In the end, it will be your face, what a cliché.
.jpg)
Destiny as a rule, a dice to rule our destiny. Well, the makinf off that rule isn't anything unusual since the days of Fate and the forums of the forge. The innovation in the moment was related to changes in the rules that directly affected the narrative and interacted in multiple ways with the narrative proposed by the DM.
The player's contribution within the mechanics of the game went beyond the dichotomy of success or failure. Adding their own contribution to the description of how their character failed or how they managed to perform their action successfully added to the narrative.
So, depending on the player's participation in the game's narrative, they could gradually acquire the ability to influence destiny. To change the world, adding new elements not thought of by the narrator, even adding non-player characters or new elements to the world described.
The process of playing with destiny led to more and more games including this type of rule in their system, sometimes changing the role of the narrator and even shifting it among all the participants throughout the game.
In response, it seems to me that an important segment of role-players closed themselves off to innovation in the narrative aspect of gaming. That section of the hobby focused on playing more in the old style (OSR) with titles where each person's participation is fixed and unchangeable.
Which I find a bit narrow in certain cases, because it's also true that many role-players switch between titles and play styles, which I feel is the best approach to these kinds of changes: enjoy them and use them however we want.
A sign is a message that announces the purpose, objective, or particular interest of a space or activity. In the case of role-playing games, the signs that are presented to players tend to be the names of pubs, shops selling magical items, or, in general, institutional or entertainment places that their characters have decided to visit.
The sign can appear as a clue, a bloodstain, traces of stone inside a modern apartment. Cigarette butts along a hospital corridor. When an object that should not be part of a specific location appears in said location, something bad has happened, a simple object becomes a sign.
The orange sky and a ruined building are signs of the kind of world in which an adventure will take place. These are indisputable indications that we are ready to venture into a irradiated land where fierce battles will be fought for gallons of gasoline and fresh water.
Neon signs serve the same purpose in this world as they do in any fictional one: to attract attention, to plant the seed that by walking through the door next to the sign, something we are missing can be found.
Renew a person??? Mmm Sandy Petersen maybe? In terms of his work as a game designer, he has certainly reinvented himself! That's what I mean. If he's very behind in other aspects, well, that's unfortunate.
Since the days of RuneQuest, which introduced the world to Lovecraft, creating a title that has been revamped time and time again in multiple ways on the back of other titles and initiatives, but at the end of the day adding aspects of what he learned as a designer to his next creation, I think it demonstrates his ability renew himself. The products that made me most attached to his authorship and style were The Call of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Wars.
And in the case of the game Risk Meets Cthulhu, well, I feel that it doesn't convey much of the atmosphere or feeling of horror and mystery, but at least from time to time you can feel a little desperate, which can be more or less common in certain tabletop strategy games.
And with The Call...wow, what a great title, for many years my favorite character creation, and although I never knew how to fully use the sanity system, its high mortality rate, and the possibility of shooting a minor creature to death, I add a je ne sais quoi to the game. The game that truly shaped me as a storyteller. It's clear that in terms of hours played, DnD beats any other role-playing game, but in terms of lessons learned, memorable moments, and personal enjoyment, the adventures related to or inspired by The Call are the best.
Overcome rule ...YES
From the beginning of my years as a DM, my relationship with the rules was complicated, mainly because when I was a teenager, the third edition rules seemed very complicated to me. I only began to understand certain aspects thanks to “Never Winter Nights.” Especially about the spell slot system, which I honestly don't even understand because it was so difficult for me to grasp. Back then, the blocks of text in the player's manuals seemed more intimidating to me than they do now. And I think the reason I don't worry about it now is because I'm simply was no longer interested in the fundamental part that plays the rules in a rpg session.
It sounds extreme, like many of my opinions, but at the end of the day, what I want to convey is that when we get together to play with our friends, I prefer to take a relaxed attitude towards everything, because what we are doing is getting together to PLAY, that's what we're doing at the end of the day...PLAYING A GAME!
So yes, it was liberating to overcome the rules of a system that was functional in a big part, but with a big quantity of unnecessary crunch. With the third edition, there was too much going on. The language of the book wasn't my native tongue, and if I had difficulties, the people I was playing with didn't understand a damn thing about the mechanics. To really play role-playing games, do you need to become a law student? Since those years, I've been feeling that discomfort, which is so strong that I immediately lose interest in any role-playing book or adventure that exceeds 80 pages.
