going back to the fantasy races are humans with different hats. maybe how i play it is different than most, but i always try to reinforce and emphasize when im dming to my players that those races are not human. they don't necessarily have human beliefs, traditions, civil structures, etc. orc for example, strongest is the leader. killing the leader is good because it means that leader was weak and now the tribe is stronger when they are dead. something that doesn't fly in human cities. but if say an orc has business in a large trade city that is human run, despite their cultural beliefs they know that if they just go around starting fights, or killing people, they will get in trouble with the law because this city isn't an orc city. they also know that depending on how metropolitan the city is, there may not be people they that are happy to see an orc, they might not entirely be welcome because most humans hate/fear orcs for their aggressive tendencies. i guess im just trying to say i don't think (or atleast i hope) me playing an npc who is being bigoted to an orc pc who is in a backwater human town simply boils down to im a person who has fun being racist.
I think part of it is that there's a distinction between GMing a racist NPC and playing a racist PC.
As a GM, I play the villains. I don't, as a general rule, agree with their plans to destroy the world, kill people, be racist, etc. Part of our role as GMs is to provide the PCs with foes that they want to take down.
The Mage's Guild in the central empire in my campaign setting, for example, is noticeably racist (and classist), and subtly discriminated against the mage PC when he first visited. This was one of the first hints my players got that the empire is actually evil and that maybe they should think about burning it to the ground at some point. It's not because I think the empire is right to discriminate; it's because I'm providing my players with villains that they can take out.
If, on the other hand, I were playing a PC who had those same beliefs, that would be an issue, because then I'd be having fun just based on the racism. A GM doesn't need the PC to be a villain, and having them be racist serves no significant gameplay or narrative incentive.
Trying to think of the mechanics of the sleepy fog in my d&d game. I figure that somehow not only are the pc's mysteriously naturally resistant to it but they aquire some kind of elixir that puts them into a half dream state already that allows them to interact with the weird warped dreamy landscapes under the mist for streches of time, that can get longer the more they get used to it. But then they have to find these towers that amplify an spread the mid around the continent as they explore towards the interior. And each tower will be more elaborate and guarded by more dangerous nightmare monsters but once they turn it off they get essentially a safe zone within in misty continent.
I'm trying to think how the waking up from essentially stasis people will react and behave as they do this.
Also thinking of how I'm going to layout a map or something to plan their journey on. Maybe some fat hexes and such.
I am also thinking will their be consequences if they are overwhelmed by the mist? I am thinking maybe there are people that naturally resisted the mist the whole time and have been living there since the initial disaster that will carry the pcs back to their last safe area if they fail to resist the mists and do other mysterious things ahead of them on their journey. Some helpful but always mysterious.
Are you gonna keep telling us every time you make a thread on another forum, or is the dozen or so already enough?
I didn't realize that was an annoyance to others. I apologize.
It's just kind of weird. We've had a civil conversation where people have laid out their points very clearly. You don't seem to be in prove-you-wrong mode, but I don't know what else you expect to get out of adding a bunch of voices to the conversation. I can tell you right now that RPG.Net is going to largely agree with the posters in this thread, with maybe a couple devil's advocate/aksually responses. ENWorld is going to be almost entirely people railing against the entire concept of problematic and someone might even say "SJWs". I doubt either will give you the revelation you seem to be looking for, since @Desert Leviathan has laid it out as clearly and intelligently as I've seen in the recent past.
Yeah, the ENWorld thread hasn't been helpful. Talking over on the RPG.net thread though seems to have helped me figure out what my deal with this might be: it reminds me somewhat of Steven Universe.
Bane is basically White Diamond, a feared godlike entity who rules an empire from a distant world and created other Gems to perform distinct roles in her pursuit of conquest. Gems are born with an innate purpose, though some end up rejecting that purpose or tweaking it in a way that makes them happy instead of just servile.
Hobgoblins are like the highest ranking military Gems who lead Gem forces, such as Hessonite from the game Save the Light.
Bugbears are like Jaspers, intended as proud and independent warriors.
Goblins are like Rubies, naive grunts intended as minor guards and foot soldiers.
Hessonite, Jasper, and the Rubies are all on the side of White Diamond, who is responsible for commanding the conquering of worlds and the genocide of their native alien species. However, they're also surprisingly easy to win over to the side of good (or neutrality, in Jasper's case).
In Steven Universe, the good guy's MO was usually to defend themselves, capture their opponents, and win them over with compassion until the captured opponent goes from believing in subservience to White Diamond's empire to believing in forging their own path in defiance of the inner programming White Diamond placed within them and the imperial culture she ruled.
I guess in my mind I thought of the curse of strife as a representation of winning over the goblinkin from Bane in a way similar to how Steven won over former agents of White Diamond like Peridot, and that anyone who wouldn't treat antagonistic goblinkin the same way Steven treated antagonistic Gems was performing an evil act.
However, in identifying goblins as Rubies I forgot that the goblins affected by the curse of strife are described as significantly more violent than any Rubies were (well, save for "Eyeball" Ruby, who responded to Steven healing him with trying to kill Steven with a shiv). I also forgot that D&D worlds are generally more realistic in how real people behave than Steven Universe was.
I'm not posting this to reignite the debate here. I just wanted to clarify where I think my position was coming from.
In less serious thoughts, back in 3E I had a Monk whose concept was "BEST AT JUMPING", and got it to where he had some kind of ludicrous Final Fantasy Dragoon leaping height and distance, but that was mostly through the use of untested 3rd party crap from Green Ronin and Mongoose books.
I was contemplating how to remake him in 5E, but it turned into a max jump experiment using 1st party products.
Recipe:
1.) The Jump Spell, duh: Grants x3 your normal jump distance for 1 minute. Only specifies distance in the text, not height. I'd personally house rule Height as well, but that's just me. It also doesn't specify how it interacts with other modifiers, so I'm assuming it's intended to stack. Needs either 1st level as a Wizard, Sorcerer, or Druid, or higher level as a Ranger or Artificer. But actually your best bet is to take no levels in caster classes, and instead obtain a Ring of Jumping, an uncommon magic item that requires attunement, and allows you to cast Jump at will as a bonus action, so long as you target only yourself.
2.) Barbarian, 3 levels, Totem Warrior Subclass, for Tiger Totem: Adds 10 feet to your jumping distance, and 3 feet to your jumping height, but only while Raging. At this of Barbarian you can Rage two times between long rests, and your rage desists if you go a round without attacking or being attacked by a foe, so if your jump gets huge enough that it lasts multiple combat rounds, you'd better be prepared to chuck javelins at shit along the way unless you want to come up 10 feet short at the end.
