#the plan is that it's going to be very heavy on the homebrew side | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tarithenurse · 3 months ago

Text

I see fire - 24

Fandom: D&D 5E/homebrew campaign. Word count: 3697. Contents: Lessons, friendshaped, missions, and encounters. A/N: Any questions are welcome. Please comment and like and reblog. Let me know if you want a tag. Divider by @firefly-graphics

XXIV

The trio’s initial plans of heading out the very next day are dashed as a thunderstorm greets them in the morning. Heavy clouds laden with rain that comes pouring down endlessly darkens the world and the only bright light are from the occasional lightning flashes that echo between the mountain sides. As much as the mayor might have light a swift solution to the orc problem, it would be folly to head out in this weather.

Coming downstairs in the inn to find some breakfast, the trio are discussing what to do instead. They are greeted by Kathy who hands them two health potions and explains that Campbell wants them to stop by. She also serves them piping hot porridge with brown sugar and butter so they have a solid start for the day.

After eating, the trio head out int he bad weather, sprinting from shelter to shelter on the way and avoiding the narrower bridges for fear of being toppled over by the strong winds that occasionally tries to push anyone off their paths.

By the city hall, the trio are let in by a man who presents himself as Gibson. He takes their cloaks to hang up for drying and guides them to the mayor’s office.

“Ah!” Campbell smiles at the sight of the trio, “glad you can come already. What a dreadful weather, don’t you say?”

They have to agree, at the same time apologizing for being unable to set out that day but he waves them off, promising that he wouldn’t want them to do anything rash.

“It does mean my shield might be finished before we leave,” Anvindr manages to see the positive side of it.

Campbell nods. “And for you to study a bit.” He pulls a book from a shelf and hands it to Zilvra. “Harris said this might be of interest to you. It’s his work.”

Taking it, the drow leaves through the book and is at first skeptical because what she sees are some very detailed erotic drawings, but when she glances up to the mayor, he motions for her to go on. Continuing, the book develops into an encyclopedia or dissertation of the orcish culture and language which indeed is very interesting.

“Thank you,” she smiles, already curious as to what she can learn.

Campbell sits down and his smile fades. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed it but the river’s losing it’s power even with the heavy rainfall. Throughout the night, it’s reduced the flow.”

Morella nods, the only one of the trio who had noticed is appears. “What’s causing it?”

“Don’t know. We need to find out and correct the problem because so much of the city is running on the power from the stream.”

“Before people notice, I guess,” Anvindr guesses.

“Yes, but with the weather today I’d be too dangerous to send anyone out so...we have to wait. As soon as it clears up, though...”

Zilvra forces herself to stop leafing through the book, closing it in her lap instead. “Upstream...that’s north? Where we’re heading anyways?”

The mayor nods.

“We’ll keep our eye open when heading out,” Morella promises.

That makes the human smile. “That’s greatly appreciated. In the meantime. I trust you got the potions?” They nod, making him smile wider. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“It’s a bit off topic but...do you know anything about the cold war between the drow and Stouvania?” Zilvra asks, grasping at straws for some reason she can’t quite explain to herself.

The man shakes his head, seemingly dissatisfied with his own answer. “I’m sorry. I don’t know much about it as I wasn’t directly involved and there exist close to no writing on the subject.”

“Oh.”

But he sends her a gentle smile. “You know people who were, though. Like Harris. Try and ask him.”

“Do you then, maybe, have something about crafting of fine metalwork?” Anvindr scoots in. “Not jewellery but small parts.”

“I might have a thing or two on that subject due to the city’s trade,” Campbell smiles, standing to browse the books behind him. “It’s generally taught by master smiths. But let’s see...ah!” He pulls out two books and hands them to the eager looking genasi. “I expect these back, of course.”

“Of course!”

The mayor smiles jovially. “Now, you have some reading and I have work to tend to...that never slows down regardless of the weather.”

With that, he sees them out to the stairs where Gibson takes over and retrieves their cloaks before seeing them fully out.

The group is halfway back to the inn when Morella suddenly drags her friends down a narrow alley.

There, in a relatively sheltered corner between some crates, are a few dogs curled up and trying to keep warm in the rain. Creeping closer to them, the druid coos and sweet talks the animals, holding out her hand from which Goodberries roll to entice the poor beasts. Eager for the food and kindness, the dogs wags their tails and whine, inching closer before seeking shelter under her cloak as she has squatted on the ground.

Carefully but with full determination, the eladrin picks up the dogs, bundling them in her cloak as if to hide them.

“Morella...you can’t bring them to the inn,” Anvindr gently admonishes her.

“But they’re wet and cold!” she complains. “I won’t leave them outside in a weather like this with no shelter.”

“That’s sweet but you can’t bring them either,” he repeats.

Still, she keeps them in her arms, tugged close to her chest despite their wriggling and the soft lapping of their tongues at her chin.

“Oh bother,” the genasi sighs.

Looking about, the splits one of the crates apart, using the wooden planks to further weather proof another crate which he leans and affixes onto a third, creating a shelter for the rain and wind.

“There,” he huffs, returning his hammer to his belt, “now they can stay dry.”

“Thank you!” The eladrin is one big smile, causing Anvindr to mumble something inaudible as she returns the dogs to their new hiding spot. “Take care, buddies,” she coos as she pets them one last time.

Then she straightens up, grabs Anvindr by the hand and leads them all back to the inn.

Once at the Ivy End, the trio takes a moment to dry up and even splurges on getting some real tea before Anvindr and Zilvra settle down to study. Morella is satisfied with just relaxing, she claims.

Zilvra picks up on more information than just the language – there’s a note about Harris being sent out to spy on orcs during that war with the orcs and so he’s learned about various tribes and how they cooperate and distribute tasks: front-liners with two-handed axes and no shields, scouts with tough skin, the so-called breeders which is a group of mainly females. Apparently, orcs don’t tend to be smart but there’s a tiny fourth group consisting of shamans and others that tend to be wiser.

“Huh, this is interesting. Orcs overall are apparently unintelligent, live short lives, and the pregnancies are of three to four months’ duration with some exceptions of half a year that are ’revered’,” Zilvra summarizes for whoever cares to listen. “What’s so special about those pregnancies? They’re still short.”

“I guess everything’s relative,” Morella ponders. “But yeah, considering that nine month’s the average then -”

“Nine months?!” Zilvra lets the book fall to stare at her friend. “They take five years. Not months that would just be ridiculous.”

Now it’s Morella’s turn to be aghast and even Anvindr begins to pay attention to the conversation.

“You’re saying,” the druid wants to ensure, “that your kind are pregnant for five years even if you only can become pregnant each 25 years?”

Zilvra doesn’t quite get the problem. “Yeah...it’s...we’re not rats or kobolds so of course.”

Anvindr just shakes his head and delves back into his book, apparently not in the mood for a discussion of appropriate intervals for procreation.

“You’re kind is very different from mine,” Morella decides, “but I think my greatest delight in all of this is how you’re learning about other options.”

“But...?”

“Relax, you’re good.”

And with that the druid leaves the room.

---

The next day is no better weather wise meaning the trio still are stuck in town. It is now evident that the river is slowed, barely capable of making the waterwheels turn.

A few good things does happen:

At noon, Morella returns, excitedly announcing that she’s found an owl in the neighbouring room. Admittedly, it’s not just a random bird, but does appear to belong to the resident of the room who might be Kathy. Also, the owl was grumpy, because it’s not been able to fly out the last night.

And after lunch Anvindr goes to fetch his new shield which he’s very pleased with.

---

The storm does die out that night, allowing the trio to get up early with the sun and head out into a world where drops still cling to every surface, refracting the early rays.

On the way out, they hear the commotion caused by the lack of water in the river – it’s now no more than a trickle – and by the northern gates they see Campbell and another man bid good luck to two official looking men who in turn take control over a few men each.

These little groups fall into step with the trio, the leaders introducing themselves as Bennet and Cooper.

Following the road beside the riverbed north, the trio and Coopers group keep pace for a while until they’ve passed the mine and come into the mountains proper. Then it becomes evident that the locals are more used to handling the terrain as they begin to outpace the trio.

It’s a hard day’s march along a jagged path with very few options for rest.

That’s why it’s late before the trio finds a suitable spot to camp at, wanting to not push themselves but instead be ready for whatever they might face the next day.

---

Another day comes with sunshine and warm temperatures and an eladrin that sports the golden hues of her summer persona. Struggling through the path that often is blocked partially by jagged spikes, they feel their energy wane as the day passes.

By the afternoon, however, the trio catch up with a familiar group who stand in the riverbed by a huge pile of rocks crossing the expanse of the river. A dam.

“Wait,” Morella urges her friends.

“Yeah I see it,” Zilvra agrees. “They’re too still.”

Creeping closer, Anvindr and the drow take cover behind a large boulder that the river in all the years hasn’t been able to move. Meanwhile, Morella twists and turn, become a snake that can slither closer and out of sight of her friends.

A while passes, time that feels to be moving too slowly, but eventually Morella makes it back to her friends.

“It’s just cloaks hanging on wooden stakes,” the druid announces as she returns to her usual form. “But there was blood and it was drying so it’s probably been a while already since whoever used to own the cloaks were here.”

“Orcs?” Anvindr whispers.

Morella nods. “Saw two behind the boulder sort of to the right.”

Looking determined, Anvindr pulls one of his contraptions from his belt. “Give me a good shot and they can’t hide there any longer.”

Taking a few steps out, he lobs the ball-like object onto the ground a bit further away and the trio watch it assemble into a small turret that appears to take aim and fire at the boulder, splintering off a rather big section and thereby revealing an orc who looks both surprised and infuriated but who also doesn’t waste time and takes aim at Anvindr, hurting him.

Two more appear from the other side of the boulder, sprinting towards where the trio had been hiding.

Slamming his new shield into the silt left by the river, Anvindr takes a stance against the onslaught, brave and unfazed by the ferocity of the orcs.

Morella transforms once more, this time into a wolf who snarling and snapping engages with the first orc to reach her friend while Zilvra fires her hand crossbow at the same target, each time ducking back down behind the boulder, hoping the orcs won’t notice where the shots are coming from in time.

It’s a messy fight.

Not before long even Zilvra has been drawn out into combat proper, dancing about the orcs as best as she can to avoid their great axes. At some point, when one strikes her, she swears at the orcs in their own tongue – currently the only words she can remember from Harris’ book that are unrelated to anything sexual – and they startle in surprise of hearing their own speech from her.

Still, it’s no easy battle. The orcs are tough and clearly used to fighting in this rugged terrain.

“Zilvra, move!” Anvindr calls out, causing the drow to pivot behind the orc she had been fighting.

Just in time too: the turret delivers a new shot, one that nails the big enemy right between the eyes and causing him to keel over dead at last.

Seeing their comrade or maybe leader fall, the two other orcs share a quick glance before turning to flee and despite the attempt at pursuing them, the trio can’t keep up or wear them down and they have to watch the surviving enemies disappear over the bank of the drying riverbed.

“They’re probably off to warn of what’s happened,” Zilvra guesses.

Anvindr nods, wiping sweat off his forehead. “Nothing we can do about that.”

Morella comes limping back, no longer in her wolven form. She takes a moment to heal her own wounds as well as help Zilvra who’s bleeding from quite a gash along the shoulder.

While she tends to the wounds, Anvindr walks up to the nearest cape that still flutters in the breeze, taking it off the scaffolding and bunching it up. He does the same with the other two, finding that one has a large gash in it and the other is bloodied.

Then they all scour the area, eventually finding the corpses of Cooper and his men off on the far side of the riverbed. Well, probably Cooper and his men...it’s hard to identify them because they’re in such horrible condition.

“It’ll be too heavy to bring them with us,” Anvindr admits before beginning to strip them of any useful gear.

It’s a gruesome task but a logical one and so the friends help each other before repeating the maneuver with the deceased orc including taking his thumbs.

During this, Anvindr’s turret has been shooting non-stop at the impromptu dam but made absolutely no headway as the pileup of rocks and debris is too great.

Taking the turret and continuing up to the other side, the trio now see that the water is being diverged down the other slope of the mountain’s shoulder. There, they also find the remains of Bennet and his men, repeating the stripping of cloaks and armours as best as they can before making it onto the dam proper.

Where they stop.

Maybe the figure has been there the entire time and they just hadn’t noticed because whoever it is is moving in a crouch or maybe the person has only just arrived. Either way, there’s someone wearing an old cloak that’s seen better days, working their way down the length of the dam, pausing at times to do something. Whoever it is, is smaller than the orcs and also not dressed as one of them, but rather much more human.

The trio exchange glances, preparing themselves for another bout of combat while hoping for the best.

“Excuse me?” Anvindr calls out, slowly nearing with Zilvra in tow.

The person straightens up for a moment, turning to regard them without a word. They wear a wooden mask, obscuring their face completely, and worn armour that seems familiar.

For a moment the parties regard each other, then the stranger returns to doing whatever they were doing.

A bit confused but feeling slightly more at ease, the trio step closer.

“What...what are you doing?” Anvindr asks.

The person waves them closer, holding out a tube of something before pouring it into a crack in the dam. When Anvindr reaches them fully, they place a little bit of the tube’s content on a rock before igniting it with their tinder, causing a tiny explosion and a lot of smoke to billow up.

“You’re blowing up the dam!” the genasi guesses, earning a nod.

The silent stranger thrusts a head tube into the tinkerer’s hands, pointing him along the dam, clearly intending for him to help with the preparations.

As they work, they talk – or rather, Anvindr talks and the ally gestures – and among other things, the trio learn that the gear that had looked familiar is indeed Stouvanian. Old Stouvanian. The person also admits to not being affiliated with the country anymore and actually preferring it that way, but looks to be unaware of the Masons. They also communicate that they are heading north for more black powder after this.

When all the preparation has been done, the trio and the stranger all take cover, hunkering down as best as they can and hoping for the best as their unforeseen ally lights a long fuse.

