#i think there is a pathfinder port?

[eliotbaum]

You seem to draw a lot of Curse of Strahd. Loving all of them. I don't play much DnD and prefer other games but Strahd sorta lowkey speaks to my goth soul. Would you recommend it?

HAHA I sure do. ty!!

So, based on my personal experience the answer would be yes and no. It's one of the stronger modules, if not the strongest DnD module out there, but running it just by the adventure book is not something I'd recommend; plot holes, disorganized, women often get the short end of the stick... There is a whole subreddit dedicated to improving it, adding things on top, and other sources and supplements to make it a fleshed out world with depth. It's very much a diamond in the rough LOL Either way earlier editions of DnD Ravenloft and the domains of dread provide more fun gothic horror to play around with so I recommend looking into all of that stuff! It's got all the classic tropes and is truly rather dark for DnD. Low fantasy, high stakes!

Since I haven't finished the game as a player yet and as such don't know the entire original plotline, if anyone feels like adding their thoughts, by all means!

#i think there is a pathfinder port? #for non-DnD #i'm sure there's ways to make this story and setting work in other games tho #replies #not art #suzenka #my favorite part is us asking our DM lore related questions and they are like. sorry the module didn't provide this essential bit of info

[vorchagirl]

Saints and Liars - Chapter 12

Saints and Liars - Chapter 12

Cerys returns to Kadara with Kandros, who is hoping to track down Reyes and convince him to back down. Unfortunately for him, Reyes is one step ahead and has no intention of being found. He is, however, fully intending to get Cerys alone so he can show her just how much he's missed her.

Artwork is by the incredible @beemot and a snippet is behind the cut...

“I know very well who you are and what you want,” Keema drawled and glanced behind him at Cerys. “What I don’t understand is why you brought the Pathfinder with you? If you’re looking for Reyes Vidal, you’re not going to catch him by dangling her as bait.”  She smirked and raised her glass at Cerys in a mock salute. “Everyone knows she’s old news.” 

Cerys had expected something like this - a show to prove that Reyes was no longer attached to her - and she smiled icily at Keema.

That seemed to catch Kandros by surprise, and he floundered for a moment before he recovered. “She’s familiar with the port and knows places that Vidal frequents-”

The angaran laughed. “Do you really think Reyes Vidal allowed her to see anything of importance? She was a dalliance. A diversion.” Keema’s luminescent eyes focused on Cerys again, and seemed to gleam. “She knows … what? The bar he preferred? The safehouse he used to bed her in when he wanted some fun?”

Cerys shifted uncomfortably, feeling as though every eye in the room was on her. Keema's little speech was an act, but it was a good one and she squirmed as some of the Collective soldiers audibly chuckled. 

“I can tell you with some certainty that the only regret that Reyes Vidal has about the Pathfinder is that she survived her wound on Port Meridian. In fact, he asked me to give her this if she ever showed up here.” Keema set her drink down and reached into a pocket. She produced something small, gold and shiny, and she tossed it at Cerys. “For you, my dear.”

It was a bullet.

Cerys didn’t say anything, but her heart beat a little faster, and she very deliberately bent down and picked it up. She tossed it up in the air and then caught it, holding it firmly in her fist as she grinned back at Keema, aware that she probably looked half-crazed.

“Tell Vidal I have a few of these with his name on them too.” She spat on the floor and grinned as hands seized her from behind and began dragging her to the door. “Tell him I have a whole bunch waiting for him.” 

Read the full chapter here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53353261/chapters/139852816

#reyder #reyes vidal #cerys ryder #harry carlyle #mass effect andromeda #mass effect #saints and liars #rydyle #vorchagirl #my writing

[honourablejester]

So. Out of curiosity, given recent events, I was looking at Pathfinder 2e, just to see what it felt like. And, being me, I decided to do this by seeing how easy/difficult it would be to port my homebrew deities over to it. And the results were … interesting.

In that it is not necessarily easy to port deities over, but for a rather cool reason and in a cool way. Apparently, if I am understanding things correctly, your deity is functionally your subclass as a cleric in PF2e? As in, you get a couple of spells from your domain, sure, but you get more spells, an ability increase, a skill, a weapon, and your Divine Font all from your deity. You also need to match your deity to your alignment, and your deity gives you edicts to try and follow and anathemas to avoid if you don’t want to face consequences. Your deity is, essentially, your subclass.

(I’m not ignoring doctrines, I’m just mentally thinking of them more like warlock pact boons? Actually, PF2e clerics are reminding me of 5e warlocks in a couple of ways, really)

It's actually … Honestly, I find that really cool? From a worldbuilding perspective. Now, I can see from a player POV how it might feel quite restrictive, particularly the alignment, edicts and anathemas, but from a story-expressed-in-mechanics POV … It always slightly bugs me in DnD5e that clerics of completely different gods who happen to share a domain will be mechanically identical. You can have, for a random example, a Trickery cleric of Asmodeus and a trickery cleric of Garl Glittergold, and they’ll play the exact same way (mechanically, not counting RP). Your deity, to an extent, is kind of a cosmetic choice beyond domain. But in Pathfinder, your deity is distinctly more crunchy and involved, and I do kinda love it.

It does make porting homebrew deities from DnD5e to PF2e a bit more involved. I am going to work on it, just to see what it’s like, but already I’m having to think about a lot more than the alignment and domains of 5e. Though that is … in one sense it’s fun as a worldbuilder, because a lot more of the deity’s ideals and values and pet peeves are represented mechanically. It’s cool. Working out their domains, their edicts, their anathemas, their boons, their abilities/skill, their spells …

As an extension of this, can I say, there’s some really gnarly spells in PF2e. I’ve no idea if they’re good or not, but for ideas alone there’s some spectacular stuff. For Nalashtar, the plague goddess, for example, I was browsing both Blister and Grisly Growths as potential options (I think Grisly Growths might be the one). Absolutely disgusting, but thematically amazing.

The only downside is, again if I’m reading this correctly, the spells given to deities need to not be on the divine spell list, because deity spells don’t work like DnD5e domain spells, where clerics get them as extra prepared spells a day, and instead are more like warlock patron spells, where they’re options that the cleric can prepare, but they don’t get them always prepared for free. So if a deity’s spell is on the divine spell list, it functionally gives the cleric absolutely nothing extra, since they already had that spell as an option to prepare.

This is a bummer, just from a thematic standpoint, because I read the spell Quick Sort and instantly wanted to give it to Alatee. Is it useful? Not a clue. But it’s bang on for theme. And, yes, she has it anyway, in the general sense that her clerics can use it, but it would have been so good to have it front and centre in her bio to remind people. Oh well. If I make a cleric of Alatee, I’ll know it’s there.

This is definitely turning out to be an interesting exercise, whatever else. Heh.

(Sidenote: I’m getting my PF2e info from the Archives of Nethys site)

#d&d #pathfinder #homebrew #deities #homebrew deities #converting dnd5e to pf2e #it's definitely interesting! #pf2e

[heroofshield]

Whumcember Day 20- Drugged (Mass Effect Reyes/Ryder)

@whumpcember

Warnings: secretly drugged drink

The party was billed as a celebration of the Pathfinder resetting the Monoliths and dealing with the lingering Kett presence on Kadara. Although it was Kadara so they would use any excuse to throw a party.

Annabel Ryder watched everyone dance and drink in Tartarus, knowing that the party was going just as strong up in Kralla's. She was tired after a long day in the Badlands, but didn't want to be a wet blanket so she waited a few hours before getting up and starting towards the exit. "I'm ready for water that doesn't smell like sulfur." she thought, ignoring the whistles and cheers that rose up around her as people noticed.

She was halfway to the door when she heard the familiar smooth voice say, "Leaving before the party gets good? That's unlike you Ryder."

