So while my body has been out doing stuff all week, my mind has been busy chewing on what I want out of gaming. And as interested as I was (and still am) in running some PF2E, I think what I really want is to try a more narrative approach, specifically using the "Powered by the Apocalypse" approach. The only problem there is, none of the ready-to-go, already-have-a-module-on-Roll20 PBtA games are really what I'm looking for. Generally speaking, they're either too grim or horror-themed (e.g., Monster of the Week), or too "rainbow sprinkles" to work with the group (e.g., Glitter Hearts or Thirsty Sword Lesbians). The closest one in tone to what I'm looking for seems to be Masks: A New Generation, but that is hard-locked into "teenage caped supers finding their identity".
Now I can and have run supers games; I had a CHAMPIONS campaign in Richmond that ran successfully for several years (and was heavy on the feels). But supers is not my native genre, and I suspect that only one or two of my players are really into it as its own thing. Everyone else will play it if that's what's going, but are likely to treat it more as a high octane urban fantasy rather than The Incredibles.
Contradictory as it may sound, what I'd really kinda like is a "generic" PBtA engine that I could easily customize, pulling a playbook from MotW here, a condition from TSL there, etc., but of course that's inherently not how any of it works. PBtA is a philosophy, not a mechanic, so the closest I could come to that is "translating." What would "The Beacon" look like in TSL? What would "The Beast" look like in MotW? How could Dungeon World's Bonds work with TSL's Strings?
Foundry has a "build your own PBtA" module, so, I mean, I could do that. But if I'm already skirting the edge of burnout, do I really want to put in that kind of work? XD I don't even know if my players would get into it, most of them seem to be fine with killing monsters and taking their stuff. It's no secret that what I really want is to play something like this more than actually run it, but that's literally true of everything I have ever run, ever. So. I dunno.
There's no urgency to the question; it'll be January or later before I come back around as the group GM, so I can let the issue simmer—assuming my hyperfocus will let go. I do have more urgent things to deal with, after all! In fact, I should be drawing instead of even making this post. But, y'know, the old brain problem.
-TG
Now I can and have run supers games; I had a CHAMPIONS campaign in Richmond that ran successfully for several years (and was heavy on the feels). But supers is not my native genre, and I suspect that only one or two of my players are really into it as its own thing. Everyone else will play it if that's what's going, but are likely to treat it more as a high octane urban fantasy rather than The Incredibles.
Contradictory as it may sound, what I'd really kinda like is a "generic" PBtA engine that I could easily customize, pulling a playbook from MotW here, a condition from TSL there, etc., but of course that's inherently not how any of it works. PBtA is a philosophy, not a mechanic, so the closest I could come to that is "translating." What would "The Beacon" look like in TSL? What would "The Beast" look like in MotW? How could Dungeon World's Bonds work with TSL's Strings?
Foundry has a "build your own PBtA" module, so, I mean, I could do that. But if I'm already skirting the edge of burnout, do I really want to put in that kind of work? XD I don't even know if my players would get into it, most of them seem to be fine with killing monsters and taking their stuff. It's no secret that what I really want is to play something like this more than actually run it, but that's literally true of everything I have ever run, ever. So. I dunno.
There's no urgency to the question; it'll be January or later before I come back around as the group GM, so I can let the issue simmer—assuming my hyperfocus will let go. I do have more urgent things to deal with, after all! In fact, I should be drawing instead of even making this post. But, y'know, the old brain problem.
-TG
Wanting More Than Monsters and Magic
Nov. 20th, 2022 08:37 amI run D&D "professionally" on Sundays, and I both run and play in a regular Saturday night group that's been going for many years now; I engage a lot in killing monsters and taking their stuff. But for some months now I've been left unsatisfied by it. Not because of any problems with other players or anything like that, but because the stories have felt shallow. All plot no theme, I guess? Lots of tactical engagement, but little or no character development?
And, I mean, you can't force a TTRPG to have depth. There are ways to encourage it (see also The Rise of Cozycore TTRPGs), but it has to be something that is consciously brought to the table, it has to be something everyone who wants it is engaged in, and it has have a safe space to be. RP deeper than table banter and dice rolling can be a vulnerable thing, often better expressed in text than face to face. I think that may be one reason I got so much "pure RP" enjoyment out of the TwitterPonies: it was RP-by-post, with time to hone your character's thoughts and actions, and without having to actually look at the other player during intense emotional scenes.
As a player, some of this boils down to the character I'm currently playing. Aurora is fun, but compared to Shade-Of-the-Candle she's shallow as a flea's footbath. "Be nice, make puns, and punch badguys" is the entirety of her personality and she has zero ties to the setting—because the setting is "we've been launched into space and don't know what's going on." She has no demons to overcome and no goals to achieve, other than whatever the current scenario puts in front of her; as a player, I'm not even really invested in the "save the world" metaplot, because Faerun is just a cardboard cutout of a world.
It's not a reflection on the GM, Blitzy is great; it's a natural result of creating a character who is intended to find her story in the adventure, and the adventure (so far) being a linear series of fights with here-today-gone-tomorrow NPCs. I built Aurora this way specifically because Shady is such a force of nature that she's all but shaped the campaign she's in by force of will, and I don't want to hog the spotlight. I am prone to Main Character Syndrome, and I wanted to make a character who was a better team player, but unfortunately the result has kinda been a character who is passively watching the story unfold, going where I as the player perceive the "Story Over Here ->" signs, rather than pursuing her own agendas.
As the GM, the issue is a little more complex. There is a lot of "managing spinning plates" as a GM: presenting a cohesive world, creating engaging characters, keeping the session moving, and more. My Sunday game is an adaptation of Red Hand of Doom, which is a very plot-heavy story of impending war—and the ongoing challenge has been making sure it was more than just an ongoing series of skirmishes with goblins. I've worked to create recurring characters both good and bad (much annoying the barbarian when the enemies run away so they can have a rematch later) and make Elsir Vale a place that the players care about. The players are enjoying it, which is gratifying, but again for me it feels shallow, and I don't know what if anything I can do about that. If the players are enjoying it, what would "more depth" even look like, for me?
For the Saturday night games, I've been building a new setting that moves away from the standard "D&D-land" and looks more to JRPGs and anime as inspirations. Besides deliberate echoes of Final Fantasy (chocobo-esque "riding drakes," anime-style visual handouts, that kind of thing), the setting has kaiju stomping around, airships, tsundere NPCs, and whatever else I can think to toss in. At the very last second, the campaign framework turned into a Monster Hunting Academy inspired by RWBY and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (which is probably the most "anime" official D&D project ever), but the campaign is still basically D&D (even if it'll be using Pathfinder 2E as the actual ruleset). Part of the reason I've gone this route is to create a setting where a deeper story is baked in from the ground up. Yes, that story is tropey as heck, but it is still more than just "kill monsters and take their stuff."
I'm thinking, tho, that I should probably do more. I'm looking at the character-driven mechanics of Powered By the Apocalypse (particularly in reference to Masks, Monster of the Week, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians) for inspiration, as well as trying to re-frame how I build adventures. Back in my HERO System days adventure building always started with the PCs (specifically, rolling to see which Hunted and/or Dependent NPC disads would appear, as well as looking for opportunities to poke their Physical and Psychological limitations), whereas migrating to D&D inverted that to the point where the adventure is there first and the PCs have to be fitted into it. I want to get back to the way I used to do it.
Also, honestly, I think I may just need a break. >.>
-The Gneech
And, I mean, you can't force a TTRPG to have depth. There are ways to encourage it (see also The Rise of Cozycore TTRPGs), but it has to be something that is consciously brought to the table, it has to be something everyone who wants it is engaged in, and it has have a safe space to be. RP deeper than table banter and dice rolling can be a vulnerable thing, often better expressed in text than face to face. I think that may be one reason I got so much "pure RP" enjoyment out of the TwitterPonies: it was RP-by-post, with time to hone your character's thoughts and actions, and without having to actually look at the other player during intense emotional scenes.
