Friendship is Dragons
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Newbiespud
26th Jan 2013, 5:00 AM
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[edit]: It is important to know that he's a devout Seussian. The great Seuss shall convey his messages to us through the prophet Horton, who hears the word of the almighty Seuss from the mystical whisperings of The Who. The Who is a mysterious force all around us, and deep inside us. It surrounds and guides us, and teaches us the ways of the rhyme.
Also, it likes to talk about magic buses and jelly babies.
...with your permission, of course.
That said, I'm very proud of The Who, in making it like the force from star wars.
The patron saint of magic buses is the one called frizzle.
I'm going to add it to my Pantheon spreadsheet...I have over 200 D&D gods and many others (including three pantheons I made up and the tropes pantheon).
Side note: It is fun to have a world with ALL gods from anything. Very chaotic when you add trope gods, so I made up a god 'Deus Machi' (pronounced Deuce Maki), god of plot convenience, and made the most powerful deity completely laid back and apathetic (Waffle, who is a stack of waffles with shades, doesn't even answer half the prayers clerics give...). Anyway, for a silly adventure I recommend it.
Side note: It is fun to have a world with ALL gods from anything. Very chaotic when you add trope gods, so I made up a god 'Deus Machi' (pronounced Deuce Maki), god of plot convenience, and made the most powerful deity completely laid back and apathetic (Waffle, who is a stack of waffles with shades, doesn't even answer half the prayers clerics give...). Anyway, for a silly adventure I recommend it.
I thought thw Who was a mysterious force that follows crime scene investigators and plays loud music.
Poor Pinkie! How will she ever overcome this let down of epic proportions?
I also have a character that speaks in rhyme. A kind of rouge/juggler. We're not playing DnD so there is no direct translation for the class.
His name ist "Rhymeswift" (loosly translated) and I just played him once. But in a few weeks we're starting a new group and i'm looking foward to play him again (finally :) )
His name ist "Rhymeswift" (loosly translated) and I just played him once. But in a few weeks we're starting a new group and i'm looking foward to play him again (finally :) )
Silly. Rouge is a type of make-up. Rogue is a type of never-do-well character.
Admittedly, Rouge is a rogue who uses rouge, so it's fairly easy to get them mixed up.
And I think you're paying too much attemtion to her...jiggle physics. :P
And I think you're paying too much attemtion to her...jiggle physics. :P
Ah, yes, ye olde rhyming character. Never, ever try making a rhyming Malkavian. It was an awful, awful pain in the ass to act for, but I loved him nonetheless. He ended up murdered, as usual. Have't played VtM since.
...wow, I actually don't have a story for this! I never created a rhyming character. I'm actually with Pinkie on this one. I do better coming up with songs on the spot. :)
...I have a new forum RP strategy for you-know-who now.
"If you ever get bored
While thinking this through
Just... pretend I'm a Time Lord
'Cause I'll agree with you."
"If you ever get bored
While thinking this through
Just... pretend I'm a Time Lord
'Cause I'll agree with you."
Oh, and you don't need to worry. My name isn't a killing word. It just makes munchkins and power gamers cry.
I'd love to be able to have one word that just shuts them up.
I like to put tons of points into a seemingly useless skill. For this example, we'll use cooking for an example.
Then I'd come up with homebrew feats for cooking, like massive bonuses to foraging and collecting cooking ingredients. What happens when those cooking ingredients include meat from dangerous creatures? Why, I get bonuses to harvesting bits of them.
Yes, my level five chef did leap onto the T-Rex's back and remove its heart with a kitchen knife. Yes, you did agree to let me have these feats. Yes, bonus to collecting ingredients does mean harvesting them, which naturally includes the ability to cut through tough armored hide and bone.
Why is the power gamer crying?
...no...words...
You are the most creative power gamer I have ever seen. You deserve to have those feats allowed.
You are a god.
You are the most creative power gamer I have ever seen. You deserve to have those feats allowed.
You are a god.
Her partner is a sand giant monk with gigantism, oversized weapon, and a homebrew trait, compensating for something. The big guy is capable of carrying something like twenty tons, and he can't fit inside dungeons, but he guards the enterance, and he uses the grapple rules to completely overwhelm everything. So after everyone empties the dungeon, they dismantle the dungeon, and they take every table, chair, door, hinge, sconce, solid stone altar, coffin, heck, they even take the corpses of their fallen foes to sell to alchemists.
