#rambling about my RPG characters

[zigraves]

We talk now and then about what our RPG characters or OCs or fanfiction tropes say about us. All my recent TTRPG characters in the past three years are... certainly going some places.

Body, sapient cordyceps grown on a witch's shambling corpse, itself only the fruiting body of a far greater mycological network; eat of our flesh, breathe of our spores, take us into you like an infectious benediction and become me-I-us-we, join us, you-I-we are immortal and we are together and we are a million-who-are-one and you will never be alone again.

Shai, she who ate her own comrades and was exiled, who is tactician and mathematician and monstrous hyena; whatever you are, whoever you are, even be you friend or foe, you are safe only so long as I do not hunger. You are safe only so long as I am sated. You are safe only so long as there is something else for me to feast on.

Marbas, he who was demon-dead before the game began and dead thrice more within it; I am a monster, I have been a monster, I ache to be a greater monster yet, and for all that still I will bargain to keep you safe and I will give up what little respect there is for me if I think it the better means to protect that which I want as mine - respect is nothing compared to power.

Alythatrys, a haunted suit of armour dead so long it had forgotten what it was to be anything other than a tool, to have a self beyond duty; let me savour life by watching yours, let me hold true priorities when all others are driven by needs to eat and sleep and be connected, let me give up even undeath, even the self, if it will save those things that matter - no, not let me, rather you cannot stop me.

Nadine, who made themself blank so they may project and wholly become any identity they need to run a heist or make a mark; I will turn my mind to your work, but in turn I will vacate my body - let my flesh be possessed by ghosts, spirits, demons, and let me come to know it anew, invigorated and refreshed by that very alien inhabitance.

Like

There are some monsters here but I don't think they fuck in the conventional sense (You could try. Advisability is variable). There's something utterly wrong with each and every one of them on a "you cannot fix this and should not try to" level.

and then, somehow, also, there's a perfectly nice human cis lady who's been using the truly arcane power of Not Being A Dick About It to undermine every major hierarchy in magical society, unionise the newly awakened, and develop friendly working relationships with greater spirits to the point of fucking over the mages who are used to binding spirits like tools. Her name is Vor, like the ancient nordic goddess of knowledge, and she likes books and gin, and doesn't eat pork or rare steak. Her familiar is a fragment of a lich's dying mind.

#rambling about my RPG characters #I do not know how my Chronicles Of Darkness character is the happiest and most well adjusted normal person here #but if you want body horror and alienation of the self I gotcha #watch me successfully fail to make anyone heroic #at least two of these characters do not even consider themselves people

[basofy]

i hope when the lisa definitive edition releases old and new players start to see the party members as not only a fun mechanic to progress in the game but also as their second purpose (specified even in their gang page)

which is to tell how different the people of olathe are from eachother from good to neutral to bad.

all of the party members got their own personalities, points of view and goals, which i've always been appreciative of because it makes them all feel like they're their own person and it shows that they're not going to think exactly like you just because they're on your side.

so some of them can be assholes that despise brad for different reasons and are even creepy to buddy and others can just be neutral on the whole thing or don't care about brad but don't hate him and there are others who are nice people who just want someone to hang out and get attached to brad and it pains them to betray him at the end. some of them even got someone they care about too the same way brad cares for buddy.

and all of this is made just so you don't see them only as tools, they are written this way to show you what the people of olathe are like from a closer perspective. the only other way to do this would be using npcs which would go more overlooked, and it already IS overlooked by players

becuz over time i've seen toooo many fans who speak as if absolutely every man in olathe is an asshole and a pedo, which is why they congratulate tooley too much just for being decent to buddy. i like him but you give him too much credit for something other characters do as well.

and they talk like these are just 'olathe standards' and like it's okay for this game when No, this game condemns this type of behavior at all times and it makes it very clear. it's not normal, it's just common

i mean was terry a creep towards buddy??? bo?? carp?? shocklord? birdie? nern? olan? the warlords??? and more characters and there are even npcs who deeply question the stuff going on around buddy or are simply not interested in her

and then i see takes such as "maybe x character is gay becuz they don't seem interested in buddy". pal i can think of a million better reasons to consider a character gay (sometimes no reason at all, have fun). (also again, TOOLEY. i mean he was seen at the beehive, isn't that a better reason to think he's gay??)

you don't need to be a pedo and a rapist to be attracted to women, and it's crazy how little the concept of consent matters to some people, because this isn't the only time i've seen this type of thinking over a piece of media.

this is a way of thinking that comes from people who got into lisa for the fun battles and do not understand the story, and it's sorta okay, it's fine if the battles are your favorite thing or if you're not that fond of emotional stories, but you can't ignore this part of the game, to do that you better just play something else, because my problem is that when you try to explain the emotional matters of lisa's story they never want to listen; they preffer living in their little bubble of misinterpreting everything. (like the amount of times i've tried explaining to other fans why lisa isn't worst than her goddamn dad and it's like talking to a wall) like damn, i love the battles too but i can perfectly have both things yknow.

