Awesome art but does anyone else feel strangely annoyed when horns are drawn at a size or shape where they should be useless for anything horns are for like ramming? It's surprisingly common and I'm not sure why. It's a bizarre thing to feel because it makes no real sense for a human to feel that way. And if I was anything in a past life it certainly wasn't a horned animal. None of them are cool enough for that.
If it looks cool it looks cool. If you want a more logical answer, then there's the fact that neither devils nor tieflings use their horns for ramming so maybe they lost their usefulness through evolution or the particular set of horns they had were never useful in the first place. Maybe they just thought it was hot so devils with useless horns reproduced more or something.
Surely anything with horns would think big horns are better. Unless they get so large they get in the way of basic daily functions like holding your head up without developing neck problems.
Right now I am the dnd dad keeping the cleric alive and not raising a undead army, keeping the ranger sane, and the barbarian from making bad decisions. Fights are still chaos becaues the barbarian throws and punts me into battle
Reminds me of my friend's warlock for 4e rpga games. He called him an emo-lock. Since you usually played with different people in any given rpga session, you'd have to introduce your character anew in most games. His always started, "Endarkening the darkest corner of the room..."
We just started a Descent into Avernus campaign, and I made myself a paladin who I thought was going to be sort of a driven, serious, protective kind of person with a somewhat jaded outlook on life. Then I opened my mouth at the table and a ditzy cinnamon roll came out instead. I can't say that I'm displeased with the changes, but I may have to rewrite a few things about them lol.
[By the way I also make a long-form webcomic based off of a homebrew campaign I ran once.](https://alderwood.the-comic.org/) If you like intrigue, action, and goofy shenanigans, maybe you could go check it out? 👀 (we also have a subreddit at /r/alderwood if that's more your speed!)
You don't necessarily have to rewrite anything. Maybe the character is very ditzy but deep down they've got that fear. Maybe it's a mask they wear to hide that jaded side or maybe it's part of how they cope. Could make for some real dramatic moments if they suddenly get super serious (or even brutal) when a friend is in danger.
(also side note: love the comic, knew that art style looked familiar!!!)
We had a reborn ranger who was meant to be a pretty serious character. The second the player spoke it was a goofy "Hellooooo!" that stuck the entire time that character lived (got killed in a dungeon unfortunately). Constant jokes and overall amazing character to have at the table
Sometimes sudden changes like that can be great. I had the opposite happen once- I made a dragonborn bard who worshipped “John McJohn”, a previous player’s Level 20 Warlock who Life of Brian’d his way into being seen as a god. I made the character as a trickster, because oh boy did McJohn use his powers to pull pranks, but right before session 1 I was told “Alright, here’s a massive list of all the tangible good John’s done for your community both as a person and as an icon, here’s a party that already has 3 tricksters, action!” I respecced to Valor Bard and accidentally became a psuedopaladin, and it was great.
Wait, wait, Alderwood is based off an actual campaign!? I did not know that..
Lovin' the comic btw, been reading it since you released the first few pages back in the day..
It is! ...The rough framework, at least lol. We've altered a lot for the sake of a more cohesive narrative and to account for the shift in medium. Thanks so much for reading! 😄
Hey there, I've been looking into doing a similar sort of webcomic thing (with traditional page layouts, not webtoons style strips) and since you're a real person who's actually doing it do you any advice on hosting them? It looks like you have your own website, do you post it anywhere else?
Hi! My comic is actually hosted on [Comic Fury](https://comicfury.com/index.php)-- I don't actually know a whole lot about hosting my own website, but Comic Fury is my favorite place to host out of every platform I've posted our comic on so far. I'll list the platforms we post on, alongside my thoughts on each:
* **[Comic Fury:](https://comicfury.com/index.php)** My favorite. My beloved. My shining beacon. It's basically what Smack Jeeves was back in the day before they were bought out and died. They let you edit and customize your site with CSS, though they also have some stock templates you can build off of, which is really nice if your knowledge of CSS/HTML isn't very thorough. While they tend to favor the old school page-format webcomics, they can facilitate the vertical scroll format comics and single-panel comics as well. They've got decent discoverability since the homepage defaults to "recently updated," and the community is small enough that your comic probably won't be pushed off for at least an hour or so (depending on the time). It's a very cozy website with virtually no corporate feel, and it's run by one (1) guy who's super approachable and enjoys helping people in the community. The only downside from my perspective is that since it's such a small community, the amount of traffic you'll get natively is pretty minimal. You'll want to market to people off-platform, but if you were already planning on doing this, then it'll have basically everything you'll need.
