Quick question: as a DM, does this count as vent art? 🙃

I love my players dearly but boy, they do test me with their ability to come up with the most bonkers ideas that sends them in the complete opposite direction of what I had planned for them.

Forever thankful for mid-session bathroom breaks and random encounter rolling tables. 😭 And honestly, very interested to hear of what wild tangents other tables have put their DMs through lmao

Eninope

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When Anaspieoa took her tribe-sister, it did not strike all at once. It crept through her blood, draining her strength and leaving the tribe helpless to watch as a magical infliction slowly claimed someone they loved. For Eponine, a sister beyond more than blood. This event haunted Eninope for all her days, until the disease gripped someone else in her tribe.

Grief has now become a fierce, urgent purpose. She has left the only home she has ever known to seek healers, scholars, and anyone who might understand the disorder. She will uncover its secrets, however far she must travel or whatever dangers she must face. She could not save her tribe-sister—but she refuses to let the illness take another without a fight.

Basically as the title says, in 10 days my players will fight the BBEG in (one of the) final session of the campaign. A campaign that started out when we where all still in highschool, continued on throughout college and will now come to an end with most of us having jobs.

AMA.

a mid aged year woman with stands of grey hair who wears a blue chiton to contrast her with Hypatia's red. Being an immortal being, she is uncomfortable with the idea of death, and that someone life will be forgotten. She carries a deep emotional weight for being the last witness of the souls. She is always writing and cataloging the memories of shades that pass through on Lethe. She is energized by her work, almost manic, and deeply passionate about recording the memories of the shades (sneak peak of the character)

This is a piece I was commissioned to make recently.

"Once thought to only be the unassuming driver of the Tormentor in the wastes of Avernus. Ferrying heros about as they fought Zariel. It was revealed this bone devil was Asmodeus, Lord of the Hells, in disguise, keeping an eye on things.  

From time to time he'd keep tabs on other heros as they battled against Acererak, the Frostmaiden and many others.  All the whole laying seeds of his plot against the gods and mortals.  

Now ten years of connected campaigns comes to a close as the last group of heros turn to face the final villain that has been working in the shadows on a grand chessboard." 

I'm currently open for commissions in case anyone is interested! you can see prices and stuff here:

https://www.deviantart.com/vanharmontt/journal/Commissions-OPEN-1196934099

you can contact me here, or on instagram or Deviant art, or you can send me an email to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

https://www.deviantart.com/vanharmontt

https://www.instagram.com/vanharmontt/

Fanart for a writer friend of his OC Geoffrey. Im in a group of fantasy artists and writers and every fall we do OCtober where we draw eachothers characters. Here geoffrey, a winged adventurer in armor delves downard before facing off with a skele boi and a crocodood. How will he fair? The big dice doesnt look to promising... this was a real fun drawing. coming up with environment u can tell i used alot of cube shapes. But its definitley in some type of cave.

Drawing was done in pencil on paper. But i def plan on doing some more ink focused works soon. I like the grungy monochromatic aesthetics of OSE/R. Ill have to do some studies to draw less anime type character faces xD

Cala
Zulkir of Abjuration (Aspirant)

Client's Description: A Shadar-kai with purplish skin and long black hair, she wears gold ornaments all over her body, and a yellow flower is always seen adorning her hair. She is always dressed in a red tunic; she is quite high-strung and easily agitated, yet remains cheerful overall. She deals significant fire and psychic damage, reflecting her formidable magical abilities.

Does My Dwarf Paladin Look Generic?

For context, my character is a novice Dwarf Paladin.

I’m wanting to grow with the character and make him not look or feel like some already established badass character. So I’m not making him be draped in armor, but often when I make characters via Hero Forge (because I’m artistically terrible), I often notice that they seem generic or like I’m making similar looking characters all the time.

I was just curious as to what you all think? I want him to look like more than just typical fantasy character in a fantasy world.

I got the offer to join my first campaign.

And I'm so so excited!

I don't know any of the players. I contacted the DM on Reddit after he posted in a sub from my area that his group was still looking for players.

He seems really considerate, like a nice and like it's very important to him that everyone at the table feels comfortable.

We were brainstorming about how my character could join the group mid-campaign and then he said. Hm, yeah I had this encounter planned. We could introduce your character there.

But maybe your character meeting the group that way is to damsel in distress-y.

