Question about Frank! What is his fighting style? I know you mentioned he does hand on hand, but does he do any specific form of martial arts?? Or is it just kind of the basic, punching, kicking, ect. Also, does he have some form of magic, or is he basically like Howdy? (I'm just imagining they all play like.. actual table top DnD and Frank is getting irritated because his rolls are garbage-)

i'm not nearly well versed enough in martial arts to name styles or blend them - though i feel a "i need to know everything i can about this" fixation creeping up... so i might be able to provide a better answer later!

but for now lets just say he's adapted his own stylized form, blended from his childhood training, what he learns on the streets, and what he picks up on his travels / figures out himself. i imagine it would be an efficient, ruthless, and elegant personal style of combat

Frank has no magic! if he rolled for it he'd somehow get a 0! he and Howdy are the only magicless maidens of the group

stumbled across some of your posts about a code lyoko ttrpg

i am interested please tell me more 😭

ive been wanting to run code lyoko dnd for so long but i dont have the smarts to change dnd to make it feel code lyoko

Hey there! I'm super excited that someone's interested in this because it's such a passion project of mine haha, I'm sorry in advance if this answer is more than you bargained for!

To give you the rundown, I ran a very brief and experimental dnd 5e hack for Code Lyoko a couple of years ago for some friends. It was a lot of fun, but the system was SO badly Frankenstein'ed that we ran into a lot of technical issues, especially regarding the Lyoko/reality split and how it effected different builds. The old guide for that hack can be found here for free, but please take note that it is very informal and poorly optimized!

Recently though, I've been experimenting with non-dnd systems and building my own tabletop games, which is where Warriors of Xanadu comes into play. (This might get lengthy so feel free to skip to the TLDR.)

Warriors of Xanadu is a code-lyoko/garage-kids inspired system that I'm working on myself with the help of a few more experienced friends. It's built off of the Apocalypse World framework (basically a 2d6 system–if you've played Monster of the Week, Masks, or Avatar: Legends, think something like that) specifically designed to work well with the world and story CL provides. That means all the gameplay mechanics are inherently relevant to running code-lyoko-inspired adventures and there's no extra work to be done on your part. It's also a lot easier to teach/learn than something like DnD. (Even the character sheets are designed to be accessible so players could technically make their character with just their printed-off sheets and no additional resources! Much easier than dnd.)

Each non-GM player plays as a "Hero" and chooses a unique combination of a playbook (centered around academic character tropes like cool kid, geek, class clown, etc.) and a class sheet (how they appear on "Xanadu," with options like rogue, mage, warrior, etc.). Then, In-game, heroes go through episodic challenges where they encounter problems in reality caused by "the Virus," and must transport themselves to Xanadu to combat it. There's also a handful of original mechanics relating to social/academic rapport, corruption from the supercomputer, etc. The health/harm system and combat is inspired by Apocalypse World and Monster of the Week, and is meant to inspire a more survival/horror element than what something like dnd would provide. (Essentially the goal is not to engage in and "win" lengthy combat encounters, but to stay alive and usually avoid enemies when possible.)

I feel it's also important to note that it's not 1:1 Code Lyoko; it's very transformative and a handful of ideas are heavily abstracted to be more fun in a ttrpg setting. It's open-ended and customizable enough that you could technically run an unrelated story with it. That also means that there's some fun surprises for folks familiar with Code Lyoko, though, and you could still run something close-to-canon if you wanted.

The first draft of WoX is about 60-70% completed, I just need to finish the GM-heavy parts of the manual, finish some of the moves, and actually put together fillable playbooks/class sheets. I'm hoping to have it completed and ready to playtest by the end of the summer, but that's a loose deadline. Once I've done some playtesting and gotten feedback from others, I'll probably release the first public version on drivethru rpg and/or itch.io as a free or PWYW sorta deal.

TLDR; Warriors of Xanadu is a powered-by-the-apocalypse style trrpg system I'm working on. It's made from the ground up to support a Code Lyoko inspired campaign. I'm almost done with it but still have some work to do!

If you're comfy coming off of anon, I'd be happy to make note of you and send you the playtest version when I'm done with it, or answer any additional questions! (Same goes for anyone else reading this!)

As I start Baldur's Gate, now that it's finally had enough patches to be playable and not missing huge chunks of story, I can't help but laugh because I didn't know that Shadowheart was a cleric of Shar! My longest played/favorite Pathfinder character was an Oracle of Selune (yes we co-opted some gods from WOTC to toss back into Pathfinder, we do what we want - and Oracle is to cleric what Sorcerer is to Wizard...but better, yet), whose twin brother was a paladin of Pelor (the sun god)... and I decided to re-make that old character in BG3 since a cleric of Selune is almost the same thing as an oracle, and lo and behold my moon daughter ends up having to deal with Shar AGAIN. In another AU. (The best part is that Shadowheart's lil tiara is exactly like the one I had given Belorae in our PF campaign - she got a circlet of Cha I think it was, and had it re-tooled to look exactly like what they did for Shadowheart's circlet, just with moonstone instead of onyx.)

Anyways, did you know that when Selune and her dark twin collided in their original big battle, some of their essence smashed together, broke off, and birthed...their daughter? The Goddess of magic.

Desperate to protect the early life, Selûne tore out some of her own divine essence, though it nearly killed her, and hurled it at her sister. Selûne's essence tore through Shar, bonding with some of Shar's essence and pulling it loose. This magical energy combined to form the goddess Mystryl, the original goddess of magic.

Anyways! Best not to think too deep about how gods are born - the Greeks had some strange ideas about people being born from ideas, or sex with a swan, and all that.

tl;dr I've missed Rae, and I'm stoked to have someone in the party that will easily bounce off of her ideals, and create some conflict - even if Belorae can't ride a horse-sized wolf in this one. (Also, I have wanted a tattoo indicative of Selune for myself IRL for YEARS now, and haven't been able to find a design that looks good just about anywhere - so I was at least pleased that my BG3 Belorae could have the tattoo around her eyes! I just wish the colors were more silvery.)

Not relevant, but ironic -

Afterward, Selûne grieved the death of Tyche, her close friend and ally. In her weeping, she shed one crystalline tear, which fell to ground as a meteor in the land of Thar. It became a great and sacred artifact, called the Tear of Selûne.[63]

So WoW has copied Selune over as Elune in almost every way, even down to the Tear of Elune being a rip-off? I knew they'd basically been virtual DnD at the time the game was released, but I didn't realize just how hard they were bearing down on someone else's lore.

