I had a dream that the new Tumblr Discourse ™️ was over a new DND style game where all of the races were types of snakes. People were ragging on anyone who chose to be a paladin corn snake (because obviously corn snakes would never be a paladin.) I'm not entirely convinced it's not already a thing because Tumblr is just Like That, but anyway it was called Cobra King and I want to play it now.

A custom Störtebeker for one of my patrons!

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How to react to your friend’s death

Look how amazing this colorshift is 🥲 I’m not sure what color to ink the numbers

Noticed something funny in the My Little Pony Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.

I know next to nothing about Vampire: The Masquerade, but here's a character concept anyway;

A Toreador that's obsessed with 80's/90's retro aesthetics/games and runs a small arcade.

• Operates during the day, since Arcades don't have windows to let sunlight in anyway.

• Snacks on negligent/abusive parents.

• Touchstone is that one kid that runs around telling everyone else what tricks to use to win every single game (there's always at least one in every generation).

• Forges ownership paperwork under different names when necessary, but always works the floor himself. Not a lot of people go to arcades over the course of so many years that it'd be suspicious to see the same clerk.

• Other toreadors hate him because he shows up at clubs in bright neon patterned dress shirts, cut off jorts and obnoxiously purple sunglasses and says things like "Radical" and "Right on" and "Daddy-o"

This is my vision.

It's been awhile since I last Tumbled! In time I've been away I made a physical version of my game The Wicked Forever King Hungers. It's a rules light game (based on Lasers and Feelings mechanics) that features desperate heretics attempting to stop the Forever King from feeding.

The cool thing was that @indiepressrevolution said they'd carry it. I sent them 50 copies and they sold out in 6 days. I was blown away by this. And they asked for 200+ more copies!

So it's back in stock and after a few days it looks like it's sold about 30 copies. If you'd like one, head on over before they're gone again! https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/The-Wicked-Forever-King-Hungers.html

dnd class patches are up in the store! these are stunning, handmade patches that fit together so you can make a pattern of your characters, your party, etc! get them here

Skeleton Warrior!

Thoughts on Daggerheart!!

I'll admit I haven't really been following it until today, but after watching the videos released today I got very excited and ended up building a character and reading a lot of the book, as I am wont to do (might post about them later lol).

Now, full disclosure, I wouldn't say I'm all that familiar with the TTRPG space outside of D&D, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. That said, I've played D&D, Wanderhome, Alice is Missing, and the fan-made Hollow Knight TTRPG, and I've watched some AP of Kids on Bikes, Call of Cthulhu, Monsterhearts, and Candela Obscura, which is a longer list than I was expecting. Huh. Anyways, my thoughts!

I really like the duality dice! It's such an interesting way to do mixed success that incorporates story/character into mechanics, which is great.

Related to that, I also like Hope as a fluid resource, and I think that Fear is a nice way to both prompt GM action and to just create a fun sense of dread as the GM takes more tokens

The lack of turn order/action economy is... cool, and a really interesting idea, but my thoughts on this are complicated. As we're seeing in the oneshot right now, it really helps to keep combat as part of the story and give the players and GM room for creativity. (For example, Bunnie describing a counterstrike as part of her dodge, and being able to take it as soon as the GM's turn is over, as well as the tag team feature, which is very cool.) That said, I think this mechanic might not work so well with less experienced or less confident players, who might have trouble taking the initiative (heh) to act in combat (I know I certainly would if I wasn't playing with close friends). That's not really a criticism though -- this is a collaborative storytelling game, and part of playing it is making big moves and taking turns guiding the story. If that's not for you, then you might prefer a different system, which is fine! I think this mechanic has the potential to be really, really dope, but I also think it's the bit that has the most potential to go poorly in my eyes.

The art, design, and general aesthetic feel of this game are so unbelievably up my alley. I love it. That's all.

I'm excited to see that they're working on mechanics for playing disabled characters, but since they aren't out yet I can't really comment. (I did notice that the character in the bard art is in a wheelchair, which is dope.) Also, as others have noted, Daggerheart uses "heritage" and "ancestry" rather than "race", which is a small but good choice.

Personally, I also really like the choice to move away from precise measurements of distance and gold. This one is very much a personal preference, and I know some people will rightfully disagree, but I like it! As a DM, trying to determine the appropriate costs and rewards for things has always been a headache, and this seems much easier to manage; measuring distances with convenient and tangible measurements like the short side of a playing card or the length of a piece of paper also feels much easier to use.

The downtime mechanics are great! Each of the activities you can take prompts you to describe how you heal yourself or another, destress, repair armor, or prepare yourself for what's ahead, which really encourages quieter character moments both introspectively and with others. I'm a big fan of this. This combining of role play and mechanics is also present in other features, such as one of the major level 1 healing abilities, which is more effective if you spend the time it takes to cast learning something new about the person you're healing or sharing something about yourself.

I didn't look at this too closely because I was just making a character for fun and don't have a party to play with, but as part of character creation you're given questions about your relationships to your party members to answer. Wanderhome also has these, and they were MASSIVELY successful in creating depth and meaningful connections between players -- after our table's session zero I was already so invested in all our characters, and when we actually played them they really came to life. I haven't looked to closely at Daggerhearts version of this, but I'm very excited to see them.

The experience mechanic seems really fun and creative, and I especially like the idea of using a phrase rather than something specific. That said, when I played the Hollow Knight TTRPG, which also lets players create their own skills, the open endedness of it was more confusing than inspiring, and there was a lot of potential for a usefulness disparity between players. I do think Daggerheart explains it better, though, and limiting the use of experience with a Hope cost helps to counteract any choices that might be too broad, so hopefully it will work better

I probably have more thoughts, but it getting late and I have a headache, so that's all I'm saying for now :D

Overall, Daggerheart has combined a lot of things I've liked in other games with promising mechanics I haven't seen before, and I'm very excited to try it out. I'm now realizing that I just made a list of things I like without any negative feedback, which isn't what I wanted to do, but I'm not really sure what to criticize without having played it myself.

I'm most curious to see how the non-initiative mechanic works; it has the potential to be a really excellent solve for a major problem in D&D (plenty of people have talked about how initiative limits teamwork, can be boring when its not your turn, etc, so I won't get into it here), but I don't think it's a solution that will work for everyone. Of course, games can't work for everyone, and shouldn't try to. It's working really well on CR's oneshot as I write this, but making choices and sharing spotlight in TTRPGs is literally their job, so I'm not surprised this works for them. I could see this going really well with some tables I've played with, and really poorly with others. I'm still really optimistic, though; it seems like the kind of thing that with the right table could be really excellent.

A custom Monarch for one of my lovely patrons

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Is official spooky season over? Yes. Does it have to be? No. Am I refusing to let it die? Yes.

Become a monster of your own design in a world where monsters aren't just stories anymore. What will you choose to do?

Anyway I make really amazing dice

New video!! Shout out to Joe for putting up with our horrible goblin antics for two years.