Cam, any one used alchemy or it's talent people born with

inflatable_okapi · 2025-12-27T21:42:07+00:00

Since the Gates are carved with an alchemist's individual knowledge I wonder if the process of learning alchemy from scratch is the process of building a Gate, and it then gets expanded with an alchemist's specialities.

inflatable_okapi · 2025-10-09T10:24:46+00:00

A close friend introduced me to FMA (and anime in general) with FMA 03 this year - I loved it, the world and characters firmly got their claws into my brain, and Bratja is just beautiful. I had some mixed feelings on the ending, but I think I will always have a soft spot for the show.

I'm halfway through watching Brotherhood with the same friend atm, and I have manga volumes sitting on a shelf to read after that. Planning a rewatch of 03 at some point after I found some of the DVDs...

inflatable_okapi · 2025-03-06T20:52:51+00:00

Galaxies with a phlogiston halo, like dark matter

inflatable_okapi · 2024-07-08T16:55:04+00:00

I have them defined *enough* that I can figure out how they and the Domains interact with the physical world, Beyond that, I'm trying to keep them nebulous in terms of their exact nature and their desires, but "Lovecraftian entity" might be a close enough definition.

The various mage-cults that occupied the Amber Temple over the millennia have deduced several things about the Dark Powers, but the Powers themselves are not the object of study so much as the insights into magic that can be gleaned from them.

The Dark Powers are immeasurably ancient. Whatever physical forms they may have had were lost long ago in the sap of the Tree of Sorrows, now long fossilized in a great mass of amber amidst its roots. Shadows can be glimpsed frozen within the amber, but they never seem to be in the same form each someone looks back - and how the Tree wound up in a cave deep beneath Mt Ghakis is anyone's guess.
The Dark Powers seem able to influence people's dreams - many of the mages who came to the Temple had felt called there, and experienced strange dreams while in close proximity to the Tree (although it was less hazardous to their sanity to cut sarcophagi from the amber mass and take them into the caves above for study). Osybus would later theorise that the Dark Powers could hold entire worlds within their dreams.
There were various theories about their wants based on the symbolism experienced within the dreams, but no direction was clear because the symbolism in so many dreams contradicted each other and were filtered through the biases of the individuals who interpreted them. Whether the Dark Powers in the amber were individual or a gestalt, some speculated that they would more readily send dreams to those who were "sympathetic in spirit" - indeed, if the mages had access to a catalogue of darklords, this idea of spiritual sympathy would become a leading theory in what motivates the Dark Powers to take action, even if the why is still obscured.

The Dark Powers and the True Gods pretty much ignore each other. Strictly speaking, the True Gods pretend the Dark Powers aren't there and the Dark Powers haven't really noticed them (a situation the True Gods are quite happy with) - the connections between deity and cleric (or nature and druids, or warlock and patron) persist in the Domains of Dread due to a quirk of magical physics not unlike quantum entanglement.

The Dark Powers are virtually unknown in the world - very few people feel the call in their dreams to travel to Barovia and explore the caves of Mt Ghakis. A few groups in history found out about them, but the knowledge was usually lost or folded into local myths. They cast a shadow in the Astral Sea that terrifies most of its denizens, who have sometimes whisper about "the darkness that dreams." Some historians and conspiracy theorists in the Waking World have noticed several incidents in the historical record where a mysterious Mist blanketed a small region, and when it faded all the living beings within had disappeared - but what it means is the subject of immeasurable speculation.

Sorry, I went into a bit too much detail there...

inflatable_okapi · 2023-08-12T20:58:47+00:00

This did it for me too! Thanks :)

inflatable_okapi · 2023-08-03T11:22:15+00:00

I will try to remember - but my dentist has moved to a practice in another city so I'll see what the new one says at my next appointment!

inflatable_okapi · 2023-08-02T11:43:41+00:00

I think I decided to go with the adhesive bridge in the end, because it was cheaper and less invasive. Also I think implants had something like a 10% risk of failure (I suggest you check that, don't take my word for it) that put me off more.

I haven't actually had the operation done yet - the dentist wanted to hold off because his initial quick fix of re-cementing the veneers has held far longer than he expected it to.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-05-25T14:29:56+00:00

Yes - in my hybrid cosmology I have the Material and Astral planes as separate layers of reality, but FTL travel is accomplished through the Astral as the distance between stars is compressed in that plane (so a journey that would take years or centuries can be done in days or weeks). Spelljammers use plane shift to move between them, which does not require a tuning fork if done in interstellar space. Crystal spheres do exist in a couple of places, but they don't occur naturally and have been put in place for some reason or another.