It’s not so much one explosion as much as a series of them, each greater than the one before. Rocks and other debris is sent high up into the air only to come crashing down again, often much too close to the trio for comfort. Also the smell is horrible, but it’s worth it because when they all peer out through the smoke as it wafts away, they see the water is returning to it’s original course.

Coming over to the trio, they can hear a soft laughter coming from behind the mask of the stranger who squats down and draws a crude map on the ground. With hand gestures, they make it evident that this depicts the north and Morella gets a thumb up when she guesses that a circle is Kel’Alora. Then the stranger makes a cross not to far from the elven capital and in jagged letters writes: “TEGNOOLIGI”.

Getting up, they wipe the map away with a foot, then gives five tubes of black powder to Anvindr who surprised but delighted accepts.

“Will you come with us?” the genasi asks hopefully only to have his hope dashed by the shake of a head. “That’s alright. You probably want to remain secret.” At this, the person nods. “We won’t tell anyone about you.”

They watch the former Stouvanian head off northwards before the trio gather their own things and continue back the way they’d originally come.

It’s already late and traversing the mountain path in the dark after a battle would be foolish, so the trio doesn’t get far before they find a nook to rest in. They don’t dare light a campfire, curling up as close to each other as they can for heat instead.

Morella is the one to take first watch this night and it isn’t long before she senses movement in the dark. Waking Zilvra, they quietly agrees that this could be an orc (the size of the dark figure matches), so they wake Anvindr to take on the threat but by then the figure runs off.

“Doesn’t seem wise to stay put,” Anvindr yawns.

And with that, they head off again. Tired. Exhausted. Forcing their way through the rough terrain, the trio eventually reach the abandoned mine at the base of the mountain when a voice can be heard from behind them. Mocking, laughing, the orc taunts the trio but they know better than to pick a fight with an unknown number of orcs during the dead of night and so Morella transforms into a horse and motion for her friends to climb on. Just as they set off at a gallop, a large and glowing hammer appears from the darkness, barely missing the trio before turning in its trajectory and returning to its owner.

Morella must be given credit: she keeps the pace for as long as she can but even with her speed, they don’t make it back to Silver Keep by the time her magic fades, returning her to her humanoid shape.

“I don’t know if they’re following us,” Zilvra is straining her eyes to peer into the darkness.

“Then we keep going,” the druid pants.

And so they do.

---

The sun has long since risen without a sign of any orcs by the time the gates of Silver Keep comes into view, causing the trio to sigh in relief. The river is streaming through the city as it ought to but truly the friends are in no condition to enjoy the sight: they are exhausted, dirty, and still beaten up from the battle the day before.

Reaching the gates, the guards thankfully recognize them despite their horrible appearance...and the recognize the surplus gear the trio is carrying, taking it for repairs and to honour the dead in the way they might find appropriate.

“We’ll send word to Campbell. Go rest,” one of the men says.

Simply nodding, the friends trudge to the Ivy End, dragging themselves over the threshold and scaring the life out of Kathy when she sees them.

“Oh my!” she squeaks. “Better get some food and rest. Here,” she hands Morella a key, “same room as last time. I’ll be right up with food and stuff.”

This time they manage a ‘thank you’ before moving on to scale the stairs.

In this manner, it’s not long after the friends are in the room, barely shedding their gear, before Kathy comes bustling with water for washing and a large tray of hearty breakfast. She leaves them to get sorted and get some sleep but even so, after a moment she returned with a message from Campbell that he would like to see the once they’ve rested.

2 notes · View notes

666prophet · 1 year ago

Text

Fallout S1:E7 - The Radio

This one is okay. It showed more of the Vault-Tec(pre-bombs) and The Ghoul. Did feel like Lucy and Maximus were just kinda there. Not really adding to or involved in what was going on. Its another flashback heavy one. Which is getting to the point where it feels like they are trying to make two shows at once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spoilers and Deep Dive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok so how exactly does this guy have NCR Ranger gear? Let alone two sets. I also have to complain about the mismatching. He has what seems to be Desert Ranger armor but then Veteran Ranger helmets. Veteran Rangers are the elites of the NCR Rangers, its pretty uncommon stuff. So its we really want to drive home that The Ghoul is a cannibal. Also seems that the modus operandi of The Ghoul is to bait people into getting into a duel/fight. Ok so Miss Williams is very good orator. I would agree she isn't a communist. She is left leaning and against crony capitalism. Though given the general time period this is set in, it would make sense that Communism would be used to describe what she believes. But she really comes off as trying to get revenge mainly and doing the "right" thing is secondary.

Whelp this is very on brand for Vault-Tec. That explains why these gulpers look different from the east coast ones. Alright so they know what happened in Vault 4, but seem to have been trying to atone for the history of it. I like that narrative. It also highlights how still Lucy has no idea and is blind to the facts. All because she thinks that experiments are the exception and not the rule with the vaults.

We couldn't even do rain effects, we opted for very bad clearly CGI rain. YEAH FUCKING RIGHT! There is no way you are even hobbling on a foot that is that fucked up. Like I get it, in the games you can move on crippled limbs. That being said this show really seems to be very choosy on how accurate is wants to adhere to the games. Also if that dog dies there will be hell to pay Thaddeus.

Ok well, I guess the residents of Vault 4 really aren't bad guys. And kudos for giving the fusion core back. So now you're telling me that they are falling for each other. This whole relationship dynamic feels more like two naive teenagers. Its weird feeling, very forced for the plot/story. At this point it also seems like the whole point of having power armor was just for the promo material. They park this power armor 90% of the time.

So Thaddeus' plan it to limp his ass to a radio station? I'm sure you would have seen a closer radio tower. WAIT. Chicken fucker is a side character, not just a one off bit 😑. So did he make some homebrew stimpak? Also that comment of not needing to worry about rads is a bit foreboding.

NORM! DID YOU POISON THEM? That face from Betty kinda makes me feel like she had something to do with it an not Norm. So its interesting some of the people sent off and who got to stay. To Chets credit, he's not wrong. The vaults were for people who were rich enough or well connected enough to get into them.

Yay, CX404 is rescued. This is another one of those made up for the show devices. Never existed in the games or anything close to it. Obviously Coop is torn between trusting his wife and not trusting Vault-Tec. I think it's shown off very well. Well I retract the previous Dogmeat thing from before. I guess they were just waiting to make the reference until now.

That head has got to stink to an unholy level. First Titus now Thaddeus. Since when did the BoS become so shit? Like in the games they aren't nearly this bad. Wait did he get the Hancock(FO4) treatment by the serum chicken fucker guy? Great plan except there is a difference between a head that has been decaying for a few weeks, verses one that has been decaying for months or longer. I still feel like this relationship is being forced.

That confirms that Vault 31 is still active and following whatever directive/experiment Vault-Tec put in place. Its also reinforced by the fact that the door leading from Vault 33 to Vault 31 has no controls to open in from the Vault 33 side. So it can only be opened from the inside. So just by the sound it has to be a machine. I would say Robobrain or some version of a Mister Handy, but that area is too small to conceal either one. I doubt they are going with a President John Henry Eden(FO3) thing.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I can appreciate that we are trying to move along the plot in a way that sort of brings the intertwined stories together into one. I feel conflicted though because like the last episode where Lucy and Maximus were just kind of around and didn't have any major thing going on. This one was more of a case of The Ghoul was just there. Now sure it was A LOT of flashback stuff but still. It feels like there are all these stories being told narratively at once and you are fighting to give them each time.

Final Score - 7/10

#prophet speaks #fallout #fallout tv series #episode 7 #the radio

2 notes · View notes

sreegs · 3 years ago

Text

I’ve been GMing Cyberpunk games for about 4 years now with a regular group of people with others cycling in and out. My first campaign took 3 years to complete (lol) with about 50 sessions at about 3 hours each, though there were a number of side quests I made up along the way. That started off as a Cyberpunk 2020 + Homebrew rules, but 2/3rd of the way through we switched over to RED and converted everything since it was much faster session play.

That campaign was a slog, but it was a lot of fun. It started out very local (PCs were a group of friends in Northside who foiled a robbery on their favorite hangout) and blew up into an adventure that crossed state lines into Nevada, and eventually ended up in orbit with a climactic battle against the big baddie. It was worth it for the experience of just completing a grand campaign from start to finish. I started out with lots and lots of prep and by the end, I got my system down.

Though I short-circuited the plot a bit to save on time, I ended up being able to tell the full arc. It was a satisfyingly cyberpunk story: shadowy org of rich people using drugs to disperse nanites into people to control their behavior. This, of course, was unraveled bit by bit by the players. Started with “hey what’s this weird new street drug” and ended up in space. Bog standard, right?

Anyhow, I’m excited about my new campaign. Start from scratch, Cyberpunk RED, year 2045. We’re only two sessions in, but I’m trying something very different. I found that what I enjoyed most about Cyberpunk was the character arcs, rather than some big plot. This campaign is very different. I have no grand story to tell. Instead, it takes place almost entirely within a high-rise, all-in-one megabuilding in Night City. A place called “The Sydney” that promises to cater to your every need without having step out of the building. Apartments, retail, restaurants, etc. All under one very, very tall roof. Like V’s apartment in the Cyberpunk 2077 game.

Of course, the promise of luxury living in a cyberpunk dystopia is never going to be fulfilled. The building is a microcosm for the city at large: class divide amongst the lower and upper floors. Gangs fighting for turf from one floor to the other. Schemers and schemes abound.

I’m a heavy map maker. I think I really enjoy mapping more than anything, because I often find myself unable to start writing a story until I see the space in which it takes place. So what’s great about such a large recurring setting is that, I can re-use existing maps multiple times, the players become familiar with the map, and I can have empty floor plan templates to take out the groundwork of every new map. I’m using Foundry VTT hosted on the Forge. I used to do Roll20, but I found Foundry to be a much better virtual tabletop.

Here’s a screenshot of (some) of the players’ floor. My players are on Tumblr so I can’t spoil much in my posts. Here, three PCs (the tokens without names, top right) are standing outside their elevator in the central shaft that runs up the whole building. Some residents are hanging out near the edge of the terrace. There are apartments along the left and top edge of the screenshot.

I write every session as a one-off, with the goal of letting my players fill out their characters story the way they want. They’re usually simple stories. My first session was about the players’ floor experiencing power outages, it turned into an investigation to figure out who kept tripping the breaker, and it was a crypto scheme that they decided to break up with the help of a cyberpsycho.

The next session is soon, and the inspiration for the story struck me from just regular, daily life I experience living in my own apartment building IRL. It’s an interesting setting and I’m excited to see where it goes.

#cyberpunk red #cyberpunk 2020 #tabletop #rpg

110 notes · View notes

solanj · 4 years ago

Text

Gatewatch&Co playing DnD

Jace

Jace is the forever DM. His plotlines are extremely well thought-trough and his puzzles are exquisite. Prefers detective-style stories and is great at setting up the intrigue. Players never can guess too early. He knows ALL the rules. Is prepping meticulously. He is that type of GM that will hand out actual letters or trinkets to players, if they happen to find them. Every NPC, every plotline, every bit of PC's backstories are accounted for and weaved into the planned narrative. (Of course it all always end up completely derailed) Actively uses illusions for both descriptions and combat and everyone just LOVES that. Still insists on having actual minis, though. After some persuasion from the party agreed to use telepathy to tell players the "only your character knows that" info, which drove his intrigue even further.

Chandra

Chandra usually plays a hotheaded sorcerer. Gender and age may vary, but the sorcerer always falls for whomever Nissa is playing at the moment. Is the most enthusiastic of the group and the #1 reason Jace's thought-through plots get derailed. Because she always invents something crazy and drags the rest into it and even she never knows what her character is going to do until she opens her mouth to declare it. Due to it has the most dead characters among the party - Jace isn't a harsh GM, but he never fudges his rolls. Chandra doesn't sweat it, though, she just brings a new sorcerer next session. She generally ensures a goofy, light-hearted atmosphere and doesn't like it when stories go too dark or dramatic. Never waits for others to make a plan before heading into combat. Has the quickest combat turns.

Nissa

Nissa only agreed to play because Chandra was SO enthusiastic about it that Nissa just hadn't the heart to say "no". She ended up loving it. Doesn't speak much at the table (and her characters are always the quite ones), but has the most carefully crafted backstories. Only uses third-person style, but never speaks out of character during the play time. Actually knows the rules very well and never blunders, but also never engages in rules arguments when they happen. Once all the revelations from her backstory come through her character ends up being everyone's favourite, remembered for a long time.

Gideon

Gideon only plays because he thinks that a common bonding activity such as this is great for the Gatewatch's dynamics. Is usually the one to bring in snacks and to help Jace tidy everything up after the session. Plays martial tanky protective characters, usually goes with the options that PHB recommends. Likes to strategize in-game. Isn't good at roleplaying but is trying his best and everyone appreciates it. Was actually sad when Liliana left the party since her character made it easier for him to engage in conversations and decision-making due to her teasing and provocative nature. (No one knows if that was intentional on her part)

Teferi

Teferi prefers GM'ing but doesn't have the time to prep and run the whole campaign. So he usually runs rather short adventures. He leans towards more humorous style and is a great improviser. Likes to give his players maximum freedom and allows them to goof around all they want, but still manages to make the plot work. His NPCs are usually witty, he does different (and often exagerrated) voices for each of them and players tend to engage into social side of the game a lot because the dialogue scenes with him are just so enjoyable. Loves to mess with the players. Adds red herrings, makes NPS pretend to believe the player's bluff only to reveal the truth at the best possible moment later, hands out tricky magical items (most players learned to NEVER draw cards from unchecked decks, but there is always Chandra...). He is placing the most bizarre and memorable mimics and hilarious traps. But does all that in good faith and with good humor, to make the players thrilled but not annoyed. And it works!

