On the topic of creation

What it all comes down to, is experimentation.

You mix and match your solutions through trial and error and combine them to get an explosion of poetic triumph. Something beautiful and meaningful, if not for others then at least for yourself. After all, what’s the point of discovery if not to find something in your searches that blows your mind? Something you didnt know you liked or something you used to be? Transform a sliver of that lead into gold, find the formula to your own philosopher’s stone, something that reaches your soul and carefully applies that elixir to heal your mind’s torment. The process itself - is your Magnum Opus. The journey to the stars itself is what we look forward to in stories. Enjoying our adventure is what we all strive for and crave.

My methods are just one way to do it. Yours could include different formulas, blueprints, materials etc. But all of us create, no matter the medium. And this is roughly what I enjoy working with.

I love exploring the possibilities - character archetypes that I might be able to create or discover when building them off of a mundane concept that are part of your typical ttrpg game. For example:


REWARDS AND TREASURES.

We all love rewards. A little pat on the back for a good day’s work, be it material or verbal. Do you know where the rewards like to hide in? Inside chests. And mimics. Those annoying little boogers that you could encounter in any one of your casual runs through a dungeon and could swallow you whole if you forgot to check if it’s breathing. But maybe in the system you play, you can’t play a mimic as a character. There’s always limitations that you need to work around but think of it less as an obstacle and more as a journey. A winding road is much more interesting than a completely straight one isnt it? Bring metaphors and symbolism into play and you could make a story that’s all about learning what those rewards mean to your character and most importantly, to you.



Spots, my Plasmoid [slime person] Gloomstalker Ranger for DND is an almost literal manifestation of a reward or treasure.
Spots, formerly called “Stain”, was created by a witch coven but something went wrong and instead of a loyal changeling they ended up conjuring a sentient slime that is neither an animal, nor a person by all conventional means. One day some witch hunters raided the coven and claimed “Stain” as reward. Little did the leader of the hunters know that this slime person will end up being like a dear child to him. “Stain” is a treasure in those hunters’ eyes. The name “Stain” no longer fit them as a mistake the witches once created. To the hunters, Spots, was more than delightful.
Spots was, basically, a hunter's trophy. What was a waste of resources for the witches turned out to be a real treasure to those who took care of Spots as part of their family. And as is appropriate for a hunter, Spots values their hunting trophies. They hoard the results of their work and going forward, they must learn that some rewards can’t or shouldn’t be claimed. Eventually, they were locked inside a chest by their adoptive father while trying to protect them from the witches and somehow, someway, Spots ended up in the Shadowfell where their chest was opened by someone new, someone they felt was their sibling…

And no, this was not the result of my first conceivement of them lmao. Very little of this was planned.
They used to be a very one-note one-shot character who has a singular tie to the Changeling named Bambi in the party because I loved the idea of 2 siblings that are called “Perfection” [Bambi] and “Mistake” [Stain/Spots]. This was the core idea and that’s literally it. Oh and well they were also kinda animalistic, picture Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. And then by sheer accident I ended up joining the campaign permanently and I had to re-build Spots while also staying true to their character. The result is brilliant, even though the journey towards there was bumpy.

You could say it was… quite rewarding lmao.


SLOTH, SHORT RESTS AND LONG RESTS

Another peculiarity Ive noticed fairly recently about ttrpg games is that... Characters.. aren’t lazy very often. Although I dislike the word lazy, because personally I think laziness as a concept was made up to shame people who try to save their emotional/physical resources for something else or are undiagnosed with a disability that might be contributing to that BUT ANYWAY-. In adventures, laziness is not really an option. At the very least, I haven't seen a single player character who’d lean into this kind of trait. I got curious when I was worldbuilding for a completely different character [from Hell] and I realized that Sloth [something very prominent in Hell] as a character trait is not often utilized for “main characters” because it directly counteracts with the lifestyle of adventurers. If you try to make a character who is incredibly lazy you might end up with an utterly obnoxious character who’s not enjoyable to roleplay as or annoys your fellow roleplayers to the point its not fun anymore. Balance here is key.