As a player, some of this boils down to the character I'm currently playing. Aurora is fun, but compared to Shade-Of-the-Candle she's shallow as a flea's footbath. "Be nice, make puns, and punch badguys" is the entirety of her personality and she has zero ties to the setting—because the setting is "we've been launched into space and don't know what's going on." She has no demons to overcome and no goals to achieve, other than whatever the current scenario puts in front of her; as a player, I'm not even really invested in the "save the world" metaplot, because Faerun is just a cardboard cutout of a world.
It's not a reflection on the GM, Blitzy is great; it's a natural result of creating a character who is intended to find her story in the adventure, and the adventure (so far) being a linear series of fights with here-today-gone-tomorrow NPCs. I built Aurora this way specifically because Shady is such a force of nature that she's all but shaped the campaign she's in by force of will, and I don't want to hog the spotlight. I am prone to Main Character Syndrome, and I wanted to make a character who was a better team player, but unfortunately the result has kinda been a character who is passively watching the story unfold, going where I as the player perceive the "Story Over Here ->" signs, rather than pursuing her own agendas.
As the GM, the issue is a little more complex. There is a lot of "managing spinning plates" as a GM: presenting a cohesive world, creating engaging characters, keeping the session moving, and more. My Sunday game is an adaptation of Red Hand of Doom, which is a very plot-heavy story of impending war—and the ongoing challenge has been making sure it was more than just an ongoing series of skirmishes with goblins. I've worked to create recurring characters both good and bad (much annoying the barbarian when the enemies run away so they can have a rematch later) and make Elsir Vale a place that the players care about. The players are enjoying it, which is gratifying, but again for me it feels shallow, and I don't know what if anything I can do about that. If the players are enjoying it, what would "more depth" even look like, for me?
For the Saturday night games, I've been building a new setting that moves away from the standard "D&D-land" and looks more to JRPGs and anime as inspirations. Besides deliberate echoes of Final Fantasy (chocobo-esque "riding drakes," anime-style visual handouts, that kind of thing), the setting has kaiju stomping around, airships, tsundere NPCs, and whatever else I can think to toss in. At the very last second, the campaign framework turned into a Monster Hunting Academy inspired by RWBY and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (which is probably the most "anime" official D&D project ever), but the campaign is still basically D&D (even if it'll be using Pathfinder 2E as the actual ruleset). Part of the reason I've gone this route is to create a setting where a deeper story is baked in from the ground up. Yes, that story is tropey as heck, but it is still more than just "kill monsters and take their stuff."
I'm thinking, tho, that I should probably do more. I'm looking at the character-driven mechanics of Powered By the Apocalypse (particularly in reference to Masks, Monster of the Week, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians) for inspiration, as well as trying to re-frame how I build adventures. Back in my HERO System days adventure building always started with the PCs (specifically, rolling to see which Hunted and/or Dependent NPC disads would appear, as well as looking for opportunities to poke their Physical and Psychological limitations), whereas migrating to D&D inverted that to the point where the adventure is there first and the PCs have to be fitted into it. I want to get back to the way I used to do it.
Also, honestly, I think I may just need a break. >.>
-The Gneech
The Rise of Cozycore TTRPGs
Nov. 15th, 2022 10:29 amSo today I happened upon a review of a tabletop RPG called Wanderhome, which is all about furries rebuilding and healing after a devastating war. In that regard it joins Reclamation Project, Kipo and the Wonderbeasts, Biomutant, et al. in the "furries fix the apocalypse" genre, which I am pleased to be a part of, but in the RPG space, it also immediately makes me think of two recent standouts: Burn Bryte and Thirsty Sword Lesbians.
All of these games have as a core premise that they are "all about the feels," so to speak, instead of the usual gaming priorities of killing monsters and taking their stuff. Both Thirsty Sword Lesbians and Wanderhome particularly use the characters' emotional states as the touchstone for their mechanics. This is not a totally new idea: Gumshoe often had characters' chances of success connected to their defined traits, and of course GURPS and the HERO System were famous for disadvantages/flaws (particularly "Psychological Limitations") as character-building components, and that was 1985, guys. XD
But these newer games don't just include this aspect as part of a larger mathematical and narrative framework, they lean into it, hard. It's kind of awkward to use the term "queer" outside the context of sexuality or gender identity, but it's the closest analogue I can think of. Even the straight characters in these games are queer AF. XD These are worlds full of neurodivergent, norm-disregarding, existing-hierarchy-smashing characters, often with a radically kind agenda, and I'm here for it.
That radically kind part is where "cozycore" comes in. Like the aesthetic movement of "cottagecore," this genre is about creating a place of comfort for those who have been traumatized, a warm place to escape a cold world. With the possible exception of Burn Bryte (which is actually hopepunk, a related but noticeably different vibe), these places are cute. They are soft. The over-the-top "Here comes the Evil Queen and oh no, she's hot!" camp of Thirsty Sword Lesbians may not seem like the Frog-and-Toad gentleness of Wanderhome, but what is TSL founded on? The willfully self-indulgent, tropey escapism of fanfic, a world where "hurt/comfort" and "redemption arcs" are foundational pillars.
After forty years of "darker, grittier" all the everything, this is not just a breath of fresh air, but I'm hoping it's a harbinger of a cultural shift in the making. Counter culture becomes popular culture and the fringe becomes mainstream, and lord, if a culture could ever stand to become more kind and way more hella queer, it's contemporary western culture.
Maybe living and dying by the sword can finally give way to just plain living, by the plowshare?
-TG
All of these games have as a core premise that they are "all about the feels," so to speak, instead of the usual gaming priorities of killing monsters and taking their stuff. Both Thirsty Sword Lesbians and Wanderhome particularly use the characters' emotional states as the touchstone for their mechanics. This is not a totally new idea: Gumshoe often had characters' chances of success connected to their defined traits, and of course GURPS and the HERO System were famous for disadvantages/flaws (particularly "Psychological Limitations") as character-building components, and that was 1985, guys. XD
But these newer games don't just include this aspect as part of a larger mathematical and narrative framework, they lean into it, hard. It's kind of awkward to use the term "queer" outside the context of sexuality or gender identity, but it's the closest analogue I can think of. Even the straight characters in these games are queer AF. XD These are worlds full of neurodivergent, norm-disregarding, existing-hierarchy-smashing characters, often with a radically kind agenda, and I'm here for it.
That radically kind part is where "cozycore" comes in. Like the aesthetic movement of "cottagecore," this genre is about creating a place of comfort for those who have been traumatized, a warm place to escape a cold world. With the possible exception of Burn Bryte (which is actually hopepunk, a related but noticeably different vibe), these places are cute. They are soft. The over-the-top "Here comes the Evil Queen and oh no, she's hot!" camp of Thirsty Sword Lesbians may not seem like the Frog-and-Toad gentleness of Wanderhome, but what is TSL founded on? The willfully self-indulgent, tropey escapism of fanfic, a world where "hurt/comfort" and "redemption arcs" are foundational pillars.
After forty years of "darker, grittier" all the everything, this is not just a breath of fresh air, but I'm hoping it's a harbinger of a cultural shift in the making. Counter culture becomes popular culture and the fringe becomes mainstream, and lord, if a culture could ever stand to become more kind and way more hella queer, it's contemporary western culture.
Maybe living and dying by the sword can finally give way to just plain living, by the plowshare?
-TG
RWBY Thoughts, Continued
Nov. 7th, 2022 07:32 pmSo yeah, I've had some time to sit with RWBY after binging the series mostly by way of reaction videos, and subsequently learning about what a shitshow Rooster Teeth is as a company. Luckily that seems to be mostly the upper echelons and not the people who actually did most of the work on RWBY, but it still muddies the waters. I've also been exposed to more of the FNDM (as the RWBY fandom tends to refer to itself), as well as to the hatedom, of which RWBY has one strong enough to rival Star Wars. And what do I think, now that I've gone through all that?
Honestly? I still like it. If you just look at the work, separated from all the meta stuff, it's a fun adventure fantasy, and in terms of quality I'll rank volume six's episodes 10-13 especially against just about any of my favorite stuff. Not everything in the entire run is amazing, but we're talking about somebody who unironically loves Star Trek: The Animated Series and the Street Fighter movie here, warts and all.