Kaya

Kaya plays exclusively rogues and she probably tried every build possible. Is the min-maxer of the party. Is known for completely decimating the encounters that Jace planned to be extra challenging. Was often splitting the party at first, but agreed not to after some persuasion. Doesn't roleplay much, though she enjoys spectating others do it and never tries to force them to the next scene. LOVES Jace's puzzles and usually finds an unorthodox but interesting and convincing way to solve them. (That's probably why Jace can't really be annoyed with her despite her minmaxing) Has the best luck for crits in combat, but the worst for disabling traps.

Vraska

Vraska rather often misses the sessions due to guild and/or pirate business, but she tries her hardest to have free spots on her schedule during game nights. Is probably the most dedicated member of the group. Grows very attached to her characters and once the campaign ends she never returns to the same archetype, so that the impression wouldn't dilute. And because of it she doesn't have a "type", though her characters are always brave and have troubled pasts. Is the one to commission the paintings of her characters (and sometimes the rest of the party too). Is also quite the shipper (no matter if the character in question is her own, party member or NPC), but keeps it to herself, only sharing with Jace sometimes. She tells Jace everything about her character in the beginning so that he can play it when Vraska has to miss a session.

Ral

Ral played every class in the game that he could more or less convincingly make into a charming bastard. Is prone to hogging the spotlight, but does roleplay so well and is so charming that others let it slide. Often insists on using some homebrewed rules (which he keeps reinventing right during the conversation), giving Jace a headache. Jace gave in once, but during the next several sessions he made sure to stage the situations so that every possible side effect of said homebrew came to bite Ral in the ass (yes, it's where most of his prep time went). Now they usually settle on just some minor changes for Ral's character. Is #2 reason for derailing Jace's plotlines. Unlike Chandra he does this absolutely intentionally, and Jace knows it, but sees as a challenge. His character is the one, to whom all the "curiosity" magic items go. You have no idea what a dedicated Izzet mage can do with a simple unmoving rod. Jace actually throws extra stuff his way just to see what crazy application Ral will come up with.

Liliana

Liliana played a couple sessions once. She made a point of derailing the plotline in a discreet way while staying strictly in-character. Also she made Jace fluster whenever he had to play through a conversation with her via NPC. Decided that it was fun but ultimately not worth it in the long run. (To Jace's relief) Since she never actually plays Jace can discuss with her his plans and plots and sometimes he asks for her input on the villains. Sometimes he even invites Liliana to act out a villain in the dialogue-heavy session and she is VERY convincing. Her villains are always the ones players love to hate. From time to time she GMs oneshots and prefers intrigue- and drama-heavy stories, often horror, that may or may not be inspired by her long and varied life experiences. She isn't a stranger to fudging the rolls or overriding the rules if she feels that the situation calls for it. Is very good at reading the table and the undisputed master of putting her players in heart-wrenching situations faced with tough decisions. They usually love it, but Chandra refuses to play with her anymore because "don't we have enough of that shit IRL?!" She sometimes contemplates running a full WoD campaign, but always decides against it in the end.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to add your ideas!

164 notes · View notes

sunshades · 3 years ago

Note

Hey! Tell me about your favorite dnd character please :]

OH ANON... thank u for objectively one of the best questions to receive & sorry because this means u saw me rambling on ur dash way too often �� lets go

I HAVE A COUPLE from games i've been playing... both around 2yrs now! i also keep little tags for aesthetic for em so honey, tiare!

miss honeywort..... lvl 5 wildfire druid aasimar! i'd love to share more cleaner art but! i have this lil old art and more recent doodle of her as well as beloved dm iggy's art they made for my bday 🥰💞💞!!!

conceptualized while i was listening to six the musical too often, then vibe wise she went more on a victorian novel side-- i went with the (YEAH ITS CLICHE I KNOW) memory loss plot but tried making up for it by giving a lot of Vibes about this... murky past, i thought a lot about stuff like bronte novels and frankenstein... betrayed by her bethroted and separated from divinity and the memories of her past, POSSIBLY DROWNED AND KILLED, ready to do Anything to get revenge and all of her life back, and then... SHE ACTUALLY BECAME REALLY NICE AND CARING JUST KIND OF A #WEIRDWOMAN? not really the reasonable one of the party but... well sometimes she has to be EJDKKS she also became the team healer since she's the only spellcaster, and she's not very good at it but >:) i think thematically it's very nice as it leans in the fire druid vibe of like... the cycle of death and rebirth 🤔 we still get by okay since it's a homebrew rp heavy campaign, we solve lots of mysteries and fun sidequests so i get to use a lot of spells which is (chefs kiss) especially since druid is one of my favorite classes..! the main plot is super fun as well it plays with the party starting off as like. VARIOUS PETTY LITTLE CRIMINALS and then discovering they're prophetized heroes, and slowly learning how to be good people... starting with trying to save a little girl. which is still a work in progress but. dm immediately got me very attached to all npcs involved both in and out of character SO we gotta make it now. no way around it!!

THEN ME BOY tiare.... lvl 6 elf (half eladrin half... miscellaneous) blood hunter (lycan)!! double whammy, messy older and messy more recent art GDHBNJKFS

w them i started like... i wanna do the tough guy with a heart of gold trope, and itd show with GYHDSF dyeing naturally pink hair from a fey bloodline into black. was in the middle of watching the witcher and fresh off an fma reread so it was already taking a certain direction... then my friends went and made em some family drama WHILE I SLEPT which ended up making em more of an ed elric and gerome firedemblem kinnie than previously planned complete with "parent dead b4 the start of the game wont stop haunting your narrative" and "depressed father is such a miserable little man"- the fall out w said father ended up being part of why they started hiding being half eladrin, cut any ties with their family and changing their hair and name (from mithra and its GDHJFG kind of a pun cuz thats close to the roman miter and tiarella flowers are called false miterworts... 😐) as well as hm kinda their whole personality like he used to be a populargirl cheerleader and now acts like he hates friendship so JDJDKSK the camp he's in is another hb one where we're working as adventures trying to become heroes so theres hm... a lot of the theme of being true to urself which 🥺 makes interactions w other pcs and npcs get very interesting and cute... im looking forward to getting em to open up more and get pink and appreciative of their heritage especially since i myself am very fond of their story since it was done together w some of my dearest friends 🫂

i do make a bunch of new guys all the time for oneshots or just for fun but these are my blorbos..... im glad they ended up in the campaigns and with the dms they did because rly nothing makes u get attached and ready to write lots like other lovly people who want to join u and do the same so i'm really thankful for them... anyway!! ty for the ask and for reading this far if u did it's always fun to share this kinda stuff!! 😊💕

#anonymous #ask the bell #dnd #WHEN I SEE POPULAR DND BLOGGERS ALWAYS TALK BACK AND FORTH W THEIR MUTUALS ABT CHARAS THEY DONT EVEN PLAY TOGETHER IM LIKE OOOO I WANT THAT #and like IDK WHO OF MY MUTUALS EVEN PLAYS OR WANTS TO SHARE STUFF so thank u anon with this im starting to throw my kids out into the world #anyway..... AH yeah the rumors are true i cant stop naming people after flowers. its mostly just vibes i dont necessarily associate em w*#the specific flower. (motions around in a hippie way) its the vibes dude......#dnd:citron #dnd:tyriniam

4 notes · View notes

andsotheuniverseended · 4 years ago

Note

cephas my beloved

so i don't know if what you meant here was "answer all thirty of the dnd meme questions for cephas" but that is how i'm interpreting it so i'mma go ahead and put it under a cut

(also for those not in the know, Cephas (they/she/him/any pronoun you like) is my stone construct witch. yes those are both homebrew things I found online. i use this witch and just recently updated them to the 3.0 version and i'm very excited about it)

1. if one of their friends was jumping on a bed and asked your character to join them, would they?

Yes, absolutely, of course. The bed would then immediately break because Cephas is a couple tons of solid rock, but that's on their friends for not thinking it through. Or maybe that was the plan. Either way, Cephas is on board.

2. would your character carry around a tiny bath and body works hand sanitizer? if yes, would it have a specific scent?

I mean, Ceph does carry around smelling salts enchanted to smell like whatever would make someone feel better in the moment? Which is kind of the same thing? But anyways the real answer is Probably Not unless it was a gift, because Cephas has no sense of smell and has no need to sanitize.

3. does your character paint their nails? do they wait for them to dry fully afterwards?

Technically he doesn't have nails but Cephas will happily allow themselves to be painted over any part of their body, and will stay completely still until it's dry. I know because the party his done this to them before.

4. if you cut open your character’s heart and there was something inside, what would it be? why?

Hm. I mean. Literally speaking, no heart, you just find stone in there. Figuratively speaking... a jade earring. representative of their first steps towards freedom.

5. do/would your character carry lots of hair ties on their wrist?

Nah, not unless one of the other party members asked.

6. what parts of your character’s voice/manner of speaking are distinct, if any?

Hm. Mostly just that their voice is pretty rough and low. Otherwise I think they talk pretty normal??

7. what’s the first thing your character’s eyes are drawn to on a map?

New places. To all the parts of the world they haven't seen yet, and want to.

8. how did your character feel when they left home for the first time?

Okay I'm going to go with the definition of home that means Cephas has to feel like it's home, which would mean the place where they lived with their BFF Effie. And I think the first time they left there, with an intent to go out and adventure, they felt really excited, happy, and like they were finally doing what they were meant to be doing. They'd been feeling very restless up until that point, so it's kind of like scratching an itch. Very satisfying.

9. where does your character look when they’re the only one walking down a road?

All around. She likes to see everything and doesn't get particularly worried about other people or robbers or things like that, so there's a lot of being generally distracted by whatever scenery they're passing through. Sometimes he'll just stop and pretend to be a statue on the side of the road and people watch for a while, if there's time for it.

10. does your character have tattoos? were they alone the first time they got one?

Being made of stone, my darling Cephas can't get tattoos. If they had actual flesh I do think they'd wanna get some.

11. if a button came loose from your character’s shirt, would they make sure the replacement matched?

Cephas doesn't wear clothes, and if they did 'matching' would not be the thing they cared about, so for sure No.

12. how loudly do they cry?

Gods I feel like a lot of these answers are just "Cephas is a stone construct and therefore cannot/does not do the thing" but like Cephas is a stone construct and cannot cry. There have been a lot of times where they wished they could, but their body wasn't built for it. Typically if they're sad, they're quiet about it, reserved.

13. does your character like holding hands? do they do it often?

Yes! But he doesn't do it very often at all. Stone isn't comfortable for other people to hold, and they have to be careful not to hurt people when touching them, so it's generally more dangerous for whoever they're holding hands with than its worth.

14. is your character more likely to wear a necktie, a bowtie, or a bolo tie? (if any at all)

Again, no clothes. But I think Cephas would enjoy a good bolo tie.

15. have you ever said something as your character that stuck with you for a while after? what was it?

Oh lord. Uhhh... hm, well there was this one thing but it is very dependent on the context of the moment. Which is that they were talking with another character who was frustrated about not knowing things, and talking about how in order to be people you have to ask questions even if you don't get answers, you have to keep asking questions. And then they discovered something that was a step in a mystery they'd been trying to deal with and Cephas said "and sometimes you do get answers" and I don't know why but that one did stick with me.

16. what does getting flustered look like for your character?

Stuttering. Awkward hand movements. Maybe reverting to the old "I am but a simple construct with no consciousness" trick if they're really feeling out of sorts.

17. does your character have to glance at their hands to remember left and right?

Ha, no. Cephas knows what they're doing, unlike me.

18. does your character have stuffed animals? would they if they could? what kind?

Hm, no, xe doesn't. But I think they would if they ever settled down and stopped traveling. Even if Cephas can't really feel the softness, they would like it. And they'd be very careful with them too. As for the kind... I'm thinking those, like, huge round ones? Fuck there was a name for them. Squishables?? I think???

19. does your character walk or run down stairs?

Walk, typically. Running could damage things lol

20. if your character saw a turtle stuck on its back, would they flip it over?

Oh yes 100%. And also try and talk to the turtle and see if it needed any further assistance.

21. has your character ever climbed out of a window? would they do it again?

I don't have a moment in mind specifically, but there's no way Cephas hasn't, and they would absolutely do it again.

22. what’s your character’s ideal way to wake up? what usually wakes them up?

Cephas doesn't so much sleep as... go into Obedient Construct mode for four hours, which is to say they will obey any order given to them. Ideal way to wake up from that is in some weird/compromising position because it means his friends were messing with them and they love that. And they can't be woken up unnaturally, so its just that after Four Hours something in their head goes Ding and they're back.

23. what’s the pettiest thing your character’s ever done?

Dyed a nobleman's hair bright pink because he was kind of rude to them when they were pretending to be a normal construct.

24. what made your character the angriest they’ve ever been?

Cephas... doesn't really do anger, generally. But! There was a man who pretended to be a prophet of a god, and collected a small group of true believers. And then he took over a town, and made the townsfolk slaves. And that really got to Cephas, in a very personal way. (They did take care of the man and they still have mixed feelings about doing it.)

25. how does you character smile?

With great effort. Cephas wasn't built to emote, so any facial expressions are subtle and take a lot of concentration and effort to make happen. Over time they've gotten more practiced at this and can do it almost without thought, but it's still the smallest movements for a great amount of toil.

26. does your know the names of their constellations? how did they learn them?

I think, some of them? Cephas lived with her best friend's family for a long time and I think they would've learned some of them there. But then they also definitely made a game out of making up constellations and naming them whatever they wanted, so it's a toss up whether what they know is a real constellation or one they made up and then forgot they made up.

27. do/would your character draw or write on themself?

Oh yeah, for sure.

28. would your character race someone to the top of a tall tree for bragging rights?

Not for bragging rights, but absolutely yes Cephas would race someone. And they would lose because they are big and heavy and not made for climbing, but its more about the fun of it than the winning or the losing for them.

29. is there an artist whose style you associate with your character? (visual or otherwise; poets and musicians, etc. count)

Hmm... not really?? I don't really associate artists with my characters. My friend drew Cephas once, so I think that's the closest I'm gonna get to that. Maybe Delta Rae? I feel like Delta Rae has got those witchy vibes, and that makes me think Cephas.

