Tabletop Rpg - Tumblr Posts
Me, the GM: it's the beginning of spring break.
One of my PCs: no it isn't
Me: uh what... You can't do that
Ok guys so I’ve stumbled onto this new podcast recently and it might be one of the funniest ones I’ve ever listened to.
Have you ever been watching a film and thought to yourself “Ok, but what if this was a Dungeons & Dragons type RPG?”
1. That is a weirdly specific request
2. Same
3. This podcast has you covered
It’s called Film Reroll and is exactly what is described above. These guys take a film, do up sheets for the main characters in the story with appropriate stats/skills, throw their players in at the beginning of the film and let the dice and the players decide where to go from there. Needless to say, everything quickly tends towards chaos.
I’m still currently making my way through their backlog but highlights so far include: Back to the Future 2 with a “roll for paradox” mechanic that quickly snowballs on them and Doc’s player doing an excessive amount of tazing. Alien with at least one crew member utterly convinced that the ship is haunted by the end and The Wizard of Oz which runs like 6 hours total and they make it to the Emerald City in the first hour and… it just has to be listened to to be believed.
So in summary, if you like podcasts, tabletop RPGs and/or classic films or if the phrase “I wanna grapple one of the flying monkeys, jump out the window and then we’ll see if he wants to live or not…” is as much fun for you as it is for me, then I’d definitely recommend you give this weird, wonderful show a listen.
space cadet d20 from @transmutationdice
you can check out the creator’s shop here!
our entire dnd party got out-danced at a festival by the paladin’s elk steed’s nat20
D&D is first and foremost a co-operative game and the enjoyment and comfort of fellow players takes precedence over whatever beautiful arc you have in your mind. If you want complete control of the narrative, write a novel.
tfw you’re suddenly the party healer
hot tip if you wanna play a warlock or another high charisma character but have an irl charisma of like 10:
there’s more than one kind of charisma. the default always seems to be “suave ladykiller/casanova who can and will knowingly manipulate people and do it with a sly smile”, but that’s not the only kind.
i play a 20 charisma warlock who is… none of those things. she’s kind of shy and easily flustered but she IS extremely good-hearted and kind, and she radiates a certain kind of aura that just makes people want to like her and trust her because they can tell she’s a good person.
don’t feel boxed in by traditional portrayals of charisma and let it scare you away from playing classes you’re interested in.
Literally no trope emotionally fucks me up faster than “Character outlives their lover by many years and at the end of their life their lover comes to escort them from the world” like I only have to think about it hypothetically to start crying.
Here’s a fun thing about tieflings: while many folks – particularly critics – seem to be under the impression that tieflings are the offspring of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition’s brief dalliance with dungeonpunk aesthetics, their first appearance as a playable race actually came six years earlier, in 1994′s Planescape campaign setting for D&D 2nd Edition. Interestingly, though later iterations of the game would push hard for a standardised tiefling appearance, in their original incarnation you had the option to randomly generate your demonic features.
The tables for this are reproduced in their entirety below; roll 1d4 to determine the number of demonic features your tiefling possesses, then 1d100 on the Tiefling Appearance table for each feature, re-rolling any contradictory or redundant results. Some entries in the Special Side Effects table have been lightly re-written for mechanical compatibility with D&D 5th Edition, and may not represent reasonable racial features in a typical 5E game – the objective here is to reflect the source material as closely as possible, not to achieve balance.
Keep reading
draw some fat elves you cowards you tepid fools
i have this “monster maker” application thats real fucking useful as a dm, but i also found that its real useful for pcs too bc it organizes information in a way thats much easier to read than a character sheet ? especially when it comes to combat
anyway heres the link to get it its so easy to use and real helpful
100 “Epic” Adventure Ideas...
Here are one hundred adventure seeds you can use to generate ideas for your adventures and campaigns.
A ancient and evil balor sorcerer imprisons old friends of the player characters, holding them hostage in return for a service.
A band of several death slaadi rogues and sorcerers begins to waylay all planar travelers who chance through their recently claimed turf on the Astral Plane.
A ranger hero recognized around the world begins to organize a group of explorers for reasons unknown…
A bardic college develops a style of music that charms and dominates any that listen to it too long.
