Dervish

Shiva's old art thread

Comission I just finished for a wonderful person! I enjoyed this project.

@Shiva

Thank you! It turned out amazing and exactly what I wanted. :) It also helps you're the nicest and most approachable person ever who gives a lot of really amazing updates and constantly makes sure that the picture is exactly what you want. You're the best, Shiva!

Dervish's Guide to GMing

GMing is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, aspects of roleplaying. As anyone who’s ever attempted it can tell you, it does not take much for the entire roleplay to come undone and for many GMs, new and old; it can be frustrating to see something you have poured your heart into erode before your eyes.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to give yourself the best shot at success and a long and healthy roleplay. I’m here to share what I know and try and give you guys who might be having a hard time some of my experience and observations doing this GMing thing for a not insignificant chunk of my life and hopefully offer some tools and ideas for you prospective GMs out there to have the best shot at success and help the roleplays in this community flourish.

Some quick background, my name is Dervish; I’ve been on RPG and doing this GMing thing since 2012 more or less constantly, and currently I’m running The Elder Scrolls: Vengeance of the Deep, a roleplay currently over half a million words, 19 active characters across 12 players that’s been going for nearly 2 years and should be reaching the end of its narrative sometime late this year if all goes according to plan. Other than VotD, I’ve run a bunch of different roleplays over the years, some lasting only a few months, to some that crested over the 2 year mark. Each one has taught me a lot of valuable lessons and given me hard earned experience that I want to share with you so you hopefully don’t have to go 7 years before you figure out what works for you.

Let’s get to it!

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Preparing Your Roleplay

The key word for this entire chapter is preparation; if you don’t do the work ahead of time, you’re going to be screwing yourself so hard they’re going to ban masturbation in the Western hemisphere. I’m a bit of a maniac and I’ve sometimes taken two months to get the groundwork done before I started a roleplay, but that’s excessive in a lot of cases. What you need to do are prepare a few key areas;

1. Build your world and gather resources.
2. Develop a story.
3. Decide on Game Mechanics and Standards.
4. Write and format your OOC.
5. Post your interest check.

Seems pretty straight forward, right? It is, but there’s a lot of moving parts that you need to have squared away before you even think about throwing your game out into the world; a half-cocked game is going to fail, every time. I am of the opinion that a big reason roleplays fail is because the GM launched a game with only the bare minimum of thought into the entire thing and when the players have to start waiting around for the GM to try and catch up with things like character sheets, rules and standards, or even the opening post, you’re risking players jumping ship before the ball even gets rolling.

Players tend to have various levels of patience, and while this guide is mostly with an Advanced or High-Casual roleplay in mind, there’s definitely lessons for everyone. Unfortunately for a lot of Casual and Free players, there isn’t going to be a lot of wiggle room for waiting. If you’re more or less keeping players waiting for several days without setting and sticking to deadlines, they’re going to bail to one of the dozens of other roleplays that might catch their eye. It’s your job to stick out from the crowd and show competence and dedication. It’s really not complicated as long as you prepare. So let’s get into that handy list up there;

Building your World

1. Build your world and gather resources.

So you have a great idea and you want to play a roleplay with it. Fantastic! That’s why we do this hobby; to take something creative and share it with other like-minded hobbyists and create a game and story about it. Whether it’s an original idea or fandom, the basics are more or less the same; you need to create a setting for your story and put the pieces together to make it work, which will involve things like researching your setting to be able to run it from a place of authority and things like gathering co-GMs to help you manage your game.

Fandoms have an easier time getting started because of the simple reason that everyone who is interested ideally has a good idea of the setting and world, as well as what’s in the realm of possibility. With an original story, you need to consider your genre and really cut the herd off at the pass; ask yourself what you would ask as a prospective player and answer those questions. What are the races you can play? What’s the technology level? Where does it take place? Everything like that needs to be addressed for you to effectively build this world and ensure you don’t run into problems like players showing up to your low fantasy setting and ask to be dragons or an anime protagonist. You’re probably not going to get everything covered or think of everything, and that’s fine! One thing I found can be kind of useful is creating an FAQ section on your OOC and any time someone asks a question, post it and the answer there for other players and edit the OOC accordingly.

Another big thing is try not to information dump; I find it helps to write more than you need to and trim back, and if there’s stuff like world information (say a faction or race you want to elaborate on more) that isn’t necessarily important for every player to know right off the hop, toss it into a codex or information section buried in hiders. Players tend to be grateful for having an abundance of information if they don’t feel they have to memorize all of it but might need to know something for making their character. As a rule of thumb, try to make stuff reader friendly where possible.

So those coGMs I mentioned; you can run a game by yourself, but that’s in much the same way that it’s theoretically possible to operate a tank by yourself. You’re just going to have to work way harder and be responsible for doing absolutely everything. Ideally, a coGM is someone you have natural chemistry with and you already spitball ideas back and forth and they have a good work ethic and ability to keep pushing forward. They’re going to be the ones helping create NPCs, writing posts, going over character sheet submissions, and managing players. It doesn’t have to be a one-person show; there’s going to be times where you really don’t have it in you to write and your coGMs are going to be the ones who keep your games rolling when you’re not at your best. Just don’t take anyone who asks, or friends who are really flakey and unreliable. Remember; the goal is to have your RPs last a long while and be healthy. Depending on people who by nature are unreliable is going to destroy something you spent hours upon hours of your life working on. I learned early on that there needs to be a GM you and a personal you; don’t let personal feelings ruin your judgment. If someone isn’t sticking to your standards or rules, do not give them special treatment. You will start to sabotage your own game.

So your pieces are starting to come together. Here’s about where you consider actually coming up with your plot and characters, so let’s move on!

Develop a Story

2. Develop a Story.

So now you’ve built your sandbox, what are you going to be doing with it? This all really depends on what you’re looking for in your world. An RP set entirely in one area, like a school or a town, obviously needs to have a narrower focus and more development on the areas the RP revolves around than something that’s say world hopping or a big epic quest. I have this motto I tell pretty much everyone; the GM builds the foundation and frames the house, the players put up the brick and drywall and together you build a house. With that in mind, let’s go over some basics of how to develop a story for a roleplay that I find keeps you on track and gives you the best shot at having a game progress.

Unless you’re playing a pure sandbox where everyone’s making up their own stories, coming and going, etc, you’re going to want to basically think of the major plot points the group will need to cover. A trap I’ve fallen into a lot, and I think is more common than not, is that GMs want to give players freedom to drive the plot and to let their choices dictate where the story goes. In my experience, that is the exception rather than the rule; a lot of players aren’t sure of how much agency they should express, others just want to be players along for the ride, and generally people won’t take as much initiative as you might hope. It’s not that players are lazy or uninterested; they just aren’t as familiar or comfortable with your world as you are and people have a lot of different skills and motivations. More disappointingly, if you do find players who want to take reigns and drive the plot forward, many can be difficult personalities who might be driving the RP in directions you didn’t want or think was appropriate.

To give a quick but non-specific example of this, there was one RP I saw that stuck out to me because early on the RP ran into a problem player who, in my opinion, had a character that wasn’t setting appropriate who decided to try and make his character and others go the exact opposite direction of the plot because “it made more sense for the character”. This caused the RP to kind of tear itself apart in the infancy and the GM struggled to get it back on track after the problem player left. You as a GM always need to maintain control of the plot or you might not like where other people will decide for you where it should go.

So what this all boils down to, by default, treat the plot as linear. You should know the major story events before you even start the roleplay so it always gives you goals to work towards as a GM so you aren’t ever stuck not knowing where to go next. As a rule of thumb, the Keep it Simple, Stupid rules should apply. Never make your story beats too complicated or drawn out; absolutely everything you do will take longer than you expect. This covert ops mission you did in 20 minutes in a video game will take over a month in a roleplay. Instead of needing Cindy to go around and collect the 3 keys to unlock the temple door so Bob can fight the three guardians to get the alignment crystals to unlock the vault of the Ultimate Weapon of Manliness while Joe plays backgammon with the demon lord to win the freedom of Princess Chumbucket, try to condense it down to something like the group needs to beat the demon lord to free Princess Chumbucket so she can unlock the temple door to the Ultimate Weapon of Manliness. Ultimately the goal is what matters, so streamline the process of getting to that goal.

For both story and character stories, I have a really simple but effective process I follow; A happens because of B, resulting in C. This can be chained together to make a story pretty effortlessly while following a logical train of thought so nothing’s come out of nowhere. To give a quick example of this,

Bob’s village was attacked by King Headcheese, so Bob decides he’s going to become a warrior. Bob finds a mentor who was a retired hero, and Bob begins to learn the ropes for his journey. Bob sets out to find companions because he can’t do this alone, so he heads to the next town over. Bob liberates the town from the Feta Footsoldiers, so he is joined by Cindy Cinders. The two carry across the lands setting things right, so King Headcheese sends Generic Antagonist Boss 1 to confront them. Bob and Cindy Cinders barely escape with their lives, so they decide they need a magical artifact that can counteract the evil…

You get the idea. That was just some rambling idea off the top of my head, but you can see how it starts to put things together. At the bare minimum, flesh out all of the missions or quests or assignments for the first part of the story before launching a game because you are going to have to do a lot of handholding until players are settled and you start to form a solid group. Start the game off in something that forces characters together (like breaking out of a prison, or you were all hired to do the same job) and then start to open up player agency as the story progresses.

Don’t be afraid to ask players if they have ideas for what they want to do with their characters or how to involve them with plot points, because a good philosophy to have is that it’s not just the GM’s story; it’s everyone’s. The more a player feels like their character feels involved and important, the more loyal they’re going to be to the roleplay. One thing that’s worked pretty well for my roleplay is to have players fill out a wishlist survey for what they want for a particular story arc and then plug that information into a timeline spreadsheet and when the story hits a certain place on the sheet, start involving those players and helping make their stories come to life.

It’s important to always keep the major moments in mind for a game and work towards those. It’s all the stuff between and the details you can be flexible with, but if your story ultimately ends with the death of King Headcheese, you need to figure out the major moments that let that happen. Do what you can to avoid “winging it”. One of the most important parts of GMing is organization and consistency, so if you give the impression you’re just making it up as you go and it’s kind of directionless, you’re likely to lose a few players or have your game stagnate. Just don’t get bogged down in one place for too long.

Game Mechanics and Standards

3. Decide on Game Mechanics and Standards.

If you don’t tell Billy Bling he can’t have a solid gold suit of armour, he’s going to do exactly that.

