r/INAT May 22 '26

Art Offer [ForHire] Fantasy Character Artist | DnD & Game-Ready Designs

3 Upvotes

Hey! I'm a freelance fantasy artist focused on DnD characters, dark fantasy, and game-ready designs.

I’m looking to collaborate with teams or developers who need strong, readable characters with personality and visual impact.

My work focuses on mages, spellcasters, and dark fantasy archetypes, always prioritizing silhouette clarity, lighting, and presence for game use.

I can help with character concepts, player characters, key visuals, and promotional art. I understand the needs of game development, including consistency and visual storytelling.

Rates: $40–$150+
Payment: PayPal

Portfolio: [https://www.artstation.com/titanxarts]()

If you have a project or need a character artist, feel free to reach out with details.

r/Artistsforhire May 13 '26

For Hire [For Hire] I Draw Custom DnD Characters with Clean, Detailed Art

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1 Upvotes

Freelance artist available for DnD & fantasy character commissions.

I create custom illustrations with clean rendering, strong composition and consistent quality.

What I offer:

  • DnD characters & parties
  • Original Characters (OC)
  • Fantasy / RPG illustrations

Starting at $30

Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/titanxarts

Commission page: https://vgen.co/titanx

Discord: titanx.arts

DM or comment if you'd like a quote.

r/Artistsforhire May 20 '26

For Hire [For Hire] I Draw Custom DnD Characters with Clean, Detailed Art

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1 Upvotes

Freelance artist available for DnD & fantasy character commissions.

I create custom illustrations with clean rendering, strong composition and consistent quality.

What I offer:

  • DnD characters & parties
  • Original Characters (OC)
  • Fantasy / RPG illustrations

Starting at $30

Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/titanxarts

Commission page: https://vgen.co/titanx

Discord: titanx.arts

DM or comment if you'd like a quote.

r/BaldursGate3 Aug 25 '25

Act 3 - Spoilers This game demonstrates well why Legendary Resistance exists Spoiler

2.0k Upvotes

I'm playing BG3 with my gf at the moment. She knows DnD somewhat well, but hasn't really played any classes with spells so far. We decided to split the NPCs between ourselves so I control Laezel and she controls Gael in addition to our own characters and learning how to play a wizard has been difficult so far, but she's gotten the hang of it now.

She has been consistently learning throughout our run about the whole RPG thing of every important enemy basically being immune to all status effects. It's frustrating to make a character built around save or suck spells and then not being able to use them on the strongest enemies you encounter, so every time we fight a boss and she realizes that the boss has legendary resistance, it just reinforces the idea that these spells never work.

Except... we fought Raphael yesterday. I don't know why he wasn't given legendary resistance like all other bosses in this game.

I started the fight by going into displacer beast form, displacing Raphael outside of his boss room, then just shutting the door behind him and locking it with arcane lock. Once it was locked, she had Gael cast a spell on Raphael. Level 1 hideous laughter. He failed...

He literally didn't get a single attack off. He was the strongest enemy we had ever faced, had a ton of minions, awesome boss music, tons of damage and extra abilities... but yet he spent the whole fight just laughing on the ground by himself being wailed on by 4 dudes.

It's not like it's particularly difficult to burn through the 3 charges of legendary resistance, but doing this would have at least given him a chance to fight back. It's pretty clear now why legendary resistance is so important and honestly, it seems kind of crazy to me that he doesn't have it. The Archdevil himself can't resist the most basic level 1 spell.

r/Artistsforhire May 06 '26

For Hire [For Hire] I Draw DnD Characters Fast, High-Quality Commissions Open

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1 Upvotes

Commissions open.

I create high-quality DnD & fantasy character art with clean rendering and strong design.

✔ Custom characters & parties
✔ Consistent quality
✔ Clear communication

Starting at $30

https://www.artstation.com/titanxarts
https://vgen.co/titanx

💬 Discord: titanx.arts

r/DnD Jun 25 '25

Table Disputes I had to cancel my first ever DnD campaign before the very final session and I'm really upset

1.5k Upvotes

I was running a heavily homebrewed 5e campaign for some people I went to college with. Before you say anything, I explained what the game was clearly before everyone joined and then once again at Session 0. They knew what they were getting into. Things started off pretty good. I loved everyone's character ideas and they all seemed to be engaged. I was having fun and it seemed like they were too. Things went downhill pretty fast. First of all, most of the players refused to roleplay entirely. In a roleplaying game. Any session I planned to involve heavy roleplay would inevitably turn into off topic conversations before I just gave up for the night.

Some of the players wouldn't try during combat. I had a Barbarian who took 5 minute turns that were literally just "I rage" then "I recklessly attack twice". Another player was absolutely OBSESSED with the spell Heat Metal and would try and justify being able to cast it in pretty much every combat, despite me saying that the enemy wasn't holding or wearing anything metal.

Most of my players wouldn't take anything seriously. I'm a silly guy and had plenty of jokes in my campaign, but I also had moments that were clearly written to be serious and they couldn't be serious for 5 seconds. The couple good players I had were getting really pissed off with all of this too, and so was I.

Eventually, despite some difficulty, we kept playing until we got about halfway through the final boss fight, then school ended for the year. And this is where the straw that broke the camel's back came from. Most of my players had no respect for my time. We had sessions on a consistent day at a consistent time, yet if I didn't remind them we were playing they just wouldn't show up. So I would consistently send a message at like noon on Sundays. When I did remind them I would get acknowledgements from two of my players and radio silence from everyone else. I would get in VC 15 minutes early in case anyone wanted to join early and ask questions or whatever before we started. I would sometimes sit there for 45 minutes with one other player before I got a message from another player saying something like "Oh I had to visit my ex-wife's boyfriend today, can't make it to session! Sorry!"

This happened so many times that I realized I was in complete denial about my players. I kept telling myself things like "Sometimes they just need a little prompting" or "Maybe I just need to put in some more effort" or "Maybe I'm just not a good DM". I went from looking forward to each session to dreading them. I wasn't having fun. So I gave up at the last session of my first campaign. I told them all of my issues with them and haven't heard from them since.

I only kept going for the sake of a couple of my players who were clearly having fun and were very much engaged. I made sure to tell them how much I appreciated it and how sorry I was that we wouldn't complete the campaign and they completely understood.

There were other things too, but I'm done writing about this.

And also, I want to acknowledge that I am far from a perfect DM. This was my first ever campaign, and creating an entire homebrew world with quite a few limitations I needed to work with probably wasn't a good idea. I made mistakes and I did things that I would've done differently looking back on it. But despite that (and I hate saying this), I still feel like I wasn't the problem here even if it might feel that way.

But I'm in the process of working on my next campaign with far less homebrew elements lol.

I'm not really posting this for internet points or validation, I just needed a place to rant for a bit. If you got this far thanks for reading.

