Today Nothing Happened - Shazzbaa's Journal Comic
Runewriters: Magic Can Always Go Wrong
Tags: Art by Anybody! ~ Art by Just Me! ~ D&D Stuff!
Posts tagged dnd
Your D&D characters are all really unique and interesting! Where do you get the ideas for them from?
Oh gosh, thank you! I don’t really know that my, like, PROCESS for D&D characters is any different from the way I come up with ideas normally, except my D&D characters are slightly more allowed to be huge sparkling special-snowflake Mary Sues. xD I’ll just read about something and think “that would be fun to play” and then start building a character idea out of that — what circumstances would make that happen, what kind of class would be good for this character, etc. etc.
Usually I end up starting with a problem to give the character, because that’s my favourite part. A lot of times I’m inspired by existing characters — as an example, 24-52, my golem, was actually inspired by the AutoResponder from Homestuck. There’s a part early on where Jake repeatedly asks him “Tell me about the AutoResponder” to force him to give his pre-programmed response to that question and reveal that he’s not a real person. I thought “wow, that would be a fun character — a robot who’s trying to pass as a human but has this programming he has to try to play off or work around” AND THUS TWEN WAS CREATED. Everything else about him just arose as I tried to figure out how to make that idea work and where that character would belong in the world. I’m fortunate to play under a DM with a really developed world, so there’s often a lot to draw from in that area, too!
Sometimes I start with a class, or a weapon, or a particular mechanic (Snaketongue’s Wild Magic or Nephregol’s connection to the Tsochari, and I really like the idea of intelligent items that argue with the carrier but have yet to try this out) but most times I just have this vague personality idea, problem, or circumstance that I think could be fun to play out, but isn’t a whole story in and of itself.
I just…don’t even know what to say.
this is what happens when we’re in a room in roll20 and our DM goes to bed before we do.
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Do you have any suggestions for someone who wants to get into d&d, but has nobody to play with locally? I wanna play so badly, but I don't have anyone to play with :(
I GET ASKED THIS A LOT, ACTUALLY.
Unfortunately this isn’t something I have a lot of experience in! I’ve tended to make friends with people who are already acquainted with this flavour of geekiness. BUT HERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS ANYWAY:
Hobby Shop Game Night: This one I’ve never tried and it seems intimidating, but it might be something to try if you’ve really got no one around! See if there’s a hobby shop in the area (the kind of place that sells Magic the Gathering cards or D&D dice) and find out if they have some kind of game night for tabletop stuff. Go to one and take a look! See what it’s like, and if it’s something you think you could be comfortable trying, or if you can make any friends here. :”)
A more roundabout variant would be to make friends in geeky circles. If you’re in the school’s anime club or come to Friday Night M:tG tournaments, you might know a guy who knows a guy who plays D&D, and you can ask around! (This one works best if you also actually want to make some friends; if you’re just there to weasel into somebody’s campaign that’s kinda crummy. xD )
Online Play-By-Post: If you’re up for playing online, there are a few forums that run play-by-post games — I first ran across it on Giant In The Playground but there are doubtless others. This is also nice since you can pretty easily lurk and watch other games in progress to see how it’s done before attempting to join one.
Make Your Own Group: This is the one I recommend most! See if you can talk a couple of non-D&D-playing friends into trying a game. Just a short one! Buy the books, read up on it, ask questions online if you’re not sure about something, and see if you can DM a quick couple-sessions game for some friends. If someone’s no good at numbers, help them build a character, and if someone’s new to roleplaying, maybe make their backstory for them or give them a special role in the party so they have a good idea of what their purpose is. Everyone has to start somewhere! In my very first D&D group, there was only one player who had ever played D&D before. And you might be surprised at which friends end up getting a big kick out of it!
AND THEN I GOT THIS LETTER FROM SETH. ;_________;
Snaketongue kind of figured he had learned his lesson — yes, it would be nice to not mispronounce everything ever, but if Nagendra has work for him to do that requires him to sound a little funny, well, maybe he shouldn’t go trying to subvert that in a little moment of egotism.
And then this letter. Oh my gosh. The full thing was so adorable and devastating, and Snaketongue felt like a heel. What good did that do anyone, him trying to fix his voice for a few minutes for sake of his own pride? Doesn’t Nagendra use those with handicaps and weaknesses for a reason — and shouldn’t he be an example of that to his companions instead of trying to show off?
Playing a priest is fun and also hard.
On a related note, that lower picture is now my official favourite sketch of Snaketongue ever.
More in the unexpected Snaketongue-gets-rid-of-his-lisp-and-learns-a-valuable-lesson subplot. THIS WAS KIND OF HEARTBREAKING AND CUTE.
See, Chester and Snaketongue are bros, despite the fact that Chester’s short-term memory approximates that of Dory from Finding Nemo. ST is patient about reminding her of things, and she had started actually remembering him because of his speech impediment — she can’t remember his name, though, so she just calls him “Ththhhh” instead.
Turns out the impediment is sort of an essential part of that memory.
But she was SO HAPPY to recognise him when he changed back, and Snaketongue kind of quietly realised that maybe the ability to speak normally isn’t everything.
(P.S. Did I mention Chester has a mustache now? The mustache is Snaketongue’s fault; another messed-up spell. She’s actually really happy with it so BULLET DODGED.)
zimmay replied to your post:
Seth has always been a master of backhanded compliments; they are the only kind he knows how to give. You forgot to mention the part where ST was in-potion-love with Seth too. I can see that bashful anime blush, ST, you’re not hiding anything.
