#kind of like a bard type character in game

[marbledpython]

girlbug.........................

[psychhound]

im musing on bleed & the types of character-player relationships between my pcs and npcs

for a quick primer, bleed is the exchange of thoughts and emotions between player and character (great article about bleed here). for a lot of people, bleed leads to more immersion in the character, which can mean a more emotionally resonant and rewarding experience. some people try to play for bleed and some try to avoid it, but a lot of the time its not controllable. and some people tend to experience high bleed generally while others rarely have bleed with their characters

i was pondering why i, broadly speaking, tend to have higher bleed with my npcs than i do with my pcs, because i assume that is the opposite of a lot of people. especially coming off of a changeling the lost arc with @theresattrpgforthat that was intended to be high bleed (& succeeded!!) which is not an experience i get with pcs a ton, especially so quickly

and i think what i landed on is that i almost always create pcs and npcs with different relationships to myself according to bowman's 9 types of character-player relationships

for my npcs, i have to put pieces of myself into them intentionally from the get go because im inhabiting a lot of different people and have to have some sort of connection point to jump into these different minds in unpredictable situations as quickly and smoothly as i can. sometimes an augmented self, sometimes a regressed self, sometimes an idealized self. i take all the Me and then i hit it with a pickaxe and put the fragmented pieces into all these guys so i have tethers to the whole cast

and then of course i have to take all these fragments of myself and figure out their role in an overall story and figure out what their personas are going to be ... then they get a character sheet, if they get one at all, if the game calls for them to have one

whereas almost all of my pcs start as experimental selves. depending on the game, theyre either mechanics-forward because i want to try a funky build, or i have one Concept i want to play with that i build a whole character around. a recently divorced wolf dad guardian in wanderhome. an former-hivemind-member insectoid cult leader in starfinder. a bard/paladin who works at medieval knights orlando in 5e. sometimes i end up finding a new relationship with these characters that invites some bleed and sometimes i dont. sometimes they just stay me doing mad science with the game mechanics

which is really interesting to me as someone who really enjoys bleed and immersion, when it goes well. i didnt realize this pattern at all until i was like okay. mint asked me to make a high bleed character, why did it actually work

i definitely think there are ttrpgs that invite bleed more than others. when done intentionally, these are called 'bleed designs'. im aiming for a bleed design with spiritkeep since thats kind of the whole point. of the ttrpgs ive played (i need to count, but maybe around 17 now? multiplayer games at least), i think the two that come to mind are apocalypse keys and changeling the lost, especially in character creation. maybe thats too telling about me, though! theyre both games that very intentionally play with themes of trauma and thats a big bleed factor for me

idk ... curious to hear what yall think!! adding a poll cause why not :)

[thydungeongal]

Neoclassical Geek Revival is a really weird game. While the name would make one think it's some crusty OSR game that is mostly just remixing old ideas that could not be further from the truth. It's a strange game that is in many ways very old school but is more than a simple heartbreaker (mostly because in contrast to the archetypal heartbreakers this game is clearly written with an awareness of movements and games within the hobby besides just D&D).

First of all, it's a game that is particularly interested in its own weird dice and number tricks. Dice can explode. Sometimes you're specifically looking for the maximum of a given die (for an example: if a character is out of combat for maximum of d6 rounds, marked as ?d6, it means it's checked every round by rolling a d6 and on a 6 they are no longer out). There is a dice chain where dice can "increase" or "decrease" in strength, like a d10 becoming a d12 or a d8 becoming a d6. You can INVERT dice, so a d4 becomes a d12 or a d10 becomes a d6. Besides a normal linear progression, some rules utilize a cumulative progression of 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, etc.

Then you start getting into the specifics and things are once again weird: there are classes but instead of picking one class and sticking to it you basically build your character by allocating pieces into the different classes. Level 1 characters start with three pieces of pie. You COULD allocate all three into Warrior, to make a pretty straightforward fighty type, or you might want to mix it up by adding a single piece of Bard into two pieces of Warrior for something not unlike a warlord, kinda. The number of pieces you allocate to a class also ends up affecting a specific modifier, used in a wide variety of conflicts. Warrior adds to Combat, Rogue affects Stealth, Mystic affects Occult, Bard affects Presence, and any pieces allocated to Fool (basically the class that represents someone who survives adventures based on pure luck instead of skill) affect Faith.

This is where you get one of the things that sets the game apart from most OSR games: many old school games are often based around the idea of singleton mechanics and procedures to cover specific situations. NGR rejects this in favor of a single conflict system that then gets applied to situations besides combat! It is literally what some people think of when they hear mechanics for social interaction, i.e. dealing 1d6 rhetorical damage to an opponent's argument to get them to relent, but applied to multiple different situations.

Interestingly, the game does not have hit points: all damage accrues against stats. In an argument "social damage" (called Influence) accrues against a character's Will, and once it exceeds it the character has lost the argument. But characters have a pool called Luck (which you can increase by allocating pieces to Fool) which can be used 1:1 to mitigate damage of all kinds. The game even has tricks for FORCING opponents to spend Luck, as a means to chip at their defences before targeting them with something that REALLY hurts (like insulting an opponent in a physical conflict).

The game also has no list of spells, instead just giving players the systems for making their own spells. Same with monsters in fact.

And sometimes you just get hit with a rule that makes you think "why has no other game ever done this." Like the rule for giving experience in dungeon crawl focused campaigns where each new room explored after the first is worth 10 cumulative XP. So if characters end up exploring five new rooms they get 100 XP (after the first one, 1+2+3+4 times 10).

Anyway it's a neat game, worth looking at and mining ideas from imo.

