#oblivion roleplay

[vintagerpg]

Sewers of Oblivion (1982) is a sort of sequel to my favorite Tunnels & Trolls solo, City of Terrors, in that it takes place under that city. You get mugged, you get pitched into the sewers, and voila. I guess that is one way of limiting your starting equipment. It’s kind of funny that you are expected to take solo characters through gamebook after gamebook, getting more and more stuff, but the later books recognized how impossible it was to balance for all these potential magic items, so they went to greater and more improbable lengths to take all your kit away at the start. The muggers, you’ll be relieved to know, are caught while you are on your sojourn and the city guard has your stuff waiting for you back at the precinct house.

Anyway. Lots of underwater combat here. Lots of potential for catching diseases (there is a two-page appendix full of ‘em to choose from). A surprising number of potential amorous encounters for a sewer adventure, too. You get a guide, which is neat. For the most part, its a by the numbers dungeon crawl. Which is fine, its just a little disappointing after City of Terrors, which so often feels like exploring a bustling, ever-changing city.

Liz Danforth art throughout, and we’re all the better for it. I really love the one of the guy pitching it at that waif over the bleeding corpse of a giant rat. Ah, the romance of the sewers!

[sigmaelxgr]

The Bone Library

"...and Coldharbour too had it's collection of books - ossuaries were to us gigantic bookshelves where knowledge of the cold-damned would one day join the pile of bones they, alive, were forced to study.

To tidy all this mess up was not even a burden. In fact, carving dates and conjuration circles upon those skulls had something soothing to our shattered mind. I thought, "that is a hobby I shall keep". For when we were younger, I copied books and scrolls at the Mage Guild already... Was there in fact any difference but the prime materials? "

[a-bucket-in-the-void]

i don’t need much in life i just want whatever was going on between martyn and ren in third life

[animal444]

Did anyone else play Skyrim constantly as a whelp and always chose to join the werewolf cult every single playthrough?

[willknightauthor]

Wraith: The Best Game That Never Was

It occurred to me that even among RPG nerds Wraith is more obscure, and that makes me sad. Like people know it existed, but even at the time it was an also-ran. Among insiders at White Wolf it was a darling, but it never took off, so they stopped its line half way through. Even in high school I had to buy the books used online.

Wraith is one of the most original and compelling approaches to the afterlife I've seen in any medium, but especially in an RPG. In many games ghosts feature as NPCs, but rarely do you get to play as them, and even more rarely in an interesting way that centers the subjective experience of being dead.

The first thing that grabbed me was the art, all faded gray-scale, scratchy, often grotesque and surreal. The cover is striking: stark gray bound in chains. All far bleaker and genuinely scarier than anything else put out by White Wolf. Turns out the art matched the vibe of the setting very well, because the ultimate conceit of Wraith is that if the living knew what the afterlife is really like, we'd all be even more terrified to die.

Wraiths are a violation of the laws of nature. Biological life is already an improbable struggle against entropy, but the continued existence of consciousness after death? An absolute affront to the universe. Reality wants you gone, but you can't be killed. That contradiction manifests as Oblivion: non-existence as a visible, active force; the Freudian death drive become physics. And it goes all the way down into your very thoughts.

The afterlife is a world of ideals, not materials. Your well-integrated mind shatters into pieces when you die, and your "physical" form is a manifestation of it. Your Jungian shadow-self, once an unconscious and abstract thing, becomes a real, tangible person living inside you. All your vices, your self-loathing, your misanthropy, your death drive, become a voice in your ear: your best friend and worst enemy, helping and tricking you, constantly trying to gain control.

But you can't be killed. You're already dead. Instead of death, you just decay, further and further towards becoming your shadow. Eventually all that's left is a nightmare of who you used to be, existing only to torment others and drag them down together into nothingness. The world is full of these monsters, the things that go bump in the night and terrify both the living and the dead.

But that's literally the tip of the iceberg. The thin layer of shadow reality is nothing compared to the much larger expanse of the Tempest: a cosmic plane of dream and nightmare, right on the edge of Oblivion. The deep underworld is Lovecraftian Mad Max: an infinite shifting desert of eternal night filled with screaming storms, incomprehensible monsters, and forbidden knowledge. Pockmarking it are islands of stability upon which societies are built--dysfunctional city-states desperately attempting to project power into a world constantly trying to swallow them.

