#jrpg icons

[toukoloid-art]

UTAU

What a totally real 90's JRPG

[thepersonaofwill]

Panther, Ann Takamaki 🌹

[dexjarxenoengage]

[supersaiyanblonded]

🫡

[neptunianrefrain]

i downloaded a bunch of random 3ds games based solely on the names of them and i think most of them are jrpgs whoops

[savefrog]

how to explain to people that while we DO need to desperately dismantle AI’s capitalism-driven rise to prominence in many professional areas especially art because of how it will be used to replace artists in exchange for cheap content and on the back of uncredited artists that came before, and how things can be said about supporting the ai platforms that enable this

that simultaneously using Dall-E mini or Bing or whatever once to make a cat at some nebulous point is not like. It is not like. He did not just shoot an artist point blank out in an alleyway 😭

[737378228]

I wish ff7 was never remade

[skrph]

Im of the opinion that undertale/deltarune draw a lot from a whole bunch of rpgmaker games and projects hes worked on, but in particular:

off in terms of thematics (especially undertale!), earthbound in its humour and pacing, paper mario/mario rpg (blurring the lines between ally and enemy, also the rainbow hearts), and homestuck (moreso deltarune for hs since its giving off that power of friendship overcoming narrative contrivement).

Maybe he didnt take inspiration conciously from oneshot but there's definitely parallels between niko and the lightbulb and kris/frisk and the soul (both are in game representations of the players influence over the protagonist), especially the parts of dialogue where you, the player, are given a decision to make *for* niko/kris/frisk; its just a matter of how cool the protag is being pupetted by a god.

god when i think about how toby fox took what OFF was doing and ran like hell with it i get like so excited i already love OFF but he like. hes going so much further than it went and ir RULES. no ive never played earthbound but i know i need to this is from an OFF FANS PERSPECTIVE ONLY

[theresattrpgforthat]

This might be a long winded question, but for a while I’ve brainstorming on and off ideas for a TTRPG system based on those stories about “secret worlds where you have different abilities when you enter them” (Persona, Deltarune, Omori, more I’m sure), and I was thinking “there’s gotta be an RPG for that”, so like… is there? Is there an RPG where you enter a secret world to influence and help things in the real world? Or enter a secret world and develop special abilities when you do?

THEME: Alternate Worlds

Hello there! The Persona series is one I'm tangentially familiar with, so I've mostly got games that list it or The World Ends With You in their references. I've noticed that the PbtA community (and its siblings) really seems to like this genre.

Heartbeats in Perfect Sync, by Nathan Blades.

In your city, there’s an otherworldly force that lurks in the hearts of many: The Pulse. Feeding on negative emotions, they’ll devour everything… if not for a group of ordinary people with a mysterious app installed on their phones. Activate the app and you’ll be bestowed with a weapon that can purge the Pulse, but opening your heart can be dangerous…

Heartbeats in Perfect Sync is a tabletop RPG inspired by the shounen battle aesthetic in games like The World Ends With You, Kingdom Hearts and Under Night In-Birth. Play as a group of ordinary people who fight monsters with ridiculously over-the-top weapons.

Character creation in this game looks to be wonderfully simple. You fill in a ad-lib style sentence with information about your job, your weapon, and your fighting style. You pick a special move, and mark your Heart Rate, which marks your emotions. Your Heart Rate can grow or shrink, but get too close to either end of the spectrum, and your character becomes a dark version of themselves, super-powered and extremely cool-looking. If you like dramatic moments and rule-of-cool fight scenes, this game is for you.

The Midnight Generation, by Five Points Games.

The Midnight Generation is a rules hack for Masks: A New Generation by Magpie Games inspired by the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series of JRPGs. Take the role of teenagers thrust into mystery and conflict. Explore the cognitive landscape of The Midnight World, the realm made by the collective unconscious of humanity and the distortions that arise when people retreat from reality. Take control of powerful Facades, spiritual manifestations of one's true self to battle powerful Shadows, willful manifestations of human emotions and to overcome the trials set forth in The Midnight Generation!

