#one of them is playing dnd for the first time and I’m not sure which one

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

I feel like there should be more dungeon meshi aus, anyways

DND AU!!!! GUYS IVE DECDIED THAT I WONT SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!

Okay so it’s modern no powers etc, and all the events ALL THE EVENTS in the canon story still happen, but it’s dnd and they’re all just nerds playing dnd.

Because of that one fanart I’ve decided that Thistle is infact the dungeon master

They all have normal names like Larry or Charles- they’re just normal people who are nerds guys

[littledeadling]

You probably know by now that I’m quite taken with my DND character, Horatio. In this post I’m going to explain him (with pictures!!) so you can enjoy him too, and follow along with his story if you want!

~~~~

Let’s start with the man himself:

~Horatio Ignatius Heronwillow III~

Horatio is a human paladin knight following the Oath of Glory. Also, he’s a pompous bitch with an ego the size of a small country.

Horatio’s character arc is all about getting humbled over and over again. Maybe he’s not the best. He’s not even second best. Maybe he’s even…pathetic. Despite all his training? His many successful battles? His prestige? What does any of that matter if his Queen doesn’t trust him to be her champion? If the Queen doesn’t even like him?

Horatio is from the nation of Thrane. He introduces himself as “the gilded knight of Fort Light, first at her majesty’s royal table.” He’s an ardent follower of the Queen, even though she’s merely a figurehead—the Church of the Silver Flame holds all the power. He is considered weird for this. His family are all noble elitists, and their support for him is conditional. Even though he’s become such a high-ranking knight, he’s never good enough.

But we can’t truly discuss Horatio until we meet his nemesis/rival/best friend/worst enemy (who he’s totally obsessed with, and who happens to be a centaur). His name is Elethar Sigrún.

Elethar came to the castle when they were both young (for ~unknown reasons~), and they trained to be knights alongside each other. Despite being the only centaur in the kingdom and not of royal birth, Elethar immediately usurped Horatio as the Queen’s most promising young knight, thus beginning a lifelong rivalry.

Does Horatio have feelings for Elethar? Not that he’s aware of. This is because he is stupid. Does Elethar feel anything for Horatio (besides pity and disdain)? Unclear!

~The Dragonshard Derby~

Now that we’ve met our hero, lets turn to the story!

The players are all entrants in The Dragonshard Derby: a mounted cross-continent race hosted by a rich and famous duke. To the winner goes the spoils: a great dragon’s hoard, and glory for their chosen nation. Obviously, Horatio is racing for Thrane. One hundred contestants are participating, riding everything from regular horses to owlbears to dinosaurs (dinosaurs are normal in Eberron 😳).

Horatio’s mount is a golden Akhal-Teke horse named Marvellous Moondance. She’s the light of his life. Despite his competitive nature, he would never push her past her limits. He puts her safety above all else.

Much to his chagrin, Elethar is also running in the race. Apparently the Queen had a special, secret mission for him, which she didn’t tell Horatio about. He persuades Elethar to confide: there’s an artefact rumoured to be among the dragon’s hoard that the Queen desires. Neither of them are sure what it is. Horatio promises that if he encounters it, he will give it to Elethar.

~The World of Eberron~

The campaign is set in a world called Eberron. The road is dangerous! We’ll be journeying though many different terrains, including the Mournland, a desolate wasteland which was once a great nation. Less than five years ago, during the war, a white fog filled the nation of Cyre from border to border and killed everyone inside. The cause of this was unknown, but it led to a tenuous end to the fighting. Horatio and Elethar were both on the front lines when it happened. They witnessed people across the border dying in agony. Horatio still has nightmares.

The Dragonshard Derby is the first time since then that the other nations have come together to put the past behind them in friendly sport. Evaluators will be watching from airships to make sure there's no foul play, though their vision is limited whenever racers are passing through the woods. Any teleportation is strictly prohibited.

~The Race So Far~

Each leg of the race begins with a sprint. In the first sprint, Horatio finished first in his section, but 11th overall. Elethar placed actually first, and gave Horatio polite congratulations once the scores had been posted. Horatio was pissed. This was supposed to be his chance to prove himself to the Queen! Why did Elethar have to be here and show him up? He ruins everything! And he’s so effortless about it, too. He never loses his composure, ever. Horatio wishes he could be like that.

During the first leg (a multi-day ride through the forest and plains), two riders were murdered under mysterious circumstances. Both had placed within the top ten. Their belongings had been trashed, searched through. As frustrated as Horatio was with Elethar’s presence, he’s now more just worried for his well-being. After all, Elethar is racing alone.

Then, when Horatio’s party was still a day’s ride away from the second sprint, something strange happened.

While fighting off a band of raiders, the world suddenly froze for Horatio. A strange light appeared in the sky, drawing him towards it. The moment he touched it, he felt something write itself into the skin of his arm. A mysterious lantern appeared in his bag, glowing with ethereal purple light. It would later become clear that the lantern will always appear back in Horatio’s bag, no matter where he leaves it. And, he discovered, he now has access to new magics that he was previously incapable of. This was all VERY ALARMING.

Anyway, back to Horatio’s arm. Something important in Eberron is the concept of dragonmarks. There are twelve great Dragonmarked Houses (basically powerful mob families) which each share a unique dragonmark- a sigil that appears somewhere on the body at puberty and grants powerful magic. There are also aberrant dragonmarks, which is when a combination of two other sigils appears on someone not from a Dragonmarked House (usually when there have been mixed relations between Houses). There’s a lot of political baggage attached. And Horatio suddenly has one, at the ripe age of 35. To make matters worse, it’s not a normal dragonmark OR a known aberrant, but something entirely new.

He chose not to tell his party anything about this.

Then, it was time for the sprint to the next checkpoint. Horatio started strong, but again, Elethar swept in and beat him right at the finish line. He congratulated Horatio on the race. Embarrassing him further, Elethar presented Horatio with this letter he had just received from the queen:

Sir Elethar Sigrún, First Knight to Queen Diani ir’Wynarn My earnest congratulations on placing first on the primary leg of this great race. I would expect nothing less of my finest knight. Of course, you are missed at the castle, but I am honoured by the diligence with which you have chosen to pursue the purpose I have set out for you. I am sure that you will earn the respect of the kingdom, should you succeed, and I am pleased to hear of your success so far. It will be essential that you continue to maintain this position, else my favour lies elsewhere. Loyal Elethar, I wish you great fortune, and may the blessing of the Silver Flame be upon you. Her Majesty, Queen Diani ir’Wynarn PS. Please tell Sir Heronwillow I am being informed of his standing in the race as well.

…Crushing.

He’d been considering telling Elethar of his troubles, but after that he was too upset to broach the subject.

Now that they’ve made it to the checkpoint, there are official tents with beds for everyone (with sleeping arrangements decided by race standing), a small market, and a mess hall with dinner provided.

During the meal, a friendly fellow racer named Ash attempted to flirt with one of Horatio’s party members, offering him a strange glowing flower he’d found nearby. Horatio immediately recognized it as being similar to his lantern. When his teammate turned down the flower, Horatio asked if he could have it. Ash took this the wrong way. He let Horatio know he was really, super not his type, and would not be giving him the flower. Double ouch.

That night (in the dead of it), a pack of wild raptors invaded the tents where the racers were sleeping. The party managed to kill them before they hurt anyone, but Horatio detected that the animals were all under an enchantment. Their real purpose had been to attempt to steal the flower and take it... somewhere. To someone. Was this what the killers from the first leg had been seeking? None of it bodes very well for Horatio!

The next evening, Horatio dragged Elethar to the edge of the camp where they could not be overheard, and nervously confided in him. The dragonmark, the lantern—everything. He was a bundle of nerves, but… It went well! Elethar was very alarmed, and told Horatio not to let ANYONE else find out. Not even the Queen. Especially not the Queen. Horatio was equal parts thrilled by Elethar’s willingness to share a secret with him, and terrified to keep anything hidden from the woman who basically controls his life. I drew a comic about this conversation. It was too good of a scene not to draw. 🫣)

Well, that’s where we left off last session! Thanks so much for reading, and meeting my guy! I love him and I hope you like him too! 💖

Stay tuned for a little intro post about the rest of the party! :•) I’ll link that here as well!

To be continued! (Probably in a month or so)

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

[itsclydebitches]

Zevlor: An Angsty Character Analysis

Hey, Zevlor simps. Can I interest anyone in 4,000 words about our favorite disaster tiefling? 💀

“We can’t stay, but we’ll be slaughtered if we leave—we’re no fighters.”

Back during my first play-through this is the line that turned Zevlor from another dime-a-dozen, exposition spouting NPC to a character I was legitimately interested in. “We’re no fighters.” My DnD ignorance abounds, but even I could see that wasn’t an accurate statement. Here’s a mountain of a man sporting fancier armor than my level 2 Tav knows exists yet, having wrecked half the goblin hoard with his crossbow and, if you let him, he'll happily turn to punching as a solution to verbal disagreements. Plus, he’s clearly the one giving the orders, so what do you mean you’re not a fighter?

Having explored the Grove a bit I chalked it up to a generalized assessment of the refugees as a whole. They’re mostly kids, civilians, and would-be protectors who only look the part of fighters in cobbled-together armor. One woman is grappling with the guilt of killing someone for the first time, even an enemy. Lakrissa is sure they’re all going to get slaughtered and is willing to put money on that fact. Meanwhile, the couple you meet are more concerned with what pet they’ll get when they somehow, someway, make it to the city. Don't worry about how that'll happen. You learn later that even those like Ronan are small potatoes compared to most of the baddies you’ll face. On paper he looks and sounds like the real deal—dressed in robes, talking up an apprenticeship with the famous Lorroakan—but scenes like the celebration light show and his own fury at needing to be saved, again, highlight how far he still has to go. The point is that Zevlor is right: these aren’t fighters and he at 18 strength, paladin, former commander, is definitely the exception.

However, BG3 is the sort of detail-heavy game where I’d expect them to include that exception in the dialogue. “We can’t stay, but we’ll be slaughtered if we leave—these people aren’t fighters.” Zevlor’s inclusion of himself in this assessment continued to nag at me and it didn’t start to make sense until I delved into his tag here on tumblr, with more patient players than myself posting everything there is to know about the tiefling. (Thanks, all.) Zevlor is fascinating to me in part because he has this contradictory nature, one example of which is that he’s a very talented fighter who desperately doesn’t want to be a fighter anymore.

…but also he totally does.

We overhear in his dialogue to Tilses that Zevlor is adamant about shedding the titles he’s earned through combat: Hellrider, Commander, Sir. He insists that they’re just civilians now and it’s not like he’s being disingenuous here—note that he introduces himself as just “Zevlor” to Tav. Zevlor means what he says to Tilses and we can see that he’s trying to both reinforce his point and lesson the blow by referring to her as “Tilly.” The nickname is a sweet one, hinting at their close bond in just a single word, reminding her that he’s not saying this to hurt her, he cares for her… but the nickname is simultaneously something he never would have used as her commander. The intimacy meant to comfort is also a hard blow to weather. They're now people who use nicknames inappropriate for the hierarchy of battle.

So Zevlor means what he says here, means it enough that Tilses is convinced and drops her use of “Commander,” but there’s definitely a hint of bitterness in his voice. At least, I’ve always heard it. Zevlor is steadfast in his conviction here, even going so far as to say, “I’m done soldiering, Tilly” when discussing what will come next at Baldur’s Gate. Yet for all of that his tone conveys (understandable) anger and disappointment that it’s come to this. Zevlor doesn’t act like someone who truly wants this change, but rather someone who’s been forced to accept it.

