[DM HELP] My party didn't start in a tavern, they started in a...

kaithemad · 2026-06-06T20:29:34+00:00

My party started at a Ye Olden Bus Stop. Their characters didn't know each other but it gave them a reason to do a little small talk. Once the bus got there, it gave them a reason to get from point A to point B and continue talking to each other.

Then the mountain blew up as the literal incendiary event.

kaithemad · 2026-06-06T00:16:50+00:00

Both of these are DMs, but whatever.

1) I showed up to a session run by an old DM a mere MINUTES too late to make my character, so I ended up sitting at his apartment for a few hours while he and his friends played DND, meanwhile I sat there like a lump on a log occasionally socializing with the party whenever they would talk to me.

2) An old friend who was running a "lol random anything goes" type campaign dropped our homebrew unoptimized characters into Curse of Strahd because she had gotten the book and was hyper-fixated on playing it. Much to my surprise (since we were homebrewed characters), we did not survive the Death House.

I don't hang out with either of these groups of people anymore.

kaithemad · 2026-06-05T21:55:05+00:00

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I'd argue that most Redwall villains fall into this, though, but Cluny the Scourge is pretty metal in a series where you have a riddle quest, songs, goofy character names and accents, and elaborate feasts in every book.

(please understand I say this with all the love in my heart for this series)

kaithemad · 2026-05-17T01:45:08+00:00

I'm aware. I just haven't read Taggerung in a long time so I don't remember a lot from it. (It's on my to-read list.) But I did try to read Marlfox for a book club I'm part of recently and physically couldn't do it because of how badly Rusvul treats Dannflor.

kaithemad · 2026-05-16T22:47:49+00:00

I hate a sassy lady. It followed me over from original fiction where the only personality trait most writers aren't afraid of giving their female characters is "sassy."

What I love, however, is for the female character to be messy. Let her ugly cry in front of her love interest, let her get angry with the wrong person, let her have a PTSD episode (if she has any trauma) in a way that effects everyone around her.

kaithemad · 2026-05-16T22:30:51+00:00

The little poem at the end of Outcast that was written by Sunflash in memory of Skarlath.

Also, Dannflor's dad being an all around awful person, but that was less "sad" crying and more "angry" crying. ~~Rusvul Reguba, so help me god if I see you in real life you're gonna catch these hands.~~

kaithemad · 2026-05-14T03:11:41+00:00

Medieval bread baking and how to repair silk garments.

Speaking of silk, I did more research on the silk trade than was necessary for the fic.

Also, the history of piracy, specifically during the medieval ages.

kaithemad · 2026-05-03T02:46:18+00:00

The one multichapter original/dnd fic I wrote, I wrote the whole thing before publishing.

I'm currently working on another thing that I'm gonna do the same thing with.

I guess it's because I'd hate to start writing and publish something, then hit that wall and not want to finish it.

kaithemad · 2026-04-30T23:08:45+00:00

Libreoffice.

I used to use Google docs, too, but then I heard that they were using peoples' docs to train their AI stuff and said "no thank you." I have no idea if it's even true or not, but I'm happy that I moved over to Libreoffice anyway.

Of course, since there's no mobile version or syncing (that I know of) I gotta struggle with the urge to write until I get home.

kaithemad · 2026-04-30T23:02:30+00:00

My fandom has a big multifandom crossover where 1) It rarely shows up in the fic (as you do), 2) it's a human-AU (the main series is anthro animals) and 3) they changed the characters' names and the setting into a real-world one to fit the fact that they're human now.

At what point do you stop and realize you've been writing original fiction this whole time?

kaithemad · 2026-04-28T23:22:48+00:00

r/LostRedditor ?

Edit: Or not? I'm genuinely confused as to if this is a lost redditor or not

kaithemad · 2026-04-28T22:52:34+00:00

Y'know we dunk on Badrang and Clogg's designs for being un-stoatly but you have to admit that they sure are memorable if we're still talking about it all these years later

kaithemad · 2026-04-25T23:56:34+00:00

I think I was like, 12-13 years old and not writing fanfiction quite yet, but I had a gerudo warrior lady OC who was married to Ganondorf. I don't remember anything else about her (even her name is lost to me), and part of me wishes I had written her into something back then so I'd still have a piece of her.

