#player-character vs. npc mentality

[deerydear]

the other day, I was sitting at a bar downtown, heard some guy critiqueing something on TV as "problematic".... the way that you can tell that their opinions are something they read on the computer-screen with the assumption of "lots of people agreeing with them", their voices go up in a higher pitch. They sound like they think they're imparting some "secret knowledge", but if it's something I know for a fact is not true....

it's funny.

tl;dr: the Smug is spreading

the idea of the internet connecting people and allowing the flow of information and knowledge in an unprecedented way was a great dream but the reality of being exposed to thousands of random peoples opinions at any time in the economic and social organization of social media has just made increasingly cynical because the majority of people seem to just have a vague “peasant easily convinced of fascism” mentality. this is why twitter is an op

[anim-ttrpgs]

Epicenter Initiative, a Better Way for Combat to Flow from Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

So, plenty of games do it their own way, but from our experience, there’s two main ways to do turn order in TTRPGs: “Rolling for initiative,” and “freeform turn order” is what i will be referring to them as for

These both kinda suck.

“Roll for initiative!” is an inescapable pop culture meme that invokes the excitement of a sudden combat encounter and action scene, but in reality, rolling for initiative is not really very exciting.

You know that I have always been a proponent of rules in TTRPGs, and frequently say that combat and mechanics don’t stop the story or the roleplay, they are the story and the roleplay, but rolling for initiative in the traditional D&D5e sense is an exception to this. It stops the scene dead while the GM has to wait for everyone to grab and roll their dice, go around the table one at a time getting each initiative value, organize them into a list, and then the combat can start. Those goblins that jumped out of the bushes have been standing around waiting for the adventurers to get ready for like 5 minutes and the momentum is gone. Some games do this better and smoother than others, and earlier D&D editions do it better than later ones.

A common alternative to this problem is what I’m calling freeform turn order, which is the total opposite. There is no turn order, characters just act whenever their players say they act. This easily carries the momentum of a scene as it flows into combat, but is not without its own slew of problems, such as the fact that it means that the fastest characters are not the ones with the best speed/dexterity/initiative/whatever stats(as in, something in-universe that makes them faster), but rather the characters with the loudest players, and this really doesn’t work for any game that is trying to have combat with any stakes.

A GM can try to manually arbitrate this to bring it closer to fairness for the in-world parties fighting and the our-world players playing, but that means paying attention to and mentally keeping track of who has acted when and how much, which players are keeping quiet, which players are taking the spot light, and deciding arbitrarily how much spotlight they’re allowed to take, etc. This is a ton of work for a GM who is already also trying to roleplay 10 bad guys attacking the PCs and possibly a dozen other factors. This is something that an actual turn order does for a GM rather, taking the burden off them so they can focus on their other duties.

So we have two ways of doing things that offer their own strengths, but also each have major flaws. How do we get rid of those flaws while keeping both the strengths? This is a problem that we set out to solve for Eureka’s combat. We needed a way for there to be an actual mechanical turn order so that the GM doesn’t have to spend brain power making one up on the fly, but have that mechanical turn order be so obvious as to present itself instantly, with no rolling or around-the-whole-table stat checking necessary to determine it.

You could just say that PCs always go first, or that NPCs always go first, which is a solution, but doesn’t really mesh as well with tactical combat or with the kind of believable tone that Eureka is going for.

It took us a long while to perfect, but we came up with what we call Epicenter Initiative. In the actual Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook (which by the way you can get monthly updates on from a $5 subscription to our patreon or FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME by joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club) you will find a more detailed breakdown of the rules and how they change based on specific circumstances (such as how they work when most combatants have melee weapons vs most combatants having ranged weapons), but here’s the most basic gist.

When an attack is made, combat is started, there’s no special procedure for that. Whoever attacked is taking the first turn. The second turn goes to the person they attacked, and this fighting pair becomes the Epicenter of the combat encounter.

The remaining characters act in order based on their proximity to the Epicenter, with the closest characters acting first and farthest characters acting last.

This way there is a mechanical turn order that clearly dictates which characters act before other characters, and this turn order is also created instantly, with no need to roll dice or check character sheets in most circumstances, allowing the combat scene to play out uninterrupted from beginning to end!

If you’d like to steal these rules for your own group or even your own TTRPG, please consider a small donation to our ko-fi or subscription to our patreon, and/or at least crediting where you got them so other people can come check out the work we do. We are an incredibly small team busting our asses to keep ourselves and the world of indie TTRPGs afloat beneath the intense and insidious economic pressure of WotC’s monopoly, and any assistance at all goes a long way.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[karniss-bg3]

I keep seeing people half-joke about Kar'niss being evil aligned but I just see him as more of a victim than anything, being taken advantage of by the Absolute cult at his most vulnerable. I so badly long for fixit scenarios where he maybe gets knocked out after battle, brought back to camp and taken care of.

Imagine him being tenderly bathed, wrapped in blankets, given cloaks to shield himself from harsh sunlight. Imagine him glowing with new health after some time has passed, his exoskeleton no longer looking as ill-fit and painful, his hair grown back in thick, long, lush tresses like it's meant to be... 😭

I've always considered Kar'niss "evil coded" but I never wanted to label him as evil overall. It stems from drow alignments being mostly evilcentric but D&D is gradually changing to make that less hard lined. One of my favorite personal characters is a drow male who escaped the Underdark after suffering years of abuse. He had to leave his children behind which broke his heart even if traditionally drow are pretty "meh" about their children. He also dyed his hair as his own way to stick it to Lolth societies in general. Drow are the embodiment of nature vs. nurture and I think even if you come from that society you don't have to be beholden to your birth.

Kar'niss stands out from the others at Moonrise because he is obviously very ill. No one has bothered to address his mental state and if anything they take advantage of the fact he's two fries short of a happy meal. It's clearly exploitation in the strictest sense. Yet the players are meant to ignore that and go "Oh well" in a game about addressing and healing through trauma? I don't think so.

I get that Larian likely didn't have time to do more with him and that companions take a lot of work to add in. Still, I'll always preach that Kar'niss got boned the worst compared to most non-companionable NPCs we run into. He was a perfect candidate to be taken in and helped, especially since mental illness isn't a trait any of the other companions have to deal with. I will give Larian the benefit of the doubt while simultaneously remaining sour about how robbed we were. It is what it is.

I like all of your ideas and I agree, Kar'niss deserves love and the chance at redemption. Hell, Astarion is the most popular of the companions and he's done some heinous shit. Sure it was under the influence of a cruel master but the same can be said about Kar'niss. If we can't lend Kar'niss the aid he deserves in-game then we'll do it through writing, art and any other medium we see fit. That drider won't know what hit him by the time we're done, I promise you that.

Thanks for the ask!

[sleepy-aletheas]

The dilemma of 'boring' characters

There's nothing new about how certain characters are seen by players as having "no personality" or they're "romantic interests". They're in general on a more calmer side, a bit quiet, they're really friendly and try to help wherever they are, but tend to avoid direct conflict. In-game they're usually dressed in blue, and are isolated from the world one way or another, but are loved by many.

I'm talking about Nilou, Ayaka, and Kokomi. My darlings, my babies, the joys of my lonely life.

Over the years, there are a lot of jokes about them; how they're the obvious girlfriend bait, they're meant to be bland with nothing to them, they could even be taken out the cast and nothing would be lost. I worded this in a more hyperbolic/paraphrasing way, because these sentiments go from polite "these are simply not to my taste" to just very demeaning ways that I genuinely can't understand.

It's interesting how these three get the brunt of these opinions, but any 4* characters that also walk along the lines of certain overlap personalities are never a problem, or really talked about (then again, the question for that is: is it a 5* vs 4* problem, or are people not engaged with the 4* to begin with?). Either way, these three characters are pitted against others like it's a competition of who is more worthy to be loved or be valid of investing interest in.

A lot of these things boil down to people not really paying attention to the game (shocker, I know). Because people have a problem with story quests, and the character personalities, and "they just try to stuff these characters and their romance role down our throats!" only to single out the characters that just want friends, that grew up isolated, that are tired and have a lot of responsibility not just for themselves but also their people. And the biggest crime they committed was...what? Being soft-spoken? Friendly? Introverted? Having possible autism or anxiety characteristics (which people will always deny because these characters are 'boring' so they can't be written more deeply than blank smiles, right?)?

