#is he invested in the d&d campaign or is he invested in the DM???

[neoluca]

Listening to: Fast Times at Barrington High - The Academy Is...

[cubbihue]

Hey if Hazel, Dev, and the gang play DnD, what do you think they would play as.... and how who would be the fortunate(or unfortunate) DM?

When I was 10, my older brother would play massive D&D campaigns in the living room. He tried teaching me the mechanics but it was too much and too boring for my small brain. Instead, I was far more fascinated with things like Warrior Cats.

Apparently Warrior Cats has a d&d game though. So. The kids would all play that instead!

Dev would eventually be roped into joining. Mainly because when you're sitting with a table of kids doing storytelling, you end up getting very invested, and very frustrated when they make the very wrong choices!!!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[centaurianthropology]

Why C3E51 worked so well (a DM’s perspective)

I have seen a lot of absolutely bananas critiques of C3E51 (thankfully not nearly as many around here, far more on Reddit, which I should not have visited).   And the ongoing theme of those critiques is that Matt should not have imperiled former PCs, and if he brought them in should have either done lengthy side-bars with those characters or let them win the fight against Ludinis and have a chance to take him out themselves, since they’re ‘god tier’ or ‘high level’ and that makes ‘logical sense’.  What these critiques really boil down to, IMO, are people who were really invested in the former campaigns upset that their faves didn’t get to do cool things, treating it more like a TV show than a game.  But even as a TV show, that would have been disappointing from a narrative perspective.  Because even in a TV show, this is a sequel spin-off show, starring new characters.  The story is about THEM.  And more importantly, the game is about the players and about telling their story.

So let’s break this down from a DM perspective.  How do you build a Kobiashi Maru situation for your characters?  For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Kobiashi Maru is a Star Trek term for a scenario designed from the jump to be unwinnable (Kirk beat it by creativity, but later admitted that he missed the point of it).  In Star Trek this was done to test what a future officer would do if faced with certain failure.  In a D&D game it’s a little more complicated.  Part of it is to set up the BBEG, put their plan in motion, and set the stage for the next leg of the game.  But it’s also to give your players, who are clearly into it, a darkest-hour scenario.  Not every player group is going to be into facing down the Kobiashi Maru, and it’s clear from the aforementioned critiques that a lot of them are on Reddit.  Power-gamers who always want to win are not going to enjoy this sort of storytelling, but players who are really into RP and working through difficult times and failures will eat this stuff up.  And this is absolutely the sort of table playing on Critical Role.  There is a level of trust there that can only be built after years of working together, and this was finally the moment when Matt could pay off years of planning and campaign-spanning set-up.

Matt carefully plotted the structure of this episode out to give maximum agency and impact to a party of dramatically under-leveled characters.  And they knew going in they were under-leveled.  This wasn’t a surprise, but a potential suicide run by people who knew they weren’t the heroes they needed to be, but were the only heroes in the right place at the right time to try anything.  So they came up with as good a plan as they could, and executed it fairly well, all things considered.  

They knew they couldn’t take on Ludinus directly (and this was a great way to demonstrate exactly how much he had planned and how long, to bring in elements from C2, hints we’ve had for years about Ludinis, only to reveal it went deeper than any of the characters could have imagined), so Matt gave them some winnable objectives.  This is a great way to keep the characters invested in an unwinnable scenario: the ultimate outcome may be beyond the characters, barring some insane genius or incredible rolls, but they can still help.  They can do something that will have a tangible impact on events and hinder the baddies enough to give them another chance at a rematch and a way to stop the apocalypse when they’re higher level.  So Matt gave them the batteries: take out as many as you can.  While this would not stop the ritual, I suspect that the more they took out the more Ludinis would have to drain his own power to make the key work, and the longer the process would take.  Knocking out the feywild key, as well as multiple power sources turned what would have been an instantaneous event if they had done nothing into a more drawn-out affair which, I suspect, could be stopped or even reversed.  It gave them a window to come back and demand a rematch.

Then we have the high-level PC allies, and how to play with those sorts of characters without pulling focus from the PCs.  Matt handled this very well, by having the players roll for their former PCs, taking the specifics of their actions out of his hands and letting the dice of the former players decide.  He also revealed that Keyleth’s involvement, and baiting Vax with Otohan’s permadeath poison, was key to Ludinis’ ritual, which was why she couldn’t just dive in and clean everything up.  But again, because of this story, it ties less back to Keyleth and more back to Orym.  That was the point of the attack on Zephrah, to get her attention by getting her to look into who did it and then coming to get some payback, but the little guy on the ground has always been caught in the middle.  Orym has been Ludinis’ unwitting pawn from the off, his family’s deaths merely a means to an end, and that is vicious and amazing set-up for character growth for him.  

Beau and Caleb had to be there by the logic of the story.  It didn’t make sense that Caleb would sit out a world-ending event orchestrated by a Cerberus Assembly member after spending years trying to take them down.  Beau would obviously go with him.  It also made sense that they would be the only two there, because they were scouting when Ryn got taken down, and after that were trying to keep a low profile.  Shit accelerated too fast for them to call in reinforcements.

Which is the in-story reason for them to be there, but isolated and vulnerable, making them useful allies and wildcards (who likely could have been more useful if ultimately failing as well, but failed early thanks to Liam and Marisha’s rolls).  But they were still outmatched.  I have no idea what the challenge rating of Otohan, Leliana, and Ludinis are, but we know Otohan was considered ‘beatable’ back in Bassuras.  That indicates she’s the lowest CR, particularly with the glowing weak-spot on her back.  But she can still wreck a level-20 PC if she gets the jump on her, which she did.  And that meant that she remained a massive threat.  Caleb and Beau were playing it smart, keeping to the shadows, but still got caught by Leliana.  Between dice rolls, careful planning, and some great enemy design, Matt really set up a team that could take on high-level players and win.  And he made it clear that Ludinis did not leave this to chance.  He has the best people he could muster after 1000 years of planning.  Nothing short of a miracle could have truly stopped them.

Which is why we cut back to Bells Hells.  Because ultimately this particular story isn’t about Keyleth or Vax or Caleb or Beau or any other former PCs.  This is about the current party being caught up in events much larger than them and having to rise to the occasion.  This is the story of the schmucks sent in to take out the batteries, but who have personal beef with the big bads.  Ludinis orchestrated the plan to attack Zephrah to bait Keyleth and draw out Vax, and Otohan carried it out.  And he used Orym as a pawn throughout all of it.  This makes taking them down, but especially taking Otohan down, the cornerstone of Orym’s personal quest.  Letting an NPC take her down would be taking away a critical part of his motivation and goals, which is an absolute no-no for a DM.  NEVER bring in a god-tier NPC and take away player agency or story beats.  Especially never have them resolve important player goals and backstory events!  Every NPC, even the powerful ones, are there to support the story the players are telling.  So of course Keyleth wasn’t going to take out Otohan.  Of course she wasn’t going to stop the ritual.  Beau and Caleb might have been able to do something more if Liam and Marisha hadn’t rolled so badly for them, but ultimately, they had to get caught or fail in another way.  

