#like i just think thats neat im rotating that idea in my mind

[calyvt]

:p

[ppenguinpperson]

woo!! more of them!! im rotating this au around in my mind SO much you don't even know

i'm not sure if i'm happy with the character assignments - katya definetely has changeling vibes, and, sergei sorta fits the haruspex !! but i wasn't at all sure who i was gonna assign to be the bachelor. but, yura sorta fits, plus he's the protag of pafl, and, he Is the prickly prick that will bury us all!!

i was actually thinking sooo much about character assignments i made this lol

i was out of it when making it .. forgive me for my inaccuracies .. if i could redo it, i would, and i Can, but, i dont want to. since ive already assigned them chars.

more about bachelor!yura: he's not a full bachelor in this au, really. he's studying to become one !! like daniil, he's interested in Immortality and all that jazz. part of thanatica, but didn't create it. somewhat of a prodigy, sorta.. he's sent out to town on gorkhon only to interview isidor, nothing more. the plague still happens though, and, even though yura's not a certified doctor, he's better suited for dealing with it than most of the town. he's much more laid back than daniil, also. a bit snarky hehe. he Knows that the plague is dangerous, and that he might die, of all his terrible circumstances. he still tries to make the vaccine. he's not nice by any means, no, but he does try to maintain a 'chill' vibe. he is not always sucessfull.. but, that's life for ya!

haruspex!sergei .. i have not thought about him much yet, to be honest. i was certain i'd make him take the bachelorelors role at one point. i also got the idea of having sergei and yura Both take the bachelor's lore! yura as sergei's understudy, following him around. honestly i do like this idea still, but, i'm gonna be fully honest - i didn't wanna make a design for understudy yura. yea i could have just like, modified sergeis a bit. but i didnt wanna ‼️

haruspex's role also underwent some thinking. at first, i thought that olya fit - she does! she fits well! but also i like sergei's unwillingless to think about his emotions for even one second and i thought that was neat. when i was thinking over bachelor!sergei, i thought that haruspex!dmitry would be neat and also funny. imagine sergei coming to this town to interrogate The Great and Immortal tatiana temnova. but she dies. and then a plague breaks out and his only 'colleagues' are these two kids that fucking hate him. cool dynamics

speaking of dynamics! thats a big part as to why i had a hard time choosing characters for the roles! if i had made olya take on haruspex's role, bachelor!yura wouldnt really work, i think, not to the extent that i'd like it to. bachelor!sergei Could have worked, but i don't think there'd be enough conflict, really.. i think they'd have a much easier time working together than with yura.

i've never doubted katyas role, though. she's perfect. she detests trickery. but if we ourselves are to suffer deception. then our hands are no longer tied. her character is about what you'd expect. she stays silly throughout it all. . i dont actually know That Much about the changeling's route. but i like her:) and i like katya. so. that's what ya get!

[dnd-inspiration]

If you’ve sent me an ask within 30 days… it's here!

If yours isn’t here, send it again!  I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you guys. It’s been a few crazy weeks, I’m generally a lazy person, and having more than 5 asks stresses me out so I avoid my inbox. So lets get to it!

@leonmashedpotatoes Hello there, I'm going to be running a 3.5 shackled city campaign and I'm excited about the campaign, but I'm nervous because my homebrew campaigns have been making me super overwhelmed and I don't end up having any fun playing and the session just ends anticlimactically. How can I keep myself from getting overwhelmed? I figured it'd be easier since I'm using a module but I'm still nervous that I won't end up having fun PLeS HalP

It depends! Why does it overwhelm you? Are you organized enough? Do your players ask you stupid questions that you didn’t think you had to prepare for? Get good at predicting those dumb questions, or get good at improv. Are they doing things you don’t want them to do, like going north when they should go south? Just change the stuff happening in the south to the north. Or block off the path. I’d also recommend taking a 5 - 10 min break. Get up, stretch, get some snacks, etc. AS for anticlimactic session ends, try to plan for a good stop or stop playing too long. Sometimes sessions I’m in go so long we basically end when someone falls asleep.