A half-smile appearing, Anna looked towards the voice and saw Reyes Vidal with his trademark flightsuit on and a smirk to match. "And how would you know what's unlike me? I'm complicated. Or at least that's what several ex's have said."

Reyes closed the distance between them, ignoring the rest of the partygoers that surrounded them. She had that effect on him, making his world shrink until it was just the two of them. "What do you say to one more drink...somewhere private?"

"Just the two of us?" Anna replied, inhaling softly at Reyes's feather light touch of his fingers against his arm. They might have to keep whatever this was between them a secret, but that didn't mean they couldn't have some fun with it.

Reyes leaned close to Anna before saying, "Get us some drinks and meet me up in my room."

Not waiting for an answer he left Anna and threaded his way through the crowd, up the stairs and into the VIP room that he'd 'rented' from Kian; a convenient way to launder credits when he needed to.

He wasn't alone very long, Anna showing up carrying a bottle of moonshine and two glasses. "I figured we could have more than one drink." she said as the door closed and the sounds of the party became muffled.

"I like the way you think." Reyes said, taking the bottle and giving them each a a hefty pour. Taking one of the glasses he raised it in a salute, "To the Pathfinder."

Anna raised an eyebrow but clinked her glass with his, "To me."

The moonshine wasn't Kadara's best, the bitter taste making Reyes grimace. "That's rough, even for this place." he coughed after downing almost the entire glass, wondering where Kian had gotten it.

A look of panic appeared on Anna's face and she started to say, "Reyes the drink-"

Then Reyes's vision became blurry and he blinked rapidly, trying to sharpen it. But it only increased and he started to feel wobbly. Turning towards the couch that was in the room, he was somewhat aware of Anna continuing to talk, but couldn't understand what she was saying. Black starting to creep around the edges of his vision, Reyes was somewhat aware of his legs giving out and falling towards the floor.

Then nothing.

--

The pounding headache told Reyes that he was still alive and slowly opening his eyes also told him that he was still in the rented room in Tartarus, albeit in the small side room that he used as quarters when he didn't want to make the long trek back to his apartment in the port proper.

His tongue feeling fuzzy, he struggled to sit up and found that his limbs felt like lead weights.

"Hey, don't move just yet. The drug is still in your system." Anna said,

"What?" Reyes asked in a gravely voice, slightly confused as to what Ryder had just said.

"The moonshine. It was drugged. That's what I was trying to tell you as you passed out." Anna let out a sigh, running a hand through her short red hair. "SAM detected it almost right away and told Doctor T'Perro. It...took awhile for her to get here and when she did, found both of us passed out." She licked her lips, trying to order her still reeling thoughts. "I only had some of the moonshine so I wasn't out for very long but you...why did you have to be a dumbass."

"To be fair, I wasn't-I was just really thirsty."

"Goddamn it Reyes, you scared me." Anna swallowed thickly, trying not to cry in front of whatever Reyes was to her.

"Hey." Reyes slowly reached for Anna's hand and took it, giving it a slight squeeze. "I'm okay. And when I'm better I'm going to ask why the fuck Kian wanted to drug me."

Anna shook her head, "It wasn't Kian. I forget who gave me the bottle, but I know it wasn't him."

Reyes just nodded, not saying anything but mentally running down the list of enemies he'd made while on the planet. It was a short one and once he'd fully recovered there would be hell to pay. But for now he focused on Ryder and reassuring her. "I believe you. And it's okay, I"m here."

Anna wiped the not-quite tears away and leaned down to press a gentle kiss to Reyes's lips. "I'm here too."

#whumpcember2023 #mass effect #me:a #reyes vidal #annabel ryder #reyes/ryder #fanfic #my writing

[silurisanguine]

6 or 13 for the asks! I'd love to see something Andromeda related if you're so inclined, but go with what your heart wants!

"You love me?" & "Shhhh, come here." for Reyder as requested :D

Reyes had gone to the very outskirts of Kadara port, leaning on the railing overlooking the valley below. It was away from the hustle of the main square; a place where before everything had changed had been a good place to see how the place was actually doing as this was where those whose time was up went before they were thrown out of the port. The desperate, the terrified, the addicted; all ended up here. Now thanks to his efforts as well as the Pathfinder's support it was different. He cast his eyes out towards the badlands. The sun was slowly setting over the distant mountains. Every time he'd taken the time to look, it had taken his breath away at how beautiful Kadara was, even more so now the Vault had started balancing the composition of the environment. This place could really be somewhere good, for both Angara and new comers.

He'd asked Ryder to meet him at this spot and heard her make her way over the metal walkway to where he was, whistling loudly in appreciation at the spectacular view. "Wow! Now this is something else Reyes." "Shh, come here." Reyes held a finger to his lips and beckoned her closer. As she stepped into his reach he took her hand and gently pulled her closer to him. Directing their view outwards with his free hand, he gestured with a wave. "Listen to that...No crying, no fighting. No sounds of Oblivion addled victims. Kadara is healing and it's in no small part thanks to you." Ryder side eyed Reyes and he smirked, wrapping his arms around her. "Well a great deal thanks to you. I had all of it planned out you know, how I would take down Sloane, how I would sway the great Pathfinder to my way of thinking. Then I walked into Kralla's Song and saw you, and knew you would be trouble for me." "The best kind of trouble I hope. " "You have no idea. I thought we'd work well together, be professional. But when you kissed me at Sloane's party and then told me I was someone to you. I fell in love with you that night. I thought-" "You love me?" Ryder butt in with a twinkle in her eyes, as if she'd known he'd loved her as long as she'd worked out he was in fact The Charlatan. "There's no hiding anything from you is there?" Reyes nervously laughed along, hoping how he felt wasn't one sided.

Ryder lifted one had to run a gloved thumb over his cheek. "Not really. So it's a good job I love you too isn't it?"

#writing prompt #FReyder #Mass Effect Andromeda #Mass Effect fanfic #Reyes Vidal #Pathfinder Ryder #Siluri writes #reyder #Reyes Vidal x FRyder

[cheesefestivities]

Hey! Do you like tabletop RPGs- or, possibly, do you want to try getting into them? Are you struggling to find a GM, or to put a group together? Well, hey- I'm now working as a GM for hire on Startplaying.games! I'm a trans writer and game designers, who tends to run pretty unique campaigns with an emphasis on narrative roleplaying. If any of that sounds up your alley, here are some campaigns I'm already running that you can join! The Forgotten King is a 5e campaign meant to introduce newcomers to the DnD, and tabletop RPGs in general. It's a learn as you play mystery campaign, set in a strange and uncanny port town in the middle of nowhere- think something like Twin Peaks or Nightvale as a medieval fantasy setting. https://startplaying.games/adventure/cltemwuzz00ar08lh33av4g5j

Stories Untold is another 5e campaign, this time set in a world inspired by fairy tales and European folklore. Play as the descendants of classic fictional characters, exploring an absurdist fantasy setting, and see if you can save the kingdom of Vanguld. https://startplaying.games/adventure/clstrjau0004908l20wr5f53t

Lastly, Eye of the Storm is an introductory campaign for City of Mist, a PBTA system with a unique noir fantasy aesthetic. Investigate a murder using the powers of fantasy, in hopes of uncovering a grand conspiracy. https://startplaying.games/adventure/clthqgzii008d08l6hdb77s6y

All transactions are handled through startplaying itself, meaning all you have to really do is make an account and sign up for one of the games listed above. If none of the campaigns listed below strike your fancy, or you'd like a campaign at a different time, please feel free to reach out to me on startplaying and we can chat. I have experience in a pretty wide variety of systems- so if there's something else in particular you'd like- i.e. Lancer, Cyberpunk Red, Essence20, other PBTA systems, Pathfinder- please reach out! https://startplaying.games/gm/quinnthebard/ Thanks for reading! Hope to see you there.