Maybe I'm getting heated up for nothing, maybe I'm just sick and tired of people pushing down characters to prop up their own faves as better, when all these characters are friends. It's ridiculous.

I know people really have big problems with the story quests; how it's 'NPC Impact' and all that jazz, throwing it all in the trash, because "where's the focus on the story quest's character?" and "why are these no-names-with-basic-design important to just never return". And I wanna ask: are you aware that these playable characters are part of this world? They don't cease existing once you look away or move to another region. Time doesn't freeze once you end a quest or they fade away from the screen. Those characters that are handpicked for us to focus on have lives outside the Traveler (outside the player, who is not the Traveler, just to be clear, the Traveler is not a self-insert however much people try to say they are). They have hobbies, jobs, leisure time, birthdays, celebrations, due dates, shopping trips, going out with friends (which can be other playable characters or NPCs). They have lives.

It's easy to get lost in the mentality of "this is a game FOR ME so everything revolves around ME", but it's not. Even on a meta level, the Traveler is a witness, they just go around to experience the stories of others with a certain detachment, a third person perspective, really. In Cyno's 2nd story quest the characters were like "oh we haven't seen each other in a long time, let's catch up! there's lots of things that happened" (paraphrasing) and this applies to every nation in Genshin.

Even through events, new friendships are forged. Characters of one nation meet up with characters of another, and they make awkward acquaintances (ex. the poetry event introduced mondstadt and liyue characters that never met before), or just straight up become friends (ex. the movie festival where inazuma characters went to fontaine). These characters are mingling, are making friends (some of them for the first time outside their home/the traveler). But these characters also talk and exist with their people, with their neighbours, with the NPCs on the streets and in the shops. The NPCs are as valuable to Teyvat as the playable characters, it's just that the game focuses on a few from the masses, but those playable characters directly coexist with the NPCs, and that's how these playable characters can grow and change and follow their dreams. They cannot exist in a vacuum, that's not how it works.

With that massive grievance out of the way, why do people think less of Nilou, Ayaka, and Kokomi?

Well, for a lot of people it's their story quests. They're too passive for the taste of many, focused on running around and talking to NPCs and maybe having a fight but still not much happening in the exciting department. So it's easy to chalk the whole character up as trash.

I mean, if we ignore pretty much all other story quests that revolved around NPCs that are still beloved (a few that come to mind, like, Yoimiya's, Alhaitham's, Neuvillette's, Wriostley's...), the problem clearly is.....? I still don't know. I mean, every other story quest is about NPCs and the playable characters interacting with them. We learn how those characters, that we love and appreciate, exist in the world, how they interact with it, how it interacts back (I'm getting deja vu, did I write this before already?). We get a glimpse at how they feel about everything, we find out about some struggles they had or have, maybe have a problem to solve (possibly related to them or in an area they know enough to be helpful in).

So why? All three still fall under these same boxes, the same storytelling method that every time is slightly different to fit the character better. At this point it's not a fundamental problem of Genshin's storytelling, if every other story is good (or praised to hell and back when they came out), but player expectation.

Which is not a bad thing on itself, right? All of us have some expectations, or grievances, or hype, or emotional responses. We all gravitate to certain character stories more because of personal experience, or because we can process the situation to a cathartic release, maybe we can solve a little bit of our troubles through these fictional characters, maybe the emotions are all a person needs to be attached. We all have our reasons to like or dislike these stories. But the moment people start to mindlessly talk about how badly something is written or done, and never explain why or how, or how to fix it, it just becomes tiresome to engage with anything. Because it stops being about improvement, it becomes a holiday dinner with family, and that's just depressing.

Nilou's quest was about saving the theater and helping a new member to chase her dreams and hopefully reconnect with her father who was the antagonist of the quest. Nilou's compassion, hope, and steadfast determination fell flat for a lot of people, maybe because she tried to resolve it peacefully, with words, an even playing field. Nilou is loved by many, be it the playable characters or NPCs, she is trying her best to be helpful and friendly, and gentle. She's not here to do big feats and slay sea monsters or rule the nation. She's a dancer of the bazaar who loves her friends, and who tries to stick out for the ones who need a helping hand to find their own footing.

Ayaka is the annoying case of character mischaracterization turned up to eleven. All jokes of the 'eternal Ayaka banner' aside, Ayaka didn't have friends as a child, never had a real opportunity to make friends or get close to people, because she's from a big influential family, and it would breed conflict if she became too close to others. The Traveler was an outsider that doesn't need her power, doesn't need her status, they're just her friend. Friendships are hard, especially if you don't know how to make some (be it because you grew up without any or because over time we lost the skill and now don't know what to do). Ayaka doesn't try to date the Traveler (or the player), she just wants to have a friend.

And Kokomi, as the divine priestess and war general, doesn't have the time, space, or energy to be herself. She needs to wear a mask of maturity and wisdom all the time. She needs to protect her people, lead them to prosperity, try and give them better tomorrows. In her diary, as she's passed out on the desk, we can read about her 'spoons' and how tired she is. Yet she goes and does her duties for her people, because she cares, even if she doesn't really want to be a priestess, her interests laying more in war strategies and working behind the scenes than be a face and leader. And having a friend that sees her as Kokomi, and Kokomi only, it has to be very precious to her.

....

Did you also now realize I lost my train of thought along the way? Yeah, me too.

I'm just frustrated that characters that are softer are deemed lesser than others, be it for their tenderness or them not being "desirable" enough. Truly, damn a girl wanting to read military strategies or try to keep a roof over the head of others instead of being a 'girlboss' or a 'badass mommy' (as if we don't have quite a few of them already). There can be more than one type of female character in this game, and all of them can be engaging on various levels of action and emotion. Variety is a good thing.

(Just for the sake of any misunderstandings, personal preferences aren't my problems. If people hate a character because they cannot vibe or relate or understand, then go ahead and don't like the character. My problem lies on how people treat these characters and how they make it their duty to drag them through the mud for...nothing. Personal preferences are fine, but the moment someone starts to actively work for it, I think there needs to be a timeout and take a breather.)

[queer-starwars-bracket]

Queer Star Wars Characters (Round 2): Legends Match 3

Belaya | Identity: wlw | Media: SWTOR

Belaya is an NPC Revan encounters on Datioone when they undergo their Jedi training. During that time, Belaya is a new Jedi Knight while her lover Juhani failed her final trial. She offers Revan several pieces of advice throughout their training. When Juhani “falls” to the Dark Side, she isn’t permitted by the Jedi Council to help her due to their closeness. After Revan saves Juhani, she expresses her gratitude to them. Belaya and Juhani will hang out together in the Enclave until Juhani joins Revan on their journey.

If Revan kills rather than saving Juhani, Belaya will run away from Datioone and will be encountered on Korriban- where she attempts to avenge Juhani. While it is only heavily implied in KOTOR (2003), she was intentionally written as Juhani’s lover. The writing team self censored this because of fear about how GamersTM would react. This makes her tied with Juhani for being the first queer character in Star Wars.

Arcann | Identity: playersexual | Media: SWTOR

What if Zuko was in Star Wars? Arcann is the son of the Valkorian, the Sith Emperor ruling the Eternal Emperor. He was raised with his twin brother Thexan to help his father conquer the known galaxy. After being scarred and losing his right arm, he attempted to kill his father, accidentally killing his brother in the process. When the player character is brought before Valkorian, Arcann succeeds in killing his father (who then proceeds to chill out in the Outlander’s brain). He then rules the Eternal Empire until he is defeated by the Commander. His mother saves his life and takes him to Voss to recover, while his sister takes control of the Eternal Empire. 

In Knights of the Eternal Throne, the player character can decide to allow Senya to heal her son’s “rage”. If the Commander refuses, they will have to kill Senya and Arcann will be physically but not mentally healed. The Commander will later have to kill him. If the Commander agrees with Senya’s plan, Arcann will join the Alliance to help oppose his sister and can be romanced.

[master-of-shenanigans]

Sup! I'm here to ask! This my main account, you usually know me by my alt account that now also shares my name cause tumblr is stubborn like this for no damn reason. Anyway. Your VtM OC. What is their name? What is their clan? What is their drive in life? What do they identify as pronoun and such wise? What's their biggest struggle with being a vampire? Have they ever had a confusing relationship where they were in love or infatuated with someone for inconceivable reasons that were feelings they didn't want to be having?