For the sake of gameplay, Bell’s Hells had to be the only functional team.  They had to be the ants that were beneath Ludinis’ notice long enough to really accomplish something.  And as much as it feels like they failed, they had minor victories: Laudna and Ashton took out more batteries, making Ludinis drain his own power to kick off the apocalypse.  They only failed to take out Otohan’s backpack by 2 HP, which showed them that she was an achievable goal in the future.  If they had rolled a little better, they probably could have taken her out entirely, which would have felt like a big accomplishment for them.  Imogen made her mother pause in her assault before doubling down.  This leaves open very interesting future beats for their interactions.  Can she ultimately redeem her mother or would she have to take her out?  Every step that Matt set up in this episode, from the reveals about Ludinis’ plans and Orym’s past, to Imogen’s interactions with her mother, to Chetney and likely Ashton finding themselves staring down their own backstories after the party split, was focused on this party, on getting them ready to step out of low-level play and advance.

And that’s the point of E51.  It’s not a climax of the story, but the ultimate set-up.  It’s putting all the pieces onto the board in a way that all the characters can now recognize.  Yes, unless the players came up with something genius, the apocalypse was going to kick off, but their actions slowed everything down to a place where it could be combatted.  Yes, the god-tier former PCs were always going to get neutered, because this is Bells Hells’ story, and you cannot have NPCs fix PC problems.  They might have been able to do a little more before this happened, but the dice rolled.

And it’s honestly good for the PCs how things turned out.  They have a clear objective, but are split up.  This gives them great incentive to level up, explore character backstory, deal with their personal shit, get stronger, and then come back to kick the asses of all three of these villains (or possibly redeem one, we’ll see).  Their powerful allies are now temporarily side-lined.  Keyleth is badly hurt and will need time to recover.  Caleb is collared and will need time to get that removed.  Beau is likely up and moving now, but will need to safeguard Caleb for a while.

The Bells Hells are on their own.  The Darkest Hour has come, and it’s time for them to rise up and go from nobodies to heroes.  This is their true call to adventure.  And as a DM, it was so cool seeing how Matt set up all the pieces over the campaign, only to pay them out in such a satisfying and motivating way in this episode.

[brynnmclean]

I've got another D&D poll for you all in a similar vein to Is the Advisor Evil? because I think it's funny and one of my players/mutuals suggested I do this, if only so she could make a propaganda post about my special little guy.

Here's the scenario: you, the DM, start a new campaign and want to get your party invested in the game quickly, so you create an NPC to lead the group to a nice little first combat scenario that your guy can aid them with before he gives a quest hook and dies dramatically.

Immediately you run into problems with this plan: the healer saves his life. The party adopts him. You think, okay, he can give them important information periodically and then you'll TOTALLY kill him off later.

Three actual IRL years later, you have tried (and failed) to kill him THRICE total and he is now a PC's love interest. So!!!!

[cryptids-and-muses]

Post canon homestuck crew play Dungeons and Dragons

Karkat and terezi

Co dms

Unstoppable when actually working together

Terezi will get sidetracked messing with karkat

Karkat trying to write a deep and well fleshed out campaign that’s thematically resonant vs terezi’s desire for chaos and traps and trying to “trick” her players FIGHT

Terezi believes in karma and will make the world bend to this

Karkat is trying to set up romance arcs and argues about how it adds to the theming

Dave draws them fanart of their characters. Terezi loves it while karkat argues about accuracy before admitting yes he also appreciates it

Calliope also does fanart and karkat praises her skill and accuracy unlike some people

John

Arcane trickster rogue

Forest gnome

Just a goofy little guy!

Mostly just playing to have fun, starts off with a fun but simple character who develops over time

Ends up SUPER invested and taking this so so seriously

Karkat worked a dramatic reveal into the, in his words, “bare ass bones two paragraphs that a fucking wiggler could have written backstory” and John did not see it coming and loved it

Goes head to head with terezi a lot on her various traps she designs for them. She is getting more and more absurd with it. Karkat had to talk to her about breaking the world building with things she’s introducing. He is the only rogue. Send help.

Rose

Drow warlock

Tries to justify picking drow as anything other than she just thought it was cool

Nearly went old ones for patron but settled on archfey for story reasons

Has a 10 page lore document detailing her tragic past and her toxic relationship with her patron

It became 15 pages after going back and forth with karkat for a bit and adding even more

Only her and one other person are taking the romance arcs seriously and they become karkat’s favorite players

Tries playing morally ambiguous but terezi can be annoying about that and claims it’s just “the consequences of her actions”

Her and karkat both get very very into the scenes between her and her patron, the drama! The acting! Dave is uncomfortable and karkat brushes it off, it’s not like him role playing as his sister’s abusive girlfriend is weird. It’s in fact very important to the plot Dave

Has written fanfic of the campaign

Jade

Dragonborn barbarian

Path of the beast

Don’t ask me I just know

Her GLEE when she says “I’m gonna rage :D”

ANIMAL COMPANION! She nearly went ranger just for that but knew she wouldn’t have as much fun. Found a way to get one anyway.

It was harder naming her animal companion than her character

Having fun and likes the problem solving side of things, but likes breaking things with her massive strength just as much

Terezi likes to throw stuff at her, both traps and encounters, and finds it funny if she can just wreck her way through

“See John that’s how you deal with a pressure plate trap”

Takes the rp side of things very seriously

Once argued with Karkat over if her favorite npc would do that and cursed him out

Has read roses fanfic of the campaign

Dave

Plays a teifling with grey skin and orange horns

“What are you talking about karkat this is just my dude, don’t you like him?”

Hellus Jeffus

He’s a valor bard, eventually multiclasses paladin

Starts out just trying to mess with people but like John starts getting into it, though he tries to down play it

Have hellus more of himself than he realized and it’s making him face things about himself

Eventually hellus self sacrifices to save the party in this deeply intense moment. There were tears, Dave was wrecked, they went on a whole quest to revive him. It was touching and karkat is smug

Dave might have worked through some things

Jane

Halfling cleric

Her and John are small buddies!!!

Started out life but wasn’t having a lot of fun with it so with terezi’s permission switched to war or tempest with later s few levels in fighter

Her John and Jade are the biggest front liners, John’s character ends up really close with both of them as it’s easier for the rogue to bond with the person giving them sneak attack

Jade and jane’s character have an in game arm wrestling match

Took a bit to get into the rp side of things but eventually got the hang of it

Roxy

Tabaxi, easily, it’s so obvious

After much deliberation settles on glamour bard (though wizard and rogue were tempting for the joke, she wanted to branch out)

So many horny bard jokes but very little actual follow through, karkat gets frustrated by this as she’s all this talk but isn’t pursuing any of the romance options he’s giving her

She has SECRETS! She is HIDING THINGS!! Her cheery persona is a FASADE!!!

Cue complaining to karkat about how hard it is to wait to tell the others about her secrets and him threatening violence if she tells anyone before the in game reveal

She tells jake

Lots of egging on Dave and helping him with his fucking around

The BOND between her and Dave!!! They are the duo to end all duos. Team rocket type shit. There is nothing stronger than the bond between the bards of the party. My theory is it has to do with trading bardic inspiration.