So this subsection is probably one of those areas I think GMs really slack on. One thing I notice about a lot of GMs is that they’ll take literally anyone who shows up, quality of the character sheet or bad posting habits be damned and then it becomes that surprised Pikachu meme when the player who joins a dozen RPs a month and drops them just as fast does the same to them. Don’t just be happy somebody showed up; what you want is players who are dedicated and of a consistent standard. Know what you want and stick to it.
Figure out your writing standards. High-casual, a little looser? How often do you want people to actually post? Do you want people who are exceptional at spelling or grammar, or are you a bit more relaxed? Figure out what you want and enforce it.

If you do a high-cas roleplay and suddenly you have someone doing one liners, give them a warning, and if they keep it up, politely ask them to leave. It’s your roleplay; when someone joins, they agree to the standards and rules you set out. Do not let people argue with you or tell you that you’re wrong. If they aren’t happy with it, they can find another RP or make their own. That’s the beautiful part of this site; there’s a lot of options. Your goal is to make a game that lasts and you’re happy with. Do not let Bilbo Bumfuck show up to your RP writing like they decided to huff paint in the third grade and that the Fellowship of the Ring needed more Space Marines with plasma cannons instead of sissy-ass swords, and then you end up holding the game up because Bilbo Bumfuck decided not to post for 3 weeks and then keeps making excuses of why he’s not posting.

Why are you tolerating Bilbo at this point? Eject him back to his paint fume den to rethink his life. You need to focus on the players who actually are trying their best and are the most devoted. They’re the ones going to form your core group of players.

Likewise, you’re going to have to settle some ground rules for the in game mechanics. If you’re doing a fantasy RP, set equipment and spell standards. If you give people the option to take the Staff of Neverending Hellfire, someone is always going to go that route because it takes a lot of work to get people to lose the video game mentality; you’re not in this to win, you’re in this to tell a story. Nobody wants to write with someone who always has to be the strongest , the smartest, the most badass etc. Do you think that guy who made the hilarious bard assassin who has sleep apnea and a crippling fear of the dark and two rusty daggers he inherited from his deadbeat grandfather is going to stick around when Bilbo Bumfuck declares himself invincible with Thrice Enchanted Armour of the Gods and the Staff of Neverending Hellfire? You best believe that if you let power players have their way, anyone who tries to do something flawed and unique that makes your RP stand out as something unique and memorable is going to get frustrated or drowned out by someone who tries to turn your game into their video game power fantasy.

If you see someone apply with something that isn’t something that you as a GM want to see, then tell them. I think it’s absolutely asinine that GMs don’t review character sheet submissions. A lot of those RPs I see just have a simple message saying “accepted” with absolutely no feedback. If it helps, think of vetting players and their characters at bare minimum of having a ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’ sign. I’ll go more into this in a later section, but you kind of have to touch upon it when talking about standards.

Basically, it’s up to you as a GM to have a vision and to respect yourself and your prospective players enough to have some rules and standards and stick to them. If you don’t, you’re going to have people take control out of your court and a lot of arguments and the game may never recover. And again, set deadlines for posting and stick to them; do not wait for everyone if they aren’t posting. If you have 3-4 players constantly posting and keeping involved and 3 who aren’t, don’t sacrifice the enjoyment of those who are active for those who couldn’t care less. If someone can’t post or is going to be late, they need to tell you. Be patient and understanding for those players, but if someone’s being lazy, you don’t owe them anything. Your RP’s survival matters more than someone who’s probably going to drop in a month anyways.

Writing your OOC

4. Write and format your OOC.

As you probably noticed, this entire guide has a peculiar formatting to it. It’s colourful, it uses hiders and pictures, it has defined sections and line breaks…

Oh Dervs you sly dog, you’ve been formatting this guide like an OOC post! Roll credits.

But seriously, I’ve talked to a few people and they aren’t entirely convinced visual presentation matters when it comes to the OOC. To that I say, click on the “view raw” tab at the top right of this post and try to read the entirety of it that way verses having breaks and hiders to try to organize it and make it more digestible. As of this point, I’m just shy of 3,500 words of this guide and can you imagine what kind of nightmare it would be reading it as a giant block of mono-coloured text? You’d lose your place, it would blur together, and ultimately just look unpleasant and like I’m the RPG equivalent of a rambling hobo in a subway who’s trying to convince you that the turnstiles steal your soul and the only way to prevent that is to pay him 5 dollars to baptize you in a rain puddle. Point is, if something’s easy on the eyes, it’s easier to follow and people are more engaged.

Your OOC should be similar.

The sad reality of this forum is it’s so busy that there’s literally dozens of RPs vying for players, and if your game looks like you spent ten minutes on the toilet hammering it out on an iPhone, it’s going to show and people are going to think “well, if this is literally the product of an ill-advised trip to Taco Bell, what’s that say about how this person is going to run the actual RP?” and they’ll move on. It’s like a job posting, in a way; you’re trying to convince people that you’re willing to put in the effort and time to make their time and effort worthwhile. I don’t know about you, but I’ve joined a lot of RPs only to find them die within a month or two and after spending several nights working on a character, it’s infuriating and depressing. You best believe first impressions matter for where I’m going to take my chances, and someone who clearly took the time and effort to make an attractive OOC that has a great hook, an interesting story, and provides all the information I want is going to get me to hop on board than something that’s riddled with typos, an utter lack of basic formatting, and a lot of indecisive language like the GM isn’t even sure what they want.;

“So uh, this is my lord headcheese strikes back rp idea. I need like 4-20 players who are adventures weho need to fight him and save the world. We can talk about races and equipment I guess, my character is nigel thornscock and he is an atheist paladin who hates god but also uses divine power. Idk.”

I guarantee you’ve seen something that looks uncannily like that. I bet you that that RP never got off the ground or died because it’s clear the GM didn’t put any effort into it past the initial idea. And that’s the thing… you cannot run an RP if you’re going into it unprepared and half-assed. You’re trying to convince people you are worth taking a chance on. If you look like you just rolled out of bed, wrote down your Nyquil-addled dream as an interest check and did absolutely nothing else, you’re not going to get anywhere.

So, yeah. Take time to make the OOC. Presentation matters; take a few nights on it, at least. Sleep on ideas and see how you feel about them when the initial hype goes down. Find some thematic imagery to spice up sections, colour headers, use bbcode formatting. The benefit of doing all of this is that it not only makes it easier and less daunting to read, but it also gives your prospective player an easy reference if they lost their place or want to check on say the standards or looking up some world information. As I mentioned before, look at your OOC like you’re a player looking at your game; what would you want to see, what questions would you want answered? Try to cover all of that stuff. Make appendixes or codexes for world information, create a sort of in game plot summary or character dialog to make a cook to draw attention.

Posting your Interest Check

5. Post your interest check.

As a personal rule, I always have the OOC done before I do an interest check… if I even do an interest check. You don’t want to post an interest check and then disappear for 2 weeks because you didn’t finish the OOC. Remember that time you saw an amazing movie or game trailer and then the movie or game disappears without a word for 5 years? It’s kind of like that, only nobody’s going to be interested in a half-formed nebulous RP idea when there’s like a dozen other games that popped up this week. Do your OOC, get it all polished up, and then take sections of that and use that for your interest check.

Use that hype and momentum of 20 people showing up and being like “OH I’M INTERESTED I CLICKED OFF PORN FOR THIS” and then watch as like 5 of those people actually show up in the OOC. That’s okay; declaring interest is cheap. Actually making a character sheet requires effort and those who do are the ones you want. Don’t bother hunting down people who declare interest and don’t show up; you got more stuff to worry about. You basically have to act like you know what you’re doing and that you’re ready for anything. Have confidence in your ideas and your convictions to run the roleplay and you’ll do well. Don’t go chasing after people because you’re disappointed more people didn’t show up. You can always pick up more people if your RP is running; as long as you have even a small number of people who are keen, you’re golden. If it helps, think of it like an RPG where you have to pick up your party as the story progresses.

This is also a fairly good place to mention this, but set yourself a player cap if you’re new to this; my comfort level is about 6 people when I start an RP, but I tend to get a lot more interest and applications, and I end up taking about 9-10 people instead because I anticipate drop outs in the first couple months. Imagine my surprise and slight horror when that didn’t happen last time. All I can say is thank god for coGMs. If you don’t get enough people to fill out your roster, don’t fret! You can always pick up more people later, but please for the sake of your roleplay, don’t just abolish your standards and character guidelines to take anybody who shows up to fill out your ranks. Remember Bilbo Bumfuck? That’s how you get Bilbo Bumfucks. You want Gandalf the Gangsta.

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Recruitment

So you’ve made your OOC and now your interest check is up and you’ve probably spent all night smashing that refresh icon on your browser to see if anyone’s showed up.

They’re here. IT’S SHOW TIME.

So, you’re going to want a character sheet skeleton. You’re going to want to cover the basics, such as;

Name
Age
Race
Appearance
Equipment
Skills
Personality
History

You know what’s important to you, but try to make sure it’s stuff that’s relevant and worth referencing. I personally don’t care what garbage 90s pop song you think is their theme song, and I think putting a sexuality section is basically going to encourage shipping before the game even starts instead of letting relationships develop organically and thus derails a lot of the plot and creates a lot of unnecessary friction between players, but that’s just me. Point is, you should have this whole thing ready to go for when people show up at the interest check.

As players start putting in their applications, and this is important, do background checks on the players. Just do a quick check at their posting history; do they seem like they’re agreeable and friendly, do they stick with a roleplay for long term? Great! You want them. Are they someone who joins and drops roleplays like Taylor Swift drops exes? Do they argue with other players? Avoid them; you don’t need to put up with that and it wears everyone else down. It doesn’t matter if they wrote the next cultural icon for a character, if the player has a garbage personality that you know is going to cause problems, don’t take the chance. I cannot stress that enough. You want dedication and a good attitude; literally everything else can be worked on if a player is agreeable and understanding.

To make life easier for yourself, as submissions come in, don’t just sit around picking your nose. Actually read them over and write notes on all of the characters. Compliment strengths and things you like, and critique the parts that don’t work for you in a polite manner. The goal is to shape the characters into ones that are going to work for your RP and the best way to ensure your game survives the first three critical months is to make sure that you have enlisted players who have excellent personalities, actually post regularly, and their characters fit the standards and setting you’ve established. You do want to give feedback for every player and character that comes in, both to show that you’re actually reading and interested, and also to demonstrate what you’re looking for in your game. For that reason your characters should already be finished and posted in the character tab so people can reference what you are looking for. And since you should be doing critiques after the deadline, you don’t want to save it all until then to read everything and write feedback for every single one of them. It’s exhausting and time consuming.

