do. like you’ve got this cool axe weapon thing that glows but you don’t want to just call it the “glowy axe”. or a super badass elf character that has a pet raccoon. or a city where your campaign will be. so you go through your brain for a good name and it’s empty. names give things meaning and importance. choosing one is hard. if the name generator doesn’t give you a name, it should at least get the ball rolling. they have one for pretty much everything.

Roll20

basically a dnd specific discord! you can host games, display maps, and have access to all your player’s sheets in one place. i find this one a lil tricky to navigate without a mouse, but i’ve managed with just my trackpad. roll20 also has a fairly extensive compilation of resources like class descriptions, weapons, etc. etc. i use it a lot when making magic items and worldbuilding. 

DnD Disability 

all about incorporating disabilities into dnd! i really enjoy this site. they offer some creative mechanics for varieties of neurodivergence, chronic pain, and mobility aids. a super amazing resource to make your game more accessible. 

Hero Forge

great for making character designs and has the option to buy a 3d print of your mini. some of the race options are little limiting (read: i tried to make a pigeon aarakocra out of a ravenfolk and it did not work), but overall is functional. 

D&D Beyond 

at this point i think everyone and their mother has heard of D&D beyond. it’s essentially the “official” dnd site, with all the official content and boundless homebrew. it has a character creator option too, which is useful for people who need some extra support. the issue is that it exists behind a paywall. if you want to add anything other than the “standard” options or use someone else’s homebrew in your game, you have to buy a membership. you can browse homebrew just fine without one, but can’t put it on your character sheet. for all it’s costly negatives, i do find joy in the unhinged and unbalanced home made things people conjure. worth at least looking at. 

Pinterest 

great for character and setting inspiration! also has some homebrew monsters, items, and weapons which can be meh. if you’re looking for nifty mechanics, pinterest may be your place as well. i have seen both phenomenally cool things i’ve incorporated into my games and the Most Questionable Things Ever.  

Arcane Eye

more of a blog, but does contain exceptionally useful knowledge. much like roll20, arcane eye has resources that can inform you as a player or dm. they have guides to different things.

D&D Compendium 

it sure is a compendium! it’s got the whole kitten caboodle, “how to dm” and “how to play” sections if you need some extra help, map tools, and a bunch of other how-to’s. they have links to other dnd resource sites as well, so if you can’t get it on the compendium, you can get it from one of those. you can also network and find a group to play with via the compendium. (but be careful with strangers from the internet, said the stranger from the internet.)

The Official D&D Site 

has a bunch of free pdfs for character sheets and whatnot, as well as some pre-generated characters and basic rules. they don’t have a huge amount of content for free, but who can blame them with all the pirated content out there. 

donjon

so many free generators. a dm’s best friend. they have map makers for dungeons, towns, npc’s, etc. so much stuff. so much. less useful for beginner players, more for dm’s. also good if you’re super into worldbuilding and want something to help. 

Azggar’s Fantasy Map Generator

again, more for dm’s than players. also just really good for worldbuiling. if you want a unique and comprehensive overview of a world, continent, or country, azggar’s is a good place. when i saw comprehensive, i mean comprehensive. it’s got political state lines, capital cities, ports, trade routes, population densities, distribution of regional ethnic groups, religions, government styles, the whole works - all fully editable. the tools can be a lil confusing at first but they do get easier with practice. 

Kassoon Puzzle Generator 

puzzles and riddles for your players! some are simple, some are more complex, depending on the skill level and knowledge-base of your players. can be worked into dungeons or given as a one off in an encounter. 

NPC Generator 

the title says it all. gives a basic name, occupation, class, race, etc. for an npc. all of which can be edited and randomly generated. 

The Homebrewery

a place to format your homebrews into an official-looking style. requires a smidgen of coding, but they have things that teach you that. it’s mostly for different headings and dispersion of sections. 

Podcasts 

if you’re just starting in dnd, listening to other people play can be informative, and hopefully entertaining. some shows are intended to be listened to as stories, rather than actual-play, other as wholly normal dnd, some a mix of both. they can spark inspiration for characters, settings, etc. i’ll give a mini list of my personal favourites (maybe a longer list later): 

- dames and dragons: so lovely. i’ve been listening since high school, and at this point it feels like listening to old friends. top of my list, highly recommend. 

- girls who don’t dnd: a group of girls who’ve never player dnd before playing dnd. this one is great for beginners who need more clarification on mechanics. 

- dungeons and daddies: it’s about literal dads from earth transported to a magic realm. so so so funny. 

and yeah! that concludes my list of my favourite resources for dnd for dm’s and players of all levels! happy playing! 

[probablygoodrpgideas]

It's kinda wild to me how I feel bad about how much I spam ads for my Patreon but according to the poll, so many people haven't heard of it yet.

I have a Patreon, patreon.com/probablygood, where I publish homebrew, for now only for dnd 5e but that might change in the future. Access is 2$ a month, but after 3 months it becomes free to everyone. The stuff that is currently free is:

The Path of the Fey Barbarian subclass

Duel Rules

The Phoenix Bloodline Sorcerer subclass

The Oath of Passion Paladin subclass

The stuff that is currently available for 2$ is:

The Commoner's Codex, a collection of NPCs to make the commoners of your game more diverse

The Villain Manual with 2 sinister villains for your game

The Way of Pain Monk subclass

Also, if you really like my stuff and want to show support, for 5$ a month you can get early access to stuff that I'm still working on, which is at the moment a sequel to the Villain Manual.

