A few Christmas' ago I was gifted this oversized d20 during my dnd group gift swap. The moment I held it I thought it felt like a shift nob. Fast forward a couple of years and I am restoring my 07 Subaru impreza I remembered the d20 and decided to turn it into a custom shift nob. I took the oversized d20 and drilled it out. Then I friction fit a threaded insert with a M10x 1.25 thread pitch. I used a second nut at the base that I can tighten against so the 20 faces the right direction. If the friction fit starts to fail I will probably try to epoxy it in place. I avoided it initially because I didn't want to risk getting epoxy on the threads. Would you guys drive with one? OK I think I have run out the word count to post. But just to be safe: I CAST POTATO!

I made a bard with the intent of going College of Dance at lvl 3. However, to me, just waking up one day and doing a 180 flip from fighting with ranged weapons and slinging spells to martial arts just didn't make sense. So I decided to RP the transition from the start.

We have a monk in the party so I started off trying to 'imitate' the monk. The first time I got to wade into the thick of it, pull back and let loose the biggest haymaker ever and connect... for 1 whole damage. After I talk to the monk about what I'm doing wrong. We do training in the mornings after a long rest. Obviously I'm not trying to be a monk, so I take what I learn and apply it to my own abilities. I still wade into each fight, laying out 1 damage at a time (while slinging inspiration and the occasional support spell).

That's what I can't wait for; when all of this training and application finally pays off at lvl 3 and I get to land that first real damage punch. So instead of some magic "DING, congrats! You can now somehow punch 600% better than you could an hour ago!" it'll be "Holy crap! The bard finally learned how to punch! The fluid dancing moves is all him, but that left hook, that's [the monk's]".

I've usually been pretty big into optimization. It's what I found fun, but you gotta change it up now and then, and I have not regretted it.

I received a request from a player recently to draw their character, Lorna, an elf of the fighter class. Below is a brief description of the character they provided, along with some notes regarding her appearance.

Backstory:
Lorna was born into a world of turmoil, her home and community ransacked as a small child, burned and destroyed, and her parents lost in the process. Wandering far from her once home, and barely surviving off the land, she was discovered by a tribe of orcs who took her in and taught her their ways.

Lorna adopted many orc customs, and although elvish by blood, is more orc at heart. She uses a blunt and brutal fighting style, and isn’t interested in etiquette or grace. She gets to the point, blows like cannonballs and bombs being released onto her adversaries.

Brief description of appearance:
I imagine her being medium brown in complexion, but with light blonde hair, coiled and abundant in the back, but tight and braided in the front. She is missing her right eye, and has a vertical scar over it, starting at the forehead and going down to her cheek.

She wears armor, but I’d prefer it to look more Greek or Roman in appearance, and with a bit of skin showing as you would see in pop culture depictions of Spartans or gladiators. Sandals are preferred over shoes or boots, and she should carry a large round mace and shield. Maybe a knife or short sword by her side, but it’s not necessary if too much trouble. A gown or cape would be nice too, but as far as color or pattern, whatever you think will work best.

$4.9M puts Wild Hearth as the second-most funded D&D tabletop project on Kickstarter to date, second only the the behemoth of Neon Odyssey.

The campaign pulled in over $250k in the last 3 hours to blow past the final stretch goal. I've been going over the free playtest stuff all month & holy wow, kids. The Hat pulled out all the stops on this one.

Congratulations to Antonio Demico & Pointy Hat Studios on this history-making (very first) Kickstarter!

So my friend is a DM and I had grown interested in DnD so I asked if I could join for a session. He had a campaign ongoing and asked the other players in I could join in for a session, they said yes. So i got to character creating. Rudeus Shirtail aka The Redshirt. And for the non Star Trek peeps, a redshirt is a background character that goes along with the main cast and just kinda dies. My man came from a long line of brave men who all just kinda died in the background of battles. A noble of very low renown. I even asked if the DM could focus me in combat so I would die.

Anyway, the party found Rudy stuck in a web outside a den of big spiders, after some pleading and promises of knowing a bit of the lair layout they set me free and I joined up. I chose, paladin gave him decent armour and shield. So my AC was actually pretty high (it was early in the campaign I believe lv5 and I had an AC of 18ish). So despite my mates best effort and getting kinda close, this tough bastard managed to survive the encounter with some healing from the cleric. We parted ways and irl I came back every so often before becoming a party regular towards the end.

