#ttrpg character development

[legionofmyth]

Absolute Power: Why Every Hero Needs a Sidekick (or Two)

What’s a hero without allies? 🦸 Absolute Power lets you design companions and minions that bring your vision to life! From loyal sidekicks to powerful henchmen, these characters can elevate your story and change the game. Are you ready to build the ultimate team? 📺 Watch now! #AbsolutePowerRPG #TTRPG #SuperheroRPG #TabletopGaming #RPGCharacterCreation

Absolute Power: Book 1: System Absolute Power: Book 2: Essentials Tri-Stat Core Discover how companions and minions can shape your superhero’s story in Absolute Power by Dyskami Publishing Company! Learn how to create dynamic sidekicks and loyal minions to enhance your team’s abilities and bring your character’s vision to life. Absolute Power provides an innovative system for integrating…

[dyinglikeicarus]

Elyssande! One of my players's characters

[heybiji]

[honourablejester]

I’m watching a (3hr) discussion on megadungeons as a concept for modern d20 games on a youtube channel called Knights of Last Call, and I’m enjoying it a lot, because it does explore a couple of points that I’ve been very much looking for. Namely, the idea that megadungeons should be there to enable and reward exploration. Which means, among other things, there can’t be a time-pressure meta plot (you have to get to the bottom of the dungeon to stop the lich before he destroys the world), and that the game/DM needs to explicitly reward (with xp, magic items, etc) the act of exploration, not the act of killing things while exploring.

Because the thing I always found enchanting about the idea of massive dungeons and complexes was the idea of going in to see what’s down there. Not being forced in for a plot, but just … because I’m curious, and I want to see what’s there. And he discusses how modern d20 games like Pathfinder and 5e can actually be better for that than OSR-type games because characters are more powerful and sturdy and can survive doing that. You can explore, and (most likely) have a decent shot of surviving said exploration. You can take risks because you’ll survive a broader range of risks.

The thing with a megadungeon is that it’s there to be explored, and so to encourage, enable and reward exploration for people who want to play that kind of game in the first place, you have to a) not penalise taking risks and going exploring by making it instantly lethal to try and go anywhere, and b) actively reward going exploring by making it the main way your character gets more cool things, such as magic items and/or new abilities from levelling up.

(And, he’s less explicit about this, but also making the rewards self-contained to the dungeon, things you find and gain in the dungeon, and not things you’d have to bring outside the dungeon to benefit from. So cool items you can keep and use, experience to level up, knowledge that would allow you to access new areas, etc, not things like gold where you’d have to go back outside to spend it, or quests that you have to go to external parties to be rewarded for).

The discussion goes into some detail about potential ways to do this, and potential problems with various methods, but overall I just really like the tone of the discussion. Because that very much is a thing I’ve been looking for for a long, long time. A game that rewards the simple desire to go somewhere and see what’s there. I don’t want to explore a massive underground complex because there’s a bad guy down there and I need to stop him, I want to explore it because there’s rumours that there’s a vast underground sea down there where creatures that haven’t been seen in aeons are rumoured to still live (blame reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth as a kid), or to discover why there’s a massive dungeon down there and learn who built it, or just because it’s a big strange space and I just want to see what it looks like.

He does talk about how you make dungeons interesting enough to justify that, things like thematically-distinct areas (like the underground lake, or the weird sunless forest, or the ghoul town, etc) so that it’s not one endless slog of ‘10ft wide corridors and stone rooms’, and to make it interconnected so that the players have full choice of where they go and what risks they want to take (enabling them to skip ahead difficulty levels, or retreat if need be, or escape areas that they’re not enjoying). And to possibly put in some distinct … not end goals, but capstone events, like a boss monster very deep down, that might feel like an ‘ending’ if the party wants to ‘finish’ the dungeon. Not something that will ‘burst out and destroy the world’, but something contained to the dungeon that a party could triumph over if they want a ‘final challenge’ sort of feeling. But one that’s optional, a challenge they can take up if they want to, not a prerequisite for getting out of the dungeon or completing a large goal, but just a challenge that exists if they want to take it on.