Anywho, I wonder if more people (ie content creators) realized this, if they'd have a better avenue for predicting where WoW's story will go - because even Shadowlands was basically ripped straight from Tabletop. Pathfinder's planar campaign book has many planes listed in it... to include a plane of order that sounds and looks a LOT like Bastion/the Kyrians, just with more clockwork stuff.

I slept on Electric Bastionland far too long.

When I first heard of it I was in my OSR infancy, having just come off reading Old School Essentials for the first time, I considered the aggressively rules-light approach an insulting pitch. To think that anyone would want to, *gasp* not have to roll to hit (one of the clunkiest mechanics in the universe) was anathema to me. Where was the action? I attempted to read Into the Odd only to have my suspicions confirmed, it wasn’t for me, the oversimplified thing. I understood why people said the OSR was emulating horror.

Now fast forward to now, I’m a seasoned scallywag of tabletop, I know my shit, and I’m happy to say that I was so so wrong about Electric Bastionland!

A little background on me hubris, before I get into the book

What struck me immediately was how text-light the whole thing is. Forget rules, I want a book that reads well enough to use at the table, and this is one of those. Crispy design through and through, excellent usage of heavy blacks in the artwork makes the whole vibe of Bastion feel, well, dark. And this darkness, I immediately came to realize, was something I craved.

Before this I was running a campaign loosely entitled “space game”. It was a series of one and two shots, each featuring one of two PC’s piloted by the same player each week. So essentially week to week that’s 8-10 PC’s, 4-5 Players. The goal of the space game was simply to nail the genre: one that I’d cautiously label as pulp-science-noir. We had the inane, clunky, outdated tech aesthetic of Cowboy Bebop, (the live action show not the anime suck my testicle) the sleek, quippy, bad-assert oriented action of something like Bullet Train (2022) or Polar (2019), while also shooting for the stars in terms of power level and challenge, thanks to @jelloapocalypse’s anime campaign ruleset, epithets on half the cast and most of the villains makes for a wonderful anime-inspired backbone that brings home the comedy elements of a group that has its roots in improv. Needless to say based off my enthusiastic description, it worked well.

What does this have to do with Bastion?

Well friends, what I found within those hallowed pages was something wonderful; 100 backgrounds that brought my mind immediately to my most beloved sworddream, Troika. Troika succeeds, for me, at achieving the ultimate science-fantasy, one that makes spelljammer look like, well, like dnd.

And suddenly I realized what Bastion COULD BE, it could be anything, especially, if I wanted, something pulp-science-noir… except what if this time I brought out that fantasy element, hmm? Bastion had me covered there as well, the Underground and Deep Country, even the city itself, all provide the aura of mystery, the bizarre and the uncanny, and perhaps, if I wanted it to be, a hint of the universe I wished to play in, the genre I wanted to engage. The book details heavily just how to create the atmosphere for Bastion, the player motivation, what, or more likely who, keeps each little microcosm spinning on its axis, and what each of them might do to retrieve their prizes.

The fantasy of Bastion is screaming to escape, it’s tearing at the edges of metal paneling, trying it’s best to pry its way in to the industrial, satirical wonderment of a dreaming city like this one. I like imagining old bugs drive down the road next to unicyclists, what more can I say about it.

Afterword

Many thanks to Chris McDowell for making me eat my own words, and subsequently making the next several months of prep in my life absurdly, wistfully breezy.

Hi alice!! Ive played both sushi go and the unicorn games before, they were fun lolol. Do u have any 2-people games to recommend?

yes yes those two games are party favorites! <3

as for ur question... i mostly have group games bc we’re five siblings + a bunch of cousins, or solo games bc i like playing alone too eheheh...

but... i still know... some. most of them are tabletop/board games, but i also got card games or a mix of both, most of them are also playable by more than 2 players if you like!

For competitive games:

Bananagrams if you like word games, it’s like scrabble but fast & loose!

Love Letter is super lightweight & easy to learn, with like, 16 cards? It’s a game of deduction... which is more fun with 3+ players, but can work nicely with 2.

Codenames Duet is tailored for 2 players & is fun for word association.

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is our latest fave! tbh the more the merrier for this... but i’ve played this in 2 player mode once & we ended up laughing our guts out. :’D

If you like aesthetic games, Patchwork is also a nice chill but competitive game.

For cooperative games, which is more fun if y’all wanna work (FIGHT) as a team (might be on the pricier side but i found it’s worth it bc we love replaying it over again):

One Deck Dungeon is a dungeon delve for 1-2 players. Level up and defeat monsters together. It’s, like, chill DnD, but really challenging!

Pandemic can look complicated but it’s easy to learn. You work as a team to stop a global pandemic (oh, if only we could do it irl...) and it’s a good time.

The Forbidden series (Forbidden Island / Desert / Sky) has you working as a team to escape an island/desert/sky...place & its mechanics play a bit similar to Pandemic. I find this more fun tho bc it’s like an entire adventure with some cool little props which really make the game more fun!

(i mean, Forbidden Sky has a rocket that lights up. IT LIGHTS UP & GOES RRRR WHOOOOSHHH when u win the game hajskhfaskf i’m a child ssshhh)

...i’m sure i missed a LOT, and i haven’t bought new games recently, so... i hope you find this useful!

Skittles (part 1)

The skittering noise coming from the library should have been the first clue that something wasn’t right. The food bowl should have been the other. But it was the distinct smell of wet dog after a particularly hard thunderstorm that should have clued Dean in that there was indeed a dog in the bunker, but it didn’t. It wasn’t until he came into his Fortress of Deanitude that he knew there was a dog in the house at all. Mainly because it was there, sitting proudly in his chair as the Netflix home screen was open on the television. The caramel and white splotched corgi was lounging about in his chair, malnourished but clean, looking up at him with a jangle from his collar.

“Uh...” Dean panicked. He wasn’t expecting a dog to be on his spot, eying him like Dean was the one who interrupted its Netflix time. “Who are you?”

“Skittles,” he heard Gabriel’s voice from the area of his chair say, but Gabriel was no where to be found.

Dean looked around but couldn’t find any other explanation for the disembodied voice so he said the only logical thing that could come to mind. “Gabriel, how the hell did you manage to get turned into a dog? Did you piss Rowena off, again?”

Just as the last word was leaving his mouth, Gabriel popped his head up from behind the chair, a very confused look on his face. “Dude, how much have you been drinking today? I’m still me, this is Skittles, and for the last time: I didn’t know that chorizo was expired when I offered it to her!”

Dean shook his head and put the bowl of popcorn and can of beer he was going to enjoy with his binge watching down on the coffee table before approaching Gabriel and Skittles. “You know the rules, man. No dames, no dogs, no DnD.”

“DND? Is that like S&M?”