In that sense, the types of games available on itch.io feel good, but they didn't add much to my experience when I discovered them, since my liberation from heavy walls had happened a decade earlier.
The confrontation with the rules went at the pace of my different players. If they got bored counting the weight of the backpack and keeping a precise count of the arrows, that was left aside. If they got confused about vertical and horizontal movement, it was left out. If they didn't understand how spell slots worked, okay... then they weren't used, and that was that... although this last part was eventually adapted in the fifth edition, where it was easier for me to stop using certain rules.
In my games, initiative numbers don't matter. In my mind, the balance is clearly on the players' side, and things move quickly, although I often feel the frustration of some players with the rules... Why the hell are we using this? There's Microlite 20 or 74... so many different OSRs... why the hell continue with this?
In general, I think most of my players wouldn't have a problem with this, but there are always a couple who get obsessed with the rules and try to give them weight and importance at the table, which I take into account from time to time, but inside I feel annoyed. Who do they think they are? Imposing rules on my absurd game of dragons and red gnomes!
F!!
Deceptive device...An interesting result that immediately makes me think of DnD Beyond, the huge tables with touch screens, apps, and websites like these with rules, creatures, and optional stats. All of the above is misleading, as you can fall into the trap of thinking that it is necessary to enjoy a role-playing game. Not even the basic manuals and the basic set of dice to play DnD are necessary.
All of the above is misleading, as you can fall into the trap of thinking that it is necessary to enjoy a role-playing game. Not even the basic manuals and the basic set of dice to play DnD are necessary. And it should be clarified that those specific tools aren't misleading because they are negative per se.
The thing is, you don't really need them to play role-playing games, and I'm not going to go so far as to say that storytelling around a campfire is synonymous with role-playing games; it's different. But to play an exploration adventure in a dungeon with a wizard and three explorers, all you need is a basic set of trial-and-error rules.
So you can play with the most basic rules on any system and continue your work as a tomb raider explorer. All you need is for everyone to agree on how the rules work... in this game, we all have 5 lives, we flip a coin, and whichever side comes up in our favor counts as a success. Otherwise, we describe how a heart is lost. It's only in very specific cases that the coin is flipped.
So, it's not that complicated. Nor is it necessary for a person to refuse to use any extra tools they like to add to their game table. Let everyone play however they want, but let it be clear that too many things on the game table are simply extras.
A call of Cthulhu post..great!
So..I think it's difficult, extremely difficult, to establish an aura of mystery in a role-playing game. Whether you're playing something related to Call of Cthulhu or something like D&D, it doesn't matter, creating a space where mystery can develop is no simple matter. Players are generally disorderly and hate anything serious or solemn.
Obviously, this isn't true of all players, but the fact that they're playing a game puts many people in a state where they want to be chaotic or more disorderly than usual, so in general it's difficult to create an aura of mystery amid so much chaos and disorder.
But anyway, leaving aside the specific elements that will only apply in specific cases. In general, the mystery has worked well for me, if we find ourselves with a plot that gradually unveils the BIG REVELATION.
And in general, I see that Cthulhu modules work that way, a creature in a rural village. Dead animals, accidents, unusual weather events. Disappearances or sudden changes in behavior, violent and repulsive deaths. And then the creature suddenly appears, perhaps even ending the existence of an important NPC in front of the group of investigators.
That's usually the method: three forceful presentations in three different scenarios and moments in order to build mystery, plant clues, and then end with a grand curtain call where a tentacle grabs and squeezes the groom to death.
But they can also present a mystery, since all the machinery is already in motion. A campaign begins with Cthulhu standing on the shores of New York, so that his mere presence generates a large number of events.
Similarly, you can start with the classic prison break. Tied to an operating table in a sad, abandoned, smelly place, with a burning pain in your right side.
The mystery may already have been revealed, but its effect can be felt and the actions of the investigators can begin to be set in motion, who will generally fight to survive or to prevent the THREAT from causing as much damage as possible.
I don't think I've ever managed to convey a proper sense of darkness, which is why the “Veins of the Earth” made by this blogger ...The module appeals to me so much. The module includes different ways to generate natural caves, with their obvious risks and a description of the creatures based on the sounds they make, their scent, and changes in the ambient temperature.