[talenlee]

4e: I Like the Ardent

One of the elements of Dungeons and Dragons as a game system that I hold fast to as one of its greatest strengths is the nature of the class-species based system where a player is immediately invited to create a character the second they hear about the basics of the system. To this end, there is a design space in D&D where the classes in that class system regard the potential power carried in a name that meaningfully explicates what they do. Class systems, broadly, recognise the value of names for what a class is, because that conveys tone for what a class does. A Barbarian and a Fighter aren’t meaningfully useful classes but when positioned as game systems, one of them is immediately more technical than the other.

Even if, yes, I’m sure, Berserker is the more proper term.

Anyway, to this end, a D&D character class cares about what I think of as ‘name space’ – the kinds of things you can name classes in order to make those classes compelling, interesting and memorable, the handles that players can get a grip on. This means that some titles, like Wizard, Bard, Rogue, Sorcerer, the 90s idiot’s allure of The Ninja, have value and weight to them and you can almost always directly tie the quality of a class to the name it gets, as that’s a sign that someone had a real clear idea and wanted to do something. If the weird is generic (the Seeker) or completely obscure (the Factotum), then you were odds on dealing with something that was not designed with a strong class fantasy and were about to be in for A Bad Time that was maybe interestingly broken.

And then there’s the Ardent.

Ardents are a type of support character, a Leader in the context of D&D 4th edition. While by no means their first appearance in the game, 4th is the place where they got good. 3rd edition Ardents worked in a way that I will generously call weird, and were positioned as a psionic healer and therefore in direct competition with the Cleric, one of the best classes in the game that could always manage healing as an afterthought. Not a good look there at the best of times, especially with the strongest virtue of the psionic system of 3.5 being ‘guess what rules oversight I get to dance in.’

The simplest description for the Ardent is that they’re a melee psionic supporter that leads by example and expresses emotions hard. It’s a bit of a hard class fantasy to put into a single word, right? You’re a feeler. Wait no that’s bad. You’re an emotive? Nope, that won’t do it, either. You can tell Ardent is a rough word to use since it shows up in the flavour text of dozens of other things and the Paladin even gets a starting power called Ardent Vow.

Thing is once this idea is set aside, the actual mechanical package of the Ardent absolutely rules. For a start, it’s a melee weapon based Leader whose primary attacking stat is Charisma, and whose skills back that Charisma up. You can play a skulking streetwise Ardent or a sincere politician Ardent or even just a walking threat Ardent, they all have the compatibilities. They also rely on a big weapon, meaning you get some of that anime hero vibes of a character with a huge weapon leaping into combat to have a big impact.

Because their primary focus was how things feel they could put a lot of different emotional impacts on the kinds of moves they had. That could be something like leading your friends in a direct charge against an enemy or sometimes it could be about psychically dragging your enemy towards you so every friend you have gets to make an attack on them along the way like it’s an Assist Strikers spice reel from the attract mode on an arcade.

Ardents had a special ability that fired off when they got bloodied, which was rarely worth worrying about. They had another ability that change how you related to opportunity attacks, too – either you were better defended against them (prompting you to be more reckless about how you moved), you were better at dealing damage with them (and therefore became more mindful about forcing opponents into positions to deal with them) or you got to deal more damage when you got hit by them (in which case you were suddenly an immense idiot trying to get whacked on the snout all the time in combat just so you could retaliate with nova spikes).

They also grew well. See, they were a psionic class, which meant early on you picked some at-will powers and then instead of getting encounter attacks, you swapped those at-wills for other at-wills and got instead power points to choose how to fine-tune your powers for points in combat. This could lead to things like a slow burning opening turn setting up a late-combat nova, or vice versa, or maybe you’d find you had one power you loved to use all the time and focused on using it, with your other powers as niche, sometimes fooders. As an example, Demoralising Strike is a power you start with and, using no power points, just gives enemies a -2 to defenses when you hit with it. If you augmented it though, it would impose a penalty of -X, where X is 1+ your con mod, so in some cases, -5, or -6. This is a big swing and makes things very easy to hit and paints a very broad target.

On the note of painting a target, they also get the power Forward Thinking Cut, one of my favourite 4th edition powers ever. Used just on its own it’s a solid melee attack that gives everyone adjacent to you +1 to hit. That’s a perfectly reasonable power on its own. It can be augmented once to allow a higgledy-piggle side-step charge, but then it can be augmented a second time to instead allow two other characters to come with you on the charge. This kind of flexibility delights me, where it goes from a serviceable every-time power and then upgrades into a power for transporting people into the fray at the very start of combat.

It’s such a cool class about creating cool feeling moments.

Shame about the name.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Aaaa thank you so much for the tag!! Trying to keep it to one per fandom:

(Honourable mentions in no particular order: NHS, LWJ, SQQ, SQH; Ena, Shiho and An from PJSK; Katara and Sokka from ATLA; a lot of the AOT cast because they’re all so interesting but particularly freckles Ymir and Armin; and a lot of others)

Considering shared fandoms, I wonder who’s going to win xD

Tagging (to do at any time): @optimisticmiraclefest @miixz @original-robin @enby-axels @notdexterousatall and everyone else who’d like to join!

rules: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite!

Tagging @admirableadmiranda @jiangwanyinscatmom @origami-penguin @danmeireader @chronic-dreamer

[dishbug]

totally reasonable lenght for a ramble that stemmed from a singular screenshot (repost)

this was on my old blog thats no longer available so im reposting it here so its actually findable, its completely unchanged (other than name capitalization) og date : September 28th, 2024, 4:02 AM

happy wandysong 6th anniversary!!!!!!!!! to commemorate the moment the rot is in strong this 3 am, also yeah here is my ramble im gonna copy paste and add onto from my discord dms ty

thinking abt this dialogue in act 5 when Kiwi told Audrey that their whole thing literally is just singing and nothing else which yknow she is reasonably surprised by but it gets much better when you consider that not much later you can ask Miriam a few questions before entering moonscape where she basically just figures out in that moment and explains to you that the space in the spirit world and thereby all the -scapes are "shaped by your mind, and by the Overseers" basically meaning that different people see different things in it, with the castle staying as the only constant "anchor" point. with this info you can reasonably assume that most of Audreys experiences are very much slash pow zap focused so it is absolutely fair for her to go "how the fuck" when the bard tells her theyve just been singing their way through the spirit world this whole time.