Anyway Rudy's motivation to adventure was to find a sword that the first Redshirt lost which the DM then tuned into a demonic relic. The reason why the Redshirt line kept dying off young was because the first Redshirt made a deal with a devil and cursed his bloodline. The monsters focusing Rudy was a side effect of the devil's contract.

So after some more journeying Rudy became the party tank, got into a romance with another PC and finally found the family sword. I also acquired the ability to control my curse somewhat and choose when to draw attention (basically a taunt I activate by saying Look at me). The Devil (who's name is Khanus) showed up briefly via a messenger, informing Rudy that the sword was stolen form him and his soul is forfeit.

The party decides to sneak into hell.

We do, we enter Khanus's domain. Find the contract but I decide not to destroy it until we've found a way out, as my skill to taunt enemies would presumably be lost. We try to escape, battling demons along the way and the party gets dangerously low. As we nearly make our escape the door is magically sealed by Khanus. He charges up a big fireball attack (idk what it's called i imagined like a big firey spirit ball thing) intent on wiping everyone in the party out. As the wizard tries to unlock the door everyone sets up some manner of defences, which in truth, wouldn't have worked regardless.

So Rudy runs away from the group putting as much distance between himself and them as possible. I call out "Look at me!", which Khanus manages to resist the urge, I get another roll from the DM and I barely manage to success as Khanus fails his wisdom saving roll. And is forced to take aim solely at Rudy. I hold the contract in front of me, arm outstretched, "My name is Rudeus Shirtail, and you are bound to me and me alone. Look at me!".

Khanus turns and agaisnst his will is forced to fire his attack away from the party. And just as the wizard is able to unlock the door, his attack lands. Far away enough from the party to deal no damage. Rudy is killed, but before he draws his last breath the contract is burned to ashes. Freeing his soul. As his friends escape.

Is there any class or race that I can use for this? My player really wants to make a ghost character. Im not sure how will that work and is such a character even able to die? Are there any homebrew or in book races or classes that are ghost related or have ghost like traits or abilities?

This is a commission I did a while back. I had to work on its full design, even though the client only had a single reference image showing just the face and a little bit of the chest armor. I did my best working on the rest of this cool character's armor.
He is a black knight elf named "Rudiger," and unfortunately! I don’t know anything about his backstory. The client trusted me to design his original character after he saw my OC, "The Black Knight of NARAKA," and wanted something similar. I did my best creating it and even suggested extra design details free of charge of course which the client enthusiastically agreed to. I really hope to work on more characters like this one in the future!

This is Crick, an Ashborn rogue gravedigger who was born from the ashes of the town’s former gravedigger.

I’ve been having a lot of fun working on fantasy and TTRPG characters lately, especially pieces where I can push expressive designs, fun silhouettes, and lots of little details in the outfit and props.

I’m currently open for commissions if anyone is looking for character art, party illustrations, creatures, or other fantasy/TTRPG pieces, feel free to send me a DM!

Portfolio: https://cara.app/carimbotinteiro
Socials: -@CarimboTinteiro

On our last session, we went into a city of engineers, where one of NPC's has gifted us mechanical pets. Now that I write it down it sounds suspicious... But I am too inspired to care about that. So, this is my pet Gaika (Screw in my language). It's really fitting since my character is an artificer with a huge love for nature and animals. I know she seems really silly, but this is my first time doing something like that and love her anyway

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Made a poster art for the Crooked Moon campaign I'm playing with my friends, which has the twist of a 1930s/Deadlock inspired setting.

The drawing depicts Vincent, one of the player's characters, who turned into a vampire after our encounter with Renathyr. He's a very machiavellian and egotistical character, who prioritizes power over everything and everyone else. My character is also in the background, as I work as his butler ;)

Hey folks! I make these crazy fog of war maps and I'm really happy with how they've turned out. Been a while (and on another account), so thought I'd introduce it all again.