3.) Monk, 2 levels, for Step of the Wind: You have 2 Ki points, and can spend one of them to double your jump distance until the end of the turn. Generally in D&D you clump different types of modifiers together, if they stack at all, so personally I'd rule that Step of the Wind plus Jump gives you a total x4 distance, rather than x6. Also at this level of Monk, your base movement increases by 10 feet, and Step of the Wind allows you to Dash as a bonus action, both of which are important for seeing how long a jump of any great distance lasts. Especially if you're using your regular action in the air to do a bunch of aggressive shit to keep your Barbarian Rage up. For fidelity to the original 3E character, who wielded a Katana using some dodgy 3rd party class options, I would take the Kensei subclass. But the only one of them that gives you some Jump related options is Way of Four Elements, and I could never in good conscience recommend that even a joke character take that subclass.
4.) Rogue, 3 levels, Thief Subclass, for Second Story Work: If you make a running start, increases your jumping distance by your Dexterity Modifier (so you need at least a 12 Dex for this to do anything, and it can actually penalize you if you dump Dex entirely). Also, since you're past 2nd level, you can use your bonus action to Dash with the Cunning Action trait, which saves you from having to spend your Ki points to do it using your Monk levels. And hey, while you're here, pick up Expertise in (Strength) Athletics and (Dexterity) Acrobatics. The former is used for aiming your jump over obstacles, and the latter is for landing without falling prone on difficult terrain.
5.) Fighter, 7 levels, Champion Subclass, for Remarkable Athlete: Like Second Story Work, but with your Strength Mod instead of your Dexterity Mod. It's safe to assume that anyone who wants to be Jumpman Supreme will be raising Strength to 20.
Optional.) Barbarian, 2 more levels for a total of 5, for Fast Movement: 10 more movement ain't nothing to sneeze at. Sadly, we don't have enough optional levels to throw around to get more than +15 movement from Monk (including the +10 we already had from 2 levels of it), even though it caps at +30 total.
Optional.) Fighter, 1 more level for a total of 8, for 3rd Ability Score Increase: Got to cap Strength, and then raise Dexterity.
Optional.) Monk, 2 more levels for a total of 3, for 1st Ability Score Increase and Slow Fall: That will get you 5 total Ability Score Increases. If you started with 16 in Strength or Dexterity and 15 in the other, that gets you to 20 in both plus the Athlete Feat. A better choice than raising Rogue to 4, because it gets you Slow Fall, just in case your jump is interrupted while you're over a pit or something.
Optional.) The Athlete Feat: +1 Strength (or Dexterity, but that doesn't improve your jump height/distance), and reduces the distance you need to run to start a long jump from 10 feet to 5 feet, as well as other unrelated features.
Optional.) The Mobile Feat: +10 base movement speed, among other features, which doesn't increase your jump speed but does increase your max movement per round.
Optional.) Grung race, for Standing Leap: Sets your jump distance to 25 feet and height to 15, even without a running start. Running start still gets you your Dex and Str Mods from Remarkable Athlete and Second Story Work, but it's nice to have the option. Also, Grung have a +2 Dexterity score, so you can start with 16 Dexterity, 15 Strength no problem. Or start with 17 dex, if you get that coveted Belt of Giant Strength, meaning you only need 3 of your 5 ASIs to get 20 Dex and both optional feats. Fuck it, start with 16 Con too and raise it to 20, so you have hella hitpoints to survive if you misjudge a leap and plummet into some kind of spike-lined devil canyon.
Optional.) Belt of Giant Strength (Storm Giant, ideally): Have a 21-29 strength, depending on what type of belt you get, and don't even worry about having enough ASIs to cap Strength as well as Dexterity. Obviously, even the most common of these are Rare, and the best ones are Legendary, so don't count on getting one.
Optional.) Boots of Striding and Springing: The language on these is a little unclear. It increases your jump x3, but not more than your maximum regular movement (so... how does it interact with Dash?). I don't think this item, as written, will let you take a jump that lasts multiple rounds of movement. Sets a Grung's base movement to 30 instead of 25 though, so still worth our third attunement slot.
So in total:
- Base Length: Whichever is higher, 25 or (Strength Score, plus Strength Mod, plus Dexterity Mod (or just Strength Score x0.5 if at least 5 foot running start not taken))
- Base Height: Whichever is higher, 15 or (3+Strength Mod (x0.5 if at least 5 foot running start not taken))
- Jump Spell: x3 distance
- Step of the Wind: x2 distance (again, I'm assuming these multipliers get added together, instead of multiplied on top of each other)
- Boots of Striding and Springing: x3 distance, but capped by your Base Movement, so mostly irrelevant except a couple rare standing jumps when you don't have Ki to spend on Step of the Wind.
- While Raging: +10 feet distance, +3 feet height
...
So, what does our Grun Fighter (Champion) 8/Barbarian (Totem Warrior: Tiger) 5, Rogue (Thief) 3, Monk (Any/Kensei) 4 with 29 Strength and 20 Dexterity look like in flight?
The first number will be without Magic Items, the second will be with the Ring of Jumping, Belt of Giant Strength (Storm Giant), and Boots of Striding and Springing.
Jumps while Raging are calculated separately, because maintaining Rage may be a hassle, unless you are under ranged fire the entire time or the entire leap strafes within javelin range of enemy targets.
Base Movement: 55/60 (no jump can go more than this in a turn, or 2x if you Dash, or 3x of you Dash with both your Action and your Cunning Action/Step of the Wind. Amusingly enough, if you dash one turn but not the next, you can fluctuate your speed mid-air, and will probably accelerate after takeoff because you used your first bonus action to cast Jump.)
Long Jump (Standing): 50/100 Long Jump (Standing - Raging): 70/140 Long Jump (Running Start): 60/192 Long Jump (Running Start - Raging): 80/212
High Jump (Standing): 15/15 High Jump (Standing - Raging): 18/18 High Jump (Running Start): 18/18 High Jump (Running Start - Raging): 21/21
The lack of Jump Height modifiers is goofy. I mean, 15-21 foot high jumps is nothing to laugh at, but if you do a long jump, the max height at the middle of the jump is 25% of the length. Assuming this shit was all supposed to modify height as well as distance, it looks like this:
High Jump (Standing): 30/60 High Jump (Standing - Raging): 36/72 High Jump (Running Start): 36/104 High Jump (Running Start - Raging): 42/116
And what does our Grung F(C)8/B(TW:T)5/R(T)3/M(K)4 look like doing anything other than jumping?