(also yeah i know in intermission she's already at the overseer castle but!!! hey!!! just think about it.... thats what this is for...)

also im so glad Miriam is so smart and is the one giving us this random loredump bc i love thinking abt things too deeply and this definetly scratches that itch especially w it almost giving an extra layer to an interraction between two already pretty complex characters i enjoy very much

like ok i just love how this interaction you have w Audrey is optional and this optional interaction you have w her is given extra thinkability with MORE OPTIONAL DIALOGUE

and its not like a "oh Miriam explain to me how the fabric of the universe works" type of thing its just the "why do we land far apart?" question right before you enter solarscape together. and she just. figures that out on the spot. i love how its a question the bard would ask and isnt really directed from the "players perspective". i mean yeah duh its there bc youre curious too but its phrased in a very reasonable and incharacter "yeah ofcourse they'd worry about that" way

theres really nothing implying it would be like. an important bit of lore just by how its presented and tbh my little peabrain can only confirm is important is bc you have the option to ask her to repeat it. ......or maybe Greg was just proud abt that bit of worldbuilding

this also makes me wonder how she "experiences" the -scapes. since like, first time she entered it was chaoscape AFTER queen chaos was killed so there was like... literally nothing... she herself describing it as "dark and empty" since the -scapes kind of collapse without their respective overseers.

so in act 4 when she asked what it even was like in the -scapes im wondering if kiwis response altered her expectations or EXPERIENCES (ooooo)... anyways le sigh this is probably where she was starting to figure out that it like. works this way. reading and paying attention to dialogue is so rewarding in this game bc my previously UNEDUCATED!! mind was thinking that she just failed to get in w kiwi but this is so much more interesting !!!! wow my brain is just way too quick to just accept that things work like my first assumption without thinking too deeply abt it....

also something something about being able to go back into dreamscape after you exited without singing the overseer song again. maybe dream king got lazy idk.

wow what a lovely ramble that basically went back to the very start of the game for no apparent reason <3 i hope this was atleast some part entertaining or atleast readable

[themonsterundermystairs]

short list of lgbt-inclusive games that i love (in brackets is the kind of representation):

- cattails and it‘s sequel, cattails: wildwood story (nonbinary, queer in general): these are both great games that warrior cats fans will love. also, every single cat in the game is non binary. everyone is only referred to by they/them and you can have kittens with anyone.

- starfield (nonbinary, bi, same sex relationships, trans): you can choose your pronouns (he, she or they) no matter your body type. you can also always change your body and pronouns for a small fee. some main companions talk about former partners of the same gender, in at least one case, a character references dating men and women. guards may also reference a partner of the same gender.

- skyrim (same sex relationships for player, gay): you can marry regardless of gender and adopt kids with your spouse. there is a dead gay couple. (this will be the only game with so little representation on this list. i included it because i love skyrim, because you can make it gayer with mods and because it is from 2011 so i don‘t have high expectations)

- ikenfell (nonbinary, queer relationships, neopronouns): a really fun rpg with a fun combat system. also very queer, every character has their pronouns listed and there are nonbinary people with they/them, ze/zir and even he/him pronouns. i haven‘t quite finished playing through it yet, but there are all kinds of queer relationships. oh and you save the game by petting cats

- wandersong (queer relationships, gender nonconformity, nonbinary): a really unique and wholesome game about a bard that wants to save the world. it has an amazing story and some of the most well written characters i have ever encountered. the bard is nonbinary and uses all pronouns and there is a noteworthy nonbinary character whose story doesn‘t revolve around them being nonbinary. they are fully accepted. there are plenty of queer relationships. there are mermaids with beard stubble.

- a short hike (nonbinary): an amazingly fun game that actually feels like a holiday. it also has a super fast turtle that goes by they/them pronouns

- shovel knight (queer relationships, trans, nonbinary): fun platformer that allows you to choose your body type (male/female) and your pronouns (he/she/they) independently from one another. you can also do the same for all bosses and your love interest.

- squidlit and super squidlit: really fun gameboy style games that were created by independent trans developers.

[gen-is-gone]

Thought I’d drop you an ask about your D&D character(s) after your nostalgia post. Consider it an opportunity to wax lyrical if you want

Oh man, my high school D&D characters, hell yeah.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

So my high school D&D group was probably most notable for being waaaaay too big, because the guy who who was running the game that started the whole thing didn't quite know how to say no to people asking to join, and ballooned up from maybe six people to like. Thirteen. Which is fucking massive and horribly unwieldy, and bear in mind we were playing 3.5, where combat was somehow even worse and more long-lasting than modern 5e.

(This, incidentally, was how Ferro and I got to know each other properly, because of our group he was the one who didn't go to the same school as the rest of us, but he'd known the DM since they were like two. We got each other in the epic six-way post-college friend divorce, and Dan and Cedric got married.)

I can't remember any of their names, but the two characters that come to mind from that period were the very first character I made, an elf bard (natch) who came in late to the game comparatively late but had a few cool moments that mostly actually revolved around nerfing this other player's constant attempts to kill a different guy's characters, because he was that type of guy who would make a big thing out of playing chaotic evil characters to justify bullying other players. I had a couple moments in the climatic final battle of that first campaign where I mostly stopped him from ruining what everyone else was doing, lol.

The next campaign, which to this day remains an old favorite, was an Underdark exclusive where we realized that we couldn't reasonably play another game with this many people and split off into two groups. Ferro Dm'd one, and my then-girlfriend DM'd the other. I played an Orc barbarian with like 1 intelligence who made friends with the other characters and formed a bond with them. We spent a huge amount of that campaign fucking around and getting into stupid scrapes instead of following the storyline, it was fun.