Well hello there! 😳I'm sorry this answer took so long!

I guess we're being cringe on main, on cringe dot com. You're not the only person who came out of the woodwork after I made this post, so I've decided to answer these very thoughtful questions publicly.

Name: Violet

She's my PC (/Storyteller's "player" NPC? We'll see how much I end up playing vs Storytelling) for a projected v5 chronicle (set in a LA by Night inspired timeline on the premise of "what if the Camarilla stayed in charge?") who's quickly blossomed into an OC that gives me brainrot and cuteness aggression. Go look at some fanart I commissioned of her, I can't recommend my friend's artwork enough.

Clan: Tremere (surprise, surprise...)

Gender, Pronouns, Etc.: Cisgender, she/her, demisexual, bi/pan, and ambiamorous (could be happy in either polyamory or monogamy, depending on the person and the relationship dynamic).

Drive in life (and unlife): Poor baby is a people pleaser. First and foremost at the outset of her story she's driven by external validation, being reassured that she's doing the right thing and being perceived as likeable. The latter is not easy to achieve when interacting with non-Tremere, but she's a little ray of moonlight with decent social stats. She's going to do her best. This predisposition was mentally beaten into her while she was alive, and she carries it over into her unlife as well. After she's gotten to have some character development and trauma healing, "people pleasing" will be replaced by self discovery and a thirst for knowledge (she is a Tremere after all) as her main motivators. Both of these, especially the latter, are already very present in her character from the beginning.

Biggest struggle with being a vampire: the expectations. She's only a baby "hello, neonate" but she's of a horrifyingly low generation due to her sire being an elder, and her sire expects her to (un)live up to his legacy... in time. He's very strict and upfront about these expectations, but he has the patience of one who thinks in terms of centuries. So despite how afraid of disappointing him she is, he's quite forgiving with her beneath his stoic demeanor. To him there's no rush, her potential is there and it must be nurtured at it's own pace. There's also the expectations of other Kindred - due to her sire's position in the Camarilla, she has a lot of eyes on her and she's terrified of not meeting expectations. People pleaser, remember?

Oh, and the Second Inquisition. That sucks too.

Inconceivable and unwanted infatuation feelings: oh has she ever. Without going into excruciating detail, this sums up her whole relationship with her sire. Blood bonds work in mysterious ways, you know? (Though she would still be in love with him anyway without the blood bond at this point.) This is highly unprofessional and inconvenient and she wishes often that it would go away because she worries that being so flustered around him will annoy him; he has to know how she feels, and he's never made the slightest indication of reciprocating. He must not be interested. (Or is he...?)

[cookie-waffle]

As much as I love Legend of Zelda, I’ve always felt like the way the franchise doesn’t prioritize story takes away from so much of it’s potential.

Refusing to let Link ever be a fully multifaceted fleshed-out character is actually starting to work against the whole “blank slate” thing, because the addition of voice acting forced Nintendo to give an explanation for Link not speaking in cutscenes. But, by doing so, they wrote themselves into a corner. He (understandably) has an anxiety disorder, (which is super interesting but isn’t touched don much). And in Creating a Champion, it was mentioned that Link seems happier after forgetting his previous life as a knight, subtly implying he had a very difficult childhood.

But, when totk came out, they no longer had an excuse to keep Link silent and emotionless 100% of the time because they had already made it canon that he not only feels happier post-calamity, but even SPEAKS to Zelda. So, how did Nintendo address this? They didn’t. Because they prioritized player experience over writing that made sense. Which, ironically, made us feel LESS connected to Link’s character. And to make it even more frustrating, it’s so obvious that they WANT to make Link his own character, but just refuse to for some reason.

Another example are NPCs we helped in botw, that every player had to have interacted with at least once, not remembering Link at all in totk. I know it’s done for new players, but, why? What’s wrong with NPCs already knowing Link and being fond of him? It makes no sense why they would do that, ESPECIALLY given all the hints that Link has been living with Zelda in Hateno for a few years. I think character interactions would be so much more emotionally impactful if Link kept all the friends he made in botw.

And, probably my biggest gripe of all, is how often very interesting themes get introduced and then treated very superficially.

Ganon/Ganondorf has the potential to be a very multifaceted and tragic villain. A man who wants to do right by his people, but cannot fight the darkness he was born with no matter how hard he tries. But…. that’s not who Ganondorf is. Ganondorf is canonically about as deep as an 80s cartoon villain. Nintendo does not seem to care about the more nuanced details and bleak implications of Demise’s curse. Ganondorf would have never been tolerated by the gerudo if he was just always evil. Real evil rulers must grow a loyal following and gain the trust of their people before doing the actual evil stuff. And seeing how “no nonsense” gerudo soldiers seem to be, I have my doubts that they’d just let some manlet walk all over them without first proving himself worthy of their respect.

In fact, a lot of the whole light vs dark theme itself self seems to be delivered in a very superficial way. Like, for example, Demise had no real motive. The only reason he wanted to destroy the world because he's scary and bad. There's no complexity to it at all.

Another example is the themes of mental illness in botw. Zelda’s whole relationship with her father was very clearly intended to seem abusive, and Zelda has emotional issues as a result. Aditionally, Link has selective mutism, and Mipha even writes about how much less happy he seems as a teenager compared to how he was when he was little. Nintendo actually seems to have addressed what sort of effects this kinda trauma has on young minds. Not only that, but, it’s not exactly a secret that Japanese culture puts way too much pressure on their children to preform perfection, and the way Zelda’s relationship with her father is portrayed could very well be a reflection of that.

But then they redeemed King Rhoam in Age of Calamity, making some of the messages that botw was trying to convey completely irrelevant.

Also, not to mention, most players that discovered Zelda’s diary in botw probably want Link to feel safe enough to speak again, after knowing that it is possible. Or at the very least, we wanted to see him comfortable enough to express his personality more in cutscenes. Do we get that? No. Going back to my previous point, this is just another example of the whole “blank slate” thing with Link working against itself.

I think most of, if not all of these issues, can be solved. With Nintendo's budget, there is no excuse to not put just as much attention and detail into the story and lore as they do into the gameplay.

The issue with Link's character could be easily solved by taking a page out of Fallout 4's book. His personality could change based on how the player responds to npcs. The player could also be given the option to customize race, gender, hair color, etc (There's nothing that says Link has to be a hylian male every time). Another great idea would be romance options that have no real effect on the end of the story. That way, the devlopers can ship zelink like they cleraly want to, without players who don't ship them having to deal with it.

And please... PLEASE give Ganondorf a goddamn personality aside from "Sneaky and bad". Give him a backstory, a character arc, an ideology. ANYTHING. The main villain of such a massive franchise should be nuanced.

[emiko-matsui]

Murph

- would love no other dm than anthony take on this silly ass world (even if you had to tell him to be less of a rules lawyer)

- paeden is the most murph coded npc of all time

- walter the immoral is literally a bullywug. COME ON

- considering how good murph is as these people's parents he would kill us on sight as their kids

- the amount of times they call murph daddy in a campaign having nothing to do with dads already

- murph as the omega daddies? I WOULD DIE

- erin o'neil second most murph coded npc of all time

- the complexity of grant's character would go insane as a murph character

Caldwell

- this is just obvious. come on. come onnnn

- everyone being so disgusted by will's henry facts could literally only be competed by caldwell "turtose/turtis" "fey wild gay child" "the players handbook" tanner

- the beverly to henry pipeline is sooo real

- every exasperated dad conversation with lark and sparrow could be dubbed over by caldwell and i wouldn't even fucking blink

- henry being from the forgotten realms/oakvale is such an intrinsically caldwell thing

- his mini crush on all the other dads? with caldwell "what journals of mine about hardwon have you read?!" "im pressed up against moonshine's breasts anime style" "hank i think you look hot" tanner? yeah

Jake

- his ability to play pathetic cool guys is unparalleled

- the "i can't form meaningful connections with people around me by the beginning and by the end i crumple with all the love in my heart as i fumble my way through expressing it" journey of every one of jake's characters

- we've already seen the power jake holds as a bard who plays guitar and sings

- his uncanny bickering ability would blend in seamlessly with jodie

- he would milk the morgan emotions in a way freddie didn't that would make me cry so much more (while it still being incredibly in character)