“Dungeons and Dragons? It’s a tabletop game? Never mind,” Dean shook his head. “The dog’s gotta go.”

Maybe it was the way Dean was standing, or perhaps his tone, but something about the exchange frightened Skittles, making he tiny dog shake with fear.

“Oh, Skittles, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Gabriel cooed, picking up the dog and rocking him like a baby. “Uncle Dean’s just grumpy cuz you sat in his chair, huh? He doesn’t hate you, right? Right, Dean?”

Dean thought he was a strong man, but those puppy dog eyes sucked him in and he visibly relaxed. It was then that he noticed the cast on Skittles’ front paw. “What happened there?”

“His little leg got all mangled from an animal trap and they had to operate. They almost had to amputate the whole thing. But they didn’t, no they didn’t!” He started talking baby talk to the doggy, Skittles’ butt wiggling as his stubby tail tried to wag. “He was such a strong boy, yes he was!” Gabriel leaned down and did something Dean didn’t expect: he kissed the dog on the forehead, nuzzled the dog. Skittles seemed to like it, giving Gabriel some sloppy kisses of his own. “We found him on our last hunt, and your mom and I freed him from the trap and took him to the local vet. Sam was pacing through the whole surgery, anxious to see him. When they were done, your mom said we should take him in, since there’s a lot of room inside for him to recouperate, but I think she just wanted to take him as much as Sam and I did.”

Dean’s hands migrated to his hips, ready to set the record straight. “No one ran this by me. I’m one of the head people in charge. Don’t you think I had the right to know?”

“Well, if we’re going to be technical about it, Sam’s in charge of the hunter trainees, and your mom’s technically the head of the household, and you’re the one in charge of day to day stuff. I’d say the people who would need it run by would be them two. And they approved so...” Dean huffed in annoyance, ready to start shouting. Thankfully, Gabriel had grown fluent in Dean-ish over the past few years and intercepted it before it even started. “But, it’s true that we should have given you a heads up. I was under the impression that Sam told you about Skittles, but I guess he’s been putting it off for some reason.”

Dean thought back to the past two weeks - there was a dog in the bunker for two weeks and he only noticed now. He was loosing his edge - and the conversations he and Sam had said. Then he groaned in recollection. “I was listening to my iPod and Sam came in saying something when you guys came back and a I caught was ‘Skittles, and he’s hurt. Is it cool with you?’ I thought he bought Skittles and that you were injured. Crap! I said ‘you gotta do what you gotta do’ cuz I thought he meant chillin’ with you till you were healed! Son of a bitch.”

“Literally.” Silence. “Cuz he’s a d-

“Dog, yeah, I got that.” Dean rolled his eyes, caving in to the hypnotizing power of the dog’s eyes. “He’s kinda cute. For a munchkin.”

Gabriel chuckled. “Yeah, he is, isn’t he? Go on, you can pet him. He likes it when you play with his ears.”

Dean hesitantly reached out, letting Skittles sniff him before going in to scratch at an ear. Almost immediately, the tiny dog’s eyes closed in bliss. “Heh. He really does, huh.? He’s really soft.”

Gabriel hummed. “Yeah, Sam washed him last night. He might be the only dog in the world who actually likes bathtime.”

“Heh. Yeah. So what are you doing in the Dean Cave?”

“Your mom and I are going to watch our show. She just ran out to get some snacks. Twizzlers, chips-“

“Skittles?” Dean joked, the dog’s eyes snapping open at the sound of his name being said. “Not you, Buddy.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Want to watch an episode of The Office while we wait for her?”

Dean shrugged, falling into his chair. “Fine with me. But that mutt ain’t sittin’ in my chair.”

“Deal.”

I'd love to hear more about the system when you're more lucid! Is it similar to DnD? Where does it vary? I've done some work creating homebrew d20 tabletop systems myself.

Ok, so, i’m also gonna tag in @citrusapples and @neonchapel to answer if and when they see fit, as citrusapples is our lovely blessed dm and neonchapel technically built the homebrew system that pv is loosely derived from. Functionally, PV (patronverse) is a few steps removed from dnd at all times because pv is itself derived from a homebrew that was at least partially a highly simplified variant of dnd. Similarly to dnd, it’s, obvs, based around a d20 and the typical dice involved with dnd. Unlike 5e, (although citrusapples has played with changing it every so often), we don’t use AC. Instead, we do things like block rolls, seeing if an attack is successful based on if it can be dodged/blocked/etc. We also don’t use spell slots. You’ve got a handful of abilities you can use one to multiple times a day, along with your weapons; items that allow recovery of low-level “active” abilities make up for not having a short rest system. Unlike dnd, we only level up to level 10, which is scaled to be the highest level.Otherwise, we work in an entirely homebrewed post-post-apocalyptic setting lovingly crafted by citrusapples in collaboration with us, the players. Now, you may be thinking “all these restrictions seem weird”. This is for two reasons, partially a holdover from neonchapel’s utterly insane MH (modern heroes) campaigns using his initial homebrewed system, and partially because in PV, everyone is functionally a warlock!Our “class” features and abilities come primarily from the respective Patrons each player is an Acolyte to. For example, my character, Amelia Oswald, is an Acolyte of Laoni, Deity of The Moon, Healing, Blood and Body. (we usually just call her moon mom lmao) As a result, while she has a pool of abilities to choose upon leveling up, her abilities (passive and active) revolve around controlling water, producing light, healing, and a few other fun quirks. Amelia is built to resemble a mixture between a celestial warlock healer and a cleric, focused primarily on being a support character instead of a fighter.Conversely, Barren Walker, Fennec Envoy, Dell Carthago, and Keagan “Honey” Tonks all have different ability pools and different specializations based on their respective patrons. In dnd terms, Barren is (idk) sort of like a Paladin of Righteous Justice and is associated with fire and smiting undead; Fennec is a Ranger or Rogue associated with The Hunt, tracking, and ambush attacks; Dell is a Rogue associated with Luck and Cats, allowing her to quickly get into action and change the tides of a fight; Keagan is functionally a Wizard with the high intelligence to match, associated with Preservation and Ice, freezing opponents, protecting himself and others, and some fantastic spell sniping. 

In addition to the ability lists (which are specifically tailored to our initial intents when developing the characters and system), every...two? levels, our characters are given an additional personal ability that reflects something significant that we did or happened, etc. An example being (since i don’t remember the others’ personal level ups off the top of my head) that in the first mission we did, a vital tree in a farmer’s apple grove was Afflicted with a magical parasite. the tree’s death upon removing the parasite would have devastated the family by greatly reducing their apple yields. Amelia is a compassionate young doctor-in-training, and she used her last healing ability to try to save the dying tree. As a result, one of the possible personal abilities she could choose upon level-up was the ability to help others resist Affliction.Uh, this would be a veritable mountain if I go any deeper, so feel free to keep asking separate questions and I’ll answer those, to spare mobile users this already disgustingly long post.