Dirk

Half elf Druid circle of spores

Wildfire seemed fun to him but wasn’t as good

Wasn’t originally planning on being a Druid but after going over all the classes he liked all the customization and decisions that go into Druid like prepared spells and such

Didn’t really think about his backstory much, just improved something. He keeps improving new additions and it’s getting more and more elaborate and complicated. He has multiple hidden and long lost siblings by this point. Still doesn’t write any of this down. If he messes a detail up he justified it with more improv.

Yes his character has spiked up red hair and sunglasses. Don’t question how the Druid got sunglasses karkat.

Really likes the tactics side of things, he’s even pitched a few things to terezi she updated and later worked in

Sometimes works on plans and strategies out of game or making a million back up characters that play off the others in interesting mechanical ways

Is considering becoming a dm some time

Jake

Needed some help making his character, he just didn’t know where to start

Eventually after much discussion settles on a teifling bladesong wizard

Wanting to get away from his usual adventurer style Roxy helped with the backstory and they came up with this evil scientist raised in a cult who’s good hearted but was never taught right and wrong

He gets very into playing him and his moral struggle but can lean a little too good for his backstory, karkat points this out and Jake swears to get better at it

Dave pitched a lot of names for them and it was eventually settled on “Bernard Gunn” even though he has a sword. Jake just likes how it sounds

“Why is he blue jake?” “…..uhhh” “why is he blue?”

Calliope

SHE LOVES THIS SO MUCH

Teifling Druid with a focus on healing

Circle of shepards

Not a troll color pallet like Dave though, honestly it might get a bit trickster

Beautiful backstory that she coordinated with one of the others to make joint. The most obvious choice is Roxy but I think it was actually jade, Jane or John.

She gets so into it you guys, like so into it

Gives at least one dramatic speech completely on the fly

The other character who takes karkat’s romance arcs seriously and his other favorite player

Has also argued with terezi about world building and consistency. This may put her above rose in karkat’s eyes

Was also allowed to read rose’s fanfiction and offered full on reviews

Also considering going into doing but for the opposite reasons to Dirk

Vriska

Fairy artillerist artificer with a dip in war magic wizard

Min maxxed to hell and back

(Technically there was a better race, but fairy has its own advantages and she couldn’t resist)

An elaborate backstory too with some secrets of her own, I’m thinking full on lost princess

Yes she is That Player, you know the one

Has nearly been kicked multiple times and now won’t leave on principle

Not the best at sticking with the party and not just doing whatever she wants, but suprisingly Dirk has been able to talk her into it with his talk of tactics and playing smart

Second most effective is John who just looks at her like “vriska you’re not making this very fun :(“

Kanaya

Fire genasi ranger

Really tried to get into it but this just isn’t her thing so eventually decided to leave the group

Karkat came up with a fun story reason for her to leave and eventually brought her character back as an Npc

Did help rose make a cosplay of her character, after which John, Calliope, and Roxy wanted to make ones too

Vriska eventually tried to “manipulate” into helping her make one for her character

[herrscherofmagic]

a thought has occurred to me: the Seven Shus in HI3rd Part 2 would make a perfect D&D group!

In both ways too: the Seven Shus as characters in a D&D campaign, but also the Seven Shus just chilling at Thelema's mansion or smth playing D&D (as unlikely as it would be in canon, I imagine it'd make for a killer fanfic lol)

i was thinking about this because of the recent Thelema web event, and this morning I watched a video talking about fantasy taverns (largely in a historical context, then swtiching to a D&D context). and one of the things the guy was talking about was how nobles might be invested in supporting a local adventuring party, in exchange for being able to use them for special tasks.

and it hit me: Thelema is like, a perfect example of that. Not only is she a cunning noble with the skill to navigate upper society, she also has the willingness (and the power) to get down and dirty with matters.

Thelema would be such an interesting D&D character because she's superficially treated as a hedonist but in reality she's really pragmatic and thoughtful, so there's plenty of room for both fun and serious shenanigans. As for personal motives, she's totally capable of evil, but she doesn't senselessly cause harm (so she wouldn't be a murder hobo type). So she'd be very capable of doing questionable things, but she'd also perfectly willing to save the world if such a thing was in her interests.

While I haven't drawn up a complete character sheet for her, I at least have these ideas in mind:

I imagine she'd probably be a rogue with a noble background. The noble background is obvious; as for her being a rogue, I think her combat style in HI3rd gives off some of those vibes what with her chain-sword being used almost like a pair of daggers, just with a lot of extra pizzazz.

Checking the online D&D wiki I also see there's a "soul knife" rogue archetype which might fight Thelema's domination skills. Though, she also fits two other archetypes, Inquisitive & Mastermind, quite well. So idk which I'd pick if I had to choose just one since she has both psychic talent and incredible people/diplomatic/manipulative skills, lol

I could also see her being a sorcerer with Shadow Magic, but that might also be a better fit for a different Shu.

I haven't put enough thought into the rest of the Shus to give this same in-depth analysis but I at least wanted to get these ideas for Thelema out there!

However, I do have some preliminary thoughts for the classes of some of the other Shus:

Songque would probably be something to do with Illusion magic- following the book strictly she'd probably be a Wizard, but I imagine if the DM was a bit loose with the rules then she could be the Shadow Sorcer instead of Thelema; that also fits quite well with how we meet her in HI3rd!

Lantern could be a Ranger in the Hunter Conclave. It'd also be really funny if she refused to use any of the spells she learns, since we know she's adamant about her abilities being her own skill & training instead of being related to the shadows.

Litost gives Oathbreaker Paladin vibes, but idk enough about him or Oathbreaker Paladins to say for sure x-x

Ajita would be an Artificer, duh.

Serapeum could be a Druid (Dreams circle) or Wizard (Enchantment school), both seem fairly fitting for her powers of unity.

Baiji would be none other than the Dungeon Master! he gives DM vibes ngl, and it'd be really funny if the rest of the Shus were actual characters but Baiji was just a disembodied voice speaking at the rest of the gang

[alldaysarenights]

On Discworld…

…and the things I’ve learned so far.

I know, I’m late, but sometimes it’s fun to discover something on your own and in your time.

Recently, I’ve started reading the Discworld series, beginning with Rincewind. And there are so many tiny things I’ve discovered, I don’t even know where to start.

I’ll give D&D a go first. As a passionate player and also a I-once-ran-a-short-campaign DM, I couldn’t but notice all the references there to find, especially with Rincewind. Right now I’m 4 books into his story, barely at the beginning, yet I’ve laughed my a** off a few times. Always wondering what he took from a former campaign. Well, at first I wondered if Sir Pratchett actually played. The internet was quick to answer the question, yes, yes of course he did. Would have been more surprised, if he didn’t.

I discovered stuff about the gods playing dice and there are sorcerer, barbarians and the luggage, which slightly reminds me of a mimic. But I guess this beast came afterwards. I told the other players of my group, and they agreed on the resemblance. Now we definitely have the plan, to tame a mimic, lol.