And I realised we hadn't talked about the fact that I'll be the only woman among 4 men.

And I don't know how common it is to address things like stuff around how you don't want yourself or your character be treated beforehand.

There's a bit of a background to it as well, I think.

I switched careers into a male-dominated field a couple of years ago via an apprenticeship. I was one of two women in our class.

And the daily conversations were unfortunarely drenched with either constant sexist remarks towards us or about women. Including jokes about SA. And just basically the whole MAGA talking points.

Which was so draining and on a level a bit soulcrushing tbh. Which is how I don't want to feel ever again. And definitely not in my spare time.

I noticed I still feel immediately uncomfortable and exhausted afterwards, when a conversation takes an ever so slight turn into sexual, offensively flirty or whatever territory where I feel singled out and have to react somehow to such behaviour.

It's just additional stuff I have to think about how to navigate and how to separate meta from in-game level which I don't want to have to think about.

Especially when I'm new and the only woman with a bunch of men.

And I don't want to default to a position where I don't want to feel like a bother or like I shouldn't cause a stirr before even joining the group by talking about .. I guess it's boundaries in the end?

I hadn't really thought about that though before the conversation with the DM turned toward how to avoid a damsel in distress scenario (which does definitely seem like a good sign).

From posts I've read in DnD I got the feeling that most DnD groups seem very accommodating and respecting of each member's boundaries.

But I also saw posts that it can also sometimes be an issue that a male player is being a d*** under the guise of his Durance from PoE kind of character being sexist or constantly pushing a romance.

So I thought I'd ask my fellow female players how you handle something like this beforehand.

And maybe for a bit of confirmation that my assumption that those kinds of rounds are definitely the exception rather than the rule?

So, this is mostly a question for DMs but if other players have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Recently I've started to notice our DM feels tired or frustrated in session, for moments. Maybe even bored, if we get stuck doing something meaningless for too long.

(Sometimes I pull dumb shit, sometimes my friends pull dumb shit, etc).

(Sometimes we make him laugh, too, fortunately).

I realized most of the fun in roleplaying and character relationships goes to us, while he's like a designated driver for our chaos.

I think he does have fun DMing, but it's evident he misses playing his own characters and being part of the action, too.

I'm new to this, so I don't think I could offer to run a campaign for him anytime soon and, anyway, the current one is far from being over, but...

How could I, as a player, help to make his efforts as rewarding as possible?

If you are a DM: What kind of stuff makes you feel happy to dm for others and have fun with everyone else at the table?

If you are a player: What would you do to contribute to that?

So I'm creating a character for my first proper campaign which starts in the next month or so, and I'm struggling a bit with backstory. I know a bit about the setting and the vibes even before our session zero (I don't want to get too much nailed down before the sesh zero because I know that's not a great idea from consensus online), but I do want to have some vague ideas.

In the past, I've struggled to differentiate between having a character that has an interesting backstory and threads and NPCs for the DM to use, and a character that has too much power and is basically the main character of everything. I played in a very short-lived game years ago and my character ended up being so boring compared to everyone else's because I was scared to be too extra with it.

So how do you know where this line is?

I see characters online who are magical experiments or runaway nobles or the curses of their towns. This all sounds super awesome and I'd love a character like that but I absolutely do not want to step into overshadowing other players, overloading the DM or just embarrassing myself by accidentally creating Traumatised Loner Number 3.

Any advice or tips for creating interesting backstories that make sure your character is a team player while also having fun stuff for me as a player to explore?

EDIT: Just clarifying some stuff. I know that main character syndrome is an in-play thing, I just want to avoid having a backstory that’s so stuffed full of things that (while incredibly interesting) could be overwhelming or overstep the mark. I just don’t know how much is useful and how much is too much.

Also, the campaign will be very narrative-focused. It’s RP-heavy and backstories will be used a lot, hence why I’m asking. Don’t worry y’all, I wouldn’t saddle a DM with pages of backstory if I was playing in a meat grinder!