The creatures are divided into two types: individual creatures that can cause problems for adventurers, and others that are neither aggressive nor carnivorous, but whose alien behavior or inability to relate to our reasoning causes them to oppose the interests of explorers who have made the ambitious error of delving too deeply.
The other type of beasts are presented as societies or communities, plagues, entire species that function differently from simple individuals, whose descriptions can be an entire adventure or campaign in themselves. In reality, there is a lot to review. Some entries, however, are simply incomprehensible, but this aspect is not overused, as the incomprehensible barely covers a few pages.
I find it very difficult to work in the dark, as we are generally asked to rely on other senses that we are not very familiar with. And I think that the fact that a character cannot even see their own hands leaves them somewhat immobilized.
If you add a torch to the terrible darkness, everything becomes much more manageable. But if we find ourselves in a game where practically everyone has night goggles, what's the point of night or darkness?
So I dare to point the finger at the fifth edition of DnD for steering me away from the habit of storytelling that emphasizes darkness, too many spells, environmental elements, and abilities that come from ancestry... Perpetual and eternal day, for fear of causing fear and despair. The tyranny of joy sweetened with sugar glass strikes again.
I have often tried to go out and walk without any destination in mind, but my anxious mind always wants to set a goal, a mission. I feel that many players are the same and find it difficult to deal with the sandbox in its raw form, an objective role-playing game where the world simply reacts to the truly significant actions of the adventurers, leaving the big storylines as side quests that can become central over time. However, other points of departure could arise. At the end of the day, it's a sandbox, and the adventure is defined by the wandering paths that your boots leave in the mud.
Bringing flavor to the game through art. It's complicated, I don't usually use graphic support in games, and music tends to fade into the background. Similarly, my acting skills are similar to those of any actor in Turkish Rambo.
Humph.....so...
What to do??? Hum...
The flavor, however, is present and changes depending on the moment in a role-playing game and varies according to the title being played. Between Dnd and Paranoia, it is clear that the flavor change is palpable.
And sometimes it's hard to get players to mix with a new flavor they're not used to. Oh, it's possible that some will do so and others at the same table will prefer to be part of their individual fantasy. It is difficult to convey the feeling and make others understand the intention you want to convey as a narrator. The plot, the setting, the secondary characters—those are the ingredients that give flavor to any role-playing game, set it apart from the rest, or maintain a dynamic that keeps the tone agreed upon for the campaign (if applicable).
If in Paranoia I want to create a sense of chaos and danger, the way I chose to do so was through cynical and paternalistic discourse on the part of the highest-ranking officials responsible for guiding the players.
Mistakes, fouls, or jokes that didn't attract anyone's attention could be punished with deaths that felt unfair by any standard. The actions of the computer, the stiff and cynical behavior of most NPCs.
In this way, I guided the players down a specific path. Rewarding the jokes that made me laugh with Moxies, dynamics, and characters managed to convey a particular flavor that is very different from the style of the Ravenloft campaign I am currently playing.
In this sense, the rules can help, whether certain behaviors are received with appreciation or negatively, all of which needs to be taken into account. However, I am left with the feeling that I am only scratching the surface of a complex and difficult-to-understand rat king.
This requires books on theater theory; with simple experience alone, I don't think much can be revealed about the meaning of flavor in a role-playing game.
The origin of it all is a story that now makes me cringe, but I'm going to share with you everything that happened and the reasoning behind the first game in which I took on the role of narrator, DM, or whatever you want to call it.
My sources of inspiration are varied, so I really appreciate this blog post because it gives me the opportunity to share a little bit of what I love so much about life.
I especially seek to focus on the literary world and other role-playing modules when I set out to create a new adventure, because I believe that creativity is simply a recombination of what already exists, of what is known. Originality is just jargon that means nothing in reality. When I created a module based on one of the islands from the Forgotten Realms setting, I wanted to make my own version of a story that many others have already touched on... The Shadow Over Innsmouth
So, taking elements from the story and mixing aspects of the official setting, he created a kind of mystery that I think combines well with different aspects of the story, although the beginning is more like the old Simbad films.
In the case of my adventure "Diamond", the main inspiration was the film Three Days of the Condor. It fits perfectly with the world of Eberron, specifically the city of Sharn, which has a corrupt air reminiscent of Al Capone's New York. Huge skyscrapers, criminal gangs that dominate the black market, corrupt authorities. Everything provided in Sharn combined effectively with the story, but I preferred to give it a more personal touch.
