#maybe there IS a limitation on this in DND but. I did think it was funny. and necessary. for the timeline

[zukkacore]

This is a bit of a spoiler for Almost but can you believe Jace / the Jaceclones found an infinite spell slot hack for the clones. Sorcerers amiright

[blujayonthewing]

interpreting 'Noticing Things and Figuring Stuff Out is my entire character concept and I even specifically have a feat that gives me bonuses to passive perception and investigation but DMs literally never use passive scores and I keep beefing my active checks' as felix being overstimulated by information overload and unable to focus on the correct/ useful things, for my own sanity

[ohwolfling]

Gale’s evil ending is out on Youtube now! How do you feel about it and is there any analysis to it?

[goes to YouTube because I have Toy Story disease and know I will never do this myself]

Ooooh boy. The thing is, this is an RPG. If you played the game in such a way that Gale would get here, alright. I don’t wish to yuck anyone’s yum. But for me this feels nigh on impossible. 

-please not, I have not slept right in like a month, this is not as polished as I usually try to make my asks/meta-

Gale at his very worst wants to be worshiped, adored, and praised. He wants to be equal to gods because it’s gods who have made playthings of the little guys. I don’t think that this kind of submission would satisfy Gale, nor do I think that Gale is someone who does direct violence on purpose, even on his worst days. 

Choice One 

As for destroying the heavens, I don’t know, Gale seems aware that being a Chosen is a curse regardless of who the god is and I don’t see Gale focusing his ire on throwing his testament to Mystra and having a crowd beat up a Mystra statue that came from I am not sure where? Sort of echoes my sentiments that while BG3 is some of the best and most varied representation of abuse and trauma on personal and systemic levels I’ve ever seen, it still has it’s little flaws, both because of its commitment at times to DnD lore and the fact that I don’t think that survivors/advocates/educators were consulted so much as we got lucky. I’ve talked about this mostly in regards to how the narrative fails Wyll (not because Wyll should be more important than other companions because he’s literally from Baldur’s Gate, an argument that is just… so dumb, your hearts are in the right place but jfc). 

Choice Two 

I just don’t believe in any version of Gale that wants to lead an army. It made me laugh honestly. 

Choice Three

ILLUSION MAGIC, CONTENTMENT, LOVE (djinn, careful what you wish for, etc, so there’s like… existing lore and stuff for this in the greater pantheon of storytelling)... This one had such potential. Disappears immediately, however.

Does he need a big statue of himself? What is that meant to communicate? I don’t get this. Gale likes pretty things and this world is still hideous for himself. God Gale shows us that Gale’s “Bad” ending is leaning into aesthetics and power-posturing. This is… just not in character to me under any circumstances.

Choice Four

Killing everybody is just plain mean. Gale needs something to gaslight himself about. Frankly, this is too simple for the kind of mental illness this man holds within him. The line says, “this is mercy” but nothing around it actually implies that. Actually kinda pisses me off. A thing doesn’t need to look menacing to be evil and I expect Larian to know better. A power move here would’ve been Gale finding he still feels hopeless after all this and detonating himself against even the Orb’s will! 

Choice Five

Gale could never wish for chaos to rule. He would get IBS. I also don’t think “people are inherently bad” is a Gale thing. That might vibe with Shadowheart and Astarion before their healing journeys or if you play them that way, but even then there’s so much foundational wounding that gets them there. This is just… lol ok. Gale very clearly loves children, at least in the sense that he wants to protect them. If there’s an evil Gale who would turn a child into a little killer, it would be against an abuser of some kind, not a mother protecting them.

Generally,

Let him kill Mystra and have chaos ensue that way, cowards. 

A Gale who would control or limit you would do so leading with pleasure, not cruelty (maybe some Willow erasing Tara’s memories vibes) and even where they did play with this they ultimately failed. It doesn’t serve Gale in any way to create illusory magic for big statue. Some of the language around some of the choices feels… very insecure masculinity? And I don’t particularly associate that with Gale. His problems with Mystra are not based in not feeling like A Man™, but in not feeling enough as Merely A Mortal Man™. That’s a reading that people falsely make of Gale of Waterdeep™ throughout the game, which is good world building and makes sense, as he is a renowned wizard, was a child prodigy, and is a known paramor and Chosen of Mystra. That’s the social dig at his facade. Gale Dekarios, however, doesn’t demonstrate any issues in that flavor?

If you’ve played Gale as a man constantly on the cusp of evil, you may have an insight to this that I don’t. But for me, even where things feel somewhat possible, it’s giving Daenerys burns down King’s Landing because we forgot to write her for four seasons in the middle and are bored now. Which is to say that GRRM has a few books left to make Daenerys accelerate herself and could do it in a way that is beautiful and breaks my heart but that ain’t what happened here today, ya know? 

This is an observation no one asked for but I think part of the perfect storm that led to SO MUCH additional Astarion content (the obvious being casual hornies + Neil Newbon being as accommodating as he is passionate [affectionate][complimentary][in awe]) is that the default setting for how Larian Studios views evil, struggle, grief, trauma, abuse, etc is in these very flashy, edgy tropes of Hurt People Hurt People being very literal. And that is a genuine and beautiful load-bearing wall of Astarion’s belief system. But Hurt People Hurt People doesn’t apply to Gale, at least not in that way. Gale tries every other thing possible before he comes up with the idea to restore elements of the Weave to Mystra through relics and such. And when he gets the orb, he’s moving to be sure his own inevitable detonation doesn’t hurt anyone. Gale’s entire story is about the risk of reaching out, of trying to connect, you literally pull him out of a hole of unstable magic.

As a note - Nothing I say here is too critical of Larian studios. For me personally, multiple endings of the same flavor are not what fuels replayability but for most people who simply play this game and do not examine it as a piece of literature or find community around the discussion of it, it does. Studios are a business and they’ve been through it working on this with WotC/DnD. I totally get it. But I’d really rather more in world characterization than additional endings. 

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

How The Fuck Do Classes At Aguefort Work

AKA Brennan gave me a number of students for this school and I am going to use my expert knowledge of being a teacher in real life to extrapolate things

(disclaimer: i am australian and thus my knowledge is limited to the australian school system of how things are arranged, number of students in each class, etc. this is basically how I would organise aguefort if it were up to me)

SO

aguefort has approximately 500 students split across four year levels, making for about 125 per year level, which you could easily split into 5 'homeroom' classes of about 25 students each. Or 31-32 if you wanted to squish them into 4.

But the thing is, we have all the DND Classes to think about, with each class having its own dedicated teacher and specialist class. There are 12 standard dnd subclasses, plus we know that artificer is also an option, making 13.

It's unlikely that any particular year level has all of its students evenly split between those classes (it would be an average of 9-10 per class if they did, which is quite small for a single class, but not unheard of for (using a real life example) elective subjects like business or design tech)

ADDITIONALLY, we do know that 'regular' classes exist at aguefort, like history and home ec, so I'm assuming other typical subjects like maths, english, science (perhaps broken down into chem/bio/physics, maybe not), maybe PE as well for students that aren't part of one of the martial classes, among other things.

Most likely, the school day is arranged so that each student (assuming this student has a typical workload, AKA nothing absolutely bonkers like what the bad kids are doing in junior year) has at least one Class-Specific class per day, and then some general education ones as well, and then perhaps some more adventuring-focused classes like survival + archery or arcana.

That way each class-specific teacher should be able to fit one lesson with each year level a day, because those classes are probably considered far more important than like. Modern History.

DND-Class classes are likely much smaller and more individualised, and then general ed classes would be with a far bigger group.

I also think Aguefort has a lot of composite classes! Particularly for the less popular Dnd-Classes. Freshman+Sophomores together and then Juniors+Seniors together is probably the most common.

I think sorcery classes are often composites, partly because its one that students Literally have to be born to be able to do, so its not one that other students can multiclass Into, so its numbers probably fluctuate a bunch depending on the cohort.

More technical classes like artificer are probably also composites! Simply because I bet they're less popular than things like Fighters, Rogues, so on.

Bards are also absolutely composites, because they are already split within themselves with multiple teachers depending on the students particular focus (like we did with a separate Music class and Dance class with different bard teachers). So I wouldn't be surprised if some bard classes contain freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors all within the one class and still only have like, ten students total because they're that specialised.

I think combined classes also probably happen on a fairly regular basis. Esp if like, teachers call in sick. The fighters will go join the barbarians for a day, or the clerics will join the paladins.