Finally, if you enjoy my stuff, please leave a like on Patreon.

[firespirited]

Today i did water bottles, helped sis make pie with leftover apples and tried to get the dogs used to splashing around in a small old sink tub, they didn't like getting their paws wet so we did bobbing for frozen apple pieces.

Video essays i enjoyed (watched a bunch of 20 minute ones at 1.25 because I'm not in the mood for hours on [specific nuances through time of specific bigotries] or [trendy grift] :

This guy patiently explains why Anglo-Saxon doesn't mean much to brits, it's a chaotic part of our chaotic beginnings. I just tell people they don't understand how 23 and me works, sold their dna to shady people and got 'standard euro mutt' .

Shaun articulates exactly what i feel about Ex Machina (except that i'd want to add that sentient intelligence in machines may not manifest in a way that we can directly translate to human concepts, the law is not ready. Human rights aren't even enshrined let alone sentient rights) .

If anyone knows a channel that goes into ya-adult tv from the early 90s onwards: reviews, analysis, critique I'd love that especially stuff like Dark angel, Dresden files Constantine, Stargate and all the syfy, bbc and cbc stuff.

There's a whole new set of deep dives into video games, anime and cartoons every week but I don't game, I'm picky about cartoons (SU was pretty good, i do prefer a batman tas) and can't watch subs without being close to the monitor, I kinda wish I could get into that, people put a lot of thought into it.

I don't like to pirate recent movies worth supporting (disney can rot tho) so MANY currently relevant video essays by people I respect are off limits until a bunch of films get to digital release in France: 17 months from theatrical release. You can bypass it for netflix with a vpn but anywhere else sees the french address on my paypal or creditcard and denies purchase. It's a protect the industry thing, like not homebrewing. Might make no sense but they do have to invest a portion of the money made back into film, you'll often see studio canal or pathé on films. That's money from french people going to cinemas and using canalplus for a 15 oh wait lmgt 6 month release window.

[transgender-mothman]

I didn’t say D&D alone has those features:

I said ANY ttrpg does. My first ttrpg systems and campaigns (in which I was a player) were fate, fantasy age, and d20 modern. Then I went into 3.5 as my first actual d&d game.

I also did mention using other systems:

And regarding contributing to a monopoly by continuing to play things I already own… this is ludicrous. I’m not running an actual play channel and promoting WotC, I’m playing a private game with my friends using books we already have, playing the way we want to that’s fun for us. If people want to get rid of things they already own/enjoy because the creators have been outed as problematic, that’s their choice to make. But I don’t think anything but wastefulness would come from me throwing out my 5e books, particularly when I still use them and am no longer financially supporting the company. I support indie games and other ttrpg devs actively by playing and buying their games when I can and when they are in my wheelhouse. I’m sorry that’s apparently not enough for you.

Ptba is definitely more straight forward than d&d, and many games are, I agree. But that doesn’t mean no one should play or enjoy 5e. I’m not equating all non-d&d games with being kooky weird arthouse by using my movie analogy, I’m talking about brand consciousness. If someone hasn’t ever heard of d&d, there’s low likelihood they’d know of pathfinder. Same as how if someone has never heard of Saw, they probably haven’t heard of, I don’t know, the Coffee Table. So if i show them Saw, which is easily accessible, and they like it, i can then show them other things similar from smaller creators. I am fundamentally saying the exact same thing as you with your example of Skinnamarink. I think if people start with 5e and like it, that’s a gateway to trying a ton of other things they might like as much if not more. The point is that without the more known brand, chances are that lots of people wouldn’t be swayed to try something else that is talked about less in the mainstream.

Ultimately, my main point still stands: people can do whatever they want with things they have, and play however they like to. No one needs to or should have to justify using homebrew or modifying the game to suit their needs. Playing a game with like minded people in a way that works for all of them, is not a moral or ethical or intellectual failing. It’s just people playing a private game for fun, and deciding to let a couple of rules slide or allowing some interesting play that bends a rule in-game is not a crime. Should more people try stuff that isn’t 5e? Absolutely they should. Are people who vocally refuse to play anything but 5e missing out? Yes. They are. But again, that’s their prerogative, even if it’s unfortunate that they’re closed minded.

I hope you find your audience. Developing games is a hard thing to do, and it’s increasingly an uphill battle to be noticed. Good luck.

I think an important part of the "D&D is easy to learn" argument is that a lot of those people don't actually know how to play D&D. They know they need to roll a d20 and add some numbers and sometimes they need to roll another type of die for damage. A part of it is the culture of basically fucking around and letting the GM sort it out. Players don't actually feel the need to learn the rules.

Now I don't think the above actually counts as knowing the rules. D&D is a relatively crunchy game that actually rewards system mastery and actually learning how to play D&D well, as in to make mechanically informed tactical decisions and utilizing the mechanics to your advantage, is actually a skill that needs to be learned and cultivated. None of that is to say that you need to be a perfectly tuned CharOp machine to know how to play D&D. But to actually start to make the sorts of decisions D&D as a game rewards you kind of need to know the rules.