Well, he sucks, probably. But with the ability to casually leap out of range of all but a handful of uncommon spells, it'll be hard as fuck for anyone to pin him down and kill him, unless he gets one-shot during an ambush!
tl;dr - Max Long Jump of 212 feet (broken up over 2-3 rounds depending on use of Dash), max High Jump of 21 read as written, or 116 if we interpret distance modifiers to also apply to height, which seems rational since the apex of that long jump would be 53 feet.
However, in identifying goblins as Rubies I forgot that the goblins affected by the curse of strife are described as significantly more violent than any Rubies were (well, save for "Eyeball" Ruby, who responded to Steven healing him with trying to kill Steven with a shiv). I also forgot that D&D worlds are generally more realistic in how real people behave than Steven Universe was.
I'm not posting this to reignite the debate here. I just wanted to clarify where I think my position was coming from.
I think this is an interesting comparison but I haven't finished SU so I can't comment on the details. What I can note is related to what you figured out here: SU is complete show with a consistent thesis throughout. It posits a fundamentally alien species that you could map to human racism, but it also says the people of that species aren't truly that different from us and they don't need to be saved or converted, they need to get out from under the thumb of their abuser. And most importantly it shows you that story from start-to-finish.
going back to the fantasy races are humans with different hats. maybe how i play it is different than most, but i always try to reinforce and emphasize when im dming to my players that those races are not human. they don't necessarily have human beliefs, traditions, civil structures, etc. orc for example, strongest is the leader. killing the leader is good because it means that leader was weak and now the tribe is stronger when they are dead. something that doesn't fly in human cities. but if say an orc has business in a large trade city that is human run, despite their cultural beliefs they know that if they just go around starting fights, or killing people, they will get in trouble with the law because this city isn't an orc city. they also know that depending on how metropolitan the city is, there may not be people they that are happy to see an orc, they might not entirely be welcome because most humans hate/fear orcs for their aggressive tendencies. i guess im just trying to say i don't think (or atleast i hope) me playing an npc who is being bigoted to an orc pc who is in a backwater human town simply boils down to im a person who has fun being racist.
I think part of it is that there's a distinction between GMing a racist NPC and playing a racist PC.
As a GM, I play the villains. I don't, as a general rule, agree with their plans to destroy the world, kill people, be racist, etc. Part of our role as GMs is to provide the PCs with foes that they want to take down.
The Mage's Guild in the central empire in my campaign setting, for example, is noticeably racist (and classist), and subtly discriminated against the mage PC when he first visited. This was one of the first hints my players got that the empire is actually evil and that maybe they should think about burning it to the ground at some point. It's not because I think the empire is right to discriminate; it's because I'm providing my players with villains that they can take out.
If, on the other hand, I were playing a PC who had those same beliefs, that would be an issue, because then I'd be having fun just based on the racism. A GM doesn't need the PC to be a villain, and having them be racist serves no significant gameplay or narrative incentive.
I'm playing I'm a game right now featuring a PC who is an elvish wizard with the noble background, who's really really playing the noble background angle.
She is constantly talking about NPCs needing to "know their place" and how it's actually an honor for the "lesser races" to be subservient to a noble like her.
She is intending to be a heel, intending for her PC's ideology to cause anger, to be challenged and eventually changed, but it is still a draaaaaaaaaaaag to play with.
Especially when she's white and two players are POC and another one is trans.
to give context they were one of the bigger voices trying to get people to be patient with wotc irt, well. *waves hands around the last several pages*
I think you’re thinking of someone else? Orion has been at Wizards for the entirety of this wave of BLM and the only thing they’ve said about WotC’s response before this statement was basically “they’ve treated me like shit.”
Well, that's.. upsetting to read. Particularly as a i work on a dnd intended setting. (Though, at least my setting is pretty freaking flexible and portable to other systems i imagine).
I'm sorry but I just don't have the spoons to read that entire thing right now, can somebody summarize? It sounds like they were fired essentially to shut them up?
I'm sorry but I just don't have the spoons to read that entire thing right now, can somebody summarize? It sounds like they were fired essentially to shut them up?
They left after 1) trying to advocate for meaningful change in how WotC approaches BIPOC and being ignored and 2) from what I can tell, essentially not being put to actually work on anything.
I think the TLDR is basically: after they paid lip service to his ideas for fixing BIPOC/LGBTQ shit that's rotten in the company without following through with any action, didn't give him any work, and ignored or stole the work he did on his own initiative, he realized he had been hired to be stuffed in the broom closet and trotted out as the "see we have a black queer employee" prop when the company is accused of ignoring BIPOC/LGBTQ concerns or passing over BIPOC/LGBTQ people for non-freelance work and leadership positions. Sounds like WotC only cares about optics and all "we see you, we hear you" shit they put out is performative.
I'm sorry but I just don't have the spoons to read that entire thing right now, can somebody summarize? It sounds like they were fired essentially to shut them up?
They left after 1) trying to advocate for meaningful change in how WotC approaches BIPOC and being ignored and 2) from what I can tell, essentially not being put to actually work on anything.
Also being 3) Given shit pay, and 4) Having their ideas outright stolen, and getting a mumbled "I forgot we were in the same meeting" apology.
And on further digging, i've come across the whole Dmsguild stuff - they at least seem to be listneing, but it's also another big link back to WoTC and them having shit fucking standards. Bleh.
Fuck WoTC. I'm going to keep working on my setting, because screw shutting down my creativity and not putting out what's indeed to be a poc friendly, queer friendly, anti-colonist setting (And because you know, putting out content like this is importnat to change these things, even if in my case i'm a Pakeha enby). But also some serious rage at companies being /shit/
Edit: I will say that reading up on the whole DMsguild did come with one postive thing - i found this excellent picture of a Ithilid brawler who's hot as hell. Spoilered for big - i'd call it SFW
Fuck WoTC. I'm going to keep working on my setting, because screw shutting down my creativity and not putting out what's indeed to be a poc friendly, queer friendly, anti-colonist setting (And because you know, putting out content like this is important to change these things, even if in my case i'm a Pakeha enby). But also some serious rage at companies being /shit/
All I'll say to this is, without knowing anything about the companies or having any material evidence that they're objectively better than WotC, both Pathfinder and 13th Age are mechanically close enough to D&D that if all you're doing is building a setting, both are likely to be functionally compatible (with 13th Age being limited to only 10 levels, so you'll never really mess with that super epic level stuff)
Orion was a contractor via WotC and the contract ran out. WotC elected to not convert them to FTE or extend the contract, so Orion felt free to speak their mind knowing they didn't want to go back in and couldn't effect change in the environment.
The DM's Guild thing is a completely different, but parallel cluster because a writer put up a gay themed module and it got taken down despite being to cleaner standards than several non-gay items for sale on the platform.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Hail Hydra
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admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
I don’t think I’ve bought a D&D product since like... 2004, so it’s pretty meaningless for me to say I’m not gonna buy anything from them. Fuck em, though. Support indies.