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Running & Managing

Always manage your Bilbo Bumfucks with extreme prejudice

And here’s the hard truth about GMing; it is a lot of time and effort and hard work. You need to be willing to do all of that, you have to lead by example and show that you believe in your roleplay and you want to go the distance and that you are not going to let your players down. You’d be amazed what that kind of mentality can lead to; I never expected to find a roleplay group as close as the one I have now and while we’re not posting every day, someone is always writing something and its very collab heavy. People are invested in the story, in each other, and they have an interest in characters and plots outside of their own. We have days where we just give positive feedback for one player and their character and we take time to talk about the posts that go up; it’s very involved and really encouraging for everyone.

And as a GM, I highly encourage you to try to do this. When posts come up, talk about what happened, things you liked about it and the character. People are putting a lot of work and effort into their posts and characters and it’s always encouraging to see a game that does that. I realized the importance of this when the one and only @Stormflyx took time, completely unprompted and totally unexpected, to heap praise on other players and their characters when she was only a player herself in an RP I was in.

It was a transformative moment for me and it really helped dictate to me the kind of GM I wanted to be going forward; that environment of support and encouragement has built friendships that transcend my roleplays and has made the entire story that’s been going on for almost two years now as engaging today as it was the first. We’ve all grown and developed the story together and keep pushing ourselves to be better because we’re inspired by others. I’ve had so few people drop out of VotD because of this environment, I know I’m hyping up my own RP for this, but it’s the truth; I honestly think this is one of the key ingredients for having a fantastic and long-term roleplay. It just took someone with a big heart and a strong initiative to show me that.

I think as a community, it’s something that we should strive to make a standard because it’s deeply rewarding and it builds bonds and involvement that cannot be matched; it shows players that their hard work is being recognized and that people genuinely enjoy their characters and their stories. If you take nothing else out of this entire guide, please take this section to heart; it’s what’s going to make RPG stand out from every other roleplay forum.

Ahem. Back to looking down my nose at the unwashed mashes because I’m tooootally not hiding my own insecurities as a writer.

You just always want to be a step ahead of players at all times; do not make them wait for you for long. You need to set and stick to deadlines. If you notice posting momentum is slowing down beyond what you’re comfortable with, make an announcement that a week from today is going to be the move along to get posts up and stick to it. You don’t want to threaten to kick people for missing these deadlines; the goal isn’t to threaten or discourage people for not keeping up, it’s just a gentle reminder the game has to keep going and the show must go on. The only time you’re really going to want to kick people for being absent is if it’s been several weeks with no activity and they’re really falling behind. Find out what’s going on, ask if there’s anything you can do to help, and if you can’t figure it out, it might be time for you guys to part ways. There’s nothing wrong with that; it happens! I actually had a player drop out earlier on in the roleplay come back because they got their life back in order and it was all through mutual respect and understanding.

Generally, after you survive the first three months and get the core group of players established, the ones who are heavily invested and posting regularly, GMing becomes a lot easier. You aren’t having to deal with player conflicts very often, people are ideally self-starting their own posts and character story arcs, and talking to each other socially. At that point, most of GMing is just doing those pesky move along posts. You’re going to have to figure out the ebb and flow of your players; you have to be able to mix up the game a bit and feel the room when things start to get stagnant.

So let’s say you’re noticing a significant dip in the posting rate; you had people post on average 2-3 times a week most of the time, but suddenly you’re down to a couple posts every two weeks. It’s time for you to step in and move things along. If you’re in a fight sequence, wrap it up. People can’t just write action scenes non-stop, it eventually gets exhausting and it blurs together. If you’re in a quiet town moment where characters can explore and do personal development and more social bits, then start moving the story along. Bring them to their next mission or location, introduce the next story beat. You’re going to want to iron out your pacing, and this is where the deadlines come in handy. If you notice these dips, give people a week to wrap up what they’re working on and start writing the next move along post and then carry on. If players are posting frequently and having a lot of fun, let them have some time to do it. I love doing collabs, and sometimes it’s fun doing a big group collab in those moments.

While I’m thinking about it, a great way to get players into character and to fill time while you are working on the opening post or the next big move along is to have a big group collab, like around a camp fire or something similar that’s low-key social. It takes care of that time consuming meet and greet thing that can take forever to get through in roleplays while saving the official start of the roleplay for a more focused and forward-facing direction. It’s important when you start a roleplay to keep the momentum going and not get bogged down with virtually identical conversations of a character introducing themselves to three others; start the game off strong and then let the characters get to know each other over time, force them to work together and interact.

An easy way for me to kind of get around that is when I start roleplays, the characters have already known each other for a short length of time because of a mutual cause or job. Just get the characters in once place and give them a push so they can’t stand around and chat for long. If that involves mall ninjas beating the shit out of Cindy Cinders for wearing Crocs & Socks in a slice of life roleplay, so be it. You don’t want stagnation right away; the characters have an entire roleplay to get moments to learn about each other. Don’t blow it all off the opening posts.

In the event you have a difficult player or an argument, step in and try to resolve it. Talk to the person in private and figure out where they’re coming from and see if you can resolve it. We all have bad days, sometimes it comes through in a bad way in the RPs. We’re all human (except for me, but shhh)and we’re gonna stumble from time to time. That’s okay! The key is to be calm and mature about it, don’t get pulled into petty drama and gossip. If you have a problem with a player, talk to your coGMs and discuss what you should do about it. This is where Discord comes in really handy; you can talk to your players and GMs in real time and actually build a pretty close community if you use it properly. Not every game needs a discord and if your players aren’t really established first, it’s not going to be of any benefit.

But anyways, most of the time, a polite warning will suffice, or a light punishment for more serious things if the player isn’t being reasonable. Ultimately, you might have to let some people go, and while it might feel bad, just remember that kind of toxicity spreads to other people. If you show you have a zero tolerance policy for certain behaviours, it’s going to keep your game clean and welcoming. Ultimately, you want a supportive and friendly environment that people want to spend time in. Don’t tolerate someone for being an asshole; I recently heard about a game’s discord where a not insignificant number of players left to start their own separate discord because problematic players weren’t being dealt with despite complaints.

Just drill this into your heads now; you cannot make everyone happy, and if someone’s being an asshole, do you really want to put up with that in your game? People won’t stick around if they don’t enjoy their community, so if you keep fostering that kind of negativity, don’t be surprised if only negativity remains.

---

Hopefully this 6,600 word essay of how I personally have found success GMing is going to be something that’s useful to you and help foster a healthier and happier roleplaying community where games last an eternity, people feel engaged, and we don’t have to keep wondering if the games we’re joining are going to last or not. I want to thank you for taking the time to read this, hopefully finding enjoyment at my awful sense of humour, and you learned a few things. The main thing is to prepare yourself, organize everything, and plan ahead before you even start and know exactly what you want from your players before getting into it and then keeping the game’s momentum going and weeding out poor behavior before it spreads and you should find yourself surprised that several months have passed and it seems like your players aren’t going anywhere. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, want to know why the sky is blue, anything at all, my inbox is usually empty and sad because I’m more of a recluse than Obi-wan Kenobi and just as likely to disappear into a bathrobe at the first sign of conflict.

As always, stay excellent, and I wish you all the treasures in the world in your roleplaying futures.

Now go out there and make some stories that you’ll remember for a lifetime, you nerd.

Wow. What A Line?!

[code]From: Vengeance of the Deep
Post Written: https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4864356
Written By: @Hank
Written Words: He could see himself in the mirror on the other side of the tent. It was an unsettling sight. He did not feel like he was looking at his own body at all, but just a vessel that happened to occupy the space around his eyes. Somehow, Gregor was convinced that he was somewhere else, and not inside his own head. That this was all just… a window into a world he no could no longer call home.

This line really just hit home the horrifying consequences that had been built up for the character for the entire roleplay, and it was such vivid imagery that put me right into Gregor's shoes and appreciate exactly what this character is feeling and experiencing, and it's haunting and hopeless. I love it.

Wow. What A Line?!

@BleedingLover Kind of surprised! Without all of the context with the characters, sometimes something might not translate to those who aren't familiar with what's going on and the relationship two characters have. Zaveed had described both of them being damaged goods in an endearing way, but explained that to Sirine shortly afterwards. For a couple of a really blooded former pirates, they can be kind of wholesome. ;D

Wow. What A Line?!

@HaleyTheRandom That is very kind of you to say! Sometimes my brain comes up with something that people might take to heart, and that's the kind of stuff that makes this a really rewarding hobby. :)

The Elder Scrolls: Vengeance of the Deep

A Raw Truth

A Dervish and Stormy special


18th Midyear 4E208, mid-morning, Alik’r camp...

---

It wasn’t like Gregor to not tell her where he was going and immediately her mind began to think of the worst case scenario. She couldn’t even remember falling asleep, it had just happened. She’d been so exhausted that the moment her head had touched the pillow she’d fallen into the grip of slumber. Now she had woken up to find he was not there, she was instantly hit with panic - an intense paranoia crept over her as she scrambled over the bedroll to find a note or anything that he may have left for her as a clue to his whereabouts.

“You can’t just wander off now…” she muttered through gritted teeth as she combed her hair quickly and wound it into a tight knot on the top of her head, the shorter strands framing her face in their soft curls. She was making herself as presentable as possible before making her way out of the tent to search for him.

Where is he?

She walked with purpose, but slowly - observing the camp with keen eyes, letting her senses guide her too. There was no screaming to be heard, so clearly he hadn’t been found or caught. Everything was slow as the people of the camp began to wake from their own sleep.

Gregor, where did you go?

She watched as several Alik’r gathered around to chat, women were folding linens, roasting foods over campfires, talking amongst themselves, carrying their children in their arms… They were graceful in the way that they started their day, performing their many tasks - making it look as easy as breathing.

Is he alright?

After a lap of the camp, and no luck in finding Gregor, she decided to make her way back - hoping that he would be found in their tent now....

---

When Raelynn returned, Daro’Vasora was standing outside of the tent, arms tightly around her waist. Her eyes were sunken, haunted, she looked up at Raelynn with an unblinking gaze, registering it was her and not a mirage. She had no idea how long she had waited, but it was long enough to have a thousand terrible thoughts cross her mind. Shadows prompted fear, anyone in a dark robe could be coming to harvest her next. After a few moments, her mind finally focusing on the woman in front of her, Daro’Vasora simply said, “Raelynn. I know.”

Raelynn knew at once what she meant.

Who had done it? Who had told her?

Where is Gregor?

Her worry intensified as she mentally flicked through the list of who would have told Daro'Vasora. Sevari had been as mad as anything, but it couldn't have been him. Fjolte hadn't even spoken to Raelynn about it yet, it couldn't have been him. Jaraleet had perhaps known for some time, it wouldn't have been him. That left Zaveed, Sirine, and Sirine's brother. Of course, “that bitch.”

Now, Sora was standing in front of her tent. God's had she looked inside? Where is Gregor? Had he already been taken somewhere? She suddenly felt an ice cold grip around her heart, suffocating her from the inside. Her hands began to shake but she pulled herself upright. “So what now, then?” she asked, as delicately as she could.