The adventurers live alongside a group of actors who have become the sacrificial pawns in the schemes between the city's criminal gangs. After spending time with the actors, the adventurers return to the theater to find the poor actors turned to stone and broken into dozens of pieces.
The group flees, asks for help, but everyone turns against them. If they manage to stay alive long enough, after the third day the persecution ends and one of the killers tells them to stop worrying, the new boss has them off the hook.
Fear, persecution, paranoia, and ultimately indifference in a city corrupt to its very core.
And in regard to the most recent adventure, which I still don't dare to release, the inspiration comes from Goya's black paintings, seeking to ensure that each of the rooms in the dungeon contains magical traps that are directly related to one of the paintings.
A half-submerged dog, despair, a room slowly filling with mud. If you want inspiration, it could be...
A setting that I feel comfortable exploring. They are varied, but one of my favorite campaigns is related to the fact that it took place in the world of one of the games I know best. The title would be Final Fantasy Tactics, a game that I have been replaying every two or three years since it was released to this day.
I set the campaign in the exact same sequence in which the game's story unfolded, allowing the main characters in the story to interact constantly with the adventurers, without them taking on their roles directly, but making the group carry out most of the most significant actions in the story.
Use the OVA system, a generic system focused on representing anime-related settings, which features a series of talents and an experience system that significantly rewards the achievement of specific objectives. So there were two moments in the game: one in which the group was carrying out their particular objectives, which varied from player to player, and another in which the main drama unfolded.
I was fortunate because, without discussing it formally and definitively, the players agreed to what I wanted to present in the campaign. However, things could have ended earlier than planned because some players were satisfied with completing their personal missions.
But despite feeling that the plot had come full circle for their characters, they gave me the benefit of the doubt and went ahead with the whole story of the game the way I had thought of telling it. And the result was spectacular. In the end, we cried with joy at finishing the campaign, and I can say that we all enjoyed the experience.
What made it work particularly well, in my opinion, was something that depended on several factors:
*Players who had the time available and were interested in following the plot.
*Extensive knowledge of the world, the background, and the actions that the most important NPCs would carry out.
*A simple RPG system that was adaptable to most of the battles and skills that were developed in the campaign world.
Remembering how wonderful it was to explore this setting, how familiar it felt to me, and how much I came to know about the world, makes me think about the possibility of exploring the middle lands, since there are currently some manuals based on Dark Souls.... I want to see what happens if I repeat the same thing but using the lore of Elden Ring. We'll see.
It's problematic, since those kinds of stories are inherently murky, with the characters and the world is blurred, because that's how they were designed... but we'll see if I dare.
A contemplative and optimistic journey, it makes me think of a couple of modules I would like to visit, but due to the impatient nature of several players, I don't know if I will ever be able to put them on the table in a long-term campaign.
UVG would be one of the two. The illustrations, description, and strange equipment or substances that can be used provide a psychedelic setting with dangers, but at the same time sustained in a great contemplation that I am not sure I have the ability to generate through my descriptions.
Cats with mental powers that allow them to rule a city through magic and narcotics, temples inside a giant mutant worm, and fossilized remains of gods. It all sounds interesting and intriguing, but once the treasures and objectives that help you complete the game are explored, they are unclear and leave players floating in the middle of nowhere.
The atmosphere is overly bizarre, and in that sense, it depends solely on the creativity of the players to advance and generate meaningful conflicts for the adventurers.
The descriptions of locations and cities are abundant, although not overly detailed. They remain on the surface of any cult, faction, situation, city, or culture that you encounter, providing just enough information to interact. And yet the strangeness of the ideas and the beauty of the manual convey a sense of an unknown place that I would like to visit, a universe in which I would like to immerse myself completely.
The other book would be Obijama Tales from the Tall Grass.
It is clearly and directly inspired by Studio Ghibli films.
It works with the fifth edition rules and features an island with several locations that have a background, factions, characters, calls to adventure, seeds, and an overall plot. Although it primarily functions as a sandbox that invites travel, contemplation, and deep breathing, a feeling that is conveyed to me when I watch several of those films... a panoramic shot and you feel like stretching your arms and breathing deeply.