#dnd #dnd5e #city of mist #ttrpg #startplaying.games #transgender #game master

[septimusheapheadcanons]

was flipping through pathfinder to find a physical description of simon (of course) and when the THM kids meet him, ferdie thinks he's kind of scary and intense, and it made me think of syren where the ladies of the port thought he was intense and handsome and kind of unapproachable and just like. yes babygirl i love it when you're striking and hot and there's something undeniably Off about you to everyone who sees you <3

#Simon Heap #Septimus Heap #todhunter moon #mod post #he's so 💕💞💗💘🥰💝💕💖 #like yes there is something so Wrong with you <3 <3 <3

[eyndr-stories]

I Think I Smell A Rat (FNAF SB fanfic) C2 - Maybe Just ONE Game

In Summary:

Being a robotic repair rat who lives in the walls of the pizza-plex is a pretty great gig, all things considered! You fix the wires instead of chew them, and you get into tight spaces those silly humans can't reach and fix things up behind the scenes. You do your little tasks diligently, and all is well. That is, until one night when you realize all of your other repair rat friends have gone missing, and almost all of those animatronics outside the walls are acting strange... You aren't sure what it is that needs fixing, but by golly you'll fix it! You just might need a little help along the way...

Things To Know:

Not a lot of warnings for this one! There is some peril and danger, damage to robots, and damage to. Uh, whatever the heck Afton is at this point??

Reader insert! You're a little rat shaped robot a handful of inches long. Lots of borrower-related themes in here

Daycare attendant centered, though the other animatronics make brief appearances. You hang out with Sun in the first half of the story and Moon in the second half!

A little over 17000 words in total, just a lil guy! 5 chapters, they're all pretty short

I somehow managed not to swear once in the entire story, aw hell yeah! Wait-

Ao3 link: Here!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

C2 - Maybe Just ONE Game

     It wasn’t long before you and Sun ran into trouble. You’d just made your way back out of the walls, having turned the lights on to the corridor ahead, when you heard Sun cheerfully greet someone else.

     Sun bounced excitedly. “Roxanne Wolf!! Wow wow it’s so nice to see you! You hardly ever visit the daycare except for birthdays. How are you?!”

     Roxanne stalked across the funky carpet floor. Her walking animation was off, slow and jerky, like she was having trouble pathfinding properly. You stood cautiously next to the port leading back into the walls. Neither bot had seen you emerge just yet.

     Sun noticed Roxy’s strange walk as well. “Uh oh, are you feeling okay??”

     Roxy didn’t reply, but her gaze fixed intently on Sun. She lifted her arms, as if to grab Sun, now only a few paces away. Those claws of hers looked menacing, but you knew they were just fancy guitar picks. All the animatronics had them except for Sun, so they could pluck the strings of their instruments despite their massive metal fingers.

     “Oh, do you want a hug?! I’d love a hug!! We can hug!” Sun excitedly threw his arms out for a big hug.

     Roxy raised a hand, winding back as if to strike. You realized that striking Sun was actually exactly what she meant to do, and you panicked.

     “SUN.” You darted forwards, waving your flashing tail.

     This got the attention of both bots. Roxy paused a moment away from heaving a clawed hand down at Sun to fix her intimidating gaze on you instead.

     “RUN,” you quickly told Sun, already darting back towards the wall.

     Sun seemed to have realized that Roxy was not actually about to give him a hug. “This is NOT how we treat our friends, Roxy!!” Sun yelled as he ran.

     You were very suddenly plucked clean off the ground. After a moment of terror wondering if Roxy had been closer behind you than you’d realized, you noticed between the pathfinding warnings that the metal fingers around you were yellow, and did not have any claws. They were also cradling you very carefully. After a moment of disorientation and hurriedly dismissing warnings, you poked your head out between Sun’s fingers to see Sun had made it through the door into the next corridor and was trying to close the door behind him via the control panel next to the door.

     Roxy made it to the door a moment later. She punched the control panel on her side of the door, and the door slid back open.

     Sun immediately hit the controls again, and the door slid closed. Roxy and Sun went back and forth, and after a moment you remembered why Roxy couldn’t just jump through. All the bots were programmed to wait until a door was completely open to step through, as a safety feature. Sun and Roxy were locked in a cycle of opening and closing the door, Roxy unable to get through and Sun unable to move away without letting the door open.

     You quickly wiggled out of Sun’s hand and scurried across his arm. Your little claws clung very well to the fabric of Sun’s pants as you climbed down to the ground.

     “Tiny friend, where are you going??” Sun asked.

     “Closing the door,” you quickly flashed before darting into the walls.

     You made your way up to the door controls. Once you reached them, you paused, realizing this wouldn’t be quite as easy as you’d thought. There were active signals constantly transmitting back and forth as Sun and Roxy opened and closed the door. In order to rewire the door shut, you’d need to time your move carefully. Your little paws were insulated, so it wasn’t a shock you were worried about. But if the mechanism detected an active charge going through a severed wire before you could connect it again, the whole thing would shut off as a safety feature to prevent sparks and a potential fire, and the door would be stuck open by default, leaving Sun to face Roxy with no easy escape.

     You timed it out carefully. You had an opening a few milliseconds long between signals, so long as Sun and Roxy kept up the same pattern. You were fast, but you weren’t sure if you were that fast. You’d never had to reconnect a wire under a time limit before.

     Focusing on your internal timer, you set your teeth on the wires you needed to sever and waited…

     Now.

     Snip! And then an instant motion of paws twisting as fast as you could make them go, and then…

     Silence.

     You weren’t sure if the controls didn’t have any more signals going through it because the other bots had stopped pressing the buttons or because you hadn’t been quick enough. The path back out of the walls was much longer than you remembered it being.

     You leapt through the port and back into the corridor where you’d left Sun.

     “Tiny friend!!” Sun knelt down in front of you, his rays swaying happily.

     The door was closed. Roxy was stuck on the other side. You’d done it.

     You collapsed with relief, flopping over on the ground.

     "You did such a good job!! Thank you so much." Sun reached out and gave your little head a pat. "I'm not sure what's gotten into our friend Roxy, she's not usually… well. She can be mean sometimes, but she would NEVER hit anyone!!"

     "Something is wrong…" You were beginning to worry about your fellow robotic rat friends. Maybe Roxy or even another bot got to them… but why would nearly all of them be missing?? At the least there would be total system shutdown pings on the network and a last known location from the downed rats. But the network was still quiet.

     Sun hugged his knees and tapped his pointy shoes on the ground. His sun rays slowly retracted into his head. "What do you think is making Roxy feel sick? That's it, right? She's just not feeling herself! Usually she loves to talk, but she didn't say a thing earlier! If she's sick, that means you or someone else could fix her, right?? You can fix things, you're really good at fixing things!"

     Your reply was hesitant, somewhat quiet. Not in volume of course, but your tail light was a bit dimmer than normal as you blinked out a reply. "I don’t know how to fix Roxy. I do not even know what is wrong with her. Repair rats were not designed to interact with you animatronics, so all I know is what I have learned from observing over the years."

     "Oh." Sun's face plate turned briefly to the door. After a moment, he looked back down at you. "You would help fix her if you could, right?"

     You replied honestly. "Yes. If I knew what to do and was capable of doing it, I would. It’s my job to repair, my nature."

     Sun nodded. "Would you help me figure out how to help Roxy? After we find your friends, of course!" Sun suddenly straightened. "Oh!! Do you think whatever made Roxy sick also made your friends sick??"

     You considered that for a moment. If it was some kind of bug or even a virus making Roxy act the way she had, you supposed anyone connected to the main network could have accidentally been infected. Every bot in the building, even the wet floor sign bots, had to connect to the main network at least every once in a while for system updates. "I think it is possible. If it was a virus, why are you and I not affected? Are the other animatronics affected as well, or just Roxy? More information will likely lead to a solution."