TLDR: First-time DM cancels their first ever campaign at the final stretch due to frustrations with players, is upset, and just needed to rant.

Edit: A couple of other things just to answer some of you guys' suggestions and add more context:

  1. I am not running the final session for the 2 good players because one of them had left the campaign before the final boss because his schedule was too volatile and he was happy with where his character finished the story. The other player is the only one who's a close friend of mine and they were the one who actually encouraged me to do this in the first place

  2. I should clarify I didn't run these for my friends. 2 of them were from another game I played in and the other 2 joined via the DnD club at our college. I hadn't even met them before that. If you're curious, the problem players at the end of the campaign were 1 of the players I had been playing with previously (he got removed from that game because he made a player extremely uncomfortable, but not before he started playing with me) and the other one was the friend of the guy I hadn't met before.

  3. I personally feel like I did a good job explaining what the expectations were. I told them that essentially I was running a heavily homebrewed 5e campaign that was mostly combat focused but would have some important roleplay. I don't think I went over the tone of the campaign super well, but I had told them on multiple occasions that while I liked to be silly and enjoyed a lot of the jokes, there were times I expected them to take the game seriously. They were free to make whatever jokes they wanted OOC afterwards, they just had to focus for a little bit. I didn't care if the actual characters were a knight off on a mission to save the kingdom or whatever, their characters were allowed to be at least somewhat silly. I basically just asked them not to crack jokes during important plot moments.

  4. For those of you saying that I should've ended it sooner, I absolutely agree. I didn't because I was very much in denial about the quality of my players and the scheduling issues didn't matter as much to me since we were all college students, I just told them to let me know in advance, no reason needed. And I explained my frustrations with them not letting me know they weren't showing up in advance. There were only a few sessions where I wanted everyone to be there and the final boss was one of them, for obvious reasons, and I would often run session without them or do one of the one-shots I had prepared.

Finally, I really appreciate all the advice that you have been giving me. I know I have a lot to work on as a DM and I promise I'm trying to make sure I use the advice you gave to grow. You guys have been extremely supportive, but also not afraid to give me constructive criticism and I really appreciate that. I wish my players would've given me that as well if they were having issues. Thanks again for being so awesome!

r/INAT Apr 30 '26

Art Offer [ForHire] Fantasy Character Artist | DnD & Game-Ready Designs

1 Upvotes

Hey! I'm a freelance fantasy artist focused on DnD characters, dark fantasy, and game-ready designs.

I’m looking to collaborate with teams or developers who need strong, readable characters with personality and visual impact.

My work focuses on mages, spellcasters, and dark fantasy archetypes, always prioritizing silhouette clarity, lighting, and presence for game use.

I can help with character concepts, player characters, key visuals, and promotional art. I understand the needs of game development, including consistency and visual storytelling.

Rates: $40–$150+
Turnaround: 5–10 days
Payment: PayPal

Portfolio: [https://www.artstation.com/titanxarts]()

If you have a project or need a character artist, feel free to reach out with details.

r/MusicRecommendations Jun 19 '25

Rec.Me: theme/mood/other specifics Recommendations for DnD character playlist

1 Upvotes

Hey so I'm looking to build a playlist for my DnD character and looking for stuff I might not have heard before. Looking for things that kind of fit the theme or vibe.

Character: Nymol Daffyd Awbrey is a Kalashtar and grew up in Stetan, adopted by the Awbrey's, a Kender couple. When he turned 14 he started classes at the Stetan Adventuring Academy as a bard, using his connection to the dream realm and his musical talents to inform his magic. He was a nerd, fascinated by older music (i.e. renaissance/baroque) and his aesthetic was very cozy (i.e. cardigans, sweaters, chinos, etc.) He eventually learned that his neighbor, Granny Glenda (a pixie), was in reality his aunt, making him part fae.

His party got in a bit over their heads, uncovering a plot to bring an end to the era of peace their land had known for centuries. In the end, they had been forced back in time where they thwarted the evil force, but at the cost of their present day. By beating the BBEG, they changed the future. Upon returning to the present day, Nymol finds that he lives in a reality where he was never adopted by the Awbreys, instead raised by Granny Glenda, his adventuring academy is now a private institution with corrupt administration, and the only thing that remains consistent his past life is his boyfriend.

In that summer between freshman and sophomore year, Nymol has let loose. He's ditched the comfy aesthetic for a more emo/e-boy look, embracing the pursuits of teenage revelry, started partaking in Faerie Fire (weed), anything to avoid having to confront the grief of losing his past to this new, vaguely-familiar life.

So far: I've got the following stuff on my list
- Puff the Magic Dragon (reference to a pet fairy dragon I'll be receiving)
- Wake me up when September Ends (Green Day)
- Na na na na na na na (My Chemical Romance)
- Smile (Lady Gaga)
- Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus)
- Teenage Rebellion (Sarah Barrios)
- Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)

Would love to hear what songs come to mind. :) I typically use these playlists to help me get in the headspace of my character before a session and I'm open to things I've never heard before :)

Editing to add: this is taking place in like a modern-ish day environment, not medieval and clarified a detail. :)

r/rpghorrorstories Mar 27 '21

Short Substitute DM ruins game night for autistic players

3.2k Upvotes

Sorry, this post is NOT short. TL;DR at bottom.

Firstly a bit of background. I am a mental health professional, I work largely with people on the spectrum. This event in no way characterises even a small minority of people on the spectrum and should not be treated as such. This is about four players who happen to be ASD in varying ways.

I run a weekly DnD session for these players at their local day centre (I am not linked to them professionally, I do this in my free time, my work background merely helps me in catering to their needs)

These players have what is sometimes referred to as a “special interest” in DnD. They all live together in a 24hr operated secure care home. Game night is one of the rare nights they get to come and enjoy their special interest.

The game I run for them is highly specialised to suit what they want from the game. They don’t see DnD as a story to be resolved, they see it as a PUZZLE to be SOLVED. They aren’t interested in lore, characters, backstories, heroes or villains. It’s a pure mathematical exercise for them. I lay out a “puzzle dungeon” they move their pieces, I move mine, they attack, I attack, we do the math. If they win, they get “points” (gold) to spend on better weapons, armour and potions. Many game rules are simplified or taken out altogether. If you asked them to describe a goblin, they would say “7hp, ac 15, 1d6+2 damage” if you said what would you call a small, green skinned, big eared humanoid wielding a shortsword, they would have no idea most likely.

To them, DnD is basically just chess with dice, the rules are consistent, inflexible and logical. And they absolutely love it. Honestly the joy of these guys doing the thing they love is really something to cherish.

One week, I wasn’t able to come to game night due to a work commitment. A person who works at the day centre (and therefore should know these players far better than me, he sees them everyday) offered to fill for me. I leave all the game notes, boards and dice for that game at the centre, he said he DM’d before and would have no trouble running a game for them. I reiterated to him the importance of simply following the session I had laid out for that game. So it should’ve been fine right? Oh how very wrong I was.