And then of course they don't actually give a shit if you show up to your classes or not so theres probably some poor admin staff out there who painstakingly arranges every schedule at the start of each semester and then 80% of students ignore half of it anyway

[blububblgum]

Daenerys as a D&D character!!

I love dnd to bits, and I spent a lot of time thinking about how certain asoiaf characters would be if they were made using dnd 5e rules. Obviously, i had to start with dany! She is a shadow magic sorcerer, with the elemental adept feat.

My long, winding thought process about dnd and dany is under the cut, in order to spare you all.

I'm kind of working with like, westeros in the forgotten realms as my base concept, since theres elements of both that are needed for this character build to make sense lol.

Sorcerer made the most sense, with how the targaryans are thought to have ancient magic, and since dany is quite charismatic, charisma would be her spellcasting stat. I think that the obvious sorcerer subclass is draconic bloodline, but i disagree, since the way dragons are portrayed in asoiaf doesn't match up with the dnd description of dragons. I could maybe see draconic bloodline sorcery for the Fire and blood characters, but for the "modern" targs, i'd honestly lean toward fire genasi (descendants from genies, with specific elemental powers) ancestry, since the immunity to fire is emphasized. Though technically dnd doesn't really work like that, i think as a character dany would be a fire genasi (though without the usual visual traits, i suppose)

since i elected against draconic bloodline, the sorcerer subclass that makes sense for daenerys is shadow magic! its maybe a bit on the creepy/edgy side, but i think aspects work well for dany's life. for starters, if you think of her gaining magic during her life, the deal she made to try and save khal drogo's life would be perfect timing for darker magic to make its home within her. however if you wanted her to have magic from birth, then the dramatic circumstances around her birth could be heightened by there having been shadowfell influences around. also!! at 6th level, shadow sorcerers can summon a "hound of ill omen" which can take any shape, and could easily be a small dragon.

The last aspect of why i chose sorcerer, is that while the spell casting sucks at lower levels, it then really gets good as you gain spell slots (limited per day and necessary to cast any spells) and sorcery points. the spell list for sorcerer is full of damage dealing spells, and dany kinda reads as a glass canon to me (i love sorcerers a lot but they are fragile). I did briefly ponder divination wizard, since daenerys seems to have an inclination toward being a dreamer, but i don't think she had time to study and practice wizardry in her chaotic childhood. whereas we see as she gains power and confidence while growing up, and sorcerer works well with that

last few details! i've portrayed her as higher level here, which is why she is so fancy. since she is upper level (in this i was thinking around 14th), she would have access to feats, and i definitely think fire elemental adept (gives bonuses to spells that do fire damage) would bring back some of the draconic aspects to her spellcasting. for metamagic options, obviously twinned spell (allows a spell that targets 1 person to be twinned to hit two people) cause its the best one, but i was also thinking subtle spell (allows a spell to be cast without speaking or moving) since it would be quite helpful for her. For other potential feats; inspiring leader (bonuses when you give speeches n stuff) and war caster (allows magic to be used better during combat) both make sense. For her stats, i was thinking in order of highest to lowest; charisma, wisdom, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, strength. Maybe i'm doing her a disservice by having her physical stats be her low ones, but i think her mental stats are just stronger.

Anyways if you actually read all this i love you and please message me any opinions you have about dnd/asoiaf

[rocksanddeadflowers]

something I've been thinking about is how interesting it would be to see the goblincore/gremlincore/corvidcore type aesthetic to evolve into an actual subculture. obviously for starters we should change the name bc anything ending in -core just doesn't sit right with me? unless of course it becomes that "placeholder name turns true name" sorta deal but ANYWAY.

main three key elements I've noticed that tend to make up a subculture is: style/outfit presentation (the optional part), belief system, and music genre(s).

style and presentation: (like what you wear), that part is already obvious if you ever followed the aesthetic at any point. (it was trendy for a time I think, is it still trendy? bc idk if it is but that's not stopping me from loving it.) basically wearing majority earth colors like browns and greens, stuff like hobbit-esque cloths or sweaters and stuff. definitely LOTS of nature based themes or just wearing weird trinkets. gotta go for that "creature directly out of the chronicles of spider wick" type look you know?

with the clothes (and often interior design I've noticed, which my entire bedroom would probably fit the aesthetic actually) one thing I've noticed for most who are into the aesthetic is there is a LOT of DIY. also going out and collecting things you find (anything from mystery trinkets to dead bugs and sticks and rocks, which I grew up doing and would call myself a tinker bc I made stuff out of what I found very often).

belief system: I feel like, above all else, beliefs commonly held among people in this aesthetic is to respect and be in nature, as well as do not waste, reduce and reuse. a lot of environmentalist like stuff, as well as seeing and respecting the beauty of nature, from butterflies and flowers to dirt and corpses. I don't have a solid concrete answer for belief system, but hopefully that sums up my view on it.

music genre: folk/folk punk, fantasy DND type genres, and nature based lyrics and vibes. from my experience and digging around, there's less artists who catch the vibe of this aesthetic all around (bc that's not what they're trying to do), and moreso having a couple or handful of songs that fit so very well. unless of course it's a genre of music that is enheritly matching to this aesthetic.

anyway, I'm not great at explaining the music aspect of it, but I feel like if it's magical and yet sorta punk-like that can work. no limits here yet, I have a playlist on my youtube that definitely pushes the boarders but who cares? the thing has celtic woman and httyd score on it. I just think if this evolved into having music for the genre (idk if we could call it a music based genre since it didn't start that way but I mean overall having a genre of music dedicated to this aesthetic-turned-subculture) it would be really interesting to hear what comes of it.

circling back for a minute, I feel like punk comes hand-and-hand with a couple of things here, but specifically mainly eco-punk. like diy, reduce and reuse, etc. as well as the music, while not deeply punk still feels like it would have a punk undercurrent.

I also think this could parallel well with goth, with the dark romantic sorta stuff. the music and belief system having love and adoration for the strangest and darkest aspects of nature, similar to goths seeing beauty in the darkness and creepiness of the world.

if anyone actually read this I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on my little rant (suggestions for bands/musicians and similar subcultures/subculture parallels are very encouraged) bc I grew up doing pretty much everything within this aesthetic long before I knew it was a thing or maybe even before it was a thing. that isn't meant to be gate keepy. I mean that when I found out just how many other people liked and did the same things as me, it was just so cool. so I just really wanna talk to people about this and I think something like this aesthetic could easily become a subculture one day.

[mumms-the-word]

My friend/fountain of knowledge,

I wanted to post about a Mystra theory I had, but thought it may be best to explore it here with you instead! I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. 

It’s probably been discussed before, but the idea is that Mystra’s chosen are selected by her because she sees them as potential threats.

She is an omniscient being, and the Goddess of Divination, so surely she has some kind of prophetic ability or sense of the future? 

It’s mentioned many times that Gale’s ambition mirrors that of Karsus in certain ways, and maybe she was able to see the potential for the repetition of history. (Especially as he displayed an impressive control of the weave at such a young age, and has a tendency to slip into arrogance and hubris.)

I know Gods don’t share the same emotions as mortals, but she must fear succumbing to the same fate as Mystryl - The Goddess who was destroyed by a wizard. 

Maybe this is why she did not remove the orb when Gale proved her right in her fears? She was hoping he would obey her command and destroy himself before he could get his hands on the crown.

The future is never set in stone, even when puppeted by the Gods, and Gale says pretty early on he doesn’t believe in fate. It seems to me the potential to ‘be a moon unto yourself’ was there for him all along, but he was Mystra’s lover because she knew of the threat he could become.

Ironic, that she played a part in his drive for the crown, but I think he would always have been tempted by Godly power whether he was her chosen or not.

I’m gonna answer this on public and you can let me know if you want it taken down!

A caveat: I think that we’ll never know what Mystra was thinking/feeling/knowing before and during the events of the game because I think the game intentionally keeps her motivations hidden. We can dive into the devnotes all we want, and we can advocate for better treatment of Gale as fans of Gale but in terms of what Mystra was planning? We’ll never know for sure.

So with that said, I have a couple of thoughts/theories below the cut! Looong post ahead.

Does Mystra have foresight/divination powers?

Many gods have foresight, although not all of them are gods of divination. Technically Savras, a god not in BG3, is the god of divination, but he is like...part of Mystra's team (wizards who worship Mystra might also invoke him, for example). So like, divination is still sort of part of her domain, but her main focus is the preservation of the Weave and she's given dominion over matters of divination to Savras.