I feel like bringing it to the table, starting a journey into the world they want to share with us, but I can't quite bring myself to do it, because I have doubts and concerns. Will they understand it? Will they be able to relax and enjoy it?
And what if they understand it too well?
Will something happen?
Because if, in the end, they end up running a normal business where something curious happens from time to time, then I'm not so sure I want to be narrating an adventure with those characteristics.
Action and contemplation can be better combined when there is a script, but considering that role-playing sessions cannot be guided with such rigidity, I have doubts and end up sighing.
They look beautiful, but at the end of the day, perhaps they are more aesthetic experiences than games.
The motives of a fortunate individual. That makes me think of one of the classes I least enjoy seeing at DnD tables: the bard. And the reason I don't love them is extremely trivial, because I'm simply not attracted to classes that are a bit weak in combat, since when they enter combat, their players fall short and feel ineffective.
Well, it's a minor detail, but that's why I don't love them. And well, considering that several of their class abilities focus on luck and that most of their attempts at seduction and deception will almost always go in their favor. They really should be considered extremely lucky.
The class can easily reach +10 in persuasion, interpretation, and deception. This can undoubtedly change many dangerous scenarios in a somewhat creative mind and avoid combat or lead to its conclusion without unnecessary bloodshed.
Similarly, it has the ability to repeat rolls, change bonuses between skills, and generally modify results by adding or subtracting dice rolls. So it can be said that the class is dedicated to building its own luck, and this happens because chance is reduced to a mere anecdote.
The Bard class is designed to be lucky or to change certain mechanical aspects of the game in your favor, although the same can be said of the abilities, talents, or spells available to players or creatures controlled by the D&D system, all of which have elements that can tip the scales in your favor. Although players, due to their numbers, can tip the balance more in their direction, which is perfectly fine.
The situation is not unique to DnD; destination points, advantages, and other rules appear in multiple simulation- and narrative-focused titles and are commonplace. The aim is to ensure that the player and the game in general are not left at the mercy of chance alone, or that everything ends up feeling too rigid or linear. It makes sense: at the end of the day, a role-playing game is a collective story, stories are lies, lies are unfair in nature, and therefore do not require respect for the supposed mechanistic justice provided by luck.
When the mischievous imps gather to dance around the fire, throwing their dice and moving their little plastic pieces. Luck ends up being grilled in the middle of the campfire. An understandable sacrifice, in the name of a significant deception know as storytelling.
The random results of today random rolls inspire me to talk about the novel Vahtek, written by William Beckford in 1782, its an epic narrative of ancient times that features several characters and creatures that can easily be added to our games.
In Vahtek, we are presented with another example of the typical fable of the inevitable punishment that sinful and evil people will suffer. However, the way in which the characters' actions are carried out and the wealth of lore shared about the Muslim faith the Middle Eastern cultures and their mythology greatly enrich the reading experience. Additionally the narrative is carried out in a lighthearted manner, allowing us to travel between actions at a rapid pace.
Personally, I loved it.
The story offers a variety of lessons. On the one hand, its structure appears linear but is deceptive, since before the halfway point it seems inevitable that the narrative will come to an end. but that does not happen. The main character fails, and upon failing, must take a long and arduous detour to try again to succeed in the main mission, something quite common in role-playing games, where secondary plots repeatedly steal the players' attention in the middle of a campaign and sometimes strayaway from the path never to return.
In the story, the protagonist is a completely fickle character, guided by his selfish desires, which explains why he seems to be stumbling around the region where the narrative takes place. I think that adds a lot to a certain human factor; people do that throughout their lives, having a plan, a goal, and then stumbling around everywhere.
A variety of creatures and brief descriptions of impressive settings are another element that can be easily drawn from Vathek. Some examples:
-The Caliph and Nouronihar beheld each other with amazement, at finding themselves in a place which, though roofed with a vaulted ceiling, was so spacious and lofty, that at first they took it for an immeasurable plain. But their eyes at length growing to the grandeur of the objects at hand, they extended their view to those at a p. 138distance, and discovered rows of columns and arcades, which gradually diminished, till they terminated in a point, radiant as the sun, when he darts his last beams athwart the ocean. The pavement, strewed over with gold dust and saffron, exhaled so subtile an odour, as almost overpowered them. They, however, went on, and observed an infinity of censers, in which ambergris and the wood of aloes were continually burning. Between the several columns were placed tables, each spread with a profusion of viands, and wines of every species, sparkling in vases of chrystal. A throng of Genii, and other phantastic spirits, of each sex, danced lasciviously in troops, at the sound of music which issued from beneath.
