Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Other TTRPGs

[The Cat]

oh no...​

 

[XLR87T3]

I've never played D&d I heard it's fun!

 

[Totenkindly]

So this old-person Aberrant campaign will end in a few more sessions. Not ripping on the GM, he's never GM'ed before, but it's kind of gone nowhere and mostly felt like a "neighborhood crisis of the week, let's fix it" serial sitcom from the 80's. There is no direction or long-ranging intrigue and everything seems to be straightforward, no real mystery. There's so many cool things thematically you could do with old people being superheroes to create a sense of urgency, but there's like nothing happening. The players keep prying at the corners of the story / digging into things to try to find something in the background to tie it all together, but it seems like there really is nothing intriguing there.

So it sounds like our two long-running GMs will take over once this ends. One is going to start digging into Pathfinder 2e -- to start a game at a later date. I'll need to go through and get acquainted with the system and the mechanics so I can build something interesting.

The other is going full-hog on the Deviant book for CoD, starting in December. I know the Deviant system, everyone else is new to it.

As per homework, I was putting together some basic characters just with probable powers. My first thought it would be cool to pay a version of Spider-Girl.

Then I got a different idea which is just wicked and has its own in-built pathos, so despite the fun of being Spider-Girl I am kinda leaning in this direction. I got the idea mostly from this D&D meme about green oozes / plasmoids I saw the other day:

The hooking up part aside, yeah -- Deviant is a perfect system for someone transformed into a plasmoid against their will (kind of like the Bruce Banner syndrome), and I can even set it up where her normal form is more of a gelatin/jello and she has to do a Dr. Manhattan to keep herself looking human.

Basic Deviant powers:
Boneless (3)
Immunity (2) - Fire, electricity
Lash, Ranged - pseudopod (4) - 7 effects.... corrosive (5), grappling, penetrating,
Lash, Melee - Splatter (2) -- Circle Strike (mag 3), obscuring, Piercing, caustic
Superstrength (for grapple, to hold things in place)
Creeping Fear
Anomalous Biology
Deadly Ichor (2) -- 3 effects contact, caustic, grappling (corrosive 3?)
Inhuman Digestion - tied to pseudopod lash? Cannibalize

Basically like the Blob from the horror film:
- She can ooze under/through things easily.
- Her internal biology is very different
- She can either splatter people with acidic ooze around her or use an acidic pseudopod to swipe at things
- Striking her would splatter acid on the attacker
- She can touch something and essentially digest it (maybe even healing herself)
- She never wanted to be an ooze
- She can maintain a human form by effort and practice and maybe not burn things with practice that she touches.
- This is psychologically very isolating.

I think it's a strong character idea and could be interesting to play. I will have to give her flavor with her attributes and her skills, so that she has more to contribute than her unsettling nature. That's what will make it really interesting.

 

[Totenkindly]

oh no...​

D&D Will No Longer Be Distributed Through Penguin Random House

Retailers were given the news earlier this week in a memo from Penguin Random House.

gizmodo.com

....There will now be six companies handling distribution; Alliance, Diamond, GTS, Magazine Exchange, PHD, and Southern Hobby....

Wizards of the Coast sent io9 a statement about this development: “Penguin Random House is a valued partner and publishing licensee of Wizards of the Coast. While we deeply appreciate the excellent service provided over the years by PRHPS, we are now shifting our distribution strategy to utilize the capabilities of Hasbro to sell and distribute D&D products to retailers... This change to distribution of Wizards’ D&D roleplaying game publications such as rulebooks and adventure content won’t affect fans as they will continue to find Dungeons & Dragons products at their preferred retailers.”

So it does sound like it was a WotC decision. Like, whatever man. It's not like we haven't just watched other companies shoot themselves in the feet/head this year (hello, Unity!)