@meme-regime

Hi, gonna DM a campaign that revolves around 2 countries at war. The campaign will eventually build up to each country having a superweapon, but the players only know about the enemy's. They are sent to stop it and while gone the allied country's goes off accidentally. My question is, how should i get my players invested in the story and really care about and join one side, rather than just do mercenary work? Its a war over land, so neither side is necessarily in the right, morally. Thanks!

Ask them to come up with detailed backstories about where they’re from, any friends, etc. Put those NPCs in the town in the region you want. Maybe one side pays well, maybe one side is filled with [x “evil” race]. Have them meet NPCs that they themselves care about their land. You can’t really force anyone to care about anything. I always stressed myself out when I cared if they did, so I stopped caring. And weirdly enough they started!

@ anon

I want to start dm'ing a campaign. Any advice for someone who's never dm'd before?

Just read up on the rules, find a module you want to try, read through it, and relax!

@ anon

I need to create a D&D character for a group me and my friends are starting. How do I go about it?

I use the app “5th edition Character Sheet” and I love it. If you pay 1 dollar you get to level up easy. There are guides online to help you out. Reading the player's handbook also helps! Make sure you and your buds know what level you’re starting at, and if you’re doing point buy or rolling your stats.

@sevenawkwarddays

So, I just recently started DMing and my group really seems to enjoy inns and enjoys roleplaying visiting one. I'm running out of gimmicks and fun quirks to give them and was wondering if you have any advice or suggestions?

Watch/read/listen to media related to that and take inspiration from there. Look up historical inns, look up local bed and breakfast joints, etc. There are some cool podcasts about history, myths, etc.

@irl-yuya

I'm writing a campaign for my friends (in which I will be both DMing and playing a character) should I get ideas, just knowing my friends' classes and see what happens or wait until they've finished character building? (We're using fan made classes. Dancer, Death Weapon (based on the show Soul Eater) and Dragon Slayer Wizard (based on Fairy Tail.)

Its your campaign, you should make it no matter what they want to play. Their races and classes shouldn’t matter too much. I’m in the middle of writing a campaign where Drow are despised, much more than normal, and driven out of towns. I’d gently suggest my players not play Drow, but hey if they want I won’t stop them. They just need to know what they’re getting into. I’m not about to change my entire campaign just because they want to play Drow but not be treated unfairly.

@ anon

Im setting up a Lamia lair in an old desert ruin, and so far i have a Lamia, jackalweres, manticores, and slaves occupying it. I have a maze, main lair, and slave cages planned, but i want it to be bigger. Any ideas???

Honestly I have no idea what Lamia is and google didn’t help… so here are some maybe not so helpful suggestions.

Room of pots, some overflowing with rubies. When you dig for more, its sand. If one breaks, endless sand pours out.

A giant room with pillars, and a single set of stairs that almost goes up to the ceiling.

A room dedicated to giving gifts to gods. You probably shouldn’t take anything. Should leave something instead.

Giant crocs who can be appeased with hearts

@ anon

So, in my campaign, almost all the PCs have a dead sibling, so I try to emphasize familial bonds in the story. Would having the BBEG's goal to bring back their own dead sibling be keeping to the motif or just lazy writing? Any suggestions for alternatives or ways to make that more interesting?

Whats bad about bringing your sibling back? Obviously raising the dead is a bit iffy but if I was one of your players I wouldn’t hunt him down for doing that. Maybe his sibling is bigger, badder, and generally better at doing evil stuff.

@didthething

My players are wandering through a mountainous region, with occasional Kobold tribes interspersed. They are searching for an old tower surrounded by a thick, cloying fog. What might they run into while they are wandering about?

I don’t have a monster manual, but I’d look into that to help you out! Rocs could be funny, since they sound like “rocks”. Bullets? Birds, goats, other typical animals you’d find on a mountain. Maybe some mountain monks or something.