Tales of Heroism OC Profile #1

So about a year ago I started the Masks: A new Generation tabletop game with two of my friends. The premise of the game is basically Super heroes DnD. It was fun but didn't last as I was the only one between us with interest in super heroics and the story we were making kinda turned into an Urban Fantasy setting. However I still had deep love for my super hero characters so I kept adding to the world I was making, making a Google Doc of character profiles and plot ideas.

Now since this Quarantine has me loosing my mind I decided to post them. I dont know how many I will do, but I have a lot of love for these characters and this setting I made, so if you happen to see this, I hope you enjoy them too! Please ask me questions! If you have your own super hero OC tell me about them! Super heroes are cool. We need more of them.

SOCIETY OF CHAMPIONS HERO DOSSIERS   HERO ID: M-19T-M34 HEROIC ALIAS: Hourglass CURRENT RANK: 103 FULL NAME: Aaliyah Curtis SEX: FEMALE HEIGHT: Imperial: 6 Feet 10 inches. Metric: 208.28cm RACE: African-American HAIR COLOR: Brown EYE COLOR: Black Sclera, glowing green iris.   ANOMOLOUS APPEARANCE?: Yes. Across the left side of her face, her chest, her shoulders, and her lower back and upper thighs, she has small green stones embedded in her skin. Cracks of green energy may also appear near these stones. Her left arm has been completely replaced with a long durable spike of this green stone. DATE OF BIRTH: July 10th, 1953 (Note made by Kelsey B., Archivist; Despite knowing her DOB, the age of Hourglass is constantly in flux due to the nature of her powers. Refer to Professor Scath’s medical reports for further analysis and data regarding this) NEXT OF KIN: N/A POWER OF ATTORNEY: Cassandra Clark ORIGIN OF POWERS: Mutation( ) - Inherited Genetics ( ) - Forced Experimentation ( ) - Cybernetic augmentation ( ) - Cosmic Force (X) - Extraterrestrial ( ) - Extraterrestrial experimentation ( ) - Divine Force ( ) - ORIGIN OF POWER NOTES: Archivist Kelsey Bernard. I have spent an hour with Hourglass trying to record the exact origins and circumstances of her powers, however she was frustratingly dismissive of my attempts. All I could gather is that when she was young she somehow fell into the dimension she refers to as the ‘Eternal Epoch’. May I personal suggest that is a ridiclously pretentious name. Just call it the time zone or something. These heroes and their silly names. Anyways she fell into the ‘Eternal Epoch’, a dimension of pure time, whatever that means. Time is an illusion everyone knows that. It was there she gained her powers, and had the green crystals embedded in her chest, stomach, face, and where she lost her arm. And gained the cool sword arm. God how cool would that be having a sword arm? Randy wouldn't steal my lunches if I had a sword arm. I wonder if Hourglass could threaten Randy for me. I mean shes a hero and he is a vile criminal that keeps stealing my grilled cheeses so... POWERS:   1.) Personal Time Manipulation: Her base power and theme she based her name on. Given to her from her time trapped in the Eternal Epoch dimension. She can speed herself up or down, and any object(s) or person(s) in her line of sight. She can’rewind’ a person(s) or object(s) movement to up to a minute. 2.) Expounded attacks: A variation of her Time manipulation ability. Hourglass can manipulate the feeling of one of her attacks, and replay it rapidly. As such if she punches you once she can make it feel like 100 hits. She can do this for other physical sensations as well.   3.) Time Healing. A variation of her time manipulation ability. Hourglass may use her abilities on any wounds to regrow and repair damage. There seems to be a limit to this as Hourglass can not undo limb lose, or to heal internal injuries. 4.) Physical boost: As with all Meta Humans Hourglass has increased durability, endurance, strength, and speed. How much of this is related to her Time Manipulation ability is unclear 5.) Portal manipulation: Hourglass is able to open portals to the Eternal Enoch. It seems she can enter and exit the dimension at will. It seems as if she can be pulled into the dimension unwillingly as well. When asked  about this Hourglass simply replied “What can I say,when you time travel you learn to prank yourself in annoying ways”. PHYSICAL ABILITIES:   1.) Experienced Boxer. 2.) Basic fencing and swordplay skills. PERSONALITY AND TEMPERAMENT: Observed and documented by Archivist Kelsey Bernard.In my time spent with Hourglass one would label her as laid back. She relishes any moment to sit and rest, and will usually respond to any threats and calls to duty with a sigh and an eye roll. Despite this she seems to enjoy being active in her encounters with the League of Rouges.  More than that she also treats the villains she comes across with familiarity. In a battle I witnessed between the speedster Constance Motio AKA Motor, Hourglass would ask about her family and school life. Motor seemed happy for the talk, and even asked Hourglass for life advice. In turn Hourglass likes to involve the Reporter Cassandra Clark in these conversations as well, which leads me to Hourglass’ relationship with the reporter. Why is it heroes are always drawn to reporters? Is it like a universal law? Cassandra Clark, or as she likes to be called Cassie, was one of the first to discover Hourglass. The two seemed to form a friendship, and are never to far apart. I observed Hourglass spending much of her free time with Cassie, and despite officials of the Society asking her not to, will regularly involve Cassie in ongoing investigations. WEAKNESS: Does Orange soda count? Or as she calls it ‘Sody-pop’. Jeez showing your age a bit there Hourglass sweetie. It is fun to say though. Seriously she chugs those things. All the time. More professionally though, I have observed no physical weakness. You will need to refer to The Umber Knights Combat files. As to her powers I observed that the more she uses her time manipulation powers cracks of energy appear on her skin. She tends to not think ahead and is very reactionary in the moment.  It is easy to provoke her, and she is quick to loose her temper. Especially when dealing with Ricky Delaney, AKA Stalemate. Whenever Stalemate is involved she tends to act very petty and rash. She is also unable to assume a secret identity due to her anomalous appearance, though she does not seem to mind this. CLOSING NOTES: Archivist Kelsey Bernard. God am I glad no one really reads these general profiles. I wouldn't have nearly as much fun with them. Hourglass is hot and may I just say I totally ship her and Cassie. Am I allowed to say that? Imma do it anyways. Next time she comes in to collect her stipend I am going to ask her to go knock Randy’s head into the fridge.

I was wondering... Do you any of you have tips for a rookie GM? I'm setting up a game night here soon and I'm stressing the heck out over it.

