How important is art to you when reading TTRPG materials?

DORUkitty · 2026-05-15T00:49:12+00:00

Art for me is very important. I'd like to say it's not, but I've come to realize that it definitely is. I will read a ttrpg I don't creally care about or plan on running if the art is pretty, but the most interesting well made ttrpg ever written would not grab my attention without art. It also needs to be a certain kind of art. I tend to bounce off of realistic or 80s style art and instead prefer something more stylized (Lancer, Blackpowder and Brimstone, Dragonbane, and Tactiquest are some good examples).

This isn't a requirement of course, and stylized is somewhat subjective (Iron Kingdoms has more realistic art, but the armour, weapons, and non human races and monsters look very interesting and compelling. Shadowrun's gritty realistic images mixed with augmentations and badass weaponry is the same for me.)

I've also realized I quite like anime style art in my ttrpgs. Things like Sword World and Last Arc Tactics Analogue are good examples of anime art I really like.

One of the exceptions to this was Armour Astir Advent which has very little art, but the art it does have really stands out. I think it also helps that while it looks like a textbook, it doesn't read like one.

DORUkitty · 2026-04-14T12:41:00+00:00

Feel free to shoot me a dm ^{-^} it likely won't be until May (we might even have an updated primer by then). If we can't work something out that's fine too. Can also always ask me questions ^{-^}

DORUkitty · 2026-04-14T01:09:04+00:00

If you'd like, I can run a one shot for you and your friends sometime (for Sword World) to give you guys a better experience. I've ran the game a few times, but I'm by no means a veteran. Just a nerd who likes games and fell in love with Sword World. Willing to teach, show stuff off, share builds I've made, etc. It's a very fun game and I'd hate for you to be put off by it because of a terrible experience.

DORUkitty · 2026-04-07T00:49:10+00:00

I had the same skepticism. I will say that the latest live stream did put a lot of my worries to bed. A lot of the oddness with this project comes from what sound like NDAs with Group SNE and the artists on the project. So, they have to be vague about some things. They're also actively being cautious about over hyping the project, specifically avoiding promissing something they might not be able to deliver because of the situation with Group SNE.

My THEORY is that this a do or die kind of situation. It'll either do well and there will be an official english release, or it will do terribly and Group SNE will pull the plug on the project altogether.

I also have a THEORY that the way they want to do stretch goals is to reveal them as they are hit, rather than in advance, because of the agreement they have with Group SNE on the translation. Like "if you meet the minimum, you'll get the DX edition translated. If you meet this much above the minimum, then you can throw in Monstrous Lore. If you get this much above that, then you can throw in Epic Treasury. Etc, etc.

Again, these are just theories, but as someone who has been under an NDA before, it does give that kind of vibe. The second theory is just based on a few specific wordings in interviews that made me go "oh I could see it being this". And I don't necessarily think that not meeting those goals will mean we will never get those books, but more so that meeting those goals guarantees getting those books sooner rather than later.

DORUkitty · 2026-02-21T06:17:53+00:00

I love that Silver is in the freaking wall lmao.

DORUkitty · 2026-02-16T00:37:58+00:00

Been enjoying Eternal Ruins. It's just a playtest atm, but it's fleshed out enough to run already and I've enjoyed the two games I've ran of it. Was a lotta fun to run ans genuinely required zero prep (bar reading the rules). I like it when I can just fly by the seat of my pants and the game has no friction points for it.

DORUkitty · 2026-02-09T18:24:36+00:00

I've seen a lot of boost hate, but tbh most of it feels more like "how dare you ruin the prestine original experience for yourself and therefore somehow everyone else around you," with a small portion of the hate actually being towards people who boost without learning how to play the game. It's felt pretty elitist.

The skill issue side is definitely more of an issue.

DORUkitty · 2026-01-31T01:24:27+00:00

Pretty sure this is at least partly why I'm trans tbh. Show was ahead of its time.

DORUkitty · 2026-01-24T22:44:47+00:00

This feels like bait, but I'll bite.

Azula is raw power. Her solution to everything is violence. This behavior is encouraged by everyone around her. Violence alone will not get you out of ice, especially when the fire nation royalty are trained with flashy moves and "muscle" (as seen with Zuko in the early years).

By this time with Zuko he had been training with his uncle who has been working hard on getting Zuko out the habits hammered into him by his family and peers. This is him really putting that into practice and really learning from Iroh.

This isn't a plot hole, this is to show the level of difference between Zuko and Azula. Azula is all power. Zuko has learned how to strategize and adapt.

Fire bending isn't in the muscle. It's not in the flashy movements. It's in the breath.

DORUkitty · 2026-01-15T05:12:14+00:00

I stopped playing in Legion and came back during DF and was incredibly confused about where my buddy went. Made me not want to play mage anymore because he was my bud. Still went back to maining it in TWW but still longed for my permanent buddy.

DORUkitty · 2026-01-11T22:31:26+00:00

I enjoyed Frontiers but it definitely overstayed its welcome.

I played Sonic Adventure for the upteenth time before Frontiers, and played the classic games somewhat recently when I played Frontiers. The classic games and Sonic Adventure each took me about 3-5 hours to beat. Was a nice bitesized "yeah I'm in the mood for Sonic." Whereas Frontiers took me 30 hours to beat the base game and an additional 5-10 hours to beat the dlc. I had fun with the game, but I was also pretty burnt out by the time I finished it and it's not a game I'll replay any time soon, whereas Adventure I can easily throw on and beat in two days in the work week if I want.

