summer poetry prompts, part 1

Hello

Something new

Devotion

Stay away

Countdown

Playground

Perfect match

In the summer

Bloom

Under water

Slow day

Games you play

Serendipity

More and more

Flow

Spellbound

Finish line

Morning fog

Teddy bear

Adhesive

info

When doing a board game or RPG license (D&D, Vampire, Warhammer etc.) can you talk about the decision process in adapting the original system as close as possible (Neverwinter nights), creating a system that is similar (the Vampire RPGs) or creating something completely from scratch (Dawn of war) ? What are the advantages and drawbacks?

Before we begin, I want to be clear - licensing a game system like D&D or Warhammer is still licensing another IP - the licensor still has a significant amount of creative control and veto power on many of the decisions made on the project. The licensor has input and veto power on many of the mechanical implementations as well as the narrative and world building aspects of the game. For today's exercise, we'll be putting aside the normal restrictions and approval process of using a license and treat things as if the licensor was super open to letting us do whatever we wanted. However, I just wanted to make clear that the licensor can easily demand arbitrary and specific means of adaptation.

The point of an adaptation isn't to do a 1:1 exact duplication of the source material, but to bring the essence of the source material into a new medium for people to enjoy. This often means bringing the trappings and general feeling of the source material, but not necessarily the mechanical cruft and necessary rules. One of our major goals is to craft an experience that captures and conveys what makes the source material exciting and fun.

One example of mechanical rules that usually get lost in adaptation is how combat is handled mechanically. Most tabletop RPGs necessarily have turn-based combat because it is really difficult to handle real time combat in an in-person group setting. There's a lot of logistical problems with many people all trying to act simultaneously, not to mention splitting the attention of the game master is incredibly difficult. However, video games operate at many times the speed of a human. As long as the players are doing things that are handled well by the system, combat can effectively run in real time for many players. Combat mechanics like chance to hit, damage rolls, number of attacks per turn, movement speed, spell casting time, and so on can be approximated with a real time turn duration. For players, these are nostalgic elements that will remind them that the game rules are based on a familiar ruleset, but generally feel better than having to wait 10+ minutes for their next turn to come up in combat.

Similarly, we can use the source material for concepts that have a different under-the-hood implementation within the game. In D&D, a skill check is generally handled as a d20 roll with an aggregate modifier based on ability stats, proficiency, equipment, circumstances, etc. These skills are typically a variety of actions that players can take - athletics to lift a heavy object, acrobatics to climb a rope, perception to spot danger, spellcraft to recognize magic when you observe it, and so on. A video game can use randomized results when a player chooses to perform such actions and we can allow players to spend skill points to train in these skills and improve their chances at success. That said, we don't have to use the specific rules of D&D to determine the result. We can massage the numbers to feel better for the player and sand off more of the RNG frustration, while still showing a d20 roll to tickle the player nostalgia. The result feels a lot like an ability check to a D&D veteran, even though it is actually much more forgiving behind the curtain.

We make these adaptational changes to sand down the frustrating elements of the source material and make it a more enjoyable overall experience to the players who might be familiar with the license. There's always going to be adaptational sacrifices - the needs of a game on one platform (e.g. tabletop necessitating turn-based mechanics) aren't always important on a different platform. The important thing is to make sure we convey the spirit of the source material through the experiences and content we create. That is what the players (and licensor) are generally looking for.

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The Null Hypothesis & Significant Difference

Science Literacy Lesson #4

Let’s say you have two dice, a pair of d20s. 

The Null Hypothesis says there is no (zero) correlation between the numbers rolled by each dice, that they are both completely independent of each other.

You roll them together and they both come up with 20! Super lucky!

Or is it? How many times would you need to roll those dice to prove that they are linked to each other somehow?

The Null Hypothesis is the default assumption in science that two variables (things) just don’t affect each other. It’s the science equivalent of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. You need to prove a link between two things, you don’t assume it’s there.

So in this case we are assuming that the number rolled on the first dice will have no effect whatsoever on the number rolled on the second dice.

Ah! But both dice rolled a 20. So what does that mean?

It means your sample size was small.

You can’t reasonably make a conclusion about these dice based on a single roll. You can’t make a reasonable conclusion based on 5 rolls. The number of times you roll the dice is your sample size (often just called N when we’re discussing the experiment. So five subjects is N=5). If your sample size is unreasonably small, then it weakens your experiment and makes it harder to justify conclusions.

The sample size you require to prove your point varies depending on what you’re testing, but generally larger numbers are always better. An experiment with a sample size of 10,000 is significantly more meaningful than an experiment with a sample size of 12. This is quite simply a numbers game.

(That said, context is also important. If you were publishing a study about the Norther White Rhino, for example, and your sample size was only 2 that may still be significant as you do your best with what you’ve got.)

Now you know, as a reasonable human being or corvid-in-a-trenchcoat, that rolling the dice once doesn’t prove they’re linked somehow, because you know how dice work. A single incident is not any kind of useful evidence. Yet people use single incidents as anecdotes as ‘proof’ all the time! Can you see how frustrating that is?

You rolled the dice once and thought maybe the two dice were linked. You roll the dice 100 times and you will probably see those dice are not linked. The strength of your evidence will only grow as your sample size does.

But what if, hypothetically, you rolled this pair of dice 5 times, and each time you did so they came up with the same number?

Statistics in scientific experiments get complicated and you will completely fall asleep if I try to explain it, but experiments should be looking for a significant difference which is an indication of how likely or unlikely you would be to get the same result if the Null Hypothesis is true.

In this case, rolling your two d20 and them coming up with the same number each time for all 5 times in a row is something like 64 million to 1, if it’s just random chance. That’s a pretty significant difference.

But if you rolled the dice a thousand times and only 5 of those times came up with the same number? Not so significant. Another example of why you need to include your negative results.

Most results report their significant difference to a confidence value of 95 or 99. That means they’re either 95% or 99% sure that their results could not have been achieved by random chance alone. You can’t get to 100 of course, random chance is like that, but the closer you get, the stronger the evidence to reject the Null Hypothesis.

And, look, I’m more of a visual person, so have a graph. If your data produces a confidence value of 95, it means that there is a 95% chance the data didn’t just come from random luck. That the data wouldn’t fall under the blue bit of this curve if the Null Hypothesis is true.

And Confession: I don’t find these numbers fun. If I was running an experiment I’d totally pay a lovely and clever statistician to tell me what sort of sample sizes I would need to achieve my desired confidence interval. I’m not going to run down how you calculate them, just what these numbers are and why they matter.

The larger your sample size, the easier to prove a significant difference with a sigh confidence value. The weaker any of these factors are, the weaker the experiment in general.

Did that give you a headache? It gave me a headache. But hard science often involves some serious maths.

top six: fictional characters that give you gender envy, flowers, little things that make you happy and d&d moments :D

Ooh lotsa questions!

Gender Envy:

1) Bow from She-Ra (2018). Something about buff athletic dude who wears crop tops and is soft as hell is very Gender to me.

2) Vax from Critical Role. Pretty boy, kinda goth rogue? That’s sexy as hell and I wish that was me. 

3) In a wildly different idea of gender envy, I’ve been thinking about it lately and @quantum-lesbian’s character in the Frostmaiden game I’m in with them, Ambrose, is Big Gender. Beautiful non-binary drow with a starry and kinda witchy aesthetic that dresses super grandly and ostentatiously no matter the occasion? Yes please.

4) Pete from The Unsleeping City, specifically season two. I adore season one Pete but season two Pete that works in a queer bookshop and has a teapot arcane focus, is artsy and is unapologetically a trans man who doesn’t give a shit about gender roles? Sign me the fuck up.  

5) Beau from Critical Role. Buff GNC lesbian mixed with academia, but like academia from the prospective of a grad student with ADHD trying to learn everything about their special interests? A+, I love her and I’m jealous. 

6) I’m gonna cheat a lil bit for this last one. I know the prompt is fictional characters, but Julia Lepetit and Jacob Andrews in their Hitman streams? Simultaneously both of them were Gender for me. Jacob esp felt like that for me, which is weird cause dresses can make me dysphoric, but I am also slightly envious of the Dude in a Dress type of gender presentation. 

Can you tell that I’m a confused trans masc enby

Gonna put it under the cut from here cause oof, there’s still a lot more.

Flowers:

1) Big slut for Sunflowers, always have been, always will be.

2) Fun fact, my dad’s family used to own a flower shop (in like the 70s, so I never got to see it :(), and one of their big things was hydrangeas. My dad has always loved them and now I love the snowballs too!  

3) A recent favorite, the Baker’s Globe Mallow. It’s a type of flower that only grows from the soils of forests that have been affected by wildfires. It’s a simple little flower but I love the idea of something beautiful rising from the ashes after tragedy. A little dramatic, but I’m queer, ofc I’m dramatic.

4) Roses are another important flower to my family (Rose was a family name for a couple generations), and ya know, they’re a classic. 

5) There’s this beautiful magnolia tree in front of my house that blooms with the most beautiful white and pink flowers every spring, and it’s one of my favorite things to see every year. 

6) There’s so many different types of Lillies and they’re all very pretty, but the Purple Stargazer is prob my favorite.

Little Things That Make Me Happy:

1) My cat, Maddie. She may be a cranky girl at times, but she is also very sweet and will always be my baby (even though she is 12). 

2) Not a little thing really, but my best friend. Just getting a sweet/silly text from her or the two of us chilling in a room, sitting in a comfortable silence because we just like being together, nothing better. 

3) Baking, esp if I’m doing it for others. I’m not much of a sweets person myself, a little treat every once in a while type person, but I love baking. It’s a very relaxing process for me, even when it can sometimes get stressful, but seeing people enjoying something I made, especially something that brought me great joy to make, is simply the best. 

4) In the same sorta vein, crafting and other art, but that’s a bit more personal. I love making things for others, but art, particularly drawing, is something I do more for me. It’s such a great feeling when you can get into a really good art mood and just sink yourself into a project. I love it.

5) My plush toys. Yes, I am a 23 year old, no I will not stop loving my plushies. I just got a few new friends, which I made a post about recently, and they such good cuddle buddies. However, there is one king amongst them all. I have this old, beat up christmas puppy beanie baby, on his tag named Jingle Pup, but I just call him Jingle. I had one version of him since I was like 6, but he currently lives on a shelf cause he is very beaten up and fragile, but his “brother”, who I got when I was 8, is still in kinda good shape and is currently chilling on my chest as I type this lol.

6) Again, not a little thing, but it’s important to mention; D&D. The game itself is such a joy, but truly the best part of it is the people. I love creating stories and memories with people through this weird little game. Truly one of my favorite things to do.

D&D Moments:

These are all gonna be personal moments, rather than anything from actual play shows/podcasts. RC is Reforged Campaign, where I play Saube, and FM is Frostmaiden, where I play Sparks.

1) RC - Meeting Mahety, Saube’s girlfriend. We met her way back in session 12 and we are now up to like session 73. Saube saw her and was immediately big heart eyes at her but also felt a bit awkward and shy. So, being a game a dice, I decided to roll. 10 or higher, Saube would talk to her, 9 or lower, she’d stay put. I rolled a 17, 17 is now a lucky number for me. I love Mahety and I’d die for her. 

2) FM - This was an insane fight that should not have been so crazy, but in a fairly early session, my group went up against an angry druid and her awakened animals. So much batshit stuff happened in that fight, and we unfortunately lost our bread loving bard (RIP Agneyis), but one of my favorite combat turns happened in this fight. Our artificer, Omaren, has a robe of useful items and one of the patches on it creates a large pit. Thinking quickly, Omaren tore off the patch, slid it under one of the dire wolves we were fighting and created a looney tunes style pit under it, allowing us to take it out easily via pot shots. Such a clutch move and such a funny visual, especially because the dire wolf kept failing the checks to get out of the pit.  