 

[The Cat]

D&D Will No Longer Be Distributed Through Penguin Random House

Retailers were given the news earlier this week in a memo from Penguin Random House.

gizmodo.com

So it does sound like it was a WotC decision. Like, whatever man. It's not like we haven't just watched other companies shoot themselves in the feet/head this year (hello, Unity!)

It really does feel like they sit and watch that scene in Episode four where Leia tells Tarkin about doomed cookie jar reaching and them being. "Ok gang, how can we get around this?"

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[The Cat]

In my new game I'm playing a slime girl monk and i rolled really well for stats, so my wisdom is 18. The party is a traumatized drow gunslinger, a waifu Slime Girl Monk, and a Otaku Dwarven Fighter playing in the dms homebrew. Tonight I rolled a natural 20 on an animal handling check and stopped a fight with a bunch of giant ants with the power of friendship. Its an item off my D&D bucket list. I hope this campaign goes on for a while.

 

[The Cat]

View attachment 29581

if you dip three levels of ranger and make it a swarm keeper, you could be the ultimate cat lady.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

if you dip three levels of ranger and make it a swarm keeper, you could be the ultimate cat lady.

Wait, is a ranger like a non-magical druid? Why would anyone pick ranger?

 

[The Cat]

Wait, is a ranger like a non-magical druid? Why would anyone pick ranger?

Lots of reasons. They can be a lot of fun.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Lots of reasons. They can be a lot of fun.

Tell meeeeee

 

[The Cat]

Tell meeeeee

Well I would say it depends on the character. I've played a gloomstalker ranger with devil sight who was created by a lich in a lab to be a bounty hunter for it. I've played a Swarm Keeper with crows; and Ive got a cat lady gnome in the can and ready to go. I considered plaing a ranger in my current game, but decided it was a good time to finally try out playing a monk. I want to play a horizon walker but im the only dm i know who runs planar campaigns. so ive not gotten to yet. Drakewarden is fun. I have one based off a What if McCleach from Rescuers down under was a good guy in a fantasy story and its always fun to do a Geroge C Scott impression

 

[Totenkindly]

Wait, is slime girl an official class/race? or just homebrew? And did you pick that before I posted about my plasmoid Deviant / CoD character the other day? Lol.

The GM has officially set our campaign in Egypt, in the New Administrative Capitol next to Cairo that is being built, jumped around to the year 2032 when it should be complete. Everyone's natural language is now Arabic and you have to buy other languages if you want them.

I have spent the last few days trying to figure out what the culture looks like enough so that I can play a woman in modern/professional Muslim society with some degree of Westernization. Backstories, sigh.

 

[The Cat]

Wait, is slime girl an official class/race? or just homebrew? And did you pick that before I posted about my plasmoid Deviant / CoD character the other day? Lol.

The GM has officially set our campaign in Egypt, in the New Administrative Capitol next to Cairo that is being built, jumped around to the year 2032 when it should be complete. Everyone's natural language is now Arabic and you have to buy other languages if you want them.

I have spent the last few days trying to figure out what the culture looks like enough so that I can play a woman in modern/professional Muslim society with some degree of Westernization. Backstories, sigh.

I built the character a few months ago and found the right game for it finally.​

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

Bashir makes a Good Paladin with a healing sub build
And Garak is the epitome of the roguish non musical bard.
Paladins don't have to constantly be morally bullying the rogue.
The friendship can develop from something other than antagonism.
Bashir has taken several oaths, and has no shyness aboutt discussing the finer points of morality with garak, but they dont disrespect each other. Bashir doesnt trash talk spies, dispite having clearly stated moral objection and Garak is respectful of Bashar's ideals naive they may be to him. Their banter never feels mean. Because neither one of them is insecure with themselves as characters.
I think Garak is a good example of an evil character becoming a good character over a complex arc based off his relationships with certain people. Garak does a lot of things that could be considered evil with very little effort, but he's not reckless or entirely selfish about what he does. Evil characters do not simply behave as reavers and should not be treated like them by everyone in the npc or pc world. In real life many "bad guys" enjoy some type of celebrity if they have the right marketing. An evil adventurer could easily spend a life time doing heroic deeds only to be brought low by a scandal caused by one indiscretion that gets considered in the eyes of the people as unfashionable. Another thing I would like to see more of is like Adventurer paparatzi The Zhentarum is just begging to be Faerun's Not so secretly evil 24 hour broadast news media Corporate Empire. So you mean to tell me they wouldnt just send scores of bandit like town criers mobbing adventurers with questions and trying to spread word about whats going on in ways that could very easily get the adventuerers killed; then the Company sends more adventurers to clear out the monsters that it turns out the company raised. Faerunian Ressurection anyone?​

