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vexwerewolf · 2 days

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why is it that we only have like two licenses from any mech producer that’s a good guy? For a game where like there are clear good and bad guys (even if who you play isn’t necessarily linked to that) it seems strange to me that the only loot and XP you get is… more benefits from the bad guys

I can tell you the answer, but to do so, we're gonna have to talk about a completely different TTRPG.

If you've read @makapatag's truly excellent Filipino martial arts TTRPG Gubat Banwa (and if you haven't, here it is), you may notice that every single character class description (with one notable exception) ends with one of these babies:

I am not Makapatag, and I cannot write with quite as much grace and eloquence as he can, but I will try:

If you choose to become a Lancer, ask yourself why you mock the name of peace with these weapons of war. You call yourself a saviour, but your steed was forged from the murder of a world. You stride across the sky in a colossus built in your own image, so why are you too cowardly to give it your face? Why do you believe these machines of death can preserve life?

It is important to note that the admonitions in Gubat Banwa are not just there to make you feel bad; they are there as legitimate questions. The Sword Isles have seen so much blood, death and tragedy. Wars are not glorious and killing is not a game. So, knowing all of that, why have you taken up this discipline - no matter how noble and virtuous it might claim to be - to shed more blood, to bring more death, to write more tragedy? What could possibly drive you to this? What need is so great that you must kill?

The thing with Gubat Banwa is that there are legitimate answers to these questions! There are bad people doing bad things, and some of them will not be stopped with words or kindness. Sometimes, as sorrowful as it is, killing is the correct choice to prevent greater suffering and deeper tragedy - but adding less misery and death to the world is still adding some amount of it. Even the most necessary wars will drench the ground in the blood of the innocent.

A sword is a tool meant to kill humans; while it can be used for other things, it is not well-suited to anything other than this. A mech is, in its most basic essence, just a very complicated sword: it's usually used on things larger than a person, but it's still a tool built to kill.

So why have you taken up this path? Humanity was saved from the brink of extinction and has created wondrous technologies like printers, cold fusion and mind-machine interface, and yet you use them to play soldier in a giant metal man. Why do you choose to take up this machine of death, built by the greedy and pitiless? Why do you think these machines can ever make things right?

Because sometimes, despite everything, they can.

Warhammer 40K shows an awful world full of monsters and monstrosity, and in the darkest moments of its history, Lancer's world looked just as bleak, but Lancer's world differs in one crucial way. Warhammer's world has long given up trying to be better, but Lancer's world never did. Lancer's world kept insisting a better world is possible, and it used what tools it had to make it so.

Sometimes the correct choice, no matter how bitter it may seem, is to kill someone. When you need to do this, a sword is a perfectly good choice for the job.

If you find yourself discomforted by the fact that all the people you can buy mechs from are corrupt and immoral - good! You have correctly engaged with the text. You have understood that the sort of people who would make giant walking death machines and sell them for profit are not good people. But you still have a job to do, and you need the correct tools, and those people have them.

Lancer is not a game about a perfect world - it is a game about a deeply flawed and imperfect one that does not let its imperfection stop it from trying. You have to try to make a better world, even with imperfect tools made by unpleasant people.

#lancer #lancer rpg #lancerrpg #lancer-rpg #gubat banwa #philosophy #ethics #ttrpg

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leidensygdom · 2 days

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A portrait I made of Arcien Yu'Yden as a study! I wanted to practise how to draw their features and, after several failed attempts, I think I'm happy with this one~ (They're my morally questionable drow/tiefling wizard!)

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pbbeta24 · 2 days

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I haven't posted anything here for a long time, but hey, I am actually doing some art for the Cloud Empress – the ecological science fantasy TTRPG inspired by Nausicaa, Fullmetal Alchemist and Dune (among other things), and right now is the last week to back it on kickstarter! Don't miss out on it!

#ttrpg #kickstarter #science fantasy #roleplaying games #nausicaa #illustration

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dailydungeondelves · 3 days

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Sometimes I get carried away...

#comic #TTRPG #tabletop #tabletop RPG #tabletop roleplaying #D&D #dungeons and dragons #dnd #dnd art

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gaertan · 2 days

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Adeptus custodes

I dont usually illustrate humans. But regarding warhammer 40k's controversy with female custodes Only a fool would not appreciate the wonderful variety in humanity and the rest of the universe.

#warhammer #custodes #female #adeptuscustodes #warhammer40k #40k #tabletop #ttrpg #digital #krita #wacom #astartes #woman #poc #braids #old #scar #gold #armour

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tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg · 2 days

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Something ive noticed about a lot of people who play dnd (myself included) is that… they arent really playing dnd.

