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 Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2024 4:59 pm
As far as potential additions to a D&D group went, Yuki felt like Leandro was a good one. He’d fully admit to being biased—Leandro and Kiyoshi had been friends for ages, since before the purification, when Kiyoshi had still been Reiki, and Leandro had good vibes all around—but Yuki didn’t think his biases were unfair. So, once again, Yuki had made some snacks (pizza because it counted more as a meal and Kiyoshi needed to eat one of those, and garlic knots as a gift for Leandro because Yuki knew that he liked them), gotten his books together (both the hardcover ones and the tablet full of assorted PDFs), and prepared for another round of character creation.
As Yuki joined Kiyoshi and Leandro at the kitchen table, though, he noticed a certain amount of excited vibrating coming from one of them. Giving Kiyoshi a Pointed Look, Yuki reminded him, “Hey, tonight is about Leandro and making his character, remember? Not about sharing the backstories that you and Liánlí have been working on.”In the face of being so cruelly, viciously, and correctly called out, Kiyoshi (mostly) faked a gay gasp and pouted. “But Gorgeous,” he pointed out, “what if Leandro wants to work his character into said backstory?”“Then that’s very nice for both of you and I’m happy to facilitate that. Comma, however—” Yuki intensified his Pointed Glancing, looking over the upper rims of his glasses and fixing his gaze on his special boy, “I am going to insist that you let Leandro either have his own ideas first or decide for himself that he wants to hear your very cool backstory.”
With a (mostly) affectionate sigh, Yuki turned to look at Leandro instead. “Do I need to apologize for him being so excited that you want to play with us and the others? Or do you understand that he’s just kinda like this?”
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Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2024 5:33 pm
Leandro was absolutely stoked to come over and learn to play D&D. It had gained popularity these days, and he had been wanting to try playing for a while. He knew it involved a lot of storytelling and math, and while the math part put him off, he thought he was a pretty good storyteller. One kind of had to be, when one spends a lot of their time around children. "I think I know what one of my best buddies is like, yeah," Leandro said good-naturedly, snicking a bit as he snatched up a garlic knot. Man, Yuki really knew how to treat him! He looked over the books carefully with his clean hand, asking, "What sort of things would you recommend for me, based on what you know about me? Picking a class and race and all that seems really overwhelming."
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Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2024 5:54 pm
“Based on what I know about you and your personality in real life, I would one-hundred percent peg you as a Bard,” Yuki said without needing to think about it, because frankly, the facts with Leandro spoke for themselves. He had a certain panache and vivacity that meshed very well with the whole Bard thing. “However, the party is already going to have one of those—”“Sheying,” Kiyoshi chimed in, hoping to help and not distract too much from the matter at hand. “He’s going to be Liánlí’s character……and I need to introduce you to Liánlí, he’s one of your fellow Knights—Saturn instead of Neptune, though—and you’ll probably like him.” Either that, or the entire world would explode from the sheer, concentrated force of both Leandro and Liánlí being so much. Who could say? “Granted, Sheying is going to be a different sort of bard than the usual kind. Liánlí is using one of the goth trash class options from the Curse of Strahd book.”
It probably didn’t help very much to pull that book out of the stack and show Leandro the cover art, but Kiyoshi did anyway. Tapping on Strahd’s gloriously rendered shoulder, he added, “My husband, Strahd von Zarovich. I can fix him, okay.”“Anyway,” Yuki cut in, reining the ADHD train back in somewhat (or at least trying to), “you can still be a Bard if you want to. But if you don’t want to double up on Bards, I could really see you enjoying the Rogue. Page ninety-four in the Player’s Handbook—y’know, the book you should actually be looking at,” he said with another Pointed Glance at Kiyoshi and his Curse of Strahd nonsense.
“Rogues get sneak attacks, bonus actions in combat, improved dodging and more reliable skill checks. Depending on the subclass you specialize in, you can get fun things like improved sneaking, a few small spell slots, or tricks to make your sneak attacks more deadly. And they’re easily adaptable to any kind of backstory.” Oh, how to put this in a way that Leandro would most appreciate? “……Rogues are basically like really cool ninja badasses.”
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 4:23 pm
Leandro immediately felt a bit overwhelmed, flipping his his head back and forth between the allegedly sexy vampire and then the page Yuki was trying to show him. Damn, he wished he'd known today would be one of his sensitive days before he showed up. He finished the garlic knot in his hand and carefully wiped his hands on a napkin, deciding that trying to eat and concentrate at the same time was what was throwing him off the most. "Your husband is ugly, put him away," he managed to deadpan at Kiyoshi before refocusing on Yuki. "Is there a way I can do, like, both without having to play two characters? Like, I dunno, he double majored in college and now he can sneak attack and play a killer flute?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 4:46 pm
“At least that problematic husband is fictional,” Yuki deadpanned, pointedly staring at Kiyoshi until he listened to both the friend present and the queerplatonic partner and slid the Curse of Strahd book back into the pile, “which is more than I can say for certain Negaverse sluts out there. On the other hand, at least that problematic fave hasn’t been up in Kiyoshi’s business recently, and I guess that’s about all we can ask for.”