I could quote you so much stuff, but I’d fancy you going on an adventure and see it for yourself. Read the books, assemble some good friends, and have some fun on a silly campaign. Not necessarily in this order.

Next thing that keeps popping up in my mind, while reading, is Good Omens. I came from the Neil Gaiman side, getting lured in by Morpheus, whom I met doing some research. My comic book dealer was happy to help. Naturally, there was a point where I did read Good Omens. And it was weird, this was Gaiman, but also not, and it was so funny. I knew one day I would have to read Discworld. Unfortunately, I was a bit discouraged by the massive amount of books. The problem sorted out itself, after a friend, I’ve talked to about it, enabled me to read them.

With it came a list in which order I should proceed, so I happily jumped in, secretly nurturing the idea of reading all the books within a year. If it works out, no idea, we’ll see. If so, I might write another article on the experience.

Anyway, the point is, knowing Good Omens well as for watching the series multiple times and doing the same to the book (reading actually), I couldn’t but notice some stuff that definitely came from Terry’s side. Like phrases, he kept using. I did read: “Not as such” as an answer more than once. No matter who said it, in my imagination it was Crowley for a split second.

The first book got me so confused, I completely forgot that this was Terry Pratchett. I caught myself thinking, I was reading Neil Gaiman. This set my brain on halt and the world stood for a second. Amazing what books can do to you.

I’ve realised Death and the horsemen and how they seem unable to start a proper apocalypse. Also, sometimes there were phrases sounding a lot like Agnes Nutter. As well as the tone it is written in, the tiny wordings you sometimes aren’t aware of as an author. And it led me to the conclusion, (of course there is no other evidence and I could be totally wrong), that Neil must have invested a lot of time in re-reading the Discworld or maybe already know them by heart. For some of the things I’ve realised definitely played a part in GO2.

It is amazing how much two people can morph into one, and yet there must be a lot of work behind the scenes. I for my part can only hope that my writing buddy and I can get to this point some day. At least I’ll have to convince him to write a full-grown novel together first.

So you might ask yourself, and I know because so did I, what’s the whole point of this article? Fair enough. I came to the conclusion, that fun expands with knowledge. And I know, my sense of fun probably differs from that of others a lot. But if you are able to grasp those tiny hints and hidden pleasures, it can make a story twice as joyful.

So go out there and consume all those stories. Not just by reading. Listen to people telling their stories, watch movies, series, anime. Maybe go to the opera or watch a play. Memorise a poem or play a game. Find the medium which suits you well but keep on searching, you’ll never know what you might learn from it and what pleasures and magic are hidden in those stories. Because our world is built, or maybe better, powered by storytelling.

[ersetu-gazette]

Mother of Learning: A Love Letter to D&D and Downtime

There are so many influences to Mother of Learning’s narrative that you might not be able to list them all. Fantasy novels, real world history, anime, fanfiction, thrillers, video games, and time travel science fiction easily come to mind. But the one major influence that is the most prevalent in my perspective is Dungeons and Dragons.

The world building, the character design, the culture, and the plot itself are grown from a soil fertilized by Dungeons and Dragons. Spells have levels (called circles), cephalic rats were called cranium rats before it was changed to not step on WOTC’s toes, liches are a bloodthirsty and dangerous memento of past norms, dragons are intelligent and powerful threats, and the creation of dungeons are a natural phenomena connected to the origin of the world. I could go for hours on the obvious connection this story has with D&D, but there is one particular facet that interests me. Downtime is a component of D&D that isn’t as well established in some games, but is absolutely vital for having a realistic and spaced out campaign that goes from low level to high level. For those that don’t know, it’s the game play shift from “what to do we do day to day or round to round” to “what do we do over the next few weeks, or months, or sometimes years.” It’s when characters have chance to accumulate resources, enact social change, chase down mysteries, build organizations, or further develop their personal power. It most importantly gives players narrative breathing room to imagine their characters when tension isn’t at it’s highest and live a more reasonable life. Some d&d players don’t care if they level up every day from constant adventuring would be great, but for others it ruins the immersion by presenting them with a world in which anyone can become a god in just a month of adventuring.

Mother of Learning is very much in love with this aspect of D&D play in how it serves the character development, but also the greater narrative and suspension of disbelief.

Let’s look at how a “common” D&D party uses downtime and how Mother of Learning does. The iconic d&d party (acting in a stereotypical manner) would have a wizard that was either researching magic spells or building magical items, a (let’s assume good) cleric would either be performing acts of community service or spreading the word of their god, the fighter would be either training or establishing political/social power for an order/organization, and the rogue would be planning a heist or investigating a lead in the underworld. The DM in this situation might just let the players make progress in their personal interests outside the context of the campaign/adventure hooks, or they naturally set up some of the party’s downtime to lead in the direction of a new adventure.

Either the wizard discovers some dungeon that the whole party wants to go through, an NPC the cleric cares about is in trouble and needs a lost medicine formula to be saved, the fighter needs to go on a quest for some noble, or the rogue discovers an imminent problem brewing that needs to be taken care of right now (or yesterday if possible). The details and specifics don’t matter, the overall point of downtime is to allow players breathing room to pursue what interests them, and a good DM will take that investment to weave it into an engaging and compelling campaign to be shared with the party.

Now, let’s look at some of the activities Zorian does throughout the narrative. Zorian at the beginning focuses on training and research. Some of the research is regarding the time loop itself but with his low level he’s not making much progress. Zorian at one point makes enough progress that he impresses Ilsa which gives him the job of escorting Kael and Kana, allowing him to properly meet one of the important side characters. When Zorian invests in his relationship with Taiven it lets him meet the aranea in a sewer run, characters integral to the plot and investigation and mentors that help him understand and develop his empathy. When Zorian invests in his relationship with Kirielle by bringing her to Cyoria he is able to further develop his relationship with Kael (which later gives him the opportunity to learn about the Sudomir subplot but meet many interesting soul mage characters), but also makes a connection with local shifters, which will be his clue and plot hook to the invasion needing primordial essence. He investigates the spider webs to learn how to read araenea memories and make memory packets, which allows him to learn about the Ghost Serpent’s web that is key to the time loop mystery.

Now, I could go through the rest of the plot but I think it’s clear now how Zorian’s “narrated over” activities map very cleanly onto tricks DMs use to make downtime more engaging. It’s a mixture of Zorian responding to pressing needs and investing in things he likes, and those actions leading to threads connected to either the greater plot or compelling subplots. But most importantly during this is that Zorian’s actions seem to be based on what he as a character would do, what he thinks is a solution, not the only one presented by the hypothetical DM. Multiple times Zorian is presented with a problem and decides to solve it and investigate in his own way instead of a clearly “obvious” solution. If this were an actual D&D campaign and I was Zorian or Zach’s player I wouldn’t think that I was being railroaded at all. This method of narrative and how long it takes is believable, and engaging, and importantly, helps with the suspension of disbelief.