A beholder cluster, made up of many beholders driven mad, begins to war with lesser beholder communities, apparently all seeking a beholder artifact.
A prominent deity grows sick and will die if the cause of its divine ill is not discovered.
A beloved prophecy long accepted as true fails to occur because of the characters’ meddling, and the world turns against them…
A blinding, yellow haze seeps down from the sky, covering the world…
A celestial tree hundreds of miles long reaches its roots down and begins to grow on the world’s surface. Creatures from other worlds live in the heights of the tree.
A child is born who prophecy indicates will one day ascend to godhood.
A black disease blights the forest, killing all vegetation as it continues to expand without limit at an ever-accelerating rate.
A clan of psionic militants breaks away from the kingdom — literally. A huge chunk of land hundreds of acres wide floats up and away (taking with it many terrified non-psionic people).
A conjunction of parallel planes somehow energizes a lowly peasant to the power of a greater deity — but only until the conjunction ends.
A cross-time catastrophe has cut off the Material Plane from all others.
A dragon kills the ruler of the largest nation and takes over, calling itself the Dragon King.
A flaw in a true resurrection spell leaves one player character undead by night and alive by day.
A floating city arrives from across the sea, apparently fleeing the depredations of the Warlord, a barbarian of an epic caliber.
A flock of angelic avengers and celestials is ravaging across the continent.
A meeting is called by a storm giant blackguard. Powerful giants from around the world (and other worlds) begin to congregate. Though no one knows the meaning of this calling…
A glorious gemstone in which the first light of creation still lingers is purportedly languishing in an ancient, crumbling demi-plane.
A great chase ensues through endless parallel dimensions as wizard researchers follow the faint trail of the long-vanished elder elves.
A group of gargoyle paragons claims the Cathedral of Pelor as its own new home.
A hero of renown (a quasi-deity, really) is to be wed to an elven prince, but the prince’s royal family claims the prince is under a spell.
A hole is gouged in the veil separating life and death. As the tide of life pours out into the void, all creatures everywhere begin to die as they accumulate negative levels. The hole must be mended.
A red dragon and two of its siblings emerge from a red-lit cavern in the earth.
A lesser deity declares the PCs as its mortal enemies, enjoining all its worshipers and allies to find and slay them.
A longstanding illusion is pierced, revealing that the king is nowhere to be found, and that all dictates of the kingdom have been actually flowing from the thieves’ guild.
A new deity decides to leave the Outer Planes to set up its palace on the face of the Material Plane. Once it arrives, it demands worshipers and servitors.
A mad chronomancer with a mastery of time, has determined how to destroy the past (and therefore the present). Unless it can be stopped, time itself will unravel.
A planar conjunction will soon come to pass, allowing the legions of hell (or worse) direct access to a selected part of the Material Plane for 24 hours. It can’t be stopped, but some famous characters may attempt to defend key cities or strongholds from the onslaught.
A player character’s heart is stolen and replaced with a magical gem or a strange alchemical creation. Who knows how long the replacement will last?
A powerful wizards’ guild enters all-out war with the dominant religious order of the world.
A quasi-deity wants an escort as it ventures into the Abyss to release a companion quasi-deity from bondage.
A rogue moon threatens to crash down upon the world, ending all life.
A sentient spell-virus is raging out of control among spellcasters. All who fall victim to it become part of one unified mind controlled by a malign intelligence.
A species of “fish” introduced from another plane has provided good eating and relief from famine over the last year. Now, thousands (possibly millions?) of the fish-like creatures begin a sudden growth spurt, transforming en masse into terribly powerful and bloodthirsty predators.
A splinter community of humans evolves into a sub-race sporting strange and variant powers.
A syndicate of assassins dramatically expands its membership by introducing a mind-control potion into a city’s water supply.
A team of nightmares draws a chariot driven by a powerful fighter into the city.
A titan seeks those brave enough to release it from its age-long bondage; its rescuers may face the wrath of higher deities.
A vampire scion from another plane begins to conquer world after world with the help of a reforged artifact of legend, Midnight’s Heart.
A volcano erupts. In the aftermath, a portal to the City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire remains open permanently.
A well-known wizards’ guild’s magical dumping ground of failed experiments and stale spell components becomes sentient.