Do they try to keep the 13th age levels equivalent to 10 levels in d&d or something?
13th Age at level 10 is probably equivalent to like upper Paragon/lower Epic in 4e. I haven't played enough 13th Age at high enough levels to have a good sense, but in general you gain +1 to attacks, defenses, and skill checks at every level, and you also gain a feat at every level. Spells and abilities generally level up at odd levels only, and at levels 4, 7, and 10 you gain a +1 to any 3 ability scores.
A level 1 fighter in 13th Age, on average, is going to have around 30HP/17AC and hit with +4 vs AC for probably d8+3 damage. At level 10 it's probably closer to 264HP/28AC and +14 vs AC for 10d8 + 10 damage.
A level 1 rogue is going to have (again, on average), around 21HP/15AC and hit with about the same attack and damage, plus d4 Sneak dice. At level 10 it's probably closer to 192HP/26AC and +14 vs AC for 10d8 + 7d6 + 12 damage.
A level 1 wizard is looking at around 20HP/12AC and hitting with anything ranging from something like Shocking Grasp (at-will) for about +4 vs Physical Defense for d4 damage to Acid Arrow (daily) for +4 vs Physical for 4d10 damage, and 5 ongoing. Those are both single-target examples. At level 10 you're looking at about 192HP/24AC and +14 for attacks, which can again range anywhere from again Shocking Grasp is now doing 4d6 damage (if you kept it, it's the lowest single-target damage wizard's have), to again Acid Arrow (again, if you kept it, spells level up or can be retrained) now doing 5d4x10 (yes, that is times), with 40 ongoing damage.
And of course that's just the single-target offensive spells. Fireball and Lightning Bolt at level 5 would both do 10d10 damage to 1d3 targets. Fireball can be cast recklessly to target up to twice as many opponents, but if you miss a target, any ally engaged with that target takes 1/4 of the damage (targets of both spells take half damage on a miss).
This is, again, a very rough over generalization. Just tossing out some numbers to give a sense of scale over time.
e: Here's a smattering of monsters, of varying types and levels, to also maybe help contextualize things:
Here is the baseline progression chart for the core classes in 13th Age:
Defenses are calculated a bit oddly. It was a design choice to make it to where you never really want to focus too hard on any one or two stats. You add the modifier for the middle of three listed stats (so drop the lowest and the highest).
AC is Con/Dex/Wis
Physical Defense is Str/Con/Dex
Mental Defense is Int/Wis/Cha
e: and again, once you add the relevant modifier to the number on the chart, you then also add your level. Except for HP.
For HP:
1. Find the base value for your class (6, 7, or 8) in the Base Stats for Classes chart on page 76.
2. Add your Con modifier to get your “hit point value.”
3. Multiply your hit point value by 3 to get your total hit points at 1st level.
4. As you level up, you gain HP equal to your Base Value plus CON modifier. Starting at 5th level you instead gain twice this amount, and starting at 8th level you instead gain four times that amount.
So it goes Base Value x3, x4, x5, x6, x8, x10, x12, x16, x20, x24
Also it’s hardly the most damning bit of the document but the idea that WotC basically maintains a blacklist of ‘RPG people who was mean about dnd on twitter’ that their employees aren’t allowed to follow is the most pathetically petty thing.
Like literally a product so big it is functionally it’s own market distinct from all other TTRPG’s but still insecure.
One thing in setting is that The whole effect that dumps people onto the continent/makes intercontinental travel impossible has a weird habit of stealing memories from people in the process. These wash up as pearls or other gemstones, or even weirder objects, or accumulate in places forming strange masses. It could be total amnesia, it could be partial, it could leave a person untouched - there's no rhyme or reason that anyone's been able to figure out. It certainly adds to the trauma of "...where the hell are we" that gets inflicted upon people though!
Anyway, beyond that, i've been working out some of how this effects the setting further, and i've come up with two things:
One, it's lead to the creation of an entirely new species - The Mer (provisional name for now, but hey)
These are sea-serpent mermaid mammalpeople. They have great hair. They're something new in the setting - The first mer popped up what, 50 years ago, more have spawned since (although it turns out they can naturally reproduce too). They're still finding their footing (Slithering?) in setting, given they're so young as a species - Figuring out what "mer" culture is is something they're all still wrestling with. What is known is that they're all pretty sure they didn't come from another plane or continent (Every other culture has retained enough to confirm they're either from somewhere else on the world that Terror Incongita is on, such as the Aeternum elves & oldblood humans, or they're from another plane of existence entirely - the orcs, ogres, satyrs, newblood humans both, etc). They all also have strange memories, flashes of stuff they've no way to know - even naturally born mer have this. Probably represent this as they get a free proficiency in a skill of their choice + some other neat benefit!
I do imagine that they're generally pretty gregarious and outgoing, to play off the being new - things are exciting and vivid to them, they're amphibious meaning there's very few limits on where they can go (this is actually why i made em snek people, other than the fact i freaking love snek people - easy to imagine a mer clambering around and doing PC things when the lowerhalf is snek vs your classic mermaid). Also because actual sea snakes like having big ol' swarms, and imaging them as inclined towards being super social and outgoing is fun.
Also they can spit venom in peoples faces if they get annoyed, so that's pretty baller. These need more work as a whole, it's not quite up to my usual standards of creating an all new species yet, but i feel the core is decently solid.
Why now instead of earlier for the mer spawning? This i dont have a good answer for - and honestly, this is the part that's most likely to change (particularity if i get a better idea for what they look could look like culturally. I'm really not sold on the they're new idea, though i do want to keep the gregarious and outgoing with GREAT HAIR parts).
---
Two is the idea of Dungeons.
I mean, Dungeons are a classic, and I've always been a fan of the idea of Dungeons as living, breathing things. So here the idea is that sometimes these memory masses end up so big that they start warping the local landscape - burrowing in and changing things, becoming a carbuncle on the skin of reality. This i really like because it means you get cool things like a mansion in the japanse style growing on a desolate beach - or a typhoon rolls in and now somewhere in the wilds, an old school european castle is growing. Or some fisherman drags something up in their catch, and next thing he knows his cellar has way too many levels, a truly disturbing amount of traps in it, and a really annoying mimic infestation.
And because these are built out of weird and strange memory crystal carbuncle things, there's all sorts of valuable knowledge to be gleaned from them + the public good of getting riud of one when it turns up in a bad place.