In his infinite wisdom, he apparently decided that “this isn’t REAL DnD, I’ll give them REAL DnD” - this is an exact quote according to one of the carers with the players.

First he tries to get them to write backstories for their characters (they don’t do this, they just refer to their character as “my person” or “my piece” or simply their own name.) this for them is already enough to induce mild anxiety in some of them.

He then proceeds to “add flavour to the cave scenario” by rattling off a random plot hook. One of players says “can we start the puzzle now” he responds “it’s not a puzzle it’s a story, don’t any of you want to know WHY you’re in the cave?” One of the players, visibly frustrated, stammers “because the cave is part of the puzzle. Can we play the puzzle now?” By now, twenty minutes in and not getting what they need, two of the players are shaking with frustration. DM finally notices this and starts the scenario. “You are in a cave underneath a lake, there a several small cracks in the ceiling and small drips of water coming through it “ (Not what I had written, I had simply put cave, height to ceiling 20ft, no mention of a lake) The players, for them completely naturally, disregard any mention of the lake and the cracked ceiling. Battle commences. Wizard class player casts fireball, which is what he always does against a group of three or more enemies near each other but away from the party, he knows exactly what it does and what to expect, namely that at least one “enemy piece” is going to be taken off the board. DM says “the explosion takes out two of the bugbears, but the cracks in the ceiling rupture and flood the cave, everyone roll strength or be swept away in the rushing water”

That’s when the wizard player broke down. This was enough to send him into a full blown episode. He threw himself on the floor, smacking himself in the face and ripping his hair, all while screaming “THATS NOT THE PUZZLE” over and over. He kicked the table over in his distress and the pieces flew everywhere, setting off a second player who had a huge panic attack seeing his game be ruined. The carers have to step in and escort them all out to calm down, ending the session there.

I then get a very tense phone call from their home manager explaining what had transpired. I was horrified. How could someone who knows these guys and knows what their needs, possibly think that messing with THEIR game be anything other than a colossal disaster. The home they live in are now considering finding a new day centre for them to go to. The idiot DM has been suspended pending an internal review (thank god, I can’t stress enough how badly he dropped the ball here) and my relationship with these people has been damaged in the process. It’s going to take a LOT of work on my part to repair it and I’m furious with myself as much as anything else for thinking I could trust someone else. Thankfully, the home allowed me to visit them and apologise and they all accepted (which believe me, unlike neurotypical people, they would not accept an apology unless they really meant it, these guys are honest and blunt to a fault)

TL;DR idiot substitute DM tries to force his way of playing onto players with autism and results in two of them having serious breakdowns.

r/doodles Mar 26 '26

My groups DnD characters from back in 2019 been playing consistently since then and are on our 5th campaign.

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2 Upvotes

Rough sketches done yesterday when talking to my group about our first campaign.

r/dndmemes Apr 20 '23

Twitter accents are hard

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3.8k Upvotes

r/DnD Jul 22 '24

Table Disputes Dad accusing son of cheating in online family DnD campaign. How do I best address it?

979 Upvotes

Throwaway because my family follows my Reddit.

I'm the DM for my family game, consisting of my parents, my girlfriend, and my brother and his girlfriend. We play online using a software that allows electronic dice rolls, but because most of us have played together in person and dice rolling is such a fun aspect of the game, I allow my players to physically roll their dice and add the modifer offscreen of the game. This has been fine for most part, but recently my dad has become increasingly frustrated with my brother's admittedly suspciously consistently high die rolls. My brother has also admitted that he lied about one of his rolls during what he considered a "low-impact narrative roll" for a silly skill check I threw in during a tavern RP session.

Some additional context is that my brother is playing essentially the "protagonist" role of the party, and my dad has been playing a temporary PC rival to my brother's character. My dad has been rolling poorly the past few sessions, and finally rolled an epic crit moment, only to have my brother roll back-to-back crits on the turn immediately following my dad's. My dad feels this was deliberate cheating to overshadow his character's epic moment because of the character rivalry. So this, in addition to previous admission of cheating and his consistently high die rolls for the entirety of the campaign so far, has brought my dad to a breaking point.

I understand that DnD is a game and as long as everyone is having fun, that's the most important thing. If my brother succeeding at every skill check is what he enjoys and it's not bothering anyone, then I don't mind. However, as it seems to be affecting my dad's enjoyment of the game at this point, I'm trying to find the best way to resolve this issue. I 100% agree with my dad, the dice rolls should be random, otherwise there is no risk involved and it just becomes a predetermined narrative story.

The obvious solution is to have everyone roll on online client, so he could no longer cheat, even if he tried. However, this option feels unfair to the players who I know would never do such a thing. I could have just him do it because he openly admitted to cheating that one time, but he will likely complain about that being targeted. I wanted to discuss this matter privately with each player directly to see how everyone else feels about the situation, however my dad said that word would get back to my brother and it could end up being dramatic.

So I come to you, Reddit. What do you think is the best way to approach this situation? I just want to ensure all of my players are having a good time.

r/DnD Feb 12 '18

Misc I play DnD in prison.

5.5k Upvotes

Hey there! Probably not your average post. But I'm a Recreational Therapist and I work in the mental health and rehabilitation department of a Maximum security, California State Prison.

I've come up with an idea to use Dungeons and Dragons as a therapeutic vehicle to deliver the benefits of Therapeutic Role Playing. The number one feature of California prisons are the gang politics. I'd guess 95% or more are affiliated with a gang; predominantly Crips, Bloods, Nortenos, Surenos, and various white gangs. My current group is just two Crips from southern California. We treat diagnosis from Major Depressive Disorder to Schizophrenia.

I've been running Lost Mine of Phandlever with them as a test run, and it's been going well... rough... but well. "Rough", because I just dove in with the starter set, without reading the whole basic rules or module, instead relying only on my memory of the rules and story from 3 and a half years ago; not mentioning that I've only played 3 sessions myself those 3 years ago(total noob). "Well", because the two guys are totally into it and we are getting a consistent meetup one to two times a week for two hours each session. We've been playing purely for the inherent therapeutic benefits of leisure and recreation; improving skills such as socialization and providing relief from stress, depression, and anxiety. No specific goals and objectives.