- hardwon is the blueprint for characters who refuses to acknowledge their feelings to the point of problems for the people around him

- jake would proudly go to death for a deez nuts joke and murph would without remorse power word kill him for it

Emily

- she (every emily character and darryl) has SO MUCH love in her heart where she doesn't know where to put so she keeps just pushing it into the world hoping it will stick to the people around her

- if emily would play a dad it would, with certainty, be a bbq dad

- every grant scene would destroy both me and her completely and she'd play it to fucking nirvana

- her convo with jolene in ep. 98 vs darryl's convo with frank in ep. 65 (i think)? yeah

- darryl wouldn't be so catholic and you know what im fine with that

- and i just have to underline: darryl wilson and all the love he has that he doesn't know where to put and the family he wants to make feel perfect with his love is the archetype of the emily axford character

Zac

- NUMBER ONE ZAC DESERVES TO BE ON HERE SO HARD

- number two, zac is the only person who could do ron justice with his awkward and perfect one liners. I have never seen someone master comedic timing on his level before that is the only thing that could save a ron without beth

- we have seen what zac can do with a wet pathetic charisma dump stat character with colin and it's glorious

- zac is the picture boy of doing a 180 at the end of the campaign and making everyone cry the hardest. For my mental health I could not handle Zac as the person going through the memories with Willy

- zac would and could hide in his own pants and force murph to let him get away with it

- i know we haven't seen zac cry over one of his characters yet but i genuinely believe that if he did ron it would be the one to break him. just the care he played colin provolone with mixed with a it's gorgug keep going moment mixed with the willy scenes...

NADDPOD cast as DnDads: Odyssey

brian murphy as your dad

caldwell tanner as henry oak

jake hurwitz as glenn close

emily axford as darryl wilson

zac oyama as ron stampler

yes in my heart zac oyama counts as part of the crew. youre family if you've done an entire campaign with each other

[jimothy-g-brooks]

My D&Derivative [II]

More notes on that D&Derivative rattling in my brain that I’d really appreciate it if someone else stole it and did something with it:

- Like the Barbarian, I have a couple other classes for which I have multiple takes for. Fighters, the Martial Artists, merges the concepts of Fighters and Monks into a mystical martial class that may don armor and pick up a weapon and will pick up progressively more esoteric forms of martial arts as they level-up. They will start with taking a mundane martial art at first level, a mystical martial art at 7th and may or may not pick up a mighty martial art at 14th level, for a total of 2-3 subclasses. Then there will be Fighters, the Stunning Warriors, who gain access to increasingly improbable stunts. I’m on the fence on whether these stuns are something that A) anyone can do, B) any martial can do or C) only Stunning Warriors can do, but Stunning Warriors have significantly greater access to them. Stunts shouldn’t be entirely martial but some may have non-combat benefits as well. There would also be Fighters, the Masters Of Arms, an NPC class about being great at every weapon, hitting really hard with them- maybe even harder than the other Fighters -and having variable plethora of tricks available to them.

- Sorcerers, the Children Of Magic vs the Gifted Ones. The Children Of Magic would likely be, mostly, a direct port of the 5e Sorcerer with some differences, mostly buffs. The big one would be including Metaspells, spells will have optional effects that may only be accessed by the Children Of Magic. Some are simple, like be able to cast Dispel if you know Counterspell, and visa versa, or adding a Con save to Inflict Wound so it does half or double damage, all the way up to being practically a new spell, like changing Fireballs to be a self-centered explosion that automatically excludes you. The other big change would be that their subclasses are changed from Origins to Types, becoming more broadly thematic as opposed to connected to a specific type of creatures: Fire, Ice, Storm, Earth, Psychic, Kinetic, Mental, Life, Death, Chaos, etc.

The Gifted Ones have the more creature specific based archetypes, Origins: Dragons, Fey, Angels, Demons, Devils, Undead, this thing I found on the ground, abominations beyond space and time and sanity, etc. These may be fluffed as pacts or bloodlines, though either way one or more of the associated creature types will have some vested interest in you, whether you like it or not. So, it functions a lot like 5e Warlocks with few changes. Going back the ability score changes, I was considering that the Gifted Ones would use Cunning (Guile? I like Guile better, shorten to Gil) instead of raw Charisma. At 3rd level, the Sorcerer chooses a Method by which their magic manifests, though it’d be more accurate to say that the player chooses and the character may have no say in the matter. Magic, if they’re just going to focus on just being spellcasters, Martial, if they’re made into a magic warrior with a magic weapon, Monster, if they start turning into something akin to their patron/ancestor or Mate, if a lesser servitor or something associated with their origin teams up with them.

I was considering something similar with the Children Of Magic, as a 3rd level Training archetype, framed more explicitly as something the Sorcerer actively does. It could be Mastery, where the Sorcerer focuses entirely on training their powers, Self-Defense, where the Sorcerer goes gith and learns how to survive in a melee, or Trade, where the Sorcerer mostly allows their power to develop as they will while focusing on a skillset. They’re framed as feeling like doing a bit of multiclassing, as the Children Of Magic are able to focus on their choice of skillsets while coasting by on natural ability.

- Rogues probably remain entirely unchanged except for one thing. The Tricksters are afforded a Bag Of Tricks, something that lets them pull out some limited benefits almost entirely out of their ass. Some of these things might be pale echoes of other classes and their features, while others are entirely something the Rogue would have. The Eldritch Shadow, the renamed Arcane Tricksters, is framed as having made a pact with the Shadows themselves, and uses Cunning/Guile instead of Intelligence.

- Druids, the Witches In The Woods, are framed as... well, that. Rather than nature lovers, they’re mysterious mages whose power comes from an occultic mixture of cobbled together eldritch knowledge, pacts with small spirits and the backing of ill-defined, very old and only possibly natural forces. Instead of a proper Ranger PC class, one of the Druid archetype includes a martial dabbling one.

- I don’t have good idea for Paladins or Bards, yet, except to consolidate them, alongside Warlords, into one martial-mage support class, Beacons, the Shining Lights. Their archetypes, Illuminations, would better reflect one of these component classes, with Bards being more caster-focused, Warlords being more martial-focused and Paladins being in the middle.

- Cleric, Voices Of The Beyond, while mostly unchanged, will tie into summoning/minion making system, along with Wizards, that frankly deserves its own post to go into.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Hello there! I have a question! I'm working on my first homebrew world, and I'm making a seafaring pirate-ish campaign mixed with some Arabian vibes! I was wondering if you had any DM tips on how to keep consistent in my world, or work on immersion? I want my players to become invested in the characters, story, and locations but I'm a bit nervous it'll be all over the place.

Happy to help my friend! I’ve spoken before about keeping your gameplay tonally constant before if you’d like to read that over, but as for keeping your world constant, but as for immersion and investment? Those are to different tricks that we’ll tackle one at a time. 

Consistency, tone, and immersion: My honest advice, depending on how much media-consumption time you might have, is to gorge yourself on potential source material: you want your mind to be swimming with background details you can pull out at a moment’s notice, which’ll serve you better than trying to do specific research about niche things and going down a wikipedia rabbithole. Making a settling believable is about the scattering of random information from which your party can create their own mental landscape, rather than trying to be an absolute expert on any one thing. 

Here’s some stuff to be on the lookout for 

General Regional History ( I’ve got a great trick for that HERE) 

Cultural norms ( especially power relations and expecations between different social groups) 

Cuisine & Eating culture

Trade, both in terms of what jobs the local people have and how that affects nearby setlements, and what goods are imported from afar. (This is important for your piracy game because you’ll need to know what pirates are stealing and from where) 

Where the ruling power structures sit on the three way axis of: Authoritarian vs Permissive, Unified vs Scattered, Corrupt vs Righteous.

How environment ( shape of local landmasses, placement of islands, harbors, weather patterns) shapes travel and habitation throughout the region. 

And Here’s some ideas on where to look for inspiration: 

Modern translations/retellings of the 1001 nights, 

Pop history books on the era you want to study, as well as those directly adjacent to it. 