Because, and I do agree, a lot of the problem with exploring in D&D is not necessarily that there’s no mechanical support for it, in terms of things like skills, etc, but because there’s no reward for it, and in terms of structured adventures, there’s often either narrative or mechanical punishment for it (running out of time on the baddie, or running into something too lethal for your party to handle with no option to nope out). A megadungeon as a concept is a cool environment where exploration is the whole point, and the only point, and if you take care not to put an external pressure on it (‘kill the lich or else’), then then party has time to poke around and decide what they want to see and what risks they want to take (or nope out of). Especially in something so big that there’s no real chance of finishing it, so there’s no ‘100% completion’ pressure, just a big buffet of options for people to pick and choose from.  

(There are so many things in 5e that would be excellent for an exploration game, especially in terms of spells and magic items, but because combat is so much the driving force of the standard mode of play, people are reluctant to ‘waste’ spells known/prepared and/or items attuned on things like Alarm or Water Walk or Purify Food & Drink or non-combat items like Candles of the Deep or Foldable Boats or Slippers of Spider Climbing when those slots could be used for combat spells/items instead. But if exploration gets you XP, and if you can nope out of combat as required because there’s no massive stakes/story riding on it, then you’ve got more room for these things).

There’s also an in-depth discussion on ‘game balance’ and CR, and why megadungeons might not necessarily require them, for the simple fact that everything in the dungeon is optional and not required to forward the story/plot, so you can try challenges way above your level if you’re feeling frisky that day, and just nope out and go a different way if it starts really not working for you. Which I feel is a fun point.

There is a point that this is a specific mode of play and not meant to be the point of the game in general. It’s specifically for people (like me) who want exploration as its own point and reward, without needing a quest or storyline attached, and for whom combat is an element/hazard/complication but not the point. But. If you are specifically doing a MEGADUNGEON, it’s an interesting look at things to consider and what people might want out of a massive self-contained dungeon that’s going to be the whole point of the campaign in and of itself.  

Where he loses me is when the discussion moves to how to prevent the '15 Minute Adventuring Day', where people go in, do a room or two, and then go back out to rest and heal and resupply, instead of staying in the dungeon to keep exploring. And for some reason allowing healing is bad for this? If you want them to stay in the dungeon, how is it bad to let them heal in the dungeon? Set up factions to trade with and potential base camp locations in the dungeon to let them heal and resupply and set up safe areas so that they can stay in there potentially infinitely? Though it’s possible that I missed something about his point there.

But yeah. I love the idea of megadungeons, vast areas to explore just because they’re there, and I love the idea of game modes with all the cool abilities and spells and powers of D&D BUT where the thing that’s rewarded is exploration and interacting with the environment rather than combat.

(There’s also … I think this also reminds me of the story arc vs episodic discussion regarding TV, where I genuinely like episodic series equally to story-line driven ones, and I think that in games it also works, where there’s a BIG SETTING and the point is to go out and have episodic adventures in it. A loose sandbox like a megadungeon where there’s no plot, you’re just exploring and seeing what you encounter day to day (and possibly developing plots as you interact with individual areas/factions and then connect them to other ones) is also an excellent way to play a game).

Anyway. Forgive the sidebar ramble.

[jamie101]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy portrays vampires really well for several reasons, but one of my favourites is that being an immortal creature of the night doesn't actually help with most day to day problems (and probably adds several more). Yeah, turn into a truck-sized bat monster all you like; rent is still due first of each month.

[bregflr]

Thank you, Big Sall

[pawseds]

I started playing Webfishing earlier this month and made my man Finan Syahputra... or Syahpawtra, you can say. He's safe from the hororrs here (I say as I proceed to start Mouthwashing on the same day)

[tcustodisart]

Yesss Witcher 3!! You’re a gamer of impeccable taste :) who’s your romance?

In all my playthroughs it was Yennefer! Although my favorite romancable witcher girlie is Shani (she deserves someone better than Geralt tho). In a perfect world Regis would've been a romancable option...

Fun fact, in my first bg3 playthrough I made Geralt into Connie's dream guardian fkgjfg. It's a silly thing but whenever I don't know what character to make I just try to make Geralt (I did that in my joja mart stardew valley playthrough and south park stick of truth of all games lmao).

[anonbeadraws]

Some WIP for Confluence! We're completing a region to show at BIG BAD con this year, and I'm so so excited to hear what folks think of this world we've been working on! See more and keep updated here!!