30. how has your character’s first impressions of their party members changed since they met them? have they stayed the same?

Oh this is delightful because when Ceph first met the party, they were pretending to be a normal construct, so the DM was 'playing' them. Which meant I got to sit there and watch, and so I wrote down what Cephas was thinking. They only met the first three members of the party that day, but I literally have it written down that it was three "good first impressions" because one of them stole a book, another one turned invisible to draw a face on a trash can, and the third called Cephas 'interesting'. Overall impression? A group of messes who just went through something tough and are not dealing with it super well.

Current impression? A surprisingly competent group of messes who are working through some stuff, and very much don't like talking about their feelings. Also, I'm invested.

Seriously though it started out as Cephas thinking they seemed fun and wanting a distraction, and now Cephas is like actually really invested in all of them and their growth and wants to help them as much as they can.

#Cephas #dnd #this was. long. but also fun.#also anon u called cephas 'my beloved' and i was like Ah? did i send this ask to myself??#maybe i did maybe i willed it into existence #anyways i love Cephas they're weird and beautiful and love their party and they have to leave soon and i am sad #Universe Answers

1 note · View note

magistralucis · 6 years ago

Text

Rammstein @ Stadium MK, 06 July 2019 [Review]

Just over a week ago, I saw one of the greatest shows in my life.

I dedicate lengthy reviews to most concerts I’ve been to. R+ most definitely merit one, and I like to think this one turned out very nice and long, with plenty of images in between. Nevertheless, I omitted a lot more details this time than I usually do, because:

My pre-show adventures were abnormally long (12+ hours wait).

I made irl queue buddies whose identities aren’t up to me to release.

I’ve talked to people who plan to attend future tour dates and do not want to be spoiled on what R+ has planned. I usually put my reviews below a cut to prevent spoilers, but it doesn’t work on mobile as well.

So, a compromise: I commented on every song on the setlist, but I kept to general comments for new content. There are things R+ brought out this year that you really need to see with your own eyes. But I can’t completely refuse to talk about new things, otherwise that’s only half a review. Those who are wary of all spoilers, please, read at your own risk.

Read on for more. Mobile users, be warned this is a very long post.

----------------------------

The Journey (+ Queue Adventures)

This show wasn’t in London. You won’t read about London commutes or opinions about the London Underground in this section for once. Too bad the journey to Milton Keynes fucking sucked. It wasn’t commuting back and forth between Rammstein and my hotel that was the problem. In fact, going back home from Milton Keynes was very simple. But getting there? My God. Only a few things went pear-shaped, and I have nobody but myself to blame for the things that went wrong, but I was not prepared for the discrepancy between MK and the areas surrounding it. Future me, book your hotels and transport in Central Milton Keynes next time.

I will never put myself in the mercy of so many taxis in my life again. Well, I mean, two. Still two too many.

A quick note about Milton Keynes for non-UK residents. It’s probably the most organized city in this country. Milton Keynes is modern and grid-planned, unlike most other cities here which have grown organically and have alleys and hills and cobblestones all over the place. All the roads in MK are in straight lines or clear roundabouts, buildings/facilities are in logical places, and it’s widely considered to be a very easy place to navigate. It’d have been nice to experience literally any of that during most of my journey, because dumbass booked a hotel in the villages around Milton Keynes rather than the city itself. The villages are serene and calming, but they absofuckinglutely do not adhere to any such thing as a grid plan and getting around them was difficult. This was not helped by the fact that the very first leg of the journey, Brighton to London, was delayed for an hour due to an accident on the motorway. I missed the connection to Milton Keynes as a result.

Fuckign.

That was one inconvenience which was not in any way my fault whatsoever, and I’m still bitter that it nearly ruined my entire journey. At least trains between London to Milton Keynes are very common, and it’s only half an hour. So ultimately, after an extra fifteen quid, I arrived right on time. Commuting to the hotel was much harder, because it was a very hot day, and the trains to these villages come by more infrequently. But at least they were there, I hadn’t packed a very heavy load, and when I finally reached the hotel I was given a cottage room all to myself which was cool and comfortably out of the way. There was a huge bathtub. Some nice free toiletries. Complimentary brandy. Oh, hotel, why couldn’t you have been a little closer to the city centre?

But, whatever. I got there. I took the Ls I deserved, and I didn’t pay too high a price for the one I didn’t deserve. I’d brought more than enough money to cover it, because I’d known I would need to shell out extra for transport on the day of the concert. That thought process is universal among concertgoers; I think I handled that as well I could have. I ate dinner, packed a bag, and fell asleep.

That was Friday. Saturday the 6th I will cover in bullet points, from waking up to front row, because most of my Saturday consisted of nothing but waiting for Rammstein. I’m usually more detailed about my preshow life, but there’s a line between an entertaining diary entry and making people slog through fifteen hours of Rammstein-not-happening. Let’s go.

4am. Up nice and early. I force down breakfast. I have a small bag packed with necessities, and a plastic bag intended to be disposed of at the concert: the latter contains energy bars, satsumas (for hydration), some dried salami, and two bottles of water. That is all I’m going to be eating for the rest of the day.

5:45am. Taxi to Stadium MK. It costs exactly a tenner. I decide that when I’m heading back from the concert, I’m willing to pay up to double this amount. A higher price surge will mean I’ll have to wait.

6am. Queuing adventures begin. There are already four people ahead of me; the people at the very front have been waiting since 3am. I’m at Gate 5, closest to front row out of all the other available gates in the stadium. There are three queue lines already formed with metal barriers, separated by standing, seats, and accessible/disabled, but there is a taller barricade in front of it which prevents us from going in there. We are too early even for that.

Stadium doors open at five, R+ comes on at eight. This is going to be a ridiculous haul.

7am. Up to ten people in the queue. The first six of us in the queue begin talking. These people are the aforementioned queue buddies who will subsequently keep my place in line during bathroom breaks, give me much concert wisdom, and preserve our places for front row. The human capacity to spontaneously begin caring for one another at concerts is what I like best about concert culture, especially metalhead culture. Ain’t no other home I’ve found like with fellow metalheads.

9:30am. I am really tired. The people right behind me have homebrewed a sunshade out of plastic picnic mats across the barriers. Half of us are collapsed on the asphalt, sleeping.

10:13am. Bathroom break. Me and one other girl leave the queue to the 24h McDonalds to make use of theirs. I will revisit this McDonalds roughly 14 hours from now, this time to contribute actual business.

12pm. People in queue are significantly more alert because security guys have started milling around. The barricades for the main queue lines will be removed around 3pm.

1:30pm. One last bathroom break. We visit the nearby Asda, because it’s becoming evident the area is flooded with R+ fans and the restaurants are demanding they engage with actual business before using their bathrooms. Asda has no such issue.

3pm. Barricades finally open and I make it to the front of the line once more. We’re allowed a single 500ml bottle of water with us but then they FUCKING HIT US AGAIN WITH THE NO BOTTLE CAP BULLSHIT. Seriously it’s more of a hazard to have open bottles spilling water everywhere for the love of God just let us keep our bottle caps. I discard my original cap, but what I didn’t tell security was that I had a sports cap from a separate bottle from earlier hidden in the depths of my jacket. Once I’m in, I just screw that on, and I am fine and dandy.

5PM FUCKING DOORS ARE OPEN GO GO GO-

-STAIRS? S T A IR S??? AIN’T NOBODY FUCKING TELL ME ABOUT STAIRS ? 1!?@?3@?@/2?3?#

After a wild scramble I score front row nonetheless. Last time I was front row for Rammstein, I was in front of Richard; this time I choose Paul’s side.

Around 6pm it begins to rain. In the stadium.

6:30pm. I am really cold. I am shivering despite the thousands of people rubbing shoulders beside and all around me, and it’s still 1hrs 30mins until R+ show up. They cannot come on fast enough. I have never wanted so much to be toasted like a marshmallow.

7pm. The opener comes on - Jatekok, a classical pianist duo who covered most of Sehnsucht over a half-hour period. They are all the way over at the B-stage however, and while I can hear them, being a short woman at front row essentially means I forfeit anything that happens on the B-stage. It’s too far back, and there are too many people between me and the stage for me to see anything.

Rammstein came on at 8pm to a multi-language announcement asking the audience not to film the performance. The abundance of full-length videos on youtube depicting exactly that is proof that this request was not kept, but I digress. I’m assuming most people reading this review are Rammstein fans, or or know how each song’s ‘performance’ goes, so a minute-by-minute play will be unnecessary. My comments are general, but hopefully insightful.

----------------------------

01. Was ich liebe (Rammstein)

Check this shit out!

This screen will continue to be relevant throughout the concert. Half the time it’s displaying the logo, and half the time... well, you’ll have to see 😂 R+ have opted for a relatively calm start in this tour. The bandmates appear one by one to the intro, lingering at the front of the stage (save for Schneider) until Till appears.

All the bandmates’ outfits. So far a theme is uncertain. Or maybe it’s just that Flake is the odd one out. He sparkles most golden throughout the entire concert. He still has the treadmill arrangement going. If anything he’s gotten more stage-confident and hilarious since the last time I saw him.

Till’s outfit goes hot and serious and heavy. He will only keep the coat on for ‘Was ich liebe’, which is perfectly reasonable; it’s stopped raining by this time and the venue is warm-ish, though clouded. As for ‘Was ich liebe’ as a song, I’m fond of it. I am, however, surprised to see that it’s the opener. This is not a complaint: in retrospect, R+ paced out the songs from their recent album very cleverly throughout the concert, alternating between their older hits and building up to the major climaxes in the middle (songs 7-14). It was just a bit of a surprise at the time.

I see the most of this cheerful lil’ bastard through the show. Paul will feature heavily in my images of this night.

02. Links 2-3-4 (Mutter)

Storytime. Kinda. I had never watched the music video of ‘Links 2-3-4′ until the day of this concert. I’ve always known one existed, I just didn’t watch it because it’s full of ants and insects are my number one phobia. I haven’t willingly sought out things with insects in it for years, and I wasn’t going to start any time soon. This self-imposed ban on watching the video was broken in Stadium MK because while we were waiting, they were marathoning every single R+ music video on a large screen off to the side of the stage. I watched the whole thing then because I might as well; what the hell else was I gonna do, leave the front row?

It was actually a pretty good video once I got past the CGI bugs ick factor of it. This has nothing to do with the actual live version of the song. Why the hell have I written so much about this? Till removes his heavy coat almost as soon as the song begins. Paul starts properly fucking around with his mic. I’m seeing the virtues of being on Paul’s side very early on, and I finally get what people mean by having ‘met Paul’s eyes’ during the concert. It’s not that he’s focused on the one person, at least not as far as he outwardly presents himself, but he does seem to have a specific zone in which he regards the audience. He takes time to meet eyes with various people, smile, and acknowledge particular situations.

03. Tattoo (Rammstein)

Till is now dressed suitably for the Tillhammer to come out in full force. I’m not huge on ‘Tattoo’ as a song, but this is where Till really starts to gravitate towards either side of the stage, rather than at dead center. After shenanigans with Paul, as seen above, he comes over to Paul’s side (where I am) and stays for the first verse and the first ‘zeig mir deins, ich zeig' mir deins’ chorus.

I like to think we make eye contact, but there are thousands of people behind me and he’s not an eye contact person. Just a fleeting thought.

Also I just went to look at one of the aforementioned full-length videos of this concert and someone was bouncing around an inflatable shark (?) behind me. How did they get that in? Hide it deflated in one’s clothes then inflate it while in the stadium?

04. Sehnsucht (Sehnsucht)

The last strands of ‘Tattoo’ fade immediately into ‘Sehnsucht’ with no time for a break. Till removes another layer of outerwear. Fireworks burst out at every beat leading up to the main part of the song. In retrospect, discounting their fiery entrance, ‘Sehnsucht’ is really the point where you can tell they’re warming up the pyrotechnics. I don’t remember any particular interaction between Till or the guitarists, as from what I can remember Till was busy Tillhammering at the center stage; he will move around more freely later. My memories of this song are loving but blurred, because I got into headbanging with the girls beside me and their hair was grazing my arms something awful. I have similar length hair, however, so I’m sure I was doing the same to them.

God ‘Sehnsucht’ is so good. I always think of the Live Aus Berlin performance where Till was bashing the mic against his forehead when I hear this song. Hits me right in the spot every time.

Also: bonus Richard.

05. Zeig dich (Rammstein)

*sick guitar riffs* ‘Zeig! Dich!’

Fuck yeah. The heat from those firebursts are brief but incredible. Now I feel most comfortable and toasted. Black smoke drifts into the sky.

Also significant ymmv based on location, but this is only about the people around and behind me: come on guys, seriously? You don’t know the lyrics! This is the third song from Rammstein already and you’ve been quiet all three times! I however give them credit for being so well behaved through the show. People further to the right of me were getting dragged out all over the place.

06. Mein Herz brennt (Mutter)

Till trolls us with the first instance of ‘mein Herz brennt’, as the main riff doesn’t immediately begin after these words in this performance. He has a laugh about this. Other than that, the performance is as you’d expect, complete with heart pyrotechnics towards the end.

Olli comes very close to me at the halfway point. I'm starting to worry he’s going to spend the entire concert dressed like this, though the concern is unwarranted. It seems such a hot thing to be wearing.

07. Puppe (Rammstein)

ich rEISS' DER PUPPE den KOPF! AB!

ja, ich REISS' DER PUPPE den KOPF! AB!

UND DANN BEISS’ ICH DER PUPPE DEN H̷AL҉S̕ ĄA̡AA͟B̵!

E̷҉S̀͡͞ ҉̶ĢE͞͝H̷͡T͘ ̢́M͜҉I̵͜R ́͠͝N̷̴Í̷C͟͡͞H̸̀T̛̀ G̡̕U̡҉̀U̵̕U͡͠U҉UU̢U͡T̷̨̛

Make sure you see this performance live, preferably up close. It’s beyond words.

