I've been out for quite a bit, and I need to kick things into overdrive! So, let's boogie with a T&T snippet since Scream Fortress 2 is going on. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the next T&T class will be the Paladin, and sort of covering in-story a Session Zero. This was done based off 'The Joy of Painting' and a picture of Komi Shouko ('Komi Can't Communicate') where she is dressed as the Emperor of Mankind from 'Warhammer 40k'. Without further ado, let's begin!
The room was still, a black background while Issei walked in, prepping an easel and a rectangle-canvas.
"I'm so glad you could join me to this snippet of 'Tabletops with Tyrants'. This one's set for aspiring Dungeon or Game Masters, or those who wish to have a refresher on running a 5E campaign. Given variables, I've gone ahead and split things into seven points, might be missing a few things. I've gone ahead and brought a few colors for my palette: Gold, ceramic pearl white, tortilla brown, dark khaki brown, custard yellow, burgundy red, and black."
"These will be our main colors, other colors will be added later. We'll go ahead and throw in the leading factor, which in this case is our world to choose, represented by the lovely ceramic white color we chose a while earlier. This will be the big factor, as it gives a bit of an idea on what they want to be. There will be times where the players wish to choose the class before the module, or vice versa," he said, applying gold as he took his time, with continuous taps.
"But, let's say we cover the module in a conversation with a quick poll. From a twist of steampunk and the Wild West for those Memepunk Jiraffes, or it's a good ol' group of fighters going up against some vampiric overlord and their hellish forces, kind of like Castlevania. These vary in terms of magic, science, and other interesting concepts. Based on a genre, a show, somewhat randomly generated, you name it."
"We'll let it sit a bit so we can go ahead and mesh with it right now, because now we have to go ahead and consult with our players the kind of game we're handling or have considered handling. This is the foundation of the main force indeed," Issei said, cleaning his brush before putting it in the black paint and painting over most of the black basis. "Do we go with a grand epic such as starting with saving a pooch and then killing god? A daring and romantic adventure seen from the likes of swashbuckling? Intrigue as we don't know where we're headed? To help boil it down, the roleplay/combat ratio of sorts. Maybe you want to explore more, focus on world-building. Maybe you want to punt enemies like it's going out of style... maybe a 50/50? To each their own," he said, finishing by cleaning his brush and watching how the gold had given way to a bipedal figure that looked to be seated.
"Let's take a moment to stretch, get ready for the long haul of sorts. As the aspect that serves as a mixed front that will help shape up the campaign we picked, our blacklisted content of sorts," Hyoudou stated by dipping the brush in the gold colour. "This is basically the limits established between the DM and players. Have to consult with them the themes they're uncomfortable with. Some will send people a sheet or ask them through a private conversation, that way they can know what to incorportate or not, and how. The themes are usually slavery, rape, discrimination, politics, gore, sex, so on and so forth. Other blacklisted content is classes or subclasses, which is due to balancing concerns, contradictions in the world, etcetera."
"However, there is a golden rule of sorts to the blacklisting: homebrew. This is where the sky is the limit and adds further form to it," he said, mixing a bit of gold and black to make a darker variant. These go from things such as the more iconic ones such as Roles of Nat-ure's resurrection DC, simple such as rules involving the die falling off the table when rolled, or even custom subclasses or re-shaping said subclasses. A personal favorite of mine is one I call 'Liar's Dice'. If the player rolls their die off the table, some will treat it as a critical fail. In my case, I take a special set of die and roll with my set's equivalent of the die that fell off the table. This is to avoid possible cheating when it comes to a player rolling and claiming it was one result when it was actually another. With 'Liar's Dice', I can perform the new roll without any tampering."
"It's also great for trying to find a way to adapt a desired class/subclass into a certain campaign. Maybe a Druid wouldn't be common in a futuristic setting, but perhaps a flavored connection to 'The World Before' that occured before cyberization can do the trick," he said, putting the palette aside and cleaning the brush before going for the custard-like color and painting some details to give the armor a bit of a reflective aspect. Issei then began mixing some of the burgundy with the black and painting some details on the chest and shins.
"Once we go ahead and flavor further, we can go ahead and dabble with possible bonds/ties between desired characters, or sort of knowing what they'll build. Desired magic items, and as the tricky part... schedules. It may have been dabbled in a conversation, but scheduling can be a problem due to real-life responsibilities. Choosing a day, time-frame, and frequency is pivotal, also preferable to warn in advance if there is a need to reschedule. Some could play every night, or even with an interval of a month. Campaigns done in a night, or even years..." he said, finishing up details before setting the palette and brush aside.
"Pardon me, I got a bit nostalgic. For this part, we'll use a smaller brush and a couple colors, just for the finishing touches. A little bit of light blue, emerald green, a smaller brush in this case. At this point, we're wrapping things up: rolling die for stats if needed, or HP. It's also questions involving mechanics for a class or subclass, questions involving their homebrew, trying to adapt a certain aspect, so on and so forth," he finished, admiring his painting.
"Oh... Sona's not going to be too pleased," he said, chuckling as he saw her, dressed in a heavy golden armor with a straight face.
"Anyways, the contents mentioned here are a bit of a guideline, but not the absolute way to do so. DMs, much like the players, will vary, so the actual golden rule comes into place: 'Communication is Key'. In a nutshell, some Session 0 cases will be to go over the campaigns of choice and sort of discuss what each player wishes to play as, and others are simply to roll stats and give a synopsis involving the desired campaign, also covering the fine details. With this said, I thank you all for joining me today, and thank you for playing Tabletops with Tyrants. See you next time!"