A wizard attempting to summon a powerful devil slips up and somehow summons an abomination instead: an infernal lord of the hells.
A wizard claims to have developed an epic spell ritual that, if cast, will slay a deity.
All magic items crafted from a particular city begin to bestow negative effects on their owners with each use.
All who fall asleep on a selected world cannot be awakened and eventually die in their sleep. Exhaustion is beginning to take a hold on even the greatest heroes of its realm…
An adventuring party stumbles upon the tomb prison of an long dead half-god and releases it.
An anti-magic plague is released by an unknown agency, causing sickness and eventually death to any who prepare or cast arcane spells.
An artifact belonging to one of the characters must be destroyed, lest some great catastrophe, which has secretly been gathering, come to pass.
An artifact capable of forever dominating all red dragons everywhere is discovered.
An enclave of gnomes customizes an iron colossus into a walking war platform.
A group of NPCs known for good deeds suddenly embarks on a death spree, murdering merchants and their envoys…
A group of NPCs decides to destroy the PC adventurers, for reasons that are initially obscure.
A sentient, free roaming, self-casting disintegrate spell breaks loose from a wizard’s laboratory.
A legendary paladin leads a crusade to hell.
An inter-dimensional caravan must float on the River Styx through the dangers of several lower planes.
Spirits begin to manifest from machines as complicated as simple steam-powered wheels — is it a warning from the gods of the forge to desist?
Angry druids raise the beasts, animals, and dire animals of the wild, intent on beginning a new world order in which nature comes first.
As the world ages, frequent earthquakes threaten to plunge the major nations under the sea.
Blue-skinned merchants begin to sell enormously popular items composed of dreamstuff — “mined from the very dreams of a deity,” claim the merchants.
Deeper than the Underdark, the world is discovered to be hollow. Hanging in that vast opening is an unknown, uncharted inner world of strangeness.
Dwarf miners follow a vein of adamantine to a hinged valve sealed with divine magic of an age older than any of the current deities.
A group of seemingly amateur rogues steal the magical scepter of the Dragon King.
Evil opportunists slay the Guardian of the Flame of Destiny, hoping to remold the Law of Reality to their own liking.
Ghosts of every sort begin to rise again, and they won’t recognize their own undead state.
Mind flayers successfully gain control of a surface nation, plunging the region into permanent darkness.
Jade pyramids of prodigious size rise from the earth. Sounds unlike any heard before echo faintly from within their stony cores.
Construct-like creatures of insane complexity called “machines” move across the land, preparing the way for a larger invasion of automated entities.
Magic begins to fail, supposedly because it is being “used up” faster than it naturally regenerates.
Mercenary half-dragons who ride chromatic dragons as steeds sell their swords (and spells) to an evil empire.
Newborns begin to be born without souls.
Off-plane raiders begin to steal people away for use as slaves and food.
Once every ten years a small cave provides access into a magical, underground world where all living beings give off colorful light, ruled by mysterious fey lords with mysterious agendas.
One of the player characters learns about his or her real mother or father — in fact, that parent was a demon, and that demon has come calling.
Planetars and solars bring heaven’s war to the Material Plane, slaying any and all they deem evil or immoral.
Chromatic dragons decide that their “species” is the only true draconic race, and they begin a campaign of genocide against all other dragon types.
Several well-known cities and all their inhabitants suddenly disappear without a trace. More could follow…
Someone is breaking the Seven Seals that maintain the integrity of the multiverse…
The ancient Great Library has secret vaults where the Words Once Spoken are supposedly inscribed in the Book of Sleep. To speak them again would remake the universe.
The Clock that Rules the Universe is under attack by insane gnome alchemists, who are raiding it for parts.
The End Times threaten to begin.
The gods of Law put all humanoid races on trial for their excesses.
The Lord High Priest of Pelor denounces her deity and faith.
The most feared and reviled weapon of legend, an artifact sword that drains life energy with a touch, is lost by its owner.
The Mother of Spiders emerges from her Cocoon of a Million Years to find a mate for her next spawning.
A vast necropolis undergoes a mystical transformation. Now, each coffin, sarcophagus, and mausoleum leads to separate cemetery dimensions and realms of death.