08. Heirate mich (Herzeleid)

When I was in the queue I struck up a conversation with one of my queue buddies about what songs might be on the setlist. She had been front row for the concert in Berlin prior to this, so she already knew what we were getting into. I requested no spoilers in advance, which she kept to - but then our conversation moved to the Herzeleid-Sehnsucht era and I mentioned how I’d love to see a live performance of ‘Heirate mich’ again. It was always a wistful sadness of mine that I was born too damned early to see Till doing this.

Not that I said outright Tillchard was the reason I liked this song.

In retrospect, she had a twinkle in her eye when I said this, because she knew that this song was on the setlist. I did not see it coming. I kept myself spoiler-free from day one of buying tickets to the actual concert itself, so it was a genuine surprise when the intro to ‘Heirate mich’ started playing. Surprise and confusion with a heaping side of mother fucking excuse me when I recognized what it was.

Oh I went hog wild, guys.

Till does not do the dragging himself onto his knees thing in the current tour, which I think is understandable. His knees weren’t amazing twenty years ago and they are presumably even less so now. It’s a very straightforward performance, winding down to prepare for the real showstoppers - but my old wish was finally granted, Till sounded wonderful in both song and narrative, and I came away most satisfied. 11/10 would listen again.

09. Diamant (Rammstein)

Half the band takes a break here. Flake comes down from the keyboards to sit on the stage and Olli sits beside him, providing the bass for this short beautiful little ballad. There are no fancy pyrotechnics here, nor much stage movement; it’s a sequence to make the audience aware of the overheard screen, imo, in case ‘Puppe’ didn’t do a good enough job of it. The entire performance is broadcast on that screen with the camera turning between Olli, Till, and Flake.

Till’s voice is beautiful. It’s the most legitimately serene Rammstein performance I’ve ever seen live. They have their share of ballads - ‘Ohne dich’ will also feature later in the concert - but ‘Diamant’ is probably the most low-key of them all.

10. Deutschland (Richard Z. Kruspe Remix) / Deutschland (Rammstein)

I...

???

?????

?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

I have no words. Like ‘Puppe’, you really need to see this entire sequence live. I can say three things, however, and two are about Richard: 1) ‘Deutschland’ comes in two flavours in the tour, the second one being the glorious full version in the main album, 2) Richard avoids sounding devilish in his backing vocals (‘du hast, du hast, du hast, du hast... so heiß, so heiß, so heiß, so heiß’ etc), though I cannot guarantee he will always be as tuneful in future performances, and 3) he will not go of that coat until ‘Du hast’. DJ Kruspe is in the house and only the unrelenting flow of time can part him from his swaggity swag fluffcoat.

But I... well, I keep remembering Till’s pink shrug every time I look at it. Remember back when we fawned over that as the brand new Rammstein outfit?

Oh my God I’ve gotten so old.

11. Radio (Rammstein)

This is probably my second favourite song of the new album and they deliver. Because ‘Deutschland’ was, well, ‘Deutschland’, it comes across as relatively low-key compared to what came before (and will after), but I like it like that. During the bridge ‘Ra-di-o... radio’ part, Paul and Richard come out with their own small synths to recreate that sound. It’s so peppy.

Paul does another small dance. Why did I neglect being on Paul’s side until now? This is great.

12. Mein Teil (Reise, Reise)

I’m half ashamed to say I spent this entire performance filming it instead of rocking out. I wanted to save it that much. It was that good.

No, it’s not fundamentally different to other performances of ‘Mein Teil’. Till keeps his usual outfit, Flake’s in the pot, there is a pot, etc. However, the pyrotechnics have changed significantly, and let’s just say that Flake endures a hell of a lot more than previous incarnations.

And comes out of it more sprightly than before, somehow.

Marry me.

Also a bonus consequence of being front row: after this song, Till comes down the stage and walks along the barrier shaking/slapping hands with people. In his murderchef outfit. I was one of many who managed to touch his hand. It really is a very quick walk, so you’ll have to be ready with hand already out and in reaching distance (difficult if you’re short) if you want to partake in this encounter, but it does happen. Future concertgoers watch out for something like this maybe.

13. Du hast (Sehnsucht)

Can you really call it a live performance of ‘Du hast’ if the audience isn’t singing at least 50% of it in Till’s stead? But then, when else do we have that opportunity. Milton Keynes audience does not disappoint.

Also Till shoots some excellent fireworks that travels across the length of the stadium and back before crashing back onstage. I still hear their whistles in my mind. Night is beginning to fall for real, and it’s a fantastic time to be ramping up the fireworks. Evidently R+ think the same, because...

14. Sonne (Mutter)

Daaaaaaaaammnn!!!

I have a video of this performance, but honestly it is not that useful for assessing what’s happening onstage. There is just too much fire. The video whites out continuously from all the flames mere feet away from us. ‘Sonne’ has always been a facemelting showstopper for Rammstein during live shows, but they’ve really gone above and beyond this year: the arena truly lights up like the sun for the full duration of the song. I highly recommend getting front row for this, right in front of where you can see the pyrotechnics are installed in the above gif. (Between main speakers, essentially.) Your face will burn off even more than it usually burns off during a R+ concert, and you will enjoy every minute of it.

15. Ohne dich (Reise, Reise)

Till’s in very good condition tonight. How he pulls off the slow ballads is how I tend to gauge his voice is from night to night, and he doesn’t let us down here either. The entire front row slow waves to this song, which is something I’m proud of being a part of. The girl to the left of me is weeping. The seriousness of this song still does not prevent Flake fucking around. It wouldn’t do R+ performances justice if he wasn’t like this.

‘Ohne dich’ is considered the first ‘ending’ of the concert, meaning in reality the band’s first departure from the main stage. All six members take an initial bow before moving to the B-stage. They will return to the main stage shortly afterwards for further encores.

16. Engel (Sehnsucht)

Pros: The opening act return in their gorgeous outfits and pianos, and act as the piano instrumental for this performance.

Cons: It’s on the B-stage. I sure heard this song but didn’t see anything. God damnit I hate being five feet four.

They provide a karaoke for people exactly in my situation, though. That’s at least something 😂

17. Ausländer (Rammstein)

You thought one R+ boat ride was awesome? HOW ABOUT THREE.

I am going to cry. Look at it. It’s literally a Welcome sign. The sentiment of the music video to ‘Ausländer’ is perfectly retained as they surf across the audience from the B-stage.

Also bonus ~✨👀 unintentional Tillchard moment 👀✨~ as Richard has a little slip on his way out of the boat. He was not hurt and was back onstage quickly. All this before the song even begins. I may need to upload the video of this moment.

‘Ausländer’ itself I have slightly more mixed feelings for. The song is fantastic and I have no complaints about the album version, and hearing Till cry out ‘я люблю тебя’ is always a plus. The problem with the live version is simply that the drums are too loud during the chorus: instead of a clearly enunciated ‘Ich bin Aus-län-der!’ with a drumbeat on each syllable, one hears ‘*THUD* *THUD* Aus-län-*THUD*!’. I was wearing earplugs which might have affected the quality somewhat, but people who weren’t wearing any were talking about this after the show as well, and after watching videos of the Milton Keynes performance I’m sure the drums were too loud. Your mileage may vary on whether this is a desirable effect - it lets the audience fills in the ‘ich bin’ part, I suppose - but I feel Till was unnecessarily drowned out.

18. Du riechst so gut (Herzeleid)

For me, the highlight of this song in the live version is always, always, always Richard’s evil scream-growl ‘DU RIECHST SO GUUUUUUUUUUUT’ (example here for reference). He delivers yet again.

19. Pussy (Liebe Ist Für Alle Da)

On the whole, this performance is largely unaltered from how it usually goes. Till gestures for the audience to sing the first couple of lines, there is a dick cannon that shoots something at the audience, and Till mans the dick cannon. Last time I saw them from front row, we were all covered in a very thick white foam; this time it was bubbles, followed by a shower of white confetti. The combination was less clinging than the foam, somehow, much more pleasant to be showered with.

Only Rammstein could make me write such a sentence about dick cannons.

Speaking of the dick cannon, though, I engaged in some discussion about it while I was waiting for the performance. This cannon has had a troubled existence, as R+ fans would know: sometimes it straight up hasn’t worked, and it’s been redesigned several times, ranging from a disturbingly realistic look to a flesh-coloured polygonal creation. This current version is the least realistic of all the dick cannons R+ have ever used. It’s just like, metal. Visibly. They haven’t gone to the extra trouble of painting it flesh-coloured. My guess is that this is because it fits with their current chrome/dark aesthetics better, R+ aren’t a band to neglect that kind of detail. As long as it works and the audience is aptly showered, what’s the problem? Let’s do it quick! 😀 And now this is entirely too many words about dick cannons, so I’ll move on.

20. Rammstein (Herzeleid)

‘Ramm-stein!’

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. It is past ten o’clock and the skies have gotten dark, though not so dark you can’t see the black smoke spiraling into the air with each burst of fire. A plane flies by far above into the distance and I appreciate the poetic irony. I think I would have been happy enough if they’d ended the performance on this note, but there’s one last song left.

21. Ich will (Mutter)

I can’t think of a better finale.

This song is exactly what you’d expect, with an additional sprinkle of fireworks punctuating every pause in the lines ‘Seht ihr mich? / Versteht ihr mich? / Fühlt ihr mich? / Hört ihr mich?’. Like always, audience participation is mandatory, as is the audience showing off their hands. It is the perfect way to end the show: it’s a classic favourite, it’s neither too bright nor too grim (avoids ending on a downer note), and it’s a song exclusively written to highlight a togetherness between band and audience. ‘Ich will’ could end every R+ concert it features in, in my opinion, regardless of theme or era... and it will always be appropriate.

The concert really ends after that. It helps that Till addresses his farewell to us as ‘fucking Milton Keynes’ (in a wholly fond way) before they depart. I won’t speak about the details of how they leave, because that’s almost a small show of its own, but trust me when I say I was in tears.

I say that like that didn’t happen at least three times during the concert.

----------------------------

After it’s all over, I... don’t get to go back to my hotel and sleep. Not after a lot of waiting, anyway. Over 30,000 people are trying to leave this stadium all at once, the traffic congestion is awful and there are pretty much no taxis/uber rides available in the couple of hours following the concert. I eventually end up sitting in the McDonalds (only 24hr restaurant nearby) with queue buddies until roughly 1am until the surge goes down and I can pay the amount I promised myself for my uber.

I could have gone back earlier. I budgeted over a hundred pounds to see myself through the price surge, in case it didn’t go down as quickly as I hoped, or if I urgently needed to get myself out of danger. It was just that the predictor was showing something like fifty to eighty quid for a ten-minute ride back to my hotel and, like. Fuck that. There’s being able to ‘afford’ it, and then being able to afford it, and I can think of better ways to spend fifty pounds.

And to be honest, after over a half day of hunger, even McDonalds was one of those better places. I had a meal and a Sprite before I could get out of there. It was probably the first time I’d had something resembling a legit meal in two days and if I hadn’t been so ecstatic I think I’d have been depressed. Then I got back to my hotel. Made myself a hot chocolate with brandy. Passed out on my bed around 3am, then got back up around 7am to enjoy a nice morning bath and get myself back home. It was around 5pm on Sunday when I returned to Brighton, ears still ringing, feeling on cloud nine.

So that’s me. Future concertgoers, take as many opportunities as possible to go see Rammstein’s current tour live. Front row may be near impossible if you aren’t a LIFAD member and/or get pre-releases for the Feuer Zone (although Milton Keynes didn’t have that) but try to get as close as possible, anyway. It is not an experience to be missed.

Though also bring an umbrella, maybe. If your stadium allows it. It was a fucking trip surviving 12+ hours in the great outdoors and then immediately being rained on while on front row 😰

23 notes · View notes

caffeine-yeen · 6 years ago

Text

D&D Character Breakdown: Glacier

I wanted to do a little write-up for Glacier, my character in @hybbat‘s awesome homebrew D&D campaign because he’s one of my top three character’s I’ve ever played, and I want to show off all of Ony’s hard work on some drawings of him. I want to show off my good boy so y’all can love him too.

All art is drawn by @hybbat also so go give her some love for these draws. She does awesome work.

So! Glacier is a member of my DM’s custom Faun race, vaguely like Satyrs but more goat-y and cuter. Glacier is a species of Faun who is acclimated to cold climates and comes from the far north of her world. He’s jacked as shit and has cute little hooves and I love him very much.

Before the first adventure, Glacier was a hermit living alone in a cave somewhere in the tundra, mostly keeping to himself minus the occasional interaction with local dwarfs or bandits. Living in the wilderness, he developed a kinship with bears, being the biggest predator around, and he took to keeping the skull of one in particular. He wears a heavy coat with a fur collar, and canvas pants to aid his natural resistance to the cold. In fights, Glacier dons the skull over his face, ties the coat around his waist, his eyes and leather-wrapped greatsword glow a pale blue, like sunlight through an iceberg, and his horns naturally have a similar visual quality.

Glacier was part of a team of four hired to check out a problem on a mobile city, but the band eventually worked through that and started traveling together. Currently, the party consists of two of the original four (Glacier and @wheel-skellington‘s Faun Fighter/Ranger Poppy), plus a Faun sailor named Skipper.

I love how Glacier’s personality has grown naturally through playing, and a lot of his weird quirks have just appeared through roleplay. For instance, I like to imagine one of his more obvious traits, wearing the mask, along with his furious fighting style, is used in an attempt to distract from the fact that he’s kinda’ pretty and soft-featured without the mask on.

In addition to this, Glacier is known to be a total flirt. This is, however, another facade, as if a single person returned his one-sided flirtation, he would be too flustered and embarrassed to respond. This has come up once, as a certain faun NPC we met was deemed ‘too pretty’ by Glacier to flirt with, and he is a total stuttering mess around them.