[bbubblerum]

Kobold Concept art!

Took inspiration from Orks in Warhammer 40k and think it worked out very well!

But what kind of dragon would such Kobolds serve?

[dyinglikeicarus]

More of VIjaya! Wanted to draw some expression for them

[forged-in-paper]

Let's talk a lil' (a lot) about characters in Solstice

Before we get into the final details of character creation in celestial solstice, let me give you the rundown on characters. Recall that I said it is expected that players will recruit and utilize NPCs? Because of that, it'll be important for players to understand PC and NPC character sheets but I'm hoping the overall gameplay experience will simple enough to keep it all from becoming overwhelming. Lets start with the more complicated of the two: The PC character sheet. Players will only have to worry about one of these at a time so its got a bit more crunch. Buckle up, because we're gonna be going over a lot of mechanics to explain what you're about to see. Welcome to the game <3

The easy stuff is at the very top. This is all stuff that helps you better conceptualize who your character is.

Lineage is easy, it's just the character's race/species. I don't like the term race because it isn't accurate in this case and species is too clinical, so lineage slotted in as the current terminology.

EXP is experience points which are the currency the player uses to upgrade their character. Gained by overcoming challenging, achieving goals, reaching milestones, etc. Each basic job also grants a feature which allows the player to gain EXP in a way unique to that job. The exception to this is the magician who gets a discount when purchasing spells

Renown is gained whenever EXP is gained and is a measure of how widely word of the character's deeds have spread. Whenever a character is interacting with an NPC, the GM (which I've been calling the keeper but that's liquid) is supposed to take the character's renown into consideration when deciding how the NPC behaves. Higher also renown grants characters access to higher tier shops.

Jobs are kind of like classes but are very simple and much less constrictive than classes in most systems. You begin play with a basic job that grants training in certain weapons and armor as well as two features. During play you can use EXP to purchase an advanced job and then you can purchase a master job, as long as you qualify for them. Jobs mostly have weapon and armor training prerequisites, so if you want to be a cataphract you have to have training in plate armor for example, but some jobs have other prereqs like specific features. Just like basic jobs, advanced and master jobs each grant two features and that's it. Very simple, and the combination of jobs you have can help color your character. A soldier/knight/warmaster is very good at what it does, but an explorer/berserker/beast-lord has FLAVOR.

Affinity is tied into the world and lore of the setting, so quick primer. The "Celestial" in the game's name references the fact that the planets in the setting are living god-things called celestials. They sustain themselves on what I've been calling the soul ecosystem, which is the process of souls being created by a celestial, experiencing the world, and then returning to that celestial. The soul that your character has came from one of those celestials, and their magic is imbued into it, so you have an affinity with that celestial and their magic. Usually characters need a feature that grants them access to a spell before they can learn it (one of the magician job features says you can purchase spells with the [basic] tag for example) but a character can learn any spell that shares a tag with their celestial affinity, so if their affinity is with the moon celestial Dolore (who is associated with the [dark] tag) then they can purchase and learn spells with the [dark] tag. Damage of that type also does one die step less to the character, so in this example an effect that deals d8 dark damage would deal d6 instead. The keeper is also encouraged to utilize affinities in other ways whenever they are relevant to what is happening in the game.

Advantages, adversities, and backgrounds are chosen during character creation and are exactly what they say on the box. They do grant gameplay benefits/penalties but are mostly there to give you a way to get to know your character better and to flesh them out a bit more in a way that is actually relevant to how they play. They also give the keeper something to work with when they're making content for your character. There are a good number of options given for each, but they are presented as examples and possibilities and players are encouraged to work with their keeper to craft examples that fit the concept they have.

Next lets talk about the block of blocks on the left. These are the statistics that give your character a framework.

HP and MP are pretty self explanatory.

Alignment is a simple sliding scale from 1-100 with chaos and evil being at the lower end while order and goodliness are at the top end. Various mechanics will utilize this metric but it will mostly be used by the keeper when they are determining how a character reacts to a player making a social test. The closer the player's character's alignment is to that of the NPC, the more likely it is that they will receive to test positively. If a player does something that is outside their character's alignment, then the keeper may call for a die roll, with their alignment either increasing or decreasing by the rolled amount.