A problem a lot of DMs have with D&D story is that if any group of schmucks can take adventuring jobs every day/week and level up after every other one, then why isn’t everyone level 20? If power scales so quickly and so easily for the heroes, what is keeping everyone from following the same path? Some DMs solve this by having the adventuring party have access to a resource that lets them level up (that not everyone has), or by making every adventure ridiculously deadly, but the solution a lot use is with downtime. Adventures and high sources of xp aren’t easily accessible, and you have to wait long periods of time in between each one. Downtime is what people do while they wait for, or look for, the rare chances of issues that are difficult enough to warrant leveling up.

In a way, Mother of Learning’s plot structure does the same thing, force Zorian to go through downtime before he is able to “access” the next plot point. Many people complained that sometimes Zorian would announce that he had to solve (plot point x) as soon as possible, and then he’d go and dick around with something else. While some people say this is him being easily distracted or whimsical, it was very clearly understood by me that Zorian recognized that he couldn’t solve (plot point x) right then with his information & skill level. Zorian can’t solve a mystery, or make fast enough progress in a magical skill, or anything, and decides to better spend his time in making more meaningful progress in other fields, in the hopes they’ll tie back and help with the “pressing” issue (But few issues are truly pressing in a time loop, not until after the second arc). It’s also believable from the perspective of a D&D metaphor because do you know what’s the most boring thing about downtime? When one player dedicates all their time doing one thing only.

You ever sit at a table trying not to look at your phone while some player is making 50 craft & profession checks with no interesting progress after the fifth? It’s boring as shit. The most interesting downtimes I’ve experienced and done are when a pc does a handful of meaningfully different tasks split out across the time given, and investing enough focus to have something interesting happen in the narrative or in any character interactions. And Mother of Learning simulates this very faithfully.

Overall, even with the occasional flaws of Zorian acting a bit oddly during these periods of investigation, practice, and social connection, Mother of Learning faithfully and skillfully integrates downtime into it’s narrative in a way I fucking love. A lot of what makes fantasy adventuring engaging isn’t just the adventuring itself, but the downtime in between and consequences of both.

[slothquisitor]

I just want to ramble somewhere about the pure emotional damage that my DM is subjecting me to in our current D&D campaign.

So, I'm playing a character that I fully based a bit of her backstory around the premise of Mass Effect 2, when like Shepard dies but comes back and it's like...been two years. I was a bit disappointed in ME2 for not allowing us to really dig into and explore the idea that it's been two years for everyone, but no time has passed for Shepard.

My character is a fallen aasimar echo knight who woke up two years after she died saving her friends and husband. I told my DM I didn't want to know what happened during those two years and when asked on a scale of 1-10 how okay I was with him messing with my character, I said 11. And oh my god, he's delivering.

We've been playing this campaign pretty much weekly for almost nine months, and I have not had my character interact much at all with her past. Mostly because she's fucking afraid of what she'll find, and also because she came back, but very clearly came back wrong. But shit happened in-game that made her afraid that her husband might be in trouble. So, finally, she got up the courage to scry on her husband (we have a magic item that allows for that).

Her entire existence thus far has been about like, figuring out this mystery of what she is and who she became when she died so that she feels like she can go home. So that she can go back to the people she loved. And she scryed on her husband only to discover that he has fully moved on. She saw him in a house with a woman and a baby, and just...content. And like, some part of her is glad. He's safe, he's unbothered. She genuinely loves him and just wants him to be happy, but there's another part of of her that just wanted so badly to get back to him and now she knows she'll never be able to.

It's just so fucking sad. My poor girl just doesn't know what the point of all this is anymore. Finally, in the moment that her fear for his safety outweighed her fear of seeing what his life might be without her, she loses him all over again. I just haven't recovered!

I really live to dig into these sort of emotional arcs (if you've read any of my fic, you know this), so I have full faith and trust in my DM that we're going to build a really beautiful story from this, but man what a punch to the gut it was in session.

Anyway, I just love D&D so much and playing with such good friends who are so invested in each other's characters and stories and who love each other. I didn't think I'd be in my 30s sitting around my kitchen table and playing make believe with my friends on a regular basis, but I love it so much.

[thesummoningdark]

That post about redemption arcs really made me want to talk about my favourite adjacent character arc I've ever played out

So in a long running D&D campaign, I played the Token Evil Aligned Character in the party. No, don't look at me like that, I don't mean in an edgelord murderhobo kind of way. I mean that I was playing a drow who'd had to flee to the surface for reasons of Plot, and he had still entirely internalised the morality and social conventions of the culture he came from, but he was smart enough to figure out that he'd draw less attention and find less trouble if he at least gave the impression of giving a shit about the humans' weird moral hangups. Like oh so casual murder is frowned upon up here? Wild, but sure, I don't want arrested so whatever.

I joined the game at 8th level. The in-canon justification for my presence was that the party were travelling to a new region and one of their allies (the head of the thieves guild, who my character had retroactively been working for) ordered me to go with them to be their guide. Once my character figured out that they were on a quest of world-saving importance, he was fairly invested in helping, due to being one of the idiots who lived there. However this led to some fun and interesting in-character tension, as he was quite happy to employ methods in pursuit of this goal that the rest of the party were uncomfortable with.

(Both he and the chaotic neutral warlock were kept in line mostly by the looming disapproval of our 8ft tall lawful good goliath, and the associated threat of having their spines snapped if they took it too far)

The culmination of this initial mini-arc, of my character being in agreement with the party's goals but not necessarily trusting them to do what needed to be done if it really came to it, happened three years later. In the aftermath of a major battle (which our side lost) the party had to defeat a lieutenant of the main antagonist in order to get to safety. In the course of this fight my character was badly injured (mechanically: was knocked to 0hp in melee with this mini-boss, and only survived by the repeated application of healing cantrips to reset his death saves) and when the party got the upper hand, the lieutenant took him hostage and threatened to kill him if they didn't let her go. I want to stress at this point that when I'd built my character, the DM and I had discussed a contingency subplot that would come into play if he died. Death was an extremely realistic possibility at this point, from both a mechanical and a DM-steering-the-story perspective.

And the lawful good goliath, the one who this entire time had been insisting that the ends didn't justify the means, that they couldn't sacrifice individuals in pursuit of their goals, looked her in the eye and told her to go fuck herself.

It's one of my favourite pieces of RP I've ever seen done. And it was such a huge turning point in my character's relationship with the goliath in particular, who he now had a genuine respect for; and with the party as a whole, now that he was able to believe he really could trust them to make the hard choices if they had to.

I know everyone gets overinvested in their own game, but I genuinely think we all did a great job with that whole arc. I love that it wasn't just the characters from the deep end of the alignment pool being 'tamed', but also a reciprocal process of the good-aligned characters coming to trust that their more extreme methods would be used judiciously and not without good cause. That there was room for different approaches to working towards their cause and different reasons for supporting it.