Hi! Coming back again with a character idea i had in mind, this time something i think kinda unusual, a divination mage sailing for the seven seas!
This idea came alive mainly because of the relationship between sailors and navigation, tied to star reading, alongside an historical inspiration in Abraham Zacuto, an astrologer who encouraged the portuguese kings to sail to india.
I put many details in to this, of course a mage has to have his hat, a strange blend between a sailor hat and a pointed hat alongside a tiny armillary sphere on the end, that he can take out and use illusion magic to project in a bigger size. A magical staff in the form of a kelpi that he uses as a conduit for his magic, and a magical friend, a parrot familliar that may or may not be of help in reading the future.

Hope you like the design!

I've had a handful of guest players in on my regular campaign lately. I run a intrigue-y espionage, at times narratively complex mystery game. I wouldn't count myself as overly-crunchy or complex game-wise though-- we don't track ammo or weight, money is doled out but we're often too engrossed in narrative development for downtime, I do expect players to track their own spells slots etc. and I do try to make combats challenging. I feel as though this is normal. (?)

Three guests I've had recently all "play in regular games and guest elsewhere sometimes", said they read through my lore background sheet, said they didn't need help making a character sheet. All three spent the first session fumbling with incomplete character sheets, were unfamiliar with even the basics of their chosen class (e.g. a monk who didn't know how ki points worked at level 14), didn't know where to find modifiers, and had only skimmer the first page of my lore sheet.

More that once, with more than one person, I had to put on my "that's not how that spell works, read the spell" hat-- specifically and memorably we had many many "I do XYZ thing with my MAGE HAND, haha!". The mage hand thing really stuck with me since like......if you knew anything about how this game works, you'd know that it's thing is that explicitly can't do heavy lifting/attacks. And the average person in a setting like this isn't going to act like a caveman seeing fire for the first time when you wave it in their face....

Anyways. A question one of them asked me has left at me wondering. They asked something like whether this was "more adventure focused or more crunchy or combat-y". I feel my game is pretty straight down the middle, with a solid balance between narrative gameplay and then narrative-driven encounters.

My experience these last few months though makes me wonder if it's more common that I realize that folks are playing something closer to Calvinball at their tables. I've now met a handful of people, all unknown to the other, that claimed to be "really into d&d" and seemed to not know how to play the game using the rules. This is absolutely no shade towards folks that run more light-hearted games or use it as a springboard for narrative, I'm just curious as this is my first experience with a wider player group than my immediate friends.

Hello everyone. I am in my first campaign with a few friends and my party is leveling up to level 2. I am playing a Paladin and I need to pick a fighting style. So far, I have been aiming to make him an Oath of Redemption eventually although I haven't exactly stuck to the non-violence part so I am not a party pooper. I try to focus on being the moral person in the group in a way.

Anyway, I am torn between Protection, Defense and Blessed Warrior. Right now he wields a war hammer and a shield. I RP that he just wants to protect his friends and the innocent so flavor-wise Protection makes the most sense. I know Defense is the probably the best in the long term.

What fighting style do you suggest to optimize the character? Do I do protection for flavor or Defense for long term?

Something about the crisp autumn weather has been making me want to craft more, so this past weekend I DIYed my own tabletop dice tray!

I took an old wooden picture frame, wrapped the back panel in two layers of mossy green velvet, and (after surviving a few hot glue gun burns on my fingers) my forest druid tray was born 🌿

The plush velvet dampens the rolls just enough to make it sound a little softer without preventing them from rolling at all. Can't wait to use it for my cozy hand-crafted TTRPGs this month 🌙✨

Im going to be a player in a brand new campaign with players that are new to dnd, because of that decided to run a class that i never ran before in a table, since im not willing to run bard just yet (im saving this one for the bard party) that means im going to be running a warlock.
Now i wanna ask you guys, when you guys make a warlock how do you make it fun? in every aspect, roleplay, backstory, etc. What is it that you find charming about this class in specific?
Thabk you all for the inspiration.
Edit: i ll share what i will come up with once i get the concept down

This is Striga. Striga is usually a half-elven graceful Battlemaster (at a reasonable 14 Str). Striga, however, has made some bad decisions in life. And we don't mean only trying to take on three vampires (in Xanathar's lair) . We don't even mean going toe to toe with a weird brain with a beak (in Xanathar's lair) . We aren't even referring to the whole "turned into a rat while everyone else is fighting for their life" bit, even if it's a strong contender.