anyway just my silly little thoughs that have been going thru my mind these past weeks, i take this game too seriously but i also feel like it's dumb not to because that's what it wants you to do.

hope things go well when the definitive edition drops and that everyone enjoys it 8)

#getting overwhelmed at the attention ive been getting in lisa twitter #lately so i might just post my silly opinions here lmao (since lisa tumblr is kinda dead) #on the topic of tooley it makes me sad to see ppl hate him but i also understand why #fans have been reaaaal weird about him #and idk if he is even there to make some sort of statement which makes him uncomfortable #i liked when i realized he was in joyful and thought he was a cool guy and that's literally it. #at most i thought that it would be nice if he could be buddy's friend just for the fact that buddy needs one #but she has a hard time maintaining relationships of any sort anyway #also don't ship them pls #aside from it being bad it's like taking what tooley said about her and wiping your ass with it #lisa rpg #lisa the painful #long post #takes a fancy sip of my water like it's wine #LIKE WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CHARACTER BIOS ARE FOR SRSLY #lisa ramblings #this absolutely goes on the tag

[samarecharm]

Random question about the “they should make persona for people who like good games” post. Do people think the persona series is that bad? I know they aren’t perfect but I wouldn’t call them bad games.

I had a wholeass essay written out before i realized im too tired to make it sound coherent. AND my only experience is p 4 and 5, so my opinion on it means jack shit. All i can say is that the most recent titles suffer from bad writing. (And repetitive gameplay, but thats a different issue). Be it poorly written characters and dialogue, or poorly written interactions and plot, it is hard to take some of the stuff in the more recent games at face value. One could argue that that just means the game is subpar, not necessarily bad, but thats subjective; bad means different things to different people. And i say this as someone who thinks this game is Not the best but still found it incredibly engaging and entertaining.

#chattin #i am the kind of person to write video essay length posts on games that disappointed me LOL #so i am the wrong person to ask #remember that when thinking about the quality of a game; you should ask urself #who is the target audience? is it accessible to this audience? do i need an outside source to keep up with this game ? (like a guide) #if its in a series; what does it do to separate itself from the others? #is the writing okay? characters? interactions( #? #insensitive content ? #how is it handled? the game may me okay for me but can I have my fat friends enjoy this game??? #can i have my trans friends and gay male friends enjoy this game??? #who can i recommend it to? my sister is unable to process all of the social links and requirements for these social links #so she just. doesnt do it. she IS the target audience bc she likes rpgs #and she likes the story and characters. but its too overwhelming #and the social links would be overwhelming regardless of the difficulty #are u meant to enjoy the game in one playthrough or across multiple runs?? #is it WORTH it to do those runs? for a game that has ‘choices’ it is painfully linear #and it confuses people who are trying to follow the rules (do things in my free time to build confidants) #when theyre unable to actually hang out w confidants bc of a rush of mandatory scenes #velvet room fusions are a pain and overly complex #and the game stops being about making a good build #and it starts to become ‘make a shadow null to everything bc the game will keep instakilling you’ #forcing a game over when ur main character dies is ALWAYS bad to me i will swear by this #u make more interesting builds when u arent scared of a gameover #weh. rambling #the game is as bad or good as u want it to br #people clearly love it; we talk about our faves all the time. but how many of us are replaying a game meant to be replayed. not many.

[wayfinderships]

SUPER MARIO RPG REMAKE AND A PEACH GAME LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

#pan rambles #Oh I am SO excited! #I've never played Super Mario RPG before but I've heard so many good things about it! and I love me a good Mario RPG! #AND PEAAAAACH #She was the character I chose for everything (Kart. Smash. The Sports games. Party-) when I was little so she's my PAL #She has a special place in my heart and I'm so happy she's getting a new game!!! #I should replay Super Princess Peach now-

[badolmen]

My brother: *researching cultural perception of werewolves for his English course and asks to interview me*

Me. A Horror Loving Queer: sure *vibrating with the barely suppressed desire to send him links to my favorite papers books and documentaries on the link between horror and sexuality/gender*

#ra speaks #personal #lol #I try to keep it on the dl for family but he was they/theming me the other day so you know what? #he’s getting my repressed homosexuality werewolf takes. brother do you want to see my WWII RPG #with a young lesbian encountering an ancient lesbian werewolf in the catacombs of Paris #with her/the player’s choices influencing how ‘monstrous’ the characters become ? #brother the inherent horror of the body and desire and being seen as monstrous for the mere act of survival #brother. brother listen it’s about fearing yourself but being unable to change yourself. brother it’s about a metaphor for aids. brother its #*incoherent werewolf queerness rambling*