[the-incident-on-show-day]

the ark’s d&d nights

(hcs i wrote during a power outage because i had nothing else to do)

rowan - the DM!! he loves writing and planning elaborate campaigns, as well as being in control. because of this he struggles with railroading (for non-d&d players, that basically means forcing your players to make choices/follow paths they don’t want to) and often fights with lister, who makes it his mission to derail the story as much as possible. when he has to play as a character, he’ll be a bard or a wizard.

bliss - loves making chaotic hot people. loves flirting with chaotic hot people. you’d think it would be awkward, considering her ex is the DM- it isn’t. quick to jump to violence (or provoke others to it). basically tries to get in as many badass oneliners in every sentence as she can, and somehow it works. probably mains genasis or smth... either as a rogue or a magic user.

juliet - she’s introduced as a sweet, unassuming elven girl... everyone assumes she’s just playing herself. but as soon as she goes into combat, she RAGES and it turns out she was a barbarian all along- the most brutal warrior you could ever imagine. different voice and everything. turns out she’s using D&D as an outlet for her suppressed childhood rage. everyone is terrified, impressed, and lister begs to put her on a screamo album.

lister - he makes a joke character- definitely named something like jack inoff. definitely a gnome bard. does the funny voice, flirts with everyone, blah blah blah. ruins a bunch of serious moments because he’s scared of vulnerability. but when his backstory comes up, it ends up being the most tragic fucking thing possible and breaks the hearts of everyone at the table. by the end, he’s the most invested out of all of them… and definitely cries when his first character dies.

jimmy - a paladin. with a knife. he’s a little shy about roleplaying at first (beginnings of sessions are always a struggle) and sticks to peppering in funny comments every now and then. but once he gets into it, he gets INTO IT. he genuinely forgets he’s playing a character sometimes. and lister can’t take his eyes off of him.

angel - joins on call, used to just listen in until rowan suggests that she plays as jimmy’s patron. she’s the most chaotic out of all of them and rarely gives anyone what they request- but she’s so funny about it that no one can find it in themselves to be mad.

(oh and they definitely make an album abt this. ppl theorize endlessly like “what does it mean when they say ‘i just wanna quench the flames / but i’m already ablaze??’ a metaphor for mental health?? for self-destructive tendencies??”)

(and instead it’s abt lister’s dumb ass who keeps casting firebolt in enclosed spaces.)

[silverdestiny]

Thinking about how The Legend of Vox Machina is such a good translation of a D&D game into a visual medium.

I got hooked to Percy specifically because so much that they do with him to set the tone and mood are beautiful. The transitions where he puts on his mask. The smoke, noticeable but not too obtrusive until it gets too powerful to ignore.

I adore the entire way they did Orthax. I've been playing D&D inspired ttrpgs for long enough that Demon has become just an enemy type with specific weaknesses but the entire way that they depicted him really captured what demons SHOULD be. And I haven't listened to the podcast campaign yet and I know that at least some of that comes from the DM himself but it's so easy to look at a stat block and think of that as all a demon is. But the way that he's shown in the animated series, the battle in the center of percy's mind, everything they did with the effects when he was trying to fight him to keep from killing those he loved, the way you translate dice rolls and character actions into a visual medium, it was just done masterfully.

I've seen people saying 'Percy is extremely anime' and they're RIGHT but my favorite D&D campaigns have always had that kind of high drama, high fantasy, rule of cool feel that makes people identify him as that. And Percy's arc honestly is SUCH a good tone setter in many ways- if I choose to get into the campaign now I feel like I know what I'm in for. I'm in for drama, character trauma, close calls, described viscera and gore, npcs who can't be saved, but I'm also in for hope and the power of friendship pushing forward to solve problems together (for as long as it can, at least), as well as villains that have just as much power and cool invested in them, as much thought behind them as the PCs which is always an excellent experience.

So being able to watch this and see that how fleshed out all the characters are, how the undead are truly undead, the demons have meaning, but there's still so much lightness and brevity between the dour moments is really inspiring, and the way that it translates the rich world that has been made makes me want to build rich worlds myself because I so rarely see worlds as colorful but as serious as the ones I want to make portrayed in media like this.

And it makes me really want to listen to the Critical Role podcast, I'll give them that.

[liminally-charged]

Time to ramble about D&D character concepts, because every other DM I know never has any free seats in their campaign.

A rogue who's small, even for the standards of their own race. At a young age they were kidnapped and indoctrinated into a cult centered around a hag coven worshipping some old forsaken god-thing. Throughout their life the character is treated as the runt of the litter, the absolute lowest thing of the cult; so much so that they lose their sense of personhood entirely and refer to themselves as "this" or "it". Inevitably the ritual meant to summon the god-thing into reality goes tits up and explodes the hag coven, allowing the character to escape from the cult and wander somewhere in the wider world. The theme I wanted to go for with this character was 'failure'. A half-feral character with such a substantial lack of social ability/ self-respect/ common sense/ etc., only good at sneaking and backstabbing and spitting poison words - how can such a character grow into something more? How much does it take to reform them? How much internalized failure can be undone?

Another one is more of a comic relief character. A gnome rogue who used to be at the head of a powerful mob organization. She calls herself Brittlebones, but her former lackeys called her "Mom". Turns out that being nice and making homecooked meals for the goons that work for you can ensure their undying loyalty. But after 30-something years of organized crime, Brittlebones decided to turn her back on that life and start new as an adventurer - except her former lackeys are trying to convince her to come back and run the business again, because it's so much nicer when she's around.

Another one is Mool, loxodon barbarian. This one is pretty simple, he's a barbarian with such a low intelligence modifier that he's unable to grasp the concept of evil. He knows how to feel good or bad about things, but beyond that any abstract understanding of morality are lost on him. This was much to the frustration of the wheelchair-bound hag that tried to raise him as her agent of evil. He doesn't get the implications of why she's telling him to kill, he just does it because she cooks dinner and that's why he has to do it, because she told him so. Mool is such a gentle soul, a precious giant bean; he just needs a better wrangler.

The opposite end of the spectrum is Kazh. A barbarian with intelligence as his highest stat, who is frighteningly sharp-witted. He makes the plans of attack, he figures out what the next step should be for the party. But beyond a thin veneer of civility, there's a ravenous beast waiting to pounce and devour. He's especially brutal in combat and has no qualms with abandoning any sense of morality if it can further his bloodlust. Unlike Mool, he's fully aware of the evil he commits, and he revels in it.

Gonna close this post with another martial class (yes it's a theme with me, I don't like using spells all that much), a rogue who's gotten the raw end of a bad deal. Callaghan Black, former son of a noble family invested in the occult, was a bystander to a ritual which opened a rift to the Far Realms, where he bore witness to something mindbreaking: a god being devoured alive. He escaped with his life, but his sanity was shot full of holes. Callaghan used the last of his money on a wizard who promised him to get rid of these memories. Surprise, the wizard majored in necromancy, and used his body as a vessel for an experiment instead. The outcome was a success: Five souls merged into the body of one person, fighting over control of the body. Unfortunately for the wizard and the general population, the soul who won control over the body was a serial killer. I think it would be fun to play five different personalities switiching back and forth, each with their own agenda.

That's all I want to write here. Steal whatever you like if you want to, these characters probably won't ever see actual play otherwise.

[ehlnofay]

9 for the whole crew <3

9: If they were to play d&d, what would they play as? If you don't know d&d, feel free to pick another ttrpg or rpg!