3) RC - Saube’s Zebrith (I will never remember how this actually spelled RIP). So, for context, Saube ended up with a death curse (long story) that mechanically meant they had disadvantage on any death saving throws. Scary as hell, need to get that fixed! So, Saube and their party had to be smuggled into another country to talk with some religious leaders of a goddess known as The First, the goddess of death. They were told that Saube would have to go through the aforementioned ritual, which included her soul leaving her body for a short period of time. During this ritual, her friends had to call back to her, to say things that would bring her back to her body and I still cry thinking about that game. That ritual was not only important for Saube bodily, but spiritually as well. After that ritual, Saube officially became a cleric of The First! 

4) A real sappy one, RC - Saube meeting all of her friends. Anyone who follows along with the rantings on my blog probably knows how important this game is to me. I met this random group of strangers on tumblr and formed a D&D party with them and now, a year and a half later, I honestly think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I know that sounds silly and dramatic but not only has this game brought me so much joy and comfort, but I also gained a group of really amazing friends who have been nothing but amazing since day one. As much as Saube knows she can depend on SICL, I know I can depend on my group of weirdos lol. We both love our friends very much and even though we’ve all been through some crazy shit, we wouldn’t change it for the world.    

5) RC - Just playing Saube in general. I really didn’t intend for it to be this way, but Saube is very much a reflection of myself. She is the first long term character I have ever played and so much of me is in her. I try not to treat D&D like therapy, because that’s unfair to my DM and fellow party members, but playing Saube has allowed me to work through some of my own problems, especially social anxiety, in a lot safer of an environment. It isn’t so much that I’m asking this game to help me fix my life, but playing out these scenarios that, in the real world, would make me anxious or make me freak out, I can stop, take a moment to breathe and work out these issues in a way that makes sense to me. Playing her has led me to understanding myself a bit better, as well, and that’s truly such a wonderfully unexpected gift from this whole experience. 

6) Lastly, a silly one: RC - Getting a crit 6. The last session of this game got real interesting. Saube’s party ended up in the ethereal plane and magic got real fucky there. So, any time any of us tried to cast a spell, we’d roll a d20, not look at the result, and then try to guess what number rolled. The closer to the number, the better the result. A few times, a few people managed to get within like 3 or 4 of their roll, but oh the power I felt when I rolled a 6 (on Saube’s die!) and guessed it correctly! So, not only did the spell (Bless) work, but it worked super well. So instead of getting +1d4 to attack rolls and saving throws, Saube and two other party members got +2d4 to attacks, saving throws and skill checks. So powerful I broke the rules of D&D lmao. 

The fanfic asks are all really interesting so this is free reign to pick some that you like/use a random number generator/whatever and know that someone wants to see it

oh this is so sweet! let me just pull some random ones

6. least popular fic you wrote this year

i mean it’s probably one of the f@tt things but like, fun fact: i have written four (4) blaseball fics that got more kudos than my it chapter 2 fic. which is insane, considering fandom sizes. although also not insane considering my blaseball fic tends to be about popular characters and my clown movie fic was an au based on the popular 90s science fiction cult classic quantum leap. it was good tho

9. longest wip of the year

now the real answer is i am writing a big bang piece that i’m gonna wrap up by the end of the year, BUT the longest thing that i am not actively working on is a clown movie thing that’s like 6.5k, and it’s actually something i really really like. the only reason i didn’t finish it is bc my laptop broke and it fucked my momentum and my brain moved on in the meantime, but i would really love to come back to it one day

18. current number of wips

right now i have a window that is all the things i am actively working on and there are nine (9) tabs open in it. i am not working on all of them equally but i am working on all of them. (the three that i am working the most on are currently at about 8k, 6k, and 5k)

20. number of comments you haven’t read

if you left a comment on the lenny fic please consider this my sincere apology to you because i got so overwhelmed and didn’t respond and now i have 33 comments in my inbox. i HATE having comments in my inbox please know i read them all in my email i just haven’t answered

22. events you participated in this year

i wrote a piece for secret samol which i am very fond of, about benjamin and blue j moving in together! i wrote a piece for @intrepidadventureszine about the bad kids’ summer vacation! and i am almost done with a piece for @d20bigbang about esther sinclair! (i believe big bangs get posted on christmas eve so like if y’all do d20... something to look forward to!)

Playing Cards: The Solution to all your Problems with Random Stat Generation in D&D 5e

The other day I was playing D&D on discord, as you do, when one of my friends brought up their frustration with the default method of rolling stats in D&D 5e: the fact that RNGsus hates her. We commiserated briefly over the frustration of rolling shitty stats before returning to the game, but the thought stuck with me and I worked to solve the problem with my own innovative method of generating random stats. THE PROBLEM

The fun of rolling stats is getting something unique and having to work with it. Did you roll one really good stat and the rest shit? Did you roll moderately good results for everything? Did you get one hilariously low result and have to work out where to put it? All of this is fun and interesting, and part of that fun is the risk involved. Will you roll a coveted 18? or just absolute dogshit?

The problem comes when you actually DO roll dogshit. It doesn’t even need to be that bad, only worse than everyone else. If your highest roll is a 13, you’re just going to feel worthless compared to That One Motherfucker in your group who somehow rolled three 18s (you’d call hacks but he did it right in front of you).

Maybe you think I should just suck it up. I knew the risks going in, I made my bed, now I should lie on it. That’s all well and good for some games and groups maybe, where you can play your character with a death wish, die heroically and then bring in a character that you like more, but that doesn’t always work. Maybe the premise for the campaign is such that its really hard to bring in new characters. Maybe your group Doesn’t Kill Characters. Maybe you had a really cool character concept you wanted to play. Maybe you just don’t want to. All of these and more are good and valid reasons to look for an alternative that retains the fun randomosity of rolled stats without the chance of getting screwed, and thats exactly what this essay has to offer. (If your problem is that your players roll too OPly with their stats, then this article will also he helpful to you. That just isn’t a problem I personally have.) (Man I like to prattle on don’t I? TLDR: It sucks to roll badly when generating stats, here’s my better method:)

THE SOLUTION In a word: Cards. Dice have independent probabilities, meaning that what you rolled last time does not effect what you will roll next, but whenever you draw an ace from a deck of cards, that’s one fewer ace to be drawn in the future. 

Employing this simple fact, we can generate lines of stats that, while random, aren’t actually better or worse than each other. If you get one really good stat, all your other stats will be that much worse for it.

In this post I’m going to go over several different ways to generate stats with cards, depending on the personal preferences of you and your group: How wide a range of stats do you want and how much control do you want to have over them?

THE BASICS

Take a deck of playing cards and separate all the cards from Ace - 6. This will form the core deck from which stats can be generated (we’ll be treating aces as 1s for the rest of this essay)

The standard array has 72 points of stats, while your core deck has 84. You will need to remove at least 12 points worth of cards to provide a balanced deck (sometimes more, depending on your goals)

If you remove the extremes (1,6) from the deck, you will get more average stats. If you remove the moderates (3,4) from the deck, you will increase the chance of getting very high or very low stats

If you want to be able to deal out your whole deck into six even stat-piles, the number of cards you remove from the deck must be a multiple of 6.

If you are using a ruleset that has a chance of providing stats over 18, you may want to impose the rule that any stat over 18 is reduced to 18.

With these points in mind, you can modify my given methods to provide the sorts of stats you want.

THE GENERIC METHOD

This will generate completely random stats that will largely imitate what you would get from point buy, with only a small chance of getting below 8 or above 15. 

With point buy you have 27 points to spend, with scores costing one point per number above 8 and two points per number above 13, to a maximum of 15. This method gives you the equivalent of approximately 26 points of stats (average), with a possible stat maximum of 18.

Take your core deck and remove four aces, a 3 and a 5.

Deal out the rest of the deck into six facedown piles of three cards.

Add up the totals of each of your six piles to calculate your six stats, which can each be allocated to whichever ability you like.

THE FUN METHOD

The generic method is all well and good, but I personally like a bit more variety in my stats. The slow grind of raising your main stat from 15 to 20 is pretty boring to me, so I’m totally down with letting my players start with a base of 17 or 18, but I also love a good 7 or 6 to spice up a character. (One of my main complaints about D&D is I want my character to be really good and really bad at things from level one, but on a d20 a +1 is not too different from a -1 really, and skill checks are often just too swingy for me to feel my character's skills actually matter.) Anyway, with this method, expect your results to be both a lot higher and a lot lower, while still summing up to 72. You may want to rule that any player with a stat lower than 6 ( or maybe 8) should roleplay some sort of disability (either a real world one or a fantasy one) related to the given stat, e.g. missing hand for str or dex, severe illness or curse for con, raised by animals for int, impaired speech or hunchback for cha, etc

Obviously you should be touching base with your GM before using any of these methods, but that is particularly the case for this one.

Remove three 4s from your core deck

Deal out the rest of your deck into six facedown piles. Note that three piles will have three cards and three piles will have four cards.

add up the totals of each of the six piles to calculate your six stats, which can each be allocated to whichever ability you like. If any stat is higher than 18, reduce it to 18.

Note: this method is designed to give you a high chance of getting three really good stats and three fairly bad stats. If you want only two really good stats and not-quite-as-bad other stats, remove four 3s from your deck in step 1 instead.

METHODS FOR MORE CONTROL

Xtra Control Variant: Using one of these decks, deal out two facedown cards to each stat and then distribute the rest of the cards as you like, perhaps dropping five cards into one pile if you want to ensure you get a superstat. 

The catch is that any stat higher than 18 is reduced to 18, so there’s a chance you will over-commit and waste points. 

XXtra Control Variant: Use the Xtra Control Variant but deal the cards face-up!

Xtra Control but more linked to the character and with a chance of fucking you: Use the Xtra Control Variant but deal the stats in order (the first pile is STR, the second is DEX etc.)

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Anyway I hope you found this interesting. I think there’s a lot of potential in using playing cards for stat generation and I’ve only scratched the surface: it would be really cool to create some sort of stat generation mini-game!

I have other opinions on things, such as on racial stat modifiers and why they suck, so if this post does well maybe I’ll write about my solution to that too.

As always, if you use this with your group let me know, and if you have any opinions or counter-arguments I want to hear them. :)

thoughts on this week's ep?

**spoilers for broadway brawl**

***Before we start, I remembered as I was typing this one of the important notes I lost from last week’s recap: Interesting that Christmas seemingly went off without a hitch. I expected Santa to come back into play somehow (like, someone would check on him to make sure Christmas was still on or he’d call them in to help or something) but he hasn’t, at least not yet.***

My guys, my guys, my guys. Was that something or was that something?

I think I am on record as saying that combat is my least favorite part of ttrpgs generally speaking because I’m here for the RP but when a combat episode shines it really freaking shines (see eg: that first combat ep of Bloodkeep where everyone went full Galaxy Brain except for Matt who couldn’t hit a single thing) and this is such a good example. This is easily a top five ep of the season for me, maybe top three so let’s get into it and break down why it was so awesome.

We start right where we left off with Titania and members of her court having come into the theater to beat the tar out of Misty mid-show.

Quick note: At the end of last ep, it was set up so that Misty was thrust on stage right after hearing the mirror was on stage which would place this fight right at the top of Act 2 but at the start of this ep, Brennan seems to indicate that it’s taking place during what would be the closing number. Which would make more sense but imagine you go see a play, the first act is super dope, and then the second act is an insane, minute long fight that’s pretty unconnected to the plot and then a buff, naked, beautiful man tells you the show is over and you should leave. Wild. Anyway.

Pixies with tommy guns in inherently funny.

So one of the things that makes this fight really great is the way it directly ties into the story in a way besides “These bad guys are in our way.” Misty is using this show as a part of her reincarnation spell so if the show is messed up, it fails and she’s on her last life. Brennan has a cool mechanic of making her roll death saves every round at a difficulty lower than her modifier (which is s/t crazy like 11) but that gets harder with damage done to her and performance checks failed by other players who decide to jump on stage. It’s a great way to make the battle feel like it has more personal stakes and it’s my fave original Brennan mechanic since the Family in Flames Sophie’s Choice situation.

(I love that the death save counter is changed for theater comedy/tragedy masks for this. Nice touch.)

Em, Esther, and Wally are also at the fight which is clutch.

Also, Sondheim is specifically here which is an insane detail to add just because.