Whenever it is unclear how an NPC reacts to something, the keeper makes a Reaction test. This reaction test can be modified in a number of ways, one of which is by the player's reaction modifier. If the NPC is reacting to the player, their reaction test is modified by this number which is derived from things like renown and faction reputation.

Attributes are next. If you know how to TTRPG then you know what you're looking at here. Attributes are scored from 1-10 and have a die associated with them depending on that score ranging from d4 to d12. Whenever you make a test, the keeper tells you which two attributes you'll use and then you roll the dice associated with those attributes to try to reach a target number set by the keeper.

Features & Training is a box where you can keep track of the weapons and armor you have training with as well as features you've bought with EXP and gained from jobs.

Skills aren't used for generic world-player interactions and instead allow the player to interact with the game's gathering and crafting systems.

Foraging allows for the collection of food and water which is important because the tracking of day-to-day activities includes eating/drinking.

Enchanting is of course the enchanting of magical items. The higher your enchanting skill the more powerful your enchantments will be. Also allows you to break down magical items to gain the materials needed for further enchanting.

Forestry allows you to cut down trees and gather logs which are crafted into items using the Woodworking skill

Herbalism allows for the gathering of herbs which are crafted into poisons and potions using the Alchemy skill.

Mining lets the character mine ores and stone which are crafted into useable items using the Blacksmithing skill.

Skinning allows the character to fell beasts and collect their skins. Those skins can then be crafted into items using Leatherworking.

Spells! We talked a bit about spells earlier, but here you can see that a character can have two spells equipped at a time. This isn't relevant outside of battle, but during a battle a character can only utilize their equipped spells so it's an important consideration to make that will change significantly depending on the makeup of the player's group of characters (called a unit).

Moving on to the far right, we'll start at the top with Combat Maneuver, Defense, and Travel. These are common tests that will be made during the game so a place has been made for them to be recorded for convenience.

Combative Actions are granted by equipped weapons, spells, and item and are the actions you can use during a battle. A longsword grants the strike action while a longbow grants the shoot action, for example.

Characters have four equipment slots: Main-Hand, off-hand, armor, and trinket.

Main-Hand items are mostly weapons though sometimes other items may occupy this slot.

Off-Hand items are things like shields.

Armor is armor <3

Trinkets are wild-cards that can do basically anything. All characters begin play with a backpack which is a trinket that grants additional capacity slots, for example..

Speaking of capacity slots, the Inventory is the last thing we need to discuss.

Rather than exact weight, a character's carrying capacity is measured in an abstract unit called the Capacity Slot. There is no encumbrance rule, characters just can't carry more than their capacity.

Celestial Solstice uses a system similar to usage dice called Supply & Quality Dice. As an example, instead of tracking every individual ration a character has they will instead have a d6 supply of rations or a d8 supply of rations. Whenever the keeper calls for a supply to be tested, that die must be rolled and if the roll is 1 or 2, the die decreases by one step to represent the amount the character has shrinking. This also tracks quality of items. An item like a tent may come along with a quality rating, like d4 quality or d10 quality. Just like supplies, the die is rolled whenever the item's quality is tested and it can decrease to represent the item degrading. The final item that has a die associated with it is Wealth. You won't be tracking individual coins, but instead you'll have items with a wealth rating. Wealth may either be a supply, which is something like a bag of coins that can be spent individually and over time, or it may have a quality rating which represents an item of value which is expended when used to make a purchase, something that can't be broken apart without destroying its value like a golden statue with jeweled eyes. Ticks are also involved in this whole things but we'll talk more about the inventory and wealth systems more some other time.

This isn't the final design of the sheet and is just what I've been using for playtesting. Just like any other new game, it probably looks confusing from the outside, but once you know what you're doing it's all very intuitive. If you've got any questions then feel free to ask, cause I'm all ears. I'll make a post tomorrow about NPC character sheets, and remember that they're relevant to players because the system supports the recruitment of any NPC, keeper willing.

Until then, happy gaming! - Forge

[sparrow-flight]

Story 3: Lost at Shoppers

First | Prev | Next About the Flight | List of Stories | Official Website and Newsletter

You can see this comic's bonus panel, script, and thumbnails here

[cizzle-freezy]

You ever obsess over an OC so hard that you end up just making so many variants of them

[pawseds]

if your best friend got stuck in a snowstorm with parasites, would you get stuck with him, too?