The PCs’ stronghold mysteriously gains new extra-dimensional halls and rooms of unknown origin, content, and extent.
The populace decides that they want one of the PCs as their new ruler, which doesn’t please the current ruler.
The secret texts of a prominent religion, recently discovered, call into question the church’s real goal, its actual origin, and the agenda of its god.
The souls of a good queen and her family are drawn into the Abyss by an unknown demonic agency.
The spirits of the dead begin to possess the bodies of the living at an ever-accelerating rate.
The sun is infested with moon-sized parasites, and may soon fail like so many other stars have fallen to this celestial infestation.
The winter, which was overly cold, lasts too long — the goddess of winter, Auril, is suspected to be the cause…
The woods begin to grow without bound, invading field, plain, and city.
The yuan-ti attempt to awaken the Slumbering Serpent, a little-known abomination born of their own race and a god of serpents.
Twenty percent of all astral travelers begin to disappear in mid-trip. Mid-travel diversion spells are suspected.
Two parallel planes move too close to each other, and denizens and objects of one constantly slip onto the other, and vice versa.
Unless stopped, an ancient demi-lich will inject itself onto the Negative Energy Plane, where it can possess any undead anywhere in the multiverse.
When a friend or a respected associate is resurrected, the soul returned to the body has different memories from the original. Whence does this soul come?
Hotlinks to all Tables: A complete list of every trinket table for quicker access compared to scrolling through the entire blog or sifting through the archive. This also functions as the easiest link to reblog or save for reference purposes as it’s updated with each new table. Now with 73 full d100 loot tables.
-Minor Magical Items: Semi useful magical objects (If not always useful to an adventurer) that have little to no drawbacks associated with their use and are perfect for low level characters.
-Minor Magic Items, 1 / -Minor Magic Items, 2
-Minor Magic Items, 3
-Unique Weapons: Blades, bludgeons and bows of all shapes, sizes and mysterious backgrounds. Distinctive weapons that can serve as the basis for family heirlooms, legendary artifacts and magical or masterwork weapons.
-Unique Weapons, 1 / -Unique Weapons, 2
-Unique Weapons, 3 / -Unique Weapons, 4
-Unique Weapons, 5 / -Unique Weapons, 6
-Masterwork Weapon Bonuses: A variety of weapon improvements, enhancements and modifications created though superior craftsmanship. These masterpieces are more powerful than ordinary weapons but in most cases would not be considered “magic” or “+1” weapons.
-Masterwork Weapon Bonuses, 1
-Sealed Glass Vials: Faulty potions, weak elixirs, alchemical supplies, spell components, ritual elements, enchanting materials, crafting ingredients and magically preserved biological samples.
-Sealed Glass Vials, 1 / -Sealed Glass Vials, 2
-Sealed Glass Vials, 3 / -Sealed Glass Vials, 4
-Sealed Glass Vials, 5 / -Sealed Glass Vials, 6
-Sealed Glass Vials, 7 / -Sealed Glass Vials, 8
-Books: An eclectic library of dusty tomes, fictional textbooks, pocketbooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, booklets, leaflets and magical manuals.
-Trinkets, Books, 1 / -Trinkets, Books, 2
-Trinkets, Books, 3 / -Trinkets, Books, 4
-Book Descriptions: A short list of quirks, physical descriptions and eccentricities to add additional personal characteristics to the book trinket list.
-Book Descriptions, 1
-Trinkets, Rings: Enough rings and bands to wear three on every finger and toe while still having dozens to spare. These small circular pieces of gems, metal, wood or bone always add more to the story than the sum of their parts.
-Trinkets, Rings, 1 / -Trinkets, Rings, 2
Trinkets, Necklaces: Pendants, amulets, lockets, chokers and other “Neck Slot” jewelry that grant an immediate glance into the bearer’s personality, wealth, rank or social class and often serves as an iconic part of that character’s look. While a locked metal torque can instantly mark the bearer a penniless slave and a string of lustrous pearls mark their owner a flauntingly wealthy noble, so can an adventurer’s necklace mark them as a creature to bestow quests upon.