However, if no-one can die, then every awful political trend and tyrant remains forever. And they all have a huge head start on you establishing political power. Their society is a veneer of modern industrial capitalism, layered on top of mercantile guilds, layered on top of feudal lords, layered on top of a Roman imperial bureaucracy, all built on the back of one ancient wraith: the ferryman Charon.

But the Emperor has been missing for a long time, and the bureaucracy is so massive and old that it's rotting in on itself. Who knows how many are secretly succumbing to their own shadows? Their attempts to rule the rest of the underworld are always tenuous, like the last days of Roman Britain. It's a world eternally mid-apocalypse.

The problem with a world of thought and feeling is: how do you make things? What do you make them with? Sometimes the ghosts of physical objects make their way through, and they're mined like whale fall. Undoubtedly the Twin Towers were a huge boon to the dead, probably the site of an entire city.

But it's not enough. Wraiths are still people. They want clothing, and furniture, and buildings, and machines, and tools, and money. Where does all that come from? The only thing left that wraiths can touch: other people. Wraith society is built on a form of slavery more exploitative and horrifying than anything that's ever existed among the living. Slaves are valued not for their labor primarily, but for their use as raw materials.

The vulnerable newly dead are captured, dragged back to the capital, and molded in workshops and factories into goods for the upper classes. They claim it wipes out consciousness, and thus the finished product isn't suffering. If anything it's a mercy! To release them from the torment of the afterlife! And prevent them from becoming monsters! But when it's quiet, if you listen closely, some report you can hear it all whispering.

The bleak alienness of this afterlife to any human religion breaks the minds of many when they first realize they're dead. Some go into denial. Some reject their old religion. Some invent new religious explanations. And some try to twist their old beliefs into a shape that conforms.

The underworld is full of cults. Cults promising escape from the underworld. Cults claiming they know where heaven and hell are. (At best just projections of the collective beliefs of the living into the underworld.) Cults who claim they're building heaven and hell themselves. (These sorts of "afterlife lands" sometimes become tourist attractions.) But Oblivion is Oblivion. If you could describe its structure logically you would be contradicting its very essence. There is only decay.

Most people don't go to the shadowlands when they die. Where do they go? No-one knows. What happens when you're swallowed by Oblivion? No-one knows. Is there a God? No-one knows.

Just like when you were alive, you don't know what comes next, or why you're here. It's not real death, it's something in between. But maybe real death is just nothingness. Better not to risk it, then... even if that means clinging to the sands of Hell under the yoke of an eternal slave-aristocracy.

Maybe if you can figure out why you're here, you'll find a way out.

[unironicallytes]

Balancing out my Oblivion jokeposting about potato sack robes with ✨AppreciationPosting✨

As much as I love Skyrim, I do miss the visual charm and colorful fantasy of Oblivion. Like, if Skyrim is comparable to cosplaying Game of Thrones with furs and muted colors, Oblivion is a mix of your local Renaissance Faire and SCA group. The saturation slider is further to the right than Skyrim and everyone's a bit tipsy on mead by mid-morning. It's really goofy. It's the faire dude dressed as a jester doing a comedy routine at 3pm when everyone's dehydrated and pretty drunk and you lost your faux-leather belt with the cool sword frog by the portos but you're having a good time anyways. It's fun!

[doctor-disc0]

Fun fact! If you wear necromancer robes at the Arcane University and try to talk to someone, they'll essentially ask you what the hell you think you're doing and tell you to go change immediately. They won't talk to you until you do so.

[mygaynessissimp]

OK TUMBLR! Me and a friend are thinking of making abandoned theme park rp with the rollercoasters being humanoid including the smiler and other rollercoasters all over the world! SHOULD WE DO IT?

[nogenrealldrama]

Do you ever see a piece of media get released that triggers a physical need to pack it up and send it by time travel post to teenage you? Because while the Thing is excellent now, it would have been Groundbreaking to you if it came out 10 years ago. It would have rewritten your DNA. But 10 years ago, the damn Thing didn’t even exist.