I am not sure whether to interpret this question as "what class is the best analogue to their own techniques and abilities" or "how would they play a ttrpg" so I will answer both questions. because no-one can stop me

ARABELLA: eloquence bard, naturally. she can even almost play the pipe. after becoming a nightingale she would also pick up a few levels in warlock. if SHE were playing d&d she would probably play as a wild magic sorcerer because she would love the magic surge mechanic, and I think she would get really into roleplaying. frankly she elevates the table. best person to meet at your local library's bimonthly d&d session (worst person to meet anywhere else)

PAX: a ranger of some description, with an emphasis on stealth, and proficiency in intimidation despite every other charisma skill being terrible. he would play an arcane trickster and probably be a bit of an edgelord about it, but eventually he would get emotionally invested in the character and campaign against his will

TORR: assassin rogue. rather uncreative answer, I know. weirdly I can see them playing as a cleric; he's not religious at all but he'd like the vibes and a support-focused build. I don't think rpgs are their thing but they would very much enjoy the social element and the bits (dark brotherhood game night!!!)

CAELESTIS: probably a wizard (also uncreative). ze'd probably also choose to play as some kind of spellcaster - probably a warlock, because ze'd like the built-in story there. ze would read lore handbooks back to front and memorise all the mechanics; ze wouldn't necessarily be very good at the game, and zir roleplaying would likely be very stiff, but ze'd be fun to play with regardless.

EFRI: let's be realistic here... as much as I love her my girl is working with commoner stats. not every ten year old can be a prodigy, and dnd classes are very combat focused. give her a few years to develop actual skills beyond Hit It With Stick (reskinned quarterstaff, -2 to attack rolls and damage) though and I can see her going any number of directions... swashbuckler rogue, maybe, or a paladin (she definitely has the conviction for it). in an in-universe game she would play as an artificer and have a great time making up new inventions (the dm always nixes them) (she'd probably start dming herself after a little while, honestly. and she'd be surprisingly good at it for a kid, though her narrative coherence could use work)

DRAGONBORN: hm. see what the dovahkiin has going on is some kind of mechanically unbalanced nightmare that can't really be mimicked in most rpgs... closest match I can think of is divine soul sorcerer and that's really only in terms of lore, not abilities. she wouldn't really get the point of playing a ttrpg but she would go along with it as long as it was made accessible enough for her to participate (a less visually cluttered character sheet, help with keeping track of stats, unnecessary mechanics not used, etc). she would play a fighter and her main combat strategy would be Hit It A Lot (just like real life!)

[eclipsebyler]

Mike Wheeler and his love for D&D (ST Comics Thoughts + Long Analysis)

Note: The comics aren't written by the Duffer Bros themselves so we can't say they're fully canon. However, the D&D Issue comic is very canon to me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it especially bcs it gave us a Mike POV and it's interesting that it makes so much sense for how he acts in the show. So, I made an unnecessarily dramatic analysis about it. Take it with a grain of salt.

—

Contrary to popular belief, Will Byers isn't the biggest nerd and lover of Dungeons & Dragons among the party. Mike Wheeler is.

In the comics, it's Mike (along with Lucas) who first discovered this fantasy board game in an isolated library. They excitedly talked about this with Will, who then shared their enthusiasm about the game and the three of them made it their goal to save up and trade books in exchange for the complete set of D&D. They met Dustin along the way because of it too, and the core four party was born.

(Look how cute they are. The party even helped in the final touches of Castle Byers in the comics.)

Among the four of them, it becomes clear that Mike is the most invested. He enjoyed being the Dungeon Master — learning about the game's mechanics and creating imaginative adventures for the party's campaigns (and we can see that in the show, too. It's the very first scene we get with the party being established as the dorky nerds: a game of D&D, and Mike as their enthusiastic DM. Mike even gets frustrated when Karen calls him up because their game got cut off.)

And considering how Mike's career goal is being a writer — it's easy to connect it with his love for world building in this game. A lot of his childhood traces back to his memories with the party and D&D. It's a comfort game to him.

However, that changes after the tragic night happened. After S1's Upside Down fiasco, he started harbouring negative feelings about it; worrying if it's still worth playing at all for numerous reasons.

For the party, especially for Mike — D&D isn't just a game. It became a way to navigate and decode the world around them.

Teamwork, bravery, and empathy are some of the values in-game that bled through the party's real life dynamics. It brought them closer together.

D&D empowered Mike to be a brave, courageous hero not just in game, but also in real life too. He became less scared and slowly learned to stand up to the bullies. To protect his friends in his own ways. To be the leader— someone who comes up with a plan and inspires the party into action. Just like he does as the Dungeon Master.

So for this same game that only held good memories to suddenly be replaced by the worst ones — ones that involve real supernatural monsters, his friends being put real danger, and an interdimensional world that turned their lives into a nightmare — it's easy to see why Mike starts despising it.

Most especially because the two week planned campaign of his, the one they played before Will bid him goodbye — it had all turned to reality.

The Demogorgon got Will. He vanished. He almost died. He lost his best friend.

And while they got Will back in their lives, a part of him died in the Upside Down. Mike knows and sees it, and it upsets him.

To some extent — Mike might have blamed himself for what happened. As the Dungeon Master who came up with the failed campaign that became a little too real; what if the next stories he writes lead to a traumatic real life experience again? What if he loses Will again? What if he wasn't really a good DM at all? What if they didn't play that night? What if he asked Will to stay? If only...

As much as Mike loves playing again, he feels like everyone doesn't want to anymore. This game isn't worth it, after everything that happened.

Because what is the point of playing adventures that spoke of bravery and heroes saving the day — when he couldn't do that in reality? It's stupid. Mike feels stupid.

And yet, he couldn't let go of it completely. If anything, these feelings pushed him to write a perfect next campaign for the party.

Maybe he just needed to fix their last failed session, to make things better. Maybe he could bring back the party together in their favorite game and lead them to victory. Somehow, he feels like the party's dynamics is at stake in this next game so he puts his all to it.

He hated how things were changing. He longed for things to be normal again.

He beat himself up over writing the best campaign story to the point Nancy had to check on him in the basement and tried to help him out despite not knowing about D&D. 

(One of my favorite moments in this issue. Nancy indulging Mike on his interests and comforting him? I need more of the Wheeler siblings in S5.)

What struck me the most was how much Mike cares about Will and how considerate he was in everything (even with his character in the game). He wanted Will the Wise to be the one to kill the monster and bring them victory. He needs him to win, unlike last time.

"He needs to be a hero, not a victim."

He wanted to create a special and perfect campaign for the party, but most especially for Will. This campaign is for Will.

Mike is scared of repeating the last failed campaign. He's scared of having to worry about their fantasy game turning into reality. He's scared of how everything changed after that night.

He wants to go back to the old times, before Will had gone missing. He wants the old, carefree and happy party back. He wants to have Will back.

“Dungeons & Dragons kept you guys together, Mike. Isn’t that worth celebrating?”

This game brought the party close together. But it’s also the same game that reminds Mike of bad memories: like his campaign that caused them to be separated to Will. He has mixed feelings about it.

Eventually, he finishes writing the campaign and plays it with the party. As a desired outcome, Will was able to kill the monster— the Thessalhydra, and wins this time.

