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!”
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I already reblogged this once but this is important:
Like I run a D&D blog. I understand that D&D is the most well-known and popular RPG in the world. But a lot of the time I see people going like “Hey I want to run a D&D campaign and throw out all the D&Disms and here’s all the notes I have for running a campaign about courtly romance and chivalry in a historical setting” and I’m just like STOP YOU DON’T NEED TO RUN THIS USING D&D
There’s a sort of a mistaken assumption that because D&D is the biggest game on the market and that it’s fantasy that it should be the go-to fantasy game but look it’s not D&D isn’t a generic fantasy game it’s a very specific kind of fantasy all of its own, one that steals liberally from swords & sorcery and high fantasy and adds fucking extradimensional cube robots for good measure
So next time you’re thinking about a fantasy campaign in a decidedly non-D&Dish setting consider instead of jamming the square peg that is D&D into a round hole trying to find a system that actually supports what you’re trying to do
And this is not to say that you shouldn’t play D&D: D&D is hella fun. But there’s a lot of genres and styles that D&D does a piss-poor job of doing, and because of that it’s so good we’ve got other games
*cracks knuckles*
All right then. I’ve been meaning to dust off my own D&D sideblog for a while, so here we go with providing some examples. I’m limiting this specifically to other types of fantasy outside of the standard high fantasy and sword & sorcery millieu.
Courtly Romance and Chivalry
There are a number of options for this, and they range from standard secondary world fantasy to more historical and mythological settings. My list here shouldn’t be treated as fully extensive.
Blue Rose - based on the romantic fantasy subgenre, specifically as seen in the works of Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey. A lot of courtly drama and intrigue and swashbuckling, based in a fictional world.
Pendragon - naturally based off of Arthurian mythology, and having a lot of stuff given over to the court of Camelot and the chivalric adventures of the various knights. The same company also has a kickstarter for a spin-off called Paladin: Warriors of Charlemagne that might be worth checking out.
Historical Fantasy
This one’s a bit more prominent as historical settings serve as an inspiration for a variety of fantasy worlds and games, and this of course invariably extends to settings that actually use historical settings with a degree of fantasy elements thrown in. Note that I’m going to emphasise Europe here simply due to greater familiarity with games in that millieu, and as a European myself I’m ill-equipped to judge how accurate or respectful games using other settings actually are.
Because of this, feel free to add other examples in reblogs
Chivalry & Sorcery - one of the early tabletop games inspired by D&D, taking a more pseudo-historical approach. It’s based on 12th century France and strives for a degree of historical accuracy and medieval politics.
World of Darkness, Dark Ages (including Vampire and Mage) - while the World of Darkness has earned some negative attention lately (and for good reason), the dark ages RPGs are still an old favourite of mine. Also worth checking out is Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade, set during the Renaissance. The Mage stuff has a really cool open-ended magic system worth checking out.
Ars Magica - this exists along very similar lines to the dark age material above, based around mages and magic-users in a ‘Mythic Europe’ setting. It also has a really cool open-ended magic system, and one of my personal favourites.
Awwww shit heck yes I might want to add to this list but this is a really good starting point
ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO FIND THE SYSTEM FOR YOU
AEG (A Legend of the Five Rings)
COMPLETE TABLETOP RPG ARCHIVE
Dungeon Master Essentials
I decided to make a list of DM stuff that I personally use or think are important to know when it comes to being a DM. So here’s my list:
Medieval Fantasy City Generator: This generator is now my LIFE. It generates incredibly complex cities with good customization. (Thanks to plantkat for sharing this site in their post here)
Naming Your Towns/Cities: Now that you’ve made your city, time to name it and give it some character! This post contains lots of great information.
Index Cards Rule: Fuckyeahdnd shared a SUPER convenient way of keeping track of turns and HP in combat. I use this system now for every single session I run.
Tricks & Traps: I am AWFUL at coming up with good Dungeon traps and challenges, this PDF includes some incredible ideas. The original poster, Courtney C. Campbell also runs a blog where she shares tons of great stuff. (Thanks to we-are-rogue for sharing the PDF in their post here)
Playing Different Types of Characters: Writeinspiration has a masterpost on how to write/play lots of different types of characters.
Unique NPC Jobs: Lauraharrisbooks wrote a list of different Fantasy Jobs which can help populate your world with some unique characters! Another similar post by Thewritershandbook also covers Common Occupations in the Middle Ages.
Developing Characters by Threes: Monticusrex’s method of creating characters help you really flesh out who they are. Useful for Players and DM’s.