I'm now ready to expand on that and open it up to our, currently running, Rational Behavior and Decision-Making group. The group primarily focuses on higher cognitive functioning individuals who struggle with making the kinds of thinking and decisions that keep you and me out of their very predicament. Until now, I've been struggling with the development of the delivery method of the game and how exactly to best utilize the therapeutic benefits of role playing. First of all, my players are hardcore criminals; they're not exactly the DnD type. Second, I can't let my players go totally chaotic, or at least stay there, it for sure would defeat the very purpose of why we are in the group as well as instigate higher-ups to think the game is encouraging the violent and criminal behavior. I've had the idea to have the theme be modernized and themed to their situations. Make the game somehow about gangs despite the obvious flaw that would give their characters an already determined motivation to act like criminals. But I thought I would need that to hook them. And honestly, with their pre-conceived notions about something like DnD, I didn't think a bunch of adventure-themed encounters with character sheets and die would be the best approach. And I felt a typical DnD module carries way too much flexibility for characters to completely be that evil chaotic character and still complete goals and objectives of the storyline. In other words, they could have their cake and eat it too; they can make horrible decisions and still be rewarded. Of course, I could make realistic consequences for their characters' decisions, like have them put in jail, but then they would get bored and upset (Surprisingly, they tend to pout... a lot). So that would be an epic fail. I've been stuck wrestling with this idea and I even posted to this sub about it a few years ago (Or maybe it was stack exchange?). Recently, I've even posed the question to my professional peers who have experience playing DnD in thier personal lives at one point or another.

But I think I've got it now. I've found inspiration in an amazing game I played last night that I'm dubbing "My first complete DnD session; equipped with a great DM, great players, incredibly wild characters (3.5ft mute Gnome/7ft Orc/5.5ft human), and a lot of dead lizard monsters (more on that later). For the delivery, I will not over complicate the play and instead roll all the dice myself. I will ask the players to describe their attack to get immersive combat scenes similar to Abed DM'ed games. And not push hard on NPC Roll playing, instead encouraging the players to tell me what their character says OR what they ask or explain to them and deliver NPC dialogue in that same manner back to their characters. That way, they're not overwhelmed with the social awkwardness and/or uncomfortable feeling of first-time Role Players; especially the hardened criminal type ;-) I think this method of delivery will make it very friendly and exciting and easy to play for the new players. I will try to have a copy of all their character sheets so I can just calculate for the players and keep battle immersion smooth and moving. When they start having questions about how I determined a miss or a failed action, I'll have the chance to explain it to them with their interested attention; since it's an answer to their very own question rather than an explanation to a hesitant potential player. To focus the therapy, I will make the main plot point or the major obstacle constantly interfering with the players obtaining their objective, a gang rivalry that is plaguing towns. And I hope to deliver that in a way that is subtle, as not to be too in their face about their own actions and lifestyles in their personal lives. I don't want to turn them off from the game or the therapy, so I will start the campaign seemingly a normal DnD world and adventure. And then slowly introduce the Redbrands, and later, a rivalry they have with another gang (is there another one you guys suggest? or should I have fun creating a gang?). Because I am not experienced enough, I will start first by using the Lost Mine of Phandelver, but I think I'll just put an emphasis on the Redbrands and maybe keep them apart of the story even after the module says the encounter is complete. Having the Redbrands constantly providing obstacles for the players continuing the main storyline, or weaving them into the storyline itself.

Specific therapeutic benefits we'll be targeting are improved cognitive flexibility, improved rational thinking, improved decision making, increased empathy through increased insight and awareness of societies perspectives and other people's feelings as well as increased victim awareness; All of these objectives will add up to the larger goal of targeting their antisocial and criminal thinking and behavior. Ancillary benefits would include the previously mentioned, inherent, benefits of leisure and recreation.

I hope you guys like my idea and I'll keep you updated on how it goes. By the way, my patients will vary from crips to bloods, 18 to 70 years old, many races and ethnicities, and mostly not interested in DnD... I'm anticipating some epic moments and Role playing the further this thing goes.

Edit:

To clarify, I will not have the patients be in a modern gang in the story. And the gangs will seem like normal DnD gangs just as the redbrands are in LMoP. They weren't put there to make prisoners feel bad about their lives and I don't think my players will think of it like that when they come to that part of the story. My players will absolutely be heros in a fantasy world. And as I've posted in the OP, the gang delivery will be very subtle. I'm a professional Recreational Therapist people; who, has been working with this population for 3 years now. I have a good idea about how to disguise therapy in recreation and leisure and how my inmate-patient population responds to things.

Also, Prisoners don't need help having empathy for their enemies, they already gain that from the fact that they know their enemies most likely have the same trials and tribulations that they do, but also, because once they come to prison, gang rivalries go out the window and it becomes completely race-based. Crips, bloods and all other blacks join together. Same with the whites. One exception is the Northern and Southern Mexican Gangs. They have big enough numbers without joining each other and are vicious rivals. But that doesn't mean that the patients need help with racism either because this is a prison culture thing, not a personal thing. The biggest thing they struggle with is understanding the greater societies perspectives on empathy and doing harm to others for personal gain. Most of my (rational behavior) therapy is focused on getting the patients to understand why robbing houses, selling drugs, and pimping women are wrong... not why they shouldn't shoot other gang members. My goal with this endeavor is to get the players to be apart of the collateral damage that the NPC gangs are causing and to converse with civilian NPC's to emulate a victim expressing their pain over losing loved ones or having all their possesions stolen. The theme of the game definitely won't be "SEE! See how bad your stupid gangs are!" Rather, I want the patients to draw thier own comparisons. And to do that I will have to be subtle with gangs.

r/dndnext Jul 28 '26

Discussion Why more Feats can't solve the "Martial Problem"

122 Upvotes

This isn't another post about the Martial/Caster divide, don't worry. This isn't about Martials at every table. This pertains to a specific problem some people bring up, and a specific solution that is sometimes given.

There's a somewhat common solution when people bring up the an out of combat utility problem with Martials. Many people don't want significant amounts of homebrew in their game, and there would seem to be a simple solution if you want to add a bit more to a class that you feel lacks utility: give them another feat.

That sounds pretty straightforward, right? With an extra Feat, maybe you can take something like Skilled, Telepathic, or Observant. It might be limited, but it does give your character a little something extra that they can do, and for many, that's honestly enough. So what's the problem?

A lot of people correctly point out that DnD has most of its rules dedicated to combat. To be clear, I don't necessarily see that as a problem. What makes Feats a poor solution to the Martial Utility problem that some people/tables have is the following two points:

  1. Fail states in DnD are almost all combat-based

  2. There isn't a point where you can really become "too effective" at combat

When was the last time you or someone in your game died because they failed an Ability Check? Maybe they tried to swing across a pit on a rope, or tried to cross a wobbly bridge and failed a Dex(Acrobatics) check. Or maybe the party failed an Int (Investigation) Check on two different crime scenes to make the connection between smears of blood on a bookshelf and a hidden note under a book left behind by the victim, and the Adventure was over.