What It Is

Removable wooden pieces cover the points of interest and their routes so you can reveal the map as your journey progresses! Either a jigsaw puzzle over the Curse of Strahd Barovia map I made (2 versions), or one that can fit any map that uses different sized wooden squares.

The Idea

I came up with this idea to solve the problem of revealing the map in Curse Of Strahd. I hate pulling off pieces of paper, or folding it, or adding in locations on a blank map.

The idea was to make pieces that cover the points of interest and the paths to get there. That way, the DM could remove pieces as you go and only reveal what they wanted to.

Pretty cool right? But at the same time I was teaching myself some woodworking. I tried to figure out what the BEST version of this could be and something that would be worth adding to a years' long campaign. And here it is!

Extra Cool Stuff

Everything is made of solid hardwood. Some is pretty exotic, but I source it locally. Padauk is the default and the one I use in all the pictures. It is a really beautiful bright red / brown color. But the other woods are pretty strange and awesome as well. I've included a pic of some of the options in the post. Padauk is the most popular, but dying to try out the Purpleheart (newer addition, and no one has ordered one yet). It's crazy

I spend way too long on the computer these days. This is a way for me to get away from screens and make something I'm really proud of with my own hands. I make every one myself. Their map design is a collab between myself, my friend, and an illustrator.

I haven't been advertising them much the past 9 months or so since I've been busy. But I have a little bit of free time, so I'd love to start making more of these again, so I've put them on sale. Figured it was a good time for gifts with the holidays coming up as well.

NO AI, All hand drawn and made by me. Here's the links if you want to check out my work or get your hands on one. Enjoy!

Fog Of War Curse Of Strahd Jigsaw Map - https://www.etsy.com/listing/4429414842/cursed-valley-of-the-vampire-woodburned

Fog Of War Any-Fit Magnetic Frame Map - https://www.etsy.com/listing/4439234043/magnetic-map-reveal-frame-with-hardwood

Hello everyone! I wanted to share this lovely custom character sheet I've made for another client!

Gozashtan (Or Art) is a Warforged Rogue. At first sight, intimidating, cold and reserved, but when you get to know him, he's kind, understanding AND a lover for all types of arts! (Thus, the nickname). I've loved working on him and designing him, especially because it was my first time drawing a Warforged character, and it couldn't have been better.

Thank you for taking your time to check on my art! ⚙️

I've been at this monthly table for almost 2 years. People have come and gone but myself and one other character have been at the table the whole time. 3-4 sessions ago, in response to departures, with DMs blessing swapped out my original character for another, a caster druid for a barb-druid. I had been talking about making this switch and when we ended session with caster a POW, I asked if I could just start the new character.

Caster druid mostly did support either changing combat landscape or calling a play that made battles much easier.

Barb-druid is primed for combat with two really good pairings. Polearm master and sentinel. Rage and wild shape. After the first session where I was taking 4 glaive attacks a turn (2x for barb level 5, d4 from pole arm master, and reaction since we were bunched up with the enemy), DM said my character had a target on its back. I said as I've often said "scale up the enemies to match us." We had a tiff where one of the enemies had an effect that I would attack them at disadvantage. I asked if I could use reckless attack to negate the disadvantage. "No, because they are the one that put the effect on you"

Second session with new character I raged and wild shaped. As a totem warrior on the bear path, we talked about how with immunity to everything but psychic, I basically have double the HP.

Third Session was yesterday

On a particular turn, I was raging, killed the last enemy in range, and spotted another enemy 60 ft away, I bonus actioned to wild shape into a panther and run to close the gap. DM says that I can't rage and wild shape at the same time and that if I wildshape, the rage falls off. Rule 0. Fine. So I've closed on the enemy in panther form but my turn is over with getting to attack.

Enemy's turn, DM says they disengage and flee. "Hold on DM. sentinel. I still get my opportunity attack". grumpy noises from DM. It connects but enemy is still upright. DM starts to move the mini. "Hold on DM. I hit with an opportunity attack, their movement speed drops to zero for the rest of the turn." Ranged party member takes their turn and kills enemy with crossbow. Enemy has on-death AoE effect and reduces me to zero health even with making my save. Totally fair the other enemies had it too so no surprises there. And no big deal. Other party member aids me and I use my druid slots to heal myself up a bit.