Is it outside forces unwillingly influencing him then? Did Avernus truly change things irrevocably? No, not really. At least, not in the way Zevlor likes to claim. Tilses herself states that being a Hellrider is for life; nothing can take away that title. You lost your post? Your whole city? Most of the people under your protection? Doesn’t matter! You’re a Hellrider forever, no matter the circumstances. I can easily picture a time in Zevlor's life where he would have agreed with Tilses wholeheartedly. They are Hellriders, dammit, and so long as there’s one person looking for their help they will wield that title alongside their blades. And right now, Zevlor has a lot more than just one person in need of his assistance.

So it’s not that Avernus truly stripped them of that identity. Nothing can do that. Zevlor is not rejecting titles and planning retirement because the mechanisms of fate are forcing him to.

He’s doing all that because he’s lost confidence in himself.

Even as someone with a shaky understanding of DnD classes, I love the parallel between a broken oath and the rejection of a lifelong title. If Zevlor can fail in his oath—or in his faith entirely, according to the memories stemming from his pod—why-ever would he think that any other ‘permanent’ part of his identity was worth fighting for? If you can loose the very thing you’ve built your entire life around, every important aspect of yourself, tied to your very soul… what’s a bestowed title compared to that? Zevlor doesn’t believe himself worthy of being a Hellrider anymore, but I think that goes deeper than a string of horrific circumstances making him feel incompetent. As an Oathbreaker, Zevlor likely believes that if he couldn’t uphold that, he can’t uphold anything. Calling himself a Hellrider would be a lie. A fiction. A pathetic, dangerous, insulting fiction at that. It’s like calling yourself the “Hero” while continually failing those around you. Sure, others might insist it’s a title you’ve earned, one you will always carry with you, but you don’t believe them anymore and at a certain point calling yourself that feels worse than embracing the title of “Villain." You don’t want to be the villain… but you want to pretend you’re the hero even less. Pretending is exhausting.

We see this struggle in the many ways that Zevlor fails, or almost fails, to uphold the ideals that originally guided him. I use the term “villain” above deliberately because Zevlor is not merely a former hero-type who’s self confidence has been shattered, or who has been reduced to a civilian, or who thinks themselves useless; he’s actively fighting against temptations that, under less stressful situations, he’d never even consider. I don’t think he is a villain, I think he’s a flawed, struggling victim who sees his own, inevitable mistakes as villainous—and the longer that warped perspective continues the easier it is to fall into bad behaviors. This cycle is perfectly summarized in the autobiography Zevlor keeps by his bed:

“When every passer-by thinks you a thief and a heretic, it is deeply tempting to become one.”

We don’t know if this is Zevlor’s autobiography (as far as I’m aware, anyway) but even if it’s not the words have clearly resonated enough for him to keep them nearby. This particular line paints a pretty clear picture of Zevlor’s struggle. If everyone you meet says you’re devil-kin, vermin, or would-be criminal, isn’t it easier to just give them what they want? If you can’t persuade them otherwise, why put in the effort of trying? If he can’t be Faithful to his God, why have faith in anything at all? If he can’t save these people—setback after setback, mistake after mistake—why is he even making the effort?

Zevlor obviously is trying, very, very hard, which is why such thoughts are merely temptations rather than actual, questionable actions. Still, the Grove gives us numerous examples of the precipice he’s balanced on—and the ways Tav can tip him in one direction or another. You can talk Zevlor down from his anger and get him to acknowledge his disgust in nearly sinking to Aradin’s level. You can also let him boil over and punch the human at a time when the last thing anyone needs is more violence. You can convince Zevlor that there are peaceful ways of stopping Kagha's ritual, or you can help him in pursuing the darker temptation to kill her. It’s a “low” thought, but at his own admission he hasn’t been above entertaining it. Zevlor’s requests for help, though always polite and humble, carry a spark of manipulation in them too. He’s not above leveraging your previously selfless good deed to his advantage—"She owes you for saving this grove"—and if you approach him before speaking with Kagha he’ll claim that the ritual will “be trouble—for all of us.” Except, no? Not really? Tav can make it clear that they’re just here for a healer, they’re only passing through, and as a fighter they are not beholden to the Grove’s sanctuary as the teiflings are. It’s not trouble for everyone involved, yet Zevlor frames it as such in the hopes that (unnecessary) self-interest may motivate you if selflessness fails. Finally, if Zevlor dies in your play-through and you use Speak the Dead on him, he will admit to having “plenty” of secrets, none of which he’ll share. Admittedly, this may be the result of cut content, specifically a story-line in which Zevlor knowingly betrays the tieflings rather than being tricked by the Absolute. Still, the game as it stands is the story we have and within it we’re given a man who is both fighting against these dark urges (ha) and has a past riddled with secrets. If Zevlor is anything, it’s blunt when it comes to his own failings, accurate and otherwise. So how terrible must these secrets be that he outright refuses to divulge them when, generally speaking, most corpses speak freely in death?

However, out of all of this the struggle I’m most intrigued by is the one surrounding the gate. Zevlor represents the tieflings: persecuted refugees, vulnerable civilians, people seeking to survive through cooperation, specifically by joining a community. Kagha represents the druids (or at least a vocal subset of them in Halsin’s absence): bigoted individuals, powerful fighters, people seeking to survive by giving in to their fears, specifically by keeping themselves isolated. This is the moral dichotomy of the Grove and it is symbolized through the gate. Zevlor wants to open it to everyone whereas Kagha wants to close it, permanently.

So isn’t it odd that Zevlor is the one ordering it shut?

When the scene first starts Kanon shouts down that no, he won’t open the gate. Zevlor said that no one is allowed in. Notably, he’s saying this to Aradin and his crew, people that the Grove is at least passingly familiar with, given that Halsin left with them to search the temple. It’s also notable that Zevlor isn’t expecting goblins to attack the Grove. He’s shocked that this is suddenly a problem, brought about by Aradin’s decision—“You lead them here?”— and the entire point of staying at the Grove is that it’s at least comparatively safe. Yes, there have been more attacks lately, but Zevlor seems to be relying on the Grove’s relatively unknown location, as well as the fact that goblins are normally disorganized. The safety is only compromised because Aradin brought a hunting party back, so Zevlor has no reason to expect any visitors, let alone ones that would be a threat.

More importantly, he should welcome such visitors even if he did expect them. After all, that’s precisely what the tieflings are: strangers with no ulterior motives other than to survive. Broadly speaking it makes perfect sense why he'd shut the gates. Zevlor’s first priority is to his people, so anything that keeps them safe is, theoretically, a good thing. But through the lens of his specific characterization and this specific, moral dilemma, it’s an awfully hypocritical decision. Based on everything we’ve seen, our party would not have been welcomed by Zevlor if we’d arrived without danger on our heels and a rescue to endear him to us. So his people should be welcomed, trusted, kept safe, given the benefit of the doubt… but Zevlor isn’t necessarily willing to extend that same trust to others. At the end of the day, he and Kagha want a version of the same thing: safety for those they deem are worthy of it.

It’s precisely these flaws and temptations that make Zevlor such a great character to me, even before he’s tricked by the Absolute. The fandom has leaned hard into Zevlor’s self-loathing and let me tell you, I love it (kisses, hugs, and cookies for you all), but canonically I think he has more reason to fear himself than we tend to portray in the H/C fics. I’m not saying he’s a bad person. Rather, it’s precisely because Zevlor is such a good person that he has the capacity to fall so far. It’s his all-consuming desire to protect his family that leads Zevlor to do and consider so much that a paladin would normally balk at. Denying others the safety you’ve been granted. Subtly manipulating others to do your dirty work. Considering murder.

Zevlor is someone torn between doing the Right Thing and the thing he believes will help those under his care survive. Importantly, when we first meet him he considers these to be two separate courses of action. So can you imagine what goes through his head when he first sees Tav saving everyone and doing so righteously? I think it’s integral to Zevlor’s characterization that the game all but forces you to play the Good Guy in that initial encounter. A cut scene starts, you’re thrown into combat immediately afterwards, and unless you plan to start attacking the Grove members alongside the goblins (which the mechanics discourage through the coloring that distinguishes enemies from allies) you will always finish this fight as Zevlor’s hero. Sure, you can be an asshole afterwards and demand payment. You could already be plotting your betrayal and the slaughter of all the refugees. But in this moment you are nothing but a miracle made flesh in his eyes. Right from the start Tav is succeeding in all the ways Zevlor feels like he's failed. You're the hero.

More specifically, you’re an Every-Man Hero. We might have epic backstories for our Tavs, but within confines of the game you’re largely a nobody when not playing an Origin character. How powerful must that have been to witness then? A total stranger, someone who has no ties to the tieflings or even, depending on your class, any sworn reason to help others, putting their life on the line to save what is most precious to Zevlor? I think a lot about the fact that he never asks Wyll to step in and try to change Kagha’s mind. She owes him just as much as she does Tav—Wyll is an equal participant in that fight and, if your shoddy play style is anything like mine, he likely did more damage—and Wyll is clearly invested in the tiefling’s survival, training the kids as he is. Now, obviously Zevlor’s reticence is largely a question of assigned roles (we need to be the one engaging with Kagha because we’re the protagonist/player) but, like Zevlor’s choice to include himself in the Not a Fighter group, it would have been all too easy to explain this away within the narrative. One comment about how Wyll already tried and failed, or how Kagha doesn’t trust Warlocks, or hell, maybe you don’t meet Wyll in the Grove at all. It’s an easy thing to accomplish and though this is edging more into the realm of headcanon than anything else, I can’t help but think that Wyll isn’t the kind of person that Zevlor could turn to for help right now. Because he’s a folk hero. The Blade of Frontiers, known far and wide for his impressive, selfless deeds. Zevlor is struggling so hard to keep the tieflings safe, tempted by all the unsavory solutions that might achieve that, drowning in self-hatred as his past and current failings catch up with him, wanting nothing more than to be his peoples’ protector:

“I would be a paladin again—with a god’s purpose, a god’s power. Everything I needed to protect my people. And all the while, the cult tortured them. They fought, and ran, and died around me, while I imagined myself their savior.”

Three of the things Zevlor mutters while trapped in the pod are “Hellrider… for… life…,” “Trust… in me…,” and “Children… look away… look at me…” He wants to be the protector, the one children look to for reassurance, he wants his words to Tilly to be a lie and he wants a way to prove that he is a Hellrider for life… but he’s not. At least, Zevlor doesn’t believe it. He lost his titles while Wyll still proudly bears his. Wyll trains the children to fight while Zevlor can only get swept up in anger at them being threatened. The people trust Wyll, adore him, he’s the hero and Zevlor… is not. Not anymore.

It’s too painful to approach Wyll and admit all that. That would be a hell of a blow to Zevlor's pride. But Tav? A stranger? A nobody? The Every-man who had no reason to help or reputation pressuring them, saving them anyway? That’s inspiring. Someone like Tav could be the answer and even, perhaps, the proof that Zevlor could redeem himself. Neither of them are folk heroes, untouchable in their assumed perfection. Tav is a living, breathing example of how the flawed, everyday adventurer can be everything Zevlor strives for.

No wonder he won’t shut up about them in the Shadowlands.

All of this is why it’s so tragic that Zevlor wasn’t given a redemption arc. Sure, you can recruit him for the final battle against the Netherbrain, but there’s no quest to change the cast’s opinion of him—or change Zevlor’s opinion of himself. All his content at the end of Act 2 and Act 3 reinforces that self-hatred.

Let’s make a list, shall we?

Nearly every line of his reunion with Tav has Zevlor painting himself in the worst light possible, from “a lie kinder than the truth” to his refusal to join you because he believes he’ll stab you in the back. You cannot convince him of the Absolute’s manipulation and there’s no response to his belief that such horrors start within the person like, “Of course it does! Because we’re all flawed and equally capable of good and evil deeds! That potential doesn’t make you irredeemable, Zevlor, it makes you mortal!!”

