D&D Airship Adventures, Episode 0
Jun. 2nd, 2018 03:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sagesariaI originally wanted to post this particular game I'm in on youtube from my recordings, since that's what I've been doing with other games I've played. However, our setup and the way I've been recording don't really make for easy-to-follow videos, so I decided instead I'll regail the stories of this particular game of Dungeons and Dragons in a blog format. Maybe telling stories about things that happened in a funny and epic way might spark some creative juices again for my own work, too. We'll see.
This campaign, as it were, is intended to be extremely casual. There are at least nine of us at present, including our two DMs, Wolfie and Scott. We schedule a game basically whenever one of the DMs has time and an idea, and however many of us are available at the time will play. It's all episodic, so while there is an overarching plot to pick up the pieces of, there isn't too much missed by not being there for a session, especially since at the moment, we share XP with the entire group whether they're there or not. Wolfie and Scott make executive decisions on ruling together, and one will play with us while the other DMs, if they're both available at that game - at present, there's only been one session I've played where one of them wasn't present.
While I get into the setting, I'll supply the proper music.
(because it always puts me in the mood for adventure, and it's also what I sing when events go horribly awry, as my own personal "Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen!")
Anyway, so the world we're playing in is probably best summed up as a Final Fantasy IX-ish setting where magic and tech intermingle, and/or magic makes a good substitute to create modern tech you wouldn’t normally see in your typical D&D game. (I'm told FFVI also applies for comparison, but forgive me gamers for I have not yet played FFVI) The story takes place in a new world that has just been colonized over a few centuries. There are lots of individual colonies with their own rules and laws, but there's no official overarching government, but most importantly, it's almost entirely standard races such as humans, elves, and dwarves. Our party is almost entirely non-standard races - several homebrews, in fact! - and therefore we're a band of outcasts who found each other by way of being given an airship which we now go on our various adventures from. How exactly we got the airship, and the shenanigans with the crew, are another story for when I actually start talking about our sessions. I like to think of us like a fantasy version of Firefly; a bunch of quirky misfits traveling the world on a disrepaired ship, working paycheck to paycheck as we’re given jobs.
Two more mechanical notes before I get into telling you about our characters. First, when we created our characters, Scott and Wolfie had us roll an additional stat; attractiveness. Technically it's two stats, one for how attractive we are to others of our race, and one for how attractive we are to other races. It sounds weird, but I think it's meant as a sort of passive charisma that shapes how we're treated around the world, especially since the premise is all about the fact that we stick out like a sore thumb in a world that favors the more standard humanoids.
The other mechanic special to this game was inspired by the fact that one of our players had an idea that they really wanted to use, but would make the game extremely unbalanced. So Scott and Wolfie fixed that by taking another element from Final Fantasy (or other such JRPGs); Limit Breaks. I believe the usual rule for inspiration dice from the DM is that the player can only have one, but in this game, we can bank up to four. And if we want, we can spend all four at once to cast our Limit Break. If you don't know what a Limit Break is, think of it like the Smash Ball from Super Smash Brothers 4 or Brawl; it temporarily makes you extremely overpowered and capable of potentially curbstomping everybody without mercy. There are plans to eventually have more offensive ones that do a lot of damage in a single burst, but at the moment all of our limit breaks are just temporary buffs. Personally I think mine is the coolest, and before you say I’m biased I think Wolfie’s said so too :P Also, for some reason we all seemed to agree that with very few exceptions, all of our Limit Breaks need to be named after song titles. Because of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure or something, I dunno I haven’t seen it.
Furthermore, we get inspiration dice if we get hit with a single attack that does more than half of our total HP in damage, and when we get knocked unconscious, so basically we get a free advantage on one death saving throw if we feel we need it. We basically all agreed that none of us want to die and have to make a new character, so this is highly appreciated, though we haven’t had to use it so far, thankfully.
At least not yet...I’ve heard horror stories of how Wolfie accidentally TPK’d the group during a tutorial session. Protip: Kobalds are a really crappy way to die. We still haven’t let him live it down.
