part-time-adventurer reblogged
aavaradeactivated-deactivated20
what is everyone currently reading🤨🤨
part-time-adventurer reblogged
i was just thinking yesterday about how in d&d actual play a lot of the times the heroes are simply going to win. like there’s no other option. obviously it’s a journey to get there and sometimes there can be losses along the way (ex: molly), but the heroes are kind of on a very pre-destined path of victory. the path to victory isn’t pre-determined, which is what makes it interesting to watch, but still. it’s just very, very unlikely in the kind of broadcasted actual plays that i watch/listen to that a DM would ever go through with a TPK. which i am very happy with because on the whole i don’t think i want to see a TPK play out in my actual plays. BUT. the idea of a calamity campaign has me so excited because of the sort of counterpart idea of all these characters being destined to fail and destined to perish. the calamity was a long, long time ago and it can’t be stopped. i really love the idea that we’re going back in time within the world as observers, happy to see a new story, but without much of a way to change the ending. i’m so hyped for this.
This reminds me of a game called Ten Candles [link], described as a "tragic horror" game because the entire lifespan of the group is defined by ten candles burning in front of you, ten candles you snuff out one by one as the darkness takes them.
When you know that's the sort of game you're playing, you can really lean into what that means. If you are going to die unseen and unknown, if nothing can change that, what you do with your final hours means something very different.
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Crusaders by Minh Bui
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Fireball
3rd level evocation
Sorcerer, Wizard
That’s not a fireball, that’s a firebolt. Fireball has a 20’ blast radius.
I kinda agree, but I figured @dndspellgifs labeled it as such because of two bits: 1.) the enemy clearly takes up more than a 5 ft. square (regardless of wingspan, which D&D often ignores) and 2.) the spell explodes on impact. Ergo, it might very well be a 20 ft. radius spread and it’s just hard to tell due to TV/film making depth tricksy and false to gauge.
my actual thought process was firebolt is bolt shaped and fireball is ball shaped hope this helps
That also works.
You might like to consider that a fireball was described as a 'glowing, pea-sized bead' in previous editions and then a 'bright streak' in fifth; that thing didn't streak in my opinion, it sailed through the air.
Fire bolt hurls a 'mote of fire' at the target, but that looks more substantial than a 'mote' to me.
What I saw was literally a flaming sphere, but the spell of that name is 5ft in diameter and rolls along the ground. Definitely not...
There is a spell which looks a little more like that though; the druid cantrip Produce Flame creates a 'flickering flame' that can be thrown like a missile weapon. A one-level dip into druid would let you use that spell.
I used to work as a custodian for a castle and the marketing team insisted that we have swords and shields and armour for sale. Without fail, my heart would sink at the idiots hefting the stainless steel wall-hangers and lecturing all and sundry on how strong knights were to use such a sword, on how medieval swords were blunt, on so many misconceptions that came from only knowing about swords from these fakes.
And the bored-looking girlfriends would always brighten up when I wandered over and discussed real swords, as though... I almost believed it made them happy to hear someone more knowledgeable dismantle the arguments of the man with the oversized butter-knife.
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Something went really wrong in this timeline...
I still recall the day Arith's player in my Pathfinder group told me about the game he was running somewhere else with another party.
The idealistic wizard became an evil dictator, but never stopped believing that he was the hero. And Mentathiel, my rogue character, was the one who walked away from her comfortable life with her deathless wife.
She gave the heroes another version of the tale they all knew. That was oddly gratifying; Mentathiel was the one who both made him a more sympathetic figure, but also the one who set them in the path that ended in his death.
It's been a while since I had that kind of emotional context to a game; I really felt like our party cared about each other and were more like a dysfunctional family than four murder-hobos united only by greed or a mission.
That conversation was also the spur for this what-if story.
A friend of mine, living the DM life...
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Ahoy, farmhands followers!
A friend of mine from undergrad was asking for ideas for systems to use when running a Supernatural-inspired game. We’ve already discussed Hunter (WoD; doesn’t have the books), GURPS (but then you’re running GURPS), D&D (5e/PF; as I mentioned, it’s the wonkier classes that get the closest mechanically to how horror-type monster hunters work [by show tropes]), Call of Cthulhu (but then you’ve got the time bomb that is your sanity), FATE (he tossed out because it “seems too loose for the proper horror aspect”), and my vague recollection of there being a Supernatural RPG (and a Buffy one).
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Monster of the Week
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Paladin: You promised you wouldn’t.
Warlock: No, you ordered us not to.
Rogue: There’s a big difference.
wearefiendwarlock
part-time-adventurer reblogged
GUYS MY MOM SAID IF I GET 40, 000 NOTES SHE'LL GET ME SWORD
PLEASE
THIS PERSON NEEDS A SWORD
Every adventurer needs a proper sword!
Important boost.
Just make sure it's a proper sword!
part-time-adventurer reblogged
You’re a necromancer that has been run out of every town you’ve ever settled in for being who you are. You wipe tears out of your eyes as you dig a deep hole, finding solace in your work. Your shovel bangs against bones and you stop, tears suddenly forgotten. Dinosaur bones. Now they’ll pay.
Catch me casting firebolts down upon the villagers from atop my pterosaur
Dresden Files already went there.
(Not pictured: the medical examiner in a one-man-band suit playing polka music because the spell required a wizard and bard to pull off.)
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Water, Earth, Fire, Air
watercolor, papercut
EDIT: Sword, Fans, Knives, Chi
EDIT: artwork re-photographed and updated 07-13-16
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Asking Uncomfortable Questions...
So what you’re about to read does contain conversations about certain topics which could be seen as very sensitive to you, the Reader.
If you feel uncomfortable by anything presented here, I apologise in advance and ask that you click away from this Post and stop reading it entirely.