In the current party, Glacier acts as the frontline tank, dealing massive damage and taking hits for the others. He is forming a band of muscle friends, has taught a friendly NPC how to make killer steak, headbutted a dragon, fought 2 griffins at once, learned the true meaning of faunukkah, and worn a friendly dragon wyrmling like a scarf.

I love this character so much I wrote a little story about every scar he’s got!!

Anyways, that’s the first of a few writeups I plan to do for some of my characters. Glacier is one of the most fun to play and I love that game so much.

40 notes · View notes

obsoletesystem · 6 years ago

Text

D&D Ask Meme

@wisdom-fangs asked me to do all the questions of this D&D ask post. So I did. 1. A favorite character you have played. I really like playing monstrous characters. Currently in Adventurers League, I play Frattek Venvaris, bugbear rogue/barbarian, who is a delightfully goofy character. But I also miss playing Bajur Mashoir, a very charismatic lizardfolk "voodoo" shaman, whose catchphrase was: "As you can see, I am an alligator, sir..." spoken in a thick southern brawl. 2. Your favorite character that someone else has played. During a one shot the guy that played an evil halfling warlock sacrificed himself to blow up the big bad with a block of dynamite. The true MVP. 3. Your favorite side quest. Idk. 4. Your current campaign. I DM a homebrew campaign, in which the party is stuck between sides in a war between the local Jarl and a fey duchess who has taken over a part of the woods. I also participate as a player in a slight homebrewed Salt Marsh campaign, in which I play a tiefling cleric of Pelor. She's got a Sad Backstory. 5. Favorite NPC. The Loathesome Gribble, an NPC in the game I DM, who is a very small tiefling sorcerer with an immense knife collection and a four-armed aasimar monk girlfriend. He is found in the most of unlikely places and his signature spell is "Gribble's Hand of Sand", which may or may be not magical, as it blinds a creature with sand, but the material component is just a handfull of coarse sand. 6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc). The druid in our home game charged into giant stag form at a huge burning construct (The Burning Man from Burning Man, but moving), missed his attack, upon which the Burning Man rolled nat 20's on BOTH ITS ATTACKS. No advantage, no nothing, just two straight 20's. He grabbed the stag by its antlers, turned its head 360 degrees, and dropped a flaming, mutilated dwarf to the ground. 7. Your favorite downtime activity. I always like to do something that tells a little bit about the culture of the creature I play. When I was on haitus because of school, I described how Frattek had spend some time with his little bugbear niece, and had just returned from a fun little war (seeing as bugbears love to fight). 8. Your favorite fight/encounter. We had to fight a vampire spawn in a dank, dark basement, but it was light outside, and Frattek is incredibly good at grappling creatures, so we dragged the vampire out from his basement into the sunlit street, and then made a run for it as we had broken into a house. 9. Your favorite thing about D&D. Coming together with friends and not drinking (a lot) or smoking weed. I like doing those things too, but it is also fun to just hang out and play games where heavy drinking is not really handy. 10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most. Dragons are the best, spellcasters are the worst. Spellcasting Dragons are the bees knees. My players, however, are going to hate a certain spellcaster very much. Once they find out... 11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play? Usually once a week, but I'd love to be able to balance twice a week. One day as player, one day as DM. 12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from. "Name and occupation, please" comes from when we played Pathfinder, and one of the characters died, but I didn't want to get rid of him yet or he was set up to be reincarnated or some shit idk. Anyway, his soul arrives in purgatory, which turns out to be this bureaucratic office, where he has to stand in line for a long, long time, before arriving at a booth/desk type situation, in which an Ophanim angel (one of them burning wheels full of eyes) floats that asks with a bored sigh "Name and occupation, please". The player answered, and was set up for reincarnation, which involved shooting his soul from a cannon/drop tube into the unborn baby of a local woman. The child grows up unnaturally quickly, and because it has the soul of a mature orc barbarian, it is more than a little trouble. Nephertheless, the "Name and occupation, please" gag remained forever. 13. Introduce your current party. My Homeboys, the Lords of Okab Volal, are Nazreen, a wood elf ranger who missed her wolf, played by @tabula-wasa, Tophr Thanestone, the previously mentioned dwarf druid who was murdered by a giant flaming effigy and subsequently reincarnated/put into the body of a frost elf woman (something he hasn't come to terms with) played by our bearded friend Glenn, and Adelon Vrena, half-elf bard/cleric/divine soul sorcerer a.k.a. Healer Supreme, who is really righteous but not above torturing a captive githyanki, and played by Arnaud. The Schadestenen (meaning "Damage Stones", as in dice), which is the OG Adventurers League group in the Spellenhoorn in Hoorn, consist of Aiden Rainbowscale (Albino orphan wood-elf monk/barbarian), Fjorgyn (dwarven cleric of Moradin, who died last week and still suffered from the Death Curse. RIP.), Frattek Venvaris (Bugbear barbarian/arcane trickster and gladiator/luchador, played by me), Gideon Thornton (cowardly Half-Orc Hexblade), Grommash Hellscream (Stereotypical Half-Orc Barbarian. Great guy.), Ruldra (disgraced Hobgoblin undead-hunting Ranger), Cadence (Powerful but stupid Half-elf Grave Cleric/Divine Soul Sorcerer who never learned how to read), Ullr (Arnaud's Gloom Stalker and Human Machine Gun), and Darin (half-elf ranger and Master Of Backflip). The Peeps from Salt Marsh, DMed by the guy that plays Darin, in which Arnaud plays William Wisenose, The Awfully Lucky Halfling Build (halfling wizard/bard/whatever), Cadence's player plays Sylver Ravenstar (half-elf bard/hexblade/run away princess), her friend plays Samm Enoch (Aasimar Bard and Very Handsome Man), Aiden's player plays Ankis (Aasimar Celestial Warlock and very secretive about both these facts because Back Story), and his friend plays Vena Malum (Human Bloodhunter, who is really buff and does that swirly thing with her falchions, and oh my...), Grommash's player plays Morgain of Astora (human paladin of Pelor, and companion/boyfriend/substitute son to my character), and I play Paytsarra Avèry (winged tiefling cleric of Pelor). Praise the sun. 14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed. We had one party consisting of a drider, a very evil dwarf, a fire genasi, a gnome psychic, and a kenku ninja at one point. When the evil dwarf died, and I introduced the guy's new drow "medic", I knew I lost all cohesion of the group. 15. Do you have snacks during game times? My players do. I don't like snacks that much. 16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer? In person. I tried playing online, and I think I would do again, but only if I'd have a really good headset. 17. What are some house rules that your group has? In the Salt Marsh campaign you double the value of the dice on a crit, which I think is disappointing. I just wanna roll a lot of dice :( 18. Does your party keep any pets? @tabula-wasa's ranger has a dire wolf...somewhere...

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions? Not that I know of. I do know some of my dice seem to roll better than others. 20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing? I found a d&d character creation app on the web ages ago, and that sparked my interest. Later I joined a warhammer fantasy role play group with a friend I had been rp-ing online with a lot, but this was the real deal, at Arnaud's house. He dmed number of campaigns for us, and later he joined my pathfinder group which turned into a D&D 5th edition group. 21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done? Yeah. Frattek decided to be a hero and tried to assassinate an ogre torturer. He failed his shot. We had to fucking run. 22. What color was your first dragon? The first dragon I fought as a character was a young Red Dragon. Even at 5th level, we whooped its ass. He found himself in a cave, surrounded by fools, and we beat him to pulp. The first dragon I put in front of my players was a young White Dragon. It kicked their asses. 23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns? I usually homebrew my own campaigns, but I have dmed some AL sessions. 24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game? Not an incredible amount, but for my home game I prepare ideas months, even years, in advance. For DMs 25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for? A lot. The most notable was casting Dispel Magic on the demiplane-item the cultists were in... and then opening the demiplane underwater. 26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters. I had these zombies that always repeated the last thing they said before they died, which was cool and creepy. But the thing I really wrote out was the description of how an Astral Ship warps space around itself, and what that looks like from the people on the deck of the ship. 27. Do you allow homebrew content? If it's well written, absolutely, but there is a lot of shit out there. 28. How often do you use NPCs in a party? When it makes sense, but I try not to do that too often. 29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions? I prefer RP sessions, but I am leaning more toward combat. On the other hand, I don't think it completely excludes each other nor should it. I am of the opinion that 30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos? Rather diplomatic, but they can definitely kick ass. For Players 31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race? I like casters, and I will always have an affinity for wizards, but arcane tricksters and eldritch knights are cool too. I like elves, and I like monstrous races; goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears. I like things that are pretty and scary, or creepy and goofy. 32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?) I usually mix a bit of tank and dps. I don't like being very frail, but I do enjoy doing a lot of damage in one shot. 33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory? I tend to write a character from a concept, and then build out the backstory. How did this person become the person they are today? Even if you have something of a bugbear, or a hobgoblin, or a yuan-ti. They have had a childhood, they have role models, they have culture. But what is that? What defines a character? What makes them they way they are? I don't like playing monstrous races that have been adopted by a "better, nobler race" like humans and elves and dwarves. I get the appeal, but I also think it is a little trite, and a little condenscending, almost. I think a lot about what defines a monstrous identity, and being a Cultural Anthropologist, I think a lot about the way culture shapes the values and morality and thus also behaviour of a creature. Do hobgoblins tell their children bedtime stories? What are they about? How will a bugbear struggle in regular humanoid society, where his violent urges -natural to him- are equally, or even more excessively violently repressed and punished? Is this just for bugbears? Will they then look for each other, and find each other in their shared cultural/natural tendencies? Are there goblinoid lawyers or activist groups, that seek to protect other goblinoids from unjust treatment under laws that aren't theirs? How will your life be if you are a second or third or even fourth generation inhuman creature in a human society? Do they dream of returning to a society that is 'theirs'? And is there even such a thing? And if there is, will they actually fit in, or forever be an outcast, neither hob nor man? I tend to poke at such questions with my character backstories. 34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor? Everything is useful, since everything is always situational. If you plan only for situations in which you are going to kill every living thing, then you shouldn't pick something like Rope Trick, or Magic Circle. But you do you. I very much dislike decoupling "flavour" from functionality. This is a game of make-belief, so everything you do is flavour. The mechanics are an abstraction of a fantastic reality, and though inherently important to the working of the game (without rules, it would merely be improvisation, which is also a kind of game, but schwa), it is all flavour. People that brag about how much average damage they can do with this or that specific build tire me. 35. How much roleplay do you like to do? All of the roleplay! But please let me punt goblins into the garbage sometimes!

1 note · View note

grayisholi · 6 years ago

Note

@ the DND ask game: ALL OF THOSE QUESTIONS, I CAN'T CHOOSE!! XD (or if not that, the ones you rlly wanna do!! <3 )

BOY OH BOY OH BOYIve been answering these throughout the day and I’m too lazy to reread the full document so sorry if I’ve left gaps or whatever but here it is! All 35 questions about dnd! Matt you unstoppable Madman.

1. A favorite character you have played.

You can’t just make me pick between my children!!! I think I might have to say Atticus Sallow, my faeborn bloodhunter, partially because he’s like 100% homebrew content which I LIVE for, but also because he’s probably the most kinda self-insert character I’ve ever played? Almost became the kinda angsty, brooding asshole character before he was like “get your shit together” and learned that loving people isn’t so bad.

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

I almost, ALMOST had the pleasure of DMing for @no-more-good-omens and their character was gonna be SO RAD and I’m a little heartbroken he never came to be. A half-drow paladin of Vecna, pretending to be your typical good and wholesome paladin? Dude, I love that kinda two faced backstabbing in a player. It’s such a shame it never came to anything (although if yall still wanna play hmu ;))

3. Your favorite side quest.

Ooh, there’s been so many good ones. Probably when i was playing as Adrian Smirks and went off on a tangent to rescue his brother ? That was the first time I ever got to see Adrian’s more raw and emotional side beneath the suave mask he wears and it was fun to explore his character in that way ^.^

4. Your current campaign.

That I’m DMing? It started inspired by Guy Fawkes and was gonna be “your party blows up parliament” but I got bored of following historical accuracy so it ended up being “blow up the palace in a magical city that just happens to be called London”. I accidentally wrote myself into a hole with this campaign tho, so once they’ve finished this arc I’m handing over the DM hat to my sister @philosophical-wanton because she seems to love it and I kinda miss being a player lmao. I can’t wait for it.

5. Favorite NPC.That I’ve written? Probably Hai Shen, the youngest son of a group of circus performers who were killed and the party got blamed for their murder. He had such a great attitude and his dynamics with the party kicked ass. And the twist that he was actually dead the whole time and it was his soul that had stayed behind to help solve his family’s murder? ICONIC.

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).

NPC death would probably be Hai Shen, actually. After the party had brought the real killers (A cult to the demon Prince Orcus) to justice, Hai’s time on earth had come to an end. He had really beautiful moment with the party before being reunited with his family. Alternatively, the time I broke my entire party’s hearts? “Artagan’s staff comes cracking into Ellios’ chest, forcing him onto the ground. Artagan raises his sceptre in hand, pointing it menacingly at the young prince. And for the first time, you see him. Like, REALLY see him. He’s not the strong and powerful leader you’ve all come to know him as, he’s not Prince Ellios of the Four Realms. He’s just a boy. A boy who is much too young to be involved in such a grand scheme. And the fear in his eyes. You see the fear he’s managed to keep buried for so long, finally coming to the surface. And then? You don’t see anything, aside from his cold body hitting the ground.” I got punched three times for that moment, but GOD was it worth it.

7. Your favorite downtime activity.

Like in game? A healthy lil bit of vandalising the local law enforcement buildings is always a good time.