-Trinkets, Necklaces, 1 / -Trinkets, Necklaces, 2
Trinkets, Priceless: Artifacts, artist masterpieces, rare magics and opulent combinations of jewels and precious metals. These objects can be found in the throne rooms of kings, the demiplanes of archmages and the pinnacle of a dragon’s hoard.
-Trinkets, Priceless, 1
-Trinkets, Valuable: More useful than regular trinkets, these items have either a clear purpose, a reliable ability or are made from a fairly costly material.
-Trinkets, Valuable, 1 / -Trinkets, Valuable, 2
-Trinkets, Valuable, 3 / -Trinkets, Valuable, 4
-Trinkets, Valuable, 5 / -Trinkets, Valuable, 6
-Trinkets, Valuable, 7 / -Trinkets, Valuable, 8
-Trinkets: Interesting baubles or semi magical items that have little to no practical in game or mechanical use for an adventurer.
-Trinkets, First
-Trinkets, 1 / -Trinkets, 2 / -Trinkets, 3
-Trinkets, 4 / -Trinkets, 5 / -Trinkets, 6
-Trinkets, 7 / -Trinkets, 8 / -Trinkets, 9
-Trinkets, 10 / -Trinkets, 11 / -Trinkets, 12
-Trinkets, 13 / -Trinkets, 14 / -Trinkets, 15
-Trinkets, 16 / -Trinkets, 17 / -Trinkets, 18
-Trinkets, 19 / -Trinkets, 20 / -Trinkets, 21
-Trinkets, 22 / -Trinkets, 23 / -Trinkets, 24
-Trinkets, 25 / -Trinkets, 26 / -Trinkets, 27
-Trinkets, 28 / -Trinkets, 29
-Trinkets, Worthless: Vaguely interesting garbage, vendor trash and junk loot. Not magical or mysterious like regular trinkets or worth anything more than a copper piece or two even if you could find someone to buy it in the first place.
-Trinkets, Worthless, 1 / -Trinkets, Worthless, 2
-Trinkets, Worthless, 3 / -Trinkets, Worthless, 4
-Trinkets, Worthless, 5 / -Trinkets, Worthless, 6
-Trinkets, Worthless, 7 / -Trinkets, Worthless, 8
-Trinkets, Worthless, 9
-Mottos: Whether they’re called adages, maxims or creeds, these simple statements are essentially promises made to oneself, family, or institution. A character’s motto can be a goal in itself or a moral anchor that centers his life and guides his action. A mixed collection of real life and fictional mottos that can aid a DM to quickly expand the history of the campaign or to aid a PC in a richer character creation.
-Mottos, 1 / -Mottos, 2 / -Mottos, 3
-Mottos, 4 / -Mottos, 5 / -Mottos, 6
-Mottos, 7 / -Mottos, 8 / -Mottos, 9
-Battle Cries: Simplistic and bone chilling warcries, complex and inspiring calls to arms and primal wordless screams of rage that shakes the enemy down to their iron-shod boots. A collection of simple phrases, threats, insults and violent promises for creatures to yell before and during combat to add verbal spice to each attack.
-Battle Cries, 1 / -Battle Cries, 2 / -Battle Cries, 3
-Battle Cries, 4 / -Battle Cries, 5 / -Battle Cries, 6
-Battle Cries, 7
-All Reference Tables: When a trinket calls for a Random Weapon, Random Color or Random Godly Domain and you can’t think of one offhand, just go here and either roll a die or select one of your own choosing.
—Keep reading for all reference tables.
Keep reading
How To Be A Somewhat Successful DM - Part 1 - Writing A Campaign In 10 Easy Steps
Step 1: Get an idea. Your idea doesn’t have to be super specific, it can be as simple as “hey, pirates are cool, what if I made a campaign with some pirates”.
Step 2: Get yourself a notebook to scribble your idea in. This is the breeding ground of idiocy and genius alike. I have two notebooks because I’m insane and write too many campaigns
Step 3: Develop that idea from earlier. You want pirates? What do the pirates want? Are they good or bad? And why do the players care? What is their quest? Most importantly, come up with an end objective for the campaign. You want a goal for the players to aim for. Even if you don’t reveal the true goal immediately, you’ll need one to plan around.
