#some mentions of a former Flames RP group

[bride-and-bride]

When a newly appointed officer is asked to make a slightly unusual decision, he'd rather not step into any Office Politics Trouble. Much safer to hold an interview, first... go over all the details and make sure he knows what kind of woman Defiant Bride is.

A brief yet complicated summary of one Raen's military career, for the sake of me, who can never quite keep it straight~!

[arthur-rex]

ooc: fic/RP idea for a retelling of The Last Dragonlord

Strap yourselves in this is a long one… just didn’t know when/couldn’t stop with the overly detailed plotting! xD

Note: I saw the actual episode two days ago. That’s why it’s all quite vivid still in my mind ;)

~~

So the story starts with Kilgharrah haunting Merlin’s dreams and telling him Camelot’s doom is at hand/the legacy of Uther Pendragon will be terrible to behold/his bloodline will be cursed forevermore for his acts against magic-kind. Merlin works out from this that Kilgharrah is dying and the dragon is invoking some sort of ancient powerful magic in the moment of his death. Merlin has failed to free him from his chains basically, and now the imprisoned dragon is getting his revenge through other means…

Flash forward to the next day. Merlin and Arthur are doing their usual things but Merlin notices Arthur being a bit more hungry haha not like that than usual. He’s also developed a bit of an itch to his skin that continually distracts him whilst training the knights. So he asks Merlin to draw him a bath that evening and while undressing Merlin notices shock horror the skin on Arthur’s back is literally peeling off! More sinister than this, it appears that something that looks suspiciously like golden scales lie underneath… Arthur asks Merlin what’s up and Merlin is just so horrified he literally plays dumb and tries not to panic, just focusses on getting Arthur ready for bed.

That whole night he’s at the books with Gaius, trying to make sense of the curse that Kilgharrah mentioned and what’s happening with Arthur. They come across some page in a book that tells them about possession/mad kings/the significance of the Pendragon line…

And it suddenly just clicks with Merlin oh shit Arthur’s turning into a dragon. Camelot’s Champion is turning into Camelot’s fiery destruction. What does this mean for his and Arthur’s supposed destiny together? What can he do to stop the curse? What will Uther do when he finds out what’s happening to his son??!

Gaius tries to calm down an obviously distraught Merlin at this point and advises that they try and bring Arthur discreetly to see him. Maybe some of Gaius’ potions and salves can slow down the transformation/buy them time until they can work out what to do.

Merlin finds Arthur in the morning completely freaking out. More of his skin is gone and this time Arthur has noticed. Arthur’s nails have also grown pretty sharp. He’s scratched and cut himself in a few places. Merlin realises Arthur’s a bit fragile mentally as he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on. Arthur asks Merlin if he’s turning into a monster. Merlin is of course stuck in a quandary, just as he was with Morgana. He can’t tell Arthur everything as that would reveal his magic, but he also doesn’t like to see his friend so upset. He suggest they quietly go to seek Gaius’ help. At various points during their dialogue, Arthur starts to lose his temper with the whole situation. He shouts into Merlin’s face for being so damn calm about it all and then unexpectedly a gust of flame and smoke almost sets Merlin’s hair on fire! Arthur shuts his mouth pretty quickly, absolutely mortified. Merlin just doesn’t even know what to say. Arthur tells Merlin his father mustn’t know. Uther must never ever know. Merlin agrees.

They go back to Gaius who’s been preparing some herbal salve to put on Arthur’s cracking skin. There are more gold scales everywhere now and Merlin doesn’t know how much time they have. Worringly, Arthur has started to mutter a strange language under his breath - seemingly trying to fight some sort of strange magic that is taking him over. When Arthur goes to sleep (Gaius gives him some sleeping draught to help him along), Gaius tells Merlin about the Dragonlords and Balinor and tells him if anyone knows of a way to break the curse, Balinor will. He also advises Merlin that whatever might become of Arthur out of this, hard decisions might have to be made and Merlin could possibly be forced to reveal the secret of his magic with Arthur in order to save him. Merlin is torn, fearful of the consequences while Uther is still king.

So then the next day in the early hours of morning Merlin and Arthur saddle up on their horses and head out to seek Balinor. Merlin is trying to be cheerful but Arthur feels dreadful. They have had to cover him now with a huge cloak as his face is beginning to change. He’s growing horns. His mood swings are also turning more violent and unstable. He keeps slipping into the dragon language when his mind wanders and Merlin has to do everything to stop that happening. Every night when he sleeps Arthur dreams of Camelot burning and hears whispers of the Great Dragon telling him this is his destiny and when he wakes up panting and scared shitless his eyes have turned golden and his pupils have become slitted like a dragon’s. As they near to finding Balinor, a worn out Arthur takes Merlin to one side for The Talk. The Talk consists of Arthur basically giving Merlin his sword and saying to Merlin. Hey look. If this mission to find a cure spectacularly backfires, you’re going to have to kill me with this sword if I’m no longer able to do it myself. Merlin looks at it and says he can’t but Arthur makes him promise. Merlin reluctantly agrees. Arthur tells Merlin to tell Gwen he loves her, if when the time comes he cannot.

They find Balinor like in the episode and Arthur’s getting really edgy but Merlin just sticks with the plan and tells Balinor his friend is really sick and needs help. A group of mercenaries appear at this point and attack the three having heard a tipoff from the tavern that strange beasts were abroad that needed slaying. This action pushes Arthur into savage beast mode(!) and as this overlarge human dragon hybrid he swipes his claws and lashing his tail at them. He kills the mercenaries and saves Merlin and Balinor but at a cost as the transformation really starts to set in and Arthur starts to lose grip of his consciousness due to the strain of resisting the effects of the change/losing his identity. He doesn’t even get a chance to tell Merlin to kill him before he’s out unconscious.