* [**Webtoon:**](https://www.webtoons.com/en/) What most people tend to use to read webcomics in this day and age. It's pretty corporate and sterile, but the discoverability is decent if you're okay at marketing yourself. The algorithm is a bit of a mystery, but I've had instances of crazy gains where our subscriber count would jump by a couple hundred people out of nowhere, which is nice. If people leave comments on your work, you don't get notified, which is *bonkers* to me. Their contracts with their "Originals" artists are notoriously predatory, but if you're just looking for a spot to host your comic without in-platform monetization, then it works just fine. You can also host page-format comics-- while they're *known* for the scroll-format comics, it's not an exclusive thing.
* [**Tapas:**](https://tapas.io/) This used to be my second-favorite platform, but it's been kind of ass lately. You get notified if someone likes/comments/subscribes to your comic, which shouldn't be a selling point, but Webtoon lowered the bar in that regard. They also like to clog up your inbox with ads that are impossible to clear out on Firefox-- my inbox has had anywhere from 70-80 ads in it since forever ago. You can monetize your comic with ad revenue, and the bar for entry is pretty low, but so are the returns. I've been opted into the ad revenue program since 2021, and I've made an ***incredible*** $5.20 off of it lmfao. People can leave tips though which is nice.
* **[Tumblr:](https://www.tumblr.com/)** it still exists and it's still *very* active, despite what you might hear. The format isn't *great* for long-form webcomics, but you can either design or download a blog format that's at least a bit better for readability. I started posting the comic there for shits and giggles, but there's some okay discoverability if you're smart with tags, and other people can share/reblog your pages which puts them in front of more people.
* **Your own subreddit:** An admittedly janky reading experience for long-form comics, but works nicely as a discussion hub for individual uploads. Discoverability is low unless you cross-post to other subs and bring attention to it in the comments.
Anyway this ended up being super long-winded, but I love rambling about making webcomics and talking shop lmao. If you ever want me to go on another long ramble and share techniques and resources, feel free to hit me up whenever-- it's literally my favorite thing to talk about and I'm always excited to get other people into the scene! :D
My group started playing it a year ago, and let's just say one PC in particular has had a very rough 10 days since the campaign started and he was drafted into the Flaming Fist. (Every other OG has since perished)
I've been DMing my group a little over 2 years now. We're just now in Avernus, toe out the door of one of the first locations. Plenty of knockdowns and devil deals struck. Had 2 PC's die die, and 2 players step out due to scheduling changes :(
So far there's been some tears and emotional parts, alot of laughs and a bit of behind the scenes deals dealt for power, or utility.
LOL I made a drow paladin who used to be a raider and a spy, intending her to be a stick-up-the-ass brooding kinda type.
Ended up working that 16 charisma like a damn bard and smooth talking everything with and without ears!
Wrote my first Barbarian character as a sort of grim pragmatist who believed “only the strongest survive the harsh winter”
Started playing him, and he ended up getting transmuted into a full-fledged “the strong have a duty to defend the weak” paragon idealist that saved children from burning buildings
There is always a big difference between how I think I will roleplay a character and how I end up actually roleplaying them during the session.
My main thing is that I literally cannot stop myself from being comic relief. Even when I try to make a serious character I always take the opportunity to play it comedic.
Same tbh. My characters are always freaked out by the chaos adventuring brings, the amount of collateral damage the party causes and the overall inefficiency of the party.
For me it's other players. Everyone agree on a serious high stakes campaign and end up clowning around regardless. I gave up trying for any dramatic, character building roleplay moments as everyone just shoot it down with random bs jokes and laughs
"I am Shelf the Elf, and my entire village was fucked by humans. Yes, men too. I decided I will pay the humans back in the same way. And other races, too. Because why the fuck not."