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[Totenkindly]

So last night our level 13 Pathfinder 1e group moved on from the Tower of Weeping Sores in the opening part of Tsar and again examined the nearby giant iron statue of a humanoid in terrible pain as an odd moaning rattled around the centuries-abandoned flagstone courtyard. This time the statue suddenly dropped to one knee, shattering the iron casing around it and revealing a huge creature we identified as some kind of storm giant dread ghast. The moaning was the creature emitting its pain trapped in a shell of iron for centuries.

This encounter could have gone really poorly but this is why paladins are useful on a journey into a city dedicated to Orcus, populated by undead and outsiders. Ghasts cause paralysis if you fail a save, and these saves are high due to the power and difficulty of this monster. It hit us all with a chain lightning which badly damaged some of the team (Storm Giants, whee) and when the bard tried to sing a healing song plus step forward to blast heal a badly wounded warpriest, the giant's fist smacked down on him, doing some massive damage + paralysis...

... except Suun du Ceildore raised a hand in supplication to her gods and the damage + paralysis was transferred to her.
Except she can't be paralyzed because she is wearing a ring of Freedom of Movement, so she just soaked up the damage.
(This ring is probably the best thing I have ever bought for her, defensively.)

Most of the party was whiffing due to the high level of this monster, getting hit by Combat Reflex attacks if they came within 10-15' of the giant, etc.

With her next move, Suun used Grace (1st level paladin spell) to prevent any opportunity attacks on her (I envision it as her semi-other-wordly Aasimar self almost seeming to float forward, kind of taking everyone's attention/breath away so they forget momentarily to attack) so she could walk forward among as many of her companions as possible and then again called upon her gods -- using half of her daily allotted power to bestow Smite Evil upon any companion within 10' of herself. (It doesn't apply to her when used this way, unfortunately.)

As each person's turn came, they could activate Smite Evil (boosting to hit, damage, and AC powerfully, and bypassing Damage Resistance using Suun's bonuses) and just lay into this statue. Suun had to burn her last Paladin's Sacrifice to take another blow that would have smacked down and paralyzed our Investigator, freeing them up to Smite away, there was a lot of damage done to this giant, and at the very end of the round of the party just whacking away at this thing, the fire cleric activated Smite and toppled it with a huge blast of Searing Light which is a spell tailored to hurt undead.

Suun never even got to raise her falchion to attack, although in damage she took at least over half her health (and her health is really high to start with) absorbing blows that were targeting her friends. For this combat, she basically protected her friends at risk to herself and empowered them with her blessings to lay this imprisoned monster to rest. Which was kinda fun, rather than just being the crit monster she normally is. Paladins are noble and willing to lay down their lives for their companions.

 

[The Cat]

Spent the day playing Call of Cthulhu. 9am right into a wrap up from the chapter of a 1920's game. We all had played multiple characters over the course of this event, and i was playing two at the same time. One of my characters is a tech specialist occultist and the other was an irish gangster. It got dark as it tends to. Then had the biggest character whiplash because at 2 we went right into a Call of Kidthulhu adventure set in the late 80's. We actually did pretty good. It was a very refreshing day of rest

 

[Totenkindly]

of course you have to play two characters, because they all go insane after three sessions