I honestly can’t remember if her having foresight is expressly mentioned in the game (it’s part of her dnd lore more broadly) but regardless, there’s a lot to suggest that her foresight isn’t perfect. Specifically in the context of the game (not full lore). She commands Gale to sacrifice himself in Act 2, not realizing that if he does so, it doesn't actually stop the scourge of illithids. If you sacrifice Gale in Act 2, everyone with a tadpole immediately becomes illithid and you get a game over. It's not the best time for Gale to sacrifice himself. So we know that Mystra's foresight is imperfect, because if she wanted a more surefire win that also means she doesn't lose out on thousands of souls, she would have waited to ask him, knowing there would be a better opportunity later.

There's also the "be a moon unto yourself" and "even the tides of fate can break upon the shores of will" language Elminster uses. Elminster, who has arguably known Mystra longer than anyone else on the planet, who is the closest thing to a mortal-immortal ambassador that can bridge the gap between Mystra in the godly realms and mortals in the Material Plane, even HE doesn't have much faith in Mystra's command to sacrifice Gale in Act 2. What Mystra offers is a potential solution. It's not the best solution. Not even for her. So in terms of foresight...I think she has either a limited view, or she sees potential futures, but nothing is set in stone thanks to the free will of mortals.

(and also maybe illithids are outside her purview of knowledge since they mostly cast magic with psionics and not the Weave and don't have souls that she can recognize?? unclear)

Does Mystra fear destruction or death?

I'm not sure how much Mystra fears death. I mean, I'm sure dying as a god is traumatic in its own right, but she's died multiple times. First as Mystryl, which was kind of a self-sacrifice thing (what Karsus did was cast a spell that would funnel her powers into him, so she basically killed herself to stop the process halfway and everything went to chaos "for a spell"). Even Gale calls it a self-sacrifice. Then she died during the Time of Troubles, was reborn as Midnight, who ALSO died, and then she was silent (but probably not dead dead) for about a hundred years until a few years before the game takes place.

(If BG3 follows dnd lore which, in my opinion, it mostly does, but I know that not all Gale fans agree and Larian is changing up timelines in other respects too so...take everything with a grain of salt)

So killing Mystra is...it just doesn't work. Somehow she's always around, in part perhaps because her Weave is everywhere. Fragments of her will always exist. Which is why Gale's ambitious goal, should you choose to encourage him, is to steal her power. Not to kill her. Even an Origin!Gale says "I'm here for your godhood" if you choose to confront her, not that he's there to kill her.

Which is what makes him like Karsus. Karsus sought to steal Mystryl's powers. Gale is mirroring him in every way if he is persuaded down that path. Now that part...I think Mystra does slightly fear that. Because Karsus almost succeeded...

Almost.

But he didn't and a god-path Gale doesn't fare much better. If you play Origin!Gale and you choose to confront Mystra and steal her godhood? You also fail. Gale dies. Mystra wins.

I don't know how much she fears destruction and death, because I think she has failsafes in place. But it would be very inconvenient to die again so soon after finally regaining her full powers, so I'm sure she's eager to avoid it.

Did Mystra know the orb would be useful?

I think this again speaks to the idea that she has a limited foresight ability. Gale may say that she is omniscient, but I don't think that necessarily means she sees all of time forwards and backwards. I think she can sense everything about the Weave all at once and knows everything all previous iterations of Mystra know (and all that her Chosens know; that's stated in the Elminster novels). But her foresight is imperfect.

So, conjecture time. We're full-on in theory/maybes/who knows territory now.

She knew Gale was going after dangerous Netherese magic when he was looking for the piece of Weave that was locked away because I imagine he used a great deal of magic on his journey and investigation. Her not knowing that Gale was looking for this locked-away piece of Weave is ludicrous. He probably told her his plan and she said no and he went anyway. And she didn't stop him. Why?

My personal theory is she wanted to see what would happen if Gale succeeded. She doesn't babysit her Chosen, though she does occasionally guide them (or command them, rather). As the Lady of Mysterious, she's remarkably (and frustratingly) hands-off. The whole problem with her and Gale's relationship breaking down is because Gale was a) ambitious enough to try and covet a piece of knowledge/Weave that not even Mystra herself could get to (he says it was "sealed beyond her reach") and b) that Mystra never actually talked to him to explain why that's probably a bad idea. Why not? Did she want to see him fail?

I don't know for sure. But I think she was curious. I think she wanted to see if he could even unlock the thing. I think she knew, on some level, that it would go disastrously bad for him, but I don't think she knew that the Karsite Weave would mix with Gale's own dark hunger for power and knowledge and create something that would literally threaten to consume her entire Weave. Why do I think that?

Because that is when she got angry. Not that he was searching. Not when he was deliberately disobeying her by searching (though she was likely mad then too, but she didn't punish or stop him). She didn't seem to care then. She got angry when he failed to do anything productive with the Karsite Weave and the resulting crisis threatened her.

I don't think she would have let him pursue the book with the Karsite Weave had she known the details of what it would do once it entered Gale's body. She does intervene, mind you. She's the one that stabilized the orb enough to "allow it to feed on the true Weave." The question is, why didn't she cure it immediately? It was threatening her Weave, literally consuming bits of her Weave. Did she lack the power? the knowledge? Or was she simply keeping Gale around as insurance, a bomb in her back pocket that she could direct at anything she wanted?

I suspect it's mostly the latter (though I suspect she was also angry that Gale's reaction to his actions threatening her Weave wasn't "Sorry I'll try too fix this" but instead it was "I need you to fix this"). Maybe she knew about the mind flayer crisis on the horizon. By the time Gale is suffering the early effects of the orb, Gortash and Durge have likely already stolen the Crown of Karsus from Mephistopheles (some people theorize it happened in 1490 or 1491, and the game starts midway through 1492). Now there are two Karsite problems on the Material Plane. She likely bided her time to see when she could send Gale out to destroy both in one fell swoop while also being personally angry that Gale didn't act/react the way she wanted him to.

It gets REALLY interesting if you believe that Gortash and Durge pulled the crown out of the hells and into the Material Plane in 1490 because then Mystra KNOWS there's a powerful Karsite item in play. If she knew that, and knew that Gale was pursuing the Karsite Weave...well. In that case, it seems much more likely that she was playing him like a pawn on a chessboard, waiting for him to get in position so she could command him to eliminate both threats.

Because again...she didn't stop him.

Honestly, there are multiple theories about why she didn't stop him or cure him immediately or so forth. it all just depends on how much you want to villainize Mystra and her actions, or if you prefer taking a more neutral path.

So to your theory: Does Mystra choose her Chosen based on whether they will be potential threats?

I think...I disagree, but it's a soft disagree. I think Mystra has no qualms about sending her Chosen to eliminate anything that is a threat to her. Elminster is constantly sent to destroy people who are mishandling the Weave, for example, in the Elminster novels.

However, I do think she is careful to select Chosen who will be powerful and to shower them in affection and attention so they don't think about threatening her. Grooming them to love and devote themselves to her so that if they were ever to think about becoming a threat to her, she can frame it as a personal betrayal.

It's what she does with Gale. I don't think she's threatened by Gale. I think she sees talent and power in him. And I think on some level she probably did find Gale pleasant, and that not every interaction between them was her pulling strings to make sure that he would die in X years in a cataclysmic explosion. That, to me, seems counterintuitive, when she could have just as easily withheld the power he needed to even begin pursuing the Karsite Weave in the first place. But I think it's her modus operandi to love bomb her Chosens so that as she grants them more and more power, betrayal is the last thing on their minds. Because they know that losing her favor, losing her love, means losing power.

Elminster didn't live to be 1300+ years old and the most powerful wizard in existence (allegedly) because he pissed off Mystra. It's because he loves Mystra and she rewards devotion and affection. It's why Gale pursued the fractured Weave in the first place: to prove his love.

It's all very complicated. But she can decide whether or not someone is going to be a threat to her. And the fact that Gale, the most likely candidate to be a threat to her given his connections with the Karsite Weave, fails in the attempt is...telling. Even a Godof Ambition Gale who is still eager to dethrone Mystra isn't going to do so quickly. He's going to wait for another millennium or so before he tries. And whether he's successful depends entirely on what happens over the course of that next 1000 years.

So I suppose it's more likely for her to choose Chosens that she can manipulate or at least groom into a cult of love and devotion. It's the rogue people who don't love her that are the threats, which is why I think she's invested in the illithid plot in particular. Illithids couldn't give two shits about Mystra. And that clearly bothers her.

Anyways, long story long, Mystra is an imperfect goddess who, depending on your reading of her and her actions, either set up Gale to fail or cunningly used his failure to her advantage (or both). And despite what a lot of people say, I don't actually think she has a lot of foresight power, because I feel like Gale's actions keep somewhat surprising her. So there's that.