And now, the cast. Starting with our DMs:
Wolfie’s character is, shockingly, a wolf. A werewolf barbarian, specifically, named Remi. Remi’s lot in life seems to be just being a ginormous fluffy dog. In fact on his character sheet, Wolfie literally put his ideals and character traits as “pupper.” But of course as a barbarian, he’s also one of the heavy hitters on the team. So you’d better give him lots of pets and food or else he might crush your skull with his paw. Or if you pet him he might crush you by sitting in your lap like a giant cuddly husky. Bit of a toss-up. Remi’s Limit Break tunes into his werewolf qualities, so he moves faster, attacks more, and is even more immune to damage from weapons that aren’t made of silver, on top of his already natural ability to heal.
Scott’s character is Phylla (we seem to keep flip-flopping on how to pronounce it), a Mantid monk who left her monastery because she didn’t like the politics that affected her home region. She’s prone to the temptation of material pleasures, which I believe is Scott’s way of saying she really likes alcohol, and she’s in the process of learning - read: teaching herself - drunken fist. Most plans on her part involve making it up as she goes along, but at least thus far it’s worked. One of the weapons she’s capable of using as a monk is a frying pan, and her Limit Break not only gives her bonuses to stats and martial arts attacks, but allows her to treat any object she can pick up as a monk weapon, turning her into a bug-lady Jackie Chan.
(note: I have since been told that the mantid link I found is OP to hell, while I mostly link it to answer the question of “wtf is that.” here’s some modifications Scott made to solve the OP problem)
Foxie plays the character who prompted the limit break idea; Arthur, the half-cloud giant cleric. Foxie wanted to be able to play up the giant thing, so Arthur’s limit break allows him to grow up to Huge size and get all the speed and strength bonuses thereof. Arthur himself, though, is a very sweet guy, if a bit shy and awkward, and he cares deeply about people. He’s a character Foxie has been writing in non-tabletop form for a while, and we pretty much all adore him already in character and out. During one of our tutorial games we started suddenly rolling better after he took a really nasty hit, and we all agreed that it was from all of us flying into a rage from them nearly killing our friend. This is what he brings out of us, people.
My character is Melanthieae, a dyrad druid. Say that ten times fast. She’s named after a tribe of toxic plants, but none of us are sure how to pronounce it - hell, I still struggle to spell it - so we all call her Mela or Mel for short. I often joke that I’m not sure if she’s a Fern Gully character or a Ghibli movie character, or both; she lived in a forest alongside a small human city, but over time as industry grew the humans started polluting the forest, and it got bad enough that she had to leave before the toxins killed her, but not before they ended up infecting her. Thus, her Poison Spray cantrip is a side effect of the toxins she’s absorbed, and her limit break creates a 30 ft cube of polluted forest that does poison damage to every enemy in it. Along with giving Mela advantage on stealth checks in it, destroying structures in its square, and she can use her Tree Stride skill to basically teleport anywhere she wants in that square. One of the more overpowered limit breaks even for limit breaks, but we love it. Outside of combat, Mela is amiable and nurturing, and I jokingly refer to her as ‘treemom,’ and she is a firm believer in paying back what you take, paying it forward, and the idea that showing kindness to others will beget more kindness. But she is not soft; she won’t back down in a fight, and if you betray her trust, hurt her loved ones, or especially if you mistreat nature, she is a force to be reckoned with. She also has a sense of humor and a strong mischievous streak, so she's not afraid to be a bit of a troll, especially if you're being rude to her.
Fun fact; dryad barkskin, along with a wooden shield, make Mela’s AC better than with any of the armor she can wear as a druid, and the rule specifically says that she needs to not be wearing any other armor to have the benefits, so since my intention for the character was to be the sexy kind of dryad a wayward adventurer might brag about meeting in the woods, Melanthieae is always naked wherever she goes. I have recently bought her a robe just in case, but the running joke about the nude tree lady continues to amuse me. Another fun fact: Wolfie and Scott let me roll my attractiveness score several times to get something decent, because it made no sense for a dryad to not be considered pretty. I think because we rolled so much we lost track of rolling it for two different stats, so for a while I just had the one stat - 14; pretty, but the barkskin might be a turn-off - but recently I opted to take a low number for attractiveness to other dryads, since being diseased would likely make her repulsive to them. Because people are assholes to sick people. Fun fact the third: the DMs decided that because she’s made of wood, Mela’s unarmed melee attack would do as much damage as a club. I have it listed under my attacks as “tree bitchslap.”