Merlin and Balinor then carry Arthur together back to Balinor’s cave where they have their little chat and Merlin asks Balinor if there is a way to reverse the effects. Balinor is a bit ‘no comment’ on this and questions why Merlin would want to stop a young dragon from coming into the world. A changeling of this kind is extremely rare, or else this is a person of royal blood under a curse. Merlin goes a bit tight-lipped after that and Balinor eventually works out this must be Arthur Pendragon with him. Feeling vindictive, Balinor says it serves Uther right, for all he did to destroy the Dragonlord people and outlaw magic in the kingdom. It’s nothing more than delicious irony that his son and heir will destroy the kingdom his father created. Merlin counters that this isn’t about Uther, this is about Arthur, and that it shouldn’t have to be the son that suffers for the sins of the father. Balinor hesitates, but he says that although he bears no ill will towards Arthur this has clearly been chosen as his destiny and he can’t avoid it. Merlin (who knows that Balinor is his father thanks to Gaius telling him) makes the sort of vague comments he does to try and make Balinor realise he is his son - they discuss Uther’s purge, Ealdor, and what all this might mean if dragon!Arthur simply burns it all down. Merlin asks one last time if Balinor will help him. Balinor refuses once more.

Merlin leaves the cave deeply upset. He picks up the sword and remembers his promise to his friend. He’s going to have to kill Arthur. Grimly resolved he goes back into the cave to do The Deed, but only to discover that Arthur has awoken and although he still looks very dragon-ish he appears to have regained command of his mental faculties. Balinor seems to imply that Arthur and he have ‘struck up a friendship’. Merlin is a bit confused/suspicious of this but realises perhaps this means Balinor does know of a way to restore Arthur to his normal self. Balinor agrees to go with them to Camelot, implying that if they travel to the place where the original dragon enacted the curse they might be able to reverse its effects.

On the way back to Camelot, Balinor and Merlin have a further chat which culminates with Merlin telling Balinor he is his son (like in the episode). Balinor is shocked, humbled, and immediately proud of his boy (as he is in the episode). He begins to tell Merlin all will be well now, the power to save Merlin’s friend has been inside him all this time, but suddenly they are stopped by patrols of Camelot’s knights. In the days since Arthur and Merlin snuck out of Camelot on their mission, Uther has set up a mega operation to find Arthur and kill/take prisoner those who dare thought to kidnap his son. Balinor and Merlin try their best to conceal Arthur but someone gets the cloak off him. By this point Arthur’s original features have been twisted so much he isn’t easily recognisable as himself, and the knights all draw their swords to slay the monster. Arthur becomes highly distressed to see his former knights and friends turning on him and this sadness melts into anger which of course triggers the full onslaught of the curse and Arthur pretty much metamorphoses all the way into a large golden dragon (about ¾ the size of Kilgarrah). Driven by the madness of his curse, he burns most of the knights alive before flying off towards Camelot. Presumably to enact his ‘destiny.’

In the wake of the destruction, Merlin emerges to find Balinor horrifically scarred by the dragon fire. He’s been burned within an inch of his life, and he is dying. He and Merlin have a final chat where Balinor tells Merlin he was right. Arthur should not have to suffer for the sake of his hatred of Uther. He then shares his secret with Merlin, that he as the last Dragonlord is able to speak to dragons and thereby tame them. He says Merlin as his son has this power too, and he must find Arthur and tell him who’s boss calm him and bring out the best in the beast. Balinor then dies.

Merlin travels on to Camelot by himself. Arriving outside its gates he finds the city already burning. It looks exactly as Arthur described to Merlin in his earlier nightmares. He fears for Gaius and Gwen, but he knows he’s got to find and subdue dragon!Arthur first. He tries to get the dragon’s attention by riding round a horse and shouting up at it. He avoids using magic initially and outright, as he still harbours this deep sense of shame for hiding it from Arthur all this time and revealing his magic now and using it offensively against him would just hurt/piss off his best friend more. Merlin then has An Idea. He searches for Gwen and takes her with him to the green clearing, thinking that Arthur’s feelings for Gwen will draw the dragon to them. It does.

Dragon!Arthur arrives and lands near to the two of them, looking very interested with Gwen (she’s absolutely petrified - Merlin hasn’t really told her everything that’s going on does he ever). Noticing Gwen is frightened by his appearance, dragon!Arthur gets very agitated and beats his wings, roaring/etc. Gwen gets thrown on the ground in the commotion, banging her head against something and falling still. Meanwhile, Merlin has his inner Dragonlord awakening moment, and finally speaks the language of dragons. 

He calms dragon!Arthur until he settles on the ground, utterly docile. Then Merlin notices the dragon is crying. He’s looking at Gwen’s motionless body. And he’s looking back at Merlin. Merlin senses Arthur’s pain. He thinks he’s killed his girlfriend, he’s destroyed half of Camelot and he’s feeling upset/shocked/betrayed by Merlin, who (although he’s managed to stop his crazed rampaging) has been keeping his powers secret from him all this time. Merlin reaches out and touches Arthur’s snout to console him. Then he goes over to Gwen. He finds she’s still alive, but desperately needs Gaius’ aid. He asks dragon!Arthur to fly them all back to the castle. They ride on Arthur’s back up to the Keep. 

Once Gwen is safely in Gaius’ care, a whole legion of knights with Uther among them spills out onto the courtyard. The sight of Uther causes the deep well of poison in the curse to flare up again in Arthur, and it looks like the dragon is going to murder the king. But Merlin places his hand on the dragon’s side again and calms him. A few of the knights fire arrows at dragon!Arthur and Merlin. Aware that Merlin wishes to keep his magic secret from people who know him, Arthur shields the warlock with his wings before picking him up in his claws, carrying him away. 