The giant monk grabs enemies, and throws them at other enemies, or uses them as improvised weapons. Alternatively, he could be a ranger, tame about a hundred wolves, and abuse the grapple rules even further.
Again, let me reiterate. The giant's purpose is not combat. The giant's purpose is hauling the whole danged dungeon back to be sold brick by brick. Because he can carry huge weights, but if he's pulling wagons, you can increase that weight threefold.
Not three times, threefold. Eight times his normal encumbrance limit. Yeah, the limit to make him burdened is four times, but he's pulling a wagon, and I'm determining his total maximum hauling weight, not the limit to make him encumbered. Alternatively, your character could be a half-halfling giant of some type. With gigantism, you have a huge character, and to go with that, you have the halfling's natural affinity for all throwing weapons.
My personal favorite is a gruff old veteran dwarf paladin with a penchant to sing showtunes and songs inspired by disney. I would totally play him as a no nonsense badass right up until he has to make a decision, and then out comes the song!
that is an AMAZING idea!
i would totally do this if i didn't think my GM would have a heart attack.
i would totally do this if i didn't think my GM would have a heart attack.
Please also note that the only throwing weapon you're going to find in large supply are boulders. A boulder is classified as any stone over 256 mm in diameter. A normal halfling throwing stone weighs .2 lbs, and deals 1d3 damage. Since halflings are small creatures, and my sand giant is a huge creature, due to his gigantism trait, his stones would be three size classes larger than the normal halfling stones. I'm not sure, but I think there's a chart somewhere for how much damage larger stones would deal.
How often do you build a character whose favorite pastime is skipping tower shields across a lake, and then walking around to the other side, and skipping them back? This is a character who can take the bricks from a castle wall, and use them as projectile weapons. Go ahead and spring this on your GM. Find the best class combo, probably ranger or fighter, and go nuts. After seeing this, he's sure to let you play whatever you really wanted to play.
I am reminded of an anecdote from Lois McMaster Bujold’s novel The Warrior’s Apprentice:
“‘. . . Each Count was stripped down to twenty armed followers—barely a bodyguard.
‘Well, Lord Vorloupulous had a feud going with a few neighbors, for which he found this allotment quite inadequate. So he hired on 2000 “cooks,” so-called, and sent them out to carve up his enemies. He was quite ingenious about arming them, butcher knives instead of short swords and so on. . . .’”
“‘. . . Each Count was stripped down to twenty armed followers—barely a bodyguard.
‘Well, Lord Vorloupulous had a feud going with a few neighbors, for which he found this allotment quite inadequate. So he hired on 2000 “cooks,” so-called, and sent them out to carve up his enemies. He was quite ingenious about arming them, butcher knives instead of short swords and so on. . . .’”
Doh. That was me with the Bujold quote. I haven’t used this idiosyncratic comment system in a while. . . .
Raxon, quit making yourself cry, I need those onions for tacos!
This is nowhere near what I meant but I am okay with it.
Raxon reminded me of a old campaign many years ago that played out a bit like "Hell Boy" in that half of us were weird supernatural creatures working for the government.
One player was a door mouse with telekinetic powers. Now, we used GURPS so the points she got out of the disadvantage of playing a tiny 3-hit-point 15-ounce creature was pretty staggeringly large.
And she put *ALL* those points into two psi powers: Telekinesis and Shield.
She was able to fling herself at enemies like an armor-piercing 8-gauge slug without hurting herself. O_o
Ouch. Led to hilarious moments too, like the time she accidently forgot to activate the sheild andnearly killed herself at a hairpin turn trying to fly downstairs in a hurry.
One player was a door mouse with telekinetic powers. Now, we used GURPS so the points she got out of the disadvantage of playing a tiny 3-hit-point 15-ounce creature was pretty staggeringly large.
And she put *ALL* those points into two psi powers: Telekinesis and Shield.
She was able to fling herself at enemies like an armor-piercing 8-gauge slug without hurting herself. O_o
Ouch. Led to hilarious moments too, like the time she accidently forgot to activate the sheild andnearly killed herself at a hairpin turn trying to fly downstairs in a hurry.
In a Dresden Files game I played in, our GM introduced a noble of the Winter Fae called the Pumpkin King, King of Fetches (fetches being shapeshifters who eat fear). He was, of course, a very disturbing parody of Jack Skeleton from Nightmare Before Christmas, up to and including the suit, the skull face, the pumpkin mask... And he rhymed. Oh how he rhymed.