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

Aw man, how can I pick ? I gotta say, that one time we, a level 6 party, managed to take down two earth elementals was pretty rad. The DM kind of expected it to be one of those encounters that we saw and immediately tried to run from, but what she didn’t take into account was that ALL of us had chaotic alignments so we just went crazy. The DM was rolling really badly (thank God) and we were getting really creative (“I use the produce flame centripetal to light my bottle of ale on fire and create a molotov cocktail” “you do WHAT”) and after like an HOUR we won and it was amazing. The rush I got from that victory was better than any drug my dood.

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

I know I say it a lot, but I legit can’t choose. There’s so many great things about ttrpgs that a lot of people don’t really think of. The creative fulfilment I get from a session is incomparable, the friendships you can build that you couldn’t form in any other way. And like, not to get too real for a sec here, but I grew up with undiagnosed autism and didn’t understand how a lot of social situations worked, and DnD was such a good mechanic for me to try communicating with people without many real world consequences, and I appreciate that experience so much. It’s just such a great thing my dood.

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.

Can they be the same thing lmao? I mean, I’m obviously partial to Count Cassius, the vampire lord that Adrian slept with lmao. I also always appreciate a good beholder, until I get hit with three disintegration rays IN A ROW.

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?

We’ve got kind of a monthly schedule with my main campaign, and I manage to get a couple online games in-between them, but honestly I’d kill to be the kind of group that got together every weekend.

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

Oh MAN. “I say we do this.” “Yeah, but that’s coming from the guy who decided to tie 3 50ft ropes together to escape the palace.” “iT wOrKeD dIdN’t iT ???” i.e that time I forgot I gave the gnome rogue flying boots so when I planned for them to get arrested at the palace, they managed to escape by tying their ropes together, sending the gnome with it to the top and climbing the wall. I had to improvise the rest of the session. Also “FLINTON BELINDA SKINTON” bc as a role-play exercise I got my party to come up with rumours about their characters and the gnome rogue called Flint AKA Flinton B Skinton decided that one of their rumours was that the B stood for Belinda, and it was GLORIOUS.

13. Introduce your current party.

My current group consists of Flinton B Skinton, gnome rogue. He’s a quick-fingered, silver-tongued gay disaster who can sell anything to anyone. He’s a charming flirt, and a veritable genius in his own right. Kava Daardendrian, dragonborn ranger who loves nothing in life more than her animal companion - her pig Snortin Norton. She’s fun and sassy and shameless, she’s great. There’s Sparks, the fire Genasi Monk, and full embodiment of a disaster lesbian. She drinks, fights, and gets laid, and doesn’t deal with her problems in healthy ways. An icon. And finally Milo, the halfling Bard who falls in love at the drop of a hat and just wants everyone to get along. I call them “The Shenanigang” and I love them.

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.

A party I joined late? We had Sylvia Moondrop, the half elf sorcerer who was just trying to get along with everyone despite what the world seemed to want. Orland the half orc bard who was just trying to shake off the Barbarian stereotype his family left him with. Rose Morleen, air Genasi fighter who was literally born to kick ass and take names. I joined as Mason Terrai, the Earth Genasi Alchemist with a perchance for explosives. The very definition of chaotic neutral.

15. Do you have snacks during game times?

Of COURSE. What manic wouldn’t ?

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?

I used to play online a LOT back before I had friends who were into dnd, but I VASTLY prefer playing in person. The chemistry that’s built not only amongst the players, but also the actual characters themselves is unparalleled. It’s just such a great experience.

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

Anyone can attempt anything, the only restriction is the dice. Don’t question the DM unless it’s out of session, then bully the dm on the groupchat until he’s so pissed off he gives you inspiration just to get you to shut up. And also canon lore and canon rules are bullshit when it’s convenient. That’s about it

18. Does your party keep any pets?

Our ranger, God bless her, has her pack pig Snortin Norton, sold to her by one Flinton B Skinton. And Flint really wants a monkey, he’s been trying to find one for ages.

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

Not really ? I’m the kind guy that if my dice rolls a 1 I will bench it for a bit, but tbh all my dice are cursed af and I’ve kinda just learned to roll with it by making my characters canonically terrible at everything lmao.

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?

Aw man I can’t remember when or how, it’s been so long. I had a couple friends who were kinda into it, but all the games they tried to run were complete disasters. I only really started playing I’m the past year or so? Maybe a little more ? Adrian was my first character, and he was a very RP heavy character in a party of tanks and they all hated him but MAN was it fun.

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

Oh all the time. One time my character was careless and didn’t check for traps on a legendary artefact and it lead to the death of a party member. One time my character got angry at his party and walked out. My characters don’t make good decisions, but that’s part of the fun.

22. What color was your first dragon?

White! I thought it was silver at first and went to go say hi, and it clawed me within half my HP straight away lmao.

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?

Oh dude, original all the way. I live for that shit.

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

Depends on the session, but usually a good few hours, couple of days if I’m DMing.

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

“You wake up in a mysterious forest. The strained autumn sun shines through the trees. The only thing you can see it each other, the trees, and an old sign post leading to a path that says "Myrrill” on it. What do you do?“ "We walk in the opposite direction of the sign deeper into the forest.” “…of course you do.”

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.

I wrote a full carnival show one time for them to watch, and then it got derailed when a horrific monster attacked. But writing all the characters and their acts, and watching my players get entranced as I described it ? Magical, my dood.

27. Do you allow homebrew content?

I live and breathe homebrew content. I don’t know what my games would be without it. I LOVE homebrew.

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?

I make some pretty sick characters if I do say so myself, so I throw them in a LOT.

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

Oh dude, role play all the way. Fighting and killing stuff is great, but role-play is just so good. We can go from laughing with a bartender to crying over a backstory reveal and it’s just beautiful.

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

Depends on the party, but i find the best players are a little bit of both XD

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

Official ? I’m a fan of the hexblade warlock? Bards are always a good call, and to be real playing monks make me feel like an absolute badass. Race wise, there are just so many. If we’re only talking players handbook stuff, half elf is always rad. Outside of that? I’ve been researching the Shadar-Kai lately and I’m LIVING. They’re so rad.

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)

What would you call the disaster gay? I don’t really gear my characters towards usefulness in combat, so it’s just whatever the class happens to lend itself to.

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?

I usually write my character, personality, backstory, alignment etc, before I even pick a class or even a race. I basically just make OCs and apply them to dnd rules, and it’s SO much fun. 10/10, would recommend.34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

FLAVOUR. My party usually hates me, but what I lack in combat utility I more than make up for in creative out of combat skill checks XD.

35. How much roleplay do you like to do?

Boi, I even RP my combat, and the great thing is it rubs off on my party too. I’ll have a really low initiative and everyone else will be like “I attack and do 10 points of damage” but then on my round I’m like “I use my staff to leap across the battlefield towards the opponent and launch out with a spinning kick to their jaw” and everyone else is like “oh, okay, that’s what we’re doing.” and the battle becomes so much more dynamic and cinematic, it’s amazing !

5 notes · View notes

obeetlebeetle · 6 years ago

Note

Do all the dnd asks!

1. A favorite character you have played.

done!

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

o my god.. this is so hard, my group makes really good characters! for each of them:zach - nickels!! trauma child kenku weirdo who sold their soul to talk.. who grew up to be an angry pirate who adopted a child on impulse.ari - lael, obviously. they have a half-elf complex, a good chunk of their personality is being the kid that catches lizards, and they have a robot arm.lemon - honestly? jj devinyl. i mean, john mulaney as a tiefling cleric who loves his wife and is also going completely insane? yeah.bree - i.. love layla. she’s a good-aligned cleric to an evil god and her and kellan are the cutest couple in dnd tbh.connor - guardian is a robot.

3. Your favorite side quest.

o fuck!! y’all.. it’s bufo. it’s the fact that my talking toad npc was so lovable that they unlocked the quest in which his mother hunts him down and tries to kill him so that she can live forever. they killed her ofc and bufo was untransformed into a handsome.. halfling.

4. Your current campaign.

i’m running a murder mystery set aboard an airship! with strong cosmic horror elements! and i’m playing in a large-scale epic about spies caught up in the very start of a continent-wide war.

5. Favorite NPC.

also a very hard question. on one hand, jean is my actual boyfriend and also a literal angel assassin. on the other hand, nika is a child god trapped in an amulet whose super god power makes people trip which is so fucking funny. back around to the first hand, which is now the third, aengus is so well-done as a villain that he’s almost scared me in my real-life actual heart and yet he’s an a huge loser with breakup trauma, which is objectively also so fucking funny. on my fourth hand, fela is my most important npc who i’m probably in love with and she’s been in every one of my campaigns. on my FIFTH hand--

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).

done!

7. Your favorite downtime activity.

done!

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

that time nasuada beat lumley up in her own dumb-ass head, and lumley’s response was to find this super hot.

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

getting together and spending time with my friends! or maybe that it lets me be creative without the stress writing gives me.

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.

fav enemy is def aengus!! like wow he’s fucking terrifying!! and i hate yin&yang the most, they were so creepy and cruel and they were never really punished.

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?

i dm once a week these days, and i play sporadically. thesis year has been hard on me! but ideally i would love to dm twice a week and play in one or two steady campaigns, or dm once a week with regular one-shot sessions!

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

o.. there’s a lot?? my favorite is “honeyclaw pissed on lenthol” bc our barbarian thought it would be a good idea to climb into the robot piloted by the “big bad” (or so we thought at the time), and then to sell her bluff that she was looking for the bathroom, she just...... pissed herself >:(

13. Introduce your current party.

as a dm: lael (half-elf magitechnician who bases their mad science off of cool bugs); guardian (robot paladin on his third life, basically robocop with light existential crises); senhora (brash and kind-hearted by turns, an elf who [REDACTED] before becoming a ranger and bonding w a wolf); jj devinyl (a tiefling cleric who does stand-up comedy and loves his wife); and percy (an android with identity issues, driven by curiosity, and love for magic, and literally no qualms about threatening to kill her friends).

as a player:rowan (the last prince of a lost kingdom and also the saddest, gayest boy in town); ko&kokumo (my elf boy whose soul split in two after leaving his warlock patron, driven by nosiness and romance respectively); honeyclaw (a tabaxi pro-wrestler who deserted her life as a child soldier, pissed on lenthol); peitho (the surprisingly wholesome god of sex, was kinda into the tactics of being a spy before he got distracted by p*ssy); and lumley (the dumbest baby lesbian ever o my god, she’s the daughter of a powerful river goddess and she still can’t get a date).

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.

that would take me one million years.

15. Do you have snacks during game times?

yeah!! traditionally we take a halfway break at 9 and all go get snacks together, it’s great.

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?

i prefer in person, but we play online a lot, and we’ll have to be only online once we graduate.

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

we round up score mods from odds and we don’t pay attention to like.. most of the little rules. it’s more abt the storytelling. (which is why we may switch to a different system if i can seduce them away.)

18. Does your party keep any pets?

o yeah, i think almost every group has had an animal companion. and if not, zach always plays a furry.

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

a lot of us roll specific sets for each character!

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?

i got into dnd in high school bc i liked a boy who watched community, and then i watched community, and the dnd episode fucking rocked. never got past making characters and one botched attempt at a session. then in my first year of college, i joined the dnd club and i’ve been playing since! so like, three years and some change.

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

ya lol i play very much how my character would act and tho that usually goes well for me.. ko wanted to break his pact with aengus despite the Consequences and i didn’t. but overall i think the outcome has been a lot of fun!

22. What color was your first dragon?

silver! just introduced them, actually!

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?

all original, baby.

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

a ton. as a dm i write........ a lot. i want to have a lot of vivid characters, solid plots, and a huge interwoven world. so my docs are always huge and take me months to finish.

as a player i do less bc players just inherently have far less to do. but i still try put a ton into really developing my character so i can play them more naturally.

For DMs

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

in my first campaign, i used a lot of weird memory spells to keep characters from remembering the big bad, because him being unremembered was a HUGE plot point for me. i had two different groups playing in the city at the same time, and one of them.... had this dragonborn who just liked to talk to plants and who hated nobles, and who fucking cast MAGIC MOUTH on their FANNY PACK to record that big bad so that it COULDN’T BE FORGOTTEN. MAGIC MOUTH. THAT’S THE SPELL THAT BROKE ME.

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.

i’ve really liked a couple, but i know i haven’t topped the finale for my first campaign. after finally the groups finally came together and killed Shargaas, the city began to crumble around them, and they all watched me set a ten-minute timer for them to figure out how to get away with their lives.

27. Do you allow homebrew content?

o yea, i adore MFOV particularly.

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?

o there are always a couple kicking around.

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

we don’t really.. do... that second thing....

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

yes.

For Players

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

o fuck. uh probably wizard. and i love................. half-elves.

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)

i really like long-distance damage dealers.

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?

i always start with a concept and then i just write an entire novel ell em ay oh.

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

done!

35. How much roleplay do you like to do?

like, 70% rp, 30% jokes,

#shadiekid

4 notes · View notes

vallonde-laid-bare · 7 years ago

Photo

Something special for you all today.

I tend to map out most of my major encounter areas like this and post them after they’ve been conquered so my players can get a better mental picture of where they’ve been and the things they’ve done. This are in particular has some sentimental value to the group because this is where our first character death happened.

The scene: The party is exploring the personal library of a legendary wizard in an attempt to stop or at least slow the spread of a magical illness that has been plaguing a nearby town. They’ve stumbled upon some cultists who are taking advantage of an open planar gate to perform a ritual. The cult is one that the players have been dealing with since very early in the campaign, so there is already history here, and animosity on both sides. The group had managed to discover that the illness affecting the town was being caused by open portals in the library releasing extra planar energy that’s acting almost like radiation to living creatures, mutating them or causing them to fall ill. They’d closed all of the portals in the complex and have traced the leaking energy to the final portal hidden in a cave system underneath the library proper. After fighting their way to the end of the tunnel system they realized that they weren’t the first ones when they were met with chanting voices. Hiding at the mouth of the cavern, they took a moment to observe the ritual which I was very proud of them for because they usually just rush dick first into every encounter regardless of context. The apparent leader of the cultists dropped her robes to the floor at the height of the ceremony and began slowly walking toward the portal as the chanting was reaching a crescendo. I had decided I would let everyone take one action before she made it to the gate, but I didn’t want to prompt them to do so and give away that this was an important moment so I played it cool and asked them what they were doing. The only character who decided to attempt to interfere was the kenku rogue who shot an arrow at the woman. Unfortunately he rolled poorly and the cultists were alerted to their presence, causing the woman to sprint toward the portal. She leapt through and the party readied themselves for a fight with the remaining 4 cultists.