     "Yeah! So how do we learn more?? If the others are acting like Roxy too, it might be dangerous to ask them…"

     "Maybe we can observe from far away. I'm good at that."

     "Good idea! We can play pretend that we're spies on a secret undercover mission!!" Sun swung his arms around, doing a few karate chops.

     "You can pretend if you want. I will just be me."

     "Aww, but it would be fuuuuun!!" Sun slumped over dramatically, spinning his face at you. "You don't like to play, do you?"

     "We do not have time to play." You realized then that you and Sun had been sitting around for five whole minutes, wasting time chatting. You started to scurry along, waving your tail at Sun to follow.

     Sun sprang to his feet and easily kept pace with you. "We can play after the work is all done, right?? Once we find and fix all the friends and everything is okay?"

     "Fine, fine. We can play later if you really want to so badly."

     "YAY!!!" Sun cartwheeled past you, ending with a happy little hop. Well, as ‘little’ as a hop could be when the climax of the jump was more than thrice as tall as you. He crouched back down as you caught up and offered his hands out to you. "We'll have SO much fun, you'll see! We can play all kinds of games, you can even invite all your friends!!"

     You climbed up into Sun's hands and imagined for a moment close to a hundred repair rats all sitting around a table together with Sun. The thought was amusing, even if you couldn't imagine what kind of game Sun would have that would host so many players. You couldn't really imagine any games at all, actually.

     "I have never played a game before," you told Sun.

     Sun stopped dead in his tracks and stared down at you. "Never?? Not ever?! Not even ONE game?!?"

     "No."

     "You- you don't ever have any fun?!"

     "No."

     You'd never been at all adept at understanding the expressions of the animatronics or the humans, and Sun's rigid unanimated face plate didn't emote at all anyways. However, Sun managed to make it transparently clear regardless that he was upset nearly to the point of tears. He was shaking and hunched over, and his rays had retracted all the way into his head, and he was making the most pitiful little sounds.

     Sun straightened suddenly, still managing not to jostle you. "That simply will NOT stand. You can't just work work work all the time and never play! Gosh, how horrible!! I can't believe you've NEVER EVER played before even once!! We should play a game while we look, what do you say??"

     "No time." You weren't sure why this had Sun so worked up. You needed to keep moving, there was work to be done, things to fix.

     "We can play as we walk! Please please please?!"

     Sun sounded like he might collapse in despair if you declined, and you sort of needed him to get around hastily. You begrudgingly agreed.

     "Just ONE game. And we have to keep moving."

     "Okay!!" Sun did another happy little hop and immediately started moving again, long strides carrying the two of you down the curving corridor. "Oh boy, your first game!! Okay okay, so this game is called I-Spy! It's easy, all you have to do is pick something you can see."

     "Okay. I pick that plastic potted plant over there." You wiggled your nose in the direction of a decorative plant to Sun's left.

     Sun giggled and shook his head. "No no, the game is that I have to guess what you've picked, silly! You can't tell me what it is unless I guess right!" Sun elaborated, explaining that the guesser would ask if items in the area, matching a brief description, were the item in question. "You can guess first, okay? Are you ready to give it a try?"

     "Sure." You couldn't see how this 'game' could possibly be considered fun, but if it kept Sun moving, you would indulge him.

     "Okay!! I spy with my little eye… something… red!" Sun declared.

     You gazed around halfheartedly, looking down the corridor for red items. "Is it the red squares on the carpet?"

     "Nope! Good guess, try again!"

     "Is it… that vending machine?" you tried.

     "No, not quite!"

     You looked around again. What else was red around here? Your eyes were very good with color, even in low lighting, so that you could easily tell different wires apart. Finally, you spotted a poster near the end of the hall, depicting a few of the main animatronic characters performing together. The background of the poster was a bright red flowing curtain.

     "Is it that poster at the end of the hall?"

     "Yeah!! You got it! Wow, good job!" Sun cheered.

     "I got it!" You held your head a little higher. You looked back at Sun, who was bouncing with every step as his sun rays swayed back and forth. "…Alright. I guess games are… nice."

     Sun laughed. "They are!! Do you want to keep playing?"

     "Yes."

     You played I-Spy with Sun for a while. It was a very convenient game, since you were already keeping an eye out for your friends anyways. It even had the added bonus of helping you get more accustomed to using your eyes. You were, admittedly, having fun. You were even a little annoyed when you had to stop in order to get into the walls and turn on the lights for the next area. You had no idea that playing games and having fun could be so… so… you couldn't even describe it.

     No wonder Sun had been so insistent on the games this whole time. Playing games was fun. Having fun made you happy. Oh- that's what it was. Happy, you were happy.

     You weren't sure if you'd ever been happy before. Satisfied, maybe. You liked doing a good job and getting your tasks done and fixing things, that all felt good. Like a circuit board with all its neat little pieces lined up just right, everything wired up correctly. Happy was something close, but still almost entirely different. It was more like when a damaged rat finally returned to the nest after a long repair.

     You couldn't complain. Of all the things you'd felt so far, this was considerably more enjoyable than some other things. Like physical damage, or buggy updates, the out of bounds error, or not being able to fix something and being unable to dismiss the task until it was fixed.

     Sun paused, and you brought your full attention back to him. He was staring at a poster advertising the daycare, the hours of operation listed at the bottom.

     "I hope we can get everything sorted soon. I know we've only been gone for an hour and a half, but I miss the daycare. I don't usually like to leave. Everything makes sense, and it feels cozy, I belong there! But this is really important." Sun sighed and slowly carried on.

     You studied Sun for a moment. You felt the same way about being in the walls, and your charging nest. You were designed for the walls, built for that specific environment. Sun was built for the daycare.

     You waved your tail, bringing Sun's attention back to you. "Sun. Thank you for helping me."

     "Of course, tiny friend!" Sun carefully gave you a pat with a thumb.

     You and Sun carried on. You'd turned on half the lights in the whole building at this point, and hadn't found any more answers.

     Your luck finally changed however when you made it to the food court.

     You'd been avoiding the area because the light controls were harder to get to and a bit more complicated. The whole space was quite large, and you'd have to leave Sun for a while in order to get to all the controls. There were three entire floors to activate the lights for, and that meant a lot of climbing for you. Not that you minded, you'd just been hoping you wouldn't have to spend so much time running around fixing lighting controls while your friends were all possibly in danger somewhere.

     After figuring out all the lights for the food court, you quickly made your way back to Sun. You could tell he’d gotten worried by how long you’d been gone, and he was especially relieved to see you again.

     Sun lifted the rolling shutter gate and carried you through into the food court. You were up on the second floor, surrounded by directories and benches and stroller corrals and vending machines. Sun crept up to the railing, whispering about sneaky spies.

     You and Sun peered down into the brightly lit food court together.

     There were several animatronics hanging out on the main floor. You could see Monty and Chica aimlessly ambling around the open crowd space in front of the big stage where they usually put on performances. Freddy was stalking slowly between rows of tables, occasionally bumping into the edge of a chair or table. You could see evidence of the gang’s poor pathfinding everywhere- toppled trashcans and downed fake plants.

     It seemed Roxy was still wandering around somewhere in the halls behind you, since she seemed to be missing. You weren’t sure if you would prefer to have them all in one place or not.

     Sun took a few steps back away from the rail. He crouched down and held you up closer to his face so he could whisper to you. “They all look like how Roxy looked. If everyone is sick, that means it wasn’t just a bug with Roxy…”

     “It has to be some kind of virus. It must be in the main network if they all have it,” you reasoned.

     “Oh dear, oh no.” Sun grabbed one of his rays with his free hand, pulling at it with worry. “This is no good. I’m glad I don’t have it too, I have to help you fix this!”

     You still had no idea how to fix whatever this was. You had the beginnings of an idea, but you weren’t sure how good of a plan it was.