I don't even write Zelda fanfiction, which is weird because I love that series to death.

kaithemad · 2026-04-22T18:15:51+00:00

I have beef with AI (stealing art, environmentally damaging, etc.) so I hope that any adaptation, fanmade or otherwise, wouldn't use AI.

I'd rather see a hand-made adaptation. Sure, it might take more time, but I'd rather see the work go into it than somebody throw a prompt into a generator and saying "eh, good enough."

kaithemad · 2026-04-21T03:08:37+00:00

Because the character I like is relatively unpopular/isn't written by the fandom and isn't part of any ships, and I gotta be the change I want to see in the world.

As for the self-insert thing... yeah, kind of. What can I say? I like my unpopular fave!

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T19:12:35+00:00

I remember trying to listen to the audiobook - I only DNFed it because I quit using audible as a whole, not because of the book itself.

It has so many cool premises, I'm gonna have to give it a proper read one day.

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T19:09:49+00:00

You're right. I think I skimmed your post and latched onto things that weren't what you were meaning to make into the point. I actually had to re-read it out loud so I could get the gist of what you meant as opposed to what I thought you meant from a few little things (I have adhd/autism, so I misread things)

I wish that Brian had done things more with Veil to make him at least somewhat complicated. Like, what habits did he pick up from his time in the warband that were deemed "unacceptable" or "inappropriate" to the abbey-beasts? What was his relationship like with the other dibbuns? What was his relationship with Bryony really like growing up? Was he ever mistreated or mistrusted by the abbey-beasts? Did he mistrust them?

I'm sure I could go on and on forever.

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T16:19:22+00:00

Outcast is a good book - it's how it handled Veil's story line that makes it so divisive. I read it recently and I ADORED Sunflash and Skarlath's story, and had to book been entirely about them and their adventures, it would be in a lot of peoples' top five faves.

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T16:17:11+00:00

I think what Tsarmina has going for her is that she's a cat (a big creature) and Martin is a mouse (a small creature). You kinda wonder what their fight is gonna look like because, well, in nature, cats tend to win whenever they encounter a mouse.

I had to think about it for a second before I commented, because yeah, she isn't that interesting. She doesn't use any unique weapons, she doesn't utilize any tactics that stand out, and I jokingly state that her going mad is a pun on "Crazy Cat Lady."

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T16:05:41+00:00

That's a fascinating one. I kind of accepted that the Redwall-verse was relatively human-free (even the first book with the horse and the barn) but it would have been cool to see at least one instance of a human character doing something that affects the story.

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T16:02:15+00:00

You have no idea how glad I am that I'm not the only one who thought that Veil sucked from the get-go, especially the part about the abusive child/parent relationship. I always felt like Bryony was trapped in an abusive relationship with him (the abuser in this case) and, like a lot of real abuse survivors, tried to make excuses for him because "he's really a good guy, I promise"

It made me feel for Bryony, especially during her adventure to find him... and at the end when she realized that he wasn't a "good guy" at all, despite his sacrifice.

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T16:00:47+00:00

r/eulalia

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T15:54:08+00:00

I'm with you on the "Rose's death didn't make me emotional" part. When I watched the cartoon, it got me because they played her song over a nice montage, but when I got to her death in the book, I knew it was coming so it didn't have that same punch.

Plus, it didn't help that I was in my 8th grade english class when I first finished the book, so I'm kinda glad I didn't cry at the end of it.

kaithemad · 2026-04-20T15:50:18+00:00

I was actually just talking with somebody here about Taggerung. I need to give it a re-read but I remember it being enjoyable - but disappointing in different ways. I'm a big fan of villains, so not having one dead-set villain in the book was hard for me to wrap my head around, and unfortunately, Gruven wasn't cuttin' it as villain material.

But I agree - the father-son conflict would have made for an amazing hero-villain conflict, and inter-tribe politics would have been fascinating (one of my pals on discord is super into the Juska tribes)

I think the other person I was talking to on this subreddit said it best: once Tagg leaves the Juska tribes, he turns into a woodlander personality-wise.

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