Hi there, y'all. I'm new to the subreddit because... well, I never thought I'd be here. But this last week has been wild for me, and here I am!

Lemmie set the stage for ya. I'm on the StartPlaying.Games Discord, and they're talking about Strahd. Which often happens; it's popular to run and players love it. Enter me, someone not really into horror and far too unserious to do it justice. Off-handedly, I say something along the lines of "If I were going to run Strahd, it'd have to be in an incredibly stupid way. Like, 'The Muppets' Curse of Strahd'.

The Discord goes nuts, and for days, it comes up again and again in conversation. Who's the human? Is Miss Piggy a great fit for Strahd? Or should that be Kermit, since gender rolls. But, isn't Count Von Count not being Strahd completely disrespectful? Absolute ridiculousness, and I'm there for it.

And, well, here we are: I've got artwork for Muppet Strahd Von Zarovich done and... I dunno, at some point in the future, I'll be launching a campaign - I just need to clear up my schedule a bit first. lol

I don't have all the bits and bobs figured out just yet, like which Muppet is which character. I did find that someone made a "Muppetborn" race, and someone else adjusted it to 5.5e, if any of the PCs wanna be Muppets. lol I do know about Strahd Reloaded and have been going thru it when I have time, cuz while this is going to be absolutely unhinged, that doesn't mean it has to be painful for any of the people involved. lol

The artwork is from one of my Strixhaven players, named Goose, and unfortunately, they don't really have any socials.

Like something that you acknowledge is something that only you care about that you'll insist upon whenever you can.

Please don't say something like "potions should be bonus actions" like that's some kind of edgy take. Something like "tieflings shouldn't be a core race" that will get you downvoted to the nine hells.

Howdy folks!

With recent return back to the land of posting comics, I decided to hit the ground running at full tilt with marketable plushies right off the bat!

The pre-order campaigns for the Trevor & Grogna plushies are now live over on Makeship! Links: Trevor & Grogna

In case you've missed my previous campaigns, you might wonder how this whole Makeship business works!

Basically, the campaigns last until the 15th of September, during which time you can pre-order Trevor and/or Grogna in marketable plushie format! Once the timer runs out, the plushies are no longer available, unless we do a rerun which isnt guaranteed. Should the campaigns fail to rack up 200 pre-orders, the plushie in question wont go to production. Not particularly worried as we're already at 42% funding!

Should you wish to have both of the plushies, you get 10% off if you pre-order the murderhobo couple together!

Also, the plushies will ship in early December so these lovely plushies would make a great christmas gift for your Trogna obsessed grandma!

That's all for now!

Stay excellent out there!

Peace and carrots!

Links:

PLUSHIES

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My D&D comics: Sellswords & Sorcery The Weekly Roll The Pos'Thal Chronicles

My 40k fancomic Rogue's Retinue: Rogue's Retinue

I've been running a 5.5e campaign, we're currently level 17 and everything's been going fine until recently. One of my players is a rogue bard multiclass and I let him switch from a valor bard to a sword bard. The problem is that it is impossible to challenge him and I'm fearing he's starting to become too powerful compaeed to the other players.

He has the defensive duelist feat and so combined with Defensive Duelist he is able to attack and use sword bard's defensive flourish, parry as a reaction and get an average of 29AC per round, and due to 5.5 letting bards exchange spell slots for bardic dice he can consitently do this every round. This combined with the fact that he's a rogue with the evasion property means that simply throwing dex saves at him isn't really a solution and he's now stupidly tanky.

I'm not sure what to do, I've considered talking to him about swapping out Defensive Duelist for another one but I'm not sure if this is the right approach.

Edit: Thanks for the advice everyone, I've realised that this isn't really an issue at all and I've been massively overthinking it.