WILD that no one knows what’s going on with the ritual initially because, as Lou almost does, getting all the civilians out is the smart move and it would COMPLETELY ruin Misty’s plans instantly.

Lou having Kingston take the stairs bc’s he’s 50+ years old and has no time for that nonsense has equal but opposite energy to him doing extra rolls for Fabian to do unnecessary parkour before a simple attack because Fabian’s Like That.

Murph fireblasts the hell out of Titania’s foot soldiers right off the bat from outside of counterspell range which is very cool.

“Give me a performance check for the cockroach.”

“You’re upstaging me bitch?”

Another great thing about this fight is that because of it’s theatrical nature, everyone’s RPing it more than a usual battle ep (or more intensely maybe is what I mean).

Titania hypnotizes Don Confetti and his goons into fighting for her.

“She doesn’t know she’s in a play but she does sing most of her dialogue which is helpful for you.” Titania is just Like That.

Pete drops an erupting earth and drops a sick 37 damage on those same minions Kug got.

I didn’t notice before but yeah, Ally does roll die like a f-ing beyblade champion.

Emily hearing Murph’s low key, offhand comments and cracking up is great.

“Get Sondheim!” (Emily and then Ally: WHAT?!)

Actual living dude Stephen Sondheim being involved in this fight is just so ridiculous and fun and crazy.

We go around to Misty’s turn and she has to beat a 28 (upped from 10) and she fails which feels worse than a normal failed death save somehow.

Lou, in a very good RP move, tells Pete to tell Misty to end the show so she can tell them not to so the group has a valid reason to not evacuate which is a thing they (or at least him and Ricky) would obviously want to do.

Sophie, the madwoman, jumps out of the balcony, grabs a costume, then runs on stage. Emily’s glee at being told that her grabbing the costume will give her advantage is great. She’s always trying to figure out how to make the most of her moves. She is the living embodiment of the concept of method to madness (which is from Hamlet since we’re talking Shakespeare today). 

Ox is constantly dying (Brennan!) but also it’s like, why was he even there before the fight started? I’ve never seen a non-service dog in a theater.

Ricky: Is this part of it?

Oh, forgot to mention that everything that happens on stage is kinda shielded by the Umbral Arcana so everyone watching thinks it’s part of the show, which is a cool plot detail.

Ricky gets fULLY NAKED (Emily, with perfect comic timing: Now do I roll with disadvantage?) and leaps into the fray. He casts Protection from Evil and Good on her which (1) He does by Magic Mike body-rolling on her while he’s naked and considering how much shorter she is that her raises some interesting questions about positioning and (2) is the most clutch use of this spell I’ve seen in a while. It’s a spell I always wanna take as a Paladin because it makes sense character-wise, but I’ve never been able to actually use it because we’re never fighting fiends, fae, or celestial.

Brennan’s dime change change reversal of the critic’s comments on Ricky’s body rolls when Zac re-rolls his 11 makes me glad I never had to face him in a debate team setting.

Ally: What’s Esther’s deal ;)/Brennan: *Esther’s Weapon Stats*

“Your only secret you’ve ever had in your life is that you have a crush on her.”

Wally has a beautiful singing voice and a working knowledge of Midsummer's which is wild.

Lou’s periodic, “My man”’s when Ally/Pete does something cool. He’s very dialed into being Kingston.

Ricky’s aura keeps everyone near him from being charmed and Misty saves everyone else w/ a nat 20 counterspell. Few things in D&D are more satisfying than a well executed counterspell.

Titania trying to get Pete to be her consort or something when he just over the super posh Priya is very funny.

“I mean between me and Sondheim, get Sondheim!”

“DO WE HAVE HOMEWORK TONIGHT?” (“We did have homework.”)

Anyway, Misty has one success now!

Misty tries to use puppet to get Titania to drop her crown and it doesn’t work. Brennan says the crown is Crown of Stars which I looked up and it’s actually a spell, not a physical crown, but I’m assuming he used the mechanical effects of the spell on a physical item.

Brennan doing all these musical/singing bits when he absolutely doesn’t have to. I love it.

I love Ricky and Sophie being the two martial fighting heavy hitters of the group. Like, the two fighters, having the spellcasters’ backs.

I hope the one kung fu fan in the back of the theater never sees another Broadway show again because he’s gonna be so disappointed. 

“I’m just so inspired by that beautiful penis.”

Murph, out of character, verbally acknowledging how insane what they’re doing is. I love when someone pauses in a game of D&D to just recite what’s currently happening out of context so everyone can appreciate how crazy it is. D&D. Gotta love it..

Emily and Siobhan have a quick conversation in the background about whether Sondheim did Les Mis or not (not, that’s Claude-Michel Schönberg) while Brennan and Murph are Ring nonsense.

I also was mildly suspicious of Alyssa so I’m glad Kingston checked her out.

The entire roast of Brennan when he’s selecting D6s is an instantly iconic D20 moment. I can’t do it justice. You kinda just have to see it.

“Someone call Wizards of the Coast!”

Em, Wally, and Alyssa go out when Titania puts out a huge spell that blinds Kug.

“Yummy, yummy, tastes like ass.”

On Misty’s next turn, she rolls a fail which makes it 2 failures to 1 success. Brennan mentions that a nat 1 counts as 2 failures and a nat 20 counts as 2 successes. I’m sure that won’t be relevant later because you can’t foreshadow things when dice rolls are completely random.

Misty fails on puppet again again and Titania goes full Wicked Witch of the West on her and starts Jonesing for those shoessss.

Emily’s Emily(tm) move of the session is doing a flying leap at Titania, hitting her with a stunning strike and having Brennan retract the Box off Doom he was pulling out because she can’t save when she’s stunned. She just plummets out of the sky.

Don Confetti respecting the sacrament of marriage as he goes full Opera ghost and tries to garrote Sophie.

Ricky (still naked) grabs the crown from Titania, tosses it to Misty, and, with some improv and a good charisma roll, makes the show suddenly make sense to the very confused but entertained audience.

I’m so glad that Murph decided to turn into a bear and that they made the Winter’s tale ref. I should have had faith in Brennan and Siobhan, the theater nerds. Exit pursued by a bear y’all.

Lou and Emily bonding over being proud of their die for rolling well when they lend it out for a big roll.

Really wish Pete had wild magic surged in this fight. Just to add that extra bit of chaos. 

With a very good turn (no damage taken, no performances failed) Misty only has to avoid snake eyes to get through this turn. She leapfrogs over that low bar and rolls a nat 20, instantly fulfilling her win condition. At this point, the play is superfluous and Titania is still down.

“Brennan lost and now he knows reddit is gonna eat his ass.”

OK, remember how I said earlier that Misty seems like the kind of character you nudge a little temptation at just to spice things up? Yeah, her killing Titania and getting the crown of the Seelie Fae makes me a liiiitle apprehensive, but we’ll see how that turns out.

“I killed my queen! This is America we don’t have royalty here.”

“Bear, I don’t know who you are, but take me on your back, let me ride on stage.” —creator of West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim

Misty charms the critic at the show to make sure they get a good review which is such a fae thing to do.

Kingston’s clearly not loving attacking Don and Co. post “real fight” what with his whole Do No Harm thing (well, that’s Dr’s but same principle applies I assume) is a good character detail. For that matter, so is Ricky just taking Titania’s crown and not beheading her which he super could have done while she was down but it would have been very incongruous with everything else about him.

Brian “This isn’t Loony Tunes” Murphy throws Sondheim as a projectile weapon at a pixie who snaps the pixie’s neck and then does a monologue at the audience.

I love it when someone rolls low on an insight check and Brennan gives them useless info and then they repeat it in their character’s voice.

4 mins from the end of the ep, Siobhan realizes there are two Perrys in this story for the first time and has a bigger reaction to that than almost everything else in this ep except her nat 20.

Ricky looks for costume faun legs to cover his fully out dick instead of costume pants or even his own pants.

Misty starts glowing with reincarnation energy and she runs into her dressing room for privacy. Also, she still super hasn’t told anyone what’s going on. (ALSO, assuming she’s gonna make the world think she died, it’s gonna be wild for the company of the show to have their leading lady put on the performance of her life and then die on opening night).

“Who am I to refuse a crown when it’s placed so deftly upon my head?”

You know that behind the scenes thing where Brennan is like, “Yeah, I knew Siobhan was gonna steal that book,”? I got some of those vibes during the crown scene.

The implications of what Misty did are gonna be left until next ep but Brennan says something about her creating her own court and it looks like she’s recruiting followers in the promo. IDK how I feel about that (these stories tend to have great power--especially tied to powerful magical items--as a corrupting force) but I am very excited to see how it goes down! See you then!

((Hilbert +D&D because I'm curious about how this would turn out-))

Tumblr Meets D&D - Your Muse as a D&D Character

Hilbert Dean Bailey

So, Hilbert here is the male protagonist of Pokemon Black and White, though @luckynatured here decided to take the character in her own direction, basing the muse in its entirety on a Nuzlocke Challenge of Pokemon Black. One of the aspects of this particular challenge drew my attention- the fact that Rowan chose to implement a rule involving dice rolls or coin flips any time there was a choice to be made. Leaving things to the whim of fate, almost seems perfect for a D&D character. Let’s make that a goal, we need a little randomness. Reading through some of Hilbert’s interactions also points to evidence that he’s extremely determined and exceptionally lucky to get so far without losing core team members. Speaking of team members, let’s make sure we have varied damage types to account for any threats, paying special attention to Hilbert’s main, league-winning team. Once again, we’ll be using Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and all books and articles related to it.

Ability Scores

These ventures will use standard array, a set of numbers given as a sort of average stat pool. Feel free to roll for stats if you wanted to use this character, just treat this arrangement as a general order for what stats are most important. No need to worry about multiclassing with this build.

Strength: 8 (Not needed) Dexterity: 13 (Useful) Constitution: 14 (Will be useful later) Intelligence: 10 (Hilly’s decently smart) Wisdom: 12 (Hilbert’s determined, and that tends to equate to decent Wisdom related saving throws and the like) Charisma: 15 (Our most useful stat here)

Race

Hilbert will be, surprise surprise, a Human. I could have gone a type of Halfling, which would have given him some extra luck, but Hilbert is shockingly tall, so that seemed a little out of place. Even so, we can make some choices early to get some handy bits of luck. Variant Humans also get some snazzy bonuses. Put the two free points Variant Humans get into Dexterity and Charisma to round those odd numbers up to evens. Then you’ve got your typical 30 feet of movement speed, a skill proficiency, and a free Feat. For Hilbert, also gets a base speed of 30 ft, a skill proficiency, and a free Feat. It might seem like a silly choice but let’s give him Perception. It will help with noticing things going on around him, and hopefully keep him aware of any dangers and it’s not a skill he’ll be able to grab from his class. As for his Feat, well I did say our boy needed to be lucky:

Lucky: You have inexplicable luck that seems to kick in at just the right moment.You have 3 luck points. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can spend one luck point to roll an additional d20. You can choose to spend one of your luck points after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. You choose which of the d20s is used for the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw.You can also spend one luck point when an attack roll is made against you. Roll a d20, and then choose whether the attack uses the attacker's roll or yours.If more than one creature spends a luck point to influence the outcome of a roll, the points cancel each other out; no additional dice are rolled.You regain your expended luck points when you finish a long rest.

Class and Background

Alright, but hear me out on this. Hilbert... is a Sorcerer. Not only do magical effects line up well with Pokemon attacks, but there’s a certain subclass of the Sorcerer that is the definition of random, and is the best way, in my opinion, to reflect his combination of luck and skill that got him to where he is today.

Sorcerers start with a d6 hit die (which is... not the best out there), proficiency in Constitution and Charisma saving throws, daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows, and two skills from a short list. Of the options listed, Insight and Persuasion make the most sense. 

As for his background, let’s focus on his rise as a Champion and give him the Folk Hero background, giving him proficiency in Animal Handling and Survival, as well as with two tools, two languages, or a language and a tool. Gaming sets are tools, so let’s giving our boy proficiency with a dice set, and might as well toss on a language like Elvish or something. Humans in the D&D world tend to pepper their native tongue with Elvish and Dwarvish words anyway, so it tracks.