They land outside the castle. Merlin comforts dragon!Arthur as best he can. He can sense Arthur’s despair in his head. He’s tormented by what he’s done to the knights and people of Camelot as a dragon and believes he’s going to be stuck as a monster for the rest of his life. He’s lost his home, family, friends. Everything of his past life. Merlin reminds Arthur of what Balinor said about returning to the place where the original dragon cast the curse in order to revoke it. He tells Arthur to not give up hope.

They travel together deep underground into the pit where Uther chained Kilgharrah. There they find the crumbling bones of the deceased dragon and the heavy chains that have fallen away, and are lying open. Merlin pauses, unsure what they are meant to do. It takes a few moments, but dragon!Arthur eventually realises what must be done (he can feel/hear the ancient magic of the Old Religion speak to him while he is a dragon) and nudges at Merlin to do it. When Merlin realises via their telepathic link, he disagrees - no, no, no there must be another way! - but Arthur knows there isn’t. 

To break the curse on their bloodline, the son of Pendragon must suffer to be chained as Uther had imprisoned and persecuted those with magic before. The deep wrongs perpetuated against magic kind must be atoned for.

So dragon!Arthur submits to Merlin casting the enchantments to bind him to the rock where Kilgharrah was once chained. Merlin asks Arthur why go through with this? If it means he can never be free - what point is there in breaking the curse?

Dragon!Arthur speaks, and for the first time it’s not in Merlin’s mind but spoken out loud like a proper Great Dragon can speak. He wishes to right the wrongs of his father. As a dragon he has witnessed first hand how those that are magical are hated and hunted down, through no fault of their own but simply for being. He wishes for a future society of kindness and that the intolerance his father perpetuated be locked away underground and never be seen again. Merlin tells him he’s being a pompous self-sacrificing arse. Dragon!Arthur merely laughs and threatens to burn Merlin’s hair again if he disobeys. As Merlin wipes his nose on his sleeve and leaves his friend chained in the darkness, he tells him he’ll visit everyday. Dragon!Arthur just tells Merlin to have a life of his own for once, and to tell Gwen he loves her.

Flash forward to a few months into the future. Uther Pendragon, the King of Camelot, has fallen ill to a strange wasting illness. He’s literally dying, becoming more and more (metaphorically) chained to his bed as each days passes and his strength fails. The king’s ill health leads to civil unrest in the kingdom with rival factions warring over the succession to the throne. It’s all the besieged Knights can do to keep the peace. Prince Arthur has not been seen for months. He is presumed to be dead, although some blond men pretending to be Arthur keep miraculously popping up to try and claim their supposed ‘birthright’ to the throne. It both really hurts and pisses Merlin off.

Anyway, when Uther finally dies, Merlin senses a seismic shift in magic around him. Hardly daring to analyse what this means, he runs downstairs deep underground to the lair where his friend lies in the darkness in chains.

Dragon!Arthur is not there. Instead there is simply a large egg. And a blond, naked man lying in the dust curled around it. Pretty much like Daenerys from GOT in that scene

Merlin runs over and grabs his friend in a tearful hug and a shivering Arthur goes “hey I’m naked and cold, give me something to wear.” They have their moment and then Merlin tells Arthur all the latest news in Camelot. Arthur grieves the passing of his father. But then he picks up the dragon egg in his arms, and for a fleeting moment, feels the young (Pen)dragon inside moving. And he is reminded that life goes on. 

The two then carry the egg with them back into Camelot, where Arthur will claim his throne, usher magic back to the kingdom and become the first royal in over a thousand years to hatch a dragon egg (with a bit of help from his court sorcerer). They call the baby dragon Kilgharrah in honour of his grandfather and he grows to become Protector of the Realm. 

~~

And there you have it. 

I call this monstrosity of an AU “The Last Dragonlord and his (Pen)Dragon.  Note: I am sorry if many of the ideas in this fic are cheesy as sin and/or badly abused tropes. I am so sorry.

[askhaylie]

Task 002:About the mun

Name/Alias:Andrada 

Pronouns:She/her

Which characters do you write currently?:

Haylie Hades,  @askhaylie

Aziz Al-Hamed,  @askprinceofagrabah

Ayana Kani, @asksavannahchild

What got you into Descendants?:

One of my former middle school classmates told me about it the year the first film was released and we decided to watch it together that summer. I immediately fell for the plot and the possibilities.

Favorite color:Blue

Favorite food:Pizza, plum dumplings, paella

Favorite book(s) and character(s) from it:Too many to write here but I’ll name the ones on the top of my head:

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, my favorite characters would be Lira and Elian. Fun fact: Prince Elian, the pirate prince, serves as one of my fictional inspirations for Aziz.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, with  Amari as favorite characters. Her character developement so far is pure bliss

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton with MIa as favorite character. This novel kept me on the edge of my seat and the protagonist is relatable.

Hyacinth girls by Lauren Frankel, though I can’t say that I have a favorite character because they all touched my heart. I cried reading it and don’t regret a single tear.

Favorite movie(s) and character(s) from it:

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them with Newt and Queenie among my favorite characters. I’m a big Harry Potter fan and I love this new franchise taking place in the wizarding world

Joseph:King of Dreams but again, I don’t have a favorite character because I generally liked it for the heartfelt message and the badass representation of Ancient Egypt. I’m also in love with other Dreamworks masterpieces like The Road to El Dorado and Prince of Egypt.

The Greatest Showman with everyone as favorite characters. I could watch it everyday.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?:

So far one of my favorite memories/experiences would have to be volunteering at the International Mathematical Olympiad this summer. I got to see people from 114 countries in the same place and it was fun.

Fill one of these out for each character!

Character Name: Haylie Hades

Parent(s)/Movie:Hades/Hercules

What makes this character special?:

She grew up on the Isle but still turned out as a total Hufflepuff (or Hufflepunk as she’d prefer it). She was also half-raised by none other than the Greek goddess Persephone and her hair bursts into flames when angry like her father’s. 