[theygender]

The funny thing about playing BG3 right after its release is like. Usually with RPGs I obsessively look up the dialogue for every interaction to make sure I choose the Right Thing but since this game just came out those kinds of guides just... don't exist yet. Like sure I can look up general walkthroughs for different quests, but there's not any articles detailing the approval/disapproval rating for every character on each individual dialogue option like there is for, say Dragon Age, so I'm having to actually fuck around and find out for once

#rambling #my urge to research all the dialogue choices before picking anything is bc of the autism im sure #when you live a life where its very difficult for you to know the right thing to say and you often get misinterpreted #its nice to have a break in a fantasy world where you can know exactly how youll be interpreted and be confident you chose Correctly #if these resources already existed for baldurs gate i would 100% be doing the same thing rn #(even tried a few times with no luck lol) #but since they dont... im actually like. playing the rpg as an rpg for once. and im having FUN with it too #figuring out my characters voice from the perspective of what they would say instead of the outcome i want them to get #making choices with the same knowledge they have about the situation instead of acting as some sort of omnipotent puppeteer #its funny that its taken me this long to just. play a game normally ahdjsksk. and really im doing it against my will. but i like it! #this is also the first time ive actually played something right after it came out #usually i end up waiting like months or years after the hype dies down before i get into it bc i just keep putting it off #playing a new game as it comes out without like a librarys worth of wiki articles to reference is an entirely new experience for me lol #who knew it could be fun? #(AN: the answer is Everyone Who Is Normal)

[eldrichfuck666]

I feel like I'm living in some kind of vacuum which might be true because I don't really have enough acquaintances to know this but WHAT IS BALDUR'S GATE 3 I need to find out immediately 😭😭😭 I feel so left out it's funny skkks

#nonsims #delete later #olya's rambles #like I've heard about it generally speaking but I have no idea what that is #that's a cool game it looks so cool but I'm so dumb #I'm going to find out okay!!! #dash forced me 👁️👁️ #okay IT'S AN RPG I FOUND OUT!!! #it looks so cool and also there's character customization?? #I just don't play RPGs but I'm so happy that I'm probably going to see a lot of my mutuals play it :')

[diaryofellen]

#for now im tired. running a tumblr poll tournament takes an unexpected emotional toll #thank you so much again to everyone who voted in the first round!!!!!!! i really love rpg maker games #and its nice to see people getting excited about them in a way i havents seen for a while. #its a bit stressful to an extent (again please do not bring up creator controversy too much.. #and dont defend creators just cuz you like their characters...that was a bizzarely stressful thing to see in the tags) #(and also im really sorry to anyone who has post notifications on and just #gets me talking about dumb stuff and being slightly annoying. -__-; i know i should probably ramble on this blog less.) #the witchs diary #people have been very nice to me and im glad. im very sorry if my talking ruins the blog a bit but im happy people are enjoying the polls

[devotedlystrangewizard]

anyway if, by the time i have figured out how to code a game, we still dont have it (and i expect we wont) i WILL make an rpg with aro "love" interests. ur protagonist can be an aroallo whore now. whats love if not the thing that some people feel sometimes. some of your allies are only down to have sex with you and will reject you outright if you try to romance them. no monogamy limits outside of maybe specific actual romances. these aros would be absolutely destroyed by the potential fandom but its ok i didnt make them for you <2

#ramblings #it wont be a big rpg i mean. solo dev moment #unless i magically get some decent classmates in school willing to back me up #OR i dare to put myself out there. on the internet. and ask for help. #but for now it is a solo thing #i like games with love interests weve all seen how i talk about my 3 da boyfriends. and gale #but man i wish we had something where sex didnt eventually lead to a romantic confession #like as an aroallo person i just think maybe it would be nice. #& like. specifically aro. you can be specifically aro. some companions would be specifically aroallo #not 'im in it for the sex but you can romance me if you do your best' no i want SEX. and SEX ALONE! #as i was writing this post i remembered how aro characters are treated (will never forget 'but shes still ace in my fic') #and yes. these characters despite being explicitly aromantic. would still get romantic fics #and yes. i would hate that happening. #but also as i said. i didnt make them for you. your toys are right there. look. fwb to lovers is overdone. go play baldur #this post WAS triggered by me thinking about baldursg despite me really liking that game #i love that game but it sucks i cant just. idk. experience my specific brand of homosexuality #listen marrying el to gale was delightful but my actual self insert character was so SO alone #and withers going 'thou hast no bosom companion why' actually made me a little mad. sorry #like no ones gonna cater to aroallos except for aroallos. i know this. but it still kinda sucked