It's the same campaign we saw the party playing at the end of S1. (And the last campaign we saw them playing as a party. The last we see of Mike as the Dungeon Master).

Their last D&D session was a special campaign he wrote especially for Will.

Considering all of Mike’s POV in the comics into the canon universe, it makes so much sense as to why he started drifting away and repressing his want to play it. Because just when things are getting back to normal again -- he loses Will again to the Upside Down in S2. To a creature that is reminiscent to one of D&D’s monsters again. The Mind Flayer.

He watched Will get haunted by the Upside Down and being stuck in two worlds. He watched him get possessed, slowly lose his memories and turn into a different person. He watched him thrash in pain and suffer to an almost death.  And add to that - El coming back, he finds out she’s still alive and he’d been lied to, only for her to leave again and Mike could only watch. 

He could only watch and hope that they are both still alive. And at the end of the day, Mike is still just a kid. It’s easy to feel hopeless, powerless, and for trauma and fear to consume him. It’s easy to see why his insecurity grows and for him to feel like he isn’t doing anything worthwhile for anyone.

And seeing as how Mike spent Season 3 focusing on his relationship with El instead, to impress the girl that has taken interest in him and doing the traditional heteronormative couple behaviors - it makes so much sense. This is Mike trying to grow up. Trying to do things differently rather than reverting back to the old habits like playing games -- especially a game that surrounds him with complicated feelings, no matter how much he loves it. Repressing his interests. 

“What did you think, really? We’re just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?” 

This is definitely him projecting. This is what he wants but he’s trying to let it go. Him dismissing Will’s campaign because it’s scary to play D&D with the party again, especially with Will. He’d lost Will two times already.

But clearly, he hasn’t let go of his love for D&D just yet. He reacts when Will donates his book. He worries that Will wants to join another party. And when the Byers-Hopper moved to Lenora, he joined a D&D club in S4: The Hellfire. He enjoys playing again - in a larger party, and with another skilled Dungeon Master. This is the first time we see him as one of the players, and not a DM. He’s slowly going back to his old habits, but not quite fully. He’s still trying to be normal. He still wants to seem like he’s growing up. 

And weirdly, he only shows this repressed side of him to El and Will. The two people he keeps losing and gaining back. But evidently we see him doing this with Will the most.

He has no problem being a nerd with Lucas and Dustin and Max. He has never really shown El this side of him.

But why Will? Who has known him since he was a kid, who knows and accepts this side of him and yet he refuses to play with him again. Because of his trauma, probably. Or there's something more to it.

“We could just play D&D and Nintendo for the rest of our lives.”

“Yeah. Totally.”

The way Mike responds to this is as if he’s dismissing it. As if it’s an idea he didn’t want to do. And yet the next moment, we see his face lighting up with a huge smile when Will gives him a painting - a D&D painting - an imagery of his character in the game and Will telling him that he’s exactly just that in real life too. Everyone needs him. He’s their leader. He’s the heart. It’s Mike being reminded of who he truly is - of who he’s trying to repress within himself, and Will is telling him -- he is loved and worth it for just exactly who he is. And that means the world to Mike.

It's clear how much this speech meant to him because it's what pushes him to say I love you to El. (That godforsaken monologue which there's so much to unpack from. That's for another conversation.)

—

In conclusion to this long analysis of Mike Wheeler from both comics and the show — D&D is a big part of the party's lives but most especially Mike Wheeler's. And his mixed feelings about it mostly centers on one person: Will. The night Will vanished was the night everything went to hell, the night of Mike's campaign that turned to a hellish reality.

D&D reminds him of what he gained and what he lost time and time again. D&D reminds him of what he hates and what he loves. D&D reminds him of who he is and who he wants to be.

Mike Wheeler is a huge nerd. He badly wants to repress it for several reasons but he'll always fall back to where he's always meant to be. One day, he would be able to play games for the rest of his life without having to worry about losing someone again.

One day, he's going to truly have Will back in his life and he would stay with him, and then home will be the same again.

[eiseryn]

New OC :3 Her name is Artemis and her decker (hacker) name is Timberwolf as the text says. She is from/lives in Mertalline, the same city Lei is from/ lives in. She has a very black/white/silver (+grey) /blue palette and her fave colour is that bright blue you see! Personality-wise she is supposed to be cheeky and somewhat flirtatious (to certain people), quite self-confident and self-assured. She uses a laser bow (?) in battle and has a loyal battle hound (robotic wolf) with her which she has named "Orion". She really likes dogs (and wolves) because of how loyal they are :)

She likes to joke around and have as much fun as possible since life otherwise would suck! She has an older sister named Athena who is a runner (codename = Coyote), who is Artemis' first "hero". Artemis has a bit of a hero complex, believing in justice (or wanting to) and perhaps she wouldn't mind being someone's hero as well :3 She looked up to a decker named Tiger who was around the same age as her but unfortunately to her knowledge, Tiger was KIA around 8 years ago...

So yeah I'll be playing her in the next Mertalline campaign which may be a while from now.... (there are other cyberpunk COC campaigns lined up + my group has a DND campaign next) but I've been thinking about her for a while already ever since I learned I can play beastmaster in cyberpunk by playing a decker with bots. So here she is, my cyberpunk beastmaster XD I really like her design a lot -- I think she's super pretty 🥺🥺🥺

I have obtained permission from the DM that Lei and Vail's kids (those designs I made) can be canon if they live in the next Mertalline campaign which is probably the one I'll play her in. Like uhm what a minute 👁👄👁 WDYM they can be canon "if they live" like what is going to happen in Mertalline 👁👄👁 (apparently something super bad HUH) Anyways please pray for us that we play as well or better in this campaign as the last campaign I really want my babygirl Lei and her man to live 😭😭😭

Funny thing though I'm writing a prelude to Artemis' backstory and Lei appears and she might be Artemis' main doc LMAO like me not wanting my OC to die but also putting her into the plot kinda like haha oops :'D (Remember when Elise became plot relevant... yeah... Imagine if they have to save Lei the way Lei had to save Elise... wouldn't that sure be something... :') )

If she kinda resembles Nova it's cuz yes she is supposed to be "cyberpunk Nova" which means she shares similar features as Nova but I inverted some things! After all, fantasy and cyberpunk feel like polar opposites XD. The main design features is hair/eye colour -- Nova has white, Artemis has black. Nova's eyes are golden so Artemis has icy silver eyes :3 Also I totally stole Nova's Arknights outfit to kinda reuse partially for her XD work smart not hard~ They're also wolf girls in a way cuz I love wolves too much to give those up and of course the whole beastmaster aspect is a thing -- both of them having male wolf companions. They also both wield bows because I love archers. I just love them.

Another non important is that I want her to be charming and persuasive (and invest in those skills) because my former best boi (he's #2 now guess who took his place XD) Flash has been revealed to be a little suspicious. I want to know more about him and romance him using Artemis XD But it might not be possible if Flash is a corpo mole or someone more powerful/sinister 😔 I SURE CAN TRY THOUGH - THIS IS WHAT MY DM SAID TOO!