And like, a lot of people don't seem to know the rules. They know how to play D&D in the most abstract sense of knowing that they need to say things and sometimes the person scowling at them from behind the screen will ask them to roll a die. But that's hardly engaging with the mechanics of the game, like the actual game part.

And to paraphrase @prokopetz this also contributes to the impression that other games are hard to learn: because a lot of other games don't have the same culture of play of D&D so like instead of letting new players coast by with a shallow understanding of the rules and letting the GM do all the work, they ask players to start making mechanically informed decisions right away. Sure, it can suck for onboarding, but learning from your mistakes can often be a great way to learn.

[dungeonsandkobolds]

Hey! Pretty new to your blog so sorry if you've talked about any of this before, but thought I'd shoot you a few questions. 1) How'd you first get into DnD? 2) Do you still play the same class as your first character, or did you find a class you prefer? (assuming you're not a "forever DM" now 3) How much did you play before you became a DM? 4) And lastly, are there any widely-known tips for GMing that you disagree with? Thank you for your time, hope your night's going well!

oooooh these are all awesome questions! 

1) There was a massive group of like more than 12 people I played DnD with once back in high school and that didn’t really work out (wayyyy to many people) but! It did encourage one of my friends to start DM-ing which was awesome and I really enjoyed it! I actually started playing DnD and DM-ing before I got into any of the podcasts/streams just cause it sounded cool and my friends wanted to play. I designed my first map for my own campaign after one of these sessions and that’s how I got into DM-ing. 

2) My first character ever was a rogue and I still really like the class, however Bard and Druid are probably my go to classes cause I like being support and causing havoc. I’ve recently been playing a monk though and have been really enjoying that, despite never really thinking I like melee characters (I did play a bloodhunter that convinced me to try the monk thing out though) 

3) before I started DM-ing I was in a campaign where we played every couple of months or so? It was a bit difficult to organise cause we were new university students so we didn’t do too much - the friend that DM-ed that has been talking about a new campaign though! 

4) The idea that every encounter/homebrew has to be balanced? In my experience it doesn’t actually matter as long as everyone is having fun - particularly encounters that are pretty easy/not super challenging can give people awesome hero moments. 

I’m also against the idea that you should strictly stick to the rules set out by Wizards of the Coast - sometimes they’re just straight up stupid. It’s your campaign and you’re allowed to make whatever rulings make sense at the time - I let my players do a lot of dumb stuff all the time cause i either think its a cool idea or super funny 

And I’d add onto this that a lot of new DMs that got into DnD through stuff like Critical Role or Fantasy High feel pressured to DM like they saw in the shows - this is not at all true. DM the game you and your players want to play - you don’t have to DM like anyone else. Steal bits from them that you do like sure, but what’s fun about joining in a game with a new DM is the fact that it’s different and things will be ruled/work differently in the campaign 

Thanks for your questions! And yes I’m having a good evening watching some phasmaphobia lets plays lmao 

[themonochromesystem]

ACNH DIRECT RECAP 2/20/2020

There was an animal crossing: new horizons direct today! Here’s the biggest hits from it! Also, this post is very, very long and very in-depth (i spent well over an hour on it) so there is a cut in the beginning to save your dashboard!

btw you can watch the direct for yourself here. And if you enjoy this recap, you might want to join my animal crossing discord server!

First of all, you can pick your island (and further customise the terrain but I’ll get to that later)

And you can pick the northern or southern hemisphere! You’ll be able to experience all four seasons regardless of your pick!

You start off with two villagers! You then get an orientation from Tom Nook, Timmy, and Tommy!

You can pick where your villagers live!!! You can also see the borders of how much space the tents will take up.

BTW we’re only four minutes in to a 27 minute presentation so click the “keep reading”  to see the whole recap!

Facilities

The plaza (the leaf on the map) has Resident Services, which is run by the nooks to provide, well, basic services. They sell tools, flowers, and medicine for wasps! There’s also a crafting table to make more stuff! And it’s open 24/7!!!

Crafting works by learning the recipe, and then gathering the crafting supplies to make it! You just make it at the crafting bench in the top right corner.

You can customize furniture really easily in this game! And, Custom Designs Are Back! (more on that later)

The Airport! It’s also open 24/7 and you can travel to other islands and send letter to your residents here! Also it’s run by the cutest dodo bird

You can have 8 people on one island!

Nook Inc. Special Services

iPhone whomst? I only know the Nook Phone

CEO Tom Nook delivers an Island Broadcast aka morning news to everyone, yall my heart

The Nook Mileage Program is a lot like MEOW Coupons from acnl! Do some tasks to earn miles, to then get rewards! They’re also used to pay off the Getaway Package cost! (yall gonna need 5,000 miles for that btw)

We’ve got tool rings y’all!!!

Wasps, scorpions, and tarantulas are back y’all! Ya know how when you got bit by a tarantula or stung by a scorpion in new leaf you’d just pass out? Well wasps can do that now so #YouCanDieInACNH kldkfjdlfjfhjdffj

These aren’t here for any particular reason, I just thought the mushroom lights were pretty

My boy Wisp is back! It looks like you can collect ghosts in this game (which you could do in older games as a friend informed me)

My other son is also back! 

Apparently you can get lost and need to call a helicopter to take you home? how big are these islands??

You can build a house! and the villagers face omfg thats a great screenie Tom Nook is also supplying loans with no interest or deadlines still! thank god

The secret storage room is also back!