@candalable

I think this is totally doable for your first game. Neat idea! I think your plot is fine, I don’t have any points. Since this is set in one place, make this places VERY detailed. Names, ages, jobs of all npcs they come across, town export and import, etc. Not sure about puzzles since everything sets back to normal tbh.

@anon

I'm DMing a session and my players are in a campaign where they're in a magical rubix cube dungeon that rotates and opens paths to new rooms when they interact with certain parts of the room they're in. I'm trying to design each room to be unique in both it's layout and what kind of challenge they'll have to go through, and i've already got three rooms planned out, but i'm running dry on cool ideas for puzzles, traps, or fun battles for them to stumble into. There are 5 players if it helps.

@anon

Could read through my blog and see if you can apply/tweak any to a room. Look up popular brain teasers and puzzles, twist them to a dnd setting. A room with a long staircase, halfway up you notice a really tall being just staring at you. Narrow bridge to get to the other side, but its cut. You can climb down the ladder into darkness. The other side seems slanted enough you can climb up.

@literal-trash-heap

In an adventure I'm writing, I need a monster that could make ships mysteriously vanish, but still be suitable for first level players. I was thinking maybe something to do with ghosts and the ethereal plane, but any suggestions would be terrific!

Low HP powerful monster that actually only makes ship invisible and sets them off course? Otherwise your suggestion sounds great.

@anon

In the party I have, everyone seems to be focused on only the task ahead and they aren't finding creative ways to overcome challenges. How can I change this and slyly force them into some RP and world exploration?

You can’t make them play how you want them to. If you want them to get into room A, and the door is locked and you don't want them busting it down but finding the key… make it impossible to break down. Thats as far as you can force their hand though. Maybe they like the straight path? You can introduce some NPCs  that want to show them the world, or need an escort.

@anon

Several sessions ago the party I have been DMing helped an Armorer and a Weaponsmith get together. Now, they've been invited to their wedding. It looks like the party wants to go so I want to spice it up a bit. I'm thinking some sort of monster should attack mid vows but I'm not sure what would be good. The wedding will take place in a city set on the side of a mountain, and the players should be about level five by the time they get there. But I have no idea what the monster should be

@anon

Look in the monster manual? Maybe there is a crazed ex lover that wants revenge. Maybe some giant birds want the bird seed, or see shiny objects in the wedding like the rings or decorations.

@anon

im dming for my four friends, but two of them chose to be bards, and the other two are a cleric and a wizard. should i like, force some of them to change roles or is there someway for me to change monsters and enemies so they dont get completely junked

I’d tell everyone everyone’s class, see if they’re okay with that, and treat them like any normal party. I treat my normal parties like they CAN die… but if they’re nice and don’t do stupid stuff, they only almost die. I don’t force my players but if you’re cool with that and so are they, go for it I guess.

@cometgrace

I have a question, if you don't mind. I'm really interested in playing d&d but I have no friends who would be interested so I'm looking to play it online. The problem is, I have absolutely no experience with the game and I know pretty much nothing. What's a good way a get started and figure out the game? or a good way to just learn the ropes?

Read up the players handbook and go online! Roll20.net is something people use. You can also find game shops in your town that host [free] dnd nights with tables for you to use! For free! Most people are patient. Just be up front that that you’re new and do your best to play along.

@gxjira

i have an idea for a campaign and several little details for it but for some reason i cant connect them? so far i have a tiny town full of completely regular people, a well with weird powers, the lunar eclipse and a bad time

Sorry but there isn’t nearly enough information for me to help you out!

@synodicstudying

I have a new DND session this weekend and I'm dusting off one of my old character ideas- a wood elf druid with a chronically ill wife and a 10 year old stepson, driven by trying to find the cure for her wife. She's definitely a motherly figure, with an emphasis on healing and shapeshifting abilities who I mean to make into the glue of the party, but I just got the setting. We're in the Arctic. Any ideas on how to adapt her to fit?