     “I bet I don’t have it yet because I’m not on the network!! I’ve been in safe mode this whole time. I don’t like to connect to the network unless I have to, it’s too noisy!” Sun shook his head.

     “Maybe I should put myself in safe mode too, just in case.” You had no plans to connect to the main network anytime soon, but you figured you should stay on the safe side anyways. You would be disconnected from the sub-network all the rats used to communicate too, but there was no one on that network anyways. You’d been checking every five minutes, to no avail.

     “Good idea. So what do we do?? How can we fix everyone?” Sun asked.

     “I have an idea, but I do not know how well it will work.”

     “I’m sure it’s a great idea!! Besides, I don’t have any ideas at all.”

     You sat back on your hind legs as you explained your idea, folding your two front paws together. Sun patiently and quietly watched your tail light blink out your plan.

     “I do not think it is safe for either of us to contact the others directly. So in order to help them without being near them, my idea is to modify the charging stations around the building to set them to safe mode automatically once they enter for a charge. I can do the same with the charging nests in the walls for the other rats.”

     “Ohhh that’s really smart!! Yeah, that’s a great plan, lets do that!” Sun excitedly shot to his feet. “I know where all the charging stations are! I’ll take you to the nearest one first!”

     Sun was already moving before he’d even finished talking. You arrived in no time at all; the nearest station was just around the corner, by the entrance to the Roxy Raceway attraction.

     “Can you set me on top of the station, please?” you asked.

     Sun happily obliged, stretching his arm up high enough for you to climb atop the cylindrical chamber. You took a moment to marvel at the convenience of having an extremely tall friend- it would have taken you ages to climb up on your own. You dipped your tail back over the edge and flashed a thanks to Sun.

     You heard Sun reply immediately. “You’re welcome, tiny friend!! Good luck!”

     You turned your focus to the task at hand.

     Changing the controls to set a charging animatronic to safe mode turned out to be more involved than you’d hoped. Not impossible, just difficult. There were a lot of safety features in place to keep anyone from tampering with the charging stations.

     Sun shuffled around aimlessly while he waited, doing quiet gymnastics and poking at the surrounding decor.

     You were almost finished, and had paused to glance up as Sun did a particularly impressive backwards flip, when you noticed motion behind Sun, on the stairs leading up from the main floor to the second.

     “SUN.” You waved your tail frantically, getting Sun’s attention. “HIDE.”

     Sun froze for a panicked moment, then quickly swiveled his head around, searching for a hiding spot. He dropped to the floor and quickly wiggled his way under a bench, and not a moment too soon.

     Monty reached the second floor and turned to face you. You quickly scurried back away from the edge of the charging station. You could hear Monty’s heavy steps clomping closer, though you were pretty sure he hadn’t seen you. Monty must be coming to charge.

     Moving quickly, you rushed to finished your work. You could use this as a test of sorts, to be sure putting the animatronics in safe mode worked before you and Sun wasted a lot of time and effort going around the entire building to alter as many charging stations as possible.

     You finished your work in the nick of time. The door of the charging station slid shut, and you could hear the chamber whir to life. The door lock activated, and Monty entered rest mode.

     Sun tentatively poked his head out from under the bench.

     “Safe,” you assured.

     Sun shimmied his way back out from under the bench. “That was a close call!” Sun wiped imaginary sweat from his brow and angled his face plate up towards you. “Did you do it?? Is it all fixed?”

     You bobbed your head in the affirmative. “Yes, it should work. I think we should wait around and see if Monty is better.”

     “Good idea! Then we’ll know if it made him feel better or not!” Sun reached up and offered you a hand. You hopped down into his hand.

     Sun cupped you close to his chest and eyed the charging station. “It usually only takes me five to ten minutes to complete a charge. Do you think the glamrocks charge just as fast? Or maybe even faster??”

     “I’m not sure,” you answered honestly. “I suppose we’ll find out.”

     You and Sun waited patiently for the first minute, then impatiently for the next four.

     "…He's still not done charging." Sun heaved a sigh and sat down heavily on the bench, hands still carefully cupped around you. He threw his face plate back dramatically and kicked his feet out.

     "I bet it's ten minutes. Shouldn't be too much longer now, hopefully." You padded around impatiently in Sun's hands.

     "We haven't seen any of your friends around. Where do you think they could be?" Sun wondered.

     "I don't know… I'm worried." You half expected to see someone every time you went back into the walls to fix the lights, but the walls were strangely empty. Even if they had been infected by this virus that seemed to have infected most of the animatronics, surely they'd still at least be wandering around…?

     "Aw, I'm sure we'll find them! Maybe they're all hanging out together somewhere? Maybe there was a really really big repair that needed doing somewhere and we just haven't found it yet!"

     "Yeah, maybe." You pat a paw against Sun's palm appreciatively. "Thanks, Sun. And thank you again for helping me."

     "Of course!! And thank YOU for helping ME with my friends too!" Sun nodded towards the charging station.

     As if on cue, the charging station door suddenly hissed open, causing both you and Sun to start. Sun leapt to his feet as Monty stumbled out of the station.

     "Monty!! Montgomery Gator, hi hi! How are you feeling?!" Sun asked.

     Monty's attention snapped to Sun. His head twitched to the side, and he crouched slightly.

     You got a very bad feeling just then, like an unexpected shock, too much electricity overloading your circuits.

     "Sun-" you started to warn.

     Monty sprang forwards, lunging at Sun with clawed hands outstretched.

     Sun cried out and quickly spun around, hunching over you as his hands closed in tight around you. You felt a violent shudder and a horrible high pitched metallic scraping sound that sent an uncomfortable amount of grating feedback piercing through your audio processors.

     "Ouchie," Sun whined.

     Sun was moving, and you could barely see through the cracks between his fingers. He was running for the nearest door- luckily, you'd already been through the hallway beyond with Sun earlier and the lights were already on- and you could hear Monty in hot pursuit.

     You could finally see again as Sun adjusted his hands, cradling you to his chest with one while the other hit the door controls. You were already moving after a brief moment of reorienting yourself. Monty and Sun went back and forth with the door controls as you darted into the walls.

     You were moving as fast as your little legs would carry you. You knew Sun had to be damaged, but you hadn't been able to get a good look at him. You did your best to focus on the most pressing problem; getting this door shut so Monty couldn't hurt Sun again.

     You could barely wait the milliseconds required between signals. You cut the wire and deftly reconnected it. All was still and far too quiet.

     When you finally made it back out of the walls, Sun was sitting on the ground, his face plate turned all the way around so he could see the damage on the back of his casing. The door was closed, and you could hear Monty stomping around on the other side.

     "Hi tiny friend," Sun said quietly, his face plate swiveling back around to look at you. "So ummm. There's good news and there's bad news."

     You were already scurrying around Sun to look at the damage for yourself. Sun's face turned to follow you.

     "The good news is that parts and service is really close by!" Sun said as you sat there and stared. "The bad news is that I need to get there pretty much as fast as physically possible."

     There were three gashes in the metal near Sun's shoulder, right above and leading into where his casing had been entirely torn away. There were a lot of exposed and severed wires, as well as at least one support beam spanning the vertical length of his endoskeleton's spine that looked a breath away from snapping.

     You finally snapped out of it and started quickly flashing your tail at Sun. "Do not turn to either side. Do not lift your left arm. Stand slowly and move quickly." You climbed up Sun's leg and scaled his scarf in order to get up onto his shoulder, so he wouldn't have to reach out and lift you.

     Sun did as ordered, moving very carefully. You heard some concerning groaning, but nothing snapped. Sun made his way down the hall towards a 'Staff Only' door leading down into the access tunnels.

     "Wowie, that sure is a lot of warning pings and damage errors!" Sun laughed nervously. His voice was strained and much higher pitched than usual.

     "Keep moving. You'll be okay. I'll fix you."

     Sun nodded. "My tiny friend is very good at fixing things."