I don’t mean that in the - they’ve homebrewed the system to the point where they are basically playing a completely different game. i mean it in the way that dnd is less of a game and more of a tool or frame work to tell improve stories with friends. Thats why so many tables have a significant amount of homebrew rules or play it loose with the rules - because dnd is secondary to the act of telling a story.

Unfortunately, dnd wasn’t built for such a narratively focused sandbox. It was built around dungeons and adventuring and violence in general - an aspect that is only a fraction of many stories that dnd is used to tell.

I think that is why so many people are resistant from trying other ttrpg systems that may give them a better player experience. They dont play dnd to play dnd but they dont even realize that. The game is secondary so why does it matter what game they play? Everyone at their table is already versed in dnd so they can make it work as a framework even if its trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

This is something ive been thinking about a lot while making my ttrpg Tales from the Aether as I am inspecting my own view and experience with dnd and what i enjoy about it versus what could be done better. Why do me and my friends play dnd? To hang out and tell stories. Dnd happens to be the system i knew at the time we started and thus it is the one we used. But there is nothing particular about dnd that supports this goal while there are many things that hold us back - such as characters archetypes and classes being so ridged and having practically zero guidance for running the game outside of combat or adventuring. This is where homebrew comes in.

Ironically thats the entire premise of Tales from the Aether. I started making it years ago with the idea that this system is specifically a framework for people to tell improve stories with friends. That is the whole point. All of the mechanics revolve around giving players the tools to do what they want while the rules act more as a form of in universe world building (like a hard magic system) than actual rules.

The reason why so many people who play dnd are hesitant or straight up refuse to try out other ttrpgs is because the game is secondary. Its a tool. Its a framework that they can build off of to create the experience that they want. Its familiar so they know how to bend it, what parts to chip off or expand, to give them what they want. A new ttrpg, even if its one that gives them everything they want in a ttrpg, is unfamiliar and thus not worth investing in when they already have something that works well enough.

Idk i may be way off base here but from my own experience and from watching live plays and reading people’s takes on dnd and playing the game… thats kinda the conclusion ive come to.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #ttrpg community #just some thoughts ive been moling over for a while…

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devenrue · 2 days

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A bit of Exandria is coming to our world via Quest's End Sandkheg's Hide! Sign up to be notified when pre-orders launch! Comes with an amazing story by Jasmine Bhullar, art by @tylerwalpole and a map by me! https://sandkhegshide.com/

#critters #critical role #map #cartography #ttrpg #dnd #maps #fantasy cartography #whiskey

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aurosoulart · 3 days

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space mushroom folk I designed for our Beam Saber campaign, All That You Know

*jangles characters at you from under my cloak like an old timey alley salesman* give it a listen....... you know you wanna new ttrpg podcast...... 'specially one with 30 eps out already............. what's da worst that could happen

#art #digital art #character design #artists on tumblr #mushroom people #mushrooms #ttrpg #beam saber #sci fi art #scifi #all that you know #atyk #i was gonna draw expanded sheets for the other two character headshots but never got around to it #these guys are still super cool though i love them

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dungeonmapster · 13 hours

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Roadside Inn

patreon.com/dungeonmapster

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namarikonda · 6 hours

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oh, wyll... the literal prince of my heart

#cant even underline how much i love him hes my main romance in bg3 always. man.#wyll #wyll ravengard #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #artists on tumblr #digital art #fanart #dnd #ttrpg #my art #this is part of a big sketch dump btw but i just dont hsve the time to finish anything:(#also the ears are from the tiefling wyll mod btw

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madsmadart · 1 day

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(Repost from 2022)

Deded&d night part 1!

Meta Knight joins the Kirby gangs D&D party! How could he say no to that face? Kirby worked hard on his character sheet! I'm also trying out a new banner thing for my comics now! Sometimes its hard to read my username in my watermark

#meta knight #kirby meta knight #dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #kirby fanart #kirby #kirby art #kirby bandana dee #bandana waddle dee #bandana dee #king dedede #dedede #kirby dedede #kirby king dedede #madsmadart #madsmadfanart #d&d

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transmutationdice · 13 hours

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Space Cadet

My favourite dice design, making a return for my next shop restock. I don't make these too often because of how intricate they are but damn do I love the finished result!

#dice #handmade dice #handmadedice #dnd #ttrpg #resin dice #resin #transmutationdice #dungeons and dragons #d20 #galaxy dice #galaxy #space dice

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dead-finches · 20 hours

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