It appears you can change the direction of the flooring at least!

The Happy Home Designer-esque room decorator is here!

Get those snazzy houses! It appears you can have 4 rooms in your house (the main room, one to the left, right, and back)

You can use Nook Miles Tickets to go on Island Tours! You can do things like the acnl island tours, along with picking up some animal friends! There’s multiple islands and it seems to be random every time.

Apparently you can jump over small rivers to escape the tarantulas and scorpions fvbvsjfbvjlsfbvhj

Party Play lets you call residents who live on the same island as you for some local co-op!

Creatures found by the people you’re playing with are stored in the recycle box at resident services!

The Nintendo App finally has a gosh damn use! You can scan qr codes from happy home designer and new leaf! As well as talk to the people you’re playing with!

Part 2 of the Presentation 

Ya’ll you can decide where your new residents will live before-hand! You can invite some residents to live on your island as well!

More Facilities!!! The facilities shown in the direct were: the museum, nook’s cranny, able sisters, the campsite

You can move your house AND the shops and facilities once they’re built it seems!

Town services is supposed to expand into a town hall and ya’ll know what that means!!

ISABELLE!!!

Some other fan favorites will also be visiting the island! These include: Label, Harvey, Celeste, Saharah, Daisy Mae (more on her in a bit), and Kicks!

Celeste can give you a magic wand that lets you select outfits!

Daisy Mae is a new NPC who sells turnips! I speculate she’s the child of Joan, but we don’t know yet.

Fishing Tourneys and Bug Offs are now hosted by CJ and Flick! Flick is my entire aesthetic I love him!!

Free updates are coming with seasonal festivities! My main man Jack is back yall!

Island Customization is expansive! Rip homebrew bc there is no need anymore! We have easy paths, bridges, ramps, river customization, cliff customization, AND you can make your own damn waterfalls! (i’d recommend watching the direct starting at 20:49 to fully grasp this bc it’s a lot)

Happy Birthday to You! 🎶

Additional Info:

1. Up to 8 people can share an island on the same switch system 2. Animal Crossing Amiibo figures and cards are supported! They mentioned add availability to more Amiibos, so maybe the loz and splatoon ones will be added! 3. No more griefing! Only your best friends can use certain tools while visiting your island!  4. Multiplayer sessions appear to each have their own code! 5. Save backups via the Nintendo Cloud thing aren’t supported. Watch at 25:34 for more information! 6. Pocket camp players can get ACNH themed items! Follow the pocket camp twitter for more info!

So thats it! I say, after spending 2 hours making this long ass post lmao

Thanks for reading this far! Like and reblogs are greatly appreciated and follow the ACNH Bathhouse blog for more animal crossing posts! Check out the ACNH discord server for more fun chats about animal crossing and many other games!

Thanks for reading!!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Baldur’s Gate 3

Survived my first week at work! Huzzah!

Also still making my immediate surroundings nicer, one step at a time. Basically I’ve been depressed and barely even noticed the things that needed cleaning, and now I’m noticing, not least because contrast with Other Places after not having really been out for months, and ... yeah. So cleaning everything at once is a bit ... much, still. So instead I decided to do at least two things per day that make my living space tidier than it was. Weirdly, this is what works for me, because ... like, yesterday, I was way too tired to do two things. It had been a whole week and I was fragged. But I felt guilty about not doing the two things I promised. So then I said, “Okay, let’s compromise. One thing. Do one thing.” This worked because it felt less onerous and I still did something. (Pretty big thing, too. I decluttered the shelf in front of my bathroom mirror, which is a pain in the arse.) Which meant that a) I had still improved my surroundings, and b) had something to be proud of having done, even if I didn’t do all of what I’d said I’d do. Probably won’t work for everyone, but so long as it’s working for me, that’s fine.

Elsewise, I was gifted with Baldur’s Gate 3, which is in early access. Apparently it only has the prologue and Act 1 up, and there are glitches and bugs galore, and I see a lot of people going, “Nope, not buying that until they finish it and get it fixed; I expect a finished product and HOW DARE THEY?” Which under most circumstances I’d agree with you. Thing is, however much I personally didn’t like Divinity: Original Sin II (though I may try again once I’ve got the hang of BG3, since there are a few similarities), the fact is that Larian hasn’t done anything to severely dent my confidence or make me think that they’re arseholes who don’t deserve my money. Besides, they are pretty clearly listening to feedback, and implementing new features as well as fixing the glitches. Yeah, it’s having paid £50 or thereabouts to be a beta tester, but you’re getting to shape the game and you already have the game. It’ll mean a lot of patches over time, but...

Hey. Wait a minute. In early access, that thing was about 80GB, not counting the extraneous stuff Steam wanted me to download to support it. How the hell big is this going to be?

*Googles*

.................They want 150GB of disc space?!?

What the fuck is happening to video games that they need to be this huge? Then again, I suppose if it’s supposed to be based largely on D&D, it’s got to focus on a lot of open world, and looking at the graphics on top of a turn-based system that’s still trying to feel more as organic as possible, they’re going to need a lot of data to make that happen. So yeah, bugs are inevitable.