Just about anything involving Sinbad the sailor (shout out to the animated movie which just rules, as always) 

The Tumanbay podcast, which is a big political thriller set in not-Istanbul. It has more of a focus on court intrigue than you might be looking for but it’s tone and setting details are A+

Specifically any fiction books that might evoke the setting or themes of your campaign ( I’d highly recommend the Liveship Trilogy, but I’d take care with trigger warnings) 

Player Investment: There’s no magic sauce to make your party care about your campaign world, no matter what anyone tells you. NO matter how much work a Dm can do, they can only do half the work of making the story engaging, and the other 50% relies totally on the player’s own willingness to commit. 

That said, I highly encourage you to start small: simple missions with grounded stakes, and cram in as many likeable characters as you can. Players don’t care about campaigns immediately, but they do care about the friends they get to make in that campaign world. Player investment happens once they begin to think of the campaign not as something they’re playing through, but as a story that’s happening to them, and caring about the stories that are happening to other ( Npc) people is the stepping stone to that goal. 

Please write in if you need any more advice, I’d love to create a prompt or two for your setting.  Also be sure to check my pirate, jungle, and desert tags if you need any filler adventures!

[vergess]

Vee!!! I saw you mentioning you’re a healer main in FFXIV!!! Do you have any tips for someone picking up the game for the first time as a healer (who might also be really bad at mouse and keyboard gaming). If you know, you have time answer you know! I just wana keep my over confident girlfriend alive while we play.

Okay, I have several tips actually!

The very number 1 best tip I have? Your controller is compatible with the PC version of the game.

Like, any controller you have. You can use switch controllers, xbox controllers, playstation controllers, arcade style joysticks, everything is compatible. This game's controller support is bananas. I'm sure if you wanted to fight enough, you could use a fucking TV controller.

That's because Final Fantasy is a console game series, so the PC version of 14 still contains all the console gaming features you love.

I personally use this off-brand PS4 controller. If you're "bad at keyboard and mouse (KB+M)" FFXIV has you covered.

That said, I played it KB+M for years, very much against my better judgement (overwatch's community really traumatized me about KB vs controller) and had no issue with main content. The game is exceptionally forgiving in its balance.

It was only when I started wanting to do challenge content (savage raids, etc) that I ran up against my own physical disabilities regarding KB+M. You might be surprised how simple the keyboard layout is, but if you find yourself struggling, swap to controller. Unlike many games, you will not be penalized. I went from "good" to "fucking great actually" when i switched to controller.

Okay, but in terms of ACTUAL advice there are basically three things that will let you coast through all the main story content we have so far (patch day is so soon omg!).

1) Do your job quests.

Each healer plays fairly differently, which is why they have job quests. Your job NPCs will teach you the best way to approach the class you're using.

For example, White Mage puts out insane burst heal but isn't especially good at keeping the tank topped off: all of its heals are so large that you'll hit the tank's maximum health a lot, wasting any extra healing power. Astrologian is all AOE all the time, an ideal large party healer. Scholar is the pre-planning healer; its shields and fairy allow you to 'set it and forget it.' Sage is apparently where advanced players who want to maximize their damage output while healing will go, but it's not out until Friday so IDK.

2) Learn your tank-targeting button.

On controller this is usually two taps of the down arrow (1 tap is self-target). On keyboard this is usually F2 (F1 is self target). These keys can be customized, but those are the defaults.

When you first start, it's going to be super tempting to try to click to target the tank so you can heal them. But, this is an MMO, so either you're trying to click their constantly moving character, or you're moving your mouse cursor all the way to the party list which is tedious. Plus, you can "lose" your cursor by forgetting where you left it, which makes clicking anything else slower and more frustrating.

3) The tank does not actually need to be healed until their health is under half.

So, once they're at about 3/4 health you can mentally prepare yourself, then at half health you can heal them. This gives you plenty of time to target them, and figure out the healing skill you want to use.

You may notice I'm focusing a lot on the tank. That's because the common saying is, "if the tank dies, blame the healer; if the healer dies, blame the tank; if DPS dies, that's on them."

For the most part, DPS can handle themselves. DPS's job is to avoid attacks, and they're usually really good at it. There are some full-party attacks that you might need to worry about, but until you're quite far into the game, it's not a meaningful issue.

Because of the length of the game, it takes its time training you with any new mechanics. You'll be well versed in all of this stuff by the time you get to any dangerous party-wide attacks.

So, when you're first starting out, your ONLY job is to monitor the tank.

Once you feel comfortable with that, you can worry about avoiding the attacks yourself. After that you can worry about healing the DPS. And at the very bottom, once all that other stuff is more practiced, you can worry about doing your own attacks and other damage maximizing.

That sounds like a lot to juggle, but one of the things I love about FFXIV is the relatively slow pace of combat compared to any other multiplayer or MMO game I've played.

I find healer to be the easiest to play, because as healer I can ignore so many mechanics. If I get hurt, I heal myself and no one cares.

As DPS, the complex combination of trying to maximize my MUCH more complicated damage output and not get hit is really hard.

As Tank, needing to manage the positioning and placement of enemies is also really hard.

But as Healer, all I really need to do to is keep an eye on the tank's health and pop a rez if any of the DPS die. I don't need to maintain much awareness of the map or enemies or anything, just those health bars.

Also: the only healer you can pick up at the start of the game is White Mage (called Conjurer at that level). To pick up Scholar, you need to level the Arcanist class to 30.

Astrologian's intense focus on damage maximization is part of why you cannot access it until you've completed the first major story campaign. Because just dropping that on you from the start would be, frankly, cruel, and super overwhelming.

Oh wait one more thing. This isn't nearly as important, just a nice quality of life feature to make gameplay more comfortable.

Wherever on your screen you look the most, you also want to put a HUD element called "Focus Target." You can customize the location of it in Main Menu > Settings > HUD Layout.

For me, I spend most of my time looking at the party health bars, which I have in the upper left, so I have my focus target in the middle left.

Whenever you get to a boss fight, right click the boss (or, target it and press square to bring up the right click menu on controller) and select the option "focus target."

That will let you keep the boss's health and, more importantly cast bar on your screen even if you have to target the tank.

[ieatpastriesforfun]

I have to say, r/daggerheart has gotten considerably more pleasant in the past few days. I feel like with the interest in the game growing, there are newer folks participating in the discussions.

On the side note, I'm very curious what v1.3 will bring. If we are going by software versioning rules, it should be backwards compatible with v1.2, but there is no reason to believe that TTRPG versions follow those convention.

I would personally love to see a complete re-haul of combat, and take the MCDM rpg-like approach to damage, but I have a feeling that won't be happening.

The general pattern I see in Daggerheart's mechanics is a lack of elegance. You have to constantly create patch works of special cases and rules to make things work.

And it is frustrating because

I love their character creation.

I love their cooperative world building.

I love their general GM-ing philosophy.

I want to like this game.

I want this game to succeed.

Here are some of the things I hate about Daggerheart combat in v1.2.

I hate the damage thresholds so much, but I don't think they will get rid of that.

I hate that you can only inflict 1, 2, or 3 damage (4 with a variant rule).

I hate the fact that you can take down a very powerful enemy by hitting them 12 times with your bare bands, though the same enemy could soak up to hundreds of "damage" before falling.

I hate that you sometimes combine damages before determining the HP loss, and sometimes you don't.

The fact that these thresholds vary so much makes it feel like the weapon damage dice doesn't really matter.

I hate that there are so many meta-currencies rolling around. I would argue for getting rid of stress and armor slots, and just use hope for players. So when you run out of hope, you can't negate damage. For adversaries, I guess you can use fear in place of stress, though I suppose you'll need a bigger fear pool.

I hate the asymmetry between GM and players. It makes it literally a requirement for the game to come up with a bunch of side rules—you can't just plop a ally NPC or plop a created character as an enemy.

I hate that missing in combat sucks so much in Daggerheart—not only did you fail to hit the enemy, but you ended the turn for your entire party, and possibly handed a resource that the adversaries can use.

Last but not least, the action economy really needs a re-examination. There are 2 restrictions on GM moves that really frustrate me:

You can't move the same enemy more than once in a turn (unless the enemy has a special ability)

You can move one enemy using one token (unless the enemy has a special ability)

As a GM, if you don't pick your enemies right, you could end up with an encounter where most of your creatures are just kind of standing around doing nothing. Or the GM could have a bunch of action tokens they can't use—maybe convert some to fear for later, assuming you aren't already filled up.