     "Right." You kept checking and double checking your internal clock. Time seemed to be moving a little too slowly as Sun made his way slowly but surely to parts and service.

#I think this was the longest chapter of all of them #teeny little story #eyndr tells a story #fnaf sb #fnaf sb au #fnaf sb fanfic #fnaf security breach #daycare attendant #security breach #fnaf moon #fnaf sun #fnaf daycare attendant #moondrop #sundrop #fnaf dca #tw violence #fnaf au i think i smell a rat #i think i smell a rat #fnaf y/n

[illunispress]

There are no hit points on the high seas

Nothing fills me with more dread than seeing a statblock for a sailing ship in a game, overflowing with hundreds of hit points. And then a smaller but still pretty big number dictating a damage threshold. (I'm looking at you D&D and Pathfinder.)

As a GM, I don't want to deal with running a ship encounter where I roll a bunch of dice and subtract them from a really big number. Treating ships like glorified HP sacks feels a like a huge design mistake.

Here's how I approached a naval encounter recently in a D&D 5e session. I wanted the battle around the characters to be fast-paced and dangerous, without it turning into a slog if the players decided they wanted to try and sink the enemy ship.

Save vs Sinking

Whenever a *significant* attack hits a ship, instead of taking damage, it has to roll a saving throw (1d20 and roll higher than the target number) or begin sinking.

For our game, a significant attack meant ship-to-ship weapons, powerful magic, and ramming. The saving throw starts at 1, and it goes up after each successful save.

Bolts +1

Cannons +2

Ramming +1d6

Fireball +2d4

It's on fire +1 (each round)

Those values are arbitrary and are informed by my own personal taste. Tweak them as you like, but there's no exact science to it. Just know that if those numbers are too high, one ship will sink the other very quickly.

Roll these saving throws in front of the table - never behind the screen. The ever increasing number represents the ship getting closer to springing the leak that will sink it. Your players will feel the suspense in the air.

This mechanic also gives you an at-a-glance marker of how damaged a ship is. If the DC is left at 7 at the end of a fight, it has 13/20 hull integrity remaining, or 65%. (hmmm looks like I reinvented Hit Points again)

Side note: This could be done using a d100 instead of a d20 to match neatly onto percentages. You’d have to use higher numbers.

For simplicity's sake, a ship doesn't add anything to the saving throw. If a ship is particularly sturdy, roll the save with advantage. If it’s a weaker noncombat vessel, roll with disadvantage.

We're Sinking!

Okay so a ship is going down. The hull cracks in half after a successful ramming. Fire spreads across the mast and wooden splinters rain from above after a fireball lands. Multiple ballista and cannon ball holes rapidly fill the cargo hold and lower decks with water. Now the encounter becomes a mad-dash to flee overboard or take the enemy ship.

Throw realism out the window - ships should sink FAST for the sake of drama. Keep the target number from the ship's failed saving throw and add 1d6 to it each round. And keep increasing the number after successful attacks. When that number reaches 20 or higher, the ship is sunk beyond repair. with most of its hull cracked beneath the waves.

Why Saves?

Using these saving throws adds a level of unpredictability to ship combat that makes encounters tense and deadly. And I think it ratchets up suspense and dread nicely. Your ship will go from a background character to a vital set-piece.

I do think hit points can work for scenes that center on ships by themselves, without zooming into individual characters. If each person at the table is roleplaying as a ship and their whole crew, giving a ship hit points seems more sensible. But if every crew member also has their own block of hit points on the same scale, the logic of the scene really begins to break down for me.

Would 10 player characters combined like Voltron have the same hit points as a sailing ship? (Wait, don’t answer that... there’s an absurd game idea there...)

Tldr; nothing fills me with more dread than a big block of hit points - nothing fills my players with more dread than a number they need to roll above, slowly ticking upwards.

Misc thoughts:

If you’re looking for unpredictable danger, you could port this to characters too, using different dice to make the saving throw to represent different levels of sturdiness between characters. 

Writing this reminded me of Star Wars Saga Edition, a nightmare system with some space ships having thousands of hit points to compensate for player characters and smaller ships that have a hundred or more.

#ttrpg #tabletop rpg #ttrpg design #game design #tabletop games #dnd #gm tools #gm tips #roleplaying #tabletop #osr #josephines-design-thoughts

[elinaline]

I'm thinking next time I might play DND with anglophones and I use sifryia, my aasimar I ported from pathfinder, I should play her with a french accent as she is after all, from another country, and even another world entirely. How fun would it be "ah sorry mais Sword coast common isn't my first language, Hein, I'm from Restov in Golarion" and then pull the Caleb speaking zemnian perfect accent thing. Or swear in french at monster "fucking putain de ogre de sa mère là ! Burn connard !"

[thepleasuregoblin]

How difficult you think it would be to port Planescape or Dark Sun to Pathfinder? I'm a huge fan of those settings but having started pathfinder 2e, it's genuinely one of the best systems for my group, crunchy without being pure math, tons of choice in how your character functions mechanically, etc.

Considering that pathfinder is sort of a d&d fork anyways, I don't think it would be terribly difficult. The setting info is obviously system agnostic and a lot of the ancestries and creatures could fit right in, at least for Planescape. Dark Sun might be a bit more difficult, considering the way it interacts with magic (especially arcane magic). It could be done though, you'd have to get a bit creative with ancestries and you'd have to mess around with wizards a bit. Maybe everyone gets a free multiclass into psychic? idk

So neither I would call terribly difficult, but they'll both take some work, and Dark Sun would probably take a lot of work to fit properly. With enough knowledge of the system tho its certainly doable

[dragongirltongue]

Tell me more about your pathfinder character! What inspired them?

Oh this is gonna 6e a 6ig one lmao.

Okay so I've 6een thinking on this a lot, 6ecause there are many many layers.

There is a lot that went into Penumbra herself 6ut even that isn't a starting point, for that we're gonna need to talk a6out Rourke which is a whole other things.

6ut first we'll need to talk a6out parallel universes porting OCs into ta6letop.

So when I first got into ta6letop games I was not the 6est at coming up with new characters. I'd make one and o6sess over them for an eternity 6efore making one more.

Some friends asked if I wanted to join their fun on going home6rew D&D setting. I was like, oh fuck yes and at first I used my character who turned out to 6e a headmate, @arianagestalt, cos we were doing some 3.5 epic level shenanigans with the party 6eing all dragons or dragon adjacent.

Partway into this things started feeling wierd with playing as Ariana which we'd later realize is the fact that she's alive in this layer of reality and needed to figure things out. Around this time I'd come up with a new character for my superhero setting. Rourke, aka Ferropyre.

A dragon woman from 12,000 years ago give or take who has her soul 6ound to a ro6ot in the modern age. I'd 6een doing a lot of thinking a6out her around the time and decided to deal with the weird feelings to softly introduce her as a player controlled NPC who then got turned into a full player character.

Major inspirations for this character include Mega Man, Ayla (Chrono Trigger), Ariana herself now that I know she's a person.

So I spoke with our DM @rrivlet a6out the Heroics! version of Rourke and how possi6le it'd 6e to port her over without losing the important pillars of her character, those 6eing her out of time status, her motherhood, her need to fight a 6attle that's long over. Turned out this whole set up was very worka6le in the home6rew setting.

Rourke was a dragon6orn soldier in a war against humanity to stop an apocalypse. During this war her side had developed ways to keep a soldier from 6eing lost to death, transferring their souls into warforged 6odies so they can continue the fight still.

Rourke was a willing participant in this and I kinda leaned into my own experience with Deus Ex HR, how I think 6eing a6le to have wanted the augmentations could have made an interesting shift in Jensen's character. Rourke fully asked to have her 6ody turned into a deadly weapon and only afterwards do the consequences sink in.