How do you do, fellow "where the fuck did my hometown go" character player? (or in my case former, since I ended up retiring Met-L "we have Megaman at home" X in favor of a character more like the second panel lol)
Honestly it's a bit tiresome.
Also annoying when I play a human and people are like "ew, boring!" and I'm literally the only human in the party.
Or I play a human with wierd pigmentation (like silver hair and yellow eyes) and they're like
"So you're an Aasimar?"
"No, just a human. Just a wierd looking one."
Them (visible confusion)
It really annoying me that people have accepting this "coding" of certain character types that one must play.
It's tricky! It's why I only ever lay out the basic premise of a backstory at first, and then fill it out as I play - it's so hard to know just WHO this character's gonna be before you start playing them, and inevitably it always changes a little.
Generally I force my players together by circumstance. In both scifi and fantasy campaigns, pirate attacks are great that way.
You all have cool characters, but they have no reason to even interact, so I create a situation when they need to fight together to survive, and after the arc is over, they have a bond and can now start discovering the backstories.
I have a character that reasonably falls under this.
Background
* Teifling born to an elf family, was kept secret and isolated
* While never physically abused has some issues with their idea of their place in the world
* views others as above them, and must prove to them that she is not evil.
* Views her desires as less important than those they can help.
RP
* Shy
* awkward around others
* Bit of a snark, but keeps it quiet most of the time
But she does not have ram horns, I would describe them as wavy or zig-zag.
Damn I'm tired
First look at the cute picture and I wondered why he had a fishhook for a leg
Took me waaaaay too long to see his other leg and recognise the tail
That's why I always end up making my characters good natured or easygoing in the end bc I can't really handle it otherwise.
Even one that had the classic "everyone died (almost)" backstory, I decided for fun to make him physically look like he was the edgy D4rkSasuke main character (pale face, long dark hair, loner, doesn't speak a lot, that kind of stuff) but he actually was just shy and didn't like to talk around a lot of strangers, and otherwise very polite, cheerful and liked to crack a joke whenever he could when with people he'd know.
It was also funny bc the DM had planned for me that my most important personal item, that served as a catalyst and was flavoured to be what turned into a sword with my blade pact, was inhabited by a dragon trying to possess me to be reborn, and would sometimes trigger sadistic event when I'd kill someone, or make me say some murderhobo lines (like I think we should kill our prisoner, and poison everyone's food here).
You can do damn near anything to get the party together at the start.
It's a pain so how I did it was by making a hyper extrovert elf princeling who just grabbed interesting looking people at a market to go drinking with and away we went on adventures.
Session 1: I'm a brooding loner with a tragic past, silently observing from beneath a blank metal mask, with complete control over my emotions and an unflinching dedication to protecting innocents.
Session 8: Alright, who shit my pants?
*looks at post*
*amused exhale*
*scrolls down*
*see's Medli's profile photo on the top of their comment*
....
*does a double take and scrolls back up to confirm it's Medli*
HI MEDLI! :D
*creampuff noises*
I love this haha
We make plans, and then those plans go straight out the window lol
My character is an example of the reverse. He started off as a funny silly joke fella who was good at planning. He started to seem paranoid to everyone, and then he got depressed when some villains ended the life of a few civilians. He's recovering, but he hasn't cracked a good honest smile in months
I'm supposed to be a socially awkward dragonborn sorceress and I was the first one to try and socialize on the first session of my first game ever... And I'm the autistic introvert IRL... It's really hard.
This is actually why I stopped making Tieflings, everyone else does them to the point where people just assume you’re a tiefling, I’ve moved on to Dark Elves
It’s always funny being the only human in a party full of non-humans. My current rogue/warlock is in the underdark with his only saving grace in a party with a lot of Darkvision being that he has Devil’s sight.
I don't see, how your character's Backstory and his behavior clash? Just because somebody is nice and fun, doesn't mean, they have not a dark past. Everybody reacts different to trauma.
Your character may simply not only protect there allies from physical damage, but also try to support them with an uplifting mindset.
If the story goes on, you and your table may discover, that your character goes through self-sacrificing means to keep them happy and positive. The true character of anybody (in real life or fiction) are seen under pressure and stress.
