I'm sorry about your D&D game. Can I ask what made your players and yourself decide to restart the campaign?

(Continued from another message: "I meant in terms of just stopping the game versus continuing without the kicked player versus restarting. It's not a judgement thing I'm curious on your thought process. I think a lot of groups have gone through this.")

Oh, absolutely groups go through this all the time! Two of my players are also DMs that have had games fall through or stop due to people leaving or getting kicked. It's always a huge bummer for everyone involved. Our game's been running since mid 2021 - so that's a lot of (almost) weekly sessions. We were on session 67 I believe. I've got 900 hours logged into roll20 and a good 750+ of them are just the one game I've been running. As a DM it hurts because you put sooo much time and effort into setting it all up; having it just suddenly end totally sucks. It sucks for the other players, too, who just wanted to get together and play.

It's not the first time for us - two players at the very start of the campaign didn't vibe with the table and ended up leaving, which is totally fine! It's the first game I've ever grabbed people together to run for, so it wasn't an already established group that all had experience together yet, if that makes sense. Once they left we kept playing for nearly two more years until just recently.

When it happened I basically asked my players what THEY wanted to do. The PC of the kicked player was integral to the plot of the campaign, so do we find some way to write them out? Do I turn them into an NPC? Or did we want to restart the whole game, giving myself and the players an opportunity to try some new things? I'm not as inexperienced of a DM as I was in 2021 and felt like I could make a more cohesive game for my table. The players were excited at the idea of taking their PCs in slightly new directions to make it fresh, especially since we've been playing together consistently for a while now and the awkwardness that comes from roleplaying with new folks is gone. They've been having a blast changing builds, designs, and backstories around and we're all super stoked for Waterdeep 2.0!

Here’s how I want robin in the next battinson movie:

The very first scene is Bruce and tiny Dick Grayson sitting across from each other at the dining table, staring each other down in silence, both clearly grumpy about it. Alfred is in the background watching them with concern. The silence lasts about 20 seconds before Dick speaks.

“Let me fight crime.” (said with all the petulance of a pouty 10 year old)

Bruce replies immediately. “No.” (this is clearly an ongoing argument)

Immediately cut to the next scene where Dick, wearing the iconic Robin suit, is having the time of his life swinging across the city while Bruce frantically tries to keep up with him while yelling at him to be careful like an anxious mother

Hey maybe a group of creatives deciding that they want control over their content and don't want to waste time and resources begging for ad revenue is like. A good thing

reality

check in on your local good omens fans today everyone hozier just dropped a new album

she says he won't let her get a dog, which is fine, because they're in an apartment, and that's the kind of thing people say about their partners. he won't let me get a dog. and you're at a dinner party and you tilt your head a little to the side just like that dog he won't let her get, because is this the thing that's going to upset you? you don't know every corner of their relationship, she could be joking, they could have had so many healthy conversations about the dog, right, and maybe she's not letting herself get the dog because of money and time and whatever. but, like, she did say let

and she wants to move away from his hometown and he wants to stay and then he tells you with a wink and a conspiratorial stage whisper don't worry i'll convince her and she laughs about it - so clearly this is something they laugh about. but you do just stand there and stare at him like what the fuck, man. you can't say what you want to say which is why do you get the final say on everything because they're both obviously aware of the other person's stance on this and have obviously had private conversations about it and what are you going to do about it except make a scene and then he'll be mad at you and call you one of those bitches behind your back and she'll cut you off, which is a loss that doesn't feel worth it just because he makes you a little skeeved out every 3rd comment

and they both agree he just isn't the type to get flowers which is fine because everyone shows love differently, and are you really gonna judge someone based on their sense of individual relationship responsibility? maybe he's constantly cleaning her car and writing her poems and making her furniture or something. maybe she doesn't even like flowers and this is perfect, actually. and no you couldn't date him, obviously, ew; but like, she tells you she's happy. you almost send her a tiktok that says don't be 25 and the cool girl that doesn't need anything, you'll hate not getting flowers at 30, but that's like, starting drama & you shouldn't start drama needlessly.

and you're a little older than her but not so much older you can pull the whole trust me on this one babe thing and besides that wouldn't have worked anyway (when does it ever) and besides you have trauma so you and your therapist both agree that you're always looking for a problem even when there isn't one. and you tell yourself that just because you see them for 15 minutes every month does not mean you can identify every single red flag based on a single shitty half-joking(?) comment

and besides, what are you going to do? she says i actually wanted another stand mixer but thankfully he stops me when i'm about to spend too much money and you're standing there like are you okay? is this normal? is this just something people say? and again - what are you going to do?