---
Unrelatedly, but I've decided that i'm having Mimics as a pest species in setting. I love mimics, especially ones that are really bad at being mimics - so the idea it's a known thing that sometimes you're in your stock room and there's an extra (tiny) crate which visibly has a bunch of teeth, and you roll your eyes and go get your broom because dammit not again.
I might steal some of dungeon Meshi's Mimics-as-hermit crabs here, so when disturb they unfold legs and crab pincers or scorpion tails and other htings and scuttle around because that's cooler, and it leads to the hilarious mental image of Mimic traps, just like crawfish/crayfish traps.
DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
Mimics as pests is one of my most beloved things
they can eat treasure, but prefer fresh meat. When they have babies, they're gold pieces. They grow up into like, a coin-purse, and then a jewelry box, all the way up to shipping container Goliath Mimics.
so it's like, you can be walking down the street and you hear tink tink tinkle and a couple of gold pieces roll out of a gutter pipe.
"aw dip," you says. "aw dip, 5 gold hell yea-" and then they snap at you with their little, very sharp teeth and start skittering around
tinkle tink tink tinktinktinktink
Gold coins spraying out of the pipe, they reduce you to bones in roughly 35 seconds
they can eat treasure, but prefer fresh meat. When they have babies, they're gold pieces. They grow up into like, a coin-purse, and then a jewelry box, all the way up to shipping container Goliath Mimics.
so it's like, you can be walking down the street and you hear tink tink tinkle and a couple of gold pieces roll out of a gutter pipe.
"aw dip," you says. "aw dip, 5 gold hell yea-" and then they snap at you with their little, very sharp teeth and start skittering around
tinkle tink tink tinktinktinktink
Gold coins spraying out of the pipe, they reduce you to bones in roughly 35 seconds
I feel like a society where mimics are endemic would have to be constantly developing counter-measures to have currency/valuables that are somehow distinguishable from mimics.
Which then means that the mimics who continue to survive in urban areas are the ones who have developed quicker adaptations to their changing environments.
The mimics you encounter out in dungeons are the subspecies that have died off from day-to-day life. They're a foe that only adventurers encounter because only adventurers would be reckless enough to be actively seeking out huge collections of very old coins in long-abandoned places.
Well, that's horrifying. *makes notes* I know exactly where i'll put that too (Raider's Rest, the Hive of Scum and Villany, because it suits it's asthetic perfectly)
In Dungeon Meshi, there's treasure bugs as well as mimics. Treasure bugs are the "look like treasure, are actually parastic insects" style of mimics - and one of the cool, creepy details in setting is that they feed on Mimics.
Which is why you find treasure chests filled with treasure sometimes - it's a mimic corpse that's been eating from the inside, and is now filled with treasure bugs. (They're apperntly pretty delicious).
---
Also, i was updating my raw text dump i've got for terror inconigta, and i found it's past 24.6k words which is like oh god what why how so many words.
Anyway, link if anyone wants to READ THE MADNESS. It has headers, so it's kinda organized. Kinda.
Well, that's horrifying. *makes notes* I know exactly where i'll put that too (Raider's Rest, the Hive of Scum and Villany, because it suits it's asthetic perfectly)
In Dungeon Meshi, there's treasure bugs as well as mimics. Treasure bugs are the "look like treasure, are actually parastic insects" style of mimics - and one of the cool, creepy details in setting is that they feed on Mimics.
Which is why you find treasure chests filled with treasure sometimes - it's a mimic corpse that's been eating from the inside, and is now filled with treasure bugs. (They're apperntly pretty delicious).
---
Also, i was updating my raw text dump i've got for terror inconigta, and i found it's past 24.6k words which is like oh god what why how so many words.
Anyway, link if anyone wants to READ THE MADNESS. It has headers, so it's kinda organized. Kinda.
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
I don't know, but I do remember laughing so fucking hard when I first played Ark and my character just pooped randomly. Probably because I am a giant manbaby that laughs at poop. I was just looking at my mods for Starbound a few minutes ago and laughed when I saw the liquid poop mod I had downloaded
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
If you've never heard of FATAL, count yourself lucky and move on.
Also, for mimics in my setting, i think there's two main types:
Biters and Grabers (As the locals call em)
Biters are more of your classic toothy chest/etc style mimic. They're a sort of mollusk/octopus like creature that inhabits chests/crates/whatever as armor+disguise. Probably some limited amount of shapeshifting and camoflauge capabilities, just like real octopuses - no tentacles thoguh, just excessive amounts of teeth. Which they sometimes/often forget to put away (Mimics are not smart), so you've got the blatantly obvious chest that's got a toothy maw.
Actually, maybe they should have little tentacles they use to locomote - i mean, i love the Mimic Chest bouncing along image, but i just had the image of a chest opening up and firing out tentacles to grab ontop something and reel itself in adn that's great.
Grabers are Dungeon-Meshi style mimics, i.e they're hermit crab style things - they fold up inside the chest or whatever, and when disturbed out comes a big ol crab thing with pincers and armor that's wearing the crate/chest/whatever over it's hermit-crab style soft bits.
As to why there's so fucking many of them in the setting that they're a pest - i think it's just a product of the shifting tides/changing winds meaning all sorts of crap gets dumped up on Terror Incongita's shores - and that includes werid magical whatsits, strange chests and other things that make a mimic go "Yesss, good, i can chomp some hands here". Plus also the sea plays such a big role in the setting it'd be weird not to have mollusk and hermit crab stuff ,and mimics work well for both. Also there's ruins filled with tasty Spore Legionnares and other things that probably let them fester.
Also you just know some people have tried to domesticate them. Including probably the orcs, because that seems like exactly the sort of things my Orcs would do (I mean, domesticating things they probably shouldn't is already one of their hats, so hey!).
Mimics are probably too dumb to be domesticable, but that hasnt actually stopped anyone yet. It has stopped quite a few fingers from being attached to hands tho'
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
I've been in one game where character's toilet habits became a factor. It was a survival horror setting where we had to be very careful about how we disposed of waste, because every organic scent we left behind made it easier for the shadow creatures to track us across the wasteland. We also wore pretty elaborate outfits designed to minimize organic scents, and one of our major concerns was finding safe spots to vent stored exhalation. It was an interesting concept, but tracking all of that was a little too cumbersome, and we only played a couple sessions.
I've also been in a less serious game where one of my characters was permitted by the DM to lose bowel control when he hit 0 HP, and his death-shit proved instrumental to party victory.