Troublesome Players? Speak Up: Dicebound brings up an incredibly great point. If someone is being a jerk, speak up and call them out. This is especially important and relevant now to crush awful behavior before it even has a chance to show it’s ugly face.
List of D&D Resources: And finally, pretty much anything you might need for D&D.
(Character stuff, spells, online communities/ways to play, etc..)
A lot of people contributed to this post but thank you Mushroomancy for posting the original list.
Donjon: And finally, this site is a great resource for looking up Spells and Monsters along with tons of other generators. Not every single Spell or Monster is on here, but most are listed.
(I tried to give credit to the original posters or the actual URL for websites, unless those sites or URLs were no longer active)
I was at Fantasy Starbucks and I placed my order and the faerista asked for my name and like a fool I gave it to them
How to Get to Know Your Characters
@lourek asked:
Okay so it’s me again. I have a problem, cuz I really don’t know my characters?? And I’d like to get to know them. I know this might sound stupid, but do you have a masterpost about best ways to get to know your own characters or would you be willing to make one? I’ve noticed that all those “answer these questions” things are pretty useful. Thank you, I still worship you, good bye
Not a stupid question at all! This is one of the most challenging and important parts of becoming a writer. Getting to know someone takes time and effort, and characters are no exception.
So without further ado, here are my go-to techniques for getting to know a character:
1. Ask yourself these basic questions:
- How old are they mentally/spiritually? Do they have an old soul, or are they a perpetual kid at heart? Does their personality not coincide with their physical age?
- What do they care about most in the world? What would they die for?
- What are their interests? What books, movies, and shows do they read/watch religiously? What do they geek out over?
- What’s the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to them? Have they told anyone? If so, who?
- On that note, what is one secret they’ve never told anyone?
- What was their childhood like? Was it happy? Tragic? Why or why not?
- How many relationships do they have? How have they affected them?
- What is their greatest fear?
- What was the best thing that ever happened to them?
- What was the worst thing that ever happened to them?
- If you had to describe the character in one word, what is the first that comes to mind?
2. Once that’s done, get nosy.
- Empty their pockets, backpack, or purse. Make a list of everything inside. What do they always take with them? Why?
- Describe their bedroom. Is it neat, or messy? Is it minimalist? Cluttered? Are they neat, or messy by nature? Is there any artwork on the wall, any posters? Are there lots of books? A TV? Stuffed animals? Be as detailed as you want to be, and think about why your character has these things and what they say about them.
- If they have one, describe their car. What kind of car do they drive? How does it correlate with their personality, their career? Do they keep any photos of loved ones? Are there lots of fast food containers?
- We’ve already touched on this briefly, but think about their books. Write down at least ten titles on their shelf. Think about what genres they like, what authors, and why they might enjoy them.
- What kind of movie genres do they like? What kind of TV shows? Why do they enjoy them? Do they have any guilty pleasures that they’d rather anyone not know about?
- Take a look inside their closet. What kind of clothes do they wear? What’s their style? Can they afford the clothes they’d actually like to wear? Are they preppy? Is their closet organized, or is it a hot mess?
3. Get to know the family.
- What are their parents like? Do they have a good relationship? Are they friends? Do they just plain suck? If so, why?
- If they don’t have a good relationship with their parents, are there any parental figures that their close with? What are they like?
- Do they have any siblings? Are they close? Are they protective of them, or vice versa?
- What is their nationality? Do they have strong ties to their heritage, or could they care less?
- What about their extended family? Do they have any weird relatives? (In my opinion, every character should have at least one weird relative. They are a lot of fun to write.)
4. Fill in the details.
Brainstorm random questions about your characters, their likes, dislikes, et cetera. Here are examples:
- What is their favorite food?
- Their favorite beverage?
- Their favorite movie?
- Their favorite book?
- Their favorite TV show?
- What is their dream job?
- Do they keep a journal?
- Do they have good handwriting, or is it illegible from excessive note-taking?
- What’s their favorite color?
- What’’s their favorite kind of weather? Do they like sunny days, or rainy ones?
- Can they draw? Are they artistic in general?
- What kind of romantic/sexual partner do they like (if they’re interested in that sort of thing at all)? Do they have a ‘type?’
- What would their ideal date be (even just with friends)? Do they like generic dinner and movie-type stuff, or do they favor museums and plays?
- What would their ideal afternoon look like?
- Do they prefer TV or books?
- Are they introverted or extroverted? Do they hate social gatherings, or thrive on them? Do they relish in alone time?
- Coffee or tea?
- Cats or dogs?
- Do they eat breakfast? If so, what?