Unfortunately, the future of the property is pretty murky right now. Rooster Teeth is owned by Warner Media, which is going through all kinds of collective spasms to begin with, before you look at the RT controversies driving viewers away from their projects. The looooooooooooong gap between volumes eight and nine, ostensibly to allow quality-without-crunch during the time of COVID, has instead produced an anime spinoff series, a Justice League crossover (?!?!???) that as far as I can tell nobody wanted, and a mobile phone game? Plus crunch has still been just as bad, if showbiz gossip is to be believed.
Even if volume 9 is in the can and ready to go (unlikely, with RT's record), will anyone show up to watch it when it finally comes to light? Will RT even survive long enough for that day to come? The franchise is popular overseas (in Japan particularly, I gather) so it wouldn't surprise me if the whole kit and kaboodle were to be siloed off into its own production company and/or sold off to... somebody. I don't know who. But if that happens, will any of the people who made RWBY, "RWBY," still be there for it?
I mean, that could be a good thing, if it gets bought by, y'know, anybody ethical. But the animation industry is very thin in that regard currently, and getting thinner from the sound of things. And the way WB is going, "locked in a vault and forgotten forever" is another distinctly possible fate.
So, who knows? But either way, I've enjoyed the first eight volumes. I hope to see more.
-TG
RWBY: Better Than Its Fandom Thinks
Oct. 11th, 2022 07:50 pm
I vaguely remember when the original RWBY trailers came out, thinking “Huh, neat.” But I wasn’t particularly interested, and stayed that way for a long time. It didn’t really make a ping on my attentional radar until late into volume 6, when the “bumbleby” ship became pretty darn close to official with the Blake/Yang/Adam fight. Running concurrently with all the heavy-duty shipping in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, the obvious parallels between Blake/Yang and Catra/Adora meant it was all but impossible to be aware of one and not the other. Without any context of the show, I watched the big BMBLB fight isolated from the rest of the show, and thought, “Huh, neat.” But that was enough that when Tulok created a video on How to Play Yang in D&D, I both understood the references and thought, “Y’know, that sounds like a fun character to play.”
Fast forward a few years to when my buddy InkBlitz announced he wanted to run a Spelljammer-meets-Treasure Planet campaign. I decided that now was the time to dust off the character idea, and Aurora Sparkfall, monk of the Order of the Radiant Dragon, was born. And since she was inspired by Yang, I figured it was a good time to finally go and actually watch the show.
But searching for RWBY online showed me its fandom first, or at least the noisiest parts. My search results were filled with things like “RWBY: How to Ruin a Franchise,” “Why I’m Never Watching RWBY Again,” “RWBY Volume 5: The Worst Thing Ever Made,” “RWBY: A Frustrating Mess,” etc., etc., ad nauseam. I’d also brushed up against RWBY shipping wars as part of the She-Ra fandom, given their overlap, and the impression I’d received was that RWBY was essentially a string of cool fight scenes strung together by the worst-written plot-hole ridden ever. That didn’t really match the little bit I’d watched, but I figured that was just because I’d seen some isolated good parts.
So that’s what I went in expecting. I binged the first three seasons in one day, playing in the background while I drew, and… they were good. Rough visually since they were animated in Poser, and a bit choppy since they were originally 5-15 minute webisodes made for YouTube, but fun adventure stories with, yes, cool fights. I knew that Monty Oum, one of the creators of the show and the primary fight choreographer, had unexpectedly passed away between volumes two and three, and so much of the criticism of the show seemed to draw a sharp “Monty Era vs. Post-Monty Era” line, that I figured I must have seen all the good parts and the precipitous drop must surely come shortly.
Except it didn’t. The show got more polished, the writing got more focused, the characterization got deeper… the show kept getting better. And while I think the fight choreography did become a little weaker, everything else around it was so rapidly improving that I quickly became hooked and eager to see what came next. Critics’ cries of “The show has gone off the rails!” and “This isn’t what Monty wanted!” become more and more inexplicable as I saw setups that were clearly made in the first few episodes lead to payoffs that made absolute sense long after his passing. (Plus, how would the critics know what Monty wanted better than the people who actually developed the show with him? Surely if The Secret Notes of Monty Oum were a thing, the RWBY team would have as much access to it as randos on the internet.)
So over the course of three? Four? weeks I’ve caught up with all the currently-available RWBY, including the end of volume eight and the trailer for volume nine, due to come early next year, and I have thoughts. Specifically, that RWBY is much better than its fandom seems to think it is. There are places where it doesn’t line up with my personal preferences one way or another (the soap opera-esque focus on plot and dramatic thrust over character development being a big one, and its tendency to get weighed down in political shenanigans that everyone knows will be blasted by the inevitable season-finale-apocalypse anyway being another), but these things aren’t bad by any stretch, they’re just not my cup of tea.
As far as actual flaws? I dunno, its tendency to mistake “references” for “depth” is an issue, but then again, how many hundreds of times has Star Trek made extremely tenuous links to Shakespeare or Moby Dick and patted itself on the back for being so smart while it did so? The constant ship-teasing is getting perilously close to queerbaiting at this stage and the audience’s collective shouts of “GET ON WITH IT!” are hurting suspension of disbelief. But hot take: these flaws aren’t actually that bad. RWBY is not ruined, volume five was not the worst TV that ever worsted, and RWBY doesn’t need “fixing.” The worst that I can say about it is that the last two volumes felt to me like they were written by committee rather than following a strong vision, but then again volume nine is a giant left turn and seems like it will be interesting and surprising.
So, yeah. RWBY is good! Not as slam-dunk good as She-Ra, or as impressively realized as something like the MCU, but still something I like, I’m glad to have watched, and am looking forward to seeing more of. I’d call that a success.
-TG
The MAD Monk
Sep. 9th, 2022 05:28 pmIt’s hardly a secret that I love martial arts action. I’ve practiced (on a dabbler level) Shaolin style, wing chun, tai chi, and judo at varying times in my life, and famously hold Big Trouble In Little China as my favorite movie. So, it should hardly be a surprise that I frequently want to play a monk in D&D.
(Which is weird, because historically D&D has hated monks, and I don’t understand why. But that’s for another post.*)
So when my buddy InkBlitz announced his much-hinted at Spelljammer** campaign, telling us to create a character at 5th level with a single common or uncommon magic item, after mucking around with a handful of different ideas, I finally settled on Aurora: an aasimar monk of the ascended dragon who, ain’t gonna lie to ya folks, is pretty much Yang from RWBY. Her fists are on fire and she punches stuff until it explodes—or shoots fire bolts at it if she can’t reach it to taunt it into coming close enough for her to punch it with fire until it explodes. Ascendant dragon monks can do a breath weapon a few times, but to get the real ranged boom I went with a wand of magic missiles reskinned as gauntlets. They do force instead of radiant or fire (which would be more thematically on point), but force is resisted by fewer things anyway so I’ll say its channelled ki bursts and call it a day.
But of course me being me, I wanted her to have interesting RP opportunities out of combat, and as I’m one of the most natural faces in the player group*** I figured I’d make her a facey monk. Ascended dragon does have a free reroll of a Persuasion check built in, so of all the monk subclasses, it’s the only one that supports a face roll face role at all. Buuuuut monks got no ability scores to spare on Charisma: they need to pour everything they’ve got into Dexterity, Wisdom, and Constitution, in that order. I managed to eke out a 12 and give her proficiency in Persuasion and Intimidation at least, giving her +4 in both of those, which is competent, but she’s not gonna be going Full Clooney on anyone any time soon.
Also, monks punch a lot, but they don’t punch very hard, something I’m keenly aware of after DMing two campaigns back to back where the barbarian does All The Damage In the Universe each turn, and everybody else is like “Oh, and I attack too.” As an experiment I made a build that was a zealot path barbarian, with an eye towards reskinning a flametongue sword as her burning gauntlets, and that was some sweet damage but… flametongue is a rare weapon, she can’t have it. Oops. XD Since “her hands are on fire” is a central conceit of the character idea, it’s back to monk.