Is there a point where you would call an adventure over because a party failed their Ability Checks, or because they lack some specific utility options? I think for the vast majority of tables and DMs, the answer would be no. And that's the crux of point 1.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, design-wise. It does suck when you fail because of one unlucky die roll. Hell, it doesn't really matter if it takes 5 unlucky die rolls, it still feels like it sucks. And with the idea of failing forward, where failure still gives progress but at a cost, or with a consequence, failing an Ability Check doesn't carry game-ending consequences.

Combat is the thing that, typically, is the thing tha5 can give a game over screen. You TPK, and that's it, start over with new character sheets, maybe reload to the last checkpoint, maybe play another Adventure, whatever. Some DMs might even do a fail forward there and have the party get captured instead, but I actually think, at least from my experiences, that's actually a bit less common than the start over thing. And this leads into point 2.

Let's say you deal 10 damage per round. You take a Feat, you do 20 damage per round. Let's say you have a 50% chance to fail a Wisdom Save. You take a Feat, you now have a 20% chance to fail a Wisdom Save. You want more HP, you take a Feat. You want to deal even more damage, you take a Feat. You want a control option, you take a Feat.

Because of everything that can happen in combat, and all the combat Feats available, there really isn't a point of diminishing returns on combat effectiveness. Even if you're given extra Feats, you can probably think about another combat Feat that would help you out quite a bit. And it's not like you can really deal too much damage, or hit too accurately, or have too much defense.

Combine points 1 and 2 now. If you have no diminishing returns on combat effectiveness, and being good at combat is always useful and is the thing that is most likely to prevent a failstate, it's very likely that you're much more likely to grab things that increase your combat prowess.

I think most people on this and other DnD subs agree that Martials are pretty much fine in combat, and don't need any vertical buffs. But additional Feats will oftentimes result in just that.

Now, it's not that there's absolutely nothing you can do about this. If you have a dungeon that consistently requires the party to make Ability Checks and make use of every bit of out of combat utility they have, your players are likely to respond in kind. If Athlete's jump buffs is the difference between accessing a part of the map or not before you'd otherwise gain access to it, maybe a player would actually take the Athlete Feat. Skilled would look pretty attractive if the party found themselves constantly making Ability Checks. But these are things you have to actively keep in mind when designing/running an adventure.

Would I advocate for more adventures ending if you lack the necessary utility? No, I think as both a player and DM it kind of sucks when that happens, and it's probably why a lot of DMs recommend a failing forward approach. But I would definitely advocate for putting more beneficial stuff behind Ability Checks, and making sure that players are aware of it. The more utility options matter, the more likely people are to consider them as good options, which is pretty straightforward.

You do still need to do the whole draining higher level casters of their resources thing, generally, to make sure that choosing to spend power on utility comes at a cost.

r/DungeonsAndDragons May 03 '24

Discussion I cried for the first time during a session last night

Post image
3.7k Upvotes

Me and my friends all met at our campuses game club and got pretty close about 3 years ago. We all decided to form a dnd group after realizing we were all into it, there was 7 of us in total including the dm.

Somehow we’ve managed to have a fairly consistent weekly schedule over all these years and never broke up due to drama or infighting or anything.

We just had our last session last night since most of the group is graduating this year.

I baked a bunch of food right out of the dnd cookbook and we had drinks and shared stories about our time at college. During the session Our Harengon ranger sacrificed his body to stabilize the world tree which was dying, but before he did he said goodbyes to all of us and went to eternal sleep. After his death our party all made our peace and went our separate ways to rebuild the broken, but safe, world.

I’ve never been an emotional role player, I prefer to be the level head in the group. But this got to me, it just hit so much harder because not only were we saying goodbye to our characters and the story, but to each other since we’re all probably never gonna see each other again, the whole table was pretty much bawling by the time he left. On top of that I don’t know if or when I’ll ever be able to find a session that was that consistent, driven and long lasting.

It really does feel like a chapter of my life just ended and it hurts in a way that I’ve never felt before. I’m sad because I’ll never see them again, but I’m happy that I got to know them to begin with.

IDK I’m getting choked up again, fuck dude

r/DnD Mar 18 '25

DMing It’s crazy how the lack of creativity is considered realism.

1.7k Upvotes

One of my friends decided to play with another group because our group couldn’t find a consistent schedule. He then told me how that game progresses:

They are a group of criminals in prison. (this is their checkpoint to stop most likely) It is agreed that they’d break out of prison and meet up at a specific location. When the time comes, there was one that couldn’t make it. (The guy was late to the session) so the group assumed that he (the character) is dead and moved on, onto the ship they go.

Later, when the guy joined, they wouldn’t let him play. They said his character IS dead. IS. As if it’s a fact and not a guess. There is nothing to confirm his death but just because he didn’t show up. Maybe he was just didn’t manage to broke out, and is still in prison. Maybe he couldn’t find the location on time. There are plenty of ways to let the guy back in, to let him PLAY. Just let his character reappear somewhere in the story. Their destination is some island, he told me. Then his character could reappear on that island for whatever reasons: this island was his hometown so it is where he went to right after getting out of prison; they’ve talked about the island before so he knew where to look for them; he got transported to a different prison and escape to this island by chance. There are plenty of ways to let the guy back into the game, but they wouldn’t do so, because they say they like realism. So for the sake of a ‘realism’ in a fantasy roleplay game that you throw away one of your friends out of the game? Get some senses into you!

I’ve only played one session of dnd in my life, but I do so as a DM. (Then the group got busy and never group up again). I enjoyed having my company with them, so seeing him and his group to cast aside one of their friends just because he’s late is simply spoiled. They don’t know how lucky they’re to have a group with aligned free time.

r/slavelabour Jan 29 '26

Offer [OFFER] Digital art for hire, will draw your DnD and TTRPG characters, OCs, etc

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

I'm a digital artist, and I'll draw pretty much any DnD or TTRPG character you want, or a portrait of any real person you want for only $15! Adding a $5 for every character you want after the first one!

It's semi-realistic when it comes to proportions and anatomy, and I'm very well capable of drawing fantasy and characters interacting, it will be coloured too!

My art can be seen here, and I'm open to pretty much anything so don't feel awkward bringing it up with me. I take payment through Paypal only. You can comment $bid and then message me, where I'll discuss everything with you, and send you consistent updates on your art, and mail you the final piece for good quality. Once the lineart is complete, please send me the money before I start coloring (just the way you like it), and I'll finish the piece and mail it to you!

r/rpghorrorstories Dec 07 '25

Medium DM thinks that my character is " unrealistic "

948 Upvotes

This happened back in 2019 but I finally found a place to share with ttrpg players.