I have a lot of nostalgia for that group, even though we were objectively kind of a trainwreck. We all learned a lot, certainly, and all of us went on to have a lot interest in game creation and craft later. We had a bunch of stupid in-jokes, like you do, and we would sometimes cosplay our characters for big moments.

These days I haven't had a group to play with in a few years, in part because I really don't want to play D&D or other crunch-heavy games, but it's hard to get people to branch out to other games, although given how WotC has shat the bed recently, there's been a lot more interest in other types of ttrpgs, so we'll see what the future holds.

R's group is so...they remind me of that old teen group so much. The only thing that's really changed is which edition they're playing, and the fact they're all packing smartphones rather than little flip/slider late 2000s monstrosities with a hundred phone charms hanging off them. When I walked in on them, they were, as cliched as it sounds, actually about to fight a dragon, so I watched them play for a bit. R kept beefing her rolls, and her friend was convinced that he could repair a wall they broke with the one hundred crackers he had in his inventory. One of the girls had a really expensive-looking heavy metal dice set that everyone else was envious of, because she's apparently about as veteran of a player as you can be at fifteen and collects dice sets. Of course.

It was just really fun seeing kids playing, and the whole thing continuing on to a whole new generation. There was a dad who came in looking for something else, and he told me he used to play AD&D back in the eighties when he was a teen. At this point the game's been around long enough to have multiple generations playing together, which is absolutely delightful.

[beetlegh0st]

Okay so here's my BBC Ghosts dnd au and what kind of character I think each ghost would play!!

This au was inspired by s5 e4 "En Français" where the ghosts realise they're starting to get bored with their routine and want something new. When I watched it I was just thinking these guys need to start a dnd campaign then they'll never be bored, so this is where this au comes from!

Disclaimer: I've only seen a couple episodes of CBS Ghosts but I know there is an episode where they play dnd but I don't know much more than that so any similarities are a coincidence! :D

So first off this campaign is for the ghosts only, Alison and Mike don't seem like the type to play and it'll give them a little break from the ghosts.

Pat would probably be the best choice for our dm, he probably knew about it when he was alive. Thomas would ask but the others would NOT let him. Pat would make a great dm but honestly godspeed to him the ghosts are hard enough to keep under control dming this game would be a nightmare I can't imagine it would last long. If he wasn't dming though he'd probably pick a halfling ranger, que the arrow jokes (nock the arrow jokes???)

Fanny would be a human, no doubt about it, she wouldn’t want to be anything else. And out of all of the classes I feel like cleric probably suits her best.

Captain I was initially going to say is human but I think he deserves to be a little brave and explore a little and play a half-elf, he’d also obviously be a fighter.

Thomas would be an elf bard. Julian would be a drow bard. Thomas is a bard so he can perform and Julian is a bard so he can sleep with people. They hate eachother and compete to do charisma rolls. Also it was my sisters idea to make Thomas an elf as a reference to Mat playing Elf in Yonderland, a connection I wish I had made lol

Robin would be a tiefling wizard. I picked tiefling because they’re the outsiders of the main races and honestly the implications make me sad :( He would definitely be a spellcaster and wizard makes the most sense for him

Mary would also be human and she’d be a druid, 5 potatoes high and all

Kitty would ask if she could be something like a fairy but Pat would probably only know about the main races. Kitty would probably please please please her way until Alison looks it up and confirms that dnd does have a fairy race for her to play. I honestly can’t decide on a class that fits her but I feel like the ghosts would give her little brother mode and she just gets to do what she wants

Humphrey would be a gnome so everyone else can still pick him up and I want to make him a warlock for no reason other than it’s funny to me. Like he is often the comic relief character in the show so it would make sense if he’s the one to break the pattern of their race and class being based on themselves and just have a random class. Also imagine “I cast Eldritch Blast” in his voice

The plague ghost wouldn’t play but I think they could get them in for one game to play a sort of rat king type character they have to fight or something, they would have a lot of fun. They also would have the coolest campaign of their own down in the basement

Also if each of them chose a background it would be this:

Pat - guild artisan maybe??

Fanny - noble

Captain - soldier

Thomas - entertainer

Julian - charlatan

Robin - outlander

Mary - folk hero :(

Kitty - noble

Humphrey - hermit

[evenmyhivemindisempty]

Oooooh, pick me, pick me!

Ahem! What would the various Boyd characters play in a D&D game, and what would their play styles be like?

Steve Murphy: Steve doesn’t know anything about DnD, but he immediately studies up on the rules and after a thorough review and cross-analysis of the classes and species, he decides the most tactical pick is a rock-gnome artificer. He’s lazy about the name though and just calls him “Todd”. His gnome is lawful good, and Steve sticks to that religiously. He’s a very studious player who’s very into the gameplay mechanics, and really likes problem-solving in the game. He’s… often sort of obnoxious to play with, and can sometimes steamroll over other players.

Donald Pierce: Pierce plays a half-elf, true neutral warlock woman with a tragic backstory he spent three sleepless nights meticulously plotting out. He’s the type of player that’s sort of dragged into it semi-unwillingly by someone else (Gabby), but once they’re in, they’re *in*. He gets so into the game, and specifically the roleplaying/story elements. (He also LOVES being a warlock, having a patron looking out for him is Very Sexy.)

Cap Hatfield: Cap plays a Dragonborn ranger of indeterminate gender! Their alignment is lawful neutral, and although Cap is overall a casual player, he’s very serious about sticking to his alignment. He does have a fairly intricate backstory for his character, but it doesn’t come up super often. Cap’s a pretty quiet player, and tends to go with the flow in most sessions! He’d actually make an excellent DM one of these days.