So once again I’m fighting the system. I swear I don’t do this on purpose!
But! Blitzy told us to use the character building variations from the new One D&D playtest, which means she gets a free “first level” feat! There’s only a tiny number of them actually in the playtest document, but in the accompanying vids Jeremy Crawford basically implied that the main thing that makes a feat “first level” is that it doesn’t have any stat bumps. I started with Tough, since monks are often on the squishy side for front-line (or even behind-the-lines) combatants, but I was still shopping around for something to boost her faceyness. Wait! Skill Expert gives you expertise with a single skill! She could take that for Persuasion! Except no! She can’t! That has a stat bump and so can’t be a 1st level feat! *facepalm*
Back to Tough? Fighting Initiate to get a d8 with Unarmed Fighting? I’m still waffling and the game is tomorrow night! Skip both and go with Mobile? She already has 40′ of movement and can fly for a minute three times per day. Ask Blitzy to let me homebrew a feat that would take two half-feat parts of Skill Expert and Athlete to give her the ability to kip-up? Haven’t I tortured Blitzy enough??? XD (And in case you’re reading this Blitzy, no, I don’t actually want to do that. XD )
It wouldn’t be so much of a conundrum if feats weren’t so rare. As a monk, Aurora absolutely needs to channel her ASIs into Dexterity and Wisdom in order to scale with the rest of the party (or at least as much as monks do), and so she can’t afford to spend them on feats. In the final analysis, I think I’m going to end up going back to Tough. There’s no feat she’s able to take to buff her faceyness, and starting next level she’ll be taking either fighter or ranger to boost her damage output, so I can wait for that.
FWIW, I attempted a version of this character in PF2E just for comparison, assuming 3rd level PF2E was roughly equivalent to 5th level 5E. I think I succeeded? With my limited system mastery, I’m not sure if an ifrit monk with the Rain of Embers and Stoked Flame stances is what I’m going for or not. >.> But at least her feat selection was more granular! XD
-TG
*Seriously, WotC? d4 base damage? d8 hit die? Step of the Wind costs ki? Rogues get it better for no cost and don’t have to trade their extra damage to do it.
**Homebrewed extensively, but still recognizable.
***Not exclusively so, but noticeably so.
Richard Grant = The actual “evil Loki”
Sophia Di Martino = The Enchantress, working for Richard Grant
TVA = Actual Baddies, or at least taking them down will be the endgame
Kang the Conquerer = middle time keeper, will be the next phase’s Thanos trying to restore “sacred timeline”
Confidence in these predictions? 65-70%.
-TG
Shady and Androgyny
Mar. 17th, 2021 08:30 pm
It’s no secret that my preference is for leading ladies in my work. From Tiffany Tiger to Verity Anjo, there are reasons both practical and philosophical that nine times out of ten I will pick a gal to be my hero. And while Shade-Of-the-Candle is a character who grew organically in my mind rather than being deliberately created, the same is true for her. But of all the female leads I’ve created, Shady is probably the least “feminine.” Physically, she’s a skinny beanpole, “all elbows and knees,” and while lithe and flexible as any other cat (and, let’s face it, clad in a leather corset and thigh boots), she’s not Superhero Sexy like Catwoman or Black Widow. Depending on her age and circumstances, Shady ranges from a scraggly alleycat to a scrappy tomboy to a Georgian duelist in a longcoat and feathered tricorn hat. In terms of her personality, she is snarky, aggressive, goal-oriented, and covers pain or vulnerability with bluster or bravado… all of which are pretty typically “masculine” (or at least boyish) traits.
Which led me to thinking about the role womanhood plays in the makeup of her character. I know some male writers whose women come off pretty much as “men with boobs,” and I have always worked to avoid that. But as I examined it, I found that I couldn’t really picture a male Shade-Of-the-Candle, and have it be the same character. The closest analogue I could come up with was Disney’s take on Aladdin—he’s got the imposter syndrome, the very cavalier ideas about property, the swashbuckling physicality, and so on. Aside from the fur and tail, a male version of Shady would probably hit a lot of the same beats.
But at the same time, there’s an external-vs.-internal difference between Aladdin and Shady. Aladdin is “unworthy” because he’s poor, because society says he’s unworthy—the words may sting, but he never actually believes them. He just has to get past it, like an obstacle. Shady, on the other hand, has internalized it. When Maraldo and the pawnshop owner and however-many-other people told her over the course of her life that she was nothing and nobody, on some level she believed it. Even with her own ship and crew and having slain a dragon and more, the fight that Shady can’t win is inside her own head.
That’s not an inherently “male/female” dynamic—lots of women know they’re more than society says they are, and lots of men never get over toxic voices from their childhood. But in our culture at least there is a “masculine/feminine” dichotomy that it does play into. (“Male/female” and “masculine/feminine,” while closely related, are not actually the same.) And I think it’s a dynamic that would express very differently in a male Shady who’d grown up under the same circumstances. I suspect male Shady would have ended up a lot meaner, certainly more wrathful, and run with a more cutthroat crowd. He’d also be a lot less clever, more inclined to intimidation or violence than charm or wit. Would he have even Shady’s sketchy version of a conscience? Hard to say. Shady’s feminine aspects inclined her to identify more with Velas’s kindness than Maraldo’s brutality (and I notice that she has diametrically opposed father figures but no mother to look to); I think in a lot of ways it’s the push-pull between her aggressive and “masculine” traits and that quiet-but-persistent “feminine” side that make her compelling, to me.
-TG
Reclamation Project Year Two Update
Jan. 19th, 2021 10:17 pm
This book could use a little heart.
After months of delay—well, let's face it, after 2020, pretty much—Reclamation Project: Year Two is finally starting to take some shape. I still have to write my own story for the book, but I have many very good submissions, including lots of returning faces.
But I feel that something is missing, which I described on Twitter as "soul," but I think it might be better to describe as "heart." Most of the submissions so far have put a lot of emphasis on action, and have been very fun to read on that basis. But one of the things I was most surprised and pleased by in Year One were the quieter, more reflective stories, that (for lack of a better term) "humanized" this world full of furry adventurers, flying cities, and deranged robots. So far this collection doesn't really have a "Dark Garden Lake" or "Flavors of Sunlight" to give it heft. It also doesn't really have much "solarpunk," veering more into "cold war" style intrigue between humans and furries, or post-apocalypse action.
In The Reclamation Project "Formula" I touched on some of what is missing in the "Character Is King" section; but I think it needs some emphasis. Year Two still needs at least one story that is really about emotional connection, even when that involves blowing up rogue bots or having fun playing with the details of the setting. It also really needs some good solarpunking up—although what that might look like, I'm unsure of. (That's why I'm editing the thing, instead of just writing it all myself! ;D )
So if you're out there and you have something you think might fit the bill, please send it along! The "submission cutoff date" has been stretched so many times at this point it's snapped, and I'm not going to worry about it. My goal is to have the book on the table at AnthroCon 2021, assuming that actually happens, but as mentioned I've still got to write my own story for it as well, and I'd rather have a great book that came out late, than an "all right" book that came out on time.
So hit me with your furry solarpunk awesomeness!
Being a Player or a DM in D&D
Sep. 8th, 2020 12:35 pmGeekQuery! A new web channel featuring InkBlitz and myself, talking all things geeky. We jump right in this week, discussing what it’s like to switch to being a player in tabletop RPGs if you’re used to being the Gamemaster—or vice-versa. We’re just getting started and we’d love some feedback!
-The Gneech
Shady the Bard, Revisited
Aug. 27th, 2020 05:36 am
So I think I’ve talked myself into multiclassing Shady with bard instead of fighter. The question now becomes… when? My initial thought was that it would start at 11th level, because Reliable Talent is a broken class feature anyway, but I would miss the ability score bumps at 8 and 10, not to mention Evasion (which is amazing) and Panache (which is also amazing).
On the other hand… 11th level is really far away, if we even take it for granted that the game will get there. As players, we (admittedly, mostly me, but other players bought in to my reasoning) asked Inkblitz to slow levelling down when we hit sixth, and, well, it’s very rare for any D&D game to survive long past 10th. And since Bard Shady’s spells top out at 3rd level, if I wait for 11th to roll around, they’re going to be a lot more limited in application.