It started with having this AU/American version of Rovin (blonde guy) be my PC for Lover in the Ice. And then I decided to make his friends Elmira and Gavrill (short hair guy) my backups, in that order. And now I have a whole AU. Some context is missing because this branches off canon stuff I haven't shared here, but you can read all about it below!

(Also Elmira isn't in this drawing because at this point, these both have lost contact with her for at least a decade) (I also want to make art just with her)

Story goes, in 2005, Merethel's death shortly after landing in Canada destroys Hroth to the point of being unable to provide financially and emotionally for Hrodwyn and Hygd. School staff reports the neglect to CPS, who take the kids away. Hroth gives up the dream of a good life by being a good citizen and turns to the only thing he's good at: killing people. He begins his career as an hitman/assassin and mercenary.

He gets enough money to begin his search for the only 2 people left that he cares about and who care about him: Elmira and Rovin. He crosses over to the US illegally, continues his dirty work, and eventually finds Rovin first. Desperate for a friend, Hroth meets with Rovin as fast as possible. Rovin is overjoyed -- until he goes home to tell Greg (his husband). Greg immediately recognises Hroth as a renown murder under an employer who keeps evading the law (probably the mercenary company). He tells Rovin to stay away. And when Hroth stalks Rovin to his home to say hi (lmao), Greg yells in Hroth's face. He accuses Hroth of being selfish: even simply knowing Hroth can incriminate Rovin, so if he really cared about Rovin and was really his best friend, he'd do what's best for Rovin -- to stay away forever.

Hroth's more hurt and sad than angry, because he knows Greg is right. When he eventually finds Elmira in Lafontaine, he does not make himself known to her at all. Their only contact is in the form of Hroth's monthly ludicrous donations to the orphanage she manages. The other orphanage staff were extremely against accepting the donation: a fat duffel of likely illegally-obtained cash that was left in their office without a trace. They didn't want their establishment for kids to turn into something of a money launderer. But Elmira convinced them to take it. There's no way to return it, and reporting it to the cops will only make the cops turn the orphanage inside out. Most of all, the cops nor the system care about the children. Only the staff do: they must use what they have.

Time passes and eventually, thanks to NASA's connection with the government, Delta Green get ahold of Rovin (if Rovin's with the Program; else, he just gets approached). I like to imagine that, thanks to his expertise, his first operation was The Last Equation, and that he was this close to learning Consciousness Expansion LMAO

The op leaves him messed up, which worries Greg. So the next time Rovin makes some sorry excuse to disappear to a random corner of the US with no return date, Greg reluctantly contacts Hroth through the dark web (lmao compsci%) to follow and protect Rovin. Hroth does, but not without Delta Green noticing! They threaten him with charges of deportation back to Russia (he never stayed long enough to gain Canadian citizenship), and with potential bans from entering the US or Canada -- the only 2 places with the people he care about. Plus, they'll also get him US citizenship if he joins.

Hroth joins and very quickly proves himself as a ruthlessly efficient agent when it comes to destruction/murder. Hroth recognises this and begins abusing it (smartest thing he has ever done) (works better if he's with the Program). He freely visits Canada often to check on his kids and their adoptive family from afar, and he continues his dirty work knowing that the law is behind him. He knows he's too valuable of an asset to lose, and God forbid the public learns that the government has been keeping him in his back pocket. He knows Delta Green will keep scrubbing his record clean. He just has to give them their return in their investment.

And then we come to current time for Lover in the Ice! If Rovin dies, Elmira crosses X-Cell as she's trying to restore her orphanage and protect the kids inside. If Elmira dies, Hroth learns she's missing (he leaves it in her office; they both know the schedule) as he's making his donation. At the same time, Greg pleas to Hroth to watch over Rovin. So Hroth does, while wondering where Elmira is.

This AU grew even bigger when one of my other friends added to it. Maybe I'll yap about it here one day!

[maridiayachtclub]

thinking of how i could spin my latest DS2 character (punch-focused invader named Princess Snickerdoodle) into some kind of goofy-ass OC. a literal princess who wants to go out on adventures and fistfight great warriors and monsters. she could have four arms (for twice the punching) and knuckle tattoos that read

CINN AMON

ANDS UGAR