Clement Mansell: Clement thinks DnD is GREAT. He has a blast with his bard; he’s a chaotic neutral tiefling man (Clement likes the idea of an “outlaw devil musician”), and he absolutely poured so many stats into charisma. He mostly just acts like himself when he’s playing. He’s sometimes kind of annoying, but he can also be super fun to have around.

The Corinthian: Corinthian plays as a male human, of course! He goes for a chaotic neutral rogue, and mostly just tries to have fun. He doesn’t really concern himself too closely with the rules or the gameplay mechanics, he just likes the story, and building on scenarios with other players. It’s sort of an exotic delight to get to participate in this type of story creation, even just as a player!

Eli Klaber: Klaber designs his character to be a drop-dead gorgeous elf woman, and has every freckle on her face mapped out. She’s a true neutral fighter: the mechanics for fighters are simple, and pretty easy to get into for a newbie. Honestly, Klaber mostly likes getting to roleplay as his character the best. He doesn’t really care too much about what his party does in general.

Ty Shaw: Ty rolls for a male, half-orc barbarian. Despite being a real bruiser Ty ends up actually just trying to talk his way out of problems. His character’s technically neutral evil, but Ty doesn’t actually do much that’s very evil at all.

Quinn McKenna: Quinn makes a character mostly as a concession to Nebraska, who’s running a game, but he ends up having a decent time with it, especially when he realizes how stat focused it can be. He is *such* an optimizer. He doesn’t get as granular during the character rolling process as Steve though - he mostly just fashions a character that’s… kind of just like him: a lawful neutral, human male paladin, who’s taken the oath of the watchers. He doesn’t like having to roleplay at all. When his ‘character’ talks, that’s just Quinn.

[rowanyx]

So in the Adventuring Party, Brennan asked Beardsley whether there is a world in which Kristen gives up being a Cleric.

Mechanics-wise, I understand why the response was a no. That kind of big change would have a lot of restructuring to do, from the character sheet to minis to even plot changes, which would be difficult mid-season like this. (See Riz's sub-class change from Inquisitor to Arcane Trickster happening now, rather than when we actually met Pok)

Story-wise, though, I respectfully disagree. In fact, I posit there is many a world in which Kristen could change her class.

The big one, I think, would be Paladin. Especially either Redemption or Oathbreaker. After all, you could easily argue that this whole situation (i.e. Cassandra seeing Kristen not putting her priesthood first, dying, and the new mysterious voice that taunted the party with the rotting corpse of the god Kristen already failed) cumulates into exactly the type of description for an Oathbreaker (going back on their word and then joining up with some evil entity instead). And, well, after two gods dying, one you've very much stated to want to be good for but can't get yourself to do so, sounds very much like the type of person that would seek Redemption. If not for themselves, at least for others.

And this could also work to show sort of backslide into the Applebee's family drama. After all, we know Bucky just started as a Paladin himself. He's probably not high enough leveled to have a sub-class of his own, but doesn't Redemption fit? The kid who was forced into Kristen's old role, who is already going around trying to save his classmates from Hell? If Kristen did switch to Paladin, they would most likely share classes (something like Gorgug's Artificier track, school-wise). A perfect opportunity to flesh out the relationship there, either to save Bucky from Mac and Donna or have him 'save' Kristen.

Of course, these are just two of the easier paths to see.

Porter did want another Bad Kid in his classes, didn't he?

Maybe Kristen finds she desires a guide and becomes a Totem Warrior Barbarian.

Maybe Kristen decides that just because her parents suck, doesn't mean the whole bloodline did. This causes her to delve into old records and come out of it as a Path of the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian.

Another idea, given the Buff Kristen movement, is a Fighter. Especially the training and power describing a Champion or the fighting spirit of a Samurai, to lose so many gods and keep going.

Or maybe she finds the issue is the evangelizing. That she cannot dedicate herself to bringing others into her path, but still desiring a higher being to help her. There are many to make a Warlock Contract with. She's even living with one, technically, by way of Fig's Archdevil job.

You could even argue for an Eloquence Bard, with all the speeches and now the Presidency campaign.

Or hey, Cassandra was a moon goddess, wasn't she? Maybe even a Lunar Sorcerer.

Unlikely but theoretically possible, she's just desperate to fix something and takes up Artificing. After all, how different can a Battle Smith really be? It's still healing and protecting, right?

Or, let's revisit an old topic. At the top of the game, Kristen was called the Chosen One. We saw that title following her even after leaving Helio. Sol treated her kindly for it, she invented YES! and even reinvented it into YES?. An argument can even be made that that's part of why Cassandra was fixed so easily after clinging to her. But what is that? Where is that power from? Perhaps some new magic awakens in Kristen. That of a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Just, Kristen, taking a hard look at religion and Clericdom and deciding maybe it wasn't right for her.

[alpaca-clouds]

Thinking about Power Fantasies and Wishfullfillment

I am thinking about Wishfullfillment and Power Fantasies a lot recently. Mostly because someone has shamed me for writing exactly that. Power Fantasies. Or, let's be more honest, for me writing a rather unusual kind of Power Fantasy. The one, where the power that I fantasize about is not a physical, violent power.

Technically speaking, there are technically like two acceptable types of Power Fantasy within fiction:

Punch real good and get to punch all the bad guys.

Get the hot gal/hot guy.

Genre fiction is usually where this can be found - and yeah, it always is a variation of this. Generally media that is focused more on a male audience will usually go more for the "get to punch stuff real good" power fantasy, while maybe putting in a little "hot gal" for the visuals. Meanwhile, a lot of media focused on a female audience, will focus on "get the hot guy (and fix him)" as the power fantasy, with maybe a bit of "get good at punching". (And yes, this has less to do with "what gets written", but more with "what gets published/made into movies/films/games by big publishers/studios".)

What is noticable about it: Obviously for the most part the romantic power fantasies are very much heteronormative. And yes, the other part of the power fantasy is almost always about physical violence, and about being the strongest, and most influencial person there is.