Which brings me to Requiel.
She is from the same setting as Spots, technically she’s my backup but also kind of a replacement for Spots whenever their arc finishes because.. Initially, Spots wasn’t planned as a long-game character. They dont have enough ties to the world in order for me to effectively interact with the plot and other characters.. Because Spots is a silly Wet Dog made of non-neutonian liquid and has brain power equivalent to an amoeba who can also spin dash and just roll around at the speed of sound because I said so. They are such a wholesome and disturbing character but it does get difficult to play them at times. Especially taking into account the gothic nature of the setting… Hencewhy Requiel was made

Initially, she was an idea that spawned from a costume I made during winter holidays. It was an angel.. but a snowy one. It’s entire purpose was to be the trapped spirit of winter holidays at a children’s party where the kids would try to break the angel free by playing games and solving puzzles and such. All of that because I found a headband with functional wings that flap! Being that character, even if it was too wholesome and kid-friendly for me, was so inspiring that I designed another Snow Angel. Inspiration really does come from such bizarre places so never stop looking and trying new things!

But why Snow Angel?
When I started research, like I usually do, for any kinds of folklore regarding the snow angels that you make in the snow. Somehow, there was almost NOTHING I could base it off!I thought the silly routine of making snow angels would at least lead into some kind of interesting pagan belief [Im not interested in christian interpretations] or maybe it’s like some kind of way to ward off monsters maybe. OR EVEN SENDING A MESSAGE TO THE GOD! LITERALLY ANYTHING- But no. I couldnt find anything, not even the origin of this tradition.
I only found a single npc from Omori that was like, just a regular mob.
And that lack of content… Fascinated me. Where the hell would I take inspiration for a story if there’s nowhere to take it from?

NOWHERE BABY! WE’RE TAKING THE CLOSEST EQUIVALENT WHICH IS THE SNOW QUEEN FAIRY TALE ON WHICH FROZEN WAS ALSO BASED ON!!!!

SYMBOLISM AND METAPHORS! And some very literal themes.
Taking it apart: Snow. Angel.
Ice, cold, snow, winter. Lack of emotions, distant cold gazes, innocence, death, stagnation. Angel, messenger, servant, or maybe like one of those Virtues very warrior-like. What best describes nature sleeping? The winter season. And finally, Sloth is where everything culminates into one. Do you remember at any point a situation when every player was hoping for a short/long rest as soon as possible during a dungeon crawl? What if that desire manifested inside the game? Searching for a respite, safe haven, looking forward to sleep, who the fuck would do that??? Someone who is so.. SO extremely tired.



Ever heard of a saying that Sleep is the cousin of Death?
Requiel, an Aasimar [DND angel] Paladin who has DIED and served a necromancer vampire lord in his army. With winter you get cozy, you bundle up in blankets, get a warm beverage and all that pleasant stuff. Winter is a Long Rest for everything that is alive but imagine if it was permanent. Sun taken by the vampires, no longer provides the warmth or invites the change of seasons, its all fucked up and decaying. Its a slumber that is unnatural. It's stagnation. And you just want to wake up from this endless nightmare. But you arent sleeping, are you? Rest is unachievable. And all that misery that the world is going through manifests in this poor angel. The seasons have been enslaved by the vampire lords for their convenience, and so was Requiel. But winter ends eventually and she breaks free to win back the world her parents taught her about.


PETRIFICATION AND FEAR

Not too dissimilar from being frozen but definitely has a meaning of its own. As a mechanic or part of backstory, again, I havent seen it being used very often. Mostly cuz a Gorgon as a monster is too well known and everyone knows how to defeat it because of the greek myth. Nobody tries doing something new with it.
HEY GUESS WHAT, SNOW QUEEN WAS ALSO AN INSPIRATION FOR THIS ONE LMAO!

But in this case only the boy survived and his sister died trying to protect him from the evil queen.



Sylvester Fervantes, Drow and Cleric of the Grave domain. Because he’s for an irl game that can get absolutely batshit insane on occasion he’s a bit more simpler and most traits that I gave him I cant even roleplay due to how, again, batshit insane the table is lmao. Trust me, I’d rather save what is left of my sanity than try to keep track of all his character traits. The thing that drives him most is the immeasurable guilt he feels being the one responsible for his entire family’s slaughter. They were monster hunters hired to slay a gorgon and he is the healer who was too afraid to act. He was.. petrified in fear. And he made a run for it in utter shame. Everyone at home thinks he’s dead and to conceal his identity he wears a mask that covers his eyes, petrified in fear…. literally. Forever.