Fun fact: most people won’t remember this but last summer when I applied for Haylie she was the first VK OC in AskDescendants (my first rp group which is no longer active).

How are you and this character similar? Dissimilar?:

We’re both introverted and my secondary Hogwarts house is Hufflepuff but that’s where they similarities kinda stop besides our love for dogs. I don’t have her confidence or sarcasm. Or her tough, kinda scary and definitely fiery attitude. We both prefer mental activities to phsyical ones but she’d rather study science (especially Physics) while I’d always go for literature and history.

What’s the hardest part about writing this character?:

The things she says are often mean and I feel like apologizing in the tags. Nevermind the fact that I’m the one coming up with her comebacks and they don’t always turn out as snarky as I wished because while I’m considered witty by  my friends I’m  not a comeback machine like other people. All of my current characters are witty in different ways and it’s also a matter of portraying difference between them in their speaking styles.

What do you see this character doing in the future?

I see her found a sort of NGO tasked with rescuing puppies, hellhounds and other mythological creatures like hydras from all around the world, along with an international campaign designed to help people understand them better. Assuming she’s marying Tayen, she’ll visit Pixie Hollow regularly and serve as an ambassador of the Underworld to the living world. Naturally, she’ll continue to stand by Queen Cora of Wonderland as her best friend.

Character Name:Aziz Al-Hamed

Parent(s)/Movie:Aladdin and Jasmine from Aladdin

What makes this character special?:

For a person who lacks magical powers, he sure is surrounded by magic. His girlfriend has ice magic, his aunt is half-Djinn and one of his other friends is a descendants of the sun God Inti. Not to mention his magic carpet. 

How are you and this character similar? Dissimilar?:

Not at all, I’m an introvert who likes reading and he’s an extroverted athlete. The list goes on. But he shares my love for travelling and helping other people.

What’s the hardest part about writing this character?:

As I’ve mentioned before, we’re very different. Plus, he’s technically canon and though underdeveloped in the franchise, I care about getting his portrayal right.

What do you see this character doing in the future?

I see him becoming a beloved and commited Sultan of Agrabah, having learned in the meantime that he doesn’t have to seem “invincible” or “perfect.”. Assuming she’s marying Eira, he’s probably gonna have kids and find a way with the new Queen of Arendelle to rule both of their lands together. I also think he’s gonna hire a royal wizard of some sorts to deal with magic  without falling into the hands of another evil sorcerer like Jafar. He’ll definitely have regular state visits to his fellow royal friends like Stefan and Ben.

Character Name:Ayana Kani

Parent(s)/Movie:Rafiki/ Lion King franchise

What makes this character special?:

She was raised by a mandrill and a bunch of  (royal) lions in the savannah.She denies her humanity because of this and doesn’t care about Auradon’s rules.

How are you and this character similar? Dissimilar?:

We both feel good around nature and kind of at disadvantage in social situations (though for completely different reasons). We also like giving advice and learning new things but we do it in different ways. Otherwise, we’re very different.

What’s the hardest part about writing this character?:

Again, she’s very rebellious and unpredictable. Sometimes it’s hard predicting her next move because even though I developed her mindset before applying for her she makes her decisions on the spot with her guts.

What do you see this character doing in the future?

I’ve only been writing her for a week so I’m not sure. I think after more time she’ll learn to accept her humanity and change the world around her for the better without causing accidental havoc at the same time. She might stay in the Pridelands as a shaman and royal advisor (which is the only goal she currently sees fit) or become a sort of bridge between Auradon and Pride Rock, helping with diplomatic relations between the two nations. 

[stiltfox]

FORGING HOPE: A LARP TALE

*Photo credit to eullogygallows on Instagram*

Let me tell you about one of the most intensely emotional RP moments I’ve gotten to have in years at a LARP.

For my followers who don’t know, I do LARPing. I have for about 13 years now, with my 14th year starting up this June. I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing through this hobby. My girlfriend, my closest friends...I barely have any non-LARPing friends these days. The hobby as a whole has problems, but the communities I’ve been a part of are ones that make me feel like wearing my character is coming home. Now, Tales of Valor is the LARP you see up there. I’ve been there for 4 years, and I’m going to sob at the end of this campaign. I play a Drakkon, a semi-experimental dragon race (created in a pocket dimension as a way to make troops to fight the Darkened, which is the world ending threat--yeah, it’s...complicated when you get into it.) Spire is a Wyrm worshipper, hoping that her actions to fight threats to the world of Jhoril keep them asleep. The Wyrm(s) waking up in basically a world-ending thing. So. Not good. Gotta keep that shit asleep.

OUR PLAYERS FOR THIS TALE:

Spire (myself): A young(er) drakkon, Champion of Skelter (A Wyrm) who has started to loose her hopes of surviving this war.

Ronin (my friend): A former drakkon, now living hex, who is the Battlescryer (shaman) to Spire’s Champion, father of her children, and basically who Spire sees as her balancing half.

Andronicus Felix Vitus (my girlfriend): Spire’s best friend, a dedicated healer who gives his all for the good of everyone, and a Legate of the Second Taeran Legion...he’s the only living member. It’s awkward.

Lavinia Felix Valeria (One of my IRL BFFs): Andronicus’ twin sister. A mage who wants to fist fight her father and his antiquated ideas. She got books to read, you fucks!

Saedry: A human woman from Dun Darmac who has become close with everyone involved. A prophecy has bound her to her blade, which was forged to destroy a great evil.

Arikara: A worshipper of Whirlwind. She’s been coming to us with visions, trying to piece everything together.

Journeyman: A mage from another stream (reality) who lost his home to the Darkened.

Other honorable mentions, mostly because FUCK there were a lot of people who were involved but on the edges and I can’t remember everything: Adamant, Arif, Gwen, Alan Shadowmoore...probably more but I’m blanking...They were all important to our actions, but I didn’t see so much of it, I couldn’t tell you what in particular.