And here is the thing: That is not really the power I fantasize about. I do not want to use violence to kill the bad guy real good. Sure, if someone handed me a Death Note, you'll bet, that I would see what would happen if I noted down "Elon Musk" and "Donald Trump". But in general it is not the kind of power I would want.

My power fantasy is "to be able to talk people into being fucking reasonable for once". Or rather: "Be able to talk and have people just listen, gods darn it." Which is, yeah, why ever since I started playing TTRPGs more than half my life ago, I had the tendency to play the charisma heavy classes. And which also is the reason why my DnD standard class is the bard.

So, yes, whenever I currently write about my BG3 Tav and he is talking sense into some BBEGs (like Gorts, or Emps) and stuff... Yeah, that is very much my own sort of power fantasy. Just as his "I am gonna make friends with everyone" is very much a power fantasy of mine.

Again, there is a reason for me to play bard.

Yet, a former friend wrote a whole ass essay shaming me for it and how unrealistic it was and how the character "forced his morals" on everyone else. (All my questions on how the person's own characters killing their villains were not forcing their morals on said villains were ignored.) And it created a whole ass discussion, where even more folks then kept shaming me about this - and about my love for Solarpunk with worlds, in which again the world is actually a peaceful one.

And... I think this is really sad, right?

Like, how is it that the only viable variations of writing power fantasies seem to be "violence" or "get to have straight sex"? I find it especially kinda sad, that violence especially is the thing people can fantasize about and it is considered "normal".

Sure, you can say: "Well, some forum discussion is not saying much." But something that I keep thinking about: "Well, I am writing those stories for myself, because there is not a whole lot of that avaible in media." Because most mass media is about characters punching real good and then punching their problems. Sure, I can think of a couple of animated kids media in which the BBEG is in fact defeated by words. Steven Universe comes to mind. And, I mean, ATLA kinda tried, though they still needed to have the big bad battle in the end. But in general it really is the exception to the rule.

Mass media tends to focus on violence to tell stories. Alternatives to it are rarely even considered. If you look at the blockbusters and what not, pretty much all involve a finale that does centrally feature a fight or battle.

Yet, especially in terms of movies I cannot think of a single one, where the main character goes in there: "Okay, bad guy, let's just talk about this", and then does exactly that.

And the same goes about the worldbuilding. Why (outside of the normatilization of the entire "western narratives" thing) do so many people struggle with the idea of a Solarpunk world, where the world itself is fine? Why do they struggle to imagine a utopia where there is no sinister plot hiding and Soylent Green is in fact not people? Why do they actually get super angry at you, when you write stories like that?

Because it is so fucking normalized.

But, like... How is it that you can write a wishfulfillment world where the wishfulfillment is based around how very much at war everyone is - just so that the MCs can be the biggest, most badass heroes there are! Why shouldn't people be able to write a wishfulfillment world, where the wishfulfillment is actually that the world is nice and peaceful and the heroes are just really good at science and politics?

And let's face it: This is very much all about capitalism. It is very much about having a very strange relationship to both violence and anti-violence. And... Yeah, no, we need to move past that.

So, that said? I am going back to writing self-indugent power fantasies about my dumb bard going around, talking people into joining the good side for hugs and cookies, and also having a lot of queer sex. *coughs*

[dandelion-wings]

Jarch ask of the day! In a Characters Playing DnD AU, what kind of character do you think Jean would like to play? More generally, what kind of player would she be like?

Man, that's actually hard to say. My first instinct is "paladin," but that's in part because she's a paladin in my head (and in the AU where they're all DnD characters), and IDK that she'd want to play so close to type in her escapism!

...Y'know what, she plays a paladin for the first three games, and then her friends make her switch.

After that I would guess either Criminal-background bard who is of course redeeming themselves, to lean into the romanticism end, or fighter, because that character is definitely-not-Vennessa down to the Folk Hero background. TBH which she chooses probably comes down to the other players' classes, because it's very important to her that she serve the party balance.

As a player, I think she'd be extremely well-versed in the rules, but not in a rules-lawyer way--she just wants to make sure everyone's playing correctly. Which is annoying when the DM is trying to let a player succeed on Rule of Cool, but also useful when she tells them "actually, ranged attacks have disadvantage on a prone target" at a clinch moment in a big fight. She's tactically thoughtful, but refuses to metagame (sometimes, again, to an obnoxious extent), and makes earnest efforts to spotlight all her fellow player's characters and feed into their plots. Her own characters are so fucking tropey that it physically hurts, but she's having fun! And that's what counts.

[amelias-calamity-quintet]

Ah, Marela. There is so much coming up with her in the Nayru's Temple arc. Y'all know so little about her. I promised y'all she had a full character sheet, and I still can't tell you every reason why. For folks new to MoaH, Marela is Zelda's head attendant and best friend.

We're having so much fun messing with expectations with Marela. As the first named Zora woman in the story, series expectation says she should have a crush on Link. Marela is in fact not interested in men at all. That doesn't mean she's not interested in any Marksmen.

Marela is an absolute gossip and we love her for it. She is also one of those people that ships people in real life (actively doing so in story too).

Marela and Zelda have been friends since childhood, for backstory reasons that will make more sense soon. At the very least, the two studied spellcasting together, and so Zelda has a lot of enchantments that she designed for Marela, or helped Marela research. Marela's water teleport ability is one of those.

While there hasn't been too much of Marela's magic shown off, she is a talented seamstress (for cultural reasons), and a lot of her magic manifests in her sewing. It is a specific type of magic that Zelda is actually not that good at. Currently. Mechanically, this would be largely illusion spells.

Marela's combination class is a mixture of College of Eloquence and a custom subclass I still need to build. Both the subclass and the hybrid would reveal too much, but once y'all figure out her backstory, there might be some clues.