-He then conducted them into a long aisle adjoining the tabernacle, preceding them with hasty steps, and followed by his disciples with the utmost alacrity. They reached at length a hall of great extent, and covered with a lofty dome, around which appeared fifty portals of bronze, secured with as many fastenings of iron. A funereal gloom prevailed over the whole scene. Here, upon two beds of incorruptible cedar, lay recumbent the fleshless forms of the preadimite kings, who had been monarchs of the whole earth. They still possessed enough of life to be conscious of their deplorable condition. Their eyes retained a melancholy motion; they regarded each other with looks of the deepest dejection, each holding his right hand motionless on his heart.
The writing style makes my legs tremble, which reminds me of an obvious but brilliant piece of advice:
-every storyteller, DM, or person interested in conveying stories should read widely and read all kinds of literature. By expanding your inner world, it becomes easier to provide meaningful narratives about all those adventures and battles we have stored in our heads.
A terrible message
I don't think we're enemies, but the owner of a board game store has been posting messages on various social media platforms attacking the group of friends I usually get together to play D&D with.
Many of us got to know each other in her store and we might not have met otherwise, that's true. But the attitude she took towards the role she played in our personal plans to get together and play ended up being unhealthy and so cringe.
She took credit for being the only place where role-playing games should and could happen, while at the same time maintaining that there was no problem with everyone playing on their own, but insisting that we couldn't play with the people she had brought together in her business in the first place.
The logic he brought up was unknowable. We came to play and, without realizing it, we already had a number carved into our backsides. The situation was absurd.
And yet we laughed and wanted to put everything that had happened behind us. We played along with the situation, and although the owner never took the teasing well, she remained silent.
The situation happened a couple more times. So we slowly drifted apart.
And yet, despite the excesses, a part of me wanted to keep talking. The owner was funny, and I liked her despite how absurd she was. But her constant aggression became exhausting, so we left her business and got together on our own to play at one of our friends' houses.
The same old D&D reunion with friends, that's the good way.
You get together with your friends in the basement, eat pizza, and laugh nonstop until dawn. That's how it should be, it's that simple.
And I know very well that everyone reading this post knows perfectly well that the experience of getting together and building a story through the laughter of several basement nerds is a moment that cannot be possessed by anyone.
The role-playing is a non-place.
The ideas are bulletproof, literally.
That is the message I would like the business owner to understand clearly, but I realized long ago that the message will never be understood. She may be able to read the words, but it is clear that she will not truly understand them in a way that will lead to significant changes. That will not happen.
That is the reality.
Few messages hit home.
To get a little more substance out of the conversation about the tavern i así for some help from the random results.
A melancholic moment comes up, upon climbing the mountain peak above the clouds, a cantina full of cockroaches can be seen at distance.
The image is not pleasant; I worked in a bar for a short time with some friends. In the bar my friends ran, exchanges of all kinds were common, and according to what they told me, cockroaches would crawl over the faces of sleeping drunks.
I saw uncomfortable things, that strange feeling that bars give me, and I think it can be conveyed in the scene where Frodo walks through the Prancing Pony. The uncomfortable atmosphere perfectly conveys the feeling of wandering around a bar that is uncomfortable, smelly, and terrible, as long as you're not drunk. If you've already had a few beers, the place isn't so bad; it can even be quite enjoyable. That's how those dark caves of perdition work in my hometown.
And I think that the feeling of the bar as an unsafe, dirty, and dangerous place only comes across when the plot or the players' actions are leading to a conflict inside the establishment.
If nothing is going to happen inside the bar, I admit that it's my fault. I don't always remember what bars are like, and I often describe them as if they were restaurants with beds, which is a waste of space.
Of course, it's not that every bar the party enters will be a smelly place full of conflicts that will explode in their faces. That's not what it's about, but it's worth remembering that when you spend a lot of time in a bar, conflicts can arise, and we all know that in a role-playing game, conflicts generate sweat and laughter...the fuel of every good DM.
Bars are places of risk and adventure, although largely lacking in any tangible reward beyond the simple fact of having a story to laugh about with your friends the next time you get drunk.