[steddieunderdogfics]

FOR THE MONDAY CHALLENGE THEME:

The recent summer exchange has SO much great fic but I didn’t expect the dnd part of this one to work the way it did and I love being actually surprised by a story, plus the love story part of it is also done in a kinda surprising way too? 

hitlikehammers’ if you can’t write your own necronomicon, store-bought is fine

On ao3: archiveofourown.org/works/56414623/

And here on tumblr: www.tumblr.com/hitlikehammers/753765626924924928/if-you-cant-write-your-own-necronomicon

if you can't write your own necromicon, store-bought is fine by hitlikehammers

@hitlikehammers

Rating: Mature

14,421 words, 3/3 chapters

Archive Warning: No Warnings

Tags: Temporary Character Death, (TEMPORARY being the important part; I mean: that IS the orienting concept of the story), Pre-Relationship, (but won't stay 'pre' if these crazy kids succeed in their crazy plot!), Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Necromancy, Dungeons & Dragons References, (as in: HEAVY Dungeon & Dragons References), Grief/Mourning, But Then: What If You Interrupted Your Strange Process of Grieving/Feelings Realization, By Putting All Your Eggs In The ‘What If It All DOES Match D&D?’ Basket, Including but Not Limited To The 'Raise Dead' Spell?, The Adventures of Platonic Soulmates Trying to Understand the Nerd Game, Specifically to Try and Resurrect a Certain Dingus' More-Than-A-Crush, Resurrection, (and its consequences), The Dungeons & Dragons References Work With About As Much Leeway as Show v Game Demogorgons, So: Stretchy Like Gumbo, And Then All Of A Sudden:, confessions of feelings, Feelings Realization, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Happy Ending

Summary:

Steve gets stuck in his head about it: the fucking gravestone they’re putting up. He hates the idea of it being installed over nothing, just plopped on grass and dirt and just, just…nothing. Almost like they’re saying Eddie was somehow nothing, and when the overall notion hits on that thought specifically, Steve has the simultaneous urge to break a window and vomit, and it’s just, it’s not— He needs to find a way to curb that feeling. He hates it enough to mention it to the others, who don’t get it. At all. Maybe because it’s Steve, and they don’t think he knew Eddie enough to be this…this. If Steve was in a clearer frame of mind, maybe he’d be able to wonder, too. But he’s not. In a clearer frame of mind. He can’t process all that much beyond the all-consuming need to not bury nothing under Eddie Munson’s name. Which doesn't even touch yet on the way it also sticks in his head that, if they were going to name half of the Upside Down bullshit after the nerd game, if the parallels were gonna be just, accepted as a rule? Then why shouldn't the existence of a spell in the nerd game called 'RAISE DEAD' be accepted, too?

Thanks for the rec!

This rec is a part of Challenge Monday. The challenge this week was Fics from fandom challenges.

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[blossoming-mind-palace]

Can I request modern day headcannons for everyone? Including Chung Mei Lee Xue

I already posted something similar, but I decided to repost it, tweak it, and added new characters. Chung Mei and Lee Xue already come from the modern day, so some of these are just facts about them. Besides that, it’s a separate (and happier) universe where the ROTBB characters were born in the same time period.

Btw OC stuff is under the cut for people that aren’t into that kinda stuff.

ROTBB Modern AU (SFW)

Chung Myung

Still went straight to the workforce after graduating high school. He had a high GPA, but just didn’t want to pursue any higher education. He’s a security guard at a university thanks to Chung Mun being a professor there.

Like Chung Mun, he thrifts most of his clothes. Rarely splurges on new pieces unless he know’s it’s really high quality and will last a looooong time. Outside of work he likes to wear dark colors, jeans, and leather jackets. Occasionally wears florals and prefers embroidery over prints because they last longer.

I’m gonna place him in his 30s unlike my original post. He still isn’t proficient with technology though.

In a boxing club, and is the best fighter in it. (Obviously)

He’s a really bad driver and has been in multiple accidents. He’s an aggressive driver and has totaled at least two cars. Has a scar from one of those accidents and will show it off when asked.

Can cook, but eats a lot of fast food because it’s cheap and convenient. If he eats a home-cooked meal it’s either because he was in the mood to cook or Chung Mun made dinner.

I feel like he’d listen to older rock.

Chung Mun

Everyone’s favorite professor, but I can’t decide on what he’d teach. Maybe social sciences? Idk.

Succeeds at keeping his student’s attention and is pretty merciful when it comes to deadlines. He knows that shit happens and doesn’t get passive aggressive if you can’t turn in your assignment on time, but knows when to put his foot down if students take advantage of this.

Thrift king. Comfort > style. Wears beige or warm colors, and is a big fan of sweaters.

A better driver than Chung Myung. Has no idea how Chung Myung became such a bad driver because he taught him. Drives a modest used car.

Only listens to older songs/genres. Once thrifted a record player and taught himself how to fix it, and he only buys used vinyls because the newer ones are expensive.

Jo Gul

Around freshmen/sophomore grade. Currently working towards a general education degree, but his dad wants him to major in something business-related. Jo Gul is thinking about changing his major to something fitness-related despite his dad’s wishes.

Likes to wear graphic tees, trendy prints and jeans. I can see him rocking a beanie, too. Idk why.

Met Chung Myung at their boxing club. Got his ass handed to him on the first day, but still attends regularly. (Thanks Chung Myung)

They also frequent the same gym. Lifts a lot and likes to show off his arms.

His guilty pleasure is crappy romance shows/movies. Will go on long-winded rants about them and who should’ve gotten together. Did not shut up about Bridgerton when the new season came out. (Same)

A fan of pop and rock music.

Yunjong

Another thrift king! He doesn’t follow trends and just buys whatever’s comfy and would last long.

He’s a university student, but unlike Jo Gul, he’s there on scholarship and has to work to feed himself. (he’s still an orphan)

During his limited free time, he likes to pirate movies, read in the university’s library, and occasionally plays DnD. He makes a really good dungeon master or team leader.

Fantasy nerd!! Likes to escape to fantasy worlds to distract himself from how stressful his life is.

Doesn’t drive, but rides a bike instead so he won’t have to pay for gas.

Baek Cheon

Two grades ahead of Jo Gul and Yunjong. Couldn’t get into the same school as his brother, so he ended up going to their rival university.

Top of his class and on the dean’s list. Has no idea why the other school wouldn’t accept him.

He’s an excellent tutor and is one of Chung Mun’s favorite students. I still don’t know what he’d major in though. </3

Accidentally walked in on one of Yunjong’s DnD meetings. Initially did not understand the hype, but joined anyway and still attends meetings consistently.

Also uses a bike instead of a car because it’s good exercise.

Used to wear brand-named clothes, but stopped after he moved out of his family’s home. After that, he became an expert at looking expensive while not breaking the bank.

Yu Iseol

Goes to university, but struggles with going to events and doing extra-curricular activities. Also at the top of her class and is Baek Cheon’s academic rival.

Goes to the same gym as Jo Gul and outperforms him like the queen she is. Makes her own workout routines inspired by fictional characters.

Again, she’s a shounen fan. She thinks genres like that are inspiring, and she likes to rewatch her favorite shows a lot.

Accidentally stumbled across the boxing club and almost beat Chung Myung. She doesn’t attend meetings anymore, but the members still respect her because she went toe-to-toe with their best boxer.

Occasionally helps Baek Cheon tutor, and they’ve both tutored Yunjong and Jo Gul before. She’s not very good at explaining things, though.

Wears men’s clothing because women’s clothing is often low-quality and impractical. Her style is plain and baggy, but she somehow makes it look couture. Likes to wear her dad’s hand-me-downs when she misses him.

Tang Soso

Biology major of course! Just a grade under Yu Iseol and Baek Cheon.

Freaks people out with how obsessive she is with science. Has an iron-stomach and isn’t phased by gross lessons or projects. Magically not phased by the smell of formaldehyde, either. That last one REALLY freaks her peers out.

Like Jo Gul, she doesn’t have to work outside of school thanks to her family’s support. Her family has made a lot of donations towards the schools she went to over the years.

LOVES yapping about the sciences and randomly info-dumps about it. Yu Iseol likes to listen to her lecture about her latest scientific obsession. Tang Soso could talk for hours, and Yu Iseol could listen to her for hours.

Keeps up with trends, and has an elegant style. A lot of people wouldn’t guess she’s so weird thanks to how classy/lady-like her fashion sense is.

Yu Iseol’s dorm mate. They met after being randomly chosen for each other.