This build is taking Sorcerer all the way from one to twenty, so let’s hit up what Hilbert gets at these levels one by one. At level one, he gains the ability to cast spells. Charisma is his casting stat, and it is added to his spell attack rolls and the DC of any spells of his that require saving throws to resist. He is notably able to use a spellcasting focus to ignore material components- let’s make that coin he always has in his wallet a casting focus. He can also pick a Sorcerous Origin, and the one that best fits our chance-manipulating mage boy is the Wild Magic Sorcerer. Wild Mages get two abilities:

Wild Magic Surge: Immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, the DM can have you roll a d20. If you roll a 1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect. A surge can happen once per turn. If a surge effect is a spell, it's too wild to be affected by Metamagic. If it normally requires concentration, it doesn't require concentration in this case; the spell lasts for its full duration. Tides of Chaos: You can gain advantage on one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. Once you do so, you must finish a long rest before you can use this feature again. Any time before you regain the use of this feature, the DM can have you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher. You then regain the use of this feature.

These two abilities work well in the randomness aspect of things, and give Hilbert some utility to manipulate what fate gives him. As for the spells he gains at this level, he starts with four cantrips and two first level spells from those in with sorcerer list. In case someone doesn’t know the difference, cantrips are simple magical tricks you can pull off at will, while leveled spells require expending one of your spell slots of a level equal to or higher than the spell’s level. First, the cantrips:

Shape Water: A transmutation cantrip that basically lets you manipulate water. A simple utility cantrip that you could make use of for a few clever things. A good reference to his starter being an Oshawott. Light: An evocation cantrip that gives you a flashlight so your weak little human eyes can see in the dark. Just kinda useful to have. Chill Touch: A necromancy cantrip that deals necrotic damage and restricts the affected foe’s ability to heal themselves. A neat little ghostly trick to represent Chandelure, perhaps?  Ray of Frost: An evocation cantrip that deals cold damage by firing a beam of icy energy- sounds like an Ice Beam if you ask me, something fitting for his Beartic or any Pokemon that knows Ice Beam.

And the spells:

Mage Armor: A first level abjuration spell that buffs up your armor class, setting it to 13 + your Dexterity modifier, which at this moment brings your AC from 12 (10 + Dexterity modifier) to 15. Pretty okay for a caster. It also lasts eight hours, meaning you can cast it at the start of a day and basically be armored for all your encounters moving forward. Chaos Bolt: Now this is the good shit. It’s just a first level evocation spell, sure, but the damage is pretty good, 2d8 + 1d6. And it can be decided what damage type it deals practically at random by selecting one of the d8s and using the element that corresponds to the number, starting with acid at 1, cold, fire, force, lightning, poison, psychic, and thunder at 8. Even more wild, if the d8s roll the same number, you can select a second target for the spell and make another round of rolls. This spell has some seriously wild propagation and represents so many types that it’s insane. 

Onto second level, which gives Hilbert a Font of Magic, which gives him Sorcery Points equal to his level, which he can spend to make more spell slots (or vice versa, converting spell slots to sorcery points) and, thanks to a class feature variant Unearthed Arcana article, cool protagonisty shit. Won’t go into too much depth on the making more spell slots thing or the converting spell slots to sorcery points, that can be found in the Player’s Handbook easily enough. The fun stuff are in the protagonist powers, like Empowered Reserve, which lets you spend two sorcery points in order to gain advantage on an ability check; Imbuing Touch, which lets you spend two sorcery points to make a nonmagical weapon magical for one minute; and Sorcerous Fortitude, which lets you spend a number of sorcery points and roll that many d4s, the result of which you gain as temporary hit points. Really handy options. He also learns another first level spell, so why not try out:

Sleep: A first level enchantment spell that has you roll some dice to determine how many hit points worth of individuals you can put to sleep. Great example of the Hypnosis move Munna and Musharna are famous for.

Sorcerer 3 gives ya access to Metamagic, also known as the stuff you spent your sorcery points on before that class feature variant UA. You get two metamagic choices at this level and can only apply one of them to a given spell at a time unless it’s stated otherwise. The ones I feel that reflect Hilbert most are the following two:

Unerring Spell: A metamagic option from the aforementioned UA, it lets you spend two sorcery points to reroll a missed spell attack roll, and you can use it even if you’ve used a metamagic option on the spell. You do have to stick with whatever the second roll is though, but if you’re using this then I would expect that first roll to be terrible. Pairs well with Tides of Chaos.  Careful Spell: Spend one sorcery point to make a number of targeted allies about to be hit by one of your area spells instantly succeed on the saving throw. A big way to prevent damage to your allies, though it won’t be to him right now since he doesn’t have any spells that could cause more trouble. Wonder when we’re going to fix that.

Sorcerer 4 nets you an Ability Score Improvement, let’s put that +2 in Charisma to make your spells- ahem, your Pokemon- even more badass. You also get a new cantrip and new spell, but you also get another spell at Sorcerer 5 and not much else, so let’s cover that too. That spell at Sorcerer 5 can be a third level spell so, I think you know what this means:

Shocking Grasp: An evocation cantrip that deals lightning damage and restricts the use of the target’s reaction. Pretty handy.  Mind Spike: A second level divination spell that deals psychic damage and magically tracks a foe, pretty handy representation of Musharna’s Psychic attack and his general ability to perceive things.   Fireball: A third level evocation spell that does big fire damage over an area, perfect for blasting shit with Chandelure. This is the one you wanna use your Careful Spell on so you don’t get any... accidents.

Sorcerer 6 will give Hilbert another fun way to manipulate dice rolls with the Bend Luck feature:

Bend Luck: When another creature you can see makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction and spend 2 sorcery points to roll 1d4 and apply the number rolled as a bonus or penalty (your choice) to the creature's roll. You can do so after the creature rolls but before any effects of the roll occur.

And one more spell, still of third level or less:

Tidal Wave: A third level conjuration spell that calls up a giant wave of crushing water. You know. Like Surf. Which I’m sure Michelle knows. 

Sorcerer 7 unlocks fourth level spells, but let’s not take any of those, instead dipping back to the third level:

Fly: A third level transmutation spell that gives ya a flying speed. Requires your concentration, but your Con saves are pretty good. Keep out of range on the back of your Altaria and you’ll be fine. 

Sorcerer 8 gives you an Ability Score Improvement, cap your Charisma at 20. Let’s also give him another spell, and let’s dip back to first level for:

Expeditious Retreat: A first level transmutation spell that lets you dash as a bonus action for ten minutes. Also a concentration spell, but if you need to make a run for it, this is the best way to go about it.

Sorcerer 9 gives our boy fifth level spells, so let’s take one:

Synaptic Static: A fifth level enchantment spell that is basically FIreball but for psychic damage. Wreck face with the power of your team leader, Hilbert!

Sorcerer 10 is also pretty simple, another metamagic option and a spell:

Quickened Spell:  When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting. Erupting Earth: A third level transmutation spell that rips up the ground, damaging foes and making int into difficult terrain. Perfect for an Excadrill’s Bulldoze if you ask me.

Sorcerer 11 unlocks sixth level spells, and let’s take one:

Investiture of Ice: A sixth level transmutation spell that transforms you into an awesome iceman, blasting cones of freezing energy, gaining immunity to cold and resistance to fire respectively. Something tells me Hilbert doesn’t like dragons. Put them on ice. Just don’t try using this tactic on a cold-focused chromatic dragon. A White Dragon... Like Kyurem. In D&D terms anyway.

Sorcerer 12 no new spell, but he does get an ASI. Let’s use that to bump up either his Dexterity or his Constitution, depending on preference. Dex will help him not get hit by attacks and Con will help him maintain his concentration spells.  

Sorcerer 13 unlocks seventh level spells, let’s take one:

Teleport: A seventh level conjuration spell that, well... let’s you teleport. Weird, right? Anyway, there’s some minute rules about how it works, but it basically boils down to making sure you have an object with a connection to where you’re going and you’ll be fine. Maybe Hilbert can use it to go home and talk to his mother for once. 

Sorcerer 14 helps streamline the randomness a bit with the Controlled Chaos feature:

Controlled Chaos: Whenever you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table, you can roll twice and use either number.

Sorcerer 15 unlocks eighth level spells, and we’re taking one.

Earthquake: This one’s for you, Garfield and Jude! An eighth level evocation spell that does just what it says on the tin, smashing up the ground and structures to damage foes directly and crush them under toppling buildings. A really fun spell that may very well be able to crumple a sparky sparky boom dargon held by a dude with a letter for a name. Specific, I know. 

Sorcerer 16 just gives you an ASI, so how bout we bump up either of Hilbert’s secondary stats? If you put this +2 in the same one, then you could max that stat in a couple levels, which could be really nice.

Sorcerer 17 gives our boy his final metamagic as well as unlocks ninth level spells, the strongest spells out there. 

Empowered Spell: When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one). You must use the new rolls. You can use Empowered Spell even if you have already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell. Wish: A ninth level conjuration spell and one of the strongest spells in the game, capable of duplicating the effects of any other eighth level or lower spell, or alternatively any number of possible things that could be phrased in the form of a wish. This spell is a little finicky though and it really up to the DM how easily it’ll work out. Regardless, it’s the ultimate way to manipulate fate, which is why I chose it for this build. 

Sorcerer 18 if a nifty little level for Hilbert, since it gives him a nasty little ability I like to call Judgement. Same he ain’t from Sinnoh, it would reflect Arceus well. For now it will just represent the badassery of Reshiram:

Spell Bombardment: When you roll damage for a spell and roll the highest number possible on any of the dice, choose one of those dice, roll it again and add that roll to the damage. You can use the feature only once per turn.

Sorcerer 19 gives our boy his last ability score. Cap that secondary stat, or spread it around a bit. Focus on what’s mattering most based on how his battles go. Dexterity if he keeps getting hit, Constitution if he keeps dropping his concentration spells at the wrong moment.  

And last we have Sorcerer 20, which only gives you one kinda eh ability. I suppose it’s nice if you use them pretty often, which a lot of the Wild Magic features do make use of them pretty consistently. So maybe it actually will benefit Hilbert xD.

Sorcerous Restoration: You regain 4 expended sorcery points whenever you finish a short rest.

Final Thoughts

Okay, so the biggest pro we got with this build is the sheer amount of damage types available by all those spells. Even Chaos Bolt alone can deal a bunch of different damage types. Wish is also a fantastic spell that can easily save yer ass. Hilbert is a really good blaster with his spells, but he also has some utility with flight and the like, not to mention ways to protect himself and his allies by manipulating dice rolls. Don’t hesitate to make use of those Wild Magic abilities. Depending on the surge table the DM uses, there’s some darn good options on there that will greatly benefit you. 

Unfortunately, there’s just as many bad things that could happen. Or you could turn into a potted plant and be unable to do anything for several turns. Not to mention you’d have just... terrible hit points. Taking the average puts you well under even Homika’s 88 hitpoints. d6 hit dies are not your friend if you wanna soak damage. But that’s not what you’re good at. You’re good at taking down the big monster before you go boom. 

I tried to get something on there for Stoutland, but there aren’t many ways to get a Normal Type in there. ‘Cept maybe some thunder damage, equating it to Hyper Voice. I always wanted to get Awaken on this build so Hilbert could get his awakened shrub Carmen, but apparently Sorcerers don’t get the spell. I’d have to take him through bard or wizard or something like that too far to justify it. 

I hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am with my choices

Roleplay Ramblings: Gaming Peripherals part 1

Dice and Rolling Options

(Image today is a bit special, as it isn’t a stock image, but a pic of my own dice collection at the time of writing this entry!)

As long as people have been playing games on a tabletop, they’ve been using all sorts of ways to determine random outcomes. Card decks are a classic, as are spinners, but one of the oldest and most iconic has always been dice.

Originally derived from the knucklebones of hooved animals, the concept of thrown objects determining fate has been with us for a very, very long time, and we’ve come a long way from whittled bone, stone, and wood.

This week, we’re going to take a step back from the fantastical worlds that we play in to talk about the sort of tools we use to play the games, starting with dice.