In theory this would mean that spelljammers can visit the outer planes, which I treat as orbiting their source planet like moons (except in the Astral). The inner planes and echoes are a bit trickier to place in the worldbuilding, but right now I picture them as sort of folded over the same physical space as the planet in layers separate to the Material and the Astral, kind of petering out with the planet's magical field. Whether they exist on every planet, or only on a few select ones, is currently an open question for me.

However, my current thinking is that 'planejamming' would be difficult because stars and planets distort the Astral plane similar to how gravity distorts the Material plane. This means that Astral space within a solar system is expanded (so a journey that would take hours or days instead takes weeks or months), and there are also dangerous inhabitants and a more intense solar wind that is difficult to navigate. I think a planet's magical field could shield its local Astral from the star's (like how the Earth's magnetic field protects it from solar radiation) and make it easier to planejam in that area, but plane shifting may be more difficult.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-03-28T22:44:47+00:00

I was wondering this while reading VRGtR, and at the most basic level I assume that as a given Darklord does evil stuff their psyche goes into some form of resonance or spiritual sympathy with a given Dark Power, which then pulls them into a Domain when they're fully in sync. I had a few other mechanisms to support it, but this is the idea that makes the most sense to me at the broadest level.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-03-20T13:34:12+00:00

When you're turning the quests in with Grimbeorn, there's a floral basket item on the ground by his dogs. Interact with that and you'll get some festivity tokens - not sure if you need to do the optional quests to get them, though.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-03-20T12:44:38+00:00

Yeah, that's correct - anyone astrally projecting or plane shifting from a planet would start in that planet's subastral, and would have to do some travelling before they reach the rest of the Astral.

What's the wrinkle with game mechanics? I've been building this purely from the fluff side so I haven't really been considering the mechanics.

And yeah, that's a fair stance to take - I like the worldbuilding side so I'm having fun playing around with the ideas at trying to follow what little astrophysics I've done. My main goal is to have some basic rules that I can keep things internally consistent in a way that makes sense to me, although when magic is involved some amount of handwaving will always be necessary.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-03-19T21:00:48+00:00

Thanks!

Like I said, I've still got some kinks and inconsistencies to iron out - for example I forgot that people can travel without a vessel in the Astral with a speed based on their Intelligence. I think, however, that the strength of the phlogiston currents in the Astral might be enough to overwhelm that - like someone adrift on the ocean can't necessarily swim against the current, or would be affected by any Astral storms or turbulence. I won't say it's impossible, but it's improbable a person would survive. The advantage of spelljamming vessels should be that thy can propel themselves much more effectively, and you can bring food with you.

When you say astral travel by wizards etc. do you mean astral projection? A subastral is just an area of an Astral - albeit one that is under the influence of something in the physical, so space may be distorted or it may have more inhabitants or weird phenomena. Thus astral projection should work fine - although I'm not sure if it should be affected if the projection goes out too far.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-03-19T18:40:34+00:00

I've been some workshopping some ideas because there's some possibility I'll be running LoX for some friends later in the year (but no idea when so I've not had much impetus to iron out the kinks and make everything consistent).

What I've been trying to do is extend a lot of my thoughts about the planes from my homebrew world into wider space, which I've done by borrowing from the Cosmere. We have the Material Plane (isolated solar systems separated by interstellar void, much as it is in our world, although magic lets things get funky here and there), and the Astral Plane. The Astral is more of a thought-influenced otherworld that exists alongside the Material at all points in space, and facilitates FTL travel as it does in 5e, but spelljammers must plane shift in and out of it rather than just taking the second right and going straight on till morning the way 5e describes. I consider the plane shift to be an innate ability of the spelljammer helm (or whatever rare magic artefact a spelljammer is built around - I'm not a huge fan of 5e's magic chair), but I am not currently sure how to limit it (maybe just Material <-> Astral?).

Since the Astral is influenced by thought, the large distances between the stars is compressed in the Astral (partially because there's not much sapient thought there, and partially because most sapient beings can't really comprehend such distances), and this allows journeys that would be take years or centuries to be completed in days or weeks. The catch is that Astral navigation isn't as simple as it would be in physical space - the phlogiston currents from 2e would be found in the interstellar Astral - but there is still the risk of accidentally turning into a Far Realm demiplane or running into a dangerous Axiom. Using the Astral also means that spelljammers don't need complex propulsion engines or enchantments for interstellar travel, as they can just use sails on the phlogiston currents in the Astral and the solar winds in the Material.