If you are a fan of MASKS, but want to use the original rules in an alternate setting, The Midnight Generation might be worth looking at. This book is fairly comprehensive - it comes with guidance on how to create the people, places, and other elements necessary to play in a Persona-like universe, as well as a city you can pick up and use with little extra effort. Another thing I really appreciate about this supplement is the addition of 10 playbooks that communicate the themes and struggles of Persona characters, including the Icon, who is masking their true self from the world around them, and the Shadow, how was born in the other world from the emotions of mankind.

Vibe Check, by Ostrichmonkey Games. (@ostrichmonkey-games)

Vibe Check is an illuminated by LUMEN tabletop role-playing game for 3-6 players.  Players take on the roles of Players in the Watcher's Game - a week long challenge with the prize being another shot at life, while another player takes on the role of the Game's Master to introduce complications and consequences the Players must overcome as they fight to survive the Watcher's Game. 

Vibe Check features LUMEN's fast paced dice pool system, tailored for action filled combat and paired with plenty of powers and cool abilities. Fight the Pandemonium within the Inversion to earn new Tokens and rewards. Upgrade and buy more powerful gear. Survive the Watcher's Game. 

Inspired by The World Ends With You, Vibe Check places your players in a high-stakes afterlife competition to become alive again. As members of the afterlife, you’ll receive special abilities attached to your archetypes. For example, the Cryptic archetype had an ability called False Gnosis, which allows them to state something and roll to see if what they said was true. Your character’s looks are also important to determining their stats, with each Look belonging to a Brand. Do you have an entire set of clothes bought from Antiquity’s Glance? Now you can carry more things on your person.

If you like games with moddable upgrades and simple (but rewarding) combat, then Vibe Check is for you.

Eidolon: Become Your Best Self, by Reveal Your Master Plan.

EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self is a Powered by the Apocalypse RPG in which your character gains the power of an Eidolon, a physical manifestation of their soul that reflects their truest, innermost self and grants them incredible reality-defying powers! With the help of their friends, they'll fight against the pressure of the Undertow, the shadowy flow of collective psychic energy that imprisons society in an untenable status quo.

While this is a PbtA game, Eidolon has a battle system that uses a mechanic called “crashes”. Every blow that you land will escalate the fight, with victory becoming less and less likely the longer the fight draws out. This requires creativity and teamwork to overcome, drawing from your collective resources to save the day.

If you want to hear this game in action, the designers have an Eidolon Playtest podcast where they play through various seasons of Eidolon.

Shifters, by Moonlit Bard.

You are a Shifter, someone who can step from our world into the Major World beyond to do battle with sentient emotions and compulsions known as Forms.

Forms can be malevolent spirits inciting violence, landscapes saturated with desire, objects that seethe with chaos and discord, or anthropomorphic personifications of envy. No matter their appearance, they spell disaster for our world, and only you can stop them.

There’s not much info I have for this game, other than that it’s in demo form and is currently a one-page RPG. However, if you’re interested in games where emotions have power in an alternate world and so far nothing on the list here is speaking to you, this might give you something light enough to hack to your heart’s desire.

Stand Up, by Elena Murphy.

Stand Up is a Belonging Outside Belonging game about rebellion, forming bonds, fighting injustice, and changing the world.

Take on the roles of normal people with the capability to become heroes, explore a fantastical world that houses mankind’s inner feelings, and find a way to fight back using power only you can wield.

If you are a big fan of the Persona series, this game is for you. Collaboratively build a hidden world, called The Reversal, formed from the perceptions and feelings of humanity. Choose from a set of seven playbooks, all named after tarot cards. Bind your characters together, and then determine your Setting Elements.

Because this is a Belonging Outside Belonging game, Stand Up has no GM. Instead, it has setting elements that are picked up and played by players whose characters are not active in any given scene. This keeps the entire table engaged in the story even when their character isn’t involved, and lightens the burdens of GM-ing while giving everyone an equal chance to contribute to the story. If you enjoy story-games and a lot of control over when your character succeeds or fails, Stand Up is worth checking out.

Voidheart Symphony, by UFO Press.