Tang Soso owns a nice car and takes really good care of it. Is Yu Iseol’s carpool, but she’s trying to teach her how to drive. It’s going well. (Better than the Chung brothers that’s for fucking sure-)

Has a pet snake back at home. Her younger siblings take care of it while she’s gone, but she misses it during the semester.

Tang Bo

Biology professor who likes to annoy the security guard during his breaks.

Tang Soso doesn’t take any of his classes since they’re family, but he does tutor her from time to time.

Her snake was a gift from him and he’s glad that she’s taken such good care of it.

He’s her favorite uncle but shhhh don’t tell the others. Promised her dad he’d keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t get into trouble while she’s at uni.

Most students either think he’s fun or ruthless. There’s no in between. His classes are not easy, and he isn’t as forgiving as Chung Mun when it comes to deadlines.

Despite nagging other people about drinking too much caffeine, he has a mild caffeine addiction. He’s also not a morning person, so he’d literally be the “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee” meme were a person.

Chung Mun is one of the few coworkers he gets along with, and goes out drinking during the weekends with Chung Myung. (Some things never change)

Wears a lot of dark colors and has a polished style until the end of the semester. At that point he gets burnt out and doesn’t care. (Me)

Lee Songbaek

Goes to the rival university, but he’s pleasant to be around so the crew doesn’t hate him.

Majoring in photography and has a part-time job at a small café.

Has a clean style and wears a lot of university hoodies/sweaters. He’s really popular on social media, and he mostly posts his outfits, latte art, and his photography.

Jin Geumryong

Oh I hate writing about this man! I never know what to do with him.

About to graduate, and, like his brother, is at the top of his class. Idk what he’d do afterwards, but he’d definitely become an alumni in the future.

Unlike his brother, he still wears high-end clothes. He doesn’t wear logos because they’re tacky, though. His style is classy with a lot of white, blue, and occasionally black.

I feel like he’s moved out and has a really nice apartment. Has nice furniture and keeps it clean despite his busy academic schedule.

Chung Mei (OC)

Almost graduated with the degree her dad wanted, had an early-mid life crisis, took a few gap years, and went back to get the degree she wanted after talking to her sister about her troubles. Would want to major in something art, writing, or education-related.

Was on the dean’s list until she broke down. Her grades are still pretty good, but she doesn’t stress out over them like she used to.

Like Chung Myung, she’s in her 30s. Still has the same relationship history as the original timeline. (Rip)

A part-time student and spends a lot of her time working. I feel like she’d be the university’s anti-social librarian. She works hard but hates helping people because social anxiety. Really nice when she’s comfy with you, though.

Tutoring is held in the library, and DnD meetings are held in one of the spare meeting rooms. This is how she meets most of the crew.

Befriends Jo Gul because he once saw her reading a romance novel that was the source material for one of his favorite movies. Likes to attend Yunjong’s DnD meetings because she’s also obsessed with fantasy. Overall a really big romance/fantasy fan.

Tang Soso befriended her after complimenting her outfit. She basically adopted a second introvert.

Her favorite music genres are girly hyper pop and metal. Her fashion sense is similar; she can’t choose between pastel girly vibes or going full goth. She ends up mixing the two.

Lee Xue (OC)

If her social battery isn’t low, she’ll go drinking with Tang Bo and Chung Myung. She’d also rather drink at her and Lee Xue’s place instead of drinking in public bc she doesn’t trust strangers.

A cat woman in every universe.

Not connected to the university at all. She dropped out of high school, but ended up becoming a bartender. She makes really good money because of her extroversion, charming personality, and pretty looks. (And her big personalities-)

Flirted with one of the rival university’s students for fun. (Lee Songbaek) She thought his shy personality was cute and didn’t plan on going any further, but ended up in a relationship with him.

Before Chung Mei moved in with her, she didn’t take care of herself. Her diet mostly consisted of fast food or microwave dinners. She knows how to make a good drink, but sucks at cooking.

Now that Chung Mei lives with her, she has a healthier diet with more home-cooked meals. Lee Xue tries to thank her by occasionally making dinner, but her sister never eats her food and she can’t figure out why! :( (her cooking is more deadly than Tang poisons and she is not aware of this)

Never stopped loving y2k fashion. Has always rocked low-rise jeans even when they were out of style, and likes it when they’re ripped.

The reason why Chung Mei is into metal. Was in a band during high school/her early 20s, but they broke up and everyone went their separate ways. Looks back on those days fondly.

Still proficient in most string instruments, but only plays for fun now.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

DnD Combat and Critiques

Hey, so I have thoughts. I know! How unfortunate.

Combat in DnD is not always going to translate nicely into a narrative that follows storybeats. Like in a good fight, there's a plan - the plan fucks up - then there's a callback to some earlier themes that gets implemented into the finishing blow.

FCG did the last part.

It's the before that's the problem.

BH don't have a lot of synergy. Let's go back to the whole Dungeons and Dragons for all the roleplay - it's still a fighting game. And fighting games require some strategy.

BH does have a strategy. Hit the thing until it stops moving. And they usually do this through raw, brute strength. But when you're facing a high-level, Smart character, it's going to take more than bruteforce

I'm gonna out myself as a LoL player here. I know! It's really quite tragic.

But in teamfights, you do need some characters - like the tank or the support - who can pin down those highly mobile characters so they can just start hitting.

Yes. She had legendary resistances. But her resistances are limited. They had to burn those. Ideally, FCG or Fearne would have done that. Hell, maybe Ashton could have picked her up and squeezed - or tried to. Likewise, Laudna could have cast darkness and it would have crippled everyone but it would be some advantage.

This team desperately needed some way to limit her movement or ability to target them. But without that, FCG had no choice but to remain on healing duty and unable to chance spells like Banishment or fucking Plane Shift. Fearne needed to stay away from damage - let those better at it try - and focus on running utility. Aura of Life came way too late - not that it mattered bc again Otohan's hyper mobility.

I think it wasn't Otohan that was the problem. A lot of babies are kicking and crying that she was too hard. And yeah. She was. And arguably she wasn't the best villain for the audience bc yeah we know fuck all about her. Here's something to consider: Otohan was for the players, not the audience. At most, the audience gets a kick out of BH's reactions whenever she comes up. But her main job was to freak out the players - and she does.

Because BH is not prepared for high level combat. There. That's my critique.

When your healer goes into a rage if he heals too much, that's a liability in a fight. When neither of your tank-utility players have any reliable capture and crowd control capabilities, that's a problem. The most they had was Ashton's gravity well but she could clear that 10 ft difference with ease. They didn't need a fucking slow - they needed a stun.

This team is not equipped for a fight beyond brute force. They don't have a toolkit that lends itself well to tactics.

Otohan was absolutely beatable and I will die on that hill. They just didn't know how to fight her with the weapons they have. Outside of character growth, they really might need a good old fashioned shounen training arc.

[a-roguish-gambit]

What did you tought of the idea of Gambit being "The Third Summers Brother" (cloned from both Cyclops and Mr Sinister's DND) presented in the minisseries X-Men: The End?

Pls forgive me, some of my comic knowledge is limited so I don't think I read that one.

So they did this in Blue exorcist which is something else I'm a fan of and admittedly it's not a trope I like very much where it secretly turns out x person is a clone. It always just messes with lore and makes things needlessly dramatic and angsty and is usually applied when people are strapped for ideas. Also then you get into some weird potentially incest territory with shipping and I don't like that let's just keep everyone genetically diverse please.

Maybe they handled it well again I haven't read that particular comic set, but I'm not going to get my hopes up because that's not a trope I like. If you enjoyed it though that's fine no judgment here I'm glad you got some entertainment from it. It's just a bit of canon I'm probably gonna reject.