 For Pathfinder and Starfinder and most other tabletop roleplaying games, you’ll generally need a standard set of 7 fantasy dice, namely a d20, d12, d10, d%, d8, d6, and d4, which for the uninitiated, are labled for the number of sides each dice has with the exception of the d%, which is another d10 with different numbering to represent the 10’s place when rolled with the d10, allowing the two to effectively count as a d100.

There are a multitude of different dice companies out there, providing dice for all levels of income, everything from standard plastic dice in a variety of colors to more intricate designs and even those made of exotic materials. As the latter are more expensive and very clearly luxury items, please buy within your means.

That being said, if you have the disposable income and the interest, dice collecting is a fun little subset of tabletop gaming culture. People love their shiny geometry rocks.

 Of course, not every dice set fits in so well. Some are more bizarre. For example, prism dice, which are vagely cylindrical or polygonal prismic objects with one face along their circumference for every face of a more standard type of dice, the idea being that when they are rolled, they guarantee to cycle through all the possible numbers before coming to rest, which might appeal to some.

Other such strange dice include those of abnormal sides, like d3s, d5s, d7s, d30s, and so on, which are of limited use in pathfinder, but may have some use in some other system.

Another fun example are fudge dice, which are d6s with two blank sides, two (+) sides, and two (-) sides. The idea being that such systems have the players rolling a set number of dice, and trying to accrue as many positive results as possible while getting as few negative results.

This is of course, to say nothing of specialty dice for certain systems. For example, the (literal) fantasy football game blood bowl uses special d6’s with results for how various teammates succeed at tackles, though knowing the number of sides, one can simply use a normal d6 as long as everyone is clear on what numbers mean what.

 If you’ve got some disposable income and a need to treat yourself in a dice-focused way, you could always get dice made out of more expensive materials. A common choice is metal dice, usually aluminum with a plated metal outside of a different color, though other metals are available (and expensive). You can also see caged dice too, which are wonders of water-cutting that separate the outer edge of the dice so that the central core with the numbers can bounce and rattle inside, though not enough to misalign the faces.

The most expensive options are probably heavy metals like tungsten, or semiprecious stone dice, which are easily pure luxury items.

An important thing to remember with such fancy dice is protection, as metal dice might damage some surfaces, especially heavier metals like tungsten, so definitely consider investing in rolling surfaces.

 Of course, the cheapest option for rolling dice is to not roll dice at all, but rather generate the results with any number of random number generators and dice apps. The latter of which even usually have options to program in rolls with the bonuses and number of dice for various abilities and uses of your character. Additionally, many online tabletop platforms like Roll20 come with their own dice rolling, both with normal RNG and with virtual dice that bounce and roll on-screen.

Of course, such generators run into the problem of how random they seem vs how random they actually are, so some folks, particularly those with a computer background, may be dubious of any system that claims to produce chaos from a fundamentally ordered system. Still, for purely online gaming, it’s one of the best options outside of pure trust or taking a video of every roll.

 Stepping away from the dice themselves, let’s talk a moment about rolling surfaces. Dice trays have become very popular as of late as a way to provide a flat surface, often of leather to minimize impact, that also has raised edges to keep dice from bouncing off of tables and getting lost, or knocking into other things such as miniatures and the like.

An older variant of this is the dice tower, a device that comes in various shapes and sizes, but is meant to allow a player to drop dice in the top, and have it come out the bottom, producing their roll. The idea behind this is that not only does it prevent dice from getting everywhere, but it also supposedly helps with players who believe they have terrible rolls or rolling technique, letting physics and the multiple angled ledges within the tower do the rolling for them. I’ve seen some truly delightful designs for such towers, making them just as much collector’s items as the dice themselves, in many cases.

 Traditionally, dice are typically carried in bags, which range in size and ornamentation. Recently, wooden dice boxes have become popular as well, with choices of custom wood and engraving being available as well.

 With all of these things in mind, what’s the takeaway from all this? For new players, the best advice I can give you is pick up a basic dice set for cheap. Ten USD is about the right price for a normal plastic set. From there, only you can decide what you want and need out of the aforementioned dice and peripherals. If you want a giant dice bag full of a million dice? Go for it. Want some fancy sets with wooden custom dice boxes? By all means. You do you, but remember that these are luxuries for a game, so set a budget for how much you’re willing to spend at a time, especially if you’re at a gaming con and the like, where prices may be inflated.

Of my personal collection of dice and related paraphenelia, I use a lot of Chessex, a few Q-Workshop, some Norse Foundry and Level Up Dice, with boxes by Elderwood Academy and Wormwood. All of these are great sources, but hardly the end-all and be-all of such products, by all means do some searching of your own!

That does it for today, but we’ve got more in the works as the week progresses. I hope you like this diverging variation of the blog’s formula!

More TTRPG musing:

Constant die rolling has always kind of bothered me, especially in more simulationist, “realistic” games. I think it’s because, to me, the dice in such games (and in many other more narrative-focused games) represent the things outside of the character’s control. For example, in D&D or a similar setting I might interpret a natural 2 on a d20 attack roll as representing the ground beneath the character’s feet giving way and throwing them off balance or a blinding light reflecting off someone’s armor at just the wrong time; the point being that it’s rarely, if ever, the character’s fault for failure (unless that’s what the player themselves intended). A low roll is either something going wrong in the environment or the result of the enemy’s superior training/equipment. A high roll is a fortuitous circumstance. It’s the same outside of combat too: climbing a crumbling rock wall, sneaking through a creaky mansion, spotting the lie in a con artist’s eyes. The random aspect for all of them is not the player character’s ability- it is something outside of themselves. I think that many people would agree with this interpretation, yet again and again I see players and GMs narrating the results as if the die roll had anything at all to do with the character’s skill. Natural 1′s have people trip over their own feet. Critical successes have characters perform feats that are, for whatever reason, impossible around 19 out of 20 times. By the same token, the patch of ground that gave way, leading to the natural 2, is perfectly stable on the next turn, allowing the same character who hasn’t moved, to roll a natural 20 to great effect.

“But Doormaster!” I can hear no one saying. “Combat is a chaotic place! No one is going to attack or block exactly the same way every time. That’s why you need to roll every time.”

That’s a good point! It’s why I’m not advocating to do away with dice mechanics completely. I just think we need to rethink the way we narrate them in certain situations.Let’s use a couple examples. Looking back at that natural 2 on the attack roll being narrated as the ground slipping underneath the attacker, what could we do with this information? We could say that the ground is suddenly collapsing around everyone- both the party and their opposition. Maybe the ground is getting churned up into mud, slowing everyone down. Maybe an earth elemental is coming up from underneath the battle, disturbed by the clamorous goings-on. Or maybe it’s just that one patch of ground that happens to be slippery because someone spilled some water there a few minutes ago. All of these options is more interesting than “Welp, you missed. Next turn!” I’m not saying that every low/high roll has to be some kind of climactic, combat-changing event but it’s worth considering.Further, let’s say a thief is trying to pick a lock while they’re making their way through a house. The game is using some d20 system and in the attempt the thief rolls a 3. In the ‘roll as player skill’ mindset, the thief probably fumbles with their tools and jams them in awkwardly, even if it has been established that the thief is actually quite skilled at this sort of thing. In the “roll as fictional positioning” mindset, the situation is such that it is not possible for the thief to get through at this time with their current level of skill; they must find some other way into that room or a way to change the situation enough that it would make sense to get another roll (improve the lighting, get better picks, examine a similar lock, etc.). I would even go a step further and say that the lock would then automatically defeat further scoundrels of a similar skill level without a change in the situation- the initial roll essentially ‘sets’ the environmental challenge that all following attempters must overcome. This can feel goofy/frustrating. On one hand I can understand that- it can feel like capricious dice could create a task that is impossible to complete.

Is that necessarily a bad thing though? Should every task be completable? I would say no. Sometimes there’s just something that you’re not skilled/talented enough to accomplish and if you’re playing a simulationist game then you should come to terms with that. That’s just me, though.

The one problem with this mindset is that it can bring the game to a screeching, exasperating halt if too many options get shot down by low die numbers. What can be done about this?

- Ensure players always have at least one general goal, something that can be worked towards whether or not any given plan fails. This might place the goal in the realm of being almost impossible and they may fail, but at least they don’t get fictionally soft locked.

- Always have an idea for what happens when the players fail/don’t get involved. It shouldn’t be assumed that players will succeed at every task they attempt. That plan might change with actions the players took that didn’t quite succeed their aims but still changed the situation, but having the idea in place in the first place will make things a lot easier.

- Don’t just outright say no when a player offers an idea that seems a little out there. That’s a great way to encourage them to assume that you’ve got a specific idea in mind for how you want them to complete the challenge and give up when that doesn’t work because of the dice. If it’s just really too bonkers to consider, still try to work with them to see if something similar is feasible.

- Fail forward. Did the dice botch an attempt at gathering information about a criminal? Have their buddies show up to see who’s asking so many questions. Did the lockpicks break in the door? The guards are closing in- but you can hear the jingle of something on their belt loops. This isn’t to say that the consequence shouldn’t be difficult, but it’s rarely fun to just run into a stone wall and have to start over from scratch.

Could you explain how to run a good improv d&d game?

We can sure try! 

First of all, DMs, don’t try to build fully-fleshed characters. When preparing the character sheets for your players, all you really need is ability scores, skill bonuses, defences, attack modifiers, speed, and anything else you think is relevant. Do height and weight, but don’t write down what colour their hair is. Do feats, but don’t pick out all their powers. This limits the amount of setup you have to do. Additionally, you should try to include mainly races and classes your team is familiar with- it’s much more fun for the players if they can start to guess what they might be playing when they’ve gotten a few hints. We’re not saying don’t throw in your homebrew sith race for fun, but as a general rule the players will probably have more fun with things they know well.

Limit the number of players. This is a good idea in any format, but it’s particularly important here. From the DM’s perspective, the more players you have, the more chaotic it’s going to get. Since the players start with blank character sheets, you’re the one that has to track their health, their defences, their healing surges etc until they’ve found that stuff out, and the effect snowballs.

Players: expect everything to be a bit fast and loose. Some things are going to need to be simplified so the DM doesn’t lose their mind, and honestly some rules will go out the window altogether until you’ve gotten the hang of things. Besides, this format is really to have fun with, so don’t get your knickers in a twist if it’s not what you’re expecting.

Don’t think that because this is ‘improv’, you don’t need to have at least some idea of a story. In order to find things out about their characters (which is really the name of the game), you need to provide opportunities for them to try things out. This is one situation in which you don’t really want to just let your players wander around chatting to randoms for two hours. Our DM had about 5 encounters planned, which involved combat in some interesting places and two skill challenges focusing on different sets of skills. The quest he gave us was simple and fun (hunt and fetch), as a vehicle for exploring our characters. The most important thing in improv dnd is to provide as many opportunities to roll a d20 as possible! 

Try not to be too generous when dropping information about character stats. The players should have to get inventive to find out what they’re playing. If a player goes and finds a mirror to find out their race, have all the mirrors be too cracked for them to be sure. If they tip out their backpack to find out what gear they have, be evasive. The whole point of this game is to gradually piece together your character in surprising and funny discoveries, so trust your instincts. If they haven’t worked for that piece of information- don’t give it to them! If they’re struggling and you’re worried they’re getting bored, however, it should be pretty easy to drop something in.

Finally, don’t be afraid of the word ‘improv’. You can do plenty of planning, and as long as your players are open-minded and patient you should all have fun. That was quite long, so hopefully it was helpful!

peachdoxie replied to your post “The thing I hate most about me being in a creative mood is that I want...”

I was gonna suggest that you roll a die since that's what my friends always do

foxflightly replied to your post:

Same

I love the use of random number generators or d20s to help me decide things. Sometimes it’s also nice to get friends’ opinions. Unfortunately, the boringness of adult life is choosing for me... I’m behind on work hours, need the money, and thus get to do none of the fun creative projects spinning wildly inside my head. *ka-sigh*

Worldbuilding 101 : Science or Paganism

Okay, this article is basically a study I’m working on while I put together my own world for NaNoWriMo--assuming that I get everything together in time.