You don't know fear until a fear-and-death flavoured Winter Fae threatens to "f**k you in the arse with a rake" in sing-song rhyme.
You don't know fear until a fear-and-death flavoured Winter Fae threatens to "f**k you in the arse with a rake" in sing-song rhyme.
Using the Unknown Ponies system from Erin Palette's blog, I tried running a game featuring Zecora. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a rhyme for purple.
"her will" is an allowed choice under some systems (only works if there's like some brave filly somewhere or something but yeah you could be like "Twilight Sparkle with her coat of purple, no evil force can face her magic or her will" that technically counts), and then there's door hinge...
According to the illustrious Mister Fry of QI fame, there are two words in the English language which truly rhyme with purple: hurple and curple... although I may be off on the spelling. One (curple) is used by Robbie Burns, I believe, because the horses' tack and gear are imperial purple in one of his poems. (I may be misremembering this.) "Hurple" is (I think) to walk with a limp. The more you know!
Also, you might want to try stumping people with "silver" and "month"... I think those don't have any true rhymes, either. (Although if they do, I'm sure the QI elves will be the first to let me know.)
Also, as this is a Pony game, "Derple" could probably be fit in somehow.
I've never had a rhyming PC, but I did once have a character who spoke only in obscure proverbs. He was a monk named Silent Gecko Hunts Quietly. My DM loved him.
There was one point where SGHQ was trying to convince the rest of his monastic order to help the party fight the big bad. The DM and I had an entire 5-minute conversation regarding minnows, sharks, octopi, trout, and the various interactions thereof. In the end, it turned out the other monks were all jerks who didn't want to help, but no one else in the party had understood a single word either of us had said.
There was one point where SGHQ was trying to convince the rest of his monastic order to help the party fight the big bad. The DM and I had an entire 5-minute conversation regarding minnows, sharks, octopi, trout, and the various interactions thereof. In the end, it turned out the other monks were all jerks who didn't want to help, but no one else in the party had understood a single word either of us had said.
To clarify - speaking only in proverbs was a trait of literally everyone else in the monastic order, meaning that the conversation involved only proverbs from both sides for five minutes straight. It was also entirely understandable, as was a later conversation with a somewhat more helpful character who was capable of speaking in proverbs and chose to do so.
Also, Silent Gecko Hunts Quietly is still one of the best characters I've seen from anyone.
Also, Silent Gecko Hunts Quietly is still one of the best characters I've seen from anyone.
Recently, me and my friends were playing a custom Pathfinder Campaign. We were in an airship that would slide from one alternate timeline to another. We ended up with this Kitsune stowaway, and while he didn't rhyme, my friends delighted in driving me and my love of Dr. Seuss, by putting the fox in a box...with locks.
I also play in said custom Pathfinder Campain (it's also known as "The Sliders Saga") and yet, despite the fox being put in a box...with locks (yes, I had to go there) he 'still' escaped and yoinked some food along with several books on the airship.
Twas once upon a summer's eve, (where, though, I cannot say,) when friends and foes and lycanthopes took out their sheets to play. Our fair DM, whom I should say, had not been with us long, had no idea the way we play, nor how things could go wrong. Twas quite the tale the man had spun. An epic for the ages. A thrilling war between three sons, which went on for several pages. His story told, he crossed his arms and thought "this won't be hard." How wrong he was, when I called out, "I shall be the bard!"
to be continued...
to be continued...
And so I drafted then and there the bard that I would be. The poor Dm, he did not know what to expect from me. I rolled the dice, and chose my skills, and feats in record time, and wrote down in my extra notes, "can only speak in rhyme." My bard, you see, his family made less than what they spent, and so they sold him as a slave so they could pay the rent. Though life was hard, the upbeat bard believed "it can't get worse." He ate those words, when come one day, he caught himself a curse.
While performing in the street to try and earn a wage, he lost his footing in the mud and bumped into a mage. To the ground the two did fall, and neither came out clean, and it was then that my dear bard found out the mage was mean. A curse he laid upon his head to last for all of time, that not until my bard was dead, he'd only speak in rhyme. "This isn't bad," my bard did think. "In fact, it could be worse. I'll show that mean old mage who's boss, and beat this silly curse."