I feel bad that I have more to say about my own character than others...
Next we have Sword, who plays Mela’s bunkmate Kapu, a dragonborn rogue. Kapu is based on flammies from Secret of Mana, which are more gryphon-like and covered in fur as well as scales. Kapu’s fur is also, in Sword’s words, uncomfortably pink, which makes it extra hilarious how he can make himself disappear as a rogue. His limit break gives him a mage hand that can do sneak attacks and wield a light weapon. He’s an extremely nervous character, and fairly pessimistic, which has prompted Mela to more or less adopt him right off the bat. But he does have a respect for other living things, and his dislike of conflict has prompted him to play mediator a few times when the rest of us aren’t playing or rolling so well. Fun fact: Kapu rolled low for this attractiveness to other dragonborn, but REALLY HIGH for other races. I stand by my theory on why:
Zumi plays Denraak (Den for short), a baaz draconian fighter whom I’m constantly forgetting is a fighter and not a ranger with how damn good a shot he is with a longbow. He used to be a city watchman, which makes him both really helpful and a target when we have to deal with criminals; he knows what he’s doing when we have to bring in a bounty, but he also tends to stand out and makes staking out shady places a little scary. I’m amazed we didn’t get in a bar fight in one place that noticed who he was, but that’s a story for later. Den is also fiercely loyal to his fellow adventurers, but also intensely stubborn and can’t admit when he’s wrong. His limit break, the way I jokingly describe it, turns him into final smash Yoshi; his wings get bigger to allow him to fly instead of glide, he gains the breath weapon of a brass dragonborn, and he can charge his arrows with it. He can also disguise himself as a human by covering himself in a robe. Like, that’s actually a skill. My brain can only visualize that as super adorable.
The last three characters, I haven’t gotten to know as well as the others.
Malia has joined us for a few sessions when she was staying over at Wolfie’s, since she currently doesn’t have a discord account of her own with which to join us, and she plays the dragonborn rogue Sonja. Sonja has been constantly regretting her decision to travel with us, though she does have some respect for Mela because she healed her after a fight once. She also appears to be always on the lookout for things she can swipe. Her limit break lets her poison the shit out of her enemies and makes her breath weapon more powerful.
Greta plays Allegcykar - Legcy, for short - a tiefling paladin. Greta wanted to play a character more on the neutral good side than lawful, which sounds like an interesting take on a paladin character and I’d really love to see how that goes, but Greta’s sadly been really busy, and I think more than a little intimidated by learning how to play, so she’s only really joined us for half a session and part of a tutorial. What I do know about Legcy is that she’s trying to go towards some sort of destiny, and she has some sort of sense for darkness that gets pinged on fiends, devils, and something else I don’t remember. We call it her darkness smell. Her limit break gives her some temp HP and a small AC boost, and she wields a literal lightsaber that does 3d6(!) radiant(!!!) damage. God, I hope we get to see these limit breaks in action soon. Oh also, atypical of most tieflings as I understand it, Legcy is blue. Da ba dee etc.
And lastly, Riki, who plays Koh. He’s had that character in a few forms in DWRP, but in this game I literally know nothing about Koh because I haven’t had the chance to play when he’s around and his sheet isn’t in the discord. I do know at least that he’s some sort of canine character, I think he’s a rogue, and apparently he’s gotten into some hot water with some other characters by making racist comments? No idea. But it’s been pointed out that Remi and Koh apparently both have collars. In character, we haven’t seen Koh’s too closely, but Remi’s is pretty clearly there on account of the bunched up fur around his neck. None of us know what those are about, but it also deserves to be said that Remi and Koh are sharing a bunk. Koh’s limit break makes him sneakier and able to be more badass with sneak attacks.
We’ve been slowly working on alternate characters, too, but I’ll introduce them when we play them. So for now, this is our party, and when we get to the airship itself, I’ll introduce you to the crew. As far as I recall we still haven’t even properly named the ship, though apparently some insist that it’s already registered as Boaty McBoatface. I keep telling them it’s bad luck to name a ship after another ship that’s still around but nobody listened to me!!!