[eldrichthingy]

Still can't get over the fact that Everett is basically a cannibalistic vampire deer 👍🏾 I just can't be normal about it

#and yes I'm going to be annoying about it #most of my ocs are like this BUT I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD ROLEPLAY SUCH CHARACTER IN RPG????? #nonsims #delete later #olya's rambles

[echeydraws]

Nobody ever warns you that at the end of a two year long campaign you'll literally start to feel sick to your stomach at the thought of leaving that world behind. You will of course miss the group irl but nobody warned you that the characters would start to feel like old close friends and that the thought of never seeing them again and not knowing what's going to happen to them would be heartbreaking and enough to make you teary. These incredibly important people that don't even exist and you only carry with you in your heart. I'm about to cry

#had a long discussion with my partner/dm about everything that happened and could've happened #actually made me so sad. #my character is like a friend to me that i worry about when i dont see her #I'll miss her and her friends :((( #dnd #dungeons and dragons #rpg #ttrpg #d&d #5e #rambles

[thelostpretzel]

hello!! i just wanted to pop in and say that i really really love your ocs, their designs are all so fun and creative!!!!! esp the heroes of the city waow :00 also deeply interested in whatever lore they have so if you ever feel like dropping crumbs,,, *hands outstretched*

*cracks knuckles* thank you for asking dear stranger i would love to ramble about my children (the?) Heroes of the City (sorry, I still don't understand how article THE works) is a story in the genre of LitRPG (like literature + RPG or manhwas/novells about rankers) and it's about Players who are trying to save The Sentient (?) City from self-destruction (or help it destroy itself if a Player feels like hating the world) so the main cast is Eki (she/them) aka The Leviathan Slayer aka The Hero she smol she kind she could kill a god if this god is a threat to her found family but only if said god is a physical threat she is a beating pillow for every morally gray/black character in The City and will never win against charismatic-based villain (she's very naive and soft hearted and everybody uses it)

Black Silver (she/her) aka The Witch or The City's Shadow

the hottest and the deadliest villain of The City and i have nothing else to say

Rex (he/them) aka [data deleted]

he is one of The City creators and his main mission is to be a threat to his ex-soulmate - Black Silver who is actively destroying The City

they are the Most Toxic Couple of the project and i feel terror every time i think about them

Little Box (she/her) aka [???]

i don't know what she is and i'm lowkey scared to know so she's just vibin' here and there (i think she's dead)

Coffee Fox (he/him) aka The Keeper aka The Guardian

a barista of a tiny coffee shop and The Retired King of The City

he brings comfort and love to every Hero but can only watch The City fall because he's forever locked in his coffee shop

Magnolia (she\her) and Glitches (they\them) aka The Healer/The Parasite

ah yes a cool badass parasite with no morale compass and an absolutely miserable host with terrible anxiety disorder i love it (Glitches also often flirts with The Bitch i mean with the guy who is hated by the whole City and Magnolia lives in constant fear because of it)

Midas (he/him) aka The Bitch i mean The Cursed King

The Bitch of The City (and he's fucking rich and hot too i hate him so fucking much i don't even draw him consistently WHYYYYYYYYYYY)

anyway

Adam (the fuck/that) aka The Emptiness

the mute horror of the City (he likes Little Box and Magnolia though)

aaaaaand the last one

42 aka Zwai (man/failure)

he's just funny little guy with horrible medicine trauma and a cat

thats it thank you

#original character #heroes of the city

[basofy]

thinking about the characters whos most hated things have somethin to do with themselves

#my fav part of the character bios aside from favorite food is their most hated thing #it says soooo much about them (most of the time) #like what does hating cucumbers have to say about you idk #i say this all the time please read the character bios #lisa rpg #i might need a lisa tag for myself but that means searching all my other posts Fuck #lisa ramblings #ok there

[imsobadatnicknames2]

top 5 ttrpgs for beginners

Sorry that this one took me a bit longer to answer than all the other Top 5 asks :p i wanted to explain a bit of my reasoning behind it and this gave me q chance to ramble a bit about something that bothers me lol

So, first of all I want to talk about what TO ME makes something a good beginner RPG.