Step 4: Vomit up all your general ideas and notions about what you might like in the campaign. Just take a page in your notebook and write a list of everything you think you might include. Plot points, monsters, loot, whatever, just put it down on paper. You can sort through it later. This is what my idea page looks like (censored in some places for spoiler reasons):
Step 5: How to get from the start to the end. You’ve got the end point, the Big Bad, but you need some slightly smaller bads along the way. I usually plan around 5 or 6 lower level villains to defeat before the players reach the Main Fight. These fights are best connected to the end goal, where we get major story progression. Between these fights have a variety of smaller challenges, some story related and some more in the ranks of random encounters.
Step 6: Develop a world. It can be anything you like but make sure that you establish the rules and stick to them. Consistency is important. Figure kingdoms/cities/planets or whatever and how they all work together in your plot.
Step 7: Make some NPCs. This is the fun part in my opinion. Give them some depth, an actual personality and motives of their own. How do they serve the plot? Why do the players need them? Do they get to join the party? They can be an ally, a villain, a betrayer, anything. Just so long as you give them a purpose.
Step 8: Detail time. Time to flesh out those enemies. Give them appearances, abilities, personality. The Big Bad needs a purpose and a way it can be defeated. If you want to make your own monsters as well, I’d advise thinking of one or two traits that make you Uncomfortable and adding those. If you want a monster to be scary, be descriptive. If it makes your skin crawl, it will probably do the same to the players.
Step 9: Time to start writing sessions. Don’t write anything too specific or detailed, the players aren’t about to cooperate with that. Just write the most important points of what will happen, notes to yourself of what you need to mention and the stats of monsters or characters that are relevant. You’ve got to be prepared to improvise.
Step 10: Finishing touches. Get yourself a list of loot. Get the backstories of your players so you can add finer details to the campaign to give them a personal stake. Make a map (and let no one touch it). Figure out how you’re going to hook your players into the story. Make yourself a roll20 or discord or what have you. Find some music. Then you can play.
Make sure the system you use matches the kind of players you have, for an optimal experience
Admin Note: This is part of the ongoing series called “D&D isn’t the only TTRPG if you don’t want fantasy play another goddamn game!”
It was my first time DMing tonight, and even playing dnd in general and I had a lot of fun (and so did my players) but I feel like I could’ve done better. Anybody have any tips?
if you definitely 100% own all of the dnd 5E content after spending hundreds of dollars on it whether physically or digitally (or both!) u should use this site here as a quick n easy reference point for the content you definitely already legally own because you’re a law abiding citizen who has paid hundreds of dollars for a shittonne of books.
Hey all, I don’t ask for much from you guys but this is important.
One of my favourite groups of people who play online tabletop rpgs is ‘Hijinks and Handlebars’, Over on Queuetimes. I know I’ve posted about them before but this time it’s important...
They need their views up. I don’t know the entire situation, there’s a great tweet about it here: https://twitter.com/handlestream/status/1280615305497071616?s=21 that explains who they are and what they do a bit better then I ever could, but here’s a little bit of info:
William white, the dm, they/them pronouns, creates a wonderful universe using the ‘Kids On Bikes’ play system, and more recently during COVID the pbta ‘dungeon world’ system, running the regular cast of Spencer Labelle, they/them, Frannie Morrison, she/her, Jonas Newhouse, they/them, Chris ‘Tanamayto’ (I am not sure of the spelling nor do I think it’s his last name? Sorry he hasn’t been in the cast since the start but he’s just as amazing as the others) he/him, and Sam Richardson, he/him. The cast create a beautifully rich diverse group of characters and together they have built a wonderful little community all based around a little town called ‘Bald’, telling similiar stories to those like IT, and stranger things, only ten times more diverce and wonderful.
If you want to check out their amazing show, you can watch it at https://youtu.be/1lzoDlF1w7g Some of the players pronouns do change throughout the show so I have put their most recent pronouns in this post.
But please do go watch. They need the support. Your love. Please and thank you!!
all the tips I found for drawing a fantasy map are like :) “here’s a strategy to draw the land masses! here’s how to plot islands!” :) and that’s wonderful and I love them all but ??? how? do y'all decide where to put cities/mountains/forests/towns I have my map and my land but I’m throwing darts to decide where the Main Citadel where the Action Takes Place is
V.E. Schwab’s advice on creating memorable characters.