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Fuck WoTC. I'm going to keep working on my setting, because screw shutting down my creativity and not putting out what's indeed to be a poc friendly, queer friendly, anti-colonist setting (And because you know, putting out content like this is important to change these things, even if in my case i'm a Pakeha enby). But also some serious rage at companies being /shit/
All I'll say to this is, without knowing anything about the companies or having any material evidence that they're objectively better than WotC, both Pathfinder and 13th Age are mechanically close enough to D&D that if all you're doing is building a setting, both are likely to be functionally compatible (with 13th Age being limited to only 10 levels, so you'll never really mess with that super epic level stuff)
I'd say Paizo is objectively better than WotC. Their history isn't perfect but they demonstrably try to do better when they fail and not just when it's PR-convenient.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
If you've never heard of FATAL, count yourself lucky and move on.
A quick scan of the PDF doesn't provide any guidance on regular pooping habits, but I did find a couple of gems:
From the mental illnesses section:
Coprophilia
Over a period of (5 + 1d100) months, the character experiences recurrent and intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual attraction with defecation, either giving or receiving. This causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Due to this mental illness, the Debauchery (see Chap. 6: Sociality) of this character increases by 97. Whenever a character is afflicted with coprophilia and involved in a sexual activity or near defecation, they must pass a Drive check at TH 10 or engage in socially unacceptable sexual behavior regarding defecation.
A spell:
Intestinal Wreathe Level: 3 Magic Points: 24 Discipline: Earth Range: 500’ Area: 1 target creature Duration: 2 rounds to an exponential power equal to the level of the caster. Chant: See Chapter 11: Magic Ingredients: See Chapter 11: Magic Ritual: See Chapter 11: Magic Description: Casting this spell causes a creature’s intestines to emerge from their rectum and encircle the neck of their owner. The target’s intestines will strangle them with a Strength equal to the caster (see Wrestling in Chap. 8: Skills). Even if the target overcomes their animated intestines, they are usually bewildered for the rest of their lives, and defecating is uncomfortable, at best. The caster must be able to see the target creature at all times and maintain concentration.
As a part of the spell Seal Orifice:
Anus: On average, humans defecate once per day. If the anus is sealed, the creature will be unable to defecate. Constipation will be uncomfortable after 1 day of a
sealed ass. The next 1d4 days will seem unbearable and the creature will be unable to concentrate on any stimulus or perform any action. After this duration, the creature will die.
From the random magical effects table:
0010. Every time the caster casts a spell from now on, chunky defecation squirts down their leg.
1637. Caster is forever able to defecate only while sprinting.
1638. Target creature is forever able to defecate only while sprinting.
From the random (magical?) ingredients table:
0369 The defecation remaining on an arm after full insertion into the ass of an ass - reusable for 1 day
0938 Defecation from a mother who values the life of her child more than their own - expended
0939 Defecation from a father who values the life of his child more than their own - expended
Even though player characters in TTRPGs never ever stop to poop unless it's part of a joke, somewhere out there is a Toilet Mimic with a fucking legendary kill count.
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
"Yo here's what you need to know about how I run my game: we track time, we track encumbrance, and we track poops."
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Petesalzlvorpal blade in handRegistered Userregular
I always just assumed that stuff happens during rests. it's when people relax, but also eat, drink, and relieve themselves of bodily waste.
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I think part of it is that there's a distinction between GMing a racist NPC and playing a racist PC.
As a GM, I play the villains. I don't, as a general rule, agree with their plans to destroy the world, kill people, be racist, etc. Part of our role as GMs is to provide the PCs with foes that they want to take down.
The Mage's Guild in the central empire in my campaign setting, for example, is noticeably racist (and classist), and subtly discriminated against the mage PC when he first visited. This was one of the first hints my players got that the empire is actually evil and that maybe they should think about burning it to the ground at some point. It's not because I think the empire is right to discriminate; it's because I'm providing my players with villains that they can take out.
If, on the other hand, I were playing a PC who had those same beliefs, that would be an issue, because then I'd be having fun just based on the racism. A GM doesn't need the PC to be a villain, and having them be racist serves no significant gameplay or narrative incentive.
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I'm trying to think how the waking up from essentially stasis people will react and behave as they do this.
Also thinking of how I'm going to layout a map or something to plan their journey on. Maybe some fat hexes and such.
I am also thinking will their be consequences if they are overwhelmed by the mist? I am thinking maybe there are people that naturally resisted the mist the whole time and have been living there since the initial disaster that will carry the pcs back to their last safe area if they fail to resist the mists and do other mysterious things ahead of them on their journey. Some helpful but always mysterious.
Yeah, the ENWorld thread hasn't been helpful. Talking over on the RPG.net thread though seems to have helped me figure out what my deal with this might be: it reminds me somewhat of Steven Universe.
Bane is basically White Diamond, a feared godlike entity who rules an empire from a distant world and created other Gems to perform distinct roles in her pursuit of conquest. Gems are born with an innate purpose, though some end up rejecting that purpose or tweaking it in a way that makes them happy instead of just servile.
Hobgoblins are like the highest ranking military Gems who lead Gem forces, such as Hessonite from the game Save the Light.
Bugbears are like Jaspers, intended as proud and independent warriors.
Goblins are like Rubies, naive grunts intended as minor guards and foot soldiers.
Hessonite, Jasper, and the Rubies are all on the side of White Diamond, who is responsible for commanding the conquering of worlds and the genocide of their native alien species. However, they're also surprisingly easy to win over to the side of good (or neutrality, in Jasper's case).
In Steven Universe, the good guy's MO was usually to defend themselves, capture their opponents, and win them over with compassion until the captured opponent goes from believing in subservience to White Diamond's empire to believing in forging their own path in defiance of the inner programming White Diamond placed within them and the imperial culture she ruled.
I guess in my mind I thought of the curse of strife as a representation of winning over the goblinkin from Bane in a way similar to how Steven won over former agents of White Diamond like Peridot, and that anyone who wouldn't treat antagonistic goblinkin the same way Steven treated antagonistic Gems was performing an evil act.
However, in identifying goblins as Rubies I forgot that the goblins affected by the curse of strife are described as significantly more violent than any Rubies were (well, save for "Eyeball" Ruby, who responded to Steven healing him with trying to kill Steven with a shiv). I also forgot that D&D worlds are generally more realistic in how real people behave than Steven Universe was.
I'm not posting this to reignite the debate here. I just wanted to clarify where I think my position was coming from.
I think this is an interesting comparison but I haven't finished SU so I can't comment on the details. What I can note is related to what you figured out here: SU is complete show with a consistent thesis throughout. It posits a fundamentally alien species that you could map to human racism, but it also says the people of that species aren't truly that different from us and they don't need to be saved or converted, they need to get out from under the thumb of their abuser. And most importantly it shows you that story from start-to-finish.
D&D worldbuilding can't do that.
I'm playing I'm a game right now featuring a PC who is an elvish wizard with the noble background, who's really really playing the noble background angle.
