I tend to have the main story going on in the background regardless of what the players choose. They aren't always lock step with it but events happen that will impact them.

Luckily my group is pretty good at getting hints that hey, maybe this is important.

Yeah that's obnoxious behavior. Personally if a player has a real problem with a choice the DM made I would prefer they talk to me privately. But just as the players have agency over their characters that goes the other way to the DM and the choices they make.

Can Someone Explain

Why everyone loves The Raven Queen so much? Nentir Vale is now not FR, and I’d rather not remember anything that happened in 4th edition. I think it’s mostly just because is a death god and called “The Raven Queen”, which is way cooler than most death gods usually, but not sure if there is more to it than that. 

Briefly, a few (non-comprehensive) things.

Firstly, the name is Metal as all hell.  Superficial? Definitely, but certainly more inspiring than Nerull.

Secondly, she’s not Evil.  Which makes her much more useful and interesting than “I just want to kill everything and rule a universe of the Undead”, which was her 3.5 predecessor’s (again, Nerull) thing.  She can be an enemy, especially if the PCs are trying to bring someone back from the dead.  She can be an ally.  She has her own agendas that may or may not align with those of the PCs or their patrons.  There’s plenty of options for how to incorporate her into a campaign other than The Bad Guy or The Bad Guy’s Boss, which was quite refreshing.

Because, again, her 3.5 predecessor was really one-note, which can limit options and interesting applications.

And because she hates intelligent undead she’s a lot more use to players, who have some easy hooks to latch on to if they want to make a follower of the Raven Queen.

As someone who has turned her into a major player in my campaign the fact that a lot of her back story is so mysterious helps a lot because it gives a lot of room for interpretation. My version seems to be a lot nicer than other versions, even the Critical Role version, but it gives DMs flexibility. I've even put in that she appears to people as what they need to see to make the transition easier so there's a built-in explanation as to why she can look different.

Right now she's the patron of our Hexblade Warlock who is also trying to romance her which is interesting.

Incidentally the official version that they put out in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes I have officially decided to ignore completely because it took away everything that people liked about the character. Especially since I loved the original explanation that she took over from Nerull by basically pulling a Judith on him.

So our DnD party has a Hexblade Beserker and another war-forged Beserker in addition to an Arcane Trickster rogue and a mage who’s class I’m not too sure of. HB has been on a quest to gain the Raven Queen’s favor and become her champion. In one particularly tough boss fight, our HB’s weapon was thrown from his hands. HB: *a rusted, badass looking scythe materializes in his hand from out of thin air, given to him by the Raven Queen* WB (who normally speaks in Drow Sign/doesn’t vocalize because he’s mute): *yelling in battle* SHE COULDN’T EVEN GET YOU A NEW ONE?????

Hey it's my idiots!

two recent patron requests for @athenaltena! these characters were so much fun to draw.

NPC Profile: Julia Carpates III

Lady Julia Carpates III is the current ruler of Raetia and Queen in all but name, though her family chooses not to use that title due to the region once existing under Cassian rule. She’s ruled for 34 years after inheriting the title from her father, Luther Carpates, and married Immanuel Humthall, a scion of a noble house. With him she had four children; Julia IV (known as “Lia” or “Julia the Younger”) Ezra, Marcus and Camilla. Immanuel died in 1478 from an illness while Ezra disappeared two years later under mysterious circumstances, and the combined losses left Lady Julia emotionally shattered. Considered a fair and kind ruler, few people in Raetia truly know the Lady due to her need to maintain a dignified image, though most have sympathy for her because of the tragedies that have befallen her.

(headshot by @jentrevellan)

A profile of my lovely Lady with a headshot courtesy of @jentrevellan, who did a great job capturing her.

And no, you’re not imagining it, she’s based on Helen Mirren.

You know, I see a lot of posts out there about dumb shit that players do and while all of those posts are incredibly valid, I feel like this is dumbass DM erasure. I dearly love every story about bards who seduce the final boss and warlocks with sugar daddies and all that BUT I think DMs are greatly misunderstood to all be these serious controlling entities who just want their players to follow through with their perfectly planned scenerios. Here’s to all the dumbass DMs out there who:

- forget their NPC names and constantly make up new names for unimportant recurring NPCs when the players see them in hopes that they wont remember

- plan a whole dungeon around one (1) spongebob reference that they really wanted to fit in

- accidentally give two NPCs the same name bc you just pull from a list and you forgot to cross it off

- choose to homebrew everything bc they have an Artistic Vision but the vision is just that you want there to be three gnomes in a trench coat selling sketchy magical items somewhere in the setting

- use the same dumbass voice for every NPC but with different 90s surfer slang for different characters

- make just awful items and make their players buy them (I’m currently working on the “Ross From Friends” tramp stamp of +1 AC)

- realize they only have 28 minutes before the next session to plan and instead make text posts on tumblr.com

Anyway if any DMs want to add onto this with some dumbass shit they’ve subjected their players to feel free

Forgets about certain NPCs and has to come up with what they're doing on the spot while everyone else is talking.

Can't follow two inter PC conversations at once and has to tell the players to limit it to one at a time to avoid confusion.

Keeps making NPCs that the Players just want to adopt including two Golems, a humanoid rhino and a literal ancient dragon.

Having to improv when the players decide to go to a clothing shop which is where we get Torben Gunn who is literally just Tim Gunn as a gnome.

Giving the players crates of cabbages and oranges they found on a pirate ship because I was trying to be historically accurate and then having to deal with one character throwing / giving cabbages and oranges to people until I had to set a finite number of them.

All of my NPC accents eventually turning into Russian because it's the only other language I speak fluently.