- What’s their opinion on pineapple pizza?
5. Fill out some character sheets.
Simple character sheets are a great way to fill in the gaps and get to know your character. Though there are quite a few floating around on my favorite blogs, but here are a few examples:
- There’s a “lazy person’s” character sheet here.
- There’s a “how to create a memorable character” sheet here.
- And there’s a “no effort” character sheet here.
Of course, the only way to truly get to know your character is to write about them. You never know how they’ll develop until you get going, and once you do, they’ll never cease to surprise you. Characters truly do gain lives of their own, so don’t give up and keep writing.
And in the meantime, I hope this helps! <3
You know, I see a lot of posts out there about dumb shit that players do and while all of those posts are incredibly valid, I feel like this is dumbass DM erasure. I dearly love every story about bards who seduce the final boss and warlocks with sugar daddies and all that BUT I think DMs are greatly misunderstood to all be these serious controlling entities who just want their players to follow through with their perfectly planned scenerios. Here’s to all the dumbass DMs out there who:
- forget their NPC names and constantly make up new names for unimportant recurring NPCs when the players see them in hopes that they wont remember
- plan a whole dungeon around one (1) spongebob reference that they really wanted to fit in
- accidentally give two NPCs the same name bc you just pull from a list and you forgot to cross it off
- choose to homebrew everything bc they have an Artistic Vision but the vision is just that you want there to be three gnomes in a trench coat selling sketchy magical items somewhere in the setting
- use the same dumbass voice for every NPC but with different 90s surfer slang for different characters
- make just awful items and make their players buy them (I’m currently working on the “Ross From Friends” tramp stamp of +1 AC)
- realize they only have 28 minutes before the next session to plan and instead make text posts on tumblr.com
Anyway if any DMs want to add onto this with some dumbass shit they’ve subjected their players to feel free
Accents 101
So if you’re a dm like me, you probably want to be relatively skilled in some typical fantasy accents for your game to make things feel that much more real. So i’ve decided to throw together a little master post of “how to” videos on some various accents. This is mostly for my own reference, but if you’d like to save this for yourself too, go right ahead. Feel free to add on to this, as well!
General Accent Tips
- How To Learn Any Accent (1)
- How To Learn Any Accent (2)
- How To Do 12 Different Accents
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US/UK/Aussie English Vocabulary Differences
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One Woman, 17 British Accents
- How To Lose Your Native Accent
- How To Learn A Different Accent
- Fun Tour of American Accents
Scottish
- Scottish In Under 2 Minutes
- How to Speak With A Scottish Accent
- HOW TO DO A SCOTTISH ACCENT
- Speaking Scottish 101
- Scottish Slang
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Gerard Butler Teaches You Scottish Slang
- Scottish Insults
English or “British”
- How To Do A British Accent
- 3 Ways to Sound More British
- HOW TO DO A BRITISH ACCENT CONVINCINGLY (1)
- HOW TO DO A BRITISH ACCENT CONVINCINGLY (2)
- HOW TO DO A BRITISH ACCENT CONVINCINGLY (3)
- Henry Cavill and Simon Pegg Teach You English Slang
French
- How To Speak With A French Accent
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How To Do A French Accent In UNDER TWO MINUTES
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Tips on how to do a French Accent
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French Accent Tip
Irish
- How to do an Irish Accent
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How To Do An Irish Accent
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How To Do An Irish Accent
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Guide to Irish Accents
- How To Do An Irish Accent In UNDER TWO MINUTES
Russian
- How To Speak With A Russian Accent
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How to Do a Russian Accent | Accent Training
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How to speak with a Russian Accent
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How Russians Speak English
- How To Do A Russian Accent
German
- How To Have A German Accent
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How to do a GERMAN ACCENT?
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Get the Perfect German ACCENT
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Me speaking in 12 GERMAN DIALECTS!
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How To Do A German Accent
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5 Steps to a perfect German Accent
Canadian
Saving only so maybe every accent I do doesn’t come out Jamaican anymore
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.
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want
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complete
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control
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of
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the
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narrative
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write
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novel
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True for both players and DMs.
Corollary point: as a player, it’s your job to be an interesting protagonist in a way that still allows for the GM and other players to also have their fun. As a player if you’re just there to fuck around, not contribute to the story, or act like you’re the main character, go play a videogame instead.
The worst kind of player is the kind who uses their characterization to be a dick to their groupmates. “But my character is just like that” well you made a bad character for this venue, do better by your team. Think about the other people at your table and whether you’re making it fun for everyone, not just yourself.