Alex: No matter what game system you play it's usually quite intimidating because there are like 600 pages of information to digest. At any given time you need to have memorized only, like, thirty. At the end of the day most tabletop games are just two things - math and improv. Admittedly things that, outside of tabletop games, people go out of their way to avoid, but still.

Stress can lead people to get things done fast but also get things done sloppy. You don't need to plan out every single detail of what the characters might encounter eventually in a session. You can flesh out a couple of interesting people, places, or things you want them to see and just keep a scratch card of notes and traits for if/when they go off the beaten path. Remember, no matter what you plan, there is no accounting for the actions of players, and rolling with them provides a far better experience than slamming your fist down and saying "NO" to every deviation.

And above all else, remember that tabletop games are a collaborative effort. People come together to play games, tell stories, and shoot the shit. If shooting the shit overtakes the game you can rein that in a little but at the end of the day everyone's there voluntarily to have fun, and no one is there to see anyone fail.So to recap -

1. You are the arbiter of rules no matter what the book says. You can double-check later and take notes for future games if it becomes an issue but generally you only need to have in mind rules that are actively going to be used in game. If you don't know the exact way to handle something just make up what the closest action would be and if the player rolls what you think is well enough to do it, they did it.

2. If you don't have time to take notes on every single thing the players might encounter, congratulations, you're an average person. You only need a few based on the following factors - what do you want the players to do, how do you think they're going to do it, and do you have something prepared for when they go off the beaten path.

3. Have fun! Seriously, it's called a tabletop GAME, not a tabletop dictatorship.

Kristen: All of my games are Tabletop Dictatorships, all of them. Unfortunately I'm a terrible, weak-willed dictator so this helps nothing.

Alex: Discord Murder Party is different. Mafia/Werewolf operates way differently than D&D and needs a GM SPECIFICALLY so that players don't go off the rails.

Kristen: You are 100% correct.

God my first tabletop I ever DMed for I made my own thing and wrote like... twenty pages for my first session. And then as soon as I started, my players were like HEY I WANNA EXPLORE THE SHOPS

"O-oh.... y-yeah, here's uh... heeeere's a list of shops..."

So then I had to improv like... five shops and make multiple NPCs on the fly and then I found out "it turns out writing an entire paragraph for every NPC is an awful idea because you can't fucking read those notes mid-session"

So my point is don't do that.

Juno: Oh yeah. Last night I had to make up a guy named Lucas on the spot because JoJo's character wanted to convince a guy not to kill them

Kristen: YEP I ran the generic 5e DnD starter for a group of friends and somehow it went from a generic "you all hunt down and kill a bunch of goblins and a bugbear in a cave, way to go" to "You spared a Goblin who has a ridiculous Brooklyn accent who hates his job and now you're starting a ridiculous worker's revolution and this has ended with you all enlisting every other goblin you were supposed to fight into swarming the bugbear boss. Okay."

Juno: I mean. That's a pretty bomb plot twist if you ask me.

Kristen: Oh yes, I enjoyed it immensely. Also really in the context of a DnD game I'm pretty sure that shouldn't be doable cause I don't think any of them were supposed to be able to speak common. If your players are setting themselves up for a more interesting story and you have to bend the rules a bit to make it happen, go for it. One of the most important things for GMing is making your players feel like they have agency- as Alex said, it's collaborative, it's not just you telling your players a story.

Another thing to keep in mind is what sort of players you have. I usually prefer to play with people who are more into the RP/story aspect, but some people are gonna be more into them fighty fights and mechanics and such. Which is fine and can work, it's just a matter of striking a balance in your game.  I usually try to tailor things in such a way that everyone's getting a chance to get what they want out of a game and their shot at the spotlight, in whatever manner that takes. For me it's helped to ask my players directly "hey, what do you want out of this game? Do you have any ideas or anything you're really into?"

Mostly what I'm saying is just try to keep in mind what your players are in this for, since that contributes a lot to how much fun you all have.

Atwas: Something that's helped me a lot is to not stress out or stop the game entirely to double check rules. It sort of kills momentum. In my experience, ruling a situation and then looking something up later is a lot less stressful than the pressure of putting something completely on pause while you flip through a book/google something.

If you're doing stuff in real life, I would recommend making a little cheat sheet of your PC's information. My DM screen has sticky notes with each party characters HP, AC, Passive Perception, and Spell Save DC to keep things streamlined.

Kristen: Oooo smurt

Alex: Hell yeah dude. Also there are custom DM screens you can get tailor-made to give you quick rules references. Fairly cheap on Amazon.

Atwas: Also your players don't know if you're winging stuff unless you tell them. ;^)

Also also don't be scared of bumping monster hp up or down depending on a fight or having monsters run away or call in reinforcements. If you go off script in an encounter--surprise! Nobody knows but you. I did that quite a bit when I was starting out because balancing encounters is a bit of an art and CR is a loose guideline at best.

Also also also the point of the game isn't to win. Don't fall into the trap of "beating your players" or stuff like that. Imo that kind of messes with the table dynamics unless 100% of everyone is on board with that type of game.

Kristen: Yeah, don't fall into that and also be careful not to go into the mindset of "punishing" your players if they do something dumb. Like if it's a silly "you did this thing and consequences have gone WILDLY outside of what you expect wheee", awesome, but I've had DMs who basically would act like if you didn't somehow read their minds and find their exact solution, welp you made a dumb choice and now everyone is penalized for it. Made for a pretty toxic atmosphere, do not recommend. Kind goes hand in hand with "don't be a tabletop dictator".

Atwas: oh gods i could go on and on about how punishing someone in game never works for out of game behaviour but i digress. also please don't feel afraid to talk to your players, even if having adult conversations is difficult.

Juno: Cause and effect is the biggest thing to think about I think, especially in a DMing situation.

Alex: For instance, siccing a Revenant on the party? Thavagath made a bad decision in character, that's the natural consequence, he gets a chance to save his ass. Someone makes a dick joke about your carefully crafted NPC? Don't be a dick right back.

Atwas: sweats, trying to think back to the last time a dick joke was made in Fallen Empires

Alex: Like I think the last major one was Phill pulling a muscle stretching so hard to make a joke for five minutes about the "Male Room" rather than the "Mail Room"

But then we - wait for it - ACTUALLY DISCUSSED THE ISSUE OUT OF GAME and stuff like that doesn't pop up any more.

Atwas: WHAT? SPEAKING LIKE REASONABLE ADULTS?!?! IN MY TABLETOP?!?!?! it's really useful. please have those conversations, even if they're uncomfortable. and if something is becoming an issue, bring it up sooner rather than later--turns out that people can't change stuff if they don't know about it! Most people want to stay friends after a campaign after all.