At a second encounter, we're ambushed while I'm in human form (yes human, I'm not even taking some weird race to get crazy benefits, I just took a feat at level 1 in exchange for darkvision and trance) and flying enemies come by. I'm in front because where else do you put a barbarian, flyer whips past me. "Hold on DM. Polearm master, I get attack of opportunity when they come *into* my reach" The response "Nope, they are small and moving fast. You can't use your feat on them"

Is this a problem of my character being broken? Is my playstyle a problem? Am I reading the rules wrong? or is my DM just ignoring rules?

I understand Rule 0. but before I exercise my right to simply leave the table, I want to attempt a proper conversation about expectations and I'd like advice on how to start that convo. We have discord between sessions

I've been playing Granny Erna (Mrs. Erna Breitfuss) for a couple of months now. She's a lawful good halfling grandma who used to be a mathematician and thus got enlightened by the universal order of things. That's how she got to be a clockwork soul sorceress. I was inspired by the US-mathematician Katherine Johnson who worked for NASA.

Erna's been asked by a good friend of hers to take care of the "young ones" on their adventures. So she does her best to make sure her companions don't die or worse, go down the wrong path ☝🏽 She will always be a kind person first and a brilliant battlefield strategist second. She's like a Swiss Knife, both when it comes to her spells and her apron inventary.

Oh and Granny Erna once won a golden anti-zombie chicken who loves loafing and gleams when Undead are around.

I personally prefer races / species that are closer to humans like elves, kalashtar, changelings etc. With the exception of dragonborn which i love.

I have a friend who likes the exact opposite. He likes races / species like lorwyn/shadowmoor elves, antropomorphic animals, dragons (homebrew ofc) and so on.

So, which side are you on?

A lot of word vomit for just a quick scribble, but here goes.

In TTRPGs, goblins are usually treated as disposable monsters to farm XP. I wanted to challenge that by giving them families, a society, and infants to protect—turning every "clear the goblin camp" quest into a heavy, meaningful tragedy where players face real people fighting for survival.

I prefer creating my own intuitive settings over following official lore like the Forgotten Realms. Since community guidelines require a detailed description, here is the specific ecology of goblins in my world.

Modern goblins lack patience, but when it comes to immediate survival or escaping crisis, they are exceptionally cunning and resourceful. They can do basic farming, but their warrior nature makes them naturally prefer raiding and pillaging.

In combat, a lone goblin will lose to a trained human soldier in a direct 1v1. However, an unarmed human civilian stands little chance against an aggressive male goblin, and even a heavily armored knight is in extreme danger if ambushed by three at once. Relying on raw instincts, their baseline combat efficiency is inherently high without any formal military training.

The Hobgoblins in the sketches represent a rare genetic throwback to the ancient, original form of the species. Since modern goblins only recently degenerated into smaller forms, a Hobgoblin is occasionally born with much higher intelligence and a vastly superior frame. In my setting, these throwbacks are strictly male, serving as rare chieftains or elite vanguard troops.

What do you think of this take on goblin anatomy and culture? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I've been doing this a very long time and I'm pretty good at it. I have a full roster of games and my selling point is always the character/NPC interactions and storytelling, even with crunchier systems like DnD/Pathfinder 2e. And almost universally, everyone who asks about games wants a long-form campaign, with a deep story, great NPCs, world-building, and role-play.

So, I crack my knuckles and get to it. I love writing characters, I love developing the setting. I don't play very often because - while I'd never tell a GM this - if the characters aren't at least a little bit interesting, or we're just hack-n-slashing through a dungeon, it's not really my thing. No hate to those who love that, just not my niche, and not why my players come to me.

But...sometimes those same people who CLAIM to want those things out of a campaign are the most difficult to get involved in any way. They'll just sit there silently unless they need to roll dice. I try to dangle bits of their unresolved backstories in front of them, they ignore it. I'll even have an NPC engaged in conversation with somebody else turn to them either asking for a second opinion or asking for support, ANYTHING really. And I get one-word responses.

All the above is fact, so now I'll venture into the realm of guesswork. I think that Critical Role et al has given people unrealistic expectations of a game. This isn't a complaint about that style of play, quite the opposite, given the right group it's wonderful, and I have a few of those groups. They're always engaged in the story, and their characters have little quips, conversations flow between them and the NPCs.