Ramble:

I've talked a bit in the past about how I have sort of a bone to pick with the way so many people, when asked for recs for beginner TTRPGs, immediately decide to recommend extremely rules-light/minimalist/one-page RPGs (Hacks of Lasers&Feelings in particular seem to be somewhat popular on this front), when IMO these types of RPGs are at their best when played by an experienced group (or at the very least with least one very experienced player/GM who can provide some guidance to the others). I think a lot of ppl seem to have the impression that simpler mechanics inherently make a game more beginner-friendly, and that thus the most beginner-friendly games are inherently gonna be the ones with the simplest mechanics. And while this is true to an extent (a 700-page RPG with tons of complicated mechanics to remember is obviously gonna be inaccessible to beginners), when you consider that mechanics exist to DELEGATE decisions about the fiction away from the players and the GM so that they don't have to manually arbitrate them every time, there is point where less mechanics are gonna make harder for new players because it means there's more thing they're gonna have to find a way to arbitrate on and decide by themselves, and that's a skill that takes time to develop. An experienced group can probably get a ton of mileage out of a system that essentially ammounts to "the GM describes the world. The players describe what their characters do, and the GM describes how the world reacrs. When the outcome of a player action is uncertain, then [simple resolution mechanic]" but a beginner group is gonna be a little lost. Especially if the game, like many of these types of games, includes practically nothing in terms of GM tools. So I think recommending beginner RPGs solely on the base of how simple they are is well-intentioned but misguided.

(Ramble over)

So, some of what, to me, makes something a good beginner RPG is

Rules provide enough support that the group won't have to constantly be figuring out how to adjudicate stuff on the fly, but they're simple and flexible enough that they're easy to remember and learning them doesn't feel like a daunting task like it does with a certain game (*cough cough* D&D)

Relatively short and uni timidating. Maybe between like 20 and 100 pages. Players should be able to read through the rules and mechanics in one sitting.

Plenty of examples of play, often a good example of play is what makes a game's rules really *click* for a new player.

Relatively quick and painless to start running for the first time. Character creation should be quick and snappy, and if possible a short pre-written adventure (hopefully with some room to be expanded into something larger) should be included within the same book and ready to run out of the box. Even if your group doesn't like using prewritten adventures, having a *good* prewritten adventure can be a huge help in understanding how to write/design them.

Solid set of GM tools and resources (if it's a game with a GM, of course)

Optionally, plenty of compatible material to either use or take inspo from.

So, I think my recs would for beginner games would be...

Mausritter

If any of you have EVER heard me talk about RPGs you knew Mausritter was gonna be here TBH. I've repeatedly talked about it being one of my favorite RPGs and also that I consider it pretty much an ideal introduction to the hobby. I think the woodland critter theme is extremely charming and attractive for people of any age, while the slightly darker elements that rear their head from time to time keep it from feeling too childish.

The mechanics are simple and flexible but still provide enough structure that even a new GM will rarely if ever be at a loss about how to resolve a particular action. They're familiar to anyone who's played a dungeon game while still being extremely streamlined. 3 stats with the main action resolution being roll-under tests, no classes, characters are defined mostly by their inventory, all attacks auto hit and initiative is extremely streamlined, which keeps combat quick and dynamic, etc. And the mechanics are pretty short and esy to digest too, the players' section of the rulebook only takes 18 pages, including stuff like inventory tables and examples of play, and the website features a handy one.page rules summary (which also comes with the box set)

It's super easy to get running: character creation takes a couple minutes at most, and it features both a simple adventure and hexcrawl that can be used right out of the box with plenty of interesting directions to expand for further adventures.

Now, Mausritter takes most of its mechanics from Into The Odd, so a lot of its virtues come to it, but I think the few changes it made DO make mausritter most beginner-friendly, such as its inventory system which makes inventory management into a genuine challenge without having it devolve into a slog of tedious book-keeping, and the incorporation of a streamlined version of GloG's magic system, which manages to still be simple and easy without being as loose and freeform as the magic system from a lot of OSR games of similar complexity (which can be initially daunting to new players)

But what REALLY makes mausritter shine IMO is the extremely solid set of GM tools. In just a few pages mausritter manages to provide simple rules, procedures, generators and advice for running faction play, making an engaging hexcrawl, making adventure sites, and generating stuff like treasure hoards, NPCs, an adventure seeds and overal just a ton of useful stuff that takes a huge load off of the shoulders of any beginner GM.

Cairn

Lets say you're into Mausritter mechanically but your players aren't into the whole woodland creature theme and want to play something more traditional. Cairn is also built on Into The Odd's system, and takes inspiration from some of the same sources, so it's very similar mechanically. It does feature some significant differences regarding magic, character advancement, and how injury and healing work, but overall it's still mostly the same system under the hood, so a lot of what I said makes Mausritter a great introduction to the hobby mechanically still applies here (quick and flavorful character creation, dynamic and streamlined but dangerous combat, etc). It's also a classless system that features msotly inventory-defined characters, but aside from the option to randomly roll your gear, the game also offers the option of picking a gear package in case you wanna emulate a particular fantasy archetype.

Now, Cairn is a much more barebones document, and doesn't even feature examples of play or an explicit GM section with resources for running the game, which breaks with the things I said I look for in a beginner RPG. However, in this case I'm willing to forgive this because, first, Cairn's website features a plethora of first party and third party stuff that isn't featured in the book itself, including examples of play, GM procedures and tools, modular rules, and a wealh of conversions of creature stat blocks and adventures from D&D and other fantasy adventure ttrpgs.