Thing is ... I guess I’m okay with this because they’re being straight with us. We get buggy, rushed, unfinished games from a lot of big name companies and they expect us to live with it until they can be bothered to patch the thing. Larian has basically come out and said, “It has bugs. Please tell us. We will fix them, and it will make the rest of the game better as a result since we’re making it as we speak”. I think about what basically every Bethesda game wants us to live with glitch-wise and honestly can’t complain about Larian Studios’ approach to this.

(I was going to say I’m also generally speaking on the side of the Quebecois, but then I remember Ubisoft Montreal and shut up.)

Anyway, point is that I’m enjoying it (thank you @true0neutral) but am having a hard time settling on a character. None of my usual archetypes seem to be serving me, and I don’t know Faerun very well. This is why I homebrew worlds, see. But I’ll figure out something. I did way better when I a) figured out I wanted to be a wizard, however squishy the poor bastards are, and b) figured out how to deal with some of the glitches. Also, I wish the good folks at Larian made the demarcation between levels of a structure easier to deal with. That’s one carry over from Divinity that I was not happy to see.

I am going to try that again - I’m just going to go through prologue bits until I find what I’m comfortable with, I think. But I need to finish cleaning my desk / worktable first. That’s one of my two things of the day, see. Though given the size of this thing, it nearly counts as two in its own right. Then again, it’s the weekend and I’m at liberty so maybe I can stretch to three.

[dungeondivebar]

Dungeon Dive Bar Crawl - Into the Crystal Realm

As we announced previously, we’ll be running a 24 hour stream for Extra Life on November 6 and 7! Check out that link for some more information on the stream and how to tune in.

Each Friday until the event itself, we’ll be publishing an interview with the GM of one of the adventures along with other material to get everybody super jazzed for the stream.

This week we’re talking to David J. Knight

How did you get into tabletop roleplaying games? I’ve been playing TTRPGs for seven years, give or take. I got into the hobby thanks to forum and text-based roleplaying, and wanted something more structured and with dice. Went to a game store one day when I was 18, tried out a Pathfinder Society game (Paizo’s organized play campaign), and was hooked.

What is your favorite thing about TTRPGs overall? The combination of topical improv, collaborative storytelling, and game mechanics. Lose any one of those, and it’s something completely different. My favorite of those three is probably the mechanics, and, as a subset, building characters.

What do you like the most about the Pathfinder 1e system? Through a combination of first party and balanced third party (psionics, Legendary Games), there is not a single character concept that you can come up with that doesn’t have a representation in some form. 1E even has a rule, a written rule, that states you can reflavor whatever you want to be whatever you want, so long as the mechanics do not change. It’s also a fantastic, if daunting, skeleton to build high-powered games off of. It’s not as universal as 5E’s skeleton (which, ironically, is a great skeleton for everything but high-power games like D&D and Pathfinder typically are), but damn is it spicy. Sure, it has some things that need to be addressed, some holes to fill, and there are some absolutely ridiculous rules (as written, fire resistance makes you immune to lava, but not a hot day), but as a foundation, it’s really damn good.

What are you most excited for during the Dungeon Dive Bar Crawl? Starfinder. I’m not big on the mechanics, the pseudo-bounded accuracy and weird enemy scaling isn’t exactly consistent, but I appreciate the wiggle room, and the setting of Starfinder is just so damn interesting.

What is your favorite class to play? I like pet classes or anyone that has some sort of companion to bounce off of in-game. Support roles are also fun. As are “main character” roles. I can find fun in just about any of them.

Is that why Ray has Honesty? Sort of. I find my roleplaying works best when I have multiple perspectives to work from. Ray and Honesty aren't a true pet class, but the relationship they have is a lot more fun for me than just a single character.

Tell us a bit about one of your characters for the stream. A N I M E. Watch and find out.

What is your favorite part of being a GM? Having full creative control of the backend of a project, and adjusting the writing to account for player interaction. Living worlds are neat.

What will you be running for the Dungeon Dive Bar Crawl? I’ll be running “Into the Crystal Realm”. It’s a homebrew I ran as a sort of test for Fantasy Grounds a year or so ago, and really enjoyed the setting I had built for it. Essentially, Pathfinder characters are called to another reality as the last ditch effort to save the realm from collapsing in on itself.

What are you most excited about when it comes to Into the Crystal Realm? There will be mechanics that are not present in 1E. I’m looking forward to seeing how these players of mine adapt and change their strategy accordingly. I’ve kind of set things up to play more like a video game on my end, and there are justifiable reasons for that. What do you think players are the most excited about? Getting to use third-party stuff they don’t normally get to use. Path of War, Psionics, etc. My game will certainly be the most over-the-top and bombastic/cinematic of the games being run. Being able to lean into their characters and do cool shit is what I hope they’ll get enjoyment out of.

What do you think our viewers will enjoy the most? There’s a lot of #coolshit in this “module” on the enemy side as well.

Most of your module is homebrew, including homebrew monsters and enemies. What do you like most about homebrew material? There’s not a single first-party entity on the GM’s side of this. It’s all built from the ground up by me. There are even completely homebrew mechanics, as well as taking Lair Actions from 5E, because it’s honestly a great idea and I’m glad the system has it. As for what I like most about it, it’s a form of expression. Pathfinder, despite the characters tending on the side of minor gods by the end of the game, tends to actively shy away from making characters seem like these epic protagonists that they are. The games, as written, tend to ignore optimal build paths as well as optimal play styles. Too many times will Paizo make an archer enemy that doesn’t have any of the correct feats, or give their boss characters completely useless tactics, abilities, feats, or spells. Not so with homebrew. In addition to letting the story be about whatever you want, and encouraging people to, again, do cool shit, you can also have enemies that provide proper antagonist vibes, even against the heroes that Pathfinder characters are.

