Lewis Pulsipher’s rules for playing a pack of blink dogs as a single player character in AD&D (from “My Life as a Werebear: D&D Monster Character Classes”, White Dwarf 17, Feb/Mar 1980; with Tom Wham’s illustration) The same article covered werebear, lammasu, and stone giant PCs.
it’s fucking bullshit that a pack of teleporting dogs can’t be a lord
They are a decentralized self-regulating pack of dogs whose individual members share equal status. They are the purest form of autonomous collective.
they resemble the race of their “parent”, the one who caused the magic that gave them humanoid form, but with dead giveaways that they were once a magic item
so like, they could look mostly like a tiefling, but when they speak the words they say form on their skin in ink and it’s clear they used to be a spellbook
or they could look like an orc, but have the pattern of the gemstone they used to be all over
or they could look like an elf but they are very clearly covered in feathers and obviously used to be a quill
the base race gets a +2 to charisma and has darkvision
their age, alignment, size and speed all follow the typical stuff for their “parent” race
they also start with either mage hand or prestidigitation, representing their inherent magical nature
then the subraces are like
CANDLE
you gain a cantrip that deals fire damage. you radiate dim light in a 30 foot radius. your constitution increases by 1.
SPELLBOOK
you gain a cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list and an extra language of your choice. your intelligence increases by 1.
ATHAME
you gain proficiency in two weapons of your choice and can treat them as finesse weapons. your dexterity increases by 1.
POTION VIAL
you know the spell Healing Elixir and can cast it at its lowest level without material components. once you cast this spell in this way, you must complete a long rest before you can cast it again. your constitution increases by 1.
GEMSTONE
you know the cantrip Magic Stone. your AC and strength increase by 1.
CRYSTAL BALL
you know the cantrips Guidance and True Strike. your wisdom increases by 1.
QUILL
you know the spell Feather Fall and
can cast it at its lowest level without material components. once you
cast this spell in this way, you must complete a long rest before you
can cast it again. your dexterity increases by 1.
or yknow. other things. depending on balance
but you can also just like
switch out the artifact for another artifact that could reasonably have the same effect??? like the crystal ball could super easily be tarokka cards, the potion vial could also be a mortar and pestle, that kinda thing
and, consulting with your DM, you could just make a whole new one, swapping out the feature for something equivalent
Context: Our party had gone through a series of difficult trials to meet a deity who could see all time and would answer one question per player. My character asked if he will find his soul mate and the deity said that soon he would meet his soul mate.
Me to the DM after we’ve left the deity: Hey, soooooo if I️ go back to ask another question, will I️ be killed?
DM: Yes, you probably will
Me: Buuuuuutt, what if it’s a good question?
DM: You’ll have to find out
My character: *goes back to the deity* Heyyyy! So you told me I️ would meet my soul mate here soon. Are you by chance……single?
The DM then proceeds to laugh her ass off and spare my character because of how ridiculous the question was.
I had a surprisingly coherent dream during that accident-nap, that contained an interesting idea for a campaign.
I say interesting because I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or a bad one, honestly. It would definitely require some careful handling and at least one player who’s 300% on the same page narratively as the DM, but it was definitely interesting.
There was a D&D campaign in this dream where one of the players knew their schedule would make them miss a lot of sessions. So instead of playing one of the main party, they played a recurring villain.
When the
villain
player was free they’d show up to taunt or bother or try to win over the main party. If the session ended with them still involved in the action, the DM just narrated them slipping away at the start of the next one. The DM would talk with the villain player between sessions about what their character was doing, and brief them on things they might know.
This particular villain was the “gain ultimate power and become a god” type. The climax of the campaign involved them seeking out some artifact of ultimate power. When it was clear the party would fail to stop them from acquiring it, the DM and the villain player gave each other a look. Both of them seemed to get really excited.
The DM narrated the villain reaching for the artifact, up to the point where their fingers actually touched it, then went suddenly quiet. The villain player grinned and said, “you sense a great and terrible shift in the structure of the universe. Someone new is in charge. Roll initiative.”
After someone failed their 3rd death saving throw, maybe don’t have them die immediately. But make clear they are gonna die. Healing magic stops working on them. But they still live on a few minutes, hours or even days. This can create a lot of of drama.
donjon has tons of generators. for calendars. for demographics of a country and city. for names (both fantastical and historical) of people, nations, magics, etc.
this site lets you generate/design a city, allowing you to choose size, if you want a river or coast, walls around it, a temple, a main keep, etc.
this twitter, uncharted atlas, tweets generated maps of fantasy regions every hour.
and vulgar allows you to create a language, based on linguistic and grammatical structures!!! go international phonetic alphabet!!!
Adversarial play in tabletop RPGs can be a lot of fun, but the conventional Killer GM approach really only works if a. you’re using a system that’s specifically designed for it (and most aren’t – even most editions of Dungeons & Dragons don’t have oppositional play in mind, reputation notwithstanding); and b. you’re prepared to do a lot of advance prep-work in order to give yourself the breathing room to step into the role of an opposing player. Without both of those factors in play, deliberately gunning for a total party kill will typically just lead to lacklustre stories and a lot of hurt feelings.
That doesn’t mean you can’t do the Evil Bastard GM thing as a casual GM, though. You just have to recalibarate your expectations a little. One could write a whole book on the topic – in fact, whole books have been written on it! – but at the entry level, casual bastardy has three main legs, like so:
Site Title 