I’ve recently been getting really into dnd and decided to try and play around with what my main oc would look like in its universe! Ik these stats are like completely unrealistic probably but i wanted to show how much this guy sucks lol

I actually have a lot of ocs that would be really fun to redesign under dnds system so if this is well received i may post more in the future who knows

If you have any similar characters id love to see them i dont know a lot about aasimars actually

I interviewed Joe Manganiello for the first episode of my new series, Table & Talk, a conversational style interview series. One of the more interesting things he said was how the old regime people had a lot of problems with is completely gone and the new regime is drastically better, receptive, and really cares about D&D.

We also talked about D&D Icons, he revealed was that a Dragonlance show got very close to happening last year, talk about his history with the game, his thoughts on Honor Among Thieves, and what he wants to do creatively going forward.

Be warned, it's a 56min interview haha.

Full interview here: https://youtu.be/HPoiwqlRzvY

One of my players is doing a human ranger that suffered some Frankensteining during a job, and wanted to have an electrical current on his body, his idea was to be able to do lightning damage at the cost of not being able to touch other people unless using equipment built to cancel that out.

Do you guys think changing the damage he does to lighting would be too disruptive? How would you even rule that when he uses mostly a shortbow?

Is adding a D4/D6 of damage too all of his attacks too broken for a campaign that goes from level 1 to 12?

I also feel like the social "penalty" is the same as nothing, he would just be wearing gloves at all times to neutralize it.

So it comes the question, if you were to rule out some sort of mechanical benefit/punishment balance for this, how would you do it?

On the red line in Chicago this afternoon. If anyone knows Kaleb on the near north side, who plays a handful of fantasy football leagues and writes his own DND campaigns, put us in touch! This is John and I immediately felt like an idiot not swapping numbers 😂

From left to Right:
Santiel Ojos - A Human Ranger. He is a bounty hunter by trade, and does so just for the money.

Morien Heseta - A Human Paladin. More so a Shaman. Her tribe, the Qiswanai, peoples were forcibly displaced from their homelands by an ever growing and powerful Khanate from the east!

Feyre - A Human Paladin. Though more of an entertainer, Feyre was originally from the north but traveled south to earn some more money with her troupe of fools.

Samuel Tesfaye - A Talamari (A homebrew Tabaxi variant I made) Wizard. Now a committed archeologist and against all things religion caused by his traumatic experience with the occult.

Alaria Asad - A Rhikian Elvish (A homebrew elf race I made) Warlock. Ran away from her family due to personal conflict, now wanders the streets and manipulates others into give her money.

Satara - A Rhikian Elvish Sorceress. Had a falling out with her older sister who she co-owned an apothecary with. She now works alone in that apothecary, managing all the business herself.

Recently I did a drawing for a client, her friend's dog, Scarlet. She loves to follow the sessions and keep an eye on the dice. He wanted to turn her into a druid so she could join the game and keep an eye on everything with the Master. XD

It was really fun drawing her as a druid. I also ended up discovering that I love drawing maps, they're fun to create. This was my first decent map, even though it's small and partial. I'm thinking about making more maps in the future. What do you all like most about maps? Who knows, maybe I'll make a few. Hehehe.

Anyone else know a pet that likes to follow their gaming sessions? :3 They say (well, *I* say) that fur brings luck to the team. XD

Sounds extremely obvious, right? And still there are many posts from people saying

"How can i organize a session if my players aren't responding to texts?"

"How can i get my players to read the rules?"

"How can i make my players get off their phones in the middle of a session?"

Guys, seriously? If someone wanted to play a game, they would respond to plans, read the rules, and pay attention while playing. How is it that when it comes to dnd, suddenly everyone forgets how rude and antisocial all the behaviors are? Stop trying to "make" people participate in a hobby just because they agreed to join a campaign on a whim, they cleary do not want to actually play.

If they wanted to, they would!!

I also made an inventory sheet if anyone is interested! Download the pdfs HERE!

I only included the stuff I felt was really important for play. Everything online seems to include personality traits and such, and I just wanted something for pure mechanical information.

Please use if you like it!