She spends less time with her family, partly 6ecause she's afraid to let this war carry on 6eyond their lifespans, partly 6ecause as a living weapon she feels she no longer 6elongs in their world. This leads to her pushing the 6ody too hard and collapsing in a state of neither life nor death.

She's found thousands of years later, her soul still locked away in a dormant state until a kindly inventor named Hack finds her and decides that her 6ody should 6e fixa6le. He spends a long time restoring physical functionality, planning to give it some very 6asic functionality, unaware that a dragon soul sleeps deep inside.

At the 6eginning of this campaign there is a call to all dragons to meet, Rourke's dormant soul flares up and takes over her repaired 6ody in this moment, only partially aware of the call 6ut trying to ignore it while finding out what she missed out on.

This is where Penumbra 6egins chronologically.

Rourke wants to leave and see the world, may6e make her way to where the call is summoning her to, 6ut really she's amazed to learn that her fighting was worth it, yet also for nothing. Hack creates a gift for her while she stays in town a little, a toy inspired 6y her earliest stories, a wind up doll 6ased on how he imagined she must have looked when she had scales.

She appreciates the gift 6ut turns it down, suggesting he has more need of it than she does as she leaves to happen across the party in a fight against a human tyrant, something she knows she's good at still.

Life got in the way 6ut we started a new game later on in the setting picking up the pieces. Feeling let down 6y the lack of getting to do much with Rourke I decided to 6ring her 6ack in a more level appropriate way.

I'd entered my Doll Phase around this time and @elysiadragon made me aware of the pf2e race, Poppets, I looked into them found the wished alive 6ackground and the rest is history.

Rourke would happen to wish for a second chance and through cosmic shenanigans her effigy would get that second chance, 6eing 6rought to life with memories of her organic life 6ut not her machine life.

Penumbra's inspirations connect to something I alluded to in an earlier post today. Yep, the clone saga! I'm very autistic a6out clones and alternate versions of characters. Penumbra is exactly Rourke up until the moment she woke up, at which point she's 6een forced to 6ecome her own self, she now wrestles with the weight of 6eing Rourke and not 6eing Rourke at the same time.

The final 6it of Inspiration happened very close to game start, she's a very small swash6uckler with a larger than life hero persona, very physically active and proud of how un6eata6le she is.

That inspiration is...

Hell this goes to such a degree that I'd often rewatch this video every game day to get into the mood.

And yes all of this ram6ling was necessary, now to add a million tags to this.

#anemptyaquarium #6aaah #6ringing you answers #OC: Ariana #Sys: Ariana #OC: Rourke #OC: Ferropyre #OC: Penumbra

[dungeonmalcontent]

You mentioned a while back when the OGL stuff was happening that you were thinking about porting grimdark and dangerous to pathfinder. If you were to do so, would it need to be purchased again if I already bought the 5e one?

This is a good question, though I admit the answer is at least a little disappointing.

So, because of other licensing legal stuff, I am not confident I would be able to sell a generic/Pathfinder variant of G&D. Partially because I've already sold the content under the DMsGuild licensing agreement, but also because of things that prevent you from selling Pathfinder compatible content without jumping through some more dramatic hoops than I had initially understood. In short, it would be an incredibly in-depth re-write. And if I did do the re-write, I would not be able to bundle it into the package on DMsGuild—so it would need to be a separate purchase (since I wouldn't do that work for free and I can't track my previous buyers).

However. And this is the good news, a large chunk of the concepts present in the content of G&D are already in Pathfinder 2e. A lot of it is scattered throughout different books; however, because most of my content is player options, you can just use the Paizo endorsed character building tools (like Pathbuilder) and libraries to get access to all the expanded player character building content for free. The only major thing I'm fairly confident that Pathfinder doesn't have is a sacrifant stand-in, but the oracle class option isn't terribly far off.

So, for everyone that loves this content but not WotC (myself included) you aren't missing anything by not playing 5e d&d and you can still enjoy this kind of content (if not G&D itself) with other systems. Pathfinder has a lot of this baked in. And, from what I've seen, the Kobold Press RPG (currently code named Blackflag) is 5e compatible enough that G&D should be fully compatible with only very minor tweaks (mostly with race and background options).

I'm very grateful for everyone that has stuck with me on this project and been supportive (really, ya'll have been so supportive and I love you for it), especially with all the dickery on the part of Hasbro and WotC. Sadly, I don't have the resources at the moment to re-write Grimdark & Dangerous for another RPG. What I'm lacking right now is mostly time and psychological/emotional drive. I will absolutely stick by my commitments regarding G&D, because I do love this project and want to make it the best version of the book I can. I am a man of my word, and I have made no promise regarding this book that I am not willing to fight tooth and nail to keep. But I don't think any new promises will be forthcoming.

Again, thank you to everyone that has supported this project and continues to do so. I wrote the book for you, so that you can have characters that suffer like we all do (maybe a little worse).

-WorryWrite

#grimdark & dangerous #d&d #homebrew #pathfinder #project black flag #writing #OGL #ask #the disembodied eye rambles

[astramthetaprime]

Putting the 'Function' in Executive Functioning

Lots of stuff going on and ongoing.

Number One -- Google Tasks is the bomb. Seriously. I'm, like, getting shit done. I'm remembering to do things because my exobrain is remembering it for me. If I can get one thing done around the house each day, on consecutive days, for days at a time, dagnabbit I'm getting shit done. You put it on the Tasks app, it fragging puts it on your Calendar, I keep it open on the phone, it stays in the back of my mind because I see it multiple times in a day, and it gets done. Schedule dog walks, schedule washing dishes, schedule writing, schedule whatever, it's there, you see it, it gets done. Between Tasks, Keep, Gmail and Calendar, I've got the means to keep up with dang near anything. The danger is not overdoing it, because here be burnout yo.

Number Two -- I never got the hang of drinking coffee, y'know? I tried, when I was younger, but it always messed up my stomach and I wasn't thrilled with the taste. My thing was Diet Coke, which I love with the force of a thousand exploding suns. And, later, I developed a love of fine Chinese black teas. (I freely and cheerfully direct your attention to Upton Tea Imports for further information. I loves me some good Chinese Keemuns, that's fine drinking.)

However, in the last week I have discovered a coffee drink I can actually stomach. And it has been educational.

It goes like this: 1 tbsp instant espresso powder, 3 tbsp your choice of creamer powder, 1/4 cup or more chocolate syrup, 8 ounces boiling water. Mix well, with a milk frother mixer thing if you have one but spoon's fine. It's a sort of half-assed mocha thing. I call it 'hellbrew' or Liquid Mania depending on my mood. And speaking of mood ...

The first one I drank it kept me up to 3 AM despite the fact I drank it at least twelve hours earlier.

I've had several since then (I'm afraid to have more than 1 a day), and yesterday it cranked me up so high that I spent more than an hour unable to sit still and stimming like you would not believe. I don't stim physically. Usually. But yesterday dear gods I stimmed. I stimmed so freaking much and suddenly I understand the whole thing now and oh yeah my skin felt like it was vibrating. All over. MY ENTIRE BODY WAS VIBRATING.

I was working at the time. Like I said, educational.

Speaking of ...

Number Three -- I have finally finished training for my job so Monday morning I am turned loose on my own recognizance. It's been 5 weeks? Or six? Five, I think. Regardless, I am working full time and funds are available in abundant supply. Just in time to replace all 4 tires on my car. But still, there have been groceries bought and eaten, and I was able to replace my earbuds when the case on my old ones got messed up. And last night I signed up for health insurance for the new year. And I'll be able to start paying my mortgage again. The reduction of stress has been restful. I am on the verge of not just surviving, but thriving.

Number Four -- Pathfinder Progress. Two nights ago I wrote what is probably the exact midpoint of the book, my protagonist and antagonists finally met face to face. Still not able to speak to each other, but it's only a matter of time. The Taelai have survived the Surprise Asteroid and now outright treachery from some of their own people. They're halfway back to civilization, given their means of travel they've got at least a week to ten days til they reach a friendly port and another week to ten days after that to their throneworld system of Daitengu. There's a lot still left to do. But I am making progress. It's getting done.