But I digress. This is our game, and these are our characters. Next time, the real fun begins and I get to retell our adventures.
This campaign, as it were, is intended to be extremely casual. There are at least nine of us at present, including our two DMs, Wolfie and Scott. We schedule a game basically whenever one of the DMs has time and an idea, and however many of us are available at the time will play. It's all episodic, so while there is an overarching plot to pick up the pieces of, there isn't too much missed by not being there for a session, especially since at the moment, we share XP with the entire group whether they're there or not. Wolfie and Scott make executive decisions on ruling together, and one will play with us while the other DMs, if they're both available at that game - at present, there's only been one session I've played where one of them wasn't present.
While I get into the setting, I'll supply the proper music.
(because it always puts me in the mood for adventure, and it's also what I sing when events go horribly awry, as my own personal "Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen!")
Anyway, so the world we're playing in is probably best summed up as a Final Fantasy IX-ish setting where magic and tech intermingle, and/or magic makes a good substitute to create modern tech you wouldn’t normally see in your typical D&D game. (I'm told FFVI also applies for comparison, but forgive me gamers for I have not yet played FFVI) The story takes place in a new world that has just been colonized over a few centuries. There are lots of individual colonies with their own rules and laws, but there's no official overarching government, but most importantly, it's almost entirely standard races such as humans, elves, and dwarves. Our party is almost entirely non-standard races - several homebrews, in fact! - and therefore we're a band of outcasts who found each other by way of being given an airship which we now go on our various adventures from. How exactly we got the airship, and the shenanigans with the crew, are another story for when I actually start talking about our sessions. I like to think of us like a fantasy version of Firefly; a bunch of quirky misfits traveling the world on a disrepaired ship, working paycheck to paycheck as we’re given jobs.
Two more mechanical notes before I get into telling you about our characters. First, when we created our characters, Scott and Wolfie had us roll an additional stat; attractiveness. Technically it's two stats, one for how attractive we are to others of our race, and one for how attractive we are to other races. It sounds weird, but I think it's meant as a sort of passive charisma that shapes how we're treated around the world, especially since the premise is all about the fact that we stick out like a sore thumb in a world that favors the more standard humanoids.
The other mechanic special to this game was inspired by the fact that one of our players had an idea that they really wanted to use, but would make the game extremely unbalanced. So Scott and Wolfie fixed that by taking another element from Final Fantasy (or other such JRPGs); Limit Breaks. I believe the usual rule for inspiration dice from the DM is that the player can only have one, but in this game, we can bank up to four. And if we want, we can spend all four at once to cast our Limit Break. If you don't know what a Limit Break is, think of it like the Smash Ball from Super Smash Brothers 4 or Brawl; it temporarily makes you extremely overpowered and capable of potentially curbstomping everybody without mercy. There are plans to eventually have more offensive ones that do a lot of damage in a single burst, but at the moment all of our limit breaks are just temporary buffs. Personally I think mine is the coolest, and before you say I’m biased I think Wolfie’s said so too :P Also, for some reason we all seemed to agree that with very few exceptions, all of our Limit Breaks need to be named after song titles. Because of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure or something, I dunno I haven’t seen it.
Furthermore, we get inspiration dice if we get hit with a single attack that does more than half of our total HP in damage, and when we get knocked unconscious, so basically we get a free advantage on one death saving throw if we feel we need it. We basically all agreed that none of us want to die and have to make a new character, so this is highly appreciated, though we haven’t had to use it so far, thankfully.
At least not yet...I’ve heard horror stories of how Wolfie accidentally TPK’d the group during a tutorial session. Protip: Kobalds are a really crappy way to die. We still haven’t let him live it down.
And now, the cast. Starting with our DMs:
Wolfie’s character is, shockingly, a wolf. A werewolf barbarian, specifically, named Remi. Remi’s lot in life seems to be just being a ginormous fluffy dog. In fact on his character sheet, Wolfie literally put his ideals and character traits as “pupper.” But of course as a barbarian, he’s also one of the heavy hitters on the team. So you’d better give him lots of pets and food or else he might crush your skull with his paw. Or if you pet him he might crush you by sitting in your lap like a giant cuddly husky. Bit of a toss-up. Remi’s Limit Break tunes into his werewolf qualities, so he moves faster, attacks more, and is even more immune to damage from weapons that aren’t made of silver, on top of his already natural ability to heal.