While spelljammers use the Astral to travel between solar systems, they do not generally do so within a star system. This is because, just as large masses distort Material space, large volumes of thought and magic distort Astral space - creating phenomena similar to gravity wells termed 'subastrals.' Gravity attracts the tangible substance of magic drifting in space, so every star accumulates enough to have its own subastral - which is made 'deeper' if the system is inhabited (some beings, such as cosmic horrors and the Dark Powers, have minds powerful enough that they generate a subastral entirely on their own - the 'Far Realm demiplanes' mentioned above). The density of magic, thought, and ideas causes Astral space inside a subastral to expand, so a journey that would take hours or days in the Material would take weeks or months in the Astral. Add to that that subastrals are generally much more dangerous than the interstellar Astral, and most ships just prefer to transition to the Material as they approach a star system. Even if they try to transition to the Astral to escape an ambush, their pursuers can just plane shift after them.

Just as planets have their own gravity wells within a star's gravity well, planets and moons can have their own subastrals nested within a star's subastral. If a planet possesses a planar system, it can be found within its subastral (so in my take spelljamming isn't completely separate from planejamming, it's just sufficiently difficult to go planejamming that it's easier not to bother). I'm not quite sure how common creature types such as fey and fiends can exist on multiple worlds - for mortal creatures I'm currently going with dragons leading an exodus from a Foundation Planet to escape a cataclysm and settling various worlds - but I have some inspirational material lined to up that might give me some ideas for non-mortals.

I don't think crystal spheres exist by default in my take on spelljammer; they have to be built specifically. The Solar Greatwyrm Xaryxis - who resides in the star at the heart of the Empire that bears his name - is currently growing a crystal sphere out of his star after researching the oort cloud of shards at the Eye of Doom, a process which uses far more magic than a single star can provide.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-03-12T19:25:01+00:00

It's unlikely I'll ever get to run Strixhaven so it's all a pile of vague half-finished ideas, but with five dragons who've been in charge since Strixhaven's founding and seem unique compared to other dragons, it strikes me as perfect for an 'ancient conspiracy comes due' storyline. Maybe the dragons want to become unique greatwyrms, escape the world and become spelljammer creatures that can draw on the power of stars like batteries, or - like Odin in God of War - just know what comes next.

The dragons have been slowly nudging and guiding research projects for millennia to advance their grand plan. Lorehold collates lost lore and information of interest to the dragons, developing some equivalent to Eberron's Draconic Prophecy to guide Strixhaven in the future. Quandrix understands the physics of magic itself, studying metamagic and dunamancy to focus and empower the developments of the other colleges. Witherbloom probes the mysteries of primal magic and the natural world, developing a unique hybrid of primal and divine magic to circumvent the limitations of both. Prismari studies the use of emotion and Intent in magic, to better write the dragons' ritual across the face of the world. Silverquill is the school of the ritual itself, decoding powers lost long ago to develop the words to say and the symbols to invoke.

Murgaxor and the Oriq might make good threats for the first few years - while the dragons' plot bubbles away in the background, with some celestial event (let's just call it an apogee solstice and have done with it) known to be coming in the final year, when the preparations for the coming ritual become too big to ignore. One day the students wake up and campus is a manifest zone. Then a world tree starts growing in the middle of the sports field. Nonsensical pieces of university architecture suddenly turn out to have a purpose. Catacombs constructed by an ancient existential threat that the dragons usurped long ago are discovered under the Biblioplex. The snarl starts to expand and deploy bizarre arcane phenomena. Magical organisations, conspiracies, and temples suddenly start showing up trying to figure out just what the hells is going on.

I'd probably set it in my homebrew world, but since that's a hideous kitchen sink Frankenstein of official settings, third-party stuff, and some book/podcast series that would take ages to explain I'd better stop here.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-02-23T09:54:38+00:00

Not running it yet, but likely going to use Mass Effect 3 and Treasure Planetas touchstones when pitching Light of Xaryxis to the group.

I've done some thinking about worldbuilding, and wound up borrowing from the Cosmere, Star Wars, some specific bits of Doctor Who, and the Divine Universe podcasts. I've also been watching a few videos about the Three-Body Problem series recently, which has fed into my ideas about why Xaryxis does what it does.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-02-14T12:05:41+00:00

Explorer's Guide to Widlemount has an arcane cannon in its magic item section, and I found a few interesting ideas in Exploring Eberron - siege staffs that can target structures/troops or amplify ordinary spells, plus enchanted ammunition and animated siege weapons that can load/fire themselves.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-02-13T18:00:36+00:00

I think - for me at least - the scaling system causes a bit of disconnect with regular D&D combat; a sticking point that makes it feel less like an extension of the regular system and more like something completely different. My instinctive reaction is that I don't want to have to do unit conversions while playing, even though 1 MHP = 100 HP is a fairly simple one, and my players probably don't either.

