Divine Blood - Wasps Among Butterflies - Fourth Session - Sudden Robot Hail

This session involves two characters:

• Arianrhod Monica Trengrove (aka Aria), the succubus and Perfect Lady of War who makes lets The Higher Ups Do the Talking and hates the Supernatural Enemies of the Supernatural.
• Sophia Ecks, Voyeuristic Visionary, Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant and a Virtual Apex Predator on the Bleeding Edge.

Mysterious Shenaingans Continue

Divine Blood - Wasps Among Butterflies - Third Session - Aria's Milkshake

Warning: This post has not yet been edited and was written late at night. Grammar goofs and typos probably abound.

This session involves three characters:

• Arianrhod Monica Trengrove (aka Aria), the succubus and Perfect Lady of War who makes use of Surprise Death Cuddles.
• Sophia Ecks, Voyeuristic Visionary and the Human Heimdall suffering from a bit of Establishment Blues.
• Sarah Gow, a Napoleonic Werepanther from an Urbanized Tribe who tends to feel that if she's Annoyed, then Your Feelings are Irrelevant.

Aria's Milkshake Brought Ninjas to the Street

Divine Blood - Wasps Among Butterflies - Second Session - The Full John Wick

Warning: This post has not yet been edited and was written late at night. Grammar goofs and typos probably abound.

This session involves three characters:

• Arianrhod Monica Trengrove (aka Aria), Psyche Raised Succubus who grew up adapting to the ideal of Perfect Lady of War with an Anti-Van Helsing Assault Kit.
• Sophia Ecks, Voyeuristic Visionary, an Virtual Apex Predator and Dark Net Denizen with Establishment Blues.
• Sarah Gow, a Napoleonic Werepanther from an Urbanized Tribe who tends to feel that if she's Annoyed, then Your Feelings are Irrelevant.

The day after headlines.

Divine Blood - Wasps Among Butterflies - First Session - A "Simple" Rescue

This session involved three characters:

• Arianrhod Monica Trengrove (aka Aria), Psyche Raised Succubus whose demon-form is referred to as Form of Scorpubus and who was Orphaned by a Van Helsing (slang term for hate crimes targeting the supernatural)
• Sophia Ecks, Voyeuristic Visionary, an Unethical Hacktivist and Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant
• Sarah Gow, a Napoleonic Werepanther from an Urbanized Tribe who tends to feel that if she's Annoyed, then Your Feelings are Irrelevant.

Highlander cultists

Low Magic in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

Trying to model a low magic setting in most Dungeons and Dragons systems can be challenging since the core assumptions of the game assume a very magical reality. There is also the fact that there is often disagreement on what exactly is meant by the term “low magic”. The one common element is that magic is uncommon in low magic settings. Some would extend that to assume that non-human creatures are also rare and that magic is weak. However, this is not always the case. There are several fantasy stories considered low magic which have instances of powerful magic within them.

Character Sheet Philosophy

I have recently run across the argument that any point buy game system will end up resulting in every player having the same exact build. The phrase used is “one true build.” This attitude mystified me because I have never seen this “one true build” materialize in over twenty years of playing roleplaying games the majority of which has spent with point buy systems such as HERO, M&M, BESM and the like. Comments that I’ve never seen it materialize were met with the assertion that my GMs must not have been making the games tough enough. Further comments from both myself and other point buy players that we haven’t encountered a GM where it is even a good idea to have everybody built the same way was responded to with the comment that once we figured out a GMs habits and tendencies then we would start building to respond to those and then everybody would end up with roughly the same build. Which is where I found the base discrepancy that was resulting in the idea of a “one true build.” These players read character sheets in a vastly different way than point buy games do.

The Purpose of Rules

Before I go further, I’m using the term “rules” here in reference to the systems of a game. Rules of etiquette and rules of the house exist in even freeform games even if they are not outright stated. For the rest of this rant, when I talk about rules, I’m going to be using it reference to things like character creation, task resolution, conflict resolution, health maintenance and the like.

Setting Conversions

Not all game systems are appropriate for all players. People just aren’t wired so uniformly that a single game can best serve the desires of every player out there. One player might thoroughly love a  playstyle and game system that another player just simply can’t understand. There might be a third player who enjoys a little bit of both systems preferred by the first two, but actually enjoys a third system much better. Some people might be more comfortable with a free-form RP situation rather than using any sort of system. None of this is accounting for the people who simply don’t understand or enjoy the hobby. This isn’t all that big of an issue and the general result was people trying various game systems until they found the one they most enjoyed.

5e Caravan Magus

5e Shifter Caravan Magus

This is based on a character I made a while ago for 4e and never got to play for very long. I'm assuming +1 spell acquired in adventuring each level on top of automatic gains for leveling.

PCs and Main Characters are all "Special Snowflakes"

In recent years there has arisen a derogatory term that has been used to refer to players coming up with unusual concepts. The term is “special snowflake”. The concept is that a player isn’t happy being a normal character, they have to be special. They have to stand out somehow and so they take on some ridiculous backstory elements in order to explain an ill-conceived combination of character concepts. There are lists of red-flag character elements, tests to see if your character is a Mary Sue and many other such things. And if your character happens to hit something on that list then suddenly you get derided for wanting to play a “special snowflake.”

On the rights of denying the use of some concepts in RPGs

It is within the right of a gamemaster to deny concepts he doesn’t want to deal with. I myself have said “I’m not really comfortable running a game where one of the players is a drug dealer, could you modify the concept a little bit please?” Other players can also indicate that a particular concept is not to their liking and could you please not use that? They have less authority than the gamemaster, but they are still a part of the game and the game is best when everybody is comfortable and having fun.

Divine Blood: Demon Next Door Kickstarter

This is the most ambitious kickstarter I've taken on to date.

If the kickstarter fails, the project will likely have minimal art or a lot of recycled art and I'd like to avoid that if at all possible. I'd like the book to be as beautiful as the core RPG turned out to be.  But I need help to make that happen.

Kuro One-Shot Part 3

This is part 3 of the Kuro One-Shot session:

Kuro One-Shot Part 2

This is part two of the Kuro One-Shot session: