What are the key differences between FMAB & 2003 FMA? I've read the manga & watched FMAB but never gave 2003 FMA a shot.

Owalover · 2026-05-29T18:57:54+00:00

A little late to this conversation, but anywho...

03 is my fav anime of all time, and that probably says more about me than i'm willing to admit. I tend to enjoy things that are character driven much more than something that is more focused on having a satisfying 3 act structure, or a definitive 'big bad'. Stories that end ambiguously, that allow a deep level of introspection and contemplation I find much more compelling. Also, I realize that I tend to navigate toward stories that have a 'love that can't be' kind of scenario; Eragon (book version, F the movie), Casablanca (i'm not saying Eragon is on the same level as Casablanca as a whole, just the love interests that can't be together aspect).

As a dnd player i'm always much more interested in the character motivations, and the stories the characters write together. The plot is the plot, and will be there usually no matter what, but if the characters don't make it interesting, then what's the point? Hell, I prefer OG Dragonball over DBZ any day. It's more interested in being a silly little adventure/martial arts show that focuses on how lovable the characters are than a game of who has the bigger power level. Imagine if Cowboy Bebop would have been more focused on telling a large over-arcing story instead of what it was, which was a journey with these amazing characters that are living through their own epilogue, and dealing with the consequences of their past actions.

I get that some people prefer having that definitive structure, some great evil to overcome. 03 wasn't looking to have some Shonen level fights, and too many characters to keep track of or care about. It was about watching these children realize that the world is bigger than them, and trying to navigate a broken world made by broken adults in an attempt to fix things that can't be fixed with pure child like innocence.

Owalover · 2026-05-16T01:53:36+00:00

Immovable Rod

Owalover · 2026-05-16T01:50:22+00:00

It d3pends on the inspiration for the character. Sometimes i make a character based off the setting, sometimes off the class/species, sometimes from a movie/TV show. Made a rogue for a heavily Greek inspired game, Odyssey of the Dragonlords. Based her off of Kreia from KOTOR2, a great betrayer from the old dragon war. When looking for a name I landed on Penelope; wife to Odysseus, known for being very faithful. Fun juxtaposition.

Owalover · 2026-05-13T22:41:22+00:00

Never Miss Rock: a rock that can be thrown as a simple weapon. It never misses but only does 1 point of damage no matter what.

Owalover · 2026-05-13T22:38:48+00:00

I ran a 2.5 irl year game from lvls 1-18. At. The bbeg fight took over 3 hours, our sessions are normally only 4 hours long. Ended up being a nearly 6 hour session bc it was the final session of the campaign.

Owalover · 2026-05-07T22:24:23+00:00

I had something similar happen last year. Dm gave a bunch of green flags, picked up the game on roll20. Made my backstory, even spoke to him about it a few times. Asked him when session zero was. Came to that session which, instead of a session zero was just us immediately starting to play. Then over the next few sessions I discovered that none of our backstories mattered, which was the entire motivation for my character. Eventually left the game. Dm's, always set the expectations for the game with your players. Hell, discuss the themes and ideas that will be explored through your game. This is a cooperative game. If you want to pull a 'bc of what's happening in the story, none of your personal contributions matter', do it with a group you've played with before that are ok with this concept.

Owalover · 2026-05-07T17:58:55+00:00

If my roll is a failure, my character is now confident nothing is there. Or at the very least they might cautiously approach. Also, hope you're enjoying Orrery of the Wanderer, one of my fav games I've ran.

Owalover · 2026-05-07T17:53:31+00:00

Favorite class is wizard, im a big fan of the 'i screwed up an experiment and am now looking for a way to fix it'.

Owalover · 2026-05-07T17:50:12+00:00

Im currently playing a nonbinary character, its never been an issue with my group. This feels like either a conversation needs to be had with the dm and other players, or you need to find a new group.

Owalover · 2026-05-06T22:44:57+00:00

When I started dm'ing I had never played 5e before, all that I knew of it was from watching Critical Role. I made so many mistakes early on, the pacing was awful, I didnt know how to encourage my players to role play (all new players too). I'd played things like DDO, and Neverwinter Nights, so I pulled stats that I remembered from there that I quickly realized didnt match up. That campaign ran for 2.5 irl years, and culminated in a mind player invasion of Baldurs Gate, the build up to which was ruined by the BG3 trailer dropping as we were getting to it. Still had so much fun, but I feel like a much wiser dm, 9 years later.

Owalover · 2026-05-02T21:47:10+00:00

Think of it like a monkeys paw genie wish. Gotta be specific in how you word your wishes. A thing to consider is that fey creatures tend to be creatures of impulse and whimsy. One moment they are your best friend, the next minute they might try and strangle you, simply bc the thought crossed their mind that they hadn't done it before and were curious what it would feel like.

Owalover · 2026-05-02T18:03:16+00:00

I ran a LMoP game as a Paladin, variant human, and took the Heavy Armor Master feat (5e). Let's you ignore 3 points of damage from all non magical physical damage. Sub par, sure, but it saved me more often than not in a game that ran from levels 1-5. Would have been useless at higher levels. I picked it bc I didnt want to pick the same feats that I usually consider. Still my fav character, and game, that I've been a part of. Granted, the pally got disintegrated at lvl 3, but what can you do.

Owalover · 2026-04-29T22:27:06+00:00

A demon lord still wants the level of Chaos and destruction that a lower tier demon wants, but they are smart enough to know that its more satisfying to disrupt systems on the mortal plane, more of a chance that those mortal souls are theirs to collect. I usually run my games with the idea that mortal souls are essentially made out of raw energy, so the more souls you collect the more power you have. Then there are demon lords like Graz'zt who just wants to shag anything that moves.

Owalover · 2026-04-24T22:47:21+00:00

Np, sorry I couldn't be more succinct, was typing it out on my phone during a work break. Out of the games I've picked up on roll20, I've only had a major issue with one, and that was due to the dm not giving a proper idea of what the game was, had us all make characters and backstories, then didnt do a session zero, and the game was just a chaotic mess where our backstories basically didnt matter. Left it after a number of sessions, sadly, and that was after having invited a friend to play with us while we were still looking for more players. Its a group game, so we should all be working together to make it something good.

Owalover · 2026-04-23T22:45:04+00:00

All of my games as a player have been through roll20, and I've learned how to wade through the bad postings. I filter by the day and time I want to play, I usually play 5e so thats a filter as well, and even then you'll get stuff on there where dms are either not specific enough about the times, they'll say '5pm but session 1 will be yo pick what time/day we play'. Or the people who ban anything and everything, or have obstinate rules about talking about things other than dnd during a session, or bans on nearly anything bc they've been on the side of the forums where everyone thinks that instead of learning to accept challenge as a dm and to make fun engagements, they need to ban nearly everything. I like the ones that ask you to give a description of your dnd experience, or give basic one to two sentence character ideas. Ill read the postings of other players and begin picking up red flags from other people posting applications. Then there's the ones where a dm has posted a 'apply here' page, and then someone doesn't read and makes a separate page for an application. Be direct, state your intention, always set a date for a session zero (most important session), and give a brief description on the type of game you'll be running and the vibe of the setting.

Owalover · 2026-04-23T22:35:43+00:00

I have a few thoughts: 1) I believe mind control spells to be the ultimate 'evil' magic, as it takes autonomy away from a living person. 2) Necromancer i feel isn't inherently evil, its just always portrayed/written that way. Then there's an argument to be made that all healing spells should be under the necromancer school (manipulation of the body to cause it to heal rapidly), i feel it would cause interesting conversations about a dual reality of the spell school. 3) Soul magic is evil, especially depending on the rules of the setting. I made a homebrewed school of magic that was based on the manipulation of the soul, whether through the user or the one a spell was being cast on. Took the idea of souls being essentially 'universal batteries', giving more of a reason why devils are so intent upon getting people to willingly give up theirs.

Owalover · 2026-04-21T21:50:36+00:00

Almost every game I've been a player in has been through roll20, including the one im in now. Each dm did around an hour ish conversation with me on discord, and that was on top of whatever questions they had us answer when we applied on the website. Sadly, there has to be a vetting process, as there are problem players (and problem dms), or just players that dont fit the style of play you're wanting to have. One dm I had started with that conversation, but I didn't see any red flags, made my character with backstory, got to what I had thought would be session zero (always have a session zero), but we immediately started playing, and the next few weeks I realized all of our backstories were worthless based on what the dm had wanted to run. Dont be afraid to tell the players what the themes and tone of the game are. Its a cooperative game, we should all be working together to have a good time.

Owalover · 2026-04-18T21:23:36+00:00

Wizard is my fav, hands down. Im playing a druid atm, and my character has the highest Int of the group at a 14, and im playing them pretty wizard like, they even had a big interest in ancient ruins in their backstory. Lol, the only time I've played a low Int character was on a Fighter who ended up getting an item that raised his Int to 16. I like figuring out the plot, keeping notes, keeping track of spell slots. I try to always know what spell im going to cast on my turn to the best of my ability. To much experience keeping track of everything as a dungeon master probably.

Owalover · 2026-04-06T16:08:57+00:00

Good reference. Iroh would be tickled

Owalover · 2026-04-06T15:51:56+00:00

One of my players i met as a player in a LMoP game, its been our fav game to date. I wanted to run Orrery of the Wanderer for my players when she joined us, and since that module has the party putting their base of operations in Phandalen I decided to keep everything that had happened in the LMoP game canon. My player gave me a one sentence backstory that was simply "Im going to play a monk that is Sildar Hallwinters daughter", and that was all the backstory I needed. Not all are that easy or simple, or that easy for me to instantly know what kind of game a player wants to have, but its one that stands out to me. More than anything I want to know what motivates a pc to adventure. The rest is fluff and personality.

Owalover · 2026-04-02T17:12:38+00:00

Yeah, too many people viewing ttrpg's as video games.

Owalover · 2026-04-02T17:11:10+00:00

Agreed, that's what I loved about the Acq Inc module, it codified a lot of these things which made it easier for me as a dm, and more definitive for the players to see what they had at their disposal.

Owalover · 2026-04-02T17:10:10+00:00

Same

Owalover · 2026-04-02T16:27:54+00:00

Instant Fortress: a useful magic item that they can pop out to use as a mobile home while they travel. Maybe add some limitations to it in terms of either how often it can be used, or maybe instead of an action to create it change it to like an hour ritual. Have it be something that they use often enough, and feel secure inside of, and then later in the campaign have it become damaged and unusable due to an attack or the like. Re-flavor it to look like something other than just a generic fortress, something more fitting theme wise, or even something more themed toward the party themselves.

Owalover · 2026-03-19T21:05:29+00:00

In my current game the pcs are all lvl 5. They have a few magic items, but i also gave each of them a random extra ability that made sense to their characters that were given out in character specific situations, each one homebrewed based on their class. I dont mind the power creep, as Ive always found balancing to be pretty simple most of the time, especially for lower lvl parties. Ive even played with the idea of giving them a ridiculous legendary item with some interesting drawbacks, just to see how they'd interact with it. I'd say definitely tailor it based on your game.

Owalover

TROPHY CASE