“I need to know… why didn’t you tell me, any of us?” Daro’Vasora asked. Her tone was not one of accusation, but rather uncertainty and pain. “Raelynn, we promised each other we would help one another with the demons our lovers are facing but this, I… I don’t know what the right course is. I wanted to talk to you, to hear you say it, to help me decide what comes next.” She looked around before returning her stare towards the Breton. “Would you prefer to talk somewhere more private? I haven’t talked to anyone else.”

“Here is fine… Let us just sit,” and so Raelynn approached slowly, and sat down at the doorway of the tent, her legs outstretched in front of her. It was a quiet spot to have placed her tent and she was all the more grateful for it now. But what to tell Sora, exactly? Inside she felt angry - livid even, that the secret was out. Part of it was relief. There was a moderate flush of humiliation as she thought about what this implied about her and her own image - but she had long gone past that point now.

“I don’t suppose I really know how to explain this,” she admitted, feeling an anger sitting in her stomach. “I’ve never been in love, Daro’Vasora,” she said as she placed her hands on her knees and gazed out across the distance. “Nor has anyone ever loved me. Lusted for me? Yes… Really loved me? No.” She sighed, noticing her fingers begin to tremble. She hated this, every bit of it. She hadn’t even come to terms with what had become of Gregor and now she was having to do this. It wasn’t the time, was it? “I’ve lived my whole life with a closed heart and I always thought I was happy that way - actually, I was happy like that. I didn’t need anyone by my side to complete me or to love me or shower me with affection and then I met… Gregor.”

Daro’Vasora sat cross-legged to the side of Raelynn, close, but not invasive. She studied how Raelynn reacted, the turmoil gripping inside of her. This wasn’t a furious rebuke, a defiance. This was a woman who was afraid of losing someone she loved. “Love us makes do stupid things.” Daro’Vasora replied. “Makes us overlook the things we never would have permitted or accepted. Raelynn…” she said, wringing her hands in front of her nervously, not wishing to have this conversation with her friend, but knowing it could only get worse. “Do you understand what he’s done?” she asked quietly.

“That may be so, but I willingly did it too, you know. I didn’t know about it at first. I just thought he was a man with a secret and I couldn’t resist myself and I wanted to find out what that was. It was, well it was fun. I thought after everything I’d seen I deserved some fun.” She thought back to Anvil, of sitting under Dibella’s altar with innocent eyes looking up at him, she almost smiled at the memory. “He was strong, powerful, intense. I liked his darkness. It made me feel safe,” she continued, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as it fell loose from her bun. “I understand what he’s done, I know what it all means. But I know why he does what he does, or did it… I just…” The Gregor she had seduced and led away from his prayers in Anvil was entirely different to the one she had sewn up earlier that morning.

“I almost told you… In the spring…” she said, her voice quieter and cracking. Her face so devoid of life and painted only with exhaustion. “I just couldn’t find the words.”

“Where is he now?” Daro'Vasora asked. She could feel the pain radiating from Raelynn, and despite herself, she reached out, placing her hand on Raelynn's thigh. “I wish you had told me, finding out the way I did… I'm afraid for you. Has he hurt you? All of those souls, Raelynn… why?” she managed, her own voice straining to keep composed. She looked around, her eyes darting nervously for others, for him.

For some reason her skin felt raw to the touch and she wanted to flinch away from the Khajiit, but she hadn’t the energy. Sora had so many questions. Raelynn continued to look out into the distance, but her sight began to blur and it felt as though everything began to spin. Her hands hit the ground, fingers splayed against the sand as she gripped at it - only to feel it slip through her fingers anyway. She felt like she was choking. She hated this, she’d had the opportunity to tell Sora in her own way pulled from under her and now, confronted, she couldn’t find the words. “Gregor is gone…” she said quietly, a melancholic tone sat beneath her voice that suggested she was talking about something far more than just his present location.

“No, he hasn’t hurt me - he wouldn’t hurt me. He fought for me, almost died for me. He wouldn’t hurt any of you. I know this, he cares about all of us.” She took Sora’s hand into hers, into a lightly clenched fist and she brought it to her own chest - placing it where her heart was beating. “I’m not lying to you - and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I really wanted to, I almost did… I’m sorry it wasn’t me who told you… I’m sorry it wasn’t me.”

Those words.

Those damn words.

Daro’Vasora bowed her head, her eyes clenched shut. Everything about this was awful, and she couldn’t see another way forward. “If you asked him to stop, would he have?” the Khajiit asked quietly, her heart pounding like it threatened to burst. “I don’t think so. This all started in Gilane, where things started going so, so wrong. I think he took that administrator’s soul, and in response we were hunted down by Zaveed and Sevari. All of that happened because of Gregor’s secret, his hunger. What do you suppose happens now? Suppose everyone stands up to him, tells him he has to stop? Do you think we’re still safe then?” there was an undercurrent of anger to Daro’Vasora’s voice as she strained to keep her composure.

“Raelynn. This is serious. The others will need to know, they have the right to know, as did I.” Daro’Vasora said, pulling her hand free and wrapping her arms about her waist once more. “I won’t be the one to make the decision of what to do with him, since the last time I made a decision without consulting anyone you all hated me for it. I don’t want to make the choice that will cost me my fucking soul.”

“And I paid for Nblec. Twice.” She said, holding her hand up, the scar as clear as day in the sunlight. “They would have come for us anyway, whether Nblec died or not.” She began, her posture straight, her words diplomatic. “We all in that room elected to torture the administrator. All of us but Calen. We got roped into the dispute with the Poncy Man and Rourken.” Raelynn’s own voice was strong too, a difference of opinion that she stated with conviction. “We were told to kidnap a Dwemer person of interest… It was dangerous from the start. He put us in the centre of that volatile storm, Daro’Vasora, it was never going to end well - you must know that.” She brought her knees up to her chest and turned to meet Sora’s eyes. “I know that it’s serious…”

She took a long breath, thinking over her words carefully but not calculatingly. “Gregor was a man alone on his path for a long time, carrying a burden no man should ever have to feel the weight of. He got lost and strayed too far… But he’s a good man, and I know you don’t believe it. Gods, I wouldn’t either -” She sighed again closing her eyes tightly. “He’s done terrible things but he’s not a monster, my words - my voice will not tell his story in the way that only he can. There are some things that only he can answer. But I promise you, he has stopped… He has stopped. If the others wish him to leave then I understand, but Daro’Vasora, if it comes to that, you need to know that I will be with him.”

Daro’Vasora looked away from the scar, she certainly didn’t need the reminder of what Gilane took from Raelynn. “I know what was taken from you. Did I not help you reconnect with your magical font?” she said quietly. “I’m not here to argue over hypotheticals. All I know is as soon as that man died, you got tortured and that ate away at me. Then someone I cared deeply about was killed and I was brought to a place I thought I’d never escape from.” she said, feeling deeply torn about everything. How last night had been the first night in so long she remembered what freedom and peace felt like to have it all come crashing down cruelly. Had this place not extracted enough of a toll already?

She shook her head, returning her gaze to Raelynn. “You put me back in that room again, where I’m forced to make a choice I never can. Either way, one way I lose you, and I cannot do that. I can never do that. I care about you, in some ways more than just an unlikely friend that I can’t explain. This hurts me, and I spent all morning wondering if I was going to find you as a lifeless husk one day because you said something he didn’t agree with. For one of the very few times in my life, I don’t know what to do. It’s a decision I do not wish to make.” the Khajiit said, reaching her hand out towards Raelynn. “What would you have me do?”

“At least you were given a choice that day… I wasn’t.” Her head drooped and her eyes watered ever so slightly. She hadn’t meant the words to sound malicious. She pulled herself back together, “I can bloody well see that you've been worrying…” Raelynn remarked in a voice laced with her usual terse tone as her eyes fell upon Sora's hand. She hadn't noticed until now but the Khajiit's hands were bloody. She recognised what the injury was. Sora had done this to herself. “Sora…” she sighed and scooched around to sit opposite her, taking the hand and reaching for the other. It was she suspected, exactly the same intense puncturing to the palm.

“I'm so tired,” she began as both of her hands lit up with gold. “I am tired of thinking and worrying about Gregor, about this secret, about my father, about shadows and crowds and people... About what he and I have done together because of this damned war.” Her voice was as flat as it could be, but the magicka that formed in her hands was warmth and light. As she held Sora's hands in her own, trails of it began to wind around from Raelynn's knuckles and over the Khajiit's wrists like delicate vines. “This is my decision just as much as it is yours. I know that I will have to choose him or everyone. I'm no fool… I already fought my father tooth and claw over this, I don't fancy fighting you or anyone else…”

The Khajiit watched in no small wonder as the wisps of magic began to encircle her wrists like serpents, all too appropriately considering her birthsign. She felt the stinging in her hands she barely noticed given the rest of the stress fading, and it helped remind her of Raelynn’s greatest gift; her compassion.

Tears welled up in Daro’Vasora’s eyes and a slight upturn of a smile crossed her lips. “It was never a burden you had to hold on your own, Ko’Raelynn. I never wanted you to feel like you were trapped with no one to turn to, we could have figured something out, to stop him before he went too far. After everything we went through in Gilane… you reached me in ways I forgot I even needed, and I feel like I’ve failed you for not seeing this, for not finding a cure for him faster. I don’t want to fight, I just want to make sure that my friend survives and can one day go home proud of everything she is.”

“I was selfish, I wanted him to myself. And maybe that's why I said nothing. Because if I did it would stop, wouldn't it? When everything else was being destroyed around me, he made me happy…” Raelynn closed her eyes, knowing she shouldn't do it, but she concentrated further on the flow of energy emitting from her, and the magic continued its journey up Sora's arms. “You didn't fail me, I promise you didn't…” She opened her eyes again, looking Sora in hers, they were bloodshot but with a smile she could still make them sparkle. “Please stop worrying about me,” she said convincingly as Gregor’s crude words and behaviour of the night before flashed through her mind. She felt pain in her chest, as if her flesh was bruised from the Soul Gem.

“Gregor needs me, needs people… More than ever. I don't want us to leave. But I understand if you can't be around him.” She blinked back tears of her own as the image of his gaunt, ashen face intruded her thoughts. “I don't believe he can hurt anyone anymore.” Of course, she did not know that for certain but it was all she had.

Daro’Vasora wanted to reach out and embrace Raelynn, but her hands were effectively bound until Raelynn finished her work, the punctures closing and fading before her eyes. Taking note of the redness in Raelynn’s eyes, she said, “I won’t stop worrying until I know you’re safe. I’ve lost too many people I care about, and I won’t lose you, too.” she said with a somber gaze. “What happened last night? You behave as if you know something is terribly wrong, and you’re not fighting me on this. What do you mean he cannot hurt anyone anymore? Please, talk to me. I want to be here for you, no matter what form that might take.” she promised.