My bard soon found that not a soul would pay him any mind, for none wanted to be around a man who only rhymed. His master's patience soon ran thin, and while he was asleep, his master had him pulled from bed and threw him in the street.
My bard soon found that not a soul would pay him any mind, for none wanted to be around a man who only rhymed. His master's patience soon ran thin, and while he was asleep, his master had him pulled from bed and threw him in the street.
And so my bard left on his own with nothing but his lute, and on the streets he did sing songs so he could buy some food.
"That's just fine," the DM said. "That's all I need to know. Now take a seat so we can start." and thus began the show.
"That's just fine," the DM said. "That's all I need to know. Now take a seat so we can start." and thus began the show.
very well!
And so we set off on our quest and into lands most strange, where skeletons walked hand in hand across the open range. As we fought through fields and swamps, my bard, he still did sing. And dear DM, to shut him up, sent in the Goblin King. "Cut off his head!" The king cried out. "And take his tongue out, too! Crush his body into dust and throw him in a stew!"
My bard, you see, was quick, and proved quite hard to apprehend. He danced around the goblin hoard, and out the lion's den. In hot pursuit, the Goblin King cried out "Off with his head! A thousand gold goes to the man who brings him to me dead!"
Then, suddenly, my bard, he stopped! he turned round to the king, and summoned forth his instrument, and softly he did sing:
"Goblin King, just hear me sing. You're quite a handsome chap, and so it seems, more brawn than brains. You've fallen in my trap. Look around, look up and down the tunnel walls so tall. The rocks held up above us in the ceiling soon will fall."
My bard had won initiative and cast "shout" overhead. The ceiling fell. We rolled the dice...the Goblin King was dead!
The goblin hoard was now no more, the tunnel now their grave. But my dear bard, you see, had luck, and made his reflex save.
And so we set off on our quest and into lands most strange, where skeletons walked hand in hand across the open range. As we fought through fields and swamps, my bard, he still did sing. And dear DM, to shut him up, sent in the Goblin King. "Cut off his head!" The king cried out. "And take his tongue out, too! Crush his body into dust and throw him in a stew!"
My bard, you see, was quick, and proved quite hard to apprehend. He danced around the goblin hoard, and out the lion's den. In hot pursuit, the Goblin King cried out "Off with his head! A thousand gold goes to the man who brings him to me dead!"
Then, suddenly, my bard, he stopped! he turned round to the king, and summoned forth his instrument, and softly he did sing:
"Goblin King, just hear me sing. You're quite a handsome chap, and so it seems, more brawn than brains. You've fallen in my trap. Look around, look up and down the tunnel walls so tall. The rocks held up above us in the ceiling soon will fall."
My bard had won initiative and cast "shout" overhead. The ceiling fell. We rolled the dice...the Goblin King was dead!
The goblin hoard was now no more, the tunnel now their grave. But my dear bard, you see, had luck, and made his reflex save.
Nah, that's more or less it. How I did it was I put all my skill points in perform, and chose acrobatics, dance, singing, and even got away with faux swordplay. Everything else was too boring to list.
Correction...I think I had strength as his dump stat, with charisma and dexterity having the two higher rolls. I can't remember. Left the sheet with the group so I wouldn't lose it. Ironic.
One of my DMs once had a Silver Dragon who spoke entirely in rhyme, possibly in rhymed verse, I was never quite sure. I also never found out if it was some sort of curse, or he was doing it just for the fuck of it. Sadly, the DM wasn't quite as great at coming up with it on the spot, so once the party went off track with the conversation (as we inevitably did), there was a several minute long DM loading screen whenever it was the dragon's turn to talk. Great idea, but slowed the encounter down a bit more than it needed to, I feel.
in one or more of my games, since Rhyming is quite a fad.
I'm entertained by trying to rhyme every couple lines
Though anyone who calls me out will have to pay some fines.
Tumble is horribly jealous of those who can rhyme on the spot, to warn you. This could end badly.
I'm not a bard.
They don't flow
My way, you know?
Always ascertain if all allies adore alliteration. If they do, prepare for some long horse rides...
No rhyming but a limited vocabulary. I had a character on a NWN server that was an Orc Barbarian with the minimum int (I think it was 5 in NWN, I wanted 3) but with wisdom maxed out. Good barbarian set too but not maxed. I named him Zog. Zog could speak four words - 'Zog,' 'Dude,' 'Guy,' and 'Yeah.' Party members were 'Dude,' enemies and others were 'Guy.' It didn't work too well because it needed acting to pull off though emotes helped. 'Dude, Zog guy' -fist into palm - 'yeah?'