Scott’s character is Phylla (we seem to keep flip-flopping on how to pronounce it), a Mantid monk who left her monastery because she didn’t like the politics that affected her home region. She’s prone to the temptation of material pleasures, which I believe is Scott’s way of saying she really likes alcohol, and she’s in the process of learning - read: teaching herself - drunken fist. Most plans on her part involve making it up as she goes along, but at least thus far it’s worked. One of the weapons she’s capable of using as a monk is a frying pan, and her Limit Break not only gives her bonuses to stats and martial arts attacks, but allows her to treat any object she can pick up as a monk weapon, turning her into a bug-lady Jackie Chan.
(note: I have since been told that the mantid link I found is OP to hell, while I mostly link it to answer the question of “wtf is that.” here’s some modifications Scott made to solve the OP problem)
Foxie plays the character who prompted the limit break idea; Arthur, the half-cloud giant cleric. Foxie wanted to be able to play up the giant thing, so Arthur’s limit break allows him to grow up to Huge size and get all the speed and strength bonuses thereof. Arthur himself, though, is a very sweet guy, if a bit shy and awkward, and he cares deeply about people. He’s a character Foxie has been writing in non-tabletop form for a while, and we pretty much all adore him already in character and out. During one of our tutorial games we started suddenly rolling better after he took a really nasty hit, and we all agreed that it was from all of us flying into a rage from them nearly killing our friend. This is what he brings out of us, people.
My character is Melanthieae, a dyrad druid. Say that ten times fast. She’s named after a tribe of toxic plants, but none of us are sure how to pronounce it - hell, I still struggle to spell it - so we all call her Mela or Mel for short. I often joke that I’m not sure if she’s a Fern Gully character or a Ghibli movie character, or both; she lived in a forest alongside a small human city, but over time as industry grew the humans started polluting the forest, and it got bad enough that she had to leave before the toxins killed her, but not before they ended up infecting her. Thus, her Poison Spray cantrip is a side effect of the toxins she’s absorbed, and her limit break creates a 30 ft cube of polluted forest that does poison damage to every enemy in it. Along with giving Mela advantage on stealth checks in it, destroying structures in its square, and she can use her Tree Stride skill to basically teleport anywhere she wants in that square. One of the more overpowered limit breaks even for limit breaks, but we love it. Outside of combat, Mela is amiable and nurturing, and I jokingly refer to her as ‘treemom,’ and she is a firm believer in paying back what you take, paying it forward, and the idea that showing kindness to others will beget more kindness. But she is not soft; she won’t back down in a fight, and if you betray her trust, hurt her loved ones, or especially if you mistreat nature, she is a force to be reckoned with. She also has a sense of humor and a strong mischievous streak, so she's not afraid to be a bit of a troll, especially if you're being rude to her.
Fun fact; dryad barkskin, along with a wooden shield, make Mela’s AC better than with any of the armor she can wear as a druid, and the rule specifically says that she needs to not be wearing any other armor to have the benefits, so since my intention for the character was to be the sexy kind of dryad a wayward adventurer might brag about meeting in the woods, Melanthieae is always naked wherever she goes. I have recently bought her a robe just in case, but the running joke about the nude tree lady continues to amuse me. Another fun fact: Wolfie and Scott let me roll my attractiveness score several times to get something decent, because it made no sense for a dryad to not be considered pretty. I think because we rolled so much we lost track of rolling it for two different stats, so for a while I just had the one stat - 14; pretty, but the barkskin might be a turn-off - but recently I opted to take a low number for attractiveness to other dryads, since being diseased would likely make her repulsive to them. Because people are assholes to sick people. Fun fact the third: the DMs decided that because she’s made of wood, Mela’s unarmed melee attack would do as much damage as a club. I have it listed under my attacks as “tree bitchslap.”