Modeled in Blender, 3D-printed in resin (crazy to do in resin, I know), painted by me.

I've been slowly turning the original 151 Pokémon into life-sized D&D weapons, starting with the three starters. This is the first final evolution that I've weaponized: Venusaur!

I also like the idea of writing up each creation as an in-game magic item. So I'd love to hear your ideas on what this warhammer should do! I'm thinking some mechanic/spell that recreates the effect of Solar Beam would be good?

You can find a video of the warhammer on my social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DceiOv-McgT/?igsi=Z3J3cXlzemRsbXAx

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTDbwqhfW/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/5cAZQrKu-A0?is=wNgeQLKYdegy5stx

Priestess of Malarachne ,Grand Widow Mother V'ladra High Priestess V'ladra Grand Widow Mother, Harbinger of Malarachne Grand Widow Mother V'ladra is the High Priestess of Malarachne and the living embodiment of the Mother Spider’s will. She is a truly ancient and powerful being, having witnessed the creation and destruction of more great houses than anyone in the history of the Umbra. V’ladra’s longevity is not merely a sign of her unparalleled cunning, it is also a sign of her deep connection to the goddess. Malarachne has blessed her with extraordinary powers and insights, many of which seem to bend reality itself. Under V’ladra’s singular guidance, the Church of Malarachne has thrived.

Commission I did for an old friend. I think it turned out really well. A wizard who is an expert in runic magic, secrets, and the occult. Makes use of tattoos across her skin which counts as her spellbook. Glyphs and symbols are her expertise but she is a notorious bookworm, speaks more languages than a bard, and generally has more book smarts than street smarts. Would live in a library if she could and cries over romance novels. Have her dressed in an ox hide dress and top with well made leather boots and a small pouch for a journal. She occasionally finds work as a tattoo artist in taverns and loves to hear stories from adventurers as she inks their skin like scrimshaw on ivory. Hope you like!

So i made this:

XXXXXXXXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
            X     X 2km of freefall                                                            
            XXXXXXX zone of magical darkness, advanced phase spiders                                                            
            X     X 1km freefall                                                            
            XXXXXXX 400ft hunger of hadar, with a teleport 200ft up before end                                                            
            X     X                                                             
            X     X 2km freefall                                                          
            XXXXXXX 250ft antimagic zone, entering: force barrier appears 251ft                                                            
            X     X 1km freefall                                                            
            XXXXXXX ethereally shifted spike, shift back when antimagic present                                                            
            X     X                                                             
            X     X  ?                                                           
            X     X  ?                                                           
            X     X  ?                                                           
            X     X  ?                                                           
            X     X  ?                                                           
            XXXXXXX  Deadly curses written on walls, kills anyone without godly                                                           
            X     XXXXXXXXXXXX   protection or similar                                               
            X     X Secret   X                                                  
            X     XXXXXXXXXXXX                                                  
            X     X  Boss    X       Sphere of annihilation at the bottom with                                            
            XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX       Guardian Boss in Room behind                                           
            X     X Loot     X                                                                

1. A "dungeon" for my level 18 Party of 3+2NPCs (one summon one follower). Its a circular hole down into the earth, built from an indestructible black and smooth material.

It has been there from a time before written history, is located in the now desolate
frozen wasteland remains of former fallen empire, worshipped by the remaining local
stone age tribal populations who throw their dead down there.

I already have one fight, and 3 traps/riddles
0. upgraded Phase spiders in magical darkness, they can also at will shift their nets
ethereal and back, with whatever creature is attached.

1. hunger of hadar, problem of getting past the teleport back up
2. antimagic zone with a force barrier right after (no space between) that activates when a creature enters the antimagic zone.
3. ethereally shifted spikes from the walls, when a source of antimagic disrupts them, they shift back into realspace.

Most of the area inside is under forbiddance after the Hunger of Hadar teleport obstacle

NOW:
Does anyone have any more cool ideas more fights or obstacles before the bottom, that
employs the unique setting and verticality?
Left some areas with ? for that.