There’s a wound in the world, a rot eating at hope and community and empathy. You’ve seen it in dark alleyways and gleaming boardrooms, gifting terrible power to those who will use it to hurt others.

You’ve had enough. You’re going to dive through that wound into the nightmare castle on the other side. You’re going to find the avatar of the one bringing you misery, and strike them down.

But what’s next, once you’ve stolen their power and ruined their ambitions? Will you return to your daily grind? Cherish those who are close to you? Or revel in the power you have taken from the void? Because within that wound, the castle waits, and it is hungry.

Voidheart Symphony is a tabletop roleplaying game about mundane people diving into a demon-filled labyrinth to save the ones they love. Based on Apocalypse World and Rhapsody of Blood, it’ll fill your story with dramatic choices and dynamic action. The World and the Void will both offer you their power, and make their own demands. How will you strike that balance? What will your revolution fight for? That’s your story to tell.

This is probably one of the darkest games on this list. With an alternate world that is meant to trap your characters and pit them against demons all the while, this is a game about rebellion in the face of little to no hope. I’ve heard a lot about this game in a number of different circles - it is well-loved and well-played. If you want to take a look at some pieces of this game before you buy, the Itch page includes free playbooks and reference sheets, as well as a link to a Google Sheets Character Keeper!

[iwilltryalittlearter]

Getting low on funds and may not have quite enough to tide me over until next payday so until next Thursday I’ll offer kofi donation sketches.

Anyway 🤪

For 1 kofi I will do a crappy sketch of your pfp

For 2 kofi I will draw a pokemon of your choice (so long as it’s not super complex like eternatus)

For 3 kofi I will draw a sketch of your favourite CR or JRPG character

Put in the donation message what you want drawn. In the case of the first option please put your blog name. Again, these are available until next Thursday, but the sooner the better so I can buy food at work lmao

[satoshi-mochida]

LUNAR Remastered Collection launches April 18 - Gematsu

LUNAR Remastered Collection will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam on April 18, GungHo Online Entertainment announced.

Digital editions will be available for $49.99 / €49.99, while the following physical editions will also be available:

North America – Physical editions will be available exclusively through Amazon for $54.99.

Europe – Physical PlayStation 4 and Switch editions will be available via distributor Clear River Games, priced at €54.99.

The physical editions will feature reversible covers showcasing two new key arts for LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete, both illustrated exclusively for the LUNAR Remastered Collection by Toshiyuki Kubooka.

Here is an overview of the game, via GungHo Online Entertainment:

About

Dive into the enchanting worlds of LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete, two beloved JRPGs that have captured the hearts of gamers for generations. LUNAR: Silver Star Story introduces Alex, an aspiring Dragonmaster who bands together with his friends to combat the perilous emergence of the Magic Emperor and stop him from taking over the world. LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue picks up a thousand years later, and follows Hiro and his friends as they set out in search of the Goddess Althena alongside an enigmatic girl named Lucia. On this grand quest, fend off enemies like Borgan and White Knight Leo, who hunt down the group to eradicate what they deem to be the “Destroyer of Lunar.” This definitive remastered edition features enhanced graphics, audio, and quality-of-life improvements that will satiate that hunger for 90s nostalgia—better than you remember! Embark on these two adventures with updated language support, now available in English, Japanese, French, and German. Fans of the LUNAR series can wax nostalgic with 90s-esque animated cutscenes, iconic characters with the classic JRPG charm, and old-school turn-based combat with a twist. JRPG enthusiasts and long-time supporters of the series alike will undeniably be captivated by the game’s romantic storytelling and stunning soundtrack, and witness firsthand how LUNAR paved the way for generations of JRPGs to come.

Key Features

Strategic Turn-Based Action – Play through two magical worlds in LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete as you fight it out in turn-based battle style, where each character’s speed, distance, position, and attack reach must all be accounted for.

Powerful Voices and Captivating Animated Sequences – Immerse yourself in battles with fully-voiced attacks and incantations in either Japanese or an all-new English voiceover by playable characters and enemies. Not to mention, the timeless and stylistic animated sequences that will still capture the hearts of players today.