YEAH UH
YEAH THAT WAS ALSO A THING
THAT PROBABLY INFLUENCED SNAKETONGUE’S DECISION TO TRY TO MAKE HIMSELF LESS DORKY
MAYBE
Last session of the Omen Campaign we played involved love potions in the water and werewolves and star-crossed lovers, but also a completely unexpected subplot when my unpredictable mage-priest Snaketongue was trying to cast Sleep and accidentally cast a 9th level Shapechange spell instead (he’s only a 4th level character; um, this happens to him sometimes). It was active for like half an hour and he could transform into anything he was familiar with.
ST became the master of using incredible cosmic power for stupid things by choosing “myself, but before my tongue splitting accident” as a form with which he was familiar, meaning he spent a big chunk of the session just revelling in his newfound ability to pronounce the letter S.
Seth, meanwhile, just became the master of backhanded compliments.
I don’t have time to be sketching this month, but I needed a sanity doodle pretty bad so I’m sacrificing sleep time ahahahalkjsdhfl;
Continuing the Seth n’ Crew sketches with Shazzbaa’s Snaketongue~ a kind hearted, creepy looking, scarred up, half-Lenzian mage-priest with a lisp. But most importantly, Seth’s meal ticket.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is so perfect
I HOPE YOU LIKE LENZIAN FOOD SETH
I feel like our group is the opposite. 8l
I think with our group specifically you’re right actually, though this matches pretty well with like, the stereotypical gaming group where everyone’s goofing around like doofs at the end
but with us it’s like srs business by the end and everyone’s got lots of cool shit
it helps that our group is SO character-focused among players with a story-focused dm, too
I mean RL is so hardcore atm because shit is legit goin’ DOWN rn
REALLY YOU GUYS????
Do I need to remind you we got transported to New York City and had a completely canon conversation about whether or not we could make it through Airport Security?
Or the slapstick comedy routine that ensued when we all Inception’d into Yin’s dream, with Alter sliding down the blood slide and missing and landing in the spikes, followed by Asher pulling him out with magic and effectively running into Lord Thaydin in the process, causing him to fall into the spikes
Or the fact that the last time I was in the party we legit fought land sharks?
We started off on a humble quest to fight through a zombie infested island and recover a divine artefact that was supposed to cue this horrible plague.But now? A GUY LEGIT RAN PAST THE PARTY SCREAMING “MY CABBAGES” WHILE BEING PURSUED BY ANGRY CARNIVOROUS CABBAGES. The undead member of the party just lost his marbles because somebody legit drove a “BRING OUT YOUR DEAD” cart past the party and he was hungry goshdarnit. AND NOW I AM HEARING THAT WHILE I’M UNCONSCIOUS YOU GUYS ARE PROGRESSING THROUGH THIS DUNGEON BY MAKING GIVING GHOSTS THERAPY AND MAKING THEM CRY.
I MEAN YES THERE IS DEF SERIOUS STUFF GOIN’ ON and everyone is really character-focused, which is awesome! But you guys, this image is completely representative of our party, our characters are just angstmuffins about it. Our party is like if everyone took the ending of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail completely seriously.Complete with us all being dragged off as crazy people by the end.
okay so there’s not a “seems legit” gif I can use that won’t seem really snarky here, but that’s a good point
(also with regard to #THERE IS NO WAY TO DESCRIBE OUR CAMPAIGN WITHOUT SOUNDING INSANE
)
Hahahahahhahahhaa perfect
NO TO BE FAIR I THINK YOU GUYS HAVE A POINT TOO tbh. In a lot of groups the players get less and less in character and therefore more goofy as abilities and circumstances get more ridiculous (“lol I fire like 500 arrows at the giant demon I am completely unable to take seriously lol”) and with us, things do get crazy, but our group DOESN’T DO THAT AT ALL, WE JUST GET MORE AND MORE INTO IT.
So there’s a bit of both going on. xD
(Source: iwtcoyf)
868 notes (via recoffthevine & iwtcoyf)
I feel like our group is the opposite. 8l
I think with our group specifically you’re right actually, though this matches pretty well with like, the stereotypical gaming group where everyone’s goofing around like doofs at the end
but with us it’s like srs business by the end and everyone’s got lots of cool shit
it helps that our group is SO character-focused among players with a story-focused dm, too
I mean RL is so hardcore atm because shit is legit goin’ DOWN rn
REALLY YOU GUYS????
Do I need to remind you we got transported to New York City and had a completely canon conversation about whether or not we could make it through Airport Security?
Or the slapstick comedy routine that ensued when we all Inception’d into Yin’s dream, with Alter sliding down the blood slide and missing and landing in the spikes, followed by Asher pulling him out with magic and effectively running into Lord Thaydin in the process, causing him to fall into the spikes
Or the fact that the last time I was in the party we legit fought land sharks?
We started off on a humble quest to fight through a zombie infested island and recover a divine artefact that was supposed to cue this horrible plague.
But now? A GUY LEGIT RAN PAST THE PARTY SCREAMING “MY CABBAGES” WHILE BEING PURSUED BY ANGRY CARNIVOROUS CABBAGES. The undead member of the party just lost his marbles because somebody legit drove a “BRING OUT YOUR DEAD” cart past the party and he was hungry goshdarnit. AND NOW I AM HEARING THAT WHILE I’M UNCONSCIOUS YOU GUYS ARE PROGRESSING THROUGH THIS DUNGEON BY MAKING GIVING GHOSTS THERAPY AND MAKING THEM CRY.
I MEAN YES THERE IS DEF SERIOUS STUFF GOIN’ ON and everyone is really character-focused, which is awesome! But you guys, this image is completely representative of our party, our characters are just angstmuffins about it. Our party is like if everyone took the ending of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail completely seriously.
Complete with us all being dragged off as crazy people by the end.
(Source: iwtcoyf)
868 notes (via recoffthevine & iwtcoyf)