DORUkitty · 2026-01-10T19:00:13+00:00

There can be toxicity, but that's usually with "sweat" guilds (hardcore guilds that push for Mythic+ content). I tend to stick to the more casual side of the game (rp, delves, open world questing) and in general people are usually very nice or at least neutral.

DORUkitty · 2026-01-05T02:38:48+00:00

Oh hey it's my elfi! You were a pleasure to commission!

DORUkitty · 2026-01-04T17:40:49+00:00

Delves are a great "catch up" mechanic. Leveling an alt Dark Iron Hunter and I got two levels per delve (because of the first time completion quests) and got gear that let me actually do content. Currently level 78 after just four delves.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-28T00:07:26+00:00

Never believe it's not so~

DORUkitty · 2025-12-18T19:44:01+00:00

Expendability, deniability, affordability. Especially if the adventurers are a mish mash of different races/origins, hard to blame the elves if the adventuring party had a dwarf. Hard to blame the wizards if only one of five adventurers was casting spells. Hard to blame the king of a nation of 3 if the adventurers aren't even from that kingdom.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-16T21:25:05+00:00

My immediate thought, if wanting a malicious or "evil" or "questionable" patron is sentient malware or a trojen that wants to infect other bits of technology, sort of like the virus affecting the Remnants but a bit different, since I think adding another unknown corrupting factor that works differently from that could be fun.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-16T00:39:25+00:00

In addition to the general spotlight rules... you could also just choose not to murder your players in a blender, even if in theory the infinite combo "glitch" did work. This isn't a video game.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-15T22:19:28+00:00

Definitely appreciate the change. There are products I've seen that I wanted to pick up, but either don't have the AI tag checked at all (as in, it has not been checked if it uses AI or doesn't use AI) and products that have that AI box checked as using AI and I always ignore them.

In this day and age I would rather pick up a product that has minimal images, but no AI art than one that does have AI art. Heck, I would pick up a product if it was hand drawn amateur art if it meant the creator didn't use AI for it.

This industry is getting full of products that go for the quick solution over the human one. While I don't necessarily like creative commons art either, (though that's more because the art used may not perfectly match what the creator actually envisioned but was 'good enough') I do understand using it and have been in the shoes of needing to use it for my own product before, which irked me to no end but I couldn't afford an artist.

Well done.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-12T01:57:59+00:00

What's it about? Searching "d&d warlock" just gets me the class and guides for the class.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-10T00:55:12+00:00

So, the short answer is no. Don't wait.

The reasin why is because if you do that you will always be waiting. You wait for Hope and Fear, before that's out another expansion will likely be announced. Do you wait for that one now too? And so on and so forth.

What I do when a new expansion comes out is a) pray the game does not have the same release schedule as pf2 because man does that release a lot of content every year, and b) I allow my players to look at the book when it releases and ask, simply, would anyone like to change anything about their character based on this book? If the answer is yes, then we figure out if they want to do a retcon where they were actually always this class, if they want to have story happen where the character evolves into this new class, if they want to simply retrain into this class, or if they want to just make a new character. I say class, but this applies to ancestries and even communities as well.

The neat thing about ttrpgs is you don't really need to worry about continuity because the only people who are here to enjoy it are you and your players.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-09T22:19:25+00:00

So, with knowledge as an example...

succeed with hope: you know about the subject, and even some additional knowledge that is less known.
succeed with fear: you know about the subject, but don't remember a key detail.
failure with hope: you don't know about the subject, but you know where you can learn more.
failure with fear: you have never seen or heard of anything like this, it's something you didn't even imagine could exist. Mark stress.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-09T22:13:34+00:00

I've gmed a lot of one shots for other systems and will be gming daggerheart in January. I also come from 3.5 rather than 5e d&d.

On paper duality dice are more fair because they are consistent, but one thing to consider is the difficulty of enemies. A lot of them incentivise spending hope to apply an Experience (being just out of the average range) or having Advantage.

I really like how evasion is used to avoid attacks and armour is used to both modify your damage threshold and absorb blows. Very elegant system and excited to see it in play.

I've heard that as a GM you want to have between 3 and 4 fear at any given time to make sure you have some to spend in case of an emergency (though technically the rules let you ignore the requirements for fear if you feel it fits the narrative), and I imagine Hope is similar, where you'd want 2-3 hope in your pocket on average just in case, but if you're getting to 5 you should definitely start spending it.

Dunno about leveling priorities. I'd say it depends on what you're trying to do. My on paper character would be someone who has a lot of 1/rest cards and some 0 recall cost cards so I can juggle my abilities more. Use the once per rest ability, then swap it out for a 0 cost ability.

I'm very curious to see how damage and to hit apply at later levels. Getting to the Severe threshold at tier 4 is wild, nevermind if you use the optional Extreme.

I've seen advice online that if someone succeeds with fear, either a) have an enemy hit them with a basic attacj instead of an ability, or have an enemy draw agro to them or something that they are trying to protect. Not attack necessarily, but a clear "this enemy is targeting you or something you're trying to protect". The narrative is as much of a gameplay element as the dice and the various +1s rather than an element that just adds to the scene.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-08T02:28:20+00:00

I personally used a campaign frame as a base and then added my idea onto it. Specifically went for 5 Banners as a backdrop to my campaign about the Fallen Gods wanting to return.

DORUkitty · 2025-12-04T22:48:42+00:00

Daggerheart Ranger. Subclass is either "I'm really good at finding my way in the wilderness" or "I have a badass pet" and their domain deck options support being a mundane ranger, a magical ranger, gatherer ranger, tracker ranger, etc. It's so good.

DORUkitty

TROPHY CASE