This is where things started going downhill.

Soon, the portal ring began to tremble and everyone was all eyes and something began to emerge from the gate. A leg, thick, chitinous, and prodigious. Then a second, and a third as a massive body drags itself into the room. Within seconds, a massive insect-like creature was filling part of the room from floor to 15 ft ceiling, and it didn’t look friendly. The cultists apparently weren’t prepared for this and one of them began screaming at the sight of the monster. A bad move it would seem at the thing quickly honed in on the noise and made for them, stomping it’s heavy legs and neatly pulverizing the hapless cultists in seconds. You should have seen the look on the group’s faces, it was fantastic. And so began a quick conversation amongst themselves about whether they were just going to get the fuck out of there and leave the town to its doom. Two of them wanted to bolt while three of them had vague ideas of some ill-defined plan, so the party became split while facing what was undoubtedly the most powerful enemy they’d yet to encounter. Ascertaining quickly that the creature was blind and was tracking them by sound and vibration, the kenku began a campaign of hit-and-run tactics with a bow to distract it while two of the others, a lizardfolk bloodhunter and a kitsune paladin, went to close the portal. Lucky for them, they succeeded, and the mission was complete. Unfortunately, they had to make a lot of noise to accomplish the task, and the bug-monster turned its attention to them. It was at the point that the last two members of the group (half-orc tempest cleric and half-ogre fighter), who were still standing a little back from the entrance and contemplating leaving, decided to make their return. Together with the kenku they drew the creature’s attention away from the lizard and the fox and toward the entrance of the cavern which it actually started tearing open to allow it to get to the members of the group that were harassing it just out of reach. Desperate the be out of the room and reunite with the rest of the group in the relative safety of the tunnels beyond the cavern, lizard and fox came up with a second death-defying plan: They would weave between the pounding rear-legs and tearing fore-legs of the monster and then they could all gtfo. I ruled it would require either athletics or acrobatics to avoid being trampled and then an attack from the creature with disadvantage because it was still busy tearing away at the walls which were now almost sheared away enough for it to advance. The lizard made it, but the fox wasn’t so lucky. Ritsuko, our voice of reason and party leader, managed to artfully weave through the gauntlet of pistoning legs but was reduced to a smear on the cavern floor by a blind swing, and it was honestly a little emotional. Take his player’s word for it:

(Note: The players like the make fun of the names of the character and NPCs by purposely saying them wrong, so Ritsuko often got called ricotta. Group inside joke)

Even with this unfortunate death, the group still managed to lay the insect-monster low and mostly escape with their lives. The town was saved and the party got some loot and a great story out of it. As a DM, these are the moments I live for, getting to orchestrate and share in emotional moments with my friends and the friends they’ve created.

I know that was long and a bit rambling, and if you’ve made it this far I applaud your diligence in deciphering my messy story telling. I know most of the people who follow this blog are here for the homebrew, but Vallonde is more than just its rules. Its the characters that exist in that world, the places they go, the things they do, and the people who play them. Players make the game, not the other way around, and I think that’s something that we as DMs forget too often.

#Dungeons and Dragons #5th edition #Vallonde #Session stories

68 notes · View notes

yourladyocs · 6 years ago

Note

do all the dnd asks!

Alrighty~~

1. A favorite character you have played.

This comes as no surprise but Lumley is one of my favorites!

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

(I’m going to steal a move from you and list them all out)

Zach-- I have to say Nickels! Crazy bird boy and what a good dad!!Ari-- I have never seen Rat Boy in action, but god do I want to. So badly!!Lemon-- Peitho!! How can someone resist the charm of Peitho!!You-- Honestly, I really love Teffan!!Connor-- Honestly, I’m blanking on the name but that Rainbow Genasi Monk. He was the funniest character I think I have seen! XD

3. Your favorite side quest.

I really liked the side quest involving the amulet’s identity and finding out how to get rid of it. The Eros and Psyche(?) arc of the campaign.

4. Your current campaign.

Well, I’m not running any! But I’m in a murder mystery/cosmic horror campaign! I’m also in a long standing campaign involving Spy kids!

5. Favorite NPC.

Can I say Hamlet?

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).

THE MAYOR. We spent over 16+ hours trying to get this guy killed. I’m so glad we did it.

7. Your favorite downtime activity.

Besides D&D? lol

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

Listen, I love the Mayor fight/encounter to a T. It was my first real difficult fight mixed with a really great DM and really just a huge bonding boost with everyone there.

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

The bonding with all my friends! Now that we are all in different places, it’s really the only time I get to hang out with them. So I guess I hold it in a special place in my heart when we have those moments.

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.

Can they be the same? Because THE MAYOR. But nah really my favorite enemy is Aengus and the one I hated the most was the Mayor.

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?

If I could play every other day if I could lol.

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

We have started a running joke about how Honeyclaw peed herself in front of one of our enemies. Also I like to think it’s a sorta inside joke. But my character Percy is always pointed as the most dangerous and the murderer in our murder mystery campaign.

13. Introduce your current party.

Oh! That’s a lot! (Its going to go like: Name-- Murder Mystery-- Spy Kids)

Me-- Percy (A Tiefling Android) -- Lumley (A water genasi with mommy issues)A -- Lael (Mean Half-Elf Tech Guy) -- Rowan (a paranoid rogue, who is a prince!)C-- DM (Good band of murderers) -- Ko/Kumo (a very complex elf with daddy issues)C-- Guardian (A Robot who defies death) -- DM (villains, spies, oh my!)L-- JJ Divnyl (John Mulaney tiefling) -- Peitho (10/10 would seduce you)Z-- Senhora (has a dog!!) -- Honeyclaw (cat lady who peed on enemy)

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.

So much! I have done so manyyyyyy. I have dm-ed a lot but I forgot most of the people’s character names. I had a party that consisted of a bunch of teenagers exploring a magical realm where the real villains were creatures in a tree. I had a party of a cleric of fate (who just let everything be), a bard that seduced a noble woman, and my character was a paladin who ran around trying to fix things. I played a campaign with Nickels, a poet named Christian Anderson (who was very good on the bagpipes), with a water genasi who hit on every girl, a warlock of the undead who really wanted a zombie servant, and my character was a cleric of an evil god.

15. Do you have snacks during game times?

It wouldn’t be a game without one.

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?

A mix of both. I prefer in person, but we make it work.

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

No blatantly evil characters.

18. Does your party keep any pets?

One of us has a dog yes.

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

I do! You gotta sleep with your dice under your pillow before you roll them!! They gotta adapt to you!

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?

I played for a couple of years! It was through school friends that I got really into it!

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

All the time lol. My characters are not smart.

22. What color was your first dragon?

Ice White!

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?

Original Campaigns? Idk I just make it up.

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

I do a little! I like to get into character before I show up to session.

For DMs

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

I never really plan anything. The one time I planned out a campaign, everyone had sex in an elevator or with my main hero npc. I learned to sorta not plan after that.

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.

My favorite thing to write was the introduction of the spirits in the tree. They were my favorite characters and I liked how they were introduced.

27. Do you allow homebrew content?

Yes lol

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?

A lot.

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

A mix of both. I can’t do heavy RP good since I have trouble focusing on keeping in character with one character.

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

Depends on which party. Mostly diplomatic.

For Players

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

CLERIC! CLERIC! CLERIC! And I mostly play Elves.

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)

I like being the support. Sometimes that is the healer cleric or a ranger that comes with a lot of spells to break up enemy lines.

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?

I do write backstories! I like reading all the background things first and trying to decide from there. Xanathar’s has a super good guide for building background so I started glancing at those.

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

Depends on the class personally. For my hexblade warlock, Percy, I picked the axe for flavor. For my ranger, I picked archery since it seemed best for her build.

35. How much roleplay do you like to do?

I think I like to do it a lot, but a lot of my characters are self inserts so its not really playing a role lol.

#asks #answers #ask me #romanarcadia

2 notes · View notes

ihavealavalamp · 6 years ago

Note

ALL OF THEM. NOW

1. A favorite character you have played. - YOU CAN NOT POSSIBLY THINK THAT I DONT LOVE ALL MY CHARACTERS EQUALLY I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH YOU CANT MAKE ME CHOOSE

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played. - r.....ruby...... and all your characters honestly.. also monty played by jaye in daga boys will always have a special place in my heart cause hes just a Ride of a character, chas played by nick is my fucking Friend, and i could keep going honestly i love everyones characters so much you dont understand

3. Your favorite side quest. - i think a lot about the werewolf shenanigans in aurum. i’ll never forget it.

4. Your current campaign. - im in so many fuckign campaigns rn please god dont make me list them

5. Favorite NPC. - sheila.... all of huli’s friends in flying plague, literally every npc in best intentions (emphasis on astarielle and marlon who make me think a Lot), everyone in story of the stars, and Uhhhh cat does a Real good depiction of ellar in the murder HDSDHS

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc). - i wasnt even fuckin There but the death of elaris. i think abt that a lot. also poetry killing bear was Top Ten Anime Moments

7. Your favorite downtime activity. - depends on the character! most times i cant really think of much though hgfhgf

8. Your favorite fight/encounter. - the poetry vs bear duel was Iconic, and every encounter in best intentions is so fuckin Good cause milo makes some real terrifying monsters like jesus CHRIST.. also in daga boys when walter and the gang were escaping Lich Court. iconic.

9. Your favorite thing about D&D. - i like that it keeps me social and interacting with friends! i have problems with isolating myself but planning d&d stuff keeps me from doing that frequently Thank God.. also i love roleplaying and having a character that grows and interacts with others! i also really love some good ol combat.. i honestly love pretty much every aspect of d&d im very easy to please

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most. - i dont know if i have a favorite! i think lots are real good! but enemy i hate the most has gotta be those fuckin magical huge centipedes milo sent after us in best intentions. FUCK those things.

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play? - i play pretty frequently! im in a Lot of campaigns rn so im able to play things pretty much whenever i have the time to do so.

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from. - “you really pulled the nose on that one” is Iconic, it was from the first session of daga boys in which a trap activated by pulling the nose of a statue just. kept going off. like they kept pulling the nose Knowing it’d go off. and god i could write so many more but it would make this way too long GDHJDS

13. Introduce your current party. - im in so fucking many campaigns!!!!! but the last two i played i guess.... in best intentions dmed by milo we’ve got gwen the life domain cleric and delwyn the berserker barbarian played by simone and kiara! theyre two dwarf wives on their honeymoon and they got caught up in this ghfhgf,, and my character is silbryn! the fiend warlock we all know and love! and marlon, the dmpc who is generally cryptic and kinda terrifying sometimes but i love him anyways. and then in story of the stars, dmed by krissie! it’s a warrior cats campaign because we’re VALID and the party is orchidpaw played by cat who is aiming for being the leader but has a tenancy to be a bit loudspoken, and my character, songpaw, who is the medicine cat apprentice who tries to be mature but his short temper can get the best of him sometimes. and simone plays bo, a big ol mom cat! i love them.

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed. - TOO MANY I CAN NOT

15. Do you have snacks during game times? - when we’re playing online i dont bc i dont want to make Crunching Noises, but in irl sessions i just eat whatever’s there if anything is there. ya know. im so tired.

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer? - both! i prefer irl greatly though... im a very Expressive person and my characters are like 75% facial expressions and body language gfhfghgf

17. What are some house rules that your group has? - i can not actually think of any rn ghfghfg

18. Does your party keep any pets? - ya!! lots of familiars.. u know how it be

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions? - hfghf i know some people i play with do, but i personally do not!

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing? - my friends were playing it cause theyre a bunch of NERDS. and it’s been like two years now i think! i started near the end of highschool!

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done? - CONSTANTLY MY CHARACTERS ARE SUCH DUMBASSES BUT I GOTTA BE IN CHARACTER!

22. What color was your first dragon? - first dragon we took down was a young green dragon in daga boys!

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns? - original campaigns, mostly! i do play in a curse of strahd and a ravnica campaign though!

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game? - I HAVE TO DO SO MUCH AS A DM otherwise i will Fall Apart. as for pcs, i jsut go in blind and do what my character would do in that moment HJDSKJD

For DMs

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for? - mainly not acknowledge certain things that are important hgfhgf but other than that ive been lucky to have players that dont really do things that throw me off too much

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters. - the marley scene in weltschmerz i am still SO HAPPY with that... also in underground orchestra when iris explored ellar’s house.... Classic.

27. Do you allow homebrew content? - yeah!! as long as the player runs it by me first then im usually good with pretty much anything as long as it isnt game breaking gfhgfh

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party? - very often i like to Talk and i usually have quite a few reoccurring npcs that either stick with the party or are consistent in their appearances gfhgf (velki in weltz, ellar in uo, ivory in harbingers)

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions? - I LIKE BOTH.... im a simple man

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos? - i have good players in both my campaigns!! but i guess it depends!

For Players

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race? - i LOVE ME SOME CHARISMA CASTERS.... warlocks, sorcerers, and bards are just Fun babey!!! and tieflings, aasimars, and aarakocra are Fun and friends

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?) - im almost Always a caster ghfhgf... glass cannon babey

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory? - it always takes me a While to fully flesh out a backstory, but usually listening to music is what gives me ideas and inspiration for it!

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor? - flavor, usually! i try to pick things that would be in character for the one im playing!

35. How much roleplay do you like to do? - lots...... im a simple man

there you go, thanks ya fuckin heathen

2 notes · View notes