He’s utterly failed as his peoples’ champion and he’s also deemed “unworthy” of being a True Soul. Obviously not being chosen by the Absolute is a good thing, but for a man drowning in self-loathing that’s one hell of a complicated rejection.

Nearly all the tieflings hate him now, all those people he’s been sacrificing his soul to keep safe. I found it particularly devastating that this is one of the rare occasions where nailing a persuasion check doesn’t change the person’s mind. There’s at least one tiefling at Moonrise (I’m drawing a blank on her name) who will believe you when you explain how the Absolute influenced Zevlor, but that doesn’t lead to forgiveness.

Zevlor is deemed unimportant on a literal, narrative level. He is very easy to miss in the pods (I nearly did on my first play-through) and the game does incredibly little to dissuade you from that mistake. Putting aside for a moment that obviously an Origin companion is more significant than a minor NPC, compare this to Shadowheart screaming from her own pod, the game making it abundantly clear that this is someone in need of help—someone worth rescuing. She’ll even say later that you could have run past, more concerned with your own survival and the big picture heroics to bother with her. How must it feel then, if Zevlor ever learns that Tav was there and never stopped for him?

If you do miss Zevlor… oh boy. We’ve probably all seen at least a recording of Orin’s so-called gift. There are plenty of characters who can meet untimely and devastating ends, but very few go through this level of horror. Zevlor—after being held captive, remember—is tortured by God’s Favorite Torturer. He is stripped of his personhood and reduced to a mere “message,” a “pet.” Zevlor is further humiliated in death by being literally stripped of his armor—not just vulnerable in his nakedness, but denied the last symbol of his faith, his status, his power—and it’s always struck me that this is the closest we see to him 'enjoying' an intimate moment, this parody in Orin’s painting. Zevlor is one of the NPC’s most in need of physical comfort and instead he’s forced into this torturous mockery of a sex scene. It also hits hard that when Tav first spots his body the narration says that Zevlor “might almost be sleeping.” Undoubtedly this is a man who isn’t taking good care of himself. He needs a good night’s rest, yet this horrifying trick is all he gets.

As if all this weren’t enough, most of your companion are VERY critical of Zevlor while commenting on his demise. It’s one thing for the tieflings to believe the worst given their ignorance and the fact that they are the ones who suffered from Zevlor’s failure, but your company understands the Absolute and the ways that she gets her hooks in people. Still, Astarion calls him a “wet rag” even if he did deserve better than this. Shadowheart wouldn’t have wished this on him either, but she can’t help but slip in a “no matter his failings.” Lae’zel, often the most blunt, straight up says that he was “always destined to fail his people—and to fail us.” Wyll shakes his head and intones that “even good intentions can lead us down deadly paths.” Only Gale and Karlach stick to mourning the dead rather than airing his shortcomings.

When I spoke to my allies before the final battle Zevlor didn’t have a cut scene. It became clear to me later that this must have been a bug in my play-through, but at the time it only reinforced my feelings that his story was incomplete. Looking on Youtube I’ve found recordings of him saying that he is a Hellrider once more and he would “die a proud man if [he] were to die this day”… but that rings as terribly hollow given where we left him. Last we were together, Zevlor was saying in no uncertain terms that he could not be trusted, he would fail again, he was unworthy of forgiveness. Where did this change of heart come from? It makes perfect sense that he would help Tav in this moment—he begs to be of some use after getting free—but not that he would present himself with such confidence. Within the story as it’s been told this feels… fake. Like Zevlor is putting on a mask to fit the mood of this lively, optimistic party. Which, in turn, gives the “I would die a proud man” line a terrifying implication to me. Does Zevlor expect to die this day? Does he intend to? What would persuade him not to lay down his life here and now? His mission is complete. The tieflings are safe—though not by his hand. There's no hero's welcome waiting for him after this battle. They hate him. He hates himself, and by his own admission the one thing that could still make him proud would be to die at Tav’s side, trying to do one last bit of good. If someone said that to me after everything Zevlor has been through I would keep them far away from the front lines.

(I did, for the record lol.)

I’m not saying anything new then when I go, “Larian, PLEASE add more to his story.” Give us a Zevlor side-quest to renew his oath. Let us invite him to our camp. Something to link the broken man mid-game and the confident fighter at the end so that the latter doesn’t feel like an alarm bell with two legs and a tail. I mean yeah, I get hooked on minor characters so 75% of this is simply me wanting more content of a fave, but I also I do legitimately believe that BG3’s story would benefit from tying up loose ends like this.

Zevlor is a fantastic character, someone who contains an astounding amount of complexity for so little screen time. You have to follow up on that complexity though. If he’s meant to be a purely tragic figure, okay, fine, that’s the ending you get with Orin. But one where he joins you with a smile and reclaims a title he's previously rejected with such fervor requires more work in the middle; a through-line that explains how someone with so much self-loathing learns to think of himself as the hero again.

Because it does all come down to Zevlor’s perception of himself. He was always a hero, flaws and all. He always was and always will be a Hellrider.

The UI knows what's up :)

[oc-challenges]

WELCOME TO OC HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE 2O24!

SMILE because it's time for the annual oc halloween challenge! We will see the evil, hear the evil, and speak the evil with these spooky challenges brought to you by @aliverse, @astarionbae, @endless-oc-creations, and @come-along-pond!

If this is your first time, here's the lowdown; This is an event that takes place over the 31 days of October and presents oc creators with Halloween-themed challenges to encourage creativity, foster community, and have fun! Some of these have guidelines/suggestions, but this is very much a free-for-all so you can ignore them if they don't fit with your interpretations.

RULES

DO NOT copy others edits.

If you are doing crossovers, PLEASE make sure that the creator of the other oc is okay with crossovers.

If you want your post to be reblogged onto this blog, it must contain the hashtag ohc2024.

Feel free to ask questions, I promise I’m more treat than trick.

Everything is up to the creators interpretation, although I have tried to include some examples for help!

Have fun!

Day One: Godly Parent

Whether Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, or any other; What "God" could have created your oc?

Day Two: Mystical Communication

There are tons of ways we think we can communicate with those beyond our realm such as Tarot Cards, Oujia Boards, Prayer, EMFs, or even through other people with otherworldly powers. Which method would your oc use? Or maybe they are the communication tool?

Day Three: Merch/Memorabilia

When we really love something, we want a piece of it with us. What merch would people buy of your ocs? Ex. Dolls (like funkos or Barbie crossovers), Clothes (like shirts or sweatshirts), Buttons/Patches, Dishware (like cups or plates), trading cards, posters, or even spin-off books of the show they star in.

Day Four: If They Were Canon AU

You could create an actor oc who plays your character or even make edits about how you think your ocs faceclaim would promote/interpret their character and get along with fellow cast members.

Day Five: Social Media AU

Within their canon, what would your ocs Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, and/or YouTube look like?

Day Six: Role Swap AU

Give your oc a role in their story that is different than the one they already have. Whether this is making a hero a villain or vice versa, your victim a survivor or vice versa, or anything else you can think of.

Day Seven: Butterfly Effect

One choice could change the trajectory of our lives or any game we play. Show us the effects of your oc making the wrong choice when they originally made the right choice, befriending someone they originally hated, or even just missing their alarm.

Day Eight: Multiverse

Maybe you have multiple ocs with the same faceclaim, maybe you have a friend(s) who have ocs with the same faceclaim that you've wanted to do a crossover with, or maybe you want your oc to meet some of the actual characters their faceclaim has played. No matter what it is, it's time for your ocs to meet their multiverse counterparts!

Day Nine: Literature AU

Put your oc into an alternate universe based off a book you enjoy whether it be a classic or a newer one, no matter the genre.

Day Ten: Dungeons & Dragons AU

Have your ocs play DND, make an au based off a classic DND campaign, or just tell us the stats of your oc in DND terms.

Day Eleven: Ghost AU

Sometimes when we die, we don't leave. Tell us the unfinished business that keeps your ocs ghost on Earth, who your oc would haunt, how they would haunt, or anything else related to your oc being a ghost!

Day Twelve: Supernatural AU

Make your human oc a supernatural creature or your supernatural oc a different supernatural character.

Day Thirteen: Video Game AU

Show us some of what your story would look like as a video game or put your ocs into your favorite game.

Day Fourteen: Musical AU

The doctor said I couldn't talk, he didn't say I couldn't siiinnnggg! Put your oc into your favorite musical such as Hamilton or Mean Girls, or come up with some original lyrics to show what you think your story would look like if it were written as a musical.

Day Fifteen: Nostalgia

Take the books, shows, or movies you enjoyed as a child and put your oc into them! Or, show us what your oc enjoyed as a child.

Day Sixteen: Fairytale AU

One of the most classics of classics. Make your oc a character in your favorite fairytale, whether you prefer the Grimm or Disney version, or make up a fairytale about your oc!

Day Seventeen: Being is Believing

For day seventeen, think about superstitions, urban legends, or folklore and either make your oc a part of them, make your oc experience them, or tell us which ones your oc believes.

Day Eighteen: Beloved Pet or Object Turned Human

It's not unusual for someone to grow an emotional attatchment to an animal or an inanimate object. What would your ocs beloved pet or object say if they turned human and could speak your ocs langauge?

Day Nineteen: Genre Switch

Whatever the genre of your story is, swap it with another one. Maybe your romance story is now a horror story, your comedy is now a tragedy, or your historical realism story is now future sci-fi.

Day Twenty: Darkest After Dawn

Things can go so right for so long and then suddenly so wrong. Show us what happens when something rains on your ocs parade, when a perfect day turns into a horrible night, or a dream vacation turns into a nightmare trap.

Day Twenty-One: Apocalypse AU

Put your oc into an alternate universe that's been thrust into an apocalypse whether that be because of zombies, aliens, radiation, or the Earth trying to reclaim its land.

Day Twenty-Two: Time Problems

Let's play with time for this challenge. Picture your story as if it has always taken place in a different time, throw your oc into a time loop, or have them somehow travel through time.

Day Twenty-Three: Horrorify A Song

Take your favorite Halloween song and tell it's story, or even take a perfectly innocent song and give it a horrifying meaning! Both using your ocs, obviously.

Day Twenty-Four: What's Your Favorite Scary Movie?

It wouldn't be Halloween without some good scary movies. Put your ocs into one of your favorite scary movies!

Day Twenty-Five: Horror Location

This is an easier throwback to one of the week long challenges we've done for this event. Make something that tells a horror story of your oc at a certain location such as a Hospital/Asylum, Summer Camp, Place of Worship, Cemetery/Tomb, House/Apartment, Hotel/Cabin, or Farm/Ranch.

Day Twenty-Six: Horror Subgenres

Another throwback to a week long challenge we've done for this event. Make something that tells a horror story of your oc within a horror subgenre such as extraterrestrial, apocalypse, monster, time loop, isolation, time loop, cult, doppleganger, or anything else you can think of.

Day Twenty-Seven: Horror Archetypes

Which horror character tropes do your ocs embody? The Final Girl or The Killer? The Accomplice or The Harmless Antagonist? The Harbinger or The Nonbeliever? The Comedic Relief or The Hysteric Annoyance?

Day Twenty-Eight: Solo Costume

Show us what your oc would dress up as for Halloween! Would they dress sexy? Scary? Lazy? Practical?

Day Twenty-Nine: Couples Costume

Show us what matching costume your oc and their love interest would wear! Peanut Butter & Jelly? Morticia & Gomez? Bert & Ernie?

Day Thirty: Group Costume

Show us what costumes your oc and their friend group would coordinate. Are they the Scooby Gang? The Wiggles? Mario Party Characters?

Day Thirty-One: Here's A Treat!