That comment earned him a very tired, very pouty Look from Kiyoshi, which was probably fair, all things considered.
“Anyway.” Yuki scooted closer to the table and to Leandro. “There are a few different ways to make that part of your character, yeah. Option one is just saying that your guy can play a mean flute. It can be character fluff, and I don’t stick to the prescribed starting gear if it doesn’t work for the characters. So, if you want to have a flute to start with, you can have one. Option two is using your skills. In third edition and three-point-five, skills were a nightmare for both ADHD and queers who can’t do math. There were something like forty of them and you had to allocate skill points with every level. Things are much more streamlined in fifth edition. Skill proficiencies are basically how you say that you have training in something. And Rogues, it just so happens, get skill proficiency in Performance. Most don’t utilize it, but if you want to? It’s there.
“Option three is multiclassing, if you are dead-set on accessing the magical aspects of bardic music. Comma, however,” Yuki gave Leandro a pointed look over the rims of his glasses, “that part can be complicated for a first-time player. So, we’ll do that if you want to, but I don’t recommend going for it immediately. I recommend making a character in one class specifically to start with, then adding multiclass levels once we start playing.”
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 5:28 pm
Certain Negaverse sluts? Leandro glanced at Kiyoshi, bemused, but ultimately decided he didn't want to ask. Not right now, anyway. Tonight, he just wanted to make a sexy, sneaky cat man or something. They had those, right? He was pretty sure they had cat men in this game, but... Eh, he could just ask. His friends knew he was a beginner; they could deal. "I think it would be fun if he had it as a skill. I mean, people tend to do more than one thing, and he doesn't have to cast magic with his flute if that's like, the mutliclass thing. Um. I just think it would be fun if he could use it for distraction, or something, if needed. Plus, if he can actually play, that makes performance bluffing his way out of something easier, right?" he rambled, trying to get all his thoughts out at once. "Also, uh, cat boy? Can I be a cat guy?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 6:27 pm
“He means Faustite,” Kiyoshi explained, still openly pouting at Yuki. “The half-youma General-King I’ve been in ‘It’s Complicated’ with. And the entire reason why Yuki put in the clause about ‘Time spent with Chaos friends other than Sailor Hybris of Eggplants counts double against my weekly allotment of senshi—’”Thankfully, a quick round of yappy hands got Kiyoshi to shush about the magical girl gossip so Yuki and Leandro could stay focused on the work at hand. Character creation was an important and special process. Leandro deserved to be able to give it his full attention without being distracted with the tea about General-King Keep That Slut Away From My Boy, Thanks Much, Love Yuki Tsukiyama.
“Those are all valid uses for a flute, yeah,” Yuki said. “In the example you’re describing, it could go either way on being a Performance check vs. a Deception check? It might be a little complicated, but I might run that as a Performance check to make sure you play decently and if it succeeds, it would give a situational bonus to the Deception check? But there are a lot of factors that can go into determining things for skill checks in each specific moment. I like to keep the field pretty open for players to improvise, so you’ll have a lot of room to do fun things.
“As for cat-boys, you’ve got two options. One of them, the Tabaxi, is in either Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse or Volo’s Guide to Monsters.” The Tabaxi stat-block was actually in both books, but since both of them were PDFs on Yuki’s tablet, it didn’t matter much. He pulled up the Mordenkainen Presents version, though, complete with the splash art of a leopard furry climbing up a cliffside.
“As you can see, Tabaxi are the full furry option. They also come with some lore that ties them to an entity who is technically from the Greyhawk setting when we’ll be in the Forgotten Realms.” Sensing the way that ******** was eagerly vibrating, Yuki cut him off to explain, “******** and Liánlí have been working with some specifically Forgotten Realms worldbuilding while getting the backstories for Takashi and Sheying together. And generally speaking, I prefer Forgotten Realms to Greyhawk, so with Tabaxi? I have ways to work them into the setting and I do not mind making them work for you.
“If, however, you meant the nekomata kind of cat-boys? I have a homebrew for that. In ‘Files’ on the tablet? It’s called ‘beastkin version one-point-four dot PDF.’ ******** illustrated it and everything.”