Raelynn thought about it, she lingered over the question for a while as her hands continued to work against Daro’Vasora - the energy about reaching her shoulders and neck now. “Hmmm…” She began to rub her thumbs in slow circles over her healing palms, slowly, slowly…

“There’s not a great deal that I don’t understand about the body. Over the years I’ve studied it, taught myself new techniques and alternative ways of healing. I’m an alchemist too. I don’t know how much you know of me or my past studies because these are not things that I discuss...” She sighed with a shake of her head, “I'm a secretive woman, clearly…”

“Something has happened to him. He has no memory of what and even-” she really was going to share the details of their intense evening with Sora, she almost did, but she reigned it back in. “Daro’Vasora, do you trust me still?”

The Khajiit, despite herself and the turmoil within her, smiled. “Is this not what we promised each other in the spring? Were our situations reversed, I can't say I'd have done anything different.” She said, thinking of Latro's struggles with Pale-feather, how it had terrified her in the palace and how she accepted it was going to be difficult going forward. “I trust you, Raelynn. Even if others in this position wouldn't, we have been through a lifetime of hardship together. Look where we came from; we hated each other. Now I can't imagine life without you.”

Raelynn held out another silence, knowing that to stay in control she had to relinquish some, she knew that. But she also knew that she and Gregor were not the same now. She could not help him alone, and the feeling of sheer inadequacy burned her almost to a spiteful point of rage but she leveled herself out. “Then trust me once more.” As she said it, she let go of Sora’s hands and brought hers to her own chest, her lip trembling.

“Please allow me to tell him that you know, please give me the rest of the day with him… If you can do this, I will bring him at nightfall to the cave.” She hoped Sora knew which one, it seemed that Fjolte’s hanging rock had become a place of importance. “You asked me what you should do,” she spoke with clarity, and yet there was a fear in her voice, “there are others that you trust. I think you should bring them to gather. Whoever you need… I know you find him loathsome, but please bring Fjolte. He’s… my oldest friend here and it would be a comfort to me. Despite his arrogance, he can be sage and-” She bowed her head and brought her hands to her face, quietly sobbing into them all of a sudden. “I’m sorry.”

Daro’Vasora reached out, gently pulling Raelynn’s forehead against her own. “I trust you. I know it is something you’ve struggled with, and the truth is not one easily accepted. You feared losing him, losing us.” The Khajiit said softly, running her fingers through the long blonde hair. “I will do what you ask, and do not be sorry; what matters is what we do next, together. You choose to trust in me, and I will do the same in turn. I will gather those I feel are reasonable, and we will speak to him tonight. Keep him safe, and none will know of this until those we choose to share this with are told in his own words tonight. Thank you, Raelynn, for believing in me. We may not be able to set this right, but we will at least try to make it work. After everything, everyone deserves a chance, as terrifying as their actions may be.”

The sudden touch felt intrusive and strange - an overload of sensations on sensitive skin. Like running a finger the wrong way over a blade of grass. She stiffened and held in a breath, but nodded against Sora. “Yes…” Was all she could say for a short while as she let her few tears fall. “I have to help him, I promised him that, maybe I just can’t do it alone… Not this time, I’m not well enough myself to help anyone…” She pulled back from Sora slowly, wiping a finger under her eye. She huffed out a breath, “what is this war doing to us? I’m coming undone at the seams...”

“I will bring him at nightfall… Light a fire so I know you’re there. Thank you Sora, I will not forget this.”

“It's what friends are for, right? Pulling each other back together again?” Daro'Vasora said with a reassuring smile that didn't quite mesh comfortably with the fatigue and worry in the Khajiit’s eyes. She stood up, regarding her now healed hands and Raelynn's remarkable talent. “I know you won't, and I know you would do the same for me. The sun will shine on us all again, we just have to keep searching for our dawn. Don't lose hope, we will find the answer.” She reached down, stopping herself from touching Raelynn's shoulder. “Together.”

“If I had any wine I’d drink to that,” she said - an uncertain smile on her lips. Change was fast approaching to turn everything upside down. It made sense to happen now, now that everything had already changed - might as well happen all at once. Raelynn could not see any good from this, but it was necessary. There was a feeling inside of her that had noted her own unhealthy habits of late. Perhaps before she could help anyone else, it was time to heal herself. “And you’re right, I would do the same for you… I.... owe you for this.” She glanced away from Sora when she said it, “it’s not like me to owe anybody - I must say it feels strange for people to actually want to help me when really they shouldn’t.”

Daro’Vasora crossed her arms, scuffing her bare foot into the sand, feeling the grains raise up between her toes like mountains rising between plates. “You know, I’ve spent a lot of my life feeling like people weren’t giving me a chance to prove myself, that I could be trusted, that I was worthy of affection. Maybe this is a mistake, but I don’t feel like it is. I just know if I were in your situation, I’d want someone who cared about me not to give up on me and to give me a chance. Don’t think of this as owing me anything, or even a real favour. I’d like to think after everything, we’ve all earned some benefit of the doubt. Besides,” a shy smile crossed the Khajiit’s lips as she glanced back up at Raelynn. “I promised I wouldn’t give up on you.”

“I know… I guess we’re just not that different after all. I don’t want it to be a mistake. I hope I haven’t made a mistake…” she confessed, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I’m glad that we’re friends.”

She sighed, tightening her arms about her. Her toes dug in deeper. “Raelynn.” She said quietly. “I’m terrified of all of this.” Daro’Vasora admitted, her gaze breaking as she looked to the camp, anywhere but where she needed to.

“Is it wrong that in all of these revelations, I’m just terrified that I’ve lost him completely? Or that I’m about to? That I’m too broken now… That I’m not strong enough for all of this, not smart enough… That I don’t know enough. I don’t know how to be enough anymore and words don’t help because I feel so much like...” Raelynn struggled over her words, her fingers clenching at the loose linen of her trousers. “I feel so unlike myself and so unprepared for this war. I used to be strong and unshakeable, I used to get by alone. Now look at me, God’s look at us. Look at how we’ve changed.”

“None of us have remained unchanged by this war.” Daro’Vasora agreed, closing her eyes for a few moments. “But it doesn’t mean we’re not stronger. Raelynn,” the Khajiit turned once more to look upon her friend with kind emerald eyes. “You’re such a brilliant and courageous person, I look up to you. I always have.” she admitted with a shy smile, rubbing the back of her neck bashfully. “Broken doesn’t mean we can’t be fixed, and asking for help when you need it is a sign of strength and courage, not weakness. It wasn’t that long ago I was going it alone, plundering tombs and not acknowledging that if something happened to me, no one would have been able to help me, let alone know where I was. I learned from all of you that having people who give a shit about you and stay by your side when the world is in cinders matters. We can take on anything, Raelynn… together.”

“I must admit, it’s hard for me to imagine you working alone like that, I’ve only ever known you to be with this group. I was only picked up by chance. Had it not been for the attack in Anvil… You know, I had actually bought my passage back to High Rock?” She laughed too, releasing her grip on the cloth as she relaxed with the turning tide of the conversation. “I even think the proof of payment is on a slip of parchment lodged somewhere in my journal…” She smiled up at Sora, “don’t forget to remember that you’re really quite brilliant and courageous yourself. It takes a certain… ingenuity, to do what you do.”

The Khajiit covered her mouth to conceal a put upon smile, feeling somewhat embarrassed yet complimented all the same. “Kind of you to say, but unless you mean sneaking around and stealing stuff from ancient burial sites before other people of ill-repute do, I'm hardly anyone special. I just try to consider my opinions and I hope I make the right choice. I’m well-learned and I’ve survived on my own, but I am so bad with people.” she said with a rueful chuckle.

Raelynn noticed quite clearly that Sora was not used to such attention and compliments, and she grinned almost devilishly at her embarrassment as a result, she couldn’t quite resist poking some more… “But you are special, I think we all probably are in our own way - but… You are leading this group of, dare I say it, misfits. None of us are that equipped to fight in a war but you lead us and make the decisions that push us forward and keep us going. Your damn long-winded speeches motivate us,” she remarked with a joking roll of her eyes, “you’re doing the best with the cards you were dealt. You didn’t ask for them, you didn’t ask for us. We’re all being… well, a pain in your arse if you don’t mind my saying… but you’re doing well.” Even though the Breton had only been trying to bring about a bashful redness to Sora’s face, she felt the words resonating, there was a sincerity to them that she wasn’t used to expressing so openly. It felt nice to do so.

“You’re younger than I, younger than many of us here and your tenacity and spirit drives us. We each have our own agenda, yes… But we all want to survive this, don’t we? You found love in Latro - you grow each day. You will continue to make missteps and incorrect decisions, what I’m trying to say is that you should not dwell on your decisions, nor on what you perceive as mistakes… We take what we’ve got, and we do our best with it.”

Daro’Vasora listened, holding her cheeks, her tail flicking behind her in the sand. “Raelynn, I… I don’t know what to say. That was… my goodness.” she said rapidly, her mind screeching for something, anything, witty or insightful to say. She came up short, feeling flames burning up her cheeks and the back of her neck. “I needed to hear that. When you say it, I might even believe it.” she admitted, smiling shyly.

“I know this isn’t the best of circumstances we’re in, but after everything we’ve been through, us all being here… I know we’re doing the right thing. Maybe a few more long-speeches and we’ll be across the mountains and in sight of our goal. I might not have asked for anyone, or any of this, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I can’t imagine anyone else taking this journey and I will do my damnest to make sure we all go home in the end. That’s my promise, and my dream; we’re all going to do the impossible together.” she said with a dreamy sigh, walking over to Raelynn and kneeling before her, taking the Breton’s hands in her own. “Thank you, for everything you are to me. For believing in me. It’s more than I’ve deserved, but I promise I will earn it.”

“And I will earn it too, I’ll keep trying. I’ll keep trying to find more reasons to… Be, and to… live.” Raelynn held Sora’s hands just as tightly, looking her dead in the eyes with resolve. “We’re going to make it through this, you and I, and everyone.”

“We can do it together.”

Which setting would you like to see more of in Roleplays?

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

Make one happen; don't let your dreams be dreams.

@Gcold

Which setting would you like to see more of in Roleplays?

I'd like some space Westerns.