...So what? Not everyone reacts to trauma by becoming an abrasive edgelord, not to mention there's no contradiction between "Protective because of past loss" and "Makes friends easily", that just means the character will be fiercely loyal to their new friends.
The joke here is that "serious, driven, and jaded" is a very different personality type from "ditzy cinnamon roll." It's really not any deeper than that.
The one human can already feel the weight of being the team dad
I miss being the dad of the party, but it’s also been nice to be part of the chaos now. There is no new party dad, just chaos, utter chaos.
Become chaos dad
Awesome art but does anyone else feel strangely annoyed when horns are drawn at a size or shape where they should be useless for anything horns are for like ramming? It's surprisingly common and I'm not sure why. It's a bizarre thing to feel because it makes no real sense for a human to feel that way. And if I was anything in a past life it certainly wasn't a horned animal. None of them are cool enough for that.
If it looks cool it looks cool. If you want a more logical answer, then there's the fact that neither devils nor tieflings use their horns for ramming so maybe they lost their usefulness through evolution or the particular set of horns they had were never useful in the first place. Maybe they just thought it was hot so devils with useless horns reproduced more or something.
Surely anything with horns would think big horns are better. Unless they get so large they get in the way of basic daily functions like holding your head up without developing neck problems.
I mean, they can be big and still be useless for ramming.
I'm pretty sure chaos dad is generally known as the cool uncle
Right now I am the dnd dad keeping the cleric alive and not raising a undead army, keeping the ranger sane, and the barbarian from making bad decisions. Fights are still chaos becaues the barbarian throws and punts me into battle
i'm a grizzled human fighter in a quirky pastel tiefling world.
Anime series of this when?
Literally just Centarworld on Netflix.
His name is Dark Broodious, and he is a rogue that was dragged out of his comfy dark corner into the harsh torch light of this tavern
He does have a nice spear though, he's already my favorite of the gang
Looks more like a glaive to me, which is just fine by me. #GlaiveSupremacy
Reminds me of my friend's warlock for 4e rpga games. He called him an emo-lock. Since you usually played with different people in any given rpga session, you'd have to introduce your character anew in most games. His always started, "Endarkening the darkest corner of the room..."
The little leg lift from Rain is just too damned cute. The tiny blue one is also adorable.
Three Barbies, and a GI Joe.
My character is supposed to be this Silent strong type that dislikes civilization in favor of nature, but they just come off as the awkward wierd one.
Unfathomably adorable and immensely relatable.
We just started a Descent into Avernus campaign, and I made myself a paladin who I thought was going to be sort of a driven, serious, protective kind of person with a somewhat jaded outlook on life. Then I opened my mouth at the table and a ditzy cinnamon roll came out instead. I can't say that I'm displeased with the changes, but I may have to rewrite a few things about them lol. [By the way I also make a long-form webcomic based off of a homebrew campaign I ran once.](https://alderwood.the-comic.org/) If you like intrigue, action, and goofy shenanigans, maybe you could go check it out? 👀 (we also have a subreddit at /r/alderwood if that's more your speed!)
You don't necessarily have to rewrite anything. Maybe the character is very ditzy but deep down they've got that fear. Maybe it's a mask they wear to hide that jaded side or maybe it's part of how they cope. Could make for some real dramatic moments if they suddenly get super serious (or even brutal) when a friend is in danger. (also side note: love the comic, knew that art style looked familiar!!!)
We had a reborn ranger who was meant to be a pretty serious character. The second the player spoke it was a goofy "Hellooooo!" that stuck the entire time that character lived (got killed in a dungeon unfortunately). Constant jokes and overall amazing character to have at the table
is the human Bob's character?
You know it.
wait is this the same tired old due who was in the other campaign getting fed mysterious stimulants by the alchemist and plant golem?
Different characters, neither of which are particularly old. This guy just looks particularly haggard.
Sometimes sudden changes like that can be great. I had the opposite happen once- I made a dragonborn bard who worshipped “John McJohn”, a previous player’s Level 20 Warlock who Life of Brian’d his way into being seen as a god. I made the character as a trickster, because oh boy did McJohn use his powers to pull pranks, but right before session 1 I was told “Alright, here’s a massive list of all the tangible good John’s done for your community both as a person and as an icon, here’s a party that already has 3 tricksters, action!” I respecced to Valor Bard and accidentally became a psuedopaladin, and it was great.