And Second, something different that specifically distinguishes Cairn as a good example of a beginner RPG is how it explicitly outlines its philosophical and design principles, and the principles of play for both the GM and the players before it even shows you any rules, which is something that I think more games and ESPECIALLY begginer games should do. IMO the whole book is worth it just for that little section.

Troika!

Troika is a game built on the Fighting Fantasy system (which originally was less of a TTRPG system and more of an engine for a series of choose-your-own-adventure books) with a really interesting pseudo-victorian space opera weird gonzo setting which is a load of fun. It has very simple 2d6 mechanics, with characters having three stats (Stamina, Skill, and Luck), and being mostly defined by their inventory and the special skills from their background. Character creation is quick and snappy. The game gives you 36 weird and extremely creative character backgrounds, but creating a custom background is as easy as coming up with a concept and the names of a couple special skills that support that concept. It also has a very unique initiative system which might be a little divisive but which I DO find fun an interesting.

While it lacks many of the GM tools I praised Mausritter for, it makes up a little bit for it with an initial adventure that does a wonderful job at naturally introducing the weirdness of the setting, and which at the end presents a ton of opportunities to segway into a variety of urban adventures.

Now, a lot of beginners come into RPGs specifically looking for a D&D-type fantasy game (which is a problem because D&D is a pretty bad option for a beginner RPG) so for those types of players I would recommend

The Black Hack

The Black Hack is probably my favorite game for doing D&D-style fantasy roleplaying. It's a game that at its core uses the original 1974 white box edition of D&D for inspiration, but modernizes, reimagines, and streamlines every aspect of it to be one of the most simple yet elegant D&D-like experiences out there. For example, TBH uses the six stat array that all D&D players know and love, and with the same 3-18 point range, but does away with the attribute score / attribute modifier dichotomy, instead building its entire system around the attribute scores, with all rolls in the game being roll-under tests for a relevant attribute (including initiative, attack/defense rolls, and saving throws). It also innovated some extremely elegant mechanics that went on to be very influential for other games, such as its Usage Die mechanic as a way to streamline keeping track of consumable resources. Basically, it's like if D&D actually played the way it looks in cartoons and stuff: character creation doesn't take 3 hours, every combat encounter doesn't take five hours, and you can place some emphasis on resource management without the game making you want to tear your hair out with boring bookkeeping.

And one of the coolest things about it is the way it handles compatibility. Despite taking loose at best mechanical inspiration from D&D and playing very differently from it, TBH is intentionally designed to be compatible with a wealth of old-school D&D material. While it very clearly stands as its own distinct game, it's designed in such a way that you can prety much grab any creature stat block or adventure module written for any pre-3e version of D&D and use it in The Black Hack with little to no effort in conversion required.

The first edition of the game is a pretty barebones 20-page booklet that just describes the basic game mechanics, since it was assumed you'd probably be using D&D creature stat blocks and adventures with it anyway, but the second edition was significantly expanded with a bestiary, expanded GM procedures and advice, and tool for creating anything you could want: Hexcrawls, towns, dungeons, quests, treasure hoards, NPCs, dungeon rooms, traps, secrets doors, etc. plus a short premade adventure and even a few premade unkeyed dungeon maps that you can take and key yourself if you're in a pinch for a map, which as you all know, I think GM tools are an important part of a beginner game.

The game only includes the 4 basic classes from old-school D&D (fighter, thief, cleric, magic user) but the community has made several supplements adding back more modern classes.

Now, if you're that type of player that wants a D&D-like experience and you want an alternative that's still beginner-friendly but doesn't deviate as much from D&D's design, I would suggest:

either Basic Fantasy, or Old-School Essentials (or any good retroclone of Basic D&D tbh)

BF and OSE differ a bit from each other but at their core they're both attempts to repackage a relatively faithful but slightly modernized version of the 1981 Basic/Expert D&D set, retaining mostly the same mechanics while ditching a few of the aspects that might seem counterintuitive to a modern audience (such as descending AC, which I personally don't mind but I udnerstand why a lot of people find it confusing). I'm recommending these bc I think if you're gonna play any actual D&D product, the B/X set represents D&D at its most beginner-friendly (character creation is at its quickest and simplest, combat flows faster and remain itneresting due to doing side initiative rather than individual initative, the mechanics forsurprise, stealth, and dungeon exploration actions such as looking for traps are streamlined to simple D6 rolls) while still being recognizably D&D and these retroclones put in a bit of an extra effort to make them even more accessible to modern audiences.