Relive the Classic or Go Remastered – Choose between classic or remastered mode — an option that allows fans to travel back in time to the games’ PS1 releases, or see them in a new light with wide-screen support, revamped PS1 pixel art, and high-definition animated cutscenes.

Two New Language Options – LUNAR Remastered Collection not only includes Japanese and English subtitles and sound, but also two new subtitle language options, French and German.

Speed Up Battle / Improved Strategy Settings – Save time and speed through battles with the flip of a switch! Additionally, new options have been added to the original strategy settings for streamlined combat.

[dexjarxenoengage]

Also Veyle from Fire Emblem Engage.

I just realised they are voiced by the same actress. 🥰

[thepersonaofwill]

The pure and beautiful Ann Takamaki 🌹

[dexjarxenoengage]

Glory to Veyle.

[ultraflavour]

7 Fantasy RPGs to fill the D&D-shaped Hole in your Life

So. It finally happened. Either Hasbro, or Wizards of the Coast, or someone else associated with Dungeons & Dragons finally did something so fucked-up that you've decided to swear it off entirely.

The problem is that for decades, there has been one obvious answer to the question of "What game with Dwarves, Longswords and Wizards in it should we play" and that was D&D, every time. Even their strongest rival in the past couple of decades was just an older version of D&D with a spit shine.

Now you find yourself adrift in a sea of possibility, with no signposts. There are names you've heard, but you have no idea which ones you'd actually be interested in, because you had always just assumed you'd be playing D&D until the heat death of the universe.

So let's take a look at a few games that want to fill that D&D-shaped hole in your gaming life, and examine what they're offering.

Disclaimer: I'm not covering the entire breadth and depth of the TTRPG industry here. I'm specifically going to be covering Fantasy RPGs that should appeal to D&D fans here. So if I didn't cover your favourite indie RPG, sorry. But there has to be a "First step" outside of the D&D bubble, and each of these games should fulfill that need.

The Other "Kitchen Sink" Game: Pathfinder

If you can't bring yourself to keep playing the corporate game, but you still want something that offers as close to that gameplay experience as you can possibly get, your best bet at the time of this writing is probably Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

I say this as someone who very much did not vibe with the original Pathfinder, or its "D&D in space" sister product Starfinder. But at this point, I'd absolutely tell a newcomer to jump into Pathfinder 2E before I recommended they buy any WotC product.

To their credit, the 2nd Edition of Pathfinder does much more to, uh, find its own path by diverging from 3.5 edition and implementing new systems that take it into uncharted territory. The "Two Actions Per Turn" paradigm is often cited by its proponents as being a meaningful improvement over the 5E way of doing things.

The "TTJRPG": Fabula Ultima

One of the biggest success stories of the early 20's was Fabula Ultima from NEED Games in Italy. It came seemingly out of nowhere to win the ENnie Gold Award for Best Game of 2023. Since then it's become notoriously difficult to find in print, though it's still freely available as a PDF.

Fabula Ultima is a "TTJRPG," modelled after Japanese fantasy video games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star, Breath of Fire, etc. While it's firmly planted in the Fantasy genre, its gameplay will also very recognizable to fans of those types of games.

The major benefit of this conceit is that you can probably already picture how combat in FabUlt works in your mind: Two rows of characters take turns jumping and slashing at each other, or casting magical spells to harm, heal, or apply status conditions. There's no concept of "Spacing," but the game still manages to be mechanically intricate with lots of varied class abilities and status effects to apply.

D&D refugees looking for a game where you simply pick a class and fight some monsters, but aren't too particular about how they do that, will find a lot to love here. FabUlt leans much more heavily on storytelling mechanics than D&D does, so players who've been looking for something a bit more "Theater of the Mind" should be well taken care of here.

Final Fantasy Lancer: ICON

Like Fabula Ultima, ICON is a TTRPG that takes heavy inspiration from JRPGs, specifically tactical games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. It's from Massif Press, who also authored the surprise indie Mech combat hit Lancer.

And like Lancer, ICON is a game with two very distinct rulesets: Outside of combat, a "Fiction-first" narrative system inspired heavily by Blades in the Dark; In combat, a grid-based tactical skirmish game reminiscent of D&D 4th Edition. All backed by the gorgeous art of its author Tom Parkinson-Morgan, who also writes and illustrates the comic Kill Six Billion Demons.