So I started thinking about what would happen if I made the switch immediately: what would I gain, and what would I lose? Since 9th level’s Panache and the 10th level ASI are sort of my benchmarks of pure rogue, I tried statting up Shady Rogue 10, and Shady Rogue 5/Bard 5, and this is what I got:
—–
SHADY: Rogue (Swashbuckler) 10
AC 17; hp 74
Speed: 30′, x2 w/ Feline Agility
Initiative: +8
–
Str 10, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16
Saves: Dex +9, Int +4
Acrobatics +9, Animal Handling +1, Arcana +0, Athletics +8, Deception +3, History +0, Insight +1, Intimidation +7, Investigation +4, Medicine +1, Nature +0, Perception +9, Performance +3, Persuasion +11, Religion +0, Sleight of Hand +9, Stealth +13, Survival +1
Prof: Concertina, Dice Set, Thieves’ Tools
–
Cunning Action, Evasion, Fancy Footwork, Panache, Rakish Audacity, Sneak Attack +5d6, Uncanny Dodge
–
Crescent Moon: +10 to hit, 1d8+6 piercing (+5d6 sneak attack*)
Cutlass (off-hand): +9 to hit, 1d6 slashing
[average combined DPR 31.5]
Pistol: +9 to hit, 1d10+5 piercing (+5d6 sneak attack*) [average DPR 28]
–
*Sneak attack can only apply once per turn.
—–
SHADY: Rogue (Swashbuckler) 5/Bard (College of Swords) 5
AC 16 (+d8 Blade Flourish**); hp 74
Speed: 30′, 40′ w/ attack action (Blade Flourish), x2 w/ Feline Agility
Initiative: +9
–
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 16
Saves: Dex +8, Int +4
Acrobatics +8, Animal Handling +3, Arcana +2, Athletics +8, Deception +7, History +2, Insight +3, Intimidation +7, Investigation +4, Medicine +3, Nature +2, Perception +9, Performance +5, Persuasion +11, Religion +2, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +12, Survival +3
Prof: Concertina, Dice Set, Navigator’s Tools, Thieves’ Tools
–
Bardic Inspiration d8 (3/short or long rest), Blade Flourish, Cunning Action, Fancy Footwork, Fighting Style (Two-Weapon Fighting), Jack of All Trades, Rakish Audacity, Sneak Attack +3d6, Song of Rest (d6), Uncanny Dodge
–
Spells: 0-level—Friendship, Mage Hand, Vicious Mockery; 1—level (4 slots)—Charm Person, Healing Word, Heroism, Longstrider, Sleep; 2-level (3 slots)—Blindness/Deafness, Enthrall; 3-level (2 slots)—Stinking Cloud
–
Crescent Moon: +9 to hit, 1d8+5 piercing (+3d6 sneak attack*, +d8 Blade Flourish**)
Cutlass (off-hand): +8 to hit, 1d6+4 slashing
[average combined DPR 32]
Pistol: +8 to hit, 1d10+4 piercing (+3d6 sneak attack*) [average DPR 20]
–
*Sneak attack can only apply once per turn.
**Blade Flourish cannot add to AC and weapon damage on the same turn, can only apply damage once per turn, and expends a use of Bardic Inspiration.
—–
CONCLUSIONS: Bard Shady is very slightly squishier, with one point lower AC and Dex saves. (This could be mitigated with a cloak piratey longcoat of protection and a luckstone, both of which are on her magic items wishlist.)
Her swordsmanship suffers when not using blade flourishes, but is comparable when she does use them; her marksmanship drops noticeably, however. On the other hand, with Sleep, Stinking Cloud, and spammable Vicious Mockery, she has other options at range. She loses both Uncanny Dodge (ouch) and Panache (ouch), but gains a much more robust skill list, gets to plug a hole in her mariner skills w/ Navigator Tools, and becomes a better leader, with Bardic Inspiration, Healing Word, and Song of Rest available to bolster her crew.
If we assume that her “spells” are actually just items she’s carrying around in that utility belt, Mage Hand becomes her yoinking things from across the room with her grapple hook, Sleep can be sleeping powder or a sucker punch, and Blindness/Deafness and Stinking Cloud both become bags of stuff she lobs at her foes.
That running speed, tho. With Blade Flourish and Feline Agility, she can run 80′ on a turn and still attack someone—who then can’t hit her back when she’s running away thanks to Fancy Footwork. Add Longstrider to the mix and we’re looking at Sonic the Hedgehog. Bard Shady has a higher initiative than Rogue Shady despite having a lower Dex, but won’t be laughing off fireballs. She might just outrun them, tho. >.>
Ugh! It’s a tough choice! Bard Shady is better for the social pillar, Rogue Shady is better for combat (at least against foes that don’t resist slashing and piercing), and the two of them bring different strengths to exploration.
At the end of the day, I think I need to pick the one that is most “in character” rather than being optimized. Given how much Shady loves to talk to people, pulls weird things out of her bag of tricks, wants to be a competent seafarer, and pokes her nose where it doesn’t belong, I suspect Bard Shady edges out Rogue Shady at the end of the day. But I’d love to hear opinions!
Creating Five Star Adventures
Aug. 11th, 2020 01:00 pmI’ve been running a somewhat-modified Tomb of Annihilation lately, and while my players seem to be having a good time, I must admit that I’m not quite feeling the connection with it that I would like. Perhaps exacerbated by the fact that the group has had some seriously bad luck with navigation rolls and so keeps getting lost in the jungle, the game largely feels to me like a string of random fights, with little or no through-line of story or character development, which are famously the parts of any game that I’m the most interested in.
While I was looking for ways to address this for my next session, I happened across this video from Runesmith, in which he enumerates “five things an adventure should have.” What immediately struck me is that I’ve seen this concept before: the first time was in West End Games’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game, way back in 1987, but it’s also a core conceit of the Five Room Dungeon concept. Some of the specific bullet points of the five items vary, however, and if we map them to Dungeons & Dragons‘s “Three Pillars of Adventure” (Exploration, Social Interaction, and Combat), we get…
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Why five? First, it’s complex enough to be meaty without being so complex that it bogs down in detail or analysis paralysis. Second, it nicely maps to the familiar five-act story structure of setup > rising action > complication > climax > denouement. Finally, it’s a handy pocket size. The Star Wars example doesn’t quite map to the other two—”firefight,” “ship combat,” and “chase” are all more-or-less specific flavors of “fight something”—but the Star Wars setting, with its alien creatures and exotic worlds, has “go somewhere cool” baked into it universe design assumptions (and the inherent reward of any adventure assumed to be “victory for the Alliance”).
Looking at my Tomb of Annihilation game, I actually think that most of the individual sessions have hit the five points fairly consistently: the Burning Coast is an exciting region with dangers and wonders galore, there have been plenty of colorful NPCs, and so on. It has leaned a little heavily on the combat and exploration, but I think the point that may be falling down is rewards. Not just in terms of treasure (because there hasn’t been much, but in this setting gold and such is largely irrelevant), but in terms of the inherent reward of “moving the story forward.” The party came to the Burning Coast to find (and hopefully end) the Wasting Curse, and so far they’ve gone dino racing, rowed up the Amazon Soshenstar River, and now they’ve gotten entangled with the troubles of a lizardfolk village that may or may not have anything to do with the Big Problem. The barbarian, of all people, is wondering “Are we getting anywhere?” and maybe he has a point.
With this in mind, I think I’m going to remix a few of the elements of the next session to tie them more closely to the Big Problem, but more importantly, to show the players that it’s tied to the Big Problem. In an adventure where “loot” is not a metric, “plot coupons” are the actual reward, and I think maybe I’ve been too stingy with those. So I will address that.
-The Gneech
Shady and the Tiger, Revisited
May. 23rd, 2020 04:28 pm
Just a quickie story from the D&D game I play in, for your enjoyment. :)
I apologize for all the names being so similar; that’s just something that’s happened organically in the campaign as it’s progressed.