And that’s it for this week’s interview! Tune in starting at 9PM Central on Friday November 6 for the stream and in the meantime, join us at the bar for new Dungeon Dive Bar episodes every Monday at midnight Central!

[disasterhumans]

Do you have any advice for dealing with people who directly insult the stuff you love? One of the people in my dnd group said at our last session that critical role wasn't real dnd and that Matt was a bad DM because he doesn't follow the rules, and normally I just let things go as other people having opinions but the way he said it had an implied comment that I wasn't a real dnd player because I play like critrole does and it still really stings.

I’m so sorry that happened, anon. Even knowing that people are going to have different opinions and enjoy different things, it still feels shitty to have the things you love insulted or disparaged.

Above all, the point of D&D is to tell a story and to have fun. If the way you’re playing the game is helping you experience the game in the way you want, you are playing the game “like a real dnd player.” 

I imagine that “playing like critrole does” means you appreciate leaning into the RP side of things–if that’s not something this other player at your table really connects with that’s also okay. If one or both of you aren’t getting what you want from the game, you should speak with your DM so that they know what parts of the game are important to each of you, so that they can tailor things according to both of your interests.

As far as addressing this player goes, I have two different answers to your question.

Answer 1:

Next time you have a game, you can simply say something to the effect of, “Hey, I know you don’t like Critical Role, and that’s okay, but I really enjoy the show, and it hurt for you dismiss something that is important me.” 

If the player is still rude/dismissive toward you in response you can also add something to the effect of, “The point in playing this game is to build a story together, and in order to do that, we need to respect the way everyone plays.”

Answer 2:

You can get pedantic.

In the Preface to the PHB Mike Mearls writes:

Above all else, D&D is yours. The friendships you make around the table will be unique to you. The adventures you embark on, the characters you create, the memories you make–these will be yours. D&D is your personal corner of the universe, a place where you have free reign to do as you wish.

Go forth now. Read the rules of the game and the story of its worlds, but always remember that you are the one who brings them to life. They are nothing without the spark of life that you give them. [emphasis mine]

And on page 4 of the DMG, in the Introduction to the book (which provides an explanation of what the DM is and does), you have this:

The D&D rules help you and the other players have a good time, but the rules aren’t in charge. You’re the DM, and you are in charge of the game.

On page 233, the first page of “Chapter 8: Running the Game,”

Rules enable you and your players to have fun at the table. The rules serve you, not vice versa. 

Table Rules:Ideally, players come to the gaming table with the same goal: to have a fun time together. This section gives recommendations for table rules you can establish to help meet that goal. Here are some fundamentals:

Foster respect. [emphasis author’s] Don’t bring personal conflicts to the table or let disagreements escalate into bad feelings. 

If you have physical copies of the books on hand, open to the pages and point out these sections.

Furthermore, the accusation that Matt Mercer does not follow the rules is absolutely ludicrous. Matt homebrews a lot, but there is literally an entire chapter on homebrewing in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. It is Chapter 7, titled “Dungeon Master’s Workshop.” (And even if there wasn’t, this would still be within his rights as DM.)

As the Dungeon Master, you aren’t limited by the rules in the Player’s Handbook, the guidelines in this book, or the selection of monsters in the Monster Manual. You can let your imagination run wild. This chapter contains optional rules that you can use to customize your campaign, as well as guidelines on creating your own material […] (p. 263, DMG).

Matt also sometimes makes rulings that another DM might not if he thinks it serves the story better. All of the above quotes support him doing this, but it might also be helpful to note that the DMG describes the DM as a “referee” (on page 5). It is Matt’s job to make calls based on his judgment in difficult situations. It’s also his job to make sure his players are having a good time, which means that the game and world he’s creating may not look like the game your fellow player wants to play. And that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with Matt as a DM.

Matt definitely also makes mistakes and forgets or misremembers rules sometimes. I’m going to venture a guess an say that’s because Matt is human.

Above all else, D&D is a game based on collaborative storytelling, and what works for one table won’t fit another. Matt clearly knows and understands his players and crafts a story and game that works for them. It’s quite easy to see that the entire cast is having a great time, which means they are all playing the game exactly right.

P.S. If you don’t have the physical books on hand, feel free to print this response out so you can provide them with the direct quotes and page numbers.

Go forth, and happy gaming.

[dreadlock-detective]

"Official D&D" and a sense of overarching "D&D lore" is a scam, the idea only exists so WotC can sell more books and weaken their competition. Toss what you don't like in the trash, try out other games to see if you like them more (fantasy game PDF piracy is a fantasy crime), and have fun where you can. We are all in this together.

Eh, there’s nothing wrong with having official lore for the game - I completely understand not everyone wants or has the time to world build from scratch, and for players, you wont typically have to deal with whatever piles of lore there are for monsters unless it’s specifically important to the main story. They can also be a good starting point for world building if nothing else. I just personally enjoy overthinking things and ranting about things. Seeing what I don’t like in other works of fiction lets me solidify more what I want in my own.