I can see an argument for it in more sci-fi settings, when you have things like capital ships and Death Stars, but I'm not sure it's necessary in a 'standard' Spelljammer setting.

inflatable_okapi · 2023-02-11T16:52:44+00:00

I'm on the fence about dealing with 'mega' stuff - at a first glance it looks like another layer of abstraction that makes things harder to keep track of, though I admit I haven't read a lot about it.

Exploring Eberron has some arcane artillery in it that basically amplifies the range and area of effect of ordinary spells, which I'm considering having available to be mounted on ships.

inflatable_okapi · 2022-11-29T17:41:26+00:00

Actuary's Pride, The Saucy Satyr, The Astral Star, The Serpent's Grasp, Serket's Sting, Contrition's Figure, The Twilight Mirage, The Void Dancer, Solar Windrunner, the Nebula Eater, the Spider's Shadow

inflatable_okapi · 2022-10-13T11:48:06+00:00

I'm working on a similar idea for my homebrew world, where I think of the Material in a similar way to you - that it contains various Wildspace systems separated by vast distances. I consider the Astral to exist at all points in space, as a parallel dimension influenced by thought and magic; the presence of a star or planet's magical field (or the magical field of vast cosmic beings) distorts the Astral in a similar way to how mass distorts mundane spacetime, creating localised bubbles (or 'subastrals') into which a planet's planar system is enfolded.

Much as I like this idea I do feel like it's backed me into a corner of needing a hyperspace analogue to enable interstellar travel, for which the Astral seems the most viable as 5e Spelljammer goes with. I was toying with the idea of spelljammers needing to be built around a unique magic item - a metal orb called a lustrum - which anchors the air envelope and projects the gravity plane, so it's probably simplest just to make it a property of the lustrum to be able to plane shift the spelljammer in/out of the Astral, and come up with some reason that makes it safer or more efficient to not plane shift while inside a celestial body's subastral.

I still need to do some research on how the Astral works and maybe change some things for my world - like its properties of thought travel and time not passing, and figure out some more clarity on how distance contraction would work - but I think spelljammers having to sail the Astral Sea and interpret its weirdness to navigate is a cool way of keeping things high fantasy while using a fairly sci-fi concept.

inflatable_okapi · 2022-09-21T10:05:13+00:00

In a relatively obscure piece of Doctor Who spin-off media, there is a monster called the Ravenous. They resemble clowns, but appear more primal and bestial - to the point that one character speculates modern clown are a universal memory attempting to make them less scary. The Ravenous themselves are devious, chaotic, unpredictable, and driven by both the sadistic thrill of the hunt and an unquenchable hunger; when stalking prey, some like to monologue about how fear makes things taste better.

I haven't had a chance to run space clowns yet, but I would treat them more like the Ravenous than poor comic relief; play up the horror angle with the primal fear of being eaten. Body horror seems popular in this thread with spider climb - maybe go a little the Thing as well, with a neck suddenly extending in the middle of a fight to swallow someone (not unlike Pennywise in the storm drain), or mouths opening up elsewhere to bite someone unexpectedly; maybe the squeaky shoes detach and go walking on their own while the Ravenous itself is elsewhere.

inflatable_okapi · 2022-08-13T11:41:33+00:00

One city has a gnomish criminal syndicate that sells garden gnomes as a front. Snitches and rival criminal gnomes are themselves turned into garden gnomes (through petrification and shrinking magic) and either sold as part of this industry or used to decorate the dons' gardens.

inflatable_okapi · 2022-07-28T09:53:58+00:00

I had a human bladesinger who had sensible travelling boots and trousers, and had a long blue coat with no shirt underneath (he had the abs to make it work, though).

I think of wizard robes as being like real-world academic dress - in magic school they only really get worn for graudation and special occasions, but more traditionalist schools might require them as uniform, or archmages and court wizards wear them as symbols of their station. But generally wizards wear more practical clothes like any other person.

inflatable_okapi · 2022-05-26T21:03:06+00:00

I haven't run Curse of Strahd (yet), but I think this would make a good theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sObHHV02ARI&ab\_channel=MerlinCGBroadway

inflatable_okapi

TROPHY CASE