SHADY = Shade-Of-the-Candle, my tabaxi swashbuckler
SILMA = weretiger amazon who recently joined the party
SHANA = another player’s tiefling warlock
—–
“So this is the Laughing Axe Tavern, it’s the closest thing we have to a base of operations really,” said Shade-Of-the-Candle, holding the door open. The enormous weretiger Silma had to duck her head to clear the door coming in, drawing more than a few turned heads, which neither Shady nor Silma acknowledged. “Maybe not the Lady Patrician’s Manor, but it beats living in an alley,” the much smaller tabaxi said.
“More than adequate,” said Silma. “I’m used to life on the road.”
The group drifted off to various open seats in the crowded room; Rulita, Rai, and Shana ended up at one small table, while Leuco and Capsaicin went to the bar. Finding nowhere adequate to the task of seating her, Silma went to an apple barrel in the corner and climbed up onto it for a makeshift stool. As if taking a cue, Shade-Of-the-Candle hopped up and sat on the end of the bar next to her.
“Oy!” said the bartender, putting his fists on his sides and scowling at the tabaxi. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m ordering a round of drinks for me and my friends, that’s what,” said Shady, slapping a few gold coins down on the bar.
“Well put your butt on a stool, not on my bar.”
“What stool?” demanded Shady. “The place is packed! Besides, I’m having a conversation with my friend here.” Turning to Silma, she said, “Whattya wanna drink, Simmie?”
The weretiger blinked. “Simmie?”
“Yeah?” said Shady. “Whattya wanna drink?”
“Wine and water will be fine,” said Silma.
“You heard her,” said Shady. “Same for me. Get a move on.”
The bartender frowned, but collected the coins and stepped away all the same.
Silma cocked her head at Shady. “Where did ‘Simmie’ come from?”
Shady shrugged. “I dunno. Easier to say than ‘Silma.’ I give people names. It’s just a thing I do.”
“Like ‘Sea-Legs’ and ‘Devil-Girl.’”
“You got it.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Silma. “You are a tabaxi, after all.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“I meant no offense,” said Silma.
“No, I mean seriously, what does that have to do with it?”
“Oh, just tabaxi, and their propensity for nicknames. I’ve always found it a charming quirk.”
“Tabaxi have a propensity for nicknames?”
Silma adjusted awkwardly on her barrel. “It’s just a stereotype, I suppose.” Looking around, still shifting uncomfortably, she asked, “Is it always this crowded?”
“Waxes and wanes,” said Shady. “There’s a big Thessalanian whaler in the harbor, probably half the people here are off of it.”
“I hope there’ll be somewhere to sleep.”
Shady blinked at her. “What, in the common room?”
“That was my plan,” said Silma.
“Oh. Uh.” Shady’s ears twitched. “I’ve got a whole room, upstairs.”
“All to yourself?” The weretiger gave a half-smirk as the bartender returned with her watered wine. “Being the owner of a ship has made you extravagant.”
“Hey, I’m a proper somebody now,” said Shady, grinning. “But what I’m getting at, is you don’t have to sleep in the common area. You can stay up in my room.”
Silma’s ears folded down, and she stood up from the barrel. “No thank you,” she said. “If you’ll excuse me.”
“Huh?” said Shady.
“I’ll find a room in one of the other taverns in town. You can find me through the Golden Compass Society when it’s time to continue our pursuit of Captain Aranthé.”
Shady jumped down to the floor after her. “What? Why?”
Silma glowered down at the tabaxi. “I don’t know what kind of person you are, but I don’t fall into bed with someone I’ve just met and I don’t appreciate—”
Shady’s ears shot up and her eyes widened. “Fall into bed? You mean—?” In a loud and confused voice that caused the weretiger to flinch and look around the room, Shady announced, “I don’t want to have sex with you!” A peculiar noise not far off may have been Leuco snorting into a mug of ale.
“Oh, please!” snarled Silma. “Ever since you first showed up in that cave you’ve been following me around, making eyes at me, acting like a show off—”
Shady’s own ears pinned down. “I have not!”
“And now you’re proposing that I share your room.”
“So what? I’d let any of my friends share my room if they asked!”
“But you didn’t invite any of them. Only me!”
Shady blinked at that, and stared at Silma for a beat. Finally she said, “Well… well yeah, okay, I have been coming on a little strong. But it wasn’t because I was hitting on you! I mean, I’m not not hitting on you, I guess, if you wanted to have sex I’m not against the idea, but it’s not… I mean… that wasn’t…”
“Well what, then?” demanded Silma.
“I just…!” said Shady. “I just, I just… you’re the only person I’ve ever met like me.”
Silma furrowed her brows. “Like you?”
Shady looked down. “Everkeep has humans, and elves, and dwarves… and we’re right by Humblewood, so there’s mouse people and fox people and bird people and squirrel people and who-knows-what-else. But I’ve never met my kind. Never another cat person. Never. Not once.” She turned her eyes up to Silma. “Until now.”
Silma’s ears tilted forward. “Not once? No parents or siblings? No—”
“Not. Once.” Shady snarled. “I can’t even speak or read my own language. I know what my name looks like, but I don’t know how to say it. You tell me tabaxi give people nicknames? That’s news to me.”
Silma smiled, gently. “I am not a tabaxi, Shade-Of-the-Candle.”
Shady looked away, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. “No, I know you’re not. But… you’re more like… one of us… than one of… them.”
“Shady,” said Silma. Her voice had jumped up a full octave or more, and lost its gravelly sound, but it was unmistakably her.
Shady jerked her gaze back to see not a seven foot tall tiger woman, but a nearly-normal human before her, with a dark cast to her skin and black hair. Only the golden, slit pupils of her eyes hinted at the feline. The tabaxi’s ears drooped, and she somehow seemed to shrink.
“Shady,” said Silma again. “I am not ‘your kind’ in the way you think I am. I am as human as I am tiger. When you say ‘them’ you are also talking about me.”
Shady blinked, and looked down at her clawed hands. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“But you aren’t so alone. Soon you will have a ship. It can take you to Port Nyanzaru, to Setranophis, or even Payit, where tabaxi are plentiful. Maybe you have a family out there still, trying to find you.” Shifting back into her weretiger form, Silma put a massive paw on Shady’s shoulder. “When this business is done, perhaps we could go find some for you.”
“I’m sorry,” said Shady again. She slipped out from under Silma’s grasp, and walked away.
Shady and the Wizard
Feb. 6th, 2019 02:30 pmA story fragment that popped into my head last night, starring my tabaxi rogue. Enjoy!…
Shade-of-the-Candle slid the final stretch of the ramp in a
low crouch, dropping forward onto one hand from her momentum when she hit the
bottom. The torch she’d been carrying clattered across the floor, extinguished,
but to her surprise, she didn’t need it.
She’d been deposited into a large, round chamber with
concentric pillars that were covered with writhing hieroglyphs. The middle of
the ceiling was dominated by a cluster of dimly-luminous indigo crystals; sitting
cross-legged on a dais under the crystals, was the robed figure of a man.
Or… not? There were too many arms, for starters, and the skin
visible on the man’s forearms and hands was a dusky blue-gray, but that may
have been a trick of the light. The fact that each of the four hands had two
thumbs, one on either side, also did not inspire confidence. The man’s face, if
indeed he had one, was completely obscured by his cowl, but Shady had no doubt
that he was aware of her.
Shady blinked at him. He didn’t move. The tomb was supposed
to have been lost. It was definitely trapped. She’d had a tough scrabble to get
this far, only to find this oddity sitting in what she had expected to be the
treasure chamber. Either way, she wasn’t about to go home empty-handed now. Her
tail flicked back and forth involuntarily, as she rose to a standing position
and slowly drew her cutlasses.
The hood dipped slightly. A deep bass rumble assaulted Shady’s
ears and crushed her skull, nearly knocking her back off her feet, but then it
passed as quickly as it had come. Across from her, the figure gave a quiet and dismissive
snort.
Shady blinked at it. “What kind of hellspawn are you?” she
asked.