The Elder Scrolls: Vengeance of the Deep

Rejoice

A Dervy Shafting
17th of Midyear, Early Evening, Alik’r Desert…

If the Alik’r feared detection by the Dwemer, they certainly didn’t show it. The camp was bright with fires and it was certainly as grand of a festival as one would expect from the New Life festival at just about any major city, or to commemorate the end of the Oblivion Crisis. Here were many different tribes of the Alik’r Desert joined together to celebrate victory, life itself, prosperity… just because. Daro’Vasora had some time over the festival been given a poncho, a pretty sky-blue thing with silver seams with some kind of lizard motif. She wasn’t really sure how it came onto her person; she recalled leaving the cave with Raelynn and Fjolte behind, and her head had still been swimming with images and sounds from whatever the Nord had been burning. She must have been shaking, because a voice that she wasn’t sure was real or not told her so, and before she knew it, she was covered in the poncho and her benefactor nowhere in sight. They must have assumed because it got cold at night that she was, as well.

Now the drugs were wearing off and she had regained full sensation of her limbs and senses, save for a minor tingling down her neck and spine, Daro’Vasora’s spirits had lifted considerably and she wandered aimlessly, taking in the sights and sounds of a culture that was far from her own. The Alik’r were people of a desert, not unlike the Khajiit of Anequina, but the way they carried themselves had a number of differences she found curious. She found herself enraptured by a fire breather and a sword juggler, their silky smooth movements reminiscent of the dancers not so far from where they were; she gasped and applauded when the crowd did, and she found laugher came easily to her lips.

It wasn’t long before the scent of roasted meat caught her nose, and before long she had a handful of boar kebabs with onions, dates, and tomatoes in her hand and some kind of frosted fruit ale that had been served from a bed of frost salts. She enjoyed her meal as she went along, looking at the impromptu marketplace, admiring the craftsmanship of jewelry and blades, and a few of the former prisoners who recognized her approached and warmly greeted her properly, thanking her for what her and her friends had done.

Daro’Vasora realized she couldn’t remember the last time she’d really been this at ease and happy, save for the brief spell of the oasis. Here it was easy to forget the invasion, the war, all the troubles at home. She wasn’t hiding in a cave with tensions riding over, nor in a posh hotel that could be raided at any time. Maybe it was Fjolte’s drugs… who cared? There was a lightness to the air, and the Khajiit almost felt like dancing.

Perhaps that was why she was gravitating towards the sound of music and the almost imperceptible thunder of people’s feet moving to the beat of a drum. It was there that she caught sight of someone she very much always loved to see. With quiet feet, she snuck up behind Latro and wrapped an arm around his waist containing the kebabs, pressing her head against his neck affectionately.
“Why hello there, stranger; come here often?” she purred flirtatiously before letting off a girlish giggle, offering the kebabs. “Hungry?” she asked.

Latro jumped a bit, he’d been staring at the small Dwemer box, but when he realized who it was his face broke out in a beaming smile. He looked at the offered kebabs and took one, a slight bow of the head and a wink to his lover, “Oh, this is my first time, actually.” He took a bite of the kebab, “You know, the woman I love wouldn’t appreciate me taking advances from such a beautiful stranger.”

That earned a bemused smirk. “Is that so? Maybe she should learn how to share.” Daro'Vasora said, curling her tail somewhat. “What does she have that I don't?” she pressed teasingly, her eye catching the box. That was curious.

“That thing's really caught your eye, hm?” she asked, having a quick drink before offering to swap it for the cube. “It's not like you to be fixated by an artifact. Figured out what it is?”

“No,” he shook his head, turning the box over in his hands while still looking at it. He remembered how the different colors tinged his emotions before he pulled his eyes from the box and looked at Sora, “No. I remember they were glowing different colors and they made me feel different emotions based on the color.”

“Anyways,” he put it away in a satchel he’d gotten, “That’s a nice poncho.”

The fact he didn't offer for her to take a look at the cube made her feel like he was hiding something from her, prompting a dejected frown. “Well, maybe we can solve it together. It's not my first strange Dwemer artifact I've mucked about with, won't be the last.” she said with an inflated sense of confidence before huffing a sigh, pulling the fabric of the poncho in front of her. “I don't remember how I got this. Turns out helping a friend out Fjolte's way is a bit of an assault on the senses.” she said somewhat evasively.

“You know him, do you?” Latro asked, his smirk and his tone not exactly matching, a certain suspicion ringing an otherwise innocent sound. “Should I be jealous at this most joyous reunion?”

An impish smirk crossed her lips. “Oh, but you have a girlfriend, remember?” she teased, concealing her face behind the cup of ale for a lingering, taunting moment. When she saw that he wasn’t amused, she held the drink to his lips. “I’m going to be honest with you, I always am. Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Oh, I do, Bluebird.” He said, using a finger to tip the cup a bit so he could take a sip, licking his bottom lip as it came away seductively, “I could show you just how much you mean to me. That cave was too cramped and quiet but I hardly think anyone would hear us here.”

Daro’Vasora reached up to caress Latro’s cheek and pinch his chin. “Now where’s the fun in that? I like to make you sing, after all…” she trailed off, shaking her head for a moment as she gazed up into his eyes. “So back in the old days of when I mostly solo delved and went through temporary partnerships frequently, Fjolte and I had gone on an expedition in partnership with a third party, who promptly betrayed us when they thought they could get away with it. You can probably guess how that went for them.” she looked over to where she had come from earlier, where Fjolte probably was. “Anyways, he cannot tolerate a few moments without hearing himself speak, and between coming down from a life and death struggle, wanting to get him to shut up for a few minutes, and well, my own… urges.” she let the last word linger with its full implication. “We ended up sleeping together, and well, he’s the last person I expected to be pulling out of a cell in Hammerfell.”

The Khajiit pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head slowly. “I feel like he’s going to find some way to rub it in my face, or bring it up at a bad time to rile you or me up because he seems like he feeds off of causing a scene. Trust me, he’s the last person I expected to come back into my life, and I don’t want you hearing rumours about him or me, especially from him. I want you to trust me, and know that my heart belongs to you. If my face could turn red, I’d look like a Nord with a sunburn right now.”

“Oh, now that I didn’t need to know.” Latro rubbed at his face. He looked to where her eyes went and shook his head, of all people they could’ve dragged out with them it was Fjolte. “I can’t promise anything if he opens his mouth and shit pours out. I might just close it.”

He sighed, growling and unable to look at his partner. He could feel the heat in his cheeks, “Well, I hope your certain urges are satisfied with little Reachfolk me.” He huffed, “I hope we don’t meet anybody I’ve fucked before.”

She leaned up to kiss him, pressing her lips gently against his own before whispering in his ear. “I just might like that.”

“Goodness,” Latro ran a hand down Sora’s back, tips of his fingers gliding along her spine to rest at the base of her tail, “How did an innocent man like me find you?”

Daro'Vasora giggled, flexing at Latro's touch. “What can I say? I've a weakness for pretty boys who can sing.” she said, pulling Latro into an embrace and burying her face against him. “So, do you know how to dance, or do I need to go find an eligible guy or girl and see where the night takes me?” she asked, gently rocking to the beat.

“I couldn’t guarantee their safety.” He smirked before Sora was leaned over backwards on one foot, weight held by one of Latro’s arms at her lower back before he took the lead again, her hand in his as she spun away from him and came back to coil up in his arms. His face was dangerously close to hers, “I know a thing or two. Fighting and pithy philosophy weren’t the only things Francis taught me.”

The remaining food was dropped to the ground by an outstretched hand before she grinned with half-shut eyes. She held her leg high against his pelvis and put a hand against his bare chest. “Is that jealousy I hear?” she purred impishly, playfully scratching his chest lightly as she twirled out from his arm, still holding his hand as she moved outward in a graceful twirl, her footfalls light and practiced as she reached the apex of her movement, leaning in to kiss his knuckles. “Then show me how you'll keep your cat from straying, my little Reachman.” she demanded in a sultry tone, playing on his words from earlier.

Latro chuckled, placing a hand that was firm but not forceful on the back of her neck. Their lips pressed together in a passionate kiss but just as Sora leaned in and just as he was beginning to feel the urge to let her, Latro pulled away and continued the dance with a flourish. He twirled around Sora, disappearing behind her back for but a second before reappearing and pulling her into an embrace. It was a nice game, he wouldn’t spoil it all at once by giving into his urges too early. He’d dangle it in front of her- and himself- until the need was so great it would be almost too unbearable.

Then, and only then, would he let her feel all the bliss and pleasure of his deepest gratitude and love. “Where did you learn to dance, Bluebird?”

She continued to move to the beat within his embrace, wrapping an arm across her body to touch his arm and then other reaching up to run her fingers through his long hair. “You learn a few things at court, and a few more when you spend years in the cosmopolitan center of Tamriel and take in the night life.” she replied with a smile, pulling away suddenly, her arms and legs moving like the mesmerizing flicker of flames as she stepped back, inviting him to give chase. He wouldn't be the only one playing cat and mouse with desire. With a finger, Daro'Vasora beckoned her lover with an inviting finger as she disappeared into the throng of dancers, glimpses of her showing between the gyrating bodies.

Latro gave his easy smile, following soon after. He’d long ago learned how to move through crowds but Sora was making a task of it. At least he had a good view of her swaying hips and behind as she moved through the people. As they breached through the mass of bodies, he grabbed Sora gently by the arm and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her deeply. “What now?”

“Now,” Daro'Vasora replied breathlessly after parting lips, “we lose ourselves to the night.”

---

It was hard to say when the dancing gave way to lust, and when passion guided them back to their tent to act on the tension, but Daro'Vasora and Latro had spent most of their night with barely a word spoken to each other and yet in perfect understanding. They’d both endured much, and tonight was about healing and remembering how to live for the moment and for each other. This was the first time in so long that they had together that wasn’t in hiding, as prisoners, or fearing for their lives. It felt like it was what life could be, a promise that things weren’t always going to be dominated by war and strife. They would still be able to find a life together that went beyond one forged by circumstances and conflict that would evaporate when the danger had passed.

Sometime after collapsing in exhaustion in each other’s arms after their love making, an intense romp that left both bruised, battered, scratched and sore in places that they both forgot were parts of their anatomy, they listened as the sounds of the camp died down and somehow managed to find some articles of clothing to maintain their modesty and headed out to the edge of the camp to look at the stars above, wrapped together in a blanket as they stared up in awe at the impossibly endless and bright sky, the stars like a thousand different candles.

After an indeterminate amount of time in blissful silence, still in one another’s embrace, Daro’Vasora finally spoke. “Have you thought about what comes after, for both of us?” she asked, exploring the back of his hand with a thumb. “I don’t want to wake up and find out none of this was real, that it won’t last forever.”

Latro took his moment, glancing sidelong at his love before he put his eyes back on the stars. He stayed quiet for some time until he worked at words he wanted to say, “I… Neither of us do.” He said, he looked at Sora and gave her a smile, “But I know I want to stay with you after this is over. I don’t have flings, Sora. I love fully.”