This past weekend, I got to be part of a plot that didn’t seem like much at first. Almost 2 years ago, we had someone just show up and leave us vague hints about a cold wind coming. Okay, sure.

It wasn’t until about...9 months ago, at most, I realized that what we were doing was bigger than we thought.

Arikara told us of visions she had been having, vague and uncertain. In September, we wove together bracelets, laughing and telling stories, and being close. 5 of us wove a bond together.

(Now, I’m a fan of The Adventure Zone, and we’re forging bonds? My little nerd heart sang.)

October: “The next time we meet, it will be the beginning of the process.” Oh. Well. Shit. Okay.

So, let’s discuss this past weekend. We’re still mostly flying by the seat of our pants here. With a bag full of Journeyman’s shattered stream, we sat down to do the first step of the 3 rituals for just forging this, not even including the other two I was in. I’m a fighter, this is a lot of rituals...

First, we had to align the shards with our stream, our reality. We (myself, Ronin, Andronicus, Lavinia) sat at a quartered circle, with Arikara in the center. With each of us holding a fistful of them, they needed to hear a story of loss. We grew quiet, until Ronin told the story of how he was taken into the Taer Gladiatorial Arena. It wasn’t pleasant. A young drakkon, beaten down, forced into fighting to survive...and he was lost from our clan for nearly a decade.

Then, we had to tell a story of life. Again, we grew quiet, until Arikara spoke for us, telling us with joy about how life was springing forth all around us. It’s spring! Plants, animals, growing things...children, family! All these things, all this love. Right there.

She asked us how the pieces felt now. Before they felt cold, but we went around, and spoke...and it felt like holding hope, to me.

We were given musical notes to put into the order we heard them

The next part was part that hurt hardest for Saedry. Under Journeyman’s guidance, the sword she’s been carrying for years needed to be convinced, then broken down into pieces. We had to use the out of order notes to disrupt the sword’s harmony, and break it. I know how much Saedry’s destiny matters and hurts her, and I nearly started crying myself.

Then, late at night, the final ritual.

Arikara and Journeyman led a group of us down to a safe location. With the pieces of Journeyman’s stream, we laid them down in a path, from point to point. Saedry laid her pieces of her sword into a forge flame, saying a small goodbye for now, only to a spirit to appear, voiceless and faceless, waiting at the start of the path we laid.

The first point, Wind. Our littlest Legate stepped up. “Andronicus, tell us a story of fear,” Arikara asked. He spoke of his time fighting on the front lines in Drakkonar, about how drakkon in the dark send him back to those moments, where a glint of light in the dark could be armor of another legionnaire, or the glint of scales and horns, preluding an ambush. “Thank you, Andronicus.”

The next, his sister, walking the path to her point at Bear. “Lavinia, tell us a story of anguish.” She told us of how she wanted to be the Greatest War Mage of Our Generation...and now she feels lost and meaningless amongst all of us.

Then, I walked from their points to my own, at Wyrm. “Spire, tell us a story of anger.” Anger comes easily to me. I am angry a lot. At our foes...but mostly myself. I keep seeming to fail to keep people safe. And I know...one day...my anger is just gonna burn me up, and that’ll be the end.

Ronin stepped along the paths, taking a brief moment to press a reassuring hand to my arm as he walked past, to Dragon, also of Wyrm. “Ronin, tell us a story of melancholy.” He spoke of being caged, and what that does to you. How you feel strong enough to rally back and fight it at first, but it wears at you. Sometimes he feels like the cage is never truly gone.

Journeyman paused, laid down the one piece of his stream he had at the beginning of the path, and told his story of loss, and of hope. How he lost his home, but found a new place.

We had no one to stand at the end...until Saedry was asked to step forward. “Saedry, tell us a story of hope.” And she did. She told of what burdens she’s been carrying, and the hope that’s involved. Then she stepped forward with the spirit, and pulled forth the pieces to affix to weapons.

Arikara then told us, as we walked the path back, that she had to leave. Her time with this, and us, was done for now, but that we’d see each other again some day. Ronin made her cry by  giving her a hug and promising that it wouldn’t be goodbye forever.

And finally...Journeyman was there to tell us about the details. About what we had done...we had created pieces of things to power weapons to kill Darkened Lords. Someone asked “and the price?” knowing that the price of killing a Darkened Lord meant someone’s final death.

“The price has already been paid.”

His home. His people. They had already paid the price for this. It would allow us to do so without sacrificing ourselves.

“The incant you must say when you strike down a fallen Darkened Lord...

By the Longest Road, And by those who have fallen before us, I sever this Darkened Lord’s Spirit. Final Death.” And that’s how we forged hope into items.

By working together, by sharing our sorrows and pains, and by sharing our hopes, we forged weapons to strike down these foes who would see us obliterated.

Damn.

Take out of that what you will. I know what I did.

[cleretic]

The problem with ‘Riddler Plots’ in RP

Something I’ve seen plenty of times in roleplaying of all stripes are DMs including overt puzzles into a plot or scene they’re running. We’re talking about direct, unobfuscated tests of knowledge and problem-solving, sometimes absent of any in-story justification outside of ‘finding a puzzle that needs solving’. They’re usually puzzles that the DM themself either designed or adapted. I’ve taken to calling these ‘Riddler Plots’, because that’s what they’ve always reminded me of: the exact kind of challenges the Batman villain uses, that are only there for the sake of puzzles.

You could also call them ‘Da Vinci Code Plots’, but I think the Riddler’s actually a step up.

I don’t want to take away from the work inherent in designing a good puzzle; it’s a skill I definitely don’t have. But designing a good puzzle is a world different from designing a good puzzle for roleplaying purposes, and one that’s suited for the former might well be god-awful for the latter. I want to explore that, expose the problems and potential solutions.