Now, just like The Black Hack, these retroclones are limited in their race/class choice to the classic old-school D&D human/halfling/elf/dwarf and fighter/cleric/thief/magic user, but in the case of Basic Fantasy, the community has made several race and class supplements, some of which are showcased on the official website, and in the case of OSE, the OSE: Advanced addon reintroduces many of the modern classes and races that were originally introduced in the Advanced D&D line.

Have in mind that this list is pretty limited by my own tastes and experiences. I'm very aware that the very specific type of game I tend to play and like and experiences inroducing some of my friends to the hobby completely color the scope of what I can recommend as a good beginner RPG, and that that scope is significantly limited. I also like more narrative storygame type stuff, and I don't doubt that some of them would also make a fantastic introduction to the hobby (some PbTA stuff like Ironsworn, Dungeon World and Monster of the Week comes to mind) but my experience with them is not significant enough for me to feel confident in telling which of them are good beginner RPGs.

Also note that there are several games that I consider to be more MECHANICALLY beginner-friendly than the ones I listed here, but that I avoided mentioning specifically because they offer extremely little to no support in terms of GM tools, which I think is an important and often overlooked aspect of beginner-friendliness for any game that includes a GM! But they still might be worth checking out. These include games like DURF, FLEE, OZR, A Dungeon Game, Bastards, Dungeon Reavers, Knave 1e, and Tunnel Goons.

#ttrpg

[reegis]

More Hadeon lore?? I love them sm

aaaa i love to talk about my dumb babies dont give me any excuse..

She’s actually part of like. a whole Thing. which i will now ramble about for ENTIRELY too long, so ill put it under the cut

ahhh im so bad at explaining things even tho theres like. a lot of lore & worldbuilding (by my standards anyways)

but basically all of my angel & demon OCs are part of an idea i have for an rpg/ttrpg?? set in a world where God, angels and demons all exist in the world, mainly in a sort of eldritch sense. God has essentially gone missing for thousands of years - with only scattered miracles to occasionally make Its presence known - and in Its absence, the angels have taken on their own warped interpretation of Its edict while the demons have wreaked havoc, and both have entwined themselves very heavily into human society (mostly to humanity’s detriment).

The players would create a character (human((religious, cult, or agnostic)), fallen angel, redemption demon, etc) that would give them certain skill sets/abilities/affinities depending on their choices, but the overall goal of the game is to Meet/Find God (and your characters reason for this would vary)

The continent in the game is basically one enormous mountain range, with the peaks actually reaching the heavens (think like olympus) with those living closer to the peaks being basically ultra religious societies who still believe God is there and everything that happens is still somehow part of Its plan, and those at the base and few small surrounding islands (which deal with much more demonic corruption and angelic attacks) doubting It still exists, and becoming home to fringe groups of cults creating their own deities (sometimes literally) and agnostics.

Players would meet somewhere at the base and progress up the mountain, and - depending on their group make-up - meet angels and demons along the way, both of which could potentially be foes or allies.

The angels exist in a hierarchy, with the seven Seraphim at the top, but almost all of them pose a potential danger. With God no longer at the reigns, the angels have had centuries to interpret Its will however they see fit. Many of the lowest ranking angels still hold the original ideals and are mostly harmless, granting blessings and offering sage advice, but are of no Real help. Of the higher ranking angels, many have gained their own twisted sort of moral compass and have lost touch with Gods original love for mankind. What is or isn’t a sin, what deserves punishment or what deserves blessing, has become subjective to them and they bestow their judgment upon mankind with great prejudice.

The demons exist in a hierarchy as well. As angels stripped of their holy power (and thus blinded) when they attempted to overthrow God, they seek to earn back their power and sight by stealing souls. The harder to corrupt a soul is, the more power they obtain when that soul finally succumbs. Lower level/weaker demons mainly seek to cause wide spread devastation and death, as they dont have the power to corrupt, but feed on any souls lost. Higher level demons are more insidious, possessing or manipulating people in power, in search of “higher quality” souls to assist their climb.

There are also a small group of “fallen” angels and “redeemed” demons, who exist sort of outside of the status-quo since they no longer fit neatly into either group. Fallen angels are (usually lower ranking) angels that have fallen in love with humanity and rejected their base angelic nature to live amongst them. They forfeit most of their angelic power and assume a more human-like appearance in order to live amongst the humans they adore, but have a still-perceivable “otherness” that leaves them mostly an outcast. Redemption demons are somewhat similar; they have gained/retained enough love for humanity since their fall that they no longer seek to claim human souls for power and are instead attempting to regain Gods love through redemption and acts of kindness. Falling from heaven has irrevocably changed them physically, however, and they face great hardships attempting to fit in to human society.