I love your idea so much!  Why not have her travel from your beautiful home continent? The arctic supposedly has the oldest seed in the world, frozen in time. And its one of the things you need for your wife!

@anon

So my players have unknowingly contacted the first arcs Big Bad and asked them for work. The Big Bad has been scrying on them and is slowly recognizing them as a threat, not just an annoyance. He's in a really good position to get rid of them without losing his sterling reputation. Any suggestions on how he could do this without tipping his hand that he's a villain to the party until it's too late?

Having them do tasks that kind of fuck up the town, or powerful people only. Tasks like taking a package from the Yarl to X address, instead of Y making it look like you stole it.

[cleverwordsandsadstories]

Home Organ Culture

home organs have a special place in my heart, they are kitschy, they are gigantic items with very little functionality, they have fewer sounds and poorer playability than a modern Casio starter keyboard, but I love em. mainly because I owned one way back when, and thats largely how I learned to play keyboards, was through playing my yamaha b6b

that is my little casio sitting up top, I still have the casio and use it regularly, but sadly the yamaha’s oil in paper capacitors finally gave up the ghost and the whole unit became inoperable. Thus it was drug out to the street and away it went.  I think the thing I love more than anything about home organs is in my eyes they have three levels, sort of like how pianos have three levels, upright spinet, baby, and full grand. We can picture those easily in our minds eye. The three levels of organ though are  Spinet

these serve the exact same purpose as a home piano, they have some basic features, a short upper and lower manual, and a tiny monophonic footpedal set. Their sounds are a bit tinny, but in the right context, they are delightful. A lot of them also have some real 70′s sounding drum machines, and if you want to spend the time, you can craft some real cool sounds around them. 

after spinet we have, full church

these have two or three full manuals, a full pedal board that is polyphonic, hundreds of sounds, they often have either outboard rotating speakers, or internal rotating speakers, they sound lush and full, and if you werent sitting on someones living room couch listening to it, you could really believe it was a fullsize church organ. a lot of modern ones even have like, dsp, and pcm samples for pianos and the like, they are really just really dressed up synthesizers, but again, thats part of the charm. you could put all of this in a keyboard that you could sit on a stand, and charge way way less for, but why would you do that? when you can sit in your pajamas and pretend like youre playing a great pipe organ, the king of the instruments! so after a full church we have, the futuristic model, in my eyes this is when someone saw that you could just pack all the computing power possible into a giant box and attach an unlimited number of keyboards and speakers to it, and again these are just dressed up synthesizers so, skys the limit. so they look like this....

These decided to quit really hiding the fact they were just candy coated synthesizers, and just own up to it. they are almost all white and chrome, they often add subtractive or FM synthesis to the additive synthesis of the organ. a lot of them have neat things like key controlled vibrato, after touch, midi, DSP effects processing and again, typically outboard rotating speakers. They sound gigantic, like a full orchestra, or the terminator soundtrack, or the future. I have gotten to play a yamaha stagea before, and I felt like I was flying an airplane. sure it was easy enough to make it sound like, an orchesta, or two dx7′s or a hammond organ, but I knew if i dug down deeper there was a lot more to explore.  I know a lot of modern organists have migrated to using midi and like grand orgue or hauptwerk, or even just sitting two midi keyboards together to get those sort of sounds, lord knows Im guilty of it, you can see my little home organ setup in my newest youtube video, 

sitting right there off my shoulder, two manuals a little volume pedal controller, and a patch selector, and a drum machine for good measure. it isnt perfect, but I love it. I realize having a fascination with something as odd as home organs is a weird thing think about. but I think they’re neat, and the idea that before we all had cable tv in our homes and ready access to all the music we could ever want to hear on our computers or easily sourced from a local record store, we learned how to use both hands and both feet in unison to play some hymns on sunday or some light jazz or samba for our Soiree or cocktail party. God I want to play light jazz on a cheesy sounding organ at a soiree or cocktail party.