Jojo: Have your story planned, npcs, and what you want an end goal to be. Make sure it's all planned out BEFORE asking people to join it. And if you need a second DM to help you with Dice or story, then that's ok too! I'm still a beginner DM myself, so that's the best advice I can give

These guys are pros, so listen to them

Phill: Heheh... male room

Alex: Phill no you'll pull your hamstring again

Phill:

Atwas: what do you think is Phill's average Henderson rating?

Alex: Phill has at least One Henderson in him, he destroyed Underdark to the point of we can't go back to it ever now.

Phill: I mean. Yeah. Honestly, I could've very easily seen phresh reach a 1.75 hendersons eventually.

Atwas: I'd say 1.75 works. 2 is still out of reach, but one day...

Xander: Underdark is cursed content and deserved better

Atwas: How many of he players had that as their first campaign? 3/5?

Xander: I believe so

Alex: Uprising and I had played before, I don't think Jojo, Dawn, or Phill had.

Xander: I'm probably gonna reboot Underdark one day. Wipe the slate clean. Probably not gonna be done on IR

Alex: We did it! We reached two Hendersons!

Xander: Two full Hendersons.

Phill: time unveil my new original character. Blesh

Alex: Blerish

Xander: More like Blemish

This is a specific rant about DnD/Tabletop RPGs

I think that DnD or other Tabletop RPGs should be fun. I think that the DM or GM should be the storymaster, but allow the players to do what they can imagine, and act as they please. I also think that the players shouldn’t feel like they can’t do anything to change the story. Nor should they feel like every time they try to help or do something unprompted, they kill an NPC or damage something they blatantly wanted. I am not saying that the players should be able to play god, or that the DM should cave to every want of the players. But when someone wants to heal someone, or do an action that doesn’t involve current events, they should at least let them try? The story you wrote for your party should be loose enough to let them have autonomy over their characters, not make them feel like actors with reactionary improv. DnD Player Characters are meant to be active characters, not passive. In literature, an “Active Character” is one that moves along or affects the plot of the story/world. A “Passive Character” is one that merely reacts to the plot/world. While I believe Players can and should react to twists and turns in their story, I still believe that THEY should be the ones driving it.

I am in a campaign that is based on a movie franchise. I enjoy the characters and stories we started because of this. But I know now I am losing my character when we come to a certain point. And I am told that they can come back but I won’t have autonomy, they will be an NPC. I don’t think it’s worth it to continue with a different character. I could, I even rolled one up with the DM while we talked about “oh you might lose them what will you do then?” And I was laughing the whole way, because ‘Surely my DM doesn’t want to kill my character!’ ... I can’t continue like this. I am going to tell them I am leaving the campaign if/when I lose my character after our next session.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable? I am going to put my foot down, and while this sadly may have a chance of burning my bridge, I just... another campaign I have the GM said, almost word for word: “Don’t ask me if you can do something, just do it.” Hearing that, the day after a hard campaign with the other DM, made me actually burst into tears. I was relieved that I could do something without feeling like the repercussions would be fatal to our party.