I also don't like that players not doing anything is at times an optimal strategy. This came up a couple of times in the subreddit in question actually, and the crap comments the poster got was, "If you are trying to optimize, then you are playing it wrong." But can you really blame a player for not wanting to take an action if their action is much less effective than another character? Because taking an action in this game means you are risking giving a powerful resource to your adversaries (see above rant about missing in Daggerheart).

"Oh but @ieatpastriesforfun. You don't understand. Daggerhear is a narrative game. Don't you bring that GM vs Players mentality to this narrative game," a fan-human would say, ignoring that the very mechanics of the game undermine this philosophy.

Wow, that was a lot. I am done now.

r/daggerheart is toxic AF...and I love it

Note: This is just a rant about the subbreddit and their inability process any critique of the game that goes against their narrative of the game. The game itself has a lot of good parts, which I really like. But this post isn't about the game, but the subbreddit.

So you know, I am a nerd that like to nerd about games and probabilities. I've been interested in Daggerheart for a while because I am a fan of Critical Role, and the beta playtest rules recently came out. I was super excited, so I read through the PDF as soon as I got the chance, also started a game with my partner.

And honestly, there are some great parts to the game. But there are also some design decisions that made me scratch my head. So I shared some of my thoughts on r/daggerheart.

Oh boy did I poke a beehive. That subbreddit is pretty hostile toward anyone who dares to criticize the game. My first post critiquing the complexity of the damage system got down voted to oblivion. They told me I shouldn't have opinion on the very things I can read because I haven't played the game. So when I played the game and posted my feedback, these folks dismissed my criticisms because I was suffering from "new system syndrome."

Oh, and the comments. They were something else. The sub is dominated by a group of people who are pushing the narrative that Daggerheart is "rules-light" and "very easy" and "less math than DND."

Yes, Daggerheart is a rules-light game with a 377 page rulesbook. Because this is still beta, it is missing a ton of rules, not to mention artwork. But sure, it's a rules-light game. Because what is page count if not just a number?

Yes, Daggerheart is "very easy" if you ignore the fact that every character has HP, minor damage threshold, major damage threshold, severe damage threshold, stress, hope, and armor on top of your abilities and backstory and everything else you are trying to juggle.

Yes, Daggerheart has less math than DND because instead of just subtracting the damage from the HP, you compare the damage to each of the thresholds to decide whether or not you want to reduce the damage by armor, then determine how much you lower the HP by, unless it is below the minor threshold, in which case you take stress, but if you are filled up on stress, you take 1 HP. Oh, and you know, if you also ignore the fact that you roll two dice, add the numbers, and check to see which one is bigger to decide which one is bigger every single time you want to do something.

So yeah, if you ignore all of those very obvious things that I can see with my very own eyes, my own experience of running the game, my experience having played a rules-light RPG like Candela, they are right: Daggerheart is a rules-light game that is very easy to play with less math than DND /s.

Seriously, these folks will fight you tooth-and-nail to tell you that what you can see is wrong. They will gaslight you, tell you about how 11-years can play Daggerheart, their 73 year old mother can play Daggerheart, tell you that you are playing the game wrong, DND has taught you bad habits, and that your critique doesn't matter because all you want is the game to be more like DND.

And I love it. I love seeing the cognitive dissonance. I love going at it with these die-hard fans. And it's pretty easy on my part. I don't need to get mean—all I need to do is point out very obvious things. And you know, no foul no harm—we keep going until one or both of us get sick of arguing about whatever specific thing we are arguing about.

Anyway, enough of my rant.

I want Daggerheart to succeed. I really do. I think Matt Mercer and friends are pretty good folks, and I find their story inspiring, and I would love to see them succeed. I hope that Daggerheart developers listen to the critical feedbacks, make the game better, and not try to push any weird narratives (like they did with Candela vs FitD).

[lesbian-octoling]

The After FAQ

Q: I’m not 18, but I’m going to be very soon! Can I still sign up?

A: You have to be 18+ at the time of submitting your form. If you are 18: you can submit a form! If you’re 17, you can’t. If you’re going to be 18 a few months after the start date, you’re welcome to join as a spectator, but it will be too late to join in as a player. Apologies :(

Q: When will spectators be allowed to join?

A: We’re not sure when or how we’re going to open it up to spectators, but it will happen! It’s gonna be a lot less intensive than player apps- basically ‘are you 18 and can you send a social media to verify it’. It WILL be before we start though, and unlike player apps, spectator apps will never close!

Q: What are you looking for in terms of RP quality and length?

A: Answered in detail here! TLDR, we’re looking for quality over quantity. We are still looking for high-quality roleplayers… though high quality doesn’t always mean super active or super long/fancy responses each time- quality means 'fun to roleplay with’!

Q: How many people will you be accepting?

A: This depends on several factors, including if I have a lot of people playing 2 characters vs 1 character, what characters I think could mesh well, and also my mental state whenever the application accepting times rolls around (it's easier to manage less people, though more can be potentially more fun). I'm shooting for around 10-15 people max, and about 20-30 characters max. I'm just gonna eyeball it when the time comes.

Q: How will characters be chosen, and will there be any preference/bias?

A: Players will be chosen on a lot of factors, mostly on their passion for their characters, quality of writing, and if their character is already taken or not. There is no purposeful bias towards OCs, canon characters, etc.

Q: How ‘close do canon’ do my interpretations of canon characters have to be? Can I deviate from canon?

A: Yes, you can deviate from canon! I go into more detail here, but TLDR: Characters are 100% open to player interpretation and even redesigns. The only 'limit' is that they have to be recognizable as their original character to some extent. Otherwise, go crazy go stupid!

Q: Help! I messed something up on my form!

A: That’s ok! You can edit it.

Q: You mentioned these inklings will be partially xeno/bio-based- what exactly is the anatomy here?

A: Yep! The setting is semi-xeno, but not extreme. There’s a visual guide here if you’d like, but I recommend reading the rest of this anyway. Some of the details include the fact that ALL inkfish (inklings, octolings, and any other cepahlopods) are:

Humanoid (no mantles or oddly shaped limbs)

Have (usually white) beaks, not teeth

Often have freckles/colored splotches, and small glowing freckles/spots

Have white ‘meat’ and blue blood, but are supported by pressurized ink in place of bones

Clean water does not kill them- but they have very porous, fragile skin that means they can absorb dirty water/mutagen quickly to make them sick, and their skin can be torn by enough of a pressurized blast of water (think a power washer or high-power hose).

The main differences between inklings and octolings (aside form the obvious like ears and masks) are:

Inklings have purely round/circular pupils, while octolings have pupils that can widen/contract between horizontal and round

Inklings have thin, catlike retractable claws/’hooks’, while octolings have thicker claws that are more of a hard extension of the finger

Inkling hair is NOT prehensile- it’s mostly made of fat. It cannot feel pain, and only bleeds a little bit. This makes them better at storing nutrients. However, octoling tentacles ARE prehensile, can feel pain, and will bleed heavily if cut- but they have little fat storage on them.

For non-inkfish characters, just about anything is up for grabs (within reason).

Q: What if my characters have a feature that isn’t supported by these headcanons?

A: This is sort of a case-by-case basis. Generally, your base character will have to fit the qualifications above just for consistency’s sake across all players. If your character has a unique feature- IE, strangely shaped pupils, tail, etc- that you want to keep, there’s a possibility that they could be already partially mutated, but managed to keep their sanity.

This has a lot of pros and cons- pros include unique features and potentially abilities (tail for balance, good vision, extra long claws, quills)... but it also means they’re only one tiny accident away from becoming fully mutated, while other players have that health buffer. If that happens, you lose control of your character for the duration they’re mutated. This isn’t even bringing up the potential discrimination they may face IC, as many people are wary of partial mutants.

If you want to do this, or aren’t sure, feel free to message me with the details.

Q: Can I play a non-inkling/octoling species?

A: Yes! You can play as any species that fits into the settings of splatoon! Most marine animals are fair game, including marine invertibrates and fishes. Sapient marine mammals are iffy, as they’re technically canon by a one-off line. I will accept fully marine mammals such as dolphins and narwals, but not semi-aquatic animals, such as sea otters. Some ideas of accepted species includes: shrimps, jellies, nudibranches, eels, any saltwater fishes, urchins, salmonids, etc.