The Halloween potluck isn't happening this year but we still want to encourage interaction and giving. So, choose someone to give a treat! This could be an ask, an edit, some writing, or even a playlist.

[sabbathbloodysabbeth]

Ok so like I’m exhausted- and I just really need to get this idea off my chest.

But a streamer au. Obviously modern, where Steve can’t hear anything because he accidentally dropped his hearing aids in the toilet. (Something real goofy and stupid) and he’s friends with popular streamer Dustin Henderson (who plays all sorts of games) not only is Steve friends with him but he’s friends with a few other streamers. Though they all want to include Steve in on their Minecraft server, because they know that when he has his hearing back he’ll be on there all the time talking to them. That and he also enjoys building things with Robin and just wander around the world. So they all get this server set up and start streaming. Some newer streamers join as well that Steve doesn’t know but the others know, and Steve has quickly become a fan favorite.

They are roleplaying a DnD campaign in Minecraft, when Steve’s character just pops out of no where doing the randomest things, at this point he even has lore. He’s a mute character who can only talk through messages. Everyone just loves Steve. He’s made numerous friends, and has helped build a lot of things. And no one in chat as ever seen or heard him. Though he is always in Eddie Munson’s streams constantly. Eddie is a older streamer, but wasn’t in on the fact that Steve can hear he just needs hearing aids. So when Steve explains he’s mostly deaf he just goes on about his day like normal. Though now typing book length messages to Steve. (Every streamer can see these messages, Eddie enjoys talking there so his chat can see what Steve’s saying and it’s easier to read off the same screen instead of having to constantly switch to discord) at this point Steve and Eddie are thick as thief’s.

Eddie’s the chaotic one and Steve is the tame one, and their videos together are hilarious. Though when Steve finally gets his hearing aids he’s excited to finally be able to talk to his new friend. He clicks in and joins the voice chat where you can only hear each other when you are actually close to each other in game. (Proximity) so when Eddie comes on and finds Steve he’s talking to his chat, not really caring about muting his mic because Steve can’t hear it. And he doesn’t stream.

And Steve his beaming and happy because he can finally hear Eddie’s voice. His hearing aids are a lot better then the last ones and he isn’t as muffled anymore. He stays silent, because he’s shy. And he tags along with Eddie. Who’s now changing his skin back and forth and talking to chat still. Steve hasn’t said anything. He’s waiting.

“Alright fine fine, I’ll ask Steve if he likes the maid out fit or the bunny suit.” Is heard right before aggressive typing begins.

Steve answers without thinking, and sounds really soft. “Maid Outfit.”

And his first words spoken to Eddie are maid outfit. And the timing is hilarious because he’s pretty sure Eddie has flat lined.

“Also, meant to ask why are our beds pushed together?” Steve asks.

Just I want a really cute au like this. And not weird.

Or instead of the maid outfit, chat is telling Eddie to give Steve his daily kiss. (It’s not he just moves forward and hits Steve’s Minecraft character) which has always confused steve until he hears. “Fine daily smooch for the Stevie boo” (Eddie has given him nicknames?) and just smacks Steve’s character making him loose a heart.

“Ow. That’s why you keep hitting me? For kisses? Eddie I gave you cake, we share a house together and you decided smacking my character upside the head was the equivalent to kissing? You could have just given me flowers dude!”

(Like all of the possibilities are endless)

[iandoubt]

what if… dnd au but instead of them being heroes and adventures within the dnd universe, they are just a bunch of nerds playing tabletops rpgs together?

like, Tango is the dm who has spent forever crafting the perfect home brew campaign and is determined to make it the most amazing campaign any of them have ever been part of. He’s got the custom maps and characters figures and costumes and voices and one session he even brings in a fog machine for ambience. He’s like the perfect dm to a bunch of perfectly terrible players who will only encourage each others worst dnd habits.

Etho is the one whose been playing dnd since, like, edition 1, and who shows up to the first session of the campaign and starts describing his character and someone’s like “are you playing kakashi from naruto?” And Etho’s like “oh is that who this is? I just found it premade online and thought it sounded cool” and he’s got the emo backstory and looks real cool but is in reality not actually that good of a character and whoever made it horribly messed up the stat distribution but for some reason he always avoids death and it stuck with the underpowered not-kakashi for forever.

Joel is the murder hobo (it’s a dnd term guys trust) who tries to kill everything who also renames all his spells and weapons on dnd beyond to really silly things and then forgets what they were originally and needs someone to translate for him. He will always make sure things get out of hand, accidentally starting cults, making sure the party is always at least mildly morally gray, killing people left and right, aggressively shipping his character with other peoples jus because. He is the embodiment of chaotic neutral. (He says he is chaotic evil in the life series but I think he is more chaotic neutral because chaotic evil will cause chaos for the sake of evil and chaotic neutral will cause evil for the sake of chaos)

Bdubs is the one constantly trying to befriend everything, who also unnecessarily narrates everything he is doing (ex. “I Am RAISING my EYEBROWS at you!!!!”) and he has a million pets and always makes Tango explain what each one is doing at that moment every five seconds and is constantly yelling at Joel for killing everything while Joel is always yelling at him for befriending everything. He will argue that the dice are rigged if he rolls badly and 100% has one of those dice time out chairs and will be extremely superstitious about which dice he uses.

Jimmy is the one who keeps having really great ideas but really terrible luck with the dice rolls, and always manages to stumble into traps. He’s also the only one trying to actually follow the rules and remain completely in character, like everyone’s like “oh it’s probably over here!” And Jimmy’d be like “yeah WE know that but guys our characters wouldn’t!!!!!!!!” And he’s like the perfect player in terms of how nice and easy he makes it for Tango to dm but is terrible at the actual gameplay. He will loudly boast to the enemy that they are about to “get WRECKED, FOOLS!” And pulls out a spell that should kill them instantly if he rolls anything but a nat 1, and guess what he rolls lol.

Scar is the one whose character dies first session and he just picks up a pen, writes “jr” next to the character name, and shouts “I’ve come to avenge my father!” he’d also name his character something like “Hotstuff McSexyman” (if Joel doesn’t take that name first) but actually be surprisingly wholesome and moral, if kinda bad at combat. Extremely oblivious as a player, Tango has to spell out the answer for each puzzle and he will kill an ally genuinely thinking that it’s an enemy.

Grian is the one playing a firmly non-human character who has just the most normal guy core backstory, like “yeah I’m Clarence, I’m 45 with a wife and kids and I’m going on this adventure to celebrate my retirement.” But he’s like a lizard guy or something

Gem is the one who makes a really nice and sweet and normal dnd character and then combat starts and she takes out a magical great sword powerful enough to one shot the BBEG (it stands for big bad evil guy and it’s real dnd term. Gotta love nerd culture) and rolls a nat 20. She is also the only reliably sane one here (Grian goes about managing his sanity like he does shifts at the permit office, and Etho is sane but his character turns out actually to be pretty ineffective at, like, everything so there’s not much he can do except have the privilege of being driven insane rather than already being so. Everyone else is a maniac, some just their characters but not in real life, some are just as crazy “irl” [as in within the au] as their characters)

there is a lot more that could be done with this and a bunch of other people to include these are just the initial thoughts I had.

[stormyelliotwritez]

hehehehheehehehehehehehe yes

FRUITY FOUR WITH FTM!READER S/O’s

I love this so so much and I’m so obsessed with these

Steve with a ftm!s/o

He has no idea what you’re talking about at the start

After talking to Eddie and looking up some stuff, he goes full on mama bear like he finds safe ways for you to bind and he pulls you out of situations that make you dysphoric

He gives you his clothes and not just ones he doesn’t want. This man gives you full access to his wardrobe and he doesn’t even get annoyed when you steal stuff for ages

He spreads rumors about people who are transphobic to you and makes them stop and he acts clueless when you bring it up

He makes sure to affirm you all the time by calling you male oriented pet names like handsome and pretty boy

He’s such a sweet boyfriend and he’ll cook dinner when you’re feeling down and let you stay over whenever you want

He makes an effort to not stare at your boobs when you’re having a non-binding day though sometimes he does but he assures you that you’re a guy in his eyes

He’s very touchy and he’s always attached to you and whispering sweet nothings in your ear that normally involve stuff like you’re such a strong man and you’re the hottest guy I know

Nancy with a ftm!s/o

She doesn’t even notice at first and when you bring it up, she nods and then keeps working on whatever she was working on

After you go home, she does a whole bunch of research or at least as much as you can do in the 80’s and writes down how she can be most helpful

She gets Jonathan to help her find you guy clothes and she gives them to you and said that she was just thinking of you as if she wasn’t obsessing over helping you for ages

She gets so worked up over helping you but won’t show it

She’s good at comforting when people make you feel like an outcast (coz of the whole slut era)

She calls you your preferred name like all the time and doesn’t use pet names much

She invites the guys over to hang out a bunch because she wants you to feel comfortable as a guy and she tells Mike he can go to you for guy problems

Robin with a ftm!platonic s/o

Shes always near you and she deathstares people who think either of you are weird

She rambles a lot about how cool of a guy you are and how you’re an even cooler guy than Steve sometimes which is saying something

She didn’t even blink when you told her and then she was immediately like I’m a lesbian and I thought you were a hot girl and now you’re a cool guy and she rambles for a bit

She helps you cut your hair if you hadn’t already because she cuts her own and so she knows what she’s doing

She steals your clothes like all the time and gives you her mascish ones to borrow

She wants to introduce you to the guys now that you know you’re a guy and she loves seeing how happy you get

She rambles when you feel dysphoric and bleh so that you can take your mind off it

Eddie with a ftm!s/o

He blinks twice like a cat when you tell him and then immediately starts calling you a guy and his boyfriend if you’re already dating

He lets you borrow his clothes and especially his vest and he takes you shopping

He gets you to play dnd and he makes you the most masculine character ever like muscles and he’s a rogue or something

He invites you to his gigs and says sappy shit like this song is dedicated to my handsome fucking boyfriend

He’s so so so touchy and reaffirms like all of you. he’ll say stuff like your jaw is so so masculine and you have such strong shoulders and hands bigger than his and hes so touchy and runs his hands all over you

He rants at people whenever they act shitty towards you and makes sure all the attention is on him

He’s such a good boyfriend and he doesn’t always understand why you feel dysphoric and bleh coz he thinks you’re the hottest guy alive but he tries his hardest to understand for you

[theresattrpgforthat]

Heya! I was wondering if you had any recommendations for ttrpgs that are easy to teach the basic rules of in ~10 mins and good for running one offs!

I work with an organization that runs dnd games at conventions and breweries and we've been trying to branch out from DnD lately, but unfortunately since so many people know how to play 5e already it's the easiest to just keep using that.

THEME: Easy To Teach

Hello there, I totally sympathize with you on this! I’m first going to direct you to my First-Time GMs post just to take a look at some of the games I’ve listed there. I definitely recommend Pugmire and Visigoths vs. Mall Goths as the top two from that list. I’m also going to stick to games I’ve personally played before. I'm also going to @gayandtrashy because they asked a very similar question.

Enjoy!

The Vampire Next Door, by Cat Elm.

It's the late 2000s, school's out for summer, and you're headed out of town to stay with your grandparents in the idyllic Yorkshire village of Wymton-on-Tee. Your summer plans include exploring the countryside, and most importantly enjoying Grampy's famous chocolate chip cookies…. except that you're pretty sure that Vladimir Alucard, Grommy and Grampy's new neighbour is an evil bloodsucking vampire.

And none of the adults will believe you.

The Vampire Next Door is a roleplaying game for 3-7 players, intended for single-session or short form play. It's an homage to classic shows like Scooby Doo, Mona the Vampire, and Gravity Falls, where it's down to the kids to be smarter than the adults and save the day.