ICON separates its "narrative" class system from its combat class system, giving each character two distinct character sheets that come into play at different times. Because those two systems don't have to cross over very much, each can be as intricate or as rules-light as it needs to be to promote the type of gameplay most appropriate for the situation.

The Old-School Gateway Drug: Shadowdark

If you ever took a few steps outside of the walled garden that is D&D in the past few years, you will likely have read or heard of the OSR, or "Old-School Revival/Renaissance." Proponents of the OSR are players who yearn for an older style of Dungeon Crawling Survival Horror game that hearkens back to the early days of D&D, before the players became akin to superheroes.

Shadowdark aims to be a game that bridges the gap to that style of gameplay, without being totally unfamiliar to players who only ever learned 5th Edition mechanics. It's "Old-School gaming, modernized."

Aside from simply being a modern take on a D20 fantasy game, it freshens up gameplay using a mechanic called the "Torch Timer." It turns light into a resource that dwindles in real time. This serves to elevate the tension of the game as every minute that passes is one less minute of light on your torch. And when the torches run out, well... You can probably guess what happens next.

5th Edition with the Serial Numbers Filed Off: Tales of the Valiant

Tell me if you've heard this one before: Wizards of the Coast introduces sweeping changes to its "Open" license model, leading existing 3rd-party content creators to create their own version of an older ruleset to protect the viability of their backlog. It happened in the past, but what are the chances that happens a second time? Ha!

Well... It did happen again. This time, playing the role of the "Paizo" in this scenario is Kobold Press, who loudly declared that they were "Raising the Black Flag" in response. In order to ensure that there would always be a "Core Fantasy" ruleset that would remain compatible with their content, they announced Tales of the Valiant, which would essentially duplicate the 5th Edition ruleset with a bit of a spit shine, in much the same way that Pathfinder did for 3.5 Edition.

Tales of the Valiant will be the game for the D&D player who just wanted a rules refresh of 5th Edition, but also doesn't want to keep throwing money at the corporate hegemony. It should end up being "The 5E you can feel good about supporting," and that matters right now.

Matt Colville's Big Bet: The MCDM RPG

Kobold Press was not the only publisher of third-party D&D content to have a strong reaction to the OGL fiasco. Unlike Tales of the Valiant however, Matt Colville's response was to announce a fully new Fantasy RPG system, with no expectation of backwards compatibility with any edition of D&D.

MCDM's sights are firmly set on the "Post-Kitchen-Sink" future, and to that end their game is explicitly not trying to be the one game for every possible playstyle. It's Tactical, meaning you'll need a grid to play it on, and it's Heroic, meaning characters should feel powerful, and not like they're constantly one critical hit or failed trap-sensing check away from being decapitated.

This approach might seem like a massive risk considering how insanely powerful 5th Edition became at its peak. But a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign backed by over 30,000 people shows that there is at least an appetite for something new, and that there is a like-minded community of players ready and waiting to join you.

The Critical Role Game: Daggerheart

If the Kobold Press announcement was a shot across the bow, and the MCDM crowdfunder was a bomb dropped, then Daggerheart is a full-blown asteroid, streaking straight towards Wizards of the Coast HQ.

Daggerheart is an original Fantasy RPG from Darrington Press, the publishing arm of the Critical Role media company. That by itself should mean something considering how important CR is to the D&D brand, but there's more to talk about here. Though it superficially resembles D&D in a lot of ways, it has some extremely important differences. Namely, its use of "Powered by the Apocalypse" mechanics such as "Fail Forward" dice rolling and "No Initiative" combat.

While "PbtA" has become somewhat of a loaded term in the D&D community, Critical Role has an opportunity to overcome that stigma with the sheer force of their platform. I've made this case already in the past, but if they were to use their power to do for themselves what they did for 5th Edition, it would be the most significant threat to the Hasbro Hegemony to emerge since Pathfinder. Let alone taking just a slice, Daggerheart has the long-term potential to take the whole damn pie.