But I think a lot of players see Matt Mercer/Brennan doing their thing and think: "Wow, I'd love to be in their game!" But don't realize that all the players at those tables are literally professionals. The players at such a table have to give almost as much as the GM in terms of participation. That's what makes it great. If all the players just sat around the table and answered when directly spoken to, nobody would watch that.

It's just one of the revelations I've had over the years, and it kind of sucks. Because if I take the time to craft something interesting and nobody responds to it...did I just waste my time? It actively discourages me from trying, because what's the point? They won't talk to any of my NPCs anyway.

I'm sort of making it out to be a bigger problem than it is, I suppose, as I've had tremendous luck at my tables with having a really good crop of players. But I just wrapped up a game with a group I've been playing with for years now, and every session it's hit or miss with whether they'll interact with my world beyond rolling the dice, and it's discouraging. I feel like a monkey doing a song and dance, but nobody is watching.

Just curious if other GMs feel that their players know what they want when they ask for a particular kind of campaign, or you find they have an unrealistic idea of how such campaigns actually work? Maybe that makes sense...

Before I got into dnd I thought the whole “can’t make it to the session” stuff was over exaggerated. There’s no way 6 people can’t coordinate to meet up every other Friday.

Well…
I started DMing for my friends, we had two sessions to get the feel of the game and we all seemed to love it. More people joined the party. We went from three players and one DM to 5 players and me as their DM. Not counting the 6 guest players we’ve had/are gonna have for a short adventure.
I know that’s a lot of guests but it’s actually manageable taking in account we won’t have more than two guests at a time and it’s a requirement to at least read the basic rules before you join.

Anyway, I keep asking my players when they can come over for the next session but they never can.

I get it, we’re uni students so we’re busy and when Friday comes we wanna go home. But it can’t possibly be that hard to stay every few weeks.

Our last session was in June, we’re in October.

Our third session was supposed to take place in September but one of the players got grounded until November, so guess when our next session is?

November 7th.
I’ve been waiting since June 15th!

I read the books and learned to play and DM from scratch, I consumed a ridiculous amount of gameplays just to be a good dm for them.
I even made them dice by hand.

The kicker is that the poll is still in the group chat waiting for the remaining 3 players to say whether they can make it or not.

In conclusion.

They can’t coordinate for shit and as much as I love them I’m pissed.

UPDATE: I managed to get all but one player to answer in the group chat. Our next session has been fixed. If the missing player does not reply she will miss out on the session.

Our table is on a bit of a hiatus and I've been itching to improve during this downtime as a first time player and just generally communicate that I'm very thankful to have been brought in.

What do you wish your players worked on between sessions? What would feel most meaningful?

I'm currently very slowly making my way through the players handbook and this week I started drawing one of my teammate's characters (with their feedback) after finishing my own. I'd love to eventually draw the whole party and major NPCs but that takes a lot of time of course.

Some other ideas I had:

- Trying to simulate some combat runs at home since I'm still not very good at knowing what exactly to roll and when

- making a custom binder book themed around my character that houses her character sheet among other important notes. I found a really cute brass binder spine and I'm planning how to fasten that to some leather eventually, and get some cool washi tapes to line the insides.

- Having an item for my character to give to someone else, which I can physically hand over, such as a pendant necklace or a thorn rose crown

- Looking into creating a miniature replica of the unique weapon belonging to a party member

Any other ideas? I could infinitely expand my backstory but that seems like a bad idea that would cause more headaches for the DM so I'm holding back on that part.

Obituary..

Zan Zanzibar, high flame of the tempest, reveared son or Zar Zanzibar, died last Tuesday night defending his party while they made their escape. Took a non recoverable necrotic death ray to the face from a particularily nasty beholder while severly wounded, as his own fireball finished him off.

Zan is survived by Zel, Elain, Remmy and Fancyman3000.

May you find peace in the here after you glorious bastard.

After two years of playing this character every other weekend I just wanted to share.

Its funny I feel weird rolling up a new character, like I need a session or two to grieve. Have you felt this?