With that, I shall begin, and I hope that the replies, reblogs, and comments can help out.
I know this Post is gonna deal with some REALLY AWKWARD topics for some people, but no one seems to seriously talk about them and so no one is seems to be properly informed.
So I want to ask some Questions to the Community and get a general response on how people react.
- How do you feel about flirting with your Players as a way to Roleplay?
- Do you prefer the “Fade to Black” approach or “Roll a Lovemaking Check” approach to sex in your D&D Game?
- What do you feel about LGBTQ+ Representation in your Game?
- How often do you feature LGBTQ+ Characters in your Game, if at all?
- What’s your Opinion on a Player wanting to play a Character of a different Gender or Ethnicity than themselves (such as a Male Player wanting to play a Female Character, or a White Player wanting to play a Black Character)?
- How often do you feature Characters of varying cultures and ethnicity in your Game, if at all?
- How would you represent mental illness and mental disability in your Game?
- How would you represent a physical disability in your Game?
- How often do you feature Characters with a Mental or Physical Disability in your Game, if at all?
- What Topics in your Game do you consider an absolute “No Go” no matter what?
- It’s oddly something I deal with better as a player than as a DM. I have been in an IC relationship with a recurring NPC, I have flirted with other PCs once or twice, but I can’t ever remember any romantic attempts as a DM.
- Very much a fade to black. The only time I ever asked for a roll was a fortitude save vs. disease...
- I tend to keep it low-key, but ubiquitous. Gay and bi PCs seem a little uncommon, but welcome.
- As a DM, I am not sure I bother calling out much of the LGBTQ+ stuff; I prefer when it just exists and is normal. If my notes say ‘NPC and husband’ then I am just as likely to make the NPC male as female. Asexual and aromantic characters exist when I need people who can focus on the plot and ignore flirting bards, character sexuality and gender are often fluid unless it really matters to the plot or someone just started flirting, etc.
- Cross-playing genders is just a thing that happens in our games. We even had a genderqueer swashbuckler who loved to say ‘not a girl’ and ‘not a boy’ when someone used gendered pronouns - when one player suggested they had to be one or the other, they disagreed and then grinned. Ethnicity is touchy and so I almost consider myself to be lucky I never had to deal with it. Our group is 83% caucasian, but has a 50/50 gender split, so I think gender was always the one we felt safe playing with.
- I confess that I don’t really think in terms of real-world cultures or ethnicities, but I do 100% support the recent WotC rethink on orcs and drow. One of my players is a half-orc with the acolyte background and his ‘culture’ is more shy altar-boy than human or orc.
- With care. I have worked in a psychiatric hospital and I have dealt with the after-effects of in-game triggers as a player. I think it is not something I would ever try to pin down with mechanics. It is part of their identity, not their stats.
- As with psychiatric issues, physical disabilities are probably best handled as part of an identity. Being deafened is a status effect for example, while being Deaf is an identity which implies certain differences in life-experience. Able-bodied players trying to be edgy are not encouraged, but respectful exploration (if they could justify it) might be okay...
- It’s rare. Disabilities get tropey or exploitative very fast. A blind monk whose vision was replaced by 30ft blind-sense (and that was the only reference to her blindness) did turn up in a pre-written adventure, but it’s often a little cringe-inducing. For my part, you are much more likely to see disabilities on non-evil non-combat NPCs in my games; politicians who use sign-language or rulers who walk with a cane.
- Violence against children and any kind of sexual violence are the two main things I don’t tolerate or depict; you might have a dark past, but we’re not playing it out on-screen. Racism is out too; it’s more offensive than interesting.
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Anonymous asked:
With the dumbass idea of were paladins may I make the proposal of a paladin that doesn't let being a werewolf stop them from smiting evil.
Possible, even with the alignment changing of lycanthropy in 5e. Cast Ceremony (required component: 25gp of powdered silver) , then Atonement, and if you pass the check (Insight 20 or above) then you get your old alignment back.
Yeah, no matter what edition or system you’re playing, be it D&D, Pathfinder, or something else, the only thing that should be forcibly changing your alignment is powerful magic, and even then, I feel like that should be roleplayed as being controlled by an outside force. Lycanthropy, I feel, should give you new instincts, certainly, but I as a DM/GM would rule that it would be a struggle to reconcile them with your worldview, rather than just forcing it outright even when you’re in control of your body.
Even then, as Paladin says, this is why the Atonement spell exists, for those who have been made to do dark things against their will, or those who have made terrible mistakes in a moment of weakness, and wish to legitimately repent. That’s all the Atonement spell does, after all. Help you reconcile your actions and your beliefs with both yourself as you see yourself, and potentially with any deity your character might worship.
Looking at 5e, the Curse of Lycanthropy does not change your alignment. The issue is far more insidious; you can remain a LG paladin, you just turn into a ravening beast under the control of the GM during the full moon.
What the 5e rules allows is for you to embrace the beast. You can make a conscious choice to adopt the alignment of your cursed self in order to bring your two sides together. This is no compromise though; the beast will not meet you halfway, you have to become the beast you were trying to fight. In return, you can take the form of the beast at will and not just at the full moon.
Given that a paladin deliberately embracing evil (even temporarily) in the name of gaining power doesn’t sit well with me, I’d have expected them to devote themselves to finding someone who could break the curse. Any suitably-powerful cleric, wizard, paladin or even a warlock can Remove Curse, but it is a 3rd-level spell.
I think I am at that point as a DM where I am considering a degree in clinical psychology just so I am at least qualified to lead these weekly therapy sessions.
part-time-adventurer reblogged
Seraphim II: High Vigil by S. C. Versillee
Source: reddit.com