Did we have angsty trauma due to a few things in the second group? You bet! But it felt reasonable, and we actually found a way to live with and work around it. The GM heard our ideas and let us try. The first DM... I feel as if we can’t actually do anything without them prompting it.

~~~

This was a rant I just needed off my chest. If you read this and realize you know me and who I talked about, I ask that you not mention it to anyone without talking to me first. I don’t need that stress, and our friend group doesn’t need the resulting drama. I am going to talk out my feelings after the next session/as soon as possible without being disruptive, and it will hopefully get solved.

See you around Tumblr <3

Update: I left not long after talking with the GM and have been much happier since. :)

ffffsh I’m just spinning my wheels on this DND thing but, okay look, if the JTHM crew wasn’t just playing a tabletop game but were actually in a fantasy au

Nny: okay this is really hard. On the one hand there’s the fighter class, and at this point he could be firmly in the Blackguard sub-class (which is kind of like an inverse paladin). On the other hand, there’s warlock, which is eldritch ass magic loaned by a powerful unearthly force. I think I gotta call this a case of dual classing, because canonically it does seem like the murder might have come before the monsters anyhow. Either way, Chaotic evil.

Devi: I want her to be a sorcerer so badly but she is canonically a strong melee fighter and I gotta say, that’s a big asset. As much as I love barbarian class and the whole beserker thing, there’s too much cultural stuff wrapped up in that class to work for her. I’m coming down on Monk, because of the bare fists fighting thing, and because of her whole devotion to craft thing. True neutral.

Tenna: bard, supporting people with music to antagonize and encourage. That one was easy. Chaotic good.

Tess: druid. I don’t have a really good reason for this, other than it has shapeshifting and I think shapeshifting is a fun heavy handed metaphor for how Tess gets by in her canon social circles. Lawful neutral. 

Edgar: Cleric. fullstop. I think he would need to be human because his ordinariness is part of why his goodness matters. Neutral good.

Jimmy: Rogue. He’s pretty good at following people, so I mark him down as solid in the stealth realm. Also it matches, like, every headcanon I have for him so what can you do. Chaotic evil.

Anne Gwish: actually a sorceress. Not only does she have the figure for it, but it’s an innate magical class so she can play it pretty loose. Neutral evil. 

I’m having trouble headcanoning any of them as non human except for Anne, who is probably an elf. Eladrin/fey are chaotic good, so Tenna would probably make a good one of those (plus a black celestial character is fun). If you’ll permit me some favoritism, I think Mmy would make a good dragonborn and I can’t explain why except to offer you the image of a ratty street kid with scales picking pockets badly.

Multiclassing lends itself to humans so Nny really ought to be human.

Ironsworn Solo Play - Ravenloft! (session 0)

With the holidays looming, my schedule was basically nuked from orbit and much of my normal online/offline tabletop gaming (which wasn’t a LOT to begin with) was disrupted, to put it mildly. Then one of my Monday-night players linked Adam Koebel’s first look into Ironsworn – and reminded me of the game, which I’ve actually had for a while (the PDF is free) but hadn’t dug into.

So I decided to do that.

Why now?

Because I had no one else to play with.

You see, Ironsworn is a PbtA fantasy adventure game (same inspirational/systemic roots as Dungeon World, Masks, whatever) but supporting three “modes” of play (Guided (with a GM), Co-op (several players, no GM), and Solo) equally and viably.

I enjoyed Adam’s video, and doubly enjoyed the actual play podcast from the game’s creator and his son (search for “Ask the Oracle” on your favorite podcast platform.) Thus inspired, I decided to do a game.

Now, by default, Ironsworn presumes a low fantasy, fairly gritty setting – basically “Logen Ninefingers’s chapters from The First Law trilogy”, which may or may not mean anything to anyone but me. Additionally, the game setup presumes world building to make a version of the Ironlands that is your very own, which is really great.

I’m not going to do that, though.

I have something specific in mind – a use for the game which seems to be okay with the game’s designer in terms of “other potential uses for this game”: using Ironsworn to run a fantasy game/setting/scenario I already have readily available.

In short, I’m going to play a solo game of the original Ravenloft – I6 AD&D module, augmented with some PBtA style tweaks from a World of Dungeons version of the scenario I ran for awhile with my daughter.

So what’s that going to look like?

Well, in a standard Ironsworn game, you’d either start character creation or world building, and then move on to… whichever of the two you didn’t do first. (The podcast AP from the creator starts with worldbuilding, then does the characters second, for example). The steps look like this:

Create your world: Define ‘Your Truths’ (page 122) about the setting.

Create your character: I have a general archetype in mind – basically the character my daughter played in our WoD Ravenloft game, but we’ll set stats and select assets.

Create background bonds: Create up to three bonds to represent connections to home, friends, family, et cetera.

Write your background vow: Create a quest as backstory for your character.

Envision your inciting incident: Come up with the problem that spurs our hero into action.

Swear an Iron Vow: Make the move and see how that sets our starting situation.

Play the game: See how things shake out from there.

Mostly, the part I’m not going to especially worry about is creating the world, because I have one readily to hand in the form of the (implied) setting for Ravenloft. I’m going to do a BIT of world building, to sync the setting to Ironsworn’s assumptions (lower/subtler magic than DnD, etc), but that’s about it. Let’s start with that and then move on to our hero.

There are several sections that the game says we can make decisions about:

The Old World: Why did our people leave the Old World and travel to the Ironlands?

Iron: The most important possession in the Ironlands. Why is it so special?

Legacies: What people came to the Ironlands before the Ironlanders?

Communities: What do communities in the Ironlands generally look like?

Leaders: Who lead these communities?

Defense: How do these communities deal with their defense?

Mysticism: Is magic and mysticism all fake, or is there some truth to it?

Religion: Are the gods real and walk to the world, or are they just superstition?

The Firstborn: Do other, older ancestries exist (Elves, Giants, Trolls) or all they just stories told to children?

Beasts: Are the beasts of legends (griffins, dragons, etc) true or just old wives’ tales?

Horrors: Are there even darker horrors than the Beasts that lurk on the corners of the Ironlands?

Again, I’m not making decisions about all these things, though most of the questions WILL be answered by virtue of using the Ravenloft module as the baseline setting for our adventure. Let’s go.

The first question is about “the old world” that Ironlanders are assumed to have left behind for the Ironlands. I’m discarding this, as it’s not relevant to the setting.

Iron. The next question also seems like one I’d toss in the bin. Basically “why are the Ironlands called the Ironlands?”, but I like the second option we can choose from, so I’m making a note of it anyway.

The weather is bleak. Rain and wind sweep in from the ocean. The winters are long and bitter. Someone complained, “Only those made of iron dare live in this foul place”

That just fits. Absent any other plot, I could take that, plop my hero down on the Barovia map with the related Ironsworn quest starter, and I could go. Nice.

I’m discarding the Legacies question (what lived here before us?) as not especially relevant to my needs.

What are the Communities like? A good question, and I’m going with the first available option:

We are few in number in this accursed land. Most rarely have contact with anyone outside our own small steading or village, and strangers are viewed with deep suspicion.

That suits the look and feel I’m going for right down to the ground.

Who Leads?

Leadership is as varied as the people. Some communities are governed by the head of a powerful family. Or, they have a council of elders who make decisions and settle disputes. In others, the priests hold sway. For some, it is duels in the circle that decide.

For Barovia, the answer is both in keeping with this answer and… something else.

How do we defend ourselves?

This is an interesting one. I was initially going to go with: Supplies are too precious and the lands are too sparsely populated to support organized fighting forces. When a community is threatened, the people stand together to protect their own.

But another answer lets me integrate my character concept in much more smoothly, once some of the edges have been sanded.

There are wardens are act as soldiers, guards, and militia. They serve their communities by standing sentry, patrolling surrounding lands, and organizing defenses in times of crisis. Most have strong ties to their community. Others, called free wardens, are wanderers who hire on to serve a community or protect caravans.

This is a really good starting place, though I might tweak the answer a bit in character generation, as we learn about our hero – but basically, I’ll call her a freewarden, and a young member of the order. It works.

Mysticism? Magic is rare and dangerous, but those few who wield the power are truly gifted.

Religion? The people honor old gods and new. In this harsh land, a prayer is a simple but powerful comfort.

There’s a question about the Firstborn – elves and giants, basically, but it’s not especially relevant to this game, so I’m setting it aside. I’m homing in on a pretty human-centric setting, but with beasts and monsters aplenty.

Speaking of: Beasts – which is to say, non-sentient monsters and the like.

Monstrous beasts stalk the wild areas of the world. (To which I’ll add “and the wild areas are cheek and jowl with what’s loosely termed ‘civilization.’“)

Horrors – the monsters you can have a conversation with, sometimes.