I’ve played this game with a first-time GM, and it was fantastic. The GM had an outline of the village that she could use to reference when the players wanted to go somewhere new, and the rules were very easy to understand - 4 stats, 4 dice attached to them, and 3 levels of difficulty. The goal is to acquire 4 pieces of evidence indicating that Vlad is a vampire, so once your kids have the evidence, it’s just a quick ending narration scene and you’re done! (If you want a shorter game though, I’d recommend reducing the evidence required to 3 pieces instead.)

Kids on Bikes, by Hunters Entertaiment.

Kids on Bikes is a Collaborative World Building RPG set in small towns with big mysteries. It is a rules-light storytelling system that gets players into the action fast. Kids on Bikes takes place in a more mysterious time, where anything and everything could happen. 

I’ve run a hack of Kids on Bikes for friends before, most of which hadn’t played much outside of D&D prior to playing. The tropes that are present in Kids on Bikes streamline character creation, because each trope presents you with dice already assigned to stats, and recommendations for strengths and flaws. Worldbuilding can be done by the GM or collaboratively depending on what the group is more comfortable with. The GM is presented with a a Difficulty chart that they can reference to determine how difficult its is to do something. If you have a larger dice, you’re more likely to succeed, but players also have resources such as adversity tokens, which can be spent to add bonuses, ignore the effects of fear, or activate special abilities attached to each character.

The best thing about Kids on Bikes is that once you’re comfortable with the system, you can branch out into the other games that use the same rules! This includes games such as Teens in Space, a game about science-fantasy exploration, or Kids on Brooms, a game about magic schools.

Cats of Catthulu, by Joel Sparks.

In Cats of Catthulhu, players take on the roles of a variety of ordinary-seeming cats fighting conspiracies of cosmic chaos. Mighty spirits such as Snarlyathotep, slimy Phatphroggua, and Hastpurr of the Yellow Eye inspire their cultists to destroy civilization-but that’s where all the comfy furniture is! One person acts as the Cat Herder, arranging the secret plots, challenges, and rewards and guiding the others through the process of making an adventure. Rules are light and quick, emphasizing player cleverness and the fun of being feline. There’s plenty of darkness and chaos in the world, but our fuzzy heroes can handle it!… Usually.

This is another game I’ve run for new players before! The game mentions special d6’s with cat dice on them, but you can honestly use any old d6. There is a short, defined list of character options with helpful charts to give your players some inspiration. To do something, you’ll roll 2d6. You’ll want to get at least one Success on your dice, although in some situations you might need 2 successes to get what you want. If you are the Right Cat for the Job, then the task is easier for you, and if you have a Treat that you can spend, you might even get to re-roll!

This game is cute, humorous, and excellent for short games, although there’s definitely room for longer stories if there’s interest.

Spectaculars, by Scratchpad Publishing.

Spectaculars is a tabletop roleplaying game where players create their own comic book universe, craft heroes and villains to populate that universe, and then play through full-length campaigns to tell incredible stories of heroism and villainy in a world of their own creation. This box set game gives a gaming group everything they need to play the game, and to create their own consistent campaign that spans multiple comic book genres.

Through play, each copy of Spectaculars evolves into its own unique comic book universe; in essence, the players create, through play, a rich backdrop against which their heroes and villains clash. The nature of the setting is determined by the players. Spectaculars makes it easy to create a fully fleshed-out setting, guiding you the process of creating the setting’s major elements at the time they come into play.

This is another game that I’ve seen a new GM pick up with excitement - and continue to run! This is a superhero game that takes a lot of inspiration from recognized superhero media, so it’s great for folks who are looking to emulate what they’ve seen on television. This is a really big game, with a lot of tools to help the GM run the game - including adventures with plenty of places to slot in thematically relevant villains and obstacles. There’s also plenty of collaborative world-building, giving the players a say in what they want to see, while also taking the burden off of the GM.

The physical copy is also really good at making you excited to play. It comes with tokens, dice, character pads, and plenty of GM tools and toys!

If you’re interested in a similar game that uses the same system but takes place in a fantasy city of crime, then check out Dusk City Outlaws, which is by same publisher!

External Containment Bureau, by Mythic Gazetteer.

External Containment Bureau is a game of paranormal investigation and bureaucracy using a lightweight, hackable version of the Forged in the Dark design framework. You play as trained agents of the External Containment Bureau, an organization tasked with the study, identification, and containment of paranormal phenomena. The Bureau authorizes agents to make use of these phenomena to give yourself incredible powers (so long as the proper forms are in order). But take care: using paranormal energies inches you ever closer to joining the ranks of the paranormal yourself. Will you transcend humanity in the line of duty? Play to find out.

External Contaiment Bureau is great for fans of SCP or Control, and is also a sleek, simple introduction to the world of Forged in the Dark games. Your players will add dice to their pool from a list of resources on their sheet, whether that be from their background as paranormal academic, or their special weapon commissioned from R&D. It simplifies the Controlled, Risky, Desperate pool from Blades in the Dark, and also imports the Mystery Clock from games like Brindlewood Bay and The Between, which also have a good reputation for being beginner-friendly. There are also a number of adventures available for new GMs to run, such as the Sidhe Conservancy of Portland, which pits you against the Fae, or Checking Out, which places you in a hotel that slowly erases your memory.

Other Posts to Check Out

Top 5 TTRPGs for Beginners

Introductory Games

First Time GMs (repeat of the first link at the top)

Some Final Advice

If you have any regular GM’s who you’re hoping to introduce to new games, find out what pieces of media they really like. Then go hunting for games that fit that description. When it comes to picking up a new game, nothing is more motivating then finding out there’s a story you want to tell, regardless of whether or not it means learning a new system.

One of my friends started running a Pokemon campaign because he loves the games so dang much - and he’s got a dedicated party of players! Another friend found Mausritter and got really excited because he just loved the idea of playing tiny mice on adventures. A third friend is starting to determine if she wants to hack the Cypher System to make it work for Horizon Zero Dawn. If I can compare popular pieces of media to the games that I want to run, I get folks signing up in droves - I’ve advertised Studio Ghibli, Star Wars, Really Gay Teenagers, and Bloodborne to great effect.

[heartstringsduet]

Happy Sunday <3 I tried to catch up with your snippets on vacation and I will once again be on vacation next week but I will tide you all over with some sentences for the 'make me write' in the meantime. Anyway... Thanks for the tags @ironheartwriter @carlos-in-glasses @orchidscript @lemonlyman-dotcom @strandnreyes @ladytessa74

TK nods and twists his fingers in his sweatpants, embarrassment rising up in the aftermath. “I’m sure you heard of Dalton’s glee club?”

“The Warblers? I’m pretty sure it’s impossible not to,” Carlos replies with a soft laugh. “How often can I expect them to burst into songs in the middle of P.E.?”

TK rolls his eyes with a smile. “At least once a month they will try out a song for the upcoming competition and then change their mind last minute before the actual performance. You get used to it.” He doesn’t add that he is the reason this happened the last two times after midnight impulse gave him a eureka moment that another song would be better or a performance needed a different choreography.

“And everyone cheers them on here or was that a one time thing because they performed a school favorite?” Carlos asks.

“Nope, this is pretty much as far as you could get from most high schools. Glee club is basically the rock star status here. But then again DND and fantasy football clubs are cool, sports are cool…every club is cool at Dalton. The Warblers are the table you want to sit at most though,” TK adds, back to his mission of convincing Carlos.

“Which club are you a part of?”

TK feels his smile flicker as his heart sinks. This is a truth he stumbles over. “I used to ohh-and-ahh for The Warblers my first two years here. And play in the Lacrosse team. Now I’m one of those odd clubless people haunting the school cafeteria.” He hopes the smile he puts on is convincing. “But it gives me more time to coach you. If you want me, that is.”

OPEN TAG &

@emsprovisions @tellmegoodbye @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut

@birdclowns @welcometololaland @rmd-writes @whatsintheboxmh

@paperstorm @eclectic-sassycoweyes @carlos-tk

@nancys-braids @pimento-playing-hopscotch @decafdino

@reyesstrand @never-blooms @freneticfloetry

@chicgeekgirl89 @honeybee-taskforce @sanjuwrites

@liminalmemories21 @alrightbuckaroo @sapphic--kiwi

[trustross2]

Thinking more (spoilers for dungeon meshi manga).

Fuck, what a literally perfect execution of a “devil” in fiction. Like I thoroughly enjoyed the way Kui played with western fantasy tropes in order to ground them in reality and make them ecologically feasible. Stuff like the dragons using everything they can’t digest as food, or the succubi functioning as mosquitos. Plus the Monty python rabbit bit caught me way off guard in the best way!

But MAN, the demon were just *chefs kiss*. I play a lot of dnd, and absolutely adore monsters that can play with the mind of a player. Yeah sure a big demon getting summoned can hurt a lot of people, but the mind games you that are played when you are dealing with these hyper intelligent, hyper persuasive types of devils who desire something less gruesome, but more horrific than just endless blood and death.

A few things that I loved in the character of the winged lion. First is that it had contingencies out the ass, it had a contingency for when it first got sealed by thistle. It initially set its eyes on laios and began to worm into his mind, setting the seeds for a greater desire than to just save his sister, which wouldn’t help the demon much. Then, noticing this weak link in marcille, it decided to invest a bit of time in exploring that option too. Then even when that FAILs the demon is like “actually laios you were who I wanted all long!” Like this dude had PLANS, and that’s exactly how a hyper intelligent, essentially immortal, ageless creature has to function.

I also enjoyed the sheer amount of gaslighting homeboy did, alongside the other indirect methods of harming the dungeon master. It’s not too dissimilar to the parasites, but on one’s mind, overwhelming it with knowledge IT can handle, but KNOWS you can’t. Toying with its victims sense of truth, attempting to distort every fact around it to make IT seems like the most reasonable, well meaning one. And to a certain extent it IS until it eats you.

And probably the most important lie is that it can’t harm you or control you, which it can’t literally. But it is a hyper-dimensional creature older than time and you are a regular guy. So believing that is stupid! Especially when you consider its ability to eat Desires, simultaneously it’s raison d’être but one of its most powerful abilities. The way it can make you forget essentially anything it doesn’t want you to remember. A force so powerful that ability is it’s undoing in the end.

All this to say that the manga is really fuckin good honestly. It’s funny that I ran a similar creature in dnd recently, but I’m gonna be remembering this next time I do. Because probably the most clever thing that I wanna steal is how it pretends to be a good thing, setting up the slaying of ITS obstacles as good and righteous.

[thestobingirlie]

re: that compromise ask (diff anon but heyyy right there with u) i was literally JUST thinking abt smth similar, about how esp in future/reunion fics, it’s always steve crawling on his knees for forgiveness for how he used to be, and eddie like. heaving a big sigh and “going back on his principles” or whatever to forgive steve. and steve like having to prove he’s better now or whatever which like. fine sure yeah steve was a high school bully. he threw slurs around and he definitely objectified women (although come on it’s high school social strata everyone was objectifying everyone, ain’t none of those babies had enough brain cells yet to see other people as people, that’s just being fucking 16) and he was a bitch, not arguing there.