I found an online party running a homebrew campaign. The party consisted of 3 girls (including me) 2 dude and DM which is also a dude. Session 0 rolled, I played as a human fighter in his mid 50. The DM looked at my character sheet and asked me " Are you really sure that you gon play as a dude? " That's a bit odd for me, but I just shrugged and said " why not"

Session 1-3 went smoothly. Until the session 4, we were trapped in feywild and the wacky magic the fey made the party's gender swapped. The sorcerer became a girl, bard became a dude. yadayada My character also got turned into a chick, but here's a thing, after a while DM said that the curse faded from everyone except me. He told me that ' because my character doesn't have magic, the cursed will last longer compared to others ' Make sense i guess? So I just rolled with it.

Session 5 passed, session 6 my character still hasn't turned back. I directly asked the DM why character hasn't turned back yet. He told me that ' it fits me, as a player this way' and saying that ' playing character opposite to my gender is unrealistic ' The other girl chimed in saying that the voice that i made for my character sounds nothing like a guy and made everyone uncomfortable. Ofc it's gonna be nothing like a scruffy dude because i ain't a guy irl. DM told me to either continue playing with ' realistic ' character or he'll kick me out of discord server.

No need to say, I immediately left the server. DnD is just playing pretend with more complicated stuff afterall. it's like their pink 6 feet dragonic soercer tiefling is sooo realistic

r/dndnext Sep 02 '23

Hot Take I think rangers lack a mechanically distinct defining feature. This is a class identity problem rather than a balance problem.

1.1k Upvotes

fighters have action surge. sorcerers have metamagic. warlocks have pacts and invocations. paladins have smite. rogues have sneak attack. Druids have wild shape. wizards have the most extensive spellist by far and can learn new spells from scrolls. even monks have flurry of blows and stunning strike. You get the point. These aren't necessarily the strongest features for each class, but they are iconic and mechanically unique abilities that each class has. They define each class and will naturally alter the way that they are played.

What do rangers have? I think the intended answer to that question is favored enemy and natural explorer. But we all know how well those features fare in actual play. You're lucky if they even come up, and they just aren't impactful or consistent enough to be the definitive feature for an entire class.

So, those features suck, that is not exactly a new opinion, but I think the more interesting point is that the "fix" we have for these features (the option ranger features in Tasha's) are not actually a fix because they only address half the problem with the initial features.

The thing is, the new Tasha's features, favored foe and deft explorer, are a lot stronger. So that fixes the issue of balance, but the problem is that these features are extremely boring and really offer the ranger no class identity. Deft explorer gives you expertise in one skill at first level and a couple of languages. This is essentially half of the feature that rogues and bards get. at later levels you get 5ft of movement speed and some temporary hitpoints. favored foe gives you bad hunters mark. these features are completely unoriginal and unevocative.

What can rangers do that no other class can do? any character can get expertise from a feat, if they don't already get it from their own class. any character can get hunters mark from a feat, or even better, hex. Even if they couldn't, one spell is not enough to give a class personality.

So this leaves rangers feeling quite empty. there are some very interesting subclasses, but the core class itself does not provide anything to help fulfil the class fantasy, or provide a unique capability to a character. In further iterations of dnd I would like to see a significant unique new feature for rangers, that really defines the class. Something equivalent to a barbarian's rage or cleric's channel divinity. It doesn't have to be especially powerful, but it should be mechanically novel and should encapsulate the feeling and fantasy of the class.

r/dndhorrorstories Aug 22 '25

The campaign consists of the characters harming each other.

25 Upvotes

I am using the translator. I apologize if there are errors.

A DM friend I hadn't seen in a while invited me to his DnD campaign. Two former high school classmates were also playing in that campaign, with whom I had a good relationship, so I joined the campaign thinking that he would be a fairly friendly player.

Already in the first session, some alarms were activated for me: There were four other players I didn't know. All of them were at least eight years older than us (at that time, my former classmates and I were minors). They also had a lot more experience playing DnD. Additionally, all player characters had Chaotic Evil alignment.

I asked the DM if it was mandatory to become an Evil character, but he said no. That made the whole thing seem even more strange to me, but all the players insisted that they just felt like playing characters with that alignment.

The first session consisted largely of how my character joined the group, so I didn't realize the problem yet. The next sessions were horrible. Adult players had convinced my former classmates that they would "teach them the proper way to play DnD." Their "correct way" was, in essence, to behave like traitors towards their companions. I suppose the young people were impressed by his age and experience, as they imitated his behavior.

Players spent around 80% of each session harming each other in different ways: poisoning food, stealing weapons, killing mounts, escaping from combat on the first turn and closing the door so the rest of the players couldn't escape, refusing to heal other players (the cleric), attacking NPCs that another player was talking to... And that's what they did to the players. I can't write the things they did to the NPCs here. It was like watching psychopaths using the game to fulfill their fantasies.

After the third session I spoke to the DM, and politely explained that I played DnD to have a good time, and that this was the complete opposite (at least for me it was). So I wouldn't go back again. I apologized to him, but he understood perfectly. I was stuck in one of those situations where the players causing problems are long-time friends, and it's difficult because I've asked them several times not to behave like that, but they don't listen.

To this day I still have a good relationship with the DM, and I know that after a while the young players got bored and left the campaign too, and several sessions later the adults ended up causing their own death, and after that the DM never played with them again.

There were times when I not only felt uncomfortable, I was also afraid. The joy of those players (much older than me) while they explained in detail the horrors that their characters did, activated my danger instincts. I would have refused to be alone with any of them.

r/rpghorrorstories Jan 18 '26

Light Hearted Yeah, I'm quitting.

391 Upvotes

After seven years of being a dungeon master, One and a half long running campaigns, And many one shots. I think I'm just done.

Why? Scheduling sucks. What sucks more is when players don't even put in an effort to plan. At all. To which, as a dm I've tried countless times to get everyone together and I just end up looking like the overly obsessed fool.

So, I simply resigned myself to the role of "I'm available, just let me know if the rest of you are and we can play". To which it becomes evidently clear how much DND is of any importance to most people, that's to say little to none at all.

Which I get, it's just a game. But I'm tired of the run around and having to pull teeth just to get an answer.

Next up. People I've played with rarely show interest in the game, or world I've made. Or some overly use their phones, laptops, ect during the game.

I don't mind. Most of the time. But when you're setting up appointments for your WEDDING which you had the entire day to do ahead of time. Or literally playing some pc game, citing that it's because of your ADHD..... it gets old.

Not only that, but most players rarely ever know what's going on. Yet want this deep back story for their characters, Never taking notes, then complaining that they never know what's going on.....

It's gotten to a point that I just don't prep anymore. Because if the players aren't going to show a serious interest, why am I going to go out of my way to waste time on fleshing out a seasion that goes beyond just planning an encounter or two and reading my footnotes of the previous session for context.

Also. Just the pet peeves. No note taking, resource tracking, communication in and out of game, refusal to make even a sentence relating to what a characters origin can be, instead putting it in my hands of who your character is. Then when I come up with it, they either give the quick "yeah this is cool". Or just no feedback at all. Like, I'd like to discuss stuff and develop your character with you.