He looked back to the stars, “I’ve lived my life as if I didn’t have time for anything but a one, true love.” He sighed, “Now, I’d rip our fates from the Gods’ hands if it was not one where you and I
were together.”

A part of Daro’Vasora felt guilty about what he had said; much of her life was defined by casual, meaningless flings. She worried that if she admitted that, or the strange but wonderful intimacy she shared with Raelynn recently, would wound him. Would he think her unfaithful, someone who would abandon him when he began to bore her? It made a pit sink into her core, and she wished she knew the answer. “You’re so sure of yourself. I appreciate that.” she said quietly, pressing herself closer against him, her eyes no longer skyward.

“I just don’t know if I deserve that devotion, this is all new to me and I never want it to end, but what happens if I mess up? I’ve never been in a relationship for long, Roux was the longest by over a month and well, he betrayed me. I spent so much of my life after not forming strong attachments to people, I don’t know if I will ever be able to match this vision you have for me.” she said with a heavy sigh, squeezing Latro’s hand. “I love you, more than anything, and I know me telling you about Fjolte irritated or upset you. I’m sorry for that; I just never want to lie to you.”

Latro’s gaze didn’t falter from the moon as he listened to Sora. He didn’t even find the words for her until a long silence had started to nudge him towards speaking anything. He was zealous, just not good at these things. “Oh.” He said, then found it to be a supremely lame excuse for an answer, he looked at Sora in his arms, “Sora, there’s thousands of people who will condemn our love just because we look different. Just because we can’t have children. I don’t care. I love you, all I need is for you to love me, never lie to me, always be honest whether or not I’ll be upset.”

He gave her his easy smile, “I just need you to trust yourself that this is real. I trust in you that you will not leave me and I hope you trust me that I won’t do that to you. That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Trust?” He chuckled, “And if we keep the reasons we started loving each other in the first place close to our hearts, then any fight we have can be weathered. It is good to be brave, no?”

A chuckle escaped Daro’Vasora’s chest. “Now where have I heard that before?” she asked with a smile. She looked up to meet his stare, drinking in the richness of his eyes. “I know this is real, I know it in my heart of hearts. I love you, Latro of the Reach, with everything that I am; I promise to always be honest with you, to never give up on you when times get tough, when life seems impossible. I know my parents would like you.” she promised, holding him tighter. “I just hope you can forgive me when I stumble, when I don’t know what I’m doing. My heart is true, I’m just a mess.”

Latro chuckled quietly, grasping up a fistful of sand and letting it trickle down to the ground, “That makes two of us, love.” He breathed in, taking in the warmth of Sora’s body against his, “I don’t know what the future will hold for us, but I know I’ll be right beside you when we find out. To think, I never thought we’d be on such an adventure.”

“So, now that we know we’re not going anywhere… what is it you want out of life?” Daro’Vasora asked. “No kids, just us. Let’s assume these cave-dwelling assholes get stopped and life goes back to normal, or close to it. What do you want to do, where do you want to live? That kind of thing.”

“Normal.” He said, shrugging and frowning, “Be normal. Go back to what I was. Just a traveling bard whose biggest worry is… is finding an inn before nightfall, or… what my next song is going to be when I get there.”

“I don’t want to fight wars anymore. I don’t want to be a hero with the gates of hundreds or thousands depending on me.” He shook his head, kissing Sora’s forehead and leaning against her, “I just want us.”

The Khajiit reached up to caress his cheek. “Well, I don’t think there’s going back to that just yet. Besides, think of all the inspirations for songs we’re living right now. I don’t think I can ever give up what I was doing before, doing expeditions and digging up history. It’s the thrill of the hunt and discovery, finding these things you’ve only read about in books that are older than your great-grandparents. It’s like finding out a fantasy or myth you enjoyed as a child was real, and you were the one to bring it to life.” Daro’Vasora said dreamily, looking back up at Jone and Jode and wondering if her ancestors were looking back at that moment.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t do both, don’t you? We can travel Tamriel, and who knows? Maybe if we pull this off we’ll be able to open doors to places we’ve always dreamed about. I always wanted to see Summerset.”

“Fine,” he nodded, “Just… No heroics. Travel sounds nice, though. I haven’t been outside Northwestern Tamriel, I wonder what Elsweyr is like. Ever been?”

Daro’Vasora shook her head. “No, which seems odd, considering the border was only a few kilometers away from Leyawiin. With all of the tension with the Dominion, the fact that a lot of ruins get buried by the desert, and, well… a sort of rejection of what I am, I just never came to pass. I spent most of my time in the Cyrodiilic wilds, Skyrim and Morrowind from time to time. Maybe it’s time for me to fix that?” she pondered.

“Perhaps,” He shrugged, “Sevari once told me it’s filled with nothing but shit. He’s a very angry man. And to think, most other Khajiit want nothing else but to go back.”

“I always took the saying, may your roads lead you to warm sands as a way of expressing finding your way back home. Most Khajiit I've met from the Confederacy seemed wistful and nostalgic for their homelands. Many, I think, are exiled.” Daro'Vasora explained. “Maybe Sevari's angry because he doesn't have a home or a place where he feels like he belongs?”

“He seems like a man who’s been without hearth and home for some time.” Latro frowned, “I can relate some. Before I found Francis, I don’t know what I was doing. Sure, I could play a lute but my life was just one day to the next. I never planned out more than a day in advance.”

“Life is blurry when your only interest is poppy-wine and where to be the most alone to enjoy it.” He said, his voice solemn, “I’m only lucky Francis found me. Put me on the right path to find you some years later.”

That brought a smile to Daro'Vasora's lips. “Right? Now you don't have to drink the entire bottle on your own.” she chuckled, leaning fully into him now. “You give Francis all the credit for your own accomplishments, you know that? I know he helped refine a lost soul, but you would have figured yourself out eventually. Besides, as if I wouldn't have heard your music in some forlorn tavern and subsequently try to get enough drinks into that handsome singer so he'd sleep with me.”

Her fingers intertwined with Latro's, amazed that despite all of the differences like smooth skin of his fingers in contrast to her dark fur and long, sharp claws. He placed her other hand over the back of his own, her eyes meeting his own. “I feel like nothing would have ever kept me from finding you, not in a thousand lifetimes... I am more sure about you than anything in my life. I am honoured that you chose me, that despite everything, despite who and what I am, I am yours and you are mine.” Daro'Vasora said with gentle reverence, bringing his hand up to kiss his knuckles.

“I will always find your song.” she promised.

Latro sighed through a heavy smile. Not in so long had he heard words that were so good and meant only for him. That the look in Sora’s eyes were so sincere, he was almost having to wipe at his own pair. “Maybe I should give myself more credit.” He chuckled, nuzzling a cheek on Sora’s mane, “And I don’t think you’d have had to put so many drinks into me in the first place. Your words, your face, your body, your mind. I would have grown smitten by the end of our first conversation.”

“Well, by now, I’m sure I’ve told you enough about my tribe, my status as the Chieftain’s and Witch-Mother’s son, next in succession and all that. What of you?” He asked, “You said you’ve been at court. You must be important, Lady Sora.”

The Khajiit giggled playfully, running her hand across his chest. “Oh? Some might think you have a fetish, my love. How did I miss your sly looks at camp in the mountains?” she purred, a seductive smile on her lips before she let out a bark of a laugh.

“By everything in Aetherius, no, I was never important. My mother is Count Caro's scribe, my father owns a major merchant company on Topal Bay.” Daro'Vasora explained. “I was invited to fancy dinners, even know which way to line up my forks and spoons, dress up all proper like, dance and curtsey and all of that other bullshit pageantry that comes with being in the presence of nobility. My family's just served Leyawiin since the Empire rolled in and murdered one of my ancestors, as he is so keen to remind me every time I see him.”

The Khajiit rolled her eyes. “He most certainly would have hated to see me get defiled by one of those filthy invasive humans with your strange flat faces, and how do you trust one with no tail? How am I supposed to tell you all apart when you have no fur patterns?” he said in teasing exasperation.

“However would I know?” Latro shrugged and put his hands up, “I have a hard enough time telling Meg from Gregor. At least the Gods made it easy with the fur and tails and muzzles.” He laughed.

“Shame about Sevari’s ilk though, forever cursed to walk the lands looking more man than Khajiit and not being able to recognize their reflection from the person next to them.” He sighed and shook his head, “The prejudices of men and mer, even betmer. It’s boggling to the mind, but I guess difference is terrifying.”

Daro’Vasora was quiet for a moment before gently, almost imperceptibly, nodding her head in agreement. “I never wanted to give him much validation, but I always felt that the Ohmes and Ohmes-Raht must feel so estranged from the rest of our kin, to look and walk like Men and Mer and miss much of what make Khajiit ourselves. For many, it must really emphasize that they belong nowhere, to be rejected for not being Khajiit enough, not Bosmer enough, not Man enough. Even for the Tojay, most find their ways down to the Tenmar forests to live in the trees because they are of such different forms than the rest of us.” the Khajiit sighed, staring up at Jone.

“The Moons give us everything, but they must feel like such a burden to others. I’ve never felt comfortable in my own skin, to walk the world of Man while being a cat, always gazed at with suspicion and distrust. It’s part of why I was so difficult in the beginning with the group, you know? I’ve spent so long expecting to be hurt or disregarded by strangers, no sense in playing nice and might as well share the discomfort.” Daro’Vasora said, a hint of remorse tinting her tone. “It’s why I never expected you to like me back… I rather thought you would have gone the other way in the Imperial City when I sought you out.” she admitted shyly.

Latro sighed, “Sora,” he chuckled almost incredulously, as if she was expected to know how obvious it was that he’d at least become her friend, “Sora, you were all I had down there. If I hadn’t found you or you found me, more like, I think I’d be dead. You saved me, and I didn’t think you would.”

“I was shivering, getting frostbit. Hypothermia was on my heels. You stayed with me, when I was terrified of dying.” Latro squeezed Sora in his arms, nuzzling his cheek against hers. “You were and still are my light in that darkness. You always will be.”

“Plus, if you don’t remember, I was a right smug bastard then too.” He chuckled, letting go of Sora save her hands in his own and kept in his lap, “Always talking down Gaius and that one Altmer. Mortalmo.”

He bowed his head with closed eyes, voice heavy as it should be, “Gods rest his soul. May he find peace with them he couldn’t find with us.”

Daro’Vasora shook her head. “Is it bad I don’t feel much towards him? I mean, no one deserves to die an early death, but after everything we’ve seen and endured… well, it’s hard to make room for people you aren’t close with. It’s hard to think of everyone I’ve seen die in Imperial City and Anvil as people, just the scale of it…” her voice trailed off. “I just kept trying to find you, find Judena and get the fuck out of danger. And here we are marching back into it.”