but like 1) he was fully a child, he was literally a teenager, mike is an asshole too and no one is arguing he can’t possibly grow up or be redeemed, or that he needs to repent to earn love? like it’s one thing in canon era fics where they’re all still growing up, but i haaaaate in future fics when steve is a whole grown ass adult man still expected to grovel for the sins of being 17,

and 2) canonically eddie is the judgmental one??? i mean steve literally apologized and made amends on screen but if that’s not enough look at just purely going off the way the kids interact with them! they’re completely comfortable with steve. yeah he rolls his eyes and huffs and complains about their “nerd shit” but he still drives them to dnd nights! he still does that lame ass handshake with dustin! he still listens to all the stuff they ramble about, and you know he does it every time even when we don’t see it on screen, because they’re totally comfortable doing it! no doubt, no question steve will listen and support them, even when he doesn’t understand. dustin comes to scoops knowing without a doubt that steve will drop everything to listen to him talk about camp, and be excited about it! steve doesn’t give a shit about science camp, but dustin does, and that’s enough for him! yeah dustin is excited to talk about suzie, because girls are common ground with steve, but steve doesn’t know he met suzie when he takes his break, he just wants to hear about how dustin’s nerd stuff was going! he doesn’t have to understand or relate, he just wants them to do the stuff that makes them happy, and they know that. they trust him to listen even if he doesn’t get it

but the way mike and dustin were so nervous to ask eddie to postpone hellfire, even after months of knowing him, shows that they don’t trust him to let them have interests outside of his understanding. and they shouldn’t! he’s proven that he veered so hard into “nonconformity” he just reinforced the same social boundaries he claims to hate. everything with eddie is “us v them,” and like! i get it! i think it’s a complicated dichotomy and makes for an interesting character! i’m an eddie stan first and a person second ok listen i love the man. but if anyone needs to beg on their knees for forgiveness for being a dick in high school, it’s the guy who ruined BOTH of lucas’ favorite activities in one fell swoop by projecting his own insecurities and fake social rivalry onto a literal child. (i’m still so mad he managed to force lucas to miss the campaign finale he’d worked so hard for AND made sure that none of his friends or family were there to watch him play basketball all at once i’m never over it. i’m frothing at the mouth. apologize to lucas or meet my blade)

but there’s this trend where people are like “oh man eddie’s such a good person for looking past king steve and loving steve anyway! he’s rehabbing the jock! he’s fixing him!” fuck you. fix your damn self. the duffers’ childish ass hatred of “non nerds” is sooooo pervasive in this fandom it’s so gross.

oh my god, this is just beautiful. i literally couldn’t put it any better.

i wish we had gotten to see eddie repent for what he did to lucas, because honestly, i still hold it against him.

what’s especially funny to me about it is that steve’s sins (in s4) were over two years ago, eddie’s were last week lmao. like, one of them needs to go around apologising and it’s not steve.

but yeah! the kids have an ease around steve that they don’t around eddie. classic example: all the kids go to steve in s3, not even pretending to be polite or actually ask, and just pound on the bell until he comes to let them through the back of scoops to watch a movie. they don’t worry about his reaction. steve could literally get fired doing this, but they know he’s going to do it, and feel so comfortable that he won’t have a bad reaction, that there isn’t any hesitation.

when asking eddie to postpone a game, mike and dustin are shaking in their little boots. they’re flinching and looking away, and trying not to actually ask. those aren’t kids in the presence of someone comforting!! this isn’t a guy they would think deserves steve begging on his knees. if eddie was being a prick about steve’s past for no reason other than to hold some moral superiority over him, the kids would get pissed off.

if anyone is getting rehabilitated in their relationship, it’s eddie, not steve!! because being a jock isn’t inherently bad, and being a nerd isn’t inherently good, no matter what the duffers may be trying to tell you.

[storiesforallfandoms]

this is music ~ eddie munson;stranger things

word count: 2982

request?: yes!

“Hi! I love your writing so much and i was wondering if you write for Eddie Munson? if you don’t feel free to ignore this! If you do, I was wondering if you could write something with Eddie x male reader? Maybe where Eddie finds out that reader is a huge fan of Metallica and he gets super happy bc he didn’t know reader was into metal music? I know this is a super dumb idea, but I’ve been a huge fan of Metallica for as long as I can remember, and I was so happy when I first saw the clip of him playing master of puppets :D”

description: in which his love of heavy metal brings him closer to the school freak; not that he minds at all

pairing: eddie munson x male!reader

warnings: swearing, mentions of bullying and homophobia, use of y/n

masterlist (one, two, three)

There are a few pluses to being an outcast. The big one is that all the outcasts sat at the same lunch table, so that saved you from the embarrassment of trying to find a table, or from having to eat in the bathroom like the loser you were.

The first time you sat at the table was during your freshman year. You were desperately searching for somewhere to sit in the busy cafeteria when an older boy with long, dark hair suddenly appeared at your side. You jumped as he said, “Come with me, fresh meat.”

It wasn’t exactly a welcoming comment, but what else were you to do? So, you followed him through the crowd of students. It was hard not to notice the glares and looks of disgust from the popular tables. You weren’t sure if they were directed towards you or the boy walking ahead of you. Probably both.

He brought you to a table with five other students. You realized as you approached that they were all wearing the same shirts; white with black sleeves, and an angry red devil on the front with the words “Hellfire Club” written above it. You had a sudden pang of panic thinking this was some high school cult trying to induct you.

The boy sat down at the head of the table and gestured for you to join them. You tried to decline the offer, but your words came out stuttered and unintelligible.

The long hair boy rolled his eyes and said, “We don’t bite. We’re a DND club, and school loser lunch table. You’re free to sit with us whenever you want, and it definitely seemed like you needed somewhere.”

You managed to stutter out, “I-I don’t play DND.”

“That’s fine, we don’t need new members. You can just sit. We won’t even talk to you if you don’t want us to.”

What other options did you have? Glancing around the room, you saw that every other table was already taken by cliques and established friend groups. You knew you shouldn’t pass up this opportunity, so you didn’t. You sat at the far end of the table and silently ate your food. The rest of the group talked amongst themselves, keeping to their promise of not talking to you if you didn’t want them to.

When lunch ended, you collected your tray and started to leave. You noticed the long hair boy walking in the same direction and fell back to talk to him.

“Thank you,” you said. “For letting me sit with you guys, I mean.”

“No worries, man. Like I said, you’re welcome to sit with us any time. High school is a dog eat dog world. Us dogs gotta stick together.” He bumped your shoulder before adding, “I’m Eddie, by the way.”

“(Y/N).”

That was a little over a year ago. You were now early into your sophomore year, and you still sat at Eddie’s table. The agreement of not talking to you still stood even all that time later. The guys would greet you when you sat down, but that would be the extent of your conversations. At first, you’d eat with your head down and just listen to what they were talking about, but for your birthday your family had gotten you a Walkman, so you started bringing that to school with you to listen to music during lunch.

Eddie would say hello to you if he saw you outside of the lunch room, too. He was very friendly, but you wouldn’t say the two of you were actually friends. Not that you didn’t want to be friends. In your full year at Hawkins High, you hadn’t made any friends. You weren’t into sports, and you had no desire to join any after school groups. You didn’t talk to anyone outside of the brief words exchanged with the Hellfire Club during lunch. You kept to yourself and, as much as you would like to be friends with Eddie, you were too scared to let him in after what had happened in your last school.

You were walking to your lunch table with your lunch tray in hand, the same as every day. It was the day of a school basketball game, so all the jocks were extra rowdy; being loud and running amuck of the cafeteria. You were trying to get to your lunch table without incident when a jock backed into you, bumping you so hard it knocked over your drink. You were able to grab it before it spilled all over you or onto the floor. You mumbled an apology even though it wasn’t your fault, but you knew it would likely be the best reaction to get you out of the situation.

Unfortunately, you were wrong.

“Watch where you’re going, loser,” the jock hissed. You mumbled another apology, but it still wasn’t enough as he roughly shoved you. You stumbled and managed to stop your tray from falling, but your Walkman, which was in your pocket and the headphones were around your neck, fell to the ground. “What’s this?”

You tried to grab it before he did, but you were too slow. He snatched your Walkman from the ground and held the headphones up to his ear. Heat was rising in your neck and you felt sweat forming on your forehead and under your arms. A nasty smile stretched across his face as he heard the music you had been listening to.

“Hey Jason, listen to this.”

He threw the Walkman over your head towards another basketball player. You tried to reach for it, but you were still trying to hold your tray as well. The next jock put your headphones on to hear your still playing music. His mouth opened in shock. “Who knew the quiet kid was into such heavy music?”

He then tossed it to the next jock. You watched helplessly as they threw around what you considered to be your prize possession, listening to the music that brought you comfort and mocking you for it. You felt tears stinging your eyes.

Suddenly, as one jock was tossing the Walkman to another, another hand shot out to grab it. Eddie Munson was glaring daggers at the basketball team and he held your Walkman. The jocks didn’t seem particularly intimidated by him. If anything, they were amused by his act of heroism.

“Awe, is the freak stepping in to save his little loser underling?” the first jock teased.

“You guys must really have sad lives if all that brings you joy is a game about throwing balls into laundry baskets and bullying people who did nothing to you,” Eddie said. “Almost makes me feel sympathy about the fact that you’ll all peak in high school and be bald by 30.”

One of the jocks tried to advance on Eddie and you felt yourself holding your breath. The last thing you wanted was for Eddie to get his ass kicked because of you. But, Eddie wasn’t afraid. He held up his index finger and waved it back and forth before pointing towards the lunch room supervisor, one of the school’s teachers. She had mostly been ignoring the bullying that was happening to you, as teachers in Hawkins High famously did, but suddenly she was zeroed in on what was going on between Eddie and the jocks.

“You can hit me all you want, but it’ll mean you won’t play in the game tonight,” Eddie said. “And I’m sure your coach would be so happy to hear that one of his players got detention the day of the game.”

The jock huffed at Eddie before turning to his teammates and motioning for them to go back to their table. You were still stood, frozen, unshed tears welling in your eyes that you were desperately trying to blink away. Eddie walked over to you and held your Walkman out to you.

“Hey man, you’re okay now,” he said, his voice soft.

You nodded and reached for your Walkman. Eddie thought you had a grasp on it before you actually did, and ended up dropping the device on the floor again. You winced as it landed with a loud crash, and popped open with the cassette sliding out of it. The both of you were quick to kneel down for the device, but Eddie reached it first. He was profusely apologizing when he took hold of the cassette and saw what it was you had been listening to.

“Whoa,” he said. “You listen to Metallica?”

You shrugged, suddenly feeling embarrassed again. Was he going to make fun of you the way the jocks had? You really could not handle it if he did.

“I love Metallica!” he said, a goofy smile stretching across his face. “What’s your favorite song? Actually, wait, we should probably go sit down so you can eat before lunch is over. But you have to answer my question when we sit down.”

Eddie insisted that you sit next to him instead of at your isolated part of the table. Everyone seemed shocked by how animated Eddie had gotten with you, but he ignored them to talk to you. You were shocked when he managed to get you out of your shell for that short lunch period. At first you were sheepishly answering his questions, but soon enough you were feeling just as giddy and excited as he was talking about the topic. You were disappointed when the warning bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

“You should come to Hellfire after school,” Eddie said as you started to get up from the table.

“I thought you guys weren’t taking new members,” you said.

“Well, we’re not, but you can come watch if you’d be down for that. I can drive you home after and we can talk more about metal.”

A heat was rising in your cheeks again, but this time it wasn’t from embarrassment. You just nodded your head at Eddie, and he smiled another wide smile at you. He bumped your shoulder and said a quick, “See you then!” before going off towards the exit. You felt like you were floating as you went to dump your tray and make your way to your locker. You couldn’t believe how quickly things had changed with Eddie, all because of the music you listened to. If you had known this would be the topic that brought you closer together, you would’ve mentioned to him what you liked to listen to way earlier.

Suddenly, the thought made everything crash down around you. You remembered there was a reason you hadn’t wanted to get close to Eddie, a reason you had completely forgot about the entire time you spent talking to Eddie. As much as you had enjoyed getting to see this bubbly side of Eddie, and as much as you wanted to be his friend, you couldn’t. You couldn’t risk him finding out your secret and having him turn on you the way your last friend group had. You didn’t want to have to change schools again.