“I am no kind of hellspawn, you superstitious creature,” the
figure replied. The voice was male, more of a deep buzzing than anything else, and
spoke in the clipped tones of a noble.
“Then what are–“
“There’s no point in telling you what I am,” he said. “It
wouldn’t mean anything to you. And even if I could explain it, it would just
blast your already dangerously-limited mind into even smaller fragments.”
The corner of Shady’s mouth rose in a smirk. “So you’re a
wizard,” she said, moving slowly into the ring of pillars.
“Fine. Yes. I’m a wizard. It’s less wrong than anything else
you might come up with.”
“You’re pretty rude,” said Shady.
“I am intensely rude,” said the wizard. “And I intend to
remain that way. What will you do,
now that you’ve come to that brilliant conclusion?”
Shady stepped forward again, pointing at his cowl with the
tip of one of her swords. “I’ve heard it said, that the best thing to do when
you come upon a wizard, is to kill it.”
The creature didn’t move. “So why don’t you, then?”
She gave him a long, appraising look. “Because…” she finally
said, “you don’t seem particularly afraid that I might.”
Two of the wizard’s four arms retreated under robes. He used
the other two to shift into a more attentive position. “The creature has some
sense after all!” he said. “This may turn out to be interesting.”
“What are you doing, squatting in an ancient tomb?”
“What are you
doing, crawling around in it?”
“I’m a thief,” said Shady.
“Of course you are.”
“But you didn’t answer my question. The tomb was sealed. What
are you doing here?”
“I am playing a game of strategy,” said the wizard. “A game that
spans eons, made up of the most infinitesimally small moves imaginable.”
“A game?” said Shady. “There’s no board. There are no
pieces.”
“I’m looking at one right now,” said the wizard.
Shady rolled her eyes. “Okay, this conversation is
pointless,” she said. “Where’s the Red King’s treasure chamber? Where’s the Red
King’s treasure?”
“Oh, it’s here,” said the wizard. “Right where he buried it.
Every few hundred years another would-be robber comes blundering in, and not
one has managed to take it way yet. One or two did manage to get away richer
than they came, of course. You may be one of the lucky ones.”
“Any objections if I try my luck?” said Shady, gesturing
with her sword again.
“None whatsoever,” said the wizard. “I have no interest in
baubles. There’s another passage, behind me. You may find what you’re looking
for that way.”
“Fine,” said Shady, sheathing her swords. “Go back to your
game then, wizard, and stay out of my way.” She collected the torch from where
she’d dropped it and reignited it.
“Another pawn moves into play,” said the wizard. Shady glared
at the back of his cowl, and plunged down the passage.
Gamers of the Galaxy
Mar. 28th, 2018 03:21 pm
DM: Ronan comes striding out of the wrecked ship. Like before, he appears to have taken no damage from the crash. He sneers at you and bellows to the crowd, “Behold! Your ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’!”
GAMORA: Gaah, that damn infinity stone! He’s basically casting globe of invulnerability on himself.
DM: He also steps in Groot.
ROCKET: Son of a bitch!
DM: Rocket, your turn.
ROCKET: The infinity stone is mounted in his hammer, right? Could I maybe shoot the hammer out of his hand?
DM: With a regular gun? Not likely.
STARLORD: Unfortunately, you used your hadron enforcer already. That recharges on a short rest, right?
ROCKET: Yeah. …But, hey! Can I spend my inspiration point from protecting all those civilians to get the hadron enforcer‘s charge back?
DM (thinking): Okay, sure, but it got kinda smashed up in the crash. Make a DC 15 tool proficiency check to get it working.
ROCKET (rolls): Aw, shit! What a time to roll a freakin’ nine.
GAMORA: Geeze, and you blew an inspiration point on it.
DM: Well, you can keep trying on your next turn– if you get a next turn. Ronan’s on the ground, now.
ROCKET: Crap.
DM: Drax? Your turn.
DRAX: I assist Rocket on his next roll.
DM: Okay. Gamora?
GAMORA: Um… crap, I dunno, I’m a fighter. Can I just… I dunno, keep my eyes open and be ready to jump in?
DM: Delay requires an action and a trigger.
GAMORA: Okay, I guess if I see an opportunity to grab the hammer, I’ll do that.
DM: Good enough. Starlord?
STARLORD: What’s Ronan doing?
DM: He’s getting ready to smash the hammer down and destroy all life on the planet. Y’know, like one does.
ROCKET: Craaaaaaap.
STARLORD: I challenge him to a dance-off.
GAMORA: What???
DRAX: Pffft!
ROCKET: Oh God.
STARLORD: You said my tape player was going, somewhere off in the wreckage, right? Well, it says right here: my bond is “I treasure my mixtape from home more than life itself.” If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die dancing to my mixtape!
DM (laughs): Sure, why not? Go ahead and make a Deception check, with advantage for tying into your traits.
STARLORD (rolls): Aww, yeah! Twenty-frickin’-SEVEN! (sings) Oooo-ooh child, things are gonna get bet-ter!
DM (still laughing): Okay! Ronan tries a DC 27 Wisdom save (rolls) and blows it bigtime. He’s effectively stunned for a round at Starlord’s pelvic sorcery.
TABLE: (laughter)
STARLORD: Gamora! Take it!
GAMORA: I am so not taking it.
STARLORD: I meant take the hammer.
GAMORA: Can I use my readied action to grab the hammer while Ronan is stunned?
DM: Call it a disarm check. Make an unarmed attack roll against Ronan’s Athletics check. (rolls)
GAMORA (rolling): Uh… man! Another nine.
DM: Yeah, no. Ronan’s got a vice grip on that thing.
GAMORA: Yeah, I’m just gonna stand there and stare at Starlord like he’s nuts.
DM: Okay, new round! Ronan is stunned and just stares at Starlord. “What are you doing?”
STARLORD: I’m distracting you, ya big turd blossom!
DM (laughs): Rocket, roll on your tool check again. You have advantage this time, thanks to Drax’s aid.
ROCKET (rolls): Nineteen! Hadron enforcer online, baby! I shoot the motherfucker! I mean, I shoot the hammer out of his hand.
DM: Unfortunately, it took your turn to make the skill check.
DRAX: So it’s my turn? I shoot the motherfucker.
DM: That works! You grab the hadron enforcer from Rocket and basically use it to make a ranged 5d10 disarm! Go ahead and total it up, the damage will be the difficulty for his Athletics check. (rolls)
DRAX (rolls, with no small amount of satisfaction): Thirty four!
DM: Ahahahaha, no. Not only does Ronan not make his Athletics check, the hammer explodes into a bazillion pieces, sending the infinity stone flying into the air!
ROCKET: Oh crap oh crap oh crap!
STARLORD: I’m basically standing next to Ronan, right? ’cause we were having a dance-off? Can I grab the infinity stone before it hits the ground?
DM: You can try! Give me a Dexterity save.
GAMORA: That thing does 100 necrotic damage per round and then you have to make Charisma saves to not explode!
STARLORD: Yeah, but while I’m lying there making death saves you can slap a container onto it. The Charisma save I’m not worried about.
GAMORA: But we don’t have a healer!
STARLORD: Well maybe there’s a paramedic in the crowd. (rolls) Anyway! I roll a sixteen.
DM: You nab it out of the air! You take 100 points of necrotic damage!
STARLORD: Ow.
DM: Fortunately, your Mystery Boon kicks in– turns out you are resistant to necrotic damage! So you only take 50.
STARLORD: Yay? I have fifteen hit points. (rolls) Twenty-two Charisma save.
DM: You are not killed outright on this round, but you are stunned and unable to act. A massive ball of purple-black necrotic energy swells around you, engulfing you and Ronan both. Ronan looks more than a little offended that you aren’t dead.
STARLORD: I bet he does!
DM: He also takes 100 points of damage, and is offended by that, too! It’s not enough to kill him, but it clearly hurts. He shouts, “Who are you???”
STARLORD: So all I gotta do is stand here dying at him to take him out?
DM: Pretty much!
STARLORD: Winning! When he shouts “Who are you?” I just give him my most smug, “You said it yourself, we’re the Guardians of the Galaxy, bitch!”