And beyond Pathfinder, I now have a third story planned. Tentative title: Cinder. There is a preliminary outline, and because this is me and the theater of the mind has no budget, Imma imagine Tom Cruise starring in it.

Because he's pretty, that's why.

Number Five -- I briefly considered attending the Saga Writer's Conference which is scheduled for July 2024 as my birthday present for my 55th birthday, but honestly I don't think I can justify the expense. I estimate I'd be spending at least $1k if one includes lost wages, and I just can't afford that. I have no doubt it would be a great time and I'd learn a lot of stuff I desperately need to know, plus it's being held at ConGregate and that would be just gravy on the potato cake so to speak. But alas, no.

However! I have been looking in to what I could learn on Skillshare, and the answer is quite a lot. Copyediting, social media marketing, Wordpress skillz, creating author platforms, AI art generation (yeah I know, but professional artists don't work for free and you guys have noticed I'm starting from zero, right?). Also, fiction writing. There's also a lot just for free on YouTube and various podcasts such as the excellent Writing Excuses.

Speaking of ...

Number Six -- ChattaCon is coming up in January, and Imma determined to stalk Mary Robinette Kowal, pin her down and massage her brain.

Number Seven -- I'm actually participating in a local speculative fiction writer's group, a subsect of the Chattanooga Writer's Guild. Like, I went to a real-time, real-life meeting (usually it's over video). This was at a coffee shop but pre- Liquid Mania so there was not 'dance a jig in your chair' or vibrating eyeballs. Next time, I will know what to order to make the proceedings much more entertaining.

Number Eight -- Tom Cruise. Because he's pretty.

#writing #me with pathfinder #actuallyautistic #dear god my eyeballs are vibrating #ChattaCon #working full time #executive dysfunction #Google Tasks #autism hacks #getting it done

[desnas]

!! pls ! 👀

from this ask prompt!

HI SAM!!!! ferne told me you also play pathfinder: wotr so i felt it was only right to talk about one of my ocs from that universe... though, i suppose she's existed long before that and i've also ported her into WoW naturally so...

meet nyxana nightbell, AKA the nightbell witch

this is the first drawing i've ever done of her, and though her design has changed significantly over the years, a lot has also stayed the same

so here we have nyx, the blood witch & hexer -- once in a campaign as a "spiderfolk", i've since evolved her into a kaldorei vampyr (from WoW) and a dhampyr with snow elf lineage (in pathfinder)

pinterest | spotify

heavy cw for blood, cannibalism, body horror, family death, and cults under the cut 🧍‍♂️also there's so much backstory i'm sorry in advance

we'll start with nyx's warcraft rendition, because it's ultimately a little bit more fleshed out.

nyxana nightbell was born alongside her twin brother to her single mother in a remote village somewhere within winterspring, kalimdor. food was scarce, and the nightbells had to savor every crumb, ration every meal. nyx's mother was fiercely protective over her children, and through the years, nyx came to find that she had an older brother. MUCH older brother; one of the original druids of the pack tucked away in a secret burrow. food was not only scarce to begin with, but nyx's mother was always primarily concerned for her slumbering son's health, smuggling food into his burrow to ensure he did not starve in his sleep

miserable, nyx turned to the druids of the silk, a homebrew druid circle created by the lovely erikailustra!!! she spent many years keeping her head low, keeping out of trouble; but when she was around 200, nyx's slumbering brother awoke in a lycanthropic rage and slaughtered their mother.

nyx has never been comfortable with rules or conformity, but i think for her this was the nail in the coffin. she ran off and got wrapped up in a nightmare + blood magic + drust cult of night elves worshipping the black widow loa shadra. this cult was called The Brood (my own homebrew!), and cannibalism/vampyr and blood sacrifice was rampant.

nyx flourished amidst the cult, as any blood-thirsty and repressed individal might. all seemed well as she moved up through the ranks to reach ascension (vampyrism except better, because you have six arms now instead of two) until they attempted to force her to sacrifice her own twin. though she'd never struggled or hesitated to kill before, she could not fathom harming her own blood. so it was the rest of the brood who fed upon him, deeming her a failure to the cult. nyxana completely snapped after this and went on a very violent rampage. no one among the brood was spared from the grieving sister's wrath-- not eve the leader himself. upon killing and feasting upon the broodfather, nyx achieved ascension on her own terms, permanently transfrmed.... and stole away into the wilds.

she now lives as a hex witch, taking satisfaction in proxy revenge, and she feeds just a little bit more ethically than she had before. the people of duskwood know of her as the nightbell witch, a masked hag who provides curses, hexes, and jinxes to the common citizen if the price is right, and should you cross her, you'd never be heard from again.

so yeah. witchy hut lady girlboss. also luthais is her neighbor now.

as for pathfinder... things do get a little bit different! they're mostly similar but i'll do my very best to summarize.

on golarion, nyxana was born as a dhampyr to a winter witch in a small village north of irrisen-- much like in wow, food was scarce, and fresh blood for a young and blooming dhampyr set of twins was even scarcer!!!

nyxana followed in her mother's footsteps and practiced the ways of the winter witches for many years until her mother's unforeseen passing after a mysterious werewolf attack. it was then that nyx abandoned their home in irissen and became twisted up in... you guessed it... a pathfinder version of The Brood located somewhere north of the sarkoris border in the rimethirst mountains. probably just a good old demon blood sacrificing cult.

i'm still working out the details, but i want to say they were probably urgathoa worshippers or something idk. maybe baphomet worshippers? i need to brush up a bit more on my pathfinder lore before setting that in stone.

well, one way or another, nyxana's twin brother winds up getting captured by the brood, and nyx's test of loyalty is to sacrifice him. she refuses, same deal happens. blah blah blah, nyx gets fed up with the brood's bullshit, kills their leader, and eventually finds herself in mendev, probably only a few days out from kenabres. this is what drives her to eventually join the crusade-- while she is kind of insanely fucked up, i think she truly resents and blames the demons, as well as herself, for the death of her twin brother.

while nyxana is not my canon commander, ferne and i have been talking about her being a "companion" in commander luthais' backstory. aka she kisses him and daeran

the more i play pwotr, though, the more i get excited about the idea of her being my more... evil leaning, cruel knight-commander , here's the art i used for her portrait, from a magic the gathering card by greg opalinski (i edited it just slightly)

i haven't quite decided what mythic path i'd be doing with her, but i do know she's hellbent on closing the worldwound by whatever means necessary. ideally she'd probably romance both wenduag and daeran. maybe even a little camellia on the side....

ultimately, nyx is not a good person, but i don't believe she's pure, unfiltered evil. she believes in respecting nature, and in karmic justice, but has an aversion to chaos. she likes to do what she wants, when she wants, and if anyone gets in her way, she won't hesitate to smite them down.

she feels extremely passionately, though this is tucked away with a mask of her smooth and flirty facade. she enjoys playing with her food, and she can be quite manipulative and terrifying. but she is always loyal to those she loves. i think that she would be a pretty fucking awesome commander

#aelyosos #pathfinder #pwotr #pathfinder: wrath of the righteous #warcraft #world of warcraft #wow oc #ask #oc: nyxana

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

I'm still having fun tinkering around with the Pathfinder 2e character creator. I decided to try and really create a character from scratch (rather than porting a character from a different system), and while I'll probably never play her, had a lot of fun making a wizard.

I wasn't sure what theme to go for, really, until I was thinking of my one TTRPG character who died for real—my wizard/cleric Charity, who died via Chain Lightning. So I decided to avenge her by making an air/lightning-themed evocation wizard :D

#isabel talks #isabel's games #game: pathfinder #pathfinder 2e