I feel bad that I have more to say about my own character than others...
Next we have Sword, who plays Mela’s bunkmate Kapu, a dragonborn rogue. Kapu is based on flammies from Secret of Mana, which are more gryphon-like and covered in fur as well as scales. Kapu’s fur is also, in Sword’s words, uncomfortably pink, which makes it extra hilarious how he can make himself disappear as a rogue. His limit break gives him a mage hand that can do sneak attacks and wield a light weapon. He’s an extremely nervous character, and fairly pessimistic, which has prompted Mela to more or less adopt him right off the bat. But he does have a respect for other living things, and his dislike of conflict has prompted him to play mediator a few times when the rest of us aren’t playing or rolling so well. Fun fact: Kapu rolled low for this attractiveness to other dragonborn, but REALLY HIGH for other races. I stand by my theory on why:
Zumi plays Denraak (Den for short), a baaz draconian fighter whom I’m constantly forgetting is a fighter and not a ranger with how damn good a shot he is with a longbow. He used to be a city watchman, which makes him both really helpful and a target when we have to deal with criminals; he knows what he’s doing when we have to bring in a bounty, but he also tends to stand out and makes staking out shady places a little scary. I’m amazed we didn’t get in a bar fight in one place that noticed who he was, but that’s a story for later. Den is also fiercely loyal to his fellow adventurers, but also intensely stubborn and can’t admit when he’s wrong. His limit break, the way I jokingly describe it, turns him into final smash Yoshi; his wings get bigger to allow him to fly instead of glide, he gains the breath weapon of a brass dragonborn, and he can charge his arrows with it. He can also disguise himself as a human by covering himself in a robe. Like, that’s actually a skill. My brain can only visualize that as super adorable.
The last three characters, I haven’t gotten to know as well as the others.
Malia has joined us for a few sessions when she was staying over at Wolfie’s, since she currently doesn’t have a discord account of her own with which to join us, and she plays the dragonborn rogue Sonja. Sonja has been constantly regretting her decision to travel with us, though she does have some respect for Mela because she healed her after a fight once. She also appears to be always on the lookout for things she can swipe. Her limit break lets her poison the shit out of her enemies and makes her breath weapon more powerful.
Greta plays Allegcykar - Legcy, for short - a tiefling paladin. Greta wanted to play a character more on the neutral good side than lawful, which sounds like an interesting take on a paladin character and I’d really love to see how that goes, but Greta’s sadly been really busy, and I think more than a little intimidated by learning how to play, so she’s only really joined us for half a session and part of a tutorial. What I do know about Legcy is that she’s trying to go towards some sort of destiny, and she has some sort of sense for darkness that gets pinged on fiends, devils, and something else I don’t remember. We call it her darkness smell. Her limit break gives her some temp HP and a small AC boost, and she wields a literal lightsaber that does 3d6(!) radiant(!!!) damage. God, I hope we get to see these limit breaks in action soon. Oh also, atypical of most tieflings as I understand it, Legcy is blue. Da ba dee etc.
And lastly, Riki, who plays Koh. He’s had that character in a few forms in DWRP, but in this game I literally know nothing about Koh because I haven’t had the chance to play when he’s around and his sheet isn’t in the discord. I do know at least that he’s some sort of canine character, I think he’s a rogue, and apparently he’s gotten into some hot water with some other characters by making racist comments? No idea. But it’s been pointed out that Remi and Koh apparently both have collars. In character, we haven’t seen Koh’s too closely, but Remi’s is pretty clearly there on account of the bunched up fur around his neck. None of us know what those are about, but it also deserves to be said that Remi and Koh are sharing a bunk. Koh’s limit break makes him sneakier and able to be more badass with sneak attacks.
We’ve been slowly working on alternate characters, too, but I’ll introduce them when we play them. So for now, this is our party, and when we get to the airship itself, I’ll introduce you to the crew. As far as I recall we still haven’t even properly named the ship, though apparently some insist that it’s already registered as Boaty McBoatface. I keep telling them it’s bad luck to name a ship after another ship that’s still around but nobody listened to me!!!
But I digress. This is our game, and these are our characters. Next time, the real fun begins and I get to retell our adventures.