There’s going to be at least three articles for this--Part One is for Deities, Part Two is for building Fantasy Races, and Part Three is for the World itself. I’m going to work on having them all finished by November, but if you know me...articles take a while.

Worldbuilding 101 : Science or Paganism

One of the most important things to decide when you begin your story is where everything comes from. Where did your planet come from? Did some cosmic entity sneeze the planet into existence, or was it a matter of ice and dust clumping together via gravity?

I usually pick paganism for my world’s origin because it’s highly unlikely that all sentient races on any world will be atheists. And since there are going to be gods involved in any case, I tend to bring them in early. But really, it’s up to you.

If you decide that your fantasy world was created through divine intervention, the next thing to decide is what was there before the gods. Was the non-world a black void, or was it a dream? Or perhaps your gods were on their home plane and decided to make your world as a sort of science project.

As an example, in the world I’m currently working on, the Overdeity was traveling through different planes of existence for a long time before despair led him to give up and create other gods for company. At some point, those other gods rose up against their creator, and the Overdeity’s corpse became the world.

(Fun Fact: I told my brother my world’s origin story. He was reminded of both Norse and Greek mythology. However, the actual inspiration was from Moana, when Te Fiti lies down to become Mother Island.)

Once you’ve decided where your world comes from, the next step is to nail down specifics. How many gods do you have, how many worshipers would you say they have, what kind of gods are they, etc.

There are many different methods of picking all of these out, and there is no right answer. If you think your world has multiple pantheons, decide if that is according to race or nationality, or both. Do those pantheons share an Overdeity, or do they each have their own?

Note that Overdeities are generally defined as the God of Gods, which means that in most cases, your made-up deities will worship the Overdeity. And in virtually all cases, your sentient races will not even know that the Overdeity exists (and even if they do know, the Overdeity is highly unlikely to hear any of their prayers).

Now, you can either figure out the answers to these questions on your own, or you can follow my example, which is to keep a deck of playing cards handy at all times. (Or dice. Or a coin. I’ve done it all.) Playing cards will give you a range from 0-4 (suits + joker), 0-13 (face + joker), or even 0-52 (all cards)--in which case, I salute you and go about my merry way. Because that is a lot of gods. What you can get from dice is dependent upon how many sides they have. Flipping coins is time consuming, but workable. Also, you might lose all of your loose change.

My personal preference is playing cards on the 0-13 scale, but a d12 would have virtually the same results. If you have a full set of dice, you might decide to do something fun, like use d4 to determine the number of Overdeities you have, d6 for Greater Deities, d8 for Intermediate Deities, d10 for Lesser Deities, d12 for Demigods, and d20 for Quasi-Deities, or Heroes. Note that you can achieve the same result with a deck of playing cards.

If you want there to be more chance involved (or you want more than 6 Greater Deities, for example), you can simply decide how many gods you get, and then run a scale for ranking. The default scale for Dungeons & Dragons is 0 for Quasi-Deities or Heroes, 1-5 for Demigods, 6-10 for Lesser Deities, 11-15 for Intermediate Deities, 16-20 for Greater Deities, and 21+ for Overdeities, which you can achieve with four d6.

In my case, I ended up with one Overdeity, three Greater Deities, eight Intermediate Deities, and one Lesser Deity using the second method, for a total of thirteen gods and goddesses.

At this point, you might decide to gender your deities. Or you might not. They can be genderless, dual sexed, gender fluid, or transgender. They can be male or female or a different gender entirely, depending on your worldbuilding.

As an example, in my story Ties of Fate, my goddess of creation (called The Radiance) was actually genderless, but was routinely misgendered because of how beautiful “she” was.

You can randomize the gods’ genders if you like. Just build a scale on how common you want to make it, and then place them how you’d like. Example: 0-2 Nonbinary, 3-5 Transgender Female, 6-8 Female, 9-11 Intersex, 12-14 Male, 15-17 Transgender Male, 18+ Gender Fluid. You can achieve this with two d10.

On this scale, I have five cis gods, one trans god, two intersex deities (one uses they/them pronouns, the other prefers he/him), two trans goddesses, and three cis goddesses.

Now that you have some idea for your deities, the next (and arguably most fun) step is to assign them powers. There are several methods you can use to do this. You can look up Dungeons & Dragons cleric domains (you can probably find these online if you don’t have a book handy), or look up powers on the TV Tropes site, or you can find a random generator online to roll up gods for you (I recommend Seventh Sanctum, or Chaotic Shiny).

I personally prefer to empower deities with my deck of Clow Cards, but if you don’t have your own, it is possible to “fake it” with a deck of playing cards by giving each individual playing card a corresponding Clow Card. You can find these lists online.

Feel free to mix and match each of these methods if you like. It will only give more facets to your deities.

Once you have assigned your deities their own realms of influence, you can give them names. However, I am going to be very unhelpful here: I find naming deities highly offensive. There is a reason people say “don’t take the Good Lord’s name in vain.” Give a group of worshipers access to a deity’s true name, and they will be constantly yelling in his ear over inconsequentials. Treat them with respect, for goodness sake!

That isn’t to say that you can’t name your deities (given the sheer number of pagan deities in fiction, you’ll find that a lot of people do), but you don’t need me to help you there. You have a language and an alphabet? Knock yourself out.

My personal method is a bit more colorful. I give my deities appellations. I give them descriptions that their people will recognize them by. My moon goddess is called The Guide because she created the moon and stars to show people the way. My goddess of time is called the Painter because she’s responsible for the changing seasons.

There is a reason you save creating appellations until after you’ve given your deities power. And sometimes even hold off until you’ve given them an alignment. (“The Big Evil” should never be attached to a Lawful Good deity. It shouldn’t be used, period, unless you’re writing satire. It’s kind of tacky.)

I would suggest holding off on assigning your deities a specific appearance until after you create your races, unless it’s a very basic one, such as general height (tall/short/average), general appearance (beautiful/ugly/plain), or associated feelings (happy/awed/fearful). This is primarily because deities often create races in their own image.

If this is not the case, and your deities actually look like giant gumballs, whereas the sentient race are centipedes, then go ahead and knock yourself out. If your deities are portrayed like the Egyptian gods with animal heads, then go ahead and note it as an animal head, but save specifics until you actually populate your world. They might not even have orangutans there.

Please note that this obviously doesn’t cover everything involved in creating your deities. I haven’t covered alignments, or even forms of worship. I think that worship can probably wait until after you have races to do so, and alignments aren’t all that complicated. Just build a scale and have at it.

As for me, I have

Examples from A History

01 God: The Fallen (Overdeity). Male. The Voice: repose, spell, suffering

The god of death. He Who Waits at the End is neutral evil. He is the one that created the gods, and when he was slain, his body became the world. He waits to welcome the dead into the afterlife. He hears the prayers of those lonely and suffering.

02 Goddess: The Guide (Greater Deity). Transgender. The Glow: darkness, moon, travel

The moon goddess. She Who Guides the Lost is neutral good. She is the one that created the moon and stars in the night sky. She guides the steps of those who travel to safety. She hears the prayers of those lost or traveling.

03 God: The Laughter (Greater Deity). Male. The Light: fire, healing, sun

The sun god. He Who Laughs in the Sun is lawful good. He is the one that created the sun. He brings hope and healing to the injured. He hears the prayers of healers and patients alike.

04 Goddess: The Planner (Greater Deity). Transgender. The Silence: knowledge, planning, runes

The goddess of wisdom. She Who Watches in Silence is lawful neutral. She is the one who orchestrated the creation of the world. She created the written word. She hears the prayers of those who seek guidance.

05 Goddess: The Painter (Intermediate Deity). Female. The Change: fate, luck, time, winter

The goddess of time. She Who Paints the World is lawful good. She is the one who created the ever-changing seasons, the magnetic pole, and associated climates. She perceives the fate of all. She hears the prayers of all those who take risks.

06 Deity: The Harvester (Intermediate Deity). Dual Sexed. The Wood: plants, renewal, water

The green deity. One Who Grows in Bounty is neutral good. They are the one who created the trees and plantlife. They grow the plants and give aid to the farmers. They hear the prayers of those who grow, and those who harvest.

07 God: The Lover (Intermediate Deity). Male. The Twin: animal, charm, family

The god of family. He Who Joins in Hand is chaotic good. He is the one who created animals. He causes mates to recognize one another. He hears the prayers of expectant mothers.

08 Goddess: The Guardian (Intermediate Deity). Female. The Sand: destruction, earth, strength

The earth goddess. She Who Walks in Ruin is neutral. She is the one who created the sand and soil. She causes earthquakes and landslides. She hears the prayers of those who travel through the desert.

09 God: The Shaper (Intermediate Deity). Male. The Lock: craft, metal, trade

The god of craftsmen. He Who Shapes the Bridge is neutral good. He is the one who created the people. He guides the hands of those who create. He hears the prayers of craftsmen and merchants.

10 God: The Hidden (Intermediate Deity). Transgender. The Illusion: illusion, ocean, trickery

The trickster god. He Who Hides in the Mist is neutral evil. He is the one who created the oceans and rivers. He watches over those who traverse the seas. He hears the prayer of the hidden and the fearful.

11 God: The Crowned (Intermediate Deity). Dual Sexed. The Fight: death, hatred, war

The war god. He Who Rises in Challenge is chaotic evil. He is the one who created the hills and mountains. He gives courage to the fearful and oppressed and leads those who fight to victory. He hears the prayers of warriors and slaves alike.

12 God: The Singer (Intermediate Deity). Male. The Song: magic, nobility, protection

The god of magic. He Who Sings in Many Voices is neutral. He created the shimmering pools where magic flows. He gives inspiration to both singers and artists. He hears the prayers of those who hear the music of the world.

13 Goddess: The Dancer (Lesser Deity). Female. The Windy: air, destruction, storm

The storm goddess. She Who Dances in the Wind is chaotic evil. She is the one who created the weather. She carries the storms the world over. She hears the prayers of those who find beauty in the sky.

Currently about a third way through with the next part. (It’s even longer than this one.) Here’s hoping that I get the opportunity to post it tomorrow?

Well, since my library is starting a dnd club in september, and another campaign with a different dm in october (which im joining), would you mind giving me a few tips for a beginner?

just in general? uhh, i’ll scrape together some thoughts, but, if you have specific areas you’re curious about it would help me focus down!

the most basic unit of DnD play is: your DM describes a situation; you say what you want to do. if success is not automatic, you’ll roll a twenty-sided die, plus or minus the relevant modifiers off your character sheet, and compare it to a target number. high numbers succeed, low numbers fail. your DM describes the effect of your action, repeat. tell a story.

other dice come into play mostly to randomize elements of character creation and to work out the effects of weapons or spells.

besides straight numerical bonuses 5e uses ‘advantage’ and ‘disadvantage’ to modify d20 rolls: when you have advantage you roll twice and take the higher result, disadvantage, roll twice and take the lower.

if you don’t know what skills/modifiers apply to a given action, tell your DM what you’re trying to do and they’ll help you work it out. don’t limit your actions just to the most obvious applications of the skills written on your sheet. get creative!

the player’s handbook is a reference document. if you’re able, it’s a massive help to have a copy handy, even a PDF, while you play, but most people aren’t eager to read the whole thing in one sitting and you don’t necessarily have to. look up rules by chapter/through the index as you need them

try not to derail play for too long, though. if you really can’t find some rule but your DM is comfortable improvising, and i hope they are, they should be able to come up with something arbitrary so that things can keep moving forward. momentum is good!

different DMs/groups will have different playstyles - the spectrum usually described has heavy roleplaying on one end, where character interactions and storytelling are the main focus, and heavy combat on the other, where your character’s backstory isn’t as important as how much damage they can do - most groups are somewhere in the middle

listen to and respect your DM. assuming they’re not a bag of dicks.

of course, you might well totally derail your DM’s plans by doing something unexpected - and as long as everyone works together that’s a good thing, it’s all part of the collaborative storytelling fun

you might ask your DM if there are any specific house rules you should know about - stuff like how to handle critical failures if there are any, do you reroll if dice fall off the table

take the time work out with your fellow party members how your characters know each other and why they’re adventuring together. this can be as simple as ‘we met in a bar’ or ‘we were all hired as mercenaries on the same job’

shortcut to character backstory: what made your character take up this career path at all? why do they have the skills they do? make a few strong character choices: flaws, motivations, ideals; and fine detail will often emerge as you play and bounce off of other characters.

party friction (conflicting goals, clash of ethics, old feuds) is fun and aids roleplaying in small doses but being constantly at each other’s throats, or making it personal between players, is less so. try to make sure the other players are on board out of character if you ever pick fights

this may not be relevant if you have groups and DMs lined up who presumably already have plans, but the high-fantasy, tolkienesque setting described as the default in most published core materials is not the only world you have to play dnd in, and dnd is not the only tabletop roleplaying game out there. the advantage of pen-and-paper roleplay is that the limit is your imaginations, and what’s printed is a guideline only - as opposed to playing a video game where your limits are strictly programmed. things can change on the fly in a way that a computer really can’t imitate, at least at this point.