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Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2024 7:30 pm
Leandro blinked at Kiyoshi, then shook his head with a rueful grin. At least Yuki had quickly cut him off, because he had very much sensed this would be a long and, yes, complicated explanation. He definitely wanted to know more, but... later. Right now— He stared at the hot leopard guy on the page, mesmerized. He almost missed the explanation about a homebrew race, and definitely missed all that stuff about a greyhawk and forgotten settings or whatever it was, he'd just ask again later. "Uh.... Huh. Um. Actually, can I do that?" he asked, pointing to the leopard. "Except, um. Hold on, let me google something." He pulled out his phone, googled "Puma", and blinked at the wikipedia result. "Uh. Hey, did you guys know that a puma, a cougar, and a mountain lion are all the same cat?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2024 5:15 pm
Yuki blinked at that little knowledge-drop in a way that made it pretty clear: he had not known this fact about big cats. Trying to keep everyone more or less focused, though, after a moment’s consideration, Yuki said, “You can do either the Tabaxi or the Beastkin, yeah. Pull up the beastkin PDF for me, and we can compare-contrast between them to see what plays off the Rogue build in the way you like best.”
Letting Leandro have a moment to do that, Yuki motioned at Kiyoshi for first the Player’s Handbook, and then Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. When they had everything all opened up before them though, Yuki angled both himself and the books more toward Leandro, so both of them could see everything.
“So, with Rogues, the most important stat is Dexterity,” he explained. “Your sneak attacks will depend on that. So will things like lockpicking, general stealth, and ranged attacks.
“I modeled how I built the Beastkin on the subvarieties of Tieflings. With that one, you get to increase your Wisdom by two, reflecting how you’re more in touch with the natural world, and you get to boost another stat by one. All the cat-adjacent Beastkin get that bonus to Dex. I kinda wrote up puma, cougars, and mountain lions separately, so you have even more choice on flavor there if you go that way. For Tabaxi, you get to pick the stats you boost. If you have any ideas about backstory that don’t mesh with the Wisdom boost, though? Like, if you want your character to be from Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, or Neverwinter, one of the big cities, instead of from the sticks? I’d be willing to adapt that flexibility to the Beastkin for you.”
Tapping his eraser’s pencil on a page from the Player’s Handbook, next to a spot he wanted Leandro to focus on, Yuki went on, “Tabaxi get proficiency in Stealth and Perception, which means you’d be open to pick other skill proficiencies from your class. Rogues get to pick four proficiencies from this list here, and if you already have Stealth and Perception from being Tabaxi, you’re freed up to maybe take an array like……Insight, Deception, Performance, and Acrobatics. Or whatever you want to take.
“Instead of two skill proficiencies, Beastkin get just one—Perception—but they also get a natural bonus to Perception checks and they roll with Advantage. Which means they roll two dice and take the higher result. You’d still get Stealth proficiency from being a feline Beastkin—and my writeup for pumas gives you a choice between Insight and Intimidation—but Perception would work a little differently.
“Then, there are the bonus abilities. Both Tabaxi and Beastkin get Darkvision. Tabaxi get a natural claw weapon. Beastkin can take that, but they also have the option for a natural bite weapon or the ability to transform into an animal shape once per long rest. They can also turn on Speak With Animals as a free action, once per long rest, ********? Care to tell Leandro what I like doing with that spell?”“Oh, it’s brilliant, honestly,” Kiyoshi said, grinning excitedly. “Like, Baldur’s Gate 3 also built in a lot of cool interactions that run on the Speak With Animals spell? You can talk to Scratch the dog and the owlbear cub. There’s the Strange Ox with his visions of bloodshed, plus all kinds of cats, dogs, displacer beasts, and dinosaurs to talk to. Yuki does that kind of thing? But the way he characterizes all the animal NPCs is more dynamic by virtue of not being a pre-programmed set of options in a video game. And he likes to hide important clues and potential quests with animals sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes.”“Thank you for your ringing endorsement,” Yuki said with a playful smirk, then looked back to Leandro. “One of the biggest differences between Tabaxi and Beastkin, outside of lore stuff, is how they reflect that sort of……essential cat-ness, basically? They have all the stuff we’ve previously mentioned. But Tabaxi also have an ability where they can double their movement speed for a turn. Puma Beastkin instead have an ability that would essentially buff your sneak attacks, reflecting how pumas are ambush predators.
“And I know this is kind of a lot to go over, so……” Yuki sighed, giving Leandro an earnest, sympathetic look. “Is everything making sense? Do you have any questions? Any thoughts? What’s on your mind for what kind of cat-boy you want to be?”
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2025 4:02 pm
His brain was slipping. Damnit, this was something he wanted to learn about, to understand! He didn't want to ask the same question over and over when they were actually playing! But so much of it just slid off his brain like oil on water. "It sounds like pros and cons to both," he mused, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about. "Two of the things I picked out? Speaks with Animals, and the, uh, animal shape thing. Oh, and biting. That's better than clawing. So I guess, Beastkin? And you said you wrote them differently? So like, what would actually matter?" Okay, that. Sounded better than he thought he'd gotten about it.
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