to your therapist you try to language it - it's not, like, any of my business. but sometimes, doesn't it feel like - you should do something. there's got to be something, right? you've tried dropping little hints but they sail right through and you've tried having a single serious conversation and she got upset because why does it matter to you, yes it's different but we're happy, it doesn't need to make sense to you and you're like. really unwilling to push a boundary about it anymore; because the truth is that you know logically it shouldn't matter to you, as long as both parties are happy.

and besides, you've been wrong before. it's just... like, every time you see them both, something else happens, some kind of shiver down your spine like do you even hear each other when you talk. it's their strange, bickering orbit. just the way he's on his phone through dinner or watching sports instead of helping in the kitchen or, fuck, another one of these little throwaway comments he makes about we'll see about that, babe. she laughs when he calls her passions stupid shit and meanwhile she gets him tickets to see the knicks and he tells you well at least she's smart about something and still! it's none of your business.

you say get the dog anyway and she laughs. like, this is is you being funny. and not you saying - no really. get the dog. get the dog and get out of here. pack up and start running.

"you and tommy have the right idea. stay single, hang out with the boys" so you admit you could very happily commit to spending the rest of your life with platonic boyfriends over a romantic relationship with a woman? let's unpack that shall we mr diaz...

KING OF HEARTS

sometimes i read stories about the creepy things astarion fangirls have subjected neil newbon to, despite him asking them like, outright to stop sexualizing him as a person just bc he voices astarion, and i shudder because some of y'all should have been raised catholic like i was.

then maybe you'd know some fucking shame.

edit: I must clarify this is a joke because no one should be raised Catholic. but some of y'all do need to be punished. biblically.

a common theme in a lot of media is a character insisting "i'm not crazy" and eventually being proven right. but to be honest? i wish we had more characters who are canonically "crazy" without it being a bad thing or condemnation. characters who struggle with psychotic symptoms like delusions and hallucinations. characters who are unreliable narrators because they're not always sure what's real and what's in their head. characters who need help and support from their friends and loved ones to maintain their grip on reality and stay safe sometimes. psychotic characters who aren't just one-dimensional caricatures or harmful stereotypes but fully fleshed out, developed people with satisfying arcs and meaningful relationships. just more well written canon psychotic characters.

oh stickers are currently on sale in my redbubble shop, by the way

Oh they were not lying its getting bad.

Xion <3

sokka gets offered the position of chief first because he’s the eldest and (let’s be real) hakoda’s favorite, but he immediately turns it down bc he has no idea why he’d even be offered that position in the first place when katara is right there. and katara is like “i should not be chief it is simply in my nature to rebel against all forms of authority but if I AM Authority then who am i supposed to rebel against now??? huh???” and sokka’s just like “idk. figure it out.” and eventually she relents, but also the second she “takes office” sokka starts micromanaging her every move the way he does with zuko and kuei and everyone in the white lotus, and katara is like “why did you even turn it down if you were just gonna be like this….” and sokka’s like “nooooo trust me. this is so much better. for both of us.” and eventually they learn to strike a balance where she actually takes his advice but also he trusts her to make good decisions on her own. so they’re basically co-running the swt in everything but name, but they’re also both very insistent that KATARA is chief and sokka is simply her second in command (because he knows that distinction is important to her, and he respects that). but then it leads to the kind of awkward situation where because he’s not officially chief of the swt, arnook approaches him and is like “hey i’m getting kinda old, and i don’t really have any official heirs…. can we just say that you married yue so that you can be chief of the nwt once i die???” and sokka’s just like “ummm let me think about that……… no <3”

I've been working exclusively on Motley and no other personal project for like 2 years now, and I think I've finally hit a wall. Which I don't love, because I sure am ready to see it as a pilot!!! But I've had so many ideas for it at this point that I've ended up with a bunch of crossed wires that I can't seem to untangle.

I'm gonna let it rest for a little bit and try to work on a smaller project. Maybe that's the sort of palette cleanser I need to get the gears turning again.

I hope you guys like aliens.

“Will with a gun” this, “Mike with a random object” that-

-Hopper giving Mike his sword from the Russian prison (or Mike comes upon it whichever you prefer), and Mike practices with it every day cause that boy is an overthinker and in the final battle Will using his powers to light the sword on fire and byler lives out their Paladin/Wizard DnD fantasy together