So, although you told Eddie you’d go to Hellfire after school, you made the decision that you actually wouldn’t. You’d slip out with the crowds of excited students who wanted to get home, and you wouldn’t have to face Eddie until lunch the next day where he would undoubtably hate you for standing him up. That’s how it had to be, no matter how much it hurt you.

But, things very rarely go as planned.

You were held back by one of your teachers to talk to you about an assignment you had nearly failed. You kept trying to insist that you understood where you went wrong and you’d do better for the next one, but he just kept talking and talking. By the time he had finally let you go, the hallways were mostly empty and the buses were getting ready to leave. You were annoyed by the fact that you’d have to walk home, but it was the only option now. You were scurrying to your locker, trying to get your things as quickly as possible before the Hellfire Club came down the hall.

You thought you were successful. You had your bag over your shoulder and your coat in your arms. You were making your way towards the school exit, almost to freedom, when a familiar voice called, “Hey, (Y/N)!”

You winced and turned back to see Eddie making his way towards you. You couldn’t just turn and ran out the doors. You were sure he wouldn’t follow you if you had. But, you stayed planted there, allowing him to reach you.

“Where are you going? I thought you were coming to Hellfire,” he said.

“Uh...something...came up,” you responded, lamely.

He didn’t seem upset or disappointed by your answer. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “That’s fine. Maybe you can come to the next one, then.”

“I...don’t think it’s a good idea for me to come,” you said. “I...we can’t be friends, Eddie.”

This is where Eddie’s face fell. “Oh...why?”

“I just...I can’t have friends.”

“Is that a weird religious thing? Are your parents, like, Mormon or something?”

“No, it’s not a thing with my parents. It’s a me thing. It’s a decision I made.”

“But why?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

You tried to leave again, but Eddie reached out to grab your arm. The second his hand touched you, it sent a fire through your whole body. You wanted him to keep touching you, and that was exactly why you couldn’t let him get close.

“(Y/N), what is going on?” he asked. “You’ve kept to yourself the entire time we’ve known you. You don’t talk to us, or to anyone. Today was the first time I’ve ever seen you so open and talkative, and now you’re suddenly saying you can’t have friends? What gives? Do you just...not like us or something?”

You shook your head. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

You felt tears welling in your eyes again. You pulled from Eddie’s grasp and declared, without thinking, “I can’t be your friend because I’m gay, and once you found that out you’d be disgusted with me, just like my old friends were.”

Eddie was silent. His face looked stunned, but otherwise you couldn’t read any other reaction. You backed away from him, ready to turn and run. You were mentally planning how to tell your parents that you’d have to switch schools again. You were just starting to...not like, but maybe tolerate Hawkins High.

“(Y/N),” Eddie finally said, “I’m gay, too.”

His confession stopped you dead in your tracks. You were sure you had heard him wrong. “What?”

“Yeah. It’s not a secret. I mean, I don’t just go around telling people that I’m gay, but I also don’t keep it private. I like guys, I’ve dated guys. Very open and proudly, even though everyone in this town is small minded and bigoted as fuck.” He paused before adding, “Wait, your old friends stopped being friends with you because you’re gay?”

You nodded. “They...they sort of told the entire school, and uh...I was forced to switch schools for my senior year because the bullying was just so bad.”

You could still hear the insults and slurs that were thrown at you on a daily basis when you walked the halls of your old school. Even the teachers looked at you with disgust when you’d enter a room or walk down the hall. There was no safe haven in your old school, just disgust.

You yelped as Eddie suddenly grabbed you and pulled you in for a hug. “Jesus, that fucking sucks. I’m so sorry.”

You let yourself relax in his arms. It felt like a weight had been lifted from your chest, and relief was washing over your body.

“The guys aren’t like that,” Eddie said. “I mean, you don’t have to come out to them if you don’t want to, but they’ve been very supportive of me and my sexuality. They’re good guys, I promise. Do you...do you still want to come to Hellfire?”

You smiled and nodded. Now that your secret was out there, you wanted nothing more than to spend as much time as possible with Eddie Munson.

You started to follow him towards the classroom where they held Hellfire Club. Before walking in, Eddie stopped walking and turned to you. You stopped, too, curious.

“There’s a Metallica concert in the next town over in a few months time,” he said. “Tickets are expensive as hell, but I’ve been saving up every pay cheque I’ve made from work the last few months to get tickets. Would you maybe want to come with me?”

You were stunned by his request. You had heard about the concert happening, your parents had told you actually. They wanted to get you tickets to go, but you turned them down. They weren’t fans of Metallica themselves, and you knew one or both of them would end up going just to bring you, and you didn’t want them to sit through a concert for a band they didn’t like if they weren’t going to enjoy themselves. And going with a friend was out of the question considering you had no friends at the time.

But now you did. You had Eddie.

“I-I’d love to,” you finally said.

Eddie’s smiled brightly. “Great. It’s a date.”

You paused while he entered the room. “A-A date?”

All he did in response was smile at you over his shoulder before turning his attention to the waiting Hellfire members. You had to remind yourself how to move and how to breathe as you followed him into the room, the words, “It’s a date” echoing in your head.

[firsttimedmsendhelp]

First Time DMing....... Send Help!

Ummm, hello...

I’m a bit lost to be honest and thought coming on here might help a little. I’m fairly new to DnD, I’ve only played three times (though I doubt two of them even count. I’ve only successfully completed one campaign. The other two, both times the group I was playing with had a fall out and we just didn’t see the campaigns through) and all three of them were made easy because at leas one of us was a first timer.

Anyhow, I love the game despite my experience and have been trying to gather enough people to start playing again. Luckily I found a few who were but unfortunately none of the people playing are experienced players. Plus they weren’t willing to volunteer to be the DM (which I get, it’s a lot of responsibility) so the task kinda fell on me.

All the endless research and preparations I did didn’t help me one bit in avoiding a disastrous first session. Everyone kept saying it was a good session zero but I got the sense that they’re just saying that so I don’t feel bad. I feel so overwhelmed, I suck at doing voices, I kept breaking character and feeling intimidated and overwhelmed by the party's roleplaying. I just couldn’t keep up. I’m not sure if I don’t have it in me or if it’s just nerves.....

I’m ranting, sorry. I just wanted to ask for some guidance or anything that could help me make this as enjoyable to the party as possible.

I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore. I’m trying my best but I don’t think that’s good enough.

[artiststarme]

What If Steve Were To Leave Hawkins? Part 6

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Here's part 6! I'm kind of torn on what to do next. More angst or finally give them some happiness? Decisions, decisions. As always, thank you for reading and if you would like to be added to the tag list, let me know!

~*~*~*~

Eddie knew he had fucked things up with Steve. The dude had risked his life for him in the Upside Down and had looked damn good while doing it, half-naked and wearing Eddie’s own denim battle vest. It was enough to make any guy swoon. Eddie thought he was going to die down there for sure so he had spent his time flirting with Steve, invading his personal space, and generally just being overbearing. Why not? Then, completely out of character for him and against all odds, he survived his Spring Break from hell. Scarred and missing one nipple, but still. Alive.

He expected things to go back to normal after he was released from the hospital and had his name cleared. Normal being a DnD nerd, super-super-senior in high school, that never crossed paths with the King of Hawkins High. To his surprise, Steve “I’m not a king anymore, man” Harrington continued to seek him out and treated him like they had been friends forever. Then, Eddie decided to have a fucking crush on him, the straightest guy he knew. He had to create some distance between them because it would never be reciprocated and it would hurt too much for Steve to inevitably reject him. 

Then Steve left and Eddie realized that that hurt a lot more than his rejection ever would. Steve used to be everywhere. He would see him at the diner getting a burger, at the pool babysitting the kids, at Family Video on his long-ass shifts. Now, everywhere Eddie looked, he saw ghosts where Steve should be. 

He can’t blame Steve for leaving Hawkins. Hell, that’s been Eddie’s plan since he got here. No, he blames himself for pushing him away. And it’s not just him. They might not be saying it but he can tell the rest of the Party blame him as well. He can see Nancy looking at him accusingly from the corner of his eye when she thinks he isn’t looking. He can see Robin looking at him in annoyed pity whenever he enters the room. Most of all, he can see the kids’ faces darken when he has the gall to be around them after forcing their favorite babysitter out of town. 

Getting the call from Steve at the asscrack of dawn was a blessing really. Had he just fallen asleep after a long battle with his trauma-induced insomnia? Yes. Was he initially pissed and planning the murder of whomever dared to call him outside of normal-functioning hours? Also yes. But it was Steve! And god was he happy to hear from him. He wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere but instead seemingly thriving wherever the fuck he had run off to. The charming bastard even managed to get a job and a new place to live in less than a week. The conversation was stilted and awkward in a way that Eddie didn’t appreciate and hadn’t experienced with Steve since their first rendezvous in Rick’s boathouse but Eddie wouldn’t complain. He’s surprised Steve didn’t though after he ranted about DnD for the better part of an hour. But he didn’t. Instead, he agreed to call again later the very same day. And you better believe, Eddie was going to stare at the phone until he did. 

~*~*~*~

The kids didn’t know what was going on with Eddie. Henderson had gotten a call from him at 9 AM in which he reneged on his agreement to act as chauffeur to the pool. Unbeknownst to him and the other kids, Eddie wanted to be home to get the call from Steve. They hadn’t specified a time the night prior so he wanted to be available to take the call all day and he couldn’t bring himself to take the chance of missing it. The whole day, he lounged around the kitchen and living room of the new trailer just waiting for the call. Wayne came and went, sending his nephew strange looks as the TV played in the background of Eddie’s focus fixated on the phone. 

It was at half past 6 in the evening that he received the call and he answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Hey man, it’s Steve. I’m sorry for calling so late last night. I just… you know.”

“Yeah,” Eddie sighed. “I’m glad you called though. It was nice to hear from you.”

Steve nodded and twisted his lips awkwardly, “how are things in Hawkins?” 

“They’re alright. Robin has a shift at Family Video and the kids went to the pool, I think. How are things where you are?” Eddie asked tentatively, he didn’t want to anger Steve about asking for his location but he didn’t know quite what to say. 

“They’re okay. Betty came this morning to drop off juice and soup. She gave me the day off so I took the day to catch up on sleep. I’m fine now.” Steve answered hesitantly as if he was unsure of how much to share with Eddie. 

“You sound better today,” Eddie licked his lips as he thought of something, anything, else to say to keep Steve on the phone. “You like it there, wherever you are? You’re happy?”

Steve hummed, “I think I could be. I miss the kids and Robin but I wasn’t really seeing anyone back in Hawkins. My mom said you guys went to the house?”

Eddie’s eyes squinted as Steve’s words registered. His mom told him that they’d stopped by? She knew where he was, that conniving bit-, “Yeah. Dustin and I stopped by and that’s when we realized you weren’t there. Your dad told us to get off his property. I don’t mean to offend you Stevie, but your dad is kind of a dick.”

Steve belted out a startled laugh as though he had expected Eddie to say anything besides that. After a moment of laughter he said, “Well, his name is Richard so I guess it fits.”

That sent Eddie into hysterics. With the ice broken, they continued an upbeat conversation for just over two hours. They spoke of the kids, shitty parents, the worst kinds of coffee to make at the shop, and the sweltering weather they were having. It left Eddie feeling assured and sanguine. But deep down, he was filled with a bittersweet sadness. He was happy that Steve was finally enjoying himself and working a job that he loved. At the same time though, the Party was still trying to find him and convince him to come back home. That outcome was looking more and more bleak. 

But having some contact with Steve was better than none at all and this conversation had gone better than Eddie had ever imagined. So, when Steve tried to end the call, Eddie panicked a little bit. 