For the world in general, this:

We are wary of dark forests and deep waterways, for monsters lurk in those places. In the depths of the long-night, when all is wreathed in darkness, only fools venture beyond their homes.

But for Barovia?

The dead do not rest in these lands. At night we light torches, scatter salt, and post sentries at the gate. It is not enough. They are coming.

Okay! That’s the world stuff answered. Next post: moving on to character generation.

original post

Hi there! I was wondering if you could help me a little? I know nothing about d&d (i think it might be an online rpg but i'm not even sure about that) and while reading The Storyteller and the Thief I've stumbled across some unfamiliar words.. so well if it's not too much a bother, could you give me a crash course on it? Anyway, thanks a lot for writing and sharing your wonderful works, and I hope you have a good day/night! :)

Oh, my dude, absolutely. If any terms I’m using are not making sense, please let me know. I’m trying to keep the language as fantasy-generic as possible so anyone can enjoy the story even with no familiarity with DnD, but if I’m falling down on that job, tell me how so I can fix it.

Anyway, Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game. Typically you play with a group of people in real life, though there are ways to do it online, too. One person will be the Dungeon Master, in charge of running the game, roleplaying non-player characters, directing the plot, choosing the monsters, generally keeping track of everything, and arbitrating the rules. Everyone else creates a character, which includes rolling or devising a bunch of numbers to describe the character’s physical and mental abilities, their skills, and how much damage they can do with their weapons. GOOD character creation also includes making something of a backstory for your character and deciding on personality traits, though those can obviously evolve over time, and usually do.

Part of creating a DnD character is choosing a class and a race. Typical races include human, dwarf, elf, half-elf, halfling, gnome, and half-orc. There are many, many other playable races, but those are the classics from 3.5 edition, which is what I started with. The most basic classes would be fighter, rogue, cleric, and wizard, but again there are lots more, like bard, monk, ranger, paladin, and so on. 

Character alignment is also a big deal in DnD, on two different axes–Lawful to Chaotic and Good to Evil. You’ve probably seen charts on tumblr describing characters on a character alignment grid, and there are some pretty good explanations out there, so I won’t get into it. It’s not really a factor in my story. Obviously some characters are good and some are evil, as are some gods and goddesses, but I don’t plan to ever describe the characters’ alignments and have it affect the story at all. Class is important for the people of my world to understand themselves and their roles, but they don’t think of themselves as being chaotic good or lawful neutral or anything like that. They just are who they are.

The basic mechanics of the game involve rolling multi-sided dice to determine whether or not an action succeeds. By far the most common action is to roll a 20-sided die, called a d20 for short, and add any modifiers from your character sheet. Other dice are rolled to determine other kinds of effects, but when you hear someone talking about a Natural 1 or a Natural 20, that means they hit one of those numbers on the d20 before adding any modifiers. A Nat 20 is a critical success and always works, sometimes in spectacular ways, and a Nat 1 is a critical failure and can cause total disaster in the story. 

The randomness, within a certain range, is what gives the game much of its charm. You can have an incredibly powerful and well-balanced character who should be able to cut through any situation with ease, but if the player rolls a Nat 1, things can go south incredibly quickly. Or, conversely, you can have the wimpiest minion on the planet roll a Nat 20 and succeed at whatever they were trying to do in astonishing ways. You never know exactly what’s going to happen, which makes it distinct from just straight up sitting around a table and telling a story with your friends.

But, at its best, Dungeons & Dragons is about a collaborative story told by the Dungeon Master with the help of the players and the choices they make. It’s not a competitive game. No one wins, unless you all win together. (Though some people do PLAY it like it’s a competitive game and the point is to get as much money and trinkets as possible and to accumulate the most power. People who play the game that way are called Munchkins, and they are mostly twelve years old.)

I’ve been playing DnD and lots of other tabletop roleplaying games with various friends and family members for over ten years, and I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks they might remotely like it. That was a very basic crash course, but I hope it helped. Please do let me know if you have any other questions, or if you have specific terms you don’t understand from The Cycle of the Five Lions. My story is based very loosely on the fantasy conventions of Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s really supposed to stand alone.

I finally got around to painting up Rowyn the Druid for @calliesunflower , so she could get a chance to use it before we wrap up #LostMineofPhandelver . Just one or two sessions left before I turn this starter group loose to pursue their own tabletop adventures! #DnD #DungeonsandDragons #DnD5e #Pathfinder #PathfinderRPG #d20 #RPG #TRPG #RoleplayingGames #TabletopRoleplayingGames #CooperativeStorytelling #ReaperMiniatures #DwarvenForge

Generalizations of Conventions

A convention is a highly praised fandom event where anime and geek culture flourishes. These events are held in large venues and as such one example is convention centers. A convention center is used for many meeting-places for conferences, weddings, conventions, expos, trade shows, and other large-scale events. Hotels, in particular, are specially used for conventions within injunction with conference or convention centers. Hotels use the extra business from the convention area for additional revenue in the venue and influx of hotel guests. A convenient place for a Con is a hotel for places to stay and confirmed parking for the event. Furthermore, a convention is fandom-based and here are other important details concerning it cost money, the importance of volunteering, what is cosplay, and fandoms represented at the event.

Why does it cost so much money?

These conventions cost money because of programming, pace, and other expenditures. Mainly, a festival wants the best entertainment for the guests to some extent well-known figures of the industry. The programming is so high because attendees expect lots of activities and those entertainment pieces are bought with money. Also, the venue space costs resource a medium of exchange and is expensive. For example, the Richmond Raceway event building could cost 10,000 dollars for a single day for leasing out to an event. Now, think about why vendors are highly sought and admission on the guest end paying (the venue space, programming, advertising, paid workers, and other costs for the event). These are some of the reasons why you need to spend money and then get money back for future conventions to be successful.

Why is volunteering so important?

Volunteering provides several advantages for both small and big activities alike. Usually, if you assist in life people visualize charity organizations and soup kitchens. However, these are more options for volunteers than just these like fandom-related. Cons use helpers for successful departments to occur in operations and key areas on behalf of guests. When people divide and conquer, they are able to achieve more than with one sole person in charge. Leaders depend on others so the stress is minimized while some take specific responsibility for their tasks. Also, volunteers are given a chance to work at a minimal amount of hours for incentives. The incentives include free admission if they worked and sometimes shirts with other rewards. If a Galaxy Con required ten hours to work, and the hours were reached then free admission or reimbursement for badges. Remember the fact, most staff are volunteers and as such, they are unpaid and deserve recognition for their efforts.

What is cosplay?

Cosplay is the process for people dressing up as a character of their choosing. The cosplay culture is very key to anime because people embrace their love and creativity in a costume. A range in this particular interest can be a tight budget to a loose budget and all in between. Someone who is a cosplayer, be aware that everyone is equal in terms of design and has different ideas for creating a costume. There is no idea better than another and as such people should suggest ideas and give help when it is due. As a result, the embracement of cosplay is highly respected and sometimes is rewarded in cosplay contests or loyal followers online. Finally, here is a theater term for getting in character and staying that character for cosplayers can be very beneficial for them.

How many fandoms are represented?

Fandoms are several industries with fans and general entertainment. The fandoms you can find are at a con: anime, cartoons, gaming, art, comics, and other areas. Anime is short for Japanese animation and has influenced the West greatly in terms of entertainment like the Matrix. Cartoons are animations outside of Japan and have a similar following to anime. The gaming culture includes 3D graphics on a screen of video-based and tabletops like Yu-Gi-Oh and DND (Dragons and Dungeons). Art is a part of every culture and conventions have an Artist Alley (the area to sell art) which is similar to vendors. Comics reflect source material for fun like manga (Japanese comics inspiring anime), American comics (superheroes in MCU and The Arrowverse), and others. These are some of the fandoms represented at conventions and the geek culture.

Therefore, a convention is a festival environment where people can attend and become a collective identity as geeks. People would continue to flock to these attractions for enjoying themselves is inevitable. As a result, we have conventions popping up which capitalize on the fandom-based passion at a specific location.

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