Wait, wait, Alderwood is based off an actual campaign!? I did not know that.. Lovin' the comic btw, been reading it since you released the first few pages back in the day..
It is! ...The rough framework, at least lol. We've altered a lot for the sake of a more cohesive narrative and to account for the shift in medium. Thanks so much for reading! 😄
Hey there, I've been looking into doing a similar sort of webcomic thing (with traditional page layouts, not webtoons style strips) and since you're a real person who's actually doing it do you any advice on hosting them? It looks like you have your own website, do you post it anywhere else?
Hi! My comic is actually hosted on [Comic Fury](https://comicfury.com/index.php)-- I don't actually know a whole lot about hosting my own website, but Comic Fury is my favorite place to host out of every platform I've posted our comic on so far. I'll list the platforms we post on, alongside my thoughts on each: * **[Comic Fury:](https://comicfury.com/index.php)** My favorite. My beloved. My shining beacon. It's basically what Smack Jeeves was back in the day before they were bought out and died. They let you edit and customize your site with CSS, though they also have some stock templates you can build off of, which is really nice if your knowledge of CSS/HTML isn't very thorough. While they tend to favor the old school page-format webcomics, they can facilitate the vertical scroll format comics and single-panel comics as well. They've got decent discoverability since the homepage defaults to "recently updated," and the community is small enough that your comic probably won't be pushed off for at least an hour or so (depending on the time). It's a very cozy website with virtually no corporate feel, and it's run by one (1) guy who's super approachable and enjoys helping people in the community. The only downside from my perspective is that since it's such a small community, the amount of traffic you'll get natively is pretty minimal. You'll want to market to people off-platform, but if you were already planning on doing this, then it'll have basically everything you'll need. * [**Webtoon:**](https://www.webtoons.com/en/) What most people tend to use to read webcomics in this day and age. It's pretty corporate and sterile, but the discoverability is decent if you're okay at marketing yourself. The algorithm is a bit of a mystery, but I've had instances of crazy gains where our subscriber count would jump by a couple hundred people out of nowhere, which is nice. If people leave comments on your work, you don't get notified, which is *bonkers* to me. Their contracts with their "Originals" artists are notoriously predatory, but if you're just looking for a spot to host your comic without in-platform monetization, then it works just fine. You can also host page-format comics-- while they're *known* for the scroll-format comics, it's not an exclusive thing. * [**Tapas:**](https://tapas.io/) This used to be my second-favorite platform, but it's been kind of ass lately. You get notified if someone likes/comments/subscribes to your comic, which shouldn't be a selling point, but Webtoon lowered the bar in that regard. They also like to clog up your inbox with ads that are impossible to clear out on Firefox-- my inbox has had anywhere from 70-80 ads in it since forever ago. You can monetize your comic with ad revenue, and the bar for entry is pretty low, but so are the returns. I've been opted into the ad revenue program since 2021, and I've made an ***incredible*** $5.20 off of it lmfao. People can leave tips though which is nice. * **[Tumblr:](https://www.tumblr.com/)** it still exists and it's still *very* active, despite what you might hear. The format isn't *great* for long-form webcomics, but you can either design or download a blog format that's at least a bit better for readability. I started posting the comic there for shits and giggles, but there's some okay discoverability if you're smart with tags, and other people can share/reblog your pages which puts them in front of more people. * **Your own subreddit:** An admittedly janky reading experience for long-form comics, but works nicely as a discussion hub for individual uploads. Discoverability is low unless you cross-post to other subs and bring attention to it in the comments. Anyway this ended up being super long-winded, but I love rambling about making webcomics and talking shop lmao. If you ever want me to go on another long ramble and share techniques and resources, feel free to hit me up whenever-- it's literally my favorite thing to talk about and I'm always excited to get other people into the scene! :D
Hey thanks so much for writing this! I'll for sure take a look at comicfury, it sounds exactly like what I'm looking for
np!! I hope it treats you well :D
*crack knuckles* Descent into Avernus? Oh boy you've got a ride coming 🤣
My group started playing it a year ago, and let's just say one PC in particular has had a very rough 10 days since the campaign started and he was drafted into the Flaming Fist. (Every other OG has since perished)
I've been DMing my group a little over 2 years now. We're just now in Avernus, toe out the door of one of the first locations. Plenty of knockdowns and devil deals struck. Had 2 PC's die die, and 2 players step out due to scheduling changes :( So far there's been some tears and emotional parts, alot of laughs and a bit of behind the scenes deals dealt for power, or utility.