[dedfly]

YES I started to play the elder scrolls oblivion so it's the oc time yaay

I made completely different Argonian and get hyped because I can make an adult one and I couldn't stop thinking b

So yeah this is Midnight-Swamp she was a bard, traveling across the land with little money she had. She had a baby but unfortunately it passed away due to traveling and lack of food.

Since that incident it all go downhill for Midnight-Swamp she hardened, put herself together trying to get serious: get a job and a house she could call her own

She doesn't want her future babies pass away like her first.

Easier said than done

She tried and fail and fail again. With each year of her life she doesn't feel any better, everything just felt like a blur. Despite having a job and temporary shelter she still doesn't felt fulfilled. So she started to steal from all this people what passed by with their bugs full of coins.

Until she bite on someone she couldn't handle and end up in jail

And there is the game starts Midnight-Swamp is no longer hopeful romantic bard she used to be but just a theif

Very mean sharp tongued theif. She would do anything for the money at this point. And even if she is a chosen one she simply couldn't care less

But damn... This model kinda ugly like-

[nirnroot-obsession]

East of Velyn Harbor in Malabal Tor. Gorgeous song, aesthetically pleasing leaves, in view of a beautiful waterfall. 10/10 Nirnroot.

Are you looking for some more Nirnroot action? Well, I've got good news! I have made a server on Discord for an Elder Scrolls RP! If you're interested, follow this link to get started!

Need a little more info? Happy to help!

What you'll find

- A relatively small community that's working together on building itself.

- An open-world RP with some slice of life along with adventure, and some fun ic criminal activity.

- An open and communication-driven community that supports its fellow members positively.

- A cool system where your character can gain merits to rank up in the group, be able to eventually host your own fronts for the organization, become a DM to host your own little storylines and mini-campaigns, and more.

- Once a week group events hosted every Monday, 7:30PM EST - A moderator team willing to help incorporate characters from other universes into the Elder Scrolls setting, including characters from FFXIV, Invader Zim, and more! - A giant traveling Tamriel with his sentient Nirnroot companion! If you find that this group isn't for you, that's quite alright, and we hope you find a fun Elder Scrolls RP that suits your interests!

[junicringe]

Oblivion won in a poll I did for what game to play on Saturdays so it's time to journey into Cyrodiil and deal with the looming Oblivion Crisis, if I don't get distracted that is (will probably get distracted.) [Fun fact: Will be trying out the idea of being in semi RP this stream.] https://www.twitch.tv/junicringe

[theonyxpath]

Five years ago today we released Book of Oblivion via our partners at DriveThruRPG! https://drivethrurpg.com/product/275824/Wr20-Book-of-Oblivion?affiliate_id=13&src=OPPTumblr This book contains New Shadow Archetypes, Thorns, and an array of horrifying new antagonists. Information on Spectres, Spectre cults, redemption, and more!

[acherons-ocs]

Prométhée (he/him) - RPG Character

[sigmaelxgr]

Molkhun Dahkem

Of the Four intendants of the House of Troubles,

Steward of the House Telvanni,

Lost spawn of the Erabenimsun,

Third of the Three amongst Sigma-El

[willknightauthor]

Substack!

I was planning on doing this for my fiction, but I realized I was probably using Tumblr too heavily as an avenue for essay writing. So here's my Substack! The first post is a repost of my essay on Wraith: The Oblivion.

It occured to me that even among RPG nerds, Wraith is more obscure, and that makes me sad. People know it existed, but even at the time it was an also-ran. Among insiders at White Wolf it was a darling, but it never took off, so they stopped its line half way through. Even in high school I had to buy the books used online. Wraith is one of the most original and compelling approaches to the afterlife I've seen in any medium. In many games ghosts feature as NPCs, but rarely do you get to play as one, and even more rarely in an interesting way that centers the subjective experience of being dead. The first thing that grabbed me was the art, all faded gray-scale, scratchy, often grotesque and surreal. The cover is striking, stark gray bound in chains. All far bleaker and genuinely scarier than anything else they put out. Turns out the art matched the vibe of the setting well, because the ultimate conceit of Wraith is that, if the living knew what the afterlife is really like, we'd all be even more terrified to die.