I also will not be allowing sapient reptiles, birds, land/semi-aquatic mammals, or land invertebrates. Also, I won’t be accepting ‘magical’ (Ghosts, cryptids, etc) or unrealistic hybrid creatures (An eel/inkling hybrid born naturally, salmonlings), as this is a slightly more realistic as opposed to fantastic setting.

Q: But if I play a non-cephalopod character, how will they fight with ink?

A: Good news! Ink isn’t the main weapon here.

Ink is used as a weapon still, but less offensively and more tactically. Having a small ink gun on hand is useful for making quick getaways, distracting/stalling mutants, and even spraying it in their face as a distraction, deterrent, or to blind them if you do go to attack. For most mutants, however, ink will not kill or ‘splat’ them, as not all mutants are inklings mutants. Plus, it would be unfair to non-inkfish characters.

Physical weapons such as bats, knives, and guns (and even some weirder stuff like swords, bows, etc)  are going to be your go-to, like any apocalypse, though ink weaponry in addition can be a big boon in a battle.

This is also a good time to mention that while we don’t have specific stats or anything, your character’s species will affect how they fight and are impacted by fights.

Inkfish are very fast and can jump very high, are extremely resistant to blunt force trauma, and can use ink... but are very weak to slicing/piercing things and chemicals/mutagen because of their thin skin. Urchins can’t use ink and may be slow, but have potentially toxic spines and hard skin that resists piercing damage. Shrimp might have a fragile exoskeleton and not a lot of natural weapons, but it makes them very resistant to chemical and mutagen splashes. It’s all good stuff to keep in mind!

Q: Can I know more about the mutants?

A: Yes, to an extent! There’s some info on the mutants here.

Q: Can I know more about the mutagen?

A: Yes, to an extent! There’s some more info on mutagen here.

Q: There’s a lot of questionable/offensive/weird content in Coroika. Will this be allowed/what elements of coroika will there be?

A: The short answer is ‘only some minor elements will be taken, and all weird/offensive stuff MUST be retconned or addressed’. We’re mostly going to be supporting the game’s canon, NOT the comic’s canon. I go into this more detail here, which I suggest you read if you plan on playing a Coroika character.

Q: Who are the mods?

A: Myself and @bubblegum-spaceboy​ are the main two mods who will be doing the bulk of the important NPC/world stuff!

However, we have two sub-mods who helped create the server/concepts, and will also be there to help out with little stuff if neither of us are available, and play some minor NPCs. These two are @bombcollar​, and my friend Emmy who doesn’t really use tumblr lol.

Help! My question isn’t answered here!

Feel free to send in an ask or a message, and I’ll respond as best I can :D

[sebastianshaw]

Someone at one of the boards I write at wanted to know if we had any advice or pointers about RP, and I got to thinking. I’ve been RPing fifteen years so it’s definitely a thing I have thoughts and opinions and tips on. I don’t mean to posit myself as the all-knowing expert whose standards you have to meet, but these are some things I think are genuinely helpful for a RPers to keep in mind no matter how long they’ve been writing. But also, just my opinions! SHARE THE SPOTLIGHT This is the biggest, first and foremost. RP is a two-way street, and I think the bulk of RP sins all trace back to people not understanding this and thinking that their character is the “main” character and everyone else is just an NPC in their story. This takes a ton of variations, with commonly seen ones being insisting that other characters act OOC for their sake (your character should fall in love with mine despite the fact they just met, your character should bully mine so I can be the victim in a hurt/comfort drama even if that’s totally unlike them to do that, your official-head-of-something character should bend the rules for mine because they’re just that special, etc.), needing to be the center of attention (the character who ALWAYS limps into the room having just suffered some terrible tragedy and needing immediate help, the character who always saves the day in such a way that the others weren’t even needed, etc.), or the character whose writer just can’t stop reminding everyone at all times how tragic/beautiful/powerful/helpless/witty/skilled/etc they are. This can go in opposite directions---the helpless character who always needs to be saved vs the all-powerful character who saves the day every time all on their own---but it comes from the same mentality, that their character is the star and everyone must revolve around them. This isn’t to say you can’t have RP arcs that “star” your character and are devoted to their story/development, or that your character can never be the hero, or never need to be saved, or any of that. That’s NOT what I’m saying. I’m talking about the person who does it EVERY time, often to the detriment of the story, derailing the plot, or showing up someone else’s cool moment to get the attention back on their own muse. If you’re gonna do that, just write your own fiction. DON’T DO PASSIVE STARTERS Something I see repeatedly in RP, whether it’s at a board or on Tumblr or on Discord, are starters where the character is just...sitting there. They’re studying in their room, or chilling at a coffee house, or just standing around at a party, or overlooking the ocean from a beachside balcony, or brooding silently in the corner... ...and not making any move to interact with anyone around them. It’s on the shoulders of the person replying to have their character make the first move and find some reason to walk up to them and engage with them. A starter is meant to begin an interaction, so if the second person is starting that interaction, why even bother with the starter you made? Starters where your character is just passively waiting for someone are not usually good starters, and that’s a big reason, in my opinion, why people usually don’t reply to a starter, because they’re stuck looking for a reason WHY their character would just walk up to this person and begin an interaction. My solution to this is, if it’s a planned starter, talk to the person you’re starting it for and try to work something out. For instance, the party starter. Ask them “hey, could it be a costume party?” and ask if their character might be dressed as a character from a show/movie/book that your character really likes---that gives your guy a reason to walk up to theirs and begin a conversation about that thing, and there’s your first post right there! A much more active starter! If it’s an open, it can be a little more difficult, but still doable. For instance, one open I did, I had my girl walk in and speak to whatever person was nearest; she was carrying a basket of Halloween decorations and asking if they’d help her decorate the place. I did not specify who it was, so whoever replied could decide if it was their character or not, but it was “active” in that she gave my partner something to respond and react to, rather than if she had just, say, quietly come in by herself without greeting anyone or doing anything. Obviously this might not work with characters who are shy or antisocial, but if you’re the one who decided to play that kind of character, it’s up to YOU to find ways to get them engaged; it’s not fair to make everyone else do it for you. For instance. Shaw is NOT a friendly person like Laynia, but I had him immediately address another person in one open by creating a situation where he’d have reason to do so, and would be stuck interacting with them. MAKE YOUR CHARACTER REALISTICALLY APPROACHABLE. This often goes hand in hand with passive starters; not only will the character not be engaging anyone around them, they will in fact be in situations giving signals that actively DISCOURAGE engagement. For instance, if someone is sitting in their bedroom, it’s entirely weird for anyone to come in that ISN’T their sibling or roommate. In a Discord college RP, one guy wrote his character going home and walking into his house and had that be an open...no one played any of his family members, so I’m not sure what he expected, that someone from school would just be waiting inside his house? There are also lots of situations where people are around, but realistically are not going to speak to you. Having your character studying in the library, sitting on the subway, or at a table in a restaurant are all common starter types I’ve seen...and all of them are situations where it’s extremely unlikely someone would engage you, unless it was an absolute emergency or they completely lacked any understanding of social norms. And if that’s the case for the character you planned it with, go ahead, you’re good. But if it’s not, or it’s an open, ask yourself---”If someone else made this open, how could my character realistically respond to it?” And if you have a hard time, change things to make it easier for the other player and their muse. This also applies to muses who are hard to approach regardless of the situation. People who are shy, or antisocial, or just for whatever reason do NOT want to engage with others. Those characters are great and I’m not saying not to play them, I play lots of people like that. But you shouldn’t expect other people to have to PRY an interaction out of them, and I see people do that---they write their cool loner or shy wallflower brooding in the corner, and if someone actually DOES walk up and talk to them, the character keeps pushing them away. It relies entirely on the other character just having to be that desperate to talk to them for some reason. And again, some characters will be, like I write a Squirrel Girl at another board who definitely WOULD pull someone out of their corner and into the party...but don’t RELY on other people doing that. Instead, try to find ways to make your character have to be engaged, instead of other people making them. See my Shaw example again. Shaw doesn’t normally like to talk to anyone unless he’s giving an order or has something to gain, but I found a reason he would for him. To use another example, there’s a very grumpy guarded girl that I write at another board, she doesn’t trust people or like them to begin with, and I put her on a subway car, aka one of the examples I gave about places where people realistically aren’t going to talk to you. No one talks to each other on subway cars except mentally ill people or beggars, unless you already know each other. So, how did I make it work? Well, I started the thread with just her and a few other people in the car. One of these people was a large man acting in an extremely threatening manner, pacing the car and muttering hostile things and occasionally shouting at the other passengers. It was in NYC, that shit happens. She kept her head down and ignored it, as most people would do, but when he singled her out and began to get her face, she confronted him back and stood her ground. I got things just to the boiling point, then had the subway doors open to let a new passenger in. Whoever stepped in would be walking immediately into a conflict, in a closed-off situation they couldn’t get out of once the doors shut again, and they would have to react to it in some way. If their character was the type to get involved immediately, great. If their character was the type not to, that’s also fine, because I could have the big scary guy turn his attention to them, basically dragging them into it. Either way, my open created a situation to REACT to, instead of just hoping the other person would do it, and it created a situation where interaction could realistically occur, even though it was in a setting when normally it would not. Btw speaking of that---”my muse bumps into yours on the street/in the hall/etc” is rarely a good idea for this reason. What do you think people normally do when they bump into each other? They say sorry, maybe help the other person pick up something they dropped, and go on their way. It’d be very odd if I bumped into someone and they tried to make an entire conversation out of it. Likewise it’d just be completely bizarre to, say, join someone you DON’T KNOW at their cafe table, etc. You can make these work but, as with the subway situation, you MUST get more creative to make a reason why it would work. “YES, AND” OR “NO, BUT” Okay, you got your interaction started, how do you keep it going? Well, there’s this rule in improv theatre for how to keep a scene going, and it’s that all your responses to your acting partners should be “yes, and” or “no, but” What this means is, whatever reply your character makes, it has to give the other character some hook to continue the interaction. Here are some examples. BAD Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: Yes. GOOD Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: Yes, and can we grab some pizza on the way? Joe doesn’t just agree to do the thing, he gives Sally something to reply to and keep the conversation going. And he could do this even if he DIDN’T want to go to the skating rink! BAD: Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: No. Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: No, but I was thinking, do you like the aquarium, how about that? Basically, whether he’s responding yes or no, he’s not closing the conversation. Of course, you do not ACTUALLY have to use the phrases “yes, and” or “no, but” just do stuff that will give the other person something to answer. Here are more good examples: Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: Yes, I loved skating as a kid, but I haven’t been able to do it in years, so I might make a fool of myself! Promise not to laugh? Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: Yeah, that would be great! It’ll be my first time. Do you skate a lot? Can you help me? Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: Hell yeah, I’m the skatemaster! Prepare to eat my rink-dust! Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: No, I hurt my ankle last Saturday, it’s a...long story.  Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: No, and listen, Sally? I think you’ve really misinterpreted our relationship. We’re co-workers, and I think that’s what we should stay.  Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: No, I’m sorry, my mom is sick and there’s just...so much shit going on. I don’t know what I’m going to do if this keeps up.  Sally: Do you want to go to the skating rink? Joe: Are you serious?! That’s what you’re thinking of at a time like this?! I can’t believe you! Some of these are positive, negative, angry, happy, sad, competitive, but they all keep the conversation going better than a “closed” response does.