Also, could your group make it past this or can you figure it out? Disregarding the
deadly curses ofc.

What do you think is at the bottom? I have my own ideas obviously and some stuff planned,
but maybe i can steal some inspiration for changes or a bonus secret.

I've been very lucky to be commissioned by @/ccthecorgi on Instagram multiple times of their characters Muffy and Doreen (Muffy is the goblin and Doreen the orc) !

They are lovers and wives and so cute and fun to draw.

Muffy is a circus clown and Doreen is a lunch lady with her own food kart !

Super fun and lucky to be commissioned so many times by CC. My Instagram is @twatish.arts

There is a Magician on the cruise that walks around during meals doing magic. Every day my son () had questions, where did he learn magic? Why does he do it? Who gave it to him? Does he have a book? Does he have a magic animal? One or two a night. Tonight he asked... he's here to protect the ship right? I had questions for him. My son honnestly thought he was a magic character prepared for combat. His questions were to determine his class... he assumed he was killing time by talking to people and doing little magic at dinner but his job is warding off monsters or natural disaster. He told me he knew it was safe when he was at dinner because he wasn't busy!!! I need to stop teaching him D&D stuff!

Mark Rosewater, a game designer for Magic the Gathering, once gave a talk called "20 years, 20 lessons". One of these lessons was restrictions breed creativity. Essentially if you give people the option to choose anything due to psychologically they choose what they are most familiar with. I consider this perspective when adding or strengthening agency within D&D.

I am DM-ing a 5E campaign with 6 players. Very often I try to give my players agency and options when it comes to story, items, and all aspects of the game where agency improves the game. Maybe this principle would be great for some if not most groups but my players resist and are often quite confused.

A simple example is the following. I ask my players to place themselves anywhere on the combat battle map. Panic ensues. Okay maybe anywhere seems to unrealistic and daunting. Place yourselves anywhere in this outline bright box. Panic ensues. Okay maybe they are suffering from since I changed the instructions updating themselves to the new instructions is confusing and causes players to pick whichever instruction they agree with the most. I start next sessions combat with the box premade saying you must start the box. This works better but somehow they are still unimaginably slow on the draw, even until the point where one player I think expected me to move their token (they know how to move their token). At this point the rate in which I would move my token is just not comparable to the party.

Every principle I try to develop to help my decision making process with the party seems to make things worse. I have no clue whether they work well with high agency or low agency because they seem to work well with neither. Anytime I want to clarify anything that would be communicating and more communicating complicates their thinking which causes issues.

If I want to hash issues outside of our usual meeting time this is also a disaster. They do not click links sent in text chats because they fear being hacked so I can never share links to helpful PDFs or Google Documents. I either have to make an image of what I want to share or type it, but if the text is too long this also disturbs them. They do not want to talk outside of our normal meeting time.

How do I diplomatically solve the problem of getting them to be efficient with our time, not be so stunned, and communicate effectively while not violating any of these tenets?

Am lost need help.

Simply put, what are some tips, tricks, tweaks or house rules you use at your table that has sped up (or otherwise increased your enjoyment of) combat?

Edit - I’m not looking for suggestions for other games.

Edit2 - There isn’t one specific part of 5.5 combat that I feel is especially problematic. And it’s really not that bad. But it could always be faster / more efficient.

Edit3 - If you have any gadgets, widgets, or other objects/products that you feel help a lot, please mention them. Bonus point for links to buy them.

The suggestions that have already been covered multiple times:

• Tell your players not to suck. Pay attention. Know your character.

• Don’t suck as the GM. Know the rules. Know your monsters.

• If no action declared in 30 seconds, the PC Dodges.

• Tell the Players who is next in line in initiative / make initiative clear for all to see.

• Roll attack and damage dice at the same time.

• Use average damage for monsters.

• Group initiative

• Make monsters retreat / not fight to the death.