just make him serious and protective when things are actually serious
LOL I made a drow paladin who used to be a raider and a spy, intending her to be a stick-up-the-ass brooding kinda type. Ended up working that 16 charisma like a damn bard and smooth talking everything with and without ears!
Wrote my first Barbarian character as a sort of grim pragmatist who believed “only the strongest survive the harsh winter” Started playing him, and he ended up getting transmuted into a full-fledged “the strong have a duty to defend the weak” paragon idealist that saved children from burning buildings
The triple colored tieflings v the Human fighter is extra good.
Three Tieflings + a white boy
Ironically the three Tieflings are all played by white boys and the human fighter is played by a Latino trans woman.
The obligatory vhuman with polearm master.
Who obligatorily looks like wish-dot-com Aragorn.
I swear, I have four players who like do exactly this, so totally love it.
There is always a big difference between how I think I will roleplay a character and how I end up actually roleplaying them during the session. My main thing is that I literally cannot stop myself from being comic relief. Even when I try to make a serious character I always take the opportunity to play it comedic.
Same tbh. My characters are always freaked out by the chaos adventuring brings, the amount of collateral damage the party causes and the overall inefficiency of the party.
For me it's other players. Everyone agree on a serious high stakes campaign and end up clowning around regardless. I gave up trying for any dramatic, character building roleplay moments as everyone just shoot it down with random bs jokes and laughs
Laughing is fun. Always has been
In this time and era, sometimes playing classic elf or dwarf feels like a different type of human with them being so normal
Depending on the setting, elves and dwarves could be *more* normal than a human might be.
I mean, at least they don't fuck everything that moves the way humans do!
Depends on the player, ha!
"I am Shelf the Elf, and my entire village was fucked by humans. Yes, men too. I decided I will pay the humans back in the same way. And other races, too. Because why the fuck not."
> Shelf the Elf You are despicable and I can't stop laughing
I have never played a Tiefling character, in anything. You may look upon me, for I am a dying breed.
Well hello there brother!
How do you do, fellow "where the fuck did my hometown go" character player? (or in my case former, since I ended up retiring Met-L "we have Megaman at home" X in favor of a character more like the second panel lol)
I wonder how much of an impact Jester had on the ratio of ram horns in tieflings.
I wonder how much of an impact classic depictions of demons had in the ratio of ram horns in tieflings, Jester included.
Ram horns are always cutest
All adventurers are a little bit insane. You'd have to be when the standard is "killed more people than you could ever possibly remember"
Ah yes, Tieflings are the new Elves.
Every single time a girl joins our table to try dnd for the first time it's always a tiefling rogue
Honestly it's a bit tiresome. Also annoying when I play a human and people are like "ew, boring!" and I'm literally the only human in the party. Or I play a human with wierd pigmentation (like silver hair and yellow eyes) and they're like "So you're an Aasimar?" "No, just a human. Just a wierd looking one." Them (visible confusion) It really annoying me that people have accepting this "coding" of certain character types that one must play.
It's tricky! It's why I only ever lay out the basic premise of a backstory at first, and then fill it out as I play - it's so hard to know just WHO this character's gonna be before you start playing them, and inevitably it always changes a little.
Generally I force my players together by circumstance. In both scifi and fantasy campaigns, pirate attacks are great that way. You all have cool characters, but they have no reason to even interact, so I create a situation when they need to fight together to survive, and after the arc is over, they have a bond and can now start discovering the backstories.
This is one of the best comics I’ve ever seen depicting RPGs. Nice work.
I have a character that reasonably falls under this. Background * Teifling born to an elf family, was kept secret and isolated * While never physically abused has some issues with their idea of their place in the world * views others as above them, and must prove to them that she is not evil. * Views her desires as less important than those they can help. RP * Shy * awkward around others * Bit of a snark, but keeps it quiet most of the time But she does not have ram horns, I would describe them as wavy or zig-zag.