[potpigu]

Dumb stupid personal VENT y'all can just Scroll by, I just need to let this shit off my chest[I lied about deleting it like the - 🙂]

So my school got a dnd club, and After playing as a player I decided to go play as dm cus playing as a dm is fun! and what not since the dnd club as a player was also fun. But holy heck some player of mine got into one extremely petty childish fight with my friend now all thats been happening in my dnd sessions is that specific player keeps interrupting me from being a Dm, with them talking to players that I'm trying to interact with so I could actually continue with the campaign.I literally made google slides to make maps since I suck at describing things but we only got to two slides not because we changed location with one player but because the players were separated into two groups.Like sure we spent the first hour helping a character make a character but the second hour was literally nothing.We got nowhere, closest we got was one player actually going into another room in over 10 minutes due to them distracting said player by talking there phone while I was trying to talk to them about what was happening.Like I KNOW I'm a garbage dm cus I get embarrassed trying to act as npc's, or because I'm utter garbage at describing things, but all that hard work only for like one player to actually pay attention, and it was bias cus that one player is my BEST FRIEND.None of my players actually care.The players literally forgot there cantrips and spells and that One specific player was being more distracting then he was last time, by taking the other players stuff for fun or scaring my best friend for fun even when I was trying to interact with said other players(I hardly interacted with them at all but like bro was legit trying to make things happen his way by trying to toss my best friends character threw a window out of nowhere.(Not as bad as all the times they just used random not an actual dnd spell though) Like I'm not going to lie, I know I just got a new player and all but I'm at my limit, I'm just going to fricking quit and try to become a player for the other dm's since sure I could try to kick them out, but they'd probably either scream at me, become violent (The amount of times they said they'f fight someone-) And Everyone else (other then my best friend due to petty argument) Likes him all the other players like him and for all I know thats just going to result in them getting mad at me.Like I know I should just talk to players and all that but I know that specific player won't hear me out there not that type of person, Dnd is just stressful, why am I even trying to think about handling it in a. amateur manner when I know it's just Fucking hopeless since doing the a=sane thing such as talking to them will Get me NOWHERE.I'm drained and tired of almost all my players not actually caring about the dnd session, It's a waste of time at this point, Planning dnd is a waste of time.Why the fuck did I even try, Nobody cares for the stupid dnd session why am I even still going to them, Fuck this shit.One last season for them and if it goes just as bad or hell worse I'm just going to call it quits, I give the FUCK UP.It wasn't worth it, Stupid STUPID ME.But hey everyone moves one, no one will care, and eventually everybody will forget about everything in general in life so who am I to get worked up over a stupid campaign I thought was a good idea to try and make a good plot for if literally NO-ONE actually cares, like at this point there not there for the stupid trash campaign being run by a pathetic Useless Background Dm. Useless utterly useless to actually put effort into the Damn thing.

Oh wow.That was sure a yap, yap, yappity yap vent :)

Edit:I got saner and all I got to say is I'll give em one last try like I stated earlier but if all hell breaks loose, then Bu bye to being a Dm for the year 👋 Or maybe I'll just try again with a different campaign and different players outside of my schools dnd club while staying there as a player.

[bananastarion]

I think it's a testament to how well written the characters of Baldur's Gate are, that I can't bring myself to be evil in any of my playthroughs.

You have to understand, every game I've played since childhood I always choose the most evil and chaotic possible things to do. From Skyrim to Zoo Tycoon, it doesn't even matter what the game is about, I will find a way to play it in the most fucked up way possible and quite literally cackle maniacally at the suffering of little virtual people. I like to push the game mechanics and my own creativity to its farthest limits. I basically play the dark urge in every game I get into, and in games where it's harder to be evil, I download mods that allow me to be worse. One time I was drunk and told my friends what I did to my sims, and they seemed genuinely disturbed by my dedication to simulated sadism. Honestly, the way I played the sims wasn't all that different from what Cazador did to his spawn, maybe worse. I always figured if I ever finally played DND, I'd naturally play an evil character.

But not in BG3. I can't bring myself to be evil in BG3. I tried, and the guilt was unbearable. I can't cut off Karlach's head... I can't let the goblins kill the tieflings... if this were like any other game, these sort of things would be priority #1 for me, and I'd find it hilarious. But I just care too much about this world and all the characters in it. They're too real to me, and I'd never be that cruel in real life. I never thought a game could do that to me.

[guppybubbles]

FAKE FIC TITLE!!!!!!!!

Roll me a 6 🎲

Roll me a 6 (Discontinued Draft)

SBI plays homebrew DND and borrower Tommy sucks at being a giant.

Word Count: 1594 words

CONTENT WARNING: zombies, thats it im p sure

(A/N: i wrote this a really long time ago. i think the moment this ask was sent, this is the one i wrote first until i went to write the other fake fic titles. i lost motivation and inspiration to finish it and i dont have enough knowledge about dnd mechanics and doodads so !!! have this instead, since i dont want it collecting dusts in my drafts :DD )

"Tommy, slow down!" 

"I caaan't! Look at me, I'm a big man! THE Big Man!" 

Fortunately for the twins, Tommy did stop running, proudly puffing his chest with his arms crossed. Wilbur gladly took shelter from the sun behind his younger brother's massive shadow, sweating profusely— though he doesn't know whether that was from the sun or from the fact that he struggled to catch up to Tommy. Maybe both.

The Phantom glanced over to his Piglin twin, who could be less bothered. More resistant to the sun’s deadly rays, Techno barely broke a sweat, preferring a slow stride and taking his time to carefully scout out their surroundings. If anything, he was supposed to be in the front of them rather than the back. He held the map, and he was more knowledgeable in adventuring for treasure. Wilbur was 100% sure Tommy didn’t know what he was doing.

“Tommy, slow down, you know Wilbur loses hunger faster if he’s always invisible. I think he has a worst appetite than you.” 

“WHAT? That’s not true!”

Tommy looked behind him, finally noticing that Wilbur took shelter in his shadow, away from the sun that reminded him of a vampire. Oh. Right. He was a phantom. If he can remember correctly, they were fine in the sun if they remained invisible, but being invisible for a long time makes Wilbur get even hungrier and Techno mentioned they have to save their limited supply of food. They agreed to keep moving and waste less daylight by having Wilbur shield himself through Tommy, but he guessed he was too excited for his first adventure and ran way too much for the phantom’s liking. “Right. Sorry, Wil.”

“Whatever, child, it’s fine.” Wilbur waved a hand, “It’s almost sunset anyway, we need some rest. Tech, where can we set up camp?"

"Uhhhh." Techno shuffled through his inventory for the map, and his eyes scanned for the perfect place for a camp. "We won't encounter a village for a long while, but there is…" He trailed off for a bit, moving closer to Wilbur so he'll be able to see where they're heading.

"There's a big clearing in the forest we're heading to, we can take night shifts to protect each other from mobs so we can all get some good sleep." Techno pointed to a forest labeled ‘Everglades Forest’, there was a noticeable empty patch of green surrounded by trees not far from where they stood. They could make it there before the sun fully sets and camp up for the night.

“Got it, lead the way. And Tommy, walk slower please, I don’t think I can take another run for today.” Wilbur pleads, gently patting Tommy’s knee when he crouched down to take a look at the map as well. “Not my fault you are so incredibly slow.” 

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

The clearing was beautiful. After making a campfire, the brothers sat in a circle and drifted from conversation to conversation. Their topics shifted from food, to the past adventures Wilbur and Techno had together, and currently, to the first ever adventure the twins had. 

“No, it wasn’t the village raid one, was it? I remember our first adventure had to be the one with the tomb!”

“Nahh, It was the village. Remember when the village was asking for Phil’s help but he sent us because he thought we were old enough to do it?”

Wilbur and Techno went back and forth about what their first one actually was that even Tommy isn’t sure which side he should believe in. Oh, they were growing so old and forgetful… But it doesn’t matter because Big Man Tommy is here to be the best one out of the three of them! “Just tell me one already.” He whined, hands pulling out incredibly small blades of grass to fidget with. 

“Okay, Okay. We’ll just tell you about the tomb one, I think that was pretty cool. Cooler than the village raid.” Wilbur looked at Techno for their opinion.

“Yeah, ‘cause villagers getting their houses raided is pretty boring.” Techno sarcastically replied, but silently gestured for Wilbur to continue anyway.

The phantom only rolled his eyes in response, but begun his story about their supposed first adventure. “Alright, Phil told us about this mission that no one was taking because it was really dangerous or whatever, so me and Techno decided to sneak out at night to travel to this abandoned tomb and restore this uhh— this stolen artifact that was taken by bandits.”

“The artifact was something like.. The Totem of Undying, I think? It’s been rumored to give people an infinite amount of lives.” Wilbur waved his hands around as he told the story, and Tommy felt himself getting entranced by it. “Infinite? Have people tried stealing it before? How good were those bandits?”

“Well, some would say they were—” “Shh.” Techno cut him off, and Wilbur looked at his twin. When Wil gave him a questioning look, Techno whispered, “Can’t you guys hear it?”

Tommy looked around the clearing, trying to hear anything else besides the crackling of their fire and the rustling of the trees. No one dared to make a sound. There was a grumbling noise to their left, and in unison, their heads turned to the same direction. “Why does it sound like a zombie..?” Tommy asked.