[companionwolf]

Hi! My group has had a similar problem, where combat feels very boring and same-y. I asked for help from the FIST discord (FIST = game by Claymore, combines OSR + PBTA mechanics) and this is what folks to had to say (as this advice was meant for running FIST, it may or may not be applicable to you):

Make enemies put [the PCs] in bad positions. flanking, pinning them down, disarming them, etc. which will make them change their tactics. Alternatively, use environment to provoke reaction. If players don't use said environment enemies will.

Try to make combat scenarios a little bit more... uncommon then just "they shoot at you". Maybe its cover, maybe its maneuvers, maybe its unusual abilities enemies have.

Have consequences for death (of PCs, of NPCs, of enemies), and don't penalize leaving enemies alive. Make people scared of the PCs if they've leaned into the 'fight fight kill kill' mentality. Vary NPC tactics-- make a squad of snipers, a melee group, etc. Figure out what character skills/game mechanics are present that arent combat based and create a situation where youre incentivized to focus on that.

It's pretty hard to break out of the video game mindset for a lot of people. Sometimes you convince people by appealing to their fragility; for others, their humanity. It's rare that a person's first reaction is to fire on sight—most will hesitate, flounder a bit. Describe how afraid your NPCs are. Describe the way they banter when the PCs sneak in on their position. Is a fight even worth it? Is it truly necessary? When a sentry spots a hostile, they should shout and yell; standoffs before firefights. Few want to escalate. Few crave incident.

And lastly, from the same discussion, a few thoughts to think on + 2 quotes people there shared with me that me and my players resonated with as a RP heavy group--

User 1: To me, there’s a difference between shooting someone in the head when you clear a room vs. systematically removing body parts from someone and turning them inside out - how does a character react when they watch one of their comrades inflict some of the most truly awful violence on another living being?

User 2: [...] Even if someone deserves it, does that make it easier for you to rationalise the lengths that you’ve gone to do something?

(I don't remember where these come from at the moment; I think the first is from Unknown Armies 2e? The 2nd I have completely forgotten source.)

Advice wanted on dealing with Combat Slog

What I mean by combat slog is often a traditional D&D or Pathfinder (can be other systems too, frequently turn-based with larger numbers of combatants) combat encounter will be fun at first, but after a number of encounters, I am doing a routine attack sequence and then stuck waiting for the party or enemies to do their turns.

I want to be able to say this is an attitude problem, and it might be, but I’ve always felt this more acutely when playing rpg video games, thinking of games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, WotR, Rogue Trader, Baldur’s Gate 3, hell even my beloved Pillars of Eternity. But I also feel it playing D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, etc., with friends too.

Despite being the sort of person who will sit down and have fun making character builds specialized for combat, maybe I just don’t enjoy traditional combat that much.

Often it feels like combats are present as a time fill to prevent from getting to something interesting too quickly, especially egregious when having to fight through a number of distinct groups of enemies to be able to continue a conversation, that once again leads to more combat encounters.

Anyone else have this problem or have any advice?

[linguist-breakaribecca]

I’ve been trying to get my roommate to play D&D for the last 10 years, but he’s a veteran with traumatic brain injury which is progressing into dementia, and felt intimidated by the cognitive load he thought the game demanded. His idea of D&D has always been the popular image in media, where nerdlingers surround themselves with core books and compendiums to memorize vast amounts of stats and abilities.

We’re about to be moving home to Milwaukee, and the stress of that plus the World Of ‘Rona has been flaying my neurons, so I’ve been watching Dimension 20 on the TV as a good distraction. He sat and watched a bit of Fantasy High with me the other day, and it done blew his dang mind.

Watching them, he realized D&D could be a fun and forgiving! It’s not all hardcore pedants with encyclopedic knowledge of what everyone else should be doing! The players on D20 could make mistakes and the world didn’t end; they could have spell cards and notebooks and other memory aids without judgment; and the graphics on-screen helped him understand things like HP and death saving throws.

He could also see, via the amazing character art, that the PCs and NPCs could look however you want — they didn’t have to all look like one of six beefy/slinky archetypes that look more at home painted on the side of a kick-ass early-70s van. It sunk in that it’s not a matter of “I have to play The Wizard and make sure I’m doing what The Wizard should do and talk like The Wizard should talk!” Thanks to that visual representation of the characters, he finally believes me when I tell him he can play almost whatever he wants.

Once we’re back home later this month, he wants me to help him make an otter-man monk and wrangle some of his veteran buddies for a very low-key game. (Online to begin with of course, until All Thisᵀᴹ subsides and we can safely gather again.)

I don’t know if I’ve ever been this particular flavor of excitement to DM, and it may turn into a regular thing as part of the Veteran Service Organization I used to volunteer with up there.

Many disabled vets are socially adrift without the camaraderie, sets of rules/expectations, and strategy that bound them together, and that can be supplemented via group activities. In addition, D&D is particularly beneficial for a group with various levels of cognitive decline. Many standardized therapeutic memory and cognition exercises are hard to maintain with a brain that skips and reboots sometimes, so having a DM to track progress, remind them of the important stuff, and change up the difficulty level based on good vs. bad days can be a massive help.

I’m so amped to do this. I’m already mentally sketching out a derelict stone dungeon that just happens to coincidentally resemble the terrible VA hospital he’s been going to...