When talking about this, I think it’s best to start with an example that gets everything wrong, before exploring how to do it well. What I don’t want to do, though, is shame people who have actually done these things wrong in RP; we all make mistakes, and we can all learn from them. So rather than actual or mocked-up RP examples, what I instead want to do is use missions from The Secret World as examples: to explore why missions like these would or wouldn’t work as a scene or plot in roleplaying, because of reasons that tie into the problems with Riddler Plots, and what we might be able to do to improve them.

“Fly through my maze, Superman!”

Superman 64 is a famously bad game for many reasons: extremely poor controls, countless glitches, terrible graphics, the list goes on. But perhaps the most important single reason to me was always right there in the title: ‘Superman’. The game’s very title delivered a specific promise, that it then failed to deliver on, because it couldn’t possibly make you feel like Superman when you’re just flying through a ring maze. There’s a reason one of the biggest compliments given to the Arkham games is that they make you feel like Batman.

(I promise I’ll stop referring to DC Comics stuff now.)

This is the problem that the worst Riddler Plots bring: players are coming to the plot as roleplayers, for roleplaying. And an overt puzzle isn’t roleplaying. Characters aren’t the ones interacting with an overt puzzle: the players are.

Consider Digging Deeper from The Secret World; this would be awful in a strictly roleplaying context, despite being a good mission in the game, but let’s explore why.

In the context of the game, this is one of the earliest investigation missions, and acts to teach you the skills in looking up pertinent knowledge that you’ll need in future investigation missions. This works, because the game is directly challenging the player; it doesn’t care about the character. But if it were a roleplayed scene it would fall apart, as the characters themselves have no agency, and the players can’t possibly roleplay out a solution. They have to solve it themselves.

This problem only becomes more present when you enter spheres like freeform online roleplaying and in many MMOs, because at the very least tabletop roleplaying has tools to mitigate this. In a tabletop game, there are often skill rolls or feats built into the game that players can enforce, to bring an in-character element to an out-of-character puzzle. Those tricks aren’t in play in many other roleplaying mediums, and so the players are either left to solve the puzzle themselves, or try to use nebulous parts of their character to negotiate help from the DM. And in my experience, ‘I don’t know classical music, but my character definitely would’ is rarely accepted without something to enforce it.

Not only that, but the puzzle is directly present to an almost comical degree: you have to solve a puzzle, for no other reason than because the puzzle is there, there’s no logical, in-story reason the obstacles in place are puzzles. This is also true in the game, but in roleplaying it would be even more egregious because it takes away all potential alternate approaches that could be roleplayed out.

The DM has thrown away the central draw of roleplaying for the players, and is instead forcing them to fly through their maze.

So there’s two major problems here preventing this from being a good roleplaying experience. How do we fix them? Let’s take them one at a time, starting with the first mentioned, and what doing it right could look like.

Character Skills and Accepting Alternatives

So, the problem is that we have a puzzle--or series of puzzles--that exist to both the player and character on the exact same level. The player and character would be using the exact same approaches and skillsets, and there is effectively no difference between the two until the puzzle’s been solved. This is a problem if the goal is ‘providing a good roleplaying experience’, so how do we solve it?

Of course, this has already been solved by tabletop games, although implementing the solution is another matter: respecting and utilizing the skills or equipment the character has actually been written up to have.

Using another Secret World mission as basis, let’s use Death and Axes, which does well to demonstrate avenues that could be pursued to improve a puzzle in roleplaying. This is a mission all about following fragmented clues left by ghosts (both figurative and literal) to discover the identity of their killer. With all the clues put together, the player is expected to figure out themselves who the murderer is. In a roleplaying setup, this works pretty well, but it does have the problem that the player and character are on the exact same level.

But what if they weren’t?

This mission involves learning from literal ghosts; what if one of the characters being played actually was a medium, and so could communicate better, and glean more information? Or alternatively, what if somebody’s playing a police detective, somebody whose whole profession is figuring these things out?

In both of these cases, the planned elements of the plot should be bent or revised, to respect and aid the fact that somebody’s character is uniquely suited for solving this.

Alternatively: who’s saying that your solution is the only way forward?

Consider the mission The Orochi Group; you sneak into a research camp, to learn just what these guys are doing. I bring this up because of a specific point in the mission, where you force a tent to evacuate by contaminating their air conditioning. It gets everybody out, allowing you to get in, but then you’ve got the problem of dealing with the gas you put in there yourself. Interestingly, this isn’t a problem that the game outwardly gives you an answer to. You can muscle your way through the debuff it gives you--and in fact this is the only option in Secret World Legends--but there’s another way.

Near the place you start the mission is a side mission, Up In Flames, that gives you a hazmat suit. Wearing this suit means the debuff is never applied, allowing you to complete the mission without trouble. This was clearly the intended way…

But it’s not the only way. Other ways to filter gases also work: a mission introduced later gives you a respirator that also works. But even at launch, there was another one: Illuminati players are given, as part of their faction uniform, a gas mask that turns out to be functional. So, if Illuminati players are smart enough, this puzzle never even exists for them. That rewarding of lateral thinking, using resources available in-character, is fantastic, especially for roleplaying.

These two approaches do great to help players feel more like they’re actually roleplaying out a solution, but both of them (the latter more than the former) require the DM to do something extremely difficult: to accept their creation being broken. Either by providing more information than the players have personally ‘earned’ through the character doing the hard work, or by smashing past the puzzle entirely though alternative approaches. This is why many DMs will refuse to do this, out of a desire to protect their creation. And in freeform or MMO roleplaying, they’re the ones with all the keys to progress; the players only have the tools to interact that the DM has permitted, because the lack of an established system means they have none of their own.

