More inadvisable ways to introduce a new player character mid-dungeon, bait and switch edition:
A new character with almost but not quite identical stats and appearance comes hurrying up to the party, insisting that you’re the real [name], and the [name] everyone knew was an imposter; when informed that they died just before you arrived, cryptically remark that this isn’t the first time they’ve pulled that trick
A character who nobody recognises speaks up from the party’s midst, acting like they expect to be familiar to the party; if questioned, claim that you’re the deceased character’s personal assistant, and that you’ve been here the entire time, then digress into a rant about how nobody every notices the help
Following the next encounter, the party discovers a large, ornate treasure chest, which proves to contain nothing but your character, bound and gagged; once released, any complaint regarding the lack of gold and jewels should naturally be met with dramatic indignation at the implication that you’re not treasure enough
The target the party has been sent to slay unexpectedly greets them warmly, explaining there’s been an awful misunderstanding: you’re not the true master of the dungeon, you’ve just been mistaken for the prophesied Lord of Evil, and you’d very much like to make your exit before the monsters figure it out
[Spellcaster only] Your original character is revealed upon death to be a fraud with no magical powers, who had merely been impersonating a member of their ostensible character class; any spell effects you seemed to produce in fact originated from a heretofore-unsuspected accomplice: your horse
You internet folks have a nasty habit of proposing “bad” ideas that I really want to try.
mARTch is a little art challenge i host in march! it’s full of quick daily prompts u can use to warm up :) you prob already heard me talk abt this if we’re friends or if u picked it up at fotp last weekend .. but heres whats up:
themed weeks this year to break it up a lil
there are DIFFICULTY LEVELS! dont feel bad about skipping days if ur busy, tired, or not interested in a prompt. ur supposed to! take care of yourself!
every time i host an art event i get messages on here and on twitter and on insta from people who ‘would love to join in but don’t feel like they can draw every day’ so i just want to specify again …
this is NOT an event where u gotta draw daily!!!! go at your own pace unless you love endurance - the NORMAL way to do mARTch is to only draw on the days marked with a star (2 days per week) seriously seriously seriously don’t push yourself unless you like pushing yourself!!!
I ended up having a really interesting conversation with some people at the bus stop today. They were getting out of some sort of ‘clean and sober’ meeting and had starting saying how they were so bored because they didn’t have anything to do, and had to stay at home because all their old friends would pull them back. So I said something like, ‘So this is the time to do all the stuff your parents told you they didn’t have money/time for!’
“Whatcha mean?”
“You know, like when you were five and you REALLY wanted to have that toy or do that thing and you were like, ‘Please mom please I gotta have this I gotta go do this’ and they went ‘Hell no you think I’m paying for that do you want to goddamn EAT?’ “
And this light went on in their eyes. The lady is going to go check thrift stores for an Easybake Oven and I told her about Wilton cake decorating classes. The dude is going to Griffith Park and ride horses, because, ‘I always wanted to be a cowboy, and you can’t drink when you’re on a horse ‘cause you’ll fucking die!’
Fuck it. This is what being an adult is. Sure it’s bills and work and relationships, but damn it, it’s also time to do the things you LIKE.
I signed up for a free class/lecture on Water Gardens. I’m going. It’s time.
Jill. Jill you are wonderful.
no joke, this is such an important aspect of overcoming trauma. I mean the trauma of abusive parents, the trauma of broke ass parents who got toxic because of it, the trauma of capitalism. Like fuck it. Go to Wrestlemania. Build a shit ton of terrariums.
I took a stained glass class during the pandemic and now I have a hummingbird hanging in my kitchen window. And this year I’m finally getting chickens!!
This is literally why I have my Sailor Moon thermos.
it doesn’t even have to be the trauma of bad parents. It can be the everyday human pain of “I lost my favorite toy when I was 12 and never found it again.” It can be the parents who loved you and fully sympathized with your desire to have the thing, but honey, we just don’t have the money right now. It can be the fact that you no longer live with your brother who’s highly allergic to dogs, so you can finally have the dog you always wanted that you always understood why you couldn’t get, and you accepted it, but it was still painful. It can be the Atari games or Nintendo games or Sega games that don’t exist anymore that you played in your childhood.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized – you don’t have to be suffering some great trauma, something unusual and particularly damaging, to feel pain. You don’t have to have lost your entire home in a hurricane to have lost something you truly valued and miss a lot. You don’t have to have had toxic parents to have been denied some things you wanted because they just didn’t have the money, or the resources, or the health.
Time is pain. Loss and disappointment are part of human existence. But you don’t have to try to justify why your specific loss or disappointment is especially bad to admit that it hurts and do something to rectify that hurt in some small way.
Ya ever do a butt ton of laundry and you think you’re done for life but then three days later it’s like “you thought you could be rid of me but you forgot i still own you. you belong to me” in a thick raspy Italian accent and you’re like I can’t carry on so you don’t do laundry?