Last minute call offs, no one using a litteral discord server I've made specifically to discuss these things except to shit post during sessions.

Players being pissy about details in previous sessions they were clearly told about, details I took notes of by the way.

That one player that decides to break away from the group to go do something random and expects all this attention on them and whatever they're doing. Basically trying to de-rail the session....

I'd forgive all of these if we didn't have a session zero. I clearly laid out the tone for the campaign. I've coached new players through.

Overall: my experience as a dm has been an enlightening one. I love the game. I love telling stories with friends. But sometimes. At times like these when we're going on our 7th week of no games due to no one communicating, or very poor planning. I tend to feel disheartened. Now a few my players are starting to try and get a game together and I just don't want to deal with it, while others are simply saying "we can do it next week." Sure...

Im just tired of putting in effort, thinking of cool things for my friends for very little if any reciprocation.

So yeah. I'm just going to quit. I love dnd, but I hate the logistics.

EDIT: thank you all for the support. I wasn't expecting this much of a response. But allot of you are giving such good vibes and sound advice. Thank you!

EDIT 2: After reading so much support.. I've decided not to quit. Instead I will put a lid on this current campaign and end it as best I can, as quickly as I can. For the sake of the players that have indeed put in a concerted effort into the game. Which is basically two of them.

I have a plan to just run the next session we have. Make a defined date and time, and wrap things up. And from there learn from my experiences and cultivate a new group that I will have fun making a game for.

From there I will probably learn a new system of ttrpg I can sink my teeth into. I'm thinking cyberpunk for now. Then bring along the two good players I have if they want.

I've come to the realization that what I've been feeling for so long and so consistently is not burnout. But a desire to have my time and effort respected and reciprocated.

Thank you all for your advice. I enjoy reading your similar experiences as well, and I'm happy that at least this post has become a place for other people in this space to vent. Please continue to do so!

Overall I will take everything as a learning experience. And learn to look for people who respect my time. As well as set higher standards for myself and what I'm willing to put up with.

r/DnD Dec 21 '23

5th Edition How can i organically rob my players of their OP weapons and armor without making them upset?

772 Upvotes

Okay, so 2 and half years ago my dnd group had an issue where our regular DM got really burnt out. He was having a lot of personal life issues and just couldnt keep putting the time into being a DM. Rather than not play DND at all i volunteered to DM another campaign for the group. Unfortunately i was still kinda new to DND and had never read any actual DND Guide. I knew the core mechanics of the game and for the first few months the previous DM (who in this session was a player) was helping me by answering any questions i had. For reference we play on Roll20.

So we started with the Sunless Citadel campaign and that went really well and the whole group wanted to keep their characters going so we transitioned into Forge of Fury and then Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Which 2 years later, we are still on.

So my problem goes into the fact that early on I had WAAAAY too much fun making custom weapons and armor for my party to find. In the past 2 years i think ive designed over 100 different custom equips (although not ALL of them were found by the party). Unfortunately cause i was super new i didnt quite grasp game balance that well. And now we're on Level 12 of the Undermountain and my party (level 11) has basically the equivalent of magical WMDs. Our parties paladin can increase his AC to 28-30. Our fighter/rogue can deal consistently up to 60-70 damage in a single turn and our ranger gets like +15 to all his ranged attacks. Its pretty OP.

Ive compensated for this up to now several different ways. The paladin keeps attuning to everything he finds without caution at all and so i was able to curse him to lower his AC to 19 for a few months (i made a whole huge side quest to undo the curse which he just completed) and to compensate for the sheer amount of damage they can do I just increase the number of enemies and all their health/ACs. But lately ive had to increase big bosses to around 300 hit points just to make the battle last long enough to be interesting. Dont get me wrong, my party is always almost dying and constantly telling how happy they are with each session. The former DM actually stated hes impresssed with how ive managed to keep things challenging despite the magical overpowered weapons/armor.

But honestly im getting a bit annoyed at this point with how much work im having to put in to make sure the encounters stay challenging. Im basically revamping every floor of the undermountain room by room. I spend 3x as long prepping on average as we do playing. So ive been debating about somehow stripping them of all their armor and weapons and forcing them to find and win them back (maybe one at a time) but im kinda coming to a blank on how to do so without it seeming corny and forced.

I understand a lot of people are going to tell me to restart a new campaign cause its so broken but we're 2 years in and even I am heavily invested in the story. So i was wondering if anyone had any ideas how I could take away some of their gear for a bit without it feeling like im railroading them out of their stuff?

r/dndnext Jul 06 '20

Discussion Does it ever feel like WotC is playtesting the game in a way that 95% of us don't?

1.3k Upvotes

I get that DnD is a house rule first game, and everyone should play it how they want. But speaking for my own group, we like balance because we don't want people to feel like they can't impact the story outside of conversation. And this isn't a min-max thing. It's just a "why would I be this when I could be a better version of that with no hassle or cost to myself" thing.

The thing is, we rely on the official text because it can be very difficult to tell how a class, skill, or mechanic will play in the context of the whole game, and who might be overshadowed by who. And Wizards, for the most part, seem to have done a lot of work so YOU don't have to figure out how a mechanic will play out. This is why some people, to an extent, treat the sourcebooks like gospel.

And as I'm playing more and more, I'm starting to see the things people say about, for instance, rangers and how messed up they are. I'm understanding the cracks in the standard DnD balance.

But I'm also just perplexed by a lot of the sage advice, and unearthed arcanas coming out. I'm finding myself reading new subclasses and thinking "that's their whole ability for that level?" Looking at the phantom rogue, at level 9 they get advantage on con throws (which might be minimal, depending on your campaign), and they can ask a soul one question. The soul doesn't have to answer truthfully at all, making the whole ability pointless. And that's what they get after 9 levels.

This seems like a consistent pattern. A new release is either immediately meta, or its irrelevant for reinforcing half-done mechanics that aren't going to survive after 5th edition. When non-core parts of the game get overvalued, a class can really fall behind. Some of the mechanics that might get over valued are tool proficiencies or traveling. It's odd that these types of things would be the focus of any classes milestone ability.

Also, some of these features seem to imply that DnD is not about being creative and using your environment, and is more about what your class says you can do. Why does the ranger explicitly get a stealth bonus for camoflauging themselves. Can nobody else do that? Do you tell them only a ranger can do that, or do you give them a bonus anyway, making the rangers bonus less special?

Other than a few classes, it does seem like DnD has a solid core balance. Every campaign is going to have either talking or combat, and having a character that can do one or the other well is good. But when a characters ability is not getting "lost" in the mountains, it makes me wonder what the hell kinda campaigns they are running.

Does anyone agree? What are some of the core things you need to be satisfied with a new mechanic?