I’ve actually only played in one game set in an official D&D world (Faerun, and its the campaign Dindel’s in) and even then it’s on the other side of the continent from the Sword Coast, specifically so the DM feels more free to make things his way, and I can’t say it being in one of the official settings has hampered my enjoyment at all. But yeah we do all operate on the “if the official stuff sucks, throw it out and homebrew/houserule it” from rules to setting to monster stuff.

I’d definitely prefer more books like Xanathars and less like Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, because I strongly prefer more options over lore I’ll never use, but eh, different people have different interests.

As for systems, I’ve only actually played the d20 based ones so far (D&D 3.5/4/5, Pathfinder, D20 Modern) but have read up on and was supposed to play Shadowrun and Star Wars Edge of the Empire. Those two never happened but they seemed a bit weird but probably fun.

Overall the system itself is a side thing to me - I enjoy roleplaying and all the shenanigans that come from that. Which is why I refuse to go back to any of the D20 systems that aren’t 5e - I like how simple 5e is so we can focus on having fun instead of looking up what the goddamn bonuses and penalties there are for laying on the ground and its not 30 minutes between my turns… freaking 3.5….

(I do strongly oppose just downloading PDFs of systems you know you want to play though. For testing whether or not you want to blow a bunch of money on a new game system, sure, check it out first, but always support things you enjoy however you can.)

[you-throw-like-a-gnoll]

This Fine bit of Free Real Estate you see before you is the land of Zeta.

This Map was brought to you by inkarnate.com One of the best Fantasy Map Makers thats completely free to use

 I left off some parts of the map such as the gnome village, the pyres, the aarakocra nest, the tower label. the hags label, lunar isle label, lake label, taverns, inns, brothels Its a creativity canvas for you all! If you are interested in some of the stuff I just mentioned, questions like, why is Isleview the most racially diverse? and why is Fort Tau named so? And what the hell happened to the city of eden?? Give me a comment and Ill tag you in the lore post when I post it x 

I made this big ol' bad boi myself, I thought I'd share it with any other DMs out there who might struggle with world creation and be quite good at characters, or cities, or plots, or whatever it is you shine at! We can't all be good at everything! Just give a little and enjoy yourself Anyway, Here's a little bit about Zeta!

TaDAH! You're looking at the very first map I ever drew of Zeta

Needless to say that it is ENTIRELY different (Thank god) You'll notice some things managed to make the final cut, codcatch for example (I just fell in love with the name, I have no idea why - its so bad) plus the towers (Yes, theyre supposed to be towers) around the City was kept in, but given to the Orc settlement this time

But thats enough about that! I hear you cry; "What use is a fucking map bruh?" "Dude, your map is lame, you better come up with something better"  "BRO, you suck, I need some Lore"

You-Throw-Like-a-Gnoll has got you covered! First things first! I've added some racial limitations to make this game a little more 'interesting' (Insert menacing laugh) To be honest, I just love going on a power trip <3 

Racial Limitations

No Half-Orc or Homebrew Orc-kin No Dwarves or Homebrew Dwarf-kin All other races allowed, Homebrew races must be given reasonable cause for arriving/existing Lunar island on west coast, woodlands, mountain and broken islands all available for said task 

Okay. okay, okay - I know Hill Dwarves are the shit. I know. But you gotta just let them go for this one campaign! My reasoning for this is pretty simple - They got fucking annihilated. Like off the face of Zeta. Orcs are disallowed as PCs because of more political reasons. They're bad, and they've always been bad. They've also never been encountered by any human alive today. This is because they live in The Maw, but more on that later 

Recommended starting locations 

This is pretty self explanatory, I mean, depending on what type of campaign to run, you're gonna wanna start somewhere different. 

Adventure: Codcatch, Isleview 

War : Fort Tau, Tryevale 

Mystery: Tryevale, Fort Tau, Illaris Temple 

Horror: Fort Tau, The Maw 

Interplanar: Isleview 

Intercontinental: Tryvale, Illaris Temple (I added intercontinental because hey, I know a lot of people might want to use this as a once-off before beginning their own world creation, I SUPPORT YOU SO MUCH! Steal this shit from me, send me a kiss and forget about me when you're done! I'm okay with this <3 If anything i've said so far has helped you build your campaign, you've made my day) 

Recommended Arcs This one could do with some more explaining on some parts so its gonna be (Dramatic Music intensifies) a TWO-PARTER! 

Recommended Arcs: 

Adventure: Island in the lake, Tower in the forest, Hag's Knife (northern most point) Illaris Temple, The pyres light one day War: The Maw is the most obvious,        --------SubWar - Invasion - Lunar Isle invasion, Dwarven  revival Mystery: Murder in the capitol, spies in the Fort, whats amiss in the temple Horror: Escape from the Maw, Return of the Duergar Interplanar: Save the island from the curse, Fend off the invasion Intercontinental: Set off on a journey to bring back a coveted magical item, what made the volcano stop 

Thats the short of it guys! I'm probably gonna make some more posts about the lore and other politics and stuff, I already have some very interesting lore about that lake done! A lot of open ended stuff also to help you along the way, but to give you full creative license! Which is what DnD is all about! Anyway, heres the Long version of the Recommended Arcs, hope you enjoyed reading 

Adventure- 

Island in the lake - Looks like the tracks are still there, but the land is gone... Tower in the forest - Someone spoke of a Wizard that grants 3 wishes  Hag's Knife - Does the Hagraven's blood hold the secret that you want to hear Illaris Temple - Anyone who has left the temple has taken an eternal vow of silence (The Pyres light) - This requires some more in-depth lore, Comment below if you'd like to be tagged in the Lore post!