DM: Starlord taunts the badguy! It doesn’t do anything, but points for going out in style.
GAMORA: You said the damage happens every round, right? So he’s going to keep taking it?
DM: Yes. It spreads out through everyone in contact with whoever’s touching the stone.
GAMORA: Okay, I grab Starlord’s hand to absorb some of the damage and ready an action to shove a container onto the stone when Ronan drops.
DRAX: I’ll grab on too.
ROCKET: Ditto.
DM: Okay, new round! Ronan takes 100 points of damage, which is forty-odd more than he had. He explodes with a look of deep resentment on his face.
TABLE: (cheers, high-fives)
DM: You all take 100 points of damage split four ways, so 25 each, except for Starlord, who resists it and takes 12.
STARLORD: Two! I have two friggin’ hit points! Eat that, Ronan the Dickhead!
ROCKET: Ronan-the-A-Loser, more like!
GAMORA: I shove the infinity stone into the container!
DM: The purple-black cloud of necrotic energy immediately dissipates! Revealing Yondu and a dozen Ravagers. “Well, well, that was quite a light show!”
DRAX: Seriously?
STARLORD: Geeze, if it isn’t one damn thing, it’s another around here.
-The Gneech
Laconipedantism
Nov. 15th, 2017 02:16 pmAbout 2/3 of the way through the opening sequence of Heathcliff/Cats and Company, Riff-Raff and Cleo randomly go zooming off in a bathtub.
It’s not a bathtub on wheels, there are no rockets or other means of propulsion. It’s just a friggin’ bathtub.
I mean, the cats living in a random James Bond-esque transforming Cadillac in a junkyard, didn’t bother me. But flying off in a random hover-bathtub? That bothered me.
Last night, I had a random dream in which I was watching a “behind the scenes” video about this series. I don’t know if this dream was based on a long-lost memory, or if it was my brain making stuff up, but it doesn’t really matter. In the dream, somebody my brain identified as one of the show-runners coined the term “laconipedantism.” “What that means,” he said, “is that our policy was to explain as little as possible, or with as few words as possible, or to just not explain things at all. ‘How does it work?’ We’re not going to tell you! What you see is what you get, deal with it.”
That struck me as a gutsy approach. I don’t know if I would always consider it a good approach, but it was a gutsy one. But as I started to think about it, I realized that lots of storytellers work this way. Sometimes, you even get Lampshaded Laconipedantism.
Lampshaded Laconipedantism, or “We’re not gonna tell you! Neener-neener-neener!”
Obviously, cartoons have the most leeway for this kind of thing. Contemporary shows like Gumball and Friends work entirely on this premise. But heck, the Marvel Cinematic Universe runs on this fuel, as does most fantasy literature. Star Trek and a lot of science fiction does a weird inverse, where it starts with “teleportation exists” and starts playing around with the ramifications of that, but it still can’t tell you how teleportation really works, just that it does.
Not every wild premise actually qualifies as laconipedantism, however. What makes it laconipedantism is the refusal of the artist to explain, address, or even acknowledge that there’s anything weird about it. Riff-Raff and Cleo go zooming off in a bathtub, man. Get over it. Done well, it creates a feeling of confidence in the work, even when it leads to headscratchy moments. Done poorly, it just becomes an incoherent mess, where the world makes no sense and the story falls apart.
Use with caution.
-The Gneech
Milestone Markers
Oct. 30th, 2017 10:01 amMilestone the First
After much wrangling and introspecting and generalized fretting,
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laurie_robey and I are moving back to Virginia! Specifically, to Reston. SirFox is a fine landlord, and if anyone is looking for a very reasonably-priced place in Germantown, drop me a line and we'll set you up. :) But for various reasons Maryland just isn't working for us.This move also signals an indefinite pause on our California plans, for a variety of reasons I might get into in some other post. But for now, it's back to NoVA for us for the foreseeable future.
Milestone the Second
The files for the first Rough Housing collection are off to FurPlanet! It's gonna be pretty beefy at ~120 pages, and I'm not gonna lie, I love that cover.
Milestone the Third
NaNoWriMo starts on Wednesday! This will be my fourth whack at it (currently standing at 2/1) and will be an experiment: my first attempt at a furry novel. It's a fantasy featuring my little catfolk monk Kihai, my big catfolk barbarian Arshan, and a story something like Iron Monkey meets The Hidden Fortress. So, that should be fun. ;) But as of today, I have no outline, no supporting cast, and only a vague idea, so that's what I expect to be working on for the next couple of days. If the end result is good, I'll float it by FurPlanet as well! In the meantime, I'll be posting daily(-ish) progress reports to my Patreon for subscribers. :)
So! Life is good. And busy. I'll take it. :)
-The Gneech
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So recently, at Barnes & Noble, my attention was drawn to a hardback on the “fantasy new releases” table, featuring what was described as “flintlock fantasy with airships, a touch of humor, and an engaging female hero.”
I nearly burned the place down. ¬.¬
After the writing, revising, submitting, re-revising, submitting again, and so forth that Sky Pirates of Calypsitania has gone through, to see this thing sitting there made me want to scream at the top of my lungs, “THIS SHOULD BE MY BOOK!”
So. Yeah. I was upset. Deep breaths. Let’s work this thing out.
On the positive side, clearly someone must think there’s a market for the kind of books I want to write. I mean, there it is. But I have to connect to it.
And to be clear, I’m pretty sure that the author of that book worked just as long and just as hard on it as I did on mine. My own personal green-eyed-monster popping out notwithstanding, I wish them success.
That doesn’t alter the fact that I had this extreme, intensely emotional reaction to seeing “my book with someone else’s name on it” right there on the very table where I have been trying to get my book for years now. What I have to do, is direct that energy in a positive direction.
If this is the team that put the book on the table, I reasoned, then it could serve me well to hook up with that team. A little research turned up the agent of not-my-book. I went back and rewrote the opening, again, to address feedback the book had received on the previous round, getting thumbs-ups from my beta readers, and sent it to that agent. Given that this particular agent has a strict “Don’t call us, we’ll call you,” policy, however, the response could easily range from an excited followup any day, to chirping crickets until forever.
I don’t intend to wait. As far as I’ve been able to make out, the main thing that makes a writing career succeed (besides lightning in a bottle) is sheer volume. The most popular and well-paid writers I know get that way by writing a lot of books. And as much as I love Sky Pirates of Calypsitania, it is only the one.
What this boils down to is, I need to work on another book. I’ll keep shopping Sky Pirates around as long as it takes, but I can’t leave my career on hold waiting for any one project to move.
I have been trying to write a more “mainstream” fantasy, and I got maybe a third of it done as part of last year’s NaNoWriMo, but I keep running into a fundamental paradox: in trying to adhere to more standard tropes in order to make the book “sellable,” I feel like I’m just aping other people’s work, which in turn makes for a book that I’m not sure I would read, myself.
Of course, it’s just the first draft of said book, and so there’s an argument that I should just finish the thing, with “rip out all the Tolkien” being one of the goals of the second draft. But if I know all the Tolkien needs to come out anyway, then leaving it in there for the first draft feels like creating work I don’t need to do.
So perhaps I should just leave that one in the drafts folder and start a whole new project that’s more like what I want to write.
But I need to do something. I need to get somewhere.
-The Gneech
Three Things
Jul. 24th, 2017 10:13 pmDid a lot of fretting today and agonizing over the status of the Sky Pirates book. No conclusions. The answer I want is "one of the agents I sent it to wanted it," but that didn't happen, so I have to figure out what the next step really should be.
Gnite world, and have an awesome tomorrow.
-The Gneech
Three Good Things for Today
- Got the basic poses finished for Blacktigr's commission
- Finished the "Windswept Sandbox Full of Giants" recap posts
- Had some Ben & Jerry's
- Bonus Good Thing: Had some nice kitty cuddles.
Three Goals for Tomorrow
- Finish Blacktigr commish
- Pencils for SJ page 12
- Work on "By Elves Abandoned"/"Fortress of Tears" setting
Gnite world, and have an awesome tomorrow.
-The Gneech