This message brought to you by Akouma's general hatred of poetry and rhyming.
I had a lot of fun improvising all that.
Oh, that reminds me. Stairc, you once mentioned that you wrote a paper involving how games can be used to invoke emotion, which included your player's reactions to Torrin. I was just wondering if you still had a copy of that that you would be willing to show us.
@Raxon - He absolutely did. It was the Christmas D&D camp after all. =)
I ran a MLP Ironclaw game at Midwest Furfest a couple months ago. The group was heading into the Everfree Forest, and decided to side track to go visit Zecora. I asked if they really wanted to go... and they insisted.
When they got there, I paused, and they asked why i wasn't responding. I told them I was trying to put together the rhymes. All the players but one said I didn't have to do the rhymes... but I still obliged that one dissenting vote.
My rhymes were stilted, and my pacing was childish.
They said I sounded just like Zecora. :)
When they got there, I paused, and they asked why i wasn't responding. I told them I was trying to put together the rhymes. All the players but one said I didn't have to do the rhymes... but I still obliged that one dissenting vote.
My rhymes were stilted, and my pacing was childish.
They said I sounded just like Zecora. :)
Oh the subject of rhyming, in a long ago X-Files style modern campaign, the party once picked up a small metal box labled "Silver and Oranges".
Despite the label the box was empty.
The players experimented with the box, finding that if you put a small object inside and let it sit closed for a few minutes the box transforms the object into another object that rhymes with the original object. Some things they transformed:
Wad of cash --> Bag of hash
Handgun --> Sticky bun
Car keys --> Dead bees
The box worked on just about everything except for two items: Anything silver, and oranges. It simply did nothing with those two things.
Then a player decided to put an orange and door hinge into the box.
It imploded.
Despite the label the box was empty.
The players experimented with the box, finding that if you put a small object inside and let it sit closed for a few minutes the box transforms the object into another object that rhymes with the original object. Some things they transformed:
Wad of cash --> Bag of hash
Handgun --> Sticky bun
Car keys --> Dead bees
The box worked on just about everything except for two items: Anything silver, and oranges. It simply did nothing with those two things.
Then a player decided to put an orange and door hinge into the box.
It imploded.
I made a druid based on Zecora. Druid trained in Alchemy, I think, for 4th edition. Haven't had a chance to use her though.
Heh one of our players is playing a Zecora esque character who speaks in near constant rhyme.
We once had to extract information about some stolen silver from a bard that only spoke in rhyme, whose argument was that silver was of course unrhymable. My bard had to keep him talking with a rhyme-off so he was distracted enough to let info slip, it took an entire session just for that conversation but it was so very awesome.
My winning line was something about oats (No, it didn't involve ponies) and his costume being periwinkle, have fun guessing what exactly I said.
My winning line was something about oats (No, it didn't involve ponies) and his costume being periwinkle, have fun guessing what exactly I said.
I once had one of those 'MUCK' characters that spoke in rhyme. It took a while but eventually I got kinda good at making up rhymes on the spot. -- I kept a few 'canned' phrases if I wasn't able to come up with something quickly.
There once was a man from nant-
My buddy got drunk one night when he was Dming and "Slickback, the halfling pimp" was born. He ran a brothel and in the morning when my buddy sobered up, said that the rhyming thing was only for the customers. (My friend can't rhyme unless he's tanked.)
To rhyme is quite simple,
Like a smile with dimple.
You simply must relax your mind.
Treat yourself to some tea,
Make sure your time's free,
Now stretch yourself and unwind.
Like a smile with dimple.
You simply must relax your mind.
Treat yourself to some tea,
Make sure your time's free,
Now stretch yourself and unwind.
At one point in my L5R game, one of our very powerful magic users summoned an air spirit to ask for help creating a spell. He accidentally summoned one of the most powerful air spirits there were! This spirit spent the entire conversation speaking in rhyme, and did end up helping create the air spell he wanted. Unfortunately, air spirits are know tricksters, so the spell was absurdly powerful and nearly killed everyone in the party when it was tested. Our GM then told us to beware any NPCs we meet that speak in rhyme, as it is never a good thing.