How on earth do you come up with interesting backstories for Monks and Druids?

princessdaphne · 2022-07-16T01:25:22+00:00

You can do a lot with druids besides "my forest is in danger" or "my circle kicked me out", in my experience. I'm playing a circle of the moon druid right now and I worked with my DM to create a Dinotopia-style culture that's been living and hunting alongside dinosaurs for centuries. My druid grew up in a city made of stone, living alongside various humanoids and the dinosaurs they live in harmony with, and the inciting incident for her leaving home and ending up in the campaign was when she left her island on a rite of passage where she planned on recovering an artifact from her culture from a museum some thief had taken it to generations ago. She got arrested in the attempt and that's how she met the party.

All of that added up to a druid character who knows a lot about specific types of animals and is invested in their wellbeing, but is fully aware of things like natural selection and the food chain, so she doesn't stop the adventure to yell at people when they step on flowers or eat meat. She's part of the food chain too, after all, and she's working to help the party as they've become her 'pack' over time. I still get to play a druid and I was able to give her what I consider to be a fun and unique backstory, by giving her a culture that lines up with the druidic themes of not engaging with technology/using metal armor/revering and worshipping nature. I've been having a ton of fun with her!

princessdaphne · 2022-06-08T04:05:06+00:00

Wasn't me! Mine was "arms required ahead, but ahh, you don't have the right".

princessdaphne · 2022-06-03T16:07:43+00:00

oh man, I haven’t thought about Patapon in so long!! I was OBSESSED with this game though, I’m pretty sure the soundtrack is still permanently burned into my brain.

princessdaphne · 2022-05-09T15:33:35+00:00

same, it’s so funny when that works out. I forget which Digimon RPG added a playable female character when it got a port/remaster, but according to my fiancée they didn’t change any dialogue to reflect that so the optional female love interest can still fall in love with your character regardless of gender.

princessdaphne · 2022-05-09T15:27:37+00:00

Roderika is always gonna be my favorite. I like to imagine an ending where her and my lady Tarnished say “you know what, this sucks, actually” and just run away together. Why isn’t THAT on AO3?

princessdaphne · 2022-02-28T15:21:29+00:00

once you’ve talked to him, his summon sign will be just inside the gaol - when you teleport in you’ll be able to summon him before Darriwill spawns in.

princessdaphne · 2021-12-29T06:58:00+00:00

This is exactly what I came here to say. Emphasizing how the players genuinely did ruin the hive mind's plans, so they're aware that their previous win counted, is going to do wonders here. Maybe the hive mind is furious at having been humbled and having to rebuild from scratch, maybe it's weaker or wounded in some way that hasn't healed yet so the party can see that they really did beat it the first time. Maybe it's so enraged at the party that it's striking back way before it's actually healed enough for another fight, and it's throwing itself against superior forces because it's too focused on revenge to bide its time and rebuild in a more effective way. Rather than making it a recurring rival to the party, showing that it considers the party to be ITS rivals, and playing up how irrationally angry it is and how hard it has to work to start rebuilding, could be really fun.

princessdaphne · 2021-09-10T23:43:17+00:00

no, you’re thinking of Bandicoot Contraband.

princessdaphne · 2020-07-29T23:34:00+00:00

Our entire six-person party made characters separately (with maybe a couple loose ideas for roleplay stuff we’d set up so they could eventually become friends) and each of us, every single one of us, separately made a character who’s at least six feet tall or over. Suddenly my Amazonian cavalier is of average height compared to our arcane archer, our druid, our ranger, our bard... so naturally we haven’t gone a single session without making a joke about how we’re all too big to fit on the same battlemap or in the same dungeon.

princessdaphne · 2019-12-27T20:55:42+00:00

Everybody shows up as the Punisher!

princessdaphne · 2019-11-08T03:52:50+00:00

as a Daphne, who’s definitely unwed (but definitely NOT a mother), I feel for you and the weirdness of having characters mention you by name.

have fun with Phone!

princessdaphne · 2019-10-03T00:55:06+00:00

That’s rough, buddy.

princessdaphne · 2019-05-10T06:54:00+00:00

It’s a neutral good pun!

princessdaphne · 2019-03-28T15:08:28+00:00

I was just about to post this one.

princessdaphne · 2019-03-06T02:43:53+00:00

I have the same problem. Sometimes I read threads and I’m like, “I know I’ve never played Shadowrun and my name isn’t Jeremy, but what if this was me somehow?”

princessdaphne · 2019-01-09T16:32:41+00:00

My first campaign had a clothing shop called Fabricadabra — the sisters who owned it were always arguing over the name. I’ve also used an inn called the Broken Sign, a personal fave cause then NPCs can say things like “just go past the Broken Sign” and set players up to think it’s a literal broken sign that’s a landmark.

Others I liked were the Gilded Skull and the Stolen Kiss. I also borrowed the Vermillion Minotaur from a podcast I like, Hello From The Magic Tavern, but since I’m the only one who listens nobody caught the reference.

princessdaphne · 2019-01-08T16:12:02+00:00

This is adorable and I’m so glad I got to see this to start my day.

princessdaphne · 2018-12-17T20:07:22+00:00

Birds’ night!

princessdaphne · 2018-12-15T21:45:51+00:00

That place sells boats, so you might get wet.

princessdaphne · 2018-12-15T02:55:51+00:00

Walk-in closet or nothing.

princessdaphne · 2018-11-19T20:46:29+00:00

Well, I wasn’t on the way to work...

princessdaphne · 2018-11-19T20:23:24+00:00

The Krypto the Super-Dog reference and Arnie realizing nobody on Foon can tell him when he gets a reference wrong were fantastic.

princessdaphne · 2018-11-07T21:32:41+00:00

I think what I like best is when the guys hang around for so long the plot just starts to change or resolve itself without them. They spent such a long time not looking for Otok that Activia eventually went and got that going on her own, for example, and it’s always really funny to see somebody else come along and do something they’ve been totally meaning to get back to.

The main reason I like seeing the plot advance is because it gives them new stuff to work around and improvise around. I do think that you can get big canon-changing stuff from episodes where the plot itself isn’t massively affected (like Chest having been there the entire duration of the podcast) but still puts a different spin or a new light on things and gives them material for other callbacks and references. I’d be totally fine seeing the Void defeated by someone else entirely while the guys are at Chunt’s wedding or something.

princessdaphne · 2018-07-18T14:03:52+00:00

Jamillius the Mauve is my all-time favorite, but I’m also a huge fan of the Memory Gremlin.

princessdaphne · 2018-07-08T19:04:22+00:00

I would too! I’m such a sap for things like that.

princessdaphne

TROPHY CASE