“I forgot to mention… This forest is infested with zombies.” Techno nonchalantly said, taking his axe from his inventory. “Oh, and you just forgot to mention?” Tommy exclaimed, relaxed posture suddenly moving to stand up. A large group of zombies emerged from the darkness, their rotting skin and visible flesh and bones were a disgusting sight to see. The giant swore the air started to smell of decomposing flesh, twisting his stomach to the point where he could almost taste what he recently just ate.

“To be fair,” Techno started, running up to the zombies first. His moves were powerful, cold and calculating. Wilbur has mentioned before just how heavy the Axe of Peace was when he tried lifting it, yet now as Tommy watches Techno, it was a fast flurry of strikes— like the axe weighed absolutely nothing at all. “The map said this clearing was almost always safe.”

An arrow shot from below, and hit a zombie in the eye. ‘That had to be Wilbur’ Tommy thought as another shot fired through, this time with the strong smell of a poison-induced arrow. "Emphasis on the almost!" A disembodied, familiar voice yelled.

He wanted to help too. Tommy could just stomp them all out, but he had to look out for Tech and Wilbur. Techno, who was in the middle of the horde and Wilbur, who was invisible somewhere within the clearing. Tommy stood up, and tripped.

He tripped on zombie guts.

──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────

“I’m sorry, WHAT?!” Tommy yelled.

They all let out a laugh. Phil pointed to the dice, “Sorry, mate. You rolled a one.”

“Is that not a good thing? It means I’m number one!” Tommy patted the Twenty-sided dice.

“That is literally the worst number you can get.” Techno laughed, a small fond smile on his face. 

They were playing a tabletop roleplaying game, with their own rules and their own made up characters and species. It was Tommy’s first time playing with them, so everyone was less strict on the rules and more so trying to let Tommy enjoy their family game.

After watching a few of their sessions within the walls of their home, Tommy didn’t understand their game, but he felt immersed seeing Phil make up a completely imaginary world, and seeing the twins follow and make it even more fun with their decisions. Maybe he got too immersed.

He wasn’t a giant. He was a borrower. 

Tommy moved into the house many months ago, and it was a rare occasion to watch the family play their fun story game. Phil was always busy with his job, and Techno and Wilbur with college, but whenever they had enough free time to spend with one another, this is one of things they would spend hours doing. There would be a couple of their friends to join in from time to time, but it would mostly be just the three of them.

“It’s not my fault the dice is super big, it’s hard to throw!” Tommy picked up the dice and held it close to him as evidence. “Oh my god, look at you holding the dice! You are so teeny!” Wilbur cooed teasingly, gently poking Tommy's side, to which the borrower responded with a smack. “Stop it! Phiilll.” He whined, dropping the dice and attempting to wrestle with Wilbur’s finger.

Phil chuckled, “Wil.” He spoke in a warning tone. Wilbur continued to coo at Tommy for awhile before stopping after ruffling his hair. Techno picked up the dice and rolled it around in his hand, “Well, if you want, we could roll the dice for you instead?” 

Tommy immediately agreed, finding Techno’s good luck with his dice throws enough to accept the offer in an instant. “Yeah, do that!”

“Why not let me roll the dice? I have great luck too.” Wilbur also offered, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, like you don’t roll six every single time in a game session before.” Tommy argued. The other two chimed in and agreed.

“Come on! My luck isn’t THAT bad.” Then Phil ushered them to calm down to continue their game, changing the subject so the adventure could continue without Wilbur and Tommy jumping into an argument.

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( A/N: i had more ideas i wanted to write down but this is all my brain could whirr out, ty for reading until the end tihi :> )

[luftgames]

The Resolution Gradient

Every time I am presented with a new RPG - or really any game - the first thing I look for is new mechanics. Some element of interest to engage my tiny little designer brain and allow me to fool myself into thinking it isn't a feckless expenditure, because it's new and different.

For RPGs, the simplest thing to look at is "what is the resolution mechanic?" If I want to do thing A in the game world what is the thing B I must do in meatspace to achieve it? There's a lot of different answers to that question these days - from roll over a threshold, to dice pools, to cards, block towers, metacurrencies, and 'I said it, therefore it is.' But what I want to look at right this moment is what comes afterwards - I did the thing, so what's the result?

The most basic option is the simple pass/fail. "Yes" and "no." You roll a die, draw a card, whatever - you get enough, and you get to do the action you rolled for. If you don't, you don't. Extremely easy to understand, and perfectly functional. ...but it does get a bit boring after a while...

Introducing the new and exciting way to resolve situations: The critical hit! Get the bestest number, get a better result! We all know what this is, and we all love it. Critical hit, nat 20, whatever you call it, it's so beloved that if it doesn't exist, it is the first thing naturally homebrewed into a game. The critical hit mechanically functions as a "yes, and" result. Roll a 20 in DnD? "Yes, you hit, and you do double damage."

It can be made more granular as well - roll 4 or more over the threshold in Savage Worlds? "Yes, and you get a raise." Roll eight above and you get two raises - depending on the system, there may actually be no limit to how big the "and" in "yes, and" can be. In a system such as this, character growth continues to be relevant for much longer. Sure, your character may be guaranteed to succeed in a given task, but if you add on to that stat just a bit more you can succeed so hard that you get bonus rewards!

...But what if we don't want guaranteed success? Then we come to the dark reflection: "no, and." The crit fail. You roll a one, or pull a result so bad that simple failure isn't enough. You drop your sword, slip on the ice, and make rude gestures at your grandma, all at once. This result isn't as popular as the critical hit, (unless the game master is rolling it,) but does serve a vital function in never letting players be too comfortable. Ideally, a game should always present players with an appropriate challenge - but the critical miss is still available as a saafety net if things get too out of hand. And depending on the game, the "no, and" may be more than slapstick - stick it in an opressive environment where you'll fail more often than not, and suddenly players are rolling not to succeed, but simply to not lose too much in the failure.

If that tone seems a bit much though, there is the option of 'failing forward.' Throwing the players a bone for a near-miss with a "no, but." For some, this is the default failure state - the action didn't succeed as planned, but something still happened. Maybe you got part of a task done, or something new that may help future checks, or just a hint towards something else to try instead. This has become quite popular both in making rules and game mastering as it maintains momentum during a game - you never hit a wall because a lock won't open, but slip into a sidequest with a hint of where to find a key.

If handled poorly, this can seem like a 'no-loss' mechanic - if every roll is movement towards the goal, regardless of the result, where are the stakes? It's contingent on game masters, scenario writers, and even game designers to build in enough options for the "no, but" mechanic to keep it feeling interesting and relevant.

"No, but" does have its own shadowy twin in the "yes, but" result. This result can maintain the low-roll threat of a critical failure without needing to stoop to absurd bad luck. If you succeed, but not by a large margin, maybe the trader begrudgingly agrees with your plan - but counts it as a favor spent. Maybe you break a pick opening a lock, or maybe you're playing Blades in the Dark and you successfully escape the warehouse - but you added to the doom clock in the process, and now guards are prowling the streets. "Yes, but" is a good way of keeping the pressure on, even when things are ostensibly going well, a bit of a nudge to make sure that the players are prepared, and able to keep moving at the pace they're at.

...there technically is one more tone to this gradient: The neutral result. You roll to leap into a moving helicopter from a burning building and... Nothing. You didn't land in the helicopter, you didn't fall to your doom, the game just shrugs its shoulders and says 'meh.' You may be able to try arain, but for now, nothing happens. I don't know of any games that do this, and for good reason - it doesn't move the story forward at all, provides no risk, and no reward. Don't do this without good reason.

So all in all, removing the "meh" result, the gradient looks like this:

"no, and" "no" "no, but" "yes, but" "yes" "yes, and"

Now for the real question: Which of these grades do you absolutely need in your game? And the absolute, scientific, 100% right answer to that question is...it depends. I would say at least two.

You want at least two, simply because the unexpected and adversity is what makes stories interesting. "You didn't spend the resourece, or you rolled poorly, and now things are going in a way you didn't expect, what do you do now?" But the tone of the story will change what parts of the gradient you use.

You could keep it simple with "yes" and "no" and focus on other things. Perhaps you want to make a particularly miserable world, where players are wading through rotten sloughs and their personal demons - "No, and" "no" and "yes, but." Even the sought-after but rarely found success will have a consequence. Maybe you're looking for an explosive adventure of superhumans who heroically succeed or fail in bombastic fashion - "Yes, and" "yes, but" "no, and." Maybe you really love granularity and want to write a million different results for every eventuality - just use all six!

There's really no limit here, and there may also be additional granularity you can unpack between and around these categories. But all in all, I'd just recommend: Next time you're about to tell a player "no," consider saying, "no, but..."