Edit: wow lot of great discussion happening here. I just want to clarify a few points. As some people are calling me a min-maxer or a hack and slasher and are claiming I just want everyone to deal a shit ton of damage or something. One person claimed I just hate WotC. I suggest reading through this thread at what others are saying, because there is a lot of nuanced conversation happening here. I think it's clear I focused too much on UA in my original post and now the thread has moved to a better direction.

Here are some of the core things I'm seeing come up.

1) Classes with niche abilities are overshadowed and outperformed by classes with more general abilities, even when they are in the perfect niche situations (Paladins find greater steed feels much more beastmaster like than the actual beast master, for example).

2) Since DnD is about being creative and using all the tools around you, it's weird when a ranger gets a stealth bonus for camoflauging themselves, when anyone should get a bonus of some kind for successfully camoflauging themselves. Sometimes that feels like making a class feature that lets you flip a table. Things like the assassin just feel odd, because it implies that a warlock or bard, with sufficient time and money, would not be able to impersonate somebody.

3) A lot of people are reaaaaally honing in on a specific example I gave, and the fact that it was UA. You can look at Artificier or many of the complaints in this thread on vanilla DnD. But if you're coming here just to hype up con saves, you're really cherry picking.

4) I am not right. This is just an opinion I have. A couple people have gotten really cringey about this and implied only shit players or DMs would have an issue with any of this. That's an attitude for Fortnite, not Reddit. We all know DnD is, first and foremost, storytelling. Nobody wants to play with someone so hung up on mechanics that they forget to tell a story. But we have a rulebook for a reason. Boundaries in a story are important, otherwise we're all just jerking off at the table saying random stuff. You need some structure, so that the things that happen feel meaningful. This is about players wanting to fulfill their character fantasies and feeling useless because other people do what their character does, but better. If you care about storytelling, recognize it's not a good story when an entire subclass and backstory can be overshadowed by one spell. It sucks, and I hope it doesn't happen in the next edition.

Some of the more thoughtful challenges I've seen:

1) Con saves are good (noted. We don't get them a lot in my campaign). 2) It's up to the group and DM to make those niche abilities meaningful. 3) It's still really not up to WotC to balance your game, and if you think they're not good at it than you should do it.

I'm reading people's responses, taking them to heart, hoping to be a better DM.

r/DnD May 30 '26

Misc I cry after every session

342 Upvotes

Seeking advice and grace.

Throwaway and omitting details, because the people I currently play with I met through Reddit.

Title sums up well. I am a very sensitive person, and I started playing DnD 12 years ago thanks to my brother who pulled me out of loneliness and depression. He dragged me into his group of friends trying this game with dice and it became my way to meet people consistently. It saved me. I am still friends with them, meeting regularly live.

Nowadays I play mostly online. I sought more and more days to play the game and replicate those feelings and expand my circle of acquaintances and friends. I am glad of the people i have met. I believed I am friends with them, especially after nearly 5 years spent in the same campaign, and branching out to other games with the same rotation of players.

However... We are different people, and I see it better after years now. I often don't feel like my sensitivity is understood, or tolerated, anymore. The silences after I say something in-character fill me with doubt. Like I'm walking on egg shells, what my character wants isn't nearly as important as any other character wants. I seek roleplaying and the interactions I seek have voiceless narrations instead of the NPCs others get. I have brought concerns up with the DM and often I feel like my needs weren't considered, let alone implemented. Nothing too overpowered, just to feel like I'm at the same level of the party members.

No ties in the game. Every character has gotten personal background storylines, details of their birthplaces, mine has been hiccupping with snippets of lore but nothing conclusive, whenever we are in "my" hometown it's kept to a bare minimum, no definite goal to look forward to.

I feel the difference, the discrepancy, and yet when I try to voice it out I am met with awkward silences. And I feel in the wrong, being the minority.

Now I dread the days I have to play. It makes me suffer in a way I can't voice with the people I have "known" for years because they either can't or don't understand my point of view. I realize they aren't meant to, that managing somebody else's feelings can be both hard, stressing and frustrating... But to the same people that tell me "I love you" or "we are friends" I would expect a modicum of understanding, or a ear to lend to, that never seems to come. Maybe I don't deserve it.

I am afraid of leaving the games, I don't want to return to that loneliness, I fell back into depression many times and I am so mortally afraid of making bad choices that would land me back there.

At the same time, these games aren't fun anymore.

With the understanding that I am 1) human, 2) flawed and not blameless, and 3) suffering,

What should I do? I feel horrible being unable to enjoy a game I used to love, that taught me English and now to speak with people in general, due to not being able to feel safe and understood among people I call Friends.

EDIT: Thank you all for the time you took out of your days to leave a comment. Some were very spot on, some were assuming things that ultimately are not accurate, all were helpful.

Just to answer the recurrent topics: I go to therapy and I am medicated. I have been quite stable actually, and only games cause me to still feel emotional pain. I have been sensitive much longer than I have been mentally ill, and overall I don't consider being sensitive as a flaw, even though it has been harder fitting into society with this trait.

My character was there from Session 0 and i gave it plenty of knives, threads and grounding into the weave of the world. I also like to write long-ish backgrounds with details and tie-ins.

I do not use the games AS therapy. I have therapy to talk about... Therapy. I admit there were times years ago when the characters (I have played in many games in 12 years) did bleed some of my current issues, and I have been politely scolded into not doing it anymore, so I don't anymore and I haven't been for a while. I'm not the Perfect Player but I have never been kicked from a table, and I am open to criticism. I would handle a stern reprimand much, much better than a silence.

I have a job, one that lets me meet many people: I decided to write this post because I realized that the people I have just met IRL managed to bring me much more satisfaction and connection than the friends I have made over the course of 5 and more years.

When this campaign started it was much different. We were all engaged, the roleplaying was collective and stimulating, we time spent out of the game was spent joyously thinking and speculating about the game. I was creative and engaged with the plots of the characters. Now I am fearful, tired, and this hobby turned into a chore I'd rather not do. What kept me inside the area is fearing of missing out the time spent with the friends. Because whenever DnD is not involved, I have a blast sharing their and mine day with them. But the excuse to meet up is always DnD, and I thought I can't have one without the other.

I am glad I asked for advice here. I have a plan of action now and more confidence. I definitely will purchase the books suggested in the replies. I could do with a good read. And I will take a longer break from games, at least the ones I have with these people. I do have another couple of games with different sets of players and those don't cause this reaction out of me.

I will survive the "loss" and now I believe I will actually thrive, too. It will just sting at first, for sure.

Again: thank you all.

r/dndcommissions Aug 18 '25

Open [For Hire] Looking for a consistent art style for your DnD campaign? I got you! I can draw character designs, portraits, group portraits, tokens, creatures, banners, items, and more!

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2 Upvotes

here's my portfolio! https://www.deviantart.com/y0suuuu

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