This is an obstacle the DM needs to overcome, not the players. DMs in any medium need to understand that roleplaying is inherently collaborative and creative, that the other players are not subordinate. And if they want to break the DM’s toy, it’s not up to the DM to tell them ‘no’: it’s to help them figure out how.

Immersion in the RP’s world

Immersion is a tricky word in gaming, because it implies a quality that’s hard to attain, but not necessarily helpful. But when designing an in-RP puzzle, some of it is needed.

Remember the example of Digging Deeper. There is no effort made to make those puzzles fit in-universe, it is squarely intended for the player. And that’s fine for the game, it’s working in the lines it drew up for itself, but it won’t work for an RP puzzle. What’s needed is to link it to the world it’s taking place in, rather than the world the players are in.

The puzzle needs to make sense as something that exists within the game’s world. That can be hard sometimes, but ensuring you have answers to some simple ‘who, what, why’ questions will go a long way.

Who made this thing?

What is it supposed to do?

Why is it a puzzle? Why is it this specific puzzle?

Having some firm answers ingrained into the puzzle and its presence itself will help to entrench it in the game’s world rather than our own, thus helping it be more of an actual roleplaying experience rather than a diversion from such.

For an example on how to approach this, we’re turning to Obstructive Persons; a mission that tasks you with infiltrating the Morninglight cult’s underground crime and surveillance operations. This one’s brilliant, because every single step of it is grounded in the world of the game, and is presented in such a way that every part of the process makes reasonable sense. We can answer all of the questions above, comfortably:

Who made it? Obviously, the Morninglight.

What’s it supposed to do? The system you’re infiltrating is a secret operative network, designed to keep out uninitiated.

Why is it a puzzle? Because we’re trying to get through security used by that operative network. It’s not linear, because we ourselves are not initiated; there’s implied to be training and context we don’t have.

This puzzle works perfectly within the world of the game, because every question about it can be answered, and every step makes total sense based on the surroundings, and the one preceding it. In a roleplaying plot version of this, you can see a lot of this playing out because of actual character agency and behavior, rather than progress happening ‘because Greg figured it out’.

Both this flexibility and immersion need to be in place for a puzzle in roleplaying to work; to make it something that the characters are interacting with, rather than solely a challenge posed to the players.

There’s one more thing I need to raise, though. Something that’s much harder to figure out a solution to, and I would say it’s the reason that a plot can’t purely be puzzles like if the Riddler wrote it.

The Fighter Problem

So you’ve taken these things into account, and designed this elaborate puzzle (or puzzles) that’s designed to be able to work with character skills. One that fits perfectly within the world. And you’re willing to adapt it when somebody comes up with something you didn’t. You’re fine, right? You can go ahead, everyone’s gonna be happy!

Except that you’ve forgotten somebody. Somebody we’ve not mentioned in this whole discussion, but someone who undeniably exists within the group you’re pitching your roleplaying plot to, especially when the environment is a game:

The dedicated warrior.

This is a problem across every single medium someone could be roleplaying a puzzle-focused plot in: it inherently cannot permit somebody whose character is focused on combat. Whose character reasonably knows little else other than skills relating to combat. I’ve met plenty of people playing these characters, and they would all be ruined if a puzzle came up--several of them actually were. It doesn’t matter if the DM gives them a caesar cipher, references to Shakespeare, or even a literal jigsaw puzzle; the character is out of play, either totally unable to participate or working much slower than anybody else, even if the player wants to join in.

Picture this from the warrior’s player’s point of view, because this is a lose/lose/lose situation for them from a roleplaying perspective:

They sit it out completely, because their character can’t contribute.

They contribute only out-of-character as a player (depending on who else is involved, this option might not even be possible).

They break character, having them come to conclusions or propose solutions that their character would normally never do, just so they can participate.

I can’t show you an example that demonstrates how to fix this. Because I can’t give a simple fix for this problem at all: there is no easy way to give the warrior something to do during a dedicated puzzle. My only suggestion is that you design your plot so that those people can be important to it: that there is something for them to fight. But that wouldn’t make it a pure puzzle like I’ve been talking about, and it still means that your puzzle acts as a time-out for them.

Conclusion

Puzzles are hard. Roleplaying puzzles are harder.

That doesn’t mean they’re not worth pursuing, or can’t be fixed. It just requires more than the skills inherent in constructing the puzzle in the first place. It requires writing, it requires integration with the world, it requires improvisational thinking.

But perhaps most importantly it requires compromise, and humility. The DM’s willingness to to pull apart the puzzle machine they’ve built, and the humility to realize that not everybody is going to be happy with it in the first place.

[nemossubmarine]

DA RP Write-up #19.1

We’re back with our Dragon Age RP. This session starts a vague-ish group of of boat-related adventuring (with multiple GM’s), which I’ll tag together, since I’ve used campaign numbers to keep stuff together before. May change the numbering at some point. Anyway, what ever did happen in this boaty adventure?

Well, it’s been a month since our meeting with the giant water creature who’s red glowing tangly thing Randy looted. Getting a second ship has meant that our crew is seriously stretched thin, so we are hoping to get to Estwatch (as it’s the closest major port city) and hire new crew. 

First there’s discussion who’ll be permanently stationed on which ship. Boshara and Randy as first mate and captain will be on Randy’s ship, similarly as Humbert and Alf will be on Alf’s. 

Cahair and Elspet are in the air, mostly because they’d like to stay together, but Randy’s ship needs a surgeon and either Elspet or Richard would be most qualified to take the position, and obviously Cahair would follow his husband. 

Boshara just straight up doesn’t want to have Richard as her doctor, so Elspet joins Boshara and Randy. 

Other officers’ mates also get promotions onto Randy’s ship (except Kustaa, who was the treasurer’s mate only bc Boshara was the treasurer). 

Randy also takes all the lyrium dealers, while Alf’s ship will remain the main station for most of the mages. 

With lyrium comes also one of the ”templars” Will Turner. 