War- The Maw - The Maw is ran by Orcs (inhabited by Hobgoblins and Co. See Volo's Guide to Monsters on advice on how Hobgoblins assemble in armies, very interesting read), no one has fought an orc and lived, few have even seen orcs - One day during training in Fort Tau - you see a hundred Lunar Isle invasion - One day, A magically echoing scream is heard from Lunar island, one of the portals on the island  opens up bigger than ever before Dwarven Revival - The Thumping of Dwarven Music can be heard in the distance, The Hobgoblins abandon their posts 

Mystery- Murder in the capitol - easy peasy squeezey lemons Spies in the for t- Easy squeezy lemon peasy Whats amiss in the temple - See adventure 

Horror- 

Escape from The Maw - You all end up in chains, hobgoblins and trolls taunt you with pebbles and hang food just out of your reach, one night, a Lawful cleric frees you all from your chains, what do? Return of the Duergar - See Dwarven Revival, but add +4 to spook Interplanar - Save the island from the curse - this doesn't fit into the lore so much, as it assumes the lunar island is cursed. but hey, Creativity is the name of the game! Fend off the invasion - See Lunar Isle invasion 

Intercontinental - This list isn’t even CLOSE to being complete, intercontinental could literally mean, lets get the fuck off this island and go do quests somewhere else! The Stopped Volcano - A long Haul, Late Game, Lore Heavy, Late Night, Lose your Mind, Load the gun and shoot yourself in the face because this story is so long but so interesting so i cant stop playyyinggggggggg story. But youre gonna need to wait for the lore post for this one ;) Love you all, If you made it this far, I applaud you, you're making me smile, 

Be nice to each other and never grow up 

[ostrichmonkey-games]

I 100% agree that 5e is meant to be a vehicle to get dnd to the most amount of people (though, I think more because WotC is selling it as a brand and lifestyle, not necessarily a game and hobby. I've got some grim predictions for "One D&D" and how that might end up being monetized in the future, but that's a wild tangent for another time).

I think a lot of people try 5e specifically, not have a super great time with it, and either drop ttrpgs, or get into a "sunk cost" kind of mindset, where "it'll just take one more homebrew to get this to work", because (and I'm being hyperbolic here) "everyone talks about homebrew". There is more of an expectation that you have to homebrew 5e to make it work for you. Which, I think a game shouldn't require that of the table. There's a difference between a game inviting the players into the design space, and the weird gaps that 5e leaves.

As someone who makes games within the "indie ttrpg" space, (which frankly, literally any ttrpg that isn't dnd is indie at this point, given the scale of WotC/Hasbro), I personally don't see a lot of people using 5e as a gateway to the wider ttrpg space. It can happen! It happened to me luckily, but its not super easy to learn about and find other ttrpgs unless you have someone who can guide you through that space, just because no one else has WotC's reach.

I don't want to get too argumentative here (but I will indulge just a little bit lol), but I truly do believe that 5e fails design-wise because it was simplified in the wrong ways! I'd say 5e shares a lot of design DNA with 3.X (mostly going off 3.5, I don't have much personal experience with 3.0), but loses the real complexity and system mastery that 3.5 pushed (sidenote, personally not a fan of 3.5/PF1e for a variety of reasons lol), to the point where everything in 5e really starts to feel the same. Its that smooth spongebob picture. All the interesting quirks of older editions have just been sanded down. I'll leave it at that, and ultimately, it probably at least partly comes down to "I just don't like it as a game!" lmao. If people like 5e, that's great! End of the day, play games you enjoy. (But also people should go and explore and find games that they don't even know they'll fall in love with. Also its cooler to support independent creators than a corporation.)

At this point I feel like I've at least tried most style of games (tho WoD and I guess, GURPS are notable blind spots). I run a good amount of Forged in the Dark games, but also Pathfinder 2e, and I've been on a post-OSR design kick recently. Right now I'm a player in a FFG Star Wars game and also a couple Powered by the Apocalypse based systems. I tend to gravitate toward games that aren't necessarily character-complex (like FitD or PbtA), but those games can still be rules or procedure heavy. Though that doesn't stop me from playing/running more character/encounter-complex systems like SWRPG or PF2e! I really like PF2e, which is definitely more complex than 5e, but is not nearly so oppressively fiddly as PF1e was. It's not necessarily less complex than PF1e, but the way its presented and designed is far more intuitive and engaging. Which is why I like it! It's just well put together!

I'm also writing some games that are probably going to fall somewhere in the middle, but they're still waaaay in progress so who knows what they'll turn into in the end. Also currently obsessed with a variety of editions of Traveler, in the sense "I want to put it under a microscope and study it" kind of obsessed. Traveler5 in particular, is, truly wild.

Anyways, I appreciate the conversation! Truly fun to talk about this stuff.

There's a post to be made about how crunchy games (and this is coming from someone who doesn't typically dabble in the crunch!) are not inherently anti-roleplaying or restrictive in terms of story and narrative, it's just that the biggest example out there is a poorly made game.