...Or, if it's that one guy, throw down a "no, and."

Either way, keep it interesting at the table.

[vinxwatches]

the adventure's of puss in boots

1.1 9 years old, tv show, but not bad in animation quality (at least from the . definitely themes that the last wish touch on as well (of course that'll be the strongest point of comparison). love that the fight in episode 1 ends with a massive bluff "i can't defeat all of you, but i can defeat one. so which one of you will die?"

1.2 travel through different horrific lands. "yes, my friend, this is going to suck". the kingdom of darkness: just a dark screen a noises of people stumbling, and then doing it multiple times. the humour is spot on. that's a damn cool sphinx design, and telling us something about the character while not being overly obvious while in 3d show based on a movie? now that's surprising. sad that she's not in the next one, probably never to return, which makes the quality of design even more surprising.

1.3 you know, it takes some skill to make a funny "i hate my wife" joke, but they pulled it of. "i can never say no to a woman" "please pay your bar tab" "no" have i pointed out that this show nails the humour yet? puss vs ninja's? funny. but apparently not enough. puss vs teenage overly buff ninja pigs? now we're talking. also this show loves being dark in it's humour. how how the mean lady is apparently often crying. i wonder if that'll ever get depth, or is ever mentioned again instead of just being one dark joke.

1.4 "what's it like inside your head?" "wet and bloody".... i mean you're not wrong. at this point i'm just trying to convince people to watch the show because the humour is great. "it's not scary, it's just a bag stuffed with old dolls' heads" so many blink and you'll miss it jokes. why does dismemberment follow me everywhere? seriously what the fuck is up with that? why is it suddenly everywhere? at least it's clean and well cared for. this old guy be horny, in a kidshow. how is this a 2015 show? "you are crazy. but this is not new information" "nope". also recurring villain maybe?

1.5 standard episode: life here is too boring and an interesting old friend comes to steal the hero, but turns out to be a villain. will they play it straight (probably, he's designed as a villain), or will they do something more interesting. way too deep a thought for a short scene: so the orphanage is putting on a fake adventure, the costunes are brought out, and the buys very shortly argue over who gets to be a princess, until it's revealed that everyone who wants to can be a princess. here's what makes it so interesting: there is no joke outside of "the intrinsic funniness of buys wanting to be princesses". now while this could of course be setup for transphobic jokes later this honestly feels like it's just scene setting, just quaint town life, and the opposite of transphobic. i'm sure we won't see a trans character in this show (probably the closest being a queer coded villain) but this is nice. a simple message that everyone gets to be a princess if they want. again very cool monster design. like i want to steal this for my dnd game good. kind of a giant geko with a huge mouth and a lure like some fish have but with a fake pretty lady looking thing instead. my point of comparison is the kong-fu panda tv show which has the issue that it was extremely limited to always using the same assets. this show keeps bringing out amazing new designs every episode so far. also the message is damn strong. also neat that the standard plot was only really plot setup, it's never actually part of the plot, it never really comes into play. and for a boring plot now following up can be the best thing. the joke is that everyone wanted to be a princes. nothing about gender, just everyone wanted to be the same thing, nice. seriously, how come i never heard anything of this show? 2015. i'm pretty sure i watched some cartoons in 2015. did it never make it's way on dutch tv? i mean i've also never seen anyone talk about it online, something i think i'll have to correct at some point.

1.6 softpaws? nope, just a black cat. also the return of the sphinx which makes me happy. interesting that we get the more visually interesting sphinx sister first. so i've been watching a lot of TBSkyen and now want to kind of do a visual interpretation video like he often does on these two sisters. how the firsts inks and piercings make her read kind of Egyptian, alongside the naked cat stylings, while also indicating individuality and complexity, and how the lack of those in her sister suggests that she's simpler, which is true. one tells riddles, the other just tries to kill you. fuck why is this show so full of great dnd ideas. many magical fountains, each with different effects, like reverse gravity, talking backwards, and needing to say a word to undo it, which is hard with talking backwards, or induces fall damage after falling upwards for a while. fuck it, list time: fountain of invisible spiders, fountain of nausea, fountain of fire, fountain of itchy feet, just a regular fountain.

1.7 this serious continues to confuse me in a positive way in not making transphobic jokes. girly scream from the cowardly mayor? ok, that's prime setup right? sure, but they don't make the joke, it's just a scream that doesn't match the character design, but that's part of the general joke of the character: he's a coward who often hides in a barrel, but he's a huge buff dude who wouldn't even fit in the barrel. you get what i mean? puss doesn't burst in saying "i'll save you my lady" and then haha is a dude. he just bursts in to save someone. another standard plot: convince someone they are brave by pretending they defeat something, they they get overconfident and find real trouble and learn to reign it in or fully return to the status quo, wonder how they'll do it. damn, they did the getting too confident straight, but put enough good jokes in the scene to not make it awkward (hard to avoid), not to see if they can do the rest well. making Dulcinea (the female polite cat) do it because puss is too tired helps. "it's ok buddy, i'll read it to you" "you're a cute friend" subversion of expectation and cute as fuck, these are the joke i love. oh no, the man travels with a shadow over his face in spite of physics, he's definitely evil. surprisingly polite to those he thinks unwell though. and the standard plot continues. going with the "hopes and dreams dashed, but then shows bravery for reals". yep that's basically exactly what they did, with one funny in concept but sadly meh in execution fightscene. this isn't an episode you watch for the end, you watch for the jokes which are amazing.

1.8 human shrek is on the cover of the romance novel. blink and you'll miss it and i love it. oh no, puss ate xanathar's fish, and is now hunted by a Sinnamon smelling golem. this is so stupid in the best way. classic way for things to gain a soul too, it's neat. and damn does it make for a neat episode.

1.9 "let me gaze upon your golden booty" "i am uncomfortable" yes i'm still trying to get you to watch the show. oh a dust devil, neat. and that it's a demon is accurate to how people used to think about them (to my knowledge the origin of djinn). i think that was the first reuse of an asset i noticed (if you ignore the bandits): a sceptre that was broken in a previous episode. this is not a negative, just impressive that it took this long to use the same asset for a similar thing. also love that Dulcinea's arc so far is getting angry, but not like in a bad way.

1.10 excalibur? ok, this is an interesting take. generally not the angle of a reluctant hero (fun dnd PC backstory?). and the classic puss being pretty lost when he can't be the hero... starts to feel a bit overdone, but how many things can you do with him? also the animation touches are very nice. is this a story about cheating? because it sounds like a story about cheating, and with someone not getting over their ex. also this episode has some crazy good action. also this sword has a problem with asparagus.

1.11 uhm, that's not what sphynx looks like. where are her inks and piercings? did they accidentally use the wrong model? "well, technically medicine is the best medicine, but laughter is cheaper". wait what!? the cow barlady used to be an assassin?! also is this an episode about racism? like this could turn sour quickly. also what i think is clever but also semi noticeable is a cost cutting measure (honestly i've been noticing it for a while): if things don't move they aren't actually rendered in 3d, instead a single render is made of them and then it's a flat image that animation is rendered on top of. now this makes total sense to do: it's a lot less rendering so everything will be faster, which is a necessity if it's a tv show with tv show budget with 15 episodes. it allows for backgrounds that are relatively detailed unlike other 3d shows which are very often very plain. but if things look slightly off to you this may be why. damn, mature talk about wanting to do things but not doing it. this show is crazy. also damn that's one evil mouse. at least the sphynx petrified is the correct model.

1.12 that's just a god damn goblin. like literally called a goblin. and visually think dnd goblin... wild. also this is just about racism. mostly a pretty standard episode, but pusses unwavering belief is nice. and if a new person joins the cast that would make it even better.

1.13 earlier today episode? can always be fun. oh, Dulcinea gets to have puss' standard problem: feeling like he's no longer needed, and thus no longer him, thus problem. "i'll even write all of the stories myself. i will use all of the words. so many words!" and suddenly puss is talking like fucking trump. when puss thinks Dulcinea may be in legal troubles he'll immediately start helping her out, because pull aint no snitch lol. well now this episode conflicts with the last wish. Puss being against wishing stars here but going after it then? well, there is of course desperation

1.14 mother Mary the cat? so it'll be a puss' pride episode. the episode didn't have any big fightscenes, so instead the focus was put on the final dance. odd, but really fun.

1.15 a curse of bad luck turning puss into a black cat, that's just neat. wild that i had nothing more to say about it despite it being the last episode of season 1. oh well, on to season 2 i guess.