Bard was actually a really hard pick for Marela, she was tied with another class, but there would be too many ??? for the sheet to be really intelligible at that point. Also once I did the math on Jack of All Trades and Expertise, Bard was better. Persuasion and Insight on the Expertise by the way. Only one other person who can keep up with her in that regard.

Starting feat is Actor because she's dramatic like that. +2 CHA, +1 DEX

This also becomes clearer once there are more Zora women in the story, but screw gender dymorphism in fantasy. Marela has shark teeth like we see Zora men have. There are also Zora men and women of varying heights, to include shorter Zora men and taller Zora woman (like up to the height of Sidon comparatively).

Lots of races in MoaH have wider trait variants that they can't have in games for things like asset limitation reasons. Zora are one of those and Zora have traits reflecting multiple kinds of fish besides just sharks. Marela's traits are inspired by beta fish and jellyfish.

[rielzero]

Just saw your post about ascended Astarion and male Tav fanfic. I am willing to rise to the challenge

If you need any prompts! here's some concept I've danced with in my head (up for anyone to use) inspired by my own character's potential AUs. Please do not claim ownership over the ideas, I'd love to see people's different spins. Please keep it to Male Tav, there's so many Female Tav fics out there already- I had ideas specifically with a male character in mind. M x M focus is preferred. I'm not bi or pan, so anything hinting to tav being exclusively gay is nice.

THESE ARE all PROMPTS / IDEAS not demands. I'm not here to control anyone's creative progress :V

I'm just a nerd be nice

Brain Damage Tav has used the tadpole powers but refuses to become half-illitid and keeps it how it is. Tav ascends Astarion- but is convinced by Jaheira or someone else that he is incapable of feeling love now and becomes afraid of him- (Astarion still is very much capable of love) Astarion responds of course like a scorned ex, and lies through his teeth when the break up happens and breaks tav's heart. Timeskip- it is revealed Tav's altered brain still has mindflayer powers, but because of the trauma of the final fight he suffers from severe memory loss and pretty much got themselves in a position were he is dying- only for Astarion to come around and save him by turning him- then be met with guilt and over-protectiveness when he realizes Tav does not remember their time together anymore. (would work for a series, this concept is what I intend to use for an AU of my character but it would be very different.) Lots of angst but soft ascended astarion towards male tav :3 very gentle- very protective.

You were There too AU were Tav was kept by Cazador but never turned, just kept as a snack- so Astarion knows him and they may have fallen in love during that time. During the ritual Cazador threatens to replace Astarion with Tav- Astarion goes feral.

I forget you're an Urchin Playing into the fact that Astarion was a corrupted Noble- knows what luxury life is like- inspired by how my tav is an urchin and very unfamiliar with luxury- Tav is Astarion's consort- but is very awkward not knowing ANYTHING about noble life, from etiquette to wearing jewelry and fancy garbs. Wholesome stuff- Probably lots of fluff. Astarion spoiling Tav and showing him off.

Three of them AU were Gale and Astarion and Tav are a in a polycule, after ascension Astarion becomes a little overly possessive over Tav- Gale notices a bit late and feels left out, but supports his loved ones new life goals... Of world domination.

I'm married, get over it Au were male tav has an horrible ex who breaks in the mansion because he thinks tav is enslaved to Astarion- but he's not- He's just as evil as Astarion. And they're very affectionate- Astarion enjoys rubbing it into the ex's face. Extra points if the ex is a human cleric, paladin, or bard with too much facial hair. (COUGHS)

Warlock? cool Any fic that plays into the warlock theme openly for tav, not similary to Wyll- all though I don't want to restrict anyone to a specific type of patron. (my patron is a great old one) keep in mind there's warlock patrons outside of the subclasses in the bg3 game if you need inspiration. If tav's patron is female, give them a mother-son kind of bond since tav is gay.

Other, Tropes I like described vaguely cuz my brain stoopid but ideas that can be expanded into one fic or more -oh shit you're dying don't worry I can fix it with a bite -you're so beautiful I want a 100 paintings of you akjdkhgkfhgk -The gods literally made you to ruin me god damn it I should've known -tav is small / fragile looking man but he can stab you 100 times over -tav can sing, or is creative but he doesn't like sharing this side of him (loki is 100% exactly this lol) hes easily embarrassed -tav is internally panicking because he is very very very gay. -tav has scars too and is very insecure about his body. -overprotectiveness, lots of handholding keep you close kinda stuff -wholesome physical affection, does not have sexual implications even if they talk dirty or flirt silly -words being used like petite, twink- or cute in the right context. -maybe a fic focussing on tav being half elf and the struggles that come with it. Otherwise leave race up to reader. -Tav was already a vampire before they met, or is a dhampir -Astarion and tav knew each other 200 years ago -I will pet you aggressively and affectionally and you will like it -who the fuck are you drawing? wait thats me??? oh -Astarion is creative too and might doodle. -love at first sight but in denial.. cuz its funny -tav has insomnia and needs cuddles... -tav is a necromancer and familiar with vampire lore. -anything reflecting the vampire bride/groom lore in a scene. (there's a reddit post explaining this) -Vampire hunters coming after tav in attempt to hurt Astarion because he's become pretty untouchable -Vampire Tav does not want to feed on his victims because he finds that too intimite -Vampire tav is a vampire lord too- but not an ascended one- and he isn't corrupted by greed. -Astarion technically can compel Tav, but has no desire to do so and voices this openly to anyone who tries to argue Tav is a slave. -If Astarion hurts tav by accident in any way he feels horrible and will shower him in gifts or thousands of love language things just to affirm that it was an oopsie and he did not want to do that. He'd never do that willingly. -consent consent consent anything with consent- love language is consent -tav was a sex worker himself before they met but not anymore -lots of fluff stuff -scheming husbands plotting the downfall of the world together, bonus points if tav is the mastermind and a genius -Polycule with Gale, either as Triad, or Triangle -Admiring from afar, staring- lots of staring- intense consential staring -astarion beating up tav's abusers while tav sips from a chalice like a spoiled consort -dramatic vampire parties and all the normie vampire lords are scared of Astarion and his consort -vampire politics are kind of like ballroom hissing contests with fancy banquets and showing off your partner -I will go feral if someone hurts or touches you -steer clear of the consort, or the master will gut you -jealous vampire lord tries to seduce tav but tav is very loyal to astarion and not having it -astarion gets a cleric or powerful mage in his court just to revive tav if tav dies -You offended my husband? I'm setting your village on fire -Everyone thinks the consort tav is weak- but the consort might actually be more dangerous oh no -None of the above lines have to be necessarily restricted by ingame universe, can all be AU- does not have to include the whole mindflayer drama. Rule of Cool.