And more!

The games I've listed here are all theoretically capable of replacing the Corpo game as your "go-to" long-term game. Not all of them are fully playable as of this writing, but they all represent one possible future for the "Sword and Sorcery" RPG genre.

There are of course a whole plethora of other games out there beyond the limited scope of "Medieval Fantasy" that are just as valid and just as viable, if you're feeling a bit more adventurous.

If you're looking for something explicitly tactical like a miniature skirmish game, but still in the RPG genre, and you're willing to expand your choice of genre beyond Euro-centric Medieval Fantasy even further beyond ICON, you might be interested in Gubat Banwa or the aforementioned Lancer.

If you want a game that promotes a slightly more streamlined, less mechanically-intricate approach to combat while still giving you tons of monsters to kick the shit out of, you might want to check out the "Illuminated by LUMEN" family of games inspired by the games LIGHT and NOVA from Gila RPGs. It might even inspire you to write your own RPG!

If you're more interested in the Old-School Renaissance, you might want to check out Forbidden Lands, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Old-School Essentials, or MÖRK BORG.

If you like the idea of "Old-School Roleplaying" but are also willing to step outside of the fantasy genre into Sci-fi territory, you might be interested in Stars Without Number, its Cyberpunk sister product Cities Without Number, or Mothership.

Finally, if you just want a game that focuses on telling the best story rather than mindlessly killing monsters and acquiring loot, you might want to check out Blades in the Dark, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Girl by Moonlight, Coyote and Crow, and many more Fiction-First games in the Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark genres.

But most importantly: Just play more games! Don't just buy them, play them! The point of this whole exercise is to replace the monopoly with a plurality, for the sake of the health of the tabletop gaming industry.

Because the next time Hasbro lays off a bunch of WotC employees, there should be a much stronger, more diverse industry for them to land in feet-first. We should all want for the people who build the games we love to feel safe in their career choice. Not just for the sake of the ones who are already there, but for future prospective designers and artists who want to make their mark.

It should be viable to be a tabletop game designer outside of just making more D&D stuff forever, because as we've seen, it's not safe to assume that we can all just keep doing the same thing we've been doing and not get bit on the ass by it.

If we want that future, we have to take it into our own hands and build it ourselves. But if there's one group of people that knows about building something very big from very little, it's TTRPG players.

[dailycharacteroption]

Oozemorph (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by SothGrim on DeviantArt)

When you think of slimes, of oozes, of puddings or flans or any other food-related word that has been used to describe formless goo monsters in rpgs and beyond, you probably already know that, inspired by the movie The Blob and it’s remake, D&D was the first to turn such formless giant amoeba and other goo critters into staples, with plenty of jRPGs and beyond further helping to cement them as an icon of the genre.

It may shock you then to learn that the concept of humanoid slimes, of slimes that not only have intelligence but choose to adopt humanoid forms is not as recent as you think, evolving out of things like parodies of Dragon Quest and other jRPGs coming out in the 80’s… you know, the same decade that D&D itself became a thing, and that is *wild* to me.

Of course, one can’t mention humanoid slimes without pointing out the elephant in the room which is that slimegirls are featured in a lot of eroge works, and with that acknowledgement let me be very clear that we love and support folks that enjoy all sorts of age ratings and subjects here. There is no kinkshaming here.

In any case, today’s archetype is all about characters that, through accident or design, are a little more oozelike than most. Canny fans will remember that there is an archetype in First Edition by the same name, though while the shifter version is all about those shifters whose power of polymorphing is derived from emulating those giant protoplasms, the Second Edition version is more available to every class and is more flavored around magical curses, accidents, and the like. Things that you were quietly encouraged to reflavor the 1E version into if it suited you anyway.

Now, you may ask, “Ooh, does this archetype give you the ability to shift fully into a protoplasm for all the benefits and hinderances associated with it, or shapeshift your limbs into weapons, or the whole polymorphing into animal forms plus your pseudopods for extra offense?” To which I must sadly be the one to disappoint you, since the archetype does fall prey to the limitations that 2e sometimes puts on their character options, but I won’t say it’s impossible to play such a character, more on that later.