Or not! When the party almost died in an encounter with an old goddess WHICH WAS HIS FAULT [he led the party there] and then he changed his ways by putting himself in harms way and running to heal the wizard - the only friend among the entire party he got along with. After the encounter ended and they were saved by the ghosts in the city this goddess was governing they woke up on a field in the middle of buttfuck nowhere and Sylvester thought everybody died because of him. He repented in front of the god he worships and apologized to everyone, they forgave him and what they noticed is that… One of his eyes is no longer stone. He was crying from it. Basically melting away some of the magic that held that petrification in place. Not too dissimilar from Kai in Snow Queen lmao. The party melted it with love


LUCK

What about Luck? Sometimes its a stat, sometimes its points you get from the GM. Sometimes the players who play bards give it to you. Sometimes its a mechanic that determines your fate.
Imagine if you've gotten snake eyes for your entire life. The worst roll of the dice has happened when you were born and so you've dedicated your life to learning, balancing and manipulating the wheel of fortune.
You know, the Evil Eye? The thing people carry all those charms for. The peacock feathers, conch shells, going as far as hanging the charms on your adopted animal which is also believed to protect against misfortune at sea. You’ve experienced both sides of luck enough times to be confident in where is the right place, right time, full of pride for the craft you’ve discovered after decades of misfortune and betrayal Lady Luck has put you through.



Im talking about a certain demon named Sebastian Pierce, who's ran from Hell and stole a yacht for himself from someone who's won a lottery in Australia. Stolen someone's luck and became the gentleman of fortune by complete accident. Who woulda known, a pirate's life's for him? That the Earth and it's blue seas were where all his luck has turned around for him. Imagine having enough gut to try your luck at impersonating Satan? Sebastian lied to a human about it like there's no tomorrow because he’s got enough pride to make it seem like it's true and enough good will to share that luck he's hoarded with the unfortunate human who ended up being friends with him. The Devil's Fortune is when Satan himself decided against straight up killing the demon for impersonating him in favor of making the thief help some hunters prevent the apocalypse and after some while later turns out Sebastian isnt even that dissimilar from Lucifer. A guy who knows exactly where to direct your attention while he uses the shadows to empty your pockets and rid you of the weight of all your fortune and misfortune. Shapeshifting, lying bastard who knows none about hunting but plenty about betrayal, pride and luck - good, bad and ugly.

Speaking of, shapeshifting is a fun subject too!


EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, EVERYONE

Changelings in DND are severely interesting in how many uses their shapechanging could have. However it's such a shame that most all of the reoccurring themes for them Ive seen around had to do with deception, spying and committing crimes. There’s so much more to it. Shapeshifting is a versatile tool to navigate identity. When you can be anything - what are you supposed to be? If you could become anyone… Why stop at just one thing? If there’s no limits and you are infinite, are you every-thing or no-thing? Are you really present or uncertainly absent? What’s your influence?



Blank is a manifestation of the mystery behind identity as a concept.
They are Everything and nothing. They are what lies beyond the unknown, something we're afraid to see about ourselves. But they can see you. They have an eye on their hand. They went from Sex worker, To PI to Clown throughout their life and god knows what else while they were pretending to be someone else in order to find what they would like to become. Their power comes from the infinity of possibility that one is capable of being. They are even beyond death. Death itself, assumedly, brought them back and that is a mystery in of its own. They aren’t even sure if it's really Death that brought them back because what else could if the cursed Necromancer said it wasn’t them and weren’t lying? They are an influence beyond what is possible. That's why they are a broken ass Wild Magic Paladin because the potential of their limitless personality is the thing that gives them IMMESURABLE POWER.

Blank will solve existence and find meaning of life and never tell you because well... Where's the adventure in that? The mystery? The mystery and exploration makes it all worthwhile. By telling you the meaning they would render your choices useless and agency is key self-discovery. I think Im just sitting here typing because Im on a crazy person rant and it makes me feel a bit self conscious but I also dont care because all of these stories about self-discovery hold so much meaning to somebody who’s lost. This is the whole reason why they are a Private Investigator. Ultimately, they're a mystery solver and through figuring out the mysteries of others who are lost and need help, they’ll see their past, they’ll find their familial ties, they'll realize what a changeling Really Is and what it means being one. I recently realized they have a SHIT TON of plot threads that connect them to the world and some may end up being connected to other player characters because THEY ARE THAT MUCH. They have INFINITE potential. They are overwhelming and thats the whole point.

We all strive to find ourselves when we’re lost throughout our life and in presence of death.
That’s why creation matters to me so much and why I aim to inspire with stories I create.

To quote a couple things that have deeply inspired me to create:

Now go and create some crazy things yourself :]