:format(jpg)/f.elconfidencial.com%2Foriginal%2F637%2F501%2Faec%2F637501aec388aac113069c58ce84ea11.jpg)
In the extra throw, it turned out to be a proud approach to accessories. I guess something like dice or notebooks, if that's what it's about.
When the hell did I use that kind of prompt in a post?
Of course, I love dice and miniatures like many others, I paint and collect a little of both, but I don't usually mention or share those hobbys on my social media.
Oh, at least not excessively. Perhaps I boast a plastic miniature that is about to be finished, and the dice remain in the background of a TikTok video I made about advice and tips for DMs.
More accessories.
Of course, there are notebooks, dozens of notebooks of all kinds that we forever DMs with long careers have. I've translated several systems into multiple notebooks, only for them to never be played. It's crazy.
Complete campaigns that are never touched again, notes of all kinds. Essential information for the next session, which, when that session happens, everything occurs except me taking out the notebook with the supposedly essential information.
I use the apps on my cell phone more constantly to look up references about the rules and creatures in the fifth edition of DnD. In a way, it's my lifeline, but if I can access it, I simply combine the information I have in my head and come up with a strange amalgam that will serve as a stopgap until the next session.
And well, there are other companions we have who like to play the old-fashion way. Markers, miniatures, pens with bright gel ink, 2B pencils, erasers, and junk food that makes a mess, leaving behind a colorful bath of grease and sugar.
That's all, I guess, but I don't really use prompts for any of that. Although the things i am talking about are more accessories actually.
First entry. Sooo I hope I understand the dynamic of this edition, although it seems that all the suggestions accompanying the #RPGaDAY2025 are focus on promoting creative sharing between the blog´s that wish to participate.
That's how I understood it, that's the dream.
Patron is the figure that accompanies you and provides something to satisfy the approach that your gaze wants to convey to the player or reader. You chose the Patron or at least accepted it. That's how it works.
That's how it should work, but sometimes we are ungrateful and refuse to acknowledge our creative influences. No one wants to seem unoriginal, even though most of us understand and know full well that originality is little more than a buzzword.
On other occasions, it is impossible to express gratitude. We currently consume such a massive and inhuman amount of cultural content that it is truly impossible to clearly recognize each of the influences that surround your work.
So for now, I just want to acknowledge the artists and projects that most often gain notoriety on my X profile. I save and share them because I want to take elements from their work to include in future modules.
They are surprising, incredible patterns of creative thinking.
The use of collage gives me a slight sense that I can do it. I lack basic drawing skills, but I like crafts, and although almost everything is done digitally, making certain elements by hand adds a certain charm.
The big lie lies in art that seems simple and may not be technically complex. Perhaps, but the truth is that I don't know how to do it. However, it seems achievable. For now, I must focus on filling the blank pages with lines and patterns, little by little.
The illustrations as a whole make me notice a pattern that repeats itself within one of the baroque elements defined by Omar Calabrese. I am referring to the labyrinth, chaos, the je ne sais quoi.
These patterns are one of the elements that help me define my journey through the world of role-playing games and writing in general. The campaigns, the accumulation of adventures, the events that unfold chaotically at the table between snacks and dice, have no end. They wander and propose false endings, since inevitably a new game will appear.
The labyrinth is the pattern that has remained unchanged over the decades, life itself. With a minotaur chasing us like a tyrannical time, a white dragon descending from the skies to cause the first tpk of a group of players, or the elderly mother asking for money out of nowhere at the worst possible moment.
However, RPG's have that certain something...je ne sais quoi. Where the exact pattern of routine, sports, conflicts, and many other spaces are broken, similar to cinema and video games, but with its own particular twist.
There's something special about this hobby, I think, something I don't even find in theater, the simulation of simulation, something strange.
But back to art.
Medieval art inside books authorized by the church, their decorations, the lack of three dimensions in most of the illustrations. Perfect, without a horizon, without apparent volume, they draw just like me, so I go with the story that I can do similar work.
And the truth is, I can't. But they inspire and encourage me a lot.
Whatever it is, I keep filling the blank page with lines, and once the blank page is covered with the different patrons of lines, then it's time to fill another page. That's how it is.
Drink and move forward, your other faces await you. With each step you take, you will change, although the period of time between one sett...