Avoid these please? I personally dislike that -misgendering tav (babygirl, queen, girly, strictly effeminate- any words that might demasculinize tav, as a gay man this stuff makes me really uncomfortable) -Overly describing tav's features as if they're set without leaving it open to the reader (long hair, skin color, favorite colors, etc) -Astarion knew tav when tav was still a child and Astarion was an adult. -Astarion abusing tav physically, just.. Please no. -...they're teenagers in high school... *dies* -brainwashing.. No offense to people who like some tropes I don't- You're fine :V We all have different tastes!

Headcanons for how Ascension works that you can use (inspired by ingame dialogue and such) -Tav isn't a regular spawn, but a vampire groom- He was turned differently, not buried for 2 days. Astarion can sense Tav is in danger if he is a groom, or sense strong emotions from him. -Tav is not immune to sunlight unless he stays in close range of Astarion. (based on dialogue) -Astarion might be a bit warmer to the touch since he is a living vampire now. He does not have to feed on blood- but Tav still requires blood and is cold to the touch.

Might edit this post later with more.

[greypetrel]

hiya! 2, 20, 29, 31, 43 for the oc asks c:

Hi Laya! Thank you! :3

Tis the ask game

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?

I am a good blorbo mom and I love all my OCs equally.

It's Aisling, she's relaxing and fun to write.

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

Alyra is a bard. She sings only drinking songs in pubs. She'll start the choir and have whole room join. Easy to spill secrets if you shared a shanty. Will not sing on command, if you ask her, she won't even speak. Won't sing under the shower or as pleasure, but she did sing lullabyes to baby Kieran and her own offspring eventually. She has a nice, low voice.

Raina is the one that loves singing the most, but unfortunately she's also tone deaf. If she strikes a note it was by pure chance and mistake, it won't happen again. She puts always a lot of passion into it, but she's terrible. Picture a younger Florence Forster Jenkins (TW for... Singing so horrible it's actually funny, I love FFJ unironically).

Aisling has a nice voice and likes to sing, will most often be found humming as she works, and even put words together to sing her own (whimsical, think "In the golden afternoon" from Alice in Wonderland) songs. She's extremely shy, tho, she sings in public only it it's a group song and she can involve other people in it. Ask her to sing solo in front of a person and she'll run in the opposite direction instead.

Niamh I think has a nice voice and is the one that will actually show off and seek proper singing lessons. In a modern AU, she'll apply to lyrical singing classes, and will be a nice soprano.

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?

Garrett and Niamh, most definitely.

Garrett will say that "What's the worse that can happen, I'm used to demons and I can talk to them". Not in Kirkwall, because just as Lilian, Kirkwall usually means a shitton of demons he can't handle by himself, or bandits.

Niamh will go just to show that she can. Also it means there's a Spirit in distress and she can calm them down, so why shouldn't she help? That poor spirit must be so upsed, better go and fix it. *Aisling disapproves*

Priscilla would go if she gets paid for it, she doesn't believe in ghosts and after Hezenkoss? Eh, it's all downhill, can't get any spookier than that.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Mh, the two that would have a tumblr blog are Aisling and Priscilla, let's focus on the latter.

Priscilla would have an extremely curated blog. It's all in pinks and creams with a touch of turquoise, very very girly but elegant. A cursive elegant font uses sparsely for titles, neat links to her other profiles (she has an Instagram and is very active). As for the content: it's aesthetics, all in the same colour range (she loves pink!), a lot of fashion design and fashion photography, all high end and very classy. And the occasional original post showing the nails she did to her friends, some hairdo she has on or made people (Bellara is a favourite model, even if her face is rarely shown she's referred to as "the bestie💖"). Some selfie of her and the group here and there. Poetry and aforism and musics, all by women, resources on indie artists in the music and fashion field. And the occasional informative post against fast-fashion, capsule wardrobes, tutorials on sewing and embroidery and recognizing different types of fabrics.

She'll be very active, i think ahahah.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

Mh, I try to go for "Stuff I'd like to explore or learn how to draw". Like: Radha has an undercut becuase I liked the idea of an androgynous character. I do like contrasts when creating a character, and I do design them thinking of the personality as well, and I colour-code them all.

Example: I wanted a warrior for Veilguard, I didn't have any and I decided to try. To add a little contrast and interest, I decided that Priscilla would have been very "girly" and pink, and definitely a high femme... Who can also shield bash you out of existence. I made her buff because she needs some muscle to support that big shield and armour, but chose the same hairstyle as Evka (before knowing Evka's designer had my same idea) to have some more girlyness in an otherwise full armour, I put her some make up and enhanced the pink with lipstick when the game didn't give me the option of changing the colour to the armours (buuuuh). She does change hairstyle at a certain point, it was fun.

(I have a lot of Priscilla feels, sorry ahahahahah)

I do tend to design finer traits, out of being very self-conscious about my own nose that's on the bigger side (I hated it as a teen. I'm growing fonder of it, but it's a work in progress). xD

Also: I love expressive people and drawing expressions, so I have quite a hard time in drawing aloof, more stoic characters.

... I can't think of anything else, you tell me ahahahahah