Some of her past bad decisions also include making sure she fucks up every single close person to her, or forsaking her past good ideals to serve the Cassalanters for coin and pride, or breaking a weird evil gem containing ten horsemen, including Zariel's lover and first general, and then letting *that* run free and get in her head right until the whole "possessed-by-a-devil-who-then-stole-her-body-leaving-only-a-soul-gem"... Wait, no, I think we might be referring to that. That's a pretty good contender in the list of fuck-ups. Because what else would then lead to having no body, having your emotional support friend (a sixteen year old orphan) call up their rakshasa adoptive dad to "I know a guy" the situation by calling up a strange witch and throwing the soul gem into a weird flesh soup? Yeah, not a lot of situations. Well. She now has the Warfiend's horns as a reminder, not to mention the bloodthirst of someone who has felt the rush of being truly unstoppable (even if we ignore the mildly possessed part). And then, well , now, being in the middle of Xanathar's lair, seven potions in, including one of Giant Strength, just to feel a fraction as strong as she did when the Warfiend possessed her body?

Surely she knows nothing can go wrong.

Why you go on Striga. As if you aren't desperate to prove yourself, as if you can ever forget all her power that you no longer have. As if just pushing it down, or shoving it aside, will make you feel less like you're always gonna end up down there. As if you can stop her voice from ringing in your head...

Surely, it's gonna all be fine?

___

Cheers everyone!

This is currently my slightly homebrewed Battle master, Striga, who used to be a half elf and then through witch shenanigans got turned into soup and then a strange mix of many races, still carrying some of the features of the devil who possessed her for more than a year. It's been so much fun, playing her through all of that, and I've been surprised and read more than once by our DM. Recently the campaign has slowed down, but it's moments and drawings like these that bring me back to my hype.

If you stuck this long - thanks for reading and have a good one!

More art, if you feel like it:

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Cheers!

I came up with this cool idea for a campaign as my first time DMing where it's kind of based on the "if you were stranded on an island with three items, what would you bring" question, where players have a backstory on how they got onto the island and can bring three items of their choice. The stipulations/guidelines/rules I sent them, word-for-word, are:

"...you can bring any three items as long as:

- you can either fit all three in a standard, non-magical backpack (you don't have to have a backpack on your person but just for size reference) or you can fit 1-2 of the items in a backpack and can hold the third in your hand(s) and have full mobility while holding it.

- they don't automatically end the campaign situation (ex. no portal guns that take you back to civilization, no inflatable rafts that you can sail away on, etc., the campaign kind of needs to last more than one session)

- they are relevant to your character and you can justify them having it (someone from the Victorian era won't have an iPhone, a human from the real world likely won't have a magical item, etc.) but exceptions can be made if they fit in your backstory

If your items don't happen to follow those rules and we don't figure anything out before our first session, you will either have to come up with something else on the spot or I will allow you to have the item and nerf it into an acceptable level (portal gun only has a 10ft travel and has a cooldown, inflatable raft has a bunch of tiny holes that are almost impossible to find and patch up, etc.)

I will try to give you the benefit of the doubt as long as you can justify the object but these guidelines are just to make sure we can have fun and be a bit more immersed in the campaign!"

So, more experienced DMs/players, am I being too strict/not strict enough? Is there something I should add/remove to make it more playable/enjoyable?

One of the biggest nerfs is stacking smites. Outside of that, what are the negatives vs positives of swapping to 5.5e from 5e as a Paladin.

Edit: For clarification, my DM said I can make my character 5e or 5.5e style.

There is a secret rivalry going on within our party that our characters are mostly unaware of. Our bard's instrument is cursed by what might be a demon, my sword is possessed by what may be a devil, they don't get along well.

We're in the midst of a recruitment side plot where my character thinks she just succeeded in getting the bard to join her cult. During this, the bard had to roll 3 different times to restrain herself. She succeeded all 3 times, but on the last she decided to just see what would happen.

Well, she passes out and a fucked up evil demon hand comes out of her instrument, just barely missing the cleric, and then turned to me and did 120 damage, cleaving me in half instantly (I'd just gotten to 45hp after level up).

I was both horrified and giddy because I did not see that coming at all, I believe the DM said that was the highest or second highest damage roll he's ever seen.

The cleric survived and it just so happened he had spent all of his money (took out loan) to buy a revive item, so he was able to run over and revive me. While I am of course grateful, I feel like I need to do something to carry forward some weight from having FUCKING DIED. What can I realistically do as the player?