She is constantly talking about NPCs needing to "know their place" and how it's actually an honor for the "lesser races" to be subservient to a noble like her.
She is intending to be a heel, intending for her PC's ideology to cause anger, to be challenged and eventually changed, but it is still a draaaaaaaaaaaag to play with.
Especially when she's white and two players are POC and another one is trans.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Uh, this is way bigger than an oof.
I ain’t spending money on WotC ever again.
I think you’re thinking of someone else? Orion has been at Wizards for the entirety of this wave of BLM and the only thing they’ve said about WotC’s response before this statement was basically “they’ve treated me like shit.”
You might be thinking of CriticalBard.
Admittedly I've been kinda willfully and somewhat unsuccessfully keeping myself from reading about ttrpg industry discourse lately.
Seriously, fuck you you WoTC.
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They left after 1) trying to advocate for meaningful change in how WotC approaches BIPOC and being ignored and 2) from what I can tell, essentially not being put to actually work on anything.
Also being 3) Given shit pay, and 4) Having their ideas outright stolen, and getting a mumbled "I forgot we were in the same meeting" apology.
And on further digging, i've come across the whole Dmsguild stuff - they at least seem to be listneing, but it's also another big link back to WoTC and them having shit fucking standards. Bleh.
Fuck WoTC. I'm going to keep working on my setting, because screw shutting down my creativity and not putting out what's indeed to be a poc friendly, queer friendly, anti-colonist setting (And because you know, putting out content like this is importnat to change these things, even if in my case i'm a Pakeha enby). But also some serious rage at companies being /shit/
Edit: I will say that reading up on the whole DMsguild did come with one postive thing - i found this excellent picture of a Ithilid brawler who's hot as hell. Spoilered for big - i'd call it SFW
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All I'll say to this is, without knowing anything about the companies or having any material evidence that they're objectively better than WotC, both Pathfinder and 13th Age are mechanically close enough to D&D that if all you're doing is building a setting, both are likely to be functionally compatible (with 13th Age being limited to only 10 levels, so you'll never really mess with that super epic level stuff)
The DM's Guild thing is a completely different, but parallel cluster because a writer put up a gay themed module and it got taken down despite being to cleaner standards than several non-gay items for sale on the platform.
13th Age at level 10 is probably equivalent to like upper Paragon/lower Epic in 4e. I haven't played enough 13th Age at high enough levels to have a good sense, but in general you gain +1 to attacks, defenses, and skill checks at every level, and you also gain a feat at every level. Spells and abilities generally level up at odd levels only, and at levels 4, 7, and 10 you gain a +1 to any 3 ability scores.
A level 1 fighter in 13th Age, on average, is going to have around 30HP/17AC and hit with +4 vs AC for probably d8+3 damage. At level 10 it's probably closer to 264HP/28AC and +14 vs AC for 10d8 + 10 damage.
A level 1 rogue is going to have (again, on average), around 21HP/15AC and hit with about the same attack and damage, plus d4 Sneak dice. At level 10 it's probably closer to 192HP/26AC and +14 vs AC for 10d8 + 7d6 + 12 damage.
A level 1 wizard is looking at around 20HP/12AC and hitting with anything ranging from something like Shocking Grasp (at-will) for about +4 vs Physical Defense for d4 damage to Acid Arrow (daily) for +4 vs Physical for 4d10 damage, and 5 ongoing. Those are both single-target examples. At level 10 you're looking at about 192HP/24AC and +14 for attacks, which can again range anywhere from again Shocking Grasp is now doing 4d6 damage (if you kept it, it's the lowest single-target damage wizard's have), to again Acid Arrow (again, if you kept it, spells level up or can be retrained) now doing 5d4x10 (yes, that is times), with 40 ongoing damage.
And of course that's just the single-target offensive spells. Fireball and Lightning Bolt at level 5 would both do 10d10 damage to 1d3 targets. Fireball can be cast recklessly to target up to twice as many opponents, but if you miss a target, any ally engaged with that target takes 1/4 of the damage (targets of both spells take half damage on a miss).
This is, again, a very rough over generalization. Just tossing out some numbers to give a sense of scale over time.
e: Here's a smattering of monsters, of varying types and levels, to also maybe help contextualize things:
Defenses are calculated a bit oddly. It was a design choice to make it to where you never really want to focus too hard on any one or two stats. You add the modifier for the middle of three listed stats (so drop the lowest and the highest).
AC is Con/Dex/Wis
Physical Defense is Str/Con/Dex
Mental Defense is Int/Wis/Cha
e: and again, once you add the relevant modifier to the number on the chart, you then also add your level. Except for HP.
For HP:
So it goes Base Value x3, x4, x5, x6, x8, x10, x12, x16, x20, x24
Like literally a product so big it is functionally it’s own market distinct from all other TTRPG’s but still insecure.
One thing in setting is that The whole effect that dumps people onto the continent/makes intercontinental travel impossible has a weird habit of stealing memories from people in the process. These wash up as pearls or other gemstones, or even weirder objects, or accumulate in places forming strange masses. It could be total amnesia, it could be partial, it could leave a person untouched - there's no rhyme or reason that anyone's been able to figure out. It certainly adds to the trauma of "...where the hell are we" that gets inflicted upon people though!
Anyway, beyond that, i've been working out some of how this effects the setting further, and i've come up with two things:
One, it's lead to the creation of an entirely new species - The Mer (provisional name for now, but hey)
These are sea-serpent mermaid mammalpeople. They have great hair. They're something new in the setting - The first mer popped up what, 50 years ago, more have spawned since (although it turns out they can naturally reproduce too). They're still finding their footing (Slithering?) in setting, given they're so young as a species - Figuring out what "mer" culture is is something they're all still wrestling with. What is known is that they're all pretty sure they didn't come from another plane or continent (Every other culture has retained enough to confirm they're either from somewhere else on the world that Terror Incongita is on, such as the Aeternum elves & oldblood humans, or they're from another plane of existence entirely - the orcs, ogres, satyrs, newblood humans both, etc). They all also have strange memories, flashes of stuff they've no way to know - even naturally born mer have this. Probably represent this as they get a free proficiency in a skill of their choice + some other neat benefit!
I do imagine that they're generally pretty gregarious and outgoing, to play off the being new - things are exciting and vivid to them, they're amphibious meaning there's very few limits on where they can go (this is actually why i made em snek people, other than the fact i freaking love snek people - easy to imagine a mer clambering around and doing PC things when the lowerhalf is snek vs your classic mermaid). Also because actual sea snakes like having big ol' swarms, and imaging them as inclined towards being super social and outgoing is fun.