She hesitated for a moment, shivering despite herself. “We’re going to be crossing the mountains to the East and heading into the Reach, into Skyrim. We’re going by your home.” she said, letting her words sink in. “If that makes you uneasy, we can find another way. I just don’t know what’s waiting for us there, for you.”

That made his face harden some. The prospect of going back there after his exile, he didn’t know if they’d be friendly with him. And if they didn’t much care to see his face around those parts, what they would do to the people with him. His peoples were perhaps not the Mad Witchmen of High Rock like the old times, but it was still a bad prospect of an axe to the head as it was a sacrificial dagger to the throat.

He shook his head, “I’m going to have to be comfortable with it. Or at least shoulder it and keep my teeth together.” He looked to Sora, frowning, “I’m not going to postpone our march just because some bad feelings.”

“Besides, I don’t know who is in charge anymore. Maybe they won’t even know who I am and we can pay or trade with them for passage.” He shrugged, “There’re more Tribes than just mine in those hills. I don’t mind taking those high passes if you don’t. If anything, it’d make it easier on us, I might still know a little of that high country to get us through quicker.”

“If you’re sure,” the Khajiit cautioned, looking to meet his gaze. “It’s the most direct way with the best odds of surviving off the land without supplies, so on a map it’s very inviting. I just am never going to ask you to put yourself at risk because of bad blood.” she sighed, shaking her head. “We all need to get through intact, all of us, and I can’t lose you, especially if I know it was preventable. I’m honestly pretty scared.” she admitted.

“Latro… when I picked up that Lexicon, I knew everything changed.” Daro’Vasora said. “It was a way to end all of this, and before that moment I was resigned feeling like that we were just fighting against the inevitable and now everything is very real. This plan I have, the danger, all of it. I know it will work, I believe that in my heart, but what if we get there and it’s impossible? Is it better to pass on the torch or just let the world unfold as it will, or is it better to try and do the impossible and lose everyone I care about for nothing?” tears flowed freely now and she sucked in air between her teeth.

“If you were in my position, with everyone looking up to you and making these kinds of choices, what would you do? Am I doing the right thing, or am I being irresponsible and gambling with lives?”

Latro sighed and chewed his lip. He understood, truly, mostly because he didn’t know a lick of how to lead these people, neither. He shook his head, “We all, each one of us, know what we banded together for. Everybody.” He said, “And if they don’t, I’d remind them just what we’ve been doing the past months and let them take their leave if they were ignorant to the fact that we’re not running from this war,”

He looked into Sora’s eyes with a hardness that used to be unfamiliar to him, “We’re the ones fighting it the hardest.” He softened some, stroking her arm and squeezing her wrist reassuringly, “The ones fighting it on our lonesome, almost. Everybody who’s stuck with us this far has been gambling the entire time, and they know it. I know it. You think I didn’t know it was a gamble with some mad fucking odds to prostrate myself in front of Zaveed just to make sure I could be with you and force Sevari into acting?”

“You don’t think it was a damned mad gamble to assault the Palace with not even twenty people? Or that Prison back there?” He thrust his thumb over his shoulder as he said it. He nodded, giving a smile to Sora and folding her up in his embrace, “Me, everyone, we’ve done the impossible twice already because of you. Because of each other. We’ll do it however many times we need to until this is done.”

Daro'Vasora pulled herself into Latro, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his chest. “Thank you. I needed to hear that, I really did.” she said, holding him close for a few moments longer, taking in his comforting scent before falling back onto her knees.

“As many times as it takes.” she promised, suddenly laughing nervously. “By Alkosh, I've been a mess the past few weeks, haven't I? You'd think by now life and death stakes would be a tad routine.” the Khajiit smiled, wiping her eyes with the back of her arm. She took a few moments of meditative breathing to relax herself, and she opened her eyes with a loving smile.

“For what it's worth, it was pretty much a turn on to see you do something stupidly heroic for me. I guess we're all in this together, huh? It almost seems like a rite of passage to risk life and limb to save each other.” Daro'Vasora observed, thinking back. “I don't think I ever thanked Meg for what she did for me when I was captive, and Jaraleet. I should probably talk to both of them soon.”

Latro laughed at that, shrugging and nodding, “Yeah, well, I’m glad I have that effect on somebody. I’m glad it’s you.” He chuckled, scratching at his stubbled jaw. “Maybe you should talk to them. Better late than never, they’ll appreciate it.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll make some time. Tonight, it’s about us.” She said as she ran her fingers across her chin, grinning. “You know, you might look good with a beard.”

He smiled, giving a small chuckle at that, “You think? Always made it harder to hide. No one can tell it’s me with just a little makeup and a change of clothes, I can disappear. I used to like that fact. Nobody knowing if it was me or not.” He looked to the sand, scrunching his bare toes deeper into it, nodding, “But I don’t think I’m going to hide anymore. No more disappearing, running. I’m right here,” he smiled, “Nothing can change that.”

Daro’Vasora smiled, kissing him lightly. “You don’t need to any more, we’re no longer facing the world alone; this is so much more than surviving one more day. We’re fighting to live, to make sure that we have a tomorrow we can be proud of. Besides… do you know how much of a shock it was seeing you in dress and make-up?” she asked with a grin. “You know that’s a skill you have that I never had to learn, right?”

“Be glad.” He said, “It was one part necessity, one part desperation and sorrow. Rough men like pretty boys. I’m tired of being invisible. I am Latro, I am Finnen Pale-Feather, all of these things. When we go to the Reach, it won’t be gentle for me or any of us.”

“But when has it been recently? We, all of us, we still have each other. That’s all that matters.” He nodded. “Finnen the returned son. Chief Finnen Pale-Feather of the Crow-Wife Clan. Has a ring to it. If they won’t accept me, I will change them.”

“That was insensitive of me… I’m sorry.” She said, holding him close. “Wherever our road takes us, I will stand by you, no matter how hard it gets. And Latro?” she leaned closer to his ear. “You were never invisible to me.”

He turned to her, gave her his easy smile, and they kissed as a breeze brought chills and the sound of cricket-song.

Making a plot: How do you do it?

@Skyswimsky This is really solid advice, and if I were a new player, I would find this incredibly helpful. Kudos! :D

@Ace of Jacks Everyone's got a different style, but I think there's some fundamentals I think really help ensure a game's success.

Basically, if you get an idea, do not start an interest check until you are prepared. Imagine it like going for a job interview, you want to be prepared, do your research, sell yourself and your vision to people who have dozens of interest checks and running roleplays vying for their attention. You want to set yourself off on a strong footing, and that involves a lot of prep work, and like Sky said, sit on an idea while working on it for a couple weeks and see if it's still something that's strongly going to hold your interest. The hardest part of GMing is forcing yourself to keep the game moving forward when your inspiration and energy are tapped.

A big way around that, I found, is asking players to have detailed histories for their characters and actually incorporating aspects of their personal stories in the main plot and doing similar things to really make the game feel like "our story" rather than "my story". After you have core players in a game, you'll want to do things so they feel invested in the game long-term, and that really is facilitated by letting them have some agency in creating their own side stories that run parallel to the plot. Let them make some NPCs, and talk with them to encourage and shape ideas; not every idea is going to work, but you can definitely help make something work. Players all have great ideas, it's just a matter of helping them shape them.

I always explain GMing to people like it's framing a house and players are the ones doing the drywall and painting. You build the foundations they can grow off of, but they're still following your structure and together, you make a house. The biggest bit of advice I can give is this; always keep ahead of your players and set and stick to deadlines. Try to think of an overall plot you want to follow, like your beginning, middle, and end pieces. think of NPCs, major plot points and events you expect to cover, and so on so forth. You can always change details as you go and the game changes, but always have those major pillars in mind. Think of your villains and the antagonists; a game needs some kind of conflict, and you want to make sure that whatever is the source of it is interesting.

Worldbuilding is really key in this area, and there's no such thing as too much on the GM side, but you want to give enough lore and info for players to reference and build characters off of without asking questions. Basically, think of yourself as a player, what would you in particular want to know if you were looking at the RP? For some lore that's not plot relevant but it helps flesh out governments, races, technology or whatever, I tend to do a codex section in hiders so people can look at it if they so choose for answers while the main bulk of the OOC gives the main information people would need to start the RP.

The most basic of story structures is who is your bad guy, what are they trying to do, and how are your heroes going to stop them? I find it really helps to occasionally do posts from the bad guy's POV for some plot reveals that the characters don't know about but players can anticipate in the future. You do want to have some surprises, but as a rule, it never hurts to keep your players informed and having enough of a mystery to keep them going. Think of how a novel goes, often chapters follow the bad guy's POV and part of the fun is the anticipation of where that information the reader knows comes to affect the hero.

I kind of have this general guideline for when I make an RP or a character sheet where A happens because of B, resulting in C. For example,

Cindy decides to become a swordswoman because bandits killed her brother, and so she seeks out a mentor. The mentor takes her own because she reminds him of his own daughter, and she trains with him for years. Now a proficient warrior she travels the lands to protect villages, but this has drawn the ire of the bandit king. The bandit king has had his operations ruined because of Cindy, so he hires expert mercenaries to kill her.

It's a very simple format, but it gives justification for aspects of a character and the story and the resulting consequences, and those you can keep building off of indefinitely. And from there, you can put together a simple but effective plot pretty quickly. As a rule of thumb when it comes to roleplays, assume everything is going to take way longer than you expect. You can be stuck on the same fight scene for weeks and months if you're not careful because you tried to make it too complicated. You have to keep the plot moving, and that's why it's important to set deadlines for stuff. But going back to my devices for a plot,

The Bandit King has returned to reclaim the realm of his birth, and he's raised an army to conquer Fantasyland. Cindy lives in a village near the border, and her village is razed and her brother killed. Cindy spends years honing her skills and body and mind to fight the Bandit King, but she needs help. Cindy travels across Fantasyland recruiting capable adventurers, bringing fame and attention to her cause. Cindy and her friends fight off the Bandit King's minions, but they find something greater at stake when they rescue a mysterious princess. The mysterious princess was the Bandit King's bride, and she escaped him before his exile because of the power she wields. Cindy and friends now know if the princess is captured, her power could destroy any army and the Bandit King can rule the world. So Cindy and friends set out to find the mythical artifacts of the Kings and Queens of old that were ordained by the Gods, and they have to beat the Bandit King to them and his bride. With the artifacts in hand, Cindy and friends set out to confront the Bandit King one and for all. The Bandit King is defeated despite having his own artifacts, but now Cindy and her friends are now effectively demigods. What happens next?

Come up with your pillars for your plot and worry about fleshing out the first couple missions for your game and setting the stage, so to speak. And even when the game is going, make sure you take the time in the background to start working on the next part of the game; you don't want to run out of track before the train catches up.