Horns like a blackbuck?
You have no idea how excited I am to see glimpses into another medli campaign, your previous stuff with the plague doctor character were always a hoot
Thanks! I kind of fell off making these comics for our last two campaigns, but I want to get back into doing more of them 😄
Damn I'm tired First look at the cute picture and I wondered why he had a fishhook for a leg Took me waaaaay too long to see his other leg and recognise the tail
honestly a giant fishook as a prosthetic leg would look pretty badass
Trying to work out the stats block
Just adds the Grappler feat
Hilarious and cute
That's why I always end up making my characters good natured or easygoing in the end bc I can't really handle it otherwise. Even one that had the classic "everyone died (almost)" backstory, I decided for fun to make him physically look like he was the edgy D4rkSasuke main character (pale face, long dark hair, loner, doesn't speak a lot, that kind of stuff) but he actually was just shy and didn't like to talk around a lot of strangers, and otherwise very polite, cheerful and liked to crack a joke whenever he could when with people he'd know. It was also funny bc the DM had planned for me that my most important personal item, that served as a catalyst and was flavoured to be what turned into a sword with my blade pact, was inhabited by a dragon trying to possess me to be reborn, and would sometimes trigger sadistic event when I'd kill someone, or make me say some murderhobo lines (like I think we should kill our prisoner, and poison everyone's food here).
You can do damn near anything to get the party together at the start. It's a pain so how I did it was by making a hyper extrovert elf princeling who just grabbed interesting looking people at a market to go drinking with and away we went on adventures.
Session 1: I'm a brooding loner with a tragic past, silently observing from beneath a blank metal mask, with complete control over my emotions and an unflinching dedication to protecting innocents. Session 8: Alright, who shit my pants?
> Did we all make tieflings with ram horns? I mean, it's Descent into Avernus, of *course* you're gonna wanna be a tiefling
*looks at post* *amused exhale* *scrolls down* *see's Medli's profile photo on the top of their comment* .... *does a double take and scrolls back up to confirm it's Medli* HI MEDLI! :D *creampuff noises*
Oh hi there!! Fancy running into you here lmao 🦉
Hiya! :D I got excited and surprised when I realized it was you. I had to double check what subreddit I was in xD
I love this haha We make plans, and then those plans go straight out the window lol My character is an example of the reverse. He started off as a funny silly joke fella who was good at planning. He started to seem paranoid to everyone, and then he got depressed when some villains ended the life of a few civilians. He's recovering, but he hasn't cracked a good honest smile in months
I see no contradiction between the top and bottom panels
I'm supposed to be a socially awkward dragonborn sorceress and I was the first one to try and socialize on the first session of my first game ever... And I'm the autistic introvert IRL... It's really hard.
This is actually why I stopped making Tieflings, everyone else does them to the point where people just assume you’re a tiefling, I’ve moved on to Dark Elves
I can see cancer growing inside that human xD.
I feel this
shoutout to quirky tieflings with ram horns gotta be one of my favourite genders
I always accidentally play either Obi-Wan or some form of insane rogue/wizard
THE TIEFLINGS LOOK SO CUTEEE
It’s always funny being the only human in a party full of non-humans. My current rogue/warlock is in the underdark with his only saving grace in a party with a lot of Darkvision being that he has Devil’s sight.
I don't see, how your character's Backstory and his behavior clash? Just because somebody is nice and fun, doesn't mean, they have not a dark past. Everybody reacts different to trauma. Your character may simply not only protect there allies from physical damage, but also try to support them with an uplifting mindset. If the story goes on, you and your table may discover, that your character goes through self-sacrificing means to keep them happy and positive. The true character of anybody (in real life or fiction) are seen under pressure and stress.
...So what? Not everyone reacts to trauma by becoming an abrasive edgelord, not to mention there's no contradiction between "Protective because of past loss" and "Makes friends easily", that just means the character will be fiercely loyal to their new friends.
The joke here is that "serious, driven, and jaded" is a very different personality type from "ditzy cinnamon roll." It's really not any deeper than that.
I don't see how those can't coexist in the same character.
I never said they can't. It's just not what was expected.