Being Alone, Animals, and Apparently: >Hey guys, I wanna run a game Sure, guy, that sounds good. Let's go for that. Youve played in a few games, I'm sure you can handle running something >It's going to be my own custom setting, based on d20 modern Oh god, how is this going to turn out? >It's based on a book I've been writing since I was a teenager Oh boy, this is gonna be amazing >Post-apocalyptic future of the area we live in A standard take, but a classic one >Players are all equipped with Pipboys which operate as radios, inventories, and watches Oh boy! >Characters have energy bars that fill and deplete as they use their powers Oh boy! >Monster Energy drink is a energy-replacing item so important it serves as a major feature of the setting Oh boy! >Players pick an animal, a weapon, and an "element" and can transform into an anthropomorphic elemental animal form that gains extra powers and uses their weapon for super-damage Oh boy! >DM doesnt know how many core features of d20 in general work Oh boy >DM doesn't know the geography of the area we live in Oh boy! >DM doesn't know particular facts of reality Oh boy! >DM has a DMPC who the story is about who is the most powerful of the animal/elemental/weapon people Oh boy! >Much of the DMPC's plot revolves around a romance with the stand-in for the DM's dead ex fiancee Oh boy! >The DMPC's love interest dies tragically Oh boy One player dropped out within an hour of showing up the first day. The rest of us held on for a shocking number of weeks just so we'd have something to fill time with, and some place to go have pizza and hang out for a bit, and to have stories And oh. I have stories. The "elements" alone were... staggering. "Legends d20 Fallout: Mighty Morphin' That Guy Rangers >That Guy ran a game based on his post-apocalyptic tragic romantic autobiographical work in progress novel about people in the future using magic fallout watches to turn into animals Quoted By: *46403659 46403704 >4640397846404111 >>46404256 I've told this story a few times, but basically, this guy sets out to make a game based on the epic sci fi novel called Legends" he's been writing, based on his life, only set in the distant future. He uses d20 modern to do so. He had none of the books, never played the system, and didn't know how anything worked In addition to our regular hit points we had rolled, he saddled us with 150 extra HP. Why? Because he didn't know how damage worked. So, for example his main character (based on him, of course) had a sword that did 1d100 damage per hit. No strength bonus, no multiple attacks, just 1d100 d have characters who had d100s as their damage die. In fact, There's other fun stuff about the "combat system" I can go into later, but I wanna touch on the core concept of the game for a moment. It's ye olde post-apocalypse, after what is basically the Second Impact, a meteor made out of monsters and evil crashes into earth and reformats it into crazy world. The game takes place in the region we live in, which was kinda a neat concept to start with, but then it got out of hand because of none of us much geography Every player picks an animal, an "element", and a weapon, and those become our spirit animal/element/weapon. I was an ice wolf with katars, my friend was a darkness panther with a sword, and our other friend was an electromagnetic pteradactyl with a pair of berettas, at which point you might begin to see why I put "element" in quotation marks, because the magic system and cosmology were all over the map Quoted By >>46403692 46403978 >46404111 >>46430662 46403615 Here's some of the elements we were informed of or encountered: Ice Fire, Wind, Water 티ectricity. Plants. Poison. Darkness but not shadow Sunlight, Electromagnetism Nuclear Power, Acid Mental Healing, and I believe Drugs was one as well. I bring up darkness/shadow because, as I said, one of the party members was a darkness character, who could control shadows and use them to freeze people in place and so on and suchlike. However, the enemies were living shadows.. and he had no control or effect on them. Because darkness is different from shadow Anyways, we spent about two and a half, maybe three months of sundays playing games with this guy, halfway because the concept was so gonzo and he was such a pushover as a DM that we could basically justify doing any completely retarded thing we wanted, partly we had nothing better to do and felt bad for him, and partly it was fun to hang out and eat pizza and (as time went by) watch movies rather than play the game. I haven't really touched on the plot yet. We're locals in this post-apocalptic future, me a farmer and the other guy a raider (the third player, the pteradactyl guy, bailed out half an hour into the first session quite gracefully and never ever returned), and we go t this magical academy where, it is implied, we will somehow learn how to use our powers This is in fact a vicious lie The "magical academy is in fact a lawless hell-hive run by loosely disguised versions of the DM and his former fiancee (I say Versions because there were two characters with the same name as him) that was instantly and irrevocably termed "the mexican prison every time we mentioned it. "Lessons" consisted of us agreeing that our characters did nothing rational or interesting for 6 months at a time and we'd gain random stat bonuses or special powers that were either more or less game breaking than our current powers Quoted By 46403719 46403978 46404111 46403659 Between these wastes of time, we'd go do other time wasting things like chase a dragon only to have Version A of him come slay it, or scavenge for pristine cans of Monster Energy Drink around the remains of the cities. Which brings me, in a round-a-bout way, to the matter of the "combat system" You see, as I mentioned, he's never played d20 modern, played what seems to be very little D&D, and had apparently decided to hijack what Im told is some JRPG's combat system for his "homebrew. We're given energy bars, and every time we use one of our special moves the bar gets depleted. And our special moves are quite special. We can still use normal attacks, or we can use his totally awesome "combo attack", where if we get a 15-20 on the d20 roll, we deal an additional 1d4 damage! Or, we can use a "power attack" and, if we get a 19 or 20, automatically deal double damage, amazing! He actually wrote the word "power attack" down in his notes, then told us to it, and didn't understand when we seemed taken aback. In addition to these wonderful options, we also get some magic super abilities, like beam attacks or choking people with their darkness, or other things like that, which range between useless, already covered by abilities in the game, or completely broken. I had an ability where l'd shoot a super ice beam at someone with my katars, and get +d12 to damage for every chunk of my energy bar I depleted in the process, and that's where the Monster Energy Drink comes in because a single can of Monster Energy can be drunk as a free action and completely refill your energy bar And thus I became an ice drill Quoted By: *46403799 *46403978 »>46404111 46403692 I've sadly forgotten some of our funnier moments in the game, but others will never leave me. Like when our "ally", a poison T-Rex with a sniper rifle, kept shooting us in combat because the DM didn't understand what a "miss" means. Eventually we collapsed the Tacoma dome on him, us, and the enemy and that seemed to work out Oh, and all rope was referred to as "fuckin' rope" for no clear reason. All our items resided in our pip boys, by the way. Which was his exact description of them, no less You know how you can cause an explosion by filling a room with flour and then igniting it? It's a bit exotic of a trap, but it's something you can do. I told him about that once and from then on it became a valid combat tactic. In open-air areas. As a standard action Man, my mind's just boiling as I remember some of the other things. Eventually he decided +150 hit points was too many and brought it down to +89. We met a few people who he told us did 1d1000 as damage, but we never saw this in action Quoted By: >46403978 46404111 46404725 >>46406650 46403719 There was a fighting tournament that used DBZ rules, which the panther exploited by winning 4 fights via ringout. For you see, because all these people do 1d20 or 1d30 (he had a d30) damage, with maybe some extra dice for flavor, as damage, none of them had strength scores. So the easiest way to beat them, without having to carve through their 500 hit points using a sword? Bullrush. And the DM didnt know what it was or that it sted The panther dude took Agile Riposte and used the 25 dex granted to him by the DM being a moron and fighting defensively to take Attacks of Opportunity mpletely carve up enemies by exploiting the fact the DM doesn't know how often you can s the fast hero and I ended up with less dexterity due to the DM's incompetence. In return, I mocked the concept relentlessly. Whenever my character transformed from human to furry mode, I would do a power rangers henshin sequence "Blue Wolf POWER!" I also promised my next character would be a water crab with a sledgehammer for his weapon, so l could call myself "MC Hammer" and do the hammer dance, on account of being a crab. But it wasn't to be Two sessions in a row, we showed up and played nothing. We sat with the DM and watched then early-days Netflix for a bit, maybe had some pizza, discussed what we might do in the game next week, left after a half hour or so, came back next week, did it again, left again, and the week after that the DM simply didn't invite us over. The Legend of Legends ended as it began: With unbearable disappointment and confusion And that's the story of the worst game I ever played

Making a Game: What’s in a Roll?

Before we jump into anything, I need to get this out of the way: we are not going to pick a dice rolling system in this article. I know, I said last time that we would be talking about dice, and we will be, but I am not ready to pick the system for rolling that Vikings and Valkyries will use quite yet. Given that dice rolls are the primary way players will interact with the system rules themselves, this is a pretty big decision, and not one that I am prepared to make so early in the development process. Every dice system is going to be best for specific kinds of results and gameplay systems. I will need to spend some time figuring out the systems in VnV before I can determine which dice will fit those systems.  I want to design every system in the game so that each piece works even if I change the dice rolling system part way through, so today we will be laying some ground rules to help with that.

What’s in a Roll?

Before we talk too much about the reasons for skipping out on a dice mechanic, I want to take a moment to talk about what a dice mechanic is, and why we might want to use one. Most of you will think this is obvious, but digging into obvious questions can present unique mechanics and solutions. Do we really need dice in this game? What are they for? Dice are random number generators. They are tossed onto a table, and the number that faces up is the number we use. In tabletop RPGs, board games, and gambling dice are used to randomize results. Dice are used in gambling to provide the rush of uncertain victory and to help the casino win big. Dice are used in boardgames that demand risk management from players, so that even the best strategist might sometimes lose to some risky plays and unlucky rolls. This can keep board games fresh because working out a perfect strategy is impossible if a roll of the dice can tip a game one way or another. RPGs employ dice in order to achieve both of those goals, well not the casino one, and also to create uncertainty in actions. Uncertainty is important in an RPG because the players are also the audience. The people playing the characters, and this includes the GM, want to be surprised by the events as they come. Otherwise, where is the drama?

So we want to have dice rolling in this game in order to allow for uncertainty and drama, and also for fairness. The reason we are going to spend all this time making rules and systems is because at the end of the day we are making a game, and games need to be fair in order to be fun. Now, fair does not mean equal. If I am playing DnD, the Barbarian will be able to lift more weight than the Bard. Some mechanics need to be different, and that means that some mechanics will be unbalanced, but that is okay. Fair means that there are rules that all of the participants in the game must follow. Soccer has rules, video games have rules, and tabletop RPGs have rules. Rules in RPGs are often even more important because one of the players is in prime position to abuse her power: the GM. The GM is the adjudicator of the RPG, which means she has the power to make or break the game, and while she technically has the power to supersede the rules in most tabletop games, we want to design a game robust enough that she does not have to ignore our rules. Breaking rules in a game is tricky. The GM can very easily harm the trust between her and her players if she decides to do something that violates the rules. Those rules are there so that every player understands the working of the world. If that changes suddenly, all bets are off and the players will not be able to make intelligent decisions in the game world. Moreover, the players will not be able to trust that their decisions are being respected by their GM.