Randy takes also Egaeaea, so he and Boshara can start making runes. 

Randy’s mom comes too. 

Merle gets a promotion to the musician of Randy’s ship. 

Which basically means, almost all dwaves follow Randy, leaving poor(?) Humbert in a ship half-filled with elves.

Our crews divided, our heroes manage to get to Estwatch, somehow. We locate a tavern, kept by a man named Mikko and ask for a side room we can do some interviews in, and if he could advertise us a bit.

The first person that answers the call of the sea slinks into the room, and introduces himself as Tat-Tan Teor. 

He looks shady as fuck, and the image is not at all tarnished by the fact that he’d like to be hired as a ”spy master” (assassin??). 

But like, what do we have to lose, sure, we’ll hire him. Not as a spy-master though, a sailor will do.

Next up is an elven woman, who  has an impressive array of knives on her belt. 

Her name is Pirre and she would like to be hired as a cook’s mate. 

Boshara asks her for her special dessert, which she says is peach sorbet with a hint of mint. 

She is also questioned on whether she can use her knives on other things, she says she can, but she always makes sure to clean the knives before cooking. 

Are mages okay? As long as they stay out of her kitchen. 

Seems good, yes? 

(Alf suspects there’s something maybe up with the woman, but doesn’t voice it, he can figure it out later)

Mikko’s advertisements don’t seem to be catching much attention, so we send Merle outside to sing the songs of the people. Or ad jingles.

Soon Merle’s song brings in a human woman.

She seems almost more interested in Merle than the actual job, asking if he’s single (as far as everyone knows, yes). 

Our heroes are about ready to hire her, when the question of mages come up, and the woman says obviously they’d need to be all locked up, that’s what you do with mages, right? 

Cahair asks what she’d do if there was a mage right in front of her, right now, someone like himself perhaps, who wouldn’t just go to a Circle. 

The woman asks if everyone’s cool with this, and Boshara says she’d complain, but Cahair has her totes mind controlled. 

The woman overturns a lamp, setting the table on fire, and flees. 

Boshara puts out the flames with her ice magic. 

Her loss I guess.

Next in saunters a man with a lil pep in his step, a man by the name of Heimo. 

Apparently he’s very keen on joining after hearing Merle’s singing. 

We question his talents, and especially regarding his fighting prowess as he is quite a large man. 

Heimo says he doesn’t fight, well, maybe once, but only once and if he dies we’ll have to pay him extra. 

This seems agreeable so Heimo is taken on board.

A final person thrown in by Merle’s song, is a woman who introduces herself as Aude. 

Cahair immediately recognizes the name, asking if she is the Aude? She says one and the same. 

Humbert questions Cahair who is Aude, and Cahair says she’s got quite a reputation in the Raider circles. 

Aude mentions, among her many exploits, having been a templar. But she quit. 

Apparently she doesn’t like templars, or at least likes mages more than templars. 

This catches Humbert’s attention, and so Aude is hired, as all templar-qualified people are needed.

Merle’s song has stopped working, especially after that woman fled the scene shouting about mages, so our heroes ask Kanuuna where to head next. Apparently it’s Arthur Whiskers’ market day, so we get our wagon and park there to hopefully get some more hopefuls.

The first person who climbs on board is a qunari with a painted face, who introduces himself as Baelias. 

He seems a tad bit confused and out of it, but says he can work as a rigger. 

Cahair says he’d be happy to take Baelias on board, but questions him first on his contacts with qunari and Tal-Vasoth. 

Apparently Baelias is from Par Vollen or there abouts, but says he wants no contact with the qunari. 

Cahair and Boshara agree to have Kanuuna talk with him first a bit before hiring him. 

Kanuuna does so, and apparently Baelias is a mage, so y’know, the kind of people we take on board. Just will have to hope there’s no trouble. We’ve had quite enough qunari trouble.

Next come a pair of folk, a male elf dressed in humble clothing and a tall woman dressed in fine armor, looking stern. 

They are Klaus & Auriane LeLoup, and they are traveling together. 

Klaus is a wood cutter from Nevarra, Auriane is a soldier from Orlais. 

Humbert switches to Orlesian and asks if he could maybe teach Aurianse some sword tricks (winky face). 

Auriane replies that there’s no need, she’s plenty skilled, having been a chevalier. 

Klaus asks why the switch in language, and Alf comments that Humbert does that sometimes because he’s got no manner. 

Well, Klaus could work under our woodworker(words?help?) and Auriane could work with our weapons’ person, so the pair is taken on board. 

When they leave Klaus comments to Auriane about the interview going well and Auriane gives him a smile, the only one she’s given in the whole interview.

Last, but not least, a young man rushes in, clinging to Boshara’s feet and bursting into tears, telling that he needs to get away immediately. 

Cahair picks the man up and gives him the coveted empathy elf treatment. 

Once he has stopped crying long enough to speak the young man introduces himself as Zeni, and he’s in trouble with his former crew. 

Pretty soon it becomes apparent that the trouble is magic related, and also Zeni is of Tevinter origin (Cahair slightly scoots away), and also blood magic? 

Humbert starts to get threatening towards the boy when there’s shouts outside. 

Cahair goes to check it out, and of course it’s Zeni’s crew looking for him. 

Cahair doesn’t manage to lie convincingly that Zeni is not here, and Humbert drags him out anyway and demands to know the situation. 

Well, the situation is that Zeni sat at the wrong table and got into trouble. 

Humbert orders the men away, which they do, spitting out curses and threats. 

There’s quite a crowd around, so Humbert holds a speech about how clearly this little boy can’t be a mage and nothing to see here. 

Zeni is taken on board, but it looks like Estwatch is tapped out as far as crew goes, so our heroes will have to see if they can find another more favorable port somewhere else.

Where will our desire to get more crew lead us next? Find out next time!