Of the Seraphim, Hadeon represents the Wrath of God. He is tasked with finding and punishing sinners, those who would blaspheme or turn against God. Originally she was the fair hand of Justice, but in the centuries of Gods absence, his sense of right and wrong have become irrevocably warped. Their presence can first be felt with the smell of ozone, and a sudden intense pressure, like a storm on the horizon. She, and the army of angels under her command, hunt sinners through the streets, meting out their vigilante justice. Where he goes, indescriminate bloodshed almost always follows.

Her mindset is entirely black and white, but despite eons walking the earth they retain a naïveté of human society that makes her pretty easily distractable. He can occasionally be reasoned with and/or distracted, and even more rarely convinced to bestow a blessing.

Hadeon is one of the first Minor bosses the player faces, and your decision to either befriend, escape, or kill her will play a role in your later encounter with other higher angels.

obviously there are all of the other Seraphim, and other high ranking demons that have their own names/info/etc i could literally keep going on and on abt them & more in depth world building forever probably but i will stop now 😔

#this is technically an old anon but. i want to talk about my dumb worldbuilding so now u all have to look at it ty💖💖💖 #asks #my art #oc #oc: hadeon #if any of u actually read all of that i owe u my first born child or smthn fjfjfj

[thydungeongal]

apologies if this has been asked already, but I'm curious as to why you enjoy monsterhearts so much? you recommend it because the mechanics support narrative arc, due to the way the skins are narratively connected to a certain high school clique. but I found that to be the most frustrating part of the game, honestly.

I was constantly hitting my head against the narrative and my character because it felt like there was only one way to really play a skin and their arc. one of my favorite things to do in ttrpgs is to Subvert classes and tropes, but in monsterhearts your relationship to your class (and the mechanics that go with it) feel either static or inevitable. The Queen is always the Queen Bee, which I guess makes sense, but it simply feels boring.

your monsterheart post was in response to why everyone likes d&d warlock, and op said its because warlock's mechanics are strictly tied to its narrative, but i disagree: I think a lot of people, me included, like warlock because of the Choices and freedoms that come with the class. you didn't Have to play a warlock with a direct, antagonistic, and codependent conflict with their patron. because the game does not have any specific mechanics for patrons, you can kind of do whatever with them.

I always think that limits will make someone think more creatively in those bounds, and I was hoping monsterheart would have that sort of creative energy, but when I was playing it, I felt like I was wrangling the rules and my own moveset at every turn.

am i simply not viewing the game in the right way? is it just not for me? am i not being creative enough? I'm trying to get over the mindset that rules are the enemy, but idk. i just haven't been able to really get into smaller ttrpgs except like, troika! (which i do love a lot tbh), and i want to know what I'm missing. sorry for the long, rambling question

It might simply not be for you. For me the fact that the skins each represent a clear narrative trope within high school drama that has ways that the rules encourage them to act in (those ways being Bad because the point of the game is to produce explosive melodrama) is a net positive, because the character skins are not just "classes" but also archetypes. And while within a single skin the narrative arc of the character can feel like it's prewritten it never exists in isolation: there are always the other PCs, the rest of the school, and the town the characters live in, as well as whatever Threat threatens the town this time. All of those, in combination, are what makes the arc and what makes the narrative truly emergent. Monsterhearts really shines as a game where the PCs are at each other's throats and working at cross purposes, and because of that the best experience comes from approaching it via simply producing the most fun melodrama while trying to fuck with the other characters.

Also I do think there's something to be said for the freedom afforded by the Warlock in D&D in having the license to consider the character's relationship to their patron, but I also see that there being very little meat to the relationship with the patron, mechanically, means that there is also very little narrative weight attached to it. Because narratives in RPGs emerges from mechanics. The Warlock is a great example of a class that has well-established ties to the fiction of the world and that suggests drama, but still leaves all of that up to the group. Or, as @rathayibacter said in the replies to that post:

the thing that kills me is that, rules as written, your warlock patron doesnt actually matter. dnd gives zero tools to the players or gms for how to get a warlock's patron involved in the game outside a few vague suggestions. it's the best the game's got to offer, and its still 95% people bringing their own soup to the restaurant that only sells stale crackers.

Anyway, D&D also has strong character archetypes for the point of the game it's mechanically most opinionated about: combat. While people do complain about Rogues doing nothing but sneak attack all day, that's literally what the fiction sets them up to do, and a Rogue that sneak attacks all day in D&D is doing God's own work. So too with the Mortal who ends up in the middle of a romantic triangle/square/pentacle in Monsterhearts thus making the situation more fucked up, because that drama is what the mechanics of Monsterhearts are concerned with.

But yeah tastes on this do vary and some people are okay with background stuff being just suggestions, but I personally like it when it is actually in harmony with and supported by the mechanics, because that makes the fiction tangibly real in the game. But idk

#thydungeongal answers