Tag: ttrpg
The One Ring Index
An index of heroic cultures, patrons, landmarks, and magical items from across the published books.
Hacks for D&D to Do Less Math
D&D outside of combat is way too fiddly.
Simpler Character Creation in D&D5.5e
We have got to get away from the tyranny of numbers!
Official Stann Art
I forgot to post the completed art of Stann! Great job by @mcapriglioneart - I highly recommend them for your art needs!
Stann Finds (a) God
Been a bit since I've updated the state of the campaign for Stann (fighter/monk). Currently we are in the keep of some undead lord asshole while he's out of town (in Avernus). We're gonna take out some magical flame things that keep him from being susceptible to death. As we are clearing out the various floors of the keep on our way up, we came upon the story of this lord (Soth) from before he became undead and all that. Turns out he was an asshole then too. A really good Medicine check by Stann...
#1 | TTRPG - Age Them Up Then Kill Them
Recently, I had to figure out how to have a player revisit the day his character's younger brother died without breaking my own GM rule: NO HARM TO CHILDREN. I am the GM for an ongoing game of Blades In The Dark that I play with my partner & two friends. When we started the game in the Spring of 2025, none of us had very much experience with TTRPGs. My friends had played a few sessions of D&D years ago & my partner & I had zero experience. As a person who enjoys a good story, I knew that the cha...
So The Blue Dragon Army Knows We're Here And Has A Hostage
Tuesday's session was combat free but still a good time. Post fight we looted the big Blue Dragon Lieutenant's body, got a nice longsword and a Ring Of Lightning Resistance which our Wizard will take. Hid out under a bridge and some illusions while some young blue dragons came through and looked for us. Then hide out and did a short rest. Stann got to interrogate a Blue Dragon Army Officer we captured. Used his Dagger Of Returning, throwing it very close to his balls and then it comes back to hi...
Stann's First Session
I was excited to play Stann in my campaign last night and it went better than I'd hoped. So Stann shows up in the central city of the campaign just in time for his brother Dann's funeral. See, Dann was born a tiefling to an orc family, and they couldn't handle that. After 13 years, they sold him to a passing merchant. Stann is 10 years older, saw this happen and left - angry at his parents for their actions. Just more proof they couldn't accept anyone who wasn't a perfect traditional orc. See, S...
Oops All Monks: Session 0
Had a great Session 0 last night for the upcoming Oops All Monks! campaign. I like the setup that we all have 3 levels of some other class and then came to the monastery to improve ourselves in some way and become monks. Looks like the party is going to have: Half the party being Shadow Monks is pretty fun too - it's been teased that the BBEG will be a former student at the monastery that went bad and he's a Shadow Monk too. Could make for some very interesting storytelling.
Early Art/Inspiration for Stann (+ Dann memorial art)
I had commissioned new artwork for Dann (the now dead Aberrant Sorecerer) just a few days before he died. So it's now a memorial. In the last session, the first after his death (I had to miss the session so actually good timing) the party mourned Dann. His ashes were interred under the city's keep as a hero and they commissioned a portrait of him in his honor. Which is great timing because the artist I found to do the new Dann portrait just finished the work and it looks great! So now I'm commis...
Joining A Second Campaign: Oops, All Monks!
A DM in a Discord server I'm in had an idea to try running a limited all monks campaign. Of COURSE I'm down for that. It'll be 10 sessions, every other week for like 10 sessions. He's making it so we all are 3 levels of anything else + 3 levels of monk - like we abandoned our old life to start over as monks and we are graduating with our monk subclasses. He also says if you pick a 2014 background and aren't Human, you can pick any feat at level 1
Some Impromptu D&D
Ended up playing an impromptu D&D session last night run by a DM whose Discord I'm on. Spun up Gorg, a Cloud Giant Goliath, Path Of The World Tree Barbarian. He's a roadie, a professional stoner, and likes smacking things with his mace in his free time between tours he works for as a way to get extra weed money. The first half of the night kinda dragged with shopping and wandering the town we were in. It's was a nice beach town full of kuatoa. Gorg spent it getting stoned.
Stann, Fighter + Warrior Of Mercy Monk
So Dann is dead. Long live Dann! Now I had to figure out a new character to take his place in the campaign. I decided to go with family. Since Dann was born to orcish parents and shunned (then later sold away) because he came out a tiefling, I figured why not a brother. An older brother, 10 years older, who saw his family sell Dann. A brother who had his own shame - born sickly and weak for an orc. His father gave him an Amulet Of Health when he was young and told him to hide it and hide his tru...
"Dapper" Dann, RIP
A few months ago I decided, with the other campaign I was in with family stalled out, I wanted to be in a long running campaign again. So I looked at startplaying.games and found an ongoing campaign that had one slot open. I joined as a level 10 Aberrant Sorcerer, my first ever full caster. The DM was great, running a session 0 for me to make sure I was a good fit (and his table was a good fit for me) and he even helped me flesh out a backstory as to WHY Dann was an Aberrant Sorcerer. I'd alread...
Intro
I didn't get into actually playing D&D until the pandemic. A friend who had moved out to the East Coast invited me in to his virtual tabletop. I joined as a total himbo fighter named Maximilian Ironmonger. I had no idea what I was doing, and fumbled my intro to the party pretty awkwardly. But I got into the swing of it and had a great time. At one point we met a Deva named Bob who had a fancy mace, and Max used a mace too, so I jsut started asking Bob about his mace. One of the other players sai...
The Mini Adventures of the Wandering Yeti
Dungeons and Dragons has taken over my hobby life. It started innocently enough about two years ago when a friend asked me to join her mini campaign because she wanted to learn to DM. I'm a child of the 80s, so of course I'd heard about D&D, but my high school's gaming club left a lot to be desired. Like any other girl who was willing to deal with the individuals who made up the gaming club. As an adult, I've become friends with several of them, but at the time, these were not people that I was ...
Aries, Week 2: Cleaverton, Settling In
Getting settled into my new home has been such a breeze, that I swear this place must have a "smooth sailing" spell on it. A grocery delivery service showed up unannounced at my door the next morning after moving in—courtesy of the village council—as well as a nice welcome basket of jams and teas. Normally a request for magickal supplies might take a couple of weeks, but the confirmation raven that flew in after I placed the order told me I should have everything by Midsday.
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #6: A Perfect Rock
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #4: Honey Heist
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #3: :Otherscape
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!
Notes on Every New System I Play this Year #2: Brindlewood Bay
Disclaimer: I encounter many of these systems for one-shots at meetups, where I sometimes won't even know what I'll be playing going in. Because of this, I'll often only have taken a deeper look at parts of the book that relate to character creation, and flipped through the rest. But I'll always have played them!