In any case, your character is or perhaps later became a partially goo-ified person. Maybe your character was a human that was afflicted by the ooze plague from The Slithering stand-along adventure that this archetype comes from, or some other ancestry that was experimented on, or someone of any ancestry that otherwise developed such a connection/affliction? Either way, we’ll see exactly what they have to offer.

The base dedication of this archetype represents the start of the transformation and how the starting shifts of the hero’s biology gives them insight into how oozes function, particularly with how to avoid their engulfing attacks, but also in the study they do into oozes and the occult as they come to understand what is happening to them. However, it comes at the cost of their changing anatomy being disturbing to many other creatures, hampering social interaction.

The more they transform, the more their anatomy fails to resemble their original ancestry. Thankfully, this makes it harder for foes to target their vitals, and they can seal off blood loss much faster and easier.

Some learn to distort their throats to create a resonating chamber, allowing their vocalizations to be heard from much farther away, though even the most musical of such vocalizations are likely a little unnerving.

Sometimes having no eyes is an advantage, especially given the number of monsters with deadly gaze attacks and spells that afflict those that view them. As such, some oozemorphs learn to just get rid of their eyes reflexively for a bit, becoming blinded for a few seconds in order to turn failure into success against such visual effects.

As their transformation progresses, oozemorphs become receptive to, and are able to replicate the primitive pheromonal communication of many oozes. While they can hardly tell oozes what to do, they can at least attempt to befriend them and convince them that they are not food or threats.

Eventually, many of them develop thicker skin akin to the thick membranes of many oozes, and their bones further break down, making them not only resistant to bludgeoning attacks, but also to the effects of especially grievous blows.

Many oozes can suction to walls and ceilings to move along them, and some oozemorphs can emulate that, their limbs spreading out to get as much grip on the surface as possible.

Finally, their internal fluids become more like cytoplasm than blood, making them resistant to disease and poison, as well as making them even more resilient overall.

This archetype offers a lot of durability options as well as some utility, but it is a far cry from going full sentient slime, even if the art for the archetype is very nice and seems to lean in that direction. However, by looking into the actual classes we can use as the base, we can find some options and answers that are suitable. Both kineticist and monk have ways to make your strikes deal many different types of damage, which could be flavored as reshaping gooey limbs or channeling power through them, while alchemist has some concoctions that can also help out with that. Furthermore, arcane and occult casters of any class gain the potential to learn the Ooze Form spell, which is much nicer than the 1e equivalent since it actually lets you take traits of specific types of oozes (from an admittedly limited list but that’s just 2e polymorph for you) rather than just a generic battle form.

However, even if you don’t go that route, the oozemorph can offer some fun abilities to make being a goo person a part of your character, especially if they plan to be up front absorbing a lot of hits.

Now, as sexy and cute as we tend to think of slime people in a lot of modern fiction, within a lot of more serious fantasy games, I can see a lot of oozemorphs struggling with how others view their altered nature. Even without considering how uncanny and disturbing their powers would appear, oozes are typically seen as mindless monsters, a danger to be avoided and repelled, so there’s a lot to explore there, though it need not be the case in your own setting if that isn’t something you want to explore.

Those that survive in the Blighted Lands are renowned for their toughness, but that doesn’t mean they are unscathed or unchanged by it. Such is the case with Sekani the Burning Rain, who suffers from an affliction that makes her body soft, translucent, and pliable in places. However, the young strix has learned to channel this ooze transformation, and earned her epitaph by channeling her magic through it to pelt foes from above with acidic spells.

Most who were afflicted by the Darkeye Plague rose again as zombies, hungry for flesh and instinctively spreading the necromantic virulence. However, those who survived it sometimes gained a strange symbiosis with the black fluid that had spread throughout their bodies. That did not, however, prevent them from becoming something more than mortal, though not necessarily monsters.

Most who become oozmorphs become soft and malleable, but Beras of Millentown was an exception, their body taking on the qualities of carnivorous crystal. This transformation has lent itself to them developing geokineticism, channeling their transformation into deadly blades of jagged crystal.