Also they can spit venom in peoples faces if they get annoyed, so that's pretty baller. These need more work as a whole, it's not quite up to my usual standards of creating an all new species yet, but i feel the core is decently solid.
Why now instead of earlier for the mer spawning? This i dont have a good answer for - and honestly, this is the part that's most likely to change (particularity if i get a better idea for what they look could look like culturally. I'm really not sold on the they're new idea, though i do want to keep the gregarious and outgoing with GREAT HAIR parts).
---
Two is the idea of Dungeons.
I mean, Dungeons are a classic, and I've always been a fan of the idea of Dungeons as living, breathing things. So here the idea is that sometimes these memory masses end up so big that they start warping the local landscape - burrowing in and changing things, becoming a carbuncle on the skin of reality. This i really like because it means you get cool things like a mansion in the japanse style growing on a desolate beach - or a typhoon rolls in and now somewhere in the wilds, an old school european castle is growing. Or some fisherman drags something up in their catch, and next thing he knows his cellar has way too many levels, a truly disturbing amount of traps in it, and a really annoying mimic infestation.
And because these are built out of weird and strange memory crystal carbuncle things, there's all sorts of valuable knowledge to be gleaned from them + the public good of getting riud of one when it turns up in a bad place.
---
Unrelatedly, but I've decided that i'm having Mimics as a pest species in setting. I love mimics, especially ones that are really bad at being mimics - so the idea it's a known thing that sometimes you're in your stock room and there's an extra (tiny) crate which visibly has a bunch of teeth, and you roll your eyes and go get your broom because dammit not again.
I might steal some of dungeon Meshi's Mimics-as-hermit crabs here, so when disturb they unfold legs and crab pincers or scorpion tails and other htings and scuttle around because that's cooler, and it leads to the hilarious mental image of Mimic traps, just like crawfish/crayfish traps.
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they can eat treasure, but prefer fresh meat. When they have babies, they're gold pieces. They grow up into like, a coin-purse, and then a jewelry box, all the way up to shipping container Goliath Mimics.
so it's like, you can be walking down the street and you hear tink tink tinkle and a couple of gold pieces roll out of a gutter pipe.
"aw dip," you says. "aw dip, 5 gold hell yea-" and then they snap at you with their little, very sharp teeth and start skittering around
tinkle tink tink tinktinktinktink
Gold coins spraying out of the pipe, they reduce you to bones in roughly 35 seconds
I feel like a society where mimics are endemic would have to be constantly developing counter-measures to have currency/valuables that are somehow distinguishable from mimics.
Which then means that the mimics who continue to survive in urban areas are the ones who have developed quicker adaptations to their changing environments.
The mimics you encounter out in dungeons are the subspecies that have died off from day-to-day life. They're a foe that only adventurers encounter because only adventurers would be reckless enough to be actively seeking out huge collections of very old coins in long-abandoned places.
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In Dungeon Meshi, there's treasure bugs as well as mimics. Treasure bugs are the "look like treasure, are actually parastic insects" style of mimics - and one of the cool, creepy details in setting is that they feed on Mimics.
Which is why you find treasure chests filled with treasure sometimes - it's a mimic corpse that's been eating from the inside, and is now filled with treasure bugs. (They're apperntly pretty delicious).
---
Also, i was updating my raw text dump i've got for terror inconigta, and i found it's past 24.6k words which is like oh god what why how so many words.
Anyway, link if anyone wants to READ THE MADNESS. It has headers, so it's kinda organized. Kinda.
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Don't forget about Lock Lurkers!
There gotta be a GM horror story out there about a GM deciding when your character needs to poop. Or a horrible rules system that covers it.
I don't know, but I do remember laughing so fucking hard when I first played Ark and my character just pooped randomly. Probably because I am a giant manbaby that laughs at poop. I was just looking at my mods for Starbound a few minutes ago and laughed when I saw the liquid poop mod I had downloaded
If you've never heard of FATAL, count yourself lucky and move on.
Also, for mimics in my setting, i think there's two main types:
Biters and Grabers (As the locals call em)
Biters are more of your classic toothy chest/etc style mimic. They're a sort of mollusk/octopus like creature that inhabits chests/crates/whatever as armor+disguise. Probably some limited amount of shapeshifting and camoflauge capabilities, just like real octopuses - no tentacles thoguh, just excessive amounts of teeth. Which they sometimes/often forget to put away (Mimics are not smart), so you've got the blatantly obvious chest that's got a toothy maw.
Actually, maybe they should have little tentacles they use to locomote - i mean, i love the Mimic Chest bouncing along image, but i just had the image of a chest opening up and firing out tentacles to grab ontop something and reel itself in adn that's great.
Grabers are Dungeon-Meshi style mimics, i.e they're hermit crab style things - they fold up inside the chest or whatever, and when disturbed out comes a big ol crab thing with pincers and armor that's wearing the crate/chest/whatever over it's hermit-crab style soft bits.
As to why there's so fucking many of them in the setting that they're a pest - i think it's just a product of the shifting tides/changing winds meaning all sorts of crap gets dumped up on Terror Incongita's shores - and that includes werid magical whatsits, strange chests and other things that make a mimic go "Yesss, good, i can chomp some hands here". Plus also the sea plays such a big role in the setting it'd be weird not to have mollusk and hermit crab stuff ,and mimics work well for both. Also there's ruins filled with tasty Spore Legionnares and other things that probably let them fester.
Also you just know some people have tried to domesticate them. Including probably the orcs, because that seems like exactly the sort of things my Orcs would do (I mean, domesticating things they probably shouldn't is already one of their hats, so hey!).
Mimics are probably too dumb to be domesticable, but that hasnt actually stopped anyone yet. It has stopped quite a few fingers from being attached to hands tho'
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I've been in one game where character's toilet habits became a factor. It was a survival horror setting where we had to be very careful about how we disposed of waste, because every organic scent we left behind made it easier for the shadow creatures to track us across the wasteland. We also wore pretty elaborate outfits designed to minimize organic scents, and one of our major concerns was finding safe spots to vent stored exhalation. It was an interesting concept, but tracking all of that was a little too cumbersome, and we only played a couple sessions.
I've also been in a less serious game where one of my characters was permitted by the DM to lose bowel control when he hit 0 HP, and his death-shit proved instrumental to party victory.
I'd say Paizo is objectively better than WotC. Their history isn't perfect but they demonstrably try to do better when they fail and not just when it's PR-convenient.
A quick scan of the PDF doesn't provide any guidance on regular pooping habits, but I did find a couple of gems:
From the mental illnesses section:
A spell:
As a part of the spell Seal Orifice:
From the random magical effects table:
From the random (magical?) ingredients table:
Hell naw; what happens in Darmak, stays in Darmak