“Eddie? I have to go, I’m working the opening shift for the coffee shop tomorrow so I have to wake up early.”

“Wait, Steve! Can you please call me again? It was uh- it was nice talking to you today. I’d really like to do it again.”

He felt Steve hesitate through the phone. “Um, yeah I guess I can call after my shift tomorrow. Are you sure you want me to keep bothering you?”

Eddie’s heart chipped away a little bit more at his words. “Stevie, you’re not bothering me. I like talking to you. You’re not a bother.”

Steve thought about it before he hummed. Eddie heard him breathe in a deep breath and answer, “Then yeah, I can call around 3 tomorrow?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, big boy. Talk to you tomorrow.”

Steve laughed a bit before saying goodnight. Eddie placed the phone back on its cradle and let a small, saccharine smile overtake his face. He was going to talk to Steve again tomorrow. Hell yeah!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20: Epilogue

Taglist:@nickavalens@conversesweetheart@themostunoriginalpersonever@swimmingbirdrunningrock@eddiethegreatteddybear @call-me-big-eyes @cornwallisandkerley @moonshadows-13 @glittergluekintsugi @cpidcupk @doubleb11 @mentalcyborg @amoris-no-smut-allowed @purple-lemonade @labels-are-for-the-weak @thebrazilianatheist @rajumat @livelaughlexa @5ammi90 @colorful565 @marvelousforlife @chaoticcoffeequeen @gregre369 @suddenlyinlove@thegreatmistake @stillfullofshit @nburkhardt @batxsignalsx @newunknowns @thosemessyvibes @tailsfromthecrypt@luciana-rowan @bird-with-pencils @adaed5 @lolawon @flustratedcas @iwillfindmyneverland @messrs-weasley @skoomy-doompy @yearningagain @darkwitchoferie @forest-fogg @bitchysunflower @stardust-era@newtstabber@bobatrash-queen @notjasontxdd @ohlook-afrog @00biscuit @grtwdsmwhr @oxidantdreamboat @the-witch-forever-lives @estrellami-1 @whatthemeepever @a-simple-gaywitch

[sleepyeye17]

After Steve plays DnD

Eddie waves to Jonathan as the kids pile into the car. Steve offered to drive them all, but it’s on Jonathan’s route home anyway, now that the Byers live up by the river, closer to everyone else.

Eddie goes back inside. Steve is cleaning up the game table, stacking the books and putting the dice into their bag. He pauses on the D20, turning it in his hands, his face furrowed with concentration. The facets glitter in the light.

“Beautiful, right?” Eddie asks. Steve looks up, surprised.

“Yeah, it’s cool.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” Steve puts the D20 into its velvet bag. He bites his lip. “Was I… Did I do okay?”

Eddie steps in, grabbing Steve’s hands.

“Of course! What do you mean?”

“I mean, it was my first time. I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right.”

Eddie grins.

“It’s Dungeons and Dragons, baby, not your gay virginity.”

Steve snorts and raises his eyes to the ceiling. 

“I know.” He puts his arms around Eddie’s shoulders. “This was much more intimidating.”

Eddie laughs into Steve’s shoulder, kisses his cheek.

“You were fantastic.”

“Really?”

“Better than my wildest dreams.” He pulls back to look Steve in the eye. “You were really nervous?”

“Yeah. I know it means a lot to you. I didn’t want to disappoint.”

“You could never.” They’re swaying from side-to-side now, in the sort of slow dance that they do. “How did you know all that stuff about dwarves not liking cows milk? Or elves eating fish?”

“I read it in one of your books.”

“Which one?” Eddie had given Steve the basic introductory books, but none of the really deep lore.

“I don’t remember. Not one of the ones you gave me. It was on your shelf.”

Eddie pulls back.

“You read the ones on my shelf?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Was I not supposed to? Is that cheating?”

“No, not at all! It’s just… I wasn't expecting that.”

“I wanted to do it right.”

Eddie shakes his head slowly.

“Fuck.”

“What?” Steve’s eyes are wide and anxious. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just really fuckin love you.”

Steve tenses in Eddie’s arms. 

“Wait. Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Oh thank God.” Steve sags against Eddie in relief. He rests his chin on Eddie’s shoulder and blinks away tears. “I wasn’t sure— nobody’s ever—“ he sniffs. “Mm. Love you.”

They stand there, letting that settle around them. 

“Gnomes don’t like wheat,” Steve murmurs. “It irritates their digestion.”

“You’re literally my perfect human.”

“Mm. Not a human. I’m a Wolfborn.” Steve kisses Eddie’s jaw. “Child of a cursed lineage. Defender of my tribe.” He bites Eddie's shoulder, making him laugh and press closer. “And it’s a full moon.”

“Wolfborns aren’t werewolves,” Eddie gasps.

“I know. I never said I was. But I still like to howl at the moon.”

Eddie giggles and pulls Steve in for a kiss.

“Howl away, baby, it’s just the two of us.”

[r0s3s26]

This is @shxtodxroki here for our match-up exchange, I’m just sending this from my main blog :>

Name: Bee

Age:19

Pronouns: She/her

Gender for Matches: I would be happy being paired with any gender! And I'd like romantic matches please :D

Fandoms: Haikyuu and JJK :>

Character Preferences: If possible I’d prefer no villains in JJK like Mahito or Sukuna (Though like you said in your ask, my exception would be Choso!) 

Appearance: Bright pink hair (which is wavy if I take care of it properly) that goes a little past my shoulders, 5’7” with green eyes, pretty pale and I have freckles but you can see them much better in the sun. Tend to prefer more cute, pastel and/or feminine styles, but I also like to mix things up sometimes and try different styles especially anything cozy (and I like wearing nerdy/silly t-shirts and shorts/sweatpants almost all the time when I’m at home). I have stretch marks on my legs that I’m a bit insecure about, and lots of little freckles/moles on my arms! 

Personality: Introvert, I love spending time with the people I care about but I also need at least a little bit of alone time each day just to decompress and relax. I have pretty bad anxiety, so I tend to overthink and I’m frequently stressed even if I don’t show it, and even about small things that most people don’t even think about. I’m also super awkward and shy especially when I first meet people especially since I sometimes struggle to read social situations, I’m really not the type to initiate conversations much at first and I even struggle with initiating physical affection with someone I’m close to. Once I feel safe and close with someone I tend to ramble quite a lot about my interests or just topics I’ve dived into recently, and I think I’m a pretty good listener as well! :) I try my best to generally be a friendly person and look out for others, and I tend to avoid conflict unless someone I love is being hurt. My worst trait is probably my procrastination. I’m currently in college and studying to hopefully become an either an ELA or sociology professor, not totally sure yet. I really love learning about things I find interesting/important and getting to share what I learn with people :] I usually enjoy staying up somewhat late as I just like being up and being able to use my time how I like.

Qualities in a Partner: Confidence/willingness to initiate since it’s something I struggle with, someone who’s patient and willing to listen when I’m having a hard time (and I’m more than happy to do the same in return) and someone honest and loyal. Since I’m very anxious, I’d prefer someone who’s open with their affection with me! They don’t have to make it super obvious in public or anything though:) And someone who’s willing to kill/get rid of bugs! My ideal first date would probably be something simple like going out for coffee/a sweet treat and a walk, something that would give us a chance to talk and get to know one another!

Love Languages: Gifts and physical touch for giving (I love getting to see people’s reactions when I get them gifts I know they’ll love) and physical touch and words of affirmation for receiving.

Interests/Hobbies: I’m a big fan of horror or mystery movies/media. (My favorite movie is Knives Out) I really enjoy reading and writing too! I enjoy anime/manga (my favorite anime is Yuri on Ice) and there are a few kinds of video games I really enjoy like visual novels (especially spooky ones), games like Danganronpa or or “cozy games” like Minecraft or Stardew Valley! I also play the cello and I work backstage as the stage manager in most of my school’s theater productions. I really enjoy all kinds of music, I listen to anything from k-pop to musicals to “emo” music to just regular pop. I’m currently trying to learn how to play DnD, and I really enjoy collecting things even when I lose interest! (As in, even after I stop fixating on an interest so much and switch over to a new one, I never get rid of the merch because it still brings me joy and reminds me of how important that thing was to me :> ) I like anything that makes me emotional, whether it’s soul-crushingly sad or super heartwarming, I just like when media can make me feel things, and I’m a big crier since I tend to get emotional pretty easily :]

Dislikes: Bugs, math, people with an ego that makes them treat others poorly, vanilla-scented things

Sorry this is so long, I tend to ramble on and have trouble condensing things lol but I hope this is enough, and thank you so much again for agreeing to this exchange! I’m excited to see what you think :)

Your Matchups are��Kurro Tetsuro and Nanami Kento

<3 He would think your style is super cute

<3 Would buy you accessories that he thinks would look good on you

<3 Also buys matching nerd t-shirts

<3 Because his best friend is kenma he has a lot of experience with introverted people

<3 I feel like he is a secret omnivert but he puts up a extravert front

<3 Like pretends to be super social but actually get overstimulated super quick(projecting)

Like picture this:

You both just left early from a work party at his job because your social battery was going down and you had been wanting to leave for a bit. Once you guys get home and start settling into bed he gets his over the ear headphones he usually uses for working out, and he gets into yalls shared bed and just starts cuddling into your side and is just super quiet. You pull him closer and whisper “are you ok?” he nods his head yes and just nuzzles his head into the side of your neck and wraps his arms around you and just calms his breathing

<3 When you guys first met/started to hang out he was super ok with carrying the conversations for a bit until you wanted to open up more to him

<3 He would help you stay on track and study for your degree

<3 Study dates would be 50% actually studying and the other 50% would be talking shit about your classmates and the people at his job

<3 He would tell you fun facts each day just cause

<3 When he gets little gifts from you he ether puts them on his work desk or his desk at home so he always has a little piece of you to remind him off

<3 Would try getting into some of your hobbies with you like horror movies and manga

<3 But for video game stuff he introduces you to Kenma because he is a streamer and now you are a regular guest on his streams when he plays games like Minecraft, Danganronpa, or any other game he thinks you would also enjoy to play

(Kurro secretly loves that you and his best friend also get along so well cause you 2 are the most important people in his life)

Song:

<3 You and Nanami are pretty similar in certain ways

<3 Like you are both pretty introverted and will probably keep to y’alls selves most of the time

<3 Likes the style/aesthetic difference between you both

<3 Also will buy you stuff that matches your style

<3 Both of these rich ass man ready to spoil you, lucky asf

<3 Secretly would like physical affection

<3 Like the biggest cuddle bug but don’t tell anyone else that or he will be mortified

<3 Would kiss your stretch marks, and whisper things he loves about you to make you feel better like this:

You both had just gotten out of the shower and ready to unwind for the night. You are in a pair of his boxers and an old Yuri on Ice shirt reading a manga you had recently bought. Nanami goes and lays next to your legs on the bed, slightly laying his head in your lap. He sees your exposed stretch marks and starts to kiss them and whisper sweet nothings into your skin. Stuff like “You're so beautiful my love” and “Love you so much”. Just being such a lovey dovey sap for you

<3 Loves going to cafes with you

<3 Has a list going on with you where you rank the best cafes in the area so you both know which ones to go to next

<3 So we both know what Nanami looked like in high school

<3 EMOOO

<3 I feel like he still listens to that type of music still

<3 Like has playlist full of Panic! at the Disco, Pierce the Veil, Paramore, MCR, maybe some green day in there

<3 Also still has his old t shirts so sometimes you both wear the same band tees unironically and laugh at each other

Song:

(Authors Note: Sorry if it isnt super long, im still trying to get my groove with this😓)