The die roll is how the players will understand their odds of success on actions, and also how they will see that their successes and failures are a product of both their decisions, and some randomness. Randomness is easy. The players can see the dice on the table. The numbers that come up when rolled are close enough to random, so that part is taken care of. Being able to see their odds is trickier depending on the system. D100 percentile systems are easy to understand, because they can be expressed as percentages. D20 rolls are a bit more complicated, but the player can tell that they are rolling a skill that they are good or bad at, and plan accordingly from those numbers. Players will also be able to track bonuses that they receive for certain actions, so that will allow them to strategize within the game world. We want dice rolling in the game not only to enforce fair play between the GM and the other players, but also to create a sense of danger and risk that the players can understand.

Variables in Game Design

When programming a video game, one of the most important tools to make use of is the variable. Variables can be used to assign a value to a word. The programmer has a part of the code where they decide what the variable is, and then they can use that variable in the code instead of a number or string of text. For example, if I want to give my player 100 hit points in a game, I can make a variable called “hp” that I set equal to 100. Now, whenever my code needs to look at my player’s hit points, I can type “hp” instead of 100. This is useful if I change my mind later. If, after much testing, I decide the player should have 90 hit points, I can simply go back to the place where I told “hp” to equal 100, and change that to 90. Done. If I typed out 100 manually every time, I would have to change every instance of the 100 to 90, and that is a lot of work.

Now, I am not a computer. I cannot create a set of mechanics with a variable and then simply replace that variable to change all the numbers Moreover, I am talking about the basic logic by which this game will function. I have tossed around the idea of a d20 system, a d100, d10, d6 dice pool, d10 dice pool, a system where dice directly correspond to stats and skills, and on and on. Each of these systems would represent a massive change to the game. So, I cannot simply design the game with the dice system as a variable, so why don’t I pick one now? The reason is that I plan to design the next handful of mechanics in a general state. I want to define what I want each mechanic to feel like, and then I can start assigning actual dice and numbers to them. If I know parrying should be an action that players can take, and that they should succeed roughly 70% of the time, I can set any dice system to get close to that value. This is as close to variables as I can get in the design of such core mechanics. I can create a framework and then plug mechanics in manually later. So that is the plan for the next couple of articles. I am going to design the mechanics of this game with no dice, and then return and apply dice to them.

You may be asking if it would be easier to design the dice mechanic first, and then the other mechanics. After all, that would allow me to design each mechanic in one pass instead of two. You would be right, but that returns to the problem of changing my mind. See, I started this project with a dice mechanic in mind. I wanted the characters to have three action dice each, and for the Valkyrie to have two plus another one for each Einherjar in the party. Players could commit dice to actions and reactions on their turn. The Valkyrie could, at any time, pass any number of her extra dice to a player. So, you might say, I need a dice pool system for this game. Well, not so fast. One of the issues I had with this system is that it mirrored a problem we had when designing Psychout. When we designed Psychout, I wanted actions to be more fluid than the standard turn based structure. So, we gave each player three actions per turn. These actions were represented by tokens. When the player took an action, they had to discard one token. I thought this would cause players to hold some tokens in reserve for defensive moves, but instead the optimal strategy turned out to be spending all of your action tokens on a single overwhelming attack. The best defense is a good offense after all, and being able to fire off three attacks on a turn was usually enough to take down most enemies in the game. We struggled with the system for a while, before abandoning it for a more standard structure, and the game was better for it.

The other issue we noticed with Psychout’s early action economy was that the tokens ended up being kind of boring. See, I expected that players would see the tokens and come up with interesting strategies about balancing their offense with defense. The problem was that the tokens did not translate well into that strategy. It did not feel like a mechanic where a character could sacrifice defensive ability for some extra damage or accuracy. It felt confusing, out of character, and slowed down player turns as each player tried to figure out if they should drop one, two, or three actions right away. Plus, it felt like a mini game stapled on top of the real game. Players were not deciding between diving for cover and shooting at an enemy: they were deciding between one, two, or three tokens, totally divorced from the fiction. This was a system that sounded cool in my head, but ended up being not very fun when implemented.

What is this Article For?

So, what is this article for? The next few articles will be spent detailing the specifics of each of the major mechanics of the game, but in this article, I want to lay some ground rules for what I want my dice rolls to be able to do. This might seem like a strange thing to do: make a bunch of rules about how I will go about making rules, but it is essential to making a cohesive gameplay experience. See, I can hem and haw about my action resolution mechanics all day long, but I will never be able to decide on a system without a coherent set of goals. As much as internet arguments would have you believe otherwise, every dice system has something going for it. Some people may not like a certain type of dice system overall, but if that system is the best for the goals I want to achieve, I will still want to use it. So I am not worried if a system is “good”. Instead I am worried if the system works for my goals. I cannot decide which system to use based on mythical objective quality. I need a set of guidelines to judge the system by.

The Valkyrie and Passing Dice

The Valkyrie must be able to pass dice to players in order to empower their rolls. I have played with the idea of the Valkyrie passing power tokens or something like that, but no. Dice are more elegant, easier to understand, and goddammit this is the mechanic that started this whole project, and I want to get it working. So, the dice mechanic has to be able to accommodate extra dice in a roll. And, I will add another piece to that, the extra dice have to empower the character’s roll, not just allow for a re-roll or extra chance. Getting spirit power from a Valkyrie should be a big deal. It should allow characters to perform superhuman feats, so whatever way we pass dice, it needs to actually make rolls better, and allow characters to perform actions they had no chance of succeeding before.

Binary Success and Failure… On Most Rolls

Look, I have not had the best time with dice systems that make liberal use of degrees of success. Degrees of success are best used to add complications to rolls, and I find this does not pay off enough depth for the complexity it adds. Edge of the Empire’s dice system is a great example of this. Not only can every roll lead to complex results, but as the stakes and skills involved in a roll increase in value, the likelyhood of unexpected results increases. Seriously, check out EotE if you every want to look at an elegantly designed system for creating chaos and Star Wars style movie magic in a game. Despite it being great at creating chaotic results, EotE is sloooooow. Sometimes, I just want my players to be able to roll a check to convince an NPC of something, or to spot a hidden foe, or balance across a rafter. I don’t need checks like that to produce a laundry list of secondary effects that only serve to bog us down in deciding what each and every extraneous symbol means. I respect that on simple rolls like that, I can just hand wave those symbols away with a simple added effect, but then why bother with the system on every roll if we acknowledge that it is cumbersome on most rolls?

The other issue I have, is that the system robs the GM of the power to determine the consequences of the players’ actions. If my PCs threaten and cajole a local ruler into giving them something, I would probably have the ruler try to get back at them later in the game. In EotE, I could do that, but what if my players roll a Triumph, and no Disadvantages? Is it unfair of me to make the ruler have it out for the players? What if they roll a Despair? That would make the ruler having it out for the players make sense, but do I need to have a Despair on the table for that result to be fair? What if I don’t want the ruler to have it out for the players, but they do roll a Despair? Then I have to figure out some other consequence, one that might not even be related to the actions the players just took. The game book certainly doesn’t offer any insight into those questions, and it slowed me down at the table every time. In DnD or Savage Worlds or Dogs in the Vineyard, the GM doesn’t have to worry about any of that. She can decide that the players have pissed off the local ruler and enact those consequences. Done.

Now, Savage Worlds is a game with degrees of success, but they have limited use. If a player rolls 4 more than the target number, he gets a success with a Raise. This acts as a critical hit on attacks, and can give him something extra on other rolls. Continued Raises mean nothing on most rolls. Only damage rolls allow for continued Raising. This limits the effects of Raises to rolls where the drama of a super high roll matters. DnD is a binary system on almost every roll. There is, however, one notable exception: the attack and damage rolls. Attack rolls have critical hits, and critical fumbles, and as much as players like to scream about natural 20s on skill checks, only the attack roll has that mechanic. Damage rolls are a separate roll made after the attack roll that determine how well the player hit his enemy. That mechanic is nowhere else in DnD. Every other roll is determined by a single d20 check. Why do DnD and Savage Worlds use graded checks in combat, you ask? Because combat is the primary focus of these two games.

I am not sure that I will use graded checks for combat in VnV, but I want to be able to distinguish a system or two with degrees of success if need be, so I will primarily focus on binary success and failure, but allow the chance to make more complex rolls if need be. Simple rolls just don’t need a bunch of added effects. We can give the GM guidance on how to create consequences for player actions. The dice just need to tell us if the players succeeded or failed most of the time.

Only One Dice Mechanic

Almost every tabletop game does this, with a couple of exceptions. DnD uses the d20 for every roll, only having a damage roll that is different. I guess DnD also technically has a different roll for determining starting attributes, but as that is a totally different system that is only used in character creation, I can let it slide. I want to see if I can avoid a secondary dice rolling mechanic like damage. I will probably have some variants of my core mechanic, but every check should be made with the same kind of dice.

The Dice Should Encourage Diversity of Strategy

This is not a DnD style game. While I may still use character classes, I expect that these characters will be more well rounded than a standard DnD hero. This means that the dice system cannot overly reward specialization. This does not mean characters will all be the same. I want characters to be able to specialize in weapon types, professions, magical runes etc. I don’t want that to mean that these characters cannot do anything outside of their wheelhouse. For example, have you ever tried punching someone in a high level DnD 3.5 campaign? It doesn’t go great unless you are playing a Monk. Every character is specialized to use specific weapon types, most of which are not punching, and every character is expected to be loaded down with so many magical weapons that their opponents will be able to easily shrug off a non magical, untrained fist. This is not entirely the d20’s fault, but its style of constant upwards progression means that non-specialized strategies fall off at high levels because the bonus numbers can get so big as characters increase in power.

The d20 system is not the only culprit of this. Some dice pool systems can have a weird arc where the deeper a character gets into a skill, the greater the result of putting more points into that skill. I would go so far as to say I would like to see the opposite of that arc: where putting points into a skill early on leads to rapid growth that tapers off as the character continues to specialize. That is a softer goal, but either way, I want to make sure that my vikings can throw a punch and expect to do something with it even if it is not their primary skill. Come on, they are vikings. If every campaign in this system doesn’t have at least one long house drunken brawl in it, I will have done something wrong.

There Must Be Enough Dice for Magic

I know I have not explained the magic system yet, and I promise I will once it crystallizes a bit more in my mind. For now, know that magic is performed by using the dice the Valkyrie passes to the other players. Each player will have a chart of runes that they can place the dice on in order to activate them and create spells. This means the Valkyrie will need to be able to pass out a decent amount of dice, or that magic dice need to persist even when the Valkyrie restores her own dice, however that will work. I would say the Valkyrie probably needs to be able to give three dice to a character for magic. Whether she will have anything left over to give to the other players is something I can work out later. Let’s say for now that, whatever dice system I go for, I want players to be able to place at least three dice on their rune charts to create a spell.

What I haven’t Included

You may have noticed that I have left out some goals that seem important. I haven’t said how fast I want the dice system to be, or how many dice I want the players to roll. Well, both of those questions can be answered the same way: the minimum amount for the maximum depth. Every tabletop RPG worth its salt strives to have the simplest, quickest dice resolution possible. That key word, possible, is what will determine how long it takes to read a roll in this system. I can’t sit here and say a roll should take no longer than 30 seconds without putting some rules to the test at the table. What if the rolls themselves are an interesting exchange of choices, or what if the roll takes longer but provides build depth that would not be possible without that time? So yes, I want my rolls to be simple, not take too long, and not take too many dice, but “too long” and “too many” will be determined by a combination of seeing the game in action, and gut feeling. I will make my rolls take as long as they need to to achieve the feel I am going for, and no longer. If I feel the rolls still take too long, it will be time to reassess the level of complexity I need for the depth I want to achieve. Basically, the dice system being fast is not really a goal in and of itself because I cannot measure it. I can see if the dice system encourages multiple strategies, or if it can be used to pass dice from Valkyrie to Einherjar, but I cannot pick an arbitrary dice roll time and hold the system to it. It wouldn’t be healthy for the game’s development. So, I am going to use these other goals, and make the simplest dice system that meets all of them.

That’s It?

That’s it! This article is just here to lay a foundation for my dice mechanic. I have a set of rules I need to follow, and now I have a document detailing each rule. Next time, I am going to dive